Diminishing Time

Not shooting for morbidity here, just realizing that whether the year is 2008 or 2007 or 2009 does not matter much anymore.

Retirement slowly ebbs onto my beach and with it an erosion of many formerly valued goals. Goals which have always been "out there" somewhere, perched on a chronological shelf, tantalizing, offering an ineffable and uncapturable joie d'accompli.

Retirement robs so many missions of their excitement and meaning. Meanings that were grounded in numerics, or visions of unrealized hopes or graspings. Meanings which have slowly dribbled from the now-empty pail--which is finally set down with no regret.

Now, the peeling away of seconds, hours and days reveals narcissistic extensions, cloaked in an assumed, indefinable holiness, which millinnea of efforts have failed to touch. Not even the hem of a holy robe.

And at last, alas, it does not matter.



What matters is the perfection of . . . obsessions (true for my tribe, if not for yours). Getting my matters ordered. Chipping off those barnacles which seemed so intriguing along the way. Flushing shames and guilts. All to be given away, placed in the recycle bin, or set on a small shelf, handy for the final journey.

What matters is learning to speak a simpler, common guileless language understood by all.

What matters is finding a way to mesh with my spouse in such a way that the time together is synchronized. So that goodness erases or eases prevous hurt. Smoothness of movement.

What matters is amplifying the joy and softening the pain for my children, and theirs.

What matters is dropping the cloak of chronos (quantitative time) for the qualitative time, sometimes called kairos.

Time waits for no man, they say. But it can slow down, before it stops.

Levon Helm, an Epiphany

Just had an epiphanous moment, and the means only shows that these moments are packaged individually in a special way.

Was listening to Fresh Air on NPR (12-11-07) and heard interview with Levon Helm. Helm used to play backup for Dylan and Morrison. He got throat cancer, recovered somewhat, and now has an album out called Dirt Farmer. I loved the song about crossing over the Wild River and went to NPR website to find out more.

Discovered this Helm guy played the character of a recluse in northern Mexico in a
Tommy Lee Jones movie, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada—which I have praised earlier. This blind recluse had only a small part, but struck me as doing a really good job.

Now I want to share with you some of his music. You can go to Itunes and pick up a song or two, or you can go to NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17103316
and hear some of his songs.

I was blown away. Of course, the Lord of Music may have meant this frequency just for me; but then, you might like it too.

Thank God You're Not a Woman

“Thank God, you’re not a woman!” were the words that met me at one of my new appointments as pastor. Granted there had been some problems in the church before I arrived; however, none of the problems could directly be attributed to the fact that my predecessor was a woman.

Perhaps there were indirect difficulties my female colleague encountered, but I suspect those were mainly extensions of prejudice against women pastors. I am convinced, for the most part the successful pastorate of a person depends much less on their gender and much more on their ability to get along with others.

I am also convinced that without women pastors, the United Methodist Church (UMC), especially in SW Texas, would be structured much differently today. Perhaps as many as 75 of our smaller churches would be closed for lack of a minister.

So it was of interest recently when Time Magazine reported that 213 women priests were ordained by the Church of England last year. For the first time since the Anglican fellowship started to ordain women in 1994 the number of women ordained outnumbered the number of men (210). [Overall there are 7,001 ordained men in the Anglican priesthood, compared with 1,495 women.]

These numbers prompted me to count the number of ordained men and women in the Southwest Texas Annual Conference UMC. Informally I determined that there are 164 women with a total of 720 ordained ministers (c. 556 men). [These numbers are approximate because they include persons who are retired, and those working in special appointments (non-parish). Also, gender was determined by tallying first names on a “probable gender” basis, e.g. Bob = male; Judy = female. ]

The SWTx Conference is but one of five conferences in Texas; and just a small fraction of the national church. However, its number of women ordained or commissioned this past conference year were eight out of a total of eleven persons. This past year the quantity of those set apart for ministry was rather small; however for several years now the trend of more women than man being ordained has continued (according to my memory)

Presently, two of six District Superintendents in the SWTx Conference are women. And the presiding bishop of the Texas Conference, Janice Huie, is a native of this conference and former DS here. The pastor of the third largest church in our conference is a woman.

To add a new dimension to this gender focus comes a story of Ann Gordon, pastor of St. John United Methodist Church in Baltimore. For five years Ann has been the clergy leader at this church
This past annual conference, she was reappointed to the church with a new name: Drew Phoenix, because she has had a gender-change procedure and is now a male. Reports are that she/he has been warmly received at St. John’s.

But anything but a warm reception awaits the issue of gender change at the next General Conference of the United Methodist Church in 2008. I am sure the conservative wing of the Church is delighted to have new meat to chew on.

Until then, it is very intriguing to me to imagine a new gender-changed pastor coming to a first meeting with a new church member who might exclaim to her/him: “Thank God you’re a man who changed from being a woman.” Or, depending on your prejudice, “Thank God you are a woman who used to be a man.”.

Listening to Life from both Sides Now

For the past year or so, some very interesting reading has been appearing in the Southwest Texas Annual Conference (United Methodist) bi-weekly newspaper, The Witness.

I would characterize the letters to the editor, by Dan Adams and J. David Trawick as examples of progressive and evangelical theology. Dan is a retired minister and a member of our conference. David is pastor of Northwest Hills United Methodist Church in San Antonio.

Recently Dan Adams posted a letter calling for the "desacralization" of the Bible and a deeper consideration of what the Bible says. David countered with a letter which said that the view of desacralizing the Bible was flawed reasoning.

I have just concluded a class based on "progressive" ideas and was privileged to have one-third of the class of a conservative, even fundamental mind set. The other two-thirds could have been labelled moderate and progressive. And the class went very well because a spirit of listening and understanding was followed by all.

Dan and David do us all a great service by their discussions. A great difficulty of polemical thinking is the tendency to circle up the wagons and kill off all the "heathen" out there. That concern prompted the following letter to the editor of The Witness, published last week.

Thanks to Dan Adams (“We should desacralize, critically consider what Bible says,” Sept. 28), J. David Trawick (“View on desacralized Bible follows flawed reasoning,” Oct. 12) and many others for keeping the dialogue going between the progressive and evangelical views in our great body.

Our church can learn from both, so long as we invest time in listening and understanding all sides. One thing I learned from John Wesley and Albert Outler was that Wesley was a conjunctive theologian, not a disjunctive one. Wesley saw value in all sides of a discussion and tried not to eliminate one at the expense of the other. Oh, he had his polemical causes, but for the most part he was very inclusive.

The risk we all face with our passionate disagreements is that we will cease to love one another. The risk is that our common love might turn into uncommon pride and self-righteousness. When the focus becomes “my-way-or-the-highway,” we risk finding ourselves categorized as “sounding brass or tinkling cymbals.”

And that tendency to self-righteousness (to which all sides are vulnerable) is one of the most threatening factors in church unity. It is a function of the Holy Spirit to promote unity in the church. To be outside of the spirit of unity, is to be outside the movmement of the Holy Spirit, it seems to me. I cannot for the life of me find Jesus desiring to be separated from the unclean or the demonized. Even the Pharises and Temple leaders were welcome in his presence when they came to him in a congenial spirit.
Let us listen. Let us strive to understand. Let us reach out, rather than push away; and thus be enveloped by the spirit of God.

A Progressive Bibliography

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Here are some materials and books which have been helpful along the way:

Altizer, Thomas JJ and William Hamilton. Radical Theology and
the death of god. Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merril Company, 1966.

Published in the mid-1960s, this thinking, following Neitzsche, proclaims the actual death of God, as a historical event in our time. Much analysis of subjective/objective faith is done. Altizer finds much compatibility with many contemporary progressives in saying, "Jesus is himself the exact opposite of Christianity."

Bultmann, Rudolf. Primitive Christianity.
Cleveland: World Publishing, Meridian Books,1956.

This work is primariy a look at the various factors that impacted the formation of the fundmental doctrines of the Christian faith during the first two centuries of its development.

__________. Theology of the New Testament.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951,1953,

A two-volumn study on the meaning and message of the Christian message. Comprehensive, classic Bultmann.

__________. Jesus and the Word. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons,1958.

Groundbreaking work on a number of Xn topics: Scripture's authority, the god of the future, prayer, faith, God the Father. To understand where progressive theology is today, one must have some knowledge of Bultmann--not always an easy read.

__________. Jesus Christ and Mythology,
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958.

One of the greatest Christian scholars of the mid-twentieth century, Bultmann's name is almost a synonym for "demytholigizing" the Scriptures. He was constantly and sometimes visciously attacked by the fundamentalists. Here he clearly spells out his teaching and defends it brilliantly.

Borg, Marcus J. Reading the Bible Again for the First
Time. San Francisco,HarperSanFrancisco, 2001.

One of the most readable and understandable biblical scholars of our time, who says the Bible is not a divine product, but a human product, telling the stories and testimonies of those individuals and communities who have had, and continue to have encounters with the living Christ. The Bible is "history remembered" and metaphorically recorded. Borg is among those progressive theologians who will become known as those who made the Bible relevant again to modern man.

__________ The Heart of Christianity. Rediscovering
a Life of Faith. San Francisco,
Harper-SanFrancisco, 2003

Vital Christianity is not about "belief". We can believe many wonderful things yet still behave scandalously. In other words, whether one believes in the literalness of Scriptures is fruitless unless there is this a transforming relationship with the living God. And at the heart of that relationship is dynamic love for truth and justice.

Borg, Marcus J. and Dominic Crosson, The Last Week.
the Day-by-Day Account of Jesus' Final Week in Jerusalem. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.

I have only read the first chapter, but this book looks to be an excellent read for Lent, or Holy Week. The authors lay out the conflict between the Roman Empire and the young Christian movement in a way not often considered.

Borg, Marcus, J. and Dominic Crosson, The First Christmas.
What the gospels really teach about Jesus' birth.
New York: Harper One, 2007.

This book strips away the sentamentalism that has gathered around the nativity story for two thousand years, and gives fresh new meaning to the birth of Jesus. A great Advent read.

Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1991. 502 pp.

In the field of studies about the
historical Jesus, this book stands out. It is readable, scholarly, fair
and clear. Painstaking in detail. Continues in the tradition of Albet Schweitzer. Crossan is a member of the Jesus Seminar.

Davies, J.G. The Early Christian Church. A history of its
first five centuries. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1967.

Published 42 years ago, this book remains a foundational text of early Church history. This book was one of my textbooks in seminary.

Ehrman, Bart. D. Misquoting Jesus. The Story
behind who changed the Bible and why.
San Francisco: Harber Collins, 2005.

I have misplaced my copy of this book, but I remember it as being an
excellent study on the way differing manuscripts of the gospels have come
to be. Scribal interjections, deletion of offensive
passages, harmonizing various verses to fit the understanding of the church,
etc. Ehrman is beginning to make his mark as a top-notch scholar.

Fox, Matthew. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1980.

It has been many years since I first picked up this
book. I remember Fox making a case for the Christ to be an
appelation that transcends Jesus, perhaps even incorporation other earthly
religions. If you remember differently, pleaso commet.

Funk, Robert W. and Roy W. Hoover & the Jesus Seminar.
The Five Gospels. What Did Jesus Really Say? New York:
New York: Macmillan Publishing, Polebridge Press 1993.

A truly marvelous and ground-breaking book in which .c 150
modern biblical scholars opine on the four gospels---considering which verses
are authentically Jesus. It also includes a copy of the Gospel of
Thomas. Not for the more conservative reader.

James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience.
New York: Collier Books, 1961

Mitchell, Stephen. The Gospel According to Jesus.
New York: Harper Perennial, 1991.

Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy.
London: Oxford University Press, 1923

Ricker, George M. What You Don't Have to Believe to
be a Christian. Austin: Sunbelt-Eakin, 2002.

Robinson, James M. The Gospel of Jesus. In
Search of the Original Good News. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.

Robinson, John A.T. Honest to God.
Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963.

__________. The Human Face of God. Philadelphia:
Westminster Press, 1973.

Sanders, James A. From Sacred Story to Sacred Text.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press,1987.

Spong, John Shelby . Rescuing the Bible from
Fundamentalism. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

__________. Born of a Woman. A Bishop Rethinks
the birth of Jesus. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.

__________. This Hebrew Lord. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

__________. A New Christianity for a New World.
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001.

Spong, Christine M. Ed. The Bishop's Voice.
New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1999.

Tillich, Paul. The New Being. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1955.

__________. The Shaking of the Foundations.
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948.

__________. The Eternal Now. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963.

Ward, Keith. What the Bible Really Teaches.
New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2004.

Ward's thesis is that many of those who most loudly proclaim Bible truths, do not actually know the Bible. Rather, they have memorized key verses which support their peculiar perspective, and use those verses over an over in polemical argument. In this book, Ward lays out what the Bible actually teaches about a wide range of doctrinal statements.

[currently working on this list. ca]

Progressive Sustenance

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I just finished last night, a ten-week study at our church called "Saving Jesus from the Radical Right and the Secular Left". I wish I had had the courage and the audience to teach it to some twenty years ago. Impediments, sadly, were my fear and the perception that no one wanted to hear what progressive Christianity (Xnty) had to say.

First, my fear. My impression is that 80% of United Methodist people in southwest Texas are conservative, meaning that a sizable portion are active fundamentalists, a larger portion are involved evangelicals and the rest of that 80% are passive, status quo conservatives. Of these folks, I have been confronted by some

• with disbelief ["You don't listen to Focus on the Family!"],


• with outrage ["If you don't believe in demons, you don't believe the Bible".] and


• with condemnation [You can't be a Xn if you don't believe the Bible is literally true and infallible.]

In my younger days, I was saddled with Jesus saying that it would be better to have a large stone tied around my neck and that I be cast into the lake than for me to tear down the faith of the little ones. I used that teaching to defend my unwillingness to challenge any of the "little ones".

I was wrong; and now at the age of 66 and now standing on the edge of retirement I have come to understand that my fear had more to do with my own need to be "acceptable" and the ill-founded concern for the advancement of my "career", than the fear of being thrown in the lake.

In 1 John 2 the writer delineates three stages of Xn growth: (1) little children, (2) young adults, and (3) mature Xns. So often I and a vast number of educated United Methodist ministers (who ought to know better) have opted to retard the growth of our "faithful" by preaching a harmless, self-centered, salvation gospel to the static congregations in our charge. When the struggles of the"young adults" have arisen, we, for the most part, have smoothed them over and put the children back into their beds. We have ignored the yearning of so many of our faithful to understand the "mysteries of our faith" that are reserved for those who are mature.

My fear to share my understanding of the "mysteries" is rooted in my own cowardice; and perhaps for my own selfish concern for my "career". So much for fear.

Is there an audience in our churches for dialog concerning progressive theology? I think there is. In my just-finished class of 15, at least five of the student were "conservative to fundamentalist", three t0 five were moderate and the others hopelessly liberal or progressive.

I recruited this class by stating my intention to teach a class of "progressive theology"---or for the unsophisticated, "liberal" theology. Perhaps 25 folks expressed an interest. I asked each of them to read the first chapter of Marcus Borg's book, "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time". (see Blog Archives, May and the above title) then, if they wanted to take the course, to email me. Fifteen or so did, and we had a great class.

Admittedly, if I had offered this class at some of my smaller, rural churches the class might have been very small, and there might have been even more criticism. But the effort is definitely worth it. We must ask ourselves, how many members of our churches have drifted away because they needed a theology of more substance than what was being offered? How many members of our church have become static and bored with their church relationship, because they are being fed milk, when they need a more substantive food?

In this great church of ours, founded by a man who asked only "Is your heart like my heart?" surely there is a place for our progressive members, within the fold.

[See the blog, Progressive Bibliography, for resources.]

Greasy, Smelly, Selfish, Hard-hearted . . .

One of the most grievous things this Bush administration ever did occurred when VP Cheney invited the heads of the major oil companies to his office and secretly drew up the energy plan for the country---secretly. And it's still a secret, but the results are floating to the surface, as gasoline prices hit $3.00 a gallon (on the way to $4.00?). Why?

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Chrysler, Ford, General Motors and Toyota Have announced they will oppose a fuel economy stardard of 35 mpg this year. Honda and Nissan support it. Why are the four largest auto makers in the world opposed to this fuel-saving standard?Why?

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Oil tankers are required to be double-hulled so as to help prevent spillage of their cargos. Freighters are single-hulled, so when the Cosco Busan scraped into a bridge in the San Francisco bay, 58,000 gallons of "bunker" oil (whatever that is) spilled into the bay. The fuel tanks could be double-hulled like tankers,but they are not. Why?

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Any person with any heart for animals must find deeply felt emotion at looking at what this oil spill has done to this poor creature. And it will happen again


Why?
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President Bush vetoed a plan to provide insurance to the poorest children in our nation. He said it would be too costly primarily because congress intended to fund the cost by taxing cigarettes (impacting the tobacco corporations). This cost assessment from the man who will spend a trillion dollars [$1,000,000,000,000) on the war in Iraq. The man who spends millions of dollars trying to support a dictatorship in Pakistan. The man who cherishes the tax cuts for the wealthy. Yet, health care for the children is too costly? Why?

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One word tells us why: Greed.

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A few years ago, there was a movie, Wall Street which starred Michael Douglas. At one point he is giving a speech to the tycoons of finance and he says, "Greed is good." The only greater example of this self-justification, this ethical distortion is exhibited by many of the "wealthy elite" in our culture today.

The dictionary definition of greed is "wanting excessively to have or acquire; desiring more than one needs or deserves; avarice, cupidity (strong desire).

I would contend that greed is not good, rather it is evil. To want to possess more than we need is to "build up treasure here on earth". And one no less than Jesus condemned such behavior. And yet, greed is a prime mover in the motivations of this "richest nation on earth".

Another word has been tarnished and cracked because it hides behind greed: politics. Our political system is broken. Yet the front-runners in both parties have political machines that are masters at manipulating the people. Through the use of false patriotism and fear, the Bush administration herded us into their corral, until, in the last year the American people began to wake up and think for themselves. And we are begining to see that corporations with their super-millonaire CEOs and their armies of lobbyists, control the politicians.

The propoganda mills of the political system are beginning to crank up again. Watch out for the fear words, beware of the "socialized medicine" scare (when you hear that phrase, think "insurance profits" and "pre-existing conditions"), beware of the great danger of the military-industrial complex. Hang on for "swift-boat" type campaigning which no party will claim responsibility for. All this "Limbaugh" type skewed truth is already beginning to surface. It's all coming around again.

To break the power of greed and to turn the page on political dynasties, to support real change . . .

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Support Barack Obama!

www.barackobama.com

this Saturday: Countdown to Change: Barack at the Backyard,

Austin, Texas (see website above)