My Dear Wormwood, I am immensely pleased at your progress concerning your charges at General Theological Seminary. Your hard work and patience has paid off immensely. The backbiting and conflict have reached such proportions that future tempters will no doubt read about them as part of their underling studies. I must congratulate you on your use of the “Acceptance” tactic. Other tempters have been wildly successful using the tactic against departing dioceses and congregations. And I must say the sweet sound of, “I accept the renunciation of your ordination vows,” causes immense pleasure in all of us. But you have taken it to a level never before seen. All of your predecessors used the tactic against the others - those who threatening to leave the Church. But you have successfully implemented it against beloved seminary professors. To that I say bravo! I believe the success lies in the fact that our efforts have effectively closed the door on reconciliation. One we closed it ...

Okay good now I have your attention. Every year we decry the materialism of the season, how it's being co-opted, and how Christmas is being pushed more and more into Advent. As I'm doing our liturgical planning for the Christmas season I realize how the Church itself is partially to blame. Quite honestly, after December 25th the season gets pretty depressing. For a quick look at the calendar - December 26th commemorates St. Stephen - a Deacon and Martyr (he gets stoned to death), December 27 is St. John, and the reading involves Jesus reinstating Peter and chewing him out at the same time, and December 28th is the feast of Holy Innocents - yup we celebrate when King Herod killed all the young boys under the age of two. Then for the Sundays themselves: In the first Sunday after Christmas we read John 1:1-18, which is lovely if you have a degree in theology, but in general it takes a lot to understand what's going on. The second Sunday has several options for readings, ...

It's almost funny, I stared at the text today trying to find some deep meaning and got nothing - nada, zip, zilch.  At the same time, an email arrived in my inbox from www.meaningfullife.com  about their 60 day journey.  The lesson for today told the story of Moses desiring to see God's face, and God instead put him in the cleft of a rock, covered Moses with His hand, and passed by.  Moses was only able to see God's back, not His face.  In essence the story was God's way of telling us, "You will see me when you are not looking." This Sunday's text from Hebrews describes many heroes of faith, who underwent suffering.  They endured beatings, fire, lions, being sawed in half, persecution, etc. etc.  Then the text has a curious shift: "Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40 NRSV)"...

It's been a while since I've written here but I wanted to return to this project.  In these three verses we have a definition of faith, that it is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  We are told that by faith the worlds were prepared by the word of God and that what is seen was made by things that are not visible.  I'm paraphrasing here from the NRSV version of the Bible. What's worth noting is that the author describes worlds being made.  Literally the Greek refers to Eons, which is translated as worlds.  The question remains why is it in the plural rather than the singular?  Surely someone writing two thousand years ago would view the earth as a singular thing. I've written before about the four worlds of Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Assiah.  The idea is that the final world, Assiah is the one we live in, while the other three are the plans and the intentions for this world.  Through mystical experiences...

As I'm writing this post, there are many news reports out describing many, many Muslim groups engaging in protests against the United States.  This all is in response to a video circulating on the internet entitled "Innocence of Muslims" which, among other things, mocks the founder of Islam, the Prophet Mohammed. My initial reaction to stories such as these is shock and horror over the violence.  There are some people in the world who feel that insult can only be appeased by a greater insult, violence with violence, and that no attack, no matter how small, can go unchallenged.  Personally I find such an attitude barbaric and nonsensical.  If one were to take it to its logical conclusion, the entire world would not stop fighting.  This is why in the Old Testament cities of refuge were to be set up in Israel so that a person could flee there and escape the cycle of violence (Numbers 35). At the same time, the video that sparked all of these riots is one o...

Because of several pastoral emergencies and other duties I have fallen behind in my posts.  I didn't want to skip  3 Epiphany since it has played a pivotal role in how I understand Jesus Christ as someone who was quite steeped in the mystical tradition.  The reading describes Jesus as he begins his public ministry -"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news (Mark 1:15 NRSV)."  Something worth noting is that neither the phrase "Kingdom of God" or "Kingdom of Heaven" appears anywhere in the Old Testament.  If you refer back to my post on Levels of Interpretation , you'll see that the Kingdom of God can neither be understood from the simple or the allusion level.  To understand it we need to look deeper into the Midrash or Kabbalah.  According to the Midrash, Kingdom could refer to the Messianic Age, when the world would be set right and the righteous would have the opportunity to study Tor...

Growing up I heard a variety of stories about the Roman Catholic Church.  My entire family is Roman Catholic, yet my parents never took me very much, and hardly attended themselves.  As a result, most of my perceptions were from other's stories.  I had an uncle who would tell me about attending parochial school, how he was taught by the nuns, and whenever they would get out of line one of the sisters would throw a piece of chalk at them.  Laughing, he described how this nun could hit you between the eyes with a piece of chalk from across the room.  Years later I had a co-worker who shared stories about being an altar boy.  He and his friends would fight with each other over who would ring the bells when the priest was saying mass.  These fights often took place during the service, and this priest had a technique of kneeling down reverently so he could kick them without being seen.  He didn't kick them hard, but enough to get their attention so the...