Jesus in a Box

It's Lent again and the time for new revelations to come out about Jesus. Sure enough, those Christians are wrong again for they have discovered Jesus in a box--an ossuary box! Not only that, but they have discovered his wife, none other than Mary Magdalene, and their son, Jude, to boot! And we can be sure that this is not just a hoax but scientifically determined because we have DNA evidence! What else is there to say? On March 4th you, too, can share in the excitement of this new discovery by watching the Discovery Channel special produced by the movie director of Titanic, James Cameron, and Simcha Jacobovici.

According to the article in the 2/26/07 issue of the Toronto Star,

The tomb was unearthed in 1980 during construction of an apartment building and was first connected to the Jesus family in a 1996 BBC documentary. Jacobovici's documentary uses scientific methods, including DNA testing, statistical analysis and forensic examination, not available to the BBC 11 years ago. The tomb was unearthed in 1980 during construction of an apartment building and was first connected to the Jesus family in a 1996 BBC documentary. Jacobovici's documentary uses scientific methods, including DNA testing, statistical analysis and forensic examination, not available to the BBC 11 years ago.

DNA tests conducted for the documentary at Lakehead University on two ossuaries – one inscribed Jesus son of Joseph and the other Mariamne, or Mary – confirm that the two were not related by blood, so were probably married.

"Perhaps Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married as the DNA results from the Talpiot ossuaries suggest and perhaps their union was kept secret to protect a potential dynasty – a secret hidden through the ages," narrator Ron White says over re-enacted scenes of a happy Jesus and Mary home life.

"A secret we just may be able to uncover in the holy family tomb."

The tomb was found in the Talpiot neighbourhood of Jerusalem during the construction of an apartment building in 1980.

It's really hard to know where to begin to evaluate this because the assertions are so absurd. Just concerning the supposed DNA clue, Ben Witherington III, a New Testament scholar at Asbury Theological Seminary, writes on his blog

There is no independent DNA control sample to compare to what was garnered from the bones in this tomb. By this I mean that the most the DNA evidence can show is that several of these folks are inter-related. Big deal. We would need an independent control sample from some of Jesus' family to confirm that these were members of Jesus' family. We do not have that at all. In addition mitochondrial DNA does not reveal genetic coding or XY chromosome make up anyway. They would need nuclear DNA for that in any case. So the DNA stuff is probably thrown in to make this look more like a real scientific fact. Not so much.

I could go on, but I won't. Check Witherington's blog site for a thorough critique of these so-called findings. You don't suppose someone is trying to make a buck do you?

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Thought for the Day

I've been on a diet for the last two decades. I've lost a total of 789 lbs. By all accounts I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.
--Erma Bombeck

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Thought for the Day

I have often said that a person who wishes to begin a good life should be like a man who draws a circle. Let him get the center in the right place and keep it so and the circumference will be good. In other words, let a man first learn to fix his heart on God and then his good deeds will have virtue; but if a man's heart is unsteady, even the great things he does will be of small advantage.
--Meister Eckhart

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"It's All About Me"

I read an interesting article in today’s Boston Globe with the title, “Study finds students narcissistic.” The byline reads, “Says trend among college youths can harm society.” In the largest of its kind, five psychologists conducted an study which tested 16,475 students throughout the U.S. on a standardized inventory assessing narcissism which has been given annually since 1982. They found two thirds of the students taking the inventory received scores above average, a thirty percent increase over the scores over those in 1982.

Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University and lead author of the study, said, “We need to stop endlessly repeating, ‘You’re special,’ and having children repeat that back.” She and her fellow researchers attribute the problem to the “self-esteem movement” which began in the mid-1980’s in an attempt to build children’s self-confidence. As the authors note, narcissism might help you get on American Idol, but its not helpful to live life well. A way of defining narcissism is, “It’s all about me.”

Narcissists have great difficulty developing healthy relationships with others. In fact, you could probably generalize and say that they really aren’t capable of having healthy relationships. Marriages tend not to last, they tend not to be faithful in their marriages, they have a very diminished capacity to show empathy, and really are incapable of experiencing intimacy. They use relationships as a way of feeling admired, are manipulative, and can be quite violent when they don’t get their own way.

Twenge believes that the internet technology “fuels the increase in narcissism. By it’s very name, MySpace encourages attention-seeking, as does YouTube.” W. Keith Campbell, a coauthor and professor at the University of Georgia thinks, “Permissiveness seems to be a component. A potential antidote would be more authoritative parenting. Less indulgence might be called for.”

Twenge is skeptical about much of the social service projects that young people do. She argues that many high schools require it and many colleges look for community service projects on their college applications.

I observe that this phenomenon affects the church. Rather than asking what God wants of me, we ask what God can do for me. Any observations or comments about this article?

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The Monday Morning Quarterback

The focus of my sermon yesterday was on Genesis 3:1-7, the story of the fall and the entry of sin in the world. I noted that the word sin is not a very popular or appreciated term in our culture. I attribute this to a number of reasons, not the least of which is the church at times focusing on sin without also focusing on God's grace, and serving God in joy. I suggested that if that has been your experience, it helps to understand that the church that gave you that one-sided emphasis is like a physician with poor bedside manner. If you have a serious disease like cancer, the diagnosis is hard to hear. But if the physician is compassionate and empathic, she will share this news in a kind and palatable way, with the assurance that will leaves the person with a sense of hope.

If the physician does a poor job communicating this, it makes it doubly or triply hard to hear. But the diagnosis doesn't change. So the "solution" of having a church background where you were beat over the head with your sinfulness is to understand what a terrible job they did, and seek for a more balanced understanding which includes God's infinite love and grace for sinners than denying the diagnosis.

Anyone interested in weighing in on this subject who has been "traumatized" by a church while growing up?

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Thought for the Day

The world cannot save itself. And despite the fact that so many churches in comfortable middle- and upper-class circumstances now so proclaim it, the gospel heralding God's kingdom is not focused on the inner serenity of materially comfortable individuals. The world needs so much more than that. And the kingdom of God is so much grander, so much more exciting and challenging than that
--Christoph Blumhardt, Action in Waiting

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Prayer for the Day

Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, and not strength known but the strength of love: we pray thee so mightily to shed and spread abroad thy Spirit that all peoples and ranks ma be gathered under one banner, of the Prince of Peace; as children of one God and Father of all; to whom be dominion and glory now and for ever.
--Source unknown

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Thought for the Day

The house of my soul is too small for you to enter: make it more spacious by your coming. It lies in ruins: rebuild it.
--St. Augustine, The Confessions

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Famous for Being Famous

I suspect your tilt light is a steady red concerning anything more in the media about Anna Nicole Smith, but for some unknown reason I can't get her life and recent death out of my mind. While until recently I didn't know who she was--and was put off by some of the things I learned--my response when I heard the news of her death was one of sadness.

I felt sad about a woman whom I imagine was desperate to feel loved and to feel special, but for whatever reasons never had this longing satisfied. I suspect that she discovered she could garner a great deal of attention by her outward appearance and while in her heart of hearts she knew this was thin gruel, chose it rather than starvation.

Our culture of celebrity gladly accommodated this hunger and lured her (and she, a willing participant) deeper into its lies and deceptions. In his book, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, Neal Gabler writes,

Traditionally fame had been tied, however loosely, to ability or accomplishment or office. Celebrity, on the other hand, seemed less a function of what one did than of how much one was perceived. As Daniel Boorstin put it in his famous tautological formulation, "the celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness," making the real achievement of the celebrity the fact of his public recognition. The greater the recognition, the bigger the celebrity (144).

Anna Nicole Smith was not particularly talented but was famous for being famous, in other words. It is, of course, a set up for incredibly hollow or shallow life. How sad that she didn't experience the inexhaustible love of a God who cherished her and a community of faith that embodied this love.

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Thought for the Day

The often-repeated phrase, "I don't want to be a burden" is largely a reflection of this society's cult of the self-sufficient, autonomous individual and thus a mask covering one of the most basic truths of our existence. We are all, at all times, burdening and being burdened. Indeed, we are probably never more human than when we are burdening another or bearing another's burdens. It is given to each of us t various times in our lives to bear the burdens of others in particular ways, according to our particular gifts, and at other times to allow our burdens to be borne.
--Joel James Shuman and Keith G. Meador, Heal Thyself

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Flash Forward

The text for Sunday's sermon is all of Genesis 3 and the sermon title is "Broken Mirrors." As I continue the series "On Being Human," I want to focus on the fall of humans as recorded in Genesis 3. In a culture of the Sovereign Self in which one's self-esteem is the highest good, what can we learn from this ancient text about human beings and what implications does it have on our identity as God's image bearers?

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Thought for the Day

It is not any ism but entertainment that is arguably the most pervasive, powerful and ineluctable force of our time--a force so overwhelming that it has finally metastasized into life.
--Neal Gabler, Life the Movie

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New Orleans--Update

Those of us who went on the New Orleans mission trip had a "reunion" recently. It was fun to get together and reminisce about our experience there in addition to eating some delicious food. We hadn't received any word from the homeowners of the house that we stripped but Barbara Yates said that she had been trying to reach them and would continue to do so.

Yesterday we received an email from Barbara who had spoken to Fred and Fran the previous day. This is what she reported to us:

Unfortunately, there is nothing, NOTHING, new to report about their house that is encouraging. I wish that I could tell you otherwise, but she said that the street is still at the same stage it was when we were there; electricity has not even been restored yet. She said that vandals have broken into the house and stolen copper piping and that their air conditioner compressor had been stolen as well. She sounded very upbeat during the rest of the conversation, but this is clearly a sad situation. She said that neither of the two supermarkets where she used to shop are going to rebuild and her hairdresser is not coming back.

I most confess that I am astonished that the neighborhood still has no electric power and this eighteen months after the hurricane! One of the things that they were concerned about was vandals breaking in and taking whatever they could remove from the house, and sadly, this has happened to them.

I continue to find the whole situation as it continues to unfold completely mystifying. While Fred and Fran seem to be in good spirits in Baton Rouge where they have relocated, please keep them in your prayers.

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Thought for the Day

Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world; all knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it. Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality.
--Albert Einstein

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Science and Flaming

Flaming, as you may or may not know, is the expression used when one sends an email that is rude, offensive, or embarrassing. According to an article in today's New York Times, the new field of social neuroscience, the study of dyadic human interaction and the corresponding brain activity, is studying this phenomenon properly termed "online disinhibition effect."

Studies indicate that the problem lies on "a design flaw inherent in the interface between the brain's social circuitry and the online world." When we are talking with a person face-to-face our brains receive a great deal of continuous information from the person with whom we're talking that helps guide the conversation as to what is said as well as how it is said. As the article says, "the cortex needs social information--a change in tone of voice, say--to know how to select and channel our impulses. And in e-mail there are no channels for voice, facial expression or other cues from the person who will receive what we say.

The author of one experiment in 2002 in which college students who were not acquainted were assigned separate e-mail booths with the instruction to get to know one another better was astounded at some of the messages that the study participants sent: 20% of the messages sent were either lewd or rude. The author associates flaming with road rage.

Any thoughts about flaming and the implications for us and our children?

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Thought for the Day

All advances in knowledge offer possibilities for beneficial use and for harmful exploitation. In the search for the right decisions, we need rational discussion, moral sensitivity, temperate debate, and the participation of as wide a body of people of ethical responsibility and good will as possible. The latter will certainly not come solely from the communities of religious believers, but those communities have a vital part to play in assisting the search for the common good.
--John Polkinghorne, Exploring Reality

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Mind or Brain?

As I was sitting at Logan airport on Saturday waiting for my wife to arrive on her flight from Milan, I had plenty of time to finish reading the mind and body section of the 1/29/07 special issue of Time. I definitely recommend reading it if you have any interest in how the brain works.

The last article in the section on the brain, "The Power of Hope," was written by Scott Haig, M.D., an assistant clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He narrates the story of a man who had very advanced cancer of the brain and whose distraught family had gathered around him on what was to be his last day. a scan of his head the previous day had revealed that "there was barely any brain left." As Haig notes, "Tumor metastases don't simply occupy space and press on things, leaving a whole brain. The metastases actually replace tissue."

The next morning a nurse reported to Dr. Haig, "He woke up, you know, doctor--just after you left--and said goodbye to them all. Like I'm talkin' to you right here. Like a miracle. He talked to them and patted them and smiled for about five minutes. Then he went out again, and he passed in the hour."

From a strict materialist position this is impossible, because there is no differentiation between mind and brain. In this accounting of life, consciousness is merely a by-product of brain activity. The problem concerning this patient is that there was not enough functioning brain to explain the his last five minutes of lucidity.

Haig writes,

What woke my patient that Friday was simply his mind, forcing its way through a broken brain, a father's final act to comfort his family. The mind is a uniquely personal domain of thought, dreams and countless other things, like the will, faith and hope. These fine things are as real as rocks and water but, like the mind, weightless and invisible, maybe even timeless. Material science shies from these things, calling them epiphenomena, programs running on a computer, tunes on a piano. This understanding can't be ignored; not too much seems to get done on earth without a physical brain. But I know this understanding is not complete, either.

I found this article a breath of fresh air and a necessary counterweight to many of the other articles which clearly are written from a materialist point of view. He concludes the article this way:

But many think the mind is only in there--existing somehow in the physical relationship of the brain's physical elements. The physical, say these materialist, is all there is. I fix bones with hardware. As physical as this might be, I cannot be a materialist. I cannot ignore the internal evidence of my own mind. It would be hypocritical. And worse, it would be cowardly to ignore those occasional appearances of the spirits of others--of minds uncloaked, in naked virtue, like David's goodbye.

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Thought for the Day

The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.
--T. S. Eliot

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Prayer for the Day

O God the Father of all, you ask every one of us to spread love where the poor are humiliated, joy where the church is brought low and reconciliation where people are divided, father against son, mother against daughter, husband against wife, believers against those who cannot believe, Christians against their unloved fellow Christians. You open this way for us, so that the wounded body of Jesus Christ, your Church, may be leaven of communion for the poor of the earth and in the whole human family.
--Mother Theresa

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Saturday if for the Arts

Poet Mary Oliver writes in Rules for the Dance the importance of discipline in writing. She says, "When you are starting to write poems, make a schedule of the times you will work, and adhere to it with careful and steadfast exactitude" (p. 94). Jane Yolen discusses the necessity of writing every day in her book Take Joy, and poet Jeanne Murray Walker encourages her students to write at least 15 minutes a day.

Oliver explains why the regularity and persistence is so important. The unconscious mind is always at work and bubbling with energy even when we are unaware of it. The conscious mind operates differently and says, "this is what I will do, and now is when I will do it" (p. 94). She then says.

[The unconscious creative energy] is always there stirring and sparkling--but in this case it is stirring and sparkling toward an active objective: to float upward ideas, words, even phrases. And so this energy arrives, when it is time to write, with much work already done. Though you were busy with tasks...if you are always there at the desk as promised--it will grow strong and more fertile; it will arrive with all kinds of offerings. "But the dread of preparing, and arriving and being forsaken, is very real. As in a romance, the partnership will flourish with each expectation met, or it will wither with each disappointment (p. 95).

It makes a lot of sense to me; still I have great difficulty carving out the time--even 15 minutes--to regularly sit down and write. I also like her theory of how the conscious and unconscious mind converge in writing. I have read enough about the importance of discipline and making myself sit down and do the hard work of writing in order to be successful. It's somehow finding the motivation and discipline to actually follow it.

She includes an excellent quotation by Amy Lowell, about revision which captures some of what she has stated:

All poetry consists of flashes of the subconscious mind and herculean efforts on the part of the conscious mind to equal them. This is where training comes in. The more expert the poet, the better will he fill in the gaps in his inspiration. Revising is the act of consciously improving what has been unconsciously done (p. 95).

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Thought for the Day

God intends the church, not to be one more bolt on the wheel of activity in our lives, but the very hub at the center of one's life and community.
--Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church

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The Plight of Women and Girls in the Developing World

The latest issue of World Vision magazine focuses on the plight of women and girls in the developing world. Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, has a very powerful editorial, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" the words of which he borrowed from the lyrics of Maurice Chevalier's song.

Unfortunately, those words do not apply for many females in the world. The statistics that he gives are sobering.
compared to her male counterpart, a girl growing up in the developing world is more likely to die before her fifth birthday and less likely to go to school. She is less likely to receive adequate food or health care, less likely to receive economic opportunities, more likely to be forced to marry before the age of 16, and more likely to be the victim of sexual and domestic abuse.

Girls are forced to stay home from school to work. In fact, two-thirds of the nearly 800 million illiterate people in the world are women. Only one in 10 women in Niger can read. Five hundred thousand women die every day from childbirth complications--that's one woman every minute. Girl babies are even killed in countries where males are considered more valuable.

Women are denied property rights and inheritance in many countries. Worldwide, women own only 1 percent of the world's property. They work two-thirds of all the world's labor hours but earn just 10 percent of the world's wages.

Being female, in much of our world, is not "heavenly."

On my trip to South India nine years ago I went to villages where female infanticide was practiced and was noticeable because there were far more boys than girls in those villages.

I am glad for the work that World Vision is doing in his area and for the work others are doing as well. Stearns quotes a Ghanaian saying: "If you educate a man, your simply educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation."

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Thought for the Day

The motto of modern individualism may be put thus: "I am what I myself choose to be."
--Joel James Shuman and Keith G. Meador, Heal Thyself

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Open-mindedness, Religion, and the Public Square

Gary Rosen, the managing editor of Commentary, writes an interesting article in the New York Times Preview Wednesday, "Narrowing the Religion Gap?" about faith in the public square. He begins the article noting that two of the Democratic presidential front-runners for the presidency, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are both serious church members whose faith is important to them; whereas two of the Republican presidential front-runners, John McCain and Rudi Giuliani, while having church connections "neither man, you have to think, would be caught dead in a Bible-study group..." Rosen writes, "In the piety primary, the Democrats win hands down."

He notes that he doesn't believe that the "religion gap" is likely to change as a result of this, but "What a matchup between churchgoing Democrats and secular-minded Republicans may supply, though, is welcome moderation in our debates over issues like abortion, gay marriage and stem-cell research. God knows, both sides of the ideological divide have fundamentalists in need of taming" (bold mine).

He mentions in passing the well-known fundamentalists on the right like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and their stand on the issues. But he doesn't stop here as many might. He continues

Here is where the dogmatists of the secular left come in. Looking to fend off Bible-toting conservatives, the philosopher Richard Rorty argued more than a decade ago that in a modern democracy, faith should be a strictly private matter and has no place in public discussion. Traditional religion, he wrote, is a 'conversation stopper," a source of values before which nonbelievers can be only mum. The same rigid divide informs a recent manifesto "in defense of science and secularism" signed by such academic luminaries as Daniel C. Dennett, Steven Pinker, Peter Singer and Edward O. Wilson. They urge the country's political leaders "not to permit legislation or executive action to be influenced by religious beliefs.

This addresses one of my concerns: the under-acknowledging and under-reporting of liberal fundamentalism. We all know the negative side of conservative fundamentalism, but the liberal side is just as pernicious. Somehow we associate open minds with universities, but the truth of the matter is that closed minds come in all shapes and forms from all levels of class and education, and universities are abundantly represented by liberal fundamentalists.

As Rosen notes, imagine if Rorty (which Rosen notes has backtracked on his position recently) got his way and this had been the case in the past: what would have happened with abolition, women's suffrage, the civil rights movement? We can only hope that in the upcoming election points of view from all directions including religious and secular Democrats and Republicans and Independents are welcome.

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Flash Forward

This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday and Pastor Liz will be preaching on this topic. The texts are Exodus 34:29-35, II Peter 1:16-18, and Luke 9:28-36 and the sermon title is "Transfiguration and Transformation."

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Thought for the Day

The longer you look at Jesus, the more you will want to serve him in his world. That is, of course, if it's the real Jesus you're looking at. Plenty of people in the church and outside it have made up a 'Jesus' for themselves, and have found that this invented character makes few real demands on them. He makes them feel happy from time to time but doesn't challenge them, doesn't suggest they get up and do something about the plight of the world. Which is, of course, what the real Jesus had an uncomfortable habit of doing.
--N. T. Wright, Following Jesus

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The "Science" of OnLine Dating

It's Valentine's day. Several articles in today's Boston Globe as you might expect are related to it, one of which caught my eye: "Trying to set a fire under online dating." The article notes that while online dating was once scorned, it has become an acceptable way of finding a partner: approximately 33 million people, 16% of all internet users, visited an online dating service in 2006. Furthermore, Americans spent $650 million on digital match-making.

One of the major players in this market, EHarmony.com in Pasadena, CA "has just launched eHarmonyLabs--a romance think tank where PhD psychologists hope to quantify the secrets of lasting relationships. They are focused on the problem that only 5% of internet users are paid subscribers for dating services, and this percentage has remained constant over the last five years. They want to increase this number and their market share.

One of their competitors, Match.com of Dallas has recently hired Dr. Phil for their service. For a minimal $9 per month more, subscribers can take advantage of Dr. Phil's expertise by receiving audio and video messages as well as particularized dating advice.

Dating services are specializing in certain clientele like Christians, Jews, liberals, or conservatives and Hotenough. org a company in New Jersey accepts "only unusually good-looking men and women. Applicants must pass muster with existing members, who rate their looks on a scale of 1 to 10. The applicant must get 25 votes of 8 or more to be admitted." (It's a good think I'm married because I wouldn't stand a chance on this one.)

I'm wondering what thoughts and feelings you might have about this emerging business? What if they were able to quantify everything and after taking a standardized test could match you with 95% certainty that the relationship would last? Would that work for you?

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Thought for the Day

Time is not our enemy, nor is it a hostile place from which we must flee. It is a meeting place, a point of rendezvous with God...To know time as gift is to know that its basic rhythms and inevitable passing are beyond our control. And to know time as gift is to recognize time as the setting within which we also receive God's other gifts, including the fruits of nature and the companionship of one another.
--Dorothy C. Bass, Receiving the Day

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How Many Companies Hold Patents to Your Genes?

In the brave new world of biotechnology you may be surprised to learn that genes can be patented. It has been one of my concerns for the last several years after I learned about it several years ago, and in today's Op-Ed section of the New York Times, well-known author Michael Crichton writes about it in "Patenting Life."

He maintains this practice is one big mistake:

This bizarre situation has come to pass because of a mistake by an underfinanced and understaffed government agency. The United States Patent Office misinterpreted previous Supreme Court rulings and some years ago began--to the surprise of everyone, including scientists decoding the genome--to issue patents on genes.
Humans share mostly the same genes. The same genes are found in other animals as well. Our genetic makeup represents the common heritage of all life on earth. You can't patent snow, eagles or gravity, and you shouldn't be able to patent genes, either. Yet by now one-fifth of the genes in your body are privately owned.

The ramifications are far-reaching in terms of treatments. Crichton gives an example of how patenting genes and requiring royalties has prevented or significantly boosted the costs associated with tests or treatments having to do with the genes.

Those defending this practice argue that the patent licenses are inexpensive and easy to procure which Crichton argues is simply not the case. He reports that "[t]he owner of the genome for Hepatitis C is paid millions by researchers to study this disease. I am sure others argue that this is good business and will only result in more discoveries.

Xavier Becerra, a California Democrat, and Dave Weldon, a Florida Republican, are sponsoring the genomic Research and Accessibility Act to ban gene patenting for genes that naturally occur. I am hoping that we hear more about this bill in the near future.

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Thought for the Day

A Christian concerned only about himself and the church and not also, in his personal and communal Christianity, strongly and totally concerned about the world too--the world that does not know God but is loved by him and reconciled with him in Jesus Christ--would be a contradiction in terms...
--Karl Barth, The Christian Life

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The Monday Morning Quaterback

Yesterday's sermon focused on the mandate that God gave humans in the two creation stories. The mandate in Genesis 1 is for humans to have dominion over or rule the earth. The second mandate in Genesis 2 is for humans to cultivate or serve the earth. I suggested that the word that best connects these two notions is stewardship. Rightly understood, stewardship is the "handling with integrity the resources of another" (R. Scott Rodin, Stewards in the Kingdom, p. 28).

I noted that to understand our role as stewards of God's resources and to live our lives based on this truth is truly a paradigm shift and would have enormous ramifications for life and the way we live it. It would transform the church if we understood this and lived it.

What are your thoughts on the human mandate in the creation stories and my claim that we are called to be stewards?

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Thought for the Day

Most Americans may believe in God, but this affirmation does not lead most of them to make serious commitments to any community of faith or distinctively Christian ethic. Modern American religion abounds with prescriptions to help anxious consumers get in touch with their feelings, relinquish negative thoughts, and rediscover the child within themselves.
--Gary Dorrien, Soul in Society: The Making and Remaking of Social Christianity

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Prayer for the Day

Thanks be to thee,
O Lord Christ,
for all the benefits which thou hast given us;
for all the pains and insults which thou has borne for us.

O most merciful redeemer,
friend
and brother,
may we know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
and follow thee more nearly;
for thine own sake.
--Richard of Chichester

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Saturday is for the Arts

I am continuing to borrow shamelessly from Jane Yolen's book, Take Joy. One of the things that she notes is the importance of persistence. In the chapter on rejection notices from publishers, she encourages would be writers not to take the rejections personally. She goes on to point out that the experience of most writers includes many rejection notices. For example, she received 113 rejections before her first poem was published (I have a ways to go--I have had two rejection notices so far, but I have given up submitting them for a while.) Madeleine L'Engle's Newbery Medal-winning book, A Wrinkle in Time, was rejected 29 times before a publisher finally accepted it. Even Dr. Seuss's book, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was rejected more times that L'Engle's book.

The other point that she makes in this chapter rather as an aside is the fact that when it comes to research, nothing is lost. She writes, "For a writer, nothing is lost. Research once done can be used again and again, a kind of marvel of recycling. As writers we need to be shameless about thieving from ourselves...Good research swims upstream where it can spawn again."

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Thought for the Day

God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance.
--Abraham Joshua Heschel, I Asked for Wonder

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The Modern Slave Trade

A new book on the modern slave trade, NOT for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade – and How We Can Fight It, by David Batstone begins:

Twenty-seven million slaves exist in our world today. Girls and boys, women and men of all ages are forced to toil in the rug looms of Nepal, sell their bodies in the brothels of Rome, break rocks in the quarries of Pakistan, and fight wars in the jungles of Africa. Go behind the façade in any major town or city in the world today and you are likely to find a thriving commerce in human beings.

Batstone travelled to a number of countries including Thailand, Cambodia, Uganda, South Africa, Peru, Eastern Europe, and India, researching this modern day plague. The International Labor Organization estimates that the work performed by enslaved persons exceeds $32 billion a year. From time to time we hear horror stories from someone who has escaped from their bondage, but Batstone has provided a more comprehensive examination of this enormous problem.

Batstone wants to create another William Wilberforce groundswell against the modern day slave trade. William Wilberforce was a member of Parliament in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, a Christian who was passionate about ending great Britain's slave trade. He labored most of his political life toward this end. His mentor, John Newton, the former captain of a slave trading ship who became a Christian, then a minister, and the author of the hymn, "Amazing Grace," told Wilberforce, "The Lord has raised you up for the good of the church and the good of the nation." Wilberforce introduced his first bill to undo slavery to parliament in 1788 and was voted down. He continued to introduce them until the first one passed in 1807. In 1833 Parliament voted to abolish slavery in the British Empire and Wilberforce died three days later.

By the way, the movie "Amazing Grace," a movie about Wilberforce's story will be released on February 23. I must admit that I am excited about this movie. Wilberforce is one of my heroes, and I am thrilled that Hollywood has made a movie about this great follower of Jesus.

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Thought for the Day

Religious practice in contemporary America is shaped by and large by consumerism, the latest stage of capitalism. Consumerism has shaped American religion in the sense that religion has for many become simply another aspect of life to be understood in terms of choice, acquisition, and exchange. It is a commodity among others, or at least a way of attaining commodities. The point of the religious belief that is professed and practiced by most Americans is not that it is faithful to a particular historical tradition or even that it offers an intelligible account of the world in which they live. Americans want their religion first of all to be helpful--that is, they want it to be conducive to living a successful, worry-free life. One's religion need not be true except for the singular individual believer. Religion thus tends to be less about faithfulness to a tradition or a communal way of life than about individual empowerment.
--Joel James Shuman and Keith G. Meador, Heal Thyself: Spirituality, Medicine, and the Distortion of Christianity

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Flash Forward

This week's sermon is based on Genesis 1:26-27, 2:4b-9, 15-17 has the title, "The Good Earth." (Those of you familiar with author Pearl Buck will recognize I borrowed this title from one of her books.) I want to continue reflecting on what it means to be an image bearer of God on planet earth as well as the implications that has for the planet.

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Thought for the Day

It is true...that the general course of modern culture has been based on the assumption that the divine is a luxury that cannot be afforded except as it submits to human demands, is totally identified with human knowledge and intention, an aesthetic possibility, or is a domesticated servant of success or self-esteem.
--Richard E. Wentz

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Church on the Street

There was an interesting piece in the Op-Ed section of yesterday's New York Times about churches trying to minister to the homeless. The author, Neela Banerjee, reported on a church in Washington, D. C. the Episcopal church of the Epiphany which holds Street Church on Tuesdays. After the service, the church serves a meal. Epiphany keeps its doors open during the day and on Sunday morning they serve breakfast and hold an indoor service for the homeless. The rector of the church, Rev. Randolph Charles, reports that it takes a lot of energy and effort to train workers, acquire permits to hold services, and deal with problems among the homeless, but believes it's worth the effort. Epiphany was inspired and helped by Rev. Deborah Little Wyman who started this in Boston 11 years ago. UCC Medfield has participated with these services held in Boston Common from time to time.

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Thought for the Day

A great deal more failure is the result of on excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.
--J. Oswald Sanders

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Doubt and Faith

Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley, wrote an OP-ED piece, "The Benefit of Doubt," in today's Boston Globe I found interesting. He concludes his article saying,

Doubt is not paralysis. Certainty is. Doubt keeps the doors and windows open. Belief is one room with no way out. Do not let others impose a polarity of response on you. You need not live a reactive life. Don't look to have life explained to you, presented to you. Live the life that emanates from your interior greatness. Be an overwhelming bounty of impressions, ideas, conflicting theories, and let the propellant behind all this be generosity. A giving...I invite you to passionately doubt everything you believe.

Are doubt and belief opposites? Is belief one room with no way out? Is there a place in discipleship for a healthy sense of doubt? Is doubt one room with no way out? What do you do with doubt in your own life?

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Thought for the Day

If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work, rather teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean.
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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The Monday Morning Quarterback

The subject of yesterday's sermon was the "image of God" or what theologians refer to as the "Imago Dei." I used bioethicist Peter Singer's Op-Ed article in the 1/26/07 issue of the New York Times as my jumping off point. He was talking about the notion of dignity in relation to 9 year old girl who has the mental age of 3 months. He asks the question, '" But why should dignity always go together with species members, no matter what the characteristics of the individual may be?"

I attempted to answer this question through the concept of the Imago Dei. Dignity is associated with the human species because G0d has made us in God's image: we are God's image bearers on planet earth. We explored different ways that the Imago Dei has been understood, but noted that at bottom, God has made it the case that we are God's image bearers.

Did the sermon stir up any thoughts or questions about human dignity, the Imago Dei, and/or the implications for this?

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Thought for the Day

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.

And my God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
Tor bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
--A Franciscan Benediction

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Prayer for the Day

Almighty God, who know our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking: Set free your servants from all anxious thoughts about tomorrow; make us content with your good gifts; and confirm our faith that as we seek your kingdom, you will not allow us to lack any good thing; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
--St. Augustine

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Saturday is for the Arts

I have shared excerpts of poems by Mary Oliver on my blog several times. She is one of my favorite poets. Her most recent book, Thirst, is worth purchasing if you have any interest in poetry whatsoever. I find her accessible, and she has a lightness of touch that draws the reader into the depth of meaning. In Thirst she intertwines her love for nature with her new found faith in God.

The last poem in her book with the same title captures what I have described above. I want to share a few lines to whet your appetite.

Another morning and I wake with thirst
for the goodness I do not have. I walk
out to the pond and all the way God has
given us such beautiful lessons...Who
knows what will finally happen or
where I will be sent, yet already I have
given a great many things away, expect-
ing to be told to pack nothing, except the
prayers which, with this thirst, I am
slowly learning.

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Thought for the Day

God alone is truly independent. He alone belongs wholly to Himself and lives in and by Himself. Man's creaturely existence as such is not his property; it is a loan. As such it must be held in trust. It is not, therefore, under the control of man. But in the broadest sense it is meant for the service of God...This is the simplest information that can be given regarding the fact and meaning of life. Nor is it the result of self-reflection on the part of man. It depends entirely on the fact that God addresses him. It derives from the Word of God as the Word of his Creator and Lord. And implicitly it is the information which is given concerning all other life and the reality and meaning of life in general.
--Karl Barth

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Thoughts on Global Warming

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change representing over 110 countries reported that they are in excess of 90% certain that the major reason for global warming are humans. Their report states that even if we were able to stop emitting gases that trap heat at the present time, it would still take about a century for the climate heat rise to abate.

Coming up with policies that will actually work seem like a daunting task to me. I read recently that even the city of Kyoto, Japan, the location for the Kyoto Accord to limit heat-trapping gases hasn't been able to even come close to the goal that was set. This is not because Japan has not made giant strides in conservation, but because of the booming population and the need for more energy, they have not been able to come anywhere close to hitting the goal. That, of course, does not mean that the U.S. doesn't have the responsibility to clean up our own act, but coming up with workable strategies seem truly formidable to me.

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Thought for the Day

It is a very dangerous inversion to advocate Christianity, not because it is true, but because it might be beneficial.
--T. S. Eliot

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The Comodification of Embryos

The Boston Globe has an interesting piece in the OP-Ed section by bioethicist Osagie k. Obasogie entitled, "'Wal-Martization' of embryos." He begins his article with this paragraph:

Jenalee Ryan has just opened the Abraham Center of Life in San Antonio, Texas, billing it as "the world's first human embryo band." Put bluntly, Ryan sells infertile couples their choice of designer embryos that, after being brought to term, become designer babies. Matching what Ryan considers "attractive and intelligent" sperm and egg donors, she designs and brokers embryos for people looking to have the perfect child.

Obasogie notes that for the many infertile couples seeking help the price for a pregnancy can run as high as $45000. Ryan hopes to offer a stripped down, more efficient operation that will cost couples around $10000. Her marketing presents the sperm origination with Ivy League men and women with "Faberge quality" eggs.

One of the issues that concerns Obasogie is the money involved in assisted reproduction: it is currently a $3 billion industry, there is little regulation, and the number of new centers like Ryan's is increasing dramatically. He writes, "With assisted reproduction's current state, we have the worst of both worlds: baby-making is being turned over to the market without really considering whether that's where it belongs while we're also refusing to establish rules to keep businesses honest. This regulatory abyss has hit Massachusetts hard, leading to its growing reputation as a 'go to' place for fertility treatment."

What thoughts do you have about Obasogie's concerns?

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Flash Forward

This Sunday I will begin a series "On Being Human." The text for the sermon with the same title as the series is Genesis 1:26-31, and is the well-known passage about humans being made "in the image of God." The question is, what does the "image of God" mean and if we can discover what it means, how does it apply to our lives? The discoveries we have made about our biology, genetics, pathology, treatment have huge potential but are also accompanied by huge ethical questions. This has led to the field of Bioethics. In order to make moral decisions we need to have an understanding of what it means to be human. This understanding will not then provide easy answers for difficult questions, but at least it will provide a grounding from which to address these issues. As followers of Jesus, we need more than the "soundbite" discussion that one hears in the media. I hope that this series will provide a vehicle for us to think more deeply and faithfully about what it means to be human and the ramifications of this in the way that we live and die.

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Thought for the Day

We both believe, and disbelieve a hundred times an Hour, which keeps Believing nimble.
--Emily Dickinson

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