"If your hand is your undoing, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life maimed than to go to hell and the unquenchable fire. And if it is your foot that leads you astray, cut it off; it is better to enter into life a cripple than to keep both your feet and be thrown into hell. And if it is your eye, tear it out; it is better to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye than to keep both eyes and be thrown into hell, where the devouring worm never dies and the fire is not quenched.
"For everyone will be salted with salt.
"Salt is a good thing, but if salt loses its saltness, what will you season it with?
"Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
April 02, 2007
March 30, 2007
Long Silence...
Okay, here's my try:
The hour is getting late in this universe. If we aren't scared, we've either got faith or blind spots. I fear I've just gone numb.
If we find it hard to care about all those strangers whom we ought to help if we only knew a way... it's probably because we really don't know any way. There's serious despair going around; we're lucky if we haven't come down with it ourselves.
Most of us are compulsively going through motions, some of us donating and others of us busy lobbying or organizing or protesting to keep the Forces of Shameless Cluelessness from committing yet another incredibly stupid atrocity, just wanting to believe we can.
While we often want to pray that some new evil be averted, we know that God has allowed the same thing over and over in the past, and shows no sign of stopping. We see furthermore that humans everywhere are persisting in just the sort of behavior that makes calamities unavoidable.
We're humans; we have to either make sense of all this or at least imagine we can cope with it anyway. But the world only truly makes sense in reference to God.
Scriptures can be misused in many ways; their true value is that they remind us of God and lead us to see our situation in that context.
----------------
For the past several months we've been reading a scripture about Jesus, and we haven't found too much to say about it.
"If you bring forth what is within you, it will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, it will destroy you."
Jesus said that, according to the Gospel of Thomas. It sounds to me like something he would have said. Truth.
Come on, please! Someone bring forth something, from what is within you!
What is this person Jesus doing, so far? Why? What does it mean to you?
The hour is getting late in this universe. If we aren't scared, we've either got faith or blind spots. I fear I've just gone numb.
If we find it hard to care about all those strangers whom we ought to help if we only knew a way... it's probably because we really don't know any way. There's serious despair going around; we're lucky if we haven't come down with it ourselves.
Most of us are compulsively going through motions, some of us donating and others of us busy lobbying or organizing or protesting to keep the Forces of Shameless Cluelessness from committing yet another incredibly stupid atrocity, just wanting to believe we can.
While we often want to pray that some new evil be averted, we know that God has allowed the same thing over and over in the past, and shows no sign of stopping. We see furthermore that humans everywhere are persisting in just the sort of behavior that makes calamities unavoidable.
We're humans; we have to either make sense of all this or at least imagine we can cope with it anyway. But the world only truly makes sense in reference to God.
Scriptures can be misused in many ways; their true value is that they remind us of God and lead us to see our situation in that context.
----------------
For the past several months we've been reading a scripture about Jesus, and we haven't found too much to say about it.
"If you bring forth what is within you, it will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, it will destroy you."
Jesus said that, according to the Gospel of Thomas. It sounds to me like something he would have said. Truth.
Come on, please! Someone bring forth something, from what is within you!
What is this person Jesus doing, so far? Why? What does it mean to you?
March 27, 2007
Trying Something New?
Is there material worth studying in the Christian scriptures? I think so.
Is there much appetite on the net for this kind of study? Among Friends & acquaintances? Maybe someone can give me an estimate of how many lurkers we have here; maybe there're more than I think. Maybe the problem is merely one of encouraging them to speak up and make fools of themselves like the rest of us?
We need more people contributing to this site! We couldn't afford to lose David, but we have, and my appetite for slogging through Mark: start at the beginning, go on to the end, then stop!--isn't what I thought it would be.
What are we reading this stuff for? Is this--and nothing else--the "Word of God"?--or as George Fox put it, at least "words of God"? What does that mean? If we stare at these books long enough, do we reach Truth somehow?
What's central here? Is there a coherent story that accounts for the existence of these materials, the inspiration together with the narrow misunderstandings? What part of this do we most need to study, for what reason?
How do we all see what we're trying to do with this? Comments, anyone?
Is there much appetite on the net for this kind of study? Among Friends & acquaintances? Maybe someone can give me an estimate of how many lurkers we have here; maybe there're more than I think. Maybe the problem is merely one of encouraging them to speak up and make fools of themselves like the rest of us?
We need more people contributing to this site! We couldn't afford to lose David, but we have, and my appetite for slogging through Mark: start at the beginning, go on to the end, then stop!--isn't what I thought it would be.
What are we reading this stuff for? Is this--and nothing else--the "Word of God"?--or as George Fox put it, at least "words of God"? What does that mean? If we stare at these books long enough, do we reach Truth somehow?
What's central here? Is there a coherent story that accounts for the existence of these materials, the inspiration together with the narrow misunderstandings? What part of this do we most need to study, for what reason?
How do we all see what we're trying to do with this? Comments, anyone?
March 22, 2007
I too may be on the way out.
I have been, voluntarily or just accidentally, bugging out of participation here. Partly from having the system all churned-up by the site service-providers, mainly from caring-less and feeling that I would rather be fixing my old go-playing program to run again, only redesigned to improve its game sufficiently in maybe a million years or so of playing with itself....
The Bible. A collection of stories-of and ravings-by people who once lived their lives in reference to God.
Here we are, reading these books in an age of disconnection. (Like all the other ages we've ever heard of...) Our civilization offers us the choice of being disconnected atheists or disconnected believers. God knows we can't live that way; it's just not eternally viable! But this seems to be the norm.
I've seen a lot of comments here. I can't be sure my own comments are better–How would I know what blind spots I'm not seeing?-- but most of what I've observed has been people busy confirming their own mental baggage. If this were an airplane it would still be on the runway struggling to move against all the anchors we'd hung out the windows.
I can't prove myself innocent, nor would it matter. What I'm saying is that this exercise, as we've been practicing it, is useless. No wonder people quit (or stay away from the beginning) in droves.
Am I the only one who's felt this? What might be a better approach?
The Bible. A collection of stories-of and ravings-by people who once lived their lives in reference to God.
Here we are, reading these books in an age of disconnection. (Like all the other ages we've ever heard of...) Our civilization offers us the choice of being disconnected atheists or disconnected believers. God knows we can't live that way; it's just not eternally viable! But this seems to be the norm.
I've seen a lot of comments here. I can't be sure my own comments are better–How would I know what blind spots I'm not seeing?-- but most of what I've observed has been people busy confirming their own mental baggage. If this were an airplane it would still be on the runway struggling to move against all the anchors we'd hung out the windows.
I can't prove myself innocent, nor would it matter. What I'm saying is that this exercise, as we've been practicing it, is useless. No wonder people quit (or stay away from the beginning) in droves.
Am I the only one who's felt this? What might be a better approach?
March 10, 2007
good night vacuumland
Growing up my favourite Saturday morning radio show was Eclectic Circus on CBC FM. The name was apropos: played everything from Wagner to The Beatles seasoned liberally with Mozart, 60s folk-rock, and the occasional jazz ensemble piece. The host, Alan McFee would sign off each show with the a reading I later learned was from Shakespeare's The Tempest:
He would then say: "Good Night Vacuumland!"
I think Eclectic Circus is a good metaphor for the last year and a half we have spent here together. But I think it is time for me, like Prospero, to set aside my magick bookes and re-enter incarnate society. Its been fun. If those of you still left decide to continue the project -- feel free -- Crystal, Forrest, and Larry all have administrative rights -- I may check in now and then to kibitz around -- throw my two pennies into the pot and so forth.
Good night vaccumland.
OUR revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.Prospero in The Tempest
He would then say: "Good Night Vacuumland!"
I think Eclectic Circus is a good metaphor for the last year and a half we have spent here together. But I think it is time for me, like Prospero, to set aside my magick bookes and re-enter incarnate society. Its been fun. If those of you still left decide to continue the project -- feel free -- Crystal, Forrest, and Larry all have administrative rights -- I may check in now and then to kibitz around -- throw my two pennies into the pot and so forth.
Good night vaccumland.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)