232 some time ago i read Mountain Jubilee by arnold lunn in which his nostalgia for switzerland and the mountains and snows of switzerland flows out on almost every page. this is all very flattering for switzerland, but i wonder how many people who have been privileged to 'see the war through' in england realise the nostalgia for england which people - chiefly women like myself - have endured all these years. nostalgia, not just to be home, but to be able to pull our weight with all the others in england.
i use the word 'privileged' advisedly because i feel that it has been a privilege to witness at close quarters the resurrection of england, of english tradition, of all that made the english what they have been and what they will always be. it looked, to many of us who saw the view from the distance and who did not live in it, as if england was losing something, and we yearned over our country and clung fast to our belief that it couldn't really be happening.
and then the war came and all our beliefs were justified, for england showed herself to be what she has always been - superb! we who have made our homes in other countries have -at least, i have -longed to be home during this resurrection and to do something! i don't mean that i longed for honour and glory, at least not the bombed out of house and home kind of honour and glory, but just to feel that i was doing my share with all the other women of england. i felt i wouldn't mind coping with food shortage, difficulties of transport, danger, lack of fuel, national work, anything, if i knew that whatever the discomfort was i was putting up with it quietly and as a matter
233 of course - for england! letters i had from england did not help. there were things waiting for me to do there, i was wanted. one letter ran: 'why aren't you here now? we need women like you'.
however, i am still here and i found things to do, later. none of them the least heroic or important, but i am still doing them. there was 'Digging for Victory' to be done, which has played and which is still playing, such an important role in switzerland. every corner, every sloping bank, every inch of land must be made to produce. i could dig and i dug with a will, joining the big cultivation plan put into action throughout the country. public parks became vegetable gardens, potatoes adorned the squares in our town and corn waved where corn had never waved before. there were the refugees, civil and military, pouring into the country. no public body could cope with them all at once and it was up to private people to do what they could. in my letter of last year i may have told what happened when i started to beg for the french soldiers in murren. within ten days i was able to fit out 250 men with clothes, thanks to the Swiss! that's the way the swiss give. everyone i asked, asked someone else and things came pouring into the house till it looked like an old clothes shop. one woman in the village took two shirts off her washing line and gave them to me, saying: 'i must just wash a little oftener'.
the red cross is always needing help and getting it; organisations which provide clothes, food, parcels, comforts for prisoners of war, exist in every town. we sew, collect books, anything and everything and since the capitulation of italy, has come another influx of refugees, english and american soldiers and italians, civil, military and political refugees, from the highest in the land to the poorest and meanest. they all have to be cared for. in the beginning many italians came in with permission from the swiss government, but the only way open to them now is the 'black' route, slipping between german guards, braving the mountains or the dangers of being smuggled in somehow by italian partisans. i have just come back from a little place on the italian-swiss frontier, where i was in touch with these brave men and women and knew as much of their activities as their trust in me allowed them to tell. their lives are in their hands every moment of the day and
234 night and they are still bringing italians, british and american soldiers over the frontier at an incredible rate. they brought 27 british officers up to within sight of the frontier whilst i was there, but when these men decided to join up with their own forces instead of crossing into internment in switzerland, the partisans took them and handed them safely over in an amazingly short space of time. many of the tales i should like to tell must wait till after the war, because quite a few of these italian partisans are living in switzerland as respectable citizens and those of us who know anything - just don't know anything at all!
we women who have our relatives in england are in constant anxiety, often without news and with no hope of reunion till after the war. true, we, our husbands and children are safe and that is a great deal for which to be thankful. life is complicated, housekeeping is difficult, little food can be bought without coupons and clothes and footwear are rationed. we have all we need if not all we want, and when one remembers that we are feeding and clothing 80,000 refugees as well as ourselves, it is a miracle of organisation that we are all fed and clothed, particularly when one looks at the map and studies the position of switzerland for a moment!
for the last 10 months i have had two italian children in my home and they will remain for the duration of the war. the extra coupons i have had given me for them has enabled me to see that they have had not only all they need, but all they want. and the first to give was a village woman who slipped coupons into my hand, saying: 'we don't need it. give it to thee little ones, they need feeding up'. strict as the rationing is, everyone can spare something where they see refugees.
difficult times bring out character and i have seen many surprising things in this country. i have seen true heroism in the little, irritating affairs of everyday life and i have seen a lot of sad exploitation of circumstances. i have heard grumbling from people whose position certainly does not entitle them to grumble and i have seen stoicism where i least expected it. generosity and open heartedness have come from people whom i never suspected of possessing either and men behaviour from people i had believed to be made of different stuff.
we have had our alarms and excursions, of course. how could it be otherwise, situated as we are? our men are mobilised, our
235 frontiers fortified and manned. but inside those frontiers, no matter what happens outside them, is switzerland, safe, her people pursuing their normal lives as far as possible, eating their daily bread in confidence and trust, the children secure, homes undamaged and the future - we hope and trust - assured. and in this hope and trust we can look proudly at the three flags which fly side by side over swiss soil. three flags very much alike in shape and form, since all are crosses. the cross of christianity, oldest of them all, which has never been torn down to make room for any other emblem; the white cross on the red ground, our national flag which has flown over free switzerland since the middle ages; and the red cross on the white ground which henri dunant, swiss founder of the society of the Red Cross, made by reversing the flag of his country. as long as we can keep these in our hearts, i think we need little else, the cross of Christ for faith, the cross of switzerland for hope and the red cross of charity, the charity which out of our own security we give with both hands in thankfulness that we have it to give.
thank You Lord for the many delightful things in this little book and, for me, a bit of an introduction to switzerland which i have loved and been intrigued with since reading of Your followers, the waldensians who lived, though often hunted, there for centuries....o keep us from thinking well of ourselves, Lord. only You are good and all true good flows from Your lowly grace. amen.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Monday, November 2, 2015
11.2.2015 REQUIEM by thomas nash
briefly this book, by a professor from drew university, says that seminaries have largely become bastions of non-Biblical thinking/teaching/practice(?!) but that there is a young group of men and women who are rejecting-challenging this by moving to ground their beliefs in a renewed study (and imitation?) of the church Fathers of the first five centuries focusing on their understanding of scripture. very enlightening..encouraging...hopeful.
9 without a story we do not know who we are.
10...speaking of current theology..'their inventions have been invented many times before and...were typically called heresies. ('heresy' has mostly disappeared today...)
..chesterton observed that the trouble with someone who does not believe in God is not that he will end up believing in nothing; it is, rather, that he will end up believing in anything.
11 ..the circus that is theology today...
33 ..an interloper who steals property must be caught and fairly charged as an expression of justice. secularization is such an interloper. we have witnessed the theft of church property by forces alien and inimical to the church. stolen property must be reclaimed. thieves must be brought to justice.
there are times when a counterthesis needs to be put sharply over against a prevailing thesis. if the countervailing argument is not put pungently against a harsh, insensitive taskmaster, it will be easily dismissed.
the rhetorical assignment under those circumstances is to enter in good humor the arena and strike telling blows. the plaintiff must sometimes make a case that refuses to be disregarded. if i hit had rhetorically, it is because i have seen innocent persons being hit much harder.
34..by liberated i mean those persons who are the sexual experimenters, the compulsive planners of others' lives, the canonical text disfigurers, and ultrafeminists (as distinguished from the great company of godly women..the liberated characteristically understand themselves to be freed from oppressive, traditional constraints of all sorts and shapes. liberated is not a term applied to them from outside their self-understanding, but a term they frequently apply to themselves. by liberated, they usually imply:
doctrinally imaginative
liturgically experimental
disciplinarily nonjudgmental
politically correct
multiculturally tolerant
morally broad minded
ethically situationist and above all
sexually lenient, permissive, uninhibited
...an engulfing attitude that we have been liberated from our classic christian past, from the patriarchalism of christian scriptures, from benighted jewish and christian traditions and from their oppressive social systems.
9 without a story we do not know who we are.
10...speaking of current theology..'their inventions have been invented many times before and...were typically called heresies. ('heresy' has mostly disappeared today...)
..chesterton observed that the trouble with someone who does not believe in God is not that he will end up believing in nothing; it is, rather, that he will end up believing in anything.
11 ..the circus that is theology today...
33 ..an interloper who steals property must be caught and fairly charged as an expression of justice. secularization is such an interloper. we have witnessed the theft of church property by forces alien and inimical to the church. stolen property must be reclaimed. thieves must be brought to justice.
there are times when a counterthesis needs to be put sharply over against a prevailing thesis. if the countervailing argument is not put pungently against a harsh, insensitive taskmaster, it will be easily dismissed.
the rhetorical assignment under those circumstances is to enter in good humor the arena and strike telling blows. the plaintiff must sometimes make a case that refuses to be disregarded. if i hit had rhetorically, it is because i have seen innocent persons being hit much harder.
34..by liberated i mean those persons who are the sexual experimenters, the compulsive planners of others' lives, the canonical text disfigurers, and ultrafeminists (as distinguished from the great company of godly women..the liberated characteristically understand themselves to be freed from oppressive, traditional constraints of all sorts and shapes. liberated is not a term applied to them from outside their self-understanding, but a term they frequently apply to themselves. by liberated, they usually imply:
doctrinally imaginative
liturgically experimental
disciplinarily nonjudgmental
politically correct
multiculturally tolerant
morally broad minded
ethically situationist and above all
sexually lenient, permissive, uninhibited
...an engulfing attitude that we have been liberated from our classic christian past, from the patriarchalism of christian scriptures, from benighted jewish and christian traditions and from their oppressive social systems.
11.2.2015 APPENDIX B (taken from Thomas Nash's 'requiem')
152 according to the last five quadrennial editions of the United Methodist Book of Discipline, homosexuality is declared 'incompatible with Christian teaching'. ..
since McGovernization, every mainline protestant denomination (presbyterian, episcopalian, united methodist, united church of Christ, disciples of Christ, among others) have faced a repeated challenge from proactive advocates of the moral legitimacy of self-avowed, practicing H. it is sometimes argued that any genitalia of any sex interfacing with any body orifice is compatible with christian teaching, just as long as a condom is used.
in response to claims for moral legitimization of behaviors widely though displeasing to God, each of the mainline denominations has dutifully appointed elaborate study commissions to report back to the general legislative body on how the church might respond to this for of sexual orientation practice and advocacy. the typical procedure has been, first, that a study commission had been formed McGovernistically
153with an assumed race and gender balance of moral and biblical experts. second, these study commissions typically report back to the general body in favor of relaxing moral constraints on H. usually they are confident of winning a majority. third, the general legislative body then promptly rejects the recommendation of the study commission. no mainline denomination better illustrates this recurrent pattern than the beleaguered united methodists.
every general conference..since 1972 has been tested..
the report rightly pleaded once again, as have christian traditionalists repeatedly pled, for a stop to violence against those who practice same sex intercourse. the civil rights of those with 'alternative sexual orientations' must be vigilantly protected without conceding the moral viability of their claims to social or moral legitimation. 'chistian gay-bashing' is no more excusable than the 'homophobe-bashing by gay rights advocates...
the fact that H practice is not a weighty moral matter was asserted by the united methodist sexuality report as a 'consensus among christian ethicists', yet without any evidence to support this...all the conspicuous christian teachers who have resisted same sex intercourse (john chrysostom, augustine, thomas aquinas, martin luther, john calvin ...) ..are weighed in such a debate less heavily than selected modern proponents of moral relativism and utilitarian permissivism.
154...the normative moral force of all biblical texts on same sex intercourse may be explained away by their cultural context. this leads to the conclusion that any statement in the bible can be reduced to culturally equivocal ambiguity and indeterminacy on the premise of cultural relativism...an..evasion of the normative character of scripture
157..ordinary christian laity know that any behavior is incompatible with christian teaching insofar as it blatantly defies clear scriptural mandates.
158 they wonder why this is so difficult for the professional exegetes on the sexuality study to grasp. (note: every man to his bible, his knees...his house fellowship!)
..suppose a caucus of fornicators was to petition the church to legitimize fornication as a sexual orientation and a lifestyle toward which many christians are prone...
..both homosexual and heterosexual sinners are invited to the Lord's Table on the same basis: repentance and trust in God's forgiving grace and the determination to amend, insofar as possible , by acts of reparation, injuries done ..
..shall a child molester who has no intent whatsoever of changing his predatory behavior and who views his behavior as quite inoffensive to God also be welcomed again and again to the Lord's Table?
159...i am tempted to quit using the term homosexuality altogether, rather, i think that a more graphic phrase would be same-sex oral or anal intercourse, or more inclusively, anal/oral/-either/or-both/and-any-gender-all-orifice orgasm.
since McGovernization, every mainline protestant denomination (presbyterian, episcopalian, united methodist, united church of Christ, disciples of Christ, among others) have faced a repeated challenge from proactive advocates of the moral legitimacy of self-avowed, practicing H. it is sometimes argued that any genitalia of any sex interfacing with any body orifice is compatible with christian teaching, just as long as a condom is used.
in response to claims for moral legitimization of behaviors widely though displeasing to God, each of the mainline denominations has dutifully appointed elaborate study commissions to report back to the general legislative body on how the church might respond to this for of sexual orientation practice and advocacy. the typical procedure has been, first, that a study commission had been formed McGovernistically
153with an assumed race and gender balance of moral and biblical experts. second, these study commissions typically report back to the general body in favor of relaxing moral constraints on H. usually they are confident of winning a majority. third, the general legislative body then promptly rejects the recommendation of the study commission. no mainline denomination better illustrates this recurrent pattern than the beleaguered united methodists.
every general conference..since 1972 has been tested..
the report rightly pleaded once again, as have christian traditionalists repeatedly pled, for a stop to violence against those who practice same sex intercourse. the civil rights of those with 'alternative sexual orientations' must be vigilantly protected without conceding the moral viability of their claims to social or moral legitimation. 'chistian gay-bashing' is no more excusable than the 'homophobe-bashing by gay rights advocates...
the fact that H practice is not a weighty moral matter was asserted by the united methodist sexuality report as a 'consensus among christian ethicists', yet without any evidence to support this...all the conspicuous christian teachers who have resisted same sex intercourse (john chrysostom, augustine, thomas aquinas, martin luther, john calvin ...) ..are weighed in such a debate less heavily than selected modern proponents of moral relativism and utilitarian permissivism.
154...the normative moral force of all biblical texts on same sex intercourse may be explained away by their cultural context. this leads to the conclusion that any statement in the bible can be reduced to culturally equivocal ambiguity and indeterminacy on the premise of cultural relativism...an..evasion of the normative character of scripture
157..ordinary christian laity know that any behavior is incompatible with christian teaching insofar as it blatantly defies clear scriptural mandates.
158 they wonder why this is so difficult for the professional exegetes on the sexuality study to grasp. (note: every man to his bible, his knees...his house fellowship!)
..suppose a caucus of fornicators was to petition the church to legitimize fornication as a sexual orientation and a lifestyle toward which many christians are prone...
..both homosexual and heterosexual sinners are invited to the Lord's Table on the same basis: repentance and trust in God's forgiving grace and the determination to amend, insofar as possible , by acts of reparation, injuries done ..
..shall a child molester who has no intent whatsoever of changing his predatory behavior and who views his behavior as quite inoffensive to God also be welcomed again and again to the Lord's Table?
159...i am tempted to quit using the term homosexuality altogether, rather, i think that a more graphic phrase would be same-sex oral or anal intercourse, or more inclusively, anal/oral/-either/or-both/and-any-gender-all-orifice orgasm.
11.2.2015 SOPHIA from Requiem by Thomas C. Nash (1995)
27 ...i come from a strong tradition of liturgical toleration that views Holy Communion as a uniting and converting sacrament - uniting the Body of Christ and converting the heart. in all my years of coming to the Lord's Table, i have never once seriously considered withdrawing from a Communion service because of a scrupulous conscience.
SOPHIA WHO?
yes, i had read Wisdom's Feast, coauthored by our guest homilist, so i knew in advance that she had frequently spoken of Sophia as a goddess to be worshiped. in that book, Sophia is referred to as 'a strong, proud, creative goddess within the biblical tradition'...who
28 is this goddess? 'S is, in fact, the God of Israel expressed in the language and imagery of the goddess'.
S wo4rship is not designed to be merely a transitory liturgical experiment, but the fabrication out of whole cloth of a feminist goddess who might be imported into christian worship. the practical question that religious feminists are pressing is 'how can the image of the goddess become accessible to a broad range of women?...since the chapel service was taken verbatim from this book, it is impossible to pretend that this particular service had no relation to this particular book, one of whose coauthors was our homilist.
the introduction of S worship into the liberated old line churches was by a deliberate strategy designed to proceed by a series of calculated stages through which the goddess character of S would be recognized only gradually. in a 5 tier process the homilist had proposed that feminists gradually might bring a congregation to invoke S by taking these steps: 'these stages are: 1. basic and unobtrusive reintroduction of S...2. addressing issues of women's identity in relationship to S; 3. celebrating and deciphering the Jesus-S connections; 4. exploring and celebrating S's presence in all things; 5. invoking S to address questions of human suffering'.
the intent is to legitimize the goddess: 'we must find a way to mainstream the goddess into the universe within which women are actually living their lives'. but car must be taken that the S worship and preaching not offend too abruptly, for 'in our experience, the best way to begin talking about S is to address a meaning of the text that does not concentrate on the goddess character of S'. hence a strategy of incremental homiletical duplicity is recommended: first conceal the 'goddess character of S', then later introduce her overtly in the Eucharist.
i approached the service with some disquiet. i wondered whether it would be best not to attend at all. i might be tempted to do or say something rash, due to my apprehension and annoyance. ...
29 anyway, this still is my worshiping community, so i felt that i had a right to receive the sacrament duly administered. i wanted meekly to come to the Lord's Table without political posturing or ideological skewing. so i decided not merely that i could go. but that i must go and hoped for special wisdom in responding...
our first hymn was entitled 'S', in which was sung the praise of S, vagely objectified into a deity distinguishable from the Triune God. it is S who 'ordains what God will do':
she's the teacher we esteem
and the subject of life's theme.
lover, counsel, comforter,
life is gladness lived with her. ...
with this imitation hymn i began to feel more queasy and manipulated. i wondered whether i was in a place where some other lord than Jesus Christ was being worshiped. i felt just a little (for the first time in my life) like the apologists of the 2nd century must have felt when confronted with the challenge of attesting the Lordship of Christ amid a pagan pantheon of Greco-Roman deities.then came the homily, which was addressed to a highly targeted audience- mostly true blue feminists and maybe a few pale blue hangers on, but no one who might possibly have any critical resistance to feminist rhetoric. in the name of inclusiveness, all other audiences were excluded, disregarded and to some extent demeaned.
the homilist took some time to recount an event of a stormy experience of a combat weary feminist cleric. it was a victory story in which a pious United methodist lay leader and other members were counseled out of participating in her church and invited to change their membership
30 to another church. using the rhetoric of inclusiveness, she recounted how the preacher had proclaimed the virtues of doctrinal diversity, yet specifically invited all who did not agree with her to leave and look for another church. she was apparently oblivious to the inconsistency that exclusion and divisiveness were being practiced precisely in the name of inclusiveness and doctrinal pluralism. there was not the slightest recognition in her demeanor of any inconsistency. her language was filtered carefully through the sieve of egalitarian exclusionary rhetoric. she did, however, tip her hand enough to reveal the value commitments of the lay leader who was driven out: he believed in the confession that Jesus is Lord, in monogamous covenant sexual fidelity and in protecting the life of the unborn.
...the spare scriptures imported occasionally into the service were carefully culled chiefly from the Apocrypha and some Wisdom literature (proverbs 8-9; psalm 104). ben sirach was quoted, but not in any way that would give offense to feminists - only those passages that seem to reify Wisdom into a deity distinguishable from the Triune God. to reify is to objectify, to make an object or think of an idea or symbol. to reify the idea of sophia (the greek word for 'wisdom') is to treat that idea as a personal deity differentiated from the holy trinity...
31...i pondered whether i could in good conscience stay to receive Holy Communion. this was my first experience ever in thinking about withdrawing from a communion service because something offensive to the Lordship of Christ was occurring right there at the Lord's Table. it was becoming clear to me that the god worshiped in this fantasyland was not the triune God made flesh in Jesus Christ, but the reified persona of S, distinguishable from the Trinity. i began to consider how i might inconspicuously withdraw from the service without making a scene.
nothing seems more unbecoming at the Lord's Table than a public demonstration of outrage or divisiveness or pique or politicized commotion...
32 Communion. i was coming to the conclusion quietly that in good conscience i was going to be forced to absent myself somehow. but how?
i prayed for wisdom...just at that time the homilist herself gave me the decisive clue. she urged the gathering not to delay in asserting their convictions. she said that the longer feminists delayed asserting their authority in worship, the more difficult it would be. she then offered the invitation to come to the Lord's Table, not in the Lord's name, but in the name of the goddess who was speaking through Jesus. this was a very carefully worded rhetorical device. the inviter was not was not the crucified Lord of glory but the Sophia figure who was speaking through Him, by her own authority. ironically, we were being invited to His table, but only so in her name.
that did it...
SOPHIA WHO?
yes, i had read Wisdom's Feast, coauthored by our guest homilist, so i knew in advance that she had frequently spoken of Sophia as a goddess to be worshiped. in that book, Sophia is referred to as 'a strong, proud, creative goddess within the biblical tradition'...who
28 is this goddess? 'S is, in fact, the God of Israel expressed in the language and imagery of the goddess'.
S wo4rship is not designed to be merely a transitory liturgical experiment, but the fabrication out of whole cloth of a feminist goddess who might be imported into christian worship. the practical question that religious feminists are pressing is 'how can the image of the goddess become accessible to a broad range of women?...since the chapel service was taken verbatim from this book, it is impossible to pretend that this particular service had no relation to this particular book, one of whose coauthors was our homilist.
the introduction of S worship into the liberated old line churches was by a deliberate strategy designed to proceed by a series of calculated stages through which the goddess character of S would be recognized only gradually. in a 5 tier process the homilist had proposed that feminists gradually might bring a congregation to invoke S by taking these steps: 'these stages are: 1. basic and unobtrusive reintroduction of S...2. addressing issues of women's identity in relationship to S; 3. celebrating and deciphering the Jesus-S connections; 4. exploring and celebrating S's presence in all things; 5. invoking S to address questions of human suffering'.
the intent is to legitimize the goddess: 'we must find a way to mainstream the goddess into the universe within which women are actually living their lives'. but car must be taken that the S worship and preaching not offend too abruptly, for 'in our experience, the best way to begin talking about S is to address a meaning of the text that does not concentrate on the goddess character of S'. hence a strategy of incremental homiletical duplicity is recommended: first conceal the 'goddess character of S', then later introduce her overtly in the Eucharist.
i approached the service with some disquiet. i wondered whether it would be best not to attend at all. i might be tempted to do or say something rash, due to my apprehension and annoyance. ...
29 anyway, this still is my worshiping community, so i felt that i had a right to receive the sacrament duly administered. i wanted meekly to come to the Lord's Table without political posturing or ideological skewing. so i decided not merely that i could go. but that i must go and hoped for special wisdom in responding...
our first hymn was entitled 'S', in which was sung the praise of S, vagely objectified into a deity distinguishable from the Triune God. it is S who 'ordains what God will do':
she's the teacher we esteem
and the subject of life's theme.
lover, counsel, comforter,
life is gladness lived with her. ...
with this imitation hymn i began to feel more queasy and manipulated. i wondered whether i was in a place where some other lord than Jesus Christ was being worshiped. i felt just a little (for the first time in my life) like the apologists of the 2nd century must have felt when confronted with the challenge of attesting the Lordship of Christ amid a pagan pantheon of Greco-Roman deities.then came the homily, which was addressed to a highly targeted audience- mostly true blue feminists and maybe a few pale blue hangers on, but no one who might possibly have any critical resistance to feminist rhetoric. in the name of inclusiveness, all other audiences were excluded, disregarded and to some extent demeaned.
the homilist took some time to recount an event of a stormy experience of a combat weary feminist cleric. it was a victory story in which a pious United methodist lay leader and other members were counseled out of participating in her church and invited to change their membership
30 to another church. using the rhetoric of inclusiveness, she recounted how the preacher had proclaimed the virtues of doctrinal diversity, yet specifically invited all who did not agree with her to leave and look for another church. she was apparently oblivious to the inconsistency that exclusion and divisiveness were being practiced precisely in the name of inclusiveness and doctrinal pluralism. there was not the slightest recognition in her demeanor of any inconsistency. her language was filtered carefully through the sieve of egalitarian exclusionary rhetoric. she did, however, tip her hand enough to reveal the value commitments of the lay leader who was driven out: he believed in the confession that Jesus is Lord, in monogamous covenant sexual fidelity and in protecting the life of the unborn.
...the spare scriptures imported occasionally into the service were carefully culled chiefly from the Apocrypha and some Wisdom literature (proverbs 8-9; psalm 104). ben sirach was quoted, but not in any way that would give offense to feminists - only those passages that seem to reify Wisdom into a deity distinguishable from the Triune God. to reify is to objectify, to make an object or think of an idea or symbol. to reify the idea of sophia (the greek word for 'wisdom') is to treat that idea as a personal deity differentiated from the holy trinity...
31...i pondered whether i could in good conscience stay to receive Holy Communion. this was my first experience ever in thinking about withdrawing from a communion service because something offensive to the Lordship of Christ was occurring right there at the Lord's Table. it was becoming clear to me that the god worshiped in this fantasyland was not the triune God made flesh in Jesus Christ, but the reified persona of S, distinguishable from the Trinity. i began to consider how i might inconspicuously withdraw from the service without making a scene.
nothing seems more unbecoming at the Lord's Table than a public demonstration of outrage or divisiveness or pique or politicized commotion...
32 Communion. i was coming to the conclusion quietly that in good conscience i was going to be forced to absent myself somehow. but how?
i prayed for wisdom...just at that time the homilist herself gave me the decisive clue. she urged the gathering not to delay in asserting their convictions. she said that the longer feminists delayed asserting their authority in worship, the more difficult it would be. she then offered the invitation to come to the Lord's Table, not in the Lord's name, but in the name of the goddess who was speaking through Jesus. this was a very carefully worded rhetorical device. the inviter was not was not the crucified Lord of glory but the Sophia figure who was speaking through Him, by her own authority. ironically, we were being invited to His table, but only so in her name.
that did it...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)