Heretics!

The title says it all: today's post is about heretics. What's a heretic? Who is a heretic? How do I go about choosing my favorite heretic (for your homework assignment)? Hopefully this post will provide some answers.

First: definitions, specifically of "heretic" and "heresy." Your homework page from the CnC book defines a heretic in this way:

"A heretic is someone who holds a controversial or unorthodox opinion or doctrine, as in religion, politics, philosophy, or science. A heretic believes something that the authorities--religious, political, social--do not believe. Heretics are often considered to be very dangerous people, becuase they want to change the way things are done or what people believe. Heretics make people uncomfortable. In many times and places, heretics have been shunned or even killed for their beliefs. Heretics may or may not be right. Soemtimes it takes many years or even centuries before their ideas are shown to be either wise or foolish."

Heresy, then, would be the "controversial or unorthodox opinion or doctrine."

So who are heretics? Again, your homework page lists some examples, both from the classical and medieval church as well as from modern and contemporary society. My suggestion for getting started on your homework would be to start by looking up a few of the people listed--Google search the names and see what you can find on the particular figure. Also, don't limit yourself to the contemporary figures or those whose names you recognize! Some of these guys from the early church are really out there and interesting. Take a chance and read up on them-you may find out something pretty cool. Wikipedia has a list of people burned as heretics, if you're looking for a starting place for the medieval set (a starting place other than the list in your homework, that is!)

And remember, this is about who is YOUR favorite heretic. It could be someone not on the list at all-someone YOU think has challenged accepted opinions or beliefs. What we want to hear in your presentations (and in your homework) is why they're your favorite, and how they've challenged beliefs. You may think that Carl Sagan or Steven Hawking is a heretic, but you will need to explain why (don't know those names? Look them up!!!)

And don't forget to bring magazines this week...we'll need them for the collages you're going to be making.

Stay warm!

* About the picture: this is a picture from an illuminated (highly decorated, in other words) 13th century manuscript of St. Augustine of Hippo refuting the heretic. St. Augustine is one of the Church's most important theologians (someone who writes and thinks about God). One of the major issues in his time was the Donatist controversy. I'm not going to explain it here, though. It's a heresy-it might be your favorite-so look it up! Oh and Augustine is perhaps best known for his work Confessions. It's awesome. You should read it.

Don't take the idea from this picture, though, that heretics are people we should necessarily chop down with swords (or anyone, for that matter). I just couldn't find a picture of just a heretic, and St. Augustine rocks so...there we go. It's a picture about heresy, so I thought it might work.

OK that's all for now!

The Red Pill/Blue Pill Debate

Yesterday we spent a good deal of time talking about the Red Pill/Blue Pill question after watching this clip from The Matrix. I've given you a clip that will show what pill Neo chooses, but yesterday I didn't want his choice influencing your own (no peer pressure, in other words!). Here's the clip again, if you want to watch it in light of yesterday's discussion.



To re-cap what we went over yesterday, here are the arguments in favor or against each choice:
Red Pill Pro
-Awesome adventure awaits!
-It could be fun
-The risk
-You find out the truth
-You can remove the splinter from your mind

Red Pill Con
-Don't want to miss out on your life as it is
-Kind of like a suicide of sorts
-Many lead great lives without knowing the truth
-You get more splinters from removing the one in your mind

Blue Pill Pro
-The benefit outweighs the risk
-You know what is going to happen: there's no uncertainty
-You can't dedal with knowing you might not see people again
-It's "comfortably numb", to quote Pink Floyd
-the Truth hurts
-If you take the blue pill you can just forget about the whole thing

Blue Pill Con
-You don't get to find out the truth
-You still have the splinter in your head

Obviously just listing the pros and cons doesn't catch the nuance of our discussion, but maybe this will jog your memory a bit. The next question we looked at was: Which pill would Jesus take? There was debate on this one, although the answer (and like I said, this is one of the few times in the class there is a right and wrong answer) is that Jesus would take the red pill.

If you watched the clip above, you may notice that Morpheus says to Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more." This truth, or maybe we should call it Truth, is about the reality of our existence-what this world around us really is. I think one could argue pretty soundly that it's similar to the Truth Jesus is about-the Truth that God really does love us, but also the Truth of our own lives. This can be painful (hence the argument against the red pill "the truth hurts"). But as I said yesterday, Jesus was all about showing this truth.

There are two examples from John 8 that speak to this. The first is really just a quote. Jesus tells those who believed in him that if they continued to follow him, "you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:32). In other words, Jesus shows us the truth-and only when we see this can we be set free. The second passage from John 8 is from the beginning of the chapter. One of the ways we defined the red pill yesterday was "shaking things up," whereas the blue pill was kind of maintaining the status quo-staying with life the way it was and not changing things up. Jesus was all about changing things up. Just read this passage from the beginning of John 8:

"Early in the morning Jesus came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’" (John 8:1-11).

That's shaking things up, if you ask me.

And finally, I leave you with this video. The song was originally done by the oh so awesome 70s band The Who. However, this particular version from Geoff Moore and the Distance is a little more upbeat. And there's a more Christian angle to the lyrcis (they added the part about "You who the Son sets free, is free indeed") The video isn't all that great, but at least give it a try. I'm posting the lyrics below the video as well. They sum up the red-pill argument, I think. Pay particular attention to the idea that "you've been told many times before Messiahs pointing to the door but no one had the guts to leave the temple." Jesus shows us the way into the world, and part of the journey of this class is to head into the light and see what we find...



"I'm Free"
I'm Free, I'm Free
I'm Free, I'm Free
And Freedom Tastes Of Reality
I'm Free, I'm Free
And I'm Waiting For You To Follow Me

If I Told You What It Takes To Reach The Highest High
You'd Laugh And Say "Nothing's That Simple"
But You've Been Told Many Times Before
Messiah's Pointing To The Door
And No One's Had The Guts To Leave The Temple

I'm Free, I'm Free
And Freedom Tastes Of Reality
And I'm Waiting For You To Follow Me

You Who The Son Sets Free Is Free Indeed
You Who The Son Sets Free Is Free

I'm Free, I'm Free
I'm Free, I'm Free
And Freedom Tastes Of Reality
And I'm Waiting For You To Follow Me.

How Can We Follow? How Can We Follow?


Tomorrow's Blog Entry: HERETICS!!!!

Daily Reading, 11/12

Oh man. Today's passage contains one of, in my opinion, the funniest moments in the Gospels. I laugh out loud every time I read it, even though it probably wasn't meant to be a funny moment. Maybe it's because I can envision the disciples whispering to one another while I read this, or maybe it's because my sense of humor is sometimes strange. Whatever the reason, I find it funny. What's so funny, you might ask? Well, read on!



Today's Gospel is again from Matthew, 16:1-12. In the first four verses, Jesus is telling the Pharisees that they're blind to the signs of God's coming (in Jesus). The part I want to talk about, however, is verses 5-12. Here it is from the NRSV, mostly because The Message leaves out the funny line:



"When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, "Watch out, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." They said to one another, "It is because we have brought no bread." And becoming aware of it, Jesus said, "You of little faith, why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How could you fail to perceive that I was not speaking about bread? Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!" Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees."



Let me set the stage for you, so to speak. Jesus is probably not in a great mood, because he's had yet another run in with the Pharisees, trying to get them to understand how blind they are. Then he does off with his friends and grumbles "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Saducees..." Then, and this is the hilarious part, the disciples look at each other and think Jesus is upset with them because they brought no bread. In the words of Homer Simpson, "DOH!" The disciples are usually thick headed, especially Peter, but this is priceless. They just don't get what Jesus was saying to them, and think he's made about the fact that they forgot bread (and, by the way, I think the hilarious part for me is their very obvious statement "It is because we have no bread!" HA. Oh I am still chuckling).



Then Jesus gets flabbergasted with them and tries to explain to them that he's not talking about actual bread. Duh. He's talking about something more important-about what is wrong in the Pharisees' and Saducees' teachings. The last sentence of the passage drives home how thick the dicsiples were: " Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Of course they understood, because Jesus had just spelled it out for them!



What does all of this say to us? First, I think it reminds us that we don't always keep our eyes open. Most of the time we're too tied up in our own worries and egos to think about something else that's going on-to look at the "big picture." I don't know how many of you watch The Office, but Michael Scott is, I think, a perfect picture of the disciples. Every now and then he gets it, and when he does he does some pretty fantastic things. Most of the time, though, he's too thick headed to figure anything out (hence the comedy in the show!). I'm hoping to preach on Michael Scott and the disciples one of these days. I'll give y'all a heads up when I do! So that's the first part: we don't look at the big picture. The second part follows from the first-we don't tend to look at the big picture and so this passage, and Jesus reminding the disciples to beware the teachings of the Pharisees and Saducees (such as the teachings on Sabbath that I discussed on here last month) that get us tied up in the little details and forgetting that it's Jesus that matters.



So there you go. I think it's hilarious and insightful. I hope you can take something away from it too.

Daily Reading, 11/11

Miracles miracles. What are we to do with them? Today's lesson from the Gospel of Matthew brings us face to face with one of the more famous of Jesus's miracles, the feeding of the four thousand (Matthew 15:29-39). Not only does this passage include Jesus's culinary feat, but it starts with setting the scene: people are bringing their loved ones (or themselves) to Jesus for healing and when they see every one being healed, they praise "the God of Israel."

Then this happens: (from the NRSV)

Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way." The disciples said to him, "Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?" Jesus asked them, "How many loaves have you?" They said, "Seven, and a few small fish." Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children. After sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.



Whoa. Not only did he manage to feed the crowd with seven loaves of bread and a few fish, but they had 7 baskets of food left over! And there were more than 4000 people there.

What are we to do when we read about miracles like this in the Bible? How are we to take them?

It would be easy to dismiss the miracles and say they were stories to get one point or another across, and have been recorded as such. Then we can, from there, go on to say that it "doesn't matter" if they really happened or not. I would caution against this, however. Why? Because it's all building up to the greatest miracle of all-the resurrection! How can the Easter moment be true for us if we're not willing to let these smaller moments be true as well?

This isn't easy, though, especially in such a scientific world as ours. God created a world in which there were laws to govern how nature works (this is why science and religion aren't necessarily opposed to one another!). However, as we'll find out in about a month when we celebrate Christmas, God continually defies expectations. God sent His son Jesus-God became truly human and truly divine and walked this earth. Whoa again. Truly human and truly divine at the same time? How do we explain that? Rest assured we're not the only ones struggling with what this means-theologians have been arguing over the nature of Christ's being both truly human and divine since the earliest days of the Church. The point is that the Incarnation (the "en-flesh-ment of the Word) itself defied the laws of what God is supposed to do. And then the resurrection-that was even more defiant! Jesus rose from the grave and made death work backwards. Death means nothing to us anymore, ultimately, because our faith in Jesus Christ keeps death from having any hold on us. SWEET.

But back to miracles. If we hold these two essential miracles of the Christian faith to be true-the Incarnation and the Resurrection (and, after all, isn't having faith that these happened what makes us Christian in the first place??!!)-then believing that Jesus turned water into wine, or that Jesus raised Lazarus, or that he fed a crowd of 4000 with only a few loaves and fishes shouldn't seem all that far fetched.

But it's still hard!

No one said faith was easy...

Daily Reading, 11/10

Today's reading is Matthew 15:21-28. Here we have another case of Jesus breaking down barriers and surprising those around him. Many of you may have heard this passage before, but I'm pasting it below (taken from The Message):

"From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, "Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit."

Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, "Now she's bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She's driving us crazy."

Jesus refused, telling them, "I've got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel."
Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. "Master, help me."
He said, "It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to dogs."
She was quick: "You're right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master's table."
Jesus gave in. "Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!" Right then her daughter became well. "

Upon first reading, Jesus's initial reaction to the woman may seem somewhat surprising. It's not exactly welcoming, is it? He first wants to ignore her, because he has his hands full helping the Israelite people, but then when she does finally get him to answer her, he calls her a dog! Not the warm and fuzzy picture of Jesus we might be expecting.

Furthermore, the woman approaching Jesus was in a doubly low position-she was 1. a woman and 2. a Gentile. She would have been totally outside of anyone's concern at this point. We're told at the beginning of the passage that they're travelling in Tyre and Sidon. This is significant because it was a Gentile (i.e. non-Israelite) territory. Thus it's not so surprising that they ran into a Gentile woman while there.

Jesus doesn't seem to want to deal with this woman. He's trying to ignore her, likely to get on to wherever it was he was going. And wasn't his mission to Israel in the first place? Nevertheless, he hears the woman out and is perhaps surprised by her response. He tries to turn her away-you don't take what you're giving to your children (Israel) and give it to the dogs (Gentiles). But she had some wit about her, and turned it around. It's not often in the Gospels that we see someone responding to Jesus in this way-especially not from a woman! Nevertheless she does and Jesus heals her daughter.

To be honest, I've never been completely sure of what to make of this passage as a whole. On the one hand, Jesus heals the woman's daughter and thus does something for a person who's completely out of his society-a Gentile woman. On the other hand, he wants to ignore her and calls her a dog! It's only after she responds to him that he heals her daughter.

What do you think of this passage? Help me out here!

Daily Reading 11/4

Today's Gospel lesson is again from Matthew (the Daily Office, in case you weren't sure, usually has fairly sequential readings). It's a pretty short passage, so I'll cite the whole thing for you below:

"When Jesus finished telling these stories, he left there, returned to his hometown, and gave a lecture in the meetinghouse. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. "We had no idea he was this good!" they said. "How did he get so wise, get such ability?" But in the next breath they were cutting him down: "We've known him since he was a kid; he's the carpenter's son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. All his sisters live here. Who does he think he is?" They got their noses all out of joint.

But Jesus said, "A prophet is taken for granted in his hometown and his family." He didn't do many miracles there because of their hostile indifference. " (Matthew 13:53-58, The Message)

The Message presents the passage in a pretty different way here (I think), but the gist is basically the same. Jesus went back to his home town, preached, and everyone wondered where he got his ability from and didn't listen to him because he was just Mary's son, not a big deal.

Now, I'll admit that when I read this at first I'm somewhat indignant on Jesus's behalf, as I'm guessing the disciples likely were. The people in this town had known Jesus for a long time, but somehow they still didn't believe him. How could they?! But then I get honest with myself for a moment and think about what I would think if someone I'd grown up with did the same kind of thing. If a high school classmate showed up one day and was teaching about my future salvation (and, I'm assuming, claiming that he/she was the next Messiah), I would probably remember what they were like in high school and not want to listen either. The point is that previous association with someone creates an image of that person in our minds, be it good or bad, and that image gets in the way of how we may percieve a person or their message later on. The people in Jesus's hometown couldn't get past their preconceptions about Jesus, based on knowing him as he grew up.

The question that comes to mind for me, and Matthew's gospel doesn't tell us, is just what Jesus was saying when he taught. What got people so up in arms? Was it similar to the teachings we've been seeing in Matthew up to this point or was it different? What was he saying? I guess I won't know the answer to that one anytime soon...

So what do we take from this passage? Well, I think it calls us to examine the way we approach people. Jesus can speak to us in many different ways, and often the Holy Spirit moves through our interactions with those around us. How are our own prejudices getting in the way of hearing what the Spirit is saying to us? Are we too blinded by how we've known someone previously (or think we've known someone) to let what they're trying to tell us really reach our hearts and minds? Are we being like the people in Jesus's home town?

It's something to think about.

Daily Reading, 11/3

The kingdom of heaven is like...

That's what today's Gospel passage is about. Jesus talks about what the kingdom of heaven is like. We get a few different pictures in the passage:

"God's kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.

"Or, God's kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it.

"Or, God's kingdom is like a fishnet cast into the sea, catching all kinds of fish. When it is full, it is hauled onto the beach. The good fish are picked out and put in a tub; those unfit to eat are thrown away. That's how it will be when the curtain comes down on history. The angels will come and cull the bad fish and throw them in the garbage. There will be a lot of desperate complaining, but it won't do any good."

Jesus asked, "Are you starting to get a handle on all this?"
They answered, "Yes."
Jesus said, "Then you see how every student well-trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it." (Matthew 13:44-52, The Message)

If we look at the passage, there are four metaphors: the field, the pearl, the fish net, and the general store owner. We'll return to the fourth a little later, but the first three focus on the kingdom of heaven and what it's like. A couple of things about this:

First, notice that Jesus uses metaphor to talk about heaven. He doesn't talk about what it actually is, but rather what it is like. Why do you think this is? Does it mean Jesus doesn't really know what heaven is? I think the answer is more likely that Jesus realizes we won't be able to understand it if he tells us. It would be like trying to describe an airplane to someone from the 15th century, or trying to describe an elephant to someone who can't see-our descriptions would almost definitely fall short of the actuality. Jesus realizes that, and so he tries to teach with descriptions we might understand.

So what do these metaphors tell us about the kingdom of heaven? There are two messages here, I think. The first relates to the field and the pearl-in both instances a person has found something of such great worth that he is willing to sell everything in order to attain it. Heaven is much the same-it is so incredibly priceless that we should be willing to give up everything in order to attain it. We've seen this before in different ways-the disciples leave everything behind to follow Jesus. In the Gospel this Sunday we'll hear about the poor widow giving all of her money to the poor. The Bible is full of stories about those who have given up everything for God. The field and the pearl provide us with images that present this sacrifice in a new way-the metaphors show that these people give up everything for something that is the most valuable thing they can think of. In other words, they don't leave everything for nothing.

The third metaphor is the fish net description of God's kingdom. This is a little more difficult to wrap our minds around, because it deals with the fate of the wicked-something many of us in the Episcopal Church don't think about too much. Yet Jesus says here that the evil ones will be cast out, and there's nothing any amount of complaining can do about it. Without getting into an entirely different discussion about Hell and the afterlife, let's just say that God is the one who will know who the wicked are, and we shouldn't be passing judgment on anyone else's salvation-only God can see into our heart of hearts and know what's there.

Finally, we come to the fourth metaphor, which isn't even about the kingdom! Rather, it's about disciples of the kingdom-those of us who follow Jesus and strive to bring about his kingdom. Jesus assures us that these disciples will be like the general store owner who has everything necessary for every eventuality. Disciples will be able to undergo all situations because of their faith in Christ. That's a pretty hopeful thing, if you ask me.

What about you? What do you think the kingdom of God is like? Can you think of any metaphors that would help you describe it to someone else (this is especially difficult because we ourselves don't really know what the kingdom is!)