| ougomonitsya
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| inner stillness: when everything is all the same to you, and you live for the day, and you are not dreaming and waiting |
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books I've been reading
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Communion, Community, Commonweal: Readings for Spiritual Leadership, by John S. Mogabgab
The Ascent of a Leader: How Ordinary Relationships Develop Extraordinary Character and Influence, by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and Ken McElrath
The Catholic Imagination, by Andrew Greeley
Spiritual Guides for the 21st Century: Faith Stories of the Protestant Reformers
Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ, by Dallas Willard
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movies I'd like to see
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American Splendor
Girlhood
Lost in Translation
The Station Agent
Winged Migration
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sermons in process
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Ruth 1:1-18--"Why Go with Me?"
Mark 12:38-44--"Abundance and Poverty"
1 Samuel 1:4-20--"The Desperation of Hannah"
John 18:33-37--"An Interrogation"
Malachi 3:1-4--"Messages and Messengers"
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lectures on tape in my car
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Introduction to Renaissance Literature
Dante's Life and Times
Dante's Literary Antecedents
Erasmus, In Praise of Folly
Introduction to Shakespeare
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| Tuesday, May 28 |
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In the two creation stories we have two different attitudes toward women. In Genesis 1:27,
"So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and
female he created them." In this story, God created a couple. But in Genesis 2, God creates
a man. Then, God decides that the man needs a companion, a helper, a partner. The woman
is an afterthought. In fact, God is so clumsy in this effort that God creates all the other
animals thinking that they will fill the bill. They don´t. So God creates a woman from the rib
of the man. Too bad. This somehow entitles the man to say that she is "...of my bones...of
my flesh; ...out of Man this one was taken." We have no couple, but a superior-subordinate
relationship. This story makes me wonder how God created the males and females of all the
other animals. If God knew how to do that, why could he not have created a human couple? posted by
John Harrison at 11:25 AM
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| Monday, May 27 |
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In Matthew 17:22-23, we read, “As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The
Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and on the third
day he will be raised.’ And they were greatly distressed.” So, why were they distressed?
About what were they distressed? Should they have been distressed? Has there ever been
a human being of true greatness who did not experience significant suffering of some kind?
Who was not betrayed by those who did not understand him or her? What did Jesus’
disciples make of this “will be raised” business? Or were they even paying attention? I
suspect they were too hung up on the “will kill him” part of the message. But I think that
history amply demonstrates that any true righteousness that exercises itself will be
attacked--or destroyed--by the evil that cannot live with it. Jesus’ human demise was
inevitable. The only way he could have avoided it would have been to not be the righteous
person he was. posted by
John Harrison at 8:45 PM
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It is standard knowledge among Christians and Jews that the creation story is seven days
long. We also know that all the creating was done in the first six days, and that on the
seventh day, God rested. In our contemporary culture we work for five or six days and then
take one or two days “off.” We consider the five or six days to be “important,” because that
is when we make money. The other days we consider less important because they are not
“productive.” They don’t make money. So, it should come as a shock to us to learn of God’s
attitude toward the first six days and his attitude toward the seventh. In Genesis 2:3, we
read, “So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested....” God
blessed the day that he rested because he rested on that day. God did not bless the other
six days. God was pleased with what God had accomplished; but God did not bless the time
spent on God’s accomplishments. posted by
John Harrison at 6:47 PM
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