Ralph Milton's Rumors

R U M O R S # 442
Ralph Milton's E-zine for people of faith with a sense of humor
2007-03-25

March 25, 2007

WALK TOWARD THE TOMB

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Motto:
"A merry heart doeth good, like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones." (Proverbs 17:22 KJV)
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If you enjoy Rumors, or find it useful, tell your friends about it. If you don't have any friends you probably don't enjoy Rumors.

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Next Week's Readings - Jesus' bones
Rumors - listening to the ancient story
Soft Edges - realities can change
Good Stuff - the state of medical care
We Get Letters - wieners, whiners and winners
Mirabile Dictu! - fifty ways to lose your liver
Bottom of the Barrel - repent
Stuff - (read this only if you would like to subscribe, unsubscribe or are wondering about permissions. That sort of boring stuff.)

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Rib Tickler - This from Kausie White. The sometime church goer was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place.
Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to church every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up whiskey!"
Miraculously, a parking place appeared. The fellow looked up again and said, "Never mind, I found one."

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Next Week's Readings - These are the readings you will probably hear in church this coming Sunday, which is Palm/Passion Sunday. It is also the beginning of the Jewish feast of Passover.
The lectionary readings for the Liturgy of the Palms are Luke 19:28-40 and Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29.

Isaiah 50:4-9a - The Hebrew Scriptures are not primarily a history but reflections on a peoples' experience of God in their personal lives and in their lives as a community. Nowhere is it more true than in Isaiah.
This passage reads like a psalm, because that is essentially what it is. Isaiah was a poet. His poetry captures the pain, the passion, the essential joy of the Hebrew experience of God. Whereas Paul tries to speak to our minds, Isaiah speaks to our hearts. His poetry doesn't always make sense, but it doesn't have to. Poetry is not about making sense.
Poetry is a way of expressing in words that which cannot possibly be expressed in words.

Psalm 31:9-16 - paraphrased by Jim Taylor
9 Be kind to me, God. I'm really in trouble this time.
I'm blinded by misery. I've got the shakes all over.
10 I spend my days hating myself, my nights despising others.
I have turned into a spineless blob, with bones made of jelly.
11 No one talks to me or visits me;
I huddle in my gloom like the dust balls under my dresser.
12 No one even thinks of me any more;
I am pushed aside like yesterday's newspaper.
14 I have no one to turn to but you.
You are my only friend, the only one I can count on.
16 Do not turn away from me too.
Wrap me in the warmth of your arms, and comfort me now.
From: Everyday Psalms
Wood Lake Books.
For details, go to www.woodlakebooks.com

Philippians 2:5-11 - First century writers didn't bother with footnotes or copyright concerns, but biblical scholars tell us this is Paul quoting a song or a creed. It is not Paul the scholar and his tightly reasoned arguments.
The danger in a powerful passage such as this, is that some people will use it, not as a door but a prison - not as a way of opening our hearts to God's love but as a way of constraining us to fit our theology into someone else's mold. You end up with a moldy theology.
In this passage Paul uses broad, poetic sweeps of language to capture in a few lines the passion story. I think he would be astonished at the way the phrase "in the name of Jesus" (v.10) is so often used by Christians as a kind of medieval magic - that by invoking the name of Jesus we can somehow do some neat spiritual tricks.
Spiritual power and magic are two very different things.

Luke 22:14 - 23:56 - This is certainly one of the longest readings in the lectionary cycle. It takes about 12 minutes to read out loud. If a congregation has to endure it being read in a monotone by a mumbling lector, it will simply reinforce the attitude that the story is dull and irrelevant. It would be far better not to read it at all.
And yet, it is through this story that the passion of Christ will reach people's hearts if it is going to reach them at all. It's important to leave discussions about historical accuracy aside and focus on the power of the story. It has brought its power to countless people around the world and throughout the ages - people who have known beyond knowing that inside this story is the truth of how God works in our world and in our lives.
This may be especially true this year with all the media fuss over the discovery of Jesus' bones somewhere. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Even if those are Jesus' bones (which is highly unlikely) it won't make the slightest difference to my faith.

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Rumors - There is a church in Jerusalem called St. Peter in Gallicantu. St. Peter at the Crowing of the Rooster.
There are a number of interesting things to see there - rock cut structures, cellars, cisterns, stables, most of it dating to the Herodian period (37BCE - 70CE). From the balcony of the church you get a wonderful view of the City of David and the three valleys on which Jerusalem is built.
Tradition says this is where Peter went and "wept bitterly" (Luke 22:62) when the crowing of the rooster reminded him of his betrayal. It is also, according to another tradition, the house of Caiaphas the high priest, where Jesus was taken following his arrest.
None of that has anything in the way of historical credibility, but that is not why I was there. I was part of a class studying biblical archeology in a wonderful "hands-on" course out of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
We were not at that site to check out the accuracy of the passion stories in the Bible. We went there to imagine our way into first-century life, and so we descended into one of those cellars which had been used as a prison. For the convenience of tourists like me, new steps had been cut down into it. But the original entrance was simply a hole, about two feet across, up in the roof. Prisoners were lowered, or perhaps simply thrown, down into that prison. There are no windows. No opening of any kind except for that one small hole in the ceiling about 20 feet up.
There is early graffiti on the walls. There are marks probably made by prisoners keeping track of the days. On the wall are iron rings on which prisoners would have been manacled.
It was a good place to read the story of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. A prison is a good place to hear the passion narrative. I stood there white knuckled against the white, sandstone wall hanging on to two of those rings just above my head on either side, trying to imagine what that kind of suffering might be like.
A few years later, when I was researching the book "Julian's Cell," about the anchorite Julian of Norwich, I was intrigued by her prayers that she be allowed to experience the suffering of Christ - not as an observer at the foot on the cross, but as one who could feel the tear of the nails and the agony of his barbaric death.
As I read Mother Julian's words, I remembered standing in that old prison, struggling to imagine the pain that I never even come near. Beyond a few minor injuries and illnesses, I have never known pain. At least physical pain.
The pain of a heart that feels as if it is being ripped in two - that I have known. I wonder if that kind of sorrow may have been the greater pain for Jesus to bear. But how can I know?
I don't know. And Julian, in the end, didn't know either. To some degree she and I could imagine, but we could never know.
Still, we listen to that ancient story - listen deeply with our hearts more than our intellects - listen to the story of one who cared enough for truth and beauty and love to die for it. If we listen deeply - if we savor all the words and let them soak down deep into the tender places of our souls, then perhaps, just for a moment, we will sense the desperation that was Calvary.
When we have done that, we can walk toward the tomb, and pray for Easter morning.

If you are interested in the book "Julian's Cell," a fictional biography of the medieval anchorite Julian of Norwich, check with your bookstore or go online to www.woodlakebooks.com. You may also wish to check out "The Essence of Julian," a condensed paraphrase of her book. Julian was the first woman to write a book in the English language.