Barkings Of An Old Dog

We may have to offer another section of this course…

Bishop Nzimbi said homosexuality was against biblical teachings and that is why “God made Adam and Eve”.

It’s a story for crying out loud! You know, a myth, a truth bigger than the actual story… ah, nevermind, gotta go to my new church over at MadPriest’s place….

At the 6:30am service, the priest’s finger shudders across my forehead with the black tracings of my humanity, like chalk on a backboard. Dust I was. Dust I will be. Make the most of your time here. Be holy, be holy, be holy. With all your mind and soul and being.

A day like most others.

And a visit to a nursing home where my sister-in-law has been in a coma for six months. The machine that pumps her full of nutrition has a white pall over it. A foreshadowing of what will come soon. Goodbyes said. Letting go as we need to.

Dust I was. Dust I will be. Be holy.

Okay, I wasn’t a scientist by profession, but I’m at least knowledgable enough to see something wrong with this statement by The Very Rev’d William N. McKeachie, Dean of South Carolina, Rector of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul:

The very notion of homosexual “orientation” (”God made me this way”) as an individual’s morally neutral (at best, or worst?) identity is a 20th century invention incompatible with biblical anthropology. Adapting John Scholasticus’s phrase, I just don’t see how any Christian can argue otherwise. To do so implies that the need for Redemption is redundant.

“biblical anthropology” ? ? ? Say What? Like Biblical anthropology about the creation, and where women came from, and Noah and the Great Flood, and demons causing disease? I’d suggest a good freshman college course on science, genetics, geology, or anthropology for The Very Rev’d William N. McKeachie.

“Biblical anthropology” sounds like some Jeopardy category, said with tongue firmly planted in cheek. I think to make pronouncements like this without any understanding of science is akin to the crackpots out there who believe in a young earth…

So, my message for The Very Rev’d William N. McKeachie, talk to a scientist… hey, wait a minute, I’ve got an idea… there’s this ++Katharine person who seems to understand science, how about you two have a chit chat…. I’ll even buy the coffee. Just an idea. Bring the rest of the folks who read that sort of stuff that you wrote and take it seriously too…

What is it that the nice MadPriest always says? Oh yea, Free Your Mind and your God Will Follow!

A rearguard action by a rump of hardline conservatives

Today, being a fairly average day, will see around 160,000 people die, most from preventable diseases and malnutrition. It will see slightly more people born, and most will not have access to decent health care, clean water or food that you or I would eat. Or they will die from violence and the effects of hatred.

In other parts of the world, people are dying of loneliness and isolation and despair.

And in Tanzania they battle over what is and isn’t acceptable and who can vote who out of the circle and who is a True Anglican and how to read the Bible?

I am a Christian. I recognize that Christ can transform lives and that leading a life in which we call Jesus Lord will not be a single path. Heck, I don’t even agree with everyone in our Bible study at church. We get into arguments about scripture all the time. But it’s ok. After the arguments, there’s work to do.

I like authors like Borg and Spong and Geza Vermes and Tony Campolo and Mark Buchanan and J. Denny Weaver and guess what…. they all don’t agree. I think the important thing is to live genuine lives as we feel called by the Holy Spirit and in the Way of Jesus.

Last week, in the Washington Post there was an ad by Starbucks that had the start “Today I could” and about 50 blank lines… isn’t that the call of Christian living? Isn’t that the assignment today? Isn’t that what we are supposed to do? Fill out as many of those lines as we can…. today I could….

And every day at the end, we can sit down with our list and see where we failed, where we chose the easier path, where we elected to turn away from that person who was hurting and lonely and hungry. Heck, most days we ignore the list completely, don’t we? We can’t pause to let someone get into traffic ahead of us, to help the person who has to put a couple of items back when they check out of the grocery store, to give and give generously to those who are in true need or to call that person who recently lost a spouse at church.

And so we have failed today to fully live out our call as disciples. Failed, and, if you’re like me, failed badly… but tomorrow we get to try again. Life’s too short to fight these battles like in Tanzania. There’s work to be done.

One of my favorite movies is Dead Poet’s Society and there’s a scene in there where the teacher takes his students out into the hall and shows them pictures of classes from the past. and he says:

[talking about the people in the old awards pictures] They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. [the students lean in] Listen, you hear it? [whispers in a raspy voice] - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.

And that’s what Jesus calls us to do, I think. Make our lives extraordinary. Make them like Jesus. And they’ve spent all this time, energy, and money - for what?

Today, being a fairly average day, will see around 160,000 people die, most from preventable diseases and malnutrition. Millions suffer from loneliness and isolation… So you fighters for the truth out there, get busy, surely you have more important things to do… don’t you? Don’t you?

And from this posting,

It was believed that the Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, is leading a rearguard action by a rump of hardline conservatives.

Say what you mean, and mean what you say.

As my priest sometimes reminds me, most of this should be looked at as entertainment and not taken too seriously…

Thirty-five years ago the phone rang, and my life changed forever. The words were a blur… snowstorm… shoveling… your father.. sleep… ambulance… come home…

Thirty-five years…. and so I honor him today with this haiku by Murakami Kijo:

First autumn morning:
the mirror I stare into
shows my father’s face.

I miss you, Dad.

Matt+ Kennedy says in reference to the Report of the Communion Sub-Group

This is bad…very bad. But nothing is decided. This is a report made to the primates…a report they can accept or reject. Let’s not panic but pray. I do believe Canterbury based Anglicanism is at stake.

I still have this feeling that the “True Anglicans” are about to declare that they have the numbers and God on their side so they aren’t going to listen to Canterbury any more. Coup d’état. But God works in mysterious ways… best thing to do is have faith.