Me in my small corner

Wise Men

2011-12-10T09:35:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted but with Christmas approaching, I've been thinking a lot about a study I read about a few years ago about using frankincense extract in mice. The study found that it had an effect in these mice that was similar to antidepressants.
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/depression/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100205390

My church is a scent-free environment but I am hoping to pick some up for home use.

My First Night as a UCC Youth Leader

2011-10-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

Last night I hosted the first Youth Group meeting at my church, with the help of my wonderful co-coordinator. I can't speak for the others, but I had so much fun! There were 3 youth and 2 leaders and even with numbers that small it was very animated.

I opened with a recording of a dramatic reading of this poem by William Blake:

I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen;
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys & desires.

It got a fairly lukewarm response from the youth (they found it creepy) but we did briefly discuss the main idea of the poem before I gave them their assignment which was to re-write the ten commandments in positive terms. Here is what they came up with:

1. Thou shall love thy neighbour.

2. Thou shall worship only me [God]

3. Thou shall let others live

4. Thou shall be loyal 2 thy partner

5. Thou shall respect thy parents always

6.Thou shall be honest

7.Thou shall only want what you have

8. Thou shall relax on Sunday

9. Thou shall always take responsibility

10. Thou shall speak clearly

I particularly like the juxtaposition of "2" and "thy" in number 4. They wrote out "to" in the good copy, but there was something that really tickled me about the use of a sort of technological/texting/modern shorthand ("2") and the kind of archaic, historical use of the word "thy".

After the assignment we had snacks, chatted and played a bit of air hockey. We brainstormed some ideas for activities that we will do as a group, so we already have done most of the planning up to the end of November. Amazing. I am filled with wonder and gratitude for the gifts and uniqueness of everyone involved with this group.

Popular Music and Religiosity

2011-09-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

The United Church tends to be quite a moderate church, and I've never come across a UCCer that would say things like ''when I accepted Jesus into my life''. I tend to say things like that though, maybe with a touch of irony. My best friend will respond to phrases like this by rolling her eyes.

This might be atypical, but I had a specific turning point this summer when ''I accepted Jesus into my life''. I had been going to church for 15 years, but I was never sure if I should call myself a Christian because I didn't know for sure that Jesus was the son of God. Actually, I still don't know. I've started to think that being a Christian is less about dogma and more about action, a way of life, loving thy neighbour as thyself. I think it should be anyway.

All of this is really preamble to what I really wanted to write about today: how popular music lost its shine after I found Jesus. Some background information here: before I was saved, I listened mostly to music that would be classified as folk, indie and oldies. But once I had started settling into my faith, I turned on my old music and I found it distasteful. It wasn't lewd or anything, it just didn't offer me any hope. I'm a big fan of the poetry of Charles Bukowski, but his stuff is dark. I've been in dark places, but I don't want to stay there forever. That is not the role of a Christian. When I listen to the lyrics of popular music I hear a lot of despair in the songs I previously enjoyed, I. When it's not despair, it's often materialism and objectification of human beings as love-objects (or worse).

So I'm starting a list of music that I don't find repulsive. I thought I would share a couple of songs today.

''The icons are whispering to you
They're just old men
Like on the benches in the park
Except their balding spots are glistening with gold''

I also highly recommend her song ''Laughing With''.

Now here is song #2

This is an adaptation of a 2-part motet by Orlande de Lassus, a 16th century Franco-Flemish composer.

2011-09-24T03:21:00.000-07:00

      I have felt
      A presence that disturbs me with the joy
      Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
      Of something far more deeply interfused,
      Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
      And the round ocean and the living air,
      And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
      A motion and a spirit, that impels                             
      All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
      And rolls through all things.

                                                      -Wordsworth

The UCC: Reading the Bible

2011-09-20T03:44:00.000-07:00

I picked up a pamphlet from my church about reading the Bible and I like its content. I found it again on the website, and I`m going to quote it below (I will add in blue the parts that were in the pamphlet but not the website)

The Bible is central to The United Church of Canada. As a source of wisdom, personal prayer, and devotion, we believe the Bible can bring us closer to God.[It's at once the holy writings of the Christian tradition, with stories of our ancestors in the faith, a guide for our living, and a source of prayers, songs and poems. All of this, yet so much more.] It remains one of our best ways of experiencing God's continuing work of creation and liberation in the world, while offering us forgiveness, healing, and new life in Jesus.

We often refer to a passage as "the Word of God." By this we mean the writer was inspired by God.

Yet we also know the various books that make up the Bible are the stories of two ancient communities trying to be faithful to God under difficult circumstances-ancient Israel and the early Christian movement-and some of what was experienced and written then doesn't fit with today's world. We don't condone slavery, for example, or stone those who commit adultery.

Nevertheless, in its stories and teachings the Bible has a mysterious power to inform our lives[: the story of ancient Israel, a people enslaved, then liberated, who wandered in a wilderness for years, is also the story of our own bondage and alienation. The wisdom of Jesus speaks to us, who are as much in need of healing and liberation today as those he taught and touched 2,000 years ago].

The order of the content is slightly different in the pamphlet as well. If you are interested in reading more about the beliefs of the United Church of Canada, this part of the website

(http://www.united-church.ca/beliefs/overview) covers baptism, marriage, sacraments, etc.

Krishna update

2011-09-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

The Hare Krishna monks I met also have a blog. You can read their perspective on their visit to Fredericton here:

http://www.everytownandvillage.net/_/Blog/Entries/2011/9/10_Fredericton.html

Luke 4:10 The Temptation of Jesus OR the Devil quotes scripture

2011-09-16T17:02:00.000-07:00

In this chapter, Jesus spends forty days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. First the devil offers him food, which Jesus declines saying "man cannot live by bread alone". This happens to be one of my favorite Bible quotations because although my material needs are consistently met, I still ache for meaning. I feel that I cannot truly live unless I nurture my relationship with the divine.

Next, the devil offers Jesus "all the kingdoms of the inhabited Earth". Jesus doesn't take him up on this offer either, not surprisingly, especially when you remember that he tells his disciplines not to bring a spare shirt with them when they travel around (Luke 9:3). Jesus didn't seem to be a fan of material goods. [on a side note, when I googled "Bible Verse Jesus Shirt" to get a reference for Luke 9:3, I did not get any useful hits. Most of the search results were along the lines of "Put a Bible Verse on a Shirt for only $12.95!". I used to have a shirt that said "Slide Jesus Some Skin" with a picture of an outstretched hand attached to a robe-clad arm. This was back in the days when "Jesus is my homeboy" shirts were really popular. Ah, the plethora of Christian merchandise].

In the third temptation, the devil quotes scripture. He is quoting Psalm 91:11. He basically tells Jesus that he should jump from the temple because scripture says that the angels will catch him. Jesus answers with another quotation from scripture "do not put the lord your God to the test". It is really striking to me though to notice the Bible being quoted as a literal interpretation to attempt to incite someone to do something incredibly stupid. Striking but strangely familiar...

Reading the Bible: why bother?

2011-09-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

I had quite a productive day today. I am starting up a new student club at my university to promote locavorism: eating local food. There was quite a bit of interest and I'm hoping we can share some tips and recipes and have some fun potlucks this year.

While I was at the University's Clubs and Societies Fair, I chatted and signed up with all the Christian groups as well as the one pagan group who was there. I think it is important for me to get over my fear of Christians from other denominations. It frightens me to think of meeting people who believe that they have a monopoly on the truth. It really leaves no space for constructive dialogue. The only thing I really believe is that no human or group of humans can fully understand God. So you can see why I have a strong urge to avoid fundamentalists.

I picked up a bunch of pamphlets from "The Navigators". These people want to "know Christ and to make Him known". The lady doing the tabling was very nice. We didn't talk about Jesus at all, we talked about the pros and cons of French Immersion and homeschooling.

The first pamphlet I decided to read tonight was "The Bible: Inspired by God or thought up by men". You can actually read it online on their website. Here:
http://considerthegospel.org/resources/fulfilled_prophecy_pamphlet_2005.pdf

I've encountered this before: people who claim that the Bible is the word of God because it has prophecies in it which came true. Well, this pamphlet has a lot of details about those prophesies, and how Jesus fulfilled them, and you can read it if you care. I don't find it very interesting though.

The only Bible quote in this pamphlet that really interests me is "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). Now, I conceive of God as the Creator and if you are into the poetry of the Genesis story, he breathed life into into Adam's nostrils (Genesis 2:7). So if humans wrote the scripture, which, you know, they did, then it is God-breathed.

So in point number two, the Bible is supposed to be useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. It's not a how-to manual for life on Earth. It is useful for teaching, rebuking correcting, training because it is a lesson in subtlety, because there is more to it than meets the eye. It is a lesson in rebuking, because it is in itself contradictory. The Bible is God-breathed, but the breathers who wrote it were human beings, just like us, and we should be reading the Bible critically to think about how we can learn from our past mistakes and triumphs so that we can live as best as we can possibly know how.

The prophesy proof for the Bible isn't important to me. The Bible is a good book to read whether or not the New Testament is the official sequel to the Old Testament, whether or not the two books together are the official version of God's word. I often think about how in the tradition of Aboriginal storytelling it is said that "this story is true, even if it never really happened".

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

2011-09-09T14:53:00.000-07:00

Some Hare Krishna monks were passing through my city last week. I bumped into them a few times downtown and had brief conversations with them. Basically, all I knew about the Hare Krishna movement prior to this week was this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu4S-KYjB4E
If you made it all the way through that video, let me just say, that has very little to do with the Hare Krishna movement, and I can see why the writers of the original musical (James Rado and Gerome Ragni) thought that the film was terrible. The University of Winnipeg theatre students did Hair a few years ago. I went to that; it was good. I love the music. My parents also saw a live performance of Hair in the '70s. Ultimately though, my parents turned out to be squares.

I did a ''Strong Interest Inventory'' last winter, which is a psychological test that tells a person what they are interested in and which career they should pursue. My number one interest area was ''Religion and Spirituality''. My number one career recommendation was ''Food Service Supervisor''. I've decided not to pursue a career in Food Service for the moment (I'm becoming a science teacher instead). I am, however, remaining active in the exploration of religion and spirituality. I read the Bible every day and I like to listen to podcasts of the CBC radio show ''Tapestry'' while I do my ironing. I own a copy of the Qur'an which I intend to read some day. I now own a copy of the Bhagavad Gita (that's the one the Hare Krishnas like).

I went to this Hare Krishna spiritual meditation event hoping to meet some other people who were interested in spirituality (and I did!). The service started with the singing/chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra (see the title of this post). This lasted a while -- maybe 20 minutes. I wasn't keeping track because it is a meditative sort of thing. When it started off I was pretty skeptical. It took me some time to get into it, but once I did, it felt really good, and I enjoyed it. The meaning of the words are as follows:
Hare: He who removes illusion
Krishna: He who is all attractive
Rama: The source of all pleasure

I took these definitions from Wikipedia, but it sounds similar to what the monks told us. I honestly couldn't keep the definitions strictly in mind while I was chanting, and I started to think about weighing the pros and cons of chanting in a language that one doesn't understand.

I do find that certain sounds produce good vibrations in the human body because of the way that they must be produced physiologically. I would like to look for English words that might have this effect (since English is my mother tongue). I also thought it would be interesting to find some short words or phrases in Hebrew or Greek from either the old or new testament.

This brings me to my next point: Hare Krishna chanting reminded me a lot of Taizé prayer. The Taizé community is a group of Christians in France who practice meditative singing:
http://www.taize.fr/en_article338.html
I have actually experienced Taizé prayer a couple of times through the United Church, and I would like to try it again. The Hare Krishna mantra singing was done with a lot more spirit and wild abandon than what I experienced with Taizé prayer in my church. Perhaps this is because the UCC (United Church of Canada) originated partially from Presbyterians, therefore we are, by definition, pretty straitlaced (interestingly, the word ''presbyterian'' is derived from a Greek word for ''elder'').

After the mantra singing, the monks read us a passage from the Bhagavad Gita and then discussed it with us. We did some chanting and dancing, then they fed us some traditional Indian cuisine. All Hare Krishna adherents are vegetarian, and do not consume any drugs.

While we ate, I spoke to one of the monks, telling him that I am a Christian and asking if he knew of any incompatibility issues between Krishna Consciousness and Christianity (try saying that three times quickly). He said that from his end, there was no problem. I agreed that from my end I had no issues either. I agreed with the points that the monks had discussed with us from the Bhagavad Gita. The overall message made a lot of sense to me: finding peace in spiritual life as opposed to in a materialistic society that profits from dissatisfaction. I don't agree with some of the details of the Hare Krishna beliefs, but ultimately I find that there is a certain arbitrariness to classification through language. I find that this is true for both the material world (think biological taxonomy of species) and spiritual life (what I call God, someone calls Gichi-manidoo, Allah, Brahman...).

Another thing that one of the monks said to me was that when they meet Christians, Muslims or whatever, they usually encourage them just to become better Christians (or Muslims, or whatever). If I get another opportunity to worship with Hare Krishnas in the future, I will definitely take it. There was a beautiful spiritual and physical energy in the room while I worshiped with this group of strangers. I want to power up with that kind of energy any chance I get so I can live Christianity more fully.

Mark 9: 14-29 Jesus heals a child who has an evil spirit

2011-09-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

In this section, Jesus comes back down from the mountain after the transfiguration and there is a man waiting with the disciples who stayed behind. The disciples are all standing around scratching their heads because they weren't able to cure the man's son of the evil spirit that possessed him. Probably nowadays this ''evil spirit'' would be called epilepsy.

So the father implores Jesus to help him, and Jesus tells him to have faith, to which the father replies something along the lines of ''I have faith! Help me out where I need faith''. The semantics of this seem slightly different in French: Je crois, aide-moi car j'ai de la peine à croire! Things like this always remind me that it would be different again in ancient Greek, so if you want to have a really detailed understanding of the Bible, you'd better not be reading it in translation. Fortunately for me, I don't believe that the Bible is the inspired literal word of God. I don't believe that God speaks any human language. I really liked when my minister described the Bible (in a private conversation with me) as ''A chronicle of peoples' struggles with faith: first the Hebrew people, then the early Christians''. That's a great working definition.

I met an American missionary in France whose translation of choice was the King James version. I was asking her what the best translation was. She didn't really have an opinion on it; she read the King James version because she had grown up with it. It's a bit disappointing for me to think that there are people who believe so strongly in Christianity that they will travel the world to proselytize, yet don't seem to have taken steps to ensure the utmost accuracy of their message. To some people, the Bible is the literal word of God, but I would like to point out that it is definitely not the literal English word of God.

That was a pretty big aside, so now we'll go back to the story. Evil spirit. Dad struggling with faith. So next, they bring the affected boy out, and Jesus notices that people are watching and starts to talk to the spirit and tell him to get out (is this showmanship?). So the boy starts to go into convulsions and foam at the mouth and all that, and then he is really still (I'm no doctor but this sounds like epilepsy, right?). Everyone thinks the boy is dead but Jesus takes him by the hand and pulls him up. Later the disciples ask him why they couldn't heal the boy, and Jesus says that the only way to deal with this kind of thing is with prayer. I love it.

So if I was writing the heading for this story, instead of something along the lines of ''Jesus heals a child with an evil spirit'', I would call it ''Jesus talks to an epileptic boy, watches him have a seizure and then helps him up''. Of course, I haven't finished the book of Mark yet, but I really don't think there was any follow up on this kid. Did he actually get cured or did he have another seizure the next day? Does it matter?

I'm not looking for miracles, I'm looking for some practical advice. Some things can only be dealt with through prayer. I can't go around curing epileptics; I'm not a doctor. I could, however, help an epileptic up after a seizure. Well, once I called an ambulance when someone was having a seizure (for the record, there isn't much you can do except move things out of the way so they don't hit anything while they are convulsing).

Not all healing is bodily. We live in a world of mystery. What happens to us when we are not in our frail human bodies is a mystery. Some things can only be healed through prayer.