<![CDATA[Two Fruits in the Sukka]]> Freewebs http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm <![CDATA[It's Official]]>
I am now blogging here.

Please come visit, and don't forget to update your blog rolls.

Love,

Lindy
]]> http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm?blogentryid=3427791 2008-5-14T19:46:00UT <![CDATA[Your Valued and Learned Opinions Wanted]]>
Take a look at this and tell me what you think?
(new content!)

I will want to make some adjustments, of course, but this is the basic idea. I value your opinions.
]]> http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm?blogentryid=3418625 2008-5-12T20:26:00UT <![CDATA[Happy Mother's Day To EVERYONE]]>
In the UK -- Oh, sorry MP, in Eeeengland -- it's Mothering Sunday and it is about the motherly qualities we value in God and one another.  That seems like a good idea.  But, here in Ah-merkah it's about the mindless worship of any female who conforms perfectly to the societal demand that we all should reproduce.  To contribute to the overpopulation of this already small planet is the only requirement.  It is a stupid and bad day.

There is, however, a mother that even us crass A'merkuns can turn to, one who never fails, who is always wooing, comforting her little ones.  So, whatever else your society and/or church forces you to put up with today -- how many wilted carnations out there? -- I offer you these selections from my own prayer book:

First an ancient hymn

Quem terra

The womb of Mary bore him whom the heavens can not contain.
See the earth, the waters, and all the heavens worship, bow down, and proclaim him.
He is the one who governs the world,  Yet he entered the womb of a woman and was contained by her, even though the sun, the moon, and all things serve him forever.
Mary's womb was full of the grace of the heavens.

Blessed mother, by God's gift, the One who is the highest of all powers, the One who holds the world in his hand, was cloistered in your womb.
You are blessed and full of the Holy Spirit by the messenger who came from heaven; in your womb, he who is desired by all people was brought forth.

Glory to you, Lord, who were born of a woman!
With the Father and the Holy Spirit, you dwell forever.
Amen!

It was customary in the 15th century or thereabouts to have a scripture reading followed by some prayers to Mary -- this was during Morning Prayer.  The prayers are followed by versicles and responses but I am just going to give you the prayers.  It's OK because the versicle/response sequence in Sancta Maria Virgo talks about how Mary bore him whom the heavens could not contain, which is the subject of Sancta Dei genitrix;  and the versicle/response sequence in Sancta Dei genitrix is about Mary's worthiness to conceive which naturally leads us to the subject of Mary's meekness in Sancta Maria, piarum.

Enough commentary... just enjoy some time with your Mother.

Orisun I - Sancta Maria Virgo

Holy Mary, you are the woman of all women, you are the mother and daughter of the King of Kings.
May we have with you, the mother of the heavenly kingdom and of all God's chose, a reign with your Son that lasts forever.

Orisun II - Sancta Dei genitrix

Holy mother of God, you deserved to conceive him whom all the world could not hold.
Because of your submission to God's will, our guilt has been washed away, and we have attained the Holy Spirit and the hope of endless life, and will dwell with the Son forever and ever!

Orisun III - Sancta Maria, piarum

Holy Mary, meekest of all meek women, pray for us.
Holiest of all holy women, take our prayers to Jesus, who for us and for our salvation from all evil, was born and reigns above the heavens; for by his love our sins are forgiven.


Orisun is a word for prayer, by the way.  It's Latin.  It more closely means expression, or opening.  More commonly, mouth.   Just throwing a little something fancy in there for you today.

I want to be clear that Mother's Day is for everybody.  If you have a mother, if you need one, if you mother at all, regardless of sex or gender, if your children are alive, no longer living, from your own body or someone else's this is Mother's Day.  A day for all of us.

Each one of you are precious children, valued and wanted.  And you are mothers to a nation of kings and priests.

Take some time to thank God for being our mother, and thank Her for all those saints who have mothered you.  And give thanks also for the astounding privilege of co-mothering with God this creation, this realm to become Heaven.  And pray like mad for the children.

 
]]> http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm?blogentryid=3408028 2008-5-12T13:42:00UT <![CDATA[My Very Special Gift For The ABC]]>
The Tiber is that way...

I am thinking that if we all pitch in, somebody give him some fins, someone else a nose clip, and on like that we might have him out of Lambeth Palace by... well by Lambeth!

I'm thinking he'll need one of those masks too.

Inspired by BooCat at An Apple Not Far From The Tree.
]]> http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm?blogentryid=3408593 2008-5-10T16:09:00UT <![CDATA[What Am I Reading?]]>
At the time I got tagged I was reading The Courtier and The Heretic, Spinoza and Leibmiz and the Fate of God in the Modern World by Matthew Stewart.  Along about page 110 I realized that I was bored and put it aside.  I've since picked it back up because in the interrum I realized that I can't wait to see that that sneaky Leibniz is going to do next.  Having a week or so to think it over I find that I am interested in the book again.

In the middle of The Courtier and The Heretic I read Hitler's Pope, The Secret History of Pius XII by John Cornwell.  I was initially motivated because Yom HaShoah was coming up but I was quickly sucked into this story.  I took away a couple of very important lessons from this book and I want to do a separate post on it.  Unlike the few other things I've read on Pius XII I felt this was very well done.  It seems like Cornwell's only agenda is to give us the whole story.   It's well done and compelling and I think as true as we can get.

In the middle of all that my Cool Friend came for a visit and returned a little book I'd lent to her several years ago.  This is such a great little book that I sat down and read it one afternoon.  It's called The Sermon On The Mount According to Vedanta by Swami Prabhavananda and I really do recommend that you log onto Amazon and get your very own copy right now.  Flipping the book over to the back cover I see that I bought mine in 1990 and I paid $4.95 for it new.  Only the angels know how many times I've read it.  It's one of the gems of my library and I am happy to have it back.

I take a short nap every afternoon.  It's the secret to my success, you know.  Anyway, I nap in my study and the book I have by my chair in there is Mitchell Dahood's Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 2.  I just finished Volume 1 a few weeks ago.  I go through one Psalm a day, if I can stay awake that long.  Mitchell Dahood really is a genius.  I thought of getting that trendy new Psalm commentary, I forget the name of it.  But, I decided I wanted to do Mitchell Dahood because he's just such a creative linguist.  He was probably one of the first people ever to be truly fluent in Ugarit. Well, besides the Ugarits themselves!   He's such a rock star!  This is probably my favorite of all the books I'm currently reading.

I'll probably finish the Spinoza/Libnez book this week then who knows what I'll be on to next. Go ahead, make suggestions.  What do YOU think I should read next?

Instead of doing the thing where I turn to page 123, count down a certain number of sentences, etc... I am just going to give you a selected quote from each.  Here goes:

From The Courtier and The Heretic...

"Spinoza's life, in sum, was of the sort where all the drama takes place in the mind, where the lifting of an eyebrow counts as a major twist in the plot and the days tumble down like so many leaves of paper in the wind."

"...the supreme mystery of despotism, its prop and stay, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation."  from Spinoza's Tractatus.

From Hitler's Pope...

"Before the war, Germany had donated more funds to the Holy See than all the other nations of the world put together."

"It seems beyond any doubt," writes {J.P.] Stern, "that if the churches had opppsed the killing and the persecution of the Jews, as they opposed the killing of the congenitally insane and the sick, there would have been no Final Solution."

"Pacelli's [Pius XII] failure to respond to the enormity of the Holocaust was more than a personal failure, it was a failure of the papal office itself and the prevailing culture of Catholicism.  That failure was implicit in the rifts Catholicism created and sustained -- between the sacred and the profane, the spiritual and the secular, the body and the soul, clergy and laity, the exclusive truth of Catholicism over all other confessions and faiths.  It was an essential feature of Pacelli's ideology of papal power, moreover, that Catholics should abdicate, as Catholics, their social and political responsibility for what happened in the world and turn their gaze upward to the Holy Father and, beyond, to eternity."

From The Seromon On The Mount According to Vedanta...

Well... you just have to read it.

That's it for what I've been reading.
]]> http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm?blogentryid=3390632 2008-5-06T17:27:00UT <![CDATA[I Am A Bad Blogger]]>
Starting about ten days ago I was just too busy to live.  I finally got a little rest on Thursday and I’ve just been lazy and hanging out with my dog since then.  This afternoon we went to see friends at Lake Travis.  

Maybe I can write something to you later in the weekend.  If not, well… no worries.  I’m just doing something else.]]> http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm?blogentryid=3377983 2008-5-03T20:01:00UT <![CDATA[Can We Please Do Something Creative and New With The Dreadful Institution of Marriage?]]>
It seems that we’ll never be rid of the childish notion that marriage is a desirable thing.

I have been disappointed in what is either an inability or an unwillingness for the church to think outside the established parameters on the subject of marriage.  We’ve got to come up with something different.

As we all know, the teachings of Jesus make clear that marriage and traditional family life is not a feature of the Kingdom of God.  Yet since Paul first wrote to the Galations on through the pastorals and on to Ephesians we see a creeping reintroduction of the old system.  Slowly women are controlled and finally subjugated.  No longer are we all brothers, the approved system is once again hierarchical and the man is the head.

I don’t think that was the intent.  Paul obviously had political and organizational realities to contend with which we can only speculate about.   We know from history, and from nature, that it was a matter of safety for the fledging church to blend in, just as it is important for a quail or a deer.  Yes, these teachings were inconsistent with what Jesus had said.  But, since Jesus was not here, and the day of his reappearing was starting to grow dim, it must have made sense to survive.  We needn’t blame Paul or his flock for that.

At the same time, we can’t afford to loose sight of the fact that Jesus’ teaching -- and that’s the one we follow:  Jesus, not Paul -- Jesus’ teaching frees us from the tyranny of being a possession of the patriarch and claims us all, each one, entirely for Himself.  Our relationship with the world is no longer defined by our position in the tribe.  The tribe is gone, and we no longer recognize the patriarch.  All of us are brothers, each one of the the same status. Women and men, married and single, all are equal.  The patri/hierarchy is over.

Yet, in many ways the 21st century church is behaving like the 1st century church. We try to fit in with society,  we like rules, and while a hierarchal life may be oppressive it is also safe.  We like that a lot.  

Marriage, while not characteristic of the coming Kingdom,  is still not prohibited.   It allows us to fit in with society, it greases the wheels a little bit.  Like the dapples on a wild turkey, it allows us to go unnoticed.    It’s part of survival.    So, yay for marriage.  But, not in its current unhappy incarnation.

What I think we have to do, to get to the heart of the problems in the institution, is think carefully about three things:
  • what  marriage is,
  • how marriage happens, and
  • how the church facilitates and responds to it.  
I know you might like to hear me talk a lot about love and fidelity right now, and that has its place.  But the truth is a lot more basic than that and I think that‘s where we should start.  

At its most basic level, marriage has historically been an exchange of goods by which each party profits.  It may be as simple as a sales transaction:  a virgin for a price,  or as complex as the merging of entire kingdoms.  But, the thing all marriages have in common is the exchange of goods and the perceived benefit of the exchange to both parties.  So that’s where we can start.

In ancient times the goods were tangible:  cows, coins, and virgins, and such. It was simple enough to determine whether or not the goods were delivered… just count up the cows, look for blood on the sheet.  It’s all verifiable.

The kind of goods which benefit marriage partners today are not so tangible and I think we might do well to talk about them.  Brides and grooms, in the US at least, are more likely to be interested in companionship, support, comfort and mutual ambition than in oxen and lands.  Marriage, no longer a familial contract, is entered into by individuals, and for highly personalized, often totally unexamined, reasons.  Whether or not the goods are delivered is not so apparent.  It takes time.  So, while marriage is still essentially an exchange of goods, it is no longer such a simple thing to verify whether the contract has been fulfilled.

Anyone who has ever been married can tell you that a marriage is not made of promises, even very serious promises.  The marriage is made by delivering the goods day in and day out.  Unlike ancient people, therefore, we can not with any integrity celebrate a marriage contract at its inception.  For it to have any meaning the celebration and blessing should only happen after the goods have been delivered.  That’s what marriage is, recognition that the goods have been delivered.

What I wish could happen is that persons discerning a call into the married state could consult with their pastors about identifying the goods they offer and the goods they need to fulfill the promise of marriage.  This process of discovery should be open to all believers and all configurations of believers.  (Obviously, one would not enter into marriage with a non-believer.)  Then let those who propose to enter into the married state inform the community that they are in discernment.  The community should respond with support, gifts, and even a blessing.  The response is NOT to conduct a ceremony in which the parties are irrevocably bound before God and everyone for the rest of their lives.  The response is prayerful support.

Over time the gifts of marriage, or absence of them, will be apparent.  Only then should those who are in discernment towards marriage either move forward by taking vows, vows reflective of gifts already in evidence, or discern that the goods aren’t being delivered.

I am not just proposing a trial marriage. Nor am I saying that it is OK to shack up together for a couple years to see if you like it.  Those things have already been done.  I am proposing a new-- actually a very old -- way of thinking about marriage.

It is still an exchange of goods and it’s not correctly called marriage until the goods have been delivered.  The solemnization, then, of vows which reflect gifts already proven in the crucible of life actually means something.  That IS a great thing to be celebrated.

It involves a lengthy period of discernment both to vocation and the suitability of specific persons for living out the vocation.

It requires an entire community praying and working together.  Like any other call to Christian ministry, marriage is not entered into in isolation.  The community is what gives validation and confirmation.

I like this idea quite a lot.  It’s based more on Jesus than on Paul and I imagine that even Paul would approve of that.  It’s an idea that offers a new way, not the only way, but a new way of thinking about marriage and that alone is refreshing.  We don’t have to be bound to the old way of legalistically rubberstamping an edict of the state.  We can do something different.  We don’t have to be so rule-bound. We can make room for the Holy Spirit to move and for hearts to hear.  And I think most importantly we can  allow people within our communities to explore potentiality without the threat of condemnation if the potential can’t be lived.

On the whole this idea:

Makes a marriage more than something that just happens one afternoon with champaign and a band.  (And, let’s face it, that’s pretty much what it is right now.)  To be married means that you’ve made good the promise.  It is utterly serious, utterly joyful, and bound to last.

Gives people a way out when the stuff of marriage just isn’t there.  It allows them to discern that it isn’t going to work without having to break any vows or relinquish what were unfounded hopes and dreams.

For those who are brave enough to try again, it removes the primitive stigma of divorce and adultery which for too long has condemned those in some traditions to a state of life-long sin.  Let’s be done with that!

On the thin side:

I haven’t really defined “the promise of marriage,” and that needs some working out.

We don’t currently have the liturgical or institutional infrastructure for immediate implementation and, since it is somewhat different from what we’ve been doing,  people will surly be resistant.

Obviously, the theology is weak.  I am neither qualified nor competent to articulate the theology that is needed to turn such an idea into a real plan but there are those out there who are.

What I want from the church is for others -- real theologians and liturgists and pastors -- to take up the task of thinking creatively about marriage.  I mean, if someone like me can come up withy a new idea, imagine what some of you could do!  I believe it is time for us to see Paul’s attempt at legitimacy for what it was:  a perceived necessity at that time, in that place.  I want us to think about crafting a marriage institution that prepares us all for the coming kingdom, not incidentally but as it’s rasion de etre.  I want us to put an end once and for all to the condemnation that people face when their attempts at marriage fail, and I want them to be free to joyfully try again.  Finally, and this should go without saying, I want every single adult member of the church to have access to this great new institution.  Every. Single. One.

I have tired… long time ago… of the predictable and trite old arguments about separation of church and state and inclusiveness.   The Episcopal church is blessed with some of the brightest and most creative people on Earth.  I don’t understand why all that ingenuity can’t be put into some truly new thing, an actually workable marriage institution!  We have the talent.  Is there the will?

]]> http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm?blogentryid=3346497 2008-4-26T20:35:00UT <![CDATA[]]> Love and the comfort of the Holy Spirit to all...




Your Mother cares for you... truly.
]]> http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm?blogentryid=3332789 2008-4-23T18:12:00UT <![CDATA[A Little Wisedom From Our Gal Oprah]]> Oh.  So, that's how that goes.

Oprah said that your strengths are not the things you are good at, they are the things that give you strength, the things you do that give you life. 

That is such a relief because I have done a really good job on some projects that just left me disgusted and bored and I so hoped that I wasn't supposed to be doing work like that because I hated it.  But, I was so good at it that it seemed like it should be a good fit for me, or that I should at least try to make it fit.  And God knows I tried.

Well, if you've been following my so-called career for the last five years or so it's clear that I am in vocational free-fall, refusing to do the deadening work that I am good at and unable to get paid for the life-giving stuff I do.  There aren't that many professional kayaking, kabbalist, Hebrew teaching, halakalically Jewish Anglican questioners out there.  And you can probably add counter-cultural geek to that.

Oprah's insight doesn't solve my vocational crises but it does get me off the guilt hook of feeling bad for hating some of the jobs I was successful at and feeling like I should do them just because I could.  Glad to be off that hook.

A Blessed Second Seder... if I'm on the right day,

]]> http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm?blogentryid=3323209 2008-4-21T16:52:00UT <![CDATA[Lindy's Famous Haroset]]>
Ingredients:
A bunch of apples
Some walnuts and pecans
Raisins
Cinnamon
Sugar
Wine, kosher

First pour some of the kosher wine into any glass container and consume as needed.
Then chop  up the apples and pecans and walnuts. 
Put about six or seven hand fulls of apples into a bowl.
Add two or three hand fulls of some combination of walnuts and pecans.
Carefully add as many raisins as you want.
Pour out a little sugar in your palm and put that in.
Sprinkle on just a little whoopse of cinnamon.
Add a tiny blub of wine.
Mix all that together and serve with kosher wine.

Happy Pesach ye Jews.  And for me, I am thankful for the life of one certain Jew who brought me out of all kinds of bondage.

]]> http://www.freewebs.com/lmcmillan9/index.htm?blogentryid=3308177 2008-4-18T12:22:00UT