Meditation While Weeding with the Chickens

Many harried people I know seem to answer requests and invitations with a breathless, “I can't; I have too much to do.” But have you ever noticed that the most productive people you know are often both busier and calmer than the rest of us? I think this is because they are often visionary – they can picture a project completed – and, in an organized, deliberate manner, they get things done.




By contrast, the first group may get overwhelmed by the immensity of an endeavor. I often fit in this group. We don't know where to start so we don't, or we start and then give up, leaving behind the detritus of several abandoned hobbies and projects. The other population is more dogged. They aren't deterred by the immensity of an effort. So they start. They slog on through, like untwisting and unknotting a ball of twine that others might toss aside in frustration.

Appreciate Where You Are: Rural Alaska or the Big City

(the following article was recently published at  http://uuministryforearth.org/reflections ) 

One night, while preparing a labor-intensive risotto for dinner in our Houston high-rise, my husband ambled into the kitchen and asked, with studied casualness, “Honey, if I could buy a piece of undeveloped land in Alaska, under market value, would that be OK with you?” Who knew that five years later, we would be living full time in a two room log cabin with an outhouse, forty-two miles from the nearest road, having sold our high-rise and given away most of our belongings. 

March view from front porch

Obviously there are a number of “why?” and “how?” and “why?” again, questions raised by that paragraph.  Here, I'd like to focus on three things I appreciate more because of these changes but also things I appreciate about the city I left. But first, the setting:

Easter: What Did Early Christians Believe?

(It may not be what you think or believe today).

Easter is the high holy day of Christianity and deservedly so.  It defines the relationship between humanity and the divine, life and death, sin and redemption in a complicated faith story.  Believers hold that God sacrificed his only Son, to take away the sins of the world, as the ultimate scapegoat, who then ascended to heaven in his human form.  By doing so, he enabled humans to follow, and participate in everlasting life.

 Naturally, other religions don’t share this view, and, more to the point, are puzzled by it.  Maybe you are, too. Monotheists, like Jews and Muslims, see a vast, impassable chasm between God and humanity.  God is other.  The combination of man and God in one being is incomprehensible.  

Polytheistic traditions, however, are very familiar with gods popping down to earth in human form, procreating, fighting, blessing, miracle making.  Think of Zeus fathering most of the heroes, like Perseus, Theseus, and Heracles, by young virgins, like Alcmene and Danae. They don’t see anything particularly unusual about these trips back and forth between heaven and earth, or of Jesus being both god and man. 

 What may interest you, and you have surely inferred this from the readings of the Canonical and non-Canonical Gospels and the title of today’s service, is that for hundreds of years, people who considered themselves Christians didn’t believe the Easter story as we currently know it, either.  The range of interpretations of Jesus’s death and resurrection stories encompasses the full range of monotheistic and polytheistic views – not unlike the range of beliefs represented by Unitarian Universalists in this or any congregation. 

A Detective Story... What Happened to Jesus's Body?

Pretend that you are a detective.  Pick your favorite: Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, Miss Marple.  Think about how they think; how they gather and sift information.  Now plunk that person down in a year around 30 CE.  

Now imagine that grieving family and friends of Jesus appeal to you with the startling news that his newly dead body, that of a convict, executed by the Romans - is missing from its tomb.  They want your help in figuring out what happened.  What questions will you ask?  What conclusions will you draw from what you do hear and what you don't hear, from the consistencies and the discrepancies of your sources and the evidence? Bear in mind, that as a contemporary witness, you know nothing about the later theologies of the Resurrection or the Trinity.  You just know that an itinerant Jewish teacher, seen by some authorities as a rabble-rouser, was arrested and rapidly condemned to a particularly ignominious death, and now his family and friends say his body is missing.  Hmmmmm!

Now, fast forward 2000 years.  You are still a detective, but this time, a sociological, religious detective.  You sift through the early Christian documents (the canonical gospels and the apocryphal ones and various letters that were circulating then as well), and Jewish documents and political ones.  These writers had choices about what to include and what to leave out.  What do you notice about the choices that the writers made?  What conclusions do you draw about the documents, the writers, and the believers? 

We will play both of these roles, first as contemporary detective and then as literary/historical detective. We will look at many of the same passages, first in one light and then in the other.  What do you conclude?  What questions remain?  Do they matter to you?  

Four Thousand Years of Christmas

Four Thousand Years of Christmas

A lot of people feel conflicted this time of year.  Because the period from Thanksgiving through Christmas to New Year’s Day involves more traditional elements than other, the sights and sounds and scents and flavors evoke our pasts more than any other season.  And depending on how you feel about the present, and on your inflated or deflated impressions of your past, I can see how people can feel conflicted and sometimes depressed! 

Today, I’d like to offer a different view of the season - one based on our Seventh Principle – the one about the interconnected web of life.  Most of us interpret that as referring to how we, as a species, interact with the rest of the natural world.  But another interpretation is to consider how we, as a contemporary culture, connect to those cultures before us.(and after us).  There is no better time of year to consider these connections than the Christmas season.  Most of the practices we engage in today connect us to people 500, 2000, and even 4000 years ago.  Looking at the season this way – as a window on long ago, shifts the focus away from our childhoods and ourselves to embrace a past much longer, deeper, and richer. 

First, I’ll talk about those celebrations that derive from ancient agricultural festivals, then I’ll talk about Christmas Day itself, and finally, I’ll talk about how the Protestants tried to ban Christmas and who you have to thank for celebrating it at all!

#2: How Religious Were Our First Four Presidents?

#2:  How Religious Were Our Founding Fathers? The First Four Presidents and Ben Franklin

Listen to the entire sermon here.

George Washington, 1795:  “In politics, as in religion, my tenets are few and simple; the leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves, and to exact it from others; meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved.  If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap-hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.” 

John Adams 1812:  “There is no special Providence for us.  We are not a chosen people that I know of.  Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill and increase good; but never presume to comprehend.”   

Thomas Jefferson, 1819:  Were I to be the founder of a new sect, I would call them Apriarians, and after the example of the bee, advise them to extract the honey of every sect.”  

----------------------------------

In this half of this sermon I’ll cite quotes indicating the religiosity of our first four presidents, (and Ben Franklin) but first I want to say something about the use of language and cultural references in any public discourse.

The main point of Protestantism was that each believer could and should read the Bible for himself or herself instead of relying on the interpretation of a priest.  So the religion walked hand in hand with literacy training.  I am sure that the illiteracy rate in America today is higher than it was in 1780. So while books were expensive, every home that could afford even one book owned a Bible.

Wealthier, educated people also studied and owned classic works of historians and philosophers.  So if you wanted to make a point in metaphorical language to a rich person, you might cite Cicero or Thucydides, but if you wanted to speak to a broad demographic, what was the one repository of cultural reference that the entire population recognized? The Bible. 

#1: How Religious Was Colonial America?

How Religious were our Founding Fathers?
Part 1:  The Colonies and States Themselves  (this posting)

Part 2:  The First Four Presidents and Benjamin Franklin ( a separate posting)

Listen to the entire sermon here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In public discourse and private conversations, I hear people bandy about opinions like, “we were founded as a Christian country” to justify Christmas trees in front of City Hall and prayers at the beginning of each legislative season or “a Judeo-Christian country” to warrant the Ten Commandments in front of courthouses.  On the other hand, we also proclaim a heritage of “separation of church and state” and point out that our national Constitution is a wholly secular document, even more so than many state constitutions.   How do we reconcile the two? 

How religious were our Founding Fathers?  How religious did they want our national or state institutions to be?  Those are two separate questions, and I’ll take them in reverse order, first talking about the religious context of the colonies, and then give some quotes and context for each of our first four presidents: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, along with Ben Franklin.  

The first point to note is that, of course the government was founded by Christians --the immigrants came from Europe, not Timbuktu.  More than Christian, though, our state and national governments were founded by Protestants.  99% of the immigrants were Protestant. 

As for “Judeo-Christian founding", though, this was no homogenious "kumbaya" Protestantism.  The dominant Protestant denominations of the time, Puritans in the north and Anglicans in the south, vigorously and sometimes violently restricted the rights of Catholics and Jews and Protestants they did not recognize as legitimate denominations, like the Quakers, Baptists, Universalists, as well as those who professed no religion at all.   Catholics and Jews and non-theists or non-Trinitarians were refused the right to public office, to vote, and in some places, to own real estate or businesses for more than a century in 11/13 colonies and early states. 

Virginia, for a while, had a law that it would execute any Jesuit!

Hope for the Promised Land

What does the word, hope, mean to you?  We bandy the word about, hear it in passages like “faith, hope, and charity” but how do those first two words differ, for instance?   I realized recently that I had never really defined it for myself.  Have you?  I think that is a good project for January, particularly in an election year, when we’ll probably hear a lot about it!  Let me share some of my thoughts on the etymology of the word and its use in the Bible – a book that’s all about hope -  in order to encourage you to determine your own definition and to think about what other people may mean when they use the word.

 In my mind, hope is weaker than faith or belief.  Like the story of Pandora’s box, hope arises as a positive antidote to the impediments of life.  Children, for example just want, they don’t hope, because they don’t yet sense the possibility of “no.”   If I express a sentiment like, “I hope that Mom will get better” that is vaguer than “I believe she will” or “I have faith or confidence that she will.”  You can see that my impression of the word is rather lame and floppy, so political rhetoric about “hope and change” or “hope and progress” make me roll my eyes.  They seem like easy platitudes to trot out with Uncle Sam and apple pie.    

 However, I realize that people use the word in different ways than I do and I wondered if that was true historically, too.  If so, that might change my interpretation of significant documents.

The etymology of the English word, hope, is unknown, but it seems to be from a North European, Germanic source that may have something to do with the English word, hop.  I love that connection.  It suggests that hope does not mean something I can reach from where I stand; rather I have to take a little leap toward the object of hope in order to reach it or perhaps even to see it.   

What about in the Bible?  That book is full of hope for the Promised Land in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and for Salvation in the New Testament.  Were the word choices in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament as loosey goosey as my understanding or something stronger?  ln Biblical Greek straight through to modern Greek, the word for hope is elpida.  It is often used as a girl’s name. The word is more assertive than in my definition.  It encompasses a sense of expectation.  When you hope for something, you do not have it in hand but you expect to get it.

Money and Conflict: Spiritual Challenges and Gifts

One of my big pet peeves about churches is that the only time they seem to talk about money is when they want some!  It’s not that I begrudge their need.  Any organization that occupies a building has utility bills, insurance, maintenance.  Anyone who values that organization and its facility should contribute to those payments.

No, what bothers me is something else.   If Churches are supposed to help us wrestle with personal and social demons and sort out ethical dilemmas and inspire us to do good in the world, and if, surely, a central figures in many of these human dramas is the role of money – sometimes as the good guy and sometimes as the bad guy, then money seems a very worthy topic on a Sunday morning - not to ask for it  -but to help the congregants deal with it!  And yet, in the churches I have attended, I don’t believe I have ever heard such a sermon.  Have you? 

Instead, many religions proclaim negative images of money:  Buddha gave up princely wealth,  Gandhi gave up his job as an attorney.  Jesus has mixed messages about money.  So I endeavored to make something up!


I started with some research, as I always do.  I discovered that a number of churches and religious leaders do talk about money, and interestingly some of these are large and growing congregations, like Lakewood and the Unity congregation in Houston.  These are described by some people as “churches of abundance” and “ministries of prosperity.”  I’m sure I’m simplifying their messages, but they seem to be that God wants you to have a life of abundance, which includes financial prosperity.   Norman Vincent Peal wrote: Put God to work for you and maximize your potential in our divinely ordered capitalist system.”

Now I don’t feel particularly comfortable with these points of view, so my thoughts turned to what people actually do with their money.  Money doesn’t appear on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs alongside water, food, shelter, safety, but isn’t it really shorthand for all of them?  Money is a way to measure and secure so much water or so much food or shelter.  This transactional role of money is pretty clear cut. 

But it also occurred to me that if the number one reason cited for divorce is not love or sex but money, it must have other roles or meanings, too.  Earning, accumulating, sharing, spending, and saving money are freighted by symbolic meaning for people, and that meaning may differ for a husband and wife or a father and son or employees in different departments of the same business, or for political figures.

So here is my approach:  It seems to me that money means four different things to people, and each one has a spiritual challenge and a spiritual gift.  These four meanings are safety, power, opportunity, and  affection.  It can hold these meanings for different people, or to the same person in different circumstances. I hope that as I speak, you’ll consider what money means to you, and what challenges you face because of that and what gifts you gain.  Maybe you’ll come up with meanings altogether different than the ones I list.   

Because financial arguments often line up with safety on one side and the other three opposite it, I am going to talk longest about saving money as a safety strategy, and then more briefly about the other three.

Biblical and Middle Eastern History Timeline

Timeline	Bible	Middle East
5004 – 3952 BCE	World created, according to interpretations of selected genealogies in the Bible, as per Ussher  (4004 BCE), Newton, Kepler, Bede and others
3500 -2500 BCE		“Cradles of Civilization”: Sumerian, Akkadian, and Egyptian Empires.  Sargon.  Mules and oxen draw solid wheeled carts, literature, records, trade, surgery.
2100 – 1700 BCE Egypt Bronze Age	Date range for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph	Egypt:  Osiris: god of the underworld; Horus (hawk): sky god.  Book of the Dead.  Value for the body as “holding” three lives/souls.  One version of creation starts with an ocean in darkness.  Hittites are renowned charioteers (with horses). Hammurabi’s Code
1750 – 1580 BCE Hyksos in Egypt		Hyksos leadership of Egypt.  Invaders? Skilled horsemen.  Limited records for 200 years.  “Asiatic” or “Semitic” names (most Semitic languages dead now)
1650 – 1500 BCE		Volcanic eruption of Thera (Santorini) Early Canaanite writing
1700- 1400 BCE		Minoan frescoes on island of Crete. Religious images include the bull, serpent, sun disk, tree.
1450 BCE		Megiddo (n Israel) an Egyptian garrison.  Egypt and Mitanni (NE) partnership against the Hittites (N)
1500 – 1200 BCE	Date range for Moses, 40 years in the desert, Joshua’s invasion and settlement of Canaan	Jericho fort guards place to ford River Jordan.  Ancient settlements, Rebuilt 17 times.  Abandoned 1400 – 1500 and 850 – 1325 BCE.  Ai abandoned around 2700 BCE.
1350 - 1330 BCE		Pharoah Akhenaten, monotheist, sun god (movement shifted back to polytheistic practices afterward) Pharoah Tutankhamen
1280 BCE Transition of powers		Egyptian (S) and Hittite (N) powers wane.  Peace pact between them because of growing Mittani (NW) power
1200 – 1000 BCE Iron Age		Iron Age begins and spreads technological advantages (unevenly) in chariots, ships, and weapons. Egyptians still rely on bronze, lose N garrisons to Mesopotamians with iron
1209 BCE	Earliest mention of Israel (as a people, not a nation) on Egyptian victory stele, with Canaan
1200 – 1150 BCE Sea Peoples invasions Eastern Mediterranean	Bible is silent on the Sea Peoples invasions. Book of Judges is presumed to reflect this period, though written later.	Whole cities and regions are destroyed, depopulated, and abandoned (Greece – Mid East), for a century or more.  Subsequent settlements poorer and smaller. Like Vikings – no evidence of empire building, just pillaging. Did they carry plague(s) that depopulated the region?
1000 -900 BCE	First kings: Saul, David, Solomon Israel and Judah united kingdom under D/S only.  Jerusalem made capital.  Solomon described with great wealth, hundreds of wives, Solomon’s Temple, worship of other gods	Camels may have been previously domesticated in Arabia and Central Asia, but were uncommon in Mid East until 1000 BCE. No external references to King Solomon.  Possible later reference to “House of David” on small Tel Dan ( N. Israel/Syria border) stele fragment.
925 BCE	Pharoah Shishak invades Israel.	Pharoah Sheshonq conquers many Northern Israelite cities.  Mentions N. Israel cities (Megiddo) etc but not  Jerusalem or southern cities.
900 – 722 BCE	Kingdom divided into Judah (S)and Israel (N).  Battles with the Syrians, Egyptians, Assyrians. Criticism of widespread polytheism.	Archeology reveals larger, sophisticated, walled cities in N (like Samaria and Megiddo) than in the S (like Jerusalem and Hebron).  N on trade routes and center of extensive wine and olive oil production. Evidence in N. of remote trade for high quality goods, such as ivory, and by artisans, such as architectural refinements and engineering, invoices, receipts in N.  S more remote and rural until after 722.
853 BCE Assyrians	King Ahab (N) dies in battle (according to both Bible and Assyrian stele	Egypt, Canaan, Israel and Syria band together against Assyrians and lose, pay tribute as vassal states
722 BCE	Assyrians crush Israelite rebellion (N) Residents are exiled, others flee south (to Judah).  Possibly earliest collections of Bible stories postdate this refugee movement which brings remote Jews together.  J documents:  (south) describe approachable, physical God, Yahweh. E documents: (north) describe remote God, Elohim.   Leviticus and other Priestly documents possibly written at this time or after Jews return from Babylonian exile (500s).	Massive Israelite refugee movement flees south from Assyrians to Jerusalem, bringing sophisticated technology with them.  Cities balloon in size, increase in number, defensive walls built with better skills than just previously.
700 BCE	Jerusalem palace 150 x 250 sq ft, Casemated wall like Samaria (n) had King Hezekiah mentioned by Assyrians	Southwest Palace in Ninevah is 1650 x 794 sq ft: 80 rooms, 2 miles of carved reliefs decorating walls Assyria captures fort of Lachich in 703 BCE
663 BCE		Assyrians (Ashurbanipal) conquer Egypt).  Biggest library in the ancient world in Ninevah: 24,000
600s BCE	First version of Deuteronomy  written during King Josiah’s reign, followed by revisions and Joshua,  I/II Samuel, I/II Kings, and Jeremiah presumed written, perhaps by same author/group .  King Josiah dies in battle with Egypt.	Temple in Sheba (Yemen) built
626 BCE		Ashurbanipal dies, others conquer Assyrians: Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Caucasians
600 – 800 BCE	Presumed assembly of disparate oral and written tales, laws, songs etc. into written Bible scrolls (not found).  Subsequently edited many times.	Neo-Babylonians poor record keepers
597 BCE Babylonian	Alliance of Judah, Egypt, Edom, Moab, Amon, Tyre and Sidon against Babylonians.  Crushed. Samaria holds out longest.	King Johoichan deported to sophisticated Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.  N: a big builder.  One temple: 1500 x 1800 ft.   900 chapels and temples in empire.  Banks, insurance, loans, jewelers’ guarantees, lawyers, contracts, debt prisons. Consistent astronomical records maintained for 350 years.
587 – 538 BCE	King Zedekiah refuses to pay tribute.  Crushed. Blinded.  “Babylonian exile” of Jews.  Not enslaved.  50 years. Parts of Ezra, Chronicles, Jeremiah, and early part of Daniel written, plus all of Tobit, Ezekiel, Lamentations, possibly Judith.	Coins become common for trade
538 BCE Persians	Leviticus and other P documents possibly written when Jews returned to Jerusalem and discovered differences in practices, or possibly written after 722 when Israelites migrate south and introduce new ideas	Nebuchadnezzar dies, Persians conquer Babylon, under Cyrus, messianic stories about him,  Tolerant ruler, didn’t destroy Babylon. Released Jews from exile, with Temple valuables.
444 BCE	Artaxeres installs Nehemiah as governor of Jerusalem, vassal state to Persia.  No evidence of war in Israel under Persian rule.  Book of Nehemiah written.  Content of Pentateuch (first five books) probably set by this time.	Judah is poor, deforested, poor construction techniques Greek Parthenon built, burned by Persians
419 BCE		Darius protects and preserves religious rights of Jews as far south as Aswan, Egypt
333 BCE Greeks	Bible silent on Greek period until Maccabean wars.  Samaria only independent town that could withstand Greeks (a while). Book of Esther probably written 300 – 400 BCE.	Alexander the Great.  Tolerant toward regional religions and practices but Greeks regarded circumcision as barbaric mutilation.  No Greek interest in Judah.  Greeks gave Jews in Alexandria, Egypt same rights as other citizens.  City became center of intellectual Judaism.
250 – 100 BCE	Hebrew no longer widely spoken.  Hebrew Bible translated into Greek (version called the Septuagint) at order of King Ptolemy. New books added, like late part of Daniel, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Macabees.

168 – 164 BCE Seleucids	Seleucids despoil Temple in Jerusalem, put up other gods, ban circumcision. Maccabeean revolt.  Seleucids win but allow Judaism to be practiced again.  Hannukah story.  Maccabees fight for political independence.  Crushed.
142 – 129 BCE Syrians				Syrians grant them political autonomy under Jewish leader, John Hyrcanus.
129 – 63 BCE Hasmoneans				Jewish independent state, under Hasmonean dynasty
Romans 63 BCE +		Jesus’s dates not stated, but presumed between 7 BCE and 36 CE.		Julius Caesar dies 44 BCE.  Augustus d. 14 CE Pontius Pilate resigned 36 CE.  Nero d. 66 CE
30 – 70 CE		Presumed date range when Hebrew scrolls were  hidden in Dead Sea caves ( 100 copies of OT books, 300 other documents ) These are the earliest Bible documents found.
50 – 65 CE		Presumed dates of Paul’s letters in New Testament(about half scholars believe are written by him, others by other authors)
66 – 70 CE				Jewish Rebellion, Jerusalem destroyed by Romans, Jews and Christians scattered.
70 – 100 CE		Presumed writing of the Gospels, (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), Acts, and Revelation
135 CE				Another Jewish Rebellion, Jerusalem destroyed, Jews no longer allowed there.
200 – 400 CE		Presumed dates of previously unseen 50 + Coptic Christian gospels found in caves near Nag Hammadi, Egypt  (13 volumes, 1000 sheets).  Christianity becomes official religion of Roman Empire, Several Ecumenical Councils determine articles of faith (not explicit in Bible).
800 – 900 CE		Masoretic Translation of OT used for Protestant and Jewish Bibles.