Dark Brightness

Psalm 130

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.

2 Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive

to the voice of my supplications!

3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,

Lord, who could stand?

4 But there is forgiveness with you,

so that you may be revered.

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,

and in his word I hope;

6 my soul waits for the Lord

more than those who watch for the morning,

via PCUSA – Devotions – Daily readings for Friday, July 24, 2009.

My theology is reformed. I do not go as far as the great Swiss Frog and argue that all popes are antichrist. However some (such as Medici) are worse than this description of the Kennedys.

The Kennedy family has infected the American body politic for three generations. By and large it is composed of adulterers, fornicators, drunks, liars, socialists, traitors, rapists, parasites, habitués of rehab centers and other assorted riff-raff. They have prospered in only two professions, bootlegging and politics, proving Balzac’s rule that “behind every great fortune lies a great crime.”

This nation would have been better off had the Kennedys never been born. Mary Joe Kopechne certainly would have been. The Kennedys are to a man an embarrassment, a scandal and an outrage. A decent people would have sent them all to the gibbet years ago. As it is an avenging fury has been occupied over the years in knocking them off one by one. Still so many to go, alas

The latest piece of flotsam to parade the Kennedy imbecility in public is Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. She most recently demonstrated her knowledge and wisdom by writing this piece of trash. Here is a catchy line:

Why Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does.

One hardly knows where to begin to deconstruct such a tissue of illogic and stupidity.

Like all Kennedys, Townsend claims to be Catholic. Like all Kennedys, the Catholicism is just for pretense. Townsend neither practices it nor believes in it nor uses it to guide her life. Her Catholicism is a sham, nothing more than a dog and pony show to garner Catholic votes. She shares this use of Catholicism with John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi and Mario Cuomo. None of these believes what the Church teaches and has taught for 2000 years.

Scipio and I are on other sides of the Tiber. I agree with this analysis…

Catholicism is not Protestantism. There is only one Catholic Church. One either takes it all or refuses it all. Nothing else is allowed. Jesus Himself made this so. One cannot be a Catholic and be in favor of abortion, for example. If one claims to be a “Catholic for choice” one is either ignorant or a liar.

The Church cannot change its Dogma concerning Faith or Morals. It does not have the power to do so even if it wanted to. “Catholics” who yammer about contraception and sodomy and divorce and abortion and female priests are demanding things that can never be given. These complainers have really left the church though they pretend they are still in it.

via The Return Of Scipio.

…but I disagree with the conclusions. The only authorities I accept are reasoning upon scripture. You have to show it in the word. The antichrist is defined as (from I John 2, NAB)

I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth. Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. No one who denies the Son has the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.

Paul is commenting on the super spiritual preachers who claimed that they had it all together. He, however, said that he did NOT have it together.

Spiritual does not always look spiritual. I have no doubt Paul was unhappy when lashed, stoned, beaten and in shipwrecks. He describes being anxious. He was not happy, and he did not appear successful.

But he is the first Christian theologian, and the founder of the Gentile church.

But whatever anyone dares to boast of – I am speaking as a fool – I also dare to boast of that. 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman – I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. 24 Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. 28 And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?

30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

via PCUSA – Devotions.

It is both Queens’s birthday weekend and Pentecost Sunday. In my view, winter runs in the South from Queen’s birthday until the beginning of Term IV (which is in September), and it at times does not feel warm until after Labour Day (October 25). There is an icy blast coming through and spectacular clouds.

The first pentecost lead to people thinking this cult was full of people who were drunk. Christians are often called foolish, or worse. From the Pentecost reading:

Acts 2:1-21

1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs-in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

One of the Anglican Online comments around this date is worth printing in full.

Hallo again to all on this day of Pentecost.

It’s just possible that this is the most dangerous sentence Christians can utter: Come, Holy Spirit.

Do we really know what we’re praying for when we intentionally utter, in whatever language, that plea? We wonder. It’s so easy to domesticate Our Lord the Holy Spirit — and we mean no irreverence when we write that. Since that first Pentecost, the Spirit has always ‘been there’ and we presume that It is ever near us, hovering, guiding, chiding, strengthening. And so It is. But yet there are times when we see fit to invoke, quite solemnly and intentionally, the Holy Ghost to come down upon us and guide our councils, conventions, and committees.

Lightning over MartiniqueSo what are we doing when we call out? If the Holy Spirit is always ‘here’, why the need to summon It? Perhaps because the third person of the Trinity isn’t pushy and only comes when invited. The power and the presence are always with us, indeed, but unless we call upon and cooperate with the Spirit, the graces and the gifts may remain as potentialities only. We’re told that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth, but we need to initiate that call to be led. And that can be an awesome and aweful invitation, to open ourselves, our churches, our councils, our lives, to the inrush of the Spirit, Which will take us to places we may rather not go. Exhilarating and frightening and uncontrollable.

Just like that first Fiftieth Day. It’s considered an antitype to the story of the Tower of Babel. Our ancestors undertook that tower’s construction and, as well-trained architectural subcontractors, we spoke in one tongue, understood and efficient. But, for all the classic reasons, we failed in our building and descended into a babble of language, from then on to be understood only by those in our immediate neighbourhood. Tribal societies indeed.

Fast forward from that tower to the city of Jerusalem on that great feast of Pentecost. That same ethnic and regional babbling all round, just like a corridor in a busy international airport. Then that mighty wind stirring. And, all of a sudden, that linguistic fragmentation is not merely reversed, but rather that knot of verbs, adjectives, gestures, nouns, dangling participles made all clear. Heard. Understood. Babel Made Better. What an astonishing day. But fear and awe were surely part of the astonishment.

Perhaps we need to do more invoking of the Holy Spirit in these fractious days in our Anglican Communion. The babble of irate bishops, the hissing of blogs, the GAFCONS and Lambeths, the acronyms and the interest groups . . . may the pieces and shards of our divisions be, God willing, regathered and remade through the guidance of Our Lord the Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit. We are aware you are not to be domesticated by us: you are to instead to change us

This is from today’s lectionary. It notes that fa;se teaching leads to asceticism. Indeed, there is a belief that no believer can have fun or enjoy the everyday goodness in creation.

1Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving; 5for it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.

via PCUSA – Devotions.

Paul, of course, argues that this is not a proof text for unlawfulness. It does state that pleasure is not a sin: the ancient church had both feasts and fasts. The new twist on this is the hedonist asthete: who cheerfully drinks and fornicates, while living on a restricted idet and punishes their body with excessive exercise.

Working on a presentation about madness, mysticism and the emotional cost of both. Looking up some of the prophets who really were persecuted. This is from Jeremiah, who had been put in the stocks.

It appears that people have always tried to bring down those who try to tell the truth, or be the reformer.

For whenever I speak, I cry out,

I shout, “Violence and destruction!”

For( the word of the LORD has become for me

a reproach and derision all day long.

9If I say, “I will not mention him,

or speak any more in his name,”

there is in my heart as it were a burning fire

shut up in my bones,

andI am weary with holding it in,

and I cannot.

For I hear many whispering.

Terror is on every side!

“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”

say all my close friends,

watching for my fall.

“Perhaps he will be deceived;

then we can overcome him

and take our revenge on him.

via BibleGateway.com: Search for a Bible passage in over 35 languages and 50 versions..

No one should pretend that faith is pretty.

6 But I am a worm, and not human;

scorned by others, and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock at me;

they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;

8 “Commit your cause to the LORD; let him deliver -

let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”

9 Yet it was you who took me from the womb;

you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.

10 On you I was cast from my birth,

and since my mother bore me you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,

for trouble is near

and there is no one to help

via PC(USA) – Devotions.

This is a time of fear and worry. Many in America have lost their jobs: thousands of factories have closed in China, and the unions are desperately fighting to keep the conditions for workers — as unemployment climbs — in Europe.

The governments are borrowing. And people want bread they have not earned. From today’s reading… Paul says “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” We worry about what we cannot control. We should make it our concern to deal with what we can control.

John 6:41-51

41Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

via PCUSA – Devotions.

Ann C. writes about a friend who lost his status by being — a republican. One of her better pieces, and more personal than most. Ron Silver, dead from esophageal cancer.

As Ann said, he will be rewarded for bravery not “Bravery”.

via Welcome to AnnCoulter.com.

On Sundays when we had communion, Ron would pop the host in his mouth as soon as the tray passed him, approvingly observing that matzo was served at church.

He’d often come to church with me on Sundays — while insisting he favored the “Original Testament,” as if the New Testament were an act of judicial activism. He just liked to hear an intellectual lecture on the Bible — and always perked up when the minister began discussing the “Original Testament.”

7Although our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for your name’s sake; our apostasies indeed are many, and we have sinned against you. hope of Israel, its saviour in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveller turning aside for the night? 9Why should you be like someone confused, like a mighty warrior who cannot give help? Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not forsake us!

10Thus says the LORD concerning this people: Truly they have loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet; therefore the LORD does not accept them, now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.

11The LORD said to me: Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12Although they fast, I do not hear their cry, and although they offer burnt-offering and grain-offering, I do not accept them; but by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence I consume them.

13Then I said: “Ah, Lord GOD! Here are the prophets saying to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you true peace in this place.’” 14And the LORD said to me: The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. 15Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name though I did not send them, and who say, “Sword and famine shall not come on this land”: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. 16And the people to whom they prophesy shall be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword.

via PC(USA) – Devotions.