First Friday of Advent

Denarius from Tiberius' reign with the inscription "Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus."

Well, last night was my late night at work and I didn't get to the Thursday Advent reading. Perhaps I'll go back and catch up. It was supposed to be on Melchizdech. But here is tonight's.

The First Friday of Advent

Augustus (né Gaius Octavius, 63 bce–14 ce) founded and ruled the Roman Empire beginning in 27 bce. He was Emperor during Jesus' infancy and boyhood. Seutonious, in his Life of Augustus, reported reported that Augustus had a miraculous birth and a childhood filled with many portents and signs. Some instances reported were fire from heaven (lightning) that struck his family's city wall, a pillar of fire rising from the sacrificial wine poured out in the temple on the day of his birth, and a dream his father had of him appearing as a god-like figure. A few months before he was born “a portent was observed at Rome which gave warning that Nature was pregnant with a king for the Roman People.” This would be troubling to those who desired to keep their own power. “Thereupon the senate in consternation decreed that no male child born that year should be reared; but those whose wives were with child saw to it that the decree was not filed in the treasury, since each one appropriated the prediction to his own family.”

     Another interesting story is related as such:

     When Atia [his mother] had come in the middle of the night to the solemn service of Apollo, she had her litter set down in the temple and fell asleep, while the rest of the matrons also slept. On a sudden a serpent glided up to her and shortly went away. When she awoke, she purified herself, as if after the embraces of her husband, and at once there appeared on her body a mark in colors like a serpent, and she could never get rid of it; so that presently she ceased ever to go to the public baths. In the tenth month after that Augustus was born and was therefore regarded as the son of Apollo. Atia, too, before she gave him birth, dreamed that her vitals were borne up to the stars and spread over the whole extent of land and sea, while Octavius dreamed that the sun rose from Atia's womb.

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think these stories about Augustus were told? Can you imagine how they would begin (“get started”)?
2. Unusual birth stories are common in many cultures. What do you think these stories are trying to say about the person being born?

First Wednesday of Advent

The First Wednesday of Advent

A lot has happened since Isaac: as the story goes, almost 2000 years. Abraham's descendants became a nation and then a kingdom. The kingdom split into northern (Israel, or Ephraim in the following reading) and southern (Judah) kingdoms. In the reading that follows, Ahaz (king of Judah) is confronted with the threat of annihilation as the Northern Kingdom allies with enemies to attack the Southern Kingdom.

Selections from Isaiah 7

When Ahaz was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.

Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.

Then Yhwh said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son A-Remnant-Shall-Return, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, “Let's invade Judah; let's tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” Yet this is what the Lord Yhwh says:

“‘It will not take place,

it will not happen,

for the head of Aram is Damascus,

and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.

Within sixty-five years

Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.

The head of Ephraim is Samaria,

and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son.

If you do not stand firm in your faith,

you will not stand at all.’”

Again the Yhwh spoke to Ahaz, “Ask the Yhwh your god for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”

But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Yhwh to the test.”

Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my god also? Therefore the Yhwh himself will give you a sign: Your fiancée will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him God (El)-Is-With-Us. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.”

1. From what we can gather, it seems that Isaiah was pledged to be married to a second wife. Presumably his first wife died after giving birth to A-Remnant-Shall-Return. The sign to Ahaz that he would not be conquered from the north was that this woman would give birth to a son and name him God-Is-With-Us. What do you think about these name choices for babies?
2. Why would the name God-Is-With-Us (Immanuel) be meaningful to Ahaz (and Judah)? 
   3. The promise from Yhwh seems to be that although Judah is facing an existential threat as a nation, Yhwh would 'be with them,' resulting in Assyria invading and destroying the countries to the north that were attacking Judah. But this isn't all good news for Judah—the surrounding land would be devastated and life would be more simple and pastoral (“eating curds and honey” is a reference to this). The author of Matthew compares the birth of Jesus to the birth of God-Is-With-Us. What threat do you think Israel of Jesus'/Matthew's time was facing?

Tuesday, the First Week of Advent

The First Tuesday of Advent

Isaac was the first of many unusual births. The biblical authors used the theme of the power of God's creative energy to bring life where none should be expected frequently in association with significant characters.

Selections from 1 Samuel 1

There was a certain man from Ramathaim named was Elkanah, from the Ephraim clan. He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

     Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to Yhwh Who Commands Armies at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and Yhwh had closed her womb. Because Yhwh had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the Yhwh's house, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

     Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of Yhwh’s house. In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to Yhwh, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “ Yhwh Who Commands Armies, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to Yhwh for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” As she kept on praying to Yhwh, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”

     “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to Yhwh. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”

     Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”

     She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.

     Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before Yhwh and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and Yhwh remembered her. So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel (“Heard of God) saying, “Because I asked Yhwh for him.”

1. Why was Hannah so grieved?
2. Do you know any couples who cannot have children? Can you imagine what that must feel like? What cultural differences/expectations might make Hannah's experience different from what you are imagining?
3. Can you recall any of the other stories of unusual births from the Bible? (e.g. Moses, Jacob & Esau, Leah & Rachel's sons, etc.)

First Monday of Advent

So, after using what I wrote last night with my own children, I realized writing at a 10th grade level was inappropriate. Also, many edits and confusing bits. Sorry about that. Hope to clean all that up in the final version. It is, I remind you, a running project. Here is what we will use tonight (the formatting is not coming through, sorry, haven't figured that out using Open Office, yet; suggestions welcome):

Monday, the first week of Advent

Today we follow along in the continuing story of Abram and his promise from God. Since the last

reading, YHWH (Yahweh)has changed Abram's and Sarai's name as a sign of his special relationship to

them: Abram becomes Abra-YAH-ham or Abraham, and Sarai becomes Sar-YAH or Sarah. Much els has

happened, as well. For instance, Sarah heard that YHWH had promised to give them a child and she

laughed at the thought, thinking it impossible in her old age.

Genesis 21—The birth of Isaac

Now YHWH was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and YHWH did for Sarah what he had

promised [despite the fact that she was too old to have children any longer]. Sarah became pregnant

and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the

name Isaac [or he laughs] to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham

circumcised him, as God commanded him [as a sign of the covenant between them, recalling the cut

animals during that ritual]. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And

she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a

son in his old age.”

Discussion Questions

1. How old are your grandparents? Would you expect them to have babies any time in the future?

Why not?

2. How do you think it was possible for Abraham and Sarah to have children at such an old age?

3. Why do you think we are reading about Isaac's birth during Advent?

First Monday of Advent

So, after using what I wrote last night with my own children, I realized writing at a 10th grade level was inappropriate. Also, many edits and confusing bits. Sorry about that. Hope to clean all that up in the final version. It is, I remind you, a running project. Here is what we will use tonight (the formatting is not coming through, sorry, haven't figured that out using Open Office, yet; suggestions welcome):

Monday, the first week of Advent

Today we follow along in the continuing story of Abram and his promise from God. Since the last

reading, YHWH (Yahweh)has changed Abram's and Sarai's name as a sign of his special relationship to

them: Abram becomes Abra-YAH-ham or Abraham, and Sarai becomes Sar-YAH or Sarah. Much els has

happened, as well. For instance, Sarah heard that YHWH had promised to give them a child and she

laughed at the thought, thinking it impossible in her old age.

Genesis 21—The birth of Isaac

Now YHWH was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and YHWH did for Sarah what he had

promised [despite the fact that she was too old to have children any longer]. Sarah became pregnant

and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the

name Isaac [or he laughs] to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham

circumcised him, as God commanded him [as a sign of the covenant between them, recalling the cut

animals during that ritual]. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And

she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a

son in his old age.”

Discussion Questions

1. How old are your grandparents? Would you expect them to have babies any time in the future?

Why not?

2. How do you think it was possible for Abraham and Sarah to have children at such an old age?

3. Why do you think we are reading about Isaac's birth during Advent?

my newest project

Please feel free to use the following Advent post (and those that will follow, hopefully daily) for you and your family and share as you see fit.

Advent Year A

“Advent” comes from the Latin word adventus, which means coming. Since at least medieval times, the four Sundays before Christmas have been used to direct the Church's attention to the coming of Christ in three different senses: (1) with reference to Jesus' birth; (2) in the sense of the coming of Christ to our hearts daily, in multiple private/devotional ways; and (3) in his return to Earth, the so-called “second coming.” Often times readings are assembled from various sources to the tell the Christmas story with which we are now (mostly) familiar.

     Some of us now understand the drama of Scripture to unfold in a way that makes the traditional practice, or at least the way readings are assembled and presented, difficult to engage with much authenticity. For example, those of us who read the Bible with a narrative historical framework realize so much of the original intent of the infancy narratives is missing and even distorted by the “traditional” story telling now en vogue. For us, the traditional sense of “second coming” is more nebulous as we read much of what others understand as 'End-Time' prophecy to be apocalyptic descriptions of the Jewish War (and, in Paul, the conversion of the Roman Empire).

     The following is a devotional experiment our family is going to be using. I plan to engage the infancy narratives in isolation from each other in succeeding years. The goal is to reacquaint ourselves with the author's original meaning for each of the narratives. My experience is this often makes the text more foreign than what we are used to in our reading of Scripture. Suddenly the two thousand year old ancient oriental culture seems bizarre and disorienting. I believe this is good—we have become too comfortable with our anachronisms, especially those tainting our Christmas traditions.

     This first year of readings will start with the account from Matthew. This account was written in the last quarter of the 1^st century ce. For context, this is after Nero and the destruction of the 2^nd Temple in Jerusalem, and after the encompassing seven year war (the Jewish War with Rome). It was written to Greek-speaking Jews (probably in Syria) who increasingly felt the tension and developing distinction between synagogue and church. The Gospel according to Matthew (hereafter referred to as simply Matthew) begins with a genealogy that is divided into three sections: (1) from Abraham to David; (2) from David to the Exile (of the souther kingdom of Judah to Babylon); (3) from the Exile to the birth of the messiah. This division frames the subsequent infancy narrative and introduces the themes and images the author will develop later in his account of Jesus' life. I follow this pattern for this first year of Advent (Year A). As noted above, this is a diversion from the traditional divisions based on characters and themes for each week.

The First Sunday of Advent

Matthew begins with a genealogy that is structured to give both a sense of context to his story about Jesus (by summarizing his ancestral history) and to provide a structure for how he develops the story. The genealogy begins with Abram, who is the patriarch of the Hebrews and the father of a son born by unnatural means. In the following reading, Abram is promised an heir whose descendants will inherit the modern day Palestine region.

Genesis 15 (Bible readings adapted from the New International Version)

After these things Yhwh's message came to Abram in a vision,

“Fear not, Abram,

I am your shield;

your very great reward.”

But Abram said, “O Lord Yhwh, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house (Ishmael) is to be my heir.”

     But Yhwh's message came to him, “This man (Ishmael) shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” Yhwh brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed Yhwh; and Yhwh “did the math” and counted his faith as righteousness.

     Then he said to him, “I am Yhwh who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord Yhwh, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

     As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. Then Yhwh said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your descendants shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

     When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day Yhwh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Discussion Questions

1. The author of Matthew starts his story about Jesus with a reference to the original patriarch—Abram. In the part of Abram's story above, what did Yhwh promise Abram?
2. The author of the story from Genesis also has Yhwh predict what will happen to his descendants. What is the name we know this story by?
3. Yhwh makes an interesting aside: “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” It appears Yhwh has planned his intention(s) for Abram's descendants at least partially around (with consideration of) the histories of the peoples with whom they are or will be interacting (i.e., the will not immediately inherit the land because it is occupied by others with whom there is not yet just cause to kick them out). Occupying the land promised is an important theme from then until now. Why was it important for Abram to have a child?
4. What does the fact that the child born to Abram and Sarai (his wife) had to be a son say about that culture?
5. The ritual in which the animals are halved is no longer performed. What do you think about this practice? What was it's primary purpose in the story?

Goodbye, FB!

So, I've decided to do it; I'm leaving Facebook. I've been considering it for over a year now. The reasons are multiple. Let me name a few. Primarily, I find it consumes too much of my attention. I don't know if it's me or the medium (or, probably, both), but too many hours are spent in less than productive scrolling and reading. The updates from friends are what I will miss the most, but they take up an increasingly diminishing proportion of what is actually happening on my feed. I've attempted to regulate and spend less time on it, but my resolves are always short-lived and ultimately thwarted. It is is taking attention away from my work, my family, my time I'd rather spend reading, etc.

But there are other reasons. Of course, this election cycle plays a huge role in pushing me over the edge, but it really was a small nudge on someone who was already teetering. I have a dear friend who just posted on FB encouraging people making decisions like mine not to go through with it, to stay the course, to have constructive dialogue with people with whom you disagree because of the palliative or healing effect and the promotion of diversity that would foster. S/he makes a great point. Those are all things I would love. But I'm not mature enough for that. It's too easy not to hear tone and to misunderstand. It's too easy to judge a person by her post or re-post; that reduction of WHO a person IS is always oversimplified and dehumanizing. And there's a chance I'm just as guilty of that as the people in whom I see it. And those constructive dialogues are too rare. I've tried to have them. Most often they are met with a refusal to engage with the complexity of an argument or deteriorate into name-calling or ad hominem arguments. Sometimes I have ended up in a sort of written-vomiting-tirade that hardly represents what I consider to be my true self. Sometimes, in attempts to avoid this, there have been invitations for a verbal dialogue on the telephone; these have been met with flat out refusals (as a scientist and someone who believes in the pursuit of truth or its approximation regardless of previously held beliefs, this is particularly irksome). My guess is this is a result of an increasingly polarized society with a decreasing propensity to perceive complexity and civility as necessary components of dialogue/arguments and understanding. I don't think this will be fixed if I decide to stay on FB. Ultimately, it (FB) has been a source of angst that is proving to be too much for my well-being. Those who know me well know I'm already naturally angsty without FB. So I'm out.

I will be keeping in touch in other ways. I hope to keep at this blog. At one time I was better at it. Expect to see more pictures of the kids here. Also, I hope to spend time writing letters, especially to family, each week. I have email, of course, and I actually prefer it. Somehow that medium allows for longer, more thoughtful discussions.