Vulnerability

     My favorite movie is "His Girl Friday." Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, what’s not to love? Grant’s and Russell’s characters are in the newspaper business. Russell gets the crazy idea that she wants instead a comfortable, quiet life instead of being a reporter.  But Grant has Russell pegged. He doesn’t force her to be something she is not but he does patiently help her to see that what she really loves is being a reporter and being with him. Jesus knew what was in man—our stupidity and wickedness—and yet he still invites us to the way to life.

The Threshold of Original Nakedness

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman

and brought her to the man. Genesis 2: 22

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, 

and they become one flesh. 

And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:24-25

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. Genesis 3:7

"Original Nakedness"

Based on pages 23-26 from The Theology of the Body in Simple Language

The community of husband and wife is a community of love that is accepted as given by God and that glorifies and worships God as the Creator.  It is therefore the church in its original form. And because it is the church, it is a community bound with an eternal bond.

Creation and Fall, p101.  Bonhoeffer

“I am because we are.”—John Mbiti

We recently have had several posts considering John Paul II’s opening teachings on solitude and unity, pointing out the contrast with our western cultural focus on an excessive individualism.  I came across a quite intriguing article by Grant LeMarquand, Professor of Biblical Studies and Mission at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA.  Prof. LeMarquand has long been interested in African and African Christianity.  In fact, he has recently been selected to be the Area Bishop for the Horn of Africa and will  serve as an assistant Bishop under Archbishop Mouneer Anis, Primate of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East and Bishop of the Diocese of Egypt.  He will be consecrated in Cairo on Ap. 25. 

The best compliment

     What is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to you? Grocery stores that “card” until you’re thirty, with generous clerks that ask way after that, are kind but perhaps not the most important thing said to you! Along these lines, I read something by Charlotte Mason many years ago that profoundly affected not only my child-raising but also how I relate to all people.

Solitude-in-communion

The themes of original solitude and original unity undergird the beginning of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.  Yet the interplay of solitude and unity in Christian life are still important today.  Last week the Archbishop of Canterbury highlighted these in a talk he gave while he was in Rome to commemorate the ancient connections between Anglican and Roman Christianity.

True love waits

     I think the most important question to ask those considering marriage is this—Why do they love you?  Granados and Anderson in Called to Love quotes John Paul in Love and Responsibility (90) saying, “lovers who ‘as soon as sympathy breaks down…feel that love has also come to an end’ were never mature enough for love in the first place” (52-53).

Rector's forum, March 18, 2012

"Original Purity"

Based on pages 21-22 from The Theology of the Body in Simple Language

The bond is best described in the expression: he now belongs to her, because she belongs to him. They are now no longer without each other; they are one yet two . . . . They have from their origin been one and only in becoming one do they return to their origin. 

Creation and Fall (p. 97) - Bonhoeffer

Original unity's reception of love

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, 

and they become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

     In the last Rector’s Forum we were considering “Original Unity” (notes here). I think as Christians we can somewhat wrap our heads around the idea of giving ourselves to each other as Christ has given himself to us, but sometimes how we receive one another is still obscure. But if we consider that God so loved the world that he gave us His Son, we recognize that people either receive or dismiss that offer of love.

The Truth was there all along

It is fascinating to notice that God sends His church great teachers who open the Scriptures according to the needs of the times. The Scriptures do not change, but the Bible is such a broad and deep book that though its pages contain the answers to the heresies of each age and for each age, the Lord must send us His disciples to open our eyes to the treasure we had all along in the Word He has given us.

Be gentle with the bearers of God's image

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Genesis 2 retold

     The second account of creation seen in Genesis 2 can be seen on many levels. Paul Julienne did a beautiful job of describing Adam’s new self-awareness here.  Primarily using the notes from our Rectors Forum on Original Solitude, I see it in one sense it as a coming of age story.

Burden Bearers

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34)

     The foundation for unity with others lies in forgiveness because this is the way that Christ relates to us: He sees us as forgiven. Therefore, forgiveness precedes right relationship because our relationships are based in the Lamb that has been slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). We can only rightly relate to others from this foundation.

Rector's Forum, March 11, 2012

"Original Unity"

Based on pages 16-20 from The Theology of the Body in Simple Language

This ultimate belonging to one another is, however, unquestionably associated with human sexuality.  Quite plainly sexuality expresses the two complementary sides of the matter: that of being an individual and that of being one with the other.  Sexuality is nothing but the ultimate possible realization of belonging to each other.  It has here as yet no life of its own detached from this, its purpose. 

Creation and Fall, p100, Bonhoeffer

The word within

I am a scientist by profession with a long-standing interest in the interaction of science and faith. Often I find that the sciences can give us remarkable insights into the nature of the world.  Many people think that science and Christian faith are inevitably opposed to one another.  But the two can and should interact fruitfully.  John Paul II wrote that “each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.”

Glorious earth man

     In Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Creation and Fall, Bonhoeffer talks about God’s formation of man, John Paul’s “original man”:

His solitude was not discovered in isolation.

One of Elizabeth’s statements for discussion from March 4 struck me: “His solitude was not discovered in isolation, but in an encounter with the world.”  For one, it points out the power of this strange and ancient story to bear truly on the world and humanity.  John Paul draws much more meaning out of Genesis than the merely literal. 

They gave them numbers

Rector's Forum, March 4, 2012

“Original Solitude”

Based on pages 9-15 from The Theology of the Body in Simple Language

One of man's original experiences is the experience of being "alone" (Genesis 2:18), the first observation of all creation that God says is "not good." This solitude is multifaceted and each aspect has a bodily component. Man is alone and utterly unique in relationship to the rest of creation, in relationship to himself as a body/soul complex, and in relationship to God with whom he is uniquely related. We will explore each of these aspects of original solitude.

Good news for the poor

Prompted by Julie’s diversion into the Beatitudes that we have been studying at Truro recently, let us consider the opening verse, Matt. 5:3,  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  I have a fascination with words, getting at their inner meaning, their relationship to other words and to the Word made flesh.   What is Jesus getting at here?  

In the end …

If beginnings are important to us, endings are even more so.  If we are reading a gripping mystery novel, the beginning sets the scene, but we keep on reading now because we want to see how it turns out.  The beginning and end are related and shape the story.

Us miserable wretches

I’m taking a small detour from ToB-type stuff. We’re starting a Lenten Sunday sermon series on the Beatitudes, the “happy are those who” statements, so I thought I’d make up a “miserable are we who” list. Have any to add?