Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, December 8, 2013, the Second Sunday of Advent (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references may be linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) 

FOR AN UPDATED AND REVISED VERSION, GO TO THIS LINK

PREFACE:

If you did not read last week’s Preface, please to, as it serves as an introduction to both Year A in the New Revised Common Lectionary as well as to the season of Advent. 

FIRST READING – ISAIAH 11:1-10

11:1 Note that in the NRSV this text is formatted as poetry, not prose.  Does this affect how we interpret it?  This verse is a good example of parallelism as a feature of Hebrew Poetry. Who was Jesse?

11:2 Does this verse imply that the spirit of the LORD is the spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, and knowledge and fear of the LORD.  Is this spirit the same as The Holy Spirit?

11:3 What is “the fear of the LORD”?  Is justice both blind and deaf?

11:4 Does this verse express a prejudice toward/for the poor and meek? Note the power of voice/word.

11:5 Does “righteousness” equal “faithfulness”?  Are “loins” the same as the “waist”?

11:6-7 Images of the “peaceable kingdom”. What do you know about Edward Hicks?   What is a fatling?

11:8 Is there any significance to “asps” and “adders”?  Is this an allusion to any particular serpent or serpents?

11:9 Who will not hurt? What is “knowledge of the LORD”? Does “earth” refer to people or the planet and all its inhabitants, human and otherwise?

11:10 What does it mean for anyone to “stand as a signal”? Do “people” and “nations” suggest a universalism?

PSALM - PSALM 72:1-7, 18-19

Why do you think this Psalm, out of all of them, was chosen to pair with the Isaiah Reading?

72:1 Which king?  Which son?

72:2 Echoes of Isaiah 11:4?

72:3 Does this passage have any implication regarding mountain top removal mining?

72:4 More preference for the poor, needy and oppressed.  Who is the “He”?  Does this passage have any implication regarding the systemic weakening of our social safety net?

72:5 How can a king live so long?  Is this mere poetic hyperbole?

72:6 What is being asked for here?

72:7 When would the moon be no more?  What are we missing in verses 8-17?

72:18 What are the “wondrous things” the LORD does?
72:19 How can the LORD’s name be blessed when the LORD’s name is not spoken?  Why the double Amen?

SECOND READING - ROMANS 15:4-13

15:4 When were “the former days”?  What writings are included in and meant by “the Scriptures”?

15:5 What does living in harmony look like?  Is this another lectionary echo of Isaiah 11:6-9?

15:6 I hear echoes of Psalm 72:19.

15:7 How did Christ welcome us?

15:8 Was Christ a “a servant” of only the circumcised, or the uncircumcised as well? What promise was given to the patriarchs?  What about the matriarchs?

15:9-12 What is being quoted in this verse and in the following verses?

15:12 Is this a quote of Isaiah 11:1?

15:13 A verse often used liturgically as a blessing/benediction.  Is it Trinitarian?

GOSPEL - MATTHEW 3:1-12

3:1 When were “those days”?  I prefer to refer to “John the Baptizer” rather than “John the Baptist”.  What does it mean that John “appeared”?  What is the symbolic meaning of “wilderness”?

3:2 Note that John proclaims “the kingdom of heaven has come near”, not will or is coming near.  What is “the kingdom of heaven” and what does it mean that it “has come near”?

3:3 Where in Isaiah would you find this quote?  Did John’s appearing in the wilderness lend itself to referring to this passage from Isaiah, or did this passage from Isaiah suggest, after the fact, that the wilderness is where John had to appear?  Must “locusts” refer to insects?

3:4 What is the significance of John’s wardrobe?

3:5 It sounds like John’s preaching station was a popular destination. 

3:6 How do we reconcile John’s act of baptizing with later Christian understandings of the sacrament?

3:7 Are you surprised that “many Pharisees and Sadducees” were coming to John for baptism? Could John’s invective perhaps be more a reflection of Matthew’s perspective than John’s?

3:8 Good advice, regardless of who is being addressed.  What fruit is worthy of repentance?

3:9 How do we reconcile this verse with Romans 15:8?  I recall that both John and Jesus had some interesting things to say about stones.

3:10 Note that “ax” is singular while “trees” is plural.  What is the metaphorical fire?  When the tree is cut down at the root, will a shoot come out from the remaining stump? (see Isaiah 11:1-10)

3:8-10 Is John still talking to only the Pharisees and Sadducees, or also to the people of Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region along the Jordan?

3:11 What is the difference between water on the one hand and the Holy Spirit and fire on the other hand?  In light of this verse, what reasons can you think of to explain why Christians still baptize with water?

3:12 What is a winnowing fork and what is it used for?  What is a threshing floor?  What is chaff? Does the imagery of this verse in any way follow the imagery of verse 8 and verse 10?  Does the imagery of verse 8 and 10 foreshadow this verse?

3:11-12 while in verse 2 we learn that “the kingdom of heaven has come near”, in this verse we shift to the present and future tense:  one is coming, he will baptize, he will clear, he will gather, he will burn. Why the shift in tense?

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, December 1, 2013, the First Sunday of Advent (Year A)

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 is a revised continuation of Lectionary Ruminations. Focusing on The Revised Common Lectionary Readings for the upcoming Sunday from New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 draws on nearly thirty years of pastoral experience. Believing that the questions we ask are often more important than any answers we find, without overreliance on commentaries I intend with comments and questions to encourage reflection and rumination for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website.


FOR AN UPDATED AND REVISED VERSION, GO TO THIS LINK

PREFACE:
Today’s Readings are for the First Sunday of Advent, which means this is the first Sunday of a new Liturgical year and the beginning of a new lectionary cycle, “Year A” or the year of Matthew. Preachers and Teachers new to the Revised Common Lectionary and Lectionary based preaching, teaching and Bible study may not be aware that each cycle in the three-year Lectionary cycle focuses on a different Synoptic Gospel. Year A is the year of Matthew. Year B is the year of Mark. Year C is the year of Luke. Passages from John appear in all three cycles, especially during Lent and Easter. Thus, preachers and teachers, for their own edification, preparation and as a spiritual discipline, might read the entire Gospel of Matthew as soon as practical. They might also read a brief and broad theological commentary on Matthew, all in preparation for a year of preaching, teaching and liturgy.

I used to think of Advent as a bi-focal season. On the one hand, we look back and prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, or his first coming. On the other hand we, we look forward and prepare to welcome Christ at his return, or his second coming. I have recently come to think of Advent as a tri-focal season. With the Hebrews we see a longing for the first coming of the Messiah. With Christians throughout the centuries we also rejoice and celebrate the fulfillment of Hebrew prophecy as we prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth, but we also prepare to welcome him when he returns, whatever that return means and looks like to you.

How do these three foci influence our interpretations of Advent Readings? Can we focus on each reading using all three lenses or do some readings lend themselves to one lens more than the others? Are we perhaps missing anything by consciously or unconsciously limiting ourselves to only one or two viewpoints? What other viewpoints might there be that we have not considered?

Speaking of celebrations, this blog post marks the second time for me to ruminate on the first readings in the three years cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary, thus the name change from Lectionary Ruminations to Lectionary Ruminations 2.0! About the day and hour when I will no longer write and post my ruminations, no one knows. Until that unexpected hour, I am glad to begin Year A with this First Sunday of Advent post and to initiate the new Liturgical Year with Lectionary Ruminations 2.0.

FIRST READING - ISAIAH 2:1-5
2:1 I find it interesting that biblical prophecies are introduced in a variety of ways. Some prophets receive a word, some hear a word, and others see a vision. How does Amos “see” “the word”? Does it make any difference that Isaiah was the son of Amoz?

2:2 Does “in the days to come” set this Reading in the Apocalyptic genre? From our perspective, have these days yet arrived and passed? The mountain of the Lord house being established as the highest of the mountains is probably a comment about the mountain’s political and religious stature, not its geographical height, which is around 2,500 feet above sea level. What does it mean that “all the nations” shall stream to the mountain of the Lord?

2:3 In that that Jerusalem is sacred to three faiths and people make pilgrimages there, this prophecy seems to have been fulfilled. How does this vision inform the teaching ministry of the church and the church’s involvement in higher education?

2:4 What is a plowshare? What is a pruning hook? How can Christians in an urbanized setting far removed from any agriculture find meaning in implements of war being transformed into agricultural tools? Perhaps a modern image might be “They shall transform their nuclear weapons programs into building nuclear reactors for producing electricity!

2:5 What does it mean to “walk in the light of the LORD”? How does the image of “walking in the light” add to our observance and celebration of Advent?

PSALM - PSALM 122:1-9
122:1 This verse seems to echo Isaiah 2:3. Does this first verse establish this Psalm as a Psalm of Ascents? As worship attendance declines it seems that more and more people are not glad to be invited to go to the house of the LORD.

122:2 Is this an allusion to standing on holy ground or within a protected environment?

122:3 What is the meaning of “firmly bound together”?

122:4 Note that here “the tribes go up” whereas in Isaiah 2:2 “all the nations shall stream” to the mountain of the Lord. The Psalmist may have envisioned only Jews going up to Jerusalem, yet today adherents of three faiths, and non-adherents as well, go up to Jerusalem. How does one give thanks to the name of the LORD when the name of the LORD is not to be pronounced?

122:5 Why is “thrones” plural? Who sits on these thrones?

122:6-7 Jerusalem certainly needs our prayers today. Do you ever pray for the Peace of Jerusalem? How do the very recent conversations with Iran inform our prayers for the peace of Jerusalem? What is the meaning of “Jerusalem”? Think “salem” and “shalom”.

122:8 Are the Psalmist’s relatives and friends living in Jerusalem? Do you know anyone presently living in Jerusalem?

122:9 How does one seek good for Jerusalem? As we pray for Jerusalem and seek its good, does it matter that the Temple still lies in ruins?

SECOND READING - ROMANS 13:11-14
13:11 The phrase “Besides this” suggests we are missing the previous point. Can we properly interpret this passage without reading what came before? The salvation alarm clock is ringing. While the final clause is true, how much closer is a mere two thousand years compared to an unknown timeline?

13:12 “The day is near” points me back to Psalm 112:9. What are “works of darkness”? What is the “armor of light”? Why am I thinking of the Dead Sea “Ear Scroll”?

13:13 While “drunkenness” stands alone, note the pairing of “debauchery and licentiousness” and “quarreling and jealousy”. What is debauchery? What is licentiousness?

 13:14 Is the admonition to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” a reference to baptism, or something else? Is putting “on the Lord Jesus Christ” an illusion to baptism? How can we realistically “make no provision for the flesh”? Is this a call to asceticism? Is there a difference between maintaining health of the flesh and gratifying its desires? Why am I hungry for a Graham Cracker and a bowl of Kellogg corn flakes?

GOSPEL - MATTHEW24:36-44
24:36 “that day and hour” certainly places us in the Apocalyptic genre. There is an interesting juxtaposition between not knowing “that day and hour” within the context of the liturgical and secular calendar. While no one knows “that day and hour” we all know that Christmas is now only twenty-four days away, and still most of us will not be fully prepared when that day finally arrives. Is “the Son” that does not know the day and hour the “Son of Man”?

24:37 How will the “days of Noah” be like “the coming of the Son of Man”? Those with a theological education will undoubtedly understand the “Son of Man” reference but I wonder how most people in the pews and in the Church School Class will hear and understand it. How much do teachers and preachers need to translate theological terms and phrases and theological baggage such as “Son of Man” when we encounter them in Scripture or can we simply gloss over them? See Daniel 7:13.

24:38-39 These verse answer, somewhat, the question about the “days of Noah” and “the coming of the Son of Man” comparison, but what do they teach us?

24:40-41 More agrarian imagery that we may need to translate into the postindustrial and more urban context. At one time these verses seemed to be some of the favorite among apocalyptically minded evangelicals employing “the rapture” as an evangelism tool. Since I have lost touch with that segment of the church, I wonder if they are still popular passages. It seems that in both verses people are still going about their daily routines in spite of Christ’s assumed imminent return.

24:42 This is good advice regardless of one’s position on the theological spectrum. On the other hand, I am also familiar with Aesop’s fable about the boy who cried wolf.

24:43 How does this follow from what proceeds it? The Lord might come like a thief but he is not a thief. The emphasis is on being spiritually awake. We want the Lord to break into our homes and lives.

24:44 The phrase “be ready” seems synonymous with “keep awake”. Consider again the question I raised regarding verse 37. There seems to be a tension between being told that the “Son of Man is coming” but not knowing when he will come. It sounds a little like making an appointment for repair service in the home on a certain day but not knowing what time the repair person will arrive, or knowing that UPS or Fed-Ex will deliver a package on a certain day but not knowing what time. What is a healthy balance between certainty and ambiguity?

Revisiting Rocky Point in West Virginia's Dolly Sods Wilderness

            One of my favorite summits is not a summit at all.  It is a barren rocky outcrop projecting more than a hundred feet from a ridge, its farthest edge offering a magnificent view of the valley over a thousand feet below.  One guidebook describes it as offering “spectacular views from a huge flat (but heavily dissected) rock outcrop … an impressive outcrop of Pottsville sandstone that offers the most spectacular views in the S (forested) portion of Dolly Sods Wilderness.  Magnificent view of Red Creek Canyon makes the scramble to the top of the rocks worth the effort.”  (Monongahela National Forest Hiking Guide, 8^th Edition, p. 183)

            I first hiked to and fell in love with this pseudo summit and the wooded campsite located less than a hundred yards away during a late December backpacking trip in 1976.  It is one of my favorite places in the whole world and one of the places I go in my mind when I want to relax and reconnect with nature.  I recently hiked there again after not having been there for over six years.

            When I remember my recent trek I recall standing in the nearby campsite amidst a grove of tall pine trees.  Having been planted in rows decades ago, the trees ascend forty to sixty feet into an almost cloudless November blue sky, their trunks three to five feet apart.  With no branches on the bottom third of their trunks, I walk easily amongst them.  The trunks remind me of columns in a cathedral, columns supporting a ceiling of green pine boughs.

            Decades of dead and decaying fallen pine needles form a soft spongy pad underneath a carpet of day old snow an inch or two deep.  The scent of fresh pine above and around me as well as the decaying matter below my feet speak of a rich vibrancy—life amidst death. At an elevation of nearly 3,700 feet, this evergreen grove is an ethereal sanctuary.

            On the nearby exposed Rocky Point, perched above the valley floor from which I had hiked the 3 ¾ miles, prevailing westerly winds sometimes whistle and sometimes howl as it flows through the needles, branches and trunks of wind stunted one sided pine trees, their branches pointing east with the wind.  Hawks and other birds occasionally soar overhead.  At times I can hear their call.  I notice a jet’s vapor trail in the distance to the east, its u-shaped curve suggesting it was left by a military jet on maneuvers.

            There were no cars in the parking area when I hit the trail three hours earlier.  I have not seen a human since I left the car.  The only evidence of civilization is a few fire scorched rocks and logs, unnecessary remains and reminders of campfires in the camping area, a couple communication towers off in the distance, and jet trails high in the sky.  The jet trails and communication towers cannot be helped.  Adherence to Leave No Trace principles could have prevented the camp fire scars.

            I experience this peaceful wilderness setting high in the Alleghany Mountains as a thin place where the veil between the worlds is as thin as gossamer.  It is a liminal place where earth meets sky and I find renewal and communion with the sublime.

            On the hike back down to the car, following fresh bear tracks in the day old snow still covering the trail, tracks that had not been there four hours earlier, heightens my awareness but does not diminish from my sense of having been one with the wilderness.  I will undoubtedly return to Rocky Point many times in my active imagination, and hopefully in reality sooner than later.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, November 24, 2013, Christ the King (Reign of Christ) Sunday (Year C)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references may be linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) 

FIRST READING - JEREMIAH 23:1-6

23:1 Who are these shepherds?  Why would any shepherd destroy and scatter sheep they are responsible for?

23:2 How have the shepherds scattered the flock?  How have the shepherds driven sheep away?  How do we read this passage after nearly a half century of membership decline in the mainline church?

23:4 It sounds that in the midst of the failure of the old order shepherds that God will raise up new shepherds in their place.  What might this mean in a mainline church where many Teaching Elders (Ministers) are younger than the governing body of Ruling Elders?

23:5 Will this righteous branch be like a new shepherd, replacing the old shepherds?  From a Christian perspective, have these coming days already been fulfilled? 

23:6 How else might we translate “The LORD is our righteousness”?

PSALM - LUKE 1:68-79

The PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website identifies this as a Gospel reading but it functions as a Psalm or Canticle.  Does it make a difference how we label or identify it?

1:68 Who is speaking? Why does this sound so familiar?

1:69 Does it make a difference that this mighty savior has been raised up “in” the house of David rather than “from” the house of David?

1:70 All the prophets or just some of the prophets?

1:71 So this savior saves from enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.  Note that sin is not mentioned.

1:72 Which covenant is being remembered?

1:73 What oath did God swear?  Why would God swear an oath?  What would be our recourse if God did not keep this oath?

1:74 Does this mean that we are saved for service?

1:75 How do we serve in holiness and righteousness?

1:76 What child?  Is the profit going to prepare the way for the LORD God, or for the mighty savior?

1:77 What is salvation if we are not aware of it?  How does forgiveness of sins save from enemies and from the hand of all that hate us? (see 1:71)

1:78 Is there a difference between mercy and tender mercy?  Is tender mercy different from stern mercy?  I love the poetic and metaphorical “dawn from on high” because it leaves so much to the creative imagination.

1:79 How do we handle the image of sitting in darkness with racial sensitivity?  How does the image of giving light to those who sit in darkness naturally flow from the image of the dawn from on high?  Can we be guided in the way of peace without light?

SECOND READING - COLOSSIANS 1:11-20

1:11 This verse reminds me of a modern Celtic caim by David Adam which includes the petition “Keep strength within, keep weakness out.”

1:12 is this the same light as in Luke 1:79?  Who re the saints in the light and what is their inheritance?

1:13 Why do I keep being drawn back to Luke 1:79.  I am also being drawn to the John’s Prologue.

1:14 Is redemption synonymous with salvation?

1:15 How can anything serve as an image of something, or someone that is invisible?  What is the difference between being the firstborn and pre-existence?

1:16 Does this verse justify equating Christ with the Sophia of Proverbs?  What does it mean that “in him” all things were created, and created “through him and for him”?

1:17 I would love for a theoretical astro-physicist to reflect and expound on this image, especially as it relates to cosmology and cosmogony.  Perhaps this could be worked into a future episode of The Big Bang Theory.

1:18 Where else have we encountered this body metaphor? Does being the firstborn of the dead have anything to do with being the firstborn of all creation? (see 1:15)

1:19 What is the meaning of “dwell”?  Does this suggest anything less than permanent?  How does this relate to essence?

1:20 Why do all things need to be reconciled to God?  How can peace be made through the blood of Christ’s cross?

GOSPEL - LUKE23:33-43

23:33 When who came?  What place is called “The Skull”?  Who crucified Jesus? 

23:34 For who was Jesus praying?  What does it mean to cast lots?

23:35 How had Jesus saved others?  Why did Jesus not save himself?

23:36 Is “mocking” the same as the “scoffed” of the previous verse? How is offering sour wine a type of mocking?

23:37 Is this a mere re-phrasing of 23:35?

23:38 How does this inscription negate the questions raised in verses 35 and 37?

23:39 Once again, this sounds like an echo of verses 35 as well as verse 37.

23:40 What are we to make of the juxtaposition of these two criminals and their statements and attitudes?

23:41 How did this criminal now that Jesus had done nothing wrong?

23:42 Why am I once again thinking of The Jesus Prayer and The Philokelia?

23:43 What are we to make of the “today”?  What is paradise?

11.12.13 (a free verse poem reflecting on a winter weather hike)

Crunch, crunch
Autumn’s first snow
Fresh over fallen, dry leaves

Small white flakes
Flirting through bare branches of Beech
Lighting on hemlock boughs

I outstare a whitetail at thirty paces

With not even a camera to shoot it
After a few precious moments it scrambles away

A military jet strafes the tree tops

At near supersonic speed
Reminding me that freedom has its costs

At twenty-two degrees
This November Canaan afternoon offers
Retreat, solace, renewal

Four miles of hiking

Medicine for the mind

Balm for a bruised soul

Touching the Sublime from a Boat in Jamaica Bay

I have observed Jamaica Bay from the driver’s seat of a car inching along the Belt Parkway, through a window of the A Train as it rattles over the two bridges connecting Broad Channel to the rest of Queens, and from inside a roaring passenger jet as it takes off and lands at JFK.  By far, my most cherished vantage points are while paddling my kayak or sailing my sailboat upon its waters.

One may experience the sublime anywhere, while walking The High Line, peddling a bike through Central Park, or sitting on a bench at The Cloisters as much as by attending a service at St. John the Divine or any Synagogue, Sanctuary, Mosque or Temple in the city.  Among my favorite touch points is the cockpit of a boat, be it a sailboat or a kayak.  It is then that I truly, mystically, experience the sublime as mediated through nature and the beauty and isolation that can be encountered in Jamaica Bay.

Far from the honking horns of the Belt, the rattle of the subway, the roar of a jet, and the cacophony of noise, jumble of sights, and mixture of smells that is often urban New York City, while my sailboat or kayak silently floats upon and slices through Jamaica Bay’s waters, I sometimes experience peace that is as much spiritual as psychological as I physically retreat from the mundane urban landscape.  After paddling or sailing awhile on some of the more remote parts of the bay, my soul feels refreshed and my mind and senses cleansed as if all the stress of city life has been washed away in the bay’s cleansing waters.

Be it walking or running shoes, bicycle, kayak, canoe, sailboat, or any non-motorized form of transportation that will take you into a through nature, find your own vantage point, some place and activity far removed from video games, cell phones, computers, taxis, subways and buses, far removed from the urban landscape where you too may touch the sublime.  You and our city will be better for the experience.

- - -

Last night I attended Gotham Writers Workshop free Essay & Opinion Writers Workshop in Bryant Park.  Workshop leader Melissa Petro invited those in attendance to take fifteen minutes to write an essay.  The above is an edited and revised version of what I wrote.

Creative Writing Imagination Exercise

            At Thursday evening's Gotham Writers’ Workshop free 90-minute Creative Writing 101 class in Bryant Park’s Reading Room, Alex Steele invited participants to engage in several short writing exercises, including one focusing on the imagination. Inviting those in attendance to randomly attach nouns to the word “the”, the class developed the following list to serve as writing prompts.

            The Stones (my contribution)

            The Girl

            The Statue

            The Eyesore

            The Voice

            The Google

            The Panelist

            Raising my pen above my pad of paper with list of prompts, I closed my eyes and lowered my hand, the tip of the pen coming to rest on “The Panelist”.   I then wrote, allowing my imagination to lead me.  This four paragraph vignette is the result.

            The panelist sat in his own sweat, not sure how to respond to the question from the audience.  He had been billed as a man of knowledge, an expert even, and a profound thinker, yet he had no words, no ideas, and no answer to offer in response to the query. His mind was as blank as Kant’s tabula.

            His heart pounding at a fearful rate, his fingers fidgeting with pencil in his hand, he loosened his shirt collar as he thought his moment of silence certainly betrayed his incompetence. Then it struck him, like a dream image arising from Jung’s collective unconscious. Inspiration burst forth.

            “You ask a deep and profound question” he said, “and sometimes, I think—no, I believe, that the questions we ask are far more important than any answer someone might give us. So never stop asking questions.  And do not take the bullshit answers of so called expert panelists as the last word.  The answer to your question, if there is an answer, is within you.”

            He paused.  He heard a silent gasp, then a single hand clap followed by a cacophony of hands clapping and growing exponentially into thunderous applause.  He set his pencil down, folded his hands in front of him, looking smugly at the audience in front of him.  With humble self-confidence he breathed a sigh of relief.  His reputation as a profound thinker was intact.

Creative Writing Observation Exercise

            Last night I attended a free 90-minute writing class in Bryant Park’s Reading Room.  Offered by Gotham Writers’ Workshop, the topic, presented by Alex Steele, was Creative Writing 101.  Alex had participants engage in several short writing exercises, including one focusing on observation.  Here is what I wrote.  No, I am not trying to brown-nose.

            Wearing dark tan laced oxfords, khakis, a short-sleeved plaid shirt with a pen sticking out of the chest pocket, black framed glasses, a silver banded analog watch on his left wrist, and a gold wedding band, the gray haired Alex Steele addressed the crowd more like a polished public speaker than a reclusive writer.  Only when he popped a Ricola cough drop into his mouth and drank from a bottle of store bought water would I have suspected that he was not totally in his element but “just some guy at a microphone”.

Prayer for Memorial Day

Prayer for Memorial Day

 

Almighty God, strong to save,

            we remember the brave men and women

            who have given their lives on the land, in the air, and upon the sea

            in defense of our freedom and liberty,

            from the minutemen killed at Lexington or Concord,

            to the brothers killed from both the North and South in the Civil War,

            from the greatest generation who gave their lives during World War II,

            to the Active Duty troops and National Guard men and women

                        killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As we remember and memorialize those who have died,

            may the day serve to memorialize them not through words engraved into stone

            but gratitude burned into our  hearts and minds.

 

God of earth, sea, and sky,

            we also pray that you will guard the brave women and men

            who are this very moment risking their lives for our country

            as they serve in foreign lands.

Give them compassion for enemies who also fight for patriotic causes.

And keep our sons and daughters,

            our husbands and wives,

            and our brothers and sisters

from hate that hardens,

            or from scorekeeping with human lives.

Though they must be at war, let them live for peace,

            as eager for agreement as for victory.

Encourage them as they encourage one another,

            and never let hard duty separate them

            from loyalty to your Son, our Lord, Jesus the Christ.

 

Note:  I have been using this prayer for some time, slightly redacted every year.  I have been using it so long that I have perhaps lost touch with some its original sources.  There are obvious allusions to the Navy Hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save”, #562 in The Presbyterian Hymnal, as well as phrasing drawn from a prayer “For Those in the Military” #65 page  818 in the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship.

Sebago Canoe Club Season Opener

Saturday, April 27^th, was not only the season opener, the first “official paddle
of the season” for the Sebago Canoe Club in Brooklyn, it was also one of the first post Hurricane Sandy events.  A group of kayakers left the Sebago dock around 10:30 and paddled around Canarsie Pol.  Other paddlers and rowers paddled independently of the organized paddle.  My wife, Vicki, and I were two of those who paddled independently.

Vicki and I put in just after the Canarsie Pol paddlers had taken out.  It was our first paddle of the season, first paddle since Sandy, first paddle since sometime in the fall, and first time to paddle under the newly finished Belt Parkway Bridge over Mill Basin and not under the old bridge which has been removed.  I paddled my Ocean Kayak Drifter, a sit-on-top I probably had not paddled in over a year.  Vicki paddled her Current Designs Sirocco. 

Looking at the Belt Parkway Bridge over Mill Basin

Using an old fashioned mercury thermometer, I checked the water temperature under the bridge.  It was 57°F.  The air temperature was in the mid 60’s.

Vicki and I paddled under the bridge, past buoy 13, and to where the channel to the salt marsh would have been if it had been high tide.  Not wanting to miss the kayak meeting or the food, we turned around there and paddled bcak.  Our total paddle was about only an hour long, but enough to reacquaint us with paddling in Jamaica, especially after Sandy, and to wet our appetite as well as paddles and bats for an upcoming paddling season.

Kayak Committee Mtg Convened by Kayaking Chair, Tony

After getting back to the Sebago dock we carried our boats up to the wash racks where we rinsed both salt water and debris from Sandy off.  Then we attended the Kayak Meeting, held in the club house at 3:00, and convened by Kayak Chair, Tony Pignatello.   After the Kayak Meeting we took a break and headed outside for the General Meeting, convened at 4:15 by Commodore Walter Lewandowski with several other chairs and officers making reports.  We enjoyed food, wine, and fellowship before, during, and after the meetings.

General Mtg Convened by Commodore Walter

I sometimes feel like Sebago is my home away from home, a place to be renewed by water and green space as well as to meet up with old friends and make new friends.  Yesterday’s season opener was no exception.

A Prayer For Congress and the Administration

O Lord God, our Sovereign Ruler,

your glory shines throughout the world.
We commend our nation and its leaders to your merciful care,
praying that Republicans and Democrats,
praying that the congress and the administration,
might work out the differences that divide them
and bring resolution to our national budget crisis and sequestration.
Give all in authority the wisdom and strength
to know your will and to do it,
working for the common good and in our national interest
rather than looking only so far as the next election.
Help them remember that they are called to serve all the people
as lovers of truth and justice,
not as representatives of only special interests or an ideology.  Amen.

Adapted from a prayer For Government Leaders, # 61, pp. 816-817, PC(USA) Book of Common Worship

Prayer for the Election of a Pope

For the first time since 1415, one hundred years before the Reformation, a sitting Pope has resigned.  While many theological issues still divide Protestants from Roman Catholics, as a Presbyterian Teaching Elder, I want to hold my Roman Catholic Brothers and sisters in Prayer as the College of Cardinals begins the process of electing a new Pope.   I could not find in the PC(USA) Book of Common Worship a prayer of intercession for Roman Catholics, however.  There is a prayer for other churches (#51), for Jews (#57) and for Muslims (#58), but none for Roman Catholics, so I have composed my own.

Triune God,

although there are many unresolved differences
between Roman Catholics and Protestants,
there is more that unites us than divides us.
We jointly recognize the canonical Scriptures
and the formulation and adoption of the ecumenical creeds,
notably the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds
with their definitions of the mystery of the triune God
and the incarnation of the eternal Word of God in Jesus Christ.
Our Mutual Recognition of Baptism further expresses our efforts to move towards visible unity.
Therefore we pray for our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters,
and for the College of Cardinals as it meets to elect a new Pope.
May the conclave of Cardinals be led by your Spirit
to recognize in their midst
the next person you have already called to lead the Roman Catholic expression of your church.
May the Cardinal elected as Pope,
bring a fresh spirit of openness and renewal,
and strive to bridge the differences that still divide us.  Amen.

Sunday Afternoon Bus Ride through Queens

Q-58 Lmtd from Flushing

Tall Vanilla Latte in my hand
Asians, Latinos, Anglos,
And one mentally disturbed child, autistic, perhaps

Bump, Rattle, Bump over the Blvd

This Sunday’s salvation is the empty seat next to me
I’m all extroverted out
Need some introverted time within

Under the Van Wyck

Highway of death
World's Fair Flying Saucers have landed to the north
As the child now offers blood curdling screams
           reminiscent of an animal trapped in the wild

Is that Mandarin, Cantonese, or Korean I hear?

Definitely a Spanish newspaper in front of me
The Lemon Ice King of Corona
Rules from its throne at 108 St and 52 Ave

Saris, shawls, and sweat suits grace Corona’s sidewalks

Satellite dishes straddle rooftops
As if there is a world with news
Outside of Queens

Mexican and Dominican storefronts now line Corona’s streets

As LEDs advertise CHUZOS
But Asian Characters still adorn signs
Red and yellow billboards of ethnicity

Across Queens Blvd, making way down Grand

Home is not much farther
Soon, familiar sights and sounds of Ridgewood
No different, but still home

Summit to Shore Meets The Log of Spartina

One blog I regularly follow is The Log of Spartina. While I do not read every word its author, Steve, posts, I do look at every photograph he posts because Steve is a professional Photographer, and it shows on his blog.

I do not remember how I learned about Steve’s Blog, but we share enough in common that I sometimes enjoy reading it.  In addition to both of us being sailors (obvious) and loving seafood, Steve has sailed in some of the same areas my wife and I have kayaked, including  Baltimore’s developed Inner Harbor, Maryland’s wild Assateague Island National Seashore, the little picturesque harbor of  Onancock, VA,  Virginia’s Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, and  the waters around Ocracoke, NC.   Steve’s shallow draft boat has taken him places I would never be able to sail Mischief, my four foot draft C&C 24 Mischief.  Nevertheless, I dream of sailing many of the places he has already sailed. 

I knew that Steve lived somewhere near Virginia Beach, so I contacted him a month before my wife and I were to vacation in Virginia Beach to see if he might be willing to meet us for lunch or dinner and if he might shows us his hand made sailboat Spartina.  In spite of the fact that we had never met, and perhaps against the best intentioned advice of his wife and a few of his own reservations, he accepted my invitation.

At Steve’s suggestion, and to fit his work schedule, we recently met for lunch at Chick’s Oyster Bar  overlooking the waters of Lynnhaven Bay in Virginia Beach.  I could not think of many other better places for three sailors who love seafood to meet for lunch.  Chick’s is one of the few restaurants I know where I can get a hamburger topped with lump crab meat while dining out on a plastic sheet protected deck overlooking and set right up against a bay.

Over lunch, we talked about sailing, photography, how Steve came to make and sail Spartina, how I came by Mischief, and many other common interests and experiences, as well as blogging on the blogspot platform.  We discovered that the three of us were all three years within the same age and shared some of the same philosophies about sailing.  Unfortunately, we were not able to see Spartina, but Steve issued us an open invitation to sail on her when the weather and our calendars permit.

After lunch, as we were preparing to leave, I asked my wife to take a photo of Steve and me.  A framed nautical Chart of Chesapeake Bay hanging on the wall above a picnic table out on the deck seemed to offer the perfect backdrop.

Sailing: Philosophy for Everyone: Catching the Drift of Why We Sail

Sailing: Philosophy for Everyone: Catching the Drift of Why We Sail

Edited by Patrick Goold; Forward by John Rousmaniere ISBN 978-0-470-67185-6

A Review by John Edward Harris

One of the many titles available in the Wiley-Blackwell Philosophy for Everyone series, Sailing: Philosophy for Everyone: Catching the Drift of Why We Sail offers philosophers real world application of philosophical principles and invites sailors to critically reflect on their sailing experience.  If you are a philosopher and want to learn about sailing, you could do better by taking a sailing class or reading an instructional book. If you sail and either have a philosophical bent or want a little help reflecting on your sailing experiences, this is the best book I know of.

I am both an amateur philosopher, having taught Introduction to Philosophy as Adjunct Faculty based on my M.Div., and an amateur cruiser, having completed ASA 101, 103 and owning and sailing a C&C 24 on New York’s Jamaica Bay.  As a sailor and a philosopher, I loved most of this book.

The fifteen chapters, divided into four parts, are written by either philosophers who sail or sailors who have critically reflected on sailing. In Part 1, PASSING THROUGH PAIN AND FEAR IN THE PLACE OF PERPETUAL UNDULATION, Jack Stillwaggon considers the Certo ergo sum dimension of sailing.  Gary Jobson provides a racer’s point of view. Crista Lebens draws primarily on Aristotle’s “eudaimonia” and phronesis to reflect on a typical day sailing.  In my favorite chapter, Richard Hutch applies Rudolf Otto’s idea of mysterium tremendum to ponder the spiritual dimension of sailing.

In Part 2, THE MEANING OF THE BOAT - THREE SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT, James Whitehill offers a reflection from a Zen point of view.  Gregory and Tod Basham’s chapter on The Stoic Sailor was my fourth favorite chapter.  I highlighted more text in it than any other chapter except one.   Steve Horrobin’s “Sailors of the Third Kind” was my third favorite chapter and the one in which I highlighted the most text.  In case there was any doubt, Horrobin convinced me that of the three types of sailors, I am the third kind.

In Part 3, BEAUTY AND OTHER AESTHETIC ASPECTS OF THE BEAUTY OF THE SAILING EXPERIENCE, Nicholas Hayes’ reflection on the Race to Mackinac left me a little cold because I am not a racer.  Steve Matthew’s chapter on Sailing, Flow, and Fulfillment, however, invited me to reflect on the “flow” I sometimes experience sailing as well as sea kayaking, even though he writes from the perspective of a sail boarder. My second favorite was Chapter 10, “On the Crest of the Wave: The Sublime, Tempestuous, Graceful, and Existential Facets of Sailing.”  In it, Jesus Ilundain-Agurruza, Luisa Gagliardini Graca, and Jode Angel Jauregui-Olaiz helped me understand why, for me, navigare necesse est.  Their chapter 10, along with Hutch’s Chapter 4, would have justified my purchasing this collection of essays.  In Chapter 11, Jesse Steinberg and Michael Stuckart consider what is “instrumentally valuable” and “intrinsically valuable” about sailing.

In Part 4, PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL SAILOR, Sebastian Kuhn’s chapter 12 considers the relativity of sailing. John D. Norton considers wind, apparent wind, and created wind in Chapter 13, a chapter that forced me to remember what I learned in high school about vectors, and in the Appendix contained more math than most would be comfortable with.  In Chapter 14, Tamar M. Rudavsky and Nathaniel Rudavsky-Brody consider the gods, fate and the sea.  Hilaire Belloc’s Chapter 15 transforms a crossing of the English Channel into an archetype sail.

Because Sailing: Philosophy for Everyone: Catching the Drift of Why We Sail is a collection of essays rather than the work of one author, it can seem uneven.  While for some, its choppiness can be a challenge, it can also provide some excitement.  Sailors, from racers to cruisers, and sailboarders to blue water circumnavigators, will most likely find some wind for their sails in these pages and lead them to wonder if indeed the unexamined sail is not worth sailing.

Summit to Shore Turns Four

There seems to be some debate about the average lifespan of a blog.  I have seen numbers as low as a few weeks and as high as two to three years.  Summit to Shore has apparently beaten the odds.  It turns four years old today! I started Summit to Shore, and blogging, on January 5, 2009. With a post entitled Ex-Nihlio, I entered the blogosphere.

Looking back  over the past four years, I think I started blogging for several reasons.  First and foremost, I wanted to learn about blogs and how to blog, as well as to learn more about social media.  In other words, I wanted to keep up with the times and I believe that the best way to learn is to do. 

Yes, I read a couple of books and on line articles about blogging but I more or less just jumped into the blogosphere without much preparation. I have learned a lot along the way.  In good Socratic fashion, however, I have also learned that when it comes to blogging and social media there is a lot I do not know.  It sometimes seems that social media is changing so fast one must be working in it full time to keep up with it. I use social media in my profession, but social media is not my profession, just part of it, one tool in my professional toolbox.  I therefore sometimes find it difficult to keep up with all the trends and changes.  Nevertheless, I try.

I also entered the blogosphere because I felt like I had something to say – not that anyone would want read what I wrote.  I may not be the world’s best writer, but I like to write.  I sometimes feel like there are words and ideas within me that I have to write down, or else I will burst.  Blogging offers me an outlet for some of my creative energies.  It also provides me a forum for some of my ideas and opinions.

I have sailed against the wind by not blogging about one particular topic.  Summit to Shore is certainly an eclectic blog, covering everything between, well, summit to shore.  In the beginning I had intended to be eclectic, but to write more about mountains and summits than I have.

When I lived in West Virginia, I spent a lot of my free time hiking and backpacking.  I often hiked two to four days a month, covering 8-16 miles a day hiking in some rough mountainous terrain at high altitude, at least by eastern standards.  After moving to New York City five and a half years ago, I thought I would spentd a lot more time climbing and hiking in the Gunks, Catskill’s and Adirondacks, but the reality of traffic and tolls soon altered my ideas.  It takes me at least an hour and a half and over $10 in tolls just to drive up to the Gunks for a day of hiking or climbing, and finding climbing partners whose skills and experience were compatible with mine was not always easy.

I can drive from my home to Jamaica Bay in half an hour and pay no tolls.  With a sit-on-top kayak kept on Jamaica Bay at the Sebago Canoe Club, where I can almost always find someone to paddle with,  I quickly found myself drawn more to the shore than the summit.  Two and a half years ago my wife and I took sailing lessons and  I bought a used C&C 24 sailboat, which I also keep on Jamaica Bay. This past summer we sailed on average probably one day a week.  A year ago I acquired a Necky Chatham 17 traditional kayak which I also keep on Jamaica Bay at the Sebago Canoe Club.  Is there any wonder, then, why I have ended up posting more about sailing and kayaking than hiking and climbing?  I also often cross post many of my kayaking related posts to the Sebago Canoe Club Blog,

Almost three years ago I took on the “Lectionary Ruminations” Column on Presbyterian Bloggers and soon started cross posting “Lectionary Ruminations” to my blog as well.  While between 25-45 people read my “Lectionary Ruminations” post every weak on Presbyterian Bloggers,  I will soon complete the three year lectionary cycle and will no longer post on Presbyterian Bloggers, which seems to have outlived its lifespan.  It has been six months since anyone else has posted to Presbyterian Bloggers, so I plan to update, expand, and edit my previous “Lectionary Ruminations” postings and continue posting them exclusively on Summit to Shore.

For the first two and three quarter years of Summit to Shore, I was working less than full time and had free time to write.  For the past sixteen months I have been working two half-time jobs, or the equivalent of a full time job, and have not had as much free time.  Therefore I post less than I used to, devoting most of my creative energies to “Lectionary Ruminations” with an occasional post about sailing, kayaking, politics, culture, or anything else between summit to shore..

Glancing at my BLOG ARCHIVE suggests that I started blogging like a sprinter and over the past four years have slowed down to a reduced but more manageable pace.  Here are the numbers.

2009    213 posts
2010    161 posts
2011    90 posts
2012    70 posts

According to All Time Stats, as of 10:40 AM this morning, there have been 53,598 pageviews and I have made 535 posts, with eighteen followers (THANKS ONE AND ALL). These have been the most popular posts.

We Sailed, posted August 27, 2012, has received 659 pageviews, nearly twice as many as the next most viewed post.

PC(USA) GA Vice Mod Visits NYC Presbytery at the God Box, posted October 8, 2009 , has received 346 pageviews.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, December 4, 2011, the SecondSunday of Advent (Year B), posted December 1, 2011, has received 339 pageviews.

A Prayer for Newtown, posted December 17, 2012, has received 339 pageviews.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, February 26, 2012, the FirstSunday in Lent (Year B), posted February 23, 2012, has received 319 pageviews.

Stuck, posted June 15, 2010, has received 317 pageviews.

At least one post from each year made it into the top six.  Three of the top six posts, however, are from the most recent year.  I suspect "We Sailed," "A Prayer for Newtown," and "Stuck" will continue receiving additional pageviews and that "A Prayer for Newtown" will eventually rise to second place while "Stuck" will eventually rise to third.

Happy Birthday, Summit to Shore, and may your best years be ahead of you.