Refutation of Atheism

I am a rose of Sharon (Song of Songs 2.1).

Poetry

Poetry is the art of turning words into meaning that touches the inside of you.  Music may accomplish this too, but with sound, even without words.  Painting may accomplish it also, without sound or words.  So then, the important thing with poetry is emotional meaning, interior resonation.  You know, humans have a lot going on inside them.  To read or hear words and feel them reverberating within yourself with things that are wordless is a kind of ecstasy, feeling you're understood and that somehow things fit.  Don't you think Peter, John or Mary Magdalene felt this listening to Jesus?  People listen to their favorite music and feel it echoing inside, witnin the heart. 

Jesus, Radicalism and Society

It occurred to me last night, watching 'Wallander' on Netflix, that Jesus was a radical.

'Wallander' is a BBC production about a Swedish police inspector, Kurt Wallander, and is set in the district of Ystad, beautiful coastal and rural area of Sweden.  It is based on novels by Swedish author, Henning Mankell.
The episode that provoked my thought about Jesus - that he must have been a radical, was 'Before the Frost,' a 2012 BBC show loosely adapting Mankell's 2005 novel of the same title. The show's plot involves a crazy arsonist motivated by Christian fundamentalism, who sets buildings on fire and also animals (swans) and people.  The arsonist eventually sets himself ablaze, leaving a video epitaph that says he is atoning for his sins and the sins of others in the name of him who died and rose from death.  The book of Revelation particularly figures in his motivation.
This arsonist, who had escaped from psychiatric confinement, had associates of like mind, who exit normal social roles and pool their money to form a commune and cult in protest against Swedish society for its immorality and departure from traditional Christian values.  They too eventually commit suicide in dramatic fashion doing violence to social structures simultaneously, leaving the same epitaph mentioned above.  A connection to the American cult, Heaven's Gate (which of course was a real phenomenon) leads inspector Wallander to finally end the violence.

So you see the religious theme of the tv show that might naturally lead one to think about Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity.

Was Jesus a radical?  This is not a new question or interpretation and has been emphasized in much writing about Jesus through the years.  I would mention Albert Schweitzer, whose study, The Quest of the Historical Jesus (German editions: 1906-1950) portrayed Jesus as an eschatological preacher at odds with his society, in other words, a radical.  I take the noun radical, in relation to persons, to connote protest against society in order to steer it onto a better pathway.  This "better pathway" involves values or traditions that have been marginalized in the society.  In the case of Jesus of Nazareth, his radicalism consisted of protest against the religious laws of his society and the attitude of obedience to laws promulgated by the establishment, i.e., Pharisees and Sadducees.  The better way advocated by Jesus is the "narrow way" of Matthew, chapter 7 or the "narrow door" of Luke 13; this path is narrow, not able to accommodate many people; not many find it, it is such a small gateway.  The few who find the road are differently directed in comparison to the many of society at large.  These few (cf. Lk. 12.32 - "little flock") on the road to "life" (Mt. 7.14) aren't motivated by legal righteousness, but by divine love (see Mk. 12.30).
Is it historically plausible that the man Jesus actually preached a "narrow way" to his contemporaries?  Yes, from a historical-critical perspective, it's likely that Jesus taught this.  We have the evidence mentioned above, from Mt. and Lk., which probably came into these gospels by means of a source document (called Q   by scholars), which would have been written some ten to twenty years after Jesus' death.  If one discounts the Q hypothesis, then the "narrow way" sayings of Mt. and Lk probably came to those gospels by means of divergent oral tradition, because of the differences in literary context, which would mean we have two witnesses to a similar teaching of Jesus.  (The authors didn't copy from one another.)  Besides these verses of Mt. and Lk., there is the Johannine parable of the sheepgate (Jn. 10), which says there is one gate for the sheep, "some other way" is for "robbers."  Sheep may go into the pen and out to pasture by one gate.  I construe this as corroborating evidence for Q's passage about a "narrow way" or "strait gate" (KJV), but with different imagery.  This is enough evidence for the historian to state that Jesus taught a special, limited way to salvation or eternal life, rather than the widespread view of his culture that following the law of Moses in Scripture and tradition was needed.  [I don't mean to imply that Jesus repudiated Moses.]  Jesus was executed as a lawbreaker, so some Christian radicals in today's world might think little or nothing of breaking the law to accomplish a higher purpose.  Would their actions in opposing authority be justified?  Religious currents in social history are complicated.  

The Kingdom of God

Jesus of Nazareth announced the coming of God's kingdom 2000 years ago - "Now is the time," he said.  "Here comes God's kingdom!  Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!" (Mk. 1: 15 CEB)  Reading the gospels, one may say that indeed God was active in a dramatic way in the ministry of Jesus, but what about now, in the year 2012 A.D.?  Where is the kingdom of God today?
Well, today as then, the kingdom of God is mostly invisible, people don't see it for the most part.  It is visible in acts of kindness and goodness by individuals.  God rules over the hearts and minds of some persons who have a mystical relationship with Him/Her.  I'm afraid that's it.  God is a strange person.  He/She is omnipotent, but chooses to defer to people's own will in exercising power.  His/Her kingdom is a very delicate matter.   

Rambling Thoughts/Alone on a Saturday Night

I'm always alone, but thank God for family who care!  Humans lack direction.  We have minds, which can figure things out, but our minds don't really provide us with long-range goals.  Oh scrap this.  I don't know what I'm talking about it seems.  I'm already over my head and don't know how to continue.

Where is God?

Where is God?  That this question is asked shows that God is not known.  No wonder there are atheists in the world. 
                                                                           .mmm, hey

Hi God.  How you doing today? 

Announcement - God Spoke to Me Tonight

I was sleeping with the tv on as background noise.  Actually I had my laptop connected to tv, with rainymood.com  going.  I like the sounds of rain.  Suddenly a feeling of perhaps shutting off the tv came over me, it was sort of an emotional question - 'shouldn't the tv be turned off?'  My body stirred a bit and mentally I said, 'no, I'm not shutting off the tv unless God tells me to; I mean really tells me to.'  I stirred a bit more.  The question firmed up in my head - 'shouldn't the tv be turned off' - and I examined it, seeking its origin, determining its tone and  its mood.  I realized this feeling and thought came from  my unconscious, certainly not from a Supreme Being.  I reiterated my refusal and started to return to sleep, when suddenly a deeper feeling arose, something alien, a mixture of expectation, waiting for something and a kind of fear.  My ears came to attention, so to speak, and I heard, mentally, "mmmm, hey."  That's it, "mmmm, hey," that's all I heard, the content of the thought so to speak.  I asked myself, 'what is this,' 'some kind of a test?'  I turned over in my head this new feeling and the accompanying 'words.'  It was an attestation of the original feeling and vague question concerning turning off the tv.  I had a feeling of having been addressed by a strange and powerful presence, something now in the past.  The thought ocurred - 'alright you wanted God to speak, he spoke, what now (are you going to obey?).  A brief feeling of disgust came through me.  I argued with myself.  'This didn't sound like God; it sounded like a surfer dude - "mmm, hey" - like I was walking on the beach and a dude just walks up, board in hand, all dripping from the ocean and greets me as he passes by.  Another analogy was as if someone had just woke up, spotted me and said, "mmm, hey."  Did God just wake up and decide to speak to me?  These were not the words I'd expect God to use, but I couldn't deny the awe that went along with the words.  I remembered a passage from Isaiah, "my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways."  I concluded that God indeed had spoken to me.  Now what was I to do?  'Shall I exert myself, turn off the tv, or turn over and go back to sleep,' I wondered.  I got up and at the same time I suddenly heard a loud sound, like a car door slamming, coming through the back door of the house (the screen door was closed and locked, but the heavy wood door was open, it's summer, so sounds from the back of the house could easily pass inward); understand that it was about 1:30 am, I had been asleep since 10 pm; I grabbed the remote, shut off the tv, went to the back door and looked out on the dark scene of my backyard and the neighbor's driveway to the right - nothing.  I returned and went to the laptop and wrote this blog.