Pain

I wander the rows of
Gray-sky, gray-stone days unlit.

I am the graveyard
Of the Unquiet Dead.

Just Because It's So Silly

St. Ephraim the Syrian

Here, we see the saint holding the famous "Edessa File"

The Primacy of Scripture

We liberals are often accused of disregarding scripture. The Reasserters especially love to trot out the 39 Articles (which most had never even known about, until someone said, "Hey, use that to attack the liberals!") and point to the stuff about the primacy of Scripture and that no man should be made to adhere to that which isn't in Scripture or proved thereby.

Well, we say, you can't prove homosexuality is wrong by Scripture.

Heretic! they say, It's right there in black and white! You lie! You lie!

And that's the problem.

Liberals take Scripture very seriously; far too seriously, in fact, to leave it to the mere text. Scripture is living and must include the commentary, the scholarship, the exegesis, theology, all of that which has come of it, through it, for it. It's not a game, and requires hard work and study. It's not instructions for your Mr. Potato-head, it requires wrestling and interpretation and study.

We give Scripture primacy. Much more so than those who use it as a rule book to be forgotten about until it's trotted out on a technicality.

In our *gasp* liberal theology, we take the Scriptures with ultimate seriousness, a thing to be lived with and through, not just as words on paper, a list of instructions from Daddy, but an ongoing conversation of conversion and formation of a reasonable faith and worldview.

That is giving Scripture primacy.

It is halakha, midrash, the same way that the New Testament is not new in the sense that it is commentary and explication of the Old Testament and God's original - and ever-current - promises. It is love of that Scripture and the Living Spirit beneath that brings us to question mere face value and the accretions of human darkness and misunderstanding.

Can Scripture be given greater primacy than that?

Ecclesiates: Just Shoot Me, Already!

We're going through Ecclesiastes in the daily lectionary, now.

Just what the clinically depressed need.

It does point up the difficulty of proof-texting, however, as the comforting "To everything there is a season, " when read in context may be completed with, ". . and you will never know what that season is, as God has hidden it from you on purpose, so eat, drink and be merry . . . if you can . . . because you're going to die and your life will have meant nothing anyway."

Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. Shepherding the wind. Especially meaningful for me now, as I get ready to go to an "employee orientation" tomorrow, though I've been here some five years now, because we all "aren't doing our jobs."

Never mind that we do do exactly our jobs, marked off and verified. Never mind that our front desk personnel - with a few glaring exceptions - receive great feedback. Never mind that it is glaringly obvious that our female manager treats female front desk personnel much more kindly than any male worker. Never mind that our jobs are done and done well, we're not supposed to be talking to each other. Never mind the practices they feel are "inappropriate" are those that the same manager and her cronies have encouraged and engaged in for these five years.

It couldn't be an aging property. It couldn't be an owner who inherited the property, having no real managerial or business experience. It couldn't be poor location, or a surly and uncooperative head housekeeper of whom the management is literally frightened. It couldn't be lack of advertising in case we get "the wrong people." It certainly couldn't be anything at all to do with the gas crisis.

No. It's the front desk personnel - who are going to have the hammer wanged down on our heads despite our - frankly - admirable performance.

Why bother? Sometimes, a nice hot bath and a sharp razor blade seem the best answer.

Vanity
Of
Vanities