Easter Sunday "The Mystery of the Open Tomb"

“The Mystery of the Open Tomb”

Easter Sunday, April 8, 2010

OPENING WORDS

We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery. Paulo Coelho Brazilian poet and philosopher

READING

Mark 16:1-8 From Inclusive Bible

When the Sabbath was over, Mary of Magdala, May the mother of James, and Salome bought perfumed oils so that they could anoint Jesus. Very early, just after sunrise on the first of the week, they came to the tomb.

They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked they found that the huge stone had been rolled back.

On entering the tomb, they saw a young person sitting at the right, dressed in a white robe. They were very frightened, but they youth reassured them: “Do not be amazed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, the One who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. Now go and tell the disciples and Peter, ‘Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee, where you will see him just as he told you.’”

They made their way out and fled from the tomb bewildered and trembling; but they said nothing to anyone, because they were so afraid.

The Mystery of the Open Tomb

Our reading of the Easter story this morning ended with the mystery of the open tomb. The early storyteller Mark tells of the brave women disciples who rose early to go to the tomb of their beloved rabbi to anoint his body. On the way, they worried they could not move the stone from the opening of his tomb. When they got there, the tomb was open. Mark says a young person was within and s/he told them not to worry, Jesus had risen and was on his way to Galilee. “There,” this young person said, “there you will see him.”

“They made their way out and fled from the tomb bewildered and trembling; but they said nothing to anyone, because they were so afraid.”

That is the end of the story. It ends with a mystery.

Over the two thousand years since, humankind has created the elaborate stories of Easter. The scribes added the resurrection story to Mark and the other scribes of the New Testament followed the same story. The resurrection story is as old as humankind—birth and rebirth, winter turns to spring—nature’s cycle is one of renewal.

Except for the One Creator of the Hebrew people, we believe humans have always told the story of the resurrection of one god or another. But the first Mark, the Mark that ends with Chapter 16 does not tell of a resurrection.

Marcus Borg, John Crossan, and other scholars of the Jesus Seminar call the Jesus of the mysterious open tomb, the pre-Easter Jesus.  And there’s a lot to be said for “that Jesus.” There will be more about this pre-Easter Jesus, but first...

For myself, I like the story as a mystery.

We all love a good mystery because we are, sociologists tell us, a “curious animal.”

Remember what Alice said at the beginning of Chapter 2 in Alice in Wonderland when she was about to begin her amazing, mysterious journey?  

`Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English);

`Curiouser and curiouser!'

Our every day lives are full of wonder and mystery.

There is the man who is assigned a new sales territory.  He’s driving to a town where he has never been. On the way, he realizes it is the hometown of a friend from college. A man he hasn’t seen in twenty years. He got a late start, it is getting later, and later, and all of a sudden, his car begins making an awful noise. He doesn’t know what’s wrong with it, but he hopes he makes it to the town where he is headed. Just as he gets to the outskirts of the town, the engine stops, and he coasts over to the side of the road. And while it’s late, he sees there are lights ahead so he's not too worried. As he gets out of his car, a man in a pickup slows down, pulls over, and says, “Can I help you stranger?”

You know who it is, don't you; it is his friend from college.

`Curiouser and curiouser!'

Our every day lives are full of wonder and mystery.

A woman gets depressed every spring. Just as the world becomes brighter and greener, she becomes depressed. Finally, after many years of this, her husband succeeds in getting her to go to a therapist. On her very first visit to her therapist, she discovers that it was in the spring, right after Easter when she was sixteen that she had a baby and gave it up for adoption. 


What could be more unsettling or mysterious than knowing you have a child you know nothing about?

After that profoundly enlightening first-visit to a therapist, the woman goes home, sits in the dark all afternoon. About three o’clock her doorbell rings. It is an express delivery letter. It is from her long ago lost daughter who had just turned twenty-one and who is now able to know her birth mother’s name, and was this woman the Helen ...

Yes, her name was Helen, of course, she found her. And do you know what else? The daughter had grown up less than two miles from her birth mother and had gone to the same schools as her half-siblings. 

`Curiouser and curiouser!'

Our everyday lives are full of mystery. We never know the full story of our parents or grandparents, what they were really like as young people, what they did—what they don’t want us to know about. Even, even when someone writes a biography, that does not mean his or her mystery is told.

What about the love in our lives, our relationships, of course there is mystery there. The complexities of the human heart mystify us each and every day.

Lily, the protagonist in The Secret Life of Bees said, she certainly had mystery surrounding her parents, said,

I realized it for the first time in my life, there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, brow beat days, shining brightly and we don’t even know it.

Yes, our everyday lives are full of mystery, even when we don’t pay attention to it.

And humankind faces mystery all around. We don’t have to say any more than: deep oceans, deep space, seemingly infinite cosmos, and prime numbers.

Leonhard Euler, Eighteenth Century mathematician, one of the world’s best, said:

[We] have tried in vain to this day to discover some order in the sequence of prime numbers, and we have reason to believe that it is a mystery into which the human mind will never penetrate.

The mystery of the eighteenth century is still “unsolved,” however, I understand, science is getting closer to solving this mystery.

Which brings me to the point; it is mystery that calls to

our reason,

our intellect,

our curiosity, and

our creativity.

It is mystery that calls us to search, research, and investigate. 

Neil Armstrong, astronaut, man of science, who has been in “space,” said:

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of human desire to understand. [Adapted to be inclusive]

“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of human desire to understand.”

`Curiouser and curiouser!'

If you have been a Unitarian  Universalist for more than a couple of years, and if you have heard a  UU minister preach an Easter sermon, then you have heard, I’m sure, about the roots for Easter, about earth-centered spirituality, about eggs, the many different traditions that tell the Easter story, and all the possibilities of what could have happened. Today, though, I want us to look at the tomb. The open tomb…

If mystery calls us to our best selves, then the tomb is calling us to our best self.

Gwen Frostic, an unrecognized “great” American poet of the Seventies, wrote,

Our life is full of wonder and mystery. / Mystery opens us up, opens us up to the discovery of our fullest potential / Mystery offers no limits

It is in the face of mystery where we can find our best selves.

Set aside what others have said about the tomb. Set aside the idolatry of the post-Easter Jesus. That doesn’t have anything to do with us as people of a free religious faith.

What has to do with us is the mystery of the open tomb.

What did the pre-Easter Jesus say to us, you know, the historical Jew in that tomb?

Love your neighbor as you love yourself,

Do not do to your neighbor what you would not do to yourself,

Turn the other check

Revenge is not the answer

Seek peace in your relationships; do not go to worship without first making things right with your neighbor

Feed the hungry

Give water to the thirsty

Clothe the naked

Visit the prison

Do all these things, the pre-Easter Jesus said, and you will find within your best possible self.

Rev. Kathleen Rolenz, a UU minister and friend gave us a glimpse of what the open tomb can mean for us in her poem “Easter Is Breaking”:

Easter Is Breaking

Somewhere across the world,
Easter is breaking
not the Easter we may think of,
with arms upraised and "he is risen" echoing from canyons,
but a much quieter, less dramatic Easter.

Somewhere in the world -perhaps not this day, but some day soon,
a woman and a man rise from their beds,
shaking the sleep from their eyes,
and find their children already awake and
preparing for their morning prayers
There has been no gunfire, no drug wars, no yelling or shouting or screaming,
only the quiet of the night and the peace of silence around them.

And somewhere in the world, perhaps not this morning, but soon, very soon
A soldier is packing his duffle bag,
has emptied out all his bullets,
is changing into civilian clothes,
and is coming home, for peace has … been established,
and there is no need for his presence.

And somewhere in the world, Easter dawn breaks over the earth,
not only on this day, but every day,
and the familiar pulse in our veins throbs of "peace, peace, peace."

Yes, our everyday lives are full of mystery; let us pay attention to it.

Blessed Be

Racism and Trayvon Martin, Deceased due to Hatred

Studying Martin Luther King Jr. for a sermon, and I am sure he knew that once his people made it to the "Promised Land," by way of Civil Rights legislation and the Voting Act, that there would be more work to do. And he said so in his last speech in Memphis.

"It's all right to talk about 'long white robes over yonder,' in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do."

Rev. King knew that lynching would someday be a thing of the past, but I'm sure he knew young Black men like Trayvon Martin would continue to die at the hands of hatred. 

Miss Kinsey Grace in One of My Fav Photos

"Yea! Finally, I can get in the pool!"

Bluebonnets in Sugar Land

Bluebonnets in Sugar Land, hmmm, usually see them toward San Antonio and the hill country!

To Love Eternally

Sometimes I wonder if I really know how to love others. I mean, love them, as in totally accepting them for who they are and how they live their lives.

Life experience tells me that this doubt is shared by many. We are human, after all, and no one is so confident in themselves that they feel themselves perfected and capable of unconditional love. I know from studying the Christian Scriptures that even Jesus wondered if he could love this way.

To love others in the sense of eternal love, or as some would say, "God's love," we must love them despite our inadequacies and their capabilities. We must set aside how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about them, and love them past and through it all.

It might even be, that we have no contact with a beloved parent or child, for whatever reasons. It might be a friend of whom we cannot agree politically or religiously, and it is best not to be in contact. It could be a desire to love a spouse in a deeper, more meaningful way. It might even be a relative who has committed a horrible crime.

Whatever the situation, to love another with an eternal love, means to let go of everything: feelings, opinions, needs, expectations, desires, or, as Buddha would say, attachments, and love them beyond our manifested self.

Love them with that self within that is beyond our conscious self. It is difficult at first to love beyond our self. We have to learn to let go of everything but love.

Whatever causes us to love this way is a blessing. A gift from the Infinite. It is a taste of true Grace. It is an experience which takes us out of this reality and into eternity.

Home at Christmas May Be Somewhere Else

For all of us who can't go home for  Christmas, know that we are not alone. And there are as many reasons as there of us.

How many times have I suggested to another that it is all right not to go home. It is all right to create one's family from friends who love us, who accept us, and who do not judge. It is all right to create a family that will be with us when we most need them, and who will be there when joy is abundant.

Yes, I know how painful it can be to "not go home." Even after we have our family who loves us and with whom we will be spending the holiday, it can be painful.

Some may laugh and say, "Yes, painful as in the pain you feel when you're abused, but you love your parent anyway!" What seems natural, may not always be wholesome.

Remember, for reasons of health and sanity, we have to let go, really let go, and "let God." Or, as Buddha would say, it is only because we are attached that we have pain. When it is for our emotional and spiritual well-being, we need to practice non-attachment.

For to let go is really to acquire something greater.

And as you build an alternative home to which you can go at Christmas, be assured, that you are among many, too many, who have to do the same.

God is Back! ... for those UUs Who Believe in Religious Freedom

Our faith is a free religious faith. It allows all of us to make a

difference in our community and in our world.

In the latest UUWorld there is an article “Faith in Our Future.” Five UU ministers of some of the largest churches in the UUA were invited to share their thoughts on the future of Unitarian Universalism. The occasion was a symposium to celebrate the fifty years of the UUA. They were supposed to address the challenges of the future and what Unitarian Universalists need to do to ensure the continued existence of, as one minister wrote, our “miniscule” presence.

UUWorld Winter 2011

It struck me that each minister used the metaphor “G-d” in her/his talk. And one even said they pray in his church, even though “… they do not share a common understanding or experience of G-d.” Praying out loud, he wrote, reminds them of “their shared hopes” for their community and for each other.

It wasn’t that long ago when more than half of the men who signed the Humanist Manifesto of 1933 were Unitarian or Universalist ministers, professors, or in some way had a connection to Unitarian or Universalist religion. The Manifesto declared, “We are convinced that the time has passed for theism, deism, modern­ism, and the several varieties of ‘new thought.’"  

Now, seventy-eight years since the first Humanist Manifesto and G-d’s back!

Intense debate at Harvard and the University of Chicago Divinity Schools, Meadville Lombard Theological School, and Unitarian gatherings continued throughout second and third decades of the Twentieth Century. James Luther Adams and Gene Reed were the leading exponents of their rival views: Adams being a Unitarian Christian and Reed being a Unitarian humanist. However, it must suffice, that the debate raged, and sometimes the seminarians and professors were enraged; I’ve heard it said there was more than one time when “it almost came to blows,” whether humanists should leave the Unitarian churches and go down the street, so-to-speak, and join humanist societies or free religious societies.

Eventually, everyone agreed that the free religious church called Unitarian could handle deists, theists, and atheists.

Unfortunately, the atheists soon outnumbered the theists and deists and made anything spiritual, taboo. And there are storical justifications for this. It continued this way until about a decade and a half ago. Then UU ministers began to be brave enough to speak of their personal, spiritual inclinations. Which in turn, gave those deists and theists in the UU congregations the courage to speak out about their beliefs.

So, now, some are beginning to believe G-d has as much to do with science, as it has to do with spirit. And Thoreau said it so many years ago.

"With all your science can you tell

how it is, and whence it is

that light comes into the soul?"

~ Henry David Thoreau

In the book Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief, Andrew Newberg, Eugene D'Aquili, and Vince Rause study the brain while sub­jects enter deep meditative states. Using advanced imaging equipment, they have found an area of the brain that is affected and acts differently when their subjects meditate. It seems the part of the brain that places us in time and space is affected by meditation, and when this happens, the Self begins to see itself as limitless. They quote Eknath Easwaran to give us an idea of what happens:

As the river[s] flowing east and west

Merge into the sea and become one with it

Forgetting that they were ever separate rivers,

So do all creatures lose their separateness

When they merge at last into … [One]

This brings me to the salient point of my Words today: Our faith is a free religious faith. It allows all of us to make a difference in our community and in our world as One. No other faith—only a free religious faith—can do that. When we believe in something, whether it is atheism, Humanism, deism, theism, Buddhism, Daoism, or Other, if we practice that belief, then we find the courage, strength, desire, and hope to make the world better and to make ourselves better. It doesn’t matter what we personally believe, it matters that we believe.

One Without the Other Isn't Enough

There is a poem by Oriah, a poet, author, and mystic who grew up in northern Ontario, Canada. The first stanza of “The Invitation,”

It doesn’t interest me

what you do for a living.

I want to know

what you ache for

and if you dare to dream

of meeting your heart’s longing.

What an invitation to relationship! It goes straight to the heart of the meaning of “Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations,” our third Unitarian Universalist Principle.

Yet, in contemplation, the poem is more personal and demands more from one another than “mere acceptance.” It seems to require compassion and a willingness to travel with another in their search for spiritual growth.

This is what brings us to church. Our need to be with others on this journey we call Life.

Oriah does not shriek from the complexities and demands of relationship.

I want to know

if you can sit with pain

mine or your own

without moving to hide it

or fade it

or fix it.   

I want to know

if you can be with joy

mine or your own

If you can dance with the wildness

and let the ecstasy fill you …

Yes, she makes it clear there are joys and sorrows which we must share if we are to travel together.

But she does not forget what we must do on our communal journey:

It doesn’t interest me

to know where you live

or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up

after the night of grief and despair

weary and bruised to the bone

and do what needs to be done

to feed the children.

Once we commit to being together, there is more to our communal, religious life than the spiritual journey. There is the call of those who are in need of food, water, medical attention, clothing, and compassion.

When service is our prayer, it is empty if we are not seeking, as Jung would say, a deeper, more meaningful existence than the superficiality of our culture.

Nor would spiritual growth alone be enough, for without both, something is missing.

For pondering – see you in church, Rev. Lil

You can find Oriah’s complete poem at http://www.oriahmountaindreamer.com

The Busy Mind and Deep Peace

Sometimes, ever so often, we might take time from our busy lives to sit down a moment and think. At those times, our busy mind may put forth an entirely mundane question such as, "Now what did I need at the drug store?" or it may present us with something deep and reflective, "Am I a happy person?"

These two questions are examples of the depth and breadth of our busy mind. We all know, though, that our busy mind cannot answer those questions. It only wants us to "stay busy."

Psychologists and mystics know more about the busy mind than I do. All I know is that while my mind helps me understand reality, it also offers a never-ending perspective of "What could have been" and "What could be." It rarely lives with me in the present moment.

Psychologists and mystics would agree, that is if they were in the same room, that our busy mind may indeed keep us sane and cognitively aware of that which keeps us alive, but our busy mind also keeps us from deep peace.

Deep peace is a psychological and a spiritual dimension that is possible through meditation, contemplation, or prayer. A lot of people, a lot, do these things and find that their lives are better for doing them. The Buddhists call this sitting.

But there are also many of us, many, who can't find time, for whatever reasons, to sit. Perhaps it is not a priority, or our personalities are not suited, or we just don't relate to sitting.

There is hope though, for us to find that deep peace.

We can find ourselves deep peace when we are involved in something as routine as vacuuming, ironing, or washing the dishes. We don't have to sit and "empty our minds," or "fill our minds" to get to a place of deep peace. Somewhere in the repetitive actions of mundane tasks it is there.

We may not even be aware of getting to that place, or how we did it, but we find ourselves there quite easily. So easily, that our busy minds don't even know it, and thankfully, don't interfere very much, if at all.

And when we finish our task, we find our lives are better.

All of this has scientific merit. Several researchers have shown that the effects seen in the brain are the same, whether a person is sitting or performing mundane tasks that bring about a sort of meditative state.

We don't have to dedicate hours to sitting, unless we want to or need to. We can get lost in the routine of our mundane lives and find deep peace--if we but allow ourselves to go there.

Our busy mind doesn't like us to be in the present with our deep peace, but heck, there are lots of things we don't like about our busy mind. Turnabout is fair play!

Our "Self"

Each of us has a Self. You know, the one we talk to all the time. "Why did you do that?" and "Smile, don't go there," or "If I want that brownie, by G-d, I'll have that brownie, shut up!"

It is not the "busy mind" of our ego that interferes with our praying, contemplating, or meditation. It is the part of our psyche that takes care of us, challenges us to grow emotionally and spiritually, and tries to lead us to maturity.

Carl Jung says some of us get there and some of us don't, and then, there's us in-betweeners who try and try and try, and sometimes we are and sometimes we aren't! I always relate to the pregnant-woman tee-shirt that has an arrow pointing down to her growing tummy and the words say something like "... work in progress."

Our Self is what calls us to our better selves. We have to listen though. We have to be quiet and listen!

Sunshine

Have you noticed how many commercials have references to ... or ... talk about the sun?

There is sunny lipstick, and sunshine sausage, and a bright sunny day to driver your "new car," etc.

We cannot live without the sun, yet it shines on us only half the time. The other half of our time is darkness with the moon illuminating us.

I can't help but surmise that we need the dark equally as much as we need the light.

I used to want to "cut out," or throw away the "dark of me." A wise therapist told me that dark is the fertilizer in our lives. "We all need fertilizer to grow--plants and us," she said.

Well, I've got plenty, does anyone need some? Just kidding! We all have the amount we need to become the person Life needs us to be.

Celebrate the sun and the moon of our being, share our whole selves, oh, not by telling others about the fertilizer, but by being authentic and loving in relationships. By showing our sun-side and growing from our moon-side.

Contemplation in the Check-out Line

I dont really mind waiting in line to check out at the grocery store. If truth be told, the trend toward faster check-outs irritates me a little. I know, most Americans living our busy lives get irritated by long lines, and merchants have increasingly responded to our lack of patience by providing express lanes, "limited number" lines, and self-checkout, as well as increased staff in high-volume hours.

See, I learned a while back, that there is plenty of interesting reading material available for those who have to wait in line. There is always a magazine which has the latest information on fashion, or diets, or the results of a nation-wide poll on "how to find your love," or "how to keep your love," or "how to get your love back." There may be a magazine with the latest reproduction results of the beautiful, the talented, or the rich. And, usually there is at least one magazine, if not more, that covers the same stories Nancy Grace covers on her nightly "news show." Please, do not mistake the previous sentence for an endorsement of Grace. If you are surfing channels and stop on her show for about a minute, you will discover the latest newsworthy conversation on who is missing, kidnapped, or murdered in our society.

And that brings me to the cover of a magazine I saw yesterday that said, "Casey Anthony, the Most Hated Woman in America."

Why does everyone want to hate Casey? Why do people want her in prison? The jury listened to the presentations and witnesses of the trial, and found her guilty of a minor infraction of child neglect.

We want to hate her because she "lost" her child. If any one of us lost our child, we'd find ourselves investigated, tried, and convicted of child abandonment, endangerment, and anything else Child Protective Services could throw at us. It doesn't seem real that a woman could lose her child and not be punished severely.

The news media believes bad news sells. Nancy Grace and others like her believe there is always a "bad guy." Well, maybe there is, but there are an awful lot of us out here who are crazy scared we might, out of ignorance, allow something to happen to our children. All of us may be more worried about what we may or may not do to our children, than we are afraid that a neighbor may be a serial child murderer.

Oh the things I think about in the check-out line.

So we hate Casey because she had the same responsibilities we have as parents and grandparents. She failed miserably. We can forget our worries if we hate her.

Anyway, there are a lot of things to think about in the check-out line, and those tabloids can provide amusement and thoughtful reflection.

The "Why" in Our Lives

I suppose all of us, at different times in our lives, wonder "why" there is racism and other negative "isms" in our world.

We see others' negative behavior in all kinds of situations, day in and day out. And we know it is predicated on their understanding of their world. It is their visible actions of the negative "isms" they hold to be true.

In turn, there are times we exhibit those same behaviors. Oh, don't try to say, "Not me!" Because we know, all of us, at some time or other, are guilty of behavior based on our own negative "isms."

Its not pretty to admit to them, and we would rather remember those times when we have been especially inclusive, or compassionate, or welcoming. But this other part of our selves stares at us in introspective moments.

A very long time ago, twenty-five years or so, I was in a women-only support group. All of us were American-born, except one woman. She was a very bright intellectual who happened to be born in another country, far, far away. I am not proud of the way my interactions with her progressed, and without going into detail, I confess, I am still bothered today by my ignorance and rudeness.

Thankfully, at some point in my life, I began to grow as a human being. My belief in the worth and dignity of each person, and my desire to be more respectful of others' spiritual growth, even though it was different than mine, became paramount in my life. I confess, I was in my forties before this attitude became central to my psyche.

It was well into my fifties before I gained a real understanding of compassion, which I am sometimes, and which I am not at other times, even when I need to be. I continue to explore this.

The "why" of my negative behavior predicated on my personal "isms," is that I grew up in a very homogenous environment, and I was always more comfortable with those who looked like me than those who looked different than me.  If we look closely, we see this dynamic in many human behaviors.

It is easier to be comfortable in all our "isms"; it is easier to live our understanding of the world that we know, than it is to change and embrace difference.

The "why" is as deep as our genetics and as wide as our cultures. And the worst part of all this?

It takes some of us a lifetime, if we grew up with a lot of negative "isms." And even those of us who grew up in a more progressive environment, we still have to overcome the genetic and cultural inclinations to be comfortable with sameness. And some of us never feel the need nor the necessity of opening ourselves to differences.

Perhaps we will someday be able to embrace each others' differences. From where I'm sitting, it looks like it will be a long time before that will happen. Maybe it is something future generations will be able to do. For today, all we can do is change ourselves. All we can do is answer our own, very personal "why."

With what lens do we read?

Always searching for deeper, broader, and diverse meaning in my reading, I found a book titled Such Is Life! A Close Encouner with Ecclesiates by Lloyd Geering.

Ecclesiastes is one of the last books included in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is believed to have been written by a sage after the return of the tribes from their Babylonian captivity in 586 BCE. It is, Geering suggests the humanist tradition of the Hebrew heritage.

Yes, you read correctly, the humanist tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures.

"... the sages were not concerned with the destiny of the Israelite people as a whole. They focused on the daily life of the human individual. ... were interested not in Israelites alone, but in all humans."

Ecclesiates is part of the "wisdom tradition" of the returning tribespeople, who brought back to Israel a more universal view of humankind. This "widsom tradition" is unlike the storical religious tradition of the Hebrew people who were left behind.

These returning sages of wisdom and humanism "spoke of Wisdom in much the same way as the Greeks spoke of the Logos or Reason... They exhorted people to take full responsiblity for their own lives and not to look to God to deliver them from evil by miraculous interventions..." [Geering]

Many of us place a certain amount of faith or belief in the humanist tradition. I am wondering how many of us have ever read Ecclesiates with the hermeneutical lens of humanist thought?

See the bright hot sun on the trees and the bushes

Sitting here looking at the many varieties of greens present in the back yard. So many greens I cannot count them. But counting them might be a good idea.

Often I have suggested that the best thing on a deep-freeze day is to stay in, reflect, and ruminate. It seems a good idea for these above-average, 100+ degree days in the south I'm experiencing this summer. From North Carolina to Houston, to Phoenix, to Las Vegas, it has been especially hot. Although the least hot place I've been this summer is Vegas!

Stay in, reflect, and ruminate on the possiblities of your gifts, your talents, and your ability to love. "The ability to love," may take more than one day, because in that subject you have not only the loves you know, but you also have to ask the questions, "Have I loved enough?" and "Do I need to love differently?"

So much upon which to ponder.

And if you don't like these topics--count the many varieties of green you see outside your windows.
Stay out of the heat!
Lillie