The Bible, Breviary, Daily Office Hack

Can a Bible be turned into a Prayer Book? 

Specifically can we basically reverse engineer the basic form of a Breviary into any Bible in a way that is readily useable for daily prayer?

Over the past decade this idea has percolated in my head and the more I thought about it the more I believed that not only could it be done but should be tried. 

Do know that about a dozen printed bibles were marked up beyond recognition to bring you this hack. 

What I had to realize is that the end result was going to be very basic. To be functional the liturgical calendar and the calendar of devotion with the saints would have to be jettisoned. Likewise the cycle of regular prayers provided by office books would have to go. For many this will be a deal breaker, for others this will be of little consequence. Personally I am still considering basic means to bring back some of this reality but at this point what I have is a very functional method of daily prayer based in the repetition of the psalms and scriptural devotion. What this method, which I call the Bible Breviary Hack, provides is:

1) A single, readily portable book.

2) Three times of prayer a day, morning, noon, and evening.

3) Full reading of the Bible on a near yearly basis.

4) Four week recitation of the psalter.

5) Maintains use of the scriptural canticles.

Materials needed: 

A Bible: I strongly suggest a Bible with a single column of text, often called a reader's version. Further I do not suggest going with a compact or small Bible, I thought this was a good idea, small is portable, but this hack requires annotating the text and generally I find writing in one's bible an essential reality and for that we need space. The Bible really needs three ribbon markers, as we will be using other forms of place holders along with that. I also suggest getting a solid well bound Bible, just as a general reality. When I finally had all of this together I splurged on a Schuyler Caxton NLT and have not been disappointed. It is simply a beautifully bound book at every level. 

Archival Pens: I strongly suggest Micron Pens for all Bible marking needs. They generally do not bleed through the paper, their ink is archival quality and will not run, blur, or otherwise ruin paper, and the fine point felt tips will not rip or tear the paper. One can find them at most artist supply stores and on amazon. I also sought out a bandolier for my Bible to hold the pens and keep everything else that ends up in my Bible, prayer cards, important photos, and the like, securely inside as I carry it around in my bag. The bandolier shown came from an amazing artist on Etsy called Cleverhands.

The other materials needed are bookmarks and bookdarts. For bookmarks I am using some vintage prayer cards I found at an antique shop for a couple of dollars each. Bookdarts might be a new product for many of you. They are simply an amazing invention that allows one to 'dog ear' a page without harming it. The photo shows one in action and once you start using them they become slightly addictive, especially if one is regularly working on papers and research. You can sometimes find them in independent bookstores but in most towns one needs to go straight to the source or Amazon.

One might also want a straight edge, or even a set of small stencils like those used in scrapbooking, for marking up the Bible in various ways. I used a stencil set I had hanging around for other reasons just because it makes the end result slightly more polished.

Once all, or most, of these materials are gathered (or whatever equivalents you choose) it is time to make the Bible Breviary Hack.

Start by turning the Bible to Luke 1:67. There you will find Zechariah's prophesy, which is the traditional canticle for morning prayer. This is where Morning Prayer starts every day using this process. I put both a book dart and a prayer card on this page of my bible. When it is time for midday prayer one turns back to Luke 1:46 and recites the Magnificat and when it is time for Evening Prayer one goes forward to Luke 2:29 to Simeon's prophecy. These should be on the same page or simply a page flip away. These three songs represent some of the earliest Christian poetry and are the foundation of every part of our daily prayer in this model.

After recitation of the canticle for the time of day we go to the psalms. The major process of this hack is marking the psalms. There is a lot of value in reorganizing the psalms thematically, I will not lie that I miss it a bit, but the biblical order has its own flow and it is, obviously, the easiest to use. This psalm plan is in a four week, 28 day, cycle that expects one to sit down and pray three times a day, nominally morning, noon, and evening. This means one reads around 30 verses of the psalms during each time of prayer. For instance on Day 1 for morning prayer one reads Psalms 1, 2, and 3 then at midday Psalms 4, 5 and 6 then in the evening Psalms 7 and 8. I use a prayer card to hold my place in the psalms. I made up a simple pattern to place around the numbers, three red dots with a green dot that moves from the left, morning, the middle, midday, and the right, evening, to mark the various times of prayer. I then placed an additional mark, roman numerals 1-28, next to the morning psalm that starts that day. The full cycle of psalms I use can be found at the bottom of the article.

After a brief immersion into the psalms it is time to read some scripture. This is straightforward. In the morning read two chapters from the hebrew scriptures. At midday read one chapter from the Mathew, Mark, Luke-Acts, John. In the evening read one chapter from the Epistles or Revelation. One is simply reading the Bible straight through using three different cycles. This will have one read through the Gospels and Acts about once every six months, the rest of the Greek Scriptures in a little less than a year, and the Hebrew Scriptures in a little more than a year. This is why having a bible with three ribbon markers is really important. It simply allows one to readily mark where one is in all three reading cycles. I realize this is a lot of Bible, but I was amazed how different my relationship with the bible became when I started reading it whole cloth in large sections. For those used to lectionary snippets, a concept that has value in so many situations, it is a game changer for one's faith.

We then end with a canticle from the Hebrew Scripture. There are many of these that have been used over the years and I am not using a comprehensive list of all of them Principally I am using canticles that are taken complete from one a set of verses. This is where the bookdarts become essential as we use them to mark where each canticle is within the Bible for easy reference. The little divots one can see amidst the pages are the bookdarts at work. They are non-intrusive but especially easy to find. I generally highlight the specific verses of the canticles, they are often excerpts from much larger poetical works. Another prayer card tracks which canticle should be recited and at the end of the office goes to the next canticle conveniently marked with a bookdart. A complete list of the canticles I have marked can be found after the psalm sequence.

I then generally end the office with a few moments of prayer, anything resting on my heart and mind at the time, followed by the Our Father and the Hail Mary. That is the ins and outs of the Bible Breviary Hack. I would not claim, by any stretch, that it is the solution for daily prayer but I think it is a functional modus that rests distinctly amidst the tradition of the church around breviary work but also allows complete reading of the bible about every year and is also exceptionally portable. Maybe it seems absurd to you, or for a few it looks like a possibility with amazing potential. For those it seems absurd, may you find a solid means to engage prayer and scripture and for those who are inspired I hope it serves you well.

Psalm List

Day

1 Morn 1, 2, 3 Noon 4, 5, 6 Even 7, 8

2 Morn 9 Noon 10, 11, 12 Even 12, 14, 15, 16 

3 Morn 17 Noon 18 Even 19, 20

4 Morn 21Noon 22 Even 23, 24, 25

5 Morn 26, 27 Noon 28, 29, 30 Even 31, 32

6 Morn 33 Noon 34 Even 35, 36

7 Morn 37 Noon 38 Even 39, 40

8 Morn 41, 42, 43 Noon 44 Even 45, 46

9 Morn 47, 48 Noon 49, 50 Even 51, 52

10 Morn 53, 54 55 Noon 56, 57 Even 58, 59

11 Morn 60, 61, 62 Noon 63, 64, 65 Even 66, 67

12 Morn 68 Noon 69 Even 70, 71

13 Morn 72, 73 Noon 74 Even 75, 76

14 Morn 77 Noon 78 1-39 Even 78:40-72 

15 Morn 79, 80 Noon 81, 82 Even 83, 84, 85

16 Morn 86, 87 Noon 88 Even 89

17 Morn 90, 91 Noon 92, 93 Even 94, 95

18 Morn 96, 97 Noon 98, 99, 100, 101 Even 102

19 Morn 103 Noon 104 Even 105

20 Morn 106:1-27 Noon 106:28-48 Even 107

21 Morn 108 Noon 109 Even 110, 111, 112

22 Morn 113, 114, 115 Noon 116, 117 Even 118

23 Morn 119:1-32 Noon 119:33-56 Even 119:57-88

24 Morn 119:89-120 Noon 119:121-144 Even 119:145-176

25 Morn 120, 121, 122, 123 Noon 124, 125, 126, 127 Even 128, 129, 130, 131

26 Morn 132, 133 Noon 134, 135 Even 136

27 Morn 137, 138, 139 Noon 140, 141 Even 142, 143, 144

28 Morn 145 Noon 146, 147 Even 148, 149, 150

Canticles

Exodus 15: 1-18

Deuteronomy 32: 1-14

1 Samuel 2: 1-10

Isaiah 33:13-16; 40:10-17; 42:10-17; 61:10-62:5; 66:10-16

Jeremiah 14: 17b-21; 31:10-14

Habakkuk 3:2-19

 

Baptism: Reweaving the Body of Christ

Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go. 

                     -John 21:18

We have been dealt a grave injustice when it comes to the pressing theology of baptism we encounter in our culture. This is not to say that the individualistic, my personal jesus, moment of personal salvation, look at me I am special, modus of baptism is inherently wrong... it is just drastically and overwhelmingly incomplete. It is heretical not in the sense that it is wrong but in the sense that it is disproportionate.

When we baptize an individual we weave a whole new thread into the Body of Christ. We name as essential to that Body something that up to this point was missing. When we get to the end of the right it is not only the individual being baptized that is born a new... it is the entire Body of Christ that has been reborn.

There is a reason why we stray away from this more robust theology. Pivotally it means that Baptism is more than transforming one person to be like Christians... it means that Baptism is transforming Christianity towards an individual. It means, quite possibly, being taken where we might not want to go.

The reality, however, is that Christianity has the capacity to grow old. To stop moving where it is called to go and instead simply go where it wants to go. To no longer seek to transform and be transformed but instead to simply seek conformity. This is why the Proclamation of Christ Crucified from outside of Christianity is so essential for our well being as a church... This is why movement to incorporate said Proclamation in Baptism is so essential. We get pulled where we might not want to be... but in so doing we are made young again because new threads are woven into us, parts we did not even know were missing are now here in our midsts.

So that such which is new goes in the direction it is called, perhaps pulling that which is old in ways it does not want to go, but the Body of Christ is reborn in its midst. Often there are those who do not want to die, who do not want to be reborn, but throughout the church every baptism is a call to just that reality, to recognize the Spirit working in a person whose voice we are just beginning to hear and to enter into the reality where that voice is made old... so that we must begin the cycle again.  

Judas Icon of Wealth and Misogyny...

A woman has a container filled with something costly.

A man is on a path of sorrow and despair.

The woman seeks to open up her container and bring joy to a man whose path is sorrow.

Another man, in many ways the proverbial man, wishes to maintain his wealth and privilege so he seeks to control what the woman can do with her container and deny the sorrowful man joy.

This is the story of Jesus in the weeks before his crucifixion, this is the story of Mary wishing to see joy on the face of Christ again, this is the story of Judas who would betray christ for the hope of further privilege and wealth.

The story of men wishing to deny others joy, the story of men seeking to control the containers of women, the story of men gaining wealth and privilege by bringing about such denial and control, however, is the one in which we currently live.

The Gospel is that we can look at such men and tell them "NO". No it is not your decision what a woman does with the container she owns. No it is not right to deny a moment of joy to those who are on a path of sorrow. We can fully denounce the attempts of men to maintain power by controlling women and denying joy to others. We can, in fact, recognize them as playing the part of Judas in this story from John's gospel.

The systems of our society are supposed to evoke Mary, breaking the costly jar of ointment for the sake of overcoming the sorrow faced by another. Instead the system of our society evokes Judas, seeking to maintain privilege and wealth by denying joy to others and hoarding and controlling every costly jar of ointment.

When legislatures attempt to control what a woman can and cannot do with her body... When they try to deny certain staple foods to those who receive food stamps... they are taking the role of Judas.

Judas questions a poor family being able to celebrate a birthday with a steak dinner. Judas decides what a woman should do around health issues with never listening to her doctor or her. Judas mocks a homeless person who struggles to maintain the use of a smart phone. Judas dictates that feminine hygiene is a luxury that should be taxed.

Jesus welcomes a moment of celebration in the midst of his sorrow. Jesus allows a woman to break open her costly jar of ointment. Jesus looks upon the one who would deny this moment and denounces his seeking to maintain wealth and privilege.

As christians our goal is to be with the poor, to be of the poor, to bring joy in the midst of sorrow by breaking open our costly jars of ointment. Our goal cannot be to become wealthy and privileged and to maintain wealth and privilege, especially at the costs of others joy and the controlling of others' bodies. We live amidst a system that moves towards making each of us a Judas and we must remember that what Jesus honored was not the man who sought wealth and privilege but the woman who broke her costly jar of ointment for a man homeless and soon to be sentenced to death. We need to work for a system that moves towards making each of us a Mary.

The Privilege of the Prodigals...

Field Slaves do not get to ask their owners for any type of party, this includes ones with as simple a menu as goat.

Hired Hands do not get to abscond with half their employers wealth and then come back and get hired.

Field Slaves and Hired Hands who do such things get told off, beaten, and lynched.

Today we have a tale of three exceptionally privileged men going about their lives of privilege. Today we have a tale of a group of slaves and hired hands whose very reality is ignored by those who own them and control their lives. Today we have a tale where the privileged party and bicker while the slaves and hired hands are given more work to do.

Both brothers construe themselves as being on a level with the hired hands or slaves of their father's house. Interestingly enough it is the brother who all but owns the slaves that considers himself like unto the slaves... One can just imagine an actual slave overhearing this comment and stifling laughter to ensure his future owner does not beat him to near death. This is a man who has no comprehension of his privilege or awareness of the reality of others.

The other brother has actually encountered a touch of reality. He is aware of the fact that he is, if nothing else, not a slave. He is aware of the fact that he has remaining to him the privilege of familial connections. A privilege that his brother would like to see stripped from him but that his father is willing to still recognize.

Then there is the father. The father who still has lands, hired hands, and slaves. The father who still has enough luxurious cloaks that he has to specify which one he wants. The father whose wealth is such that he can place a jeweled ring on the hand of his son and not consider the balance of the inheritance owed to his other son. The father who had lost one son but still had another to whom to give all his worldly privilege. The Father who now has the privilege of a second chance to have a family reconciled and whole.

The story ends at this point, with the father struggling for the reconciliation his privilege cannot provide him, one brother fuming amidst his privilege, the other being granted overwhelming luxury because of his privilege... and the slaves and hired hands forced to suddenly put all their other work on hold to organize and implement a party and its clean up.

If one wants to ask who is God in the midst of this the answer is simple. God is the slaves and hired hands, the ones the brothers readily compare themselves to but do not truly understand. God is the one working and striving all around us for our well being, and pleasure, despite our lack of thanks, praise, and honor. God is the one we are separated from because of the privilege we refuse to leave behind. God is the one we would find if we took the time to recognize the dignity of the hired hand and slaves in our midst and responded to it with the love that we are called, again and again, to respond with.

Corporate Prisons: Pilate continues to mingle the blood...

See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' 

-Luke 13:7b

Arizona, like many states, has chosen to cut education funding while increasing the funding for incarceration. As Pilate taught politicians centuries ago it is simply easier to snuff the light out of problematic populations than to actually value their existence as human beings. It was inherently easier for Pilate to simply murder another set of Galilean dissidents, this time as they worshipped at the temple, than to actually alleviate the issues causing the dissidence to begin with. It is simply easier for the Governor of Arizona to hand our youth, especially our youth of color, over to enslavement within corporate prisons than it is to alleviate the issues facing our communities, including the severe lack of a robust and funded education system. 

Surely, however, those sent to prison are more deserving of such, on account of their sin, than others. In the vast majority of cases, especially the cases that essentially provide slave labor for corporate prisons, the reality is that they are not more sinful than those who are not so enslaved. It is just that they do not have the material wealth, and the skin tone, to readily avoid being sentenced to such. There are those whom we must restrain for the basic safety of others, the majority of those corporate prisons profit from are not such individuals. It is easier, and a far quicker profit, to imprison them, however, than to nurture and care for them.

As Christians we simply are not allowed to enter into and condone these actions. We are not allowed to assume that those imprisoned are simply more sinful than those who manage to avoid imprisonment. Sometimes a tower crumbles, sometimes a police action profiles a certain ethnic group, the people in that tower and the people in that ethnic group are not spectacularly more sinful or deserving of their fate... they are simply the ones at the wrong place at the wrong time. Pilate focused his police actions on Galileans, whom he perceived as inherently dissident. Our current government focuses its police actions on People of Color, a group America has viewed as subhuman from the signing of our constitution.

As Christians we are not allowed to simply strike a person from the soil. We are not allowed to simply watch as those in power cut down the lives of those around us through imprisonment and lethal force. Our duty is to stand between the powerful and those they wish to abolish. Our duty is to clearly state that, despite what the powers might be, no one is a waste of space.

As Christians we are, in fact, called to go farther. We must ensure that basic realities, such as nourishment, attention, and care are provided to those who are at risk of being destroyed by the forces our government places against them. We are, indeed, called to bring about a system where such things are readily provided, with out question, to each and every individual as a basic reality.

To do otherwise is to not stand with Jesus, but with Pilate... and to stand with Pilate is to stand with the very part of humanity that longs to sacrifice others, even God, for the sake of power and the maintaining of privilege.   

Jesus, Our Mother of Political Critique...

I mean to turn Jerusalem into a heap of dust, the lair of Jackals...

                                                                                           -Jeremiah 9:11a

The young chicks are hungry, but the ground provides them no food...

The Jackals, the Foxes, the Serpents are loose and in their midst...

Then the Mother Hen has returns, knowing her life will soon end.

Jesus is scathing today in his critique of the unworthiness of certain politicians. This gospel is a strong critique against any Christian who voices the concept that the church should not be political. It is impossible to follow Jesus and not enter into the realm of political critique, even vicious political critique, of our leaders and rulers when necessary.

Before Israel became a Kingdom it had a law code. This code has sharp expectations about providing for the poor, the immigrant, the refugee. The reason why whole cities are laid to waste, the rich and powerful of Israel are conquered and forced into slavery, the reason why Israel as a kingdom falls is because they fail to live into these codes... because they fail to provide for the poor, the immigrant, the refugee. It is for that reason that the kings are continually brought low and the land of Israel is turned into a heap of dust.

Herod has in his imagination that he is a legitimate king, a worthy king, a true heir to the house of David. He fashions himself as a paradigm of what a Jewish ruler should be, looking out upon his subjects as their rightful ruler. Jesus looks upon Herod and calls him a fox, a jackal, a serpent.¹ Jesus is naming the reality that under the Roman Empire the kingdom of Israel has become nothing more than a pile of dust and that the alleged rulers, Herod particularly, are nothing but Jackals seeking to suck the last bit of sustenance out of the oppressed people.

The desire of Christ, the desire of God, is to be a Mother to the people, to be the mother hen who can come in and shield her chicks from the attacks of foxes, serpents, and jackals. For such have the prophets and prophetesses come again and again to stand between the rulers who would use the poor and oppressed for their own ends instead of support them. Just like the mother hen who stands while her chicks flee before the jackal so have many prophets and prophetesses died. Just like the Hen is God our Mother soon to die upon the cross.

Before she does, however, before our God goes to the Cross for us she makes overwhelmingly clear what is the role of the leaders, the rulers, the powerful, in our midst. Our God makes overwhelmingly clear what the role of government is in our society. The role of political leaders, the role of government, is to make certain that the needs of the poor and the oppressed are met. The role of political leaders is to ensure that the immigrant and refugee find a haven. The role of the political leader is to bring about a situation where the ability of the poor to survive is foremost above the need of the rich to get richer.

When the opposite occurs, when a political leader derides the needs of the poor, fails to provide for the sick, fails to give a home to the homeless, a place of rest for the refugee... then we are to follow the path of Jesus and name those leaders the jackals, the foxes, the serpents that they are. We are to become with Jesus, the Mother who will stand between the oppressed and those who would eat the marrow of the poor for their own nourishment. To do any else is to fail to come forth in the name of the Lord.

---

1 In Biblical Literature and translations these have been somewhat interchangeable negative epithets and it has not always been clear which was the appropriate translation.^↩

The Temptation of Lady Liberty...

Liberty is good right? An automatic good to such that anyone who speaks of restraining liberty must obviously be a bad person. If that is the case then today I am reveling in being more than a wee bit naughty.

What most people do not realize is that Liberty exists in two modes, negative and positive. These are not moral qualifiers but relational modifiers. Negative Liberty is liberty away from something while Positive Liberty is liberty of having something.

We can speak of really awesome ideas, liberty from a society steeped in systemic sexism, in terms of negative liberty. We can speak of really horrible ideas, liberty of being a sexist a**hat, in terms of positive liberty.

Generally, however, negative liberty is an expectation out of social obligation while  positive liberty is an expectation towards a social obligation. If I am an employer who wants the liberty to not provide equal pay to men and women for the same work than I want the liberty from that social expectation. If I am a female employee who wants equal pay for equal work then I want the liberty of a fair wage, of a social obligation.

Today let us consider Christ to be Lady Liberty, that it is indeed Lady Liberty's skin harshly tanned in the desert, her stomach clenched in hunger amidst the sand, the refreshing rivulets of the Jordan water that had caressed her skin and filled her now parched throat at baptism so far removed to hardly be a memory. It is to her that the tempter does come to place in the midst of trial.

And so our Lady Christ comes upon her first temptation. There is the liberty of the natural order, that which divides flora and fauna, that which is organic, from the minerals and rocks, that which is inorganic. Our Lady Christ can easily take liberty from this rule, such is in her capacity, disrupt the natural order, and destroy the lines between the inorganic and the organic. Our lady does not do so. She recognizes the freedom allowed to all on account of the natural order. That liberty is one she wishes to maintain for all, not destroy for her momentary hunger. She, our Christ, chooses to maintain the freedom of our relationship with the created world.

Lady Christ then is taken to readily view all the empires of the world. There is a liberty of association that has been given to humanity, not that we have oft used it well. Still that liberty is there and the potential it gives us is inherently important for us to be who we are. For Lady Christ this liberty we have is a burden to her work. It means she must build friendships, change minds over time, be swarmed by mobs that want to use and abuse her, and often be dismissed as a wandering peasant rabbi. Would it not be easier, perhaps, for Lady Christ to just be the Ultimate Empress? To forgo all the slow process of building relationships and just force us to her will for our betterment? This for her would be a liberty from so much that hinders her work in this world but she holds to maintain for all the liberty of association over the easy path of force and submission that strips away such freedom. Our Christ, in her wisdom, maintains the freedom of our relationship with each other.

The tempter is not finished with our Lady Christ at that point, however, for her he has one more exchange upon the height of the temple. There Lady Christ is tempted to remove all doubt about God and who she is from the high priest and leaders of the Jewish people. To strip from them any space for doubt, any contrivance of choice, any concept of belief, and turn both her space in the divine metaphysic and that of God into a singular point of knowledge. The end of questions about who she is and the very existence of God would be a boon to our Lady Christ. This movement from the freedom of our relationship with God to one of absolute obedience through direct unfiltered knowledge would bring an end to her work, but also an end to something pivotal from before our creation. Rejoice then that she, our Christ, chose to maintain the liberty of our voluntary relationship with God.

And so the Temptation of Lady Liberty comes to an end. With the liberties allowed us by our relationship with creation, each other, and God in place. With the destruction that would result in a movement from said liberties, regardless of how readily such might at the moment ease her work, kept at bay.

None of us have the capacity that Our Lady Christ had that day when confronted by the devil. We cannot break the very fabric of the relationship humanity has with the created order, the whole of humanity, or God. We can ask ourselves, however, are we seeking to be in the midst of the liberty of those relationships or seeking to be in the midst of liberty from them. We can ask are we moving towards the space that Our Lady Christ choose that day or are we moving to the space she rallied against.

As we contemplate this lent and this election season on what and whom we should vote for we must consistently ask ourselves if we are seeking to be in the midst of proper long term relationships with creation, with each other, and with God in the choices we make or are we simply seeking freedom from those relationships as they may easily serve our immediate needs, wants, and and goals.

What this means, however, is that we must at points speak out against forms of liberty that would break those relationships. Liberties many seek to destroy and corrupt creation. Liberties many seek to subjugate, oppress, and lessen the capacity of others to be in the midst of the human relationship as equals beings. Liberties many seek to destroy individuals ability to enter into doubt, curiosity, and belief into God and replace it with an obedience to a certain subset of interpretations about what God may be held by only certain Christians. It means we must be bad, even more than a wee bit naughty, and fight against the implementation of these liberties within our social order.

The temptation of Lady Christ, of Jesus Christ, ended many centuries ago but our entering into the choices that Jesus made there, or going against them, perpetuate to this day. We can choose to follow Jesus in seeking to fully bring about the liberties of our relationship with creation, each other, and God or follow the tempter and seek to be free from them. I pray that as we again elect our leaders we will not elect those whose platform is based on seeking freedom from this core obligations we should hold and in so doing bring away from Jesus and towards the will of the tempter.

This is why we need to rally around those who speak for the Liberty of Living Wages, Liberty of Education, Liberty of Health Care, Liberty of Housing Security, Liberty of Employment Security and why we need to walk away from those who seek Liberty from providing Living Wages, Liberty from providing Education, Liberty from providing Health Care, Liberty from providing Housing Security, Liberty from providing Housing Security. Jesus called us into creating a community that is based on the Liberty of Love, not the Liberty from Loving, and that is the form of society that we are called to create as Christians. This is why it is the obligation of every Christian to vote, to create a society that emboldens the Liberty of our relationships to creation, each other, and God, that where we love our neighbor as ourselves and by so doing enter fully into Love of God.

AZ Voter Registration

reparing tents not making booths... political alignments and Christian discipleship

There is a systematic problem with Christianity, all types and stripes of Christianity... the longing to make a booth and dwell in it. To be clear this has nothing to do with maintaining our buildings. Christians are, in fact, quite ready to abandon their building if it means they can maintain the mental booth they are sitting within. To see this in reality visit any mainline parish in a neighborhood that has experienced white flight... it was much easier for them to abandon a building than for the parishioners to actually move beyond the tightly held conceptions of what their church and neighborhood was supposed to look like.

What I am speaking to is the finding a method, a construct, of being Christian within which we are comfortable, advocated for, and given privilege and then making it our default spiritual and religious dwelling. It does not matter if this is a Tridentine Mass method of being a Christian or an Eco-Queer construction of Christianity... if either is made a booth, a permanent residence for one's expectations of Christian living, then one is eventually going to be in trouble when it comes to going about a Christian life.

Which does not mean abandoning our constructs and methods. The issue is to not make them booths, which gather to become settlements, and soon we have an intractable enclave readily fortified with guards at ever pass. What we have to make them into is tents. Tents whose parts can be gathered, placed in a pack, and moved where the spirit calls us. Tents whose parts will wear, and break, and need to be fixed, replaced, or crafted again from scratch. Tents that over time will transform into completely new dwellings as the grow and move with us on our walk with Christ.

This is the only means by which we can remain Christian... for if we choose instead to simply live in our booths it is far more likely that we will stop being a Christian and start being a Tridentine Mass Method or an Eco-Queer Construction... when what we are called to be are Christians responding to the Spirit in the midst of Tridentine Mass in the midst of Eco-Queer and integrating the Proclamation of Christ Crucified from both into our understanding of the God we can never house but only ever be on a Journey towards and with.  

Black Priest Matter... be as Christ to me.

A White Prince Lays a Church Foundation

Absalom Jones was ordained to the Priesthood in the Episcopal Church in 1804. It was 211 years later, in 2015, that Michael Curry was elevated to the role of Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. My suggestion is that this process, spanning two centuries, has not been one of building up but digging down. We have, at the very best, dug out the rough space to begin to lay a foundation.

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13) Is an oft repeated bible passage. The goal, too often, has been one of keeping those out of power complacent in their enfeeblement. The conceit being that for a servant to stop laying down their life is to take up the sin of pride. 

Won't you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you? The Servant Song by R. Gillard has become a mainstay over the past forty years. The idea, which is a sound one, is that everyone who sings it seeks to enter into the kenosis of Christ, they seek to empty themselves out for the aide and support of others. The problem I have always had with the song is that it does not have the correlating, and requisite, response, to this line. I will let you be my servant, let you be as Christ to me.

To enter into the bonds of friendship as Jesus compels us, we have to name the other individual not only our servant but also our Christ. The perpetuating issue of race in America is that there is a refusal to recognize that which is Black as that which is Christ... that which is Black as that which is Messiah, Lord, Logos, and God. If the questions is won't you let me be your servant then the answer is yes but when the question is won't you let me be as Christ to you then the answer has repeatedly been no. The repeated failure of church and society to say yes in answer to both questions is a marked point as how we fail to inhabit the realm of Christian friendship.

When Absalom Jones was ordained to the Priesthood he was ordained to serve a black congregation that had already formed around him and he and his congregation were denied voice and vote in the councils of the church. It would be 150 years before black clergy and laity were given voice and vote in the councils and conventions throughout the Episcopal Church. It would be 166 years before a black man served as bishop over a diocese. It would be 211 years before a black man served as presiding bishop. Each of these moments, that came about only through the perseverance of many in the face of extreme opposition, was a moment when the Episcopal Church began to say yes. Moments when our Church said yes, that which is Black is that which is Messiah, Lord, Logos, and God.

This is our Church digging the foundation lines, placing the first foundation stones, for building an actual community seeking to inhabit the realm of Christian friendship. We have gotten to the point where every parish would be honored to have a Black Priest, at least specifically in respect to Michael Curry their presiding bishop, be present to preach and celebrate in their community. This is, however, a very different reality to a space where every parish can readily respond to the call of black aspirants to the diaconate and priesthood or where every parish can readily call a black priest as their rector. This is, however, a very different reality to a space where every parish is readily seeking to enter into the transformative but difficult process of actually processing what has been uncovered for them personally in the midst of excavating this foundation. This is, however, a very different reality then a church that has processed its issues and history with race both within and outside itself.

Our church and our society continues to fail in its ability to name that which is Black as that which is Messiah, Lord, Logos, and God. We continue to find ways to construe that which is Black as that which bears the Mark of Cain, that which is less than human, and thus that which can be enslaved, segregated, and imprisoned. That we have so easily moved from outright slavery, to Jim Crow, to imprisonment in corporate prison labor camps speaks to how incapable we are of truly entering into Christian Friendship as a society. Thus it is that Black Lives Matter exists as a movement because as a society we have failed to enter fully into the obligation of Christian Friendship... we are more than happy to say yes, be my servant to that which is Back but have utterly failed again and again to say yes, be my Messiah, Lord, Logos, and God to that which is Black. Until we do so as a church and a society we will fail the basic paradigm of Christian relationship requisite for following Jesus.