Dear All of Us,
OH BOY!!
WHAT A KID!!
Oliver Martin Minnich
Ollie The Younger
My Grand Son
now two plus
and what a plus.
The other day Ollie
was sent home
from school
with a bit of a cold.
His Mom and Dad
had super important,
heavy duty schedules
at work.
They really just couldn't
spot each other.
So, could Ollie come over
to Grandma's
and Grandpa's?
Turned out to be
three wondrous days.
Of course, we did let
Ollie's parents
take him home at night!!
The days were calm,
filled with one on one
attention and activities:
Ollie helping make the batter
for blueberry pancakes,
and helping himself
to a lot of blueberries
that never made it
to the batter.
He loved
pressing play dough
into lots of shapes.
He knows the names
of all the shapes
by the way, and yes
I know I'm bragging.
There were animated
Sing Along enactments of
"The Wheels on the Bus"
and
"Itsy Bitsy Spider".
With the star shapes he sang
"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
There were reams of
colored marker artwork,
Museum of Modern Art ready.
Storybook time,
bubbles and balls
out in the park and so
much delightfully more
filled the days.
Ollie even woke up
from his nap
singing in the crib.
I mean this was
GOOD!!
The following
Monday morning
Ollie's Mom explained
that after breakfast
Mommy and Daddy
were going to work
and Ollie was going
to Bambini (his school).
Ollie chimed in with
an alternate scenario.
"No.
Mommy and Daddy work,
Ollie Grandma and Grandpa!"
A two-year-old knows
what's going on
and can say so.
All this is long way round
- and I sure as heck
enjoyed sharing it -
to
The Bible is
PROGRESSIVE
The Bible writers knew
what was going on
and how to say so.
Like Ollie, that was
in terms of how far
they had progressed,
how far they
had matured,
in understanding
and its expression.
Read about
Adam and Eve
and read Paul.
What a progression
in both understanding
and expression.
The Sacred Scriptures
are surely sacred
and just as surely
scripted in the
sensing and saying
of their writers.
Limited bespeaks
the Unlimited
in a limited way.
We need
to understand that
when we read them.
Grandma and I
understand Ollie
as a two-year-old,
not as a Harvard
doctoral candidate.
He'll' be heard then
as he is then.
Right now he's
a wonderful
two-year-old.
He thinks and
speaks as such.
It works the same
with bible writers.
We misunderstand them
if we don't read them
in terms of their time,
circumstance and the
maturity of their
understanding and
the expression of it.
The sacred scriptures
say God
in people parlance.
The parlance of
primitive writers
is primitive.
The parlance of
later writers
reflects growth
and progress in
understanding,
consciousness and
expression.
Throughout,
the human
is the medium
for The Divine.
Human goodness
and evil,
expansiveness
and limit,
find themselves scripted.
There's excellence
and there's error.
What's recounted are
the frequent
three steps forward
and two backward
of the Chosen People
and often of the teller
in the telling.
For instance: over time
exile, slavery,
liberating exodus,
fidelity, infidelity,
maturing, mauling
and murder,
freedom and failing,
hope, renewal.
The values, insights,
imagery, and articulation,
are right from
central casting
of the writer's
time and place.
The ancients were at times
regressive
as they grew
PROGRESSIVE
The scriptures
reflect and recount
both and all.
A literal translation,
to say nothing of
a literal understanding,
of scripture can
at times mean
misrepresentation and
misunderstanding.
Example:
John 10:14
The Message
"I am the good Shepherd.
I know my own sheep
and my own sheep
know me.
In the same way,
the Fahrer knows me
and I know the Father.
I put the sheep
before myself,
sacrificing myself
if necessary."
In contemporary English
"to know"
means
to rationally understand.
It's cerebral, a head thing
and the knowing is limited
and not necessarily either
participative or causative.
As such, it is a
lame and limp translation
of the original Hebrew.
In Hebrew
"To know"
is bodied and passionate
love making
hot, sweet sex,
being swept away
into each other.
Deepest intimacy.
We note Mary:
"How can this be
as I do not
know man?"
Luke 1:34
With Jesus and us
"to know"
each other
is to make love,
melt into a oneness
just as Jesus and
the Father do.
And to top it off,
in the original Hebrew
it is not
"father"
as in English,
the one who
spermed us
and supports us.
The closest
we can come
to the marvel
of the word
in Hebrew is
"Daddy,"
the guy who's
always there for us,
who would do
anything for us
no matter
what it cost him,
the one who
cozy's us up
on his lap and
rocks us to safe,
serene sleep.
Now those wordings
are pulsating,
joyous and unitive,
about as far from
"to know "and "father"
as the hot sun is from
the cold, dark night
earth.
Sacred Scripture
is written only in
the present tense
of the writer's then,
there and how -
consciousness and
context.
When it comes
to scripture
it's either
keep it to
a perfunctive,
surface sense,
and that at the risk
of being unmoved
and unmoving,
or go deep
and never stop
marinating in the
message and meaning.
Sacred Scripture has
a pantry full of marinates.
The latter means
prayerful wonder,
a Study Bible
and commentaries
pluming the levels,
tones, texture, tinting,
context and senses
of scripture.
References
offered below
Originally the scriptures
were read and
considered communally,
as the people "gathered"
(L."ecclesia" - "church").
Back then there were
no printed copy's,
for solo reading,
just an expensive,
single copy which often
circulated through a
number of communities.
Best to get back
to communal hearing
and sharing.
It gives The Spirit
a lot more space
to sweep us deep.
Hopefully little Ollie
will grow in
experience, understanding,
expression and sharing
as he matures
over the years.
Hopefully we will as well
as we grow into living
The Word of Life,
as we mature and grow
ever more
spiritually and scripturally
PROGRESSIVE
******
REFERENCES
AND
RESOURSES
THINGS HIDDEN
SCRIPTURE AS
SPIRITUALITY
Richard Rohr, 2008,
Franciscan Media,
Cincinnati OH
ISBN
978-0-86716-659-0
Hands down,
THE BEST
I know for the
general public.
Readable, insightful,
takes you where
you need to go
clearly and simply.
******
WHAT DO WE DO
WITH THE BIBLE?
Richard Rohr, 2018,
The Center for Action
and Contemplation,
Albuquerque, NM,
ISBN
978-0-281-08321-3
Short, clear and concise.
Quite helpful.
******
THE INTERPRETER'S BIBLE
1957, Abington Press,
Nashville, TN, 12 Volumes,
Genesis to Revelation.
My "Go To" resource.
Good scholarship.
Lots there!
Individual volumes
or the whole set
are available from
Used Book Stores
and generally
at a reasonable price.
******
THE NEW
INTERPRETER'S
BIBLE
A COMMENTARY
IN
TWELVE VOLUMEES
1995, Abington Press,
Nashville, TN,
ISBN
0-687-27822-8
A different format
and tenor than
the predecessor above
- quite good, pricey.
******
WELCOME
to
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
a weekly
******
A Happy Hearty Shout Out
to
the expanding and extensive
gathering in here of so many
Sisters and Brothers
from
Singapore
You are welcome
We are blessed
"Behold, how good
and how pleasant
it is for brethren
to dwell together
in unity."
Psalm 133;1
IT SURE IS!!!
******
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AS ALWAYS
MOST GRATEFUL
to all who share
frankly speaking
with others.
You are the
Circulation
Department
here and
much appreciated.
I am already
looking foreword
to all of us
being together
here next week.
Love to all.
God Bless,
John Frank
aka
Ollie The Elder
******
