Death in the Pot (September/ October 2007)
by
Viola Larson
Prayer, mindfulness, making bread, cheese and beer, celebrations for Saint
Nicholas and celebrations for old wise women who call themselves crones,
that’s a lot to pack into one magazine. But this is a wide sample of the
subject matter found in the September/October 2007 _Horizons _under the
sub-title ‘Celebrations and Sabbath.”
Beginning with the beautiful cover picture, ‘Saying Grace” by Robert A.
Alejandro, this _Horizons_ is filled with both good and bad ideas, concepts
and theology. Like the pot of good food the followers of Elisha were making
until someone added wild poisonous gourds to the mix*,* this issue has
hidden poison (2 Kings 4:38-41)*. *It is necessary to untwine the unbiblical
and harmful from the good.
This particular review will include some comments on ‘How to Use Horizons
Magazine [1] ,” an extra placed on Presbyterian Women’s web site.
*Prayer*
The front inside cover articledeals with prayer. Richard Mouw’s devotional,
‘Praying in Public*,”* is very good. The Editors of _Horizons _are to be
thanked for allowing an Evangelical to write a devotional for their
publication. They and the author should also be thanked for using the word
‘Lord” both in the author’s text and in the text of the scriptures. (There
is a growing controversy in the Christian feminist community about the use
of the word *’*Lord” even in the biblical text, but this is after all the
first confession of Christendom; Jesus is Lord.)1
Mouw writes about the reasons for praying in public places such as Burger
King. He emphasizes gratitude to the Lord for his gifts as a reason for such
prayer. And he does not just see grace as gratitude for food but also as a
way of thanking God for all of his gifts. For Mouw, these include children
running about in the restaurant; they are those ‘fashioned in the image of
their Creator.”
*Keeping Sabbath: Biblical & Buddhist*
There are two main articles about Sabbath keeping. The first one is ‘The
Sabbath Promise,” by Michaela Bruzzese (4)*. *The other is ‘Cultivating a
Sabbath Heart,” by Amy Starr Redwine (12)*. *They both have some
interesting, even authentic, points about human attitudes toward God,
humanity and self, but they lack a good biblical definition of the Christian
Sabbath. They also lack the Word that reaches into the very being of
Christians and pulls them down before their Lord in adoration and praise.
Bruzzese uses the text, ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened and
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me and you will
find rest for your selves (Matt 11:28-29 NAB). The author states that
because Matthew has placed this text about resting between chapter 10:5-39
(about the hardness of discipleship) and chapter 13 (about the rejection of
the gospel by others) it was his way of showing that rest makes a completed
discipleship.
Bruzzese writes, ‘The *ability* of Jesus’ followers to be as profoundly
rooted in him as they are in struggling for the kingdom is paramount to
Matthew’s understanding of discipleship.” (Bold mine*.*) The author uses
most of the rest of the article to write about this rest, equating it with
the rest pictured by the Jews keeping Sabbath. Finally turning toward the
Christian’s Sabbath, she emphasizes how such rest must be done in community.
The problem is that Bruzzese tends to turn the rest that Christ offers the
believer into an additional work. Instead, the rest promised by Jesus is a
rest in him and a means of relinquishing our own works.
It is our union with Jesus Christ that provides the rest. John Calvin
explains how the Jewish Sabbath is partially a shadow of God’s rest*,* which
is fulfilled in Christ. For that reason, in Christ we are meant to rest from
our own works ‘in order that the Lord may work in us by his Spirit.”
Therefore, although costly, discipleship is joy*-*filled and is itself full
of rest.
Calvin goes on to point out that there is also a necessity in keeping
Sabbath as a day for private individual devotions and a day for members of
the Church to hear the word and receive the sacraments. Additionally it is
meant as a gift of rest for those who serve others. (Institutes Book I Chap.
VIII, paragraph 34)
Redwine, in her article ‘Cultivating a Sabbath Heart,” focuses on an idea
called ‘mindfulness,” and she admits that its origins are from
Buddhist*s*’meditative practice. It is useful to note that the picture that
is used for this article is a woman sitting in the yoga position under a
single tree looking into what appears to be nothingness. It is somewhat
reminiscent of the Buddha sitting under the Bo tree experiencing
enlightenment.
Redwine attempts to substitute mindfulness for the keeping of a Sabbath day,
making it a useful tool for keeping Sabbath moments. She attempts to
Christianize the idea suggesting that it can be found in the life of Jesus
and among the Christian mystics of past ages. Redwine writes:
In the Christian tradition, the roots of mindfulness can be traced from
meditative practices of Jesus, to third- and fourth-century desert monks, to
the anonymous author of the cloud of unknowing, to Theresa of Avila, to John
of the Cross and to Thomas Merton (among others). Meditation in Christianity
is known as contemplative prayer. While mindfulness meditation encourages
focus on the breath, in contemplative prayer the practitioner typically
attends to a word or phase (such as come Lord Jesus’). *In both traditions,
the goal is to empty the mind of discursive thought*, the endless chatter
with which our minds are typically filled. (Bold mine*.*)
But this is an overreach, because the goal of contemplative prayer is not to
empty the mind of discursive thought but to draw the Christian into a deeper
relationship with the Lord.
Redwine’s suggestion that focusing on a word or one’s breath will aid one in
enhancing, ‘the ability to attend to everyday moments without becoming
caught up in thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations that may or may not be
relevant to that moment,” is decidedly Buddhist and totally disconnected
from Jesus’ communion with his Father or the Christian mystic*s*’ spiritual
experiences.
For a far deeper and authentically biblical view of Christian contemplation
and spiritual practice I highly recommend _Ecstasy and Intimacy: When the
Holy Spirit Meets the Human Spirit_ by Edith M. Humphrey who is Associate
Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
*Celebrations: Saintly & Witchy *
Cynthia O’Brien’s article ‘Celebrating Saint Nicholas,” is delightful. The
author explains how this holiday is different from Christmas Eve and she
tells some of the legends of the life of Saint Nicholas. O’Brien also
explains that he was a real person and tells how her family has celebrated
this holiday.
Although she mentions several books about this particular Christian Bishop,
I would also like to make a suggestion. Although it is Catholic, the cartoon
film ‘Nicholas: The Boy Who Became Santa,” is wonderful and my
grandchildren have enjoyed it many times. It follows as close as possible
the life of Saint Nicholas.
Another celebration article, a small box one, is written by Louise Davidson,
Presbyterian Women’s Vice Moderator for Justice and Peace and on the
Editorial Committee for _Horizons_.(7)*. * Her article, under ‘Here’s How
One PW Celebrates*,*” is alarming to say the least.
Davidson writes about turning 60 and how hard that was for her. Looking for
a ceremony to mark her passage into an older age, she came upon a ceremony
called a ‘croning” ceremony. She explains that a crone is a woman of age
and wisdom. Davidson writes that she wanted the ceremony to focus on her
spiritual self. The ceremony she describes, attended only by women, seems
Christian in that the women she invited read scriptures and prayed for her.
Unheard of by most Christian women, the name and the ceremony are,
metaphorically speaking, a spider’s web*,* and lest anyone become entangled
I will explain. In the nineteenth century as a new religion was forming in
Britain which would later be called Wicca or Witchcraft*,* a very evil man
deeply involved in the occult shaped the way pagan or Wicca women would
later think of themselves and their deity. I have written in another place:
Aleister Crowley was an occultist and a magician, whose contribution to the
formation of nineteenth century British Witchcraft was an understanding of
the goddess having a triple aspect related to the aspects of the moon. This
view, very prevalent in Wicca today, sees the aspects as three supposed
stages of woman’s life. Leading occultists, including Crowley, named those
three aspects maiden, mother and *crone*. Sometimes the crone aspect is
referred to as a wise woman. Starhawk [*a* leading contemporary Witch] in a
meditation on the crone aspect of the goddess writes, ‘The Crone is the Wise
Woman, infinitely old.”2
A croning ceremony and the title crone come from the pagan religion of
Wicca. The terms have filtered into some of the more radical feminist groups
and obviously into some women’s groups in the mainline churches. Rosemary
Radford Ruether, a radical feminist scholar, wrote a book in 1986 entitled
_Woman-Church: Theology & Practice_*,* which includes a croning ceremony.
The ceremony she describes includes scripture reading using the Wisdom
texts, but it also includes casting a circle and incantations much like
those in Wiccan circles. The important thing to remember is that crone and
croning ceremonies are related to the worship of goddesses.
*Hospitality *
‘Keeping Time” by Anitra Kitts is, once again, delightful, and for me this
article has some personal aspects. One of the personal aspects is that the
article is about keeping time in a Christian manner by taking time to be
creative with food. And this means the kind of food that is filled with
life: bread, cheese and beer. Just yesterday I finished making several
loaves of bread from a starter I keep going continuously in my refrigerator
and I have made hard cheese as well as soft cheese.
The other personal aspect is Jeff Hoffmeyer. Kitts writes how he makes his
own beer and labeled the first batch with his new son’s name, Andersen
Hoffmeyer, giving it as birth announcements to his family and friends. Jeff
is my church’s new interim Minister for Congregational Life and Small
Groups. And he teaches an excellent class, ‘Bible 101.”
*Nurturing Children/Destroying Children*
Carol Gruber’s excellent article*,* ‘Growing Relationships,” is about Hazel
Wilson*,* the Pastor of New Bethel Presbyterian Church in Dillon*,* South
Carolina. Wilson is the catalyst for a summer camp for children who are,
during the day, on their own through summer vacation. According to Gruber,
they are not only given something to do*,* they are also fed breakfast and
lunch. In addition Wilson does volunteer work with ‘a year-round program for
teens that teaches abstinence.”
Another noteworthy article is ‘Builders of a Legacy, Keepers of the Faith:
Celebrating 200 Years of Black Presbyterian Women,” by Ellen Birkett
Morris. Although I don’t necessarily agree with all of these women’s
theology, I think the article is excellent and an important read. All of
these women have worked hard to make a difference in their own lives and the
lives of those around them.
On the other hand the references to this article in ‘How to Use _Horizons
_Magazine” points the reader to two articles by the ethicist Peter Singer
without really explaining his philosophy. Singer is philosophically a
utilitarian meaning that his ethics is based on the idea that whatever works
for the most people is the right thing to do. This is, of course, not a
biblical concept. Singer takes the idea to its lowest depth. One of his
philosophical thoughts is that parents should have the right to decide
whether to let a baby live or die, not just before birth, but at least a
month after birth.
There are, as can be seen above, some very good articles in this issue of
_Horizons._ But drinking or eating good food is hardly beneficial if someone
hides poison in it. Hopefully a time will come when all poison gourds will
be forbidden in the only official magazine offered to Presbyterian Women.
———————————
1 For instance see the translation used in this issue of _Horizons_ in the
article, ‘Blessings of the Hands*, *” by Pat Gleich. Also see the
devotional used in *the *last _Horizons_ on the cover inside page and VOW’S
response in ‘Jesus Christ Lord: Name Above Every Name, A Review of the
July/August 2007 _Horizons, _And God saw that it was good”’ at
http://layman.wpengine.com/Documents/Doc0179.aspx.
2 See Ronald Hutton, T_he Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan
Witchcraft_(Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999), and Starhawk, _The Spiral
Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess_, 10th
Anniversary Edition_ _ (New York: Harper & Row Publishers 1989) 93; found in
Viola Larson ‘The Rise of Radical Feminism in the Mainline Churches: A
History, Part 1,”
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