Templeton Project: Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John–Nicodemus

Back in October 2015 I wrote about the inauguration of the Abington Templeton Foundation (see here).  The project is now underway (see here) and I will be posting our writing here.

Check out the latest piece entitled “Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John–Nicodemus.”

See also:

• Grounds for the Project
• The Biblical Foundation – Apology
• Apology in the New Testament II
• Apology in the New Testament III
• With Gentleness and Respect
• Elect Exiles of the Dispersion – the Importance of Identity
• The Present Cultural Environment in America
• Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Push Back’
• Saint Paul’s Civility
• Unbelievers
• Christ, Culture, and Christians
• Jesus and His Opponents in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew
• The Holy Spirit as Apologist
• On Listening to God and One Another
• Deep Conviction and Commitment
• Questions Unbelievers (especially Atheists) May Ask in Dialogue
• Waning Faith and Yearning Heart
• The Apostle on Mars Hill (Areopagus)
• A Fire, a World of Unrighteousness
• Civil Blood Makes Civil Hands Unclean
• Examples of Uncivil and Civil Speech
• Of Self-Control
• Humor in Dialogue
• Utopian Dreams
• Do we understand each other?
• When We Differ
• Dialogue and Personality
• Of Anger
• Discipleship and Apologetics
• Nurturing Christian Disciples
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics I
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics II–Wise as Serpents and Innocent as Doves
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics III–Endurance
• Discipleship and Apologetics IV–Family Conflict
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics V–Doing the Will of the Father as Peacemakers
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XII–“The Tree is Known by Its Fruit”
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics VI–A Sword, Not Peace
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics VII–Repentance and the Forgiveness of Sins
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics VIII–Mission to the Gentiles
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics IX–The Parable of the Sower
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics X–“Fear not, do not be afraid
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XI–“Come to me, . . . and I will give you rest
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XIII–Humility
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XIV–Woes Turned to the Wisdom of Christ and the Blessings of the Kingdom
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XV–The Sign of the Cross
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XVI–The Resurrection
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XVII–The Judgment
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XVIII–The Vision
• Templeton Project: Inside the Heart and Mind of an Atheist
• Spare, Knowledgeable, and Wise Speech
• Truth as the Only Solid Foundation for Inquiry and Dialogue
• What is Bigotry
• What is Bigotry? Part II: Ideology
• Establishment and Distortion of the Facts
• Confused Mind and Inconstant Heart
• Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John–John the Baptist
• Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John–The Mother of Our Lord

_____________________________

Nicodemus, the Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night to inquire of Him about His ministry.  He recognizes Jesus as a teacher from God because of the signs that He does.

The passage (John 3: 1-21) is wrought with irony. When Jesus says that a person must be born again (or from above) to enter the kingdom, Nicodemus shows His misunderstanding by asking how a person can enter again into his mother’s womb.  Jesus responds by saying that a person must be born of water and the Spirit.

Later, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that He gives living water that is symbolic of eternal life.  To be born of water and the Spirit is to receive eternal life, the theme of the Gospel of John.  Out of the heart of a believer comes living water that represents the Spirit.  A person will receive the Spirit after Jesus is glorified.  His glorification begins on the cross and continues with His resurrection and return to the Father.  The narrator says that when the soldiers pierced Jesus, water and blood came out of His side.  The water may represent the Spirit.  When the resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples, He breathed on them the Holy Spirit (John 20: 19ff)  The time of the giving of and receiving the Spirit that John the Baptist had predicted has come.  John was told: “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” (John 1: 33b ESV)

Jesus criticizes Nicodemus for not believing that He is the source of eternal life. Jesus says to him, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3: 13-15 ESV)  Before Jesus makes this statement, he tells Nicodemus that if he cannot believe earthly things, how can he believe heavenly things?  What follows is probably the most well-known verse of the Bible, at least by Christians, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3: 16 ESV)

In the middle of this text, Nicodemus drops out of the picture as Jesus continues to explain eternal life. But, Nicodemus reappears once in John 7 and near the end of the Gospel.  Joseph of Arimathea, described as a disciple of Jesus asks for and receives Jesus’ corpse.  He and Nicodemus who brings myrrh and aloes prepare Jesus body for burial and bury Him in a new rock tomb.  Perhaps, Nicodemus is now also a believer.  Earlier in John 7, Nicodemus defends before other religious leaders the idea of giving Jesus a hearing and learning about Him before condeming Him.  By the end of the Gospel we can imagine Nicodemus became a believer in Jesus as the Son of Man, Lamb of God, Word, and Son of God that gives eternal life.

The apologist should never forget that he/she is presenting Jesus as the Son of Man and Son of God who grants eternal life to the world.  As the Gospel of John makes clear, people who hear the message will divide into those who believe and those who do not believe.  “Jesus says, “And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5: 27-29 ESV)

How do we witness to the faith while defending it?  We announce in the course of a discussion with non-believers what Jesus’ claim on us is, that we believe in HIm for eternal life.  We may not directly call for conversion among the attendees, but we explain why the faith is compelling to us so that in a more indirect manner we are calling others to join us in confessing Jesus as the Light of the world, the truth, and the way to eternal life.

Michael G. Tavella

February 10, 2020

YesSource: Live in London, 3/25/18

Here are my latest uploads to YesSource, my Yes rarities youtube page (about which you can read here).  This post is another addition to my series of Yes music posts and a collection of all my Yes-related posts is here.  Yes, of course, is a, if not the, premier progressive rock band, and I am an enormous fan of it.

You can see all of my Yessource uploads here.

My latest YesSource uploads can be found here:

• Yes Interviews: 3/25/18 – London – Question & Answer at YES50 Fan Convention at the Palladium
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London – Bill Bruford Introduces Yes (recording #1)
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London – Bill Bruford Introduces Yes (recording #2)
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London – Trevor Horn introduces Tempus Fugit
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London – Trevor Horn Banter
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London – Tempus Fugit (with Trevor Horn)
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London – Roundabout
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London – Introduction of Trevor Horn
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London – Dedication to Squire Family
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London – Steve Howe’s stage chat before the interval
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London – Band Introductions
• Yes Live: 3/25/18 – London- Steve Howe on Bill Bruford, Alan White, Jay Schellen, & Time and a Word

REASONS TODAY’S KIDS ARE BORED, ENTITLED, IMPATIENT WITH FEW REAL FRIENDS

Victoria Prooday, OT finds today’s kids come to school emotionally unavailable for learning. There are many factors in our modern lifestyle that contribute to this.

She writes:

I am an occupational therapist with years of experience working with children, parents, and teachers. I completely agree with this teacher’s message that our children are getting worse and worse in many aspects. I hear the same consistent message from every teacher I meet. Clearly, throughout my time as an Occupational Therapist, I have seen and continue to see a decline in kids’ social, emotional, and academic functioning, as well as a sharp increase in learning disabilities and other diagnoses.

As we know, the brain is malleable. Through environment, we can make the brain “stronger” or make it “weaker”. I truly believe that, despite all our greatest intentions, we unfortunately remold our children’s brains in the wrong direction. Here is why:

1. Technology

Using technology as a “Free babysitting service” is, in fact, not free at all. The payment is waiting for you just around the corner.  We pay with our kids’ nervous systems, with their attention, and with their ability for delayed gratification. Compared to virtual reality, everyday life is boring.

When kids come to the classroom, they are exposed to human voices and adequate visual stimulation as opposed to being bombarded with the graphic explosions and special effects that they are used to seeing on the screens.

After hours of virtual reality, processing information in a classroom becomes increasingly challenging for our kids because their brains are getting used to the high levels of stimulation that videos and games provide.

The inability to process lower levels of stimulation leaves kids vulnerable to academic challenges. Technology also disconnects us emotionally from our children and our families.

Parental emotional availability is the main nutrient for a child’s brain. Unfortunately, we are gradually depriving our children of that nutrient.
 

Get your PDF: 30 Tips to Help Parents of Boys!

2. Kids Get Everything The Moment They Want It

“I am Hungry!!” “In a sec I will stop at the drive thru” “I am Thirsty!” “Here is a vending machine.” “I am bored!” “Use my phone!”

The ability to delay gratification is one of the key factors for future success. We have the best intentions – to make our children happy – but unfortunately, we make them happy at the moment but miserable in the long term.

To be able to delay gratification means to be able to function under stress. Our children are gradually becoming less equipped to deal with even minor stressors, which eventually become huge obstacles to their success in life.

The inability to delay gratification is often seen in classrooms, malls, restaurants, and toy stores the moment the child hears “No” because parents have taught their child’s brain to get what it wants right away.

3. Kids Rule The World

“My son doesn’t like vegetables.” “She doesn’t like going to bed early.” “He doesn’t like to eat breakfast.” “She doesn’t like toys, but she is very good at her iPad” “He doesn’t want to get dressed on his own.” “She is too lazy to eat on her own.”

This is what I hear from parents all the time. Since when do children dictate to us how to parent them? If we leave it all up to them, all they are going to do is eat macaroni and cheese and bagels with cream cheese, watch TV, play on their tablets, and never go to bed.

What good are we doing them by giving them what they WANT when we know that it is not GOOD for them? Without proper nutrition and a good night’s sleep, our kids come to school irritable, anxious, and inattentive.  In addition, we send them the wrong message.

They learn they can do what they want and not do what they don’t want. The concept of “need to do” is absent. Unfortunately, in order to achieve our goals in our lives, we have to do what’s necessary, which may not always be what we want to do.  For example, if a child wants to be an A student, he needs to study hard. If he wants to be a successful soccer player, he needs to practice every day. Our children know very well what they want, but have a very hard time doing what is necessary to achieve that goal. This results in unattainable goals and leaves the kids disappointed.

4. Endless Fun

We have created an artificial fun world for our children. There are no dull moments. The moment it becomes quiet, we run to entertain them again, because otherwise, we feel that we are not doing our parenting duty.

We live in two separate worlds. They have their “fun“ world, and we have our “work” world.  Why aren’t children helping us in the kitchen or with laundry? Why don’t they tidy up their toys?

This is basic monotonous work that trains the brain to be workable and function under “boredom,” which is the same “muscle” that is required to be eventually teachable at school.  When they come to school and it is time for handwriting their answer is “I can’t. It is too hard. Too boring.” Why? Because the workable “muscle” is not getting trained through endless fun.

It gets trained through work.

5. Limited Social Interaction

We are all busy, so we give our kids digital gadgets and make them “busy” too. Kids used to play outside, where, in unstructured natural environments, they learned and practiced their social skills.

Unfortunately, technology replaced the outdoor time. Also, technology made the parents less available to socially interact with their kids. Obviously, our kids fall behind… the babysitting gadget is not equipped to help kids develop social skills. Most successful people have great social skills. This is the priority!

The brain is just like a muscle that is trainable and re-trainable. If you want your child to be able to bike, you teach him biking skills. If you want your child to be able to wait, you need to teach him patience.  If you want your child to be able to socialize, you need to teach him social skills. The same applies to all the other skills. There is no difference!

Train the Brain

You can make a difference in your child’s life by training your child’s brain so that your child will successfully function on social, emotional, and academic levels. Here is how:

1. Limit technology, and re-connect with your kids emotionally

• Surprise them with flowers, share a smile, tickle them, put a love note in their backpack or under their pillow, surprise them by taking them out for lunch on a school day, dance together, crawl together, have pillow fights
• Have family dinners, board game nights (see the list of my favorite board games), go biking, go to outdoor walks with a flashlight in the evening

2. Train delayed gratification

• Make them wait!!! It is okay to have “I am bored“ time – this is the first step to creativity
• Gradually increase the waiting time between “I want” and “I get”
• Avoid technology use in cars and restaurants, and instead teach them waiting while talking and playing games
• Limit constant snacking

3. Don’t be afraid to set the limits. Kids need limits to grow happy and healthy!!

• Make a schedule for meal times, sleep times, technology time
• Think of what is GOOD for them- not what they WANT/DON’T WANT. They are going to thank you for that later on in life. Parenting is a hard job. You need to be creative to make them do what is good for them because, most of the time, that is the exact opposite of what they want.
• Kids need breakfast and nutritious food. They need to spend time outdoor and go to bed at a consistent time in order to come to school available for learning the next day!
• Convert things that they don’t like doing/trying into fun, emotionally stimulating games

4. Teach your child to do monotonous work from early years as it is the foundation for future “work-ability”

• Folding laundry, tidying up toys, hanging clothes, unpacking groceries, setting the table, making lunch, unpacking their lunch box, making their bed
• Be creative. Initially make it stimulating and fun so that their brain associates it with something positive.

5. Teach social skills

• Teach them turn taking, sharing, losing/winning, compromising, complimenting others, using “please and thank you”

From my experience as an occupational therapist, children change the moment parents change their perspective on parenting. Help your kids succeed in life by training and strengthening their brain sooner rather than later!

By Victoria Prooday and published in February 18, 2020 (and modified on August 8, 2020) in Deep Roots at Home and can be found here.

LANDLORD/TENANT WARS

                My Firm has apparently risen to the top of some Internet referral sites offering lawyers’ names for landlord/tenant matters, as we have been deluged with calls and e mails about this area of the law in recent months. There appears to be genuine confusion on behalf of both tenants and landlords about the legalities of what they can and can’t do, and often this confusion leads to litigation. So, for the purpose of assisting people I am offering the following general tips.

                The landlord/tenant relationship is not an informal relationship.  It is quite often governed by stringent rules and regulations and laws both at the local and state level.  Therefore, it is a good idea to enter into a Lease, or at the very least, draft up some sort of written and signed contract as to the duties and responsibilities of each party, and what the remedies are if problems arise within that relationship. Quite often common sense is ignored in the haste to rent a property.

                The following illustration may appear extreme, but I assure you it is not, as it represents some of the more common situations we are presented with: 

Two girlfriends attending college leased a furnished house. The boyfriend of one of the tenants was going to move in with them temporarily, but he didn’t plan to pay rent as he was only going to stay for a short while, and his name wasn’t on the lease. They learned about the availability of the house because they saw a “for rent” sign posted with a number.  A man who answered the phone walked them through the house, said he was the agent for the landlord who lived out of town, and that all rental payments were to be made payable to him and sent to a post office box. As they walked through the house, they noticed a lot of stuff piled in it, which the agent said would be removed before they moved in. They also noticed a couple of cracked windows, a loose door handle which made it difficult to lock the door, a sink that didn’t drain properly, and a water stain on a bedroom  ceiling.  They didn’t have a lawyer, or even a parent, review the lease the landlord’s agent prepared because they trusted him as he seemed like a nice young guy. They didn’t take photos of the condition of the house, they didn’t have a contractor test the systems (like plumbing or electricity) of the house, and they didn’t add to the lease the things the agent said he would take care of.  The agent said they could get a pet, but that didn’t have to be mentioned in the lease. After their check cleared for the first month’ rent, the last month’s rent, and one month’s security deposit, the agent left a key for them under front door mat.

                This is what happened after they moved in.  After the first two weeks the roommate with the boyfriend had a fight with him and moved out.  She told her roommate that she wasn’t going to pay rent for future months, and her roommate could sue her, but she wasn’t going to get anything as she didn’t have any money, and the deposit monies were loans from her parents. Her boyfriend stated that he planned to stay longer than he had anticipated, but he couldn’t pay rent as he was living off of student loans.  Besides he said he had “squatter’s rights” and she could try and evict him, but he wasn’t leaving voluntarily. He also permitted a friend to share his room with him and pay him rent to assist with his expenses. The friend brought a puppy into the house which wasn’t housebroken. The remaining paying tenant noticed that none of the repairs had been made, but some of the stuff in the house had been moved into a corner of the basement. The tenant contacted the agent several times who insisted that the repairs were going to be made but didn’t have a timeframe.  After 3 months of paying the rent herself the tenant decided to withhold rent and was told that she had to “escrow” her rent in a specific manner. She began to escrow her rent, but nothing changed. In the fifth month a man came to the door and stated he had been out of town on business for six months, and when he tried his key he noticed he was locked out. He stated he never had an agent, and the house had never been available for rent. He asked to see a copy of the rental license the city required of the landlord, and the tenant said she had never been shown one. The owner said the cracked windows and other problems were caused by the tenant, and also, the dog had stained all of the carpets and he wanted all repairs made, or he would sue the tenant remaining on the lease.

                The moral of this story is cross your t’s and dot your i’s and be very careful when entering into a lease.  Make sure the property is owned by the person renting it, make sure the agent is authorized to rent it, make sure the repairs are completed before you move in, make sure you don’t let friends or relatives occupy the property for any length of time, make sure the list of repairs are noted on the lease and marked off when completed, and…., you get the picture. Landlords and tenants alike need to protect themselves.

By: Faye Riva Cohen, Esquire on her blog “Toughlawyerlady.”

Jail’s “God-Pod” Program Violates Establishment Clause

This is from religionclause.blogspot.com which you can find here:

In Young v. Newton, (ED VA, Oct. 16, 2020), a Virginia federal district court, while rejecting a number of claims by Muslim inmates, held that the Riverside Regional Jail Authority (along with its superintendent and the program chaplain) violated the Establishment Clause when they created the Christian-based Life Learning Program (known as the “God Pod”). Participating inmates lived in a separate pod and had access to a microwave and initially were able to single-bunk. The court said in part:

The LLP was unquestionably based on Christian principles and the Bible, which … is a Christian book. The administration of that program demonstrated a preference for Christianity over other religions and extended benefits to those who subscribed to that preference. Any secular purpose of the LLP, such as to teach skills related to intellectual, emotional, spiritual, relational, occupational, and financial success, was pursued through religious, specifically Christian, teachings, which had the primary effect of advancing Christianity at the Riverside Regional Jail.

CAIR issued a press release announcing the decision.

You can learn more about this issue here.

Templeton Project: Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John–The Mother of Our Lord

Back in October 2015 I wrote about the inauguration of the Abington Templeton Foundation (see here).  The project is now underway (see here) and I will be posting our writing here.

Check out the latest piece entitled “Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John–The Mother of Our Lord.”

See also:

• Grounds for the Project
• The Biblical Foundation – Apology
• Apology in the New Testament II
• Apology in the New Testament III
• With Gentleness and Respect
• Elect Exiles of the Dispersion – the Importance of Identity
• The Present Cultural Environment in America
• Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Push Back’
• Saint Paul’s Civility
• Unbelievers
• Christ, Culture, and Christians
• Jesus and His Opponents in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew
• The Holy Spirit as Apologist
• On Listening to God and One Another
• Deep Conviction and Commitment
• Questions Unbelievers (especially Atheists) May Ask in Dialogue
• Waning Faith and Yearning Heart
• The Apostle on Mars Hill (Areopagus)
• A Fire, a World of Unrighteousness
• Civil Blood Makes Civil Hands Unclean
• Examples of Uncivil and Civil Speech
• Of Self-Control
• Humor in Dialogue
• Utopian Dreams
• Do we understand each other?
• When We Differ
• Dialogue and Personality
• Of Anger
• Discipleship and Apologetics
• Nurturing Christian Disciples
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics I
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics II–Wise as Serpents and Innocent as Doves
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics III–Endurance
• Discipleship and Apologetics IV–Family Conflict
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics V–Doing the Will of the Father as Peacemakers
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XII–“The Tree is Known by Its Fruit”
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics VI–A Sword, Not Peace
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics VII–Repentance and the Forgiveness of Sins
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics VIII–Mission to the Gentiles
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics IX–The Parable of the Sower
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics X–“Fear not, do not be afraid
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XI–“Come to me, . . . and I will give you rest
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XIII–Humility
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XIV–Woes Turned to the Wisdom of Christ and the Blessings of the Kingdom
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XV–The Sign of the Cross
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XVI–The Resurrection
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XVII–The Judgment
• Discipleship in Matthew and Apologetics XVIII–The Vision
• Templeton Project: Inside the Heart and Mind of an Atheist
• Spare, Knowledgeable, and Wise Speech
• Truth as the Only Solid Foundation for Inquiry and Dialogue
• What is Bigotry
• What is Bigotry? Part II: Ideology
• Establishment and Distortion of the Facts
• Confused Mind and Inconstant Heart
• Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John–John the Baptist

_____________________________

The mother of our Lord attended a wedding feast at Cana to which Jesus and His disciples were also invited.  When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother informed her Son that there was no more wine.  He gave a strange answer, “Woman, what has this to do with me?  My hour has not yet come.” And then, Mary told the servants to do what Jesus bid them.  (See John 2: 1 ff ESV)

Jesus instructed the servants to fill six stone jars with water and then to draw some out.  The water had turned to wine.  They took the wine to the master of the feast who approached the bridegroom to say, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people had drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” (John 2: 9-10 ESV)  The narrator then comments, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” (John 2: 11 ESV)

What is going on here?  What is Jesus telling us?  His hour is the hour of His death; His glory is the glory of the Father.  “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls in to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit.”  (John 12:  23-24 ESV)  The hour is the time when Jesus is glorified on the cross.  Before His death Jesus addresses the Father:  “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”  (John 17: 1b ESV)

While the signs (miracles) that Jesus’ performs reveal His glory, His death on the cross is the supreme manifestation of the glory that the Son has had from all eternity.  At the beginning of the Gospel the Christian community witnesses to this glory, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”(John 1: 14 ESV)

Mary, the mother of Jesus, along with the beloved disciple and others stand at the foot of the cross at the time of His death. He announces from the cross, “It is finished,” that is, all that He came to do is accomplished.  At the wedding of Cana near the beginning of His ministry, Jesus points to the hour of glory when He accomplishes what He set out to do in obedience to the Father. Sent into the world by the Father, Jesus sends the disciples into the world.  “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17: 18 ESV)

As we focus on the cross of Christ and His glory, we are to remember both His mission in the world to save His people and our mission in the world so that others may be saved.  As apologists and witnesses our identity is firmly anchored in the cross of Christ where redemption is found.  No defense of the faith goes without the intention to share the life-saving mission of Jesus Christ, the Word, the Lamb of God, the Son of Man.

We do not find glory in ourselves but only in the Transcendent One, God, God in Jesus Christ our Lord.  We do not find glory in the powerful but in the cross on which our Savior died.  It is He that we represent to the world for its salvation.  Apologetics is not only a defense of the truth, but also a witness to others of what is true so that they may believe.

Michael G. Tavella

February 4, 2020

Jon Arcieri Songs: 11:11

Joe Arcieri is a friend of mine who I worked with for many years during my ten years working for Acme Markets.  Joe, when not stocking milk or saving lives as a nurse, is an excellent guitar player.  I have had the privilege, from time to time, of (badly) plunking my bass guitar with Joe as he melts a face or two with a great solo.

As great musicians do, Joe has written some of his own songs and keeps a soundcloud site to post them.  When I have opportunity, I will post his music here as well.

Here is his composition called “11:11” which you can find here.

Here are the links to the previously posted songs by Joe:

• Long Walk of the Navajo 3
• Dualidad de diversos estilos de la guitarra
• Electric Echoes
• Digital Journey Ver 2
• Leap of Faith
• Black Magic Mix
• 3 Mod Not So Medley 2
• eJam
• Raw Track Mix 1
• V Jam
• Vela and Carina
• The Mixer
• The Mixer Part IIb
• Unfinished Business Part 1 (Stealth Mix)
• Serra
• Old School
• Siddhartha
• The Untamed
• The Siren’s Song
• Soul Divine
• Whistle (Rock Instrumental Version)
• Hall of Fame
• Under Pressure (V3.6)
• Bad Romance (Maximo Guitar Slinger Version)
• Diamonds Rock Hard Mix
• I’m With You
• Die Young (A Much Needed Rockover)
• Valles Marineris
• Try (Less Pop More Rock!)
• Hey Porsche (Hard Rock Instrumental Version)
• Crash My Party (Ver 2.1)
• Come Undone (Rock Ver 1.6)
• In the Ayer (Guitar Slinger Version)
• Sure Be Cool If You Did
• Get Your Shine On (Mezclador de Tejas)
• In My Head (Fiend Without A Face)
• Hot and Cold 5
• 22
• The Other Side (El Horror De Dracula)
• Safe And Sound (Maximo Metal Mod) 3
• Cool
• Heaven (Nelly)
• Timber (Tribute To The Duke)
• Burn it Down
• Let Her Go
• Bottoms Up
• Get Me Some of That
• Play It Again
• This Is How We Roll (Homage To “A Fist Full Of Dollars”)
• Nature’s Law
• Yeah!
• Cracks In Time
• The Burning Mirrors Of Archimedes
• Between Two Worlds
• The Nile Deep
• Lady Luck
• Mirror rorriM
• The Petting Zoo
• Native
• Neverwhere
• Sovereignty Of The Holy Sea
• Legion
• Fly Eagles Fly (with a touch of heaviness)

Mapping the Incarnation: How the Christian Narrative Makes Sense of our World

I always wanted to align my life with what was true. Discovering the truthful, unfortunately, proved to be rather more difficult than I had realized.

I stopped being an atheist while I was a student at Oxford University late in 1971, partly because of my growing realization of the intellectual over-ambition of the forms of atheism I had earlier espoused, but also because I came to realize that Christianity offered a way of making sense of the world I observed around me and experienced within me.

Christianity thus offered me a rationally plausible and imaginatively compelling “big picture” of reality that brought my worlds and concerns into focus. It is not so much a collection of isolated individual beliefs, but a web of interconnected beliefs, which gains its strength and appeal partly because of its comprehensiveness, and partly because of its intellectual and imaginative resilience.

Christian theology weaves together the threads of biblical truth to disclose a pattern of meaning – like a tapestry, which brings many individual threads together, thus allowing their deeper significance and interconnections to be appreciated.

No single thread can show that pattern; it only emerges through the theological process of weaving the threads together.

A central theme of this “big picture” is the incarnation. This idea came to be of particular importance to me as I began to grasp that atheism was much less intellectually resilient and existentially satisfying than I had once believed to be the case. One of my objections to Christian belief had been my feeling that God was existentially irrelevant. I conceived this non-existent God as a distant figure, without any involvement in the world. God was in heaven – wherever that was. And I was located in the flow of space and time that we call human history. Since God was absent from the flow of history, God seemed to me to be an irrelevance.

Yet as I began to grasp what Christianity was about, I came to see that the core Christian idea of incarnation addressed this deep existential concern. The incarnation spoke of a God who chose to inhabit history; who chose to come to the place which I inhabited as one of us; who suffered, as I and so many others did, but who also chose to make that same suffering the basis of our salvation. I discovered a God who journeyed to my place of exile in order to bring me home.

Some are drawn to Christianity because it offers a strong sense of identity and purpose; others because of the beauty of its vision of God and the world. In my own case, I experienced an intellectual conversion, which changed the way I saw and understood things. Both the New Testament and many early Christian writers speak of metanoia. Although this Greek term is often translated as “repentance,” this does not really convey the full richness of its meaning. The Greek term metanoia means something like “a complete change of mind,” a mental about-face, or a fundamental re-orientation of the way in which we think, leading to a new way of seeing or imagining the world and acting within it. The incarnation offers us this new way of seeing Christ – and in doing so, changes the way in which we see both God and ourselves.

While the doctrine of the incarnation helps us grasp the significance of Jesus Christ for humanity, it also tells us something about the kind of God that Christians love and worship. As I’ve already mentioned, during my own atheist phase I thought of God as a distant reality standing behind or outside history, detached from human existential concerns and shielded from the traumas of history. I could see no intellectual or existential case for believing in a God like that.

Yet the biblical affirmation that the “word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14) offers a radically different concept of God: not the abstract and remote “God of the philosophers,” but a God who cares for us; not as a passive distant observer, but as an active fellow traveller and constant companion within the historical process. God is someone we can know and address in worship and prayer. The philosopher Roger Scruton expressed this point rather nicely: “The God of the philosophers disappeared behind the world, because he was described in the third person, and not addressed in the second.” The “incarnation” is not a static and timeless idea, but the Christian way of interpreting something which happened – the life, death and resurrection of Christ – and its implications.

“Crucified under Pontius Pilate”

So how can we begin to do justice to the astonishingly rich Christian understanding of the identity and significance of Jesus Christ? One answer is offered by the British philosopher Mary Midgely, who argues that we need multiple maps to cope with the complexity of our world. No single map is good enough to do justice to the many layers and aspects of human existence. Alongside maps of our physical worlds, we need some way of representing deeper truths about human existence, and relating these to our everyday experiences. One map helps us to understand the shape of our world, and how it works; another helps us to understand our true nature and destiny, and why we are here. We need both maps to inhabit this world meaningfully. These two maps need to be superimposed on one other, allowing us to journey through our physical world and discover our meaning and purpose. The maps work at different levels; yet both are essential to human wellbeing and flourishing.

Our need for multiple maps is brought out by reflecting on a famous historical event – Julius Caesar’s crossing of the River Rubicon, just south of the Italian city of Ravenna. The Roman historian Suetonius is one of several writers who tells us of how Caesar led his army southwards in 49 BC, crossing the Rubicon on his way to Rome from Cisalpine Gaul. This action can be mapped onto the physical landscape of Italy, so that the general course of Caesar’s march southwards towards Rome can be tracked. The Rubicon is not a particularly broad or deep river, so the physical act of crossing it was not remarkable in itself. So why do we remember this event?

To understand why Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon is of such historical importance, we need to use another map. The Rubicon marked a political frontier between the territories of the Roman provinces, and the area controlled directly by Rome itself. This political map allows the physical act of crossing this river to be supplemented with an appreciation of its deeper significance. In crossing the river, Caesar was declaring war against the Roman republic, thus precipitating a civil war. If we are to appreciate the full significance of this event, physical and political maps need to be laid over one another.

The same principle applies to theological maps of meaning. The New Testament sees the death of Jesus Christ on a cross as being of decisive importance to The Creeds declare that Jesus was “crucified under Pontius Pilate,” making clear that this was an execution, which can be dated historically to the period during which Pontius Pilate was prefect of the Roman province of Judaea (AD 26-36). It can be situated geographically to somewhere immediately outside the ancient city walls of Jerusalem, although the archaeological evidence is not sufficiently clear to allow this to be located this more precisely.

Yet here is the point: a geographical, legal and historical mapping of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ fails to disclose its full significance. Paul, repeating the compact summary of the Christian faith that was passed on to him after his conversion, speaks of Christ’s death using an additional theological map. It was a prophetically predicted event which had the potential to transform the human situation. “I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). Jesus Christ thus did not simply die; he died for our sins. The historical assertion that Jesus died is affirmed, but it is supplemented by an understanding of the significance of this event, using a theological map of meaning.

We can thus think of the incarnation in terms of a theological map, which brings the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ into sharp theological and spiritual focus. It takes nothing away from the historical narrative, but allows the full significance of that narrative to be grasped. Above all, it allows the narrative of Jesus Christ to be connected with God and humanity.

Christianity’s grand narrative

How does the incarnation fit into this loose and shifting intellectual context? The rise of postmodernism reflects – or has created, depending on your perspective – a growing confidence in the power of narratives to express and communicate deep truths. Postmodern thinkers may have misgivings and suspicions about the ambition of “grand stories” or metanarratives; they have, however, no problems about narratives themselves, realizing that it is impossible to give an account of our individual and communal lives without using the structure of a story.

The use of narratives in Christian theology is of especial importance, as the Lucerne theologian Edmund Arens reminds us:

“Storytelling is fundamental for faith because it is only through this act of telling that our story can be connected with that of God and Jesus; because this story must be told; and so that it can be told as an unfinished story into which the faithful write their own stories and, in doing so move the story forward. Thus at its basic level, the Christian faith has a ‘narrative deep structure’.”

You can see how this incarnational narrative is able to correlate three stories into a coherent whole, allowing our own stories to be connected with the biblical narratives about God and about Jesus Christ. As I hope to show in a forthcoming book on narrative apologetics, the Christian narrative and its many sub-narratives allow us imaginatively winsome and intellectually engaging ways of illuminating the meaning of life.

Christianity tells a story about God, humanity and the world, a story that pivots around the life, death and resurrection of Christ. The incarnation both gives coherence and focus to the entire Christian narrative, and allows us to grasp its relevance for human life and thought. Above all, it expands our vision of reality, helping us to realize that we too often satisfy ourselves with inadequate accounts of ourselves in the universe. As the American novelist and theologian Marilynne Robinson puts it, rationalism ends up imprisoning us within a limited world, diminishing our hopes and expectations, and failing to capture what is so important about being human:

“The modern world, insofar as it is proposed to humankind as its habitation, is too small, too dull, too meager for us. After all, we are very remarkable. We alone among the creatures have learned a bit of the grammar of the universe.”

The Christian story affirms that, and unfolds how, God has paid us the compliment of coming to where we are in the incarnation, taking our form, partly in order to free us from this restricted and restricting vision of reality. God constructs and unveils a new habitation, which we are invited to enter – and enjoy.

The New Testament and the long tradition of Christian reflection on its foundational documents affirm that God entered into the world of time and space in Jesus Christ: “The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14). If God entered human history, when did this happen? Where did this happen? What did it look like? Who saw this happen?

Answering these questions demands a story – an incarnational narrative of the entry of God into our world by those who witnessed it and appreciated its significance: “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us” (1 John 1:1-2).

By Alister McGrath and published on July 16, 2018 in ABC Religion & Ethics and can be found here.

“SURPRISE” MONEY JUDGMENTS

Many people are very surprised to learn, sometimes many years later, that they have been sued and a money judgment has been entered against them in a court of law.  The usual ways in which they learn this is if a judgment appears on their credit record, or appears on a title report when they either attempt to purchase a new property or refinance a property they already own.

How can this happen without their knowledge? Although this scenario may vary in different courts and different geographical jurisdictions, as each state and local area have different rules, the usual situation is that someone has sued a person (or a business entity) and then a process server files an affidavit with the court which states that said person or entity has been served. If a person does not appear in court, the court requires that valid service must have been made upon a person or an entity of the complaint before a court will enter what is known as a default judgment against them. A default judgment may be known by a different name in different jurisdictions, but whatever it is called it means that a judgment was entered because a person or an entity did not appear or defend the complaint in court.

Depending on local court rules, service can be made upon the person sued, any adult who answered the door, who is presumed to live there, or sometimes service is permitted just by posting on the property. If personal service cannot be made a court can be requested to permit alternative types of service which involve sending notice by first class mail, certified mail, posting on the property, and sometimes publishing the notice in a newspaper. Also, especially in landlord tenant cases, if someone still has a registered address, but no longer lives at the property, service may be made on the registered address although the tenant has moved. It is also not the court’s or a process server’s responsibility to discover new addresses, use a forwarding address they become aware of, or do a freedom of information or other search with the post office or another entity.

Many people are surprised to learn that whoever may have answered their door to the process server either did not give the person sued the complaint, or tossed the complaint in a drawer, or destroyed the complaint, etc.  One’s spouse, partner, significant other, child, or roommate may purposely not forward the complaint to the person sued.  It is also not unusual that a business has been sued and the person served tossed the complaint in a drawer or didn’t tell anyone in a timely fashion. Also the person may have also refused to accept service, and the process service dropped the complaint at the door, and this is sometimes considered good service also.  None of the above instances necessarily means that valid service under the law was not made.

Further, in some instances there are unscrupulous process servers who lie about making service so they can get paid, because sometimes they cannot charge a fee until valid service is made, and sometimes make up a description of who allegedly they served, when no one was served.     

Many people receive their second surprise when they learn that it is usually not a simple matter to remove such a judgment of which they are not aware from one’s record.  A money judgment is not removed from one’s record until it is marked satisfied by the person or company who entered the judgment. Therefore, a court will not remove the judgment just because you ask them to. Whether this is a fair situation or not doesn’t enter into the process. It is a situation that must be addressed in a formal, legal fashion.  

If you learn that a judgment exists against you, get the court records as soon as possible. This may or may not be possible to do online depending on whether the court system posts such records, and how old the judgment is. Once you get the record you have a couple of choices. The first is that you can petition the court to open the judgment and you have to give valid reasons to do so as supported by the law. This is usually not possible if some period of time has passed, because when you actually learned of the judgment is not the issue. When I say period of time, even 3 to 6 months may be considered too long by the courts. The issue is when you should have, if you had been diligently monitoring your credit reports, learned of the judgment, not when you actually did learn. If your petition is granted, the court will schedule another hearing. If your petition is denied, you can appeal to a higher court, but this petition will usually be upheld if a length of time has passed.

Your second option, and this may be your only option if the court denies your petition, is to try and either work out a payment plan or a lump sum payment with a deduction to pay the judgment with whoever is holding the judgment. This has to happen even if you feel you don’t owe the judgment if you want to get the judgment marked satisfied and removed from your record. Remember to make sure that you receive an agreement that the judgment will be marked satisfied if you pay it.

The second option may also be difficult if the person you owe money to has died, cannot be located if still alive, if it is a business they may no longer be in business, or sold the business, or changed names, etc., or their attorney is no longer in practice, etc., etc. You may have to pay to have them tracked down. Depending on the jurisdiction, if a judgment has not been collected in many years, it may no longer be valid but it still may appear on one’s record. Judgments also may be required to be revived, and may fall off of one’s credit report after a period of time, and then reappear again once revived. SO THE MORAL OF THIS BLOG IS BE EVER VIGILENT IN MONITORING YOUR CREDIT, AND REVIEW YOUR RECORDS, INCLUDING COURT RECORDS, WHICH USUALLY MAINTAIN RECORDS BY NAME, TO SEE IF YOU HAVE BEEN SUED AND OWE A JUDGMENT TO SOMEONE.

By: Faye Riva Cohen, Esquire on her blog “Toughlawyerlady.”

Student Senate President Who Was Removed For His Religious Views Gets Limited Relief

This is from religionclause.blogspot.com which you can find here:

In Denton v. Thrasher, (ND FL, Oct. 8, 2020), a Florida federal district court held that Florida State University’s Student Senate acted unconstitutionally when it removed Jack Denton as Student Senate president. (He remained a member of the Senate.)  Student Senate took the action after Denton’s private chat room comments were publicly circulated.  The offending remarks were:

BlackLivesMatter.com fosters “a queer-affirming network” and defends transgenderism. The ACLU defends laws protecting abortion facilities and sued states that restrict access to abortion. Reclaim the Block claims less police will make our communities safer and advocates for cutting PDs’ budgets. This is a little less explicit, but I think it’s contrary to the Church’s teaching on the common good….

I don’t mean to anger anyone – I know this is a very emotional topic. However, it is important to know what you’re supporting when you’re Catholic. If I stay silent while my brothers and sisters may be supporting an organization that promotes grave evils, I have sinned through my silence. I love you all, and I want us all to be aware of the truth. As far as it’s a religious issue or not, there isn’t an aspect of our lives that isn’t religious, because God wants our whole lives and everything we do to be oriented around him!

The court said in part:

Denton is not here to complain about insults or hurt feelings. His claim is that he lost his job—his student government position—because he chose to exercise his First Amendment rights.

The court however limited its relief to an order that Denton be paid for the six hours per week for the rest of the term that he would have served as Student Senate president. It refused to order that Denton be reinstated to his position since that could produce “tumult and chaos.”  Inside Higher Ed reports on the decision.

You can learn more about this issue here.