2 Maccabees 6:1-17 – The king sends an “old man from Athens to compel the Jews to abandon their ancestral customs and live no longer by the laws of God; and to profane the Temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus” (6:1) -- to compel the Jews to accept Hellenization.

The Temples in Jerusalem and Samaria are filled with idols and the “altar of sacrifice was loaded with victims proscribed by the laws as unclean” (6:5).  There is a monthly celebration of…

2 Maccabees 5 - The author tells us that during an expedition against Egypt by Antiochus, a series of apparitions hits Jerusalem. During this time, on a false report that Antiochus had died, Jason leads an unexpected attack on Jerusalem. He slaughters many and causes Menelaus to take refuge in the Citadel, but he does not succeed and finally flees and dies abroad.

The king thinks Judaea is in revolt, so he comes and “storms the city” massacring 40,000 and…

2 Maccabees 4 – After Seleucus’ death, Antiochus Epiphanes succeeds to the kingdom, and Onias’ brother Jason usurps the high-priesthood. He is a Hellenizer – loves the athletic aspects of Greek culture and builds a gymnasium right near the Temple. Like American music and culture today, Greek culture at this time was a BIG DRAW to people, especially young people of the time. Just imagine how difficult it would have been to keep the youth of this “identity marked” culture from…

 …

The journey everyone is on, whether they know it or not, is about transformation: from child to adult; from receiver to provider; from stranger to friend.  This is true in the spiritual as well as the natural.  Everyone's journey is different.  Everyone faces obstacles on their journey.  In the natural world these obstacles can determine what kind of life we live; in the spiritual world how we deal with obstacles detemines how much progress we make in our transformation from merely human to…

Because my Meeting is located in the middle of a city, we sometimes attract unexpected visitors to Meeting for Worship. Some years ago, a cheerful, kind, but mostly incomprehensible homeless man made us a regular destination on his Sunday mornings. A Friend was designated to sit by him the whole of Worship and gently implore him to sit after he'd said the…

2 Maccabees 2 – The author tells how the prophet Jeremiah ordered those who were taken into exile to “hide some of the fire from the altar” so it could be found as they have just found it to rekindle the light of the Temple. He also instructed them concerning God Law and warned them about the temptation of idol worship that they would see in the land they were being taken to.

“These same records also tell us that Jeremiah, acting under divine guidance, commanded the…

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS



When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things 

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into…

2 Maccabees 1 – The book begins with two letters; the first one is to the Egyptian Jews:

“May he give you all the heart to worship him, and to do his will, with a great heart and a willing soul. May he throw open your heart with his law and with his precepts, and may he create peace. May he heed your prayers and be reconciled to you and may he not forsake you in the evil time” (1:3-5).

And the second one is to Aristobulus, tutor to King Ptolemy.…

Nehemiah 12 – The names of the priests and Levites who came up with Zerubbabel are listed. In verse 31, it goes back to first person narration. Nehemiah says he brought all the leaders up onto the wall and they went in procession, one company to the right with musicians and the whole regalia; the other to the left. Again, particular people are mentioned and their place along the wall. It was a great affair. “They offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them…

Nehemiah 11- The leaders of the people are now living in Jerusalem. “A tenth of the people from the other towns of Judah and Benjamin were chosen by sacred lots to live there, too, while the rest stayed where they were” (11:1). Most of them stayed where they were.

The representatives of the different groups are named-—Judahites, Benjaminites, Priests, Levites, gatekeepers, an overseer of the Levites, and others. The responsibilities of each “were carried out according…

Nehemiah 9 – Still assembled, the people fast and are in a repentant spirit. Those of Israelite descent separate themselves from all foreigners, confess their sins and the sins of the ancestors as well. They stand and read from the book of the law for a quarter of the day, and spend another quarter confessing and worshipping: “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed by your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise”…

October 7, 2013

A Quakerish Pope?  Or merely a very spiritually attuned one?

Worth reading is a recent interview with Pope Francis conducted by Eugenio Scalfari of La Repubblica.  Scalfari, an atheist, had written to request an interview, and was floored…

Nehemiah 7 – The Lord “put[s] into [Nehemiah’s] mind” the idea of assembling the nobles and officials to be enrolled by genealogy. All the returning families are lists with the number of descendants returned—first the people, then the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, descendants of Solomon’s servants and those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub,…

Nehemiah 6 – Returning to the wall story, reports go back to Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem the Arab (all of them officials of the Persian provincial government who are enemies of Nehemiah), that the wall is nearing completion. Only the gates remain to be done (6:1).

The three try to get Nehemiah to come and meet with them, but he believes it is a conspiracy to do him harm, so he puts them off repeatedly. They continue to charge him with an intent to rebel against the…

Nehemiah 5 – There are community grievances. Jews complain about other Jews who have taken advantage of those who were in need of food. The poor have had to pledge their fields and vineyards to stay alive. The rich are charging interest and taking their brothers and sisters into servitude. These things make Nehemiah very angry. He brings charges against the rich nobles and officials, saying they were unlawfully taking interest from their own people. “The thing that you are…

I have started a blog where I would like to see discussion of some of those questions that keep coming up and keep being oversimplified here: Making Peace With the Bible.

The first post: 'From a Discussion Sheet at a Liberal Quaker Potluck is precisely what it says. I had hoped to entice a group of Liberal Friendish…

Nehemiah 4 – Sanballat mocks the Jews saying, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish—and burned ones at that?” (4:2)



Sounds like a passage that might have inspired “will these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37)



Tobiah the Ammonite mocks the soundness of the stone wall, which at this point is up about…