Baruch 3 – “[T]he soul in anguish and the wearied spirit cry out to you” (3:1). “Learn where there is wisdom, where there is strength, where there is understanding, so that you may at the same time discern where there is length of days and life, where there is light for the eyes and peace” (3:14). This begins to sound a lot like the wisdom literature. There is even a touch of environmentalism here as in the following:

“Where are…

I am convinced that at the heart of a community is a shared meal. When I consider my local Quaker Meeting, we eat together only once a month, and it is always precursor to something else, never existing for its own sake. More and more I am convinced that a stranger who attends meeting for worship and leaves after tea and a biscuit has witnessed only half of the Quaker experience. Meeting for worship is not complete until the community has broken bread together, and by that I mean shared a…

Baruch 2 – The Lord is true to his threats as he is to his promises—both of which are the legacy of Moses to his people (the blessings and the curses). An interesting passage seems to ask the Lord to save his people because only the living can offer God the glory and praise appropriate to God. “Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see, for the dead who are in Hades, whose spirit has been taken from their bodies, will not ascribe glory or justice to…

Baruch Background: This deutero-canonical book that comes Lamentation and Ezekiel is not in the Hebrew Bible.  In the Greek Bible, it appears between Jeremiah and Lamentations; in the Vulgate it comes after Lamentations.  It says it was written in Babylon by Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe, and sent to Jerusalem to be read at liturgical gatherings.  It gives us valuable information on how the religious life of those in exile was maintained. Lawrence Boadt, author of Reading the Old…

This is re-posted on QuakerQuaker from my blog The Liberal Quaker.

I have a tendency to make friends with underdogs and critics—those who for one reason or another put themselves (or who are put) in opposition to a greater community.  When I lived at Pendle Hill, I worked in the community garden.  The young woman in charge, when considering the possible death of a plant, would often say, “Well,…

QuakerQuaker This Week, 4/1/2012

On the Quaker blogs this week, there's a must-read post from Johan Maurer on the dangers of religious zealotry in the political realm, Being Wrong is Not the Same as Being Evil. For meetings trying to navigate the balance between group identity Stephen Davison has useful reflections in …