The Lid on the Story: Jesus and Nicodemus

The Story of Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3: 1-21) can trap the unsuspecting Christian reader and leave him or her in darkness. It represents the Truth the Church is afraid to proclaim or cannot proclaim because of those who insist Jesus was a celibate “straight” male. Under the cover of darkness, Jesus and the Teacher met alone. The Sunday School or Sunday Club version says the Teacher’s love for Jesus was platonic.

The Sunday School version puts a lid on the story. The Teacher’s love for Jesus is more than platonic and this should be “good news”. This Johannine story is linked to the Rich Person and the “Good” Teacher story of Mark’s Gospel chapter 10:17. Do not let others dissuade you. Believe me. These texts are linked and they are also linked to the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19: 1-10.  Jesus the “good” Teacher and member of the Assembly looks at Jesus with eyes of love and desire and asks to stay, to spend the night with the person people know is a tax collector…a Vogt, a wealthy property owner entitled to collect taxes and rents, an advocate for the Romans (Luke 19:6).

In the public eye, Nicodemus remains stoic and platonic as a teacher and rabbi of the ruling council and Jesus remains male. To suggest that Nicodemus had any sexual desire for a male Jesus would not only be blasphemous, it would be heretical. It would not advance the messianic and Johannine belief that Christ was the one who belongs to the Bridegroom (John 3:29).

The Truth is, alone with Jesus, Israel’s Teacher acts upon his love and desire. Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit responds, supposing Israel’s Teacher is Jesus the Christ. Later Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit confronts the Teacher in the Garden of the Tombs. There the Gordian Knot of confusion disappears. As the Truth dawns, Mary Magdalene’s Image and Relationship to Jesus becomes apparent. Jesus the Rabboni is not her Lord, the Christ the Everlasting Father. He is the Son of David and Jesus the Wonderful Counsellor is the Vogt…the promised Advocate, the bitterly treated and maligned Magdalene accused of blasphemy for saying she was The Light…the Magda Elaine of the World, the ADVOCATE  (John 8:12 and John 15:26).

In the Christian tradition, the 6 weeks leading up to Easter are called the Season of Lent.

The Sunday marked the second Sunday of Lent, the Minister at my home church told the children a story before they left the sanctuary for Sunday Club. This story featured a box. Inside the box was a word that no one was allowed to say or sing during Lent. This being the second Sunday of Lent, the Minister was not going to say the word and asked if anybody thought they knew the word. The Minister of Music embellished the story. Every time the Minister opened the box a crack, the other Minister would make a sound on the organ that reminded people of the word they weren’t supposed to hear or sing in the Church until Easter. This children’s sermon has been told every Lent for the past several years. And so, this year a youngster just couldn’t help but reveal the word.

The Scripture reading for the second Sunday of Lent this year was John 3: 1-17.  The adult sermon reflected the Minister’s interpretation of the story of Nicodemus and Jesus without any allusion to any ardent feelings that Jesus and Nicodemus, the platonic Teacher and Council Member had for each other. Rather, the Minister simply told the story as if Nicodemus was in the dark with the rest of the Council and Jesus’ disciples as to the reorientation his life would take once he openly admitted his love for Jesus.

From the perspective of the Minister, Nicodemus was boxed in like many of us because he didn’t want to upset the balance of power. The Minister projected Jesus as a scruffy fellow, some sort of country bumpkin, alluding to Simon the Cyrene, the man who carried the Cross of Jesus (Mark 15:21).

In his box, the Minister dared not even suggest Jesus was a slender young redhead richly dressed filling Nicodemus’ eyes with desire.

I must admit I was losing my patience with the Minister’s sermon, thinking. “What is wrong. Why can’t people see the Truth?” Nicodemus is the Victory of the people.  He is Jesus the Teacher that comes back at the end of the story to talk with the Red-haired Woman “face to face” in the Garden where the Teacher has a cave, a platonic academy dedicated to peace and eco-justice, situated overlooking two burial grounds.  Then just as my patience was at its thinnest, the Minister tells a story about when he was boy.

As I listened, I was struck by the coincidence of the Minister’s story and the story of Nicodemus.

As a boy, the Minister would run away from his parents and hide under blankets and things. One day he hid in the cedar chest where the blankets were stored. But unbeknownst to him, his elder brother was watching and saw a chance to assert his power. Knowing his brother was in the chest, the elder brother sat on the chest. The more the younger brother tried to push up the lid or reveal his whereabouts, the more he couldn’t. His cries were muffled under the blankets. The more he struggled and the more he tried to make a sound and failed, the more frightened he became. Finally, the elder brother stood up and he was able to open the chest.

With this story told by the Minister standing outside the pulpit, from the middle aisle, a flash of insight came to me. The Rock sealing the Teacher’s tomb, holds the balance of power. Until the scruffy don from the country who carried the Cross of Jesus, stands up bald headed and clean shaven ready to fulfill his role as the Bridegroom and Don (Mark 15:21), the Teacher is trapped in his platonic cave. The Teacher, like the youngster in the Minister’s Lenten story is trapped. He cannot come out and embrace the Light as her brother and be born again. And neither can the Madonna and their followers. They must wait and put their trust in the Lord, their Don. And the Good News is…he rises every EASTER and brings the wine.

International Woman’s Day

The Genesis Story fosters the belief that Woman was created from Man’s rib as a helper. Over the years, this belief has given rise to the idea that women were created to serve the church and their community as helpers and leave the business of politics and governance to men.

Below is an excerpt from my memoir The Ecumenical Affair.  Here the Woman has a philosophical conversation with a renowned Greek Doctor of Greek Philosophy about Man and Woman and the role of women in the Church.

****************************************

On a tree-lined marine drive stately mansions and cars wind out to the University of British Columbia and its endowment lands.

This is Vancouver in July.

The year is 1983.
 

This is the sixth assembly of the World Council of Churches.

The air is cool and trembling with heat.

The Woman is walking alone. She’s carrying a straw bag. She looks like a student. She’s dressed like one. Ponytail swishing back and forth. Bare feet in sunny yellow flip-flops. Wine-coloured toes. Slim. She is the one we saw earlier. The one with the words “La Source, Daily Visitor Programme” pinned above her heart who didn’t know about the flip-top desk.

There are people everywhere; the joy, the laughter, the sounds of cutlery and crockery spill outside from inside—this must be the Sub. Lines of people wait to enter. People are friendly. Class, race, gender barriers seem forgotten. People introduce themselves to strangers standing in line.


A place of communion.


Men in jackets. Some in shirtsleeves. Women in summer dresses. Some in skirts, others in pants, mingling with people in colourful caftans. Men wearing skullcaps. African women with stunning scarves twisted around their heads. Priests and nuns in long black robes. Students dressed for summer sprawl on the grass, talking. One girl has a tambourine. Two others dance, sing and clap.

bim Bom / bim bimbimBom / bim bimbimbim bim Bom/ shaBAT shaLOM (clap)/shaBAT shaLOM (clap)/
shabatshabat sha LOM (clap)


Waiting in line to eat, the Woman turns to the sound. A Hebrew folk song. For peace. She does not know this. The Greek is behind her. He asks how she spent the morning. She tells him about Maria’s talk. Says she doesn’t understand all the fuss over the issue of Man and Woman. 

Says: “It’s simple. I am a man. I am a female man. I am a member of the race called man. You are a man. You are a male man. You too are a member of the race called man.”

He grins.

She continues: “You—I suspect because you are here at this event—are a humanitarian. You help people. You are a helper, a helpmate of mankind.”

His eyes light up.

She continues: “Therefore even though you’re a male, you can be a woman.”

His whole body bursts into a smile.

She quickly adds: “You are a male being, and you’re a helpmate of Man. Therefore, if I—a female being—can belong to the race ‘mankind’ surely you, a male being, can belong to the race ‘womankind.’”

Her eyes take in his maleness. Catches a glimpse of his undershirt beneath his white semi-transparent short-sleeved shirt before she turns and moves forward in the line.

He follows, his eyes taking in the curve of her hips in the tight parrot-green chinos buttoned at her tiny ankles. He asks: “What are you doing for dinner this evening?”

She picks up a tray and turns back toward him, smiling.

He continues: “Have you plans?” He leans forward, picks up a tray, places it on the grooved counter. Slides it forward, looking at her. “Will you grant me the pleasure of your company at dinner?”

Silence.

The Young Woman puts her tray in line. In front of his. Slides it forward. “I don’t even know your name.”

Turns back. Looks at his ID tag hanging from the cord around his neck. “Papa what?”

Laughs. Pronounces his name for her. Pushes his tray behind hers, asks: “Do you have a car? If you don’t, can you rent one? I’ll pay for it. … Tonight after dinner we could go for a drive and see the sights.”

She places a garden salad on her tray. “What about after lunch?”

No, I have to meet some people. I’ve got to prepare. I’m speaking in the plenary later.”

Silence.


He asks: “Will you meet me here at six?”

“Yes.”


“Can you get a car?”


“Yes.”

Later that day in the Plenary.

The official delegates sit at long tables down on the floor facing saffron-draped tables. The blue logo visibly centered on a red carpeted stage. An immense red and yellow parachute-cloth banner hangs from the ceiling. Camera crews and translators are on hand. No one is allowed inside the building without proper ID. The accredited and daily visitors are upstairs in the bleachers. They wear headphones.

One grey-bearded man, sitting behind the Woman, sees her. She’s listening. Watching intently as the lights dim, while from the shadows an icon is projected onto a movie size screen. The headset voice says:

“God is Love because God is Triune … Andrei Rublev, the Russian Orthodox monk who painted it in 1422, intended it as an affirmation of Life … icons are a kind of spiritual window between earth and heaven …”9

At the break, the bearded man follows her outside. She asks him about the Greek. He says he doesn’t know him. They don’t go back in. They watch the plenary session on closed-circuit TV. They talk about Jungian psychology. She writes down some books that he recommends: Man & His Symbols. The Feeling Child. The Primal Scream. The Sex Contract.

He asks: “Why do you think you wear your hair long?”

“Because the Magdalene did.”


“Are you worried about what could happen—if the Greek should come on to you?”  

Blushing and fidgeting with her earring she says: “No.”


Purses her lips. Why should I worry? I’m the one with the car.

He grins and tells her how he and others went skinny-dipping at Wreck Beach on the weekend.


She glimpses his wedding band.


So what if the Greek comes on to me? Why not enjoy the ride?  Everyone is going to think I did anyhow. What would the Magdalene do? She kissed Jesus’ feet, for Pete’s sake. If Jesus is no sinner, neither is she, nor she who speaks with a he … at noon or … under the cover of darkness.

Encouragement

Imagine yourself on a mission to Rome with St. Paul. You’re one of 276 souls on board the Alexandrian ship a centurion found to transport Paul and you to Rome. Many are suffering from sea sickness and are scared. The waves of opposition to Paul and the journey are immense.  You have heard Paul is a zealot. You’re not sure how or why Paul was involved in the death of Steven. Was it temper? Or did Paul truly believe the stoning of Steven was God’s plan? You know that soon after the stoning of Steven, Paul changed.  Yet you’re very concerned because before Paul met the proconsul attendant Sergius Paulus, Paul was known as Saul (Acts 13:9). So, people on board are saying that Paul is a turncoat.

As you think about this, you start to worry and wonder if Paul is capable of leading a mission to Rome? You don’t like the fact that Paul has become a turncoat, someone whose sympathies lie with Rome. The Roman proconsul is the enemy, the legitimate ruler in charge of maintaining peace in the Roman occupied and controlled world encompassing most of the mediterranean. On top of this, things are not going as quickly and as smoothly as you imagined they would. You and the others thought you’d be free, full citizens by now, free to rent a room anywhere you traveled without a signed permission slip from your husband, boss or master.

Likewise today, many Christians are discouraged. Little has changed in the world. Sure women in western nations are free to travel without their husband’s or father’s permission. But, a father or a mother cannot travel across a border with their children without the written approval of their spouse. This security measure is for the protection of the child and most often there is no issue. However, when couples disagree and one decides to leave the other and take the children and flee the country, an issue of custody arrises and both make appeals to win custody, hoping to discredit the other parent.

Clearly, borders and citizenship are still major issues today that Democrats and Republicans like a divorced couple are divided upon. The Democrats and Liberal sympathizers around the world oppose the proposed US travel ban and view it as an unnecessary barrier for innocent citizens of Islamic nations hostile to the US. They claim that many of these travellers may be legitimate refugees at risk in Islamic nations because of their sexual orientation, behaviour, faith and political views.  Republicans and Conservatives argue that they need to be sure that these people travelling from hostile Islamic nations pose no threat to the American constitution, the economy and the well being of American citizens who are feeling queasy by all the political unrest in the world before allowing them entry into the country.

Imagining myself  on that ship sailing to Rome, in today’s political storm, I woke up Monday morning feeling disappointed. Another Valentine’s day and my Birthday had come and gone. Friends and family had shown me lots of love. So why was I disappointed?

I was alone and one year older. Like Paul I was content living and traveling alone. I could see the downside of marriage, especially if a couple were in it only for the sex or only in it for the sake of the children or for economics. Like Paul I yearned for the kind of love that is patient and kind and as strong as death (1 Cor 13:4-7; SOS 8:6). I longed for the day when a sweetheart of a man like Barnabas would crave my body, take my hand and accompany me on a trip to Paris and Rome via Crete as my lover and my husband  (Mark 15:43; Acts 9:36; Acts 13:2) to show and tell the world that Love makes the world go’ round.

Feeling the need for some encouragement, I surfed the net and landed on a post written by a woman by the name of Tara  http://www.feelslikehomeblog.com/2013/04/13-bible-verses-to-overcome-disappointment/ Here I read a comment from a woman who had lost her husband, her family seemed to be turning their backs on her and the electricity in her home was about to be shut off. My heart went out to her. Eight years ago I too had lost my husband and things looked very bleak. I remember feeling abandoned by my husband and by God.  Reading comments posted by a woman named Susan and others, I wanted to leave a comment on Tara’s Blog to encourage not only Janet, the Woman who had lost her husband, but other people who were facing huge losses and disappointments in their life in these post US election days.

Here’s an edited version of what I wrote:

Thank you Tara for listening to that wee small voice in the middle of the night. That wee voice led you to write us who feel let down and discouraged today. So I too have something to say to encourage Janet and others.

When my husband drowned, I felt like God had abandoned me. I had lost my job a few months before and then with the death of my husband, finances and an illness in the family forced me to consider moving. I did not want to move! But after the car was repossessed, I got lost while travelling to the suburbs by bus to my daughter’s home for my grandson’s birthday party.

With the kind help of strangers, I found my way. As the bus pulled up and stopped at the stop before I needed to disembark, the bus driver spotted a lone traveler running to catch us. As we waited, a wave of anxiety came over me. I looked at my watch to see how late I would be for the party. Then I looked up and noticed the Alabaster Box Church just outside the bus window. The name on the sign said Bethany-Newton. At that very moment, a sense of peace washed over me. I knew God was with me. I knew that it was God’s plan that I move near my daughter and that Bethany-Newton would give me and my family the support we needed to grieve the loss of my beloved husband. I did and with the move I was able to buy a car.

Last year, 7 years after my husband’s death, I made a wish. I wished I could move back downtown. To be honest I had wished that several times over the years. But last year, my heart was really in the wish. The very next day, I got a phone call from the realtor who sold me my house, asking me if I wanted to list and move back downtown. I did and the day before my open house, I went out back to clean up a mess I had noticed outside my gate.  I opened the gate and there to my wondrous eyes was a beautiful sight. The spewed concrete and the long gangly weeds were gone.

Someone unknown to me had replaced that mess with a carpet of green turf.  At that moment, I knew. God had a buyer already picked out for me. I would be moving!  But I had to trust and wait on that knowledge. The people who put an offer on my house, wanted quick possession. I had to trust and say yes before I had found anything downtown.  Remembering the beautiful sight outside my gate…and trusting on the wee small voice of conviction I received with that sight, I accepted their offer.  The very next day, the Realtor phoned with a brand-new listing. It was perfect for me. But…the sellers were not accepting offers until the Wednesday after two scheduled weekend open houses. Two hundred people attended those open houses and multiple offers were made. My offer was the one they accepted.

So, Janet trust God’s love for you. God is with you. Take Susan’s advice. Find someone to encourage you…even if it is someone you don’t know or a beautiful sight or coincidence that speaks to your faith. I think God speaks to each of us differently and depends on us and those who love to share and act upon their faith in God with others. God is eternal and mighty! God created humanity…us…in God’s own image and likeness. We Christians are called to embrace one another in Jesus’ name as sisters, brothers, neighbours, friends and beloveds of a mighty GOD who is with us forever.

We don’t all think alike and we often disagree about politics and how to protect and provide for those we love.

The Good News is…God does save those who trust in God…and even if a loved one drowns or gets swept away from us by a tide of ill will, we know God has not forsaken them or us. So, let us be patient with one another and trust that God has not abandoned them or us. Let us wait until they and we are ready and able with a whole heart, to embrace each other and pledge our mutual allegiance…trusting that God’s Love working in us and through us will in the fullness of time give one another the love, the freedom and the protection to travel unhindered across every border.

Ecumenism

Ecumenism is the effort of Christians of different church traditions to develop closer relationships and foster better understandings between churches. I wrote The Ecumenical Affair as a true-life story to lift up the need for visible unity between Conservative and Liberal churches. My book may shock some readers as it does contain a sexually explicit scene to bring attention to the double standard implicit with the theology of the Gospel story of the Woman Caught in Adultery and the Woman at the Well.
The protagonists are the Woman and the Greek. The central part of the story takes place during the Gulf War in Australia during the 7th Assembly of the World Council of Churches. As delegates protest and speak out against injustice after injustice they see happening around the world, religious dissension erupts amongst participants and delegates. At one point the then moderator of the United Church of Canada speaks up. She says…if Jesus were here today, he would say the politics of this place (this ecumenical council) stinks to high heaven.
I invite you to read The Ecumenical Affair and to accompany me to Greece next October for an Eco-Justice Conference. I have made friends with many Greeks and I have published and presented several faith based papers at the Orthodox Academy of Crete. These papers shine light on the Christian theology that has been understood and used as a license to divide and conquer in the name of Justice.  Justice should roll down like a mighty river “face to face” with Peace and Love (Amos 5:24; Psalm 85:10).
At the Academy, I’ve had the opportunity to present my revisionary and liberal views and to listen with an open heart to Orthodox Christians. I’ve learned a lot from them. I’ve dined with Orthodox bishops, priests, monks, nuns, farmers and olive oil merchants and scientists, people of other faith traditions from Iran and India and local children. Many people who have attended conferences at the Academy are worried about the future of Crete.  Refugees, tourists, foreign land owners and poverty threaten to overwhelm Crete, and the rich environment full of flora and fauna that has sustained Cretans since the beginning of time—even when food was scarce during invasions and occupations.
People in Crete have welcomed me and peacemakers from every walk of life seeking Eco-Justice.  The Orthodox Academy was co-founded in 1968 by Dr. Alexandros Papaderos with the support of his local Orthodox Bishop and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany as a Centre for Peace through symphilosophein (philosophising together).  Their initial dream was to bring peace and reconciliation between Germans and Cretans who vowed they would never stop hating the other. With success, came the dream of inviting others to do the same.
Please consider accompanying me to the Academy for Ecothee 17. Hear and answer the CALL http://ithe.webs.com/ecothee-2017-call  You’re welcome to present a paper, a poster or lead a workshop…or just listen to the presentations and join in the symphilosophein. People of all faiths and at different levels of education are welcome. Come and see!

The Sweetheart’s Stone

Did you know that a Jo is a Scottish term for Sweetheart. So where am I going with this? Well this morning, I started to write something about Jo seph of Arimathea.

In the process of doing a bit of mythology research, I found some interesting information about the Blarney Stone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blarney_Stone

You see, I was thinking about the Legend of the mythical story of Joseph of Arimathea and Mary Magdalene. I was thinking Mary was Cephas’ sweetheart. Cephas, is the Greek rendering of the Aramaic word for Rock. Cephas is pronounced sea fuss. The English name for Cephas is Peter. So some of you may have a hunch where I’m going with this. Remember how Jesus said to Peter…on this rock I’ll build my church. Jesus had just renamed Simon bar Jonah (the child of the legendary person swallowed by the sea monster, the MEGA FISH), Petros. Yet the rock on which Jesus builds the church is female…it’s petra. (See Matthew 16:17-19 the Zondervan’s Parallel New Testament in Greek and English).

Jesus gives Cephas the keys to the kingdom of heaven in verse 19, saying whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven!!!

And then in verse 23…Jesus calls Cephas Satan…a Blarney Stone!

The Vesica Piscis is a great Fish and a key element, a miraculous sign! http://www.crystalinks.com/vesicapiscis.html The disciples ask Jesus for a miraculous sign, a sign from heaven at the start of the chapter. Jesus replies. “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”

And then…when someone truly listening and fully aware, recognizes Jesus as the Christ…Jesus calls that person Simon bar Jonah and then says…to that person….I will call you Peter…and on this petra…rock…the Vesica Piscis..I will build my church. Or In other words in Magdala, the city or the heart of the Mega Fish, I will build my church.

So I say to my readers. Listen if you have ears! And don’t be fooled by the Blarney Stone and the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Cephas is a smooth one! Don’t be fooled by patriarchal language. It is blarney. And don’t be fooled by the patriarchal yeast of the Adulterous “good” Teacher who looks at “her” and loves “her” and lusts after all she possesses. The stone the builders reject is Cephas’ Jo. She is the Sweetheart of the Gospel. She is the one who loves much and she is the big fish that Peter catches and scoops up into his arms. She possesses the body of Jesus that Joseph of Arimathea craves (Mark 15:43 American King James Version).

Mathematics of the New Jerusalem

Abstract

“The holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. . . .” [1]is a prophecy from the Book of Revelation. When I was a very young woman with no education beyond high school, I discovered something so incredible contained within the scripture describing this city. I felt like an archeologist who had just discovered a fine alabaster jar still intact and fragrant.  Inside this piece of scripture, cleverly and artfully woven into the vision was the exact circumference of the planet earth.  I turned to the book of Genesis.  There too, encoded into the Creation and Noah’s Ark myths were the mathematics of ancient prophets and storytellers who had never circumnavigated the globe, revealing the exact circumference of our home—the planet Earth.  This knowledge fills me with the desire to go and tell that God is with us and has promised to sing and rejoice with us as parents do when a loving couple gets married.

My presentation looks at the mathematics encoded in the Bible with the faith that the ancient people had in God who creates them. The myths and prophecies encoded in the Bible have the power to unite scientists, theologians, mathematicians, musicians, storytellers and artisans all over the world…to go and tell the World, our Creator has faith in us.  We are destined to create a New Jerusalem where God’s Love sustains us, our home and creation.

 

Keywords: The New Jerusalem, God’s Promise, Creation, Mathematics, Faith

[1] Revelation 21: 2 NRSV.

Download and read Mathematics and the New Jerusalem

Who Was Mary Magdalene? 

Who Mary Magdalene was matters especially in the context of how Jesus related to her. Many people want to know: Who was she? Was she merely one of many female disciples accompanying Jesus? Have traditional roles and sexual morality defined her and kept her from being recognized as Jesus’s counterpart, his equal? What is the historical reality within the stories told about her? Can that even be determined? What evidence is there?

Has her story been covered up? Is Margaret Starbird correct in her assumption that Tintoretto’s painting depicts Mary Magdalene as the wife of Jesus? In my opinion, Martha looks more like the wife of Jesus, the Lady of the House than Mary.  Why was Martha pointing her finger at Mary? What do you think?

tintorettos-chrst-in-the-home-of-martha-and-mary
Christ in the home of Martha and Mary

Download and read my Master of Arts Liberal Studies Thesis project Mary Magdalene: Her Image and Relationship to Jesus