NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

“Sensitivity and the acuity of non-indifference”   As the readers of this blog know, I like words, especially the sound and rhythm of them. And so this phrase  from ’ Putting God Second' by Rabbi David Hartman   caught my attention and demanded that I figuratively roll my tongue around it over and over in my head. But as I did this, I began to consider just exactly what this phrase was saying to me. In effect it raises the ante for me of the Golden Rule [Luke 6:31], which simply asks that you treat others as you would want to be treated. Hartman goes just that little bit farther. He posits that we should be aware what the other needs before those needs are visible or voiced, perhaps even before they are realized by the other. We should not be indifferent to others, but both sensitive to what they need, with the sharpness of compassion. How many times have you wondered why you have had to tell someone else what you needed or have felt like the ‘Littl...

He who has ears, let him hear.  [Matthew 11:15]   Over my lifetime in the the church, I had been part of a number of baptisms and present at many more. But it had been at least 5 years since the last one. Then one Sunday, not that long ago, I inadvertently ended up at a church service where baptisms were being celebrated. Had I known in advance, I might not have been there. I didn’t know the families and wasn’t even a regular attendee at the church. Following the act of baptism, the priest prayed over the newly baptized just before passing over the lit candle that represents the light of Christ. It was at the point that things got very unfamiliar to me. I had heard this prayer many times before, but I had never heard this prayer! Apparently I had never had ‘ears’ before at this place in the liturgy, because I was surprised by what that prayer asked. In part it says of the newly baptized: “Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persev...

Why? I ask myself. What difference does it make that no one is watching? I answer the phone and after a short conversation where my advice is solicited, the voice on the other end of the line says. ‘ But I don’t have your personality.’ No, I think, you don’t. But what does that have to do with anything? In future conversations, this same person keeps referring to the opinion I had offered previously saying, ‘I’m trying hard to follow your advice, but I don’t have your personality.’ Really, I think. I guess nothing has changed there. In the middle of a discussion in a small groups setting, one of the participants said, ‘ Jesus can’t expect us to do what he says because he was different than we are.’ And just what does that prove, I wondered?   Yes, we are all different from each other - but that is no an excuse!   What strikes me looking back at these three responses that span several years, is the thread in them all. Apparently one can only elect to do the...

The feast of ‘Epiphany’, an ancient church festival celebrating the visit of the wise men to the Christ child [Matthew 2:1-12], is celebrated by the Christian church on January 06. These days it has little importance in the aftermath of Christmas, because, after all, we have already seen the three kings and their gifts arrive at the manger along with the shepherds in the Christmas pageant. The word epiphany means ‘manifestation’ or ‘revelation’ and celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles. Surely then Epiphany should be a big deal in the Church, bigger even than Christmas, Not mixed into the Christmas story.   However in my mind, it is Paul, according to his writings, who really was responsible for introducing and selling the church to the gentiles. All that aside, I was thinking today about the word Epiphany and what epiphanies, ‘manifestations’ or ‘revelations’ I have had in my life. One of them that has profoundly affected my theology, actually occurre...

We have all seen people wearing those bracelets around their wrists with W.W.J.D. [What Would Jesus Do?] stamped on them. I guess they are meant to remind the wearers at all times and in all circumstances what Jesus, and by extension they, themselves, would do. My observations of the results have told me that those bracelets are basically flawed and unreliable!! But what if now, at the time when traditionally we make [and shortly break] New Year’s Resolutions, we ask ourselves that same question: W.W.J.D.? Just what New Year’s Resolutions might Jesus have made [providing of course that they even did such things over 2000 years ago. But just suppose they did. What would they look like? To lose weight; stop smoking; exercise more? To read the the Torah more? Not to cast lots? Not to spend so much time roaming the countryside?   To spend more time with his family?   To get a job? To interact more with a better social class?;   To have more patience...