I've mentioned my Denomination (Episcopalian) and my Parish (St. Jude's) before. I've published a picture of the church building and commented on the Church bulletin before. Sometimes the choice or timing of a particular hymn strikes me as funny. There was a stretch at my previous parish, Holy Trinity in Grahamville (Ridgeland), where the choice of a communion hymn for several services was "Stand Up for Jesus". The communion hymn is played at the one time where most of the congregation is sitting. Ironic, no? The music preceding the processing in today's service included three instrumentals, and one hymn by the choir. The hymn? "Let all mortal flesh keep silence". The only way this could not be ironic would be if the choir was comprised of immortals, I suppose. It's not; so it was.I really do love the Episcopal Church. The readings each week are from a lectionary in three-year cycles, so you always know what you're getting. The lessons this week are among my favorites: Ecclesiasticus 27:30-28:7 for the Old Testament lesson; < Romans 14:5-12 for the Epistle; and Matthew 18:21-35 for the Gospel. All about forgiveness. Cool stuff. Equally cool? The inclusion of Ecclesiastus. No, not Ecclesiastes; Ecclesiasticus. Go ahead. Look it up. What? Didn't find it? That's because it is from the Apocrypha, and your Bible is obviously not Catholic, Anglican or Orthodox.
The Apocryphaconsists of writings penned after most of the TANAHK or Old Testament was written and before the first of Pauls letters was written, and are included in the Old Testament of Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox Bibles. Some of the books included in the Apocrypha are considered Canonical or "Bible" in some Denominations, but not others. The Anglican Church considers none of them Canonical, but all of them helpful for instruction, or Deutero-Canonical. It may seem odd that "The Bible" does not necessarily mean the same thing to all of the Faithful, but it doesn't. Even books now well-established in all denominations weren't always shoe-ins to make the cut. Right around the time of the Council of Nicea when Constantine was looking for a standard list of the books that should comprise the New Testament early-Church historian Eusabius listed the books. Among the borderline books that got in was Revelation. It made it because the writing was attributed to John the Evangelist. You can't keep his stuff out. Hebrews was attributed to Paul. Nobody really thought Paul wrote Hebrews, but it was good stuff, and the was the only sure way to get it in was to say Paul wrote it.
According to my Harper-Collins Study Bible, Eccesiasticus was written by a fellow named Jesus ben Sirach about 180 years before the death of the more familiar Jesus. The more familiar Jesus, being a student of Scripture and of the times, may well have been familiar with it. Certainly the following from Eccesiasticus sounds mighty familiar:
"Anger and wrath, these also are abominations, and the sinful man will possess them. He that takes veneance will suffer veneance from the Lord, and he will firmly establish his sins. Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray. Does a man harbor anger against another, and yet seek for healing from the Lord? Does he have no mercy toward a man like himself, and yet pray for his own sins? If he himself, being flesh, maintains wrath, who will make expiation for his sins? Remember the end of your life, and cease from enmity, remember destruction and death, and be true to the commandments. Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with your neighbor; remember the covenant of the Most high, and overlook ignorance".
Ah, religion could do so much good. Could. The problem, as stated by "the Master" in Anthony de Mello's More One Minute Nonsense, is that "...people mostly pick up enough religion to hate, but not enough to love". True, dat.
2 comments:
Armando and I liked the Yoshida Brothers :)
That's really all I was expecting out of this post. Thanks.
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