Women of the Bible No. 16 The Queen of Sheba

"And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, and very much gold, and precious stones."

I Kings X v. 2
Why did the Queen of Sheba make this journey? It was to see for herself that the wisdom and prosperity for which Solomon was famed was indeed true.

And after satisfying herself on this point, indeed finding that his wisdom and wealth far exceeded her expectations, they showered each other with many gifts and she returned to her own country.

The Queen was probably a pagan, but even she could appreciate that the Lord was the source of all Solomon's blessings. Indeed she was breathless with amazement at what she found at the royal court.

(Sheba, by the way, was c. 1200 miles from Jerusalem, a mountainous country, identified as the modern Yemen.)

Women of the Bible No. 15 Susanna

When I came to write my blog tonight I couldn't understand why the Bible story of Susannah was not up there for yesterday, when I posted it. Then I realised I had written it in draft on 4th August - and that is where the post appeared - yesterday - if you see what I mean. Since it is such a good story I have copied and pasted again for tonight - in case no one goes back to August 4th - indeed why should they. So here goes - again:

"Susanna went in as aforetime with two maids only, and she was desirous to wash herself in the garden; for it was hot. And there was nobody there save for two elders, who had hidden themselves, and watched her."

This flower arrangement for our church flower festival was so beautifully arranged around the edge of the font, with a lake for bathing in the centre. And I cannot believe that I didn't take a photo to include those two elders hidden in the undergrowth! They were certainly there! (made from those miniature bottles of shampoo etc you get in hotels - the ones with spherical caps - like heads!)

The story continues... the two elders lust after Susanna - and they have been both watching for their opportunity to "lie" with her. (I love the quaint and coy language - so much nicer than our blunt references to sex). On this day Susanna sends the maids away to fetch oil and ointments for her so that she may bathe. As soon as the maids are gone, the two elders set upon Susanna, and blackmail her. Let us have our wicked way with you, they say, or we will tell everyone that we saw you here with a young man. This of course would be a serious crime, for which Susanna would surely die. She refused the unwelcome attention of the elders, and was accordingly called by them to answer to her family for her alleged behaviour with the young man in the garden.

But the young Daniel is called by the Holy Spirit to come to her rescue. Interviewing the two elders separately, he tricks them. One says on cross examination that Susanna was seen under a mastic tree, the other under a an evergreen oak. They were clearly both lying. Susanna was cleared of any impropriety and Daniel enhanced his public reputation for showing up the elders for what they really were.

In its simplest interpretation, this story shows that virtue, in this case conjugal chastity, triumphs, with God's help, over vice, in this case in the in form of lust and deceit.

This story is from The History of Susanna I vv. 15-16, in the Apocrypha, and is an addition to the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament.

Nudge

I have just returned from a weekend in Belgrade attending the wedding of Serbian friends - and have neglected this blog, so I now intend to make amends.

The image, by the way, is a detail of one of the mosaics being made for the adornment of the walls of the church of St. Sava, in the process of being built in that city.

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It is said that dog owners get to look like their pets over time. Perhaps cat owners also grow to look like their feline friends. But have you ever noticed a couple grow to look alike over the years they live together?

For many years I commuted by train to London for my work. A couple regularly traveled on the same train. They would arrive at the platform together in the morning, and I would see them meet up together on the London platform to go home. They were a very devoted couple, both quite short, dumpy (meant in the politest way, not meant to offend), and clearly comfortable with each others' company without feeling the need for constant chatter.

The years went by and I stopped the commute, when I set up in business locally. And what a relief it was, to not have to join the crowded train, stand for miles of the journey, put up with coughs and colds all around me, and the increasing annoyance of listening to other people on their phones and of the jangle of their walkmen (who remembers those?!) from badly fitting earphones.

Many years have passed. I am now retired. And guess what? The other day I saw the very same couple - obviously now retired - walking together down our high street. And they now look so alike I was amazed. And clearly still happily together. But what is going on here?

Apparently it is true - people who live together really do get to look more like each other. Why? Partly apparently because of shared diets and nutrition. We are, after all, what we eat, so it is said. But much is due to the fact that we imitate facial expressions and are susceptible to other social influences. And, incidentally, couple who end up looking like each other tend to be happier!

This is not just quirky information with no significance. In fact social influences can determine the way our society develops.

I am reading Nudge, the bestselling book by Thaler and Sunstein, the book I would love to have written myself, as it explains how human behaviour can be changed by.....nudging! This has enormous potential significance for our future and is a fascinating read. Do get it. Depending on who reads this and the action they then take, this book will change our lives for ever, for better or worse.

Unity in Diversity

Why do we seem to think so often that things have to be right or wrong, black or white, this or that? Why do we not rejoice and celebrate in our differences, accept others' ideas for what they are, part of the rich tapestry of human life, and respect them.

The Zulus have a term for this, from their own meetings of elders, when brought together to discuss important matters. They call this method of dialogue Indaba. It was pioneered in South Africa post apartheid - as a method to draw people of different opinions together in a safe environment where all are listened to, and the outcome aimed for is consensual, or win-win.

Of course we will always have differences of opinion, but schism over them should not be seen as inevitable. The Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Thabo Makgoba, called for the bishops at the 2008 Lambeth Conference to use this method of Indaba to discuss the controversial issues of gender and sexuality. He is now calling again for Christians to use Indaba to help the Anglican Communion of Christians find a way through the labyrinth of disagreements we seemingly bicker over, in the eyes of the public. He was speaking at the 2010 USPG: Anglicans in World Mission annual conference. The Anglican Communion holds together in South Africa, he said, despite huge disparities in culture, race, language, and with high church, low church, Anglo-Catholics, Afro-Catholics, evangelicals...

Those of you following these blogs will recall that in the last month or so I have already written about the Jain principle of Anekant, many sided wisdom, and the Scientific and Medical Network who also foster a safe place to explore different ideas, critically yes, but within an atmosphere of overriding respect.

Perhaps the more vocal atheists in our midst could usefully learn from this idea, whether within the spirit of Indaba or Anekant or the SMN, rather than continually try to trash the views and beliefs of the great faiths. The world could be a much better place to be if we all respected each other in these ways.

In his wonderfully inspiring book Many-Sided Wisdom, Aidan Rankin reminds us that Anekant is relevant to all faiths or secular ideologies. The practice begins, he tells us, with acceptance of the need for humility, which is prized by all spiritual traditions. "Fundamentalism," he writes, "is based on lack of humility, which leads in turn to repression and violence of all forms."

May we all learn to respect all humanity and the creation of which we are a part, and celebrate our diversities, for a better world for all.

Oil and BP and the Gulf of Mexico - again

I urge you to read this article on the God's Politics blog - Attention must be Paid, by Jennifer Kottler:

http://blog.sojo.net/2010/08/05/attention-must-be-paid/

Just because the oil leak and BP are out of the news and other items crave our attention, this does not mean that the oil problem has gone away - in spite of what the papers imply; Far from it!

The End of Faith; Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason.

I wrote on 31 July about Sam Harris' book, The End of Faith; Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. I have now finished it and find its conclusions unsatisfactory. Another time I will write a more detailed review but for today it is late and I am tired so I will just make one or two points!

I mentioned before how I disliked and questioned his assumption about the link between wars and religion. I also have to take issue with his basic assumption, made very early in the book, and perpetuated throughout, that the sacred texts are nothing but myth and should be dismissed as such in the same way as the Greek myths. "...most of the people in this world," he writes, believe that the Creator of the universe has written a book." ... "Whatever their imagined source," he goes on to say, "the doctrines of modern religions are no more tenable than ...those cast upon the scrap heap of mythology millennia ago; for there is no more evidence to justify a belief in the literal existence of Yahweh and Satan than there was to keep Zeus perched upon his mountain throne or Poseidon churning the seas."
Continually trashing the Holy Bible as fairy tale does little to enhance his credibility, as he thereby ignores the vast theological and archeological knowledge underpinning its writings and its historical truths. I would recommend that he reads some of the many good books available on the subject. He could start with John Bartlett's The Bible; Faith and Evidence, A Critical Enquiry into the Nature of Biblical History.

Interestingly, Harris does understand the need for and existence of, a human spirituality, but he is adamant that this can and indeed must be developed without faith. He senses, he says, that the problem is hopeless, but that if parents and teachers in a single generation simply answered their children's questions honestly, there could be an utter revolution in our thinking, faith and religion would disappear in that generation and the world would be saved.

If that is the only way to save our world, as Harris seems to think, then I really believe the situation is hopeless. I really cannot believe that our faiths and our religions can be abolished so easily. They have a great deal more substance than Harris would like to think. And one cannot abolish deeply held beliefs so easily.

Instead I think we need to do all we can to foster true religious pluralism. The Dalai Lama in his book, Ancient Wisdom, Modern World (Ethics for the New Millennium), finds the idea of a world parliament of religions very appealing.

Harris suggests a world government - how else, he asks, "will a war between the USA and China become as unlikely as a war between Texas and Vermont?" But his vision is devoid of religion and it just will never work.

The method of non-violence

On the University of Winchester U.K. Campus

What is peace

On the Winchester UK University campus

Women of the Bible No 15 Susanna

"Susanna went in as aforetime with two maids only, and she was desirous to wash herself in the garden; for it was hot. And there was nobody there save for two elders, who had hidden themselves, and watched her."

This flower arrangement for our church flower festival was so beautifully arranged around the edge of the font, with a lake for bathing in the centre. And I cannot believe that I didn't take a photo to include those two elders hidden in the undergrowth! They were certainly there! (made from those miniature bottles of shampoo etc you get in hotels - the ones with spherical caps - like heads!)

The story continues... the two elders lust after Susanna - and they have been both watching for their opportunity to "lie" with her. (I love the quaint and coy language - so much nicer than our blunt references to sex). On this day Susanna sends the maids away to fetch oil and ointments for her so that she may bathe. As soon as the maids are gone, the two elders set upon Susanna, and blackmail her. Let us have our wicked way with you, they say, or we will tell everyone that we saw you here with a young man. This of course would be a serious crime, for which Susanna would surely die. She refused the unwelcome attention of the elders, and was accordingly called by them to answer to her family for her alleged behaviour with the young man in the garden.

But the young Daniel is called by the Holy Spirit to come to her rescue. Interviewing the two elders separately, he tricks them. One says on cross examination that Susanna was seen under a mastic tree, the other under a an evergreen oak. They were clearly both lying. Susanna was cleared of any impropriety and Daniel enhanced his public reputation for showing up the elders for what they really were.

In its simplest interpretation, this story shows that virtue, in this case conjugal chastity, triumphs, with God's help, over vice, in this case in the in form of lust and deceit.

This story is from The History of Susanna I vv. 15-16, in the Apocrypha, and is an addition to the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament.

Women of the Bible No 14 Veronica

There is no evidence whatsoever that Veronica existed, but her story is one of the most beautiful of all stories about saints, also one of the strangest.

The story goes that as Jesus made his agonizing way up the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha for his crucifixion, a group of women from Jerusalem met him, and as he stumbled, one of them, Veronica, came forward to wipe the sweat and blood from his brow with her napkin. When she returned home and unfolded the napkin, there was imprinted on it an image of the face of Christ.

But this story appears nowhere in any of the crucifixion accounts in the bible.

The legend may have been composed to give a background to the existence of the supposed relic, "The Veil of Veronica," which has been in Rome since the eighth century, and has a shrine on one of the main pillars in St Peter's Basilica.

Women of the Bible No 13 Dorcas (or Tabitha)

"In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas), who was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once!"

Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up." She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive. "

Both Tabitha (in Aramaic) and Dorcas (in Greek) mean gazelle.
Joppa was just south of the modern Tel Aviv.

Acts IX vv. 36-41 New International Version

Women of the Bible No. 12 Salome

"And when Salome, the daughter of Herodias, came in and danced, she pleased Herod and them that sat at eat with him; and the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatever thou wilt, and I will give it thee."

St. Mark ch. 6 v. 22

Herodius was Herod's niece, and his brother Philip's wife. Herod seduced Herodius and married her after his own divorce. John the Baptist did not approve and told Herod it was not lawful to marry his brother's wife. Herodius therefore bore a grudge against John, and would have killed him, except that Herod respected John and protected him.

Therefore when Herod promised to Salome whatever she wanted, and Salome went to her mother for advice, Herodius saw her opportunity for revenge on John. Ask, she told Salome, for John the Baptist's head on a platter. This Salome did, and as Herod had made a promise, he could not refuse the request, although it is said that he was "exceedingly sorry." He ordered the execution of John the Baptist and Salome was granted her wish.

When the disciples of Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist they came and took the body and laid it in a tomb.

Dorset sports

...and even the starlings are having fun!

Pink Lilies

"Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

St Luke Chapter 12: v. 27

Do not worry about your life, Jesus tells us. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and our needs will be met. This is teaching us to have a proper attitude to material things, not to covet them, but to have a simpler trust in a caring Father who knows our needs better than us. This to me has a particular resonance in this materialistic twenty first century, where more material wealth really does not make people happier.

Many-Sided Wisdom - A New Politics of the Spirit

I wrote yesterday of Anekant or Many-Sided Wisdom, and the book by Aidan Rankin with that title, alongside my early thoughts on Sam Harris' book, The End of Faith.

At the end of the day surely we are all in search of the Truth, and there may be many different paths that will lead us there.

I have mentioned the Scientific and Medical network before (see my 16 July 2010 blog). This network for science and medical professionals was founded in 1973 to explore the frontiers of science, medicine, spirituality and human experience. It counts many eminent scientists amongst its members and its aims are not only "to provide a safe forum for the critical and open minded discussion of ideas that go beyond conventional paradigms in science, medicine and philosophy," but also to "integrate insights with rational analysis in ... investigations, to encourage a respect for Earth and community which emphasizes a spiritual and holistic approach and to challenge the adequacy of "scientific materialism" as an exclusive basis for knowledge and values," whilst maintaining the highest standards of scientific scrutiny and objective principles.

The point to note about the SMN is the principle of offering a "safe forum." Truly, some ideas put forward may seem far fetched to some, but the point is that we are all open minded and offer a climate for discussion and debate where real understanding can be gained within the rigors of scientific objectivity. I really believe that this is the way forward for our planet, rather than atheists trashing religion in its many guises.