Sometimes It’s Just Gotta Be Shakespeare ...er...Mustest Be-ith Shakespeare...

I heard once that students who go to a certain Christian University, known for its…traditional…values, are really good at understanding Shakespeare. If memory serves (and I have about a 68% success rate of memory service), this information came in the form of a set up looking for a punchline.

“Hey, did you know that students from this Christian University are really good at Shakespeare?”  Then I am expected to ask, “Why is that?”  I was expecting something a couple notches above a “knock knock” joke.  Not this time.  Seems that this particular Christian University is immersive in the language of the only the Bible they use, the King James Version, of the same era and expression as William Shakespeare.

There is a legend that it was Shakespeare himself, because being a playwright was not enough, who translated the Bible into what we know as the King James Version. 

SIDEBAR: The King James Version is also known as the Authorized Version. In some circles of Christendom, this seems to be interpreted as if Jesus said 'somewhere' in the gospel, "Verily, verily, I speakest unto thee, “Andst thou shalt not readest the Holy Writ and Solemn Word of Thine Almighty God exceptest that thou participatest within Thine English only by Thine Holy and Thrice Blessed King James Version…”"  

No.

King James authorized it, NOT Jesus. The light side of my soul thanks him for aiding us in having the Bible brought into the English language. The dark side of my soul wonders if, by his 'authorization', he got a cut of sales… 

We, of the Presbyterian Church (USA) nationally, and as the First Presbyterian Church of Merchantville in particular, use the New Revised Standard Version.  This is an update of the Revised Standard Version which is an update of the King James Version.  So, (wink wink), that makes our Bible twice-over unauthorized.

To make a long story short…too late…

The passage this Sunday shall be shared in the King James Version.

This is because there are certain passages in the Bible that are best shared that way.  Psalm 23 comes to mind.  Our pew Bibles (NRSV) translate the heart stone of the Psalm as “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil”.  It is accurate, does justice to the translation of the Hebrew, but it is just not “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…”

It is THAT turning of a phrase that favors, for me, Shakespeare translating the Bible.

Sunday’s text is perhaps the most well known Christmas text in the Old Testament, from Isaiah 9, here in the KJV:

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”

There are times like this when the artistry of Shakespearean English lifts our Scripture reading to another level. 

And while I may have differences of theological opinion with a certain Christian Universities, I do not disagree with them about this.  

Especially in this time when asking a young person the set up line "So, who do you think William Shakespeare is?", I risk the answer “Isn't that Billy who likes to wave around a pointy stick? And that's not how you spell spear.”

In the Name of Him who is Called Wonderful,

Pastor Peter

 PS-When you read our passage from Isaiah, are there any bits in there that you do not recognize from the Christmas time standard readings?

The Hiccup of Gratitude

 Anyone else think that Thanksgiving takes a beating every year?  Maybe rebrand it as the "Hiccup of Gratitude” on the way to Christmas?  Something of a Calendrical Speedbump, flattened a little more each year under the booming power of the Thunder Sleigh of the Christmas Machine? 

It is easily overlooked. There is a house in the neighborhood we moved from that had one of those 12 foot skeletons on their lawn. It went up on Labor Day in anticipation of Halloween and then the homeowners popped a big old Santa hat on its head and voila, stayed up well into the New Year.  But no turkey wings in between.

The modern sensibility of Thanksgiving is more of a safety hazard than a national holiday.  Who hasn't heard the story or seen the video clip of the individual (usually a guy) of uncertain culinary capacity and indeterminant common sense dropping their frozen turkey into a giant pot of boiling oil? 

The traditional cultural image of Thanksgiving does not fare much better.  We have the Pilgrims, immigrants recently arrived on these shores, all in matching outfits; earth tones and cool hats for the gents and pretty, if austere, dresses and head wrappings for the ladies; all freshly pressed and right out of the garment bags from the dry cleaner; gathered around the trestle tables, laden with food, set up outside (in late November, in Massachusetts so…COLD) as they welcome their Powhatan neighbors depicted as extras out of a cavalry movie from the Golden Age of Hollywood Westerns.  

A couple of observations to be made about this "traditional" image.  The first is that the Pilgrims would not have survived at all without the aid of their Powhatan neighbors.  The second is that while we have created a national holiday around this moment as a "cultural founding myth", the Pilgrims would have been horrified. The idea that we celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas (even before it became the juggernaut of the Thunder Sleigh) would have horrified them.

Pilgrims were Puritans in their religious background and outlook.  It is from their beliefs that we get the word ‘puritanical’.  Giving thanks is a clearly mandated Bible thing, so that is okay.  But a Holiday?  We do not have Holidays in the Bible, we have the Lord's Day-Sunday.  Jesus’ birth is in the Bible, and the shepherds and Magi were certainly happy about it, but there is NO mandate to 'celebrate' the birth of Jesus as a "holiday" at Christmas, much less an obvious concept like 'giving thanks' that should need no extra explanation, much less celebration.      

Thankfully (pun intended), we are not Puritans.  We have the gift of Holidays. WE NEED Thanksgiving.  Because there was truth in the Puritan fear that something like Christmas would become an overblown, overspent, overindulged bacchanalia (thank you “A Christmas Story”).   What has become a Hiccup of Gratitude needs to be a “Slow Down To One Half Mile Per Hour Speed Bump Or We Will Scrape The Muffler Right Off The Bottom Of The Car” REMINDER of Gratitude.  

So, as an American, thanks be for our nation and all the blessings we receive from her.

So, as a Christian, thanks be to our God for the birth of Jesus, the gift of our salvation.

So, as a person, thanks be for the true gift of love and fellowship that, while highlighted in this holiday season, is a foundation for decency and courtesy all the year through.

Peace,

Pastor Peter

And Now For Something Completely Different: Jesus Versus Santa Claus

This segment in the blog is drawn from a scholarly tradition in British media that I am privileged to carry on in my own, small way. 

So, before the battle between how we should greet each other politely and in the spirit of Good Cheer, the debate of "Merry Christmas" VS "Happy Holidays", often with the viciousness of a wrestling grudge match, we had "Jesus VS Santa".

As a Social Media Doom Scroller (someone who gets caught just flipping and flipping and flipping on my phone from one bit of media to the next, usually when my brain is overtired) when something pops, I take a picture of it to "come back to it later". I think I cleared out about 200 'pops' the last time I edited my photos on my cel phone. But this caught my attention. 

Every Christmas, the debate arises between 'secular' and 'sacred' about who "owns" the holiday. On the one hand, I find this hysterical because we of the 'sacred' side are called upon to share Jesus freely. On the other, I find this disappointing, as the wise young man said in "Miracle on 34th Street", 'Make a buck, make a buck, even in Brooklyn its the same...' 

"Jesus VS Santa" entered my cultural consciousness in the cartoon short of Jesus and Santa having a knock down, drag 'em out fight over Christmas. It is a low brow and low quality bit from the makers of "South Park" but it made me laugh because it touched (painfully pinched?) a nerve about Christmas. 

On the lighter side of Jesus and Santa, does anyone have the Christmas ornament of Santa kneeling in prayer by the manger? There is a sacred connection, Santa is St. Nick, and his lineage can be traced-not to the North Pole-but through history. 

I believe it is important for our Church to think about this (yes, we are doing 'theology') to be aware and clear and focused that we do things differently than "Jesus vs Santa". Ours is not 'either/or' but 'both/and'. For example...

We will decorate the Sanctuary with all the glory and trappings of the Holidays the Saturday after Thanksgiving, on Saturday, December 1, 2024 at 9am. Everyone is invited.

We will participate in the Christmas parade on Friday, December 6 at 7pm, singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, celebrating the lighting of the Christmas Tree here in Merchantville, and then hosting refreshments in the Narthex. 

We have partnered with Urban Promise to have an Angel Tree, set in our already decorated Chapel, to purchase presents for the children they serve. Gifts are due back by Sunday, December 8.  

So, all in all, I think that shirt is a far better representation of Jesus and Santa in regards to our church than considering them in a cage match. But there's more.

 

Consider this. When Jesus was born, the shepherds were hanging out in the fields, watching their flocks by night, they got not only an angel and a prophecy, but "...suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God..."  The birth of Jesus marks hope fulfilled for the world. And the world, secular and sacred, celebrate that hope. The joy is that we in the 'sacred' camp 'get it', we know what is happening.

The sad part is that the world, the sinful world, the popular culture, the 'secular' camp, they know something wonderful is happening, but do not 'get it'. The sense of God's hope is too powerful to be ignored. There is celebration with all the glitz, bling, lights, shiny bits and baubles, lights, songs, colors, trees, lights, garland, presents, Santa's EVERYWHERE, movies (from the Hallmark lineup to "Big Red One" this season), lights, and the celebration of the consumer free market economy that the 'official' start of the Season, Black Friday, when retail traditionally goes from the red (owing money) into the black (making profits) for the year. 

Jesus is the Light of the world. At Christmas, the world sees the light, reflects the light, fires up new and brighter bulbs every year, it cannot be helped. 

But the world does not understand that this light is Jesus, born to us, saving us, loving us. That is for us to explain. We are not here to 'take back' Christmas, but to share Jesus ever more. 

May we sing with the choirs of angels,

Pastor Peter

Breathing Our Faith In and Out

     Breathing keeps us alive. It functions in two different ways for us. It is voluntary and it is involuntary. On the one hand, it functions as the rest of our body does, across our bodily systems. Our body's systems simply function, involuntarily, outside our control, in the background (until they do not, when intervention is needed).

    For people who believe in Jesus, the exercise of our faith can be like that, operating in the background. We go to church, we are generally nice to people, we participate in the things of faith, we give, we sing, we say 'hi' to one another. Our belief in Jesus extends a certain moral framework to our lives. Somebody insults us, we check the impulse to smack them upside the head (hopefully). We pay our taxes (forlornly perhaps). We obey the traffic laws (mostly...speed limits versus the speed of the traffic around us IS a thing). 

    We have Jesus, we know our Redeemer lives, sin is not really on our radar because we are forgiven. Things are, well, nice.

    Returning to how our human bodies operate, our breathing is different from most (maybe all) of our other functions. Our heart beats automatically. Our brain synapses fire automatically. Our blood flows automatically. They can all be affected by outside stimuli, but they operate outside our control (until they don't when intervention is needed).

    When it comes to breathing, we have voluntary control to some degree. We can, for a time, hold our breath, intentionally stop breathing, until the involuntary systems kick in, plunging us into unconsciousness if necessary to restart the process. We can control the pace and the depth of our breathing. This can provide us the capacity to calm down when our bodies are hyped up.  It can provide us the capacity to oxygenate when we are preparing for exercise or sports. 

    A wise teacher once spoke of our breathing as a 'gear shifter' on our body's functions, allowing us to change how 'the engine' is running. 

    So, like breathing, our faith can simply operate. We know its there but we do not spend much time thinking about it or pushing on it. But what a waste. How much more could we be doing? Our faith could be horribly out of shape. Will it serve us when things get tough? Could we be doing more? More for God, more for Neighbor, more for Church, more for Ourselves?

    The intentional 'breath' functions of our faith are living into our God. We 'breathe in' when we bring the Lord into our lives. We 'breathe out' when we reach out to our Lord. We are communicating with the Creator of Everything (so, no pressure...).

    To breathe God into our lives, we use God's Word, the Instruction Manual God has issued, the Bible. We read it for ourselves and do NOT let other people (even me) read it for us. There are hard bits and easy bits, the easy ones there to provide guidance to the harder ones. We have cliches to guide us, like "Jesus is to be found on every page". We struggle with it, work it together, interpret it together, gathering God's Spirit into the group to hear what God has to say, including what WE are to say to God, how we are to breathe out in our faith.    

    To breathe out is to pray, to come to the Lord with the full spread of our hearts, from joy to regret to fear to need to intervention, whatever, as wide as the human experience can be, so great is the prayerful experience we can have in speaking to our God. How do we begin? Jesus' disciples asked Him the same thing. We named the prayer for Jesus, our Lord's Prayer.

    So, to begin, or to begin anew, speak the Lord's Prayer, in mind and voice. We practice it every Sunday to lay the foundation of prayer on our hearts for any moment. If it isn't coming, Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4 are the Gospel references.  Breathe in the Word of God to breathe out our word, our prayer, to God. Make it voluntary, make it bold, make it deliberate, make it consistent. Do not simply live a faith that is 'nice', strive for the faith that is amazing.

Lets ride the fiery horse and chariot to the whirlwind of heaven,

Rev. Peter Hofstra

Our Story (Capital "S") and the Coming Year

Come one, come all, hear and consider the Greatest Story Ever Told (and it is ours).

So, a few points to connect...

1. Advent is the traditional kickoff to the Christian Calendar. Makes sense seeing as how the Birth of Jesus is a natural starting point for our Messiah, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

2. In months and years gone by, each Sunday Bulletin included the 'historic' reference to the Christian Calendar, like "the 2nd Sunday of Advent" or "The 7th Sunday of Easter" or "The 19th Sunday after Pentecost" (that last one upsells the old Sunday title of "The 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time").

3. The Title of this post repeats the title of the very first post, back on September 10 (if you want to go and look).

4. You have a Pastor who likes to rewire things (not rewrite, just rewire).

5. To celebrate our Lord Jesus Christ, we are going to lay down the lines of Our Story (Capital "S") to their corresponding dates in the Christian Calendar.

So, you can read the original Our Story (Capital "S") in the Sept. 10 post.  Or you can read it here with where we will be celebrating it in the coming Christian Year.

Our Story (Capital “S”)       1: Christ the King: November 24, 2024

 Jesus was born for us.            2: Advent 3: December 15, 2024

 Jesus was baptized for us.      3: Baptism of our Lord: January 12, 2025

 Jesus lived for us.                  4: Transfiguration Sunday: March 2, 2025 

 Jesus died for us.                    5: Palm/Passion Sunday: April 13, 2025

 Jesus arose for us.                  6: Easter Sunday: April 20, 2025

 Jesus ascended for us.            7: Ascension Sunday: June 1, 2025 

 Jesus prayed for us.                8: Pentecost Sunday: June 8, 2025

    Our Story (Capital "S") begins the week ahead of Advent. Before we celebrate the power and wonder of the Baby Jesus, we focus on the Power and Wonder of the Heavenly Jesus (drawing on the recap that the Apostle John gives us in the Book of Revelations).

 Riding with Elijah on the Horse and Chariot of Fire to the Whirlwind of Heaven,

Pastor Pete