Pause for Advent 2 - The Passion; Luke chapter 22 and 23

ON COURAGE

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; 

The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.”     Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

This quote crossed my path last week - around the same time that I listened to this podcast (which is stomach-turningly horrible about the death penalty for martyrs in Elizabethan England) from a series about the World in Shakespeare's time 

The thought came to me that Jesus had been extraordinarily courageous. 

Today, as a preparation for this week's portion of Luke's gospel I re-read "The Dream of the Rood", an old-English poem that I came across on this blog

There are quite a few versions on the internet, for example here, or you can download a copy from amazon easily enough for some money.

This poem is the recounting of a dream that the teller had of the Cross, or Rood, telling the story of the  crucifixion. Christ is described a warrior, stepping up to his duty;


"I saw then the Saviour of mankind hasten with great zeal, as if he wanted to climb upon me. There I did not dare, against the word of the Lord, bow or break, when I saw the 
corners of the earth tremble. 

I might have felled all the enemies, even so, I stood fast.

He stripped himself then, young hero - that was God almighty - strong and resolute; he ascended on the high gallows, brave in the sight of many, when he wanted to ransom mankind.

I trembled when the warrior embraced me; even then I did not dare to bow to earth, but I had to stand fast. I was reared a cross. I raised up the powerful King, the Lord of Heaven; I did not dare to bend...."

I've found the first page of this introduction from a University of Oxford Course pack is very helpful with understanding the historical context of this poem.


Anyway, having read "The Dream of the Rood", I tackled the Luke chapters with less dread than I usually feel when reading this part of the Gospel. Luke is mercifully brief in his narrative.

When people say "oh, the world is getting worse and worse blah blah", I answer that at least we don't have such appalling punishments as public spectacles anymore.

I will read these gospel chapters again this week, with thankfulness for Christ's bravery and resolution at sticking to The Plan, in a way that few of us are asked to do these days. 

Thursday 7th December 2017 - Oddly convenient

As well as reading Luke's gospel in Advent, I have two other projects on the go.

One is to listen to the piece of music for the day in my birthday present book



which has already introduced me to the most wonderful choral work that I am saving to listen to again on Christmas Eve (I'll let you in on the secret then).

The other is "doing" the Julia Cameron book "The Artist's Way".




I'm finding the language a bit "fey" and "new-age-y" and coy with respect to dealing with the idea of  God and Spirituality and Creativity, and a bit overly gloopy in the way the "Affirmations" are written. But some of the tasks, and the daily "morning pages", when you just fill three pages with handwriting about whatever falls out of your mind and into your pen and onto the page intruiging.

This week's main "task" (among a whole host of other things, which I just pick and choose as I go along) is Reading Deprivation. Wow!

A week of Not Reading. So, my current books ("The Children of Greene Knowe" by Lucy M Boston and "Fierce Imaginings" by Rachel Mann) are on hold, and so is Luke's Gospel. Luckily, I had read the chapter before I read this week's directive to Not Read.

       

I've decided to make an exception for the couple of pages of the Gospel, but have printed them out so that I don't inadvertently read any more than just that Chapter. And regarding the "Year of Wonder", I read just enough of the page to find out what today's music is ("In the mists", 1: Andante by Janacek) I try and shut the book quickly so as not to read the blurb.

The thing is, how convenient is that - only one Chapter of Luke in the week that I'm supposed to be experiencing a week of Reading Deprivation!

So far I've managed to not read any blogs, or facebook (well, nearly no facebook) or twitter all week. I must admit my fingers do stray towards the icons on the desktop, but then I quickly snatch them back. No real cheating has happened yet!

Links to Advent Calendars 2017

(This one isn't on-line - I filched the picture from Amzn. But oh oh oh so cute!)

I'm starting a new PAGE, called Advent Calendars. It will consist of links to Excellent (in my opinion) online Advent Calendars.

Here's the first entry, thanks to The Creen Laboratory


The Bodleian library; this year (2017) based on John Masefield's "The Box of Delights"

http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/advent2017

Sunday 3rd December - #Pause for Advent 1; Surprises

I set up my post for #Pause for Advent on the Saturday, without actually having looked at Luke's Gospel first.

Well, that's because the plan is to start reading on the first Sunday in Advent, of course!

I opened up Luke 24 this morning and discovered;

"Noli me tangere" doesn't occur in Luke's gospel. Jesus doesn't appear to the women in the garden, only the angels, asking the women why they are looking for the living among the dead. So, WRONG PICTURE. I'll have to check out the other gospels now to find out where that bit comes from. Here's a better illustration of the text

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrhbearers

Then I discovered that


verse 9... "When [the women] came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magadalene, Joanna, Mary the mother and James, and the others who were with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed like nonsense." 

That seems a bit harsh, but I suppose understandable under the circumstances. And Peter did go and check out their story afterwards.

I was also disconcerted to find that Chapter 24 is the last chapter in the Gospel. That was unexpected! Luke wraps the story up pretty quickly after the walk to Emmaus bit.


It's such a short passage to read this week, which makes me grateful, because this is my last "full-on" week of teaching. I'll read it again several times - the events are so compressed in the narrative that it is easy to miss something important.

From Monday 11th things will wind down a bit and the following week has even less teaching; just as well as there is an awful lot to read that week!

Sunday 3rd December - #Pause for Advent 1

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chartres-051_-_f2_-_Resurrection_-_Noli_me_tangere.jpg

As I mentioned previously, I'm joining a group of bloggers each writing a series of four Advent reflections, one for each of the four Sundays before Christmas. (Go to "Tracing Rainbows", and look in the top right hand corner to find the other bloggers)

My starting point is going to be Luke's Gospel. I'm part of a group following The Bible Society's "read a book of the Bible every month club" - have a look at their website to find out about it - and this is the group's current choice.

Now that's a big problem for me. I don't want to be reading about the death of "Baby Jesus" just before Christmas. Indeed, I can hardly bear to read the Passion Narratives in any of the gospels at any time.

Last night I had a brainwave! I'm going to start at the happy ending - the Resurrection - and work backwards, arriving at the Nativity part on Christmas Eve.

That means that this week, from today, I'm going to read through chapters 24 to the end. Starting here;

Luke 24New International Version (NIV) (gateway bible)

Jesus Has Risen

24 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words.

Hence the picture at the top of this post - "Noli me tangere" - "Do not touch me".

Have I missed the point of the title of this series; "Pause for Advent"? 
Well, no; the plan is to take  some time to sit and reflect on some aspect of this part of the Gospel when I've opened to door on my Advent calendar. This might be a good thing to listen to as well; "I know that my redeemer liveth" from Handel's "Messiah", sung by the choir of Kings

Next week's "read" will be Chapters 22 - 24 - the death of Christ, and in the third week it will be from from Chapter 3, Jesus as an adult. 

Which leaves the beginning of the whole story for Christmas Eve. Perfect timing.

Friday 1st December - The start of Advent Calendars

A crazy sort of day, Advent calendar-wise.

(I don't think I'm going to call them Advent calendars anymore. Christmas Countdowns would be more truthful. Advent doesn't start until Sunday, and they mostly, like mine, don't have anything to do with the Church side of the Season. I'm not complaining - I'm very happy to have Christmas Countdown Calendars full of Chocolate and surprises.)

The craziness was that I hadn't done anything about getting bits to go into the little drawers until today. So, while we were trawling round B & Q and Tescos and the local garden centre looking for a Christmas Tree, I took the opportunity to buy several boxes of delicacies that I hoped would fit into the little drawers.

It took me a while to fill all 24 drawers, and then we both opened number 1. Chocolate. A good start.

However I forgot to light any of my Christmas Countdown tea lights,

or my Christmas Countdown Candle.

Tomorrow is another day.

We also bought a tree  - artificial (!) -  and pre-lit (!!!!) - which the offspring assembled and plugged in today, 1st December (!!!!!!!). That must be the earliest ever.

Yes, I am shocked. (But it does make things so, so, easy....). I'll start decorating it properly next weekend.