Father Edmund's homily

This is a piece of a very long and overwritten piece of fiction I committed long ago. I am oddly fond of his little bit. A priest is giving a homily following a baptism.

At the conclusion of the Gospel hymn, Father Edmund ascended the pulpit, stood diffidently looking over his congregation, and began. " `The Kingdom of God is like... .' With this simile, Jesus begins several of his parables. We are this morning welcoming another soul to the hope of that Kingdom. In time, young Nathan Talbot Spellman will hear for himself the parables of Jesus. Jesus was concerned to let people know what his kingdom was to be. Not a political uprising, the resurgence of Jewish autonomy. A way of being. A way of achieving union with God, after so long an estrangement. His parables are none of them blueprints for specific acts, diagrams of courses of action. They are metaphors for the Kingdom. They are stories of spiritual achievement, expressed in concrete details which are not meant to be taken literally. Imagine taking the parable of the vineyard laborers as realistic. Those of you in the congregation who supervise numbers of employees can imagine the havoc wreaked by paychecks that did not reflect hours actually worked."

A faint sound of laughter ran through the congregation. Jester smirked at the idea. "In the same fashion, the parable of the talents is very far from being a manual for money marketers. `The Kingdom of God is like...', not IS, but is LIKE. The Kingdom of God is salvation, union with God, available to the latecomer as well as to those who rise earliest in the morning of spiritual growth. The Kingdom of God is given with joy to those who enrich their souls with the bounty so freely given us, given even the least of us, by God. His joy is with those who do not bury the gifts, do not hide away their talents-what a fortuitous translation-but employ their gifts, however great, however modest, in a manner commensurate with their worth." Jester looked into the pew in front of him, still seeing no pledge cards. He settled back, wary.

"The details of the parables are not literal in their application, but the feeling of joy at the reception of the Prodigal is surely to be taken for its own sake, as well as for its symbolism. The rewards enjoyed by the good and faithful servants are symbols of the bounty and love of God, but the picture of a benevolent master and his love of his servants have roots in our daily lives. This is the true power of the parables, that they are not mechanistic creations of static symbols, but real in a human, feeling way. Jesus is concerned with how we live with one another, which is a mirror and complement of how we live with God. Euphoria and mystic rapport can accompany an acceptance of the sacrifice of the crucifixion. They are incomplete foundations for the Kingdom of God. Our lives in this world are as much a part of God's plan as any afterlife. Jesus talks over and over of how we should love one another. There are two great commandments, as Jesus said. The love of God, and the love of our brother. And they are one. In this world. In the next. A great poet of our language once had Faust ask of Mephistopheles, the emissary of Satan, the question `Where is Hell?' The answer was,`This is Hell, nor am I out of it.' We can make this world a Hell, and bury our gifts from God. Or, I believe, we can use what God has given us, to the help of our brothers, and the glory of God. Then we can answer Mephistopheles, `This is the Kingdom of God, nor are we out of it.' Amen."

What's in a Story?

...The Play's the thing,
Wherein Ile catch the Conscience of the King.

Hamlet knew what every storyteller knows; a plot or
storyline is nothing, execution is all. The few lines
that Hamlet adds to the 'Murder of Gonzago' transform
a pedestrian revenge tale into a device to rip open
Claudius' soul.

Plots may be totally improbable and still work as
absorbing tales. Imagine a more improbable plot than a
son learning from a ghost that his father has been
murdered by his uncle, who then took over both kingdom
and queen-Hamlet's own mother. If Shakespeare had
written the part of Hamlet as he did Hotspur, the play
would have been over in one act. Straight from his
audience with King Hamlet, Hotspur/Hamlet, in a fine,
foaming eye-rolling bipolar frenzy would have sought
out Claudius and spitted the usurper, unless security
forces did for Hamlet, Jr. what Claudius did for
Senior. Either way, a half-dozen more or less innocent
bystanders would have lived on, including Polonius,
Ophelia and Laertes. Even Rosincrane and Guildensterne
would have lived to become perpetual graduate
assistants at Wittenberg U. But then nobody would have
remembered that eminently logical play.

The telling of the tale is how the playwright catches our
conscience, and our attention.

Let us now praise famous men...

Credo:

I am free. That means in thought, word and deed, subject only to the rights of others to be similarly free. My rights stop at the borders of others’ same rights. Most of the problems of civilization involve somebody trying to move those lines to their advantage.

Thomas Jefferson, with a little editorial help from Ben Franklin, said in the Declaration of Independence that the rights of men are primary, and the assertion that this is so is “self-evident.” Perhaps, but not without effort, unceasing and to the last bitter trial. Jefferson knew this, of course, which is why he wanted to be remembered for the Declaration, and for the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, passed in Virginia in 1785 . Those two achievements, along with founding the University of Virginia, were all the tributes he wanted on his grave memorial.

For me this means that my religious views are personal and not political, I have no right to impose dogma as law, however strong my beliefs are. I expect the same consideration from other citizens. This consideration especially applies to choosing representatives to enact and enforce laws for a pluralistic society. The recent presidential election and the attribution of “moral concerns” to the choices made, have raised my libertarian hackles. Following is a quotation from a draft of the above legislation authored by Thomas Jefferson for the Virginia legislature:

[It follows :] …that our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it…

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Jefferson.

Homelessness: The Next Frontier

I have been thinking somewhat about the announced initiative proposed by Mayor Bob Corker to eliminate homelessness in Chattanooga. Yesterday I received a call from a participant in this effort, looking for an old friend of mine, or at least his current email.

I was able to supply the information, as I continue to exchange emails with my friend Tom Hebert. During his ten years or so in Chattanooga Tom managed to shake up a lot of projects with his energy and ideas. Tom lives in Oregon now, involved with two of his long-time enthusiasms, horses and Indian (Native American) activism. He was unwilling to leave these behind, even supposing he was actually chosen for the position. (Part-time coordinator for the Regional Inter-agency Council on Homelessness.) For some reason, he urged the person who sent him the job description to consider me for the job.

Here is my reply to him, covering both his refusal and my reaction to the whole subject:

Tom,

Your email to Judi was vintage Hebert. A distillation of your experience with the Bessie Smith Hall and a pointed recap of the many satisfying interests you have where you are.

Nice touch to recommend me for this position, I value your confidence even while recoiling in horror at the prospect of riding into the vile and bottomless swamp of politically poisoned projects in Chattanooga. You may not be aware that this “initiative” originated with Bob Corker, who is running for Senator in 2006.

“Ending Homelessness in Chattanooga.”

Why does this remind me of CNE (Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise) circa 1987?

“Ending substandard housing in ten years.”

Meanwhile the rotting center of residential Chattanooga continues its multiple decade slide into sub-Third World status. (Excluding downtown, with multi-millions of privately leveraged public money prettifying the cityscape)

O tempore! O mores!

Regards from your pal,

Felix Miller