The Magi

These three magi figures were standing in a Mexican restaurant in Newport, Washington. Artistically, I thought they were quite beautiful. Culturally, these statues made me wonder about the magi of the Bible. The word magi comes from the Greek magos, meaning magician. By definition, the magi would have practiced some form of magical arts from the ancient world. According to one source, this term referred to certain followers of Zoroastrianism of ancient Persia. This word could also refer to people who possessed astrological or esoteric knowledge. Yet strangely, English translations of the Bible almost always change the original word to read as 'wise men.' 

Personally, I prefer the original version. They were not simply 'wise men,' but scholars of magical wisdom from another age. 

Joseph

Yesterday, Rhonda and I had the chance to watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Spokane's Civic Theater. We had already seen it once before during the dress rehearsal, and of course, we saw it multiple times years ago when it was performed by the kids at CYT. Even after watching this production maybe ten or twelve times, I've decided that Joseph is my favorite musical. 

Actually, Joseph is my favorite story from the Bible. If you go back and read the biblical account, Joseph's family displays a level of dysfunction not unlike an American soap opera: jealousy, betrayal, violence, physical abuse, deception, seduction, and ultimately forgiveness. I relate to Joseph, especially to his prophetic dreams.

Years ago, I first seriously read the story of Joseph on my mission. I was riding a chicken bus in western Guatemala and passing time by reading the Bible. The story of Joseph came alive, almost as if I had never seen it before. More powerfully, I saw something of myself in the story. By the time I reached Genesis chapter 45, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, long after their betrayal, and wept. I don't know what came over me, but I sat there on the bus bawling. All these years later, I still cry when I read the story. I even cry during the scene of the play when Joseph reveals himself to his brothers - no matter how many times I watch the story.  

Dakota singing "Those Canaan Days." 

The brothers groveled before Joseph

in fulfillment of his dream. 

 

The Civic. 

Into the Sun

Again, I wish I could take credit for this photo, but Carole takes the prize again. I'm not sure if she planned this picture or if it just turned out this way. In any case, she was getting a picture of the Idaho blue-eyed grass at Drumheller Springs and she got me walking into the sun. The effect was impressive. Not to be overly dramatic, but the imagery reminds me of going to the mountain and standing in presence of the divine.

It reminds me of Exodus 33:18-23...

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” 

 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 

But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” 

And yet symbolically we do see the face of God when we behold the glory of creation, especially in spring when all the faces of nature re-emerge from their wintry sleep. 

Fire at Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart Catholic Church on the Spokane Reservation sits behind boarded windows and police tape after a fire destroyed the interior of the building. According to local news reports, the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

News of the fire caught me by surprise.

The other day, my co-worker arrived at the classroom and said, "I heard a church burned in Wellpinit." By that time, the event was already more than a day old, so we quickly found confirmation on the Internet. Of course, images of the fire saddened me. Only once did I ever attend services in that building, but my father was buried in the cemetery directly behind the church, and so I feel myself drawn to that place - connected somehow on a genetic level.

Police tape blocks the entrance to the church.

Blackened fire extinguishers sit nearby.

Some of the religious statues survived the blaze.

Even as a non-Catholic, I have to admit that images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus compel me. I feel a certain fascination and reverence, but I'm not sure I can even begin to explain all the reasons. On one level, it seems archaic, or even strange, to depict a human heart wrapped in light and flames. But on another level, this image holds a remnant or a shadow of something quite profound from the early history of Europe, a time when people were still believed in magical beings and the power of religious objects.

The Stations of the Cross were also preserved.

This image was perhaps the most haunting. The heat from the fire caused the body of Christ to blister, almost as if to accentuate his suffering.

My days vanish like smoke;

my bones burn like glowing embers...

But you LORD sit enthroned forever.

(Psalm 102:3 and 12).

KREM 2 news report regarding the the fire.

Essential

My son woke me this morning and invited me for a long hike by the Little Spokane River. All around we saw evidence of new life emerging from the remains of the past, like tender shoots of x̣ʷx̣ʷtéłp (cow parsnip) sprouting behind an abandoned wheel, or green leaves growing around a deer skull.

Observing the cycle of life and death made me think of the Buddhist concept of non-permanence. As the Buddha once said, "Life and death, and existence and non-existence, do not apply to the essential nature of things, but only to their appearances as they are observed by defiled human eyes. Because of human desire, people become related and attached to these appearances ... their acts, being based upon error, lead them into harm and suffering."

"It is because of this constant changing of appearances that we liken things to a mirage and a dream. But in spite of this constant changing in appearances, things, in their essential spiritual nature, are constant and changeless" (The Teaching of Buddha).

These concepts appeal to me. They keep me focused on the essential spiritual nature of things, and not the passing moods of life.

nexʷ qe wičntm t mlqnups u lxʷup łuʔ sčwax̣is. hayo.

We also saw an eagle with an injured wing.

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these" Matthew 6:28.

In whatever tradition, spirituality comes from observing what the true inner nature of things.

Tears of Repentance

After teaching a course in Native American Film at Whitworth University, I got to thinking about the clash between Christianity and indigenous forms of spirituality. I was raised to respect both spiritual systems, and still I am always saddened by the harsh realities of our history.

This post explores one aspect of that reality.

The spirituality of the North American Indian people has posed a theological obstacle for Christians ever since the two cultures met in the early 1600s. Christians arrived on our shores armed with advanced weaponry and a great commission to “teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost…” (Matthew 28:19). Inspired by this charge, the Puritans sought to establish a Christian nation on the American continent based on their perception of God’s law, but contrary to popular mythology, the Puritans had no intention of establishing religious freedom. As soon as the Puritans gained military independence, they quickly forgot the generosity of the tribes that once saved them from starvation at New Plymouth. They began an aggressive campaign to deprive the Indian people of their lands and to force them to convert to Christianity.

In 1653, John Eliot published a religious tract entitled Tears of Repentance: a Further Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel Amongst the Indians in New England. Under this title, Eliot compiled various “confessions” made by the Indian people of the Massachusetts colonies. Each confession was translated into English, and despite the diversity of confessors, each statement contained the same basic information. The following words offer a sample of their confessions:

William of Sudbury

His Indian Name is

Natous

The Confession which he made on the fast day before the great Assembly was as followeth.

“Before I prayed to God I committed all sins; and serving many gods. I much despised praying unto God, for I beleeved the Devil, and he did dayly teach me to sin…

“[After] hearing that Cutshamoquin prayed, then I thought I will pray also: a year after … I went to Mr. Browns house and told him I will pray to God as long as I live; he said, I doubt of it, and bid me cut off my hair; and I did so presently … then I began to beleeve that Christ dyed for us, for sin; and I saw my heart very full of sin … Sometime I am angry with myself, for my many Evil thoughts in my heart, and to this day I want grace, and cannot confess, because I have been so great a sinner…” (Eliot, 1653).

Those Indians who converted were spared the immediate destruction of life and property. Most were removed to so-called “praying towns” where Indian converts hoped to live in peaceful co-existence with the English. However, not even a genuine religious conversion would protect the converts from the ravages of Puritan aggression. During King Phillip’s War, most of the praying towns were burned and their inhabitants left to starve. Perhaps on a deeper level, the English understood that the confessions they helped to contrive were little more than statements of convenience from a people desperate to survive. If they had truly believed in the power of their own faith, perhaps they would not have been so quick to condemn their own Indian converts.

The English were not entirely motivated by a redeeming faith, but rather by a weighty sense of entitlement and self-importance. In his introduction to Tears of Repentance, Eliot declared: “These Indians (the better and wiser sort of them) have for some years inquired after Church-Estate, Baptism, and the rest of the Ordinances of God, in the observation whereof they see the Godly English to walk.” (Eliot, 1653). These same “Godly English” would ultimately commit all manner of murder, coveting, and theft against the Indian people. Their religion was not necessarily bad, but the manner in which they promoted their religion was unthinkable.

Looking back across history, how many people have betrayed their own deepest values the moment they sought to force those values upon another?

More than 400 years later, the American people have yet to reconcile themselves to the stark brutality surrounding the establishment of this nation. For me, it's not about blame. An honest assessment of our true history will go a long ways toward bringing genuine cultural healing and equality.