Back in Business

I took a break from blogging since I lacked inspiration to write and without inspiration I cannot write anything meaningful. My teetotal month came and went it was easy to stay away from alcohol one month I'm thinking about becoming a teetotaler full time but that's still on the planning stage of the process. I have bought a couple of books about Quakerism and I'm hoping to be able to write about them soon. I'll have to read them first before I can start commenting on them.

Today I’ve read Tolstoy’s short story The Three Hermits

A bishop was sailing from Archangel to the Solovétsk Monastery; and on the same vessel were a number of pilgrims on their way to visit the shrines at that place. The tale thus describes a Bishop's voyage across the White Sea. During his journey, a sailor  on deck tells the Bishop how he once crashed a boat into a small island in the distance, where he was rescued by three hermits. The sailor describes the hermits as humble and holy men who “do everything in silence,” communicating through gestures and glances rather than words. Intrigued by the sailor's tale, the Bishop asks the ship's captain to take him to the hermits' island. The captain tries to dissuade the Bishop, informing him that the hermits “are foolish old fellows, who understand nothing, and never speak a word,” but the Bishop is persistent, and the captain acquiesces.

The Bishop is rowed ashore, and he introduces himself to the hermits: “I have heard,” he tells them, “that you, godly men, live here saving your own souls, and praying to our Lord Christ . . . . I wished to see you, servants of God, and to do what I can to teach you,.” When the Bishop asks how the hermits pray, one answers, “We pray in this way . . . .'Three are ye, three are we, have mercy upon us.'” The Bishop scolds the hermits, telling them that they  “do not pray aright,” and he proceeds to spend the remainder of the afternoon  teaching his unwitting disciples the Lord's Prayer. When at last he is confident the hermits have memorized the Prayer, he returns to his ship to continue his journey. Long into the night, the Bishop fixes his eyes on the horizon where the hermits' island drifted out of sight, until that spot turns into a white light. The light approaches the boat, until the Bishop realizes that the light is coming from the three hermits, who are running upon the water.

The passengers hearing him, jumped up, and crowded to the stern. They saw the hermits coming along hand in hand, and the two outer ones beckoning the ship to stop. All three were gliding along upon the water without moving their feet. Before the ship could be stopped, the hermits had reached it, and raising their heads, all three as with one voice, began to say: 'We have forgotten your teaching, servant of God. As long as we kept repeating it we remembered, but when we stopped saying it for a time, a word dropped out, and now it has all gone to pieces. We can remember nothing of it. Teach us again.'

The Bishop crossed himself, and leaning over the ship's side, said: 'Your own prayer will reach the Lord, men of God. It is not for me to teach you. Pray for us sinners. And the Bishop bowed low before the old men; and they turned and went back across the sea. And a light shone until daybreak on the spot where they were lost to sight.The Bishop thus realizes that he cannot teach the hermits anything about the Holy Spirit. The Bishop begs God for forgiveness, the hermits return to their island, and the story concludes.

Sources: Douglas Duhaime, Reading Wittgenstein Reading Tolstoy - Saying and Showing in ''The Three Hermits” <http://www.academia.edu/1334740/Reading_Wittgenstein_Reading_Tolstoy_-_Saying_and_Showing_in_The_Three_Hermits>30.04.2017.

Leo Tolstoy, Three Hermits,  <http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2896/ >30.04.2017.

Quakers, Easter & Christmas

A quote from Patheos.com:

"KAYLIN (no location posted) ASKS:

Why don’t Quakers celebrate religious holidays?

THE GUY ANSWERS:

For a couple centuries, avoidance of common Christian observances such as Easter and Christmas was as distinctive a tenet among the Quakers (a.k.a. Friends) as their famed pacifism. There are exceptions but that’s largely in the past, especially with Christmas. The Friends General Conference explains that “traditionally Quakers did not celebrate any religious holidays because all days are ‘holy days’,” but today “most Quakers celebrate a low-key Christmas, and sometimes Easter, as part of our larger culture.”  Quakers will typically downplay festivities and reject the commercial push toward materialism in gift-giving, in line with the faith’s principle of simple living. Local Friends meetings differ regarding whether and what holiday worship services to hold, just as Quaker branches are divided in theology between liberals and evangelicals. There’s lively discussion on the Internet about Quaker families’ seasonal practices at home.

George Fox (1624 – 1691), an Englishman oft imprisoned for his faith, is commonly regarded as Quakerism’s founder. He was influenced by the Puritan movement, which opposed Christmas celebrations and outlawed them when it ruled Massachusetts colony during Fox’s lifetime. Fox indicated his feelings in an early journal entry, noting that while others indulged in Christmastime feasting and frolicking “I looked out poor widows from house to house and gave them some money.” (Nowadays, the Friends’ George Fox University in Oregon happily programs Christmas concerts and Easter egg hunts.)

The 1806 Rules of Discipline for the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends declared the predominant policy that believers cannot join in “public fasts, feasts, and what they term holy days” that were “devised in man’s will” (i.e. not by God’s will) because “outward observations” have been supplanted by “the spiritual dispensation of the Gospel.” Each day of the year was to be holy unto God, not just special “days and times.” That same emphasis on inner spiritual life over outward ceremony underlies the Quakers’ elimination of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which remains a distinctive practice for all segments of the faith.

Jehovah’s Witnesses strictly forbid Christmas and Easter observances for a reason that some Quakers have also cited, that these  holidays lack a biblical basis and stem from paganism. Similarly, in bygone days the Quakers followed a “plain” or “scriptural” calendar that rejected common English names for days of the week and the months because they originally referred to worship of the sun and moon (Sunday, Monday) or pagan deities (January for Janus, Thursday as Thor’s day). Instead, Quakers would speak of First Day, First Month, etc."

Source: Patheos.com <http://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionqanda/2013/04/quakers-easter-christmas/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork> 16.04.2017.

A Passage from St. Luke's Gospel

Today I want to share with uou a passage from the Gospel of Luke about the requirements of salvation: What we need to do to be saved.

"And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise." Luke 10:25 - 37

What we need to do to inherit eternal life is to simply "[...]love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."

Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him

Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.

Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.

Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.

Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

John 19:1 - 42

Plead the cause of the poor and needy

Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31:8-9

There was a certain rich man

“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” Luke 16:19-31

The rich man shall fade away in his ways

"Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways." James 1:9-11