Requesting to be a God (Rock Me Amadeus)

"I would offer up secretley the proudest prayer a boy could think of. "Lord, make me a great composer! Let me celebrate your glory through your music and be celebrated myself! Make me famous through the world, dear God! Make me immortal! After I die let people speak my name forever with love for what I wrote! In return I vow I will give you my chastity, my industry, my deepest humility, every hour of my life. And I will help my fellow man all I can. Amen and Amen!" Peter Shaffer's Play Amadeus.

Ursala K. Le Guin The Left Hand Of Darkness on Fear

But I do fear you, Envoy. I fear those who sent you. I fear liars, and I fear tricksters, and worst I fear the bitter truth. And so I rule my country well. Because only fear rules men. Nothing else lasts long enough. You are what you say you are, yet you're a joke, a hoax. There's nothing in between the stars but void and terror and darkness, and you come out of that all alone trying to frighten me. But I am already afraid, and I am the king. Fear is king! Now take your traps and tricks and go, there no more needs saying. I have ordered that you be given the freedom of Karhide. (Le Guin, 40)

I'm the Egg Man

I'm the Egg Man
Unboiled, white, fragile,
Easily cracked on the sidewalk,
Fried on a hot summer day.

I'm the Egg Man

Building Prestigious Sand Castles

A Person's prestige is built on good and bad events in their lives. A person will defend their position as a hero or a victim with a profound sacredness.

Galations 4:16

16 Have I then become your enemy by z telling you the truth? [1]

[1] 4:16 Or by dealing truthfully with you

11BC - 48 AD: Herod Agrippa, King of the Jews Replies to Gaius

September 10, AD 38

Herod Agrippa
1211 Camel Jockey Way
Jerusalem City, Jerusalem, 72080

Gaius
101 Empire Drive
Rome, Roman Empire, 00120

Dear Emperor Gaius,

Gaius it has been so long since we seen each other in person. I am found of our relationship. The Hasmonaen household sends our prayers to the prosperity of the Roman Empire.

Sovereignty is important to our religious scruples. The people of Judea have a desire, a longing, a hope for independence. They desire a Jerusalem that is pure of outside influence. They see a free Jerusalem, as a freer way to God. They desire a holy city of Jerusalem.

The men of Judea are tired of living under Roman Control. They speak out against the border checkpoints. They hate the frequent screenings that demoralize their spirits. We see grown men looking like little Children caught for sending a love not in class at the Synagogue. They live in fear of everyone, for their neighbor may be a spy. We have seen the secret police raid households due to something said at the local market.

We understand your need to erect statues. Statues show our visible power. We have thoughts of erecting statues of the Herod family up in Caeserea. But we ask that you hold up from putting a statue of yourself in the Jerusalem temple. The thought would enrage the men of Judea. Their anger may rise up like a mighty wave, a mighty wind, that Rome would have a hard time controlling. Long live the Roman Empire!!!

Your boot shiner,

King Herod of Agrippa

Resources:

Bruce F.F. New Testament History. Garden City, York: Anchor Books, 1972. (258-264)
Illustration: Marvel Comics

Herod died in 48 AD
Note the first Gospel, Matthew , was written in - 50 AD.
The Letters to the Thessalonians were written in 51-52 AD

YHVH Your power is an awesome power, your love is an awesome, terrifying love, you surpass the strength of any boundary, your surpass any imagined monster guarding any imagined entryway, You unite and dive according to your sovereign will. I at times think I am strong enough to push through one of your boundaries by myself. I become stiff necked, like an Ox in a field, only making the chord on my neck tighter. Thank you for protecting me from my own destruction. I ask that you continue to show me how to be obedient in an independent world.

Pre 1 AD - 37 AD: The Hellenist

One problem in religion is a belief that you have an exclusive claim on God. Religious faithful often believe that outsiders do not share the access they share with God. People in religion tend to think that their is a zero sum game with God. These people fear that if God inherits others than there will be no room for us at the table. Often outsiders are pushed out beyond the entrance to the temple. This was a question that boiled between the Hellenist Jews and the Israelite in the growing pains of Early Christian Church.

Christianity would have taken a different shape had their not been the divine providence to disperse Jews through out the Mediterranean World. These Jews were different than the ones who stayed in Jerusalem. Hellenistic Jews were more likely to think Globally due to their dealings in North Africa, Greece, Rome, and parts of Asia. Hellenistic Jews were more inclusive then their brethren in Jerusalem.

Another issue that separated the Hellenistic Jews from the Israelite Jews was language. Hellenist were more likely to speak Greek. Israelites held firm to the sacredness of their language.

Saul of Taurus/Paul was influenced by this Hellenistic global reality. In Acts 21:27-22:2 Saul almost sat off a riot. The Israelites were angered due to their thinking that Saul was a turncoat who was walking with a known Greek thinker. The people feared that Saul would pollute the temple by bringing a non believer, a non Hebrew speaker, into the shrine. The Israelite were stonewalled in their views. They desired a holy pureness from any influence of OTHERS.

Acts 21:27-22:2 from the Message

Some Jews:
Help! You Israelite! This is the man who is going all over the world telling lies against us and our religion and this place. He's even brought Greeks in her and defiled the Holy Place."

Standing on the barracks steps, Paul turned and held his arms up. A hush fell over the crowd as Paul began to speak. He spoke in Hebrew.

"My dear brothers and fathers, listen carefully to what I have to say before you jump to conclusions about me. " When they heard him speaking Hebrew, they grew even quieter. No one wanted to miss a word of this.

Written while listening to the Podcast:
APM Sound Opinions
Books Referenced:
Bruce F.F. New Testament History. Garden City, York: Anchor Books, 1972.
Shelley, Bruce L. Church History in Plain Language Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1982.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott Christianity Through the Ages: New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1965.
Peterson, Eugene H. The Message Colorado Springs Colorado: Navpress, 1993.

Prayer: YHVH you are most knowledgeable. Your knowledge goes beyond language, color, place and human culture. Your truth stands forever-lasting. Your Truth will be there even when we are not. I have plenty of prejudices which hinder me from being a light in the wilderness. Thank you LORD for loving me despite my ugly prejudices. Thank you for sending your spirit to guide me through the wilderness of mass information. I ask that you keep my arrogance from feeling superior to the Israelite, for we all have prejudices. I ask that you help me listen to others without the need to jump to conclusions. I ask that you help me slow down and truly listen to my brothers and sisters of all whom I am or am not found of. In your name we pray. Amen.

30 AD: The Full Pascal Moon Lit the Other Side of the Jordan

In the Light of a Pascal Moon

The Pascal Moon lit the other side of the Jordan. The red hills were witness to a fateful day, when we put the King of the Jews up onto a piece of wood.

Almighty God Ungirded him,
eager to mount the Gallows,
Unafraid in the sight of many:
He would set free mankind.
I shook when His arms embraced me
but I durst not bow to the ground,
Stand fast I must.

Say you want a Revolution:
Revolutions often happen in the Rural Areas first. Revolutions then grow in strength and attack the Urban Center. Not this revolution. This revolution attacked the fortification first and quickly surrendered. Jesus was surprised when he saw the armed strength of the Roman Band. He replied, "Did you think you were coming to overpower a bandit?" He gently surrendered.

Was this a human movement?
Jesus left no written record. He had chosen twelve men to be witness of the day. These were ordinary men, not necessarily leaders who could make a movement happen. In fact scripture says in Matthew 11 "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and violent take it by force." He was telling his men that to bring the Kingdom to the people one can not use force. Humanistic force harms the Kingdom of Heaven.

Who were his men?
One of these twelve men betrayed him with a kiss. One of the twelve named the Rock (who would later be a significant part of church growth) had betrayed him three times in the course of a night.

What was the mission:
None of his twelve chosen men immediately understood the full light of The Mission. The mission was later defined.

Lasting Impression:
How did a simple movement, in a far off land, one prone to human failure, grow to effect me today in a far off non existent land?

Written while listening to the Podcast:
Groove Electric
Books Referenced:

Bruce F.F. New Testament History. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1972.
Shelley, Bruce L. Church History in Plain Language Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1982.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott Christianity Through the Ages: New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1965.
Davie, Donald ed. The New Oxford Book of Christian Verse Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1981.

587 AD: Augstine Converts to Christianity

587 Augustine Converts to Christianity:

Augustine had a nagging mother (are you sure she was not Jewish?) who wanted her son to be Christian. Finally in 587, Augustine consented to her nagging and converted to Christianity. He then realized he was an intoxicated pig: "Intoxication of the invisible wind of a perverse and downward-tending will that stoops to the most degrading of things." So he stopped walking the streets of Babylon, sat under a peach tree, and wrote his confessions. (the first autobiography known of in the Western World.)