[UUCP] SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

[revpauld444]

Hi everyone,
While reading this morning, I came across this quote by Bishop John Shelby
Spong who I often referred to and quoted in my sermons. And as you may
recall, ( I hope you do!) I often spoke about the Jewish practice of
midrash when reading sacred texts as something we should be doing in our
spiritual practice whether we're Jewish or not. The quote below sums up
nicely, I think why it's important.
Hope you are all well!
Peace and Light,
Rev. Paul
*“Midrash is the Jewish way of saying that everything to be venerated in
the present must somehow be connected with a sacred moment in the past. It
is the ability to rework an ancient theme in a new context. It is the
affirmation of a timeless truth found in the faith journey of a people so
that this truth can be experienced afresh in every generation. It is the
recognition that the truth of God is not bound within the limits of time
but that its eternal echoes can be and are heard anew in every generation.
It is the means whereby the experience of the present can be affirmed and
asserted as true inside the symbols of yesterday.”*

*Without this understanding, the Bible was/is read literally and
anti-Semitism flourished. ~~~ Bishop John Shelby Spong, from
“Resurrection--Myth or Reality?: A Bishops Search for the Origins of
Christianity”*
 --
Rev. Paul S. Dodenhoff
revpauld444 at gmail.com
551-427-2648
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://uuserver.org/pipermail/uucp_uuserver.org/attachments/20220824/d4fdf5a4/attachment.htm>