Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

To make Comments write directly to Jim at jimt@quixotic.ca

 

Published on Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Living with a stopped clock

My watch quit, at seven seconds after 5:16 p.m. I can be absolutely precise about the time, because I consulted my watch several times over the next few hours. 

            At 5:16:07, Joan and I decided to order some Thai take-out food (the restaurant puns “Thai thaikout”).

            We placed our order at 5:16:07.

            We picked up our order at 5:16:07.

            We took it to our friends’ house and started eating at 5:16:07.

            We talked until darkness fell. It was still 5:16:07.

            We got home at 5:16:07.

            I can’t imagine why I kept checking my watch, when I knew it would give me the wrong time, but I did. Time seems, for some reason, to be important for me. 

            Knowing that my watch was defunct, I left it off my wrist the next morning. I felt naked. I kept checking my wrist, and seeing nothing but tan lines. 

            Finally, I gave up fighting the inevitable; I went to a watch store and got a new battery. My watch is working fine again. 

 

Silly question

            Here’s a challenge for you. Which will be more accurate: a watch that has totally stopped, or a watch that loses one second a day? 

            Not what you expect -- the watch that has stopped will be absolutely accurate twice a day. A watch that loses a second every day will not be accurate again for another 43,200 days, or about 118 years. 

            But practically, I’m sure you’d rather have a watch that’s running,  because you can make adjustments to bring it up to date. Wouldn’t you?

            So why, I wonder, do some church-goers prefer to live with their clocks stopped? Why won’t they do, for their faith and doctrine, what they do for their watches?

            A friend, an Anglican priest from Scotland, told me that his denomination is struggling with opposition to updating its 1982 Prayer Book. Which was an updating of the 1970 Prayer Book. Which in turn was an updating of… well, you get the picture. 

            Their original Prayer Book goes back to 1662, or perhaps 1637, or maybe Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer in 1549. 

            Every revision has been resisted. 

            Just as each new translation of the Bible has been greeted with opposition. Even outrage.

 

Stuck in time

            In the congregation I attend, some members insist that the only acceptable version of The Lord’s Prayer must say, “Our Father, Who art in Heaven…”  (In fact, there’s no record of Jesus ever praying it himself. As a prayer he taught his disciples, it would be better called The Disciples’ Prayer.) 

            And he didn’t teach it to them in English. Jesus spoke Aramaic, the folk-language of his time. Which later got translated into Greek, which got translated into Latin, which got translated into King James English. Newer translations – based on reconstructed Aramaic or Greek – are far truer to Jesus’ original intent. 

            But it’s the “Our Father Who art in Heaven” version that a particular group has emotional ties to. Any other form is unacceptable. 

            It’s as if their religious watches all stopped several decades ago; any adjustments since then must be wrong. 

            If 5:16:07 was right once, it must still be right. 

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Copyright © 2018 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.

                  To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

 

Last week’s column in free will earned some kind of record – I got only one response!

            Bob Rollwagen wrote, “It is always very interesting to see the progression of your thesis and the opinions introduced. The fact is that ‘Free’ comes with a price. The phrase ‘nothing is free’ is a concept that is much more than three simple words. What you do each moment of life is influenced by the moment before and the moment before that and so on, if there is memory and understanding. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and All Knowing (AK) could be seen as the same thing. The flaw is that humans rarely have this level of memory and understanding (comprehension). We exercise free will with what we recall at the moment and are influenced by some random events in the past which may be different every time a similar need for free will appears. AI or AK suggests that all of a person’s free will reflects all previous intake of knowledge through seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, imagining etc. It would be my hypothesis that robots could act in a similar fashion but be more consistent in their actions than humans. Humans are far more unpredictable.”

 

The lack of letters opens up an opportunity, however. This last week I’ve been reading “Waiting for the Last Bus,” by Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. (I recommend any of his 29 books.) One of his chapters had some thoughts on free will which closely (I think) paralleled mine. 

            Here’s some of what he had to say: ““The idea behind it [free will] is that each of us has agency or control over our lives. Whatever we did at any particular moment, we could have done the opposite, chosen differently. It was entirely up to us. Our actions were freely willed decision. And it is not just a piece of theory, a philosophical issue we debate. It has solid consequences in the way societies have ordered themselves for centuries. It lies behind the criminal justice systems we have developed. It is why we build prisons and incarcerate people in them because of the crimes they freely chose to commit. It is why people have been stoned, flogging, beheaded, burned at the stake, or drowned on ducking stools for forbidden practices they freely chose to take part in.... As we say of those we punish: it serves them right; they got what they deserved.”

 

By way of reminder, I plan to send out an email notification whenever I post a new poem to my poetry webpage, http://quixotic.ca/My-Poetry-- there might be a new one later this week. If you’d like to be on the mailing list to receive notifications about new poems, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca,  or subscribe yourself to the list by sending a blank email (no message) to poetry-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca(If it doesn’t work, write me directly.) 

 

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PSALM PARAPHRASES

 

I have four versions of Psalm 130. I chose this one because it reflects the kind of thing that I like to do during the summer months. 

 

My God, how can I possibly climb this mountain?

I look up, and up, and up.

Cliffs tower above me;

dense brush conceals the path;

rain makes slick the footing.

And my legs are weak –-

my heart pounds; I gasp for breath.

Yet you expect me to try;

I cannot let you down.

I will arise and go now;

I will get off my self-pity and make the effortto ascend to your holy hill. 

It is the least I can do;it is the most I can do.

Whether I succeed or fail, I know I am not alone,

for you are with me;

your rod and staff will support me as I struggle upwards.

I do not know what awaits me at the top --

when I get there, if I get there --

except that you will be there, with me.

 

For paraphrases of mostof the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalmsfrom Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

 

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TECHNICAL STUFF

 

If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.

                  To subscribe or unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to jimt@quixotic.ca. Or you can subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message or subject line) to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at softedges-unsubscribe@lists.quixotic.ca.

                  I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

 

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PROMOTION STUFF

 

To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols.

                  Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at wwwDOTsinghallelujahDOTca

                  Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up, http://wwwDOThymnsightDOTca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)

                  Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,”an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca>

                  I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom

                  Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawoodATgmailDOTcom to get onto her mailing list.

                  Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony”-- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’sreaders. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom or twatsonATsentexDOTnet

 

 

 

 


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