Nowhere to Lay Our Heads: On the Road with Jesus (Luke 9:51-62)

On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what spirit you are of, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them.” Then they went on to another village (Luke 9:52b-56, New Revised Standard Version, here and following).

Sometimes people do not act as we expect or even like. Here some people have actually refused hospitality to Jesus Christ Son of the Living God. How rude is that? Evil enough, James and John believe, to justify their sudden death and perhaps even their eternal damnation.

Happily, a different spirit animates Jesus. He embodies the one odd god of truth, freedom, love, and vitality. He came to give live and not to take it.

Benedict of Nursia (ca 480-543)

Benedict was born around 480 into an upper-middle-class family living in Nursia (today’s Norcia), Latinia, about 150 miles (180 km) northeast of Rome.

By the time he was 20, he had received a good education in Rome and had met a woman who had fallen in love with him.  Even so he tired of the devotion of his friends to Venus goddess of sex and Bacchus god of consumption. He left them in Rome to develop a more meaningful way of living.

The Collapse of Our World and Our Creative Response to It

Throughout history, we find four types of social movements: progressive, conservative, restorative, and preservative. Progressives believe the golden age lies in the future; conservatives, in the present; and restoratives, in the past. Preservatives seek to save the best of every age from destruction.

For all of us in Olympia—for all of our societies, all of our cultures, and all of us as individuals—the most significant reality since 1750 has been the growth of the Global Technological System (GTS). It has now reached the point in intensity, extensity, and complexity that all of our societies, cultures, and selves are thoroughly integrated into it with no discernible method of escape.

Social Movements: Progressive, Conservative, Restorative, Preservative

At any given moment in our Olympian society, there are always four movements afoot: progressive, conservative, restorative, and preservative. They vary in relative strength. Sometimes one is more popular, sometimes another. They also vary in relative creativity. At times each is creative and sometimes each is destructive.

Sappho (ca 630-ca 570 BC)

Little biographical information about Sappho survives. We know she was born in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos into a wealthy family. With her family she was temporarily exiled to Sicily around 600. Later she returned to Lesbos and remained there until her death. She wrote poetry and sang these poems while playing the lyre.

Pindar (ca 522-443 BC)

Pindar was born around 522 BC near Thebes into a wealthy family that traced its roots back to Cadmus. His permanent address always remained Thebes even though he traveled widely.

As a young adult he lived in Athens for awhile to study poetry. In 500, and for the rest of Pindar’s life and beyond, Athens was by far the most important center of culture in all Hellenia. Pindar loved Athens and never spoke a bad word about it. This was difficult because, during his lifetime, leaders in Athens and Thebes were often bitter political enemies. Once leaders of his hometown of Thebes fined him 5000 drachmas for praising Athens in a poem. Athenians countered with a gift of 10,000 drachmas.

Jerusalem, Jupiter, Judas, and Jesus

Tradition tells us that Jesus entered Jerusalem in a highly meaningful way. [T]he whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice…, saying “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:37a, 38a, New Revised Standard Version, here and following). Let us imagine the day. A great number of Jesus' supporters publicly cheered for him as the long-awaited ruler sent by God to save his people from their enemies.

Then Jesus got even more provocative. [H]e entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, ‘It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers” (19:45-46).