Christmas is coming, the goose is in the freezer. UPS deliver my French Christmas tea. USPS delivered my fruit cake from Gethsemane Abbey. (They also delivered eleven bottles of assorted pills. A 90 supply to treat my various ailments.) The tree is decorated. The Hogwarts Express train is running around my little village. I'm ready for Christmas. Except none of that has anything to do with Christmas, not really.



So, I want to remind everyone about the real significance of Christmas. Matt and Cherie constructed a wonderful nativity scene at our church. These pictures will tell the story.



In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.


In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see--I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"



When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.


In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

SAN DIEGO PART 2

As I mentioned in the last episode, part of my reason for going to San Diego was to attend the annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion. These are two of the largest professional associations for scholars in religious studies. There was a certain poignancy about this gathering because it is the last time the two groups will meet at the same time until possibly 2011. A few years back the AAR decided it wanted to meet separately from the SBL so there would be more opportunities for the AAR to schedule sections. This presents a problem to many who belong to both organizations because it is unlikely that people will attend both. My guess is that AAR will be the loser in this move because it wasn't a decision that all (or perhaps even most) AAR members wanted. I suspect the true reasons for the decision lie elsewhere. There are a number of people who teach religious studies in areas outside Biblical studies who resent the amount of resources devoted to Biblical studies in university religion departments. Some don't think Biblical studies even are a legitimate part of religious studies. They see it as being a part of the actual practice of religion rather than the study of religion, more fitting for seminaries of church-related colleges, but not public universities. Needless top say, they don't read the journals in the field of Biblical studies, so they really don't understand the discipline. For that matter, a lot of people outside the department of religious studies can't understand why a university should have such a department at all. No other department has to justify it's legitimacy as much as religious studies.

To give an idea of the scope of this gathering, the San Diego newspaper reported there were over 9,000 people in attendance. Over 1,000 sessions were held. Around 185 publishers exhibited their books. This must be the largest gathering of scholars in religious studies in the world. As a matter of fact, people come from all over the word to attend. Professors from Germany, Sweden, Russia, The Netherlands and South Africa presented papers at the handful of sessions I attended.

I tend to go to the sessions on subjects related to Christian origins, that is, the beginning of Christianity. In particular I went to a session on Matthew with five papers presented, most of which I can't recall unless I look at the abstract. Two session of Early Jewish Christian relationships (ten papers total). And then a session on the Didache, an early Christian writing. I also attend things outside my specialization: one session on art and religions of antiquity and one on Icons and Images in Eastern Orthodox Theology. Oh yes, there was also a session on the portrayal of Jesus in films.

There are other things going on as well in the evening. I saw a Chinese movie (with English subtitles), a movie about Daoist ritual in China, and several groups of Chinese dancers. (Can you tell that China was the area of interest for the America Academy this year?) I also attended the one big disappointment, the session on Mormon Studies. We were led to believe that we were going to see a film on the Mormons. Instead we saw about 20 minutes of the film and heard an hour plus of blathering about the film. It was a very crowded session with a LOT of upset people at the end.

Most of the papers I hear are way over my head. Scholarship marches on in new directions, and I don't seem able to keep up with it. The people I studied long ago are passe now. They aren't even mentioned. That's why I go to these meetings every couple of years; I want to keep in touch with the scholarly world. Just because I won't write some learned article doesn't mean I can't pay attention to what's going on. One of the ways I keep up is by purchasing books at the meetings. Discounts range from 20% to 50%. I can buy a whole lot more than if I purchased them online. Besides, online I really can't get a sense of the book. And looking at books helps me to see many, many things I would otherwise miss.

My great find was a new edition of the Greek New Testament. My Greek is pretty poor. It's hard for me to plow through the original language. This new edition not only has a short dictionary at the back, but a list of the rarer words with means and grammatical analysis right on the page where the text is. And the print is much larger which is a relief to these aged eyes. So I can read these words (except in Greek letters) Tou de Iesou Xristou e genesis outos en and know with ease that it says: Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way. Which is just the right message for ending this blog.

And so as we prepare His way, may the Lord God bless you on your way and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne

P.S. The picture is a part of Psalm, 121 from one of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

SAN DIEGO

I am back from San Diego. The trip had only a few flaws–all related to the travel itself. Somehow I wound up in a middle seat on the Tampa to Denver leg of the trip. I really dislike that, but at least the travers on either side were civil and didn't slop over into my seat. I do not, however, that the first person to sit down is always the one occupying the aisle seat, while the last person in takes the window seat. There must be a better way to do that. I traveled out on Frontier airline which provides you a free headset for the in-flight movie and then charges $5 if you want to see the film. Delta, which I took to return, has free movies, but charges $2 for the headset. It's a racket. I have to remember to take my own headset next time or maybe buy one of those cute DVD players, only they make you turn that sort of thing off. Despite these little inconvenience, I'd much rather fly than ride in a car. You've got a much better odds on a plane than a car or, worse yet, a taxi. I thought several times on the short trip from the airport to the hotel we were goners. Yipes. After that, I walked everywhere or took a trolley.

Since I arrived in San Diego around 9 p.m., I didn't get top see things until the next day. I had scheduled the first three days in Balboa Park, about a half-hour walk from my hotel. The weather was cooler than Florida, clear and dry. The bridge to the park runs across one of the many gorges that wind through the area. The scenery is quite impressive, I see why people want to live here. Florida is sub-tropical. This part of California is a dessert that comes down to the Pacific Ocean, a very different climate. I had to get used to climbing up and down hills. Babloa Park was the site of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Many of the buildings are recreations of the original exhibit buildings. You can still get a feel of what a turn of the century world's fair would have been like. That houses numerous museums. I think I covered thirteen of them in three days. Many of the museums had small exhibits compared to what I have been used to in larger cities. I was particularly fond of the Timken Museum of Art and the Model Railroad Museum. Part of my plan in going to San Diego was to see the special exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Very interesting to see the scrolls themselves (actually fragments of scrolls.)

Of course the big attraction is the San Diego Zoo. I remember my parents mentioning that they saw it when they visited San Diego just after WWII. It is the most impressive zoo I've ever seen. The big attraction are the Pandas. They actually have a breeding pair. This zoo also has cokes for $3.99 and hamburgers for $7.99. I waited until I left the zoo to eat. I spent one morning going through Old Town, the site of the original town of San Diego. It's one of the fortunate twists of history that the center on the city was moved to a new location (the present downtown) thus preserving many of the structures from the period of 1821-1871.

In my travels I happened to pick up a magazine featuring houses for sale. Most of them were in the 1.5 to 2.5 million dollar range, although I did find a little 3br 2.5 bath place for a mere $949,900. There's a site (not house, just a site) for 10 million and a nice villa for 15 million. I did see an ofer of one mansion for 24 million, but I think that had eight bedrooms so you expect to pay a little more. No wonder the tour guide at Old Town joked about this little one-room Mexican house probably renting for $2,000 a month. What kind of work do you do to afford such places? I guess if you have to work you CAN'T afford such places.

One of the highlights of my trip was attending a performance of the Nut Cracker by the Moscow Ballet. It was the first time I had seen a professional company in a good many years. Of course they worked with a local studio so that there were kids performing also. It was staged quite differently than I have seen before. There were many large animals added to scenes in the second act. My guess is this is some kind of Russian tradition. I was surprised that all the sets were done only with flats, but I realize that would be the only way you could travel from place to place. As an added treat, there was a girls chorus performing Christmas songs in the lobby before the performance and they also sang during a part of the ballet.

Now I have to talk about eating. San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter is filled with restaurants. For reasons of economy I could only try a few. First was Sammy's Woodfired Pizza. I understand that woodfired pizza is a California specialty. I had one with more traditional toppings. Athens Market Taverna was next–Greek food, naturally. Also naturally I had lamb shank, so tender it fell from the bone. The last special place was Chopahn, an Afghan restaurant. Delicious lamb again, but broiled on skewers. Yumm. A few other interesting meals: twice I had lunch at the Japanese Tea House in Balboa Park. They even had a variety of loose teas that you could choose from. If only every place had that. Now, I quite behaved myself by only having dessert twice the whole time I was away. The first one was early one when I hiked maybe an extra mile to Just Desserts, a wonderful little pastry shop where I bought a chocolate something-or-other. Then on the final night, I stopped at Ghiradelli's, the famous California chocolatier where I had my first hot fudge sundae in many years.
It was the most marvelous vacation in years. Since this was also supposed to be continuing education, I'll try to make my next blog about the educational portion of the trip. In the meantime, wherever your travels take you, may the Lord God bless you on your way and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne