Tag Archive for: Moon

Resist Not Evil (2of2)

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Armodoxy for Evil: The Advent Series – Resist Not Evil, 2

Resisting Evil. In studying and learning the commandments of Jesus, his instruction to resist evil is the most disturbing of them all because it goes against our fundamental sense of justice. Good should be rewarded and evil must be punished to prevent it and/or stop it. If we do not resist evil, the argument goes, then evil will continue. We might even believe that not opposing evil is the same as rewarding it.

As children we are introduced to rewarding good and punishing evil with the friendly visitor at Christmas. Whether we call him St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, Gaghant Baba, Papa Noel, or Kris Kringle, he exists and functions on this temporal plain. He knows if we’ve been naughty or nice and dishes out rewards or punishments accordingly.

God is not Santa Claus. Think of all the kids who did not get the rewards that were due to them. It usually turned them against Santa Claus. And while they may grow out of their feelings of disappointment, they may never regain a belief in the good man from the North. What happens when we have expectation of God that are not met? Many end up with loss of belief and faith.

As we have learned on this journey, God’s Universe is large, and His children are all. By our human standards the measures of good and evil are defined by our circumstances and known reality. Going beyond these parameters, things might be and will be perceived differently.

Torrential rains, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes wreak havoc throughout the world. We agree that these are horrible examples of destruction. They all take place within the atmosphere of Earth. Should we then curse the atmosphere? What is the alternative? Take a look at the Moon and you’ll see a world without these disastrous weather patterns, for no other reason than the Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere. Consequently, no atmosphere means there is no life! Even more, no atmosphere permits space debris to pelts it, leaving the craters and the Moon’s iconic pock-marked surface. There is “evil” in both spheres – the weather conditions on Earth, and the crashing of meteors and the lifeless Moon, and that “evil” is a condition of the system. Let us agree, some systems do not even allow for the resistance of evil.

Today on our Advent Journey, we are asked to look beyond evil, to the conditions that give rise to it. Yes, we do want to control and eliminate evil, but is it possible that the system that gives rise to evil is in need of an overhaul?

Do not resist evil. We’re still not through, but for today, we pray a prayer from the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.  O God, we thank you for the lives of great saints and prophets in the past, who have revealed to us that we can stand up amid the problems and difficulties and trials of life and not give in. We thank you for our foreparents, who’ve given us something in the midst of the darkness of exploitation and oppression to keep going. Grant that we will go on with the proper faith and the proper determination of will, so that we will be able to make a creative contribution to this world. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray.

 

Delicate Planet: Remembering Bill Anders

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Armodoxy for Today: Delicate Planet

Today we note the passing of William Anders, one of NASA’s Apollo astronauts from the 1960’s, one of a select group of people through whose efforts the moon landing became possible in 1969.

William Anders flew on Apollo 8, the first man-made object to leave the orbit of the Earth and enter the orbit of another astronomical body, in this case our planet’s nearest neighbor, the Moon. During the Apollo 8 mission the astronauts were charged with circling the Moon, observing the lunar surface, recording their findings and returning back to Earth.

The Moon’s surface is made up of craters and dust. Black and white film was what they used to photograph the landscape.

As the astronauts’ attention was focused on the Moon, in the midst of snapping away pictures, William Anders was the one who turned his head inside the space capsule and noticed a beautiful blue planet peaking its head over the horizon. Quickly, he loaded color film into his camera and began shooting the image outside his window at various f-stops to compensate for the uncertainty created by this never-seen-before event. It was the Earth, rising above the Moon’s horizon. It was the first time ever, that any human life form had witnessed an earthrise.

Anders later said, “We came all this way to explore the Moon, and we discovered the Earth.”

The event took place on Christmas Eve 1968. The image was radioed back to Earth for everyone to see our planet through the eyes of William Anders and the chance event of turning his head. The crew of Apollo 8, Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman read the story of Creation as a Christmas present to the world. Genesis chapter 1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…”

That day, that picture and the message it conveyed, changed the way humans saw our planet. The photograph is now iconic and continues to be a reminder of how delicate our existence truly is on this planet of ours.

Sometimes, all it takes to refresh our view of life is to turn our head and view life from another window, from another angle. When Jesus says, “Turn the other cheek” to evil, he is asking us to consider the beautiful colors outside our window, even when we’re focused on a seemingly black-and-white world. Truly the challenge for humanity is to turn around, reimagine a world where evil can be overcome by goodness, where violence does not have to be met with violence, where our metaphors include putting out fire with a hose, rather than more fire.

William Anders passed away at age 90. The picture he shot from the space capsule will never die because it is a glance at the goodness which God shared with us, His creation. May God rest the soul of William Anders.

We end with a prayer that one of the other astronauts in the same space capsule, Frank Borman, prayed from space on that Christmas Day: “Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts.” Amen.

Cover: Moonrise, 1968 NASA (Apollo 8)

Heavens

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A full Lunar Eclipse takes place this morning and will be the last one until 2025. Enjoy…

Armodoxy for Today

The Heavens

From the earliest of times, from the most ancient history of the human race and even before, people have looked up to the heavens only to stand in awe of its vastness and beauty. It has been the inspiration poems, songs and prayers. For many, it has signaled the existence of the Creator, the Prime Mover, or simply, God.

One of the sacred scriptures in Armenian Orthodoxy is the Book of Ecclesiasticus or the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach. It reads as a testament to the wonders of the heavens and as a prayer. Today, we offer this reading from the Scriptures:

I will now call to mind the works of the Lord,
and will declare what I have seen.
By the word of the Lord his works are made;
and all his creatures do his will.
The sun looks down on everything with its light,
and the work of the Lord is full of his glory.

The pride of the higher realms is the clear vault of the sky,
as glorious to behold as the sight of the heavens.
 The sun, when it appears, proclaims as it rises
what a marvelous instrument it is, the work of the Most High.
At noon it parches the land,
and who can withstand its burning heat?

The glory of the stars is the beauty of heaven,
a glittering array in the heights of the Lord.

 On the orders of the Holy One they stand in their appointed places;
they never relax in their watches.
 We could say more but could never say enough;
let the final word be: ‘He is the all.’
Where can we find the strength to praise him?
For he is greater than all his works.
Awesome is the Lord and very great,
and marvelous is his power.
Glorify the Lord and exalt him as much as you can,
for he surpasses even that.
When you exalt him, summon all your strength,
and do not grow weary, for you cannot praise him enough.
(Sirach 42-43 NRSV)