Talking Towers

[Crisoforo Schuhmacher]

TalkingTower is a tactile game to support and build self-esteem. Made from sustainable sourced wood. It supports co-operative play and encourages children to connect and explore their emotional well-being. It has two play options. You can choose to build or remove blocks from your talking tower by answering questions and carrying out actions that promote self-esteem. The perfect ice-breaker game to encourage emotional well-being and resilience.

K: I always joke how you are in like 532 bands, so I find it more than ironic we are talking TOWERS OF FLESH today while you are recording the new THEOKTONY. How do you find the time for all these projects?

On this record, I took on the role of composer & song writer. But still, it has to be said that everybody put their own touch to it (especially when it came to vocals). That part of the recording is always the most interesting for me as we have a chance to bounce ideas off of each other and really bring the songs to life.

A: In terms of vocals we really work and find a medium in which the lyrics can be further developed. It normally works in the following way: I will write lyrics, arrangements will be worked out and then Jack Welch will come to my studio and perform bits where he thinks they fit best. The instrumentation on this album was handled by me but in the past it was done via the exchanging of demo materials and rehearsals.

K: Aww, too bad. You would write and perform all the music (subject to my approval) and handle all the production duties. I will supply the spoken word vocals, reiterating British phrases in my NY accent. And we would call it, THE CHEEKY BASTARD.

Antithetical Conjurations was written and recorded by Anil Carrier at Darksound Studios in Wolverhampton. It features artwork by Aisha Louisa Al-Sadie. It will be released on September 15 by Candlelight Records and can be ordered via the Bandcamp link below, or on iTunes.

I begin with today's Gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary, a book of readings shared widely by churches across the world. This text comes from Luke 10, versus 38 through 42. "Now, as they went on their way, he entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying, but Martha was distracted by her many tasks. So she came to him and asked, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me.' But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.'"

Now, this story, for those of us who are churchgoers and for people who may not have been in church or don't go to church very often, is actually a familiar story. A lovely, charming tale about Jesus and his encounter with two sisters: busy Martha and contemplative Mary. This text on its own would be a great way to end Wild Goose. Over the last four days, we have heard a lot about what we need to do. We are worried that there are so many tasks at hand. I can imagine leaving Goose and being Martha. Work, work, work, because the time is short, we have to get it all done. But there's Mary.

And what could be the message here is the invitation into what Jesus calls, "the better part." Mary is sitting at Jesus' feet, contemplating, listening, receiving the teachings of Jesus. Thus, we have the charming tale, Martha, the doer, Mary, the listener, and Jesus saying, "Mary has chosen the better part." That's the sermon that I'm NOT going to preach.

And that's exactly where this text today should take us. When we hear the story about busy Martha and contemplative Mary, a question that we might not think to ask but one that we should ask is, which Mary? Which Mary is this? You might think you know. Indeed for many years, I thought I knew. I have preached any number of sermons at churches all across North America about how this Mary and Martha story is related to another story. A story in John 11, a story about Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus who live in a place called Bethany. Indeed, if you go to many commentaries on the Luke 10 passage, on the Mary and Martha story, those commentaries begin by saying, "This is a story of Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha of Bethany."

Many readers conflate Luke 10 with John 11, where there are two sisters named Mary and Martha, and they have a brother named Lazarus, and they do indeed live in a place called Bethany. If it was the same family, Luke 10 is very confused. The village is in the wrong place and it's not called by the right name. What we actually have here is two stories that our imaginations have run together, which our tradition has run together, which even commentators have run together. These are actually two different stories about two different families. This is as if people came home from school and said, "Emma Bass did something, something, something," and it was actually Emma Presing.

It becomes a problem when you get the cast of characters wrong. So the question is: who is this Mary? Instead of spending a lot of time talking about Mary of the four short verses in Luke, I want to run over to the confused text of John 11. John 11 opens with a very simple sentence. "Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany." Okay, now there we have it clearly defined, Bethany, not a certain village. "The village of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha." That's the opening sentence of John 11. You might think to yourself, oh my gosh what is the big deal, what's important about that?

Years ago, Elizabeth (her nickname is Libbie) was living in New York City where she was a singer-songwriter. Libbie is a cradle Episcopalian with a very lively faith life. She adores the church. She loves liturgy. She loves praying with and to the saints. And one day Libbie walked into a church garden in the city of New York seeking refuge from the city, and sat down to pray. And as she prayed, she heard a voice and the voice said, "Follow Mary Magdalene."

I have no idea what the person in the admissions department said exactly to her, but they did tell her that she could come to General and that she could earn a degree, a master's degree in New Testament if she liked. And she said, "Oh, I want to do that. I feel called to do that." And so Libbie signed up for the New Testament program where she studied with a wonderful New Testament professor who taught her Greek and Coptic and Aramaic, and all the stuff, and began to teach her how to translate the New Testament. And Libbie was off to the races as a master's degree student in New Testament. She couldn't get Mary Magdalene off of her mind. When it came to writing her final paper for her master's degree, she asked Dierdre Good (the professor) if she could write it on John 11 and Mary Magdalene. And Deirdre said, "Absolutely." And then she said, "Do you know that these texts have lately become available digitized? And so if you want to study Mary Magdalene, I want you to look at the earliest possible New Testament texts and try to say something new about them."

And so Libbie looked at Papyrus 66, which is the oldest and most complete text we have of the Gospel of John. It's dated around the year 200. Now this is what happens when you put a set of new eyes on an old text, Papyrus 66 had been sitting in a library for a very, very, very, very long time. We've had it for a while, but you had to go to it in order to see it. But Libbie was sitting in a library in New York City and Papyrus 66 came to her. This is an historic moment in New Testament studies. When any one of us could have access to texts that have been only be used by people if they had a lot of money, a lot of degrees, and a lot of time to travel.

And so Libbie is in the library looking at the text and she sees this first sentence. And it's in Greek, of course. "Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and his sister Mary." And Libbie said, "What? That's not what my English Bible says. My English Bible says, "Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha." But the Greek text, the oldest Greek text in the world doesn't say that. The oldest Greek text in the world says, "Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, at the village of Mary and his sister, Mary." There are two Marys in this verse. And Libbie went, "What the heck? What is going on here?" And she started digging into the text, zooming in on it to try to see what she could see over the digitized version in the internet. And lo and behold, Libbie noticed something that no New Testament scholar had ever noticed.

Admittedly, the original text is a confused and not very good sentence. "Now, a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, at the village of Mary and his sister, Mary," it's almost like they're heightening the fact that Lazarus has this sister, Mary. They lived in this village together, and Mary is Lazarus' sister. Someone had changed it to read, "Mary and her sister, Martha."

Libbie sat in the library with all of this, and it came thundering at her, the realization that sometime in the fourth century, someone had altered the oldest text of the Gospel of John and split the character Mary into two. Mary became Mary andMartha.

3a8082e126