Literary Discussions

There is a REASON that bread and wine are used for the Eucharist and that is not a pejorative reflection on peanut butter and kool-aid, but there is a REASON. It is the same reason that God incarnated as a male and not as a female. When Abraham is about to sacrifice his son he is interrupted and takes a MALE ram caught BY THE HORNS in a thorn bush. There is a REASON why it is a ram and not a EWE. There is also a reason why the ram is caught by the horns and not by the fleece. Were it caught by the fleece then it would be damaged and imperfect and could  not be offered. There is a REASON why the Greek Septuagint of Psalm 1 reads "makarios ANER" (blessed is that ONE MALE) who is blameless.  But then as Hans Kung pointed out on page one of "On Being Christian" , he raises the question "why do we need Jesus, why can we not simply live good lives as humanists" .. well, the bottom line is that many people choose to be good humanists and perhaps Thoreau was one of them. But if you want a eucharist of peanut butter with kool-aid, then you can say with Augustine "believe and you have ALREADY EATEN" ... but if that is the case... then why is any clergy necessary, and why meet in physical congregations... why not simply read scripture and join spiritual blogs, forums, chatrooms...  true democracy perhaps means true freedom but freedom means that one is free to be and do whatever one pleases and NOT do whatever one pleases... but Jesus prayed in Gesthemene "Father all those whom you have given to me, may they be ONE even as you and I are one" ... so if one feels compelled to ask such questions one will never understand the answer... and I say all this as someone who was only Greek Orthodox Christian for 20 years and then stopped... but I still understand the reason why things are as they have been for 2000 years.