email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
August
& September
2007
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Tutu on God’s Dream |
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Free will or predestination? |
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John Bell on Church Music |
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Letting our souls catch up |
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Arcade Fire lyrics |
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Joy in faith, or not! |
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Julian of Norwich on joy in faith |
No emails from Aug. 9 to 31. I’ll be on vacation.
Maintaining the theme of forgiveness as given in Tuesday’s email, here is a reading from Desmond Tutu’s “God Has a Dream,” (New York, etc. Doubleday, 2004) on the issue of forgiveness and reconciliation, as he reflects upon the struggle against apartheid in his home country a generation ago.
“True reconciliation is based on forgiveness, and forgiveness is based on true confession, and confession is based on penitence, on contrition, on sorrow for what you have done. We know that when a husband and wife have quarreled, one of them just be ready to say the most difficult words in any language, ‘I’m sorry,” and the other must be ready to forgive for there to be a future for their relationship. This is true between parents and children, between siblings, between neighbors, and between friends. Equally, confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation in the lives of nations are not just airy-fairy religious and spiritual things, nebulous and unrealistic. They are the stuff of practical politics.”
Practical politics indeed! What could be more practical than to short-circuit the human desire for, and wreaking of, vengeance in our world? May you find a practical way to forgive someone, today.
Grace & peace
Geoff
No emails from Aug. 9 to 31. I’ll be on vacation.
All of us have occasional questions about our faith, or elements of it. Is God just? How does God balance justice and mercy? What does God do with those who don’t believe in God? The list could go on and on. Here is a nice expression of one of those questions from the book “In Ordinary Time; Healing the wounds of the Heart,’ by Roberta Bondi, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1996. It takes the form of a dialogue inside a car.
“Aunt Nack,” Quentin said, “do you believe in free will or predestination?”
“Free will or predestination?” Aunt Nacky said. “I guess human beings have the choice of whether they will be ornery or not, but I surely don’t thing the good Lord wants any of his children to go to hell, whatever that old Brother Smith might say. People are saved more ways than one.” She paused and thought about it all a little longer, then she went on. “I reckon God knows most of us are just about doing the best we can do most of the time, anyway.”
That’s a view of both God’s justice and mercy that I find most appealing. May you find a measure of the justice and mercy of God in your life today. You will all be in my prayers while I vacation.
Grace & peace
Geoff
No emails from Sept. 7 to 14. I’ll be on vacation and presenting dream material at the regional IASD conference in Lincoln, UK. See below for links, etc.
Meditation
John Bell is a composer, minister of the Church of Scotland, and a member of the Iona Community, who will be speaking in the SF Bay Area next month. See the announcement in the section on Companions on the Inner Way, below. In the July 25, 2006 issue of “Christian Century” magazine, Bell was interviewed. He had this to say about the relationship between Christian singing and Christian activity.
“You sing primarily to give a gift to God, but you also sing to shape discipleship. If a song is specific about what it means to be a disciple of Christ in the 21st century, it should lead to a change in the way we behave. My frustration is that the church’s singing is full of churchy words. We don’t have songs with a word like ‘economics’ in them or a word like ‘kitchen.’ A substantial amount of biblical writing tells us God is interested in economics. We know that much of Jesus’ time was spent in kitchens. But we are disenfranchised from singing about some realities in his and our lives. This explains why some people find the Celtic tradition very attractive. The poems and prayers that have been passed down through centuries in the Celtic tradition are about milking the cow and taking eggs from the hen and going on a journey. They witness to the fact that God is not circumscribed by the walls of religious sanctuaries and that God is concerned with the processes and activities of daily life. We need to emulate that holistic approach rather than be locked into a Victorian moral and ecclesial mentality.”
Bell taps some of the basic insights about the Incarnation, about Jesus being God in the flesh. We are deepened in our faith when we recognize God in our daily lives. All the better then when we can sing about it! I hope those of you near the SF Bay Area consider hearing Bell speak live.
Grace & peace
Geoff
One of the books I read on our trip to England was “The Earth Has a Soul; The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung,” edited by Meredith Sabini, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, 2005. In it I found this great description of a certain condition that I related to jet lag. Here is the story as Jung tells it in the book C.G. Jung Letters I & II, ed. G. Adler Princeton, 1975, where Sabini found it.
“I would mention the story of a native (African) who had been invited to be driven in a car. After half an hour he asked the people to stop. Her stepped out and stretched himself on the ground. They asked him whether he was sick, and he said, “no,” he felt alright, but he had just to wait for his soul that had remained behind, as they went too fast for it. I had to think of my American visitors who fly over here in six hours and are still in America for several days, without noticing it.”
I thought to myself that is a great way to describe jet lag, over and above all the physiological reasons for it. To expand the idea, how much of our lives are spent racing ahead of our soul? Spiritual practices provide a way to keep soul and body together, as well as help us notice even, the distance between the two sometimes. See dream section below for more.
May your soul and body be kept together as much as possible in this world that works so hard to separate them.
Grace & peace,
Geoff
This last summer I read a review of a concert performance where the writer quoted a line from one of the songs, which went “Between the click of the light and the start of the dream…” and I was so intrigued that I went and downloaded that song. Then I downloaded the whole album. The band is Arcade Fire and I have really enjoyed their music. For my money, any rock band that incorporates a pipe organ is on to something special. Then, to my surprise, a review of the album, “Neon Bible,” was in the Sept. 4, 2007 issue of Christian Century magazine. That reviewer notes that the band “…is as complex as the veiled Christian messages in its music—and worthy of any adventurous listener’s attention…” and “…(they) have planted scripture’s oldest themes is fresh settings and crafted something new.”
I tried to find some links to their music that I could pass on to you, but had little success. I downloaded mine through iTunes and I’m sure there are other sources, for those of you adventurous or technically savvy enough to find your own. I’m not usually in the habit of recommending pop music, but this group is exceptional.
May you find new and fresh presentations of God’s grace in your life.
Grace & peace
Geoff
My daughter told me how to get a sample of Arcade Fire, the subject of last Friday’s email over the internet. If interested go here: http://www.myspace.com/arcadefireofficial
Meditation
Where do you find joy in your faith? That is a big question and the Sept. 4, 2007 issue of Christian Century magazine addresses it in a couple of ways. The lack of joy can be seen in this quote from the late Swedish filmmaker, Igmar Bergman.
“I have struggled all my life with a tormented and joyless relationship with God. Faith and lack of faith, punishment, grace and rejection all were real to me, all were imperative. My prayers stank of anguish, entreaty, trust, loathing and despair. God spoke, God said nothing. Do not turn from me Thy face.”
Contrast that with this (edited) statement of faith by John Ortberg, based on the thought of Julian of Norwich, G.K. Chesterton, and Luke 24:41.
“I believe because the hunger for joy will not go away. The hunger does not prove that joy (or God) exists. But it is suggestive. It would be an odd world if creatures had thirst but there was no such thing as water, or appetite but there was no such thing as food, or a craving to mate but there was no such thing as sex. I believe because if what Jesus taught is true, then joy is at the core of the universe. If Jesus is right, joy was at the beginning, was challenged in the middle and will be restored at the end.”
Bergman was one of my favorite filmmakers when I was younger. What a sad comment this is from him. I wonder if Bergman, or anyone close to him, ever explored contemplative spirituality. Many contemplatives find this joy that Ortberg speaks of bubbling up from the most unlikely places.
Where do you find joy in your life? …in your faith?
May you be filled with the joy of God. (Romans 15:13)
Grace & peace (and joy)
Geoff
Several of you responded asking me about Mother Teresa and joy in spirituality, or the lack thereof. I’m unfamiliar with her comments about that. Where do I find them?
Meditation
One of the references cited for the material on joy in Tuesday’s email was Julian of Norwich. Here is some of her writing from “Nearer to the Heart of God; Daily Readings with the Christian Mystics” edited and paraphrased by Bernard Bangley, Paraclete Press, Massachusetts, 2005.
“All of us experience a wonderful mixture of both well-being and woe. It is necessary for us to fall. If we did not fall, we would have the wrong idea about ourselves. Eventually we will understand that we are never lost to God’s love. At no time are we ever less valuable in God’s sight. Through failure we will clearly understand that God’s love is endless. Nothing we can do will destroy it."
"A mother may allow her child to stumble and fall for its own good. Her love will not, however, allow her child to perish. God wills that even when we act the way a child does we can run to him and cry for mercy. If we don’t feel any relief, we can be sure he is acting like a wise mother. It is good for us to shed some tears. It is allowed with compassion and pity.”
How do you treat the falls in your life? Do you ever think that some of your joy is deeper because of the falls that you have taken? Also, sometimes the falls hurt more because of the joy we have experienced. Our spiritual lives grow the more we embrace each. May you find deeper joy in God throughout your days.
Grace & peace (and joy)
Geoff
