email:  whitpresby@mindspring.com

Spiritual readings        "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"

Feb. 2003 Emails

 Feb. 4, 2003

You may recall the piece I sent around a couple of weeks ago, a poem by George Herbert entitled “Love Bade Me Welcome,” which was set to music by Ralph Vaughan-Williams.  Here is something that no less than three of you sent back to me.  No one seemed to have a title or a source for it, but I expect that information will come eventually.  It I one of those things that just floats around in cyberspace.  I’ll make some comments about it below. 

 A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat."  "Is the man of the house home?", they asked.  "No", she replied. "He's out."  "Then we cannot come in", they replied.  In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened.  "Go tell them I am home and invite them in!"  The woman went out and invited the men in"  "We do not go into a House together," they replied.  "Why is that?" she asked.  One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, and said, pointing to another one, "He is Success, and I am Love." Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."  The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!!", he said.  "Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!"  His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don't we invite Success?"  Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion:  "Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!"  "Let us heed our daughter-in-law's advice," said the husband to his wife.  "Go out and invite Love to be our guest."  The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest."  Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited Love, Why are you coming in?"  The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever He goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!"

 There is a danger here that we will associate love as the key to obtaining material wealth and success.  Biblically, love stands by itself as the highest good, needing nothing else.  Jesus talked about the huge price we pay for loving, which this little ditty does not talk about at all.  Wealth and success may indeed follow love, but let us not succumb to the superstitious belief that we will become rich or famous if all we do is love.  The important message here for me is rather that we put love first, and the things that really count will follow.

May you find yourself putting love first in your life this day and all days.

Geoff

 Feb. 7, 2003

I’ve run across another wonderful article in the book “The Best Spiritual Writing, 1999” edited by Philip Zaleski, Harper, San Francisco, 1999.  Its an article by Tom Junod, who is described as having grown up “…Catholic, but after meeting Mister Rogers he has been flirting—if only in his mind—with Presbyterianism.”  Here is one story from his article entitled “Can You Say… ‘Hero’?”  As I resort to doing for these emails, italics are converted to all caps, in order to be read by all browsers.

 “Yes, at 70 years old and 143 pounds, Mister Rogers still fights, and indeed early this year, when television handed him its highest honor, he responded by telling television—gently, of course—to just SHUT UP for once, and television listened.  He had already won his third Daytime Emmy, and now he went onstage to accept Emmy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and there, in front of all the soap opera stars and talk show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone, “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being.  Would you just take, along with me, TEN SECONDS to think of the people who have helped YOU become who you are…Ten seconds of silence.”  And then he lifted his wrist, and looked at the audience, and looked at his watch, and said softly, “I’ll watch the time,” and there was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter, as people realized the HE WASN’T KIDDING, that Mister Rogers was not some convenient eunuch but rather a MAN, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked…and so they did.  One second, two seconds, three seconds… and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier, and mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said, “May God be with you” to all his vanquished children.”

 I think that is just a wonderful story, bringing the real into the unreal.  Who has helped YOU become who you are?  Would you take just 10 seconds, along with me, to thank God for them?

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Feb. 11, 2003

I continue to enjoy Dallas Willard’s “Spirit of the Disciplines,” Harper Collins, 1988.  His point is that we need to be continually practicing our faith to enable it to serve us.  Here is a quote he uses from Francis De Sales.

 “The ordinary purification and healing, whether or the body or of the mind, takes place only little by little, by passing from one degree to another with labor and patience.  The angels upon Jacob’s ladder had wings; yet they flew not, but ascended and descended in order from one step to another.  The soul that rises from sin to devotion may be compared to the dawning of the day, which at its approach does not expel the darkness instantaneously but only little by little.”

 Our faith gives us wonderful power, insight and wisdom, but it needs to be practiced to develop the ability to use the power and have the insight and wisdom.  What practices do you use to develop your faith?

May you find the presence of God in your life today.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Feb. 14, 2003

This is the day in the year in our culture when the word of love is used more than any other.  Do we realize the root of that love is God’s love for us?  Henri J. M. Nouwen wrote a short book in 1992 entitled “Life of the Beloved” in which he talks about being God’s beloved.

 “That soft, gentle voice that calls me the Beloved has come to me in countless ways.  My parents, friends, teachers, students and the many strangers who crossed my path have all sounded that voice in different tones.  I have been cared for by many people with much tenderness and gentleness.  I have been taught and instructed with much patience and perseverance.  I have been encouraged to keep going when I was ready to give up and was stimulated to try again when I failed.  I have been rewarded and praised for success…but, somehow, all of these signs of love were not sufficient to convince me that I was the Beloved.  Beneath all my seemingly strong self-confidence there remained the question:  “If all those who shower me with so much attention could see me and know me in my innermost self, would they still love me?”  That agonizing question, rooted in my inner shadow, kept persecuting me and made me run away from the very place where that quiet voice calling me the Beloved could be heard.

 We are studying the Letter to the Galatians in our Daily Bread program.  There, in Galatians, we see clearly God’s love for us, hear the message that we are the Beloved, just as we are.  As Nouwen lists those who have cared for him, I was reminded of the story about Mister Rogers that was last Friday’s email, where we pause and give thanks for those who‘ve made us who we are.  Behind them all is the love of God, making us who we are and ever calling us to be more.

May your Valentine’s Day be deepened with the love of God, under and around all the other love in your life.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Feb. 18, 2003

For those of you who pray, or even read, the Psalms (see website, http://www.whitpresby.org/daily_psalter.htm ), you will encounter some difficulties in the way the psalmist gives vent to his/her anger and thirst for vengeance.  Here are some words from Walter Brueggemann, from his book “Praying the Psalms,” Saint Mary’s Press, Winona Minnesota, 1986.

 “The most troublesome dimension of the Psalms is the agenda of vengeance.  It may also be the most theologically poignant, as we hope to show.  The cry for retaliation at ones’ enemies at least surprises us.  We do not expect to find such a note in “religious” literature.  And it may offend us.  It does not fit very well in our usual notions of faith, piety, or spirituality.  To some extent, we are prepared for it by our recognition that the Psalms reflect unabashed concreteness, candor and passion.  The Psalms explore the full gamut of human experience from rage to hope.  Indeed, it would be very strange if such a robust spirituality lacked such a dimension of vengeance, for we would conclude that just at the crucial point, robustness had turned to cowardice and propriety.  The vitality of the Psalms, if without a hunger for vengeance, would be a cop-out.  But we need have no fear of that.  There is no such failure of nerve, no backing down from this religion on the brink of stridency.  Thus the expression of vengeance is not unnatural, unexpected, or inappropriate.  But that in no way diminishes its problematic character.

 The Psalms, and in particular the psalms of vengeance, have been perhaps the most important element in my spiritual growth.  They remind us that we can indeed bring our whole self, all our emotions, before God in prayer.  That helps us be honest with ourselves and with God.  That helps us grow.

Grace & peace,

Geoff

 Feb. 21, 2003

In preparation for a sermon recently, I was reading Eugene H. Peterson’s “Reversed Thunder,” Harper Collins, 1988, a commentary of sorts on the book of Revelation.  I have always appreciated Peterson’s insights and way with words.  Here are some of those wonderful words, applied to the issue of politics and the gospel.

 “The gospel of Jesus Christ is more political than anyone imagines, but in a way that no one guesses.

The political metaphor of the kingdom invites misunderstanding because all the politics that we know require the exercise of power, either through the manipulation of force (militarism) or the manipulation of words (propaganda), and usually both.

Politics involves two elements:  the exercise of ruling power and the means by which that power is exercised.  People love to hear that God is powerful and that he rules; they are not as enthusiastic when they discover the means by which he exercises his ruling power.  So sources are used selectively:  Isaiah’s prophecy is read to inspire trust in God’s powerful rule in the universe;  Machiavelli’s PRINCE is read to find out how to rule effectively in this world.  The two sources are edited and combined to provide manuals that will keep the church both religious (Isaiah) and relevant (Machiavelli).

Two temptations exert a powerful pull on the Christian community.  One is to retain the political dimensions of the gospel and to take up the usual political means, namely, force.  Instead of riding that silly donkey, Jesus should have charged into Jerusalem on a stallion and let a few heads roll.  The other is to give up the political and have a nice little fellowship—cultivate a faith that more or less abandons the world of government, economics, culture and society, and settle for saving a few souls.

 Where do YOU come out?  How do you relate the worlds of politics and your faith?  In our American culture we have unprecedented opportunities to exercise political freedom and control and it forces us to look all the more closely at the way we understand God and the Bible.  The challenge is ever before us to understand the tensions between the two and resolve them to our personal satisfaction, or whatever bottom line we might seek.  Peterson’s insights reflect the profound difference that Jesus makes, a difference we often overlook, sometimes even intentionally.

May you address your level of politics with you faith this day.

Grace & peace

Geoff

(http://www.whitpresby.org/companions_on_the_inner_way_2003.htm)

See Web page for information on Iraq http://www.whitpresby.org/iraq_resources.htm