email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
February
2008
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Ken Follett’s “faith” |
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Rowan Williams on doctrines |
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Nouwen on Lent |
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Donating your car |
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Self interest can serve God |
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Artress on the labyrinth |
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Images of heaven |
A friend recently loaned me the book “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett, New American Library, 1989. The story is about the building of a late Medieval cathedral in England. Here are Follett’s opening words from the preface (written in 1999) to the paperback edition from 2007.
“Nothing happens the way you plan it.
A lot of people were surprised by “The Pillars of the Earth,” including me. I was known as a thriller writer. In the book business, when you have had a success, the smart thing to do is write the same sort of thing once a year for the rest of your life. Clowns should not try to play Hamlet; pop stars should not write symphonies. I should not have risked my reputation by writing something out of character and over-ambitious.
What’s more, I don’t believe in God. I’m not what you would call a spiritual person. According to my agent, my greatest problem was a writer is that I’m not a tortured soul. The last thing anyone would have expected from me was a story about building a church.”
Hmm… let’s see, is this denial or what? Follett talks about his being enraptured with English cathedrals, things of beauty in themselves. He doesn't "believe in God," but what appears to be his drive (my word, not his) to write this book strikes me as a calling to the divine, however it might be labeled. How often are we “enraptured” by something in a way that makes no rational sense? When that happens to me, I try to take it as a call to look deeper at what is going on in my life. I wonder if Follett has taken any steps into deeper insights about faith? If anyone knows, I’d love to hear it.
May you find a touch of divine enrapture in your life.
Grace & peace
Geoff
I’ve been reading selections from the writings of Archbishop Rowan Williams that are gathered in the book, “Wrestling with Angels; Conversations in Modern Theology,” edited by Mike Higton, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids/Cambridge, 2007. Here are some of Williams’ words about doctrine.
“Doctrinal formulae are neither a set of neat definitions nor some sort of affront to the free-thinking soul; they are words that tell us enough truth to bring us to the edge of speech, and words that sustain enough common life to hold us there together in worship and mutual love.”
“…bring us to the edge of speech” is a great way to talk about the way things of the spirit can only be approached and talked about with metaphor and symbol, if talked about at all. But it is the “worship and mutual love” part of the picture Williams paints that attracts me most. We may not be able to articulate well our feelings about God, but we can gather with others who experience God and worship and draw closer together. Sounds like church to me! May you find love and worship in your experiences of life as we enter the season of Lent.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Lent began Wednesday and we observed it with our traditional bilingual service, including the imposition of ashes. Here is a reflection on Lent by Henri J.M. Nouwen from a special Lenten study booklet published in 1997 by Creative Communications for the Parish.
“Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life. It is the time during which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within us. Life is a continuing process of the death of the old and the familiar, and being reborn again into a new hope, a new trust, and a new love. The death and resurrection of Jesus therefore is not just an historical event that took place a long time ago, but an inner event that takes place in our own heart when we are willing to be attentive to it. True repentance is an interior attitude in which we are willing to let go of everything that prevents us from growing into spiritual maturity, and there is hardly a moment in our lives in which we are not invited to detach ourselves from certain ways of thinking, ways of speaking, ways of acting, that for a long time gave us energy, but that always again need to be renewed and recreated.”
This Lent of 2008 is a very exciting time here at our church, as we move step by step into our new merged situation. I find myself frequently having to “…detach myself from certain ways of thinking, ways of speaking, ways of acting, that for a long time gave me energy…” as I seek to be faithful to this new creation in our midst.
What are the ways that you have lived that have given you energy? Are some of those needing to be changed or even abandoned? What might YOU examine and/or change this Lent of 2008?
Grace & peace
Geoff
I’m doing something a little different today. I presume most of you have heard of donating your old cars to some charitable cause, or purchasing scrip for the same reason. Here is a local cause in Southern California that allows such donations, as well as some others. How we manage and use our money is a very spiritual thing. As I say in at least one sermon every year during the Fall, Jesus spoke about money more than anything else except the Kingdom of God. How about taking a look at your spending habits for Lent?
Try this site for some options, or maybe just to learn about a wonderful program.
http://www.angelinterfaith.net/giving.html
Grace & peace
Geoff
Sometimes we have trouble believing that what pleases us might also please God. This can be bad thinking. Sometimes what pleases us most, also pleases God the most. Sometimes our desire may well be God’s desire for us. Here’s a description of the process of discernment of motives and desires, from the book “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett, New American Library, 1989. The character is contemplating moving up higher in his “career ladder” and becoming a prior of a monastery.
“Are there any other reasons? he asked. When I picture myself as prior, making these improvements for the glory of God, is there any pride in my heart?
Oh, yes.
He could not deceive himself in the cold and holy atmosphere of the church. His aim was the glory of God, but the glory of Philip pleased him too. He liked the idea of giving orders which no one could countermand. He saw himself making decisions, dispensing justice, giving out advice and encouragement, issuing penances and pardons, just as he saw fit. He imagined people saying: “Philip of Gwynedd reformed that place. It was a disgrace until he took over, and just look at it now!”
A deeper discernment of a particular issue may indeed show us that gaining some personal benefits from faithfulness is not a bad thing. May you be faithful in all things, and my you find some of the blessings for yourself that faithfulness brings.
Grace & peace
Geoff
No emails Feb. 26 or 29, I’ll be at Companions.
We have the labyrinth set up in the chapel this week. One of the options offered is a sand labyrinth, where you pray and trace the pattern of the labyrinth in a bed of sand poured over a small plastic replica of the Chartres labyrinth. Here are some words on the labyrinth from the book by Lauren Artress which accompanies the purchase of a sand labyrinth “The Sand Labyrinth: Meditation at Your Fingertips,” Journey Publications, 2000.
“The labyrinth is a place where we can enter our own natural flow. It can take us down a stream of associations that are uniquely our own and help us identify what it is within us that longs to be put into form in the outer world. It may be a visions for a new program for kids at risk, it may be a section of a book, or it may be a sense of spaciousness inside that allows an act of kindness toward a stranger.”
“Do not hurry, nor dally. Just allow yourself to open to your own interior rhythms, to enter your flow and find the unique and original pulsation that calls you to be truly yourself. There you will find wisdom.”
Though written for a sand labyrinth experience, these words describe something that can come from prayer or meditation or whatever method you use to make contact with the divine or your deeper self. However we find our true selves is less important than that we find it. That can easily be a part or by-product of our Lent observances. May that wisdom of our true selves be part of our everyday lives.
Grace & peace
Geoff
No emails Feb. 26 or 29, I’ll be at Companions.
What is your vision of heaven, and what does it say about yourself? Biblical images are of a peaceable kingdom (Isaiah 65:17-25), streets of gold and walls of jewels (Revelation 21), a banquet feast (Isaiah 25:6), among others. Sometimes heaven is full of whatever we want most or lack most. Here is a chorus from a song I’ve listened to recently similar to the banquet feast image. It comes from the song “The Honest Farmer” sung by the Dry Branch Fire Squad, which I heard on their 30th Anniversary collection, Rounder Records, 2007.
“Its pans of biscuits, bowls of gravy, pans of biscuits we shall have.”
This image reflects either fear of hunger or gluttony, or maybe both. You can hear part of the song here: http://www.rounder.com/?id=album.php&catalog_id=6971
What images of heaven do you hold? What do they say about you?
Grace & peace
Geoff
