email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
January 2008
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Fr. Luke Daugherty on self sacrifice |
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Pilgrimage |
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The paradox of Christian Faith |
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Sacramental food |
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Loving Enemies |
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Slave Ship metaphor |
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How dreams can be helpful |
The issue of self-sacrifice in our faith is one of some importance but also some confusion. Here is a reflection upon self-sacrifice from Fr. Luke Dougherty’s book “Tending the Soul: Learnings from a Lifetime of Spiritual Direction,” RPI Publishing, Centralia, WA, 2007.
“To establish and carry out presence with another requires self-sacrifice. To do that I must suspend my own needs at that moment, I must put aside what I want, what I crave, what I think I deserve, for the moment. My needs are as important as anyone else’s, but getting them met does not require constant attention. Buy focusing on the needs of others I can create a space between my needs and myself. It is a space in which I am not in control. Letting go for a few moments or hours, tending to the needs of others, allows for God to work and always lets me know that I am not in charge.”
I like the balance that Dougherty strikes between our own needs and those of others. We are enabled to get a good perspective on ourselves while serving others. We also don’t totally repress our own feelings, just realize that our feelings need not always be catered to. Think “emotional fasting” for a helpful metaphor.
May you find a balance between your needs and the needs of others.
Grace & peace
Geoff
A recent issue (Dec. 25, 2007) of Christian Century magazine had an article written by Arthur Paul Boers, reviewing several books written around the theme of pilgrimage. Boers defines pilgrimage as “faith-motivated travel to experience God in ways that can shape and change us: it focuses explicitly on growth in discipleship.” When I travel, I try to find how to add elements of pilgrimage to the journey. Here is a quote from one of the books reviewed, “Sacred Travels: Recovering the Ancient Practice of Pilgrimage” by Christian George, InterVarsity Press, 2007.
“(Pilgrimage)…benefits the believer in many ways, but above all it gives us perspective on God, faith and how we encounter both…I have found that the process of pilgrimage is more transformative than simply reaching a destination. Each step of the journey involves deeper communion with God, and by the end of it, we discover that we have encountered him thousands of times along the way.”
We may even encounter her sometimes! You may find the whole article plus links to all the books reviewed here: http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=4159
My favorite expression about travel is that I’d rather go as a pilgrim than as a tourist. As you plan your next bit of travel, consider how you might add elements of pilgrimage to your plans. May you encounter God in all the parts of your life.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Today
I’m shamelessly borrowing my material from my friend, the Rev. Shel White, of
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, in Pleasant Hill, California.
You can find out more about the church here:
http://www.standrews-pcusa.org/index.html
This
writing is about paradox, the combining of two things that cannot be rationally
combined. Think of Jesus talking
about those who die will live and those who are last will be first, and you have
an idea how paradox relates to our Christian faith. Here is the quote that Shel uses. It comes from William Martin, but I cannot tell you any more
than that.
“If
you want to bring healing to people, show that you are wounded.
If you want others to do what is right, show that you have done wrong.
If you want others people to be filled with God, show that you are empty.
If you want them to have life abundant, show them how to die. If you want
every good for others, show them how to give everything up.”
Paradox reminds us that it is not by our power that we fulfill our faith, but by the power of God’s Holy Spirit in us. May you find that power in your life, when you need it for yourself, or in service to others.
Grace & peace
Geoff
The other day I was making a grocery list and startled myself by finding the first two items on the list were milk & honey. I laughed to myself realizing the Christian and Biblical symbolism of those two foods. Within hours of that experience I read the following in a discussion of sacraments in the book “Sacred Origins of Profound Things” by Charles Panati, Arkana/Penguin books, New York, 1996.
“A few Christian communities have made substitutions for bread and wine, drawing on their own local fare. For instance, more than three million Christians in Central Africa receive the Eucharist in the form of sweet potatoes and honey.”
We are still in the Christian liturgical season celebrating the Incarnation, God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. This example reminds me of the way the Incarnation fits a variety of cultural settings. How often do you make sacred associations with the food you eat? What are your favorite associations? I’d like to hear them.
May you find the sacred all around you in your everyday activities.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Thanks to you all for the responses from Tuesday’s email re: food.
One of the most difficult tasks we have as Christians is living out some of Jesus’ teachings, like loving one’s enemies. Here is a reflection on just that task from Walter Wink, in his book, “The Powers That Be,” Galilee/Doubleday, 1998.
In the final analysis, loving enemies is a way of living in expectation of miracles. No one anticipated the radical new directions inaugurated by Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union or de Klerk in South Africa. No one in their wildest dreams would have predicted that the secret society that has ruled South Africa since apartheid was officially launched, the Broederbond, would knuckle under to international shunning, outrage, and economic sanctions; or that they would quietly initiate the dismantling of apartheid and set up procedures to control violent reactions by whites. People can and do change, and their change can make a fundamental difference. We must pray for our enemies, because God is already at working their depths stirring up the desire to be just.
Loving one’s enemies may seem impossible, but Wink opens the doors of possibility for us here. Living in expectation of miracles is not simply wishing for the best of all possible worlds. It includes a vigorous life of prayer behind and through all of our life. God is already at work indeed and our task is most often to simply catch up with what God is already doing. May your prayer life aid you in that work.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Martin Luther King Day always provides good sources through the media of sensitive reflective material on our history as a nation and our involvement with the slave trade in our early days. The L.A. Times had an article yesterday by Marcus Rediker, who has written a book called “The Slave Ship: A Human History.” In his article he says that “…the slave ship is the ghost ship or our modern consciousness.” He goes on to tell the story of giving a talk in Massachusetts where he mentioned a certain Capt. D’Wolf, a slave trader in the late 18th Century, who was accused of murder for throwing a sick slave overboard to prevent the spread of sickness and endangering his profits. D’Wolf escaped the charge and went on to amass great wealth as a slave merchant and eventually became a US senator.
In the audience was a descendant of D’Wolf who stood up to identify herself and said “I would like everyone here to know that this is a tragic part of our history, and that some members of my family are trying very hard to come to grips with it.” Rediker pointed out that members of the D’Wolf family are producing a documentary called “Traces of the Trade” that tells of their courageous reckoning with a disturbing past.
In contrast he notes the efforts of Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan who has introduced a bill in congress every year since 1989 seeking to acknowledge “the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery.” That bill has been defeated every year.
There is a study in contrasts! Our faith teaches us that we are rarely healed from something we will not admit we have. We must keep working and praying for justice and reconciliation in our world, on both personal and national levels.
May you find the urge to justice playing a deeper part in your life.
Grace & peace
Geoff
I’m pleased to be able to announce an upcoming conference on dreams here in Southern California. You can refer to this web site for more information. http://www.asdreams.org/2008LA/index.htm
Here is why I believe dreams are so helpful to us, taken from my Doctor of Ministry dissertation:
“This process of recalling and praying about our dreams will give us a fuller picture of ourselves and the things going on around us. That can only deepen our spiritual life. Our dreams are not God speaking to us, though God can speak through our dreams. Our dreams are not the secret to our life, though they can reveal much about ourselves that we may not otherwise catch. Our dreams are a part of who we are and as such, they will benefit our spiritual life in as much as we offer them to God, as much as we offer to God the rest of our life.”
There are a variety of prayer and devotional practices available to us in these times. Dreams have been a part of human experience since the beginning. They are a readily available, constantly occurring and helpful resource for our lives. Let me encourage you to look further into your own dreams, and consider this conference.
Grace & peace
Geoff
