email: whitpresby@mindspring.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
July
2003 Emails
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Hildegard on Bodily faith |
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Martin Luther King on community |
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Jesus and Spirituality |
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Brother Lawrence on Faith |
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Merton Thoughts on solitude |
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William Arkin on nuclear war |
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Masefield poem on music |
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Chittister at Presbyterian Women gathering |
St. Mary’s Press/Christian Brothers Publications of Winona, Minnesota, puts out a great series of devotional books called ‘Companions for the Journey.’ In the volume “Praying with Hildegard of Bingen,” 1992, compiled by Gloria Durka, I found this discussion about our bodies to be very helpful. It comes from a chapter on wellness, stressing how Hildegard thought that moderation was the key to wellness.
Write the story of your body. Begin with the first important event in your body’s story and continue to the present. You might want to chronologically chart your story in three columns: in column 1 write down the year or years; in column 2, write a brief description of the important event (for example, having eye surgery, winning a bowling tournament etc.); and in column 3, describe the physical, emotional, and spiritual effects you underwent at the time and over the long range.
Durka goes on to talk about the important of this kind of ‘bodily inventory’ in understanding how our life story is tied to our bodies. We don’t very often think about how our body and our spirit are united. There is the expression ‘we do not have bodies, we are bodies’ that sums up the Christian perspective. What does YOUR bodily history tell you about your history with God?
May you find traces of God’s presence in your life today.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man who held a high vision for the USA. As we celebrate our day of Independence, we may reflect on the role of Christian faith in the vision or dream of America. Here is a quote from the book, “Search for the Beloved Community: the Thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr.” by Kenneth L. Smith and Ira G. Zepp, Jr., Judson Press, Valley Forge, PA, 1974.
“Kings vision of the Beloved Community was closely related to the perennial dream of American Democracy. In the United States there has always been the dream of a future utopia or Holy Commonwealth, a dream of “a land of the free and the home of the brave” and “a land flowing with milk and honey.” Such a dream has occupied a prominent place in both the political rhetoric and the religious symbolism of the U.S. In other words, the American Dream has been derived from a combination of the religious hope for the kingdom of God of the Puritans and the secular dream of democracy rooted in the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. The goal of both traditions has been a perfected society in which there would be opportunity and equality for all. The United States has been conceived of as a place where people of all backgrounds, creeds, and races would live harmoniously together, a microcosm of what humankind could be. It has not been uncommon throughout the history of the United States for Christianity to be identified with the ideals of democracy, and for democracy to be viewed as the social expression of Christianity.
May this add some spiritual depth to your celebration of our national holiday of Independence, this July 4, 2003.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Christian Century magazine, in its March 22, 2003 issue, devoted much to the issue of spirituality. In one article, “Missing Ingredient: Why Spirituality Needs Jesus”, Eugene Peterson says this:
“The Christian Community is interested in spirituality because it is interested in living. We give careful attention to spirituality because we know from long experience how easy it is to get interested in ideas about God and projects for God and gradually lose interest in God alive, while we deaden our lives with the ideas and the projects. Because the ideas and projects have the name of God attached to them, it is easy to assume that we are involved with God. It is the devils’ work to get us thinking and acting for God and then subtly to detach us from a relational obedience and adoration of God, substituting our selves, our godlike egos, in the place originally occupied by God. Outside the Christian church, the talk-show spirituality celebrities commodify spirituality. Within the church entertainment-driven spiritual leaders trivialize spirituality.
Jesus is the name that keeps us attentive to the God-defined, God-revealed life.
How central to your spirituality is Jesus? May you keep yourself grounded in the deeper spiritual life that Jesus offers us all.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Someone sent copies of the book “The Practice of the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence around to various folks and churches in our presbytery. This particular edition is put out by Whitaker House publishers, New Kensington, PA, 1982. Here is a paragraph that caught my attention.
The first blessing that the soul receives from the practice of the presence of God is that its faith is livelier and more active everywhere in our lives. This is particularly true in difficult times, since it obtains the grace we need to deal with temptation and to conduct ourselves in the world. The soul—accustomed by this exercise to the practice of faith—can actually see and feel God by simple entering His presence. It envokes Him easily and obtains what it needs. In so doing, the soul could be said to approach the Blessed, in that I can almost say, “I no longer believe, but I see and experience.” Its faith becomes more and more penetrating as it advances through practice.
I have found, after years of spiritual practice, that occasionally I can say: “I no longer believe, but I see and experience.” That is the pay off of prayer, Bible study, fellowship, worship, all the things that we in the church talk about. It doesn’t happen all the time or even very often, but it happens. One of the former Archbishops of Canterbury said something to the effect that he wasn’t sure about the relation between coincidence and prayer, but he know that the more he prayed, the more “coincidences” happened to him. I believe that is similar to what Brother Lawrence is talking about here. Our sense of the presence of God in our lives is generally proportionate to the amount of time we spend cultivating that presence.
May you find the motivation to make time for the cultivation of room in your life for God’s presence.
Grace & peace
Geoff
I have a pastor friend in northern California who has a similar email to this one and we freely borrow material from each other. Here is one of his latest, from a book by Thomas Merton, “Thoughts in Solitude.”
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know my self, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."
I particularly liked the part about desiring to please God being what pleases God. God knows I do not always know what I’m doing. But I believe God recognizes that my desire to please God, to live my life closer to God, is behind what I do, and that desire covers a multitude of sins, as it were.
How is your desire to please God? Where does it take you? Does it provide you with comfort as well as motivation? May it be so this day for you.
Grace & peace
Geoff
William Arkin is a military affairs analyst who writes regularly for the L.A. Times newspaper. In the July 6, 2003 Sunday edition he had a front page article in the Opinion section where he talked about the new technology that is being used in nuclear war planning. Here are the last two sentences from the article.
“The new technologies will enable greater mobility and faster decision making. Let’s hope that in doing so, they don’t also increase the likelihood that the U.S. will initiate a nuclear war.”
Thinking the unthinkable in a positive way has been a fashionable thing to do in the last few years, often called “thinking outside the box.” Arkin’s words suggest that thinking outside the box in a more negative way, thinking the unthinkable of nuclear war, is something that we may be faced with. I can face that, though not comfortably, but not with the possibility of the U.S. initiating one. What are the spiritual ramifications of such a possibility? Can we ever justify using nuclear weapons again? What new depths of spiritual thinking and living are called for with this kind of thinking?
May God continue to expand your horizons and may you sense God’s presence in all you do.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Regular readers of these emails will know of my great love for recorded music. I’ve been listening to the choral music of Sir William Walton lately, on a CD of the choral group Polyphony, with the brass ensemble The Wallace Collection, conducted by Stephen Layton. It comes from a Hyperion CD, #CDA67330. He set to music the poem by John Masefield (1878-1967) entitled “Where does the uttered music go?” Apologies for the chauvinistic language.
Where does the uttered music go?
When well-tempered mind and hand
Have made the mortal clay to glow
And separate spirits understand?
Ah, whither, whither goes the boon,
The joy, the joy that willful sense
Into the planetary tune
Of sun-directed influence?
What is this creature, music, the art,
The rhythm that the planets journey by?
The living sun-ray entering the heart
Touching the life with that which cannot die?
This man with music touched our minds
With rapture from the shining ranks
The loves and laws of unknown kinds
Who utter everlasting thanks.
All that he uttered, may remain
Al light, as order, cleaving space,
Within the emptiness again,
Within the solitude, a grace.
O mortals, praise him, for his hand
Brought to his brothers many a ray
From light perceived, though never scanned,
From law unknown, which all obey.
Where does the music go? I’d never thought about it until I came across this poem and musical piece. I like to think of it going to heaven, wherever that is, to join with the choirs of angels and orchestras around the throne of God.
May your life be lifted and inspired by the music around you this day.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Joan Chittister has been quoted in these emails before. She spoke at the Church-wide Gathering of Presbyterian Women a couple of weeks ago in Louisville, Kentucky, and here is one small part of what was reported about her presentation.
“…Jesus was a contemplative who practiced active reflection and demanded more from his disciples than personal faith; he wanted commitment to the process of bringing about the reign of God. "I never read a Bible story where it says, 'Jesus didn't want to rock the boat, so he decided not to say anything that day.' Or, 'Jesus went home with the rich man and decided not to say anything more,'"
The Jesus of Chittister here is “contemplative.” That is, Jesus reflects upon the faith implications of what he did. That is the model for us, reflecting on what our actions have to do with our faith. Actually it’s a good practice in all areas of life, thinking about what we are doing, but it is particularly helpful in our lives of faith.
Grace & peace
Geoff
