email: whitpresby@mindspring.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
June 2000 Emails
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Quaker Hymn “How Can I Keep from singing |
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Forgiveness |
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Intimacy with God |
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Beth Orton - Sacredness |
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Forgiveness |
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2 kinds of prayer, pt. 1 |
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2 kinds of prayer, pt. 2 |
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Conversion |
Music is an integral part of our lives as humans and plays a deep role in our spiritual lives, whether we are church goers or not. Here are the words to a traditional Quaker hymn that speak of the beauty of singing verging on mystical ecstasy.
My life flows on in endless song
above earth’s lamentations;
I hear the real though far off hymn
that hails a new creation.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that rock I’m clinging;
while love is Lord o’er heaven and earth
how can I keep from singing?
Living in Quaker Whittier, I should know more about this song than I do. It still speaks powerfully to me on my good days.
Grace and peace to you all
Geoff
In the series of sermons on forgiveness I ran across this line. Its from an article in Interpretation Magazine by L. Gregory Jones on the community nature of forgiveness. In speaking about James 5:12-20, he says:
“Could it be that the capacity to discover what it means to be forgiven and to forgive depends on the richness of one’s communal habits, practices and disciplines?”
One of his sub-themes in the article is that true forgiveness is something more than we can easily summon up from within ourselves. More importantly is the way we need each other to give and, perhaps most importantly, ask for forgiveness. Beyond all this is the root and source of our forgiveness, the love of God, which uses forgiveness to achieve reconciliation between us and God.
How rich is your communal environment in nurturing forgiveness in your life? Are you aware of the importance of needing forgiveness over giving it?
Grace and peace to you all.
Geoff
In his book “Intimacy with God” Thomas Keating wrestles with our modern needs for just that, intimacy with God. In the process he talks about the inadequate or immature attitudes we have about God. I found this statement articulate and compelling:
“Our basic attitudes toward God are frequently solicited by circumstances and temptations to regress to former levels of relating that were childish and unworthy of God. We easily make judgments about God that are actually projections of our childish levels of consciousness. We also project on God the models of authority that we saw around us. If we had a dominating and authoritarian father, then God is easily felt to be dominating and authoritarian. If these influences were horrendous, then it becomes more difficult later in life to relate to God as God. Recognizing childish attitudes toward God and laying them aside will enable us to re-evaluate our relationship with God and to consider the possibility of making friends.”
How mature is your faith, your attitude toward God? Is God truly a friend to you?
Grace & peace to you all.
Geoff
Beth Orton is a young (alas, 30 is young to me these days) British Singer/songwriter with just two CDs out and about whom I know little else. In one version of her song “Central Reservation” she has this line that grabs my attention every time I hear it.
“Everything and nothing is as sacred as we want it to be…”
I know nothing of her faith but the power of good poetry or writing speaks beyond the intent of the author, doesn’t it? This line speaks to me about our power to make things sacred, to treat them or have an attitude toward them that vests them with special power. Yet is also tells me that we are often among few who hold such regard for things and that the rest of the world does not hold our sacred things in such value. There is both beauty and pain there. As in much poetry, deep insight in just a few words. May you realize both the beauty and pain in your life as something that you have some control over and at the same time that you are at the mercy of.
Grace and peace to you all
Geoff
In my continued reading on forgiveness I ran across this statement from Thomas Merton’s book “Thoughts in Solitude” that reflect the theme of one of my sermons in May. I have broadened the language from that of a male monastery to the larger world. It still fits.
We do not really know how to forgive until we know what it is to be forgiven.
Therefore we should be glad that we can be forgiven by our brothers (and
sisters). It is our forgiveness of one another that makes the love of Jesus manifest
in our lives, for in forgiving one another we act towards one another as He has
acted towards us.
May you seek, and find, the level of forgiveness that has been given you, so that you may pass it on to others.
Grace & peace to you all,
Geoff
Evagrius of Pontus was a monk in the 300s, the early days of Christianity. His writings influenced St. John Cassian, St. Benedict of Nursia and many others. In John Eudes Bamberger’s translation of Evagrius’ “Praktikos” I found this insight into the spiritual life.
“There are two peaceful states of the soul. The one arises from the natural basic energies of the soul and the other from the withdrawal of the demons. Humility together with compunction and tears, longing for the infinite God, and a boundless eagerness for toil—all these follow upon the first type. But it is vainglory along with pride that succeeds to the second type, and these lure the monk(seeker -GN) along as the other demons withdraw from (him/her). The monk (seeker –GN) who preserves intact the territory of the first state will perceive with greater sensitivity the raids made upon it by the demons.
Getting past the language and thought forms of another time and place, the insight for me is that peace which comes from our own soul work, even soul struggle, is more powerful and lasting that that which simply comes from changing circumstances. Where the old temptations are simply left behind, we may fool ourselves into thinking we have achieved this peace by ourselves or by our cleverness, or by just saying no. This then leads to the arrogance of thinking that we, by our own cleverness or wisdom, have overcome the challenges in our life. Instead true overcoming is reached by the hard, long and patient soul work that we must do. May you be encouraged in our own soul work during these days of summer.
Grace & peace to you all,
Geoff
Last time we heard a two part breakdown of part of the spiritual life from Evagrius. Here is another two part breakdown from Thomas Keating, from his book “Intimacy with God,” which is my current reading. It speaks for itself.
“Contemplative prayer deepens the process of listening, and it does so by two experiences. One is the affirmation of our being at the deepest level, which comes through peace and spiritual consolation and enables us to entrust to God our whole story. Not that God doesn’t know it already; he is just letting us in on the secret. Without trust in God, we cannot acknowledge the dark side of our personality, our mixed motivation, and our selfishness in it raw misery. Deep prayer increases our trust in God so that we can acknowledge anything and are not blown away by it. Without that trust, we maintain our defense mechanisms. We try to hide from the full light of that realization. Like Adam and Eve, we hide in the woods. On the other hand, as our dark is confronted, it is removed. By our acknowledging it, God takes it away. The process of contemplative prayer is a way of releasing what is in the unconscious. The psyche has a need for evacuation the same as the body, and it does this as a result of the deep rest of contemplative prayer.
For more Keating related material see www.centeringprayer.com And click on the “front page” tab.
Grace & peace to you all
Geoff
In her book “Amazing Grace” Kathleen Norris has seven sections on Conversion, weaving like one of the brighter threads in her tapestry. Here is part of one of them.
“I find it understandable that people who have been destroying themselves in a drastic way might turn to a drastic cure, and adopt a harsh version of Christianity, every bit as rigid as the physical addiction that formerly held them in thrall. But they also reveal a basic and valuable truth about conversion—that we do not suddenly change in essence, magically becoming new people, with all our old faults left behind. What happens is more subtle, and to my mind, more revealing of God’s great mercy. In the process of conversion, the detestable parts of our selves do not vanish so much as become transformed.”
When I did drug rehab work as a young man, we had expressions that spoke to the same phenomenon as Norris talks about here. We would say that someone got off drugs and got hooked on Synenon(another residential drug rehab program), or got hooked on Transcendental Meditation or got hooked on Jesus, but they were still the same obnoxious people. Norris’ take is more compassionate than we were.
May you find that subtle transforming power of God you your life in the days to come.
Grace & peace
Geoff
