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Spiritual readings        "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"

March 2008

Mar. 4, 2008

In my sermon at Companions last week included a song “Sparkling Rills” from the CD “Bib & Tuck” by Maddy Prior & the Girls (being her daughter Rose Kemp & Abbie Lathe), Park Records, 2003.  I had used this song in a previous email that you may access here:  http://www.whitpresby.org/sept_2005_emails.htm#Sept.%2023,%202005

 His are the thousand sparkling rills

That from a thousand fountains burst

And fill with music all the hills

And yet he saith ‘I thirst’

All fiery pangs on battle fields

On fever beds where sick men toss

Are in that human cry he yields

To anguish on the Cross.

But more than pains that racked him then

Was the deep longing thirst divine,

That thirsted for the souls of men,

Dear Lord! And one was mine.

O Love most patient, give me grace;

Make all my soul athirst for thee;

That parched dry lip, that fading face,

That thirst were all for me.

 The Maddy Prior CD indicated this to be a traditional song, but on digging further, I found that it was written by Cecil Frances Alexander in 1875.  I love the way Christ’s thirst on the cross becomes a metaphor for God’s thirst for us.  I just may save this up for Good Friday!  What a powerful image it is for me to know that God thirsts for me, desires me.  May you find evidence of that desire in your life.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Mar. 7, 2008

The latest edition of The Christian Century magazine has an editorial on the Ninth Commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”  Here is part of the editorial.

 “The election season offers another context for thinking about false witness.  Political candidates frequently portray their opponents in the worst possible light, offering shorthand terms—“in favor of surrender,” “backer of amnesty,” “socialized medicine” –designed to tarnish another’s position, not address reality.”

“A perennial human tendency is to compare ourselves at our best to others at their worst.  People of faith are guilty of this version of bearing false witness:  “Christians are people of peace,” some Christians say.  “Muslims are given to jihadic extremism.”

“Sometimes we have to tell hard truths about others.  But the first test of truth telling in conflict is whether what we say about the other person, political position or religious tradition is consistent with how that person, political stance or religious tradition would understand itself.  We may not like or agree with another’s position; we can still avoid bearing false witness.”

 I like the illustration of comparing ourselves at our best to others at their worst.  That is a human tendency indeed.  I must admit to giving in to it myself, but only occasionally of course(!).  You can see material from the Christian Century at http://www.christiancentury.org/ but they are often a week or two behind the published, hard copy.

May you occasionally practice a self-examination in light of the Ninth Commandment.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Mar. 11, 2008

Here’s another selection 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.  In a chapter where Williams wrestles with two angels, Karl Rahner and Han Urs van Balthasar, two theologians from the last century, I found this image of a view of life informed by faith taken from a work by Balthasar.  I’m paraphrasing it all.

“Theology requires not only understanding the biblical and historical issues of faith but also living them out.  “as if the text of scripture were a libretto.”  In this way humans enter into the dialogue of God with creation, enacted in the drama of Jesus and his Father, and Jesus and the human world.”

I love the idea of “scripture as libretto.”  A libretto is the script used for an extended musical piece, like an opera or cantata or oratorio.  My love of music, as a listener, fits in well with this image.  Accompanying the soundtrack of our life with the libretto of scripture is a great summary of my vision for my life.  It is a struggle to achieve it, but a worthy goal.  What provides the libretto for your life?

Grace & peace

Geoff

Mar. 14, 2008

A few years ago someone in the church gave me a copy of the book “The Ornament of the World” by Maria Rosa Menocal, Little, Brown, 2002.  I just picked it up again the other day, wanting some hope for our modern world where Jews, Christians and Muslims often search for ways to get along.  The book describes a time in Andalusia, the southernmost ‘state’ of Spain, when Jews, Christians and Muslims indeed got along, acting something like “The Ornament of the World.”  Here are some quotes from the forward by Harold Bloom, that curmudgeonly literary critic, that point to the importance for our culture of the period and events covered by the book.

 “Maria Rosa Menocal begins this poignant story in Damascus in 750, land ends at Granada in 1492, the year of the expulsion of the Moors and the Jews from Spain.  Menocal’s epilogue, “Andalusian Shards,” uncannily recounts the destruction, exactly five hundred years later, of the National Library in Sarajevo by Serbian artillery.  Between the brutal disaster of 1492, the work of Spanish Catholicism, and the 1992 cultural atrocity, the deliberate achievement of Serbian Orthodox Christians, Menocal stations my favorite pages in this book, dealing with the publication of the first part of Cervantes’ Don Quixote in 1605.  That was also the year Shakespeare put on the first performance of King Lear at the Globe Theatre in London.  Nothing in Western literature, in the four centuries since, is of the eminence of Don Quixote, greatest of comedies and of novels, or of King Lear, the ultimate tragic drama, and perhaps the limit of literary art.”

“Menocal’s Andalusia, where “Muslims, Jews, and Christians created a culture of tolerance,” may to some degree represent an idealization, healthy and useful.”

“I come away from a reading of Menocal’s book with a sense of loss, another tribute to her evocative power.  Our current multiculturalism, the blight of our universities and of our media, is a parody of the culture of Cordoba and Granada in their lost prime.  All the cultural achievements so passionately described by Menocal, from the Alhambra to the poetry of Judah Halevi, were “aesthetic” triumphs, strong in conception, exquisite in execution.  As a contribution to cultural memory, in its best aspects, “The Ornament of the World” is an authentic and heartening gesture of the spirit.”

 Should anyone need reminding that atrocities are not unique to any one religion, Bloom’s summary of the book will help.  His highly opinionated views of history not withstanding, one gets the sense of the vision of hope this book may hold out in a beleaguered world such as ours.  What vision of hope do you cling to?  May God inspire your hope with visions of a better world.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Mar. 18, 2008 - Tuesday in Holy Week

For this Tuesday in Holy Week, here is a meditation on Jesus’ last week, as we rehearse that week liturgically.  In Matthew’s gospel, the next story after the Palm Sunday story is the story of the cleansing of the temple, Matthew 21:12-13.

 Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  He said to them, “It is written,

‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’;

but you are making it a den of robbers.”

 Some people use this passage to argue against having fund-raising activities at church on Sundays.  I think that is a narrow way to read this text.  Jesus is complaining about the exploitation of pilgrims who are forced to pay higher prices for sacrificial animals.  It is the extortion that Jesus is complaining about, not the simple fact of trading.  Matthew, Mark & Luke all include the word “robbers” which refers to this extortion.  John’s gospel uses the phrase “marketplace” to describe the activity, which gives it a broader cast.  Every church and group must come to its own interpretation of this text, but in a church like ours, Sunday is often the only time we can get everyone together, so we frequently have fund raising events on Sunday.

But the deeper issue for us during Holy Week is to ask ourselves what things or activities get in the way of our life of prayer?  Or maybe we want to ask in what way does our own personal economic activity either add to or detract from our life of prayer?

I will be sending out an email everyday the rest of this week, as we go through this Holy Week together.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Mar. 19, 2008 - Wednesday in Holy Week

For this Wednesday in Holy Week, here is another meditation on Jesus’ last week, as we rehearse that week liturgically.  In Matthew 26:6-13 we hear the story of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany by (in Matthew’s gospel) an unknown woman.  I will not reprint the story here, you can use your own Bible.

As we look for the deeper and more personal issues of the story of Jesus’ Passion week, we can ask again with this text, in what way does our own personal economic activity either add to or detract from our life of prayer?  But I want to suggest another way to consider the story.  What part of our lives, that get in the way of our life of prayer, can we anoint, as a prelude to leaving them behind?  This may not be what this text is about, but I consider it worth thinking and praying about anyway.  Can we bless those things that block our path to God, bless them and bid them farewell?  We might be a little more gentle upon ourselves by doing so.

What would you anoint as you bid it farewell?

Grace & peace

Geoff

Mar. 20, 2008 – Maundy Thursday Meditation

The texts in Matthew for Maundy Thursday are a rich source of depth for us.  There is the Last Supper, the garden scene, the arrest, etc.  I want to focus on the time in the garden, Matthew 26:36-46, particularly the response of the disciples to the situation.

In times of great stress, do you ever find yourself just falling asleep?  It seems like such an odd response to a stimulating situation, but it happens.  I have noticed it in myself.  When I feel myself suddenly with heavy eyes in a situation where I would not expect such a reaction, I tell myself to focus and pay attention, to wake up.  Something very important is going on that part of me does not want to look at.  That gentle observation and reminder is usually enough to get me to wake up, to focus on myself and whatever is being presented to me.

Is that what the disciples experienced?  What do you need to wake up to in your life?

Grace & peace

Geoff

Mar. 21, 2008 – Good Friday Meditation

The Gospel of Matthew has only one of the seven last words of Christ from the cross.  Matthew 27:46 says “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  This is a quote from Psalm 22:1 and has served through the Centuries as one of the most profound expressions of human despair.  Our culture, and many of the churches of our culture, tends to skip over Good Friday, in the rush to get to the joy and hope of Easter.  I believe we do ourselves, and our culture, a disservice by skipping over the “unpleasantness” of Good Friday and such expressions of despair as found in Matthew 27:46.  The only way to wholeness, as God intends for all human creatures, is through the difficult parts of life, through the pain, the disappointment, the fear, the despair. Indeed, the process of healing and/or wholeness can often bloom right in the midst of whatever pain and despair we may experience.

Where have you experienced growth in the difficult parts of your life?  Is there such a part of your life now, that needs expression & the movement towards wholeness?

Grace & peace

Geoff

Mar. 22, 2008 – Holy Saturday Meditation

The Gospel of Matthew 27:57-61 tells the story of the burial of Jesus.  A man named Joseph of Arimathea donated his own grave for Jesus to be buried in.  Joseph appears in all four gospels and I find it interesting whenever a person of status, wealth and power takes an interest in Jesus.  According to my sources, Joseph has all three attributes.  His associating with Jesus was a risky thing to do.  He stood to lose his reputation, his wealth, maybe even his life.  But something motivated him to get involved with this guy Jesus.  On this day when we recall burying Jesus, when we recall the grief and despair of his disciples, can we stay with those feelings of grief and despair for a while?  Can we imagine risking our own reputation, our wealth, even our lives?  We hear about Christians having to do that throughout the centuries and in other parts of the world.  But for most of us American Christians, it is something outside our realm of experience.  Just how much would YOU be willing to risk for Jesus?  Try meditating on that for a while on this day, Holy Saturday.

For more on Joseph of Arimathea, try that popular site for easy, and usually fairly accurate information, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_of_Arimathea

May your meditation today better prepare you for an Easter celebration tomorrow.

Grace & peace

Geoff

Mar. 25, 2008

Still my favorite post-Easter quote is the following:

http://www.whitpresby.org/april_2000_emails.htm#%A0April%2025,%202000

I have a book that helps us plumb some of the depths of Easter, “Holy Humor: Inspirational Wit and Cartoons” by Cal and Rose Samra, Guideposts publishing, 1996.  The Samras are among the founders of the Fellowship of Merry Christians and the newsletter “The Joyful Noiseletter,” http://www.joyfulnoiseletter.com/ 

The Fellowship also encourages churches and prayer groups to celebrate “The Easter Laugh”—God’s last laugh on the devil when he raised Jesus from the dead—with Easter Monday and Bright Sunday (the Sunday after Easter) festivities. 

The Fellowship is aiming to resurrect a very old Christian custom—Easter Monday parties—in celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.  Easter Monday traditionally was celebrated as a “Day of Joy and Laughter” in Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant countries.

Out of that tradition has come April Fool’s Day and a variety of more churchly observances.  What do you do to celebrate the days after Easter?  Is humor a part of your celebrations?  May you find some holy humor in the world around you.

Grace & peace

Geoff

Mar. 28, 2008

Following Tuesday reference to Easter humor, here is a quote from Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, along the same lines.  It comes from her book “The Psalms:  Meditations for Every Day of the Year,” Crossroad Publishing, 1996.  :

“Here’s what’s wrong with most of the world.  They have either never acted foolishly—how sad—or they have forgotten that they did because they certainly take everybody else’s foolishness far too seriously.  And they’re irritating the life our of us foolish ones.”

Do you mind being called foolish?  I suppose it depends on who is doing the calling and how they are doing it.  But if being in Christ means being called foolish, then it doesn’t seem so bad to me.  My pride can always use a little humility, alas.  What makes you feel foolish?

Grace & peace

Geoff