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Spiritual readings        "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"

May 2003 Emails  

May 2, 2003

One more reflection on the discipline of study from Richard Foster’s book “Celebration of Discipline.”  It is a quote from Caleb Colton, a British clergyman who lived from 1780 to 1832.  Foster opens the chapter on study with this quote.  I’m leaving the language in its original.  That’s the way they wrote back then!

 “He that studies only men, will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body.  He that to what he sees, adds observation and to what he reads reflection, is in the right road to knowledge, provided that in scrutinizing the hearts of others, he neglects not his own.”

  I used to think study was something one did for a test.  Foster’s words of wisdom on the subject enlightened me to the wider elements of life, the spirit and study itself.

May 6, 2003

David F. Ford has an interview in the latest Christian Century magazine and I found this great quote there.

  “My own engagement with scripture began when I was a teenager.  I read the New English Bible translation, and found there a freshness and a gripping power.  If the church is to remain true to its calling and to respond to new situations adequately, it has to be fed with scripture and to inhabit scripture.  If the whole imagination of the church is to be able to resist the very powerful forces that try to co-opt it or subvert it, then it has to have a scriptural imagination.”

We are in a time of increased pressure from “…forces that try to co-opt or subvert (the church)” and it is always good to base ourselves in scripture.  That is one of the reasons we at Whittier Presbyterian Church have put so much emphasis upon study of scripture with our Daily Bread and Wednesday at the Movies programs in the last two years.

How well fed is YOUR imagination with the scriptures?

Grace & peace to you

Geoff

May 9, 2003

In honor of Mother’s Day, here is a meditation attributed to St. Frances DeSales.  It comes from a booklet I own, entitled “A Treasury of Inspiration for Mothers,” by Judy Mitchell, 1997, Access Publishing, Wheaton, IL.

  “Strive to be as a little child who, while its mother holds its hand, goes on fearlessly and is not disturbed because it stumbles and trips in its weakness.  So long a god holds you up by the will and determination to serve his with which He inspires you, go on boldly and do not be frightened at your little checks and falls, so long as you can throw yourself into His arms in trusting love.  Go there with an open, joyful heart as often as possible; if not always joyful, at least go with a brave and faithful heart.”

  While noting some good qualities of mothers, this is also a description of a good relationship with God.  May you find that level of trust of God in your life.

Grace & peace,

Geoff

May 13, 2003

Since days after Sept. 11, 2001, I have been praying for a deeper understanding of my relationship to my country, for a deeper meaning to patriotism in my own life.  It is a work in progress.  But occasionally I find something helpful in the journey, and I have usually shared them with you here.  The latest comes from a reflection on the scriptures for this coming Sunday, specifically Psalm 23 and John 10:11-18.  It is called “Hooked on War,” by Andrew Warner, pastor of Plymouth United Church of Christ, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  It appears in the May 3, 2003 issue of Christian Century Magazine.  The “we” he refers to here is his congregation, but it can apply to us all.

  “Now, in a different political environment, we are again grappling with the morality of American military power.  Increasingly we are finding it necessary to understand how our faith affects our relationship to America, how our love of Jesus informs and even changes our love for America, and how God calls us to speak up for the powerless.  Advocating for peace is requiring us to confront the seductive power of military might at a time when its allure becomes almost unbearable; dissent is seen as treason, discussion as a betrayal.

Now, in “real time” news, journalists encourage us to be embedded with the war effort.  The sight of men and women from our own towns and congregations can make us instinctively support a war.  The war itself is often presented with a certain glamour—“smart bombs, quick tanks, special ops—while the media help us protect ourselves from gory reality.  Chris Hedges, a former war correspondent and author of “War Is a Force Which Unites Us”, describes the seductive quality of martial power as a narcotic that can provoke in whole societies a self-righteous delirium.

Making sense of our mission and ministry in this time requires that we find some way to keep our heads clear of the narcotic of war.  We must cultivate an alternative power, an alternative source of meaning.”

  The Gospel provides a clear alternative for us, but it seems that it will take increasing courage to stand up for the gospel in times like ours.  All the more reason for prayer, study of scripture and fellowship with other Christians!  May you diligently seek out all three of those activities.

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 16, 2003

I was leafing through an old book the other day, “Twentieth Century Music,” by Peter Yates, Minerva Press, 1967, and I found this quote from an essay by the late American composer Charles Ives, “Essays Before a Sonata” which Ives published in 1920.

  “…if a man finds that the cadences of an Apache war-dance come nearer to his soul, provided he has taken pains to know enough other cadences—for eclecticism is part of his duty—let him assimilate whatever he finds highest of the Indian ideal, so that he can use it with the cadences fervently, transcendentally, inevitable, furiously, in his symphonies, in his operas, in his whistlings on the way to work, so that he can paint his house with them—make them a part of his prayer-book—this is all possible and necessary, if he is confident that they have a part in his spiritual consciousness.”

  I presume Ives is talking about the process of composing and the materials one would use to write a piece of music.  But I find his words helpful in a larger sense.  I wonder sometimes how to fit all my own tastes and little hobbies into my life with God.

What parts of YOUR life do you struggle bringing God into?

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 20, 2003

In the Pentecost 2003 issue of the JOURNAL FOR PREACHERS, (http://www.journalforpreachers.org/) Walter Brueggemann makes the following observation based on Isaiah 31 verse 1 & 3.

  “The prophetic indictment is that Israel relied on military power and alliances that will avail nothing.  If we take “horses and chariots” to epitomize the whole conventional attempt at security, the poetry declares that such an attempt is futile.  The reason such futility cannot save is that such equipment is “human and not God…flesh and not spirit.”  (Referring to the Isaiah quote)  That is, such efforts have no generative power to initiate, sustain, or transform life.  What is needed is not “more flesh,” but “Spirit.”

  I especially appreciated Brueggemann’s ‘definition’ of spirit as that which has “generative power to initiate, sustain, or transform life.”  Though Brueggemann is speaking socially, to a wider audience, I find the definition to be useful on a personal level as well.  Where do YOU fin the power to initiate, sustain, or transform life?  Is it from the Spirit of God, or from somewhere else?  May you find the sustaining and transforming power of God in your life this day.

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 23, 2003

Here is the text of a poem by Ernest Cadman Colwell (1901-1974), which I received through the Internet.  It is a wonderful synthesis of many biblical images and metaphors.

  DREAM THIS DREAM

The lion and the lamb shall lie down together;

The kid and the panther shall play in the sun;

No one shall know the strange word "soldier";

And war shall be a shameful deed that long ago was done.

And rest for the weary; and food for the hungry,

And peace for the comfortless shall not be far to seek;

And beauty in labor, and beauty in laughter,

And beauty in loving shall come to the meek.

Mountain calls to mountain top --

Sinai unto Calvary;

Whispers rise from ancient fields

They push up through the sod;

"Tell all the children

To tell their children's children

To dream this dream for God."

  The power of such a process of dreaming can never be underestimated.  What powers your dreams and where do you find inspiration?  Very similar questions those asked in last Tuesday’s email, but they are questions that we need continually to ask ourselves.  May you be blessed with a sense of God’s presence in your life today.

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 27, 2003

The other day I found myself using the word “mystical” in a pejorative way.  I was surprised and disappointed in myself.  I used the word in the sense that spirituality can provide temptations not to be involved with the world or that God is some kind of mystery beyond our comprehension.  What surprised and disappointed me was that for the last few years, I have found myself leaning towards mysticism as an appropriate way to express our spiritual lives.  In a book I’ve quoted from before (July 25, 2000) I found some help.  The book is “Why Not Be a Mystic,” by Frank X. Tuoti, Crossroad publishers, New York, 1995.

  “This book attempts to make the point, as the great mystical theologians teach, that the mystical/contemplative life is nothing more and nothing less than the ‘ordinary Christian life’ in full flowering, the normal development of “common” sanctifying grace received at baptism, which does not require extraordinary graces.  ‘The living Trinity within us is extraordinary grace enough!’”

  Mysticism is not a withdrawal of the self from the cares and involvements of the world, but is an advance of God’s spirit into our world and lives.

May you find the presence of God’s spirit in your life, a sense of mysticism for you.

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 30, 2003

Rowan Williams was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury (the worldwide head of the Anglican or Episcopal Church) in July 2002 by England’s Queen Elizabeth II.  He happened to be in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, just a few hundred yards from the World Trade Center towers when they were destroyed in the terrorist attack.  His book, “Writing in the Dust,” Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U.K., 2002, is a series of reflections on that day, in his words, “…attempting to draw out how faith might begin to think and feel its way through the nightmare.”  It is the best and deepest material I have run across yet in reflecting upon the events, and aftermath since, of 9-11-01.  Here is one of the many insightful remarks he makes in the book.

  “The response of at least some people in the face of deep injury, once feeling has returned, is a passionate striking out; there is something recognizable about the language of Psalm 137:9….  It is an honest moment; but for those of us who are not totally helpless in terms of internal or external resources it is only a moment.  We feel very uneasy when it seems as though there is a sustained effort to keep that level of murderous or revengeful outrage alive.  The point at which we need to show more footage of collapsing towers or people jumping to their death, when we raise the temperature by injunctions never to forget—that is when something rather ambiguous enters in.  We are trying to manipulate and direct the chaotic emotions of victims.  There may be something like a dreadful innocence about the first surge of anger; there is no innocence about the deployment of images to try and revive it.”

  How do you respond, nearly two years later, to the horror that transfixed the world that day?  How has your faith grown to integrate that event into your life and your faith?  Many of us will spend much time and energy integrating the possibility and fact of such evil into our faith.  Williams does a good job and I recommend his book.

May your faith continually grow to integrate all that life brings your way.

Grace & peace,

Geoff