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Spiritual readings        "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"

May 2007

May 1, 2007

No email this Friday, May 4, I’ll be graduating with the D Min in South Bend, Indiana.

Thanks to all of you who sent me Earth Day material last week.

 Meditation

One of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, died on April 11, 2007.  He had given me, as well as millions of others, hours of pleasurable and frequently hilarious reading.  Here is a quote from the last book of his I read, “Timequake,” Berkley Books, 1997.

 “I still quote Eugene Debs(1855-1926), late of Terre Haute, Indiana, five times the Socialist Party’s candidate for President, in every speech:  “While there is a lower class I am in it, while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

In recent years I’ve found it prudent to say before quoting Debs that he is to be taken seriously.  Otherwise many in the audience will start to laugh.  They are being nice, not mean, knowing I like to be funny.  But it is also a sign of these times that such a moving echo of the Sermon on the Mount can be perceived as outdated, wholly discredited horsecrap.

Which it is not.”

 I also quoted from this book in my email of Oct. 11, 2002, should you care for another example of his writing.  Humor is one sure way into the realm of the spirit.  I pray you will find God’s presence in your life related to the next joke you hear.  That may be a challenge!  If it’s a good joke, pass it on!

Grace & peace

Geoff

 May 8, 2007

Thanks to all of you for your personal messages this last week.

Here is another two-for-one around the spirituality of music.

Some of you may be familiar with the “Riverdance” program of traditional Irish music and dancing.  Bill Whelan is the composer of the music that is used for the Riverdance programs.  I found this quote from him in “Irish American News” which I found in a pub in South Bend, Indiana, last week.

“At the root of all music and dance is the search for spirituality”

I recently got a compact disc entitled “Mater” of music by the Slovakian composer Vladimir Godar.  The liner notes include this interesting quote from Godar himself.

“Whenever we find ourselves in a town or a city for the first time, we visit the local historical landmarks or churches.  They consist of layers of different time periods—a gothic cathedral contains Renaissance tombs, baroque sculptures, windows with symbolic stained glass.  When we look inwards, we see something similar—our thoughts, gestures, expressions of emotion, ideals, they all have roots in different depths of time.  A human being is just as poly-temporal and poly-stylistic as the cathedral.”

So there are two references for our spiritual life, loosely related by their common musical threads.  May God’s music of the cosmos sound in your life today, and in all the different depths of your life.

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 11, 2007

Hadewijch of Antwerp was possibly the most well-known of the Beguines, a sect of devout women in Belgium, Holland, Germany and France.  Beguines did not take vows, but they gathered together to live in simplicity and service.  Here is a selection from the collected letters of Hadewijch, taken from the book, “Spiritual Classics” edited by Richard J. Foster and Emilie Griffin, Harper San Francisco, 2000.

“Serve nobly, wish for nothing else, and fear nothing else: and let Love freely take care of herself!  For Love rewards to the full, even though she often comes late.  Let no doubt or disappointment ever turn you away from performing acts of virtue; let no ill success cause you to fear that you yourself will not come to conformity with God.”

The Beguines worked at finding a way to live their faith in their daily lives.  May we strive to do the same.

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 15, 2007

The Los Angeles Times Sunday entertainment section (May 13, 2007) had an article about Dawn Upshaw, a leading soprano for the past 15 or so years.  In the article was this short paragraph, which caught my attention.

“I want more from the physical act of singing,” she said the next day.  “I have now had so many experiences where I feel one with the production of sound, where I feel now that it is really coming from my feet or somewhere else beyond my voice.”

As I read that I thought, “…yes, that is how I would like to pray.”  To be so ‘in tune’ with life and with God’s presence that our prayer functions like some channel for God’s love and when we pray it feels like it comes from somewhere else and merely flows through us.  That may not be what Ms Upshaw had in mind, but I liked the connection!

May your prayer deepen your connection to God and to all of life.

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 18, 2007

One of my favorite organizations to give money to is Doctors Without Borders.  If you are not familiar with them you can check these web sites:  http://www.msf.org/ or http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/

I was startled the other day to hear that the new president of France, Nicolas Sarcozy has appointed the founder of Doctors Without Borders, Bernard Kouchner, as the new foreign minister of France.  What a statement!  That someone with the kind of sensibilities to found an organization like Doctors Without Borders could serve in a government position might open up all kinds of new possibilities.  Though it will be difficult to follow from another country and another language, I will be trying to pay attention to how Kouchner effects the politics of the foreign policy of France.

            Such surprises remind me that God’s Spirit continues to work in so many ways and so many places.  What have been some of your favorite large political events where you see God at work?  I’d like to hear about them.

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 22, 2007

I’ve just finished a series of sermons using texts from the book of Revelation.  One of my help was the New Interpreter’s Bible commentary by Christopher C. Rowland.  He uses the following quote from the English mystic poet, visionary and artist, William Blake, who lived and worked 200 years ago.  I’m leaving punctuation, spelling and capitalization the way it is printed.

“You say that I want somebody to Elucidate my Ideas.  But you ought to know that What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men.  That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not worth my care.  The wisest of the Ancients consider’d what is not too Explicit as the fittest for Instruction, because it rouzes the faculties to act.”

I believe Rowland uses the quote to refer to the fact that to understand Revelation takes some work.  My favorite analogy for Revelation is that it takes images from the Old Testament, throws them into a blender, whirls them around, then pours out the results in a new message from God, or a new version of the old message.  (By the way, that’s one way to look at many dreams too, using material from our lives, blending them into newer messages).  The spiritual life uses all our faculties.  What is your favorite faculty to notice God’s presence in your life?

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 25, 2007

I’ve not heard much about angels lately, but I expect interest in angels will cycle around every few years.  Here is an interesting observation about our society’s interest in angels from Walter Wink, in his book, “”The Powers That Be,” Galilee/Doubleday, 1998.

“Much of this interest in angels is a shallow as the materialism it opposes.  It is comforting to believe that we are all protected by guardian angels, for example.  But these guardian angels seem to work best in middle-class neighborhoods where there are plenty of resources; they don’t do so well protecting children in ghettos from drive-by shootings.  If we want to take the notion of angels, demons, and the principalities and powers seriously, we will have to go back to the biblical understanding of spirits in all its profundity and apply it freshly to our situation today.”

The rest of this wonderful book develops the depth of the Biblical meaning of powers and spirits, and helps us to know the deeper levels of the life of the spirit.  True spirituality is not a shallow sentimental endeavor.  May you find God’s presence in the deeper parts of your life.

Grace & peace

Geoff

May 29, 2007

How do we handle times of stress, pain and difficulty?  All of us have certain patterns we fall into, practices we use or attitudes we take.  Here is a way from the book “Sacred Encounters with Jesus” by G. Scott Sparrow, Thomas More Press, 2003.  This book is about people’s encounters with Jesus, through dreams, visions, or other occurrences.  He says:

“The encounter with Christ at the end of a testing process serves to remind us to look upon the difficult tests in our lives as avenues to deeper communion with God rather than “punishments” that befall us for no apparent reason.”

Appearances of Jesus don’t seem that frequent, but all of us face difficulties in life.  Changing our perspective on difficulties can help us cope with them.  Who knows, if we cling to Jesus in prayer, he just may show up some time!

May your prayer life help you cope with whatever difficulties you face.

Grace & peace

Geoff