email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church
May
2009
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Richard Rohr, What language for God? |
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Eugene Peterson:
Language for God |
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Brueggemann: the
freedom of Poetry |
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Dreams as a gift of God |
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Wink: The
myth of redemptive violence |
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Bonhoeffer: simplicity
& intelligence |
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‘Fasting’ from our cars |
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John Woolman: The
spiritual life |
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Faith & Money |
Meditation
What language do we use to speak of deep spiritual things? Here’s an answer from Richard Rohr, from his book “Jesus’ Plan for a New World,” written with John Bookser Feister, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1996. This is from his introduction to the book, which is an explication of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7.
“Jesus knows the language necessary to speak of spiritual things and insists that his disciples learn it. Religion has always needed the language of metaphor, symbol, story and analogy to point to the transcendent universe. There is actually no other way. Against conventional wisdom, such usage does not demand less of us but much more. Maybe that is why we so consistently avoid sacred story in favor of mere mechanical readings that we can limit and control.”
I have enjoyed watching people come to understand the importance of symbol and metaphor, particularly as we talk about the deeper issues of life and the spirit and dreams. I like the way Rohr says Jesus "insists his disciples learn.…" My favorite example of this issue of symbol and metaphor versus literal reading comes from the same part of the New Testament Rohr is working with. What would the world look like if we all took Matthew 5:29-30 literally?
May you continue to strive to meet the deeper demands of a life of faith, even if it means learning a new language.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
Following last Friday’s email on the language of the Spirit, here is a further reflection on that topic. It comes from the Mars Hill Audio Journal Vol. 95, www.marshillaudio.org. The host of the Mars Hill series, Ken Meyers, interviews Eugene Peterson, about the use of language by Jesus as we find it in the gospels. Here are some excerpts from the interview.
Meyers: Jesus regularly uses language that leaves room for ambiguity…(what do you mean by that?)
Peterson: Jesus did a lot of ambiguity…people had to scratch their heads…what does Jesus mean? No sentence or word means just one thing…the ambiguity invites creative listening and prevents dogmatic rigidness … I think the ambiguity of Jesus’ language is at the heart of spirituality…
Meyers: truth must be pursued, it cannot be just delivered?
Peterson: That’s right, If there’s no response, no listening and entering into, you don’t get it….Jesus’ opponents were watching, evaluating, grumbling…Jesus did an end around run on them, so they couldn’t help but get involved in what he was doing. That’s what a story does…it get you involved.
Meyers: Is one of the problems detaching imagination and truth?
Peterson: (He comments on the way our education system has divorced truth and imagination and comments that the high priests of language are poets. Poets talk of metaphor, etc.)
Metaphor is literally a lie…you are saying something that is not true factually, “God is a rock,” “You are salt” … So the imagination has to come into play…
I hope this all makes sense with the way I’ve cut up the dialogue. I just love the way Peterson says “metaphor is literally a lie.” Just that sentence illustrates what he is talking about. We need metaphor in spirituality because we are talking about or pointing to things that are ‘invisible’ that cannot be conceived or perceived directly. How bless we are to have poets, artists and those like Peterson who understand the relation between spirit and poetry & metaphor. Who are your favorite poets? What is your favorite Bible metaphor? I’d like to know.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
Tuesday’s email mentioned the value of poetry for spirituality. Here is a brief reflection on that topic from Walter Brueggemann, from his book “Finally Comes the Poet,” Augsburg Fortress Press, 1989. This quote is set in a paragraph that discusses the forces in the world that seek to enslave us, not free us. He says
“The Prince of Darkness tries frantically to keep the world closed so that we can be administered.”
“Where poetry is sounded, the Prince knows a little of the territory has been lost to its true Ruler. The newly claimed territory becomes a new home of freedom, justice, peace, and abiding joy. This happens when the poet comes, when the poet speaks, when the preacher comes as a poet.”
Though Brueggemann focuses this paragraph on preachers, I believe it can fit any of the faithful. We all benefit from poetry and one of the benefits is to better hear God’s speech in the world around us.
May you hear God’s poetry around you this day.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
My last few meditations have concerned the language we use for spiritual life. My dreams play a large role in my spiritual life, and they speak a language of their own. Here is an excerpt from an article I ran across last week that talks about dreams in the life of the Spirit. It is by the Rev. Craig M. Mueller, currently pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chicago. The quote comes from his article in the September 1998 edition of “Presence” the Journal of Spiritual Directors International.
“Throughout our lives we face transition, challenge, and change. Again and again we learn to let go of tight control and open ourselves to the healing, transforming love of God. Not until the final letting go of our death do we reach the total rest of peace and wholeness.”
“Yet each night we symbolically let go and in a sense die, by closing our eyes and resting. During this time we do not enter a place of nothingness but a rich, inner world of dreams. By seeking the wisdom of dreams we acknowledge them as a gift of God for our health and salvation. While we may receive profound insight and strength from public rituals, sacred scriptures, and myths of our religious heritage, our own dreams provide a unique, personal application of divine wisdom.”
One of the points about dreams that I find most interesting is their universality. Everyone dreams and everyone has the opportunity to make use of their dreams as another level of information, very personal information at that, about themselves and their lives.
May you find the guidance and help that your dreams provide.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
One of the strongest temptations in our culture is to give in to what is called the myth of redemptive violence. This term refers to the myth that “…violence saves, that war brings peace, that might makes right. It is one of the oldest continuously repeated stories in the world.” That quote and the one below come from “The Powers That Be; Theology for a New Millennium” by Walter Wink, Galilee/Doubleday, 1998. Wink is the Professor Emeritus of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York. He says further
“The myth of redemptive violence is, in short, nationalism become absolute. This myth speaks FOR God; it does not listen for God to speak. It invokes the sovereignty of God as its own; it does not entertain the prophetic possibility of radical judgment by God. It misappropriates the language, symbols and scriptures of Christianity. It does not seek God in order to change; it embraces God in order to prevent change. Its God is not the impartial ruler of all nations but a tribal god worshiped as an idol. Its metaphor is not the journey but the fortress. Its symbol is not the cross but the crosshairs of a gun. Its offer is not forgiveness but victory. Its good news is not the unconditional love of enemies but their final elimination. Its salvation is not a new heart but a successful foreign policy. It usurps the revelation of God’s purposes for humanity in Jesus. It is blasphemous. It is idolatrous…..And it is immensely popular”
We need not look too far to see the immensity of that popularity in our word, need we? And it was into just such a system that Jesus came with an entirely different message. Where are the forces of the myth of redemptive violence at work in your world? Are you able to recall and rely upon Jesus’ alternate vision? May you find the wisdom and the courage to do so.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
Here’s another meditation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “I Want to Live These Days with You,” a year’s worth of short selections for daily reading and prayer, compiled by Manfred Webber and translated by O.C. Dean, Jr., Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville & London, 2007. We spent all of Holy Week with Bonhoeffer this year. The editors entitle this reflection “Simplicity and Intelligence”
“Those who can combine simplicity and intelligence can prevail. But what is simplicity? What is intelligence? How can the two become one? Simple is the one who in the transfiguration, confusion and twisting of all concepts keeps the simple truth of God in focus, who is not double-minded, not a person with two minds. (James 1:8), but has an undivided heart. Because such people have and know God, they hold to the commandments, to the judgment and mercy that daily come anew from the mouth of God. Not enslaved to principles but bound by love for God, they have become free from the problems and conflicts of ethical decision. They are no longer weighed down by them. They belong completely and solely to God and God’s will. Because simple people do not look past God to the world, they are in a position to look freely and naturally at the reality of the world. Thus simplicity becomes intelligence. Intelligent is the one who sees reality as it is, who sees the foundation of things. Therefore, only those who see reality in God are intelligent. The perception of reality is not the same thing as the knowledge of external processes; it is, rather, seeing the essence of things. The most intelligent are not those who are the best informed.”
Bonhoeffer certainly approaches this from a faith perspective! I like the way he links simplicity and intelligence to a position that is “not enslaved to principles but bound by love for God…” That serves as a healthy reminder to me that love of God ( and our neighbor as our self) is the most important thing for us. Principles have their place, but they are not necessarily ultimate. May you find that love of God and neighbor to be the guiding principle in your life!
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
Lent may be a distant memory for many of us by now, but here is a report of one church-sponsored modern Lenten practice. It comes from the “Century Marks” section of The Christian Century Magazine, http://www.christiancentury.org/, the May 19, 2009 issue.
“Almost 2,000 people in southwestern Germany and Luxumbourg participated in a church-sponsored Lenten car fast in which they abstained from using their cars. Instead they walked, cycled, used public transport or, if all else failed, opted for car sharing when traveling.
I’ve been trying to ride my bike to the church as often as I can for almost a year now, in part for the environmental benefit it brings. But I also find I just feel better when I have pedaled to the church. Though my efforts began when gasoline was at a high price, I hope to be able to maintain this practice into the future, regardless of the price of gas. To call this a spiritual practice might be stretching that term, but it has spiritual dimensions, particularly in the way I’m interacting with God’s created world around me. How might you be able to ‘fast from your car’?
May you find new ways to participate in God’s creation all around you.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
I’ve been studying the dreams of Quakers lately in preparation for my presentation next month in Chicago. See the note in “Dreamers” below. Here is a quote from one of the leading Quakers in early America, John Woolman. I found it in “Earth Gospel; A Guide to Prayer for God’s Creation” by Sam Hamilton-Poore, Upper Room Books, 2008. Sam in turn took it from “Quaker Spirituality: Selected Writings” ed. By Douglas V. Steere, Paulist Press, 1984.
“I was early convinced in my mind that true religion consisted in an inward life, wherein the heart doth love and reverence God the Creator and learn to exercise true justice and goodness, not only towards all men but also towards the brute creatures; that as the mind was moved on an inward principle to love God as an invisible, incomprehensible being, on the same principle it was moved to love him in all his manifestations in the visible world; that as by his breath the flame of life was kindled in all animal and sensitive creatures, to say we love God as unseen and at the same time exercise cruelty towards the least creature moving by his life, or by life derived from him, was a contradiction it itself.
I was particularly struck by this reading after our bike pack trip over Memorial Day, being out in nature with children, who see and are moved by nature in a fresher way than I am. I like the way Woolman points out the inward action of loving nature must be matched by our outward actions. How do you exercise your love of nature or of God’s creation?
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
The relationship of faith and money is an important one. Next to the kingdom of God, Jesus talks about money more than anything else, so I’m told. Here is a little news item about this issue of faith and money in our current times and place. It comes from the May 10 issue of Christian Century magazine. I’m quoting only the first paragraph, but you can see the whole article here: http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=6926
“Despite the economic downturn, more
than half of actively religious donors plan to give the same or more to
charitable causes in 2009 as they did last year, a new survey shows.”
I find that kind of information encouraging, as it is an indication that people of faith respond to events of the world in a somewhat different way than those without faith. That is not always the case, but it is nice to see when it does happen. How does your faith influence the way you use money? May God’s generous grace prompt generosity on your part.
Grace & peace
Geoff
