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Spiritual readings        "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"

November 2003 Emails    

 Nov. 4, 2003

I ran across this little excerpt that caught my attention lately.  It comes from Martin Buber’s “Tales of the Hasidim” but I found it in “Interpretation” magazine, the April 2002 issue, that dealt with biblical spirituality.  The excerpt comes from an article entitled “The Inner Self, the Word of God, and the Cause that Matters,” by J. Sibley Towner, professor emeritus of Biblical Interpretation at Union Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education, in Richmond, Virginia.

 “Each of us has a role to play (in life.), so God offers us individualized vocational guidance.  It is mediated to us in many ways, among them mystical, ecstatic experience, the wisdom of other people, and the beauty and order of nature.  God does not impose vocation; it grows up within us.  God does not expect us to embrace a vocation for which we are ill suited, but fits us for our own and sets us free to follow it.  The Hasidic Rabbi Zusya put it succinctly when, as an old man, he said, “In the world to come they will not ask me, ‘Why were you not Moses?’  They will ask me, ‘Why were you not Zusya?”

 I find in my life that the more I am true to myself and use the gifts that God has given me, the more God blesses what I do.  My version of the above story would have me being asked not ‘Why were you not Jesus (or some other saint)’ but ‘Why were you not Geoff?’  Who has God made you and how are you using the gifts God has given you?  Answering these questions is a lifelong pursuit, but one that brings many and rich blessings.

What would your version of the little story look like?

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Nov. 7, 2003

Following the same theme as Tuesday’s email, here is another quote on the topic of vocation.  This comes from Frederick Buechner’s book “Wishful Thinking,” Harper and Row, 1973.

 “There are all different kinds of voices calling you to different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of Society, say, or the Superego, or Self-Interest.

By and large a good rule for finding out is this.  The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done.  If you really get a kick out of your work, you’ve presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you’ve missed requirement (b).  On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you’re bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a) but probably aren’t helping your patients much either……

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

 As we consider our own lives and our own vocation, how do we stack up against Buechner’s criteria?  Does our gladness meet the world’s need?  Do we care?  How do we measure it all anyway?  AS I said Tuesday, this becomes a lifelong quest and both our gladness and the world’s needs are liable to change.  The bottom line for us is faithfulness:  are we answering God’s call to us, no matter the changing conditions around us?  Do we continue to ask these questions of ourselves?

May you keep yourself sharp and faithful as your gladness and the world’s needs meet.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Nov. 11, 2003

I recently came on a copy of a book titled “Working on God” by Winifred Gallagher, Random House, New York, 1999.  The title comes from her definition of religion, which she sees as a process of working on God.  I’ve just barely started it, but here are a couple of quotes from the introduction.  I hope my annotation will not be confusing.

 “Although it’s accepted that it takes at least five years to understand relativity theory and particle physics, Smith says, (Huston Smith, scholar of comparative religion) people assume they can grasp theology’s vision of the deepest reality from sound bites or childhood’s half-remembered ‘exposure.’  After fifty years’ immersion in the religious vision of reality, this learned man (Smith) remains “in awe of its profundity.”

If religion—the record of our struggle to understand why we exist and what we should therefore do—has tragic flaws, so do the modern secular ‘faiths’ of Marx and Freud that not long ago seemed destined to replace it.”

 As the quotes show, Gallagher approaches religion with an open and enquiring mind and I look forward to reading more of the book.  We can never learn enough about our Christian faith, as it always has more to reveal as we go through the various stages of life.  All of us are ‘working on God’ in one way or another.  May you be blessed in your work by help guides and companions.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Nov. 14, 2003

Long time readers of these emails will know that I have a great love of recorded music and use song lyrics etc. here from time to time.  Here is one from a Beth Orton EP entitled “Beth Orton Best Bit EP, featuring Terry Callier,” Dedicated/Heavenly CD 61702-44020-2, 1998.

 “Some secrets are rare and especially beautiful; they decide when to show what they are, when its time to be seen and by whom.  I was lucky someone lent me a record by Terry Callier.  I listened to him and not much else almost constantly for a year.  His voice became my anchor.

            Finally I heard that he was playing a gig at The Jazz Café and I saw that I wasn’t the only one to be deeply affected by his music.  It was like some kind of religious experience in as much as it was so completely uplifting and joyful (not sure religious is quite what I mean but you get the idea.)”

 I’m sad that Beth Orton cannot more freely use the word “religious” and wonder what we ‘religious’ people have done to make people timid about the word.  I believe that the experience Ms Orton describes might more articulately be described as mystical, an experience of God (or ground of being, or sense of meaning, or whatever you want to name it) that is palpable.  I believe God is waiting to give more and more of us those kinds of experiences, “completely uplifting and joyful,” that God is willing to make as many mystics as will sign up!

May you find some sense of God in your life today.

Grace & peace,

Geoff

Nov. 18, 2003

Here is a quote I found helpful in giving us a broader perspective on current events and their theological underpinnings.  It comes from the Christian Century Magazine of May 17, 2003 and it is called “Biblical Bad Example,” and it in turn is quoting the “Journal of Biblical Literature,” Spring 2003 issue.

“The Muslim extremists who attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon took their inspiration from the Qur’an, but they could have used the Bible.  During the Israelite’s conquest of the land, for instance, they were directed not only to overcome but also to destroy all the inhabitants (Duet. 7:1-6).  Although such “texts of terror” stand in sharp contrast to texts that command people to care for aliens in their midst, they have been used to justify various “righteous causes”:  Oliver Cromwell against the Irish Catholics, the Puritans in the New World against indigenous peoples, white South Africans against blacks, and Zionists—both Jewish and Christian—against Palestinians.  And what are Christians (and Jews) to make of these texts that sanction not only violence but ethnic cleansing?  John J. Collins, in his presidential address to the Society of Biblical Literature in November (of 2002) argued for an honest recognition that there is much in the Bible “not worthy to serve as a model for imitation.”  That does not mean the “dark side of the Bible” should be ignored.  “The power of the Bible,” says Collins, “is largely that it give san unvarnished picture of human nature and of the dynamics of history, and also of religion and the things that people do in its name….The biblical portrayal of human reality becomes pernicious only when it is vested with authority and assumed to reflect, without qualification or differentiation, the wisdom of God or the Will of God.””

I find interesting at best, the discussion in some circles that Islam is a religion particularly suited to terrorism.  I always want to reply exactly as Mr. Collins does above.  To be blind to the full range of biblical material leaves us open to repeat the mistakes that we so easily chastise others for.  This also lends itself to the argument for adult biblical education.

How do you handle “the dark side of the Bible” or the differentiation the words of the Bible and the Word of God?

May you find the Word of God present in your life this day.

Grace & peace

Geoff

Nov. 21, 2003

I’ve had an interest in St. Francis de Sales and recently bought a ‘modern interpretation’ of Sales’ “Introduction to the Devout Life” by Bernard Bangley, Shaw Books, Waterbrook Press, Colorado Springs, 2002.  Bangley titles his edition “Authentic Devotion” and here are some of his words of introduction.

 “In recent years, many Westerners have turned to the spirituality of the East, thinking that Christianity had nothing to offer for those who wanted to practice peaceful contemplation.  Turning to other religions, however, trades rich prayer for self-focused meditation that is void of Christ.  Francis de Sales is a beautiful example of a devout Christian who practiced meditation as part of his commitment to the Lord.  Even the most inexperienced and dense among us have little difficulty following the technique he describes.  Most important, it works.  It is the foundation of a completely satisfying and useful prayer life.”

 Tell us how you really feel Mr. Bangley!  His stridency aside, Bangley makes a point that has been one of the driving forces in my life since seminary.  That is discovering the fullness and richness of the Christian tradition of prayer.  I’m not against influences from other religious traditions, but for me, keeping Christ in the center is the most important element in my own devout life. 

I’ve barely begun the material by Sales, but here is a little gem:  “Devotion is a kind of spiritual sugar that removes bitterness from life’s experiences.”  What a wonderful way to express the fact that our faith does not deliver us from suffering, but faith helps us make sense of and deal with suffering, it removes the bitterness of suffering.

May you find your faith removing the potential for bitterness in your life this day.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Nov. 25, 2003

One way the Christian Church gives thanks to God in is the ritual of the Lord’s Supper or Communion.  It is also called the Eucharist, which means ‘thanks.’  Here is a way giving thanks is discussed in David F. Ford’s book “Self and Salvation; Being Transformed,” Cambridge University Press, 1999.

 “In gratitude the past is repeated in such a way that it is fruitful in a new way for the present and future.

…..the habit of thanks itself helps to transform our life and enrich our relationships.”

 There is much to chew on in those short phrases.  When you give thanks, are you thinking of specific people or events in such a way that your act of thanksgiving is indeed a repetition of your memory of that person or event?  That process can be helpful as we recall those folks and events that God has given us throughout our lives.  Plenty has been said over developing the habit of giving thanks.  Being able to rehearse some reason for thanksgiving each day can being a whole new outlook to our lives and remind us where our blessings come from.

May you have a deeply thankful holiday this week.

Grace & peace

 Nov. 28, 2003

J. Barrie Shepherd is a Christian poet whose work has often appeared in the Christian Century magazine and he has numerous collections of his poetry published as well.  Here is a Thanksgiving poem that I found on the cover of the Presbyterian Outlook magazine, Nov. 24, 2003 issue.

 Thanksgiving’s Secret

 Thanking

is not a thinking

matter; more an eating

drinking with one’s friends

and even enemies affair; more

a feast of linking life to life

in face of all the guilty shrinking

from each other and from needs and

hurts that passes for concern in

our neighborhood;; more a gift of

fun, hoodwinking fear, and

sitting, all surprised,

around a table.

 My prayer is that each of you can recognize something of your feast yesterday in these words of Shepherd.

Grace & peace