email: whitpresby@mindspring.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
Oct 2002 Emails
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Personal reflection on Utah Trip |
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Vonnegut on the subversiveness of the New Testament |
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Bonhoeffer on Telling the Truth |
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Bonhoeffer on Telling the Truth, #2 |
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The feminine in the Godhead |
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Bike riding analogy |
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Swimme and Ps 139 |
I’m back from what was a wonderful vacation, beginning with a trip back to my first church, in American Fork, Utah. Going back to where I began ordained ministry, and where significant chapters were written of my life and my older children’s lives, was a powerful experience. I was reminded of the email of Sept. 20, 2002 on time and place. Here in Southern California we don’t get autumn colors until much later and not very many of them either. But the colors of the trees in the mountains around American Fork were just beautiful. It was a two-day trip surrounded with beauty and deep emotion, seeing the church and those I knew who were still there. Indeed, as I walked through the Salt Lake City Airport, I had an almost mystical experience, singing to myself “How Can I Keep from Singing.(See June 2, 2000 email)” Please forgive this self-indulgent reflection on my trip. I hope and pray that you too have places and times in your life which are particularly significant for you and your life with God.
Grace & peace
Geoff
On my recent trip to Utah, I stumbled upon a favorite author of days gone by. In a bookstore at the Salt Lake airport, I found “Timequake” by Kurt Vonnegut (I tried to find web links to recommend but there were too many. If you want to find more about him, just do a search on Vonnegut) and with a cover excerpt like this I couldn’t walk past it: “At 2:27 P.M. on February 13th of the year 2001, the Universe suffered a crisis in self-confidence. Should it go on expanding indefinitely? What was the point?” It has provided me with hours of wonderful reading, though not always of the uplifting spiritual kind. Here is an insightful edited quote from the book.
“In the slavering search for subversive literature on the shelves of our public schools, which will never stop, the two most subversive tales of all remain untouched, wholly unsuspected. One is the story of Robin Hood…….And another, as disrespectful of established authority as the story of Robin Hood, ….. is the life of Jesus Christ as described in the New Testament.”
Let us never underestimate the power of the gospel to undercut the values we often take for granted, nor its power to occasionally appeal even to cynics. May you be surprised by the power of the story of Jesus.
Grace & peace
Geoff
We have been watching a video of the movie “Jakob the Liar” for our Wednesday at the Movies program. I would encourage any of you interested to get the video. It is inspiring. It made me think of some of the writing of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, particularly on the issue of telling the truth. Here is an excerpt from one of Bonhoeffer’s letters from prison, found in the collection edited by Eberhard Bethge, Macmillan Company, New York, 1972.
“After all, ‘truthfulness’ does not mean uncovering everything that exists. God himself made clothes for men; and that means that “in statu corruptionis” (our status of corruption) many things in human life ought to remain covered, and that evil, even though it cannot be eradicated, ought at least to be concealed. Exposure is cynical, and although the cynic prides himself on his exceptional honesty, or claims to want truth at all costs, he misses the crucial fact that since the fall there must be reticence and secrecy.
Speaking the truth means, in my opinion, saying how something really is – that is, showing respect for secrecy, intimacy and concealment.”
This selection is not directly related to the movie of “Jakob the Liar” but I find it profound nonetheless. Thinking about the desire to know all and tell all that permeates much of our contemporary media, I realize once again, based on these insights from Bonhoeffer, how much cynicism is all around us. Is there not room in love for some respect of privacy, of deep emotions, and intimacy? I believe that is what is at root of some scripture passages and our Christian tradition. A little more respect wouldn’t hurt in our world would it?
May your spiritual life find the ability to respect others, and to more deeply understand what “truth” really is.
Grace & peace
Geoff
For some links on Bonhoeffer, see these:
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/listcatitems?cat_id=25
http://www.pbs.org/opb/bonhoeffer/man/
http://www.ushmm.org/bonhoeffer/
Another look at telling the truth, courtesy of Deitrich Bonhoeffer. This comes from his essay “What Is Meant by ‘Telling the Truth’” taken from his book “Ethics”, Macmillan, New York, 1955. As much as I deplore the Cliff’s Notes style of learning, here are Geoff’s notes on this essay. Let me encourage you to get the original and read it. It is thought provoking and spiritually uplifting.
“…in the matter of truthfulness, the parents’ claim on the child is different from the child’s claim on the parents……Speech between parents and children is, in the nature of the case, is different from speech between man and wife, between friends, between teacher and pupil, government and subject, friend and foe, and in each case the truth which this speech conveys is also different.
It will at once be objected that one does not owe truthful speech to this or that individual man, but solely to God. This objection is correct so long as it is not forgotten that God is not a general principle, but the living God who has set me in a living life and who demands service of me within this living life…..The truthfulness which we owe to God must assume a concrete form in the world.
Telling the truth is, therefore, something which must be learnt.
The truthful word is not in itself constant; it is as much alive as life itself. If it is detached from life and from its reference to the concrete other man, if ‘the truth is told’ without taking into account to whom it is addressed, then this truth has only the appearance of truth but it lacks its essential character.
It is only the cynic who claims ‘to speak the truth’ at all times and in all places to all men in the same way, but who, in fact, displays nothing but a lifeless image of the truth. He dons the halo of the fanatical devotee of truth who can make no allowance for human weakness; but, in fact, he is destroying the living truth between men.
There is a truth which is of Satan. Its essence is that under the semblance of truth it denies everything that is real. It lives upon hatred of the real and of the world which is created and loved by God. It pretends to be executing the judgment of God upon the fall of the real. God’s truth judges created things out of love, and Satan’s truth judges them out of envy and hatred. God’s truth has become flesh in the world and is alive in the real, but Satan’s truth is the death of all reality.”
Apologies, if necessary, for the length of this. I find it wonderfully insightful and it calls me to reflect more deeply on what I say and to whom I’m speaking. The love that God has given us in Christ allows more for human weakness than we might normally and calls us to live our lives more deeply, more prayerfully and more in line with the truth of God in Christ. May it be so.
Grace & peace
Geoff
As many of you know, I wear a clerical collar. That prompts some interesting conversations occasionally. In a restaurant in Salt Lake City a few weeks ago, I was approached by a waiter who was a university student. He wanted some help on a paper he had to write on the feminine and God. I told him where to look and had an interesting brief conversation.
Frank X. Tuoti , in his book “Why Not Be a Mystic?” (Crossroad Publishing, New York, 1995) has this to say about the topic.
“Sadly, the Western Church has lost the feminine aspect of God and has watched the metaphor for tender care and merciful love, called “Father” degenerate into a depiction of masculine gender. The Eastern Churches, rooted in the Oriental and Greek Fathers, have often ascribed the feminine principle to God the Holy Spirit, “Hagia Sophia,” Holy Wisdom. Eastern Orthodoxy ha never had to deal with the false problem of whether God is masculine or feminine, understanding that God is both and neither, but is pure Spirit transcending gender and beyond all anthropomorphic interpretations.”
How do you understand God? Does your image of God get in the way of your relating to God? Or does it help? I particularly liked what Tuoti has to say above about God’s qualities, not gender. It helps me not only to better understand God, but also to be a better father.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Knowing how much I like to ride bikes, someone in the church used the following devotional material for the opening of one of our Circle meetings. It comes from “God’s Little Devotional Book II,” published 1997 by Honor Books, Tulsa OK.
“James Hewitt has written, “When I recognizes this Higher Power, it seemed as though life rather like a bike ride, but it was a tandem bike…God was in the back helping me pedal. I don’t know just when it was that He suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since. When he took the lead, it was all I could do to hang on!
“….At first I did not trust Him in control of my life. I thought He’d wreck it, but He knows bike secrets—knows how to make it lean to take sharp corners, dodge large rocks and speed through scary passages…I’m beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful, constant Companion.”
Whether you ride or not, you can sense the appeal of these images, the appeal of God as our constant companion. I pray you might find that kind of relationship with God.
Grace & peace
Geoff
One of the Psalms appointed for today is Ps 139, which speaks of the providential care and omniscience of God. As I read it this morning I was reminded of the work of Brian Swimme. He is a “specialist in mathematical cosmology, on the faculty of the California Intsitute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. Here is an extension of what was in an earlier email by Swimme. It comes from his book, “The Universe Is a Green Dragon,” 1984, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, NM.
“We are the self-reflexion of the universe. We allow the universe to know and feel itself. So the universe is aware of itself through the self-reflexive mind, which unfurls in the human. We are brought forth so that these experiences of beauty could enter awareness. The primeval fireball existed for twenty billion years without self-awareness. The creative work of the supernovas existed for billions of years without self-reflexive awareness. That star could not, by itself, become aware of its own beauty or sacrifice. But the star can, through us, reflect back on itself……You are that star, brought into a form of life that enables life to reflect on itself.”
I find thinking like Swimme’s here to be a wonderful expression of God’s glory, as laid out in Psalm 139 for today. May you find a sense of that glory in your life today.
Grace & peace,
Geoff
Swimme’s website is http://www.brianswimme.org/
Other email references to Swimme:
May 2, 2000 http://www.whitpresby.org/may_2000_emails.htm
July 7, 2000 http://www.whitpresby.org/july_2000_emails.htm
Feb. 15, 2002 http://www.whitpresby.org/emails_feb_2002.htm
