email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
October
2005
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Gerald May, getting ahead of grace |
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G.T. Smith, Being friends of God |
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G. McDermott re: discerning among the culture’s pressures |
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Ben Harper’s “There Will Be a |
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Rev. John Walsh on Repentance |
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Thomas N. Hart on Christian Listening |
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Thomas a Kempis on humility |
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Kenneth Collins on Spirituality & Triumphalism |
We lost one of the great American spiritual writers of the last few decades when Gerald G. May, M.D., died earlier this year. Here is a quote from one of his books, “The Awakened Heart; Opening Yourself to the Love You Need” Harper San Francisco, 1991. He speaks of an error common to many of us.
“The error I made is an extremely common one, especially for praying people. We want to do the right thing. We know enough to look to God for help and guidance. But we keep rushing ahead of grace. Maybe it is our need to control things, or maybe it is missionary zeal, but something grabs us out of the present moment and projects us into the future, where we try to make thing fit our images of love. It does not matter whether the images come in willing prayer or from willful strategy; when we take on the job of making them work, we have left God’s grace behind.
No matter how noble a fantasy may be, when we grasp it and willfully try to make it happen we are not being fair to ourselves, to God, or to whatever poor souls we may think we’re trying to help. God just doesn’t work that way. God does not give us our mission orders for the day and then leave us to carry them out on our own. I now this is a popular conception of God, but it is neither a loving conception nor one that is grounded in scripture or tradition. It is another efficiency model. Most often, I think, it is a way of trying to be willful and religious at the same time. “Just show me what to do, God, and then I (underline that “I”) will go out and do a good job for you.” God lets us play such games, but only because of love. And I have to say I think it hurts God when religious people cannot trust God’s presence with them all the time. We are more to God than servants.”
Dr. May had tremendous insight, salted with some humor, and we can give thanks that his spirit lives on in his writings. How often do you “rush ahead of grace”? I know I do it fairly regularly. It is only with self-discipline, and an occasional hard knock, that I remind myself that I need to trust God more than I tend to.
May you slow yourself down today, enough to let God's grace catch up with you.
That Grace & peace
Geoff
Tuesday’s email quote ended with the line: “We are more to God than servants.” In his book, “Listening to God in Times of Decision,” Intervarsity Press, 1997, Gordon T. Smith talks at some length about just how much more we are than servants.
“What we need, then, is a model for understanding the context and basis for god’s guidance in our lives. The most helpful place to begin is with the principle of “friendship with God.” We have the potential for a unique, personal and dynamic relationship with God; and it is from this relationship—not as servants, but as friends—that we can encounter and respond to God and God’s will.
This means two things, at least. It means we are not left to our own wisdom; but also this model suggests that when we seek the mind of god, we are not blindly following orders. We meet God as followers and friends, as men and women whose desires, wills, personalities, problems and relationships matter. They matter, that is, to God. God meets us as Lord and friend. Our meeting with God is the meeting of two wills, both free.”
This builds upon the world of the New Testament, particularly in John 15 and Galatians 4, that we have this new level of relationship with God. As a caring friend, God has compassion for us. As a true friend, God lets us know when we are going in the wrong direction. May you find the friendship of God in your life today.
Grace & peace,
Geoff
Another text for the discernment class in January is “Seeing God; Jonathan Edwards and Spiritual Discernment,” by Gerald R. McDermott, Regent College Publishing, Vancouver, Canada, 1995. Early in the book he addresses the issue of discerning authentic religious teachings.
“All of these cultural pressures—mistrust of religious leaders, suspicion of institutional religion, religious pluralism and emphasis on intellectual autonomy—contribute to a sense of spiritual confusion among Christians today. Christians believe that Jesus is God, but the cultural milieu I have described discourages many from speaking with any conviction about the finality of this truth. And more important, they don’t’ know how to evaluate r competing Christian claims to true religion. That is, they don’t know how to judge between different Christian groups, leaders or teachings.”
How do YOU judge between the competing claims of faith, between the various pressures in and from our culture? Prayer is certainly the first step but, thanks be to God, our Christian Tradition has developed several other helps over the centuries. McDermott focuses on Jonathan Edwards, and Smith (used in the emails of Sept. 30 & Oct. 7) referred to John Wesley & St. Ignatius of Loyola. Martin Luther and John Calvin are other well-known names in the tradition. There are many others in the Christian church throughout time & space, spiritual mentors for us all. May you find the mentor and/or help you need from God’s Spirit at work in the Church.
Grace & peace,
Geoff
My older son has been telling me about a musician named Ben Harper for several years. I got a CD by Harper with the Blind Boys of Alabama, a gospel group, and have been quite impressed with the lyrics. The CD is “There Will Be a Light,” Virgin/EMI CD 7243 5 71206 2 3. Here’s the opening song lyrics.
Lord I work to serve you
And I hope I’ve served you well
I’ve lived a life to join you
Now only time will tell
Chrous
Take my hand when you are worried
Take my hand when you’re alone
Take my hand and let me guide you
Take my hand to lead you home
Father dear father
Pulled his car to the side of the road
Looked at his children with tears in his eyes
Said life is too heavy a load
Take my hand…..(chorus)
Some days I’m struck with sorrow
Need a place to hide
There’s nowhere else you can put life
But way down deep inside
Take my hand…(chorus)
If you take the chorus as the voice of God, this turns into an effective psalm-like prayer. Like some of the psalms, it reaches into the difficult and painful times that come to us occasionally in our lives. Reaching out to God is sometimes the only resource we have. At other times it serves us well to remember the ways God has comforted us, guided us, and led us home. May you find That help from God when you need it.
Grace & peace,
Geoff
One of the books I’ve been reading as part of my studies is “The variety of Dream Experience”, edited by Montague Ullman and Claire Limmer, State University of New York Press, 1999. One of the articles by Rev. John A. Walsh, an Episcopal Priest, is entitled “Myths, Dreams and Divine Revelation.” In a paragraph on repentance, he says:
“…(repentance) therefore means the event or ongoing experiencing of self-discovery and the discovery of God and Kingdom. As the little prayer attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo states it: “Lord, teach me to know me so that I might know you.” The implication here is not that finding or discovering this reality is an external mandate of God, but rather it arises our of the deepest law innately present in woman and man. To be a truly faithful person then is to become that person who is in touch with their selfhood and with the Creator-God who is the ongoing author of that identity. The discovery is not a once-and-for-all experience, but rather a journey, and a nomadic journey at that, rather than a pilgrimage. This is a nomadic journey because the origin as well as the final journey is not always clear.”
“…to know me so that I might know you.” That is another way to say what John Calvin says in the opening of his “Institutes of The Christian Religion”: “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”
Knowing ourselves will certainly enable us to see God better. Knowing better what is “us” enables us to see or know better that which is not “us.” Then we can more
clearly look for God's presence with us. May you see more deeply into yourself today, the better to find God present with you.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Thomas N. Hart Opens his little book “The Art of Christian Listening,” Paulist Press, 1980, with these words.
“Carl Jung, the great German psychiatrist, once remarked that everyone longs to tell his or her story to someone and have it understood and accepted.
Most of us can probably recognize that desire in our own hearts. It is an important thing to keep in mind when someone comes to us and begins to open to his or her life story. To listen with an attentive and receptive heart until that person is finished is to bestow a gift of great value.”
Have you ever received that gift? Or given it? May you find yourself being listened to well some time today, and may you in turn be able to listen better to those around you.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Thomas a Kempis was a Dutch monk who died in 1471 at over 90 years of age. His book “The Imitation of Christ” (my copy is from Omega Mentor books, 1957) is claimed to be “the most widely read religious book in the world, next to the Bible.” That was before Harry Potter! Here is a short statement on humility from this spiritual classic.
“This is the greatest and most useful lesson we can learn: to know ourselves for what we truly are, to admit freely our weaknesses and failings, and to hold a humble opinion of ourselves because of them. Not to dwell on ourselves and always to think well and highly of others is great wisdom and perfection.”
To “admit freely our weaknesses and failings…” takes a certain measure of self-esteem. Sounds contradictory doesn’t it? Yet it is only when we love ourselves that are we able to love others as ourselves. Freely admitting our weaknesses and failings is best done, perhaps only done, when we love ourselves enough to forgive ourselves those weaknesses and failings. When we struggle with loving ourselves, we can perhaps remember how much God loves us.
May you find the love and freedom you need this day to admit freely your weaknesses and failings, and therefore think highly of and act well towards others.
Grace & peace
Geoff
One of the source textbooks for my January class (see http://www.whitpresby.org/geoff_schooling.htm) is “Exploring Christian Spirituality, edited by Kenneth J. Collins, Baker Books, 2000. One of the issues these days with spirituality is defining it. Here’s one of Collins’ attempts.
“One of the principal reasons I have collected the essays of this anthology is to bring greater clarity and depth to our understanding of spirituality, Christian spirituality in particular. Here two elements must ever be held in tension. On the one hand, our definitions must be broad and inclusive enough to embrace, at least in a descriptive way, both the general nature of spirituality and the diversity of spiritualities that actually exist. Thus, Christian tendencies toward triumphalism, even arrogance (as if Christian spirituality were the only spirituality), must be quietly put aside in the recognition of the spiritualities of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, agnostics and others. On the other hand, if we are to explore ‘Christian’ spirituality, then our definitions must be specific enough to show the distinct place that Christian insight, experience, and teaching lay in this larger arena.”
This triumphalism that Collins refers to is one of the greatest difficulties we face today in a world where different religions come in ever closer contact. If our Christian witness centers on Jesus on the cross, we have a built-in cautionary image, reminding us that our unique perspective on how God comes to us in Jesus is a deep mystery that even we don’t fully understand. In I Corinthians 1, Paul says: “Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified…” Now if we can just live Christ crucified and not only preach it, we will be less likely to be triumphalist or arrogant as we compare our spirituality with that of people from other faiths.
May you humbly know the root and base of your own spiritual life, and may that spiritual life produce fruit for others.
Grace & peace,
Geoff
