email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
October
2007
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Mother Teresa’s doubts |
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Saints Sergius & Bacchus |
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The Christian “Source Story” |
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National Service & the Burmese monks |
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Biblical spirituality |
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Thich Nhat Hanh’s spirituality |
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A Gospel life strategy |
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Rowan Williams on human dignity |
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Religion & politics |
Thanks to you all for your responses to my inquiry about
Mother Teresa. This link in
particular was most helpful: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1655720,00.html
This got me to thinking, and including some of my thinking in my sermon last Sunday. The essence of this tempest in a teapot (my biased opinion) can be found in the following quotes from the Time magazine article, linked above.
"It is not enough for us to say, 'I love God, but I do not love my neighbor,'" she said, since in dying on the Cross, God had "[made] himself the hungry one--the naked one--the homeless one." Jesus' hunger, she said, is what "you and I must find" and alleviate. She condemned abortion and bemoaned youthful drug addiction in the West. Finally, she suggested that the upcoming Christmas holiday should remind the world "that radiating joy is real" because Christ is everywhere--"Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor we meet, Christ in the smile we give and in the smile that we receive."
And
Yet less than three months earlier, in a letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, that is only now being made public, she wrote with weary familiarity of a different Christ, an absent one. "Jesus has a very special love for you," she assured Van der Peet. "[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see,--Listen and do not hear--the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me--that I let Him have [a] free hand."
Those of us who’ve read even the minimum of spiritual material know, to our personal relief and edification, that the more ‘spiritual’ or ‘holy’ we become, the more we are aware of just how far we fall short of Jesus’ model for us. This seems to be a spiritual truth that the secular world, at least as reflected in this article, really struggles to understand. The article’s reflection of the attitude of Christopher Hitchins in particular, clarifies the antagonism that can be focused upon the Christian community. The story of Malcolm Muggeridge as retold in the article is particularly edifying. The contrast between deep Christian love and our cultural focus on feelings is another theme briefly but well touched on in the article. I would encourage you all to read this article, if you have not seen it yet.
In my 20’s I worked in a residential drug treatment program. We used to say to some of the residents, “If you don’t feel like doing the right thing, act as if you feel like it, and see what happens.” Now, in my later (latter??) years, I see that as a good spiritual practice: act as if God is present with you in all that you do and you may find God’s presence more often than you expect. Or, perhaps less, as Teresa seemed to have. Yet it did not deter her from doing “the right thing.”
May you find the energy and the courage to “do the right thing,” no matter how you feel.
Grace & peace
Geoff
I visited a wonderful church last January and receive their newsletters regularly. It is Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. You can learn about them at www.saintgregorys.org. Each month they print brief biographical sketches of some of the dancing saints depicted in their murals. Here are two that caught my attention in their latest newsletter.
Sergius and Bacchus (4th Century)
Roman soldiers who were martyred for the Christian faith. The ancient veneration of these two men offers gay Christians, and those who love and support them, a ray of hope by showing how the Church openly honored two people of the same gender in a loving relationship. In their relationship as lovers, Sergius and Bacchus found courage for the choice they were called to make as witnesses to their faith.
Samuel Joseph Isaac Schereschewski
Bishop of Shanghai. Schereschewski was sent to China to become Bishop, but on landing in Shanghai, he immediately fell ill with a fever that left him paralyzed. Unable to carry out the original mission he’d been given, Bishop Schereschewski spent the rest of his life translating the Bible into Chinese. We honor him for his perseverance in the face of tragedy and limitation, and we celebrate his finding an unexpected way of carrying out his mission to bring the Word to his new people.
Saints are usually those who demonstrate, among other things, amazing courage in the face of adversity. May you be encouraged by these stories, as well as the many other stories of those facing immense challenges with God’s help.
Grace & peace
Geoff
This morning’s Los Angeles Times newspaper has a review of the new book by Susan Faludi, “The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America,” Metropolitan/Holt Books, New York, 2007. The review is written by LA Times staff writer Maria Laganga. In the review is this sentence:
“…Faludi wonders why the nation’s response to the 2001 attacks was to retreat into a mythological framework that insists the only way for America to be safe is for men to be strong, and the only way for men to be strong is for women to be weak.”
Without reading the book, I cannot argue either way about this statement. But it prompted some thinking in my about the mythological frameworks, or ‘source stories’ that we all live inside of. How does the Christian source story affect the way we live? Do we put the cross of Christ in front of us as we face the challenges of living? Do we recall the power of God’s delivery of Israel from slavery? What about the Patriarchs, Moses, David, the prophets, Jesus, the Disciples, and all the wonderful characters in the stories Jesus tells? What role do these stories play in our own ‘source story?’ Here’s a resource for one response, from the National Council of Churches of Christ, a source I trust. http://www.ncccusa.org/news/02news97b.html
What particular stories in our faith tradition become ‘source stories’ for you? I’d like to know. Thanks.
Grace & peace
Geoff
I presume all of you know the religious roots to the problems in Myanmar/Burma. Did you know that many of those youthful monks in the demonstrations are young men (I don’t know if there are women {nuns?} involved in the demonstrations) who are monks only temporarily. Apparently many young people go into monasteries for a couple of years in their late teens/early adulthood, then return to the secular world (or whatever they call it in that culture).
I have long believed in some form of compulsory national or community service, as many other countries practice. I’m not speaking of a military draft, the only previous kind of compulsory national service we’ve had in the USA, but I would think that military service would and should be one option. But what about serving the church, or in some local community program, like a tutoring or other youth-related program? Or working for some other non-profit, like Amnesty International or Medecines Sans Frontieres? Might this kind of compulsory national service truly make a difference to the world? And maybe make a connection to the innate goodness in Americans?
I’m fascinated with the possibilities of spiritual formation in some kind of national program that would include such options. How much more ferment for justice & righteousness might there be in our society if we had many young people between the ages of 18-25 serving in churches for a couple of years?
What do you think?
Grace & peace
Geoff
Thanks to those of you who responded to the Oct. 12 email on national service. I was pleased to see so much agreement with my ideas.
Interpretation magazine (http://www.interpretation.org/) of April 2002, has the theme of “Biblical Spirituality” and says this in the editorial introduction:
“The topic of this issue will no doubt elicit either keen interest or wariness among the journal’s readers. For some, “spirituality” is theologically suspect because it overlooks critical reflection. For others, the term represents the core of the Judeo-Christian faith and authentic engagement with scripture. Denoting everything from other-worldly mysticism to faith formation and piety, “spirituality” has suffered from loose definition, if not misconception.”
“Spirituality” is a term that is used often in our day. It is a concept that be applied to any religious practice. I try to follow a Christian spirituality, with Jesus at the center of it. That means that my spirituality must have something to do with the way I treat others and my attitude towards God. If that sounds like the Great Commandment of Matthew 22:34-40, that is what I intended. In my thinking, this includes critical reflection as well as mysticism (the sense of God’s presence) and piety (living in response to that presence). How do YOU understand spirituality, as well as mysticism and piety? I’d love to hear from you.
May you find God’s presence and a way to live that presence out.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Continuing with the theme of spirituality, here is an excerpt from the book “Friends on the Path; Living Spiritual Communities” by Thich Nhat Hanh, Parallax Press, 2002. Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk radicalized during one of America’s previous imperialistic blunders. This came to me via one of my DASD classmates.
It has been said that the twenty-first century will be a century of spirituality, and I think it must be a century of spirituality if we are to survive. There has been so much violence, so much suffering, so much despair, confusion and fear. So it must be a century of spirituality, or no century at all.
Spirituality is something we can cultivate. To be spiritual means to be solid, calm, and peaceful, and to be able to look deeply inside and around us. It means having the capacity to handle our afflictions - our anger, craving, despair, and discrimination. It is being able to see the nature of inter-being between people, nations, races, and all forms of life. Spirituality is not a luxury anymore: we need to be spiritual in order to overcome the difficulties of our time.
Challenging words…but these are challenging times. May your spirituality help you to cope with your own life, and with the world all around you.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Christian Century magazine (http://www.christiancentury.org/) has a section each issue called “Century Marks” that are brief and to the point, perfect for these emails. Here is a story entitled “Change of Heart” from the Oct. 2, 2007 edition. They, in turn, took it from Sun Magazine.
When Beth Slevcove moved into the center of a large city, she embraced everything about urban life—except for the guys who ran the tattoo parlor across the street and who got into fights, harassed women and intimidated me. One day Beth decided to get a tattoo herself. She walked over to the tattoo parlor and told them she wanted “Love thy neighbor” inscribed on her wrist, explaining that she was having trouble love in her neighbors because of their fighting. One of the tattoo artists said to the proprietor, “Manuel, dude, we’re scaring our neighbors. We got to stop fighting.” After that, the fighting ceased and the sidewalk seemed safe. Several months after she got the tattoo, Beth ran into Manuel. He gave her a big hug and said to a friend, “Here, this is my neighbor, the one I was telling you about.”
What a wonderful and inspiring story. What clever, indirect ways might we use to confront those with whom we have troubles? That search for alternate ways to deal with difficult situations is the perfect task for prayer.
May your prayers yield peace, vision and alternate ways to approach your life.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Here is another brief piece from the “Century Marks” section of Christian Century magazine (http://www.christiancentury.org/) from the Oct. 2, 2007 edition. These are remarks by Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, in a lecture at a Christian-Muslim forum marking the sixth anniversary of 9/11.
“The dignity of every person is nonnegotiable. This remains true whether we are speaking of a gravely disabled person—when we might be tempted to think that they would be better off removed from human society—or of a suspected terrorist, when we might be tempted to think that torture could be justified in extracting information.”
Williams is one of the most articulate spokesmen for the Christian faith in our time and I respect his honesty and willingness to hold us true to the gospel. May you be reminded of the dignity of those around you as you live your days.
Grace & peace
Geoff
One last quote from the “Century Marks” section of Christian Century magazine (http://www.christiancentury.org/) from the Oct. 2, 2007 edition. This one is by Joan Chittister, in turn taken from the Sept. 7, 2007 edition of the National Catholic Reporter. She is talking about the mix of religion and politics.
“The question is not: What do each of these candidates tell us about how religious they are? The question is: What do each of these candidates plan to do to make the corporal works of mercy a living sign of the Christian tradition in this so-called Christian culture?”
I’ve always been able to rely on Chittister to get right to the center of whatever point she is making. We will have some local elections here in Southern California next Tuesday, but this quote could be applied to any election. Lest we get too focused on the works of others, we should always ask ourselves “what are WE doing to make corporal works of mercy alive where we live?
Grace & peace
Geoff
