email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
October 2008
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Geoffrion on Camino de Santiago |
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Bonhoeffer on Civil vision |
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Augustine on balance in life |
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Stackhouse on civic duty |
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Bellah et al on USA character |
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Stackhouse on Political theology |
No emails Oct. 1 to 14, I was on vacation.
Meditation
During my trip to Minnesota, I attended a contemplative worship service at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, (http://www.ewestminster.org/). They have a spiritual growth community that organizes these services and also publishes a journal called “Thin Places” which can be accessed at www.thinplaces.us. Their Fall 2008 edition had an article on walking El Camino de Santiago, the 500 mile ancient pilgrimage route in northern Spain, written by Rev. Dr. Jill Geoffrion. Here is some of what she said in that article.
“Questions, mostly for me. How would your life change if you were willing to accept that expressing your worst self is a vital part of what you do every day?… If you acknowledged to yourself, “I am most prone to disappoint God when…” what could shift?… What if you discovered that you were ready to let go of those beliefs and behaviors that no longer serve you (and hurt both you and others)?…Might you be readying yourself to give up something you value?… Honesty precedes release. What are you willing to know about whom you have been? and whom you hope through the grace and help of God to become?… Are you willing to pay the costs of confession: sincerity, truthfulness, and integrity?… Acceptance can be very painful…It can also be liberating.”
I was struck by the way this is an expansion of the traditional concept of laying our sins at the foot of the cross. Yet it goes deeper than just giving our worst to God. It seems to involve incorporating or integrating some of that worst into our service to God.
Very stimulating thoughts these. I commend this journal to you and you can find out more at their web site above.
May your life be lived with increasing integrity, as you integrate all the parts of who you are into God’s service.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
We are in the hotter period of our presidential election cycle, as we lead up to the election. It is a good time to reflect upon our nation. Here is another selection from the book I’m using in my morning prayers, “I Want to Live These Days with You” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 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. They entitle this one “The Good, Prelude to the Christian.”
“There is justified feeling against a civil complacency that sees the good as simply a prelude to the Christian, in which the transition from the good to the Christian is supposed to occur more or less without a break. In protest against this comfortable distortion of the gospel, an equally dangerous distortion of the gospel in the opposite sense has been offered to us with great passion. In place of the justification of the good we have the justification of the evil. In the place of the idealization of the civil comes the idealization of the uncivil, the disorderly, the chaotic, the anarchistic, the catastrophic. The divine pardoning love of Jesus to the sinner, the adulteress, the tax collector is distorted to a—psychologically or politically motivated—Christian sanctioning of the uncivil “borderline existence” of the prostitute and the traitor. The gospel of sinners, whose power was at stake, became—without anyone wanting it—a recommendation for sin. The good, in its civil sense, fell victim to laughter.”
This reading speaks to deeper issues than simply our election process, it speaks to the kind of people we are or want to be. What are the values we uphold? Those values lie behind issues in any electoral race, but the tend to outlast any specific election or administration. I was reminded of the passage from Philippians 4:8-9 that I used in my sermon last Sunday.
There were several emails prior to the 2004 election that spoke to some of the same issues. You can see them at the church’s website. See October and November, 2004, Election 2004.”
May your faith help you and inspire you in times of decision like these.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
In the spirit of this election season, here is another reflection on political life and spiritual life. This one comes from the book that set the tone for political and faith life thinking for hundreds of years after it was written. It was written by St. Augustine of Hippo, who lived from 354 to 430 CE. In his “The City of God” he dealt with a variety of issues, including political life. Here’s a quote from that work. This comes from the Modern Library edition, translated by Marcus Dods, 1950. I’ve kept the original language.
“On man has a right to lead such a life of contemplation as to forget in his own ease the service due his neighbor; nor has any man a right to be so immersed in active life as to neglect the contemplation of God.”
I consider balance in life one of the keys to faithfulness, and this quote is an encouragement towards balance. Our prayer life needs to balance our life “in the world.” In this political season, that means some extra study and extra attention, so that we may be informed voters. That extra effort helps us to be faithful too. May you keep a balance in your faith and your daily lives.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
Following the quote from St. Augustine on Tuesday, in "election mode," here is a modern version of the same kind of thinking. It comes from "Public Theology and Political Economy" by Max Stackhouse, Eerdmans, 1987, the Commission on Stewardship of the National Council of Churches.
"I take democracy, with all its weaknesses, to be the best expression of basic theological principles in modern social life in this sense: any political or economic system that does not support the possibilities of pluralistic democratic governance under laws that protect basic human rights, minorities, and dissent is not theologically or ethically defensible in modern public discourse. Social democratization implies that the institutions shaping the common life ought to be structured for equitable opportunity, pluralistically ordered, and held accountable for the effects they have on people and on the human future. Also implied is the notion that a socialism that collectivizes everything into the hands of the state and a capitalism that leaves everything to the "possessive individualism" of privileged elites are simply not adequate.
Stackhouse is wordier than Augustine, but I trust you can hear the similarity. As we face our national election, we are either wise to, or forced to, consider the deeper principles that our society is based upon. Also, see the prayer below. May your participation in our election be an expression of your faith.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Prayer for elections, from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, Church Hymnal Corporation, New York, 1979.
Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States (and/or your local state/community) in the election of officials and representatives that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Meditation
Continuing in “election mode,” here is a reading from a book that was of great influence for years after it was published. It is “Habits of the Heart; Individualism and Commitment in American Life,” by Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, & Tipton, Harper & Row’s Perennial Library, 1985. This book is a study of the character of America. Our national character comes into sharper focus during presidential elections, and I believe we see that sharper focus in the current campaign.
The opening words of preface ask:
“How ought we to live? How do we think about how to live? Who are we, as Americans? What is our character?”
The concluding chapter has these words:
“But we have never before faced a situation that called our deepest assumptions so radically into question. Our problems today are not just political. They are moral and have to do with the meaning of life. We have assumed that as long as economic growth continued, we could leave all else to the private sphere. Now that economic growth is faltering and the moral ecology on which we have tacitly depended is in disarray, we are beginning to understand that our common life requires more than an exclusive concern for material accumulation.”
I find it fascinating that these words are over 25 years old! They point to deeper issues than any specific campaign. I have friends who hope that this election may bring a sharp turn around in the character of this nation and I been counseling them that the issues go deeper than any particular campaign or candidate. We are called to the deeper spiritual values that the quote above alludes to. When we focus exclusively on material issues, we hurt ourselves spiritually.
May your spiritual practices give you a better perspective on the material world.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Meditation
Staying in "election mode," a couple more times, here is another reflection from "Public Theology and Political Economy" by Max Stackhouse, Eerdmans, 1987, the Commission on Stewardship of the National Council of Churches
How do we think about our life in the world, our political theology? Stackhouse offers some good analysis, bits of which I pass on to you. One analytical tool is the tension or relationship between vocation and covenant, between what each of us is called to do and be and how we are to relate to those others around us. Into this relationship Stackhouse introduces some ancient concepts as tools that can still be helpful. He notes three different concepts we can use to think about vocation and covenant. Those concepts are heteronomy, autonomy and theonomy. Those are 50 cent words that mean something like the following. Heteronomy means the rules come from outside us and are imposed upon us, either with our cooperation or without it. Autonomy means we make our own rules irrespective of anyone else. Theonomy means our rules are centered on God or God’s will for us.
This is pretty dry stuff, but when we bring the concepts to flesh in our own lives, we find help in living faithfully. Do we simply acquiesce to the rules or desires of others? Or do we live for ourselves only? The answer in the Christian faith is letting God’s will be done in our lives, as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer.
In the political arena, it helps us to keep aware of the heteronomy of government or church or peer group, versus the autonomy of doing whatever we please. Living God’s will finds us seeking a balance between our needs and the needs of others. Political campaign speeches will not use such language, but the concepts are in there nevertheless. May these concepts help you as you process all the campaign claims and promises. May you seek to find and live out God’s will in your life, during election season and always.
Grace & peace
Geoff
