Image of God

This morning the first Sunday after Christmas the Gospel reading designated for today is John 1:1-18.  It seems reasonable that this reading was chosen for today. I have read and heard this section of scripture many times. Like most selections from the Bible new understanding can be gained as we reread and ponder the meanings contained in them. I suppose it could be compared to mining for gold; new vanes can be discovered. This section is rich in insights available to us. I suppose a book or even books could be written about the wisdom in these eighteen verses.

Parts of four verses caught my attention this morning and they may have done so because they have often been read in the New Revised Standard Version and I was using the Contemporary English Version. The fifth verse reads, "The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out." There is a footnote for this verse that suggests another translation of the original language that says "...has never put it out." could be read, "understood it." Verse 14c says, "From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us." Verse 17, "The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus brought us undeserved kindness and truth." And verse 18 continues, "no one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is close to the Father, has shown us what God is like."

So why these verses and sections of a verse? I think verse 18 ties together one of the many concepts that the author was attempting to communicate. He says there that Jesus shows us what God is like. Verse 5 says that God is light. Verses 14c and 17 use the word kindness. So if Jesus shows us the light (understanding) of what God is like we know that God exemplifies kindness, as does Jesus His reflection in human form. So, if we are Followers of the Way, as early Christians considered themselves, then a part of our task is to exemplify kindness in how we live our lives. Kindness can take many forms including compassion, understanding of others, and many more forms.

Back to the footnote associated with verse 5. It says that the darkness has never, "understood it (the light)." We can see examples of this in the world today in the way politicians speak about people who they label as "others, foreigners, or by using other phrases that demonize and separate people or even view them as somehow less than human. Those that do that do not "understand it (the light). It is our task to spread the light, the understanding of God as reflected in Jesus and to emulate Jesus as far as it is possible for us, as humans, to do so.

Silence

"No meditation better clears the mind than to listen to the shape of the silence that surrounds us. It focuses us on the thin line between what is there and what is not there. It opens our heart to the unseen, and reminds us that the world is larger than the events that fill our days."

- Small Graces: The Quiet Gifts of Everyday Life by Kent Nerburn. page 23 

c 1998 Kent Nerburn

Luke 24: 13 - 35 The Road to Emmas

In his book The Searchers Joseph Loconte writes at the end of his introduction Two Friends On A Quest:
"Menachem Mendel, a rabbi in the nineteenth century put it this way: 'For the believer there are no questions, and for the unbeliever there are no answers.'

That claim, however, doesn't ring true for most of us. Life has a way of forcing painful questions upon us, whether we welcome them or not. And the human heart has a way of keeping alive in us the longing for answers. To extinguish this hope, either through neglect or cold rationality, would seem to diminish what it to be human. The road to Emmas, after all, is a road all of us find ourselves on - eventually. It is the path of every pilgrim who tries to make sense of the wilderness of the world around him.

'As I watched, there awoke in me an immense curiosity,' writes Perry. I was onto something.' " (1)

Further along in The Searchers, in chapter seven after Joseph Loconte has explained that during and after the Age of Enlightenment many people viewed religion as, "...the friend of ignorance..." But he goes on to say, "... authentic belief is the culmination of a process involving both the heart and the mind." (2) And two pages later he says, "Yet the description of belief on the road to Emma's - a pattern seen often in the Bible - suggests just the opposite. Christian faith, it turns out, involves the mind as well as the heart; reason as well as intuition." (3) And if we are to believe the gospel writers, we are told in Luke 2:52 that Jesus grew in wisdom and favor with God and man. If it was necessary for Jesus to grow how much more necessary is it for us to grow as well?

Yet there needs to be more to our faith than wisdom for, as the author of Luke says in his telling of the journey to Emmas, He took bread, gave thanks,broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. The author of The Searchers goes on to say, "Perhaps this is how the natural world is opened up to the supernatural. The homely experience of offering thanks to God and breaking bread together with Jesus helps to remove what ever obstacle was keeping these men from realizing who he was." (4) Indeed, and it can be no less true for us; as we take the bread and the wine we open ourselves to that experience of communion with Jesus that is not explainable in the ordinary, everyday way we make sense of things. The writer of Hebrews understood this when he wrote, "Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see." (5)

(1) The Searchers page XXIV
(2) Page 155
(3) Page 157
(4) Pages 156 - 157
(5) Hebrews 11:1 cev

"To kill one man is to be guilty of a capital crime, to kill ten men is to increase the guilt ten-fold, to kill a hundred men is to increase it a hundred fold. This the rulers of the earth all recognize and yet when it comes to the greatest crime - waging war on another state - they praise it.

     It is clear that they do not know that it is wrong, for they record such deeds to be handed down to posterity; if they knew they were wrong, why should they wish to record them and have them handed down to posterity?

     If a man on seeing a little black were to say it is black, but on seeing a lot of black were to say it is white, it would be clear that such a man could not distinguish black and white. Or if he were to taste a few bitter things were to pronounce them sweet, clearly he would be incapable of distinguishing between sweetness and bitterness. So those who recognize a small crime as such, but do not recognize the wickedness of the greatest crime of all - the waging of war on another state - but actually praise it - cannot distinguish right and wrong. So as to right or wrong, the rulers of the world are in confusion."

Mozi, China, circa 470 - 391 B.C.

This quote comes from the book Non - Violence: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Mark Kurlansky.

Me responsible for the poor?

The meditation for Wednesday September 16, 2015 in Forward Day by Day could have been titled, "In Defense of the Poor". Indeed, that phrase was in the very first sentence and it is worth quoting the entire short meditation here:
"Defense of the poor is an undeniable theme of the Bible, as well as the foundational texts of many other religious traditions. Faithful people of any kind would be hard pressed to deny God’s concern for the poor. 

Currently, the world population is slightly more than 7 billion people. The ONE Campaign (an international advocacy organization) reports that 1.2 billion of these people live in extreme poverty, with an income of less than $1.25 per day. For many of us, this is unimaginable poverty. Because this crushing blight is so unimaginable, we often fail to imagine and pursue ways to overcome it.

Hopefully, most of us are not active oppressors of the poor. But are we part of a system of oppression? When our personal resources are limited, is charitable giving a priority? When our national resources are limited, do we insist that global poverty be a top concern of our elected officials? How much more than our fair share of the world’s resources do we use each day? When I ask myself these questions, my answers convict me of my complicity in the oppression of the poor, and I can only pray for the mercy and grace to live into better answers."

 One of the scriptures assigned for  today was Psalm 72 and it is the one choose by the author of the meditation. The editors of the magazine traditionally choose one verse to place above the meditation. In this case however, I think that the first four verses shed additional light on the meditation. Quoting from the New Century Version those four verses read like this:

Psalm 72:1-4 New Century Version (NCV)

God, give the king your good judgment

    and the king’s son your goodness.

2 

Help him judge your people fairly

    and decide what is right for the poor.

3 

Let there be peace on the mountains

    and goodness on the hills for the people.

4 

Help him be fair to the poor

    and save the needy

    and punish those who hurt them.

After reading Psalm 72 my eyes drifted to 73 that takes up a similar theme. In part the Psalm says:

2 

But I had almost stopped believing;

    I had almost lost my faith

3 

because I was jealous of proud people.

    I saw wicked people doing well.

4 

They are not suffering;

    they are healthy and strong.

5 

They don’t have troubles like the rest of us;

    they don’t have problems like other people.

6 

They wear pride like a necklace

    and put on violence as their clothing.

7 

They are looking for profits

    and do not control their selfish desires.

8 

They make fun of others and speak evil;

    proudly they speak of hurting others.

9 

They brag to the sky.

    They say that they own the earth.

10 

So their people turn to them

    and give them whatever they want.

11 

They say, “How can God know?

    What does God Most High know?”

12 

These people are wicked,

    always at ease, and getting richer.

My thoughts were that this speaks to our society today and the discussion often heard about the 1%.

With a little extra time this morning I decided to also look at the Episcopal Cafe site and the Speaking to the Soul section. The theme continued even though the author of this section was using Mark 9:30-37. This blog post says in part:

"It boggles my mind to think that there was a time, not too long ago, that this gospel was preached shamelessly in churches where wealthy parishioners had private padded pews, sheltered from drafts, while the poor were banished to bare back benches, and others excluded entirely. It’s a sad reminder that there’s a persistent, primitive urge in most social animals to establish a fixed order of dominance and submission. ...
Potentially we all have that hair-trigger “Hey, what about me?” reflex. ...
And all of this is no news to Jesus. He is human, too. One reason he became human was to show us how to rise above reflex. He’s here to shake things up with a message of love that is totally counter-intuitive. His challenge to us is to stand human nature on its head." 

This blog post does not refer to the poor or mention money, but for us in this Western Society the implication is there because our "pecking order" is defined often by the amount of money and things that we can accumulate.

My surfing odyssey continued and I went to The Lead section of the Episcopal Cafe where I happened on the article "Talking religion: Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at Liberty University". There were three links at the bottom, one of them from Esquire magazine about Bernie Sanders visit to Liberty University. In part of his speech quoted there he said:
"I am far, far from a perfect human being, but I am motivated by a vision which exists in all of the great religions–Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and others–and which is so beautifully and clearly stated in Matthew 7:12. 'So in everything, do to others what you would have them to do to you, for this sums up the Law and the prophets.' The Golden Rule. Do to others what you would have them do to you. Not very complicated. ...
…there is no justice when the top one-tenth of 1 percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. There is no justice when all over this country people are working longer hours for lower wages, while 58 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent. There is no justice when, in recent years, we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires while, at the same time, the United States has the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. Twenty percent of all children—and 40 percent of African-American children—now live in poverty."
So what is to be said about this web serf "adventure"? It seems to me that the meditations of two Episcopal blogs, the political concerned retorick of a presidential candidate,and the undeniable concern that Jesus had and has for the poor merge and both judge and credit our society     

Hodus equals Tariqa?

While reading the book The Prayer of Saint Francis, at the end of a section entitled "How the Prayer of Saint Francis Came About" there was this sentence:
This is a love that consumes mystics like ... or the Sufi Rumi. This sentence in a book by the Catholic and Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff. I had heard of Sufi Rumi recently but knew less than nothing about the person. So where does one look in the 21st century, especially if holding a computer, but Wikipedia? Suprisingly nothing listed under that name. Next destination Google. A string of several references popped up. One was an article in Belief Net, a site I had used before and trusted, so I clicked on one that seemed appropriate. The article was a series of questions and answers entitled "The Sufi-Rumi Connection".  One comment that I found interesting was this:
But we should understand that in every religious tradition, there are different levels. One level is the common practice of religion that they are typically born into. Within a religious tradition, there is also "the path or "the way." The word for this in Islam is "tariqa." Tariqa is a conscious choice that a person makes to go beyond belief to "experience." It is different than nominally belonging to a religion. In Islam, there are many tariqas. Someone who walks the path of tariqa is a Sufi."
(Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Islam/2001/05/The-Sufi-Rumi-Connection.aspx?p=2#EdbM0FqzSP6XQfP2.99) 

Given the title of this blog I felt that this information should be noted here. One can make of it as one pleases; but it seems that in many cases, especially the monotheistic religions, that there is often a distinction without much of a difference. 

The Stuff of Everyday Life

"... God's glory resides in the stuff of everyday life, just waiting to be seen" writes Rachel Evans in chapter 22 entitled "Wine" from her book Searching for Sunday. In the next chapter "Breath" where she attempts to describe what can not be described aboutthe Spirit, she says seven times "... pay attention..."

Good advice!

Confluence and Faith

   "All things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) Confluence or Holy Confluence might be a concise way of labeling that scripture. Was there confluence yesterday (July 3rd) and today (July 4th) in the scriptures I read from "Forward Day by Day" and the journey my mind, and happenstance took me on as other scriptures came to mind?
   Yesterday the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary as found in "Forward Day by Day" was Acts 8:26-40. It lead me to post this comment on both Facebook and the comment section of Day by Day:

The author of today's meditation says in part that, "Obedience, it seems, leads to bravery…" This is a part of the lesson we can take from the account of Philip and the Ethiopian official. A quote from Hebrews 10:35a says, "Keep on being brave!" (I hope that I am not proof-texting here). Verse 36a says, "Learn to be patient, ..." Further on in Hebrews the author says, "Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see." (Hebrews 11:1) So can it be said that there is a combination of faith, patience, and bravery that we can employ in our vocations as laypersons?

[Scripture from the Contemporary English Version]

For Social Justice

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart that barriers that divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatred cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer [Episcopal] page 823)

Notes from Barclay on following a path.

Today, July 11, 2015, the gospel lesson from the Revised Common Lectionary, was Mark 1:14-28. I had a question about something in this passage (I don't now remember what) that sent me to William Barclay's book about Mark. As I looked through the sections that related to this gospel I came across several sections that I had previously highlighted. Because they spoke to what is the theme of this blog I have decided to list them here:

In The Gospel of Mark by William Barclay:

Page 11 - "God is charestically a God who is working his purpose out … We are within that purpose, and because of that we can either help or hinder it. … Life would be very different if, instead of yearning for some distant and at present unattainable goal, we did all that we could to bring the goal nearer."

Page 16 - "Why was it that John (the Baptist) made an impact … upon his nation? … He was a man who lived his message. … his whole life was a protest. … the reality of his protest against contempory life. … He wa a man who gave himself a chance to hear the voice of God."

Page 17 - "John, the man was the message, and because of that people listened."

Page 18 - "John's one aim was not to occupy the center of the stage himself, but to try to connect men and women with the one who was greater and strongerthan he; …"

Page 31 - "The call of God can come to any of us, not only in the house of God, not only in the secret place, but in the middle of the day's work. As MacAndrew, Rudyard Kipling's Scots engineer, had it

From coupler flange to spindle guide 

I see thy hand, O God;

Predestination in the stride

of yon connecting rod."

[I'm not comfortable with the predestination part (another discussion for another time) but experiencing God in everyday life is comforting.]

Page 31 - "this is not to say that there are none who think themselves into Christianity; but for most of us following Christ is like falling in love" [When I originally read this I entered a note that said, "True; but soon after we must think. that takes some effort."]

Page 32 - He (Jesus) offered them (the disciples) a task. He called them not to ease but to service. It has been said that what we all need is something in which to invest our lives." 

"Invest" is an interesting word because it speaks to how we "spend" our time; our lives. 

Enoch walked

Today I was reminded of Enoch and the scriptures Genesis 5:22a and 24. Verse 24 says, "Enoch walked with God then he was no more, because God took him." In a sermon, some years ago, a United Methodist minister expanded on this section of scripture by saying that he could visualize God and Enoch walking and talking. One day they walked a long distance as they talked and God said to Enoch we're closer to my home today; why don't you come home with me."

Given the name of this blog I thought it appropriate to post that memory. In our lives do we walk with God? If we do do we talk with Him by both speaking and listening and if we do can we hope that someday God will say to us, "... why don't you come home with me?"

The Magazine: the dynamic invitation of God

   This article originally appeared in "The Magazine" section of the Episcopal Cafe' web site on January 21, 2015. Because of some technical glitch I was unable to post it then. I tried today and the results can be seen below.
   The article addresses change. That last word, change, frightens many of us; some more than others. If fear is not the emotion that some feel perhaps anxiety more accurately describes it. The article explains that change (dynamism) need not be feared but can be embraced.

The original article can be found here: The Magazine: the dynamic invitation of God

The Magazine: the dynamic invitation of God

 January 21, 2015 / 1 Comments

by George Clifford

In college and seminary in the 1970s, I was taught that stasis was theologically superior to dynamism. For example, course content emphasized that God—unlike humans—is immutable, unchanging, and unchangeable. I was taught that revelation ended when the canon closed. Yes, God still spoke to individuals, but God had no fresh message, revelation, or scripture to give to God’s people. My professors openly disdained groups such as the Mormons and Pentecostals who believed in God’s ongoing revelation.

For reasons I could not clearly specify at the time, I was not convinced that stasis was superior to dynamism. Illustratively, the Bible appeared to describe God changing God’s mind, though my professors were quick to point out the Biblical basis for believing that God is unchanging. Conceptualizing heaven as eternal bliss seemed more like an endless punishment: without change, what would be new? What would bring fresh excitement or joy? Intentionally using caricature, I scoffed at the notion of anyone finding drifting on a cloud, wearing a halo, and plucking a harp eternally satisfying. I pondered the dissonance between Christianity’s emphasis on stasis and Buddhism’s emphasis on the transitory nature of existence.

Post seminary, I began to perceive more clearly that the cosmos, in its entirety and in its individual particulars, is dynamic. At a quantum level, nothing is static. We humans are dynamic. Most of our cells live seven years or less. Brain physiology constantly changes as new synapses form, ions shift locations, and new patterns supplant old ones. Indeed, the existence of an enduring self is largely illusory, consisting of consciousness continually reemerging from an ever-changing physiology. The scientific description of the cosmos seemed at odds with the description implicit in much of the theology I had been taught. Furthermore, why is it unreasonable to expect that human knowledge of the divine will increase over time, even as human knowledge of the cosmos increased over time? Why is it unreasonable to speculate that a changing cosmos changes God?

I had been introduced to process thought in college (never in seminary!), and I began to read process thought again, discovering philosophy and theology that emphasized dynamism instead of stasis. This reading accelerated when I was privileged to study under Marjorie Suchocki during my DMin program. Every moment, and every entity, perishes.

Over the years, listening to people describe their journeys to me, I realized that yearning for stasis or permanency often expresses a desire or an attempt to avoid loss in one of its many forms, for example, death, a relationship ending, diminished capacity due to age or illness, or termination of a job or career aspirations. Yearning for stasis or permanency can also be a coping strategy after a loss. Alternatively, I discovered that an awareness of life’s transitory nature—although it can cause fear or anxiety—could also help a person to savor each moment and to cope with the inevitability of loss.

The Episcopal Church is living through a time of great loss. Membership is declining substantially. In many places, parish buildings are becoming liabilities instead of assets. Institutional structures at the diocesan and national levels that once provided vital and vigorous ministries are increasingly perceived as burdens and unnecessary overhead. A model of being the Church—the incarnate body of Christ—that served reasonably well for centuries now feels ever more antiquated. No longer do we live in Christendom, nor can we even pretend to do so (if one is honest, Christendom has always been more myth than fact).

Yet many of us cling to the Church that we love and that has given us life, light, and love. I sense a widespread yearning for stasis among Episcopalians fearful of change. The motives for resisting ecclesial change, when change is both inevitable and endemic to the cosmos, deserve reflection. These motives may include a misplaced allegiance to a place or building, selfish efforts to preserve power accumulated through current structures and systems, or desperate attempts to sustain an illusion of spiritual and emotional stability in a world that is changing too rapidly for comfort.

What would happen if we embraced the changes as signs of God’s continuing activity in the world? First, instead of fearing the changes, we might recognize that through the loss of buildings, structure, and influence God is cutting our attachment to idols and drawing us more firmly into God’s love. Shifting our theological paradigms would also end our futile expenditure of intellectual and emotional energy in vain attempts to preserve the illusion of stasis.

Second, we might find that dynamic patterns of being God’s people are more exciting, fulfilling, and life giving. A ritualized form of a communal meal becomes a real meal sacramentally shared. People, not physical or organizational structures, again become the Church’s basic elements. Living as a faithful remnant can also increase our awareness of God’s presence, more dramatically transforming our lives and accentuating our witness in the world.

Third, new wineskins for this new age might further multiply the effects. Crowdsourcing might replace assessments and complex budgetary processes. Direct democracy might replace our current representative form of democracy. (Incidentally, a US labor union is allowing its 15,000 members to vote directly via the internet to ratify or reject a proposed contract; Episcopalians can surely likewise vote on diocesan and national agendas).

Communications already flow unimpeded across the Church; why not allow money and power to do the same? Being a large connectional Church in prior generations required hierarchy and representational processes, but technology can now make both superfluous. A new model would take seriously Paul’s comments to the Corinthians that no part of the body is worthy of more honor than another; the body has equal need of all of its parts. Additionally, by decreasing institutional maintenance requirements, these changes would effectively expand resources available for mission.

In losing—letting go of that which we once considered gains—we can win.

George Clifford is an ethicist and Priest Associate at the Church of the Nativity, Raleigh, NC. He retired from the Navy after serving as a chaplain for twenty-four years, recently published Just Counterterrorism, and blogs at Ethical Musings.