Humility is essential to orthodoxy.
- Kyle Strobel, Formed for The Glory of God
Sunday, 19 January 2014
Posted with Blogsy
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
The Middle Way
For the Buddha the "Middle Way" consisted of a spiritual practice that neither afflicted the body nor indulged its desires. The Buddha's concern was to free people from desire, the root of suffering, without handicapping the practitioner through asceticism.
For Aristotle the "Golden Mean" consisted in the correct, or virtuous, expression, of emotions: neither too much anger nor too little, neither too much pride nor too little, etc. Aristotle's concern was with excellence, or one could say, with moral beauty.
Sha'ul of Tarsus, St.Paul, also struggles to express a middle way in his letters. His middle way is between anti-nomianism and legalism. His concern is with people being reborn and conformed to the image of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Who is Jesus? Jesus is the one totally surrendered to God, fully expressing the true image of humanity, and unconditionally loving toward others.
On the one hand he is concerned with releasing people from legalism- from judging oneself according to performance, ritual, and law- what came to be called halakhah. On the other hand he is concerned that the Church be virtuous and spiritually true and vital. But the engine that he wants is the response to Grace. The engine that he wants is trust, love, and open-ness to the sanctifying Spirit, which are the mechanisms of the New Covenant.
One could say that the Buddha is concerned with freedom from suffering, Aristotle is concerned with excellence, and Paul is concern is with relationships. His fundamental concern is with the relationship between the practitioner and God, between the practitioner and others, between the practitioner and him or herself. In each case the quality he is looking for is reconciliation, which is the transition to love.
Friday, 20 December 2013
Forest Green
I don't know much about the history of Christmas traditions. Whatever its origin, I'm struck by the paradoxical and strange nature of the Christmas tree. In the depths of winter we bring a green tree into our house and place it at the centre of our celebrations, and the locus of the abundance of the season in the form of our gift giving. Because of the tree Christmas is always united in my mind with green, with verdant beautiful forest green, despite its temporal home in the depths of winter.
The bringing of green things into the home reminds me of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, during which it is traditional to decorate the inside of the home with green plants. This associative connection between the two holidays leads me to contemplate the commonality between the two: both celebrate revelation. Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mt Sinai. Christmas celebrates the incarnation of the Torah as a person- Jesus Christ. In both cases the revelation of God's face is associated with green things- the pure force of life, or as Dylan Thomas put it "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower".
The tree in Christmas also celebrates life in the depth of the sleeping death of winter and is an obvious symbol for the resurrection and more broadly redemption in Christ. To my mind green things speak of the life and wisdom of the Father, and of the creation of all things in and through Christ. The evergreen at the heart of our homes speaks of the robust indestructibility of the love of the Father and the Son, its green branches and the tang of pine quickening our senses amidst the quiet, desolate stillness of winter. Life fertile and eternal pulses there.
The bringing of green things into the home reminds me of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, during which it is traditional to decorate the inside of the home with green plants. This associative connection between the two holidays leads me to contemplate the commonality between the two: both celebrate revelation. Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mt Sinai. Christmas celebrates the incarnation of the Torah as a person- Jesus Christ. In both cases the revelation of God's face is associated with green things- the pure force of life, or as Dylan Thomas put it "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower".
The tree in Christmas also celebrates life in the depth of the sleeping death of winter and is an obvious symbol for the resurrection and more broadly redemption in Christ. To my mind green things speak of the life and wisdom of the Father, and of the creation of all things in and through Christ. The evergreen at the heart of our homes speaks of the robust indestructibility of the love of the Father and the Son, its green branches and the tang of pine quickening our senses amidst the quiet, desolate stillness of winter. Life fertile and eternal pulses there.
Friday, 13 December 2013
Obedience to Christ
It seems to me to be extremely difficult to be worthy of Christ's offer and to be truly obedient to Him. It seems to me that the people who think that Christ's grace is absolutely free and no worth is required of us are both right and wrong.
It is absolutely free and no worth is required of us in the same sense that a bucking bronco is absolutely available for free to anyone to ride and no worth is required to get on. To get on, yes, but to stay on?
Christ's offer is absolutely open and His love is available to everyone, yes. But that is just the beginning. It is a relationship that is on offer- one that is gratuitous, yes, and one that is sweet, yes, but also one with a true lover. A true lover loves you for who you really are, not for who you think you are. A true lover see you with absolute clarity, and wants to see you that way. A true lover does not humour your neurosis, your weakness, your self-destructive desires. A true lover is a bracing and yes, consuming fire, whose love will burn away everything not worthy of you.
We want to be faithful to Christ, and that is admirable. But the way that we sometimes choose to be assured of our own faithfulness is actually opposed to a real relationship with Christ. Some Jews tend to seek security in their fidelity to the details of the law, cloaking from themselves and others their failure to dance the true dance with the living God. Some Christians tend to take refuge in doctrinal propriety, believing that if we believe what we've been told the Bible says with perfect fidelity regardless of troublesome promptings of conscience or contradictory information from the world, then we are true to God. Then we have met the great self-sacrificial love of Christ towards us with requisite responsibility and gratitude.
Yet while we build idols with clear boundaries and well defined lines we are all the time obscuring from sight the real shape of Christs desire in us. Until we meet that desire something will always feel off- we will fail to acquire the real health that is offered to us in Jesus. Gratefully he will keep knocking at the door.
It is absolutely free and no worth is required of us in the same sense that a bucking bronco is absolutely available for free to anyone to ride and no worth is required to get on. To get on, yes, but to stay on?
Christ's offer is absolutely open and His love is available to everyone, yes. But that is just the beginning. It is a relationship that is on offer- one that is gratuitous, yes, and one that is sweet, yes, but also one with a true lover. A true lover loves you for who you really are, not for who you think you are. A true lover see you with absolute clarity, and wants to see you that way. A true lover does not humour your neurosis, your weakness, your self-destructive desires. A true lover is a bracing and yes, consuming fire, whose love will burn away everything not worthy of you.
We want to be faithful to Christ, and that is admirable. But the way that we sometimes choose to be assured of our own faithfulness is actually opposed to a real relationship with Christ. Some Jews tend to seek security in their fidelity to the details of the law, cloaking from themselves and others their failure to dance the true dance with the living God. Some Christians tend to take refuge in doctrinal propriety, believing that if we believe what we've been told the Bible says with perfect fidelity regardless of troublesome promptings of conscience or contradictory information from the world, then we are true to God. Then we have met the great self-sacrificial love of Christ towards us with requisite responsibility and gratitude.
Yet while we build idols with clear boundaries and well defined lines we are all the time obscuring from sight the real shape of Christs desire in us. Until we meet that desire something will always feel off- we will fail to acquire the real health that is offered to us in Jesus. Gratefully he will keep knocking at the door.
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Come and See
"They said to him, "Rabbi!" (which means teacher), "Where are you staying?"
"Come and see", Yeshua tells them.
So they came and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him....
.....Phillip finds Natana'el and tells him, "We've found the one that Moshe in the Torah, and also the prophets, wrote about- Yeshua of Nazeret, son of Yosef!"
"Nazeret!", Natana'el answered. "Can anything good come from there?"
Phillip said to him, "Come and see."
-Yochanan 1:38-39; 45-47 (based on Tree of Life Bible translation)
"What is the nature of this dhamma (teaching) of the one you call the Buddha (awakened one)?"
"His dhamma is here-and-now, timeless, inviting all "come and see!", giving guidance, verifiable to everyone for themselves!"
- Pali Canon (my translation)
The latter quote is a summary of the nature of the Buddha's teaching that is chanted by Buddhists all over the world every day as part of "dhammanupassana" or contemplation of the wondrous nature of the teaching. The crux of the quote, in my eyes, is the central invitation "come and see!" It is this very invitation that is so inspiring to children of the secular enlightenment in the West. This is a teaching that apparently needs no faith, that lies completely open to empirical investigation. "Taste and see that the Dhamma is good!" the quote cries.
I was therefore struck when I read in the Gospel of Yochanan (John) that an identical invitation is presented twice in the early 2nd chapter of the book when Yeshua (Jesus) first begins gathering disciples. This invitation, "come and see!" serves the same function as it does in the Pali Canon- to provoke curiousity, to express joyous confidence, and to lay down a challenge.
There are of course diffferences. The disciples of the Buddha are inviting people not to come and see the Buddha, but to come take up the practice of his teachings- to apply a set of techniques- and see the results in and for themselves. Jesus, and after him his disciple Phillip, is inviting others to come and see Jesus himself. The Buddhist invites you to examine a doctrine and a practice, the Christian invites you to come see a person.
Herein, it seems to me, lies one of the difficulties of evangelism: it is not Christian doctrine, nor Christian community, nor the rewards of living Christian disciplines, that make a Christian. Doctrine may be intellectually scintillating- delivered in a beautifully dignified and complex harmony like the writings of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI or witty, biting and brilliant like those of CS Lewis. Community may be warm, genuine and supportive. Christian disciplines may fill days with meaning, joy, purification and warm ripples of heart-health. I think it true that none of these will make a true Christian, however.
These things will appeal and may draw one in for a time, giving a certain superfical sense of conviction and rootedness. What they won't do, in my opinion, is make one loyal to Christ through the tests of time, persecution, dark night, and doubt. Nor will they truly bring you into the heart of the Church.
The only thing that can do that is a direct encounter with the head of the Church and the full content of Christian revelation and religion- Jesus himself. Unlike the Buddha, Jesus lives. He is el chai v' kayam, the living and eternal God.
Jesus is the fulfillment- nay, the embodiment- of the Torah itself, God's instruction through Israel to humanity. He is the revelation of the Torah. Zoat ha Torah- Ish.
This is the Torah- a man (Num 19:4, based on traditional Hasidic midrashic reading of verse).
"Come and see", Yeshua tells them.
So they came and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him....
.....Phillip finds Natana'el and tells him, "We've found the one that Moshe in the Torah, and also the prophets, wrote about- Yeshua of Nazeret, son of Yosef!"
"Nazeret!", Natana'el answered. "Can anything good come from there?"
Phillip said to him, "Come and see."
-Yochanan 1:38-39; 45-47 (based on Tree of Life Bible translation)
"What is the nature of this dhamma (teaching) of the one you call the Buddha (awakened one)?"
"His dhamma is here-and-now, timeless, inviting all "come and see!", giving guidance, verifiable to everyone for themselves!"
- Pali Canon (my translation)
The latter quote is a summary of the nature of the Buddha's teaching that is chanted by Buddhists all over the world every day as part of "dhammanupassana" or contemplation of the wondrous nature of the teaching. The crux of the quote, in my eyes, is the central invitation "come and see!" It is this very invitation that is so inspiring to children of the secular enlightenment in the West. This is a teaching that apparently needs no faith, that lies completely open to empirical investigation. "Taste and see that the Dhamma is good!" the quote cries.
I was therefore struck when I read in the Gospel of Yochanan (John) that an identical invitation is presented twice in the early 2nd chapter of the book when Yeshua (Jesus) first begins gathering disciples. This invitation, "come and see!" serves the same function as it does in the Pali Canon- to provoke curiousity, to express joyous confidence, and to lay down a challenge.
There are of course diffferences. The disciples of the Buddha are inviting people not to come and see the Buddha, but to come take up the practice of his teachings- to apply a set of techniques- and see the results in and for themselves. Jesus, and after him his disciple Phillip, is inviting others to come and see Jesus himself. The Buddhist invites you to examine a doctrine and a practice, the Christian invites you to come see a person.
Herein, it seems to me, lies one of the difficulties of evangelism: it is not Christian doctrine, nor Christian community, nor the rewards of living Christian disciplines, that make a Christian. Doctrine may be intellectually scintillating- delivered in a beautifully dignified and complex harmony like the writings of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI or witty, biting and brilliant like those of CS Lewis. Community may be warm, genuine and supportive. Christian disciplines may fill days with meaning, joy, purification and warm ripples of heart-health. I think it true that none of these will make a true Christian, however.
These things will appeal and may draw one in for a time, giving a certain superfical sense of conviction and rootedness. What they won't do, in my opinion, is make one loyal to Christ through the tests of time, persecution, dark night, and doubt. Nor will they truly bring you into the heart of the Church.
The only thing that can do that is a direct encounter with the head of the Church and the full content of Christian revelation and religion- Jesus himself. Unlike the Buddha, Jesus lives. He is el chai v' kayam, the living and eternal God.
Jesus is the fulfillment- nay, the embodiment- of the Torah itself, God's instruction through Israel to humanity. He is the revelation of the Torah. Zoat ha Torah- Ish.
This is the Torah- a man (Num 19:4, based on traditional Hasidic midrashic reading of verse).
Monday, 9 December 2013
Right
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-krattenmaker/pope-francis-prophetic-_b_4414410.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
A Christmas Sermon for Advent from George Macdonald
A Christmas Sermon
by Mr. Armstrong (from George Macdonald's Adela Cathcart)
It is not the high summer alone that is God's. The winter also is His. And into His winter He came to visit us. And all man's winters are His-the winter of our poverty, the winter of our sorrow, the winter of our unhappiness-even 'the winter of our discontent.'
Winter does not belong to death, although the outside of it looks like death. Beneath the snow, the grass is growing. Below the frost, the roots are warm and alive. Winter is only a spring too weak and feeble for us to see that it is living. The cold does for all things what the gardener has sometimes to do for valuable trees: he must half kill them before they will bear any fruit. Winter is in truth the small beginnings of the spring.
The winter is the childhood of the year. Into this childhood of the year came the child Jesus; and into this childhood of the year must we all descend. It is as if God spoke to each of us according to our need: My son, my daughter, you are growing old and cunning; you must grow a child again, with my son, this blessed birth-time. You are growing old and selfish; you must become a child. You are growing old and careful; you must become a child. You are growing old and distrustful; you must become a child. You are growing old and petty, and weak, and foolish; you must become a child-my child, like the baby there, that strong sunrise of faith and hope and love, lying in his mother's arms in the stable.
But one may say to me: 'You are talking in a dream. The Son of God is a child no longer. He is the King of Heaven.' True, my friends. But He who is the Unchangeable, could never become anything that He was not always, for that would be to change. He is as much a child now as ever he was. When he became a child, it was only to show us by itself, that we might understand it better, what he was always in his deepest nature. And when he was a child, he was not less the King of Heaven; for it is in virtue of his childhood, of his sonship, that he is Lord of Heaven and of Earth-'for of such'-namely, of children-'is the kingdom of heaven.' And, therefore, when we think of the baby now, it is still of the Son of man, of the King of men, that we think. And all the feelings that the thought of that babe can wake in us, are as true now as they were on that first Christmas day, when Mary covered from the cold his little naked feet, ere long to be washed with the tears of repentant women, and nailed by the hands of thoughtless men, who knew not what they did, to the cross of fainting, and desolation, and death.
So, my friends, let us be children this Christmas. Of course, when I say to anyone, 'You must be like a child,' I mean a good child. A naughty child is not a child as long as his naughtiness lasts. He is not what God meant when He said, 'I will make a child Think of the best child you know-the one who has filled you with most admiration. It is his child-likeness that has so delighted you. It is because he is so true to the child-nature that you admire him. Jesus is like that child. You must be like that child. But you cannot help knowing some faults in him-some things that are like ill-grown men and women. Jesus is not like him, there. Think of the best child you can imagine; nay, think of a better than you can imagine-of the one that God thinks of when he invents a child in the depth of his fatherhood: such child-like men and women must you one day become; and what day better to begin, than this blessed Christmas Morn? Let such a child be born in your hearts this day. Take the child Jesus to your bosoms, into your very souls, and let him grow there till he is one with your every thought, and purpose, and hope. As a good child born in a family will make the family good; so Jesus, born into the world, will make the world good at last. And this perfect child, born in your hearts, will make your hearts good; and that is God's best gift to you.
Then be happy this Christmas Day; for to you a child is born. Childless women, this infant is yours-wives or maidens. Fathers and mothers, he is your first-born, and he will save his brethren. Eat and drink, and be merry and kind, for the love of God is the source of all joy and all good things, and this love is present in the child Jesus.
by Mr. Armstrong (from George Macdonald's Adela Cathcart)
It is not the high summer alone that is God's. The winter also is His. And into His winter He came to visit us. And all man's winters are His-the winter of our poverty, the winter of our sorrow, the winter of our unhappiness-even 'the winter of our discontent.'
Winter does not belong to death, although the outside of it looks like death. Beneath the snow, the grass is growing. Below the frost, the roots are warm and alive. Winter is only a spring too weak and feeble for us to see that it is living. The cold does for all things what the gardener has sometimes to do for valuable trees: he must half kill them before they will bear any fruit. Winter is in truth the small beginnings of the spring.
The winter is the childhood of the year. Into this childhood of the year came the child Jesus; and into this childhood of the year must we all descend. It is as if God spoke to each of us according to our need: My son, my daughter, you are growing old and cunning; you must grow a child again, with my son, this blessed birth-time. You are growing old and selfish; you must become a child. You are growing old and careful; you must become a child. You are growing old and distrustful; you must become a child. You are growing old and petty, and weak, and foolish; you must become a child-my child, like the baby there, that strong sunrise of faith and hope and love, lying in his mother's arms in the stable.
But one may say to me: 'You are talking in a dream. The Son of God is a child no longer. He is the King of Heaven.' True, my friends. But He who is the Unchangeable, could never become anything that He was not always, for that would be to change. He is as much a child now as ever he was. When he became a child, it was only to show us by itself, that we might understand it better, what he was always in his deepest nature. And when he was a child, he was not less the King of Heaven; for it is in virtue of his childhood, of his sonship, that he is Lord of Heaven and of Earth-'for of such'-namely, of children-'is the kingdom of heaven.' And, therefore, when we think of the baby now, it is still of the Son of man, of the King of men, that we think. And all the feelings that the thought of that babe can wake in us, are as true now as they were on that first Christmas day, when Mary covered from the cold his little naked feet, ere long to be washed with the tears of repentant women, and nailed by the hands of thoughtless men, who knew not what they did, to the cross of fainting, and desolation, and death.
So, my friends, let us be children this Christmas. Of course, when I say to anyone, 'You must be like a child,' I mean a good child. A naughty child is not a child as long as his naughtiness lasts. He is not what God meant when He said, 'I will make a child Think of the best child you know-the one who has filled you with most admiration. It is his child-likeness that has so delighted you. It is because he is so true to the child-nature that you admire him. Jesus is like that child. You must be like that child. But you cannot help knowing some faults in him-some things that are like ill-grown men and women. Jesus is not like him, there. Think of the best child you can imagine; nay, think of a better than you can imagine-of the one that God thinks of when he invents a child in the depth of his fatherhood: such child-like men and women must you one day become; and what day better to begin, than this blessed Christmas Morn? Let such a child be born in your hearts this day. Take the child Jesus to your bosoms, into your very souls, and let him grow there till he is one with your every thought, and purpose, and hope. As a good child born in a family will make the family good; so Jesus, born into the world, will make the world good at last. And this perfect child, born in your hearts, will make your hearts good; and that is God's best gift to you.
Then be happy this Christmas Day; for to you a child is born. Childless women, this infant is yours-wives or maidens. Fathers and mothers, he is your first-born, and he will save his brethren. Eat and drink, and be merry and kind, for the love of God is the source of all joy and all good things, and this love is present in the child Jesus.
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