Meditation

"We have some idea, perhaps, what prayer is, but what is meditation?  Well may we ask; for meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice.  Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God.  It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God; as a means of communion with God.  Its purpose is to clear one's mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let His truth make its ful and proper impact on one's mind and heart.  [...] Its effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God's greatess and glory, and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us [...] as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy dispalyed in the Lord Jesus Christ" - J.I.Packer, Knowing God

Why is it, I often wonder, that I have such trouble focusing on God, submitting my mind to him?  Perhaps it is my pride, which slips around that key phrase "by the help of God" and tries to do it on my own.  Perhaps it is simply that I have not been learning long enough and persistantly enough.  Yet I long for it - the ability to let God dominate my thoughts, to let go of all the petty thoughts and concerns in my mind, to dwell on who He is and what he does.

All to often, I think, we think about our spirituallity the wrong way.  Dallas Willard offers a good caution:

Prayer, like all of the practices into which Jesus leads by word and example, will be self-validating to all who will simpy pray as he says and not give up.  It is much harder to learn if we succumb to the temptation to engage in "heroic" effors in prayer.  This is imortant.  Heroism, generally, is totally out of place in the spritual life, until we grow to the point at which it would never be thought of as heroism anyway." (The Divine Conspiracy, p 241)

Ah, the mysterious and sometimes weary paths of our walk with God - as God, infinite in wisdom and mercy, seeks communion with us, finite and fallen humans.  Perhaps this is part of what Jesus has in mind when he commands, "Remain in me, as I also remain in you".  Oh, that we might learn this sometimes lost art of meditating, that every part of us - including our minds - might remain in Him!

bar code faith vs. transformation

My heart breaks for the church in this country.  This is Christ's bride, which he loves so much that he "gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." (Ephesians 5:25-27)  Surely Christ has not abandoned his church.  But are we falling short of receiving the life he wants to give?

I constantly struggle to understand the relationship between grace a transformation.  I'm re-reading The Divine Conspiracy by Willard, in which he also points out this struggle.  In chapter 2, he challenges what he calls the "bar code" mentality of being a Christian: we have faith or say something, "God "scans" it, and forgiveness floods forth ... We are, accordingly, "saved."  Our guilt is erased.  How could we not be Christians?"(37)  There is some truth to this idea: "it is not necessary to be a good  Christian in order to be forgiven"(37)  And yet - could it be that in focusing only on this part of what Christ has done that we miss the point?  Willard writes,

The real question, I think, is whether God would establish a bar code type of arrangement at all. [...We are] in danger of missing the fullness of life offered to us.  Can we seriously believe that God would establish a plan for us that essentially bypasses the awesome needs of present human life and leaves human character untouched?  [...]  Can we believe that the essence of Christian faith and salvation covers nothing but death and after?  Can we believe that being saved really has nothing whatever to do with the kinds of persons we are?   

And for those of us who think the Bible is a reliable or even significant guide to God's view of human life, can we validly interpret its portrayal of faith in Christ as one concerned only with the management of sin, whether in the form of our personal debt or in the form of societal evils? (38)

When I look around at my friends struggling to realistically put on the 'new self', the new life in Christ, when I hear sermons or talk to people about faith, sometimes I wonder if we really do believe these things.  How do we respond to Paul, for example in Colossians:

"you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator" (3:10)

Yes, Christ's grace is amazingly free and his salvation to us unconditional.  But talk to anyone who has tried following Christ for a while and they will tell you that receiving this salvation and learning to live in the new kind of life he offers takes time, perseverance, and constant surrender - all things that aren't necessarily easy.  Ironically, it seems that it is not always easy to take on the easy yoke.

I am challenged by this.  I think we must be very careful not to pretend that as soon as we accept Christ and turn to follow him, our lives become good and we become better people.  (We all know this isn't true, but sometimes we accidentally say what we don't really believe.)  In fact, I don't think even the understanding of Christ's righteousness covering us will bear fruit all on its own in our lives.  (Unless, perhaps, it is the understanding with which we really have difficulty).  As I discussed in my last point - spirituality isn't all a mental or abstract thing, it concerns our bodies and our actions.

As a young adult, I am always searching to find older Christians who can teach me what they have learned.  I do know many my own age who are actively seeking God's kingdom, yet sometimes it feels like we are 'the blind leading the blind'.  I am grateful to God for all the ways in which he has provided in this respect, but I long to see training and discipleship grow in his church.

Sorry for the length of this post.  If you have read to the end, some of these things probably matter to you as well.  What has God been teaching you about all of this?

Faith and Bodily Life

Prompted mainly by recent reading (especially Willard and Wright) I have been thinking about how vitally important it is that we grasp the reality of the spiritual world.  Even saying 'spiritual world' implies something other, but I don't know what else to call it.

First we must see the very physical nature of our faith.  As Willard points out,

"the foundational facts and teaching of the Christian religion essentially concern the human body.  The incarnation, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of Christ are bodily events." (Spirit of the Disciplines, p 30)

The resurrection of Christ was the triumph of his flesh-and-blood-and-spirit life over sin and death. Thus it is not some disembodied spirit we worship, but the resurrected and triumphant person of our Lord.

The physical nature of our faith doesn't stop with Jesus, but has everything to do with how we live.  Whatever did Jesus mean when he said "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10) if not life to our whole beings, including our bodies?  As Wright states, "We are saved not as souls but as wholes" (Surprised by Hope, p199)  And as Willard points out, the transformation of our selves through the life of Christ is a process which involves the training of our physical bodies.

This is all very good news indeed, since most of our daily life concerns our physical existence.

Secondly we must see that the unseen parts of our existence and spirituality are no less real because we cannot see them.  Rather than elaborate, I will let you ponder that for a moment, and consider its outworking in your own life.

This ties into a passage I heard today, 1 John 4:5-6:

They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.  We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us."

I've been realizing lately how sometimes the ways I think and act make little sense to others because I am assuming a different reality than they.

Thanks be to God for providing this new reality which fits so well with who we were made to be, this new life that in its fullness transforms every part of us!

epistemology strikes again

As is often the case, my thinking has been dominated by what I am reading. This week it is Knowing Christ Today, by Dallas Willard.

One of the central points of the book (so far) is the inseparable link between knowledge (primarily of God) and our life as a follower of God - and our life as a human being, for that matter! It struck me that the study of the world through physics is at its heart very similar to the study of God through theology (and living as a Christian): both are a means of seeking truth. Knowledge of the first is important, practical and fascinating; knowledge of the latter is something absolutely crucial to the life of our soul, and thus our whole being. Perhaps that is why I find the two so compelling. It is also interesting to consider that, while science cannot tell us who God is, or in any way provide moral knowledge, it can draw us to him and make us aware of his glory.

That is really all my thoughts for today, but I'll leave you to ponder some questions that Willard asks and discusses at length in his book. Try asking one of them to a friend this week (in the context of a meaningful conversation, of course!).

1. What is reality?
2. Who is well off or blessed?
3. Who is a truly good person?
4. How does one become a truly good person?
5. Finally, how do we know which answers to these questions are true?
   

Satisfied II

Perhaps this is a primarily feminine tendency, but I find something so satisfying in the little orderings and rituals of life: climbing into a newly made bed with tea, enjoying the openness of a freshly tidied and vacuumed room after some exertion to get it to that point, eating warm baked goods with a friend, going for a walk in cool weather, pushing in my chair or clearing my desk when I leave my office for the day, knowing that the next day will be another start...

...the list could go on and on. Ultimately I only find true satisfaction in God. This does not mean that the physical world around me cannot bring me satisfaction; our spirituality is not a platonic separation of soul and body. In fact, our satisfaction with God even leads to satisfaction with the life we are living. As I was just reading today,

We must accept the circumstances we constantly find ourselves in as the place of God's kingdom and blessing. God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are, and if we faithlessly discard situation after situation, moment after moment, as not being "right", we will simply have no place to receive his kingdom into our life. For those situations and moments are our life. (Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 348)

I know my week ahead will have its challenges. Some of them loom on the horizon of the day about to begin. Yet as if I am truly satisfied in Christ I can still wake up and joyfully enter the day. May we all be granted grace to internalize this fact a little more each day.

Faith, Science, and Some things I've been Reading.

Once again I will be quoting today from some things in my recent readings which have me thinking.

First: This summer I read The Soul of the American University by Marsden (a book I highly recommend to my friends in graduate school. I'm actually surprised to realize I haven't written a post specifically about this book yet. Anyway...) In chronicling the academic scene in the late 1800's, Marsden tells of how American thinkers saw no conflict between religion and science:

Strict biblicists committed to the Common Sense philosophy took for granted that one reasonable and unifying outlook must triumph in public life as much as did those who hailed scientific progress and a higher evolving religion. The stakes they thus set were remarkably high; in fact they were all or nothing. (215)

Much has, of course, changed since then, and I noticed today that Willard has a good description of the current situation:

To understand why the negative prejudice [that science rules God out conclusively] is so strong now, just reflect on how the entire system of human expertise, as represented by our many-tiered structure of certification and accreditation, has a tremendous vested interest in ruling God out of consideration. For, if it cannot do that, it is simply wrong about what it presents as knowledge and reality -- of which God is no part. (331)

Thus while I would still agree with the 'old' way of thinking that there is no conflict between my faith science (in fact the two complement each other!) I would not assume that one universal and God-centered worldview will come to dominate. In fact, as Willard suggests, it makes sense to assume that the opposite would happen. Understanding this distinction and addressing it is, I think, important for every person who professes faith in God.


On a different but definitely related topic:
I really appreciated some of Polkinghorne's statements in his book One World (I'm putting my favourite part in bold - it is so true!). He concludes his discussion of the post-enlightenment world:

At the same time the human psyche has revealed its shadowing and elusive depths, the physical world has denied determinate objectivity at its constituent roots. [...] [Heisenber's] uncertainty principle proclaims the unpicturability of the quantum world [...] the fitfulness inherent in quantum theory breaks the bonds of stric t determinism...

That in itselve is no great cause for religious rejoicing [...] Our century has seen a recurrent cult of the Absurd which is destructive of true understanding. To acknowledge the limits of rationality, objectivity and determinism is not to relinquish a belief in reason, a respect for reality or a search for order.

It may however lead to a greater openness to the variety of the world and our experience of it, an acceptance that beside the insights of science, expressible in the quantitative language of mathematics, there are the equally necessary insights of religion, expressible in the qualitative language of symbol. (5)

Hope: Willard refutes the disconnect between life and faith

I've been reading The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard, and thought I'd share a few enlightening things I've read so far. These are things that I tend to think, "of course that's part of our faith and church!", but find that even in my own thinking I am not always where I expect to be. That may sound confusing, but perhaps as you read on you'll see what I mean.


What exactly is the central message of the gospel?
Many Christians would begin with John 3:16, and by saying that God, in his infinite love and mercy saved us from the punishment our sins deserve through the death of Jesus Christ, defeating death allowing us to have eternal life. This is true, yet Willard suggests that our focus on eternal life after death really misunderstands Jesus' main message and leads to a kind of hopelessness about how we are to live now.

"When we examine the broad spectrum of Christian proclamation and practice, we see that the only thing made essential on the right wing of theology is forgiveness of the individual's sins. On the left is removal of social or structural evils. ... Transformation of life and character is no part of the redemptive message. Moment-to-moment human reality in its depths is not the arena of faith and eternal living" (41)

Willard translates John 3:16 as follows:

God's care for humanity was so great that he sent his unique Son among us, so that those who count on him might not lead a futile and failing existence, but have the undying life of God himself (1)

Eternal, or "the undying life of God himself", life begins now. Christ healing and touching us, working in our everyday lives.

The Kingdom of Heaven
Sometimes when I'm reading I get really excited. I sense that I am finally going to have an important question I've been wondering about answered. This was the case when I read this:

The phrase kingdom of the heavens occurs thirty-two times in Matthew's Gospel and never again in the New Testament. By contrast, the phrase kingdom of God occurs only five times in that Gospel but is the usual term used in the remainder of the New Testament. What is the significance this variation in terminology? (73)

Willard devotes many pages to this, but the gist of what he is saying is this: the world translated "heavens" meant, in the context of both the old and new testaments, the space where God is. Importantly, this was considered to be the "air or atmosphere which surrounds your body" (67). "The heavens" are not far away, neither in time nor space. They are here and now. (This is really hard for me to explain in a few words; you should either read the book or talk more with me later!) When Jesus said "the kingdom of heaven is at hand", he did not mean that it was arriving soon or in the future. God is in this very real world he has created, and offers to us the possibility of living in this heavenly reality.

To more clearly answer the above quotation:

Matthew, the quintessentially Judaic Gospel, as a matter of course utilizes the phrase he kingdom of the heavens to describe God's rule, or "kingdom". It captures that rich heritage of the Jewish experience of the nearness of God that is so largely lost to the contemporary mind. (73)

The Brilliance of Jesus
I will close by leaving you to meditate on the brilliance of Jesus. Willard cautions that "The world has succeeded in opposing intelligence to goodness" (135) This discourages our faith, and doesn't really make sense. As Willard writes,

Can we seriously imagine that Jesus could be Lord if he were not smart? If he were divine, would he be dumb? Or uninformed? Once you stop to think about it, how could he be what we take him to be in all other respects and not be the best-informed and most intelligent person of all, the smartest person who ever lived? (94)

I've been reflecting on this, because as Willard also says, "It is not possible to trust Jesus, or anyone else, in matters where we do not believe him to be competent" (94)