Wordplay - ‘care’

Several words include the root 'care' in them, but the meanings go in sometimes very different directions. Take care (of yourself =be well; of the danger =caution), work with care or carefully (pay attention), care-free (=no worries or anxiety, unconnected to consequences or accountability for one's responses; responsiveness; responsibility), careless (=unconnected to consequence, awareness, feedback, calibration), caring sort of person (=expresses concern for others that is genuine and warm), not to care about - nobody cares - who cares about that (=disinterest or actively turn away in ill will), care-worn (=burdened by the weight of cares).

     The life unexamined, unencountered and not cared about is a dull and hollow thing indeed. The core of following Christ's way centers on one's heart; that engagement with one's neighbors/self and with the Creator. So a by-word for 'heart' could be 'care'. Another expression could be 'paying' or 'giving' attention when listening, when seeking to understand others or to discern God's will. More than money, time or talent, it is giving one's sincerity; care; heart-felt attention that is the coin of the realm in the economy of The Way. This is how one's heart grows, exercises, grows stronger --by giving attention and by receiving the care and interest (respect) of others.

God's servant Job; growing one's heart; 20-20 hindsight

Book of Job --medicine for the heart

Imagine a Venn diagram for the fields of meaning for the words Humble (attitude opposite to self-pride or hubris), Humiliate (to cause a person or other sentient being to give up pretense, status, self-respect, pride and in so doing perhaps to plant seeds of resentment, mistrust, vengeance), and Humus (the detritus broken down to elemental forms on the forest floor). The intersecting parts of these words centers on flattened structure (as opposed to towering edifice) and therefore the easy connection and openness to things adjacent in time or location. But with regard to one's heart of hearts, there is an all-important distinction between humbling oneself and humiliation by an outside force or agent. A parallel distinction can be found between Meek (the Meek shall inherit the earth --powerful but harnessed for gain) and Powerful; or between Righteous (of one's own heart conforming to God's Will) and Self-righteous (governed by one's own will).

A Program to grow one's heart big enough to hold God

As a scaffolding or supporting structure, the person actively pursuing a knowledge and growing familiarity with Gods Ways, there a many life experiences one can recommend (the sequence is something to consider with care, since the seasons of life lend themselves to certain experience before others):

• worship at the houses of many religious traditions to find God no matter the language or customs

• disciplinary practices of the ages: lectio divino, fasting, pilgrimage, seclusion (monastical stint), ?penance or mortification of the fleshly desires, meditations (walking, seated, icon-making, verse chanting, musical sequences)

• compare a handful of key verses across multiple translations to find God no matter the phrasing

• microscopic scrutiny of word roots in key passages to add depth, connotation, and wider resonance of the time then and dynamic equivalence in our times

• missionary experience --participate, organize, present to others, support those afield

• others to add to this list of experiences for spiritual growth?

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The value in "learning from experience" and the sense of In God's Own Time

Experience can be a great teacher and one that does not always require explanation or language to communicate the significance. Likewise, hindsight affords clear vision --either to replay what now appears to be a better response, or else to give a longitudinal scale of understanding so that an isolated wreck can be connected to a series of unfortunate events ahead of time. In any case, since the all-important place where one's ground of being resides is one's heart, then to look back at mistakes and correct them in one's heart does in some way re-remember and rework memory. As such there is some therapeutic value in making meaning, rationalizing, analyzing or discovering remedy to what caused heartache. Just as the loss of one's loved ones does not end the heart to heart relationship, so too of Life Lessons Learned. We profit by replaying past events and by visualizing future events. In a small way this a taste of God's Own Time, where past, present and future all concurrently occupy the same space of infinity.

Sacred Heart is core of Christianity?

There is much in the world that catches the eye or fires one's imagination. So we measure our progress and place in the scheme of things and govern ourselves by external things. And yet "it is only with the heart that one truly sees," according to St. Exupery's Little Prince. That is, we mortals look to tangible things for evidence of being on track or straying into sin. However, as the case of the Widow's Mite tells, what to one person is a pittance to another person is their life's savings. Similarly of Jesus' followers who give all their attention and care, it is the ones who are bereft and have nothing more to lose who have ears to hear with. Others are full of themselves or their belongings and preserve things other than God's Way and hold back from a full embrace of God and of one's neighbor.

     Relationship-ology or Heart-ology might be a better true name for the narrow way of Jesus in the World. What does the primitive church and the Gospels of Jesus show of beginning and growing relationships to full maturity? The idea of discerning a matter through constant vigilance and prayer amid the wide gray spaces of external actions and words, rather than to hew to black and white dogma, very much touches on effects on one's heart; that is, one's relationship to God and to each other. As such relationships can be described and compared: growing closer, growing more intimately known of each other, of seeing past the externalities to what is intended but perhaps not articulated verbally. The quality of a relationship can be spoken of by its strength, longevity, breadth and depth. And some relationships are tied to a place or time, whereas others are for all times and places. As a person or entire body of believers proceeds on a lifecourse of emergent relationships, one leans on fellows both for navigation (to stay on course) and for motivation (to drive forward or reach beyond one's accustomed level of comfort).

    Other words in this exploration of relationship-ology are (self) identity to find the authentic self (since the 1950s, Eric Ericson), muga mushin (Japanese samurai phrase for "no self no heart" to separate the person from the surrounding events of engagement; just 'be' without striving or self-aware reflection), and Carl Jung's discussion of ego (that a person should see beyond this to touch an authentic and larger being. Finally, too, there is the experience of heated conversation, tete a tete, including in a foreign language or mix of one's own language and a foreign one, such that meaning feels like it communicates directly between the people, even though word choice or limitations fail. Perhaps it is tone of voice, non-verbal cues or something telepathic about the other person's intent, but the result is a feeling of direct meaning from one person to the other.

Literacy and the high cost of hand copying the Old and New Testament put an economic and ceremonial scarcity on Holy Books. As dear (expensive; beloved) elements of spiritual practice they were sometimes enshrined, chained or otherwise secured, encrusted in gold and precious stones and so on. And to hear the words spoken was like a faint whisper of God's voice, no matter if pronounced in the vernacular, in the Latin of Imperial Rome, or before that in Hebrew (OT) and Greek plus Aramaic (NT). But when printing and distribution fully develops and literacy speads along with it, access to The Word is less a logistical problem and more of an attention problem since many other printed works are in circulation, as well, and seekers face multiple translations, commentators and experts. In this sense the road of discourse and relationships across and between societies is wider and wider but all the while The Way is as narrow as it was at the time of Rabbi Jesus.

    At the organizational level, too, the primitive church was a small-scale and organizationally flat structure. But as property and edification accumulated one generation after another, the hierarchies and specializations of knowledge and spiritual practices multiplied until one person could not easily feel acquainted with the body of knowledge that has been expanding.

    One big change in the control of access to Holy Words (scripture) and relationships with God was the Reformation by the Protestants and with them the Anabaptists, ultimately with the extreme accountability on the cellular individual that Quakerism expresses as "that of God within each person." Thereby the circle is completed: from the egalitarian Primitive Churches to the layers of hierarchy to administer a giant body of believers and back to the flat structure with each person in relationship to God and to one's neighbors. By shifting the channel of communication away from Mass and the celebrant official, and instead privileging the Words of God (in one's own vernacular, continually being revised in light of growing scholarly understanding) there is meant to be direct access of the person with God and with one another. Any yet The Way remains as narrow as it was in the time of Rabbi Jesus.

Depending on whether you ask Jew, Christian or Muslim, the place where the sacred resides of the holy teachings could be perceived to be in the physical substance with which the human words are carved, scriven or printed; or it could be in the utterances of those human words; or it could be the exact words at the time they were received (ancient Hebrew for Moses; 7th century peninsular Arabdic for The Prophet Mohammad); or it could be the gist of the meaning communicated, no matter the translation (vernacular, Latin, or source texts: Greek & Aramaic NT and Hebrew OT among Christians, for instance).

    And yet, taking Rabbi Jesus as an example, how important would literacy (the written, representational word) be regarded when seeking himself as a Jew of the Fulfilled Law. Would he say that the importance of bringing God's children closer to one another and into living relationship with God the creator lies in written texts, in oral tradition and the teaching stories (parables) and conversations that God's people enter into? Or would he attach special importance to the physical source texts and their material existence? Would the human language in which the relationships are formed with God and with one's neighbor be significant in communicating the full resonance, overtones and undertones, and holiness? Or would these details and the tradition of Kabala (interchanging numbers and letters to discover patterns and relationships) be something that Rabbi Jesus would honor? In sum, WWJS: What (languages) Would Jesus Speak (today)?

Many languages other than English have separate words to 'know a fact' (example, saber in Spanish) and to 'know a person' (example, conocer in Spanish). Educators understand that learning and teaching is a social experience; not a simple transfer of knowledge from master to pupil. As a result, without some care in this regard and laying the groundwork of trust and rapport, a heated or controverisal subject can fall into personal afront or resentment. In other words, the people engaged on different sides of a subject can take the criticisms personally; relationally; disrespectfully.

Grace (undeserved & godly) versus Mercy (undeserved and granted by Allah)

Word roots sometimes give a clue to underlying foundation or undercurrents. The Merriam-Webster dictionary says that GRACE comes from gratia for pleasing, grateful (akin to sigh), while MERCY comes from cost paid or wages (maybe in the sense of being treated or being paid for by someone else). Interestingly the unspeakable name among the Creator God's names that is rendered in condensed form YHVH is supposed to carry the root for a Quality of Grace and Mercy together. Since there is some intersection in the terms, how can they be distinguished or accurately related to each other? Perhaps one is more about the spiritual (pertaining to "Love Your God") and the other is more about the ethical (pertaining to "Love Your Neighbor as Yourself"). In other words, GRACE is between you and God, while MERCY can touch matters of God, but also matters of human justice. (pleas for the one in power to display mercy to the condemned or compromised).

A good deal of Christianity seems to revolve around the idea of God is (agape) love, while Judaism seems fixated on God is holiness, and Islam sees God in terms mainly of The Merciful (in a position of judgement and holding all power). Seeing both words, grace and mercy, through the lens of each of these Abrahamic traditions could be a good way to finely define the terms.

Ownership or Identity or Love?

Curiously these words overlap in some important ways. 2 Timothy 2: 18 says the Lord knows those who are his. This idea of agape love has the mixture of ownership, possession, melding consonant with one's own being or identity on the one hand, and genuine feelings of affection and/or duty and loyalty on the other hand. Understood as intersecting the meanings in this way, the commandment to "Love God with all your heart, and to love your neighber as yoursel" takes on added meaning: Now one should aim to be harmoniously in tune with the rhythm of God's dynamic presence, as well as resonating with the spirit of one's fellows great and small. And to stray out of alignment, out of tune, out of touch, disconnected is again the visual image of 'sin' in its meaning of going off the path and out of the Way - of the Truth - of the Light; it is missing the mark on the target. 

Thus one should own up to being God's child and take possession of the Kingdom that one inherits filled with fellow creatures to care for and lavish with love. This is one's human identity; what one is and is meant to be.

About inviting others to the banquet - we all are beggars together

Despite the conflation of worldly wealth with one's self worth, as if the doing and results were within one's own powers, in the end everything is from God and belongs to God. We may be stewards or big or small wealth, or indeed none at all. So the scene with Pharisee hosting a big banquet (Luke 14:1 and 7-14) teaches that the invitation should not be from one's own largess or noblesse oblige, but rather should be owned by God with the inviter on equal footing to the person(s) invited. Think of the parallet case this past summer when the old remnant cherry trees bore such abundant fruit and we point several people to the locations for their family harvest: "it is 'all you can eat' and God is hosting. Bring a friend, too."

A big part of the task for preachers in the ocean of popular culture predicated on consumer life, "more is better," is to help people to unlearn those habits in order to develop their vision and heartfelt relationships as steward of the planet and its peoples. It is hard work to teach people to receive life's blessings and its burdens in the right spirit; not in the conventional mode of "homo economicus seeking to maximize value."

Got Fruits? “Gaming” the fruits of the Spirit

According to the fruit that is produced, and its quality, you may know the value of the source - whether tree or person. But could the reverse or parallel causality be in effect so that a person who earnestly strives to conform to the list of characteristics that define the Fruits of the Spirit (patience, love, kindness and so on) will "fake it until he makes it"; that is, a person can game the relationship between outer decorum and inner heartland by persevering in the discipline until it becomes second nature for the person.

This attention to externalities to "cause" the internal landscape of the heart the change also lies behind the structured conditons of life and communication in military compounds and religious cloisters. And yet just to go through the motions may be a necessary but not sufficient condition to attain the desired state of mind/heart. That is, if one's "heart is just not in it" then the repeated habits will be hollow; not carried out "like you mean it."

This precondition of entering voluntarily into the enterprise and to make a sincere, good faith effort is the key to real change in one's heart that may truly lead to Fruits of the Spirit that are not forced and rehearsed, but which spring genuinely from the person's interior life as a natural and transparent expression of the person's heart; i.e. his or her relationship to God the creater as well as to the person's neighbors.

In sum there does seem to be an organic connection between the vine and its fruit. But forcing the fruit or grafting it on can only be a temporary likeness of the real thing. Eventually, with enough good faith effort and heart-felt will then genuine fruit may be expressed. Besides this in-built organic connection between interior (one's heart or constellation of relationships) and externalities another human process seems seems to be at play:

Consider the likeness, congruence or consonance between long-established couples, work mates, owners and their pets; or possibly even the resonating identity of a person and the clothes/shoes they wear (stiff and formal lends to a state of mind that fits the same way), the car they drive, the house and other material trappings they surround themselves with, and even the landscape and language they become rooted to. In all these cases what is external does correspond through empathy, induction or some other mysterious process to that a oneness forms to a certain extent. And by implication a boundary of distinction, or exception also forms to distance the person from things that do not suit one's Self, especially when it is diametrically opposite to the things that identify the person.

Taken together, the interior (heart) - externality (fruits of the Spirit) AND the identity of person to her or his social & material environment add up to an opportunity to jiggle the external environment in order to spur the changes in the person's heart. But ultimately the true heart must have the free will (opportunity) and motivation to go forth and bear genuine fruit of the Spirit.

I'm growing more pleased with the habit I'm developing to pray for things big and small.

Being a mere mortal and contemplate the infinity of God may be a fool's errand, but just orienting myself to the glory and keeping in pitch with that cosmic tuning fork has indubitable benefits.

 

When you start to dance to the holy beat, it keeps you from stumbling or losing the rhythm.

[from sermon] do for others vs. do WITH others

25aug2013 [from sermon] do for others; vs. do WITH others (object or service done unilaterally) engage and relate.

     Scripture reading from Luke, tells about Jesus and entourage being hosted at the home of the two sisters, Martha (focused on turning out the food and hospitality) and Mary (sits close to the Master to learn). Modern day story: minister asks campus crowd about ways to be God's hands and feet. They come up with service to give to others (tutor for non-native English speakers; aid to food pantry), but when minister suggests they sit with those alone at the cafeteria to form a momentary or longer growing relationship then the crowd hesitates.
     The difference between one-way giving and two-way interchange seems small when the goal is the same; for example, to better a person's material environment or to relieve disease (medical mission), ignorance (educational mission), poverty (gainful employment opportunities). And yet how vast the difference in terms of risk when the other party can talk back or indeed offer to give you advice, material wealth, or labor/assitance in return.
     Marcel Mauss was fixated on the implied (social, accumulating) debt and the ritual construction of gift-giving (even when coerced, politically loaded, or tactical as in Potlach event in Native American NW Coast; or the wedding obligatory gift bags & gift seasons in modern Japan), as he documented in the 1910s in his book, The Gift. There are also ritualistic elements in daily social contact (greeting, leave-taking, life events: condolences, birthday or graduation congratulations) and responses to serious health threats or high-stakes decisions/performances/events [lucky charms or magical sorts of routines one does in preparation]. So when both parties stand on equal footing and are prepared to benefit the other, rather than power asymmetry coloring the event, the result is more living, personal and impactful.

text & context --quote and reflection

Men's Bible Study dwelt on 1 Tim. 6 and prompted a reference to this quote,

...quoting Dr. Donald A. Carson, professor of New Testament at the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and the author of several books, including (interestingly enough) one entitled Exegetical Fallacies.
The full quote, which Dr. Carson ascribes to his father, a Canadian minister, was "A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text."
     A "proof text" was originally a neutral term for the scriptural text that proved (or was seen to prove) a particular doctrine. However, the overuse and even abuse of proof texts (i.e., Quoting Out of Context as an Appeal to Authority) to defend practically any position eventually led to "proof text" taking on a mainly negative―sometimes even pejorative―connotation (Guilt by Association, anyone?).
     So, the original quote makes your point even more strongly: a contextomy used as an appeal to authority is usually misleading. Of course, a false premise does not mean that the conclusion is ipso facto false. We need not commit the Fallacy Fallacy.   [http://www.fallacyfiles.org/quotcont.html]

The same thing is true of sound-bytes and bumper stickers: taking a short segment out of its ecosystem is like cutting off its roots and as a result it can be transplanted or transported any place. Ditto when a person from one culture is transposed to another society ---without the context of material culture and the interactions of one's own native language, the roots and shaping forces are gone. Ditto when a language is translated to another way of talking (and writing). Once the thread of meaning is put into a different language, the meaning is cut off from its rootedness.

a month of Sundays

Retirees sometimes compare the experience of waking up with no alarm clock or urgent race to punch a time clock as "every day is like Saturday." By contrast among Sunday worshipers there is a different feeling of expectation and slight excitement about dressing up and getting ready to sing and shout praises. Now imagine waking up as if every day is a priceless gift to use to best of one's abilities; a precious resource to steward -neither hiding or squandering, but instead usefully building the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. Start each day like it were a Sunday and a chance to engage with one's maker.

What do you mean, “God just is.”?

Even prominent agnostic thinkers like the late Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins accept that logically the existence of a spiritual creator can be neither be proven or disproven. So to call oneself atheistic in not so much the belief in an absence of God, but more precisely the refusal to venture any position except that One Cannot Know, or agnosis (non-knowledge). So if we travel down the road that supposes a supreme being for a moment, what supports that view? (relying on mortal syllogism and the visible spectrum that amounts to the distance across a dime, say 1.6 cm, on the complete electro-magnetic continuum if scaled from coast to coast of the continental USA)

1. LIke the story of the five blind Indian wisemen each touching a different part of the elephant, our own senses are small and limited, even when helped by technology to extend our thinking, sorting, and pattern-finding. [partiality]

2. Our lifetimes are relatively short and thus we can discover and mature a finite amount while striving to comprehend something that is infinite and an expanding universe that appears from our position to be expanding at an accelerating rate. [mortality]

3. LIke the wind, there are powers that we can't touch or see, but whose effects we accept as real. [indirect signs]

4. As in algebra, one can insert a place holder (call it X) in order to complete the equation and arrive at answers. Similarly of God, we can suppose the creator's abiding presence and with that understanding conduct our lives 'as if' such teachings were true; at least the impetus or root of the teaching may be true, even if the outworking by generations of clever people have allowed customs and spurious matter to creep in and clutter the source idea and meaning.

However, placing one's faith in a given denomination or spiritual teacher does not mean that one's work of searching and vigilance is done. Humans feel an urge to make sense of things, even when that logic is self-reinforcing, small or partial. Yet two conditions must be acknowledged when taking part in a faith community and the traditions it has inherited: one is that God and creation are infinite, so by definition any summary or grasp will impose a boundary on something that is boundless, the other is that things built by humans, including religious institutions and bodies of thought, are prone to falseness whether intended or not. And so one is obliged forever to guard one's trust in any teachings or practices; scrutinize them critically at the same time that you own or accept them on this trial, probationary basis.

Clues to Spiritual Growth

The definition of Spiritual Growth or Maturity is fairly open-ended: faith is deeper, Fruits of the Spirit appear, relationship (of love) with God and with Neighbors develops to full-time and healthy give and take (something like human relationships). Greater wisdom (applied knowledge) and discernment (distinguishing between things that a less mature person fails to perceive or appreciate as significant) are part of one's spiritual growth, too. Of course the whole experience has a time dimension, sometimes compressed when life events accelerate the pace at which one has to respond or process.

    There are also some clues to how to grow:

1. "Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" [awe rather than chills]

2. Faith without deeds is dead. So respond to God's calls, and do so  in love.

3. Deeds without love [loving spirit; charity/karitas] have no effect.

4. Strive to deepen your knowledge, but know that the Infinite can't be grasped fully.

5. The love of money is the root of evil (thoughts, deeds, attitudes)

6. Praise God; Express gratitude of God.

7. Accountability to propel one forward: daily devotional time (pray or study), participate in small group (book group, discussion, activity or service group), and identify at least one mentor you look to emulate, as well as at least one mentee who relies on you to emulate.

8. "Rearview mirror": even if one's present stage of growth is hard to quantify or compare to role models and one's peer groups by directs inspection or introspection, perhaps an indirect view will work; that is, adjudge one's responses to the events of life and the obstacles one reacts to. Where once the spiritual beginnier may have been governed by knee-jerk responses to a stimulus, another person with more life experience and with more of the above list of defining components of spiritual maturity will have different responses to a stimulus. Perhaps they react in a longer time-frame, or reflect and pray before taking action, or deliberately take inaction as a form of decision. Perhaps they are governed by their hearts and defy human or at least consumer (zero sum game) logic; hearts that share space with God and a love of their fellow persons. This indirect way may be one way to gauge one's maturation, like looking at things through a rearview mirror, or by the shadows being cast rather than viewing the subject directly. In this indirect way, then, perhaps one my find indicators that allow a comparison of one's self now to an earlier self, and to speculate on still further maturity by extrapolation of what more maturity might look like and feel like, indeed to speculate on some final destination: how far has a mortal mind ever matured along these lines? Can one ever be fully mature and be more of God than of self?

movie, "Peter and Paul"

The film does a good job of placing the principal figures and events into a timeline and plot thread so that the many details fit into a large fabric. The question at the end, apart from knowing how accurate and representative the details and tone of the thing is, is to ask (1) about differences of individual Christ-followers then and now (is the scope, pace and significance of spiritual maturation and the ways to strive to be a Christian in the world); and to ask (2) about differences in the institution of the organization that gives one a way to express and request care-relationships with others and with God the Creator. In other words, if one were to compare the New Christians (1st generation; primitive church bodies) to legacy Christians of 2013 (that is, people with passive exposure or active inheritance of church-ianity) or to New Christians of 2013, then what differences are present and consequential? 

Is the primitive group of believers (lacking written scripture, facing survival despite persecution, little infrastructure or leadership wellsprings) a model or the kind of vehicle from Rabbi Jesus' time that would best bring us to the target (loving one's neighbors; loving one's God)? Or instead is our institution of 2013 a better vehicle to carry participants and invite along newcomers to the twin tasks of taking care of each other, and of relating to Elohim? 

Or indeed is there somewhere better that falls in-between then and now; having more supporting checks and balances and rich resources suited to the many learning styles and life experiences and therefore best suited to building each person's customized set of stairs that go from starting place in life up to the target (see above, again). Also, that 3rd way, would be having less of the dross that is layered onto 2013: stripping away the commercial dimensions, the corporate church-ianity, the Victorian swap of christmas cheer at the expense of the true glory of Easter, the pop-music scene of Christian commercial expression, the avalanche of publications in so many languages, the accessories and "lifestyle" Christianity that can lure but distract seekers of the Truth and the Way.

missionaries' methods apply back at home society, too?

Meeting missionary family on furlough after 2-3 years overseas, I learned about the hardships their main (allowing for Bible translation and delivery of printed copies in the native language of each social group), as well as secondary goals (giving English lessons or proof-reading, building social relationships of trust and mutual support, looking out for fellow missionaries, as well as the newly practicing local Christians). So much preparation and systems of support make this kind of frontier outreach possible. An analogy might be the pyramid shape of a big military campaign in which the front lines require many more workers backing them up, then the numbers visible at their sides. And yet, by imagining a similar missionary pyramidal organization at work in USA or another nominally Judeo-Christian a different picture emerges.

    When there is a church building, a program of activities and expectations, as well as a certain level of shared knowledge and history, as well as annual calendar of the Church Year and education materials in a language understood by newcomers and old timers, the work of engaging in substantive conversations and actions is much easier; the pyramid of support is not rooted in far away organizations contributing money, volunteers, money and other donations, not forgetting on-going prayer and letters. How do the two points of contact compare in the end: the new Christians who form relationships with missionaries on the one hand, and the old and somewhat new Christians who visit or get involved in worship, study and service in their native land, language and culture? Ignoring the material or financial measures and looking just at the hearts of people in both situations, does one have a stronger or weaker relationship with God and with one's neighbors? Does one have a wider (all encompassing) or narrower (pigeon holed) relationship; a deeper (penetrating from pleasantries to core identity and aspirations) or shallower relationship; an unshakable vs. fragile bond?

    In sum would any of the strategies for engaging local people that missionaries rely upon also work back home among longtime Christians and also the inexperienced new Christians back in the home society of the missionaries?

men's bible study 8 July 2013

Continuing with NT book of Hebrews in which many fine-points, details, boundaries and definitions are worked out for an audience well acquainted with Jewish legacy, law and expectations.

Today we carry on from ch. 10.

1. How is the idea of Original Sin (fall from grace in Garden of Eden) regarded among Jews then and those several traditions now today? As a point of contrast, among Muslims one is born sinless.
2. When buffeted by life's temptations and travails one strives to keep the long view and that point on the distant shore in line. One way of describing this is "directionally guided."
3. "Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart, in my heart... sometimes it makes me tremble, tremble, tremble" (negro spiritual): once the Holy of Holies has been torn open (the curtain shredded from top to bottom upon the death of the earthly Nazerene Jesus) and God no longer resides at a fixed (Temple) address then the fearsome and awe-filling presence is everywhere among all.
4. The laws once were given to Moshe, but these are shadows of the true meaning which next will be written directly on the hearts of God's people [reference to Old Testament idea; not something emerging brand new from the New Covenant]
5. "...Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done" fits in with the 'delayed gratification' idea that The World around us and God's creation we are stewards of really is a fleeting thing and one should rather 'store up your treasures in heaven'. And yet persecution and doing God's work in adverse conditions *is* its own reward now (not something to endure for some later, heavenly reward) to the extent that one's hardened heart is changed in the process of undertaking hard expressions of God's love of one's neighbors and of God.

small group - CrazyLovebook.com weeks 2 - 8

WEEK TWO [chapter 2 upshot: ‘you are going to die’]

WEEK THREE [chapter 3 upshot: ‘God wants to speak through you and to you... God your father/creator’]

1. Your experience of your relationship to your family dad bears on your expectation of God... there are so many family experiences, many of which are conflicted or hold ambivalence. And there is the quote, “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.”
2. What about mother-parent relationship as a template for one’s God: nuturing, guiding, judge or source of discernment (or not)?
3. What about grandparent’s parenting of your parents, and that tone/style or relationship then carried from yourself to your own children?
4. Coming to the point where it is ‘normal’ or ordinary (unremarkable, unmarked) to pray in small and great moments during a day or a life course; in places of natural awe or squalor. Coming to the point where one’s relationship with God-Jesus-Holy Spirit is easy and natural to discuss with peers and with strangers; not preaching at them, but entering into a place of conversation.

WEEK FOUR

WEEK FIVE

WEEK SIX ‘love’

1. Motivated by love/hunger (something you crave and look forward toward) versus guilt (something you ‘should have done’ better; a nagging feeling of debt or duty). A middle ground between discipline (external structures & responses; responsibilities) and freedom (acting out of desire and making meaning of things).
2. Opening epigraph ...I thirst to have more thirst... Human, earthly experience is a string of appetites, some bigger than others. We hunger and then are (partially) satisfied for the moment (until next time). This is like the weekly sermon, a weekly time and place to expect and to prepare your heart to engage God, express praise, and allow oneself to be examined by God’s all seeing eye and heart.
3. Conundrum: our earthly relationships and appetites wax and wane, but to BE in love with God and to love one’s neighbor as oneself is not something that waxes and wanes. It is a satisfaction of being present and sharing a time and place. So would one’s relationship or appetite develop best by having times of fullness and times of desolation? Or is the lifetime goal to achieve a presence (of mind and heart) with God and then strive to remain together and avoid separation? Is the ideal a static state of being in peace and joy, or something dynamic and a distant, future goal to strive for and delay today’s gratification for that future, imagined place of being. Are you already arrived or should you defer those things around you and be blind to today’s conditions so as to struggle and strive to keep one’s eyes on that golden future?
4. Analogy of growing one’s heart in the trials of one’s life experiences. Muscles have to be exercised (pulled or pushed and then rested) or they atrophy. Some exercise routines are for stamina: high frequency of repretitions of light weights. Some exercise routines are for strength: heavy load but few repetitions.
5. Just like the detective programs say about (dastardly) deeds: it takes motive and opportunity to commit something.  
6. Comparing love in human relationships to love of God (and God’s love of us), it would appear that the essential quality is of being together. When apart you hunger to be together again. When you are being together, then you are comforted and at rest; at home; at the destination.

WEEK SEVEN ‘with God on purpose’

1. Paddling on the river vs. drifting along: How to actively seek out God’s will but not direct oneself; how to discern God’s direction.
2. Life-stage: start of life is forward looking (endless time available; macro lens), middle life is a mix of looking forward and back (wideangle; able also to perceive some fluidity in time: being able to imagine forward and back in time when seeing the person before you --how the present moment connects to the youngster that came before and the oldster that has yet to come), and old age (perhaps?) is filled with memory and possibly curious about extinction and what may follow. If living to a ripe old age there is the growing awareness: one’s place in a longer chain of being, that one cannot take the accumulated stuff of one’s estate along to what follows (‘you can’t take it with you’), that you are “just passing through... just looking.” Woe to those who die before the fullness of age matures.
3. Practically speaking how does a mainline church body differ to a community service club such as Kiwanis: both have a prayer and meet weekly to get to know one another and serve the wider, outside community. Perhaps the praise and glorifying and gratitude is God directed in the one, but the other is focused more on “love your neighbor as yourself.” And an organized church tries to create opportunities for other seekers to come in a pick up an oar and join in the project to help others (poverty, ignorance, illness --with or without spoken connection to God’s hand and feet) AND to help people who are seekers like oneself.
4. There is an important distinction when motivated to contribute self, abilities, resources by what others expect or require (obligation; guilt; contract) rather than to be motivated by a calling or internal urge or will to do so, whether invisible to others, with tacit agreement or with spoken criticism. When one proceeds to do the right thing, regardless of external conditions then the reward is bigger than yourself and eternal. Called: some degree of inevitability whether desired or not (bigger than one’s own will), something extends from the engagement (not just starts and ends with oneself), some filling up rather than emptiness at the end, some self-propelling (movement under its own power; sweeping oneself up).

WEEK EIGHT Profile of the obsessed (single-minded; “crazy” in secular world)

Natural wish for self-preservation and avoidance of risk or harm. Natural urge to mirror other’s emotional state: joy for joy, sorrow for sorrow. But how to go beyond forgiveness and actively reach out to love an enemy, since we all are children of God, thus we are brothers and sisters to one another. Is this a balance of self and other (loving others as loving oneself), or no holds barred surrender to God; not to steward one’s gifts and resources for wise or discerning spending.

“If you don’t have something nice to say, then keep quiet” helps to prevent conflict, but relationships can advance in strife and struggle as well as joy and harmony. “Be wise as a serpent” teaches that you can engage and love even one’s enemy; maybe not as unguarded and straight-forward as a relationship mutually respectful and holy, but still possible by choosing the time and manner of loving. And when one has been harmed, then trust may have been broken, but forgiveness is still advisable and indeed commanded. Then to go beyond forgiveness and actively reach out in love (wisely as a serpent) takes lots of care, prayer and seeking. Speaking truth (call into account; challenge but support) but it doesn't have to be brutally honest.

Paul’s teaching about new believers not having to follow Jewish laws has a parallel to our times: people striving to achieve a certain look or lifestyle to demonstrate their clean and virtuous Christian living may truly being earnest seekers, but more likely may simply be confusing appearances with the intangible, invisible heart of relating to God. By conforming to appearances one may simply be trying to self and others “I’m as good as you; I’m better than you.” And by asserting one’s Godliness as a visible thing (clothing, postal address, car) it can consume the energy one should be using to seek God. The superficial details can distract or opt one out from growing closer to God.

There is an ongoing, emergent quality to one’s relationship to God and one’s neighbors (whether friend, enemy, or stranger). Much as Alcoholics Anonymous meetings begin with self-introductions, “I’m Joan and I am a recovering alcoholic” ( -ing, in a state of development).

As we navigate our daily and lifelong plans for ourselves things come up that were not in the plan. One part of spiritual growth is being able to seize the opportunities that present themselves rather than defend against these things that intrude into one's plans. Following the analogy that "life is a journey" it can be powerfully transformative to see the unscheduled changes, detours and bumps as equally or perhaps more valuable than the itinerary of one's own making.

WEEK NINE Gallery of real-life champions who step out in faith to take whatever comes, whether it is their expected direction of God’s.

WEEK TEN Now what to do with the foregoing reflections, admonitions and exhortations.

After reading & talking, what is different: that author so freely brings God and holiness into daily cares and decisions. After all, whatever triggers a reflection, studying or prayer and action should be all day and night; not just on Sunday. Working on one’s heart and relationship to God & one’s neighbors is an unending task. Mindfulness sharpens vision and appetite. Imagine substituting “I pray” instead of “I hope” since ‘hope’ is so casually expressed, but seldom heartfelt to its full measure.

    The experiences of fellow small group members is as memorable and instructive as the text at some points. And the more we read the book the more the significance is confirmed and appetite to know and do more grows.

    Ask not what you can do best to use your talents, but look beyond that to ask instead how can I glorify God: how can the relationship grow wider, deeper, and stronger.

small group study of Francis Chan, Crazy Love (week 1)

Title, Crazy Love. I wonder if the emphasis is on Crazy -it defies human reasoning that God should focus on individual lives and know all the hairs on one's head; a veritable carpet of souls occupying his spaces and generations. Or maybe the emphasis is on Love -that we mortals during our allotted days need to be crazy with our LOVE and rise above the routines and expectations of Society as we advance God's will on earth as it is in heaven.

Majesty and vast universe of creation. We may begin with a notion that God adheres to sanctuaries and altar areas. Then we may one day go to the opposite position and look for God in the infinite cosmos. And finally we may hold these contrasting positions in our minds simultaneously: God is past and present and future all at once. God is at the tip of my nose, eyeball to eyeball with all around me but also God is so vast: and that is OK, even though it boggles my mind and escapes my puny logic. 

“Like dew in the morning” our lives are brief. In the time we have in our hands many opportunities and obstacles present themselves for response or for actions to initiate. We view the merit of a given action in terms of credit or blame that comes to us, to others, or for the glory of God. In other words we are results oriented, rather than concerned primarily about the process and the relationships that are formed and exercised along the way. And yet, perhaps in the mind of God what matters most is not the result, as such, but instead the consequences of an undertaking in terms of our hearts (toward a heart of agape love and toward growing relationships and responsiveness to God; and to one’s neighbors, including strangers, foreigners and those in need). So next time a project attracts large sums of money, time and talent, perhaps the result --however worthy-- is only secondary in importance to the changes in the hearts of those connected in some way (as planner, maker, functionary, or recipient of the project results and services).

Chapter 1 video [prayer; God's face]: freshly worship, freshly pray so that it is constituted from scratch, always fresh, not foreclosed or mere habit.

Chapter 1 video: Much like "live" vs. "canned," studio polished music - the engagement and relationship with God and One's Neighbor is in the doing, not the printed or memorized text. Just as choirs aspire to "sing it like you mean it" (not just produce tuneful notes as a group),  so, too: pray it like you mean it (not just say the formula).

Chapter 1 video: visualizing your approach of GOD's presence in all sorts of facet of Creation - a bug, a bird, a raindrop, a person both interior and exterior, defined and infinite.

sit in church vs actively worship; Big Hearted; taming one' god?

Worship service on Sunday morning: the sense that pew sitters come as spectators, ready to view and be interested in what is served up to them. But this is mistaken, the quality of what comes out depends on those who put something in. In this perhaps a church potluck meal is a better visual image to hold when attending the public worship: each brings something to share and the combined total is impressive indeed! In other words "going to see the worship" actually is going to see oneself and one's peers, not any sort of high falutin, other-worldly performer who promises to wow you.

The two laws and the heart of the matter- Be Big Hearted

The many teachings, examples, and string of events told in the OT and NT all connect to the two commandments: Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself. And these in turn come from the ultimate matter, which is connection (relationship) with God and his/her creation. In practice this very often has not to do with one's thinking part, but one's feeling part: one's intention and emotional responses, thus one's heart: what is in one's heart also will be evident in what one expresses by word and by deed. By this reasoning, the practice/rehearsal of Christianity (a process rather than a final destination) is "heart work." The goal is to become "big hearted" enough to care for other's hearts; not just one's own felt needs.

God in the wild vs Tame God

The measure of one's grasp of God is whether that imagined god is manageable and finite, reliable and predictable on the one hand, or altogether likely to surprise and upturn one's tidy and tame world of routines and relationships. And yet the OT and NT show us the nature of God and how we should develop in our relationship with God and his/her creation. Those instructions and teachings do not change or feel unexpected; the Word as codified as a single bound volume with chapters, verses and more recently, too, subheadings in *not* changeable. Although life experience and changing circumstances of society and the world may affect what is visible and salient in one's own eyes: no matter how many times the hymn is sung, the psalm is chanted or the liturgy is read, still we may be surprised when a long buried inflection or suddenly literal or ironic meaning springs from the page to challenge us or reveal new meanings to our hearts. No, what is liable to surprise us is not the Word and the instructions of how we related to our God. Instead the infinite God will surprise us in our world and individual lives; that part will carry unexpected turns and twists that we then must respond to.

interior or exterior God? roots of Priestdom? all you can eat holiness?

Topics arising in the course of Monday morning men's Bible study 6/3/2013.

interior or exterior God?
Leo Tolstoy's title, "The Kingdom of God is Within You," makes the case that the Lord's Prayer refers to "...Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as in heaven" and the true meaning lies in one's building a kingdom in one's own heart; a heart of gratitude, glorifying (but also vigilance) and service. Where then is the split between expending one life on the visible world and on the interior world; knowing there is a link between what is in one's heart and the deeds one does.

roots of Priestdom?
Surely the 1st and 2nd Temples on the Temple Mount had keepers of the Holy of Holies (the inner sanctum) and their job was to intercede on behalf of ordinary believers. And the tribe of Levi had the job of caring for the Arc and sacrifices in the wandering days. There is a path that goes from Temple Judaism to synagogue Judaism and from Rabbi Jesus' "house churches" (ecclesia; primitive Christianity) to the administrative machinery of the Roman Empire under Constantine I. But exactly at what point did the flat "organizational tree" go to Religious Specialists who would intercede for ordinary persons?

"all you can eat" holiness?
For a mortal mind how much holiness can a person take at one time? Thinking of an analogy of "unlimited talk time" (cell phone service plan), or "unlimited bandwidth" (Internet plan), how does one's outlook change when there is no scarcity. Perhaps it is like the full-time resident of a tourist destination who feels content with the *potential* to visit all the events and cultural assets of the fair city, but in practice only does so when entertaining out of town guests. Maybe explaining or describing or articulating one's relgious path and interior life also depends on an interlocutor who is "not from around here;" someone whose knowledge/familiarity can't be taken for granted and must be spoken about step by step. Just so of one's appetite for holiness: there is only so much one's senses can fill up on, and when it surrounds you there is less rarity and less urgency to seek for it.

child of Adam, child of God

In the world of language, logos, logic and human reasoning it seems impossible that a person can be 'dust' and also filled with God's love and power: infinite and eternal. And yet the model Jesus shows covers this spectrum of mortal and divine: he was servant, humble, powerful (healer and voice of God's will) and mostly under control (meek in the full and true sense) --all at the same time. He was learned (Rabbi) and skilled craftsman. He spent some meditative, quiet time and also social time among life's high and low. Thus as a model to follow, we, too, should cross boundaries of This World and Not-of-this-world; Worldly mingling and Not-of-this-world presence of mind. Be "in the word/spirit" but also be "of action."

One keyword is 'meek' (humble but powerful) and dictates how to act in the routines of daily life.

Another keyword is (agape or karitas) 'love' as in "these 3 remain: faith, hope, and love" (karitas/charity) and dictates how to approach the routines of daily life (world view).

measuring spiritual growth

One metaphor is "journey" --everyone heading to the same general destination (earthly extinction), many traveling the same road but stopping and shopping at different points and noticing different things and the conversations along different lines; some travel off-road or go on by-ways instead of the main road. And some go on foot or stretcher, while others go in sportscars or schoolbuses.

How can one intelligently talk about growth of spirit? Do we moderns mean the same thing that people of Dietrich Bonhoffer's circle in the 1930s-40s, or the purposes of the PIlgrims, or the penetrating gaze of Society of Friends (Quakers) and Anabaptists like the followers of Menno, or today's Catholics & Eastern Orthodox?

What is the scope of the idea: the development of one's reach and one's grasp [the hand metaphor], the depth or width of one's vision and understanding [a spatial image], something cumulative and chronological that steps up year by year of the life course? Is movement one-way or do some regress from heights once gained? Will the sequence of steps be fixed, although some skip over and others dwell at length on particular points of the continuum? And will one person's experience be comparable to another's way or is each path scaled to the salient events of each person's circumstances such that no crude indicators will point to one person being "more advanced" than another?

Some clues come from the Bible: things like discernment, wisdom [fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom] and the fruits of the spirit [manifest among those engaged and invested in the Way of God]. But how much is internal [of the heart] and how much is external such that others may perceive? Perhaps the monastery societies have developed ways to detect or self-detect a sort of inventory or spiritual audit in order to mark one's beginning [baseline measurements] and current point and then to indicate what direction to bear towards and what methods to use for the intermediate steps that lead to that end point.

One day there may be a way to do a quick litmus test to see how one is doing at the moment and to compare to one's place in the scheme of life in the past, as well as comparing to one's peers. But in the meantime it seems that a good place to enter the topic of "growth" is to recognize that all this study, thinking and talking accept the relational nature of the religion: love God with all your self, and love your neighbor as your self [neither diminish the one or the other since both are worthy of respect and love]. Thus we may ask of one's fitness or the state of one's spiritual growth, "relationship-wise how are things between you and your God? between you and your fellow persons?"

Here at least, in the field of relationships, we are accustomed to discussing, estimating relative strength or characteristics, and shape or direction of relationships. Certainly relationships involve others, by definition, and they are living, moving things of variable tensions and intentions. They need caring and attention and to some degree will perform according to the amount of energy invested in them. One-sides relationships are not satisfying for either party. Certain relationships you are born into, or otherwise come "as is" and given. But others are entered into and cultivated entirely voluntarily. This difference in basis (voluntary vs involuntary) will tint the quality of what can be undertaken together (pair or larger collection of persons). Relationships are sometimes discussed in terms of flexibility (some are brittle, others resilient), in terms of depth (some are casual and transitory, but others are enduring), in terms of trust (some are deep and unconditional; others not).

--
Guven Peter Witteveen, anthroview@gmail.com

; skype address: gpwitteveen