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.