Rain Ramblings

I ran into this quote today, by Bono of U2. For more thoughts, go here:

My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ. Christ teaches that God is love. What does that mean?

What it means for me: a study of the life of Christ. Love here describes itself as a child born in straw poverty, the most vulnerable situation of all, without honor. I don’t let my religious world get too complicated. I just kind of go: Well, I think I know what God is. God is love, and as much as I respond in allowing myself to be transformed by that love and acting in that love, that’s my religion.

Where things get complicated for me, is when I try to live this love. Now that’s not so easy.”

Logic is Finite

I just read these this morning. A great balance of what it means to feed the mind and the soul:

"Every logical position ... will eventually lead into trouble, and heresy, and chaos. Every logical position is fully consistent, but coherence arises from the human mind, not God's. The human mind is finite and cannot grasp eternity, and therefore the finite mind sees the infinite as not graspable coherently. If we could grasp it all coherently, without contradiction, we would be God. The person who insists on being logical to the end winds up in a mess. I am not saying that we should not be rational. I am not anti-intellectual. I am saying that the intellect by itself is helpless to arrive at total truth.
... Kenneth L. Pike (1912-2001), Stir, Change, Create, p. 44

"Prayer without study is like a soul without a body," the rabbis say. St. Benedict clearly felt the same way... It is necessary to understand the Scriputures before it is possible to pray them. It is essential to be steeped in the Scriptures before it is possible to exude them... the idea of groundedness in the spiritual life should make us stop and think. We're all busy. We're all overscheduled. We're all trying to deal with people and projects that consume us. We're all spiritually thirsty. And, we're all responsible for filling the mind with rich ideas in order to leaven the soul. Prayer, contemplation and spiritual adulthood don't happen by themselves. We have to work at them.
... Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict, p. 115

Humility

I read this quote this morning. I was left asking myself, "How much do I conform to the world's ideas of influence and power? How much do I fear the power of evil and allow myself to be intimidated by it?"

Sit on these words. They rocked me.

What we call the meekness of Our Lord is more than an aspect of His character: it is its fundamental principle. There is nothing in it of the "inert door-mat"; it was, and is, the practice of uncompromising and unyielding love, the exposition of a new technique in dealing with evil.

I believe it to be the business of Christians, especially to-day, first to realize, and then to proclaim, this revolutionary technique as the only way to peace and justice. It won't be easy, for meekness has little "face value" compared with armaments; but, if the Cross means anything at all, it is the vindication of meekness as the most dynamic and explosive force that humanity has ever known.

... Donald O. Soper (1903-1998), Popular Fallacies about the Christian Faith, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938, p. 76
See the book at http://cqod.com/r/rs447

St Francis in Alaska

Reading Chesterton's biography of St Francis in this silent hilltop cabin as I overlook Kachemak Bay and see several glaciers. I am in awe, speechless and delighted. These quotes stand out to me:

"Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall enjoy everything." It was by this deliberate idea of starting from zero, from the dark nothingness of his own deserts, that he did come to enjoy even earthly things as few people have enjoyed them; and they are in themselves the best working example of the idea. For there is no way in which a man can earn a star or deserve a sunset (or a panorama of glaciers!). But there is more than this involved, and more indeed than is easily expressed in words. It is not only true that the less a man thinks of himself, the more he thinks of his good luck and of all the gifts of God." (p. 75)

Rossetti makes the remark somewhere, bitterly but with great truth, that the worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank. (p. 78)

I remind you, as I am reminded, to see the beauty in front of you. Start from zero, and rejoice.

Acceptance

I read this in the wee hours...
"If we accept God's will in life where our will does not prevail, if we accept ourselves for what we are and grow from that, if we can live simply, if we can respect others and reverence them, if we can be a trusting part of our world without having to strut around it controlling it, changing it, wrenching it to our own image and likeness, then we will have achieved 'perfect love that casts out fear' (1 John 4:18).

There will be nothing left to fear -- not God's wrath, not the loss of human respect, not the absence of control..." Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict

A Mighty Fortress

This quote rumbled through me as I read it...

"I do not find that this position, that of unbroken peacefulness and inward song, is one which we can hope to hold unassailed. It is no soft arrangement of pillows, no easy-chair. It is a fort in an enemy's country, and the foe is wise in assault and especially in surprise. And yet there can be nothing to fear, for it is not a place that we must keep, but a stronghold in which we are kept, if only, in the moment we are conscious of attack, we look "away unto our faith's Princely Leader and Perfecter, Jesus, who endured."
... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Rose from Brier [1933],
See the book at http://cqod.com/r/rs364

Life Together - what is it?

Fresh Air host Terry Gross talked yesterday with Amy Poehler about her new show Parks & Recreation (the obvious reason of the timing of this interview), but also about her time on Saturday Night Live, especially during this last election (side note: Poehler gives some outstanding backstory on her UNBELIEVABLY hilarious Sarah Palin rap, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen…)

It was the last few minutes that got me though, where Poehler talks about why she still likes to do stand-up comedy. Pay attention:

Amy Poehler: It (stand-up) always feels exhilarating, in a good way… but you have no control over what is happening at the same time… I still perform because that feeling of being a little dangerous is still exciting for me and I think it’s good as a performer to keep making sure you’re not getting too comfortable …

But it’s also a social thing, kind of the closest thing I have to a communal religious experience where you just meet up with people you love and do something together and there’s someone there witnessing it and hopefully, y’know, you kind of feel different after… um, and I think that my experiences doing improv have certainly provided me, like, a kind of a… spirituality, I guess, in a way… that maybe, y’know, I wouldn’t have otherwise…. (voice wanders off)

Terry Gross: It’s really been a pleasure talking with you…

AP: Yeah, thank you… (You can tell she’s pretty nervous and thrown off by what she just said)… I can’t believe I ended on the word “spirituality” – I can hear the eyes rolling in cars across America (smiling, sarcastic tone).

I’m really thrown by how deep that last part was, Terry. I really want to leave you with something that’s not so deep (nervous laughter), but oh boy… it’s too late. What am I gonna do.

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this, but it is a message for the church all the same.

This isn’t rocket science I know, but she’s revealing some poignant things: that people want to belong. They want to laugh -- hard -- as a way to cope (if you listen to the segment, she says some very touching things about living and performing in NYC after 9/11). They want to be with people they love and feel a real connection through an experience.

Don’t worry. I know front and center that church is about God, not us. Church is worship, not therapy. And I want it that way. But church (Sundays AND during the week) is the best place for us to live life the way it was meant to be lived. Church should be a lovely, gripping, completely engaging and redemptive drama where we each have a role and get to act out our pre-fall life together with Jesus – what theology calls “creation intent.”

I hear the hunger for that in Amy Poehler’s words. She tastes of it through the communal experience of improv. And oh how I want the church to reach in to her and that world…