Wednesday 30 April 2008

I'm looking back at the same piece from Merton that was used yesterday.

We must learn to realize that the love of God seeks us in every situation, and seeks our good. His inscrutable love seeks our awakening. True, since this awakening implies a kind of death to our exterior self, we will dread His coming in proportion as we are identified with this exterior self and attached to it. But when we understand the dialectic of life and death we will learn to take the risk implied by faith, to make the choices that deliver us from our routine self and open to us the door of a new being, a new reality.

This love invites us to take a risk. The risk is that we may not continue to be the person we have been trying to make of ourselves. The risk is that being caught up in this love and this good we will begin to see all thing with new eyes and that may rightly change us...oh my! That is not what we all want when we are tied to the life of facades that can so easily be each of us. I find that it is simply a delight when our exteriors are allowed to drop and in the midst of others we are standing within the whirlwind of God's love that enables us to see and hear each other in new ways. In those times, we are taking part in that new heaven and earth...that promise...that hope. It is then that we really do begin to make the choices that break routines and chains and barriers and become the beloved community that we are in the sight of our God.

Connection: Breaking that routine is risky and it is a daily discipline. But if we fall away from the discipline, the next moment and the next day always finds us caught up in the same embrace of our loving God.

Constant Love, you make life the breeding ground of life that changes and blossoms with new flowers of love and hope and grace and forgiveness. It is wonderful to walk in this garden and to be a part of its wonder and beauty as we walk along with you. Thanks to you, O God. Amen.

Tuesday 29 April 2008

For some reason, this piece by Merton really caused me to pause.


We must learn to realize that the love of God seeks us in every situation, and seeks our good. His inscrutable love seeks our awakening. True, since this awakening implies a kind of death to our exterior self, we will dread His coming in proportion as we are identified with this exterior self and attached to it. But when we understand the dialectic of life and death we will learn to take the risk implied by faith, to make the choices that deliver us from our routine self and open to us the door of a new being, a new reality.


I was immediately grasped by the comment "the love of God seeks us in every situation, and seeks our good." It is like a refreshing drink of water on a hot day. More than that...it is the marvelous announcement that I am never beyond the boundaries of God's love and that this love is the power to turn me around. That make we wonder again about 'repentance' and how it is really God's action that makes repentance a reality. In seeking our good, God steps in and announces a love that is always available and always powerful enough to overcome any situation in any day of our lives. Some days I need to be overwhelmed and uplifted and awakened to this truth that I often refuse to see when I am caught up in this "exterior" self...this superficial life that refuses to take the time to lift up my eyes to see the glory of God all around me.



Connection: We are being pursued by someone whose love is ready to make us whole....and though we can opt to hide away...we are never hidden and never forgotten. That is the shape of this day.



Lord of Love, you never give up do you?!? You watch us run around and run away and yet you follow our every step...not behind us, but with us in each step. It is truly an amazing grace. Amen.

Monday 28 April 2008

Sorry for the late send today (another piece by Merton)

...every expression of the will of God is in some sense a "word" of God and therefore a "seed" of new life. The ever-changing reality in the midst of which we live should awaken us to the possibility of an uninterrupted dialogue with God. By this I do not mean continuous "talk," or a frivolously conversational form of affective prayer which is sometimes cultivated in convents, but a dialogue of love and of choice. A dialogue of deep wills.

The day is alive with opportunities to enter into this dialogue with our God. No need to go to a "special" place. In fact, the special place is always the one in which we find ourselves. It is here that we are invited to listen and drift into this love that is at the center of God's Will. How in this place...at this time...within these circumstances - is God's will engaging us and we are invited to take part in a dialogue that will shape the who we are and who we will become. Too often, we are not awakened because we have no time to listen or are not aware that there is so much to which we could be listening as we walk through the events of the day. It is always interesting to not that when I am on vacation, I seem more and more connected to this dialogue with God. And yet, that is what is always available to me when I breath in the moment and look around and begin to hear again that which so often I simply pass by.

Connection: How will we cultivate this conversation today? There is time to do it...much time.

Break into this day, O God, just as we heard the witnesses of old write about the many and various ways you entered into conversation with them. And yet, we call on you to calm our hearts so that as you are near we may begin to listen and not simply go along our way. Amen.

Friday 25 April 2008

Here is the continuation of yesterday's piece.



Nothing could be more alien to contemplation than the cogito ergo sum of Descartes. "I think, therefore I am." This is the declaration of an alienated being, in exile from his own spiritual depths, compelled to seek some comfort in a proof for his own existence(!) based on the observation that he "thinks." If his thought is necessary as a medium through which he arrives at the concept of his existence, then he is in fact only moving further away from his true being. He is reducing himself to a concept. He is making it impossible for himself to experience, directly and immediately, the mystery of his own being. At the same time, by also reducing God to a concept, he makes it impossible for himself to have any intuition of the divine reality which is inexpressible. He arrives at his own being as if it were an objective reality, that is to say he strives to become aware of himself as he would of some "thing" alien to himself. And he proves that the "thing" exists. He convinces himself: "I am therefore some thing." And then he goes on to convince himself that God, the infinite, the transcendent, is also a "thing," an "object," like other finite and limited objects of our thought.

This sounds as though God is able to be put in our pocket. We know God...we own God...God is ours. Isn't this what so many religious people do?! Rather than let there be the mystery that there is, it is as though we must label everything. Once that is done - once we have God labeled just as we would like - there is no room for new revelation. Even when we consider Christian theology and that we come to know God through the life of Jesus, we are not saying we know God completely. We are simply going to a beginning point and coming away with a notion of both Jesus and then of God also. We still must wrestle and contemplate what the fullness of God is beyond the stories we hear of Jesus...and the stories of the unfolding of the Church. Too many people are afraid to let go of the drive to objectify God and one another...therefore, we do not wonder as we might.

Connection: Let you wondering go beyond what you already think you have nailed down.

Lift us up, O God, and inspire us to look beyond what we can see now and take into our vision that which we cannot even consider at this moment. And then, be with us as we discover more of the fullness of your Reign. Amen.

Thursday 24 April 2008

I found this piece to be quite interesting...again...from Thomas Merton. This will be a two-part devotion that will continue on Friday.



Nothing could be more alien to contemplation than the cogito ergo sum of Descartes. "I think, therefore I am." This is the declaration of an alienated being, in exile from his own spiritual depths, compelled to seek some comfort in a proof for his own existence(!) based on the observation that he "thinks." If his thought is necessary as a medium through which he arrives at the concept of his existence, then he is in fact only moving further away from his true being. He is reducing himself to a concept. He is making it impossible for himself to experience, directly and immediately, the mystery of his own being.



What about all the "things" that do not think?...and how is it that we arrive at even that kind of pronouncement. To have to think one's self into existence seems a bit limited. In fact is seems to me that such a statement make our being quite small. It lacks the grand domain of wonder in which we are always being introduced to something more than we can label and contain in a statement of proof. In some ways, I want to interject "what do you think...in your thinking?" Then I would like to enter into a discussion of how our thinking shapes just a portion of our being. Often, our thinking limits us so much because we are not able to be open to how the Spirit of God blows around us and through. Thus, we have no way of thinking about how the Spirit moves and creates and delivers and changes the very foundation of who I am. Contemplation seems to allow us to drift beyond categories and pronouncements about formulas of existence. Rather, we find ourselves whipped into the wholeness of creation that is not merely me...but us...and all. That is beyond thinking.



Connection: I like the fact that we are surprised by the fullness of life...without having to know who we are and what we would be in the world. In some ways it means we would do ourselves well to rest within the day trusting that who we are will keep unfolding all around us...and we will be given the opportunity to become new.



Come, Lord of Life, and deliver us from all the ways we attempt to exist on the basis of what we can know and what we can see. Help us to notice the experiences of the day that are able to capture us and then deliver us into a new sense of joy and perspective. Amen.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

I'd like to pick up on directly on what was quoted yesterday - by Thomas Merton.

Our external, superficial self is not eternal, not spiritual . Far from it. This self is doomed to disappear as completely as smoke from a chimney. It is utterly frail and evanescent. Contemplation is precisely the awareness that this "I" is really "not I" and the awakening of the unknown "I" that is beyond observation and reflection and is incapable of commenting upon itself. It cannot even say "I" with the assurance and the impertinence of the other one, for its very nature is to be hidden, unnamed, unidentified in the society where men talk about themselves and about one another. In such a world the true "I" remains both inarticulate and invisible, because it has altogether too much to say - not one word of which is about itself.



But the true "I" is there. That is just the point. As we run around....as we attempt to figure out the meaning of all things so that we can somehow claim to be alive...as we build ourselves up in the hope that we are worth something...as we attempt to master life or own it or rule it, the true "I" is patient and waiting to be greeted. Somewhere in the middle of all we try to do to become someone...we are already someone who is blessed and worthy and beloved without any need to understand why. The "yes" of our God is the first word about us and it is the ground from which are given the opportunity to blossom into who we are without trying to make something of ourselves. Most times, we don't allow ourselves to hear the still, small voice that will feed us for life.



Connection: Sometimes a pause (however it may come within this day) is enough to open up a window to see this gift that we are and to hear how we are blessed to be alive in the midst of this day.



Come, O Spirit, and tap us...awaken us, so that we may recall how deep is the root that goes down into the very essence of your love. For there, we begin to see the "I" that you stand with and love and redeem without hesitation. Amen.

Tuesday 22 April 2008

A week of contemplation and the self - Thomas Merton.



Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of the external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation and the superficial, external self which we commonly identify with the first person singular. We must remember that this superficial "I" is not our real self. It is our "individuality" and our "empirical self" but it is not truly the hidden and mysterious person in whom we subsist before the eyes of God. The "I" that works in the world, thinks about itself, observes its own reaction and talks about itself is not the true "I" that has been united to God in Christ. It is at best the vesture, the mask, the disguise of that mysterious and unknown "self" whom most of us never discover until we are dead.*

(* The footnote after "dead" reads: "Hell" can be described as a perpetual alienation from our true being, our true self, which is in God.)



I imagine that there is an understanding that as we are involved in contemplation, we will be surprised. We will be...out of control and what we learn or see or hear may be contrary to everything we attempt to make of ourselves or how we intend to create the world around us. The surprise may be nothing more than becoming aware of life that is a bit out of sync with how we try to make life be "in sync" with the way we would dress up our lives. Because we become aware of more...it is a surprise. Because we become more aware of life and who we are...we are surprised by joy. Joy is simply that place of rest that take place as we find ourselves again in the loving presence of God and others without performing or "making the grade"...but rather by simply seeing the life and the beauty of life that is ours.



Connection: too often we don't leave ourselves open to see the beauty of life that is ours. At times it is simply because the other "stuff" wins the day...let's not let that "stuff" have its way with us.



In, with, and under, this day, O God, you let your Spirit reach out and brush by us so that our heads may turn and we begin to see what we so often leave unseen - the preciousness of life you have given to each of us. Open our eyes and ears and hearts to the blessing of this day. Amen.

Monday 21 April 2008

More from "New Seeds of Contemplation" by Thomas Merton.



...contemplation is more than a consideration of abstract truths about God, more even than affective meditation on the things we believe. It is awakening, enlightenment and the amazing intuitive grasp by which love gains certitude of God's creative and dynamic intervention in our daily life. Hence contemplation does not simply "find" a clear idea of God and confine Him within the limits of that idea, and hold Him there as a prisoner to Whom it can always return. On the contrary, contemplation is carried away by Him into His own realm, His own mystery and His own freedom. It is a pure and virginal knowledge, poor in concepts, poorer still in reasoning, but able by its very poverty and purity, to follow the Word "wherever He may go."



It is as though we cannot expect to take the lead and make the journey of contemplation into something we can control and have as a possession. I like the image of being "carried away by God into God's own realm." In that way, contemplation will not leave me with a reinforced life. Rather, I will be left as one who has been opened up to that which is not under my control. In those moments, that "mystery" of God remains mystery but it is not something far off and distant. The presence of God is thus, very close and I am being pulled or pushed or nudged into a place in which things in my life can be quite new. In contemplation, the starting point may not be the same. It may be an interruption that opens up God's realm in a way I have not anticipated. It seems like it would be in those moments when I can walk around in that place and begin to consider a bit more of what God is showing me...without having to control the walk...but simply be open to the next turn in the road.



Connection: God's realm is constantly before us and ready to let us experience and see glimpses of life that is other than what I know. I think each of us has different ways of giving space to moments like this.



When you take hold of us and lead us, O God, we often do not watch to see the path upon which you walk with us...and we do not let ourselves be open to see the grandeur of Reign. When you intervene into our lives, inspire us to see your creativity come to life. Amen.

Friday 18 April 2008

Like I said yesterday...what was quoted may need a few days. Here it is again.

Contemplation is also the response to a call: a call from Him Who has no voice, and yet Who speaks in everything that is, and Who, most of all, speaks in the depths of our own being: for we ourselves are words of His. But we are words meant to respond to Him, to answer to Him, to echo Him, and even in some way to contain Him and signify Him. Contemplation is this echo. It is a deep resonance in the inmost center of our spirit in which our very life loses its separate voice and re-sounds with the majesty and the mercy of the Hidden and Living One. He answers Himself in us and this is divine life, divine creativity, making all things new. We ourselves become His echo and his answer. It is as if in creating us God asked a question, and in awakening us to contemplation He answered the question, so that the contemplative is at the same time, question and answer.

God answers God's own call to us. We are the ones who respond to the wonder and movement of God's Reign. Merton says it well: "this is divine life." In that life comes the part I think make life unpredictably beautiful and also full of risk. This "life" is "divine creativity, making all things new." We are a part of that is to be and what will be. That is quite a gift given to us. As we remember this, the day is full of the makings of the Reign of God that is already in place and yet is still unfolding. Therefore, this divine creativity is the freedom to open our eyes and be honest about our condition and honest about who we are invited to be. We become a part of that "answer" of what will be...or...how will be get along...or...what will become of us. The contemplative seems to be able to hear the questions and willing to venture into what might be some of the answers to those questions. And yet, knowing that new questions will arise and new answers will always invite us into a world of change that did not see previously.

Connection: Questions about God and the Reign of God may find answers not so much in our theoretical speculation but in our very ordinary life where God promises to Reign. Today is one of those days just waiting for us to walk into that Reign and begin to see how answers begin to unfold.

Holy Word, you bring us along your way and you help us to find the words...the life...that is about to unfold into your blessed Reign. We marvel at your ways and wonder about how we will walk within those ways. And yet, you are here with us to invite us beyond ourselves even as we want to be just who we think we are. Take us into your future - today. Amen.

Thursday 17 April 2008

Contemplation is.... with Thomas Merton.

Contemplation is also the response to a call: a call from Him Who has no voice, and yet Who speaks in everything that is, and Who, most of all, speaks in the depths of our own being: for we ourselves are words of His. But we are words meant to respond to Him, to answer to Him, to echo Him, and even in some way to contain Him and signify Him. Contemplation is this echo. It is a deep resonance in the inmost center of our spirit in which our very life loses its separate voice and re-sounds with the majesty and the mercy of the Hidden and Living One. He answers Himself in us and this is divine life, divine creativity, making all things new. We ourselves become His echo and his answer. It is as if in creating us God asked a question, and in awakening us to contemplation He answered the question, so that the contemplative is at the same time, question and answer.

I could spend a few days listening to this paragraph...let me jump in at one point for today. It sounds like the life of the church as it is to be. We are now the word. We don't simply study the word and memorize the word, we are the word. Therefore, resurrection life is not something we long for or read about it is the life that we have. This image of an echo is quite awakening. The original voice calls out we respond...but the response is the same voice of the God who calls us into being. It sounds a bit distant and not quite as bold as the original voice....but there it is...here we are. We respond to the call by taking on the call and that is the voice that continues to make its way into our lives so as to make for life...the word made flesh...in and among us.

Connection: For a start, we must hear that Word. It is available all around us as we trip through the day being consumed and run by other words.

Be for us, O God, the voice of new life and pull us into that life even as you speak. Amen.

Wednesday 16 April 2008

We continue with Thomas Merton in "New Seeds of Contemplation."



...contemplation reaches out to the knowledge and even the experience of the transcendent and inexpressible God. It knows God by seeming to touch Him. Or rather it knows Him as if it had been invisibly touched by Him.... Touched by Him Who has no hands, but Who is pure Reality and the source of all that is real! hence contemplation is a sudden gift of awareness, an awakening to the Real within all that is real. A vivid awareness of infinite Being at the roots of our own limited being. An awareness of our contingent reality as received, as a present from God, as a free gift of love. This is the existential contact of which we speak when we use the metaphor of being "touched by God."

The image of contemplation being one in which one knows God by "seeming to touch Him" and then...the realization that we are rather "invisibly touched by Him"....one "Who has no hands" was comical and wonder-filled. For in that description, it is not me who finds a way to touch God or who has a secret to how one touches God or draws close to God. It is rather an action from outside me. It is the God who creates out of nothing and even within chaos who also encounters me so that I am able to see beyond and within and under what is. It is in such seeing, that we have this a gift, that we enter into an awareness of the fullness of life that we often walk by. In the time of this gift, we are given the opportunity to see and think and feel "into" something more than my "turned-in-on-self." That...will always give us a moment of utter awareness of life within the moment. That awareness, I would guess, is the potential for us to connect with life in such a way that barriers begin to fall down and our understanding of creation and love and compassion stretches us beyond anything we may have been able to imagine.

Connection: When during this day will we realize that we have been touched been touch by God? I would suppose that one touch is enough to bring joy and fullness and gracious anticipation into the day.

When you touch us, O God, even when we do not know that we have been touched by you, our eyes are open and we are given a moment to re-view the ordinary and the common within the light of your Reign. We long to be surprised by your presence and your touch and what will become available to us in those moments. Amen.

Tuesday 15 April 2008

From New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton.



Contemplation is always beyond our own knowledge, beyond our own light, beyond systems, beyond explanations, beyond discourse, beyond dialogue, beyond our own self. To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance into a higher life. It is a death for the sake of life, which leaves behind all that we can know or treasure as life, as thought, as experience, as joy, as being.



When we leave things behind...it is everything. It is that driving ego that must prove itself to be the ego that it is. It is that "sorry me" that yearns for pity and attention and is thus unable to be alone and see the beauty of the world as it shows up for our amazement. It is beginning fresh...with new eyes...without having to clarify, justify...ready to move into the moment at hand with wide eyes even when our eyes are shut...with that incredible openness that allows us to enter into the day as though we are being reborn. The rebirth is really, as Merton notes, a dying. I think we catch glimpses of this place and have our moments there. And yet, they are not planned - for when we take on the task of planning we take on the chore of controlling so that our plans may be met. Contemplation seems to be the opening that occurs as though we have opened a "treasure" that is both amazing and befuddling.



Connection: Some times I wonder if moments of contemplation are opening up all the time. We just never take the time to notice the awe filled space and enter it.

Come, Holy Spirit. Come and open our eyes to the wonder of life so we may experience the joy that comes from being taken up into the fullness of your Reign even as it comes in the fleeting moments of this day. Amen.

Monday 14 April 2008

Today we will be switching to a new resource for our daily devotion. Years ago I was introduced to this work but really wasn't ready to listen. After spending time reading Thomas Merton write about the work of Gandhi, I thought we would turn to something Merton wrote in the early 1960s: New Seeds of Contemplation.

Contemplation is the highest expression of (one's) intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is a spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source.

Sometimes the only way we hear about contemplation is from someone who appears to be disconnected from others. Merton may have lived for years in a monastery, but he was never disconnected. Rather, there is complete engagement in the sense that life is ripe with the presence of more than we can catch in a glimpse or try to master with a degree. What I am really appreciating in these few opening lines of this book is that importance of being fully aware of one' status of being alive and aware of the life of all that is around us. There is a notion of respect here. I am not merely an observer...I don't merely comment on life...instead, I am present within my life as though each part is sacred and therefore worthy of my notice, engagement, and wonder. I have often found it odd that there are people who talk about contemplation but are not very willing to spend time within the utter awareness and awe of what is around them every day. Rather, they choose to be separate. Contemplation seems to be part of the journey we enter as we find more and more delight in the fullness of life around us even when we are observing that which is painful. For even then, we are facing the fullness of what the day has to offer...and it is good.

Connection: It is a good practice to simply look at another person - especially someone not like me at all - and wonder about what it is to be the other. That may be a daily journey we take often and one that finds us able to appreciate the other...without judging.

You have placed us within rich surroundings, O God. It is in the face of those around us that we are drawn into the life of the day. It is in the watchfulness of the most simple movements of life around us that we again find that there is more to life than what we have planned to make of it. Thanks be to you, O God. Amen.

Friday 11 April 2008

Here is another reality check in regard to the practice of non-violence.

The virtues of mercy, non-violence, love and truth in any (person) can be truly tested only when they are pitted against ruthlessness, violence, hate and untruth.

In other words, it all must be alive among us out in the everyday world in which we find ourselves. Non-violence cannot be a subject we simply study. We must be the subjects of non-violent action even as the day does not want to tolerate non-violence. Remember that this does not mean we sit back and do nothing. Quite the contrary. We are invited to speak up and act so that the powers of the day that can be ruthless, violent, hate filled, and false will have to be heard alongside the voices that press for non-violence, patience, reconciliation, truthfulness, and love. I am constantly reminded of how easy it is to slip and stumble in the face of the powers of this world. I don't know how it happens with you, but with me it is often in the midst of my silence...a silence that is often ruled by fear. Tough to overcome...but how does the song go, We shall overcome.

Connection: Maybe we need good songs to set us along the way through the events of this day. Songs that remind us of whose we are and how we are in relation to others.

Come, sing your song of deliverance, O God, and pull us out of our fear into the great adventure of faithfulness that builds communities of hope and justice and peace. Amen.

Thursday 10 April 2008

After watching a special called "King" on the history channel, I thought this piece from Gandhi helps to bring a bit of hope.



Non-violence will prevail - whatever (a person) may or may not do... It will have its way and overcome all obstacles irrespective of the shortcomings of the instrument.



There were so many things that came to be from the non-violent actions and organizing of Gandhi and King. But...do they last? Many would say no. We seem to tumble back into the patterns of our disrespect and hatred of others...and our love only for our own ways. With that being the case, it is essential that we look at what non-violence brings to life beyond this moment. We look back to a Gandhi and a King and a Jesus of Nazareth because their journeys were non-violent in such a way that they would not have considered another way of life. And yet, these were only a few people in.....many and many years. Their actions inspire others. We must be able to see that this vision of non-violence is rooted in real life. It comes to be all around us as it becomes our breath. Yes, like me, many of you may be to much of a coward to let non-violence be our path. And yet, this path of non-violence in all parts of our lives will show forth its power. It may not be in the way we would plan it to go, but it will leave its mark and...in time, it will be the life of our humanity at its best.



Connection: Let's not focus on our shortcomings. Let's look out to our possibilities.



When you deliver your people from the mess of our world, O God, you show us the way of your Reign. There in the midst of trusting you we are changed and begin to see a new direction and a new purpose and a new dimension to our humanity. Bless us with the vision that keeps your peaceable Reign before us. Amen.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Again, I'm drawn more toward the connections between being a follower of Jesus and these words by Gandhi on satyagraha (soul-force).



The art of dying for a satyagrahi consists in facing death cheerfully in the performance of one's duty.



When we press for the truth the truth may be that which we cannot bear. It may be the death of us. At least the death of that which we have been trying to keep alive over against the truth. This dying is the life of the one who presses for truth. Sounds odd...but it is much like the dying and rising that we talk about in baptism. Again and again, we are face to face with the truth of God's Reign among us and that means that our way we have worked so hard to create and defend must be put to death. This is important in this life because it is here as we are willing to die that we begin to see more than one way. When all we can see is one way, it usually spells the death of all of us. We die to self...to that turned-in-on-self. We then are able to seriously face the truth of life as it needs to be so that the welfare of all becomes part of our breath - our life - our vision. What is important for us as we go along this way is that all sides must accept the art of dying. In the creation of something new, there is the miracle of dialogue that takes some not all of each side - even when we think our side is closer to the truth than the other. We press for the truth...that is our duty. We press on within the peaceable Reign of our God.



Connection: Pressing on is not the easiest part of life....and yet...it is our life.



Come, Holy Peace Maker, and lift us up out of our ways that can be so stuck on ourselves that we are unable to see how we limit the truth and thus fall for something less than the good news of your Reign. Make you peace our way and in that way let truth reside with us. Amen.

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Again some simple words about soul force - Gandhi.



The root of satyagraha (soul force) is prayer. A satyagrahi relies upon God for protection against the tyranny of brute force.



When the world around us is so set on the many ways of violence, the one voice we can turn to where we will hear the encouragement of non-violence is our God. This is as simple as the act of prayer. In prayer (and there are many ways to pray) we begin by listening. Unfortunately, we are so accustomed to listening to the voices of the world around us, it is not easy to choose to listen to the voice of truth. We are always called to listen to the voice of that which will not end...that which does not side against others...but rather presses for the welfare of all. Truth is often a harsh word to hear because it is so often contrary to what we want to hear! In prayer, we give ourselves the opportunity to look again at the shape of the path we walk and to take note as whether it is the way of truthfulness...or a bypass of that way. It may take others to help us discern the way we are going. Our prayers demand that we listen so that we can hear the difference between what becomes the brute force of any tyranny and the unbending way of truth that will not follow any sort of tyranny.



Connection: Sometimes prayer may begin with the acknowledgement of the voices of tyranny that attempt to run our own lives. As we identify those voices, we also begin to hear the voice of truth whispering a word of encouragement to us.



When we are confused and attempting to build our world as we would like it, O God, be the voice of truth that awakens us from sleep and empowers us to press on for the truth. It is so easy to settle on the voices of the world that meet our immediate needs and yet it is vital to our lives to hear the voice of your Reign. Amen.

Monday 7 April 2008

Before I sat down to write, I was going to leave the work of Gandhi for another source of reflection. Then I realized I need more of this encouragement in non-violence.





Satyagraha (soul force) is always superior to armed resistance. This can only be effectively proved by demonstration, not by argument...satyagraha can never be used to defend a wrong cause.



Since most of us do not arm ourselves in our everyday life - at least not with guns and swords and the like - it does not mean that we do not easily chose to walk without being armed and ready to defend ourselves against others. Soul force presses for the truth. It is not a force that is used to degrade or belittle another. To degrade another is a kind of force much like armed resistance...but with weapons of words and attitudes and actions. When I think of how I walk through the day, I know that I fall short of pressing for truth. Instead, it is much easier to settle for what will bring comfort or ease to me or my kind. To press on with soul force, even my words must reflect the journey of truth - nothing less. I can talk about that forever...or write about it. What really must happen is the action - the life that comes when the force of love daily defeats the power of violence. In the Church we use this kind of language about baptism. The daily dying and rising...the daily living out of a life of love for others...the daily refusal to settle for opportunities to "lord" over any other. But as we all know, baptism can be turned into little more than a magical wave of water that will protect us in the end. When that is the case, it has no real life consequences. That is where we are wrong. Baptism like satyagraha is the life force of the Reign of God - where peace reigns and self-sacrificial love oversees the way life is lived among us. Even with baptism, the life must show and the words can only follow the action.



Connection: The simplicity of the image of water and its abundance throughout the day is an open door to a world of truth, love, and non-violence.



Lord of the Day, you call us into your Reign so that we will live there in the midst of your gracious love. To live there is a daring act for us for we are so often afraid to trust in the power of your peace and grace. Inspire us to act. Amen.