| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Once again using Nicodemus, we press on in this new section of Marcia Mount Shoop's Book "Let the Bones Dance" titled: 'In-forming Mystery.'
Nicodemus tries to make sense of something he is not up close enough to truly understand. Jesus uses Nicodemus's mistaken acknowledgement as a teaching moment, a language lesson. He says no one can see the kingdom of God without being born anothen. The Greek cannot be adequately translated into English as in the Greek this word holds within it simultaneous meanings: "from above" and "again." It is hard for us to hear both meanings simultaneously, but the writer of this Gospel has Jesus challenging Nicodemus in this exchange to hear the deeper meaning of his teaching. There is a temporal and spatial aspect to the kingdom of God.This new birth clears a space for expanded access to God in an immediate sense. Nicodemus's imagination cannot go there.
Faithful imagination presses us all to look again and dare to move into the expansiveness of God's Reign. We too often have our boundaries drawn and established. We do not go beyond where we are and we really do not want to hear about what is beyond our own world of acceptance. If Nicodemus is to walk into the Reign of God as Jesus is walking, he (and all of us) must be willing to see that life is not merely what we want and what we anticipate and what we have been able to master. For just beyond all of that is the unfolding Reign of God's graciousness inviting us to let go and have ourselves be filled with more and more vision and life than we ever anticipated or could see. Connection: It is not easy to listen to such language as Jesus' words to Nicodemus. It is never easy to be pulled out of ourselves and hear another word that may turn life into something it has yet to be for us. And yet, the pulling never stops - no matter where we are - how old we are - what we have made of ourselves - and who we try to be. New life is always available. Though you seem to be so far off, O God, you are still the beginning and the end - the hope of life that permeates all things. Be for us, again, the encouragement to step forth into your embrace. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | We press on in this new section of Marcia Mount Shoop's Book "Let the Bones Dance" titled: 'In-forming Mystery.'
Nicodemus's encounter with Jesus in the Gospel of John (chap.3) also pushes our understanding to go beyond accepted categories of thinking. Nicodemus was a faithful man seeking understanding. He comes to Jesus in the dark of night, perhaps a little sheepish about seeking out this man whom the Jewish establishment was trying to understand, perhaps afraid of being seen, but yearning still to talk to him and to know him. A linguistic dance ensues. Jesus wants Nicodemus to learn a new vocabulary. The limits of language are coaxed into new territory by the experience of being close to Jesus. The dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus becomes a conversation about language, about words and their meaning and how Jesus was to be understood. But it is also a conversation about mystery and being up close to Divinity.
When you think about it, sometimes our language gets in the way of the utter presence of God in our lives. If there are not words to explain it or words that will make sense the way we like things to make sense, then - it cannot be. Ha. It is very much like how a dear friend described 'speaking in tongues' when people were getting all bent out of shape by the sound of it all or the pressure to do it or you are not really claimed by the Holy Spirit. He said it is like crying. When we hurt so much or are in need so much or are overwhelming filled with joy - the babbling cuts through the need to put a sentence in place or make sense of the experience. There is nothing magical about it. It is the complete unleashing of our humanity as it is in touch with the expansiveness of God's Reigning power. Maybe all Nicodemus needed to say was "wow." That is already on the way to letting go and taking in something that we have no way to really grab it or own it or figure it all out. Connection: It would be good to simply say 'wow' more often. Today at my cello lesson, my stiff fingers, controlling grip, and desperate need to 'get it right, seemed to be completely in awe of the ease with which my teacher made her cello speak. I could simply say 'wow.' I can hear the speaking and may one day -with her coaching - speak in a similar pattern. For now, 'wow' works just fine. Though you seem to be so far off, O God, we are still pulled into your loving embrace and reminded of this love that transforms and challenges and gives us a new vision for what can be. Blessed are you. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | A new section of this book is titled: 'In-forming Mystery.'
We are asked to "be there" close to God's mystery even if we cannot completely understand. In Isaiah's call narrative he glimpses the Holy; he gets close enough even to overhear God's conversation (Isaiah 6). There are heavenly creatures, six-winged seraphs, and the immensity of God is palpable. The hem alone of the robe of the Holy filled the temple - just the hem! Isaiah knows without hesitation that he has a language problem. He does not, he cannot, speak their language. He has unclean lips and he lives and talks among others who have unclean lips. His new prophetic vocation is made possible by the fire of hot coals pressed to his lips. Isaiah's brush with Divinity not only entitled him to speak in God's name, but it compelled him to do so. Isaiah's proximity to God changes what he can do and say and hear and be. He simultaneously runs up on both the limits of his language and the horizons of God's mysterious power to transform.
We are people of 'unclean lips' - and unclean most everything else. And yet, God draws us to God's side to be a part of the action that claims a part in the unfolding of God's way of being in the world and for all of humanity. In that drawing in, we are shaped and we are given all that is needed to wrestle with the life of this empowering Reign and to announce its presence to a world that may not want such a life and a world to come into being. What a grand scene. What an awe inspiring place in which to make our place for life. The grand mystery of God is meant to be a part of the wonderful common and stumbling lives that we enter each day. Prophetic life is not something outside the life of all of us. It is a part of our life that has been touched by this mystery in such a way that we cannot help but see the vision all around us. That is part of the transformation that moves Isaiah and even now moves us. Our God - as strange and odd that may sound to our modern minds - is still the one that gives vision to life so that all of humanity continues to be called into the fullness of God's image - into that Peaceable Reign - into that loving presence - into that unfolding glory. Connection: There is a grand mystery. And yet, it is handed to us. It is the beauty of lives broken and unclean and yet holy and blessed. We must remember the whole story or else we really lose a piece of how we are in the image of God. Though you seem to be so far off, O God, you shake us up no matter where we are. Even when we hid from you and crawl into ourselves, you reach in and open our eyes and mouths and lives with the power of your loving presence. We give you thanks - again. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | One more piece on the wounds of intellectualization in the church.
When words, doctrines, and ideas take up all the space in our religious imagination, we run the risk of making our ideas and images gods themselves. Our resistance to such institutional idolatry has been the lifeblood of our protest against the church abusing its power. Perhaps our rallying cry has made it even harder to recognize when we have succumbed to the same human tendency to make ultimate our own ideas. In our case it may be that we have made ultimate our own intellectual prowess. Divinity penetrates the very stuff we are made of and finds its way into all of who we are. Living into this transformative promise does not bring with it bulletproof intellectual arguments and rational explanations of all the faith is.
There are so many "right" answers - we can easily become closed-up people unable to be blown by the Spirit into a life that is not yet ours. This is not to say that we need to dumb-down the faith. Not at all. Rather, we are enriched by the faith we learn and learn well when it is often pushed over and tipped upside down by our God who comes to us in shapes and forms and powers we have not anticipated. Promise is too big to be able to say we have it in our back pocket or in our mind. Promise promises to crack it all open and lift us beyond all that we have claimed to grasp. It is then that we will be liberated to see how God shapes and moves a people who have become captive to their well-worked words and ideas. The great adventures of the church take place when we God once again taps us on the shoulder in the form of flesh and blood that will not be locked up by that which we claim is the whole story. Connection: It is not easy to come out of our heads when that is what is so cherished among us. We think our way into and out of situations again and again. Sometimes it would do us well to take a leap and listen to something that does not fit in - but rather pulls us out into a wilderness setting where we are out of control and must count on our God to sustain us as God is able. Sounds like a biblical scenario to me. When we are broken and in need of healing, O God, don't let us run away and hid in the midst of all we claim to know. Take us by the hand and take us out of ourselves and into the vision of your Reign. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | We begin the week with more or Mount Shoop's take on the wounds of intellectualization in the church.
How do we drink in divine mystery? How do we make room for wonder? how can we stretch into affirming deeply embodied brushes with Divinity? The wound of intellectualization keeps us from feeling our way through many of the gifts of Christian life. This is not a superficial wound, but one that has deeply affected our approach to things. We can even mistake it for a virtue. One of the most treasured character traits of mainline Protestantism is intellectualism. Higher education is one of our greatest accomplishments and offerings to the larger society This examination of our unbalanced intellectualism is not a rejection of education. Our problem is not that we value the intellect; the problem is how this valuing has fed our our disembodied ethos. This commitment to education and learning becomes problematic when it is tangled up with a rejection of embodied ways of knowing, being, and feeling. This problem gets back to our denial and rejection of the body itself. Feeling is trivialized, cut off, mistrusted when intellect or even consciousness are privileged as the only reliable sources of knowledge. This trivialization of feeling has radically in-formed mainline Protestantism.
I wasn't sure how to comment on this. Then I remembered about a study I went to at a 'Church of God' congregation this past week. The Bishop was speaking on the story from Genesis in which Potiphar's wife repeatedly tries to seduce Joseph. Joseph is a slave in Potiphar's house and has become entrusted with much responsibility - and yet he is still a slave. When put under threat by the wife who really, really, wants Joseph, he says that no one in the house has the trust and power that he has. Joseph turns away from this woman. The Bishop focused on the fact that Joseph was a slave - and yet - no one had more power in that house than he - and with that came great responsibility. A slave - a slave - is the greatest. The Bishop used it to teach the men in the room about stepping up and giving no excuse and being trustworthy and always seeing themselves in such a light as this slave Joseph -no matter what the life situation at hand might be. What struck me was that he was speaking to a room full of African American men with a simple message about being blessed and with that - being of an upright, character in and through all situations. I think this is that wonderful cross of honoring intellect and yet taking hold of the value of an embodied experience. The story grew in power to me. Connection: This may be another sign of the importance of taking our knowledge and our intellect and making sure that it is always in conversation with the reality around us (both inward reality and that outside of us). The two sides of life need the other for us to see a bit more of God's Reign. When we are broken and in need of healing, O God, you tie us to life and expect that we will become filled with wisdom that bring our intellect in touch with our experience. You continue to make sure that your way is made incarnate in each of us that we may forever see your face among us. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Mount Shoop notes that there are two collective wounds of our dis-embodied faith: the wound of intellectualization and the wound of fear. Again today we will listen to her thought about the first - intellectualization.
It is perilous to keep our faith above the neck. In psychoanalysis, "intellectualization" is a defense mechanism that protects us from stress, anxiety, and discomfort associated with confronting painful problems or fears.
In mainline religion this intellectualization is a collective defense against an embodied surrender to the mysterious and idolsyncratic nature of religious experience. It keeps us from acknowledging and expressing embodied pain, confusion, delight, and ambiguity. These are the marks of how we are created, yet we awkwardly conceal ourselves from such disclosures in church. The habituated nature of this collective defense has entrenched our dis-embodied dis-ease. We instead tend to reason our way through divine mystery with theology, through human pain with theodicy, through religious experience with orderly liturgy, and through diversity with mission statements about inclusion. This arsenal of intellectualization leaves us feeling cut off, denied, and blocked from embodied expression by our holy habits of operation. Sounds like we are quite good at keeping the 'sacred' at arms length. Not too close that we would be pull into it and not too far away that we could not talk about it - from a safe distance. What we miss is the balance. We must let ourselves move into the ambiguity of the holy and yet we also have the responsibility to make sure we are not being pulled into a holy mess that is not at all reflective of the God of all hopefulness. So there is a need to be able to discern spirits. And yet, we do not do that from a distance. We must be close up and walking into the middle of all the life that disturbs us and makes us quake. It is there that we cannot just comment or try to put things in order. Rather, the Spirit makes us experience the fullness of the mess that is life that is holy, sacred, utterly human. Connection: Recently a woman said that she was afraid that she might start to cry when she came to worship - the words of the hymns are powerful - the music stirs her - the variety of people inspire her. Mix all of that together, and there is a good chance there will be tears. Well, then let there be tears. Let there be a humanity present that is overwhelmed by the sacred and aware of the brokenness and pain and joy that is in all of our lives. When we are broken and in need of healing, O God, you invite us to come to you and rest. In prayer we have your ear and we begin to hear what it is to let go and allow some space in which we are open to another voice than our own. In your voice - silent and constant - comes life that even cuts through our great powers we think we have. Again, there is only thanks. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | Mount Shoop notes that there are two collective wounds of our dis-embodied faith: the wound of intellectualization and the wound of fear. For a while, we will listen to her thought about the first - intellectualization.
She begins with a scene in a hospital where the woman she is with does not really want her to pray with her - but, pastor, if you need to do it all right. She continues:
For Sarah prayer was an irrational thing that pastors did in hospitals, far from any kind of connective tissue of the Body of Christ. He strong commitment to justice was her spiritual calling card; prayer was meaningless in a world where rational thinking informs doing. Sarah put her faith into action. Hers was a faith embodied on the ethical layer of her being and doing. And, to be sure, all the work of great saints like Sarah is embodied and deeply important to how the Body of Christ is alive in the world. But her dismissal of prayer trivialized how her faith could be transformative in her life, not to mention the lives of those for whom she could be in prayer. Prayer was intellectually embarrassing and pragmatically useless to her religious sensitivity. Sarah's faith had integrity, but the mysterious power of prayer made no sense in her well-ordered system.
Our fear of prayer or our disassociation with prayer is part of the dis-ease that comes when we allow our intellect to rule and to be the only way we move forward. The dis-ease is one in which we lose our ability to dream - to imagine - to let ourselves wander out into a place and time that is beyond our ability to control and manage. Just this week in a meeting about life within our congregation, someone used the expression dis-ease to give me a picture of myself. My dis-ease was one part a need to be in control - one part trying to be the problem-solver - one part a lack of imagination. Damn - I thought I was good at faithful imagination. But then again, under the pull of fear and uncertainty fear can easily infect me and one of the aspect of the dis-ease is a journey into my problem-solving intellectualization. A place that bring very little new life - just the same old same old. Damn. Connection: When I do let myself pray and when others pray there is no magic - but there sure is connection and the grand reminder of my limits and what is available to all of us from our God who is always saying 'rest in me alone.' When we are broken and in need of healing, O God, you invite us to come to you and rest. In prayer we have your ear and we begin to hear what it is to let go and allow some space in which we are open to another voice than our own. In your voice - silent and constant - comes life that even cuts through our great powers we think we have. Again, there is only thanks. Amen. |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
