The Great Mystery

"Religion has not tended to create seekers or searchers, has not tended to create honest humble people who trust that God is always beyond them. We aren't focused on the great mystery. Religion has, rather, tended to create people who think they have God in their pockets, people with quick, easy, glib answers. That's why so much of the West is undertsandably abandoning religion. People know the great mustery cannot be that simple and facile. If the great mystery is indeed the Great Mystery, it will lead us into paradox, into darkness, into journeys that never cease....That is what prayer is about."  - from Everything Belongs, by Richard Rohr

I'm just sitting here today pondering the Great Mystery and the providence of God...or is it just coincidence?
Does it seem strange that I almost died last summer, have spent 7 months healing before I go back to work and am able to go back to work doing the thing that I loved most...teaching...without huge financial loss? Is it strange that there was a philosophy position already available on the campus where I first began my TCC teaching career and that they really wanted me back there to fill it? And now I have the same office on that campus that I had 15 years ago when I left to help open Southeast Campus? Is this coincidence or part of the Great Mystery? I'd like to believe it's the hand of God in my life working the evil that befell me into a good for God's purpose. There are no certainties here...just a hope and belief that God DOES work in our individual lives. This is a central part of the Great Mystery if it is true! It appears that the journey is a dangerous one...

"Do you believe that everything is part of a plan, a design, an intervention of God in our affairs? I do. And I am convinced that God's love can transform the darkness of a disaster or the irrationality of an earthquake into an event that can influence, or even completely change, our lives....I came upon this passage in Augustine: 'God can permit evil only in so far as he is capable of transforming it into a good.'"
      -from Sought and I Found, by Carlo Caretto

My prayer:
"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."
     -from Thoughts in Solitude, by Thomas Merton

The Mystery in Which We Live

"Is the mystery within which we live, and to which we are inescapably bonded, ultimately gracious or indifferent? Are we grounded in a reality that cares for us or not? That is for us or against us? The Christian response to these questions is that the hallmark of God is graciousness. God cares for us. God is for us. This takes us to the heart of the reality we call grace." - Richard M. Gula

The Incarnation is the proof of God's loving care for us. If the story is true, it is the most remarkable story ever told on this planet...that somehow the God who created a universe billions of light years across, full of galaxies and stars innumerable, entered into the small Child in the stable in Bethlehem for the sole purpose of human redemption. It is a mystery unfathomable and such a strange way to save the world. As the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe says as she is about to sacrifice Aslan, "Did you think by this to save the human creature?" The Answer from the Deeper Magic from beyond the Dawn of Time is a resounding, "Yes!" that echoes through the timeless halls of eternity!

"It's still a mystery to me that the hands of God could be so small...."

"So wrap our injured flesh around you,
Breathe our air and walk our sod,
Rub our sin and make us holy,
Perfect Son of God,
Perfect Son of God."

Welcome to our world...You who called the galaxies and stars into being. We were too busy with being ourselves to even know it was You. So angels sang to a group of lowly shepherds and foreign astrologers were wise enough to read your signs in the skies and come to find You. 

Forgive us for being so tied up in ourselves that we missed Your coming. Help us not to miss it again in this season of parties, shopping, and busy-ness. Turn our hearts to a quiet stable in Bethlehem to ponder this Great Mystery. Let us be still and know that this is God who has entered our world because God loves us and cares for us.

Welcome to our world........

The Faith of a Marshwiggle

"'One word, Ma'am,' he said, coming back from the fire, limping because of the pain. 'One word. All you've been saying is quite right. I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and put the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you've said. But there's one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only real world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia.'"
                                  - The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis

The Invisible Presence

Shasta: "Then it was you who wounded Aravis?"
Aslan: "It was I."
Shasta: "But what for?"
Aslan: "Child," said the voice, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own."
Shasta: "Who are you?"
Aslan: "Myself...."
          -From The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis

"If what you want is an argument against Christianity (and I well remember how eagerly I looked for such arguments when I began to be afraid it was true) you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say, 'So there's your boasted new man! Give me the old kind.' But if once you have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other peoples' souls - of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next door neighbours or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count (will you even be able to remember it?) when the anaesthetic fog, which we call 'nature' or 'the real world' fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?"
      - Mere Christianity, Book IV, Chapter 10, C.S. Lewis

"No sooner had He spoken than I caught a glimpse of the Light that had escaped the Most Holy Place when the Lord first entered the torn veil. It continued its boundless journey through the ages, touching every time and every nation. It was not a haphazard flash of light, but a calculated methodical search for everyone who ever lived. Upon each one, the Light of His Glory rested, urging, nudging, calling, drawing each person to Him who sits on the throne....I sat in awe of the Light's gentle determination to shine in the heart of every living person, revealing the love and forgiving power of the Christ of God."   - from Romancing the Divine, Don Nori, p. 175

Dueling Billboards

It seems that with the Christmas season beginning once again, an old argument is once again surfacing. Atheists around the country are beginning an ad campaign to voice their views against the existence (should I say non-existence?) of God and Christianity. These views are being posted in very prominent places, such as on billboards and the sides of public transportation. This seems to have provoked a firestorm of controversy nationwide, particularly from some Christian groups who are outraged. Since so many other people are expressing their views about this issue, I have decided to make a few comments here to both sides.

First, I am amazed at the Christian response from those who want to try to ban atheists from publicly expressing their views and making an attempt to convert people to them. It is as if some Christians are not aware that there have always been those who do not believe in the existence of God and have been vocal in their views. I have many friends who hold no belief in God and we disagree and have lively conversations about it with the open intent of trying to convert each other to the other side. This is a healthy thing and has caused us to respect each another and find common ground, rather than condemning. As a Baptist, I am a defender of religious liberty, and that liberty includes the right of individuals not to believe in a God and to openly express their views. These rights are protected under freedom of religion and freedom of speech. This is part of the debate of the marketplace of free ideas and when the debate is conducted civilly and with respect for opposing views is a very healthy exercise. So the attempt by some groups of Christian ministers to have these ads banned or censored is simply misplaced. This debate is as old as Christianity itself...actually as old as religion itself... and will continue as long as history continues. Is faith so fragile that it cannot withstand the light of questioning and opposing views? I hope not.

In Fort Worth, Texas atheists are running a campaign with billboards on the sides of city buses stating "Good without God." This is a legal ad and violates no city, state, or federal laws. Churches can also purchase advertising as well if they so choose. So I have no problem there. My problem is with the message itself. It implies that the heart of the Christian message is that people can not be good without God...that Christianity is really only concerned somehow with "mere morality." I agree with atheists, that in looking at some Christian groups morality could be mistaken the central concern of Christianity. Having been a philosophy teacher for more than twenty years I am well aware that moral systems about the good and the right can and have been developed without recourse to any kind of religious language and to "reason" alone. I'm also aware that there are "good" people with whom I share a strong moral base who do not believe in God. But I am reminded of the words of C. S. Lewis concerning "nice" people.

"'Niceness' - wholesomeness, integrated personality - is an excellent thing. We must try by every medical, educational, economic and political means in our power, to produce a world where as many people as possible grow up 'nice'; just as we must try to produce a world where all have plenty to eat....
For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man." -Mere Christianity, Book IV, Chapter 10, C. S. Lewis 

Christianity is concerned with more than "mere morality" and making human beings "good."  "Can't you lead a good life without believing in Christianity?" The question sounds as if it were asked by a person who said to herself, "I don't care whether Christianity is, in fact, true or not. I choose beliefs not because they are true, but because they are helpful." In fact, Christianity believes that the real universe is more like what Christianity has to say about it than other views. Christians differ with atheists about the nature of basic reality. They differ on what they believe is the truth about the very basis of that reality, God. Is there a God or not, and if there is, how does that shape my views and beliefs about the whole of reality and how life ought to be lived? Having taught philosophy for so long, I'm aware of the difficulties in "proving" the existence of God, with the debate about revelation and whether that's possible, what it is, and what it means about our ways of knowing things. These are all part of the ongoing discussion between atheists and theists and will continue to be so. But the crux of that matter simply is not whether there can be "good" people with out belief in God. The truth of the matter is that there are, and I know some of them. In fact, the sign on the Fort Worth city bus is a straw person fallacy of the Christian position.

This leads me to the dueling billboard signs in New York. They are within viewing distance of each other. One reads: "You know it's real. This season, celebrate Jesus." A short distance away the atheist billboard reads: "You Know it's a Myth. This Season, Celebrate REASON!" At the bottom it reads: "American Atheism - Reasonable since 1963."  The trouble with the atheists' sign is that it implies that if you believe in Christianity that you are not one who has or uses "reason." I take exception to this view, since I like to see myself as a person who understands "reason" and uses the processes involved in it. The problem here lies in the old adage: "He who defines the terms, wins the arguments." Atheists have defined reason in a certain way and those who do not hold to that view of "reason" are thus not "reasonable." Reason, in fact, involves discovering a set of premises, some of which amount to assumptions, and using a set of rational methodologies to reason validly or correctly to conclusions, ranging from strong to weak in their establishment. These methodologies are agreed upon methods which any can learn and use. The difficulty is in establishing premises that all agree to and can reason from, since differing premises can lead to very different conclusions. In this case a central premise is whether or not God exists. What I resent about the atheists' billboard is that it implies Christians are ignorant of all that's involved in "reason" and blindly choose to accept "Christian" views with no recourse to reason. This is patently false and since it's earliest days Christian apologists have sought to take the tools of reason and apply them to the faith that has been confessed. The billboard makes a simple and false generalization about both reason and Christianity.

Having been a Christian for my whole life, a teacher of philosophy, and an educator I am well aware of the difficult philosophical problems involved in establishing the existence of God and of religion in general, and Christianity in particular. However, my job in education has never been to indoctrinate students into believing in God, but to give to them the tools of reason and set them on the task of trying to arrive at their own answers to important philosophical questions such as the ultimate nature of reality and the consequences that come from whatever we believe about it. So, in this season where the Christian religion is in the forefront of things, let's continue the discussion with respect and dignity for both sides....and maybe arrive at some common ground to improve our lives and the society around us.

Stripped Bare

"In spite of everything that I have so far written, things here are revolting...my grim experiences often pursue me into the night...I can shake them off only by reciting one hymn after another, and that I am apt to wake up with a sigh rather than with a hymn of praise to God. It is possible to get used to physical hardships, and to live for months out of the body, so to speak - almost too much so - but one does not get used to the psychological strain; on the contrary, I have the feeling that everything that I see and hear is putting years on me and that I am often finding the world nauseating and burdensome....I often wonder who I really am - the man who goes on squirming under these ghastly experiences in wretchedness that cries to heaven, or the man who scourges himself and pretends to others (and even to himself) that he is placid, cheerful, composed, and in control of himself, and allows people to admire him for it (i.e., for playing the part - or is it not playing a part?). What does one's attitude mean, anyway? In short, I know less than ever about myself, and I am no longer attaching any importance to it. I have had more than enough psychology, and I am less and less inclined to analyze the state of my soul...There is something more at stake than self-knowledge."
                    -From Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 22-23.

Who am I? They often tell me
I would step from my cell's confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friednly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equably, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
Compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!
                                     - Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Waiting

Well, today begins Advent and the journey towards Bethlehem. But this year Bethlehem seems a thousand miles away...and the walk to it seems impossible. However, I am reminded of hope...and I decide to undertake the journey anyway, for what seems impossible to me is just the ordinary for God....

He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:4

     "Christmas is the promise that the God who came in history and comes daily in mystery will one day come in glory. God is saying in Jesus that in the end everything will be all right. Nothing can harm you permanently, no suffering is irrevocable, no loss is lasting, no defeat is more than transitory, no disappointment is conclusive. Jesus did not deny the reality of suffering, discouragement, disappointment, frustration, and death; he simply stated that the Kingdom of God would conquer all of these horrors, that the Father's love is so prodigal that no evil could possibly resist it."  - From Reflections for Ragamuffins, by Brennan Manning

The world had waited...
From the casting out of Eden's bower 
And the promise of serpent crush'd,
Through quiet mist
And thundering deluge
Between seas parted
And people freed
And mountains quaking.

And still the world waited...
Through judges tried and trying,
And kingdoms united,
The divided.
Through fall, separation, and exile,
Amid prophet's cries
And armies turmoiled.

And still the world waited...
Through kingdom rebuilt,
Freed, then conquered -
Hellenistic, Antiochan, and Eagle standards unfurl'd.

'Til then, when angel voices proclaimed
That in a quiet manger in Bethlehem
Eternity and time were joined together inseparably
And the waiting was over...to begin again.

And now the world waits
Anxiously, hopefully, expectantly
For the final act,
The curtain ringing in
Where time will become eternity
Unto the ages of the ages.

There is a joy in the journey
There's a light we can love on the way
There is a wonder and wildness to life
And freedom for those who obey

And all those who seek it shall find it
A pardon for all who believe
Hope for the hopeless
And sight for the blind

To all who've been born of the Spirit
And who share incarnation with Him
Who belong to eternity
Stranded in time
And weary of struggling with sin

Forget not the hope
That's before you
And never stop counting the cost
Remember the hopelessnessWhen you were lost?

There is a joy in the journey
There's a light we can love on the way
There is a wonder and wildness to life
And freedom for those who obey
          - Michael Card, Copyright 1986 Maple End Music/Birdsong