"But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others we know not of". Hamlet.
It's been an interesting few weeks.
I've been both delighted and intrigued to participate in an on-line discussion which has certainly touched upon the deeper issues of just how is someone 'made right' with God and equally, assuming that transpires, how do you then live?
(Anyone wishing to read the discussion for themselves can do so at the Internet monk blog site.
Here is the archive link to this:
http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/riffs-021308-the-white-horse-inn-lawgospel-and-why-i-want-my-sermon-on-the-mount-back#comments
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a big Science Fiction fan, and one of the common scenarios in this genre is humanity facing places or circumstances that are totally alien.
A good example was in the Star Trek series, Enterprise, where in the third season, the ship and crew have to traverse an area of space where the normal physical laws no longer apply, making their journey very strange and perilous indeed.
What is true in such fiction is equally true about reality.
The revelation we are supplied in scripture informs us that the original realm we once inhabited has gone, and with it, our genuine humanity. If you or I were to even view that placed described as "Eden" as we are right now, it would truly be an alien world to us - we are so 'detached', so alien to what we were created to be.
There are telling 'whispers' inside each of us that prompt us of that reality - we're aware when we do something wrong, and we're afraid, especially of death, because we sense there is just something not right about corruption and decay - about that part of us that leans all to easily to evil or to fear.
Such a 'voice' tells us that there is something more, but it leaves us in despair about how we reach beyond what we are (we can, of course, pretend we're doing OK, but the 'voice' is still there, telling us how things really are).
Christianity is the answer because it tells us that God is not seeking to turn us into something alien (dis-embodied souls, re-incarnated creatures or nothingness) - He is about restoring us to live in the world we left behind - making us truly human once again.
Now maybe we think we know this - we've been to church a few times and been 'in the group' long enough to know the guide - but how directly does this reality impact upon the way we look at life each day? How do you 'unpack' such redemption in your everyday experience?
What was fascinating about the blog discussion I referred to earlier was just how many think the way forward is to seek to revert to some kind of understanding or behavior which they had even before they were Christians - employ the 'voice' of do's and dont's as the safe policy. The guide gives so many rules, so many requirements, goes the reasoning, that surely the way to make progress is by just seeking to keep these - isn't that why they are there?
The problem here is, just like in a good sci-fi story, applying the wrong solution in the wrong circumstances is well nigh disastrous!
Back in the 1500's, Martin Luther wrote an amazing book - the Bondage of the Will - which sought to expose the fatal flaw in such reasoning - acting that way is totally alien to what we now are, so what is needed is not rule keeping, but life in the new!
Christ came to free us from the tyranny of our 'alien-ness' to God's good work, to clothe us in a new nature that we might actually begin to live well. When the nature of Jesus Christ becomes evident in us, then the genuine characteristics of that life (love, joy, peace) will become expressed in what we are and what we do - not by rule keeping, but by living in the life which comes from Him.
That is what the good news is really all about!
"It is the story of something that happened here on earth, strong enough to break the hold of (the old) on us, strong enough to turn this earth itself into a place of light and life...
It is (giving back the) voice that is strong enough to make us and keep us human,
to enable us to live as we were intended to live - as creatures of God".
Gerhard Forde.
I must conclude my thoughts here by saying that whilst there were some in the discussion who suggested what might be termed 'law keeping' was the best way forward, there were others that recognized that Christianity really calls for much more -
a 'death' to everything tainted by mankind's departure from God (including our own moralizing and rule-making) and a 'resurrection' each day to the life that comes to us from above.
That indeed is the hope which can help.
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Friday, 15 February 2008
THE D A R K N E S S
"Light has come into this world, but men loved darkness instead of the light because their deeds
were evil. Everyone who hates the light will not come to it, because it exposes their deeds, but whoever comes by means of truth will come to the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what they have done has been done through God". John's Gospel, chapter 3, verses 19-21.
It is without doubt one of the most dreadful and terrifying things that can happen to people - when a lie is given power and credibility and promoted as good and right. I can recall many years ago watching the film, 'The Killing Fields' and feeling totally horrified at how human beings can give themselves over (via fear or selfishness) to the atrocious. It is, sadly, a common tale of our times; a savage age filled with examples in almost every part of the world of such carnage, but rarely do we face the reality of what generates such evil. Thankfully, if painfully, life can occasionally intervene to jolt us back to this reality. It did for me this week.
Traveling on a train to a nearby city, I encountered a group of youths, aged between around eleven and thirteen years of age. They decided to sit in the carriage where I was, and, despite this being deemed a zone where mobile phones and the like should not be used, proceeded to loudly begin to use such devices.
It wasn't just their flagrant disrespect for everyone else in the place that was the problem - it was the sheer level of profanity in the materials they were accessing and discussing without any sense of conscience or shame. Two boys across from me, not yet in their teens, openly discussed 'family porn' videos they had downloaded that morning and homosexual acts as 'fun', before joining in singing a grotesque rap song they had on their phones.
I sought to ask them, politely, to turn off these devices as they were not meant to be used - this merely resulted in a few minutes quieter use, before they became even louder.
I found myself shaking from the incident as I left the train; the incident was like a nightmare in slow motion, and for good reason - there was simply no respect in these young boys for themselves or others, allowed at such an age to travel without parents or adults they could look up to, that would prevent them so easily reveling in such corruption (one even spoke of how his parent liked the videos!).
The darkness that resides in the human heart which makes us shameless has indeed become evident, vaunted in our world, and this in itself is a judgment upon a race which now loudly denies the God who formed us and has brought light into our miserable estate.
The last few days have made me so very aware of the fact that we all share a propensity to fall;
to mis-use what God has bestowed and demean what He has made us to be, but thankfully,
as was the case for Noah following his drunken errors, there is mercy if we seek the light of genuine grace, found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
were evil. Everyone who hates the light will not come to it, because it exposes their deeds, but whoever comes by means of truth will come to the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what they have done has been done through God". John's Gospel, chapter 3, verses 19-21.
It is without doubt one of the most dreadful and terrifying things that can happen to people - when a lie is given power and credibility and promoted as good and right. I can recall many years ago watching the film, 'The Killing Fields' and feeling totally horrified at how human beings can give themselves over (via fear or selfishness) to the atrocious. It is, sadly, a common tale of our times; a savage age filled with examples in almost every part of the world of such carnage, but rarely do we face the reality of what generates such evil. Thankfully, if painfully, life can occasionally intervene to jolt us back to this reality. It did for me this week.
Traveling on a train to a nearby city, I encountered a group of youths, aged between around eleven and thirteen years of age. They decided to sit in the carriage where I was, and, despite this being deemed a zone where mobile phones and the like should not be used, proceeded to loudly begin to use such devices.
It wasn't just their flagrant disrespect for everyone else in the place that was the problem - it was the sheer level of profanity in the materials they were accessing and discussing without any sense of conscience or shame. Two boys across from me, not yet in their teens, openly discussed 'family porn' videos they had downloaded that morning and homosexual acts as 'fun', before joining in singing a grotesque rap song they had on their phones.
I sought to ask them, politely, to turn off these devices as they were not meant to be used - this merely resulted in a few minutes quieter use, before they became even louder.
I found myself shaking from the incident as I left the train; the incident was like a nightmare in slow motion, and for good reason - there was simply no respect in these young boys for themselves or others, allowed at such an age to travel without parents or adults they could look up to, that would prevent them so easily reveling in such corruption (one even spoke of how his parent liked the videos!).
The darkness that resides in the human heart which makes us shameless has indeed become evident, vaunted in our world, and this in itself is a judgment upon a race which now loudly denies the God who formed us and has brought light into our miserable estate.
The last few days have made me so very aware of the fact that we all share a propensity to fall;
to mis-use what God has bestowed and demean what He has made us to be, but thankfully,
as was the case for Noah following his drunken errors, there is mercy if we seek the light of genuine grace, found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Monday, 4 February 2008
Beyond Ourselves
"When I consider the brief span of my life absorbed into the eternity which comes before and after, the small space I occupy which is swallowed up into the immensity of time and space which I know nothing of and which knows nothing of me;
the limits set upon my stature and abilities, my insignificance amidst a billion galaxies of billions of stars,
the frailty and folly of my nature and the deepest hunger of my soul,
then I can acknowledge a greater, higher, wiser one,
a God whose chart is eternal and whose nature is profound".
Bliase Pascal.
There are all manner of experiences and encounters in life that can truly overwhelm us.
I recall one winters night in my own life when my brother drove me out into the Sussex countryside for my first real view of the milky way (an experience I actually improved upon a few years ago when I found myself on a clear night in the Rocky mountains). Looking up at all those thousands of stars, the vastness of the heavens - it sparks something deep.
One of my favourite movie moments of all time is the opening of the film, Contact. It's a great movie, with lots of interesting thoughts about science, theology and faith, but that opening scene (see the You Tube link below) really gives you a sense of our 'smallness' amidst the enormity of what surrounds our world - the overwhelming scale of time and space.
My opening quote by Pascal really puts things in context - we really are that small, and yet, most of us sense that there is something of import going on amidst the existence of this strange thing termed humanity. Even the most ardent atheist usually has a streak of optimism concerning the future of our race - that the adventure has only just begun. Why, amidst such vastness and our own propensity to corrupt and destroy do we believe something better about ourselves, especially when reality itself can be so cold and dark?
In the book of Genesis when Abraham confronts the Almighty, he meets a God that is truly God!
The Lord defines Himself as one who is greater that the countless expanse of the stars, the one found to be greater than the deepest, most terrible darkness (Genesis 15). This God tells Abraham that he will bring life to the well-nigh dead bodies of himself and his wife, Sarah, that they may have children in their old age (Genesis 17:1-10).
We are told many things about Abraham and his journeys, but the most important is without question that when he encountered this God and heard His promises, he trusted in them, and that is what changed His life so that he could indeed become the father of many who would likewise trust.
As the story of this man continues, we begin to realize a truth that Jesus referred to many generations later - Abraham's faith allowed him to 'see' the REAL promise of God of deliverance from our fallen state by the gift of God's Son. That is indeed why our kind have a future - a marvelous future - if we share confidence with Abraham, a faith in the promises made by the Almighty God. Such a faith allows us to look beyond the moment, beyond our present frailty, into the day when all of creation shall be enveloped by the redeeming love and presence of our maker.
Contact Link:
the limits set upon my stature and abilities, my insignificance amidst a billion galaxies of billions of stars,
the frailty and folly of my nature and the deepest hunger of my soul,
then I can acknowledge a greater, higher, wiser one,
a God whose chart is eternal and whose nature is profound".
Bliase Pascal.
There are all manner of experiences and encounters in life that can truly overwhelm us.
I recall one winters night in my own life when my brother drove me out into the Sussex countryside for my first real view of the milky way (an experience I actually improved upon a few years ago when I found myself on a clear night in the Rocky mountains). Looking up at all those thousands of stars, the vastness of the heavens - it sparks something deep.
One of my favourite movie moments of all time is the opening of the film, Contact. It's a great movie, with lots of interesting thoughts about science, theology and faith, but that opening scene (see the You Tube link below) really gives you a sense of our 'smallness' amidst the enormity of what surrounds our world - the overwhelming scale of time and space.
My opening quote by Pascal really puts things in context - we really are that small, and yet, most of us sense that there is something of import going on amidst the existence of this strange thing termed humanity. Even the most ardent atheist usually has a streak of optimism concerning the future of our race - that the adventure has only just begun. Why, amidst such vastness and our own propensity to corrupt and destroy do we believe something better about ourselves, especially when reality itself can be so cold and dark?
In the book of Genesis when Abraham confronts the Almighty, he meets a God that is truly God!
The Lord defines Himself as one who is greater that the countless expanse of the stars, the one found to be greater than the deepest, most terrible darkness (Genesis 15). This God tells Abraham that he will bring life to the well-nigh dead bodies of himself and his wife, Sarah, that they may have children in their old age (Genesis 17:1-10).
We are told many things about Abraham and his journeys, but the most important is without question that when he encountered this God and heard His promises, he trusted in them, and that is what changed His life so that he could indeed become the father of many who would likewise trust.
As the story of this man continues, we begin to realize a truth that Jesus referred to many generations later - Abraham's faith allowed him to 'see' the REAL promise of God of deliverance from our fallen state by the gift of God's Son. That is indeed why our kind have a future - a marvelous future - if we share confidence with Abraham, a faith in the promises made by the Almighty God. Such a faith allows us to look beyond the moment, beyond our present frailty, into the day when all of creation shall be enveloped by the redeeming love and presence of our maker.
Contact Link:
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Without looking away
"So you see, long before the tragedies of our times, the modern age was preparing itself for life
without God. We were not the first generation to wonder, 'is there anyone there?'...
Religion, especially in America, is now a form of therapy - a revelation of what we need rather than of God and our real need of Him". Michael Horton - too good to be true.
I was searching around on i Tunes this week when I came across a song I first heard around twelve years ago.
The lyrics are worthy of serious thought:
"You've got this place you go, it's just a trip before the fall,
way past the fever pitch, but just a spit from the wrecking ball.
Said you woke up this morning, said you woke up under a curse,
I've heard the blues are bad, but this is something worse.
And the ambulance driver, well he tips his hat and stares,
and he asks you in a grave voice, can I take you anywhere.
yes the thing we cannot speak of, too painful to behold,
oh this blister soul, this blister soul!"
(Blister Soul by the Vigilantes of Love).
The song continues to describe the cost of our condition, the awful secret we all carry, and how there is a cost to such a horror unless we embrace the remedy.
As one reviewer put it, this harrowing yet triumphant track nails what we are, drawing it out of the darkness to the pain yet necessity of the light...It is the starting point of everyone's burden but equally the moment of introducing us to hope.
The light of the Gospel casts a dark shadow - the reality of the human condition, for only then can we see the necessity, the extraordinary need, we all share for the remedy.
When we gaze soberly into this revelation, then we will begin to see why Christ is the answer to the darkness.
without God. We were not the first generation to wonder, 'is there anyone there?'...
Religion, especially in America, is now a form of therapy - a revelation of what we need rather than of God and our real need of Him". Michael Horton - too good to be true.
I was searching around on i Tunes this week when I came across a song I first heard around twelve years ago.
The lyrics are worthy of serious thought:
"You've got this place you go, it's just a trip before the fall,
way past the fever pitch, but just a spit from the wrecking ball.
Said you woke up this morning, said you woke up under a curse,
I've heard the blues are bad, but this is something worse.
And the ambulance driver, well he tips his hat and stares,
and he asks you in a grave voice, can I take you anywhere.
yes the thing we cannot speak of, too painful to behold,
oh this blister soul, this blister soul!"
(Blister Soul by the Vigilantes of Love).
The song continues to describe the cost of our condition, the awful secret we all carry, and how there is a cost to such a horror unless we embrace the remedy.
As one reviewer put it, this harrowing yet triumphant track nails what we are, drawing it out of the darkness to the pain yet necessity of the light...It is the starting point of everyone's burden but equally the moment of introducing us to hope.
The light of the Gospel casts a dark shadow - the reality of the human condition, for only then can we see the necessity, the extraordinary need, we all share for the remedy.
When we gaze soberly into this revelation, then we will begin to see why Christ is the answer to the darkness.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Total Neglect
"Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true".
Demosthenes.
Sometimes in life it can be real hard to look in the mirror and face the truth. Most of us know what it's like to have to begin to deal with some painful reality about ourselves or those we love, to face a hardship or a trial that can leave us drained and yearning for a way out. Certain distractions in the midst of such struggles - a few hours entertainment or a much needed few days away - can indeed prove good in helping to re-gain our footing. A deeper trouble, however, can occur when we seek to completely exchange such a fantasy world for reality, to essentially flee from the truth about our world.
The great problem with such lies resides not only in the thing we express in that moment - a desire, perhaps, to be something other than we are (richer, safer, healthier, more popular) - but the myth that so often underpins such an expression: that we ARE or can be so. It tells us so much about a deceit so common to our race.
Whilst watching a discussion programme this morning, a popular actor expressed the popular myths of our age:
1.That science has proved that God is a fabrication.
2.That Jesus was merely a good man - a moral teacher.
What is so annoying about these lies is that they are derived from pure myth - a hermetically sealed understanding of the world which simply refuses to engage with facts (scientific and historical) which 'inconveniently' point in the entirely opposite direction.
A battle royal is about to begin in the scientific community because the public are about to discover that many scientists have been gaged in the last decade simply because they have sought to draw attention to empirical data which strongly suggests we are not here by chance. Biblical scholarship has clearly put the case for a historical reality between the Jesus recorded in the gospels and the man Himself, yet we continue to seek to detach Christ from the message and the deeds of these invaluable records.
We simply cannot face up to what's before us.
It's time to look further than ourselves, further than notions of a 'divinity' that merely panders to the status quo. God has broken into the illusion of an empty cosmos, and the shock of this cannot be overlooked, however shocking the consequences.
A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
C S Lewis
Coming Soon:
Demosthenes.
Sometimes in life it can be real hard to look in the mirror and face the truth. Most of us know what it's like to have to begin to deal with some painful reality about ourselves or those we love, to face a hardship or a trial that can leave us drained and yearning for a way out. Certain distractions in the midst of such struggles - a few hours entertainment or a much needed few days away - can indeed prove good in helping to re-gain our footing. A deeper trouble, however, can occur when we seek to completely exchange such a fantasy world for reality, to essentially flee from the truth about our world.
The great problem with such lies resides not only in the thing we express in that moment - a desire, perhaps, to be something other than we are (richer, safer, healthier, more popular) - but the myth that so often underpins such an expression: that we ARE or can be so. It tells us so much about a deceit so common to our race.
Whilst watching a discussion programme this morning, a popular actor expressed the popular myths of our age:
1.That science has proved that God is a fabrication.
2.That Jesus was merely a good man - a moral teacher.
What is so annoying about these lies is that they are derived from pure myth - a hermetically sealed understanding of the world which simply refuses to engage with facts (scientific and historical) which 'inconveniently' point in the entirely opposite direction.
A battle royal is about to begin in the scientific community because the public are about to discover that many scientists have been gaged in the last decade simply because they have sought to draw attention to empirical data which strongly suggests we are not here by chance. Biblical scholarship has clearly put the case for a historical reality between the Jesus recorded in the gospels and the man Himself, yet we continue to seek to detach Christ from the message and the deeds of these invaluable records.
We simply cannot face up to what's before us.
It's time to look further than ourselves, further than notions of a 'divinity' that merely panders to the status quo. God has broken into the illusion of an empty cosmos, and the shock of this cannot be overlooked, however shocking the consequences.
A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
C S Lewis
Coming Soon:
Sunday, 13 January 2008
Into the Depths
"Theology is like a map. Merely thinking and learning about this is less real and less exciting than encountering the reality the map conveys. The map must be used to get somewhere (theology is practical), and where it takes us is to Christ -
not a moral teacher, but the Son of God".
Paraphrased from Mere Christianity by C S Lewis.
Carrying on from my last entry here, I seek to provoke thoughts about the realities of our world via a piece of fiction I've written...
THE MEETING
"I am body and soul - so speaks the child. And why should one not speak as Children?"
Nietzche.
The road from the temple gate to this outer part of the city was hard at the best of times, and this was not the best of times. Night had fallen, bringing with it those who most profit from the darkness. It was not wise to be out here, alone, but there had been no choice.
Careful to avoid the streets where he would have been recognized and turning where trouble resided, the old scholar hurried back from the appointed place. It had been half a lifetime since he had been to this forsaken quarter, but the events of the past few days had prompted his actions.
Bustling along, his breath ragged, he wished his agitated thoughts could become as still as the night air. Life had been far more straightforward before the reports had begun. And then -and then...
He stopped, willing his racing heart and pensive reflections to ease.
He was a teacher. He understood the way things were; the mechanics of the observable. He had come expecting to meet a kindred soul, had come with all the right questions - the ones that mattered, and had left with so many more.
A gentle breeze brushed his flushed cheeks, furrowed brow and grey beard.
He tried once more to gather his shaken reflections, to remember the crux of the conversation of not an hour before. Words and images played in an almost cruel manner on the outskirts of his thoughts. He struggled, like one stranded in the midst of a thick forest, desperate for direction. Audibly exhaling , his reflections became focused, the matter of the evening beginning to take form, exorcising his solitude.
Birth, death, wind, spirit, evil, truth, darkness, light. The cacophony of concepts englobed his attention and rewarded his weary toil.
Is this what had so unsettled him? Mere words from another man.
He had encountered many who thought themselves enlightened, had skilfully debated the best of his own. In all of this, he had never encountered such a display of wisdom, of insight. It reached far above and beyond the learning of any he had studied or previously engaged.
He trembled.
His thoughts were broken by a group of 'pilgrims' making their way to part of the district. He scurried into an adjoining, darker alley to avoid them , resting upon a squat wall until they had passed.
Moments expired and the silence returned.
Words assembled and spoke to his mind, carrying with them the strength and thunder of boiling Sinai;
"The Wind blows where it wills, and you cannot tell where it has come from or where it is going".
His anxious gaze focused upon some particles of sand, caught up in the breeze and dancing in the erratic moonlight. Was he little more than such dust? What truly distinguished him, transformed him, into something more than this floating assortment of empty fragments?
"And He formed man of the dust, and breathed into him the breath of life".
The wind bound him. Not the slight breeze upon his cheeks, but the breath which had caressed with care and strength amidst the formless void of creation's dawn. Birth..wind..darkness..light. He looked down at his trembling hands, aghast at both the wonder and the terror of his own form.
"Teacher, learn. All is futility under the sun". And yet, and yet...
"And Yet", he whispered, almost too afraid to say the words he had known since childhood.
"And yet in my flesh, shall I see God!".
The stranger's voice came back with depth and clarity, chastening and challenging him;
"Are you a teacher and you do not understand this? I have spoken to you of common things, and yet you do not understand. How would you believe if I spoke to you of the heavenly?"
The Heavenly. The words were true. One greater than the Prophets had been promised. He had seen, had heard him. The wind was working, dancing within the old scholar's waking soul.
Faith, it is said, is at its best when it leads to understanding. He Smiled.
The wind had once more worked upon the dust.
'Flesh is life because of Spirit. Eternal birth comes only from above'.
The air was cold, the night still, but a new life, as strong as any ocean wave, had begun to arise amidst the sage's old bones; life which raises the soul and redeems dying flesh.
The first rays of dawn fractured the black as he returned to the temple.
He gazed for a moment upon the glow, knowing that the light which had nurtured the earth before the first sunrise had risen once more, never to set amidst Adam's wind-touched sons.
For further reading, see John 3:1-21.
There is, I believe, what Lewis referred to, a 'still point' in history, and it was the life and death of this person - a life and death which defines our reality.
There are essentially two ways we can look upon and relate to life, but only one can finally be correct...
not a moral teacher, but the Son of God".
Paraphrased from Mere Christianity by C S Lewis.
Carrying on from my last entry here, I seek to provoke thoughts about the realities of our world via a piece of fiction I've written...
THE MEETING
"I am body and soul - so speaks the child. And why should one not speak as Children?"
Nietzche.
The road from the temple gate to this outer part of the city was hard at the best of times, and this was not the best of times. Night had fallen, bringing with it those who most profit from the darkness. It was not wise to be out here, alone, but there had been no choice.
Careful to avoid the streets where he would have been recognized and turning where trouble resided, the old scholar hurried back from the appointed place. It had been half a lifetime since he had been to this forsaken quarter, but the events of the past few days had prompted his actions.
Bustling along, his breath ragged, he wished his agitated thoughts could become as still as the night air. Life had been far more straightforward before the reports had begun. And then -and then...
He stopped, willing his racing heart and pensive reflections to ease.
He was a teacher. He understood the way things were; the mechanics of the observable. He had come expecting to meet a kindred soul, had come with all the right questions - the ones that mattered, and had left with so many more.
A gentle breeze brushed his flushed cheeks, furrowed brow and grey beard.
He tried once more to gather his shaken reflections, to remember the crux of the conversation of not an hour before. Words and images played in an almost cruel manner on the outskirts of his thoughts. He struggled, like one stranded in the midst of a thick forest, desperate for direction. Audibly exhaling , his reflections became focused, the matter of the evening beginning to take form, exorcising his solitude.
Birth, death, wind, spirit, evil, truth, darkness, light. The cacophony of concepts englobed his attention and rewarded his weary toil.
Is this what had so unsettled him? Mere words from another man.
He had encountered many who thought themselves enlightened, had skilfully debated the best of his own. In all of this, he had never encountered such a display of wisdom, of insight. It reached far above and beyond the learning of any he had studied or previously engaged.
He trembled.
His thoughts were broken by a group of 'pilgrims' making their way to part of the district. He scurried into an adjoining, darker alley to avoid them , resting upon a squat wall until they had passed.
Moments expired and the silence returned.
Words assembled and spoke to his mind, carrying with them the strength and thunder of boiling Sinai;
"The Wind blows where it wills, and you cannot tell where it has come from or where it is going".
His anxious gaze focused upon some particles of sand, caught up in the breeze and dancing in the erratic moonlight. Was he little more than such dust? What truly distinguished him, transformed him, into something more than this floating assortment of empty fragments?
"And He formed man of the dust, and breathed into him the breath of life".
The wind bound him. Not the slight breeze upon his cheeks, but the breath which had caressed with care and strength amidst the formless void of creation's dawn. Birth..wind..darkness..light. He looked down at his trembling hands, aghast at both the wonder and the terror of his own form.
"Teacher, learn. All is futility under the sun". And yet, and yet...
"And Yet", he whispered, almost too afraid to say the words he had known since childhood.
"And yet in my flesh, shall I see God!".
The stranger's voice came back with depth and clarity, chastening and challenging him;
"Are you a teacher and you do not understand this? I have spoken to you of common things, and yet you do not understand. How would you believe if I spoke to you of the heavenly?"
The Heavenly. The words were true. One greater than the Prophets had been promised. He had seen, had heard him. The wind was working, dancing within the old scholar's waking soul.
Faith, it is said, is at its best when it leads to understanding. He Smiled.
The wind had once more worked upon the dust.
'Flesh is life because of Spirit. Eternal birth comes only from above'.
The air was cold, the night still, but a new life, as strong as any ocean wave, had begun to arise amidst the sage's old bones; life which raises the soul and redeems dying flesh.
The first rays of dawn fractured the black as he returned to the temple.
He gazed for a moment upon the glow, knowing that the light which had nurtured the earth before the first sunrise had risen once more, never to set amidst Adam's wind-touched sons.
For further reading, see John 3:1-21.
There is, I believe, what Lewis referred to, a 'still point' in history, and it was the life and death of this person - a life and death which defines our reality.
There are essentially two ways we can look upon and relate to life, but only one can finally be correct...
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
Advancing with certainty.
"Here, we not only show how the past, present and future hinge upon one unfolding plan,
but the relation of these things to eternity - the impact that the everlasting has upon us, imprisoned in this moment".
The Interpreter - A New Pilgrim's Progress by Geoffrey Bull.
Philosophy is the forum of questions about ourselves, and Science the arena of seeking to define certain physical realities, but neither field ever leaves us in a place of profound meaning regarding our moments here - they can hint or suggest, but every such notion can (probably) be countered by an alternative argument or view - not exactly a 'manufacturer's guide' then.
Philosophy deems knowledge as a 'justified true belief' (justified because there is some basis in what we deem reality to hold such a view). Science takes a similar approach - an idea (hypothesis) is tested to see if there are viable grounds for saying if something is so, an affirmation allowing the development of a theory about how something operates, but key too all of this accumulation is one thing - our perception of what we can understand of the world by means of our senses. The issue which both Philosophy and Science must face is that such an understanding (as provided by such means) fails to meet the most deepest questions we hold, for like the universe itself, the answer does not appear to be held in what is merely defined as 'fact' by such approaches (a word itself, which derives from a term which means, 'to fabricate').
Some years ago, I recall watching an intriguing and pretty disturbing conspiracy theory movie, The Parallax View. The film certainly has 'layers' regarding what is seen as 'reality', but the key scene (which I'll link to below), is when our 'hero' - a reporter played by Warren Beatty - seeks to infiltrate an organization that is involved in political destabilisation. He undergoes a fascinating 'programming' session using visual stimuli. The movie never tells us who they are working for, or even why, it merely seeks to challenge our acceptance of the 'status quo'.
Whether such 'games' of move and counter move actually occur is not the point. The Christian world-view is that we are all victims of a 'parallax' obscuring of the world when it comes to reality. We can assimilate all kinds of 'knowledge' (justified belief) about what goes on around us, and yet reach a totally wrong conclusion about who and what we are.
There are other ways to look... and that's what I'll touch on in my next blog.
Link: The Parallax View Scene.
but the relation of these things to eternity - the impact that the everlasting has upon us, imprisoned in this moment".
The Interpreter - A New Pilgrim's Progress by Geoffrey Bull.
Philosophy is the forum of questions about ourselves, and Science the arena of seeking to define certain physical realities, but neither field ever leaves us in a place of profound meaning regarding our moments here - they can hint or suggest, but every such notion can (probably) be countered by an alternative argument or view - not exactly a 'manufacturer's guide' then.
Philosophy deems knowledge as a 'justified true belief' (justified because there is some basis in what we deem reality to hold such a view). Science takes a similar approach - an idea (hypothesis) is tested to see if there are viable grounds for saying if something is so, an affirmation allowing the development of a theory about how something operates, but key too all of this accumulation is one thing - our perception of what we can understand of the world by means of our senses. The issue which both Philosophy and Science must face is that such an understanding (as provided by such means) fails to meet the most deepest questions we hold, for like the universe itself, the answer does not appear to be held in what is merely defined as 'fact' by such approaches (a word itself, which derives from a term which means, 'to fabricate').
Some years ago, I recall watching an intriguing and pretty disturbing conspiracy theory movie, The Parallax View. The film certainly has 'layers' regarding what is seen as 'reality', but the key scene (which I'll link to below), is when our 'hero' - a reporter played by Warren Beatty - seeks to infiltrate an organization that is involved in political destabilisation. He undergoes a fascinating 'programming' session using visual stimuli. The movie never tells us who they are working for, or even why, it merely seeks to challenge our acceptance of the 'status quo'.
Whether such 'games' of move and counter move actually occur is not the point. The Christian world-view is that we are all victims of a 'parallax' obscuring of the world when it comes to reality. We can assimilate all kinds of 'knowledge' (justified belief) about what goes on around us, and yet reach a totally wrong conclusion about who and what we are.
There are other ways to look... and that's what I'll touch on in my next blog.
Link: The Parallax View Scene.
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