sunday encouragement from 1453

One of my favorite quotes.  It was written in 1453 by an Italian Christian, Nicolas Cusanas (1401-1464), in his major philosophical treatise De Visione Dei, "On the Vision of God."  Cusanus is considered the "principle gatekeeper between medieval and modern philosophy" (H. Lawrence Bond).

O Lord, how inclined you are to show your face to all those seeking you.  For you never close your eyes, never turn them elsewhere; and although I turn my self away from you when I direct my attention entirely to something other, yet notwithstanding this, you change neither your eyes nor your gaze.  If you do not look upon me with the eye of grace, I am at fault because I have separated myself from you by turning away toward some other, which I prefer to you.  Yet, even so, you do not turn completely from me, but on the contrary, your mercy follows me so that should I ever wish to turn back to you, I would be capable of grace.  If you do not regard me, it is because I do not regard you but reject and despise you. [...]  Everyone, therefore, who is seeking seeks only the good and everyone who seeks the good and withdraws from you withdraws from that which one is seeking.  (Translated by H. Lawrence Bond)

Death is dead.

Begin with part one of this series here.  Or, read this, and if it happens to interest you then go back to part one later.

The grasshopper-eating vagrant is down by the river again. People are gathered around; some are watching from a distance with folded arms, others are pressing in, water to the ankles, straining to get a closer look.  Some are well dressed, others look as if they've just awoken from a drunken slumber somewhere nearby.  It happens today that a certain young man has joined the interested crowd. Perhaps he's standing next to you and the warmth of his arm on your skin is lessening the shiver.  Then, suddenly, he steps forward to be put into the water, joining the ranks of those who've gone before.  He's placed himself as one of them.

***

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sin, death and the salvation of the cosmos. part three

-----The following is part of an ongoing process of discovery taking place in my inner recesses.  That said, these topics are still being wrestled out in my mind and heart and are in no way definitive.  This particular series has been written with much wrestling and reading, and I have no doubt that some of the statements contained herein will be tuned and transformed over the course of my life with God.  If you have anything to add or comment, I would appreciate it greatly; even if you disagree with the whole thing, tell me that too.  Wrestle with the truth alongside me.-----

you might want to start with part one here.

 

"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you."

(Ezekiel 36:25-29)

"When, Lord?" Cried his people.  "When will you make us clean from this creeping death, all these dichotomies of good and evil?  This life is painful.  Help us."

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...and the shimmers of a new birth. part two of three.

-----The following is part of an ongoing discovery that has taken place inside my mind for the past five years, before which I couldn't have possibly cared any less about any of this religion talk.  That said, these topics are still being wrestled out in my mind and heart and are in no way definitive.  This particular three part series has been written with much wrestling and reading, and I have no doubt that some of the statements contained herein will be tuned and transformed over the course of my life with God.  If you have anything to add or comment, I would appreciate it greatly; even if you disagree with the whole thing, tell me that too.  Wrestle with the truth alongside me.-----


Read Part One Here

God's just and loving character went uncompromised through the whole story of Israel.

Here's a little pop culture button-art.  Did you know--MLK had a PhD in Theology from Boston University?

mlk

After the exodus from Egypt, led by Moses and his brother Aaron, God called Moses to a mountain top (mount Sinai) where he gave him a list of commands.  The "Ten Commandments" or "Decalogue" made up only a small portion of these commands.  The books "Exodus," "Leviticus" and "Deuteronomy" contain hundreds of them...

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death, exile, and the shimmers of a new birth; part one

-----The following writing has been developing in my mind over the last five years or so, before which I couldn't have cared a bit less about this religion talk.  That said, these topics are still being wrestled out in my mind and heart and are in no way definitive.  This particular three part series has been written with much wrestling and reading, and I have no doubt that some of the statements contained herein will be tuned and transformed over the course of my life.  If you have anything to add or comment, I would appreciate it greatly.  Even if you disagree with the whole thing, tell me that too.  Wrestle with the truth alongside me.-----

Part One

Several days ago I wrote a post on ignorance in Eden.  You can read it here before continuing on with this post.  I recommend it, if only for the sake of your understanding where I'm going with the following paragraphs.  It's short.

This is how the post ends:


"The leaves of the Tree of Life, from which we were once banished, are now for the healing of the nations.  The first exile was from Eden, from that place of no dichotomy [between good and evil], to a place of dichotomy.  If 'place' is confusing, then think of it as a state of being.  We are exiled out of the intended state of being -- that of no moral distinction between any word or deed -- and into a place running rampant with gross manifestations of evil, full of dichotomies.

One who walks in the power and knowledge of Jesus the Messiah is brought out of that exile.  There's a new Exodus, and it's happening right now.  I suggest you get your staff and satchel and join us, we're learning to bear the light of love and justice in this strange and dangerous planet."


This place of no moral discrimination, now and still to come, is the gift of all Christians.  Let me explain...

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women and men in a world of despair.

As a married man and a leader in campus ministry and local church, allow me to attempt a response to the question of men and women.

I can't say that I speak for the whole of the Christian Church, but I do speak for a large part of it when I say what I'm about to say.

God created a man and then proclaimed that it was not good for him to be alone.  So, to complete the picture of humanity, he created a woman.  The man was ecstatic. "This is flesh of my flesh, bone of my bones," he exclaimed.

And God saw what he had made, and it was very good.

Humanity.

One entity, two parts.  We are, first and foremost, a community.  I don't know a whole lot about cars, so I take mine to a mechanic or to my father-in-law's garage.  If everyone had to do everything, society would be stuck in the stone age.  On this point I think we all agree.

This integral separation within the community of global humanity stretches all the way down to the smallest part.  One man and one woman.  The two are different.  But they are necessarily so.  Even biologically, the differences are required for the production of children.  It doesn't stop with biology.  Anyone who has been around young children for any length of time recognizes differences between the sexes...

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the knowledge of good and evil

A few days ago I wrote a short paper on the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden.  The last comment that my professor made at the end of the paper was this:  "Is the Genesis narrative somehow suggesting that the ideal life is eternal ignorance?"  My professor's question warrants further discussion.  Is eternal ignorance the ideal?


In Ajax, one of the seven tragedies by Greek playwright Sophocles (5th BCE), the central character, Ajax, says the following to his baby boy:

"O my son, may you become more fortunate than your father with respect to wickedness, but like him in other things!  Please don't become wicked!  Even now I have jealousy for you, in this at least: that you perceive nothing of wicked things.  For the sweetest life rests by no means in understanding, it lasts until you learn joy and sorrow" (550-555; my translation).

It is not eternal ignorance that is ideal, but the ignorance of good and evil.  That is to say, ignorance of the dichotomy separating something "good" from something "evil."  If there were no evil, no rebellion, then there would be no dichotomy.  This is what I will call "the ideal of Edenic ignorance."  Once more, this is not "ignorance" as it is generally construed, but the ignorance of the separation between something "good" and something "evil," which, if evil exists, is a necessary distinction.  Only after humankind disobeyed this all-good God of love, through temptation and mistrust, was there a need to distinguish the "moral quality" of actions.  In Edenic ignorance these primeval humans only needed to know (intimate, personal knowledge, not academic) the good God who walked with them in the cool of the day--and, of course, the names of all the rad animals.

And that very God is remaking it all.  Right now.  The leaves of the Tree of Life, from which we were once banished, are now for the healing of the nations.  The first exile was from Eden, from that place of no dichotomy [between good and evil], to a place of dichotomy.  If 'place' is confusing, then think of it as a state of being.  We are exiled out of the intended state of being -- that of no moral distinction between any word or deed -- and into a place running rampant with gross manifestations of evil, full of dichotomies.


One who walks in the power and knowledge of Jesus the Messiah is brought out of that exile.  There's a new Exodus, and it's happening right now.  I suggest you get your staff and satchel and join us, we're learning to bear the light of love and justice in this strange and dangerous planet.


It begins now and continues into the not-yet.  Live here, today.  God is here now.

The knowledge of God is where we begin:

“Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives. As it would be cruel to an Amazonian tribesman to fly him to London, put him down without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave him, as one who knew nothing of English or England, to fend for himself, so we are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it. The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul."  J.I. Packer, Knowing God