"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
C. S. Lewis
Showing posts with label Joy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joy. Show all posts
3.18.2010
2.23.2010
The Solution is Serving God
As I start my regime next week, I am prepared for what the old chemo pros call “the hump”, which is the second round of chemo. From there I will almost be half way and can set my mind on the good things to come. I decided that while I am going through this, I am going to try to the best of my ability to make new friends, encourage others, and let God use me in this place. I am not doing this because I am noble, but because I know that it is the solution. Happiness and peace are a byproduct of right living, and being of service to my fellow man has always helped me to somehow forget about my problems and be momentarily freed from the bondage of self centeredness.
Click on the title link to read more...
Click on the title link to read more...
9.17.2009
7.17.2009
Joy and Happiness
Happiness is about making sure that everything around us brings us pleasure, whereas joy is about a deep confidence in the love and goodness of God no matter what goes on around us, or inside us.
6.03.2009
A Note on Submission
We read about the Phoenician and Samaritan Christians as they respond to reports of Paul's mission to the Gentiles:
"This news made all the brothers very glad."
Acts 15:3
=============================
And then we read about other responses to that same work:
Peter's response when God instructs Him to share the good news with non-Jews:
The early church responds to Peter's preaching to the gentiles with skepticism:
The Jews are scandalized at the idea of God acting on behalf of the Gentiles:
The Jews respond to Paul sharing his calling:
=============================
In general the Jews were jealous and bitter towards the Gospel going out to the Gentiles. Even Christian Jews were turned off at this notion. Peter himself, even when directly commanded by God, found the idea less than desirable. Time and again we see this response, and it is the very thing that lands Paul in prison, and ultimately beheaded in Rome.
It would, however, be a mistake to view this as a Jewish problem...
People just don't like the idea of 'those people' receiving blessing.
I don't either, and if you are anything like me...
=============================
We are admonished in scripture to "consider others better than yourselves."
How do we respond when other people are blessed?
Do we ask, 'what about me?'
Do we think through the reasons they should be disqualified from blessing?
Do we compare ourselves with them?
...are we jealous?
Or does the news make us "very glad?"
-============================
I want my heart to be like that of the Phoenician and Samaritan Churches...
I want to genuinely desire the blessing of other people, and rejoice when they receive it!
...Jesus teach me!
"This news made all the brothers very glad."
Acts 15:3
=============================
And then we read about other responses to that same work:
Peter's response when God instructs Him to share the good news with non-Jews:
"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him.
Acts 10:14-15 & 28
The early church responds to Peter's preaching to the gentiles with skepticism:
The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."
Acts 11:1-3
The Jews are scandalized at the idea of God acting on behalf of the Gentiles:
On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.
Acts 13:44-45 & 50
The Jews respond to Paul sharing his calling:
"Then the Lord said to me, 'Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.' "The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!"
Acts 22:21-22
=============================
In general the Jews were jealous and bitter towards the Gospel going out to the Gentiles. Even Christian Jews were turned off at this notion. Peter himself, even when directly commanded by God, found the idea less than desirable. Time and again we see this response, and it is the very thing that lands Paul in prison, and ultimately beheaded in Rome.
It would, however, be a mistake to view this as a Jewish problem...
People just don't like the idea of 'those people' receiving blessing.
I don't either, and if you are anything like me...
=============================
We are admonished in scripture to "consider others better than yourselves."
How do we respond when other people are blessed?
Do we ask, 'what about me?'
Do we think through the reasons they should be disqualified from blessing?
Do we compare ourselves with them?
...are we jealous?
Or does the news make us "very glad?"
-============================
I want my heart to be like that of the Phoenician and Samaritan Churches...
I want to genuinely desire the blessing of other people, and rejoice when they receive it!
...Jesus teach me!
4.18.2009
The Easy Road
This quote seems to go very well with my previous post:
"The road of the cross that Jesus walked was a difficult road. But it was a blessed road. The road that Jesus walked silently was the correct road. The road of the cross was not a short cut. However, although it may sound a bit paradoxical, it was the easiest road for Him. Henry Miller said that, "In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest." The cross road was the road of resurrection. No cross, no resurrection. There would be no glory if there was no cross. That’s why the cross is God’s wisdom and power."
Joshua ChoonMin Kang
To read the rest of the article click on the title link and go to article # 152
"The road of the cross that Jesus walked was a difficult road. But it was a blessed road. The road that Jesus walked silently was the correct road. The road of the cross was not a short cut. However, although it may sound a bit paradoxical, it was the easiest road for Him. Henry Miller said that, "In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest." The cross road was the road of resurrection. No cross, no resurrection. There would be no glory if there was no cross. That’s why the cross is God’s wisdom and power."
Joshua ChoonMin Kang
To read the rest of the article click on the title link and go to article # 152
Identity
"When Christ bids a man, He bids him come and die!"
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Had a great conversation about this with my brother the other day...
It is interesting how two people can come at a point of truth from two totally different perspectives.
I was speaking of a friend and how I had encouraged him to 'die to self' in a specific circumstance he found himself in. My brother asked some penetrating questions about this, specifically addressing the problematic way in which this might promote an unhealthy dose of 'martyr-complex-death-wish' thinking, along the lines of some early Christians. (There were cases of some Christians actually seeking martyrdom at the hands of the Romans, instead of merely accepting martyrdom when it confronted them...)
It took a while for us to come to terms with each other on the subject, but when we did, I realized how different we see the world.
I was attempting to stay faithful to the call of the gospel to relinquish control to a Victorious Jesus, Lord and Christ over all Creation. I come from, however, a place of almost whimsical and carefree living. My psychology is much more spontaneous and prone to pursue whatever pleasures this moment offers. And so, I have come to see the call of Christ for me as a constant setting aside of my desires in order to learn His instead...
My brother, however, was approaching this from the perspective of one who tends to approach God from a very different mindset. One who, prior to Christ, tends to seek punishment for sins, and who views their own character flaws through a microscope will find in God a Father who offers a life of affirmation and pleasure that counters the inherent tendency to self-critique and self-condemnation...
I believe we are both talking about the same thing, yet doing so from very different places:
The call to follow Jesus is a call to die, but it is also a call to truly live!
For it is only in Jesus that true life can be found, and it is only after our own will is subjected to His that we can find it. It is on the other side of the Crucifixion that lies the Resurrection. Along any other path lies only a counterfeit, a broad and easy path that leads to nowhere, or worse...
And so, the call to come and die, is paradoxically, also a call to come and live! ...to experience real life, in all of its sensual pleasure and beauty and comedy!
The call to the cross is a call to identify with Jesus, as is the call to life a call to identity in Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Had a great conversation about this with my brother the other day...
It is interesting how two people can come at a point of truth from two totally different perspectives.
I was speaking of a friend and how I had encouraged him to 'die to self' in a specific circumstance he found himself in. My brother asked some penetrating questions about this, specifically addressing the problematic way in which this might promote an unhealthy dose of 'martyr-complex-death-wish' thinking, along the lines of some early Christians. (There were cases of some Christians actually seeking martyrdom at the hands of the Romans, instead of merely accepting martyrdom when it confronted them...)
It took a while for us to come to terms with each other on the subject, but when we did, I realized how different we see the world.
I was attempting to stay faithful to the call of the gospel to relinquish control to a Victorious Jesus, Lord and Christ over all Creation. I come from, however, a place of almost whimsical and carefree living. My psychology is much more spontaneous and prone to pursue whatever pleasures this moment offers. And so, I have come to see the call of Christ for me as a constant setting aside of my desires in order to learn His instead...
My brother, however, was approaching this from the perspective of one who tends to approach God from a very different mindset. One who, prior to Christ, tends to seek punishment for sins, and who views their own character flaws through a microscope will find in God a Father who offers a life of affirmation and pleasure that counters the inherent tendency to self-critique and self-condemnation...
I believe we are both talking about the same thing, yet doing so from very different places:
The call to follow Jesus is a call to die, but it is also a call to truly live!
For it is only in Jesus that true life can be found, and it is only after our own will is subjected to His that we can find it. It is on the other side of the Crucifixion that lies the Resurrection. Along any other path lies only a counterfeit, a broad and easy path that leads to nowhere, or worse...
And so, the call to come and die, is paradoxically, also a call to come and live! ...to experience real life, in all of its sensual pleasure and beauty and comedy!
The call to the cross is a call to identify with Jesus, as is the call to life a call to identity in Christ.
1.09.2009
Christian Hedonism
Click on the title link to read a wiki article on the term which was originally coined by pastor John Piper.
This is a continuation of commentary on Parker's poem 'Partial Comfort.'
===============================
We give those devils too much credit when we let hell claim pleasure as its own invention and possession!
It is not the demons who thought up the idea of physical pleasure, nor did they craft the synapses in such a way as to make sexual touch pleasing, or fine food a fulfilling experience. God gave us the capacity to enjoy the physical, emotional, and spiritual union of sex; He granted us the ability to make fine wines; He created bodies capable of dance and song, minds capable of poetry and story.
It is not a defect in sex that causes God to condemn promiscuity, nor is it a defect in grapes that causes God to warn against drunkenness! Ask the addict, ask the porn star, they will tell you how long ago the pleasure left these activities. It is not the sober man who yearns for a life consumed with battered ex-wives, neglected children, and countless rehab and court fines; nor is it the happily married woman who longs for a life of objectification and mistrust, not to mention acyclovir and hemorrhoidectomies...
I have used my own body for pleasure in inappropriate ways, and the longer I did, the more power those activities had over my will, and the less pleasure those activities gave me.
Do you begin to now see why our Teacher calls the devil a liar, a destroyer, and a thief?
Whatever pleasures you can image, they sprang forth from the mind of God! It is evil that twists those pleasures to other ends, or grabs those pleasures at the expense of other greater pleasures, or pursues them in inappropriate times or ways; it is evil that ultimately robs those pleasurable activities of their very pleasure, leaving us instead with an addictive compulsion to an activity that we cannot do without, and yet provides us with little or no pleasure, and much pain and destruction.
Do you see now what sheer nonsense such sentiments as Parker's are? Do you see the ridiculous nature of the claim that God wants to punish us for our pleasure, while the devil wants to give us more of it? Does it not now become clear that it is God who desires us to enjoy 'pleasures forevermore!?'
More to come...
This is a continuation of commentary on Parker's poem 'Partial Comfort.'
===============================
We give those devils too much credit when we let hell claim pleasure as its own invention and possession!
It is not the demons who thought up the idea of physical pleasure, nor did they craft the synapses in such a way as to make sexual touch pleasing, or fine food a fulfilling experience. God gave us the capacity to enjoy the physical, emotional, and spiritual union of sex; He granted us the ability to make fine wines; He created bodies capable of dance and song, minds capable of poetry and story.
It is not a defect in sex that causes God to condemn promiscuity, nor is it a defect in grapes that causes God to warn against drunkenness! Ask the addict, ask the porn star, they will tell you how long ago the pleasure left these activities. It is not the sober man who yearns for a life consumed with battered ex-wives, neglected children, and countless rehab and court fines; nor is it the happily married woman who longs for a life of objectification and mistrust, not to mention acyclovir and hemorrhoidectomies...
I have used my own body for pleasure in inappropriate ways, and the longer I did, the more power those activities had over my will, and the less pleasure those activities gave me.
Do you begin to now see why our Teacher calls the devil a liar, a destroyer, and a thief?
Whatever pleasures you can image, they sprang forth from the mind of God! It is evil that twists those pleasures to other ends, or grabs those pleasures at the expense of other greater pleasures, or pursues them in inappropriate times or ways; it is evil that ultimately robs those pleasurable activities of their very pleasure, leaving us instead with an addictive compulsion to an activity that we cannot do without, and yet provides us with little or no pleasure, and much pain and destruction.
Do you see now what sheer nonsense such sentiments as Parker's are? Do you see the ridiculous nature of the claim that God wants to punish us for our pleasure, while the devil wants to give us more of it? Does it not now become clear that it is God who desires us to enjoy 'pleasures forevermore!?'
More to come...
1.03.2009
Dorothy Parker
Whose love is given over-well
Shall look on Helen's face in hell
Whilst they whose love is thin and wise
May view John Knox in paradise
===========================
This poem is certainly in agreement with popular sentiment.
Those who love too much, whose lives are consumed with love, will see true beauty (albeit in hell); however, those who are more concerned with righteousness, and a wisdom that leads them to eschew such an all-consuming passion, will be rewarded with harps and clouds (albeit they miss out on pleasure in the process).
This poem then, does a wonderful job of summarizing, succinctly and accurately (not to mention poetically) many popular thoughts surrounding ideas of holiness and depravity, beauty and truth, divine punishment and reward, wisdom and pleasure, love, and perhaps others:
Love is here defined in terms of physical/sexual desire and pleasure (hence the allusion to Helen).
Wisdom is here defined in terms of a deliberate denial of that sort of love.
Righteousness is defined in terms of avoiding certain pleasurable activities out of compliance to divine fiat.
Depravity is defined in terms of pursuing pleasure.
Truth is set in opposition to beauty; what is wise and true is not compatible with what is enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing.
God punishes those who enjoy themselves, and rewards those who live ascetic lives.
================================
So what do you think:
Do people who 'love' flamboyantly and deeply end up in hell? Is hell the place where real pleasure is, and the end result of a life of pleasure?
More to come...
Shall look on Helen's face in hell
Whilst they whose love is thin and wise
May view John Knox in paradise
===========================
This poem is certainly in agreement with popular sentiment.
Those who love too much, whose lives are consumed with love, will see true beauty (albeit in hell); however, those who are more concerned with righteousness, and a wisdom that leads them to eschew such an all-consuming passion, will be rewarded with harps and clouds (albeit they miss out on pleasure in the process).
This poem then, does a wonderful job of summarizing, succinctly and accurately (not to mention poetically) many popular thoughts surrounding ideas of holiness and depravity, beauty and truth, divine punishment and reward, wisdom and pleasure, love, and perhaps others:
Love is here defined in terms of physical/sexual desire and pleasure (hence the allusion to Helen).
Wisdom is here defined in terms of a deliberate denial of that sort of love.
Righteousness is defined in terms of avoiding certain pleasurable activities out of compliance to divine fiat.
Depravity is defined in terms of pursuing pleasure.
Truth is set in opposition to beauty; what is wise and true is not compatible with what is enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing.
God punishes those who enjoy themselves, and rewards those who live ascetic lives.
================================
So what do you think:
Do people who 'love' flamboyantly and deeply end up in hell? Is hell the place where real pleasure is, and the end result of a life of pleasure?
More to come...
1.01.2009
Partial Comfort
Whose love is given over-well
Shall look on Helen's face in hell,
Whilst they whose love is thin and wise,
May view John Knox in paradise.
Dorothy Parker
==========================
What do you think?
Shall look on Helen's face in hell,
Whilst they whose love is thin and wise,
May view John Knox in paradise.
Dorothy Parker
==========================
What do you think?
11.04.2008
When I Run...
(Check the Title link for an old post on a similar topic)
There is a scene in the popular movie Chariots of Fire where Eric Liddell is talking with his sister. She is concerned that his career as a runner (he was Scotland's first Olympic Medalist) will stand in the way of his career as a missionary to China. Eric responds with this line:
"I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure."
There is something there that we need to grasp.
===============================
The God spoken of in Scripture is the God who invented pleasure of all kinds. We do well to remember this! The Psalmist says to God, "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
We can easily turn Jesus into a whip-toting, grimacing killjoy. Yet, even His enemies would dispute that point. The Pharisees accused Him of being a drunkard and friend of sinners, a party-going glutton. How could we ever confuse a Jesus who laughingly gave his friends nicknames with a morose religionist?
There is a scene in the popular movie Chariots of Fire where Eric Liddell is talking with his sister. She is concerned that his career as a runner (he was Scotland's first Olympic Medalist) will stand in the way of his career as a missionary to China. Eric responds with this line:
"I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure."
There is something there that we need to grasp.
===============================
The God spoken of in Scripture is the God who invented pleasure of all kinds. We do well to remember this! The Psalmist says to God, "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
We can easily turn Jesus into a whip-toting, grimacing killjoy. Yet, even His enemies would dispute that point. The Pharisees accused Him of being a drunkard and friend of sinners, a party-going glutton. How could we ever confuse a Jesus who laughingly gave his friends nicknames with a morose religionist?
10.14.2007
Christian Paganism: Cinderella and Original Sin...
I had an opportunity to discuss the concept of 'original sin' with a woman who used to be a Christian, but is now an atheist. Her understanding of the doctrine is essentially that the world is evil, there is nothing good in it, especially in humanity. We are totally evil, with no redeeming features whatsoever. (Helen, if you are reading this and I mis-characterized your characterization, feel free to correct me...) This was one of the things she criticized about Christianity, its focus on evil; pointing out the problems in the world, and ignoring the beauty...
I responded that my understanding of Jesus' spirituality was quite contrary to this bleak view of the universe, and that I was compelled by my spirituality to see the world in terms of it's inherent beauty, power, and goodness. The ensuing dialogue rumbled about in my brain, sparking along the dusty synapses, and shining light into the remote regions of my intellect...
=========================================
The next morning I was deeply engaged in a wonderfully insightful film with my three year old daughter. I was suddenly struck by the relationship Cinderella had with the creatures living in and around her home. She sang with the birds, cared for the mice, chided the cat, loving them and evoking love in them in return.
The rusty four-cylinder engine between my ears turned over once or twice again...
=========================================
Pagans (loosely defined) see gods behind everything. There is a god in the elm and the maple, a god in the water and in the sky; the salmon and the osprey are manifestations of divine spirits; the moon and the stars are filled with spiritual significance and power. We can interact with these powers, calling them forth, making demands upon them and submitting to their demands; calling upon them for aid, and looking to them for guidance. The universe is alive with divinity, beauty and potency spring forth from every rock and flower; mysterious energy is present in all things.
=========================================
One of the first major intellectual challenges the disciples of Jesus faced in the early centuries of Christian thought was brought upon the spiritual community by a group who came to be called the "gnostics." They espoused a fundamentally Greek view of the Universe. A dualism between matter and energy, between the physical world and the spiritual world, was the backdrop for their understanding of Jesus. They believed matter and everything associated with it to be inherently evil. Jesus was not a man at all, but pure spirit, sent to rescue us from a material world of pure evil. They at times encouraged highly ascetic practices, giving up sex completely, eating sparse and restricted diets, avoiding pleasure.
This stands in stark contrast with the Universe of the ancient Jewish scriptures...
In the beginning God creates a world of dirt and plant, water and fish, birds, flowers, stars, clouds, and all manner of things; His spirit/breath is present within this Creation. God creates Adam and Eve, breathing His spirit into them, they bear His image and are responsible for the world arround them. Adam is in intimate relationship with the plants and animals, He 'names' them, and rules over them as a king over subjects. He is duty-bound to protect them and provide for their care; and they honor Him as the reflection of the Creator. The world is alive with divinity, beauty and potency spring forth from every rock and flower; mysterious energy is present in all things. God pronounces this caucophany of material and spiritual union, 'very good!'
...and so, when the first Christians were faced with the gnostic framework for seeing the Universe, given the spiritual and intellectual heritage they had as followers of a Jewish prophet-king, they naturally rejected such a view. Jesus came to affirm and bring 'life to the full,' not to reject it.
=========================================
The simple reality is that the western world (and western Christians within it) have unreflectively embraced the gnostic paradigm. We have not rejected an intimate Creator outright, but we have embraced a cruel mechanistic world, and so (unintentionally) God has no place in our conceptual framework. We have become deists...
Afraid of the messy comedy, raw sensuality, and blatant hedonism of the natural world, we have slayed it with our dissecting scalpels, our microscopes and telescopes. We have tamed the gods of the trees and the rocks. We have killed the sea god, 'analyzed' and 'studied' the heavens, and demystified the animals. The beasts and trees, the rocks and skies, still sing, but we have lost the ability to hear the melodious voices. The Spirit of God still 'hovers over the waters,' the Breath of God still whispers throughout the earth, but our cold eyes are closed the very medium of His goodness...
...and yet, if we are approached by the God who invented garlic and cumin, roses and peaches, nebulae and waterfalls, children and laughter, alcohol and orgasms, rhythym and melody; then perhaps He can awake in us the sense of divine play, the capacity for joy and energy required to hear the voices of the trees again.
=========================================
...and so we should not be surprised at the growing interest in pagan ideas (neopaganism, wicca, etc.) in fact, we should not even be that alarmed. Christians worship the Lord of Life, to any and all who seek to find true power and beauty, they are pursuing Jesus, the giver of new wines and new eyes, the waker of the dead, the party-goer, the True Vine, and the Spring of Living Water. The call to follow Jesus is the call to awaken our hearts to the haunting melodies, the inventive harmonies, and the heart-pounding rhythyms to be found in life; embracing wonder and awe at the awakening of the trees, the glorious skies and the monsters of the deep floor of the sea; embracing the joy and pleasure to be had simply by breathing in and out, exploring the wonderous diversity that humanity and its home has to offer.
What a terrible horror that ever did occur (were it even in but one mind, although it has unfortunately been in many) that Christianity became confused with asceticism, that the warm embrace of a loving Creator became the dark chastisement of a vengeful and distant Progenitor. How could we ever think that God doesn't enjoy that which He has made, and that we are invited to enter into His joy...
"A nightmare, long engendered in the modern mind by the mythology that follows in the wake of science, was falling off him. He had read of 'Space': at the back of his thinking for years had lurked the dismal fancy of the black, cold vacuity, the utter deadness, which was supposed to separate the worlds. He had not known how much it affected him till now - now that the very name 'Space' seemed a blasphemous libel for this empyrean ocean of radiance in which they swam. He could not call it 'dead'; he felt life pouring into him from it every moment. How indeed should it be otherwise, since out of this ocean the worlds and all their life had come? He had thought it barren: he saw now that it was the womb of words, whose blazing and innumerable offspring looked down nightly even upon the earth with so many eyes - and here, with how many more! No: Space was the wrong name. Older thinkers has been wiser when they named it simply the heavens - the heavens which declared the glory - the
'happy climes that ly
Where day never shuts his eye
Up in the broad fields of the sky.'
He quoted Milton's words to himself lovingly, at this time and often."
Out of the Silent Planet
I responded that my understanding of Jesus' spirituality was quite contrary to this bleak view of the universe, and that I was compelled by my spirituality to see the world in terms of it's inherent beauty, power, and goodness. The ensuing dialogue rumbled about in my brain, sparking along the dusty synapses, and shining light into the remote regions of my intellect...
=========================================
The next morning I was deeply engaged in a wonderfully insightful film with my three year old daughter. I was suddenly struck by the relationship Cinderella had with the creatures living in and around her home. She sang with the birds, cared for the mice, chided the cat, loving them and evoking love in them in return.
The rusty four-cylinder engine between my ears turned over once or twice again...
=========================================
Pagans (loosely defined) see gods behind everything. There is a god in the elm and the maple, a god in the water and in the sky; the salmon and the osprey are manifestations of divine spirits; the moon and the stars are filled with spiritual significance and power. We can interact with these powers, calling them forth, making demands upon them and submitting to their demands; calling upon them for aid, and looking to them for guidance. The universe is alive with divinity, beauty and potency spring forth from every rock and flower; mysterious energy is present in all things.
=========================================
One of the first major intellectual challenges the disciples of Jesus faced in the early centuries of Christian thought was brought upon the spiritual community by a group who came to be called the "gnostics." They espoused a fundamentally Greek view of the Universe. A dualism between matter and energy, between the physical world and the spiritual world, was the backdrop for their understanding of Jesus. They believed matter and everything associated with it to be inherently evil. Jesus was not a man at all, but pure spirit, sent to rescue us from a material world of pure evil. They at times encouraged highly ascetic practices, giving up sex completely, eating sparse and restricted diets, avoiding pleasure.
This stands in stark contrast with the Universe of the ancient Jewish scriptures...
In the beginning God creates a world of dirt and plant, water and fish, birds, flowers, stars, clouds, and all manner of things; His spirit/breath is present within this Creation. God creates Adam and Eve, breathing His spirit into them, they bear His image and are responsible for the world arround them. Adam is in intimate relationship with the plants and animals, He 'names' them, and rules over them as a king over subjects. He is duty-bound to protect them and provide for their care; and they honor Him as the reflection of the Creator. The world is alive with divinity, beauty and potency spring forth from every rock and flower; mysterious energy is present in all things. God pronounces this caucophany of material and spiritual union, 'very good!'
...and so, when the first Christians were faced with the gnostic framework for seeing the Universe, given the spiritual and intellectual heritage they had as followers of a Jewish prophet-king, they naturally rejected such a view. Jesus came to affirm and bring 'life to the full,' not to reject it.
=========================================
The simple reality is that the western world (and western Christians within it) have unreflectively embraced the gnostic paradigm. We have not rejected an intimate Creator outright, but we have embraced a cruel mechanistic world, and so (unintentionally) God has no place in our conceptual framework. We have become deists...
Afraid of the messy comedy, raw sensuality, and blatant hedonism of the natural world, we have slayed it with our dissecting scalpels, our microscopes and telescopes. We have tamed the gods of the trees and the rocks. We have killed the sea god, 'analyzed' and 'studied' the heavens, and demystified the animals. The beasts and trees, the rocks and skies, still sing, but we have lost the ability to hear the melodious voices. The Spirit of God still 'hovers over the waters,' the Breath of God still whispers throughout the earth, but our cold eyes are closed the very medium of His goodness...
...and yet, if we are approached by the God who invented garlic and cumin, roses and peaches, nebulae and waterfalls, children and laughter, alcohol and orgasms, rhythym and melody; then perhaps He can awake in us the sense of divine play, the capacity for joy and energy required to hear the voices of the trees again.
=========================================
...and so we should not be surprised at the growing interest in pagan ideas (neopaganism, wicca, etc.) in fact, we should not even be that alarmed. Christians worship the Lord of Life, to any and all who seek to find true power and beauty, they are pursuing Jesus, the giver of new wines and new eyes, the waker of the dead, the party-goer, the True Vine, and the Spring of Living Water. The call to follow Jesus is the call to awaken our hearts to the haunting melodies, the inventive harmonies, and the heart-pounding rhythyms to be found in life; embracing wonder and awe at the awakening of the trees, the glorious skies and the monsters of the deep floor of the sea; embracing the joy and pleasure to be had simply by breathing in and out, exploring the wonderous diversity that humanity and its home has to offer.
What a terrible horror that ever did occur (were it even in but one mind, although it has unfortunately been in many) that Christianity became confused with asceticism, that the warm embrace of a loving Creator became the dark chastisement of a vengeful and distant Progenitor. How could we ever think that God doesn't enjoy that which He has made, and that we are invited to enter into His joy...
"A nightmare, long engendered in the modern mind by the mythology that follows in the wake of science, was falling off him. He had read of 'Space': at the back of his thinking for years had lurked the dismal fancy of the black, cold vacuity, the utter deadness, which was supposed to separate the worlds. He had not known how much it affected him till now - now that the very name 'Space' seemed a blasphemous libel for this empyrean ocean of radiance in which they swam. He could not call it 'dead'; he felt life pouring into him from it every moment. How indeed should it be otherwise, since out of this ocean the worlds and all their life had come? He had thought it barren: he saw now that it was the womb of words, whose blazing and innumerable offspring looked down nightly even upon the earth with so many eyes - and here, with how many more! No: Space was the wrong name. Older thinkers has been wiser when they named it simply the heavens - the heavens which declared the glory - the
'happy climes that ly
Where day never shuts his eye
Up in the broad fields of the sky.'
He quoted Milton's words to himself lovingly, at this time and often."
Out of the Silent Planet
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