Reverence, The Human Response To Awesome Experiences

Several years ago when I was living in New Orleans, Episcopal Bishop James Brown told a story of his then fifteen year old daughter commenting on a video of a solemn procession around a church in honor of the Mary the mother of Jesus.  The young girl asked her father, the bishop, “why do all of you look so sad.”  To which Bishop Brown replied, “we are not sad, we are being reverent.”  To which the daughter replied, “well, you sure look sad to me.”

I wonder, was the daughter correct?  Have we lost the true meaning of reverence?  Have we forgotten that reverence is our response to the beauty of creation, to the experience of the beauty of holiness, to the blessing of living in a world created out of love by an awesome God, the creator of heaven and earth.  Matthew Fox, author and Episcopal priest believes that “the way of reverence is also the way of responsibility—not a responsibility based on duty and fear of disobedience, but a responsibility based on care for what we cherish and revere.” (The Coming Cosmic Christ, p. 199)

Many of us lose our sense of awe and reverence as we grow older and busier and perhaps even cynical.  If we can reconnect with the child in each of us, with the artist in each of us, we might just be able to reconnect with our ability to express our awe and wonder at existence.  “Reverence will become the test of our moralities: is what I am doing, are the choices we are making, reverential to others—to mother Earth, to generations of humans to come, to the particular individuals with whom I am currently interacting, to our non-two-legged brothers and sisters with whom we share Mother Earth?  Reverence can only grow out of a living cosmology.” (Fox, Ibid, p. 199)

This sense of reverence will bring joy to our hearts and a smile to our faces.  It might even cause us to want to sing and dance and explorer the artistic soul that lives in each and every one of us.  As I write today I am looking out my window at a clear, blue, cloudless sky, the sun shinning off the lake and the leaves moving in the breeze.  It brings a smile to my face.  Is this reverence, I believe it just might be.

The Hebrew Prophet, Joel, writing sometime in the fifth century before Christ, speaks in the name of God: “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions.  Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.” (Joel 2:28-29)  Could this be the spirit of reverence God desires for us?  This spirit of reverence may well be what Jesus was thinking about when he told his disciples, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.  And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.” (Mark 10:14-16)

New Beginnings (Reflections on a New School Year

New Beginnings

The end is never the end, but always in the economy of a God who created us and loves us, the end is a new beginning.  This morning there was actually a touch of fall in the air.  Not a full blown crispness, just a touch.  But that touch was enough to remind me that summer is drawing to a close, that as of today almost all of our children are back in school, from pre-K to college and everything in between.  And, for those of us in the South, we can tell you exactly how many days, hours and minutes it is until our favorite high school or college team hits the gridiron for the first time. 

I have seen so much excitement among the children and teenagers I work with as a priest.  I have seen pictures of the first day of high school taken by the students and their parents, alone and with their best friends.  I have seen pictures of college freshmen, pledging their sorority or fraternity, or joining the college band for the first time.  I have seen pictures of teachers ready for another year of challenge, heartache and joy.  Even though most of us are not going back to school, either to study or to teach, I believe we can share the joy and the excitement of those who are.  If we get too close to them, we too might just be infected with the enthusiasm that will change our lives and maybe even change the world.

I believe that none of us are ever too old to learn and that the day we stop learning is the day we begin to die.  We can learn about life from our friends and on our jobs and in our community involvement.  We can learn about love and joy from the religious community of which we are a part.  I do not use the term religious institution because at our best, we are in fact involved in communities rather than institutions.  We can also learn about awe and wonder, not just from these religious communities, but from the beauty and power of the creation itself. 

Jesus taught that “unless we become like a little child, we will never enter the kingdom of God.  I believe that at least part of what Jesus meant by this is that unless we as adults recapture the joy and wonder of creation and the excitement of finding all things new, that we will miss the excitement of the presence of God in the world and in our lives, even when it is right under our noses.

The writer of the apocalyptic book of Revelation in the Bible, written to give hope to the Christians during the Roman persecutions at the end of the first century AD, assures us that (Jesus) “is making all things new. . . .I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.  Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children (Revelation 21:5-7). Think of this wonderful promise every time a school bus slows you down, or when you send your children or grandchildren out the door for the beginning of each new day.  And as we approach each new day of our own lives, I pray that we remember Jesus’ admonition to the adults of his time and take his words as our own words to live by: “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.  And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them (Mark 10:14b-16).

Blessings to you, in the name of the One who makes all things new.

Ben Alford

The Rev. Ben Alford is a retired Episcopal Priest living in Elmore County. He may be reached at benajr@aol.com

Perplexity: the Season of Spiritual Surviving

Some Reflections on Part III of

Naked Spirituality by Brian McLaren

Perplexity: the Season of Spiritual Surviving

Some reflections on doubts, fears,  and questions which affect many of us on our faith journeys.  Brian McLaren gives us a starting point for what I hope will be an ongoing conversation about these important aspects of faith.

McLaren suggests that in this season (of perplexity), “what matters most to us—more than being right, more than being effective—is being honest, authentic, even brutally so. . . .Life itself is no longer the simple war or the complex game it used to be for us.  On our bad days it’s a joke, on our good days it’s a quest and on most days it’s a bit of both.”(p. 142)

            “We’ve grown beyond being dependent infants who look to their leaders for everything, and beyond being somewhat independent children who boast. ‘I can do it myself!’. . . . We will probably come to doubt (our faith) now and may even abandon it for awhile.  At the very least we will need to add a margin for mystery and unbolt some of the structural elements of our faith that have been until now tightly fitted together.  Our faith becomes less the nest and more the quest at this stage, and mention of God evokes feelings of ambivalence.  It’s a great season for honesty and for digging deeper, but not so great for commitment, energy or enthusiasm.”(p. 142)

The longer we live with our faith and study the scriptures the more likely it is for us to ask questions of others, of our faith organizations and of ourselves.  We want to live with our beliefs or lack of beliefs as they are developing and evolving.  We question others, we question scripture and we question ourselves and what we once believed.  At this point in my faith journey, I want to be honest with others, and mostly with myself, about who I am and what I believe and why this is important to how I live.  For me this was and still is an important part of my life’s journey.  It is not always easy, it never gives simple answers, but when I have experienced faith, it is an exciting and life giving faith.  It is during these times in our lives that McLaren believes we begin to ask the questions of God: When did you leave, where are you, are you coming back, when? (p. 149)

            “Hold your when or how long or where before God.  Make space for your disappointment, frustration, and unfulfillment to come out of hiding and present themselves in the light.  Don’t rush (through these times of) spiritual dryness.  The spirit wants to join you. . . .” (p. 155)

            McLaren entitles Chapter 18: “NO: The Void Expands.”  He heads the chapter with a quote from William Temple, former Archbishop of Canterbury, “If you have a false idea of God, the more religious you are, the worse it is for you—it were better for you to be an atheist.” (p. 157)

            This time of doubt and questioning and ‘wandering in the wilderness,’ can be very difficult for those of us who have had a strong faith in God and want more than anything else to maintain or reclaim that faith.  The struggle is to find a way to believe what we want to believe and still be honest with ourselves.  This can often be a time of “the dark night of the soul,” spoken about by St. John of the Cross.  We know what we had, we know what we want, but we do not know how to get it.  “Perhaps by raging against the failed image of God, it will fall, and behind it the true God will appear, the true God to whom Meister Eckhart prayed, ‘save me from god.’” (p.158)

            “This is why doubters, atheists, and skeptics have an important place in the community of faith.  The acid of their critique flows—even though they may not realize it—from their sadness that a truer, brighter, bigger better God isn’t showing up, but only a second rate imposter god.  And their no is a dual rejection.  First, it is a refusal to accept the second-rate imposter god’s presence, and second, it is a refusal to accept the true and living God’s absence.” (p. 159)

            “. . . .We have kept these questions at bay for months, years, even decades. 

·         Why wouldn’t God have chosen to aid a needy person without my intercession

·         How could God create a world where lovers are separated, little girls raped, mothers send sons off to war to be killed or kill sons of other mothers

·         Where we have to nurse children with severe diseases or parents through years of mental illness or dementia” (p. 159)

When my belief in God was unshakeable, I had a difficult time understanding how a person could doubt or be a skeptic, much less be an atheist.  Now that I have traveled through more than one of my own “dark nights of the soul,” I understand completely.  Several years ago I attended a conference led by Fr. Andrew Greeley.  He was asked “why, with as much proof as there is for God, some people just do not believe.”  Acknowledging the existence of proof for God’s existence, Greeley then said, “the reason some do not believe is that there is just as much proof that that there is no God as there is that God exists.”  I found this extremely helpful for me at the point I was in on my spiritual journey.

“You can’t have faith without doubt.  Give up the business of suppressing doubt.  Doubt and faith are two sides of the same thing.  Faith will grow out of doubt, the real doubt.  We don’t pray right because we evade doubt.”(Thomas Merton)(p. 163)

Our doubts are very real and a very important part of our journey.  Trying to pretend like they do not exist and then acting as if they do not does not change how we feel or how we believe.  I have known ordained ministers who have doubts but do not express them because they believe the colleagues do not doubt.  Interestingly, some of those some colleges have the same doubts but do not dare express them for the same reasons.  Better to be open and honest with yourself and others than to pretend for each other.  It is important that we not condemn each other for our doubts and beliefs, because none of us is able to walk in the other’s shoes.  We are called to be companions on the journey, not judges of “right belief.”

            “I often feel that the deep middle of Job has been betrayed by the addition of a shallow preface and dishonest epilogue.”. . . .Human beings have a right to question the divine, but they cannot expect answers—and that even without answers, faith in God endures (p. 163). . . .Learn to live without answers.”(p. 165) . . . . The voice of the Lord comes not with answers, but with a tornado of questions.”(p. 167)

            Job is the quintessential parable about “why bad things happen to good people.”  It attempts to explain that good life can fall apart for anyone and that the strength of the faith or the orthodoxy of their belief does not affect this.  Job’s friends are stuck in the old way of seeing life and try to bring him back to their reality.  Job knew what kind of life he has led and intends to take it directly to God.  He is allowed to do so and questions God and God answers his questions with questions:  “who are you to question God?  where were you when I made the great leviathan?

            Too many Christians have been afraid to question God or doubt God.  We have been told that God will solve all of our problems and answer all of our questions and when that does not happen, then the first thought most of us have is that something is wrong with us.  If we do not have this thought, than many of us have friends or even preachers  like Job’s friends who are more than happy to let us know that, in fact, something is wrong with us.  Our faith is not simple with easy answers for every occasion.  Our faith is dynamic and evolving and exciting and life giving.  This means we have to live with ambiguity and doubts and fears, but these are the very things that open us up to the mystery and mystical life in relationship with creation, with other human beings, and if we are fortunate, with God.  As Jimmy Buffett says in one of his newer songs, “life is not over, it’s just simply complicated.”  And hopefully this discussion is not over either.  I invite you to become followers and to continue this discussion on this blog.

The Journey continues,

Ben

Life is still worth living, it’s just simply complicated

Life is still worth living, it’s just simply complicated

I don’t know if you have been watching the news the past few weeks, or engaging in religious discussions with friends, or looking at the politics of our state or nation, or simply trying to figure out the meaning of life.  I want to share some reflections on these things.  But first, to put things in perspective, a quote from “philosopher and theologian, Jimmy Buffett, “Life is complicated with its if's and ands and buts’. . . . life is still worth living, it’s just simply complicated.”

The issues our nation and state have been struggling with are important but complicated and well meaning people can and do have different opinions on them.  The issues we look at in our religious life can also be complicated and again, well meaning people can have different opinions on them.  I have had several conversations lately both in person and online, many with people with whom I disagree.  The good news is that instead of screaming party slogans at each other, we have gone back and re-read the 14^th, 17^th and 18^th amendments of the U.S. Constitution to see what is really said.  We have gone back and looked at the number of times the debt ceiling has been increased in the past thirty years and how this was done in the past.  What has resulted is that we have learned from each other and from the documents of our nation and from our history.  As I write on Monday, it appears that our Nation’s leaders may well reach a compromise on the debt ceiling and the deficit that will be beneficial to our nation.  “Life is still worth living, it’s just simply complicated.”

In our great state of Alabama there has been a great deal of discussion about the issue of Immigration.  Our State Legislature passed a law during the most recent session that brought both cheers and tears from citizens of our state.  Some of my friends in the legislature voted for the law and other friends in the legislature voted against it.  And both groups are still my friends.  What this has done for me is led me to participate in prayer vigils and walks for peace and justice for all, citizens and immigrants, documented and undocumented, and to read and re-read the new law as I seek to form my opinion about it.  “Life is still worth living, it’s just simply complicated.”  How wonderful that we live in a country where we can disagree, learn from one another and work hard for our beliefs.

Last but certainly not least, because I believe that our politics grow out of our faith, I have carried on an informative conversation with several friends on Facebook about our Christian faith.  About how we worship, how we understand the Bible and God.  We have used our best human words and our best understanding of scripture and not surprisingly, they were not sufficient.  On the whole, this conversation was civil, and when some tempers began to rise, cooler heads took over and calmed the rest of us down.  As you might expect, we did not all agree, but we seemed to be headed toward the acceptance of the “first and great commandment that Jesus took from his Jewish faith and passed on to all of us who follow him:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Come to think of it, if we all follow this teaching of Jesus, it just might help us deal with the politics of our lives as well!   “Life is complicated with its ifs and ands and buts’. . . . life is still worth living, it’s just simply complicated.”

Blessings and Peace,

Ben Alford