Wise Words for Today

Image from the Book of Kells, a 1200 year old book. Category:Illuminated manuscript images (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To seriously follow the spiritual journey, particularly amid our world’s busyness, one must learn to guard the preciousness of time by savoring the beauty of our periods for prayer or meditation, reflection, reading, work, study, and relaxation. Awareness of time’s value and a commitment to live one’s spiritual journey in this consciousness is a test of the maturity of a person’s spirituality. Only by guarding one’s time against the onslaught of distraction can we advance in our commitment to the mystical dimension of our existence. Only when we regard time’s precious relationship to our inner life, only if we understand its necessity for spiritual growth, can we begin to use time more wisely.

Wayne Teasdale

(from A Monk in the World)

Christianity: From Bad to Worse (And My Personal Dilemma)

The area roughly considered to be part of the Bible Belt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mick Turner

The first part of this article appeared on this site in August, 2011. Part Two, which is an expansion and describes what has happened in the intervening months, immediately follows Part One.

Author Ann Rice renounced her association with Christianity a while back, citing that she could no longer in good conscience, associate herself with a religion the was filled with hatred and other related vices. I can’t say that I blame Ms. Rice for doing what she did. Believe me, on more than one occasion I have seriously considered doing exactly what she did.

In fact, I still do and to be gut-level honest, this occurs on a near weekly basis. Let’s face it, the Christian faith has a major image problem – no, it is beyond that – at this point it is safe to say that Christianity has an image crisis. This reality is sad enough; what makes it more so is the fact that it is not getting any better. It is getting worse.

In January of last year, I ran across sermon tapes where pastors, one a former Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention, said the he prayed for the death of President Obama and another where a Phoenix, Arizona pastor said he “hated” Obama and then tried to launch a biblical explanation in support of his position. Somewhere along the line these folks missed the gospel and found something else. What these guys are preaching sounds a lot more like the Republican platform than anything Jesus had to say.

When Paul talked about Christians being a “pleasant aroma” rising up to heaven, I don’t think he had these jokers in mind.

If this sort of thing isn’t enough to drive folks away from the church, Christian broadcasting can take up the slack. It seems every program on these “faith-based” channels have a hand out, asking for money to “do God’s work.” What they really mean is “give us your cash so we can stay on the air.” Whether or not a particular program staying on the air constitutes God’s work is debatable.

These stations also hold frequent telethons, aimed at fleecing even more money out of viewers whether they can afford it or not. There are several “evangelists” that appear to be nothing more than professional hucksters, hired by the networks to raise funds by “preaching the gospel.” The gospel these folks preach basically boils down to “plant a seed and reap a harvest,” which is the Prosperity Gospels lingo for “send me some money and God will bless you.”

One particular huckster makes the rounds on these telethons and he is truly shameless in the things that he says in order to dupe the faithful out of their cash. I won’t mention his name, but I will share with you a transcription of an appeal he made on a recent telethon. The transcript, published in the fall 2010 edition of Plain Truth magazine, also omits his name, but if you are at all familiar with these telethons, you will immediately recognize his spiel:

Delayed obedience becomes disobedience…the delivery date of your financial harvest is today. If you hesitate, if you doubt, if you stop to think before you call and sow your uncommon seed right now, the delivery date on your harvest will be moved back. If you delay, heaven will delay. Call now. Don’t think. Don’t hesitate. Just simply obey the man of God, and reap your harvest of uncommon prosperity.

Don’t let this hour close with your hands closed. Quickly, go to the phone now. God never opens his hands until you open your hands. Call quickly. Call now.

 

When God wants you to have a harvest, he asks for a seed that authorizes it. When God has a future for you, he talks to you about a seed. The instruction you follow determines the future you create. When I open my hands, God opens his hands. My seed talks to God. My seed is a picture of my covenant to God. When God sees my seed, it is the way he remembers me.

When God wants to bless you, he talks to you about a seed. Quickly go to the telephone. Call the number that’s on the screen. Do it now.

Nothing leaves heaven until something leaves earth. A swift response of faith releases a swift response from God. Your seed has never had so much power. If you have ever decided to obey the Holy Spirit, do it today. If you are ever watching a program ordained by the Holy Spirit, this is the one.

There is an anointing on the $1,000 seed right now. God will always give you something illogical to do. God will never give you something logical to do. You can do the logical stuff yourself. God doesn’t talk to your mind; he talks to your heart. God doesn’t talk to your logic; he talks to your faith. Call now.

For those unfamiliar with the jargon these hucksters use, the term “seed” means a monetary donation to whatever organization, ministry, or program that is hosting the telethon or, as they so often call these gatherings, “praise-a-thons.”

A short time later, the “evangelist” mentioned above added this little gem to his fundraising plea:

“Nothing leaves heaven until something leaves earth first. It is a divine law, so you had best get up off that couch and go to the phone right now.” In other words, don’t expect God to bless you financially until you “demonstrate your faith” by sending in your money.

The fact that this sort of con game bilks decent, hard working folks out of their money is tragic enough. But there is yet another aspect of this kind of spectacle that is equally disturbing. For many, many people, this is the only face of the Christian faith they may ever see. After listening to a sickening diatribe like the one just quoted, I doubt a late night channel surfer seeking answers to life’s difficulties would give the Christian faith a second thought.

Think about it.

© L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

Part Two

I penned Part One of this essay, which was originally published as a standalone piece back in August, 2011. In the months since that time, rather than improving, the church’s image has been tarnished even further, now perhaps beyond redemption. It seems almost every week some bonehead pastor, most often a Southern Baptist somewhere in the Bible Belt, makes inflammatory remarks about some current issue and in the process, reveals his ignorance and exudes hatred, bigotry, and an obvious lack of Christian decency.

These people are the very antithesis of everything Christ taught and stood for and furthermore, do more to drive people away from the Christian faith than the most verbose and spiteful atheist ever did.

I won’t go through a litany of these comments as they are not deserving of further mention. I will say, however, that most recently these wing nuts have focused on the Gay/Lesbian marriage issue in general and now, President Obama’s open support of Gay rights. Rather than addressing this issue with even a modicum of civility and rationality, these “shepherds” stand before their flock and scream things like “I ain’t going to vote for no baby killing homo lover.” This same pastor, and I use that term loosely, suggested building a 100-150 mile electric fence to imprison lesbians, homosexuals, and “queers.”

Doesn’t the love of Christ just leap from every word coming out of the mouth of this man?

Please allow me to be a bit personal here. These folks have pretty much done what Satan, however you might want to define that term, never could directly do – and that is to drive me out of the Christian faith. Every day I vacillate between leaving the faith altogether and, at other times, feel I should stay and do battle with these heretics, because they have virtually destroyed the Bride of Christ. Sometimes I feel that is my duty as a follower of Jesus to, at least in some small way, do whatever I can to recapture his church from the hands of these buffoons. Yet I am just as often convinced that such a battle is far too great. With my rather severe heart problems, I wonder if I am up to it.

On a side note, many years ago, at a very critical time in my life, I gained much inner healing from my intense practice of Zen. I often feel the call to go back to this and let the church implode. Or perhaps there are others more able to fight this battle than I am.

As for now, I am in limbo…….

© L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

On Comfort Zones and Thinking Out of the Box (Part Two)

The Thinking Man sculpture at Musée Rodin in Paris (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mick Turner

(continued from Part One)

God did not create you to rest on your laurels. Instead, he hardwired you to keep on moving – keep on growing. So beware of settling in for too long. “But wait a minute,” you might be saying. “We all need to rest. All work and no play makes for a dull boy.” Yes, that’s true. We do, indeed, need to take time off from time to time in order to rest, recuperate, and recharge our spiritual batteries. However, these periods of recuperation were never meant to be a career. No, we have to keep on moving.

Although our comfort zones serve a useful purpose by giving us at least some areas of life that are predictable, nurturing, familiar, and, to some extent, under our direct control, these patterns of habitual behavior, feelings, and thinking can also be a prison. What’s even more baffling about our prisons of comfort, they are all too obvious to those who know us and completely invisible to ourselves. Often, when a friend loves us enough to confront us on our inability to get outside our comfort zones, our response goes something like this:

“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. No way am I like that.”

The idea here is clearly obvious, our comfort zones not only imprison us; they also create “blind spots.” A blind spot is simply an aspect of our thinking, feeling, behaving, and/or relating that we don’t see. It is also important that we recognize that many of our blind spots related to our zones of comfort are associated with our thinking. Habitual, familiar, and especially treasured ways of thinking are among the most tightly held comfort zones that we have. Unfortunately, they are also some of the most debilitating.

We create our comfort zones and rigidly live within their confines. Any attempt to dislodge us from the walls of this comfort zone meets with great resistance. I know in my own life, the pattern depicted in this epic poem plays out in pretty much the same way. I first begin to feel a bit anxious. After this, a voice within me tells me that if I am to reach my goals I have to get back into the desert, even if it is unpleasant.

Sometimes, I heed the voice and get moving. At other times, I require a divine nudge to get me moving.

So, what is the answer to the dilemma of imprisoning thinking and resistance to out of the box thinking? What can, more than anything else, get us off the dime and into action? What kind of solution, short of a sandstorm of divine origin, can get us back into the game of life?

I am of the belief that the answer(s) to these questions involve a degree of personal specificity. In other words, these answers are individual. What gets one person moving might make another person dig in more deeply. What works for the goose may not work for the gander. With those ideas in mind, however, I believe that something else must take place before we can find the answer that applies to us. What each of us has to do is conduct:

A fearless, thorough, honest, and relentless search for truth.

 

Within the parameters of this search, we must thoroughly evaluate the answers we arrive at. On a personal level, I admit that such a search can be both intensive and confusing. Still, if we fail to do this, we end up pursuing one of two potential courses of action, neither of which are productive or personally satisfying. Unless we conduct our personal evaluation of the potential answers, we run the risk of:

Letting someone else decide what is true for us or we abandon the process of seeking answers entirely.

 

Unfortunately, each week church pews are packed with good, decent folks who have opted for either of these empty options. Perhaps this reality again points to the subtle but no less dangerous aspect of the heresy of doctrine. In Christianity, doctrine is to be accepted on faith and not questioned. It is to be swallowed whole, and never masticated. It is easy to see how this sort of thing can lead to a bad case of metaphysical indigestion. There is a solution, but it is going to require a good bit of work on your part.

At various places in my writings, I have mentioned the importance of clarifying one’s world view. The importance of understanding your world view cannot be overstated. By “understanding your world view” I mean basically two things: having a vital and practical insight into the role your world view has in your life; and second, getting down to the brass tacks of defining your world view.

Both of these aspects of your world view are equally important and cannot be ignored. The fact is, your world view is the matrix through which you perceive and explain the world you live in. Additionally, your world view informs your decision making process. Ideally, we make choices and decisions that are in harmony with our internalized values and those values generally flow from our world view, whether we know it or not.

With those things said, I have also stressed the importance of setting aside time on a regular basis in order to check up on your world view. Chances are, over the course of time our perspective might have changed on certain things. We need to take a look at those changes and see how they fit in with the overall schema through which we interpret our world.

I have come to the conclusion that few endeavors in the life of a Christian are as important as the process of “worldview development.” The fact is, many Christians have never given thought to the significance of one’s worldview and, of the few that have taken up the subject, most quickly put it aside in favor of more tangible and practical pursuits.

The reality is, however, there a few items in the life of a Christian that are more tangible and practical than the development and implementation of a biblical worldview. Granted, putting together a workable worldview involves dealing with intellectual abstractions, but even these cognitive pursuits have their base in every day living. For it is our worldview that gives our lives meaning, purpose, and direction. Further, it is our worldview that forms the basis for our decision making process. Few things are more “down to earth” than these issues.

The fact is, we all have a worldview whether we realize it or not. And it is therein the problem arises. Chances are, if we are unaware of the dominant worldview we operate from, then it is a good bet that we are also unaware of how our worldview was formed. Once you realize how vitally important a worldview is, hopefully you will come to see that you can no longer leave this process to chance or random development.

Christian researcher George Barna makes the following observations regarding worldviews:

*Everyone has a worldview. Relatively few have a coherent worldview or are able to articulate it clearly.

 

*Most people don’t consider their worldview to be a central, defining element of their life, although it is.

 

*People spend surprisingly little time intentionally considering and developing their worldview. More often than not, their worldview development process is one of unconscious evolution and acceptance. They allow it to evolve and sum it up this way: “Whatever.”

To be continued…..

(c) L.D. Turner 2008/2012/ All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Today

Zombies in Decatur (Photo credit: steambadger)

We have become lazy in our faith. This problem transcends denomination, age, gender, background, and race. As social pressure toward Christian conformity de-radicalizes us, making us safe, comfortable, and predictable, we lose the very essence of the purpose of our existence. We do not live to fit into some spiritual mold. We live to bring people to life. When we become more concerned about offending people than transforming people, we have lost what it means to be Christian. Too much focus on comfort and conformity makes us spiritually sterile.

Tyler Edwards

 (from Zombie Church)

Wise Words for Today

It’s so easy to get distracted by all the things going on around you. If you resolve to live the life of your dreams, if you refuse to settle for a life other than the one God created you to live….you have to decide to focus and lock in on the direction God has called you to live your life.

The first step in getting focused could be described as concentration. Concentration is directing all of our energies and resources to a specific task, idea, and direction. So to focus, you have to make this adjustment – to concentrate all your energy and resources on where you are going. Set your eyes on where God is calling you and don’t look back (and certainly don’t look around).

Your potential becomes talent only when it is harnessed and developed. Your talents become strengths when they are focused and directed. It is here where you begin to discover who you are and the potential God has placed within you.

Without a destiny, you will diffuse your energy.

When you are focused, you are your most powerful.

A destiny is not something waiting but something within you.

When Jesus calls us to come, he is calling us out into a future we cannot walk without him….The power of focus brings not only the strength of concentration but also the power of convergence – it harnesses all your talent, gifting, skills, passions, intellect, experience, the whole of you and brings it all together to unleash your highest potential.

 Irwin Raphael McManus

(from Wide Awake)

On Comfort Zones and Thinking Out of the Box (Part One)

Mick Turner

(This article originally appeared in 2008 on both LifeBrook and Wellsprings and Wineskins)

One unfortunate phenomenon I have observed all too frequently is the marked tendency many believers have regarding the content of their thought life. More specifically, it has to do with the fact that too many Christians are confused over what they should or should not believe.

 

Many genuine, sincere Christians write in to blogs and websites, asking so-called experts whether or not it is acceptable for them to believe this or that. They often say something like:

 

“When I am honest with myself, I find that I believe (insert belief here).What I am wondering is, should I believe that? Is it ok for a Christian to believe that?”

 

These questions stem from an even greater problem, I think: religion’s insistence on and illegitimate marriage to the heresy of “correct doctrine.” I call it heresy because the issue of doctrine has evolved into a subtle but deadly form of idolatry. I know that many standard, status-quo church leaders and pillars of the faith will disagree with what I say about this but so be it. In all good conscience, I cannot force myself to agree with something that I think goes deeply against the grain of what Christ clearly taught and reason upholds.

 

The result of this idolatry of doctrine is the kind of questions many believers now have. Hesitant to trust their own conclusions, they turn to perceived authority figures for the answers. In the end, they still don’t find the answer. Instead, they merely make a decision to trust the authority’s answer more than their own.

 

I find this a tragedy because these well-meaning, sincere Christ-followers end up dealing a knockout punch to the integrity of their own minds. Emerson once said that the one thing in this world that was most sacred was “the integrity of your own mind.” The Christian who asked the question in the first place now has something like this going on in his or her head.

 

“I thought about Issue A and came to Conclusion A. However, when I checked with my pastor (the authority on the subject), he told me that a real Christian would never believe conclusion A. So, now I believe Conclusion A, but I am trying not to believe it because it is not what a Christian is supposed to believe. My pastor said I should believe Conclusion B. So I am praying that God will help me drop belief in conclusion A and get to the point where I can accept Conclusion B. I am having a hard time believing Conclusion B because it doesn’t make any sense. Still, now if someone asks me what I believe, I will tell them I believe Conclusion B because that is how I am supposed to think.”

 

Do you see how integrity goes out the window with a mess like this? What makes it worse is the fact that if this sincere seeker goes back to the pastor and explains that he or she still thinks Conclusion A makes more sense than Conclusion B, they usually hear something like this:

 

“Well, God’s ways are higher than your ways.” Or, they may get, “Remember, the heart is deceitful above all things,” or, “The Devil is talking to you, watch out!”

 

What ends up happening is that too many Christians go through life confused or worse, almost brain-dead. Finding out they are incapable of thinking for themselves, they just do what makes sense to them. They stop thinking.

 

Sometimes it is difficult for Christians to think outside the box. I think this handicap, and that is what it is, has come about for several reasons beyond the process cited above. For some ardent conservatives, to think beyond those parameters defined for us by church leaders both ancient and contemporary, is to invite doctrinal error. Heaven forbid! We would never want to do that now would we?

 

It is as Mark, a Fundamentalist friend of mine, so cogently put it:

 

“First you start entertaining thoughts that are unconventional and from there you begin to mull over ideas that are more than non-traditional, they are downright weird. From there, it is a short step to doctrinal error. Fan the flames of doctrinal error just a tad and you end up with a full blown heresy. And from that theological tightrope, it is easy to take the fall into apostasy.”

 

Sometimes Mark has a way with words, even if he has a major problem with his tightly wound thinking. I would say that it is people who believe as Mark does, that all one needs is the Bible (interpreted in an ultra-literal fashion) and the historic creeds of the church that fear out of the box thinking more than most.

 

Another factor influencing people’s reluctance to think out of the box is social expectations and the fear of rejection. More than a few believers have both doubts and questions about the faith, but keep these issues under their vest out of fear that others will view them as incomplete Christians. The problem with this situation is the questions will never be answered nor will the doubts be assuaged. Can you imagine, for example, how history would have progressed if Martin Luther had refused to step out of his comfort zone and think out of the box?

 

The reality is that some questions and/or doubts can only be dealt with by thinking in new ways, and involve the ability to view an issue from more than one perspective. If a sincere Christian believes that others will reject him/her just because they do not meet with the social expectation that such questions should not even be raised, then that genuine believer may well wither on the vine, simply because part of their social definition of what a Christian is supposed to be like does not permit faltering faith or inconsistent belief.

 

It is this very type of situation that brings to my mind the immortal words of Emerson: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

 

Yet another issue keeping believers thinking inside the box is very obvious. The stark reality is more than a few of us are intellectually lazy. We don’t want to take the time or expend the mental energy necessary to grapple with the more complex issues of the faith. These are the folks with those bumper stickers that say: “The Bible says it; I believe it; end of story.” These are the folks who frequently nap through sermons and say “Amen” even during the announcements. They are quite content to let others do their thinking for them.

 

We come to treasure our comfort zones and, as a result, keep our hearts too small for the message of Jesus.

 

Many of us start out well, accomplish numerous positive things in our lives, and then settle into a pattern of general comfort and complacency. We live not to grow, but to maintain the status quo. This is a tragic mistake.

 

To be continued…….

Thinking it Over (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(c) L.D. Turner 2008/2012/ All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Today

A. W. Tozer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets ‘things’ with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns ‘my’ and ‘mine’ look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do… The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution……..Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and ‘things’ were allowed to enter. Within the human heart ‘things’ have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their heart, for God is crowned there no longer, but there  in the  moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.

A.W. Tozer

Wise Words for Today

The Good Samaritan by Rembrandt (1630) shows the Good Samaritan making arrangements with the innkeeper. A later (1633) print by Rembrandt has a reversed and somewhat expanded version of the scene. Roland E. Fleischer and Susan C. Scott, Rembrandt, Rubens, and the Art of their Time: Recent perspectives, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997, ISBN 0915773104, pp. 68-69. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“I am convinced that as Christians we are not about programs. We’re not about bigger or better blessings. We’re about responding to people who call for help because their world is falling apart. These individuals aren’t looking to be converted – they’re looking for help! Being their help – by being the presence of Christ in their lives – is the only thing we’re about. Everything else we do is secondary and can even detour us from carrying out the true purpose of the church…You are filled with the Spirit of God. You are living in this window in time called the last days. You are where you are because God has strategically placed you there. The question is, are you open for business?”

Jerry Cooke

(from The Monday Morning Church)

God as Spirit and Transformative Presence

Cover via Amazon

Mick Turner

In his various writings, Marcus Borg has consistently espoused the notion that the church’s tendency to view God through the lens of “Supernatural Theism” has caused many problems and is also one of the chief culprits behind the mass exodus from the church today. As an alternative, Borg puts forth the notions of “panentheism” and also of “viewing God as Spirit.” Panentheism, which views all things as being “within God” is a logical and valuable model. Here, however, I want to reflect a bit on several implications inherent in the Spirit model. Borg covers this theme in considerable detail in his book, The God We Never Knew.

Borg begins by stating that the Spirit model leads to an image of the Christian life that stresses three vital things: relationship, intimacy and belonging.

In addition, Borg states:

As a root metaphor for the sacred, Spirit images God as a nonmaterial reality pervading the universe as well as being more than the universe. As used in the Bible…..its meaning is broader than the specific Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit,” which sees it as one aspect of God. But in the Bible, Spirit is used comprehensively to refer to God’s presence in creation, in the history of Israel, and in the life of Jesus and the early church. ……Some of its resonances of meaning are suggested by the Hebrew word for Spirit. “Ruach” also minds wind and breath. The associations of both are suggestive. Both are invisible yet manifestly real. We cannot see the wind, though its presence and effects are felt; it moves without being seen. When it blows, it is all around us. Breath is like wind inside the body. For the ancient Hebrews (as for us), it was associated with life. Metaphorically, God as Spirit is both wind and breath, a non material reality outside of us and within us. Our breath is God breathing us, and God is as near to us as our own breath. Speaking o f God as Spirit, as both wind and breath, evokes both transcendence and nearness.

Borg goes on to point out how the Spirit model of God allows for the inclusion of feminine images of God, specifically images of God as:

Wisdom

Lover

Journey Companion

It is as a Journey Companion – or Good Shepherd – that I think Christ has the most direct impact and relevance for Christians today. Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd. Borg elaborates on this role of Jesus:

 Rather than a single image, this is a category of images pointing to God as a companion who travels with us. It includes the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day that led the Israelites through the wilderness, as well as the presence of God that tented among them in a mobile home (the tabernacle). God as shepherd is another such image, but with the added dimension of nourishment and protection. The shepherd not only travels with the sheep but leads them to water and food, finds shelter, protects them, and seeks them when they go astray. In the New Testament, journey companion imagery is associated especially with Jesus. A disciple is one who journeys with Jesus (who also provides bread for the journey, indeed, “companion” literally means somebody with whom one breaks bread). In the Emmaus Road story, the risen Christ journeys with his disciples, even though they do not recognize him. And in John’s gospel, the image of God as shepherd is applied to Jesus: the Johannine Jesus is “the good shepherd.

I especially feel a vital connection with Jesus as “journey companion” when I reflect on the realties inherent in Paul’s brief statement in Ephesians 4:10. This is where Paul describes Jesus as the “one who ascended higher than the highest heaven so that he might fill all things with himself.” The implications of this one small comment are literally staggering. With the Ascension of Jesus, all things underwent a tremendous change – all things became a home for the Risen Lord.

Once we understand and accept this reality – the infusion of Christ into all things – our priority should be to deepen our conscious contact with the Indwelling Light. In my mind, I believe the best way to facilitate this deepening is through the practice of the classic spiritual disciplines. Borg speaks of these practices, what he calls “sacred practices,” which are means by which the sacred is mediated with daily living. With the infusion of Christ into all things, almost all activities have the potential to be considered “sacred acts” if performed with the proper reverence and mindfulness.

Returning to the theme of what I call “divine infusion,” as described in Ephesians 4:10, the implications of this act are staggering. In my own spiritual journey, when I first discovered this sublime biblical truth it was as if a flood gate of spiritual understanding had been opened. I could fill pages with the new insights brought about by this one small, often overlooked verse. Space does not allow for that, but let me explore just one minor implication of this profound biblical reality.

We know from Old Testament accounts that God accompanied the Israelites on their journey in the Wilderness as both the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. As mentioned in the above quotation from Borg, we also are reminded that the Great I Am then took up temporary residence in the Tabernacle. Eventually requiring a more permanent home in the Promised Land, the Lord had Solomon construct the first Temple in Jerusalem and, deep within the Temple in what was called the Holy of Holies, God made his earthly home. And it was in this innermost sanctuary of the Temple in Jerusalem that the Father resided when John the Baptist and Jesus appeared on the scene.

With the Resurrection and subsequent Ascension of Christ, along with the advent of the Holy Spirit, a most remarkable thing occurred. The Great I Am took up residence within every person. And if that was not miracle enough, with the “infusion” the Lord “filled all things with himself” (Eph. 4:10).

We can see in this pattern a sort of “progressive intimacy” orchestrated by God, culminating in the essence of Christ permeating all things, great and small. It is this all-encompassing Christ filling and animating all things that fits so well the “God as Spirit” model as described by Marcus Borg. This image of God as Spirit is, at the same time, highly personal and transpersonal. As an all-pervading Spirit resident in all of creation and especially in the hearts of his followers, Christ engages in a depth of intimacy that was not possible prior to his ascension and infusion. This divine indwelling fosters a deeply intimate and personal relationship between the individual and the animating Spirit in which he or she “lives, moves, and has their being.” At the same time, the all-pervasive Spirit is transpersonal, going beyond the individual and, by the very nature of His being, unites all creation in a interdependent and interrelated whole.

In Borg’s view, this expansive view of God as Spirit, as opposed to “Divine Monarch,” gives rise to a number of useful metaphors which makes the personal/transpersonal Spirit more accessible and pragmatic in daily life. Borg discusses several of these positive metaphors including God as: fire, light, breath, wisdom, mother and father, lover, and journey companion. I find all of these metaphors useful in terms of making the incomprehensible power, creativity, and intelligence of God more accessible.

All of these metaphors are carried over from the Old Testament into the New Testament. On a personal note, I have found the analogy of Christ as “journey companion” to be highly pertinent and impactful. We especially see this in the imagery of “Christ as Shepherd” in the 23^rd Psalm and in the gospels as well, especially the writings of John.  Personal experience has also shown me how each of these biblical metaphors can be beneficial in ways both practical and meaningful. Borg goes on to describe a trio of more obvious ways the metaphor of God as Spirit impacts our experience of God:

The biblical metaphors for the Spirit model affect our root image of God in three quite obvious ways. First, these metaphors emphasize the nearness of God rather than the distance implied by the monarchical model. They evoke closeness, relationship, and connection. God as Spirit is near, at hand; indeed, we live within Spirit. Nearness also involves concern: God as Spirit is compassionate. God is the womblike one who gave birth to us, who nurtures us, cares for us, yearns for us. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Second, both male and female metaphors (as well as some that are neither) are used, rather than exclusively male images of the monarchical model. God is like a woman giving birth, like a mother raising her children, like Sophia the wisdom woman; God is like an intimate father. Moreover, some images go equally well with either gender: God as lover, as companion or friend, even as shepherd. . . . . . . . . . .Third, rather than the essentially anthropomorphic image of God as king, lord and patriarchal father, the metaphors for God as Spirit include both non-anthropomorphic and anthropomorphic images. . . . . . . . . . .The presence of both is suggestive. . . . . . . .That is, they suggest that there is a personal dimension to the relationship to God. Yet non-anthropomorphic images suggest that God is not simply a person. Combining the two suggests that the relationship to God is personal, even as God is more than a person. The sacred is not simply a non-animate mystery but a presence.

Although it is hard to contain in the limited nature of words, it is this sense of God as Spirit in general and God as presence in particular that I have found most transformational. Christ, a unique, pre-existent being who, at the very same time, is an all-pervasive, deeply penetrating, and fully indwelling force, becomes a life-enhancing, life-changing force – an ever-present presence that is indeed an indispensable and welcomed companion for my journey.

© L.D. Turner 2012/ All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Today

First page of the Gospel of Mark, by Sargis Pitsak, a Medieval Armenian scribe and miniaturist (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jesus is like air to the lungs and water to a desert dweller. He is not a religious artifact. He’s not dead. He is alive. He is engaged and engaging. He is here now, changing lives all over this world this very moment. When He walked on earth He changed everything for everyday, for all time. What started then continues today. It can’t be stopped though many have tried. Jesus is the rock of redemption and His church will prevail. He is here in this moment with you, doing what He always does, calling you to a higher place, calling you to break free from convention and stop going to church and start being the church everywhere you go. Let’s be “Jesus people” again. Let’s be men and women whose hearts are captured, redeemed, renewed, enlivened, ignited, set fee! Let’s return to the revolution to be the change we want to see in the world!

David Foster

(from Renegades Guide to God)