Firsthand Religion
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 -- Week of Proper 19, Year Two
Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr of Carthage, 258
James Chisholm, Priest, 1855
To read about our daily commemorations, go to our Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/
Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 985)
Psalms 72 (morning) 119:73-96 (evening)
Job 42:1-17
Acts 16:16-24
John 12:20-26
One of the themes of the book of Job is the contrast between firsthand religion and secondhand religion.
We've just finished reading God's two speeches to Job. In so many ways, God's words are inscrutable. God does not give Job a straightforward or satisfying answer to Job's questions. God asserts the divine design and intention, and God says, "It's not about you, Job." Reading old words from the comfort of my study, I can critique them, look up what scholars say, or I can think about them. I can make some theological or literary judgment about the "God speeches in Job." I'm at arms length, and I am not transformed.
But Job experiences God. He hears the divine voice and feels the whirlwind of Presence. He is transformed: "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Picking up on the legal themes and language of the book, an alternative and better translation might be "I retract and give up my dust and ashes," that is, I give up my lawsuit, without necessarily admitting I was wrong.)
Job's experience transcends the categories he has used previously to frame his reality.
Mystical theologians speak of the unitive experience, a subjective vision of God which transcends most of our either/or, right/wrong categories. There is an experience of wholeness and peace that seems to illuminate all of life with such profound wonder and beauty that even evil and suffering become pale and thin it its light. Job sees and feels that reality. His old questions evaporate into dust and ashes.
The ending is not so happy for Job's friends. They have been righteous in their rightness. Believing that they are defending God, they have offered stout debate on the side of traditional, conventional, Biblically based theology. They defend the orthodoxy of the Deuteronomic Historian, the Book of Proverbs and of many of the Psalms -- God is good and righteous; God is just; God protects and rewards the righteous and innocent; God punishes the wicked. Theirs is a dry and lifeless religion of precepts and beliefs, and God is not amused by them.
Yet God accepts Job's intercession for them. The mystic extends the divine acceptance even on behalf the nearsighted literalists who would censor him.
Today we have a couple of commemorations of people who might also be seen as people of firsthand religion.
During the Decian persecution of the third century, Cyprian the Bishop of Carthage went into hiding, directing his church by letter from his safe refuge. When the threat was ended, rigorist leaders like Novatian declared that there was no readmission to communion for those who had betrayed and abandoned the church in its trial, no returned for traitors who had denied their faith to save their lives. Novatian challenged the moderate Cyprian who allowed restoration after appropriate penance. In his purity and rightness, Novatian led a schism that split the church, and he was excommunicated. His movement continued and grew for a period. They called themselves Puritans. (not to be confused exactly with the Puritans of the 16th and 17th centuries) In a later persecution under Valerian, Cyprian himself was arrested and beheaded for his faith.
I would suggest that the generosity of spirit which Cyprian represents is evidence of his firsthand experience of God. He embodies divine compassion and love for the lapsed, while the purists of secondhand religion, the rigorists of belief, so often reduce the divine mystery to correct belief.
One other character today. James Chisholm is a new addition to our proposed calendar. Described as bashful, delicate, weak, and lacking much fortitude, he seems an unlikely hero. Yet when a yellow fever epidemic decimated tidewater Virginia in 1855, and the wealthy who could escape did so, Chisholm was among the few clergy who stayed to serve. He served to exhaustion, finally succumbing to the disease. The accounts of his life marvel at his inner strength.
The experience of the sacred embraces mystery and changes us. This is the firsthand religion that Job gives witness to. So much religion is secondhand religion, a set of orderly teachings about how things are and how we should be. Secondhand religion gives us good gifts, and it often leads us to encounter and to know the sacred. But secondhand religion can take us only so far, and it often degenerates into oppressive forms of certainties and control.
Job invites us into the encounter with Ultimate Mystery that leaves us transformed. Job invites us beyond just hearing about God, into knowing God.
Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr of Carthage, 258
James Chisholm, Priest, 1855
To read about our daily commemorations, go to our Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/
Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 985)
Psalms 72 (morning) 119:73-96 (evening)
Job 42:1-17
Acts 16:16-24
John 12:20-26
One of the themes of the book of Job is the contrast between firsthand religion and secondhand religion.
We've just finished reading God's two speeches to Job. In so many ways, God's words are inscrutable. God does not give Job a straightforward or satisfying answer to Job's questions. God asserts the divine design and intention, and God says, "It's not about you, Job." Reading old words from the comfort of my study, I can critique them, look up what scholars say, or I can think about them. I can make some theological or literary judgment about the "God speeches in Job." I'm at arms length, and I am not transformed.
But Job experiences God. He hears the divine voice and feels the whirlwind of Presence. He is transformed: "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Picking up on the legal themes and language of the book, an alternative and better translation might be "I retract and give up my dust and ashes," that is, I give up my lawsuit, without necessarily admitting I was wrong.)
Job's experience transcends the categories he has used previously to frame his reality.
Mystical theologians speak of the unitive experience, a subjective vision of God which transcends most of our either/or, right/wrong categories. There is an experience of wholeness and peace that seems to illuminate all of life with such profound wonder and beauty that even evil and suffering become pale and thin it its light. Job sees and feels that reality. His old questions evaporate into dust and ashes.
The ending is not so happy for Job's friends. They have been righteous in their rightness. Believing that they are defending God, they have offered stout debate on the side of traditional, conventional, Biblically based theology. They defend the orthodoxy of the Deuteronomic Historian, the Book of Proverbs and of many of the Psalms -- God is good and righteous; God is just; God protects and rewards the righteous and innocent; God punishes the wicked. Theirs is a dry and lifeless religion of precepts and beliefs, and God is not amused by them.
Yet God accepts Job's intercession for them. The mystic extends the divine acceptance even on behalf the nearsighted literalists who would censor him.
Today we have a couple of commemorations of people who might also be seen as people of firsthand religion.
During the Decian persecution of the third century, Cyprian the Bishop of Carthage went into hiding, directing his church by letter from his safe refuge. When the threat was ended, rigorist leaders like Novatian declared that there was no readmission to communion for those who had betrayed and abandoned the church in its trial, no returned for traitors who had denied their faith to save their lives. Novatian challenged the moderate Cyprian who allowed restoration after appropriate penance. In his purity and rightness, Novatian led a schism that split the church, and he was excommunicated. His movement continued and grew for a period. They called themselves Puritans. (not to be confused exactly with the Puritans of the 16th and 17th centuries) In a later persecution under Valerian, Cyprian himself was arrested and beheaded for his faith.
I would suggest that the generosity of spirit which Cyprian represents is evidence of his firsthand experience of God. He embodies divine compassion and love for the lapsed, while the purists of secondhand religion, the rigorists of belief, so often reduce the divine mystery to correct belief.
One other character today. James Chisholm is a new addition to our proposed calendar. Described as bashful, delicate, weak, and lacking much fortitude, he seems an unlikely hero. Yet when a yellow fever epidemic decimated tidewater Virginia in 1855, and the wealthy who could escape did so, Chisholm was among the few clergy who stayed to serve. He served to exhaustion, finally succumbing to the disease. The accounts of his life marvel at his inner strength.
The experience of the sacred embraces mystery and changes us. This is the firsthand religion that Job gives witness to. So much religion is secondhand religion, a set of orderly teachings about how things are and how we should be. Secondhand religion gives us good gifts, and it often leads us to encounter and to know the sacred. But secondhand religion can take us only so far, and it often degenerates into oppressive forms of certainties and control.
Job invites us into the encounter with Ultimate Mystery that leaves us transformed. Job invites us beyond just hearing about God, into knowing God.
Lowell
_____________________________________________
Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts
About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.
Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html
The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.
Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org
Our Rule of Life
Lowell Grisham, Rector
Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts
About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.
Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html
The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.
Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org
Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.
Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas
posted by Lowell @ 8:33 AM
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