Irreconcilable Differences

Yesterday, I came across this in Andrew Greeley's book Home for Christmas:

"Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of men those things which God has prepared for those who love Him." -- St. Paul

Such imaginings involve imagining what God is like. ... I believe firmly and confess gladly that in this conversation I have underestimated the mercy and love of God -- and also his wit. There is no way that one can comprehend the ineffable, as much as humans try. Along with St. Therese, however, I believe that God is nothing but mercy and love and the more we reflect on that, the better off we will be.

The book is about a near death experience had by an American soldier in Iraq. An earlier scene showed him rushing into harm's way to rescue two toddlers who had wandered into the line of fire. Such heroism is commonplace among our troops. We have rules of engagement and murdering toddlers is not on our agenda. Not so in the ancient Middle East.

I have read a great deal of scripture in my life - from all the world's religions. This year I began reading the Bible - beginning with the Genesis. Currently, I am in the middle of Judges. I am appalled at the bloodthirsty nature of warfare - the Israelites, under the direction of God, swept into cities and killed everything that drew breath - men, women, children, even at times the animals that lived there. Deuteronomy 7:2 has God instructing the Israelites to show no mercy.

I cannot reconcile these two images of God. I'm at a total loss. Is it that our understanding of reality and super-reality has changed over time? You see that progression in scripture - I've lectured on it - religions change and our understanding of religion changes through the generations just as we see the cosmos differently as a toddler than we do as an adult. Yet, if that is the case, how do we take scripture, what place does it hold in our spiritual journey?

Kodi

The plan had been to adopt a German Shepherd mix as a guard dog. Riley might have a terrier's fierce heart, but she was only 8 1/2 pounds of ferocity. I wanted to feel safe in our new home. I saw a photo of "Alfred" on the Humane Society's website. He was six months old and reportedly an Aussie/Akita mix. Two large, protective breeds. When thirty pound Kodi was brought out and immediately climbed into Dana's lap, I knew he'd never top forty pounds. I tried to talk Dana into waiting for a better fit; but, Kodi was the dog for her. Riley, amazingly enough, liked him. We filled out the paperwork and were told we could take him home once the home check was done. That Saturday we visited again to play with and walk Kodi. A volunteer came up and said, "Did they tell you he was deaf?" I relied that I had not been told that, but, it just meant that he was more special. I understood why he hadn't been adopted when all his litter mates had gone quickly. He'd spent almost all of his puppyhood in a cage. It was time for him to have a home. These thoughts warred with the fact that I felt like Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, I had managed to pick out a deaf watchdog. I had to laugh. It turned out that timid, peace loving Kodi is very protective of my daughter, highly intelligent, loving, and not at all deaf. Whether that was a miracle or not, who knows? Even the vet that checked him out confirmed his deafness. I'm so glad we took a chance and gave this guy a home :).

Nothing to Say, Nothing to Pray

I sit here, virtually empty of ideas, wondering why I ever made this Lenten promise to begin with when I have nothing to say. In my frustration - I've already lost one start on today's entry - I remember Romans 8:26:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 

Religions around the world have many non-verbal ways to reach out to the Divine. Dancing, drumming, singing, chanting - I've done them all and I've been taken up into something blissfully outside my own all too small intellect.

Perhaps these are the times when we should take a deep breath and simply listen.

A Lack of Imagination

I remember being fascinated by an old copy of Dante's "Divine Comedy" as a teen. The etching of Dante's visions of Purgatory and Hell were rich in detail. Heaven? Not so much. Heaven was boring. But I think the problem is a lack of the imagination. We think of Heaven with an earthly mindset.

It's like the Buddhist story. When asked about Nirvana, the Buddha said that trying to describe Nirvana to those who had not attained Nirvana would be like a frog returning to the pond to describe air and land to tadpoles. He could only describe it in negatives. Land is not wet, no you cannot swim in it, etc. he could not explain what it was.

It's hard not to fear, hard to trust that all things will work to the good when we look at our lives in earthly terms. It is only when we accept the reality of Heaven that fears melt away.

Impression Management

Julie Ackerman Link has spoken once again to my experience as a teacher. She wrote:


Some of us may feel pressured to be perfect when we go to church so that people will think well of us. Metaphorically speaking, we work hard to make sure we have every hair in place. But a healthy church is a place where we can let down our hair and not hide our flaws behind a façade of perfection. In church, we should be able to reveal our weaknesses to find strength rather than conceal our faults to appear strong (http://odb.org/).

This week, one of the discussions in my classes is on impression management and a student wrote about the importance of impression management in church because it was horrible to feel judged in church. I agree - it is horrible to feel judged because being judged rather than loved flies in the face of everything Jesus taught. Considering the serendipity of this - I have to wonder what I am meant to learn here. Feel free to comment - I'd love to continue this discussion and see where it leads.

God is Love

In many of my religious studies classes, I've commented that those three little words, at the end of 1 John 4:8 were, in my opinion, the most profoundly elegant and beautiful scripture I knew and I've read the scriptures of many of the world's religions. I was thinking about those words the other day as I walked and thinking about John 3:16 and it occurred to me that this was a truly radical viewpoint. Every person I looked at - from the homeless people who spend the days on the beach, to the elderly couple walking by, to the teens who I was sure should have been in school, to the toddlers and their mothers - according to these scriptures God loves all of them -  with a passionate love deep enough to die for that person. I cannot truly comprehend a LOVE that expansive - a LOVE that is God - a God that is Love. It sounds simple - three little words - but they contain something so profound that a lifetime of meditating on those words wouldn't begin to plumb the depths of their meaning. Maybe that's what Heaven is for ;).

Sad Dogs?

My back went out this morning and working was harder than usual and notably slow and unproductive and I decided to schedule a massage instead of going for my usual walk. Despite these disappointments, both Kodi and Riley are now sleeping by my feet. Just another of the things that we can learn from dogs about how to love, how to be loyal, and how to be happy and relax no matter the circumstances.