Infinite Power, Infinite Compassion

"Gentleness"

Etching by Chaim Koppelman

It is the prerogative of great strength to be gentle. Always remember that you are linked with the Infinite God, and that all things are possible to you. There must also be infinite pity. We must be tolerant and pitiful to those who abuse us, or have been embittered by disappointment, or have been ill-used.

It must be our aim to make allowances for such, and always to be sweetly reasonable towards any brusqueness, rudeness and bad manners of their behaviour. Let us be willing to admit that much is due to congenital moroseness. Therefore, we bear gently with the erring, and with those who are out of the way, because we also are encompassed with infirmity.

F B Meyer

Produce

Photo by fir0002

When we walk in the Spirit He produces in us the fruit of a holy character. The contrast between the works of the -- i.e., the selfish life -- and the fruit of the Spirit, which is the natural product of His influence, is very marked. In works there is effort, the clatter of machinery, the deafening noise of the factory. But fruit is found in the calm, still, regular process of Nature, which is ever producing in her secret laboratory the kindly fruits of the earth.

 How quiet it all is! There is no voice nor language. It is almost impossible to realise what is being effected by a long summer day of sunshine. The growing of autumn arrives with noiseless footsteps.

So it is with the soul that daily walks in the Spirit. There are probably no startling experiences, no marked transitions, nothing special to record in the diary, but every year those who live in close proximity witness a ripening wealth of fruit in the manifestation of love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.

F. B. Meyer

Living Words

(This is a modified version of a post I wrote a few years ago.)

A sacrament is a material object or action that God has chosen, in his complete freedom, to use as a conduit for his grace. The Christian movement has revolved around sacraments from its start. The Catholic and Orthodox traditions teach 7 sacraments -- baptism, confirmation (called "chrismation" in Orthodox churches), communion, holy orders, penance, anointing of the sick, and marriage. Meanwhile, most Protestants only observe the two specifically set up by Jesus of Nazareth, baptism and communion. Down through the ages innumerable followers of Jesus have attested to the mystical power resident in these simple things.

But you may have another sacrament sitting on your bookshelf. The Bible has always worked like a sacrament in the Community of Jesus -- a physical book that God uses to convey his free, unearned, transforming power and kindness to his wayward children.

Instruction Book?

Here in the western world there is a tendency, based on thinking that goes back to the Enlightenment, to see the universe mechanically. We assume that everything operates like an impersonal machine and if we can just understand the mechanism we can make it work. All we need is an instruction book.

It is popular, particularly in Western Protestantism, to think of the Bible as a kind of super instruction book. All we need to do is memorize the important dates and grasp the formulas, and we'll be able to make our religion "work." And of course, there definitely is quite a bit of wise advice and uplifting insight in Scripture. But the Bible does not purport to be just a wise and wonderful book; it purports to be revelation, a living entity through which the Holy Spirit of God speaks -- in the present tense. Just as Jesus of Nazareth was not just a wise and wonderful teacher but the unique revelation of the Living God.

Jesus taught that King David wrote his Psalms "by the Holy Spirit" (Gospel of Mark chapter 12, verses 35 - 37), and that Israel's holy books were filled with, "things written about himself in all the scriptures, starting with Moses and going through all the Prophets," (Gospel of Luke chapter 24, verses 27 and 44 - 47 ERV).

The early Christian movement believed "[Moses] received life-giving words (literally, "living words") from God to give to us", (Acts of the Apostles chapter 7, verse 38 ERV). For them -- and for us -- "God’s word is alive and working. It is sharper than the sharpest sword and cuts all the way into us. It cuts deep to the place where the soul and the spirit are joined. God’s word cuts to the center of our joints and our bones. It judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts." (Letter to the Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12 ERV).

As the scholar J. N. D. Kelly wrote, "Whenever our Lord and His apostles quoted the Old Testament, it is plain that they regarded it as the word of God," (Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, p. 60). It was the same with the Apostle's writings by the time the last one died, because the Jesus followers recognized that they carried the revelation that the Messiah had entrusted them with (p. 56).

Not a Normal Book

What I'm suggesting is that nice leather-bound book you have on your desk or in your car is not just a book: It is something that intelligent 21st century people get vaguely uncomfortable with, something that some scholars devote their lives to showing it is not.

It's supernatural.

When we crack our Bibles open we are exposing ourselves to the creative power of God's own being, as God wants us to experience it. Reading the Scriptures, as John Wesley used to say, is a "means of grace," a sacrament that connects us with God. And then anything can happen.

Modern people aren't supposed to think that way. We can explain all that miraculous stuff away with our current understandings, can't we? There's no need to go there, surely.

But as C. S. Lewis wrote, "Like it or not, you belong to a supernatural religion."

Jesus is the Revelation

What does it mean to say, as Ignatius of Antioch did here two Sundays ago, and as the Christian Movement has always taught, that Jesus of Nazareth himself is the revelation? And not simply "a" revelation like the 10 Commandments or the words of the Prophets, but "the" revelation -- the ultimate revelation.

As you read through the Jewish scriptures you learn three very important things (among many). First, that God has decided to reveal himself to humans beings. He's been doing it from the very beginning (Genesis chapters 1-3) and certainly no one made him. Communicating with humans at all is a pure, raw, free choice by God.

A second thing we find is that God has revealed himself via history. We might prefer, in our theological fantasies (if there are such things), that God had imparted all of his truth in a single, dispassionate, abstract, crystal-pure burst of light. Instead what we know of God, his goals and plans, his moral standards, what he requires from us, and what we can expect from him have all been communicated to us through his words and actions on the 'stage' of historical events. The Bible is the inspired (i.e., written in a partnership of God and humans) record of those actions and what they mean. There was a time when the Bible had not been written, but there never was a time when God was not revealing himself.

Story Telling

And third, we learn that in revealing himself, God told a story. There is a story arc to the Bible. It begins with God being the origin of everything. It tells about the humans he created to reveal himself to, their disobedience of God, and the fundamental disharmony that fell on the world as a result -- a disharmony later called "sin." The story goes on to tell of a great flood in reaction to sin, and then of a man named Abraham who was selected to live up to a unique commission:

"I will use you to bless

    all the people on earth."

(Genesis 12.3, ERV) 

From there we learn of the nation descended from him with the same commission and how they ultimately failed and were crushed by foreign nations. But not before producing a singular King whose dynasty was destined to issue in a man who would rescue Israel and the world, deal with sin, proclaim a new law "written on people's hearts," and inaugurate the Kingdom of God. The one, in other words, who would finally fulfill that commission. As the 1st century neared this rescuer came to be called "Messiah" -- "the specially commissioned one," the man with ceremonial oil poured on his head, as was done to kings and priests. In Greek, Messiah is "Christ."

So when we say Jesus of Nazareth himself, in his own person, is the Christian revelation, we mean he is the climax of all that had gone before as God had revealed himself to humanity. Jesus is the spear tip of all God had been doing to set things right since the beginning of time.  Or as St. Peter realized, he is, "the Messiah, the Son of the Living God," 

One Other Point

There is one other point: As Jesus went about doing his job as Messiah it became increasingly apparent that things said only of God or done only by God in the Jewish Scriptures, were being done and described of him. "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father too," (John 14.9 ERV).  Very early on the life and actions of Jesus were realized to be those of God.  Messiah turned out to be much more than was even expected, and those who looked for him expected quite a lot.  

I've pointed out previously that the vast bulk of the Apostle's Creed is just a summary of Jesus' life. There is a reason for that.  Jesus himself  is the revelation because his words, life, death, and resurrection are the best possible way to grasp what God is really like. He is the ultimate self-revealing of God.

After 50 or 60 years of turning this over in his mind St. John described it concisely, "No one has ever seen God. The only Son is the one who has shown us what God is like. He is himself God and is very close to the Father," (John 1.18 ERV).

"...One Heart and One Soul..."

Irenaeus of Lyon

Meditation for a Sunday Morning

"There is one body and one Spirit, and God chose you to have one hope. There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. There is one God and Father of us all, who rules over everyone. He works through all of us and in all of us."

(Letter to the Ephesians chapter 4 verses 4 - 6, ERV)

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Irenaeus was a leader, thinker, and writer in the early Christian Movement. He had grown up in the church at Smyrna (in today's Turkey) led by Polycarp, a legend in the early church. Polycarp had been a student of John the Apostle himself, and he passed on stories and teachings from John and other "elders" in the Movement. Irenaeus absorbed it all with the fabulous mind he had. As an adult he moved east to Lyons, France where he cared for the Movement's outpost there and handed on the 'deposit of faith' as he had heard it from Polycarp, who had received it from St. John the Apostle who received it from... Well, I imagine you can see what makes Irenaeus so important in the history of the Christian Movement.

In his guest-blog today, Irenaeus describes what was in the revelation Jesus entrusted his Apostles with, and how carefully it was handed on.

Now the Church, although scattered over the whole civilized world to the end of the earth, received from the apostles and their disciples its faith in one God, the Father Almighty, who made the heaven, and the earth, and the seas, and all that is in them, and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was made flesh for our salvation, and in the Holy Spirit, who through the prophets proclaimed the dispensations of God—the comings, the birth of a virgin, the suffering, the resurrection from the dead, and the bodily reception into the heavens of the beloved, Christ Jesus our Lord, and his coming from the heavens in the glory of the Father to restore all things, and to raise up all flesh, that is, the whole human race, so that every knee may bow, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, to Christ Jesus our Lord and God and Saviour and King, according to the pleasure of the invisible Father, and every tongue may confess him, and that he may execute righteous judgment on all.

The spiritual powers of wickedness, and the angels who transgressed and fell into apostasy, and the godless and wicked and lawless and blasphemers among men he will send into the eternal fire. But to the righteous and holy, and those who have kept his commandments and have remained in his love, some from the beginning [of life] and some since their repentance, he will by his grace give life incorrupt, and will clothe them with eternal glory.

Having received this preaching and this faith, as I have said, the Church, although scattered in the whole world, carefully preserves it, as if living in one house. She believes these things [everywhere] alike, as if she had but one heart and one soul, and preaches them harmoniously, teaches them, and hands them down, as if she had but one mouth. For the languages of the world are different, but the meaning of the [Christian] tradition is one and the same. Neither do the churches that have been established in Germany believe otherwise, or hand down any other tradition, nor those among the Iberians, nor those among the Celts, nor in Egypt, nor in Libya, nor those established in the middle parts of the world.

Irenaeus of Lyons (early 2nd century – c. AD 202)
Against All Heresies book 1 chapters 10 sections 1 - 2 (written about AD 180)

Questioning Basil

An old Romanian painting of Basil
Courtesy of Țetcu Mircea Rareș

Oddly enough, out of all the stuff I've written here recently the post that generates a question is Sunday's quotation of Basil the Great about the Holy Spirit. And not so much on what he said but why we should care what he said at all. I thought it was a great question but it appeared on my personal Facebook page. So I've made it into today's post.

My response was typed during breaks while doing my real life job, so it's not the most well written, but other than cleaning up the spelling and inserting links and brief annotations for context's sake, it's the way I wrote it.

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Q: What does a guy in the early 4th century that was rife with superstition and political intrigue, just a couple decades after Constantine, ignorant of quantum theory, relativity theory, etc. etc. know about the nature of God? Isn't time for a "New" conference on the nature of God?


A: My short answer to the original question about the 'guy in the early 4th century' is that he's an integral part -- one of the most integral, in fact -- of the subject of my blog. My theme is classic early, consensual, ecumenical Christianity as it developed over the first 5 centuries and that what many people take as Christianity today (fundamentalism and progressivism in particular) is only superficially like it.

My longer answer is that I'm all in favor of research into whatever relation there may be between God and quantum physics (John Polkinghorne, Theoretical physicist/Priest, has some interesting ideas there), and I would add Neuroscience too. I'm especially fascinated with the work on reproducing some mental states usually associated with deep religious experiences. And the 4th century certainly was superstitious (though not as much as is usually made out, especially for well-educated people like a Basil or an Augustine) and politics was rampant as in all ages. You might remember my view of Constantine and the intermingling of Christianity with the state -- any state [Which is that it was one of the worst things ever to happen to the Christian Movement].

Validity

But I'm not sure that affects the validity of what Basil was doing on the nature of God. The basic presupposition of Christianity is that God revealed himself supremely through 'the Christ event' [fancy theologian-speak for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus]. That's one of the things about Christianity that bothered the Romans, that it was a revealed religion, not a philosophy or even a mystery religion. Because of that it was passed down from Jesus to the Apostles to the Church at large as a deposit of faith given "once for all to the saints." [In other words, since it was a revelation and not a philosophy or nature religion, it was by its nature something you received and tried to explain, the way physicists try to explain the universe.] 

The Father-Son-Spirit aspect was there from the beginning [in Second Letter to the Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13 for instance] (though not the trinitarian theology, of course). At first there wasn't a lot of deep thought about it, [i.e., the relation of Father to Son to Holy Spirit] except by Paul and to some extent John. But as evangelism continued, they ran into educated fellows like Celsus who wanted to know how we reconciled the one God with the man Jesus, who was worshiped, called 'Lord', prayed to and various other things that usually pertain to God. 

Basil and others weren't trying to do something quantum physics would help them on, I don't think. What they wanted was to define, as well as possible from the rather spare data left by Christ and the Apostles, the inner life of God.  

So what Ignatius, and Justin Martyr,  Irenaeus and Tertullian, Theophilus of Antioch, Arius (I'd include him too) and Athanasius and on down to Basil were doing was unrolling this revelation, this deposit, puzzling out which scenario covered the data (of the revelation) most completely, and struggling to come up with words with enough precision to describe their conclusion. And then, right after they produce their best effort, you find Basil and Augustine et. al. warning that even that doesn't quite do it; it's just the best try of the greatest Christian minds of their age.

The key words they used, "Ousia" and "hypostasis," were cutting edge Greek philosophy at the time, and their work has stood up well for 2 millennia. I'm not sure we have better today.

"...Properly Applied..."

Meditation for a Sunday Morning

But the Helper will teach you everything and cause you to remember all that I told you. This Helper is the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name. 

(Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 14, ERV)

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Basil of Caesarea was one of the most important theologians the Christian Movement has ever had. Both Catholics and Orthodox consider him a "Doctor (in the sense of a great teacher) of the Church." Here Basil blogs one his many demonstrations that the Holy Spirit is God.

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all make holy, revive, enlighten, and comfort. No one would attribute a special, peculiar duty of making holy to the the Spirit after hearing the Savior ask the Father this about his disciples in the Gospel: "sanctify them in Your name, (Gospel of John chapter 17 verse 17, CEB). In the same way all other tasks are performed equally, for all those worthy of them, by the Father, by the Son, and by the Holy Spirit -- every grace and virtue, guidance, life, comfort, transformation into immortality, the passage into freedom and every other good thing that comes down to humanity...  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit performing one and the same duties clearly proves that they are of the same nature. It follows then that, even if the name of "Godhead" does signify God's nature, their common essence proves that this title is also quite properly applied to the Holy Spirit.

Basil of Caesarea, also known as Saint Basil the Great (AD 329 - 379)
Letter 189 chapter 7