Two bored children,
inquisitive minds,
carefree escapades,
household havoc.
My biblical meditation assaulted.
My concentration distracted.
My spirituality fractured.
My carnal naure stirred.
I rose up,
captured my "space invaders."
We rumbled, raced around a park,
swings...sodas...
We walked back home,
hand in hand.
I worshiped God today
as the four of us played.
Wife under pressure,
frazzled beyond measure.
I'm weary and stressed.
Mutual consternation.
Emotional frustration.
Dangerous combination.
We rose up,
canceled weekend business,
left the house mess.
Picnic on the beach.
Lips within reach.
Love refreshed,
heart in heart.
We worshiped God today
as the three of us played.
~R.N. and Mary Hawkins
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
spiritual power in the old testament
It has increasingly become more clear to me that one simply cannot read a single page in the Bible without noticing the evidence of spiritual power. I think we'd be hard pressed not to find an example on any given page [except maybe for the Psalms and wisdom literature]. But open randomly to any page - particularly in the Old Testament or New Testament Gospels - and guaranteed some incredible sign or miracle or wonder is taking place. So, why is it then when we read the Bible - and when I say "we" I mean mostly "me" - that we either ignore the evidence of spiritual power or we just gloss over it all the while thinking to ourselves, "Oh, well that was cool" and put our heads back down and continue reading as if it didn't really happen or mean anything in particular.
I'm going offer one example of spiritual power in the Old Testament which relates to my previous post on worldview, which you can check out by clicking here. The text comes from Genesis 28:10-17, which reads -
Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it.
Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you." Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, "God is in this place—truly. And I didn't even know it!" He was terrified. He whispered in awe, "Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God's House. This is the Gate of Heaven." [The Message]
So, what in the world is going on here and what does it have to do with spiritual power and worldview? Well, the world of the scriptures is strange and wonderful - so there is a gap between the scriptural worldview and what we are typically taught in the West. This passage commonly referred to as "Jacob's ladder" seems to pose problems for many of us who subscribe to either a naturalist or dualist worldview. This passage illiminates the sacramental or biblical worldview.
Jacob is running away and does not have a home at this time. He left Beersheba and is running toward Haran. He is a fugitive. He doesn't have a place. Basically, he's a no "body" right now. As the sun sets, he set his head on a stone as a "head stone." And in a dream he saw a stairway to heaven and he saw angels ascending and descending the the stairway - probably much like the picture above - a sort of continuous processional. Angels are a symbol system of talking about the embodiment of the gracious power of God. Angels are the embodiment of the love of God and God sends them out to proclaim this love. Judgment is not outside of God's love either. So it is also true that agnels are the embodiment of God's judgment. However, love and judgment are not opposites of each other.
Okay, so God said to Jacob, "I am with you..." So Jacob is lost and God is with him. Jacob is being directed by God vis-a-vis his dream to thevery infrastructure of reality as it really is. Jacob is not being taken out of the world...he's being taken in to the very center of it. What Jacob saw in his dream is what we would see if the layers of the material world could be peeled back to expose this infrastructure. This is a sacramental moment where the heavens and the earth kiss to reveal what reality is truly like. This is really cool to think about. What do you think? Can you wrap your mind around the infrastructure of our world as depicted as angels ascending and descending a stairway all the while proclaiming God's love for creation? I can. And it's amazing!
I'm going offer one example of spiritual power in the Old Testament which relates to my previous post on worldview, which you can check out by clicking here. The text comes from Genesis 28:10-17, which reads -
Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it.
Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you." Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, "God is in this place—truly. And I didn't even know it!" He was terrified. He whispered in awe, "Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God's House. This is the Gate of Heaven." [The Message]
So, what in the world is going on here and what does it have to do with spiritual power and worldview? Well, the world of the scriptures is strange and wonderful - so there is a gap between the scriptural worldview and what we are typically taught in the West. This passage commonly referred to as "Jacob's ladder" seems to pose problems for many of us who subscribe to either a naturalist or dualist worldview. This passage illiminates the sacramental or biblical worldview.
Jacob is running away and does not have a home at this time. He left Beersheba and is running toward Haran. He is a fugitive. He doesn't have a place. Basically, he's a no "body" right now. As the sun sets, he set his head on a stone as a "head stone." And in a dream he saw a stairway to heaven and he saw angels ascending and descending the the stairway - probably much like the picture above - a sort of continuous processional. Angels are a symbol system of talking about the embodiment of the gracious power of God. Angels are the embodiment of the love of God and God sends them out to proclaim this love. Judgment is not outside of God's love either. So it is also true that agnels are the embodiment of God's judgment. However, love and judgment are not opposites of each other.
Okay, so God said to Jacob, "I am with you..." So Jacob is lost and God is with him. Jacob is being directed by God vis-a-vis his dream to thevery infrastructure of reality as it really is. Jacob is not being taken out of the world...he's being taken in to the very center of it. What Jacob saw in his dream is what we would see if the layers of the material world could be peeled back to expose this infrastructure. This is a sacramental moment where the heavens and the earth kiss to reveal what reality is truly like. This is really cool to think about. What do you think? Can you wrap your mind around the infrastructure of our world as depicted as angels ascending and descending a stairway all the while proclaiming God's love for creation? I can. And it's amazing!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
spiritual power and worldview
Oh, how to begin this conversation. Hmmm...spiritual power is not something that is talked about widely in the circles that I run in. However, when I read the Bible, I have found that you cannot read a single page without some sort of spiritual power being demonstrated or proclaimed. So, what comes to mind when I say the words, "spiritual power"? My mind immediately thinks of things like - heaven, hell, God, Satan, angels, demons, miraculous healing, and the like. All of these things, I believe, are related to the topic of spiritual power; and I'm reminded of a conversation I had with my parents when I told them I was taking a course at the seminary on spiritual power, and one of my folks asked, "So are you going to learn to do exorcisms?" It's was an honest question, and one that makes me smile. I reassured them that no I would not be learning to perform exorcism...bummer.
I think a natural starting point for talking about spiritual power ought to begin with worldview. Okay...so what is worldview [and is there more than one worldview?] and why is worldview important? One definition of worldview is our basic assumptions about reality which lie behind the beliefs and behaviors of any given culture. Other common worldviews include - naturalist, dualist, animist, theist, post-modern, deist, New Age, and sacramental. What is missing? What other worldviews are there? Think about this - if you subscribe to a particular worldview, what does this worldview say about how you experience the world around you? Or...or how has your worldview changed over the course of your life?
Why is worldview important? I think, simply, that worldview is important because worldview is the lens by which we experience and understand all aspects of life including spiritual power. For example, someone who subsribes to a naturalist worldview [by which I mean that reality is only those things by which our five senses can detect] will have a very, very small [or no] understanding [or appreciation for] of spiritual power or their understanding of power will be relegated to the physical realm.
Another popular worldview in the Western world is what I'll call a dualist worldview, whereby a spiritual realm and the physical realm do exist but are separate realms which have very little to do with each other. A good example of this view is the view that we [as human beings] have physical bodies with spiritual or immortal souls in the sense that we are embodied souls and when we die our bodies decay and our souls are lifted to heaven where we will live with God [somewhere up there] for all eternity. Now, I have oversimplified this worldview just a bit, but the point is when we die our bodies decay and remain while our "soul" is lifted upwards to heaven.
A third worldview, which is where I am at today, is what is sometimes referred to as the sacramental worldview. This view acknowledges the physical realm and the spiritual realm, but instead of being distinct entities [as a dualist view hold], these two realms overlap and kiss each other. See the slide below. This I believe is the biblical worldview, meaning that when we read the Bible we should read it through this set of lenses. God and humans [and the earth] are intimately connected, like two lovers. For example, when we die though our bodies are buried, there will come a time when Jesus Christ with a whole heavenly host, will descend upon the earth, and God will make all things new. The dead will rise [not decay eternally] with Christ, and we will be renewed - made more fully human [if that is possible to conceive] and fully restored in to the image of God. I could go on and on about this, but the point is a sacramental worldview recognizes that the spritual and physical realms overlap and are connected to one another. In my next post, I'll give one example from the Bible where this is most evident.
Questions to ponder:
1) What worldview do you subscribe to? What does your view say about you and what does it say about God?
2) How has your worldview changed?
3) Does anything I say surprise you? How?
I think a natural starting point for talking about spiritual power ought to begin with worldview. Okay...so what is worldview [and is there more than one worldview?] and why is worldview important? One definition of worldview is our basic assumptions about reality which lie behind the beliefs and behaviors of any given culture. Other common worldviews include - naturalist, dualist, animist, theist, post-modern, deist, New Age, and sacramental. What is missing? What other worldviews are there? Think about this - if you subscribe to a particular worldview, what does this worldview say about how you experience the world around you? Or...or how has your worldview changed over the course of your life?
Why is worldview important? I think, simply, that worldview is important because worldview is the lens by which we experience and understand all aspects of life including spiritual power. For example, someone who subsribes to a naturalist worldview [by which I mean that reality is only those things by which our five senses can detect] will have a very, very small [or no] understanding [or appreciation for] of spiritual power or their understanding of power will be relegated to the physical realm.
Another popular worldview in the Western world is what I'll call a dualist worldview, whereby a spiritual realm and the physical realm do exist but are separate realms which have very little to do with each other. A good example of this view is the view that we [as human beings] have physical bodies with spiritual or immortal souls in the sense that we are embodied souls and when we die our bodies decay and our souls are lifted to heaven where we will live with God [somewhere up there] for all eternity. Now, I have oversimplified this worldview just a bit, but the point is when we die our bodies decay and remain while our "soul" is lifted upwards to heaven.
A third worldview, which is where I am at today, is what is sometimes referred to as the sacramental worldview. This view acknowledges the physical realm and the spiritual realm, but instead of being distinct entities [as a dualist view hold], these two realms overlap and kiss each other. See the slide below. This I believe is the biblical worldview, meaning that when we read the Bible we should read it through this set of lenses. God and humans [and the earth] are intimately connected, like two lovers. For example, when we die though our bodies are buried, there will come a time when Jesus Christ with a whole heavenly host, will descend upon the earth, and God will make all things new. The dead will rise [not decay eternally] with Christ, and we will be renewed - made more fully human [if that is possible to conceive] and fully restored in to the image of God. I could go on and on about this, but the point is a sacramental worldview recognizes that the spritual and physical realms overlap and are connected to one another. In my next post, I'll give one example from the Bible where this is most evident.
Questions to ponder:
1) What worldview do you subscribe to? What does your view say about you and what does it say about God?
2) How has your worldview changed?
3) Does anything I say surprise you? How?
history belongs to the intercessors
When we pray we are not sending a letter to a celestial White House, where it is sorted among piles of others. We are engaged, rather, in an act of co-creation, in which one little sector of the universe rises up and becomes translucent, incandescent, a vibratory centre of power that radiates the power of the universe.
History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being. If this is so, then intercession, far from being an escape from action, is a means of focusing for action and of creating action. By means of our intercessions we veritably cast fire upon the earth and trumpet the future into being. ~Walter Wink
History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being. If this is so, then intercession, far from being an escape from action, is a means of focusing for action and of creating action. By means of our intercessions we veritably cast fire upon the earth and trumpet the future into being. ~Walter Wink
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