Holy Mysteries
Understanding, or Right Thinking?
Today we want to understand-
to lay it out, to break it down, to plot it all out with constants and variables.
Our faith is Humanism. It's all about us!
Right thinking- We know
there is that there is, beyond knowing:
Where did time come from? Where will it go?
If all matter come from energy, then what is its source?
And who harnessed it?
“God is love.” Thinking about it brings wisdom,
Thinking to understand it brings sorrow.
Jesus said, “This is my body, ..this is my blood.”
He died once, for all, but yet he said, “This is.”
Not emblems, not symbols, but he didn't say,
“As often as you do, you kill me,” but “you remember.”
Can we understand this? Do we need to?
Right believing, right remembering, needs Right Thinking.
'Can we understand this? Do we need to?
ReplyDeleteRight believing, right remembering, needs Right Thinking.'
The Bible is the place to start!
Followed by theology, philosophy and other related disciplines.
Russ
OK, but in the two examples given, how do you rationalise them into hard facts and figures? We can't say the elements in Holy Communion are only figurative: Jesus didn't give us that option. Yet we can't say they are literally flesh and blood, or else we'd be dealing with a constant repeat of His once-and-for-all sacrifice. I reason that when Calvin signed on with radical humanist Zwingli in the "emblematic" interpretation he took the whole Reformation on a theological fool's errand that bears no fruit, but that we might say to this day continues to tear flesh and blood out of the Body of Christ with the strife over words and even sectarian violence. I've seen the graves, the monuments, the blast walls, and the murals. One side insists the bread is Jesus, Himself, the other that it's only a wafer to somehow remind us of His sacrifice, so while they're busy shooting and bombing each other Jesus is saying, "I'm really here. Now stop that!" Boomboomboom! I can't hear You!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the rant, but the sense of Mystery is much deeper than just a theological dodge or a nice attitude to hold for one's personal quiet time.
We study, we pray, we fellowship and we attempt with God's help to be as objective as possible.
ReplyDeleteIn my case, attending secular University, my faith and philosophy has become stronger through evaluating other views.
Russ
I'm sorry, Russ, I'm not sure I understand the connection.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to make general statements in relation to your general statements...lol.
ReplyDeleteYeah, OK, I'll have to re-read my reply to see what general statement I made. They say the older you get, the newer everything is! We don't begin with a blank slate, but after a few decades of scouring, we can get pretty close to it!
ReplyDeleteI am fried from 1000 or so pages of PhD photocopying lately, but think it is cool you are getting comments and I have put together a short and sweet post.
ReplyDeleteGod bless my friend, Sir Robert.
This guy is full of promotions, already! First I'm a doctor, and now a knight? Oy!
ReplyDeleteI did a paper in Philosophy last semester, the thesis actually somewhat changed with the findings. It traced the pedigrees of Jaspers' form of existentialism and of modern Evangelicalism. In terms of the parentage and the conclusions, the parallels are pretty shocking. Modern, Western, Christianity in general has absorbed so much positivism that it has to come up with "scriptural" excuses for its lack of faith. Evangelicalism as we know it in N.America actually takes things a step farther in that it answers the need for "faith" with a leap of faith toward a Jaspers-ian "final experience" on which all existence before and after then rotate. Do we need to understand it all, or to put our faith in this or that religious rite of passage, or for that matter to assure ourselves that we believe "what is right for us" according to our own chosen background? Does, "Well, I believe this because I'm Methodist" carry any more water than "I believe what is right for me?" I have worked through this for years, well slow learner, I suppose, but what ever happened to the plan of salvation which Jesus proposed: "Follow Me?" Is it not in that following, that lies the mystery?
'Does, "Well, I believe this because I'm Methodist" carry any more water than "I believe what is right for me?" I have worked through this for years, well slow learner, I suppose, but what ever happened to the plan of salvation which Jesus proposed: "Follow Me?" Is it not in that following, that lies the mystery?'
ReplyDeleteThought provoking and thanks.
Speaking of promotion, I am only writing four posts per month (two blogs total) now and I have a new quite short one on thekingpin68.
Russ:)
Russ, don't know how I missed your post. I think that there's a gap between "right for me" and "because I a ___" but either way, doesn't it make one's own decision to believe X more important than actually qualifying X? I don't know how many times I've discussed with, say, hard-core Calvinists or atheists (also other groups you may not have up there- Oneness Pentecostal, etc. and seen them back off into their safe zone by saying, "Well, you're wrong/evil/stupid because...." and then either the classic "I'm a ___" or citing some ____ statement that might not even address the question. One more reason, I guess, that I avoid labels except ones like "Anglican" which folks will have no clue about. After all, John Wesley, Winston Churchill, and George Washington were all good Anglicans, right?
ReplyDeleteI really don't think God gives us that option. We have the Bible, we have the Fathers, and we have the Holy Ghost promised to teach us. Can we stand before God and tell Him that we chose to merely mine the Scriptures for "nuggets" to support our own (blank) position, and ignore anything that wasn't "as useful?" Broader evangelicalism today has become little more that people in this or that camp choosing which verses to pay attention to (and which way to spin them) based on what they call themselves. You know, I guess it is just the same as the New Age "this is my truth and that is your truth" mentality. How can we avoid it?