Inner Authority

In Richard Rohr’s book, Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent (Fourth Sunday of Advent), he writes about the Blind Faith of Mary and Joseph.  He wonders why Mary and Joseph so seemingly easily followed the plan of God in the nativity story.  Who would trust such a situation?  Roar writes:

So why do we love and admire people like Mary and Joseph and then into imitate their faith journey, their courage, their non-reassurance by the religious system? These were two laypeople who totally trusted their inner experience of God and who followed it to Bethlehem and beyond.

He asks, “In what ways do you trust your own inner authority?”

Do we trust our inner authority? Do we follow God because our innermost self tells us it is the right thing to do? Or do we, sometimes, ignore the voice within to trust something else?

And when is it right to trust that voice? Don’t we sometimes get it wrong?

I think this is the challenge of discernment.  God is with us; the Holy Spirit speaks in us, directing us, helping us, right? But also in our minds is our own voice, not yet completely perfected, that leads us to something less unselfish, less God-led.  How do we come to the point of trusting our inner authority, of understanding that it is from God?

Doesn’t the question become - I trust God, but do I trust myself to discern God’s will?

That said, I can also say that there have been times when I did trust that inner authority - when I followed my inner voice.  Most often it took lots of convincing from God - whether that was a sleepless night or several months of arguing with myself.  I did get there, and the result has been wonderful.

Whose Kingdom

During Advent, I read Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent by Richard Rohr.  One of the meditation contains the sentence, "When people say piously, 'Thy kingdom come' out of one side of their mouth, they need also to say, 'My kingdom go!' out of the other side.  The kingdom of God supersedes and far surpasses all kingdoms of self and society or personal reward."

This sentence struck me because the day before I was asked to pray at the beginning of a Zoom meeting.  It was an extemporaneous prayer - and I'm not sure if this will make sense or not - but because I had not prepared for it, it was a prayer that I journeyed through while I was praying it.  Sometimes those go well, and sometimes they feel clunky and cliched.  This prayer journeyed to an ending of "may we do all of this for your glory and that your kingdom may come."  That's not a phrase I often use, so it was surprising to me that it was how I ended the prayer.

I think the idea that saying "my kingdom go" is why saying - if you really mean it - "thy kingdom come" is frightening.  It means losing control.  It means letting go of control, intentionally.  Do we have trust issues with God?

I taught a CLM class earlier this week.  One of our topics was discernment, and I share this quote with the class:

"St. Ignatius of Loyola notes that sin is unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness.  Until I am absolutely convinced of this, I will do everything I can to keep my hands on the controls of my life, because I think I know better than God what I need for my fulfillment” David Benner 

Do we trust God? Do we trust God more than we trust ourselves so that we can, without fear, let go of control, and say, "My kingdom go."

Book Review: Preparing for Christmas

Information about the book:  Richard Rohr, O.F.M.  Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent.  Franciscan Media. Cincinnati, Ohio. 2008.

Summary: (From Amazon) “Advent is not about a sentimental waiting for the Baby Jesus,” Richard Rohr asserts. Advent is a time to focus our expectations and anticipation on “the adult Christ, the Cosmic Christ,” who challenges us to empty ourselves, to lose ourselves, to surrender.

Whether you are seeking a moment of tranquility in the midst of a busy holiday season or searching for a deeper connection with your faith, Preparing of Christmas: Daily Mediations for Advent is the perfect compassion. Renowned author and spiritual teacher Richard Rohr provides profound insights and gentle guidance to inspire and uplift as you reflect on the birth of Jesus and the significance of this sacred time.

Impressions: It was the first Monday of Advent, and I was sitting at my desk.  I picked up the devotional book I was reading and realized I wanted something more focused on Advent for the season.  I browsed Amazon, and found this Richard Rohr book.  I downloaded it my kindle, and have been reading one day’s reading each day.  Rohr is profound.  Each day’s reading opened up revelations that could be thought about all day.

Each reading is short, but packed with wisdom.  The book is designed so that it would work for any arrangement of Advent, with extra days in the back to fill in for longer advents. 

This is a great advent devotional book - I would highly recommend it.

Posts about this book will be tagged with Rohr Preparing.

Metaphor and Simplicity

Reading from Richard Rohr's book, Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent, I read this:

"Religion can only use the language of metaphor because we are pointing to transcendent things."

We certainly experience the use of metaphor in the Bible when we read the stories (parables) of Jesus, don't we? What about the creation story? Revelation?

I think it is important to notice the necessity of metaphor and to recognize it.

Do we really believe that God and God's kingdom are simple enough for us to understand if we just read the Bible? Do we think that is the case? Don't we recognize that it is so much more complicated than that? God does what God can to help us to see what God needs us to see, but even so, our minds and experience are so much less than God's - don't we believe that metaphor can help us to "see through the mirror" a little more than without?

And, with that said, I think we need to learn to recognize metaphor when we see it. If we take passages of the Bible literally - without the consideration that they could be metaphor - we do a disservice to the Word of God. Words have a purpose, and I believe we need to understand the purpose before we can understand the meaning.

If we think we have it figured out, we can rest assured that we do not.

 

Rejected from Community

 

Aransas Pass Lydia Point Lighthouse

In Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent, Richard Rohr (on December 19) talks about Jesus’ healing of people in the Gospels.  He most often healed lepers - he always touched them - and he usually sent them somewhere else.  Lepers weren’t necessarily those we would diagnose with leprosy today.  They were those who were deemed to be unacceptable in society - diseased, contagious, disabled.  When Jesus heals them, he “pulls them back to social acceptability.  That is the healing.  The lepers are no longer disposable.”

I thought that was a profound look at healing.  And then I read his next sentences.  When Jesus healed the lepers, he became unclean himself. He became unacceptable.  “He changes places with them.“

And then this:

“Barren women and lepers are, of course, stand-ins for all of us as classic ‘before’ pictures.”

We have been healed.  We have been made acceptable-if not in society, then in the kingdom of God.  Jesus has taken our place.  Who around us has been rejected from community?  Who have you rejected from community?

I am part of the United Methodist Church.  There are some of us who have rejected those whose sexual orientation or gender identity is different than our own.  Truthfully, I don’t think it matters what your viewpoint is on this matter when I say that none of us are empowered to reject people from our community? Where are you healing people?

(Don’t misunderstand me - I do think it matters what your viewpoint is on this matter in the larger picture, but even if you hold a traditional viewpoint, rejected is not allowed, is it?)

Self-Image

Richard Rohr writes in Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent, "One of the major problems in the spiritual life is our attachment to our own self-image - either positively or negatively created."

We all have a self-image, right? Sometimes we think too highly of ourselves. I can imagine this would be an obstacle to coming close to God. If we have no humility, no sense of our own sinfulness, no idea that we are not better than others - if we rank ourselves equal with God, then it would be hard to accept our need for God.

But, if we judge ourselves too harshly, if we see ourselves as "bad" and despicable, if we have no respect for God's creation in us, then it would be difficult to believe that God (or anyone else) can love us at all.

Rohr goes on to say, "Fortunately, that is what the Spirit has to strip away from us so that we can find our 'triumph and glory,' as Isaiah says, in God's image of us rather than in our image of ourselves...."

We often say we are made in God's image, created in God's image.  I've never connected it to self-image before, though. Think about the work of the Holy Spirit, removing our own self-image and replacing it with God's image in us and of us. We would see our need for God and also accept that God loves us, completely and without hesitation. 

Imagine.