These are the first words I've ever blogged. My plan is to write each Tuesday, reflecting both on a chapter of Amazing Grace, by Kathleen Norris, and the previous Sunday's gospel reading. So here goes...
Gospel reading from Sunday: Luke 10.25-37
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
And here is a quote from the preface of Amazing Grace
to kick things off:
I drifted away from religion when catechism came to the fore, and the well-meaning adults who taught Sunday school and confirmation class seemed intent on putting the vastness of "God" into small boxes of their own devising. Theirs was a scary vocabulary, not an inviting one. And religion came to seem just one more childhood folly that I had to set aside as an adult. In my mid-thirties, however, it became necessary to begin to reclaim my faith, scary vocabulary and all.
We're probably all familiar enough with the tendency to reduce the mystery of God to a manageable size, or maybe a recognizable shape. Before we dismiss the instinct to do so, we ought to remind ourselves that incarnation might be one word for this. And incarnation isn't a term Christians should dismiss too flippantly from their vocabulary.
But language itself is a box. And I think that what makes Kathleen Norris's perspective compelling is that she is honest enough to admit that in reclaiming her faith, she had to reclaim the little boxes - the words of the Christian faith. Even the scary ones. She reminds us that we need the boxes. We just need to remember that the boxes will never be up to the task of describing God.
In the parable of the good Samaritan a lawyer is apparently on the right track with regard to eternal life. He answers with the right words that the key is in love of God and love of neighbor. But those words need to be fleshed out a bit. So Jesus tells a story.
Once again, the lawyer finds that he knows what a neighbor is just as surely as he knows how to gain eternal life. Hearing the words in a story seems to make their meaning more concrete and relevant, but the story also reminds us that the words aren't adequate in themselves. They need to point us toward the larger mystery to do their work. Words like 'love' and 'God' and 'neighbor' are fine old words. But until they point us toward the messier reality of human interactions, they are not just boxes. They're empty boxes.
I hope that the coming weeks and months of reflection on Amazing Grace and on the gospel stories will point us toward God's vastness using the battered boxes that are the vocabulary of the Christian faith. And along the way I hope to explore with you whether they are still sturdy enough to speak towards or maybe even to the ineffable.
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(ramblings on theological things)
About Me
- Scott Walters
- Rector, Christ Episcopal Church, Little Rock, AR
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5 comments:
Scott,
Thank you so much for doing this! With all the thousand things people want from you every day, it is cool that you are taking time to jaw with such as I.
When I came back to the church in 1998 after 20 years, Kathleen Norris' book was introduced to me by an Episcopal priest. I so identified with her journey that I began to wonder if her path was my path. That remains to be seen, but she helped me find my way back, a process which continues.
The "box" that is the Incarnation, bings meaning to the idea that we can be spiritual by ourselves, but to be Christians, we are called into the "box" that is the Body of Christ--and that means community, each other, relationship. Yikes! If we are the Body of Christ, then relating with one another becomes a kind of sacrament. I need a lot of help in that area and I think I have found a community of faith at Christ Church that can love me when I am unloveable, and remain inpervious to my wobblings and warblings.
Now I need to dig out my copy of "Amazing Grace" and give it a re-run. This is actually kind of exciting. I'm such a church nerd!
Scott
What a great idea to let us work through the service readings together.
The story of the Good Samaritan has some interesting points. Those passing by the victim had important duties to carry out. Their duties at the temple were to them an honor and these individuals might have been waiting for some time to have a chance to serve. Touching an injured person would not only have delayed them, but it would have disqualified them for service at the temple. I do not think this excuses them, but it should make them more understandable and identified with us. That is too busy about useful work that we cannot take the time to do a kindness for another, just for the sake of kindness. The Samaritan was not on his way to important duties, but his actions took his time and money and so were not without cost. We have all dealt with this story and so know the punch line. But don’t we all really narrowly define concept of neighbor as a small 'box', and don’t we all need to broaden it to include a few more people? Easy for me to say and hard for me to do.
And, it will be fun to find out what this Blogging thing is all about! JB
Whoopie, Scott. We welcome this site and will look forward to your comments, always well thought out and interesting.
Thanks! Clair and Bill
Great blog, Scott! The Good Samaritan parable provides a mother lode of intriguing insights each time it is mined. For example, did fellow guests at the inn change their world view as they listened to the recuperating stranger tell how the despised Samaritan rescued him and paid for his rehabilitation after respected members of his own faith left him to the mercies of the road? Hmmm...
Thanks for the responses, all. This is already more fun than I imagined. Dick and Bonnie's post wondering how the testimony of the recovering stranger impacted the people at the inn sounds like what's happening here. I've gotten a piece of your stories in this little exchange. This sounds like how that 'body of Christ' thing Trey talked about is supposed to work.
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