Desert Wisdom for today

Beginning in the third century there was a large movement within the Christian religion now known as the "Desert Fathers and Mothers". Thousands of people moved out into the deserts of Egypt and beyond to live in isolation or in small communities. They established a rule of life and practiced very disciplined spiritual practices marked by charity, silence, prayer, fasting, scripture reading and forgiveness.

Many of these men and women were sought out in order that would be pupils might "hear a word" from the hermits. The wisdom sayings of these desert mothers and fathers were collected and passed along through the faith. 

It is often thought that religions such as Buddhism or Zen or Confucianism are wisdom religions. That is they are religions that have head scratching lines that are designed for the disciple to meditate on. Such as this classic wisdom saying from Zen:

"Two monks were arguing about the temple flag waving in the wind. One said, "The flag moves." The other said, "The wind moves." They argued back and forth but could not agree.The Sixth Ancestor said, "Gentlemen! It is not the wind that moves; it is not the flag that moves; it is your mind that moves." The two monks were struck with awe." - The Mumonkan Case 29, translation by Robert Aitken

Christianity, however, seems to have a reputation that is less interested in wisdom as it is in salvation. I have never been handed a tract that is Christian wisdom centric (If you are interested in helping me make these I would love to be in conversation with you!!!). 

So in an effort to share some of the great wisdom in the Christian tradition into our collective consciousness and perhaps remind us all that Christianity has wisdom roots, here are a few wisdom sayings for today.

Some elders once came to Abbot Anthony. Abbot Anthony brought the conversation around to a set of scriptural verses. Anthony began from the youngest elder and ask each one what they thought the meaning of the text might be. Each one replied as best he could, some were eloquent and some where well educated. Others were stammering and still others tried to outwith their peers. Anthony said to them: You have not got it yet. Finally Anthony asked the oldest among them, Abbot Joseph, "What about you? What do you think this text means?" Abbot Joseph replied, "I do not know what the text means!" Then Anthony said, "Truly Abbot Joseph alone has found the way, for he replies that he does not know." 

In a world where everyone "knows" and we do a lot of fact checking via our phones and Google, perhaps there is a deep wisdom in the humility of Abbot Joseph that we need to embody.

I don't know.

The Gospel According to Red Bull

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting corporate worship to be a feel good experience. There is so much bad news in the world all the time, that having at least one hour a week to be a feel good place with no "bad thoughts" or "negativity" sounds like a fine idea. I hope that we all have that respite from the pain of the world.

However, if that one hour is the same one hour every week, we then expect the medium of that hour to always be happy, slappy and clappy. This is what has happened in much of our Christian worship. Because worship is the one hour for most people of to hear the good news, then no bad news can come into the place. And if there is never any bad news in the place, then there is a lack of authenticity. You know like when you look at Facebook. Everyone is always happy and sharing good news, which gives the impression that everyone's life is awesome and yours kinda sucks. 

There are a lot of pressures to make corporate worship like Facebook. Share only good news, happy things, talk positive and smile. If you have to talk about 'icky' things like confession or crucifixion, do that some other time other than Sunday. You know like Ash Wednesday or Good Friday.

I have also heard that Sunday worship is where some people come to be "fed" (you can read more about my thoughts on this metaphor here, here, here and here.). Even if Sunday worship is the place to get fed, we seem to want to eat something that gives us energy and zest rather than food that just satisfies our hunger. We seem to desire a gospel of Red Bull over the gospel of a rice bowl.

So before we get too far into the greatness of the resurrection and new life, let us remember what Judy Cannato says:

“Death is the prerequisite for the experience of resurrection and the new freedom it brings. At some level, in some way, perhaps far beyond our conscious awareness, we must first assent to dying. Resurrection—the emergence of new consciousness—is an awakening to the unknown, and just as with any other experience of life that is unknown, it can be frightening. We intuitively know that everything has changed, and if we are the kind of person who is attached to safety and comfort, we will feel overwhelmed.”

— Judy Cannato - Field of Compassion

Want to understand the Bible? Ride a chariot.

We all read the Bible a little bit differently than our neighbor. We all have our a DNA, a set of experiences and a set of lenses that shape what we see and how we see it. Even with all these unique voices and people, all the conversations I have ever had about the Bible still root back to ancient Greek and even ancient Jewish thought.

We can read the Bible as:

Literal - what the text says is all that it says, there is no underlying meaning. (In poster form)

Allegorical/Typological - connecting the Hebrew testament and the Christian testament. In Christian circles, the most common example is connecting prophecies of one testament with the message and life of Jesus. 

Classic moral and literalist conflict.

Moral - what we are supposed to do in light of this story. Traditional children's sermons or lessons for children are moral heavy, but the moral level is not limited to children but is also very prominent in the UMC. 

Anagogical - the text is dealing with the ultimate end of things. It is looking at the text in the long view of time. Seeing trends and overall patterns that might give a sense of how the arc of history is bent. 

The great divides in how Christians read and understand the Bible, for as far as I have see, come back to these layers of meaning. The literalists may conflict with the moralists who conflict with the allegorical people who may disagree with the anagogical readers. In our efforts to argue our views, we often overlook the key to reading the Bible: Humility.  

So I submit to us once again a metaphor that comes to us through the ages. Think of reading the bible like riding in a Quadriga. In Rome a chariot race was a chariot pulled with four horses. Each horse was needed to make it all the way around the course and each horse pulled their share of the weight. Sometimes it was the case that some horses were running faster and pulling more weight during the race, but that does not make the other horses less important. 

When we read the Bible, we ride in a chariot of humility that is pulled with the four horses of interpretation.