God is like light NOT God is light (right?)

There are endless metaphors about God. One of the metaphors that is very popular in the Bible is God is light. It is worth remembering that this is a metaphor. Which means, like all metaphors, there is a point that the metaphor breaks down. 

For instance, when we think that God is light (as opposed to God as light) then there is a fear of the dark. There is an embracing of all things light. We talk about that God is found in the light places of the world. God is found in the happy and the bright and sunny places. And, on the inverse, God is not found in the dark and the dark is to be feared and avoided. 

Again, it is worth noting that God is not light. God it like light.

It is also worth noting that, in the same spirit, God is like darkness. There is no place that one can be where God is not (Psalm 139). 

It is my prayer that our spirituality of the dark will become as developed as our spirituality of the light.

How do we develop our spirituality of the dark? There are others in the faith that are much more qualified to speak to this matter (Taylor, John of the Cross, Rohr, etc.) however there is one quick note about developing a spirituality of the dark - In order to see what our shadow sides have to teach us, we have to turn away from the light. 

I know this may feel like heresy. I get it. We are very convinced that God is light. But again, God is not light, God is like light. And, God is like darkness. 

I know you are human, just don't be human around me.

There are many people that I come across who talk about how they wish the pastor would be more intentional at practicing what they preach. Perhaps they had an experience with a pastor and the pastor was a jerk to them. How can someone preach love on Sunday and be a jerk on Monday? 

Isn't that hypocritical? 

People have also expressed to me that they appreciate that I am a "real" person and not a 'holier than thou' sort of preacher. Words like authentic and real and human are thrown around and these words of affirmation make me feel good. They make me feel like I am really connecting with people and thus building trust and, in turn, spreading love. But there is an edge to all this "realness" and "authenticity": the pastor can be "real" and "authentic" but in very controlled ways.

Pastors can rarely call out the BS they see without doing more damage.

Pastors cannot flip people off or tell them just how wrong they were.

Pastors cannot tell someone that they are sort of crazy or imbalanced or out of line or inappropriate or acting a fool. 

Pastors cannot let their hair down, cut loose or in any other way loose control. 

Many of my clergy friends feel that people are okay with clergy being human, just as long as clergy are not human around them. 

Many of my friends feel like people give permission to (and would expect) pastors to express the range of human emotions but just not with church people. 

This may not be just a clergy thing. Do you find yourself in a lot in life where you are expected to be happy, carefree and "put together" all the time? Are we willing to let each other really be human?

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.