God Speaks

I rose early on this Sunday morning and did a lot of writing and some significant reading. I came upon something that seemed very special, especially for a quiet day like this.
by Charlie Leck

So far in this new year, I’ve been very faithful about my daily readings from A Year with Rilke, a book I received for Christmas. I found today’s reading especially good and meaningful and I felt certain it belonged as today’s blog. It follows.

God Speaks

I am, you anxious one.

Don’t you sense me, ready to break
into being at your touch?
My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.
Can’t you see me standing before you
cloaked in stillness?
Hasn’t my longing ripened in you
from the beginning
as fruit ripens on a branch?

I am the dream you are dreaming.
When you want to awaken, I am waiting.
I grow strong in the beauty you behold.
And with the silence of stars I enfold
your cities made by time.

                [Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours I, 19]

Nothing more! Silence!

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God says: “Here am I”

Scripture fascinates me! I love grappling with it. Too many of my friends are superficial about scripture. I’m aware that it is more mysterious and magnificent than some literal, historical document; for it may be the voice of God speaking to us in mysterious ways!
by Charlie Leck”

I like the Lutheran pastor here in my town. I’m not crazy about the Lutheran Church, however, so I don’t go there; yet, I like sitting down with her (oh, yes, the pastor is a woman) once in awhile to chat (mostly about theology and the role of the church in a political society). I tried going to church there for a time, but I’m an old-school Congregationalist, you know. We don’t go for the stand-up, sit-down, stand-up kind of stuff with recited creeds and repetitive prayers. So, I drifted away from the Lutheran Church and ended up back in a Congregational church downtown. We sit for longer stretches of time and dare our minister to interest us without getting, you know, too religious about it.

Yet, I must admit, this little church here in my town has found a wonderful pastor in this dear, faithful and dedicated woman. Her name is Gail. People call her “Pastor Gail” but that’s not Congregational enough for me. I refer to her as “Pastor Reitan.” It sounds a little more respectful and congregational, you know.”

We go to lunch occasionally and sometimes we have a set agenda for our conversations. We’ll chat tomorrow and I’m going to ask her about this reading that Sojourners sent along to me…

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rearguard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and [God] will say, Here I am.
     - Isaiah 58:6-9

Note that, in the above reading, I have highlighted the word then twice. I think it’s key to understand the reading.

I want to ask her about those concluding words – where God says “Here I am!”

“Where?” I will ask. “What does he mean – Here I am!”

This, of course, is the universal question, isn’t it? If there is a God, where the heaven is He anyway? Why is He not evident? Why, in a world so in need, is He not more apparent? Why doesn’t He reveal himself more personally to us? If you go back and try to understand the then of the moment described by the writer you might then comprehend how God might reveal himself to us.

Now, these are tough questions, but she’ll have sensible and well-reasoned answers and, I really want to assure you, she knows her Old Testament. I find that unusual for Lutheran pastors. Most of them don’t venture beyond the gospels and Paul’s epistles.

I’m calling out to you, Almighty God: “Wherefore art Thou, anyway?” Whatever, thanks for putting your servant, Pastor Reitan, among us here in our little town.

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How Great Thou Art!

     From my window, anyway!

When I, in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hand has made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe displays!
by Charlie Leck

Adbus Salam, of Pakistan, was a prize-winning scientist. He died in 1996. While he lived he was hailed world-wide for his brilliant work in physics. His work enabled his nation to establish its current nuclear program. He was also a Muslim and part of the Ahmadi sect. The other major divisions of the Islamic faith in Pakistan regard members of the sect as heretics. The religious right has grown in power in Pakistan to such an extent that they dominate all other religious groups, including Christians and Hindus. The majority of Pakistani people are Sunni Muslims. These members of the Sunni division of the faith have become very militant and offensive in proclaiming their superiority in matters of religion over other Muslims and in matters of politics and government over all other Pakistanis.

Today, one cannot find the name of Adbus Salam in Pakistan’s school textbooks or in its museums of science and technology. Yet, Salam was hailed internationally, winning numerous honors including the Nobel Prize (1979) for his contributions in physics to the study of the God Particle (or Higgs boson). The discoveries announced recently in Geneva about these matters have been a great proof of the seriousness of Salam’s work during his life.

Yet, this extremely conservative wing of the dominant religion in Salam’s homeland considers this great scientist a heretic and a partner of God’s dark side opponent.

It, very frankly, once more makes me sickenly angry about religious zealots who don’t seem to have a brain in their heads. These types are not exclusive to the Muslim faith. We have plenty of them in Christianity as well. They label people who don’t agree with them as heretical and, worse, evil. Believe me, hoards of them are having a great influence in politics in America today and we ought to awaken and see what a danger they are to the stability of our country. Beware of religious extremists!

The most ugly and vile comments I receive in reaction to many of my blogs come from people who claim to be diligently and faithfully Christian. And, their hate-filled comments are always without identification, but simply anonymous.

Tolerance
A word that seems missing from society’s contemporary vocabulary is tolerance. I was taught that it, along with patience, was an important part of one’s character – one’s healthful psyche. There is not one true and certain way! There is no true and certain religion that has all the answers. There is no single route to salvation.

God, you see, is bigger than the human imagination has ever been able to envision Her. Science has come closer to that vision than has theology. Religious extremists are dangerous critters and society must cautiously guard itself against the damage they can do to a civilization. As far as the followers of Jesus and Muhammad go, I am afraid they think too small. God is far greater than their limited imaginations can conceive. Adbus Salam has come closer to seeing the Divine Being and perceiving the truth of creation than has any of the great imams or Christian evangelists.

When I behold the heavens in their vastness,
Where golden ships in azure issue forth,
Where sun and moon keep watch upon the fastness
Of changing seasons and of time on earth,
With rapture filled, my soul Thy name would laud,
O mighty God! O mighty God!
             [O Store Gud, by Carl Gustav Boberg, 1859-1940]

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Dawn

"The time at which the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the morning!"
by Charlie Leck

I was out early this morning, before sunrise, driving toward the east, in the open countryside.

It was dawn, that moment of twilight before the sun rises in the eastern sky. Darkness, which was just about to be wiped away by the illumination that was filtering up from beneath the horizon, was lingering and trying to hold on. The scientists say that this is “the moment after which the sky is no longer completely dark, formerly defined as the time at which the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the morning.”

At that incredible moment, which lasts only a matter of seconds, the earth and the heavens are so dramatically visible. In awe, I pulled to the side of the road, stopped the car, opened my window and shut down the engine.

The grandness and splendor of all the cosmos was so delicately visible out over the farm fields, meadowlands and wetlands. Forever and ever the heavens extended over and beyond me and my soul trembled as it realized it is so infinitesimally slight when measured against the fullness of things. I was dramatically and perfectly alert and I examined carefully the sharp detail of heaven and earth.

Perhaps, I thought, I was staring into the face of God – the divine is! I could see all that depth that goes so, so far beyond our own existence and reality.

It is peaceful and calming to accept one’s smallness – tininess – almost nothingness – before the grandeur of the heavens – before the almighty God that “created the heavens and the earth.”

And then the sun rose! The momentary glimpse of God was hidden by the blinding light of the day’s arrival.

“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness… And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”

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If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.