7.
SPIRITUALITY, WORSHIP AND SIMPLICITY
In Genesis 2
the first man is made from the clay, breathed into by God, and
he becomes a living being. The Hebrew concept of a person was of
an integrated whole. And while, in its intellectual travels,
Western society has often worked with the idea of people as
bodies inhabited by souls or spirits, in the twentieth century
many disciplines pointed us back to thinking of the person as a
whole, a gestalt. What we do with our bodies affects our
thinking, our emotions and our imaginations. How we feel affects
what we can do. Mental health and physical health are not
unconnected.
Contemplation
As we grow
from childhood our understanding of the world develops. With the
help of others we make sense of the various things we experience
or find out about and we develop our ideas. We also develop
various skills: speaking, reading, writing, driving, singing,
carving wood, playing instruments. We also hopefully learn how
to get on with other people, so that we can live together in
communities of one form or another.
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But there is a fourth way in
which we engage with the world. We can reflect on it, appreciate
it, be aware of ourselves and the world we are part of and sense
our place within it. And we can sense beyond and within the
world the One who calls it into being. |
The
Beginning of Wisdom
In the book of
Proverbs and in the Psalms it is written 'The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of Wisdom.' (Ps 111.10; Prov 1.7; Prov 9.10) )
An awareness of the world in its complexity and magnitude can
generate fear. The mystery of growth in the Spring, the intimate
interconnection of bacterial, insect, animal and plant life, all
within weather systems affected by the movement of the planet
round the sun and the slow movements of the earth's rocks; all
this can produce a sense of awe. And yet the One with whom we
are ultimately concerned is the One who brings all that into
being.
But Jesus and
the prophets say, 'Fear not.' Not because God is less than we
imagined but because God's attitude towards us is love. God
loves us, dust that we are, and so we matter. God loves this
world that is his creation, and so it matters. God is
continually at work within and beyond the world, so there is
hope. God is always more than we think and beyond our
imagination. We can have a sense of awe as we contemplate God's
creation, as we see God's love in the life, death and
resurrection of Christ, and as we are caught up in the power of
God's Spirit. And this is the basis of wisdom.
Theology
In doing
theology we are trying to think and talk about God.
Conversations, letters, sermons, discussions, the writing of
books, thoughts about God on a walk: these are all theology. And
it is important. If we are to engage our faith with the theories
and ideas of our society, whether in science, economics,
business practice, education, or community life, we need to do
theology. We need to think and talk about God.
Spirituality
In prayer and
worship we are engaging with God, or we are allowing ourselves
to be aware that God is engaged with us. There is a place for
thinking about God within worship, and in prayer. We do not
switch off our minds in prayer, but prayer is much more than
thought. So it is that our praying can involve hearing music,
seeing pictures or lights, the taste of bread and wine, the feel
of water, and the movement of our bodies as well as words and
silence. All these are means by which we can return to our place
within the life of God. In our worship we offer our whole
selves: dust into which God has breathed life; people, with all
our strengths and weaknesses, successes and sins; but loved by
God.
A
particular contribution
In all the
discussion, debate and activity in response to the ecological
crisis we have here a particular contribution to make. And it is
one which many people are looking for the church to make. Partly
it is a matter of providing resources so that people can pray
and worship, and helping them to do this.
In doing this
we need liturgies and ways of praying which relate to the world
as God's creation and which can gather up people's thoughts and
concerns, their feelings of fear, anxiety, hopefulness, and
their sense of sin. Our contribution is also a matter of having
the courage to face the realities of the crisis with faith that
there is no state or situation in which God is not present and
that nothing can separate us from his love. And there is the
possibility of passing through that darkness to living with the
joy, freedom, playfulness and hope which God alone can give.
Jesus
society
Our life in
God is a life in community. Most of us live in a number of
communities: family, work, church, locality, nation. A community
that knows the love of God as it is shown by Jesus is going to
grow into his kind of society. It will show wisdom by trusting,
handle leadership by serving, handle offenders by forgiving,
handle money by sharing, and handle violence by suffering. Its
members will have a new attitude toward other people and toward
nature. With a sense of the continual creative love of God it
will be moving on from its own failures to doing new things, and
doing things differently. That is what the church is called to
be.
Simplicity
In his classic
book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster describes
the root of this freedom, joy and playfulness as simplicity. And
he suggests that simplicity has an inward and an outward aspect.
Inwardly it is
a spiritual liberation: a liberation from the need to
accumulate, keep, hoard and consume: a liberation that comes
from a recognition that all we have is a gift from God and all
we are is God's creation. And the God who gives and creates is
One who loves us.
Outwardly
simplicity will show itself in a lifestyle which is satisfied
with enough, which gives freely, which is critical of propaganda
and avoids addictions, which can enjoy without owning, which
speaks plainly, which avoids the oppression or exploitation of
other people, and which is focussed on the Kingdom of God.
This is a way
of living which is needed now. But it cannot be induced by laws
and rules. Tax penalties and legislation can to some extent
change the way that society operates and can curb excesses, but
the crucial change is going to be both outward and inward. In
the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the resources of the church we
can continually discover the words, the insights, and the means
of changing lives for a changing world. And we can help others
do so.
Historical
resources
As well as the
scriptures we have a vast treasure of resources in our
liturgies, music, buildings, and traditional practices of
prayer. The writings of many Christians who have gone before us
contain great wisdom and insight in their prayers, letters,
books, poems and hymns. Whilst remaining within our own Anglican
tradition we can also draw on the resources of others.
People are all
different and so different ways of praying are helpful to
different people. Often as someone explores the various
spiritual traditions of the churches they will discover, among
their variety, ways of praying which are helpful to them. And
congregations are often helped to see things in new ways from
the words and practices of other denominations or movements.
As people turn
to the church for help we need to ask, 'What will help them see
the world as it is?' 'What will help them see the world as
valuable to God?' 'What will help us all grow in faith, hope,
love and wisdom?'
For some
people what is helpful will come from the Reformed or the
Orthodox traditions. For others it will involve Franciscan or
Celtic practices, or learning from Julian of Norwich, Hildegard
of Bingen or other contemplatives. For corporate worship many
denominations have helpful resources. Our own Times and
Seasons contains much that many will find helpful.
But as well as
the resources of the church there is the world itself. We are
called to work for the healing as well as the care of creation.
But there are also ways that creation can heal us. Many people
are intuitively aware of this when they go to the hills, to the
sea or to a garden to find space to reflect and a place to
become more centred.
New
developments
For many years
the Creation had little attention in Christian prayer and
worship. The world was often seen as a veil of tears from which
we would one day escape. As the ecological crisis forces us to
take Creation seriously many new liturgies and forms of prayer
are being developed. Some of these are being developed in school
worship. The Iona Community has drawn material from the Celtic
and Reformed traditions but adapted it in an urban context. The
ancient practice of pilgrimage has a revival, and people are
also developing the practice of Stations into other settings,
with nature providing the setting for reflection and prayer.
Congresbury Parish Church are developing a prayer and healing
garden with a listening and counselling service.
Returning
to the Centre
For some
centuries the world view of Western society has had humanity at
the centre. Everything else on the planet was seen as a natural
resource for humanity and had value only in as much as it was
valuable to people. In reaction to this some are now putting
forward a view that the life of the world has value in itself
and we are but a part of it.
What the Bible
presents us with, and which our traditional theology develops,
is a view of the world as God's creation, in which humanity has
a part. It is this that we need to maintain in our thinking, our
praying, and our living in difficult times.
We engage with
complex issues. Life is not simple. There are no easy answers.
But we are offered a way of living simply in which we can learn
God's wisdom and share his creative love. |
