I was raised secular Jewish and always regarded Christianity as the enemy. The cross was ugly to me and I would get chills when we drove past a church. All my best friends were Jewish and I was uneasy around my Christian friends.
In college I studied theoretical physics to learn the fundamental truth of physical reality, but I lost my mind. It didn’t connect with me or make me a better person. I thought, “Are we not made for truth?”
So I switched to studying spiritual truth via Peterson and then Jung. Years of thinking and reading went by and I finally read the gospels. And in Christ I found the fundamental truth of spiritual reality that did connect to me and united me to my fellow man.
I so enjoy these essays because they give me a chance to reflect on my faith and relationship to others. They call me to try to be a better husband, father, and neighbor. A few sentences always strike me in each essay. The first one here was “tension between faith and works”. This has long been a favorite passage of mine (I know, I have quite a few, but that is how it is with truth). I have reflected on faith and works. Neither one itself is sufficient, as James pointed out. I’m not sure they are in tension, except for those who believe one or the other will be sufficient. You might as well ask whether inhaling or exhaling was sufficient. You simply cannot have one without the other and have life within you. The Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations came to an understanding years ago and identified Grace as the central focus, not faith or works alone, but by grace do we have both and demonstrate both.
The second was the discussion of loving one’s neighbor. The present age has attempted to bring everything down to emotions. Love is an emotion, but it is also a theological virtue. An emotion is a feeling, and cannot be forced and is difficult to direct, although hatred seems to thrive on nurturing. However, virtue can be practiced and improved, when understood as desiring a good for another as if it were for your own good. When directed outward, focused on another, not directed inward, not on what I feel, but on what I can do for another, is the virtue of Love truly expressed. There’s that pesky “works” again. Why would I do such a thing if I did not have faith, however? I’m not that nice a guy that I go around randomly doing good things, but that it brings me closer to God. Would that I was.
Thank you Klavans Elder and Younger, and keep it flowing.
I pray to know God, that He is , that He has a beautiful plan for us, that He loves us and sent His Son. I pray to learn how to grow up, what needs changing and refining. I pray to know how to show God’s love to others. I reach up, then reach out. Prayer as conversation is very good. Pray always, He is there.
Maybe charity isn't a character trait. Maybe it's an eternal state of being? In those crucial moments - when we are desperately wrenched in some way- and our pride and folly are laid bare in our minds eye and threaten to undo us with regret...Maybe if We remember In those moments that there is somebody standing by to cover us, and all he sees with his endless love and patience is that covered covenant version of us. At least in those moments of pure relief and gratitude what we wish more than anything Is to help someone else understand their worth. And that gives us a glimpse of what we are here to learn and become.
Beautifully expressed, Drew. The Our Father makes us aware of our pitiful, lowly selves. It draws us inward, so we are prepared to go out and meet the big, broken world each day. From the individual soul to all souls. That “Christians” have been largely responsible for antisemitism through the centuries is not the message of the Jew Jesus. For me the growth of Christianity out of Judaism is not a move from wrong to right, but a continual striving to better embody and live out God‘s message in the world.
Yes, prayer is indeed such a personal, individual, exercise. I often feel that mine are somehow inadequate and inferior. But, they are mine...raw, sincere, sometimes shallow, but honest. I'm so glad that the efficacy of my prayer rests in the faithfulness of the hearer, not in the pitiful prayer itself. (And I really enjoyed "The Great Good Thing" by the way.)
"there is only one God for all, but he is imaged anew in each. To love God with heart and soul and mind is to seek the single truth within. To love your neighbor as yourself is to see the multiplicity of its expression in others." - Thank you for this beautiful interpretation of the greatest commandment(s).
I was raised secular Jewish and always regarded Christianity as the enemy. The cross was ugly to me and I would get chills when we drove past a church. All my best friends were Jewish and I was uneasy around my Christian friends.
In college I studied theoretical physics to learn the fundamental truth of physical reality, but I lost my mind. It didn’t connect with me or make me a better person. I thought, “Are we not made for truth?”
So I switched to studying spiritual truth via Peterson and then Jung. Years of thinking and reading went by and I finally read the gospels. And in Christ I found the fundamental truth of spiritual reality that did connect to me and united me to my fellow man.
Lovely!
I so enjoy these essays because they give me a chance to reflect on my faith and relationship to others. They call me to try to be a better husband, father, and neighbor. A few sentences always strike me in each essay. The first one here was “tension between faith and works”. This has long been a favorite passage of mine (I know, I have quite a few, but that is how it is with truth). I have reflected on faith and works. Neither one itself is sufficient, as James pointed out. I’m not sure they are in tension, except for those who believe one or the other will be sufficient. You might as well ask whether inhaling or exhaling was sufficient. You simply cannot have one without the other and have life within you. The Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations came to an understanding years ago and identified Grace as the central focus, not faith or works alone, but by grace do we have both and demonstrate both.
The second was the discussion of loving one’s neighbor. The present age has attempted to bring everything down to emotions. Love is an emotion, but it is also a theological virtue. An emotion is a feeling, and cannot be forced and is difficult to direct, although hatred seems to thrive on nurturing. However, virtue can be practiced and improved, when understood as desiring a good for another as if it were for your own good. When directed outward, focused on another, not directed inward, not on what I feel, but on what I can do for another, is the virtue of Love truly expressed. There’s that pesky “works” again. Why would I do such a thing if I did not have faith, however? I’m not that nice a guy that I go around randomly doing good things, but that it brings me closer to God. Would that I was.
Thank you Klavans Elder and Younger, and keep it flowing.
I pray to know God, that He is , that He has a beautiful plan for us, that He loves us and sent His Son. I pray to learn how to grow up, what needs changing and refining. I pray to know how to show God’s love to others. I reach up, then reach out. Prayer as conversation is very good. Pray always, He is there.
Maybe charity isn't a character trait. Maybe it's an eternal state of being? In those crucial moments - when we are desperately wrenched in some way- and our pride and folly are laid bare in our minds eye and threaten to undo us with regret...Maybe if We remember In those moments that there is somebody standing by to cover us, and all he sees with his endless love and patience is that covered covenant version of us. At least in those moments of pure relief and gratitude what we wish more than anything Is to help someone else understand their worth. And that gives us a glimpse of what we are here to learn and become.
“Faith, hope, charity, these three — but the greatest of these is charity.” - Saint Paul
Beautifully expressed, Drew. The Our Father makes us aware of our pitiful, lowly selves. It draws us inward, so we are prepared to go out and meet the big, broken world each day. From the individual soul to all souls. That “Christians” have been largely responsible for antisemitism through the centuries is not the message of the Jew Jesus. For me the growth of Christianity out of Judaism is not a move from wrong to right, but a continual striving to better embody and live out God‘s message in the world.
Yes, prayer is indeed such a personal, individual, exercise. I often feel that mine are somehow inadequate and inferior. But, they are mine...raw, sincere, sometimes shallow, but honest. I'm so glad that the efficacy of my prayer rests in the faithfulness of the hearer, not in the pitiful prayer itself. (And I really enjoyed "The Great Good Thing" by the way.)
Solomon prayed for wisdom. You can pray for wisdom too.
James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
"there is only one God for all, but he is imaged anew in each. To love God with heart and soul and mind is to seek the single truth within. To love your neighbor as yourself is to see the multiplicity of its expression in others." - Thank you for this beautiful interpretation of the greatest commandment(s).