Souls Lost and Found

I have been rereading Soul Making by Alan Jones and finding it to be good for my soul.  I decided that I would write about the soul for this edition following up on one that I wrote about a year ago.  Seemed to be the right thing to do when I received a Daily Meditation for Richard Rohr which spoke about the soul:

The heart of Rumi’s teaching lies in the Sufi concept of tawhid (or “oneness”). This is a longing for mystical union with the Beloved, with the divine lover from whom one has been separated. In the opening lines of his most famous work, the Masnavi (his “flute songs”), Rumi portrays the soul as a reed cut from the damp reed-bed of God’s own heart. It yearns to return to its source, finding a transient joy in becoming a reed flute through which the divine breath of love’s fire passes. [1] Like a drunken fool, Rumi is smitten by love. He can think of nothing else.  The core of discernment for him, therefore, isn’t a question of “What should I do?” or “What is expected of me?” It is rather “What do I love? 

All was well and all manner of things were well, as Julien of Norwich might say, when I left the book on the Via train to Toronto on Thursday.  So, this seemed to turn into a case of a lost soul.  The question then was, what happens when you lose your soul?  Is that possible or is it just mis-placed?  Perhaps it is a case of a broken reed that needs mending, or a reed flute that is out of tune.   

Well, my plans for this changed again when I was driving to a near-by town of Nairn Sunday morning to be the guest preacher.  I left in what should have been lots of time only to find that the road was closed and there was a detour which took me to my destination by the long way around.  I did manage to make it to the church on time but I was a bit rattled.  The theme of detours seemed to fit well with my thoughts about the soul.  So, I am now wondering about the detours that lead us from the path we are intended to be on in the journey of soul making in our lives? 

I noted in my exploration of the soul a year ago that none of the books I have that deal with the soul, including Soul Making, actually have a definition of soul. I turned to a definition of soul in The Encyclopedia Britannica which defines soul thus:

soul, in religion and philosophy, the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being, that which confers individuality and humanity, often considered to be synonymous with the mind or the self. In theology, the soul is further defined as that part of the individual which partakes of divinity and often is considered to survive the death of the body.

Turning back to the idea of detours in the soul-journey Richard Rohr again addressed this in one of his Daily Meditations while I was away in Toronto:

Falling down and moving up is the most counter-intuitive message in most of the world’s religions, including Christianity. We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right. That just might be the central message of how spiritual growth happens, yet nothing in us wants to believe it. I actually think it’s the only workable meaning of any remaining notion of “original sin.” There seems to have been a fly in the ointment from the beginning, but the key is recognizing and dealing with the fly rather than throwing out the whole ointment! (Richard Rohr)

It is my natural inclination to avoid detours in my life and unexpected things that throw me off my planned journey.  However, I have to acknowledge that the detours in life are a part of life and the falling down on that journey will lead to places, both physically and spiritually, that may be what I am intended to take.  If not that, at least what will open new possibilities and new awareness of where the spirit is calling me.   So, those detours and even dead ends can lead to unexpected places and in this case tow wrongs may make a right. 

May you be blessed by those detours on your journey and who knows where they may take you.

I’m a Soul, Man; I’m a Soul-Man

 The idea of ‘soul’ comes up frequently in my experience.  There is the concept, theologically and psychologically, of the person being composed of four parts - body, mind, spirit, and soul. It appears frequently in hymns.  One source on-line gives a count of the number of times soul occurs in the bible – 754 in the Old Testament and 102 in the New Testament.  Beyond that, there is the use in today’s culture. We have soul music and soul brothers and soul sisters.  I doubt that there is an accurate count of how many hymns speak of the soul.  Here is one of my favourite old hymns:

It Is Well With My Soul

   

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

 

Chorus

It is well (it is well)

With my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul.

 

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blessed assurance control;

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate.

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

 

My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought,

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

 

From this hymn, we can see that if it is well with your soul, all is well with you.  However, if push comes to shove, do we have a firm foundation (to quote another hymn) what the soul actually is?

I have on my bookshelf, a few books that have references to ‘soul’ in the titles; Modern Man in Search of a Soul  by Carl Jung, Boundaries of the Soul by June Springer, Soul Making by Alan Jones.  It is interesting that , when I checked, none of them actually have a definition of soul.   Here is a sample of the quotes from the books which refer to the ‘soul’:

But spiritually the Western world is in a precarious situation-and the danger is greater the more we blind ourselves to the merciless truth and illusion about beauty of soul.  (Modern Man in Search of a Soul)

Besides, the task is not merely to restore what is lost.  In becoming  lost, the “soul” (I don’t know a better word for that central guiding aspect of the unconscious, the nature of which we have only a dim awareness) has ceased to be the connecting ribbon of a road between a man as he knows himself and the vast unknown and unknowable.  (Boundaries of the Soul)

The making of a soul is hard work, and yet it is also a free gift.  God’s wild card of unconditional love is secure and sure, but we are found or lost in our choosing.  (Soul Making)

I found it interesting that Soul Making had no entry for ‘soul’ in the index – an interesting oversight given the title (and theme) of the book.  I found a few quotes by Carl Jung which speak of soul (I’m sure there are many more).  Here is one that is revelatory of his view:

Being that has soul is a living being.  Soul is a living thing in man, that which lives of itself and causes life.  Therefore, God breathed into Adam a living breath, that he might live.  With her cunning play of illusions, the soul lures into life the intenseness of matter that does not want to live.  She makes us believe incredible things, that life may be lived.  She is full of snares and traps, in order that man should fall. Should reach the earth, entangle himself there, and stay caught, so that life should be lived;

Putting aside the non-inclusive language of these quotes , we can perhaps grasp that the meaning of soul is rather like water which is difficult to get hold of much less actually grasp.  It might be helpful to turn to an encyclopedic definition.  Here is one from The Encyclopedia Britannica which defines soul thus:

soul, in religion and philosophy, the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being, that which confers individuality and humanity, often considered to be synonymous with the mind or the self. In theology, the soul is further defined as that part of the individual which partakes of divinity and often is considered to survive the death of the body.

If I can attempt to summarize, soul is something which all people possess and which is essential to people and can be the part of us that guides us along the journey to becoming more fully human.  May you be blessed to be guided on that journey.

 

Of Holidays and Holy Days

Happy Victoria Day to those of you who celebrate today as a Holiday.  Holiday originally meant holy day but it has lost much of that meaning for many people.  There is not too much that is holy about the 2-4 weekend in today’s society except for those who worship beer at the cottage. Of course many of our holidays originally had a religious connotation being connected to Christmas and Boxing Day, Good Friday and Easter Sunday and even Easter Monday.  But even those have taken on a secular connotation in modern culture.  I recently bemoaned that fact that the Easter Egg hunt in this part of my world is held on Good Friday morning.  I had a letter to the local paper publish those remarks to which I received some positive response.  There is also the new custom of wishing people happy holiday instead of Merry Christmas.  People obviously are oblivious to the fact they are wishing people a happy holy day.  However, the secularization of our Holy Days cannot be denied.

Perhaps this is why my thoughts this morning have turned to prayer even though Victoria Day is one of those holidays which does not have religious connotations.  I have been in a couple of discussions recently about why we pray.  I am reminded of the reflection I used for a Diocesan Council meeting some years ago which follows:

Dean Alan Jones of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco has noted that there are only two prayers: ‘Help’ and ‘Thank-you’.  Everything else is just a footnote or variation and expansion on the basic theme—whether it is praise, adoration, confession, supplication or thanksgiving.

I believe that the essence of those two prayers ‘Help’ and ‘Thank you’ can in turn be summed up by ‘O God’ depending on how you speak that phrase.  ‘O God!!!’ which could be followed by ‘what was I thinking’ or ‘what were they thinking’ or ‘what were you thinking God’.  Or ‘O God!!!’ which could be followed by ‘isn’t this wonderful’ or ‘aren’t you wonderful’.    These true prayers probably should always followed by exclamation marks. 

Whether it is ‘Help’ or ‘Thank you’, to pray is to strive to place ourselves more closely in right relationship with God and with God’s creation.  We need our God-given imagination to apprehend what that right relationship is or can be.  The poet Mary Oliver tells us that the world gives us an invitation to right relationship through our imagination every day: 

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

The world offers itself to your imagination,

Calls you like the wild geese,

Harsh and exciting,

Over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

In today’s meeting let us pray ‘Help’.

Gracious and loving God help us to open our imaginations to all that you are offering us.  Help us to imagine and see the path to our right place in the family of things—in God’s family—in our lives as God’s children, in our parishes and especially in our work today for the part of God’s kingdom that is the Diocese of Huron.   In silence let us open our hearts and minds and bodies and souls and imaginations to the help that God offers us.  Amen.

Afternoon Session

This morning I noted that there are two prayers ‘Help’ and ‘Thank you’.  We ended with the prayer ‘Help’ that God would enable us to open our imaginations to right relationship with God for ourselves, our parishes, and the Diocese.  Let us pause and reflect on where we have been this morning.  Let us reflect on where have we had difficulty in opening our imagination to see where that right relationship could be?   Let us reflect on where we have opened our imagination to what the right relationship with God is. Let us reflect on where we have seen but not followed the path of right relationship.   Let us reflect on where have we have moved to be more in right relationship with God and God’s creation.

Let us pray.  Gracious God we thank you for all that you have given us this morning. ‘Thank you’ for all that you will continue to give us this afternoon and when we return to our homes and parishes to continue to seek the right relationship that God intends for us as God’s Children and God’s Church.  Amen. 

Reading the Bible 21 Gen 30: Jacob – Up to His Old Tricks

When we last left Jacob he was dealing with being out tricked by his father-in-law Laban.  Laban had substituted his daughter Leah for Rachael for whom he had laboured seven years.  After many years and many children with these two women as well as their maid-servants Bilhah and Zilpha, Jacob returns the favour and tricks Laban out of a disproportionate part of Laban’s flocks.  Jacob has decided to leave Laban’s household and set out on his own. 

He asks for a settlement of what he is owed for serving Laban all these years.  Laban seems to be generous and asks, “What shall I give you?”  Now this seems generous as he is evidently asking Jacob to name his own prove.  However, Jacob doesn’t appear to trust the offer – probably with good reason given Laban’s past performance – and asks for what seems to be a modest request,

“But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: ³² Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat.

Now I don’t know much about raising sheep and goats but from what I have seen spotted ones don’t seem to be that numerous.  Laban probably believes he has gotten the best of his son-in-law again and is likely rejoicing inside – although he would be trying as hard as possible not to show it.  Now we know that Jacob is no fool – at least not in the popular sense – and has a trick up his sleeve.  He uses what can be described as sympathetic magic to have the flock produce striped, speckled and spotted.  These he claimed for his own and as it says he, ‘grew exceedingly rich’. 

The use of magic and divination is quite common in the bible but it always makes me sit up and take notice when I read it again for the first time.  My best understanding of magic as opposed to asking God to intervene in our affairs is that magic is used to manipulate creation for our own ends.  Sometimes this can be doe good (white magic) and sometimes for evil (black magic).  However, it is directed by our will and not God’s.  When we pray to God we are asking that things be done if it is God’s will.  We are hoping (and praying) that our will is in line with God’s but we have no way of knowing God’s as that is beyond our comprehension as mere mortals.  In this case Jacob’s will happens to coincide with God’s. 

My last entry used the rather trite expression, ‘God can make lemonade out of lemons’ to describe God’s seeming favour for Jacob when Jacob was shall we say less than a perfect person.  This was my rather feeble attempt to be cute which I regretted after I pressed the send button.  As I noted in email exchanges with a friend, Alan Jones said it much better in his book Soul Making, ,”God wills our good. This means that everything that happens to us, including our sinning, can be turned to our good.”