Natural Law Is Not Spiritual Law

Recently I was given the gift of an epiphany in something written by Rev. Sherry De Jonge.  It was the concept of spiritual law https://www.exultantministries.org/post/god-of-the-impossible:

An old woman and a virgin will each bear a son. Impossible in the natural, but we forget that we also live in a creation that is spiritual – it has spiritual laws and it has spiritual consequences,

It is somewhat surprizing to me that I had never thought of spiritual things in terms of spiritual laws that operate in the universe just as there are natural laws.   Natural laws have been developed to describe how the universe operates in material ways which can be weighed and measured even if it is on a quantum level.  I know and have known for much of my life that natural laws do not apply to how God operates in the spiritual lives of people and indeed the world.  This is described in the Gospel of John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

However, it came as something of a surprize when I realized I had not thought of spiritual things in terms of spiritual laws.  As a Spiritual Director you would think that this is obvious.   I do know that God is working in my life and in the lives of everyone in many different ways whether we are aware of it or not.  However, I just never thought of it in terms of laws that govern how the spirit works which can be codified and set down – and on reflection that is probably not the way to understand spiritual laws.   After all it does seem hard to pin down even identify when the spirit is actually present and how it is working in us.  As the Gospel says, “you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”   Sometimes we can be blind to what is right before our eyes.  I take comfort in the obtuseness of the disciples who often didn’t see what was right before their eyes. 

There is much in the Christian Bible and other wisdom writings that point to what can be called spiritual laws.  I am thinking particularly about the beatitudes - the sermon of Jesus which tells us that we are blessed if we live our lives in a spiritual way:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

So, here we have eight rules that can be considered spiritual laws telling us how we can be blessed in our lives.  However, I don’t believe that it would be a good idea to try and set down a comprehensive list of rules and regulations which would define what the spiritual laws are.  That would be applying the rules of natural law to the operation of spiritual law.  I don’t believe that the action of spiritual laws can be weighed and measured and cannot be seen under an electron microscope. 

One of the great mistakes that we make in this modern age is to do just that – try and apply natural laws to spiritual things.  We treat the bible as an historical and a scientific document.  I recently watched for the first time the silent movie classic Metropolis which is available on You Tube.  The theme of the movie addresses just this challenge, “The mediator of the head and the hands must be the heart.”  The heart is not rational and neither is Spiritual Law.  To love your enemy is not rational. 

Another recent blog by Ryan Dueck sums the challenge of not codifying spiritual things as natural law up very well:

It’s not that I all of a sudden have no use for logic or arguments or philosophy or theology or anything like that. No one who reads what I write or listens to what I say would ever come to that conclusion. But like Smith, I think I have come to a point in my life where I am deeply aware of the limits of these endeavours. God is not a logic proof. The life of faith is not an argument or a solution to a rational problem. The gospel is not the “system” that we so often and eagerly reduce it to, but a story and a song. And you and I are not data machines in need of the right inputs. We are lovers who need to be loved into remembering. We are dreamers who need more expansive imaginations. We are a ragged choir in need of a better song. https://ryandueck.com/2021/03/02/wonder-shining-in-my-eyes/

Blessings on your spiritual journey 

The Wind Blows Where It Chooses

“The wind (spirit) blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

Saturday night, I was having a bit of a time questioning my faith.  I was awake a lot of the night – which seems to happen more frequently as I age – and was wondering why God seems to be most difficult to connect with at times when it would be most beneficial to make that connection.  To put it more clearly – where the heck is God when you need Him?  I could put it in non-gendered language but it feels rather right to give God a masculine pronoun in this instance.  

I certainly haven’t suffered like Job but I can certainly understand Job’s demand to make his case face-to-face with God.  In any case, as it so often happens, things seemed much more positive in the light of day.  As the dessert fathers and mothers discovered, the night does bring demons and challenges in many different forms.

Being Sunday morning, Lorna and I were off to St. James Anglican Church to ring the bell at 9:00 and attend the Morning Prayer service following.  As I have written about previously, we started ringing the bell at church on Easter Sunday morning at the request of our Primate, Archbishop Linda Nicholls, who had asked that all Anglican churches ring their bells to let people know that Jesus Christ has risen even in the midst of Corona Pandemic when churches were not open for public worship .  We decided that we would continue to do that every Sunday morning during the Corona shutdown until we were able to worship together again. 

Some time after Easter Sunday, our priest-in-charge, Rev. Sherry De Jonge, decided to hold Morning Prayer services of the Word to be recorded and broadcast on Facebook following the ringing of the bell.  These followed the Diocesan guidelines and were not open to the public.  Following the bell ringing the doors would be closed.  Yesterday was rather humid and the church was on rather stuffy so when I was closing the front doors, I decided to leave them open as a very nice breeze was blowing into the church.

As the service progressed, I went up to the lectern to lead the prayers of the people and was surprized to see a man I didn’t know sitting at the back of the church.  One of the regular attendees was absent so fortunately we did not exceed the permitted number of attendees in this time of Corona-19 which is five.  I’m not sure what the protocol would have been if we did but, in any case, all was well on that front.  Following the service, we engaged in a discussion with the visitor with all attendees including the guest wearing masks.  It turned out that he was interested in having some members of his family baptized in the church and was passing by and saw the open door so decided to join us and was able to discuss the baptismal process when public worship services resume – hopefully in September. 

Now St. James is a very small congregation and this doesn’t usually happen even in non-corona times.  So, I have to ask myself if the convergence of unusual events had something or someone directing things behind the scene.  All the circumstances coming together can, of course, be put down to coincidence, however, I must ask myself if there wasn’t a connection with my questions of the night before.  I’m not saying there is cause and effect at work here but you have to wonder.  The Spirit blows where it chooses as we are told. 

Blessings on your journey and watch out for those coincidences. 

ZOOMing With God

Last week, I was attending the Summer Dream and Spirituality Conference presented by the Haden Institute.  I am not sure if ‘attending’ is the correct word – perhaps ‘participating in’ is better because I was participating via ZOOM.  I have attended the Conference many times since my first time in 2005, but those have always been attendance that was on site at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville N.C. 

This was my first experience of any such endeavor by electronic means and I was very aware of both he positive and negative aspects of using a such a means of coming together.  Many of us are now getting very familiar with ZOOM (is Zooming or ZOOMing the verb) and similar ways of being in community in the time of COVID 19 with many worship services being so offered and meetings utilizing the internet for meetings.  It is something which will become to a lesser or greater extent the “new normal” in the post COVID 19 shut down.  As the Rev. Sherry DeJonge noted yesterday when four of us gathered at St. James Anglican Church, Parkhill in the traditional way yesterday to worship (keeping social distancing) while Donna Lamb-Gunness recorded the service for Facebook, we will need to continue providing worship services electronically after the shut down is eased as many people will be reluctant to attend church physically  - at least initially.

In addition, it was announced at the end of the Conference that next year, the Conference could be attended either in person or electronically for the first time.  This option, which has been used in a limited way in many instances I past years will, I believe, become the new normal way meeting in the years to come.

That being said and turning to the Conference itself, it is a wonderful exploration of ways that we can enhance our connection with God or the Divine - however you personally define it.  One of the primary ways which is offered at the Conference, is through dreams which we consider to be God’s forgotten language.  In addition, there are many ways included such as prayer, meditation, art and poetry to name a few.   

On reflection, it struck me that ZOOMing (or Zooming) is a great metaphor for how God communicated with us.  I believe that God is continually trying to connect with us – to ZOOM - in many different ways.  Unfortunately, we are not willing or able to be open to many of those ways.  Sometimes we will be open to a few familiar ways in which God speaks to us such as in scripture or music or prayer.  However, we can both deepen those ways though those ways through practice, participation and reflection, as well as exploring other ways in which we are naturally not as attuned to.  I believe we can do both, that is, deepen the ways which we have been accustomed to in our lives as well as explore new ways which we haven’t considered as possibilities for God speaking to us.  I have found the Conference to be a wonderful way of exploring both possibilities. 

I will close with a short poem which was offered to me - possibly from a divine source in one the workshops during the Conference which explored this avenue for communication with the Divine.  It explores the idea of our names being formative to who we are and the reality of my life that I almost was named after my father rather than someone else.

In the Name of the Father

What if my father,

Who was the one who baptized me,

Had honoured his agreement

With my mother

And had named me Milton

After my father,

Instead of Gregory after

His philosophy prof.

Would I be the same person

I am now,

Or would I be someone else?

Blessings on you journey.

They Will Know We are Christians by our Love

This past Sunday my parish celebrated the new ministry of our new priest,  Rev. Sherry De Jonge by holding an Induction service.   At the service, the homily was delivered by the Rev. Dave Hewett, who was a classmate of mine in theology at Huron University College.

In his sermon, Dave made a number of very good points – it was an excellent sermon.  One which particularly moved me was that the church is not called to defeat the powers and principalities of this world, Christians are called to give the world an alternative to the way the world often works.  Jesus gave the world a loud and clear message that his kingdom is not of this world.  He did not call upon a host of angels to overthrow the Roman Empire which ruled the world that Jesus chose to be born into.  He showed the world a different and better way that the way offered by the Roman Empire or the Religious authorities in Jerusalem. 

Central to that message and example of Jesus Christ is love.  We, the followers of Jesus and the world were given this message in word and deed by the one we proclaim as our saviour.  We are to love God and to love our neighbours (all inclusively) as ourselves.  There is a hymn which was very popular in the 1960’s and was probably overdone in my church experience like a few other hymns such as Morning Has Broken or Lord of the Dance.  It was composed by Fr. Peter Scholtes and was based on John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” It expresses this message very well and makes clear what Christians are called to do.  It is remains one of my favourite hymns despite its overuse back then:

We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity
May one day be restored

And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, By our love
Yes, they'll know we are Christians
By our love

We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
And together we'll spread the news
That God is in our land

We will work with each other
We will work side by side
We will work with each other
We will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity
And save each man's pride

All praise to the Father
From whom all things come
And all praise to Christ Jesus His only son
And all praise to the Spirit
Who makes us one

Of course, this is one of the hardest things that people can do, whether they are Christians or not, to love our neighbours or enemies as Jesus also said.  It seems to go against our human nature or perhaps I should say our ego-based nature.  It may take a life-time of work and effort but it what we are called to do if we profess to be Christians.  One way I have found helpful in trying to love those who I find unlovable is to pray that God will help me to see them as God sees them.

Blessings on your journey.