Risk - Benefit

"And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more." - Luke 12:47,48

   The above passage is Jesus speaking to his disciples, telling them to be prepared for his coming. The context a few verses back could be referring to Pentecost, but here is certainly referring to the day of judgement. In these verses he is saying that the one who sinned in this life, knowing full well what God expected, will be punished severely. The one who sinned in ignorance will get off lightly. How many of us have wrestled with the thought that God's mercy was insufficient to forgive the sins of the nations who never heard of Him? Or that it was God's cruel justice to slaughter countless people. But it is Love and mercy he wishes to give us if only we would receive it. The Lord forgave the people who crucified him, saying "forgive them they don't know what they're doing"
   If this is true, then why should anyone run the risk of God's displeasure by knowing his will? Wouldn't we be better off sinning in ignorance? Is there any benefit of knowing God's will, then? The Lord says of the one who is faithful, wise, and cares for others:

"Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities." - Luke 19:17

   Now, running a city doesn't sound like fun to most of us, and I don't think he meant that literally, but parabolically. The cities represent heavenly states of love and wisdom, that for eternity will be ours to enjoy. So the benefit of doing God's will in even very small things is exponentially great! It is our poor imaginations that cannot conceive of the butterfly effect; giving a child a cup of water to drink, rippling out in the spiritual world into mighty showers of reward and honor!
   On a deeper level, the reward of doing his will is to be with the Lord. The very source of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. The one who knows us more intimately than any other, who wants to live with and within us; the beautiful bride embraced by our rejoicing bridegroom!
   The benefit exponentially outweighs the risk.

This is my commentary

 on the sermon by Jonathan Bayley

which can be viewed here

Relating some ideas

"Nature is to be regarded as a system of stages, one proceeding necessarily from the other and being the resulting truth of the stage from which it results; but not so that one naturally generates the other but that it is generated in the inner Idea constituting the ground of nature,"   - Hegel

Hegel's notion of the "Idea" is curious. He treats of the absolute Idea as a union of the subjective and objective element of a thing. The stages he describes are the union of opposites, their union generates a new stage. Hegel's Idea has many contentious interpretations, but it reminds me of Swedenborg's description of such a union.

"...Wherever there is reality, there is its manifestation: the one does not occur without the other. In fact, reality exists through its manifestation, and not apart from it...Since each occurs with the other and not apart from it, it follows that they are one entity, but "distinguishably one."... They are distinguishably one like love and wisdom. Further, love is reality and wisdom is its manifestation. Love occurs only in wisdom, and wisdom only from love. So love becomes manifest when it is in wisdom..." - E.S.excerpted from: http://newchristianbiblestudy.org/multi/e_27198_1388/e_11192

   This reminds me of an example of the union of Love and Wisdom in scripture that I discovered.

Genesis 1:26
"Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness."
Genesis 5:3
"Adam ... became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image."

Image: tselem; a picture, or phantom (a form of Love)
Likeness: demuth; a resemblance, or pattern (a form of Wisdom)

  These two descriptors are almost synonyms in English but in Hebrew they are quite distinct. In genesis we have a glimpse of the difference between God's act of creation and humankind's act of procreation. God made us in His Love according to Wisdom. We procreate our children as forms of Wisdom according to Love.

   One way to take this is that God works the substance of Divine Love using the patterns of Divine Wisdom. Humans have children in the likeness of their father and the image of their mother. So one order is spiritual, the other natural.

Ideological Paradoxes

   A friend of mine recently helped me realize how difficult it is to discuss politically polarized issues. We have been given to believe that stances such as pro-life or pro-choice, conservative or liberal, etc. are mutually exclusive and have predetermined views. How can one see an issue for the nuanced real world set of problems and conflicting interests that it really is? We must as individuals and as a society learn to look at issues that have no easy answers.
   I am by definition "pro-life" but I would not agree to the label "anti-abortion" because while I believe unborn babies are people, I do not believe that pregnant women lose their rights to their bodies. What we have is a conflict of interest, where the babies cannot defend themselves, and the mother cannot become independent of the baby before birth without the death of the baby. This is not an easy matter, and while I don't have a clear position on all  of the extraneous circumstances (such as rape/incest/medical danger) I still believe we should treat these issues realistically, as difficult, and may end with a person's death.
   So I'm pro-life because I think any way of preventing the unnecessary and avoidable death of an innocent person is morally obligatory. Yes, that is a qualified statement, and it means that sometimes an abortion is necessary and unavoidable. But shall we not seek primarily to reform society to make abortion always unnecessary?
   Perhaps I should write posts on the paradox of suffering, justice and judgement, and faith versus certainty.
   Til next time, dear reader, Bon Voyage.

Dream Devourer

Our intentions reside upon higher planes
partial dimensions hide our true names
careful attention to our viewing direction
reveals a critical, subtle distinction
the deeper context of the painter's vision
unearthed in truthful illumination

pinwheel

I just realized I can put pictures on my blog. :)

I made this a minute ago.

If I cannot trust experience then what?

   I have had numerous spiritual experiences in my life. All unique, subjective encounters with something. These experiences are thrown into doubt now, what I have learned is that I lack discernment. Discernment is a critical skill for Christians to know truth from falsehood, good from evil, and the Holy Spirit from other spirits.
   Over the last two years or so I have been studying Jungian psychology. It interprets mental experiences such as dreams, visions, and synchronicity as personal events with their own internal logic. I was open to this idea as it gave some sense to the mild psychosis I was recovering from. With further study of dream interpretation, and symbolism, I continued to have mystical experiences from time to time. I was slowly suckered into a dabbling with astrology, which is clearly forbidden in the Bible.
   Recent events have shown me that my judgement has been lacking, and I have not been using discernment in the light of God's Word. The scriptures are very clear about the use of divination as idolatrous, being forbidden and useless. (Isaiah 47:13-14, Zechariah 10:2, Micah 3:5-8)
   Jungian Psychoanalysis teaches us to interpret all dream and symbolic material in reference to ourselves, thus making us blind to outside forces. This is especially significant for one such as myself who has had a psychosis, and have an archetype of the "anima" that has taken on a life of its own.

   "It is universally confessed," says Swedenborg, " that the Word is from God, is divinely inspired, and of consequence holy ; but still it has remained a secret to this day in what part of the Word its divinity resides, inasmuch as in the letter it appears like a common writing, composed in a strange style, neither so sublime, nor so elegant, nor so lucid as that which distinguishes the best secular compositions. Hence it is, that whosoever worships nature instead of God, or in preference to God, and in consequence of such worship makes himself and his own proprium [or selfhood] the centre and fountain of his thoughts, instead of deriving them out of heaven from the Lord, may easily fall into error concerning the Word, or into contempt for it, and say within himself, as he reads it, What is the meaning of this passage ? What is the meaning of that ? Is it possible this should be divine ?"
   - Swedenborg, S. S. 1-4 (emphasis added)

   It is clear from scripture that the foundation of all reality is given by the Lord. Therefore

Psalm 139:

" Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me and know my anxious thoughts;

And see if there be any hurtful way in me,

And lead me in the everlasting way."

   I have much to learn, but one thing is clear. Though I may doubt my heart, my thoughts, and my experiences; I need never doubt the love of God.