Young Sheldon presently on Netflix has a dream in which he converses with what I think is called the binary system and it gave me pause.
01
Without 0 there cannot be 1.
Actually later on there is an episode where Sheldon (now a lot older) panics that 0 might not exist. I think he and his professor colleagues concluded the crisis by deciding that they simply had to pretend that it did.
you are the one who is nowhere to be seen and nowhere to be found.
you who are not.
source of life. all life
source of joy. all joy
I think joy and life are actually one and the same. or they have the same source.
looking today at the leaves springing out of the wood of the trees:
each one a sign of joy.
you are like the wood from which all life springs
An interesting youtube video was followed by a cascade of comments: many by atheists or agnostics but increasingly by believers and seekers too. I exchanged several comments with one poster. I had mentioned in a previous post that I do not think it necessary to believe that the resurrection happened as an historical event. He queried this whereupon I wrote a fairly long post which helped me put into words - not for the first time - what I presently believe. This is what I wrote.
For years I wrestled with this problem assuming just as you do that, if the resurrection didn´t happen, then the whole thing must be a bunch of lies. Again it was the psalms that initially shed light on this for me. (It´s very difficult to talk about the resurrection "not actually happening" without sounding flippant and that´s the last thing I want to do.)
I read a book about Jesus by John Dominic Crossan a few years ago. He said some things that really shocked me at first. That Jesus´ body was most likely thrown in a lime pit by the Romans following the crucifixion. But then I began to feel a strange relief. Somehow this seemingly terrible truth made the gospel story even more sacred.
The whole of the gospel is really about the crucifixion and how the disciples felt about it and responded to it. What IS real I am quite certain is that the disciples, following the terrible loss of Jesus were completely bewildered just as the gospel tells us but, as they sat praying for some sort of guidance, something extraordinary happens which they can only describe as the coming of the Spirit. They suddenly SEE, in the prophets and the psalms and their prayer, what was foretold and that Jesus´ death was NOT an end at all but a beginning. But how to describe such a revelation except by proclaiming that Jesus lives? I think the myth starts there - not as a lie but as the only way to express what was happening in their own lives. Generation after generation of followers learned from the disciples and understood it in their hearts and thus eventually the gospels come to be written - decades after. The resurrection DOES happen but it happens in the hearts of his followers.
I have had many experiences of God - especially when reading the psalms - and I can bear witness to the reality of the presence of God and the reality of the Holy Spirit without ever have seen anything at all.
Some medieval paintings of the crucifixion are decorated with angels and a profound holiness pervades the atmosphere despite the horrific nature of the event and I think this is exactly what the gospel writers are aiming to express. We need to read the gospel in the same way that we look at wonderful painting. Reality imbued with holiness.
A deeper reality.
More real than real.
Does any of that make sense?
I must say it does me a lot of good to try to express this in words!
Thank you for the opportunity!
I've said this before probably. it's seems so important - when I remember it:
the psalms seem to be all about us calling you.
"do this God. do that God. be here God, don't leave me God!"
but when I glimpse that it is actually much more you calling us/me these are always moments of surprising joy.
scripture can be very misleading unless we are able to read between the lines.
we are constantly urged to be calling for you to forgive us.
"in overview, sin is the gulf between you and us"; yes I get that:
we are human and you are so "other" . . .
(I always remember that little book by the Taize monk on this: so helpful!)
. . .that it seems impossible to bridge the gap unless we beg you to forgive us for being human: vulnerable and very, very weak.
(you already have. you tell us this over and over. we just find it hard to believe)
I think though we also have to forgive you: for being so "other"; so different.
So "other" in fact that understanding you seems impossible; is impossible.
The more we try, the further away from you, your essence, we seem to find ourselves.
it is when we stop looking that moments come when we glimpse how close you are.
our need for you is overwhelming.
but you need us too.
a lot!
(you tell us this over and over.
and still we hardly grasp it.)
everything I know about you is only what you tell me.
but without you telling it to me again and again I cannot remember it.
we can never remember you.
we can only glimpse you in the present moment.
the one who IS.
(and yet you are just as much NOT.)
impossible God!
(and I know what your reply to that might be.)
(I don´t read this psalm often enough: it seems a little legalistic in places.)
the psalmist says "Lord, do not disappoint me."
but today it was surely you who were saying this.
The other day I was thinking how disappointing my pupils and choirs can be.
But how must it be for you: messing up the planet as we are?