tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242521607435148042.post1329308563539075830..comments2024-02-16T12:05:54.873+00:00Comments on Tom's Sermons: Tongues of Fire and Rushing Heavenly WindsTom Kennarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059361977886521239noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242521607435148042.post-12480623635235623422009-06-17T19:35:18.181+01:002009-06-17T19:35:18.181+01:00Hi Phil,
Thanks for taking the trouble to comment...Hi Phil,<br /><br />Thanks for taking the trouble to comment. I'm sorry that I don't have time to debate your points with you one by one - but I thank you for them (and for the careful language you have used.) <br /><br />I'm sorry to report, however, that on this occasion you haven't swayed me from my essential theory. I firmly believe that we religious people spend far too much time looking 'upwards' to some sort of heavenly head-master (who will punish or reward depending on how nicely we ask him). We focus on God 'out-there', who might touch us 'from there' (rather than God 'in-here' who touches us from in-here').<br /><br />After years of grappling with the God out-there, I have learned that he was 'in-here' all the time. I want to point to a God who is "the whole of life springing up as a fountain within me" - as you have so appropriately quoted from St Symeon the New Theologian.<br /><br />This sermon of mine, on which you have so kindly commented, is an admittedly provocative one. But I think it points (and only that) to something that is much truer, much deeper than the surface stories themselves.<br /><br />Keep on arguing with me though! I love it! I makes me think too!Tom Kennarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09059361977886521239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242521607435148042.post-48188202299346547102009-06-13T18:24:39.119+01:002009-06-13T18:24:39.119+01:00Hi Tom
I have thought long and hard over this post...Hi Tom<br />I have thought long and hard over this post before replying, in order to reflect not only on what you are suggesting but how that makes me feel and what that suggests about the nature of God's intervention in the world.<br /><br />I have to confess that your general gist (as I have read it) bothers me enormously. Now whilst I would be the first to accept that later redaction and 'tweaking' has more than likely taken place since the actual events of the gospel. What I take from your sermon is that the whole dramatic and powerful interaction of God has been dummed down into a reductionist and somewhat receptionist understanding where God's activity is understood on our terms and by our own human thinking.<br /><br />If we simply dismiss this story as a reality (inspired by the Holy Spirit) just because we can't understand it, doesn't that simply mean that we can only have a god on our terms, where he fits neatly into our ability to understand.<br /><br />Again, you quote the magnificat as an unreliable story just because of the social class and context of the girl in question. What does this suggest about who God uses for his purpose (I certainly wouldn't be a priest if it were based upon the eloquence of men or of angels)<br />Finally, if we take this approach with this part of scripture, how do we faithfully proclaim some of the other 'thin places' within the Christian story (Incarnation, miracles, death, resurrection etc etc?<br /><br />Isn't another reading of the this story, (without being a biblical literalist) as the Church teaches, that the dynamic power of God the Spirit did indeed descend on those folk, at that time and that we too should expect not only the still small voice of calm but also the possibility that God will act in larger than life (and comprehension) ways within our lives.<br /><br />A few words then spoke to me about the very real and ethereal nature of God<br /><br /> St Symeon the New Theologian<br />I know that the immovable comes down;<br />I know that the invisible appears to me;<br />I know that he who is far outside the whole creation takes me within himself and hides me in his arms, and then I find myself outside the whole world.<br />I, a frail, small mortal in the world, behold the creator of the world, all of him, within myself; and I know that I shall not die, for I am within the life, I have the whole of life springing up as a fountain within me.<br />He is in my heart, he is in heaven:<br />Both there and here he shows himself to me with equal glory.<br /><br />PS love the blog and thank you for the opportunity to share some dialogue.<br />PhillPhillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07861688356579977263noreply@blogger.com