Primitive Christianity Revived, Again
Centering: As inspires the Court of Quaker Opinion, attention is given to that which is found within ourselves.
Re-centering: You mean below the surface of facile and trite approaches to encountering that of God?
Centering: That of God at the center of every human being.
Re-centering: That would be the ego, or "I", and not the Other, or "Thou".
Centering: God, as Other, is found within each person, if looked for there.
Re-centering: Sounds convenient if the Other is able to be controlled/directed; and schizophrenic if not so able.
Centering: The Spirit of Christ chooses to live and be present in our innermost being.
Re-centering: Patently pap - not "Abba", who longs for all persons to re-center their lives/being in God's Word of Truth, which is present in the community of true worship.
How else interpret "the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive"(John 14:16-17)?
Or, W.C.Braithwaite(1919): "...neither hearing the best preachers, nor a bare turning the thoughts inward when one comes into a meeting, is the true spiritual worship, for the heart within may be a den of darkness...."
"If the Light within you were darkness, you would be screwed!"
Rather than wallow in a turmoil of self-doubts as to "Is this the Big Within-Me, or just me with a false beard...?" -- consider that (as Erich Schiffmann put it, "You didn't create yourself." You, with your various glitches and blind spots etc, are what God intended you to (so far) be, the latest version of what God intends to be happening, precisely what God is doing there through you.
Certainly you would prefer to be more virtue and less 'just you' -- but this 'just you' is what God has actually produced. You may have trouble trusting your own ability to 'read' God (because of who you are) but can safely trust God's ability to lead you right (because of who God is.)
Or, Sandra L. Cronk(1991): "Our strivings after meaning and purpose - indeed - after God - have brought us to the end of ourselves...In that empty place we can at last know that which transcends ourselves...All those good but creaturely pillars will no longer serve as the centre of our lives. Now that they are taken away, a new centre can emerge."
Comment
© 2023 Created by QuakerQuaker. Powered by
You need to be a member of QuakerQuaker to add comments!
Join QuakerQuaker