I have been the pastor of a church since late June of 1989. I have been with my current congregation since the first Sunday of September, 1995.
A lot of weeks have come and gone, with Sunday acting as a center of gravity for so many weeks over the past 22 years.
For better or worse, I have been shaped into who I am by being part of a church, especially this church I have been with for almost 16 years. I have been preaching sermons for many of these people for all these years, and leading Bible studies, and talking with people about their sicknesses and their children and legal issues. I have been in hospitals, and funeral homes and at grave sides. We have worked on stopping leaks through sanctuary ceilings, assuring people in sorrow and trouble that we cared for them and still valued them. We have discussed our children and parents. This group of people walked with me and held me close when my father was very sick and when he died.
I have made it through the changes of life over the past couple of decades much better than I would have without my church: First United Presbyterian Church and now Fourth United Presbyterian Church.
It can really mean something to be a part of a group of people that gathers together to read the Bible, try to make sense of it, and comes together to worship God in the best way they know how. And, a group of people that has an unspoken but deep determination to never give up on each other.
As we have turned to God over the years together the best we have known how, I have come to the conclusion that this determination that manifests itself in small acts of kindness and understanding and trust is really an experience of the grace of God.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Christian and Hebrew Bibles, begins with these words:
"These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel" in the fortieth year since the exodus from Egypt, and as Israel encamped in Arabah (in the desert country of Moab east of the Jordan river).
Since the setting is Israel is on the verge of entering into the Promised Land, and since the setting is Moses' 120th year, this serves as the Last Will and Testament of Moses bequething to Israel the understanding God has given him.
This book of Deuteronomy reminds the Israelites what they have been through and who they are. And, they are to remind each other and teach these holy things to the next generation. Who they are is based on God's history with them. God has brought them out of slavery in Egypt and guided them through the wilderness.
"Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." Deut. 4:9
As Moses approaches his day of death, he tries to give to his people all the understanding he has of God. This is the only thing he can think of that will really give them the strength and purpose they need to make it on this earth.
"These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel" in the fortieth year since the exodus from Egypt, and as Israel encamped in Arabah (in the desert country of Moab east of the Jordan river).
Since the setting is Israel is on the verge of entering into the Promised Land, and since the setting is Moses' 120th year, this serves as the Last Will and Testament of Moses bequething to Israel the understanding God has given him.
This book of Deuteronomy reminds the Israelites what they have been through and who they are. And, they are to remind each other and teach these holy things to the next generation. Who they are is based on God's history with them. God has brought them out of slavery in Egypt and guided them through the wilderness.
"Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." Deut. 4:9
As Moses approaches his day of death, he tries to give to his people all the understanding he has of God. This is the only thing he can think of that will really give them the strength and purpose they need to make it on this earth.
Thinking About This Easter, the Disciples and Nothing Will Ever Be the Same
'Nothing will ever be the same' is what I kept thinking as I prepared to preach this Easter. That's what I imagined that the first followers of Jesus must have thought within themselves as they watched him taken away to be crucified, and as they grieved his death those first two days.
And, truly nothing was ever the same. But, in a way very different than they had thought. 'Nothing will ever be the same' when first said by them surely had a deep tragic character, and then on that third day after Jesus was killed, reports started circulating that he had risen from the dead.
It all began with the report of the empty tomb. The first report was made by the two Marys who had been followers of Jesus. They were the first to experience the news that Jesus was not dead, but had been raised from the dead.
The sad saying 'nothing will ever be the same' was transformed to a joyous world-shaking celebration among the early believers.
After the crucifixion, they were starting over in a world bereft of hope and light. After the resurrection, they were starting over in a new world, a world that had at its center new life. New life in the midst of an old world, a new world within an old world.
Christmas is traditional, seems to evoke strong memories. Easter is beyond progressive - it is a sense of radical newness. Christmas brings reorientation; Easter brings a blessed disorientation.
As I sit here on the day after Easter, I realize that something has happened to me this Lenten season and Easter. It was an up and down season. But, somehow Easter has broken down the old ways of thinking, and opened up something new. Right now, I feel a little disoriented in a good sort of way. For some reason it seems I have the chance to look at things in a new way, seek new understanding, and escape from old patterns into new more promising ways of living in God's Spirit.
What I am feeling is something that has been growing within me for some time. I am feeling the loss of self-importance even as I struggle with the last gasp efforts of it. More and more those ways of being and thinking and feeling that are centered in self seem just plain worn-out.
Through our growing up, it is natural to reflect a lot about one's identity and to experience a sense of self in an intense way. I think that is a normal and important process. But, as we move into middle age, we start forgetting ourselves more and more, and not taking ourselves too seriously. Our visions of grandeur fade into more realistic views of what we are good at and what we are not. Our hopes in life become more tied to seeing others - especially the young - make it through; we start to realize we have had a pretty good run already.
It is disorienting in a way to begin feeling a sense of self start becoming less and less important. But, it is reorienting in another way that seems to relieve some burdens and open to a more holy, less self-important way of living.
The key experiences recently that have shown me this development are times when the old, self-important way exerts itself and causes some disruption, anger, etc., I really abhor those experiences now, whereas it used to be a regular part of life for me. And, somehow Easter this year really brought that to me in a new way. It wasn't an easy Lenten Season. Becoming dissatisfied with ways of being and thinking that have carried you for so long is not easy. It leaves a vaccuum of meaning until you begin to learn to walk in new ways. But, a certain amount of emptiness is good when that emptiness feels like faith and trust in God.
And, truly nothing was ever the same. But, in a way very different than they had thought. 'Nothing will ever be the same' when first said by them surely had a deep tragic character, and then on that third day after Jesus was killed, reports started circulating that he had risen from the dead.
It all began with the report of the empty tomb. The first report was made by the two Marys who had been followers of Jesus. They were the first to experience the news that Jesus was not dead, but had been raised from the dead.
The sad saying 'nothing will ever be the same' was transformed to a joyous world-shaking celebration among the early believers.
After the crucifixion, they were starting over in a world bereft of hope and light. After the resurrection, they were starting over in a new world, a world that had at its center new life. New life in the midst of an old world, a new world within an old world.
Christmas is traditional, seems to evoke strong memories. Easter is beyond progressive - it is a sense of radical newness. Christmas brings reorientation; Easter brings a blessed disorientation.
As I sit here on the day after Easter, I realize that something has happened to me this Lenten season and Easter. It was an up and down season. But, somehow Easter has broken down the old ways of thinking, and opened up something new. Right now, I feel a little disoriented in a good sort of way. For some reason it seems I have the chance to look at things in a new way, seek new understanding, and escape from old patterns into new more promising ways of living in God's Spirit.
What I am feeling is something that has been growing within me for some time. I am feeling the loss of self-importance even as I struggle with the last gasp efforts of it. More and more those ways of being and thinking and feeling that are centered in self seem just plain worn-out.
Through our growing up, it is natural to reflect a lot about one's identity and to experience a sense of self in an intense way. I think that is a normal and important process. But, as we move into middle age, we start forgetting ourselves more and more, and not taking ourselves too seriously. Our visions of grandeur fade into more realistic views of what we are good at and what we are not. Our hopes in life become more tied to seeing others - especially the young - make it through; we start to realize we have had a pretty good run already.
It is disorienting in a way to begin feeling a sense of self start becoming less and less important. But, it is reorienting in another way that seems to relieve some burdens and open to a more holy, less self-important way of living.
The key experiences recently that have shown me this development are times when the old, self-important way exerts itself and causes some disruption, anger, etc., I really abhor those experiences now, whereas it used to be a regular part of life for me. And, somehow Easter this year really brought that to me in a new way. It wasn't an easy Lenten Season. Becoming dissatisfied with ways of being and thinking that have carried you for so long is not easy. It leaves a vaccuum of meaning until you begin to learn to walk in new ways. But, a certain amount of emptiness is good when that emptiness feels like faith and trust in God.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Good Friday and Some Problems with Getting Older
It is Good Friday, 2011. Last night at our church we gathered to celebrate Christian Holy Week with a service focused on the solemn night on which Jesus ate the passover supper with his disciples and then was "betrayed into the hands of sinners." Our passage from Matthew speaks of Jesus being "sorrowful unto death" and "falling on his face, he began to pray saying, 'My Father, let this cup pass from me if it is possible, but not my will but thy will be done.'"
Our choir sang: "He Never Said a Mumbalin Word." It is a very beautiful and haunting spiritual. And, they sang it just right.
Before I went to worship, I had been in court most of the day. And, I had made a bad miscalculation on a case that was heard in the afternoon. I generally don't make these kind of mistakes in cases. But, as I get older, I seem to be getting less patient. Often in law, it serves you well to make a decision about the clearest path the victory and forget all other paths and issues. But, there are also a number of cases in which you do better to be patient and take what the hearing gives you. I usually can tell the one type of case from the other.
We don't always get wiser when we get older. I am starting to feel like most of us get better in some areas of life and worse in others so that we keep about the same balance between our good and bad characteristics that we had earlier in life. In some areas of life we really do learn some things, and in other areas of life unfortunately we forget the good things we knew when we were younger. Life takes some good things away from us and gives us some good things as well.
When life is really developing in a good way, the balance between the good and the bad begins to tip way over in favor of the good, way more than in the past in a permanent kind of way. When life is developing in a bad way, the balance between the good and the bad begins to tip way over in favor of the bad, way more than in the past in a permanent kind of way.
I am thinking very seriously about this as I think about my life on this Good Friday. There are some important things I have learned about living that I don't think I will ever forget. But, there were some very important things I carried within my heart in earlier life that seem like a hazy memory at this point. Life has a way of beating some of our youthful enthusiasm out of us. Life has a way of teaching us to be more cautious, less quick to trust and identify with others, less likely to take risks for others.
These are some things I am thinking about as I think about the One who risked everything for others.
Our choir sang: "He Never Said a Mumbalin Word." It is a very beautiful and haunting spiritual. And, they sang it just right.
Before I went to worship, I had been in court most of the day. And, I had made a bad miscalculation on a case that was heard in the afternoon. I generally don't make these kind of mistakes in cases. But, as I get older, I seem to be getting less patient. Often in law, it serves you well to make a decision about the clearest path the victory and forget all other paths and issues. But, there are also a number of cases in which you do better to be patient and take what the hearing gives you. I usually can tell the one type of case from the other.
We don't always get wiser when we get older. I am starting to feel like most of us get better in some areas of life and worse in others so that we keep about the same balance between our good and bad characteristics that we had earlier in life. In some areas of life we really do learn some things, and in other areas of life unfortunately we forget the good things we knew when we were younger. Life takes some good things away from us and gives us some good things as well.
When life is really developing in a good way, the balance between the good and the bad begins to tip way over in favor of the good, way more than in the past in a permanent kind of way. When life is developing in a bad way, the balance between the good and the bad begins to tip way over in favor of the bad, way more than in the past in a permanent kind of way.
I am thinking very seriously about this as I think about my life on this Good Friday. There are some important things I have learned about living that I don't think I will ever forget. But, there were some very important things I carried within my heart in earlier life that seem like a hazy memory at this point. Life has a way of beating some of our youthful enthusiasm out of us. Life has a way of teaching us to be more cautious, less quick to trust and identify with others, less likely to take risks for others.
These are some things I am thinking about as I think about the One who risked everything for others.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
The Sermon Before the Sermon
The sermon before the sermon is the thinking process I go through to getting to the point of preparing a sermon. What passage should I look to? This Sunday, I will look to the passage about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, Jesus' last entry into Jerusalem before he is executed by hanging on a cross.
But, I am not reading and interpreting the passage about his triumphal entry with palms waving and people singing. Because that was really a sideshow. The real heart of this movement of the Gospel story is the internal experience of Jesus which is revealed when he says: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you like a hen gathers its chicks under its wings, but you would not . . . " This is a tragic march into the holy city, not a triumphal entry. The singing and shouting and praising as he comes riding on a donkey - these are a mockery of what is really going on. They are illusion which must make this entry even harder for Jesus.
No, I won't be preaching about the palm waving part, but about Jesus' own view of this last entry into Jerusalem,his sorrow for his fellow Jews of Jerusalem who have missed the time of God's coming in Jesus. God drew so near to them, in the flesh of the Messiah, but they would not receive the one sent to reconcile them to God and to each other. They had missed the time of God's coming. And, now Jesus was entering into the rejection of God by God's people. Jesus was experiencing that in his soul, but not simply from God's side - he was also feeling the tragedy of humanity's separation from God.
It was with a very heavy heart that Jesus came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The angel of death was drawing near, and unlike the Hebrews who were spared in the first Passover, Jesus would not be spared during this Passover. "He had prayed: 'let this cup pass from me if it is possible,' but it was not.
He was the passover lamb to be sacrificed. He would have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death and experience the burdens of that. And, he would do so in obedience to God and hoping that God would work redemption through this suffering.
The suffering itself seemed meaningless. Why would evil humans get the upper hand over God's Messiah? What good would it do to demonstrate the victory of evil over good before the eyes of those who had hoped in Jesus? But, it was becoming very clear to Jesus that this was the way of God. Perhaps it was not the way God would have liked, but due to human rebellion and sin, it was the way that Jesus had to go to accomplish God's will.
It is comforting to me that Jesus struggled with this way. It is reassuring to me that Jesus asked God to save him from this way of suffering and humiliation. Because it lets me know that this was not the affirmative will of God but the permissive will of God. It was God coming further into the midst and mess of humanity to save - not because God wants to suffer or have his son suffer - but because suffering was the only way to bring redemption to broken, twisted and rebellious humanity. It is only in being willing to bear all the burdens that God's love is demonstrated to human beings.
It is a shameful sight, and a shameful story to read about. If you read it and believe it, it causes a deep sense of shame as a human being. This was the reception we gave to the holiest one to have ever walked the earth. This was the reception we human beings gave to the Chosen of God.
But, it is also a moving sight, because Jesus is one of us, and somehow would not be separated from us, and would not deny us. He clung to his humanity and would not let go, even until the end. Jesus suffered like a human being, not a god. He cried out from the depths of his humanity: "God, why have you abandoned me!?" He would not renounce human beings, though we human beings renounced him. Jesus was true to the way of God, and the way of God was to cling closely to the human race even in experiencing the rejection of humans. For a time at the height of his suffering, Jesus seemed to have felt the rejection of God. And, God had to remain silent for a time. This was the greatest suffering of all. Those three days. Our God. Waiting three days to declare a verdict for Jesus. It was if the "jury was out" for three days. The creation had seen her king killed by evil human authorities. The creation waited for God to speak, but there was nothing. For three days, there was nothing. God was silent for three days. No one knows how long these three days were for the Divine. We do know something about how long they felt for Jesus' friends and family and followers who had expected him to bring in the kingdom of God. They were three days of empty pain and grief. But, what God went through, no one can dare to imagine.
O, Holy, Holy, Holy God. Light beyond all light. Love beyond all love. We do not try to imagine what we cannot imagine. We stop at this gate and tremble at your beauty, your humility and faithfulness to humanity. With all the unfaithfulness that we have returned to you! O, Lord, let your heart be blessed. Let your joy be renewed. Let your love be returned a thousand times over for ever and ever. Amen.
But, I am not reading and interpreting the passage about his triumphal entry with palms waving and people singing. Because that was really a sideshow. The real heart of this movement of the Gospel story is the internal experience of Jesus which is revealed when he says: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you like a hen gathers its chicks under its wings, but you would not . . . " This is a tragic march into the holy city, not a triumphal entry. The singing and shouting and praising as he comes riding on a donkey - these are a mockery of what is really going on. They are illusion which must make this entry even harder for Jesus.
No, I won't be preaching about the palm waving part, but about Jesus' own view of this last entry into Jerusalem,his sorrow for his fellow Jews of Jerusalem who have missed the time of God's coming in Jesus. God drew so near to them, in the flesh of the Messiah, but they would not receive the one sent to reconcile them to God and to each other. They had missed the time of God's coming. And, now Jesus was entering into the rejection of God by God's people. Jesus was experiencing that in his soul, but not simply from God's side - he was also feeling the tragedy of humanity's separation from God.
It was with a very heavy heart that Jesus came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The angel of death was drawing near, and unlike the Hebrews who were spared in the first Passover, Jesus would not be spared during this Passover. "He had prayed: 'let this cup pass from me if it is possible,' but it was not.
He was the passover lamb to be sacrificed. He would have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death and experience the burdens of that. And, he would do so in obedience to God and hoping that God would work redemption through this suffering.
The suffering itself seemed meaningless. Why would evil humans get the upper hand over God's Messiah? What good would it do to demonstrate the victory of evil over good before the eyes of those who had hoped in Jesus? But, it was becoming very clear to Jesus that this was the way of God. Perhaps it was not the way God would have liked, but due to human rebellion and sin, it was the way that Jesus had to go to accomplish God's will.
It is comforting to me that Jesus struggled with this way. It is reassuring to me that Jesus asked God to save him from this way of suffering and humiliation. Because it lets me know that this was not the affirmative will of God but the permissive will of God. It was God coming further into the midst and mess of humanity to save - not because God wants to suffer or have his son suffer - but because suffering was the only way to bring redemption to broken, twisted and rebellious humanity. It is only in being willing to bear all the burdens that God's love is demonstrated to human beings.
It is a shameful sight, and a shameful story to read about. If you read it and believe it, it causes a deep sense of shame as a human being. This was the reception we gave to the holiest one to have ever walked the earth. This was the reception we human beings gave to the Chosen of God.
But, it is also a moving sight, because Jesus is one of us, and somehow would not be separated from us, and would not deny us. He clung to his humanity and would not let go, even until the end. Jesus suffered like a human being, not a god. He cried out from the depths of his humanity: "God, why have you abandoned me!?" He would not renounce human beings, though we human beings renounced him. Jesus was true to the way of God, and the way of God was to cling closely to the human race even in experiencing the rejection of humans. For a time at the height of his suffering, Jesus seemed to have felt the rejection of God. And, God had to remain silent for a time. This was the greatest suffering of all. Those three days. Our God. Waiting three days to declare a verdict for Jesus. It was if the "jury was out" for three days. The creation had seen her king killed by evil human authorities. The creation waited for God to speak, but there was nothing. For three days, there was nothing. God was silent for three days. No one knows how long these three days were for the Divine. We do know something about how long they felt for Jesus' friends and family and followers who had expected him to bring in the kingdom of God. They were three days of empty pain and grief. But, what God went through, no one can dare to imagine.
O, Holy, Holy, Holy God. Light beyond all light. Love beyond all love. We do not try to imagine what we cannot imagine. We stop at this gate and tremble at your beauty, your humility and faithfulness to humanity. With all the unfaithfulness that we have returned to you! O, Lord, let your heart be blessed. Let your joy be renewed. Let your love be returned a thousand times over for ever and ever. Amen.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Just Another Day and A New Day
Today is just another day, but then again, today is a new day. I have been alive for over 50 years, which is a lot of days, but I am alive right now on this day.
What I am thinking about this morning is how often I have started over in life, but then again I am never starting over from "ground zero." There is the foundation of the past or the residue of the past that is so strong in all of our lives. And, that foundation often sustains us and gives us meaning, but it can delude us, imprison us or haunt us as well.
And, whatever my past is seems to be subject to the definition I give it in the present. Now, I know that certain things happened or didn't happen, but the way they are remembered/understood and formed into the story of my life. . . well, that is a subjective and creative process. Memory is not a series of still-life pictures nor does it simply have video footage from our lives. Memory is unsettled, always shaking up the fragments of experiences gone by and seeing them in light of current experience and current ways of making meaning.
So, today is just another day, but then again it is the day from which I view and comprehend all the days I have ever lived. It is a day in which I am facing the challenges of today, but it is also a day in which I am shuffling and reshuffling the experiences of the past in light of the way I am seeing things today.
What I am thinking about this morning is how often I have started over in life, but then again I am never starting over from "ground zero." There is the foundation of the past or the residue of the past that is so strong in all of our lives. And, that foundation often sustains us and gives us meaning, but it can delude us, imprison us or haunt us as well.
And, whatever my past is seems to be subject to the definition I give it in the present. Now, I know that certain things happened or didn't happen, but the way they are remembered/understood and formed into the story of my life. . . well, that is a subjective and creative process. Memory is not a series of still-life pictures nor does it simply have video footage from our lives. Memory is unsettled, always shaking up the fragments of experiences gone by and seeing them in light of current experience and current ways of making meaning.
So, today is just another day, but then again it is the day from which I view and comprehend all the days I have ever lived. It is a day in which I am facing the challenges of today, but it is also a day in which I am shuffling and reshuffling the experiences of the past in light of the way I am seeing things today.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Evolving Spiritually: Different Conceptions of God in Scripture and Experience
If you have a conception of God, then if you can think back on your life, you will probably discover that your conception of God has evolved over the years. Whether you are one who can seem to trace a progression from understanding God as the great king or father located right up there in heaven to a great power and Spirit with an involvement and presence throughout creation; or whether you are one who once had a comfortable view of God and now don't get any clear thoughts or feelings when you say the word "God," or whether you once upon a time felt that God was clearly with a certain group of people and not with others,but now it seems to you that God does not have an identification with any particular group of people, but with humanity as a whole . . . well, there are so many variations of possible conceptions of God among human beings. And, with each human life, there is a distinctive story, from the person who has gone from believing it all to believing none, to a person who has gone from believing nothing to believing every bit of what is affirmed by a religion.
We have lives that run either way: from C.S. Lewis who was a confirmed academic agnostic who became an enthusiastic Christian, to others who believed deeply in their young lives but came to see belief in God as a projection of human wishes and an avoidance of the nature of reality (see Karl Marx and Ludwig Feuerbach and Friedrich Nietzsche).
An individual's view of herself and a person's view of reality and the meaning of life is both a reflection of that person's view of God/ultimate reality and also one's view of God is a reflection of a person's view of self and others and reality. It is not a one way street. Religious knowledge is in a dialectical relationship with other knowledge. Religious knowledge constructs social knowledge as much as social knowledge constructs relgious knowledge.
For example, if I become very discouraged and depressed about life and about my life in particular, such state of mind is likely to affect my conception of God. However, my conception and experience of God is likely to affect my feelings about life and about my life as well.
For some, there may be a path of spiritual development that seems logical. For others, the conceptions of God may change with the seasons of life or even change back and forth radically with drastic alterations in experience. Or, for some, the conception of God may stay relatively the same throughout life, from childhood to old age.
I would like to know more about how people develop their belief or unbelief in relation to their psycho-social experience in life, and how people develop their pyscho-social experience in relation to their belief or unbelief in God.
Although there is something to be said for stability in views, one thing strikes me about the true experience of God. That is, that one's conceptions of God must undergo some radical challenges and changes if one's is to remain open to experience the living God in the real circumstances of life. That doesn't mean that a person cannot have a stable and genuine faith and a life-long experience of prayer and sense of communion with God. But, it does mean that if you get too clear and stable a view of God, it is probably something you have dreamed up and not from the experience of the Living God whose mystery is beyond our knowing.
We have lives that run either way: from C.S. Lewis who was a confirmed academic agnostic who became an enthusiastic Christian, to others who believed deeply in their young lives but came to see belief in God as a projection of human wishes and an avoidance of the nature of reality (see Karl Marx and Ludwig Feuerbach and Friedrich Nietzsche).
An individual's view of herself and a person's view of reality and the meaning of life is both a reflection of that person's view of God/ultimate reality and also one's view of God is a reflection of a person's view of self and others and reality. It is not a one way street. Religious knowledge is in a dialectical relationship with other knowledge. Religious knowledge constructs social knowledge as much as social knowledge constructs relgious knowledge.
For example, if I become very discouraged and depressed about life and about my life in particular, such state of mind is likely to affect my conception of God. However, my conception and experience of God is likely to affect my feelings about life and about my life as well.
For some, there may be a path of spiritual development that seems logical. For others, the conceptions of God may change with the seasons of life or even change back and forth radically with drastic alterations in experience. Or, for some, the conception of God may stay relatively the same throughout life, from childhood to old age.
I would like to know more about how people develop their belief or unbelief in relation to their psycho-social experience in life, and how people develop their pyscho-social experience in relation to their belief or unbelief in God.
Although there is something to be said for stability in views, one thing strikes me about the true experience of God. That is, that one's conceptions of God must undergo some radical challenges and changes if one's is to remain open to experience the living God in the real circumstances of life. That doesn't mean that a person cannot have a stable and genuine faith and a life-long experience of prayer and sense of communion with God. But, it does mean that if you get too clear and stable a view of God, it is probably something you have dreamed up and not from the experience of the Living God whose mystery is beyond our knowing.
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