The Forgiving Father
…”al-LEDG-ED-ly”…
This is the way I heard someone who was opposed, really opposed, to the Christian influence on the world and the standard version of history attempt to control the direction of a conversation. She was from a South American country that had been reshaped by Spanish colonialism. She hated a lot of things. She had seen a lot to hate. She was pleasant, intelligent, and passionate, but she could not see Christ for the Christians, and Jesus was just another story made up to control people.
She was well-read and informed - a kind of leader. You would like her. In her own way, she was fighting every power structure, a revolutionary who didn’t care for disguises or have the need for secret graffiti messages or clandestine meetings. She would speak up and hold people accountable. Firey. You would like her. Really.
I listened mostly, because I am not intelligent or well-read or informed, so I do not bring data sets to conversations nor can I tell you about the layers of things making the news.
I listened. My stomach sank, though, when discussions went on for a while because I didn’t have a political cause to fight for, no angle to defend, no outrage. I listened as she and others went on about how men, white men, are the problem and how religion (especially Christianity) continually gets in the way of progress. My heart hurt to sit and listen, because they were wrong. They were so enthusiastically, certainly wrong. And me? All I had was the Resurrection. I don’t blame whole groups of people for anything. I’m fine with people being rich and poor, good and bad. The machinations of the world do not get me too agitated. She would call that privilege. I don’t know. It feels like releasing sickness. It feels like dying to the world.
I mention all of this because this lady was a person of faith - not of an acknowledged faith group, but she was a part of one all the same. She and I both want to deal with power, to have liberty and agency, to help the oppressed, and to have just societies.
The difference is that I saw the tyrant within and she focused on the one without.
I wanted to say many things, but the truth is my engine does not run on activism. The world has always been haves versus have-nots. It is always the rich versus everyone else, always the fortunate and the less-so.
Christianity has ways to deal with all these things. We may fail or just be unfaithful, but the way is there for us to take. In a way, our faithless lives and silent witness create these activists. They don’t see us helping our needy except at Thanksgiving (when everyone is doing it). They don’t see us change anything. They only see stupid people riding a moral high horse.
As it is, I am a poor witness to the new creation. All the energy seems to be attracted to conflict, but I’m just so tired of holding up a shield to hide the sword I do not carry. Any external conflict only clarifies my internal illness. So, I go quiet, unable to defend, unwilling to push. While the conversation continued among them with knowing nods and vocal punctuation marks, and though my body still occupied a chair at the table, invisibly I returned home, passing through the field to the creek to listen for the voice of the one who made me. It really is that simple.
SCRIPTURE
Psalm 51 (50)
Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
[1] Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
[2] Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
[3] For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
[4] Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
[5] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
[6] Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
[7] Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
[8] Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
[9] Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
[10] Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
[11] Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
[12] Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
[13] Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
[14] Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
[15] O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
[16] For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
[17] The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
[18] Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
[19] then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar. (ESV)
Look back up at the introductory words that are included before the Psalm begins.
This is falling down and getting back up.
How ashamed and WRONG David was, but he returned to his senses.
This is how to respond to sin and error.
ART
The Forgiving Father by Frank Wesley.
The best image of the Prodigal I have ever seen.
Look at his arms. His spine. His color.
Look at the Father’s face pressed into his son’s neck.
Powerfully moving.
Read what this link has to say about it.
Here is part of what she writes:
As I meditated upon this painting (something I would encourage you to do), I felt the emotion of the embrace. The father’s hand in the son’s hair, his furrowed brow visible over his son’s shoulder. The son’s right hand grasps his father’s arm, leaning into the embrace, exhausted and totally spent. If the father does not support his boy, he will fall over. The whiteness of the father’s garment and the blackness of the son’s body have been said to represent purity and sin. But then lower down, the two garments seem to intertwine.
Being Human connection: Jesuit Priest Geoff Wheaton also meditated on this image and describes a shift in his perspective after some time of observance. Instead of the prodigal son, Wheaton saw the boy as Jesus returning to his Father after the crucifixion, totally spent and exhausted. Jesus has given everything he had in order to bring about our salvation. God, the emotional Father, welcomes his Son back into his arms. Wheaton says this painting helped him enter more deeply into the sacrifice of Christ. Perhaps it will do the same for you. I know it did for me.
PATRISTICS
The examples of ancient Christians may provide a more stable way forward for the American church than its current unstable, trendy ways.
Long ago, there were many who sought to spend their lives fighting their own sin and seeking deeper, clearer connection - unity - with God.
Some of these went into the desert and are famous now.
This map and the following snippets are taken from a PDF found at this link.
Read this short part from the introduction to the linked book above.
The essence of the spirituality of the desert is that it was not taught but caught; it was a whole way of life. It was not an esoteric doctrine or a predetermined plan of ascetic practice that would be learned and applied. The Father, or 'abba', was not the equivalent of the Zen Buddhist 'Master'. It is important to understand this, because there really is no way of talking about the way of prayer, or the spiritual teaching of the Desert Fathers. They did not have a systematic way; they had the hard work and experience of a lifetime of striving to re-direct every aspect of body, mind, and soul to God, and that is what they talked about. That, also, is what they meant by prayer: prayer was not an activity undertaken for a few hours each day, it was a life continually turned towards God.
Abba Agathon said, "Prayer is hard work and a great struggle to one's last breath’;
When he was dying, Abba Pambo said:
From the time that I came into this solitude and built my cell and dwelt in it, I cannot remember eating any food that I have not earned with my own hands, nor speaking any word that I have been sorry for until now. And so I go to the Lord, as one who has not yet begun to serve God.
For Abba Arsenius, this was a rule for the whole of life: 'Be solitary, be silent, and be at peace.’
What a difference in mindset!
Anyone can benefit from the example of those who are so dedicated to humility in Christ.
Here are two entries about Anthony the Great:
2. When the same Abba Anthony thought about the depth of the judgements of God, he asked, ‘Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age? Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich? Why do wicked men prosper and why are the just in need?’ He heard a voice answering him, ‘Anthony, keep your attention on yourself; these things are according to the judgement of God, and it is not to your advantage to know anything about them.’
3. Someone asked Abba Anthony, 'What must one do in order to please God?’ The old man replied, 'Pay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.’
T-SHIRT
This design was paired with the first part of Psalm 122 -
Psalm 121
My Help Comes from the LORD
A Song of Ascents.
[1] I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
[2] My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
[3] He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber. (ESV)
Click the picture or this link to see the options on the site.
See SacredSummit.shop for more.
MUSIC
While this music isn’t explicitly Christian, I have been listening to it on repeat. No words, just music. I put it on while working or driving. It is wonderful.
Tony Ann - 360
Click picture to listen on Apple Music.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.
How I need you.