transcendental submission...

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the apostle of "Self-reliance" summed up his thought this way in a letter to Thomas Carlyle..."My whole philosophy-and it is very real-teaches acquiescence and optimism."

Blessings

the supreme gift...

My devotional reading this morning included 1 Timothy 4-"Train yourself in godliness, for while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way. While I would love to take this as divine sanction to not go to the gym today, I don't suppose I can get away with that...

William Ellery Channing's "Likeness to God" gives a passionate explanation of godliness.

Ephesians v. i: "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children."

"The text calls us to follow or imitate God, to seek accordance with or likeness to him ; and to do this not fearfully and faintly, but with the spirit and hope of beloved children. The doctrine which I propose to illustrate is derived immediately from these words, and is incorporated with the whole New Testament. I affirm, and would maintain, that true religion consists in proposing, as our great end, a growing likeness to the Supreme Being. Its noblest influence consists in making us more and more partakers of the Divinity. For this it is to be preached. Religious instruction should aim chiefly to turn men's aspirations and efforts to that perfection of the soul which constitutes it a bright image of God. Such is the topic now to be discussed ; and I implore Him whose glory I seek to aid me m unfolding and enforcing it with simplicity and clearness, with a calm and pure zeal and with unfeigned charity.

I begin with observing, what all indeed will understand, that the likeness to God, of which I propose to speak, belongs to man's higher or spiritual nature. It has its foundation in the original and essential capacities of the mind. In proportion as these are unfolded by right and vigorous exertion, it is extended and brightened. In proportion as these lie dormant, it is obscured. In proportion as they are perverted and overpowered by the appetites and passions, it is blotted out. In truth, moral evil, if unresisted and habitual, may so blight and lay waste these capacities, that the image of God in man may seem to be wholly destroyed.

The importance of this assimilation to our Creator is a topic which needs no labored discussion. All men, of whatever name, or sect, or opinion, will meet me on this ground. All, I presume, will allow that no good in the compass of the universe, or within the gift of omnipotence, can be compared to a resemblance of God, or to a participation of his attributes. I fear no contradiction here. Likeness to God is the supreme gift. He can communicate nothing so precious, glorious, blessed as himself. To hold intellectual and moral affinity with the Supreme Being, to partake his spirit, to be his children by derivations of kindred excellence, to bear a growing conformity to the perfection which we adore,—this is a felicity which obscures and annihilates all other good."

Blessings

the exaggeration produced by strong feelings...

In preparing for another year of Bible Study at our church, I have had to return to a more systematic and broad reading (after months of devotional reading) so have gone to the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer's Daily lectionary. It is always interesting to jump into the books of the Bible in midstream and though I have read it for years and largely know the context for what I read, the carnage and the passions can still be a little off-putting (though the BCP seeks to moderate that response by bracketing the most egregious examples.)

This from the dean of the Boston Unitarian Bible Scholars and teachers, the "the Unitarian Pope" Andrews Norton on Orthodox vs. Liberal Biblical interpretation...

"Those are to be considered as liberal Christians, who believe that Christianity, in respect to its main design, is a revelation from God; a revelation of religious truths beyond all comparison more important and interesting, than what unenlightened reason can with any approach to certainty discover ; a revelation of the being and moral government of God, of the immortality of man, of the purpose of the present life, of the character here to be formed, and of our condition in a future state as depending on our present conduct. There are many, indeed, to be considered as liberal Christians, who, believing that Christianity is in its main design a revelation, do yet believe that there are other important purposes of this dispensation. The orthodox, on the contrary, do not consider Christianity in respect to its principal purpose as a revelation of any kind, but as a scheme by which mankind, created with natures so corrupt as never to perform the will of God, and therefore justly exposed to his wrath and the severest punishments, and utterly impotent to do any thing to deliver themselves from this condition, are now, through the sufferings and death of Christ, put into such a state, that the mercy of God is offered to all and extended to some individuals. They believe that these views of human nature and of Christianity were taught by Christ and his Apostles together with other doctrines, some of them mysterious and incomprehensible, which are not to be examined by the principles of natural reason, but in the reception of which our reason is to humble itself before our faith; and they for the most part consider the reception of these doctrines as essential,—as being the only foundation of the Christian character. The modes of interpretation which these two classes of Christians apply to the Scriptures likewise form characteristic differences. The orthodox, believing the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles to have been composed under God's immediate and miraculous superintendence, for the immediate purpose of being used and easily understood by all Christians in all countries and in all ages, of course apply to writings of so peculiar a character a mode of interpretation very different from what is applied to any other. They believe that no allowance is to be made for the inadvertence of the writer, and none for the exaggeration produced by strong feelings. They pay but little attention to that use of language, common in all human compositions, according to which the insulated meaning of words is not to be considered, and their true meaning is that which is defined by their connection, by some other known circumstance, or by the reason of the thing. They do not expect to find the meaning much disguised by peculiarities of expression characteristic of the writer, or of the age or country to which he belonged; they pay but little regard to the circumstances in which he wrote, or to those of the persons whom he addressed; and they are not ready to believe that writings, expressly intended for the general use of all Christians, should be much occupied by controversies which prevailed only in the first ages of the Church. Liberal Christians, on the contrary, believe that attention should be paid to all these particulars; and, while they regard the Christian Scriptures as the writings of men instructed by Christ himself, or by immediate revelation, in the nature and design of Christianity, they yet consider that the same modes of criticism and explanation are to be applied to these Scriptures as to all other ancient writings."

Blessings

our dim sight...

I have written before of the importance of submission or, as Rev. Abbott puts it in our sermon extract today, Resignation. To a degree, I think it the central point of contention in many of the struggles that Unitarian Universalists have with each other(I think esp. of the recent controversy over Peacebang's Covenant post.) For Abbott, a basis for submission is our limited and fragmented knowledge-hard for us to admit but, of course, radically true...

"RESIGNATION.
JAMES IV. 7.
SUBMIT YOURSELVES THEREFORE UNTO GOD.

"The character of Jesus was not stained when he wept over the tomb of him whom he loved; and like him, we may pray that, if it be possible, the cup of suffering may pass from us, if we can add like him, " Not my will but thine be done." This is the temper which Christianity enjoins, and which in affliction we ought to maintain: neither to despise the chastening of the Lord, nor to faint in despair under his rebuke ;—but to look up to God, though it may be with a broken heart, yet with feelings of devout submission, and humble confidence and hope...

In connexion with the goodness of God, consider our own ignorance, and it will further teach you the reasonableness of resignation. God's providence is too vast, his designs too complicated and extensive, for our minds to embrace them. Even the whole of this world exhibits but the beginnings of the stupendous scheme of his government. And how little of its designs and operations, even in this world, can we comprehend ! We can discern only single, separate steps in the mighty march of his providence, and can hardly trace even the immediate ends which any particular dispensation is designed to promote...Ought we not then to trust, that where our dim sight cannot reach, yet there also, mercy dwells; and that his hand, though to us it be wrapt in clouds, and inscrutable in its appointments, is yet guiding the course of events with equally wise and compassionate goodness ?"

Blessings

Edward Kennedy RIP

I think that few public servants have tried so hard for so long to become a good man as Ted Kennedy. RIP and Blessings

the real alchemy...

One more (for now) from James Freeman Clarke.

HOW TO CHANGE TIME INTO LIFE.

"I AM COME THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE LIFE; AND THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY."

THE purpose for which we exist is to turn time into life. A regular allowance of time is given to men — the same ration, every day, of twenty-four hours to each of us ; then we are to see what we can make of it. How much can we get of real life out of each day, so that when the day is gone it will leave us so much more alive than we were before. Some men continue to increase in the amount they have of mental, moral, spiritual life and energy, as long as they remain here. While the body is growing old, mind and heart are growing young ; while the outward man perishes, the inward man is being renewed day by day.

This is the real alchemy, the true, philosopher's stone which can turn baser metals into gold. Time has no value in itself ; it is a base metal ; its only value is in our ability to transmute it into something valuable. Time cannot be kept; it slips through our fingers forever ; but while it is passing through them we may be able to change it into something which will last always, that is, immortal or undying life — or what the Scriptures call eternal life. For immortal life, eternal life, simply means that kind of life which does not decay and change; not future existence, but present fullness of being... Our business is to change the bodily existence, measured by time, into spiritual existence, belonging to eternity.

How, then, is this to be done ?...What we need in order to turn time into life is to have faith in the value of things; to believe that there are strange and marvellous mysteries all around us, waiting to be known ; that our life is surrounded by wonder and awe, -ready to be revealed ; that man is capable of immense progress, and has in him depths below depths of capacity ; that God is in the world, and that he is and must be good ; that evil is transient, good permanent; that, notwithstanding all the wickedness around us, there is more good than evil in human nature ; that the good in man is permanent, the evil transient; that it is God's will to save the world from its sin and woe, and that it will be saved. With this sort of faith, all things, all persons become interesting; we love our work, and pursue it with ardor. Life then seems hopeful, and we have not time enough to do all we wish, to see all we wish, to learn all we wish. This it is to do all things to the glory of God..."

Blessings

holiness...

"What can we excell in, if not in holiness?" Ralph Waldo Emerson