What Is Truth - Suffering

They say every human being will pass through a deep period of suffering - that if you cannot claim that for yourself, you have simply not lived long enough. There is no doubt some suffer disproportionately more than others, and we have no understanding why. Losing someone through death cannot be undone - it does not pass - the reality does not change. I reflect on this painting my mother created of a mother's grief over the loss of her child. In the pattern of the stone wall it shows a mother's grief over the death of her son, Jesus. All life in our world will pass through death.

Painted by Carolyn Elliott during the Vietnam War

". . . Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows . . . " John 16:33

 

Ignorance Is Not Innocence - J. Elliott Jackson, written from a dream after mom's passing and originally published in Walk Into A Moment

I stood bent in dream

Fingertips to tongue

Pulling from my mouth, fibers like cotton

Discarding them to the blanketed field

Smothered

Silver-white in a coat-of-web

Still as snow

I can see the body dying

Decay that comes

To join the wearing out of life's mechanisms

Death

Is an ugly business

And evil thought and deed

Suffering so apparently growing

Power subverting greater ideas and causes

Turns me under like a wave _ flipped

Sand-stirred, churned in the break

Without surface or boundary

I want the world to stay delicate

To keep its memory safe

Sensing only the gentle and beautiful

We seek solace in discoveries of this age

Yet spirit

Is of permanence

Designed to bear eternity

Abiding in Alpha-Omega

Let it rise with the break of day

Let it rest in pooled depths of stream

Where cool raindrops gently tap

Let it dance in colored sparkles over rock

As sunbeams split in array

Through gray mist and dissipating cloud

Let it mend the holes and tears,

Reweave my loose and raveling threads

To fashion a useful fabric

Must I learn darker things?

May they not remain hidden from me?

      

    

"I have told you this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows . But take heart, because I have overcome the world" John 16:33 

For Justice Rides the Morning

For Justice Rides the Morning

It is okay, the day closes
You cannot be blamed for another's lie
For those who know you, those who matter
The truth remains and will not waver
Rest in this
Let rumors fade within the quiet shadows
Hold firm through the coming blackness
For justice rides the morning
                   
                   J. Elliott Jackson

Vengiletti

     Vengiletti, my pen name here, was born of a dream. Sometimes through the years I have dreamed lines or rhythms of verse, but one evening I dreamed Vengiletti.  I started Vengiletti Press to produce chapbooks. Walk Into A Moment is its first publication. Many of the poems featured in the "Walk Into a Moment Blog" may be moved into "Moment Graces" in the weeks to come.

Coming Together for Something Beautiful

     One of the biggest objections today for traditional church is that many people don’t feel it necessary to gather with others to develop their spiritual knowledge. They prefer to pray, read scripture and explore their faith and beliefs independently. But there is something entirely different about pursuing a goal with others. 

     I can play the guitar for hours developing tone and technique, but when I join with the other members of the band, the game is raised. Variables increase and broaden the potential for what we can create. We have to be aware of each other, listening, waiting, anticipating, adjusting, stretching, growing the art of feeling together the voice or message. Once the spirit of what we are trying to convey gets off the ground, we have to continue working together or what we have created falls off or breaks loose from where we had carried it. 

     The promise when Christians come together for any purpose is that God’s Spirit will be among those gathered. And when you invite him into the band, the results are always beautiful.

What Is Truth - Keep It Simple

     It is fitting on the eve of Memorial Day to write about an individual, Oswald Chambers, who served soldiers in Egypt from 1915-1917 as a chaplain before his death (1917) in Cairo after an emergency appendectomy. 

     In college a roommate tried to get me to read his most famous work, MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST, but I never liked reading what others picked out. When we graduated she gave it and several other books to me, but they stayed in boxes for years and finally were sold at a yard sale. Some years later I was helping folks at my church weed through the library collection in preparation for moving to a new part of the building. A copy of the book was in the discard pile; I grabbed it out and took it home. 

     It stayed on my book case for more years until I was looking for something to read about Christianity. The book filled my need to reflect on the promises of God. The perspectives Oswald Chambers presents are fresh, but the truths are orthodox. Each entry opens with a Bible verse. There is one page for each day of the year. But the lengthy topical index helps locate a message for a specific need so I found myself skipping through the pages reading chunks at a time. 

     I have found more truth and guidance in that little book than any other text about Christianity. I have since bought a copy for a friend and even given my own worn copy filled with sticky-notes of favorite passages away as well. Not too long ago, I did purchase another one and continue to soak up its wisdom. 

     I have been sharing and wrestling in this blog with complicated ideas from a variety of authors, but a wise friend once reminded me to “keep it simple.” This evening I read in Chambers’ book that “simplicity and leisureliness” ought to “characterize the children of God.” (read the whole entry here) 

And so I leave the question - what is truth? - with Jesus’ answer in one of his final prayers to the Father, “Your word is truth.” John 17:17

What is Truth - Science vs Religion

     My mother died twelve years ago.  I was cleaning and discovered a book -  CHAOS AND HARMONY: Perspectives on Scientific Revolutions of the Twentieth Century by Trinh Xuan Thuan.  I never knew she had been reading or contemplating the subject. I would love to have shared late night conversations with her over the book.

     I made notations in the book as I read. A friend of mine read it and made notations as well. So I was able to enjoy conversing about what its ideas contained even though Mom had passed. My friend’s father always told her that at some point philosophy must turn to religion for answers to life’s big questions. There are times science must turn to religion as well because there are aspects of life that science cannot answer or measure empirically.  

     Earlier I mentioned Huston Smith, (Why Religion Matters) the comparative religion scholar. He writes that 
"Science cannot get its hands on:

1. Values
2. Meanings -Existential (what we find meaningful) and global (what is the meaning of life?) 
3. Final causes—the why of things –final causes outside the animate world
4. Invisibles—if there are invisibles that don’t impact matter, science gets no wind of them
5. Quality—the qualitative ingredient in values, meanings, purposes, non-inferable invisibles that gives them their power
6. Our superiors”

He tells us that “The religious sense - recognizes instinctively that the ultimate questions human beings ask (what is the meaning of existence; why is there pain and death; why in the end is life worth living; what is reality and what is its object)—are the defining essence of our humanity."

“If science cannot tell us what (if anything) is outside our universe, what can? Nothing definitively, but it would be foolish not to draw on every resource available.”

     The astrophysicist, Thuan, opens his book, CHAOS and HARMONY, with a chapter titled Truth and Beauty. He states that beauty in science or mathematics is when a theory is “inevitable, simple and congruent with the whole.”  In his closing pages he writes that science will never be able to decide between chance and a primary cause because as he shows in a discussion of quantum theory and the unsuccessful pursuits to formalize mathematical theory there are limits to reason.

    

“We will have to rely on other modes of knowledge, such as mystical or religious intuition, informed or enlightened by the discoveries of modern science.”

What Is Truth - What Have They Done with Jesus?

What Have They Done with Jesus?: Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History – Why We Can Trust the Bible by Ben Witherington

     There is a lot of information out there about Jesus from Strobel's Case for the Real Jesus to the Jesus Seminar - two opposite poles of opinion and information. Whether one believes Jesus is God's son or that he was simply a great teacher, both sides agree he actually walked this earth.

     Witherington takes a different approach from most writers. As a bible scholar, he naturally goes to the bible for information. But in this book he tells us about Jesus by taking a look at the folks around him - his mother, brothers, the women in his life, Peter, Paul, etc.

     Witherington grew up in High Point, North Carolina. He has taught and studied not only in the United States, but in the United Kingdom as well. You can read more about him here. And as usual, the book cover is linked to more information about the book.

What Is Truth - Trying

Life is a journey. No one has it all figured out. This song was written by the lead singer of Lifehouse, Jason Wade, when he was 15 years old - "Trying"

What Is Truth - "Getting Out"

Listen to Timothy Keller  speaking on "Getting Out" from Exodus 14 - click on the mp3 audio Link here
From The Gospel Coalition 2011 National Conference

     Keller compares the Israelites' "crossing over" with a Christians' "crossing over"

Salvation / Redemption / Release - is about getting out
What are we getting out of? - bondage
How do we get out of it? - crossing over from death to life
Why is it possible to get out? -order out of chaos
through the man in the middle identified with the people and with the power of God - Moses/Christ

     In Exodus as well as now, salvation is not by how developed one's faith is . . . And as Keller points out, some Israelites dashing through the dry path with a wall of ocean on both sides were likely commenting - "hey, would you look at that, God sure is fighting for us" - while others were crying, "I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, we're all gonna die." Yet, all were saved.

     Timothy Keller may be my favorite contemporary Christian author. The first book I read of his was THE REASON FOR GOD. The cover picture is linked to more information about the book.

 Here are the first ten chapter titles:
*There Can't Be Just One True Religion
*How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?
*Christianity Is a Straightjacket
*The Church Is Responsible for So Much Injustice
*How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
*Science Has Disproved Christianity
*You Can't Take the Bible Literally
*The Clues of God
*The Knowledge of God
*The Problem of Sin

What Is Truth - The Anchor of Our Souls

Read the first part of this story: What Is Truth - Am I "In" or Am I "Out" here

     A few years ago a friend tattooed an anchor on her arm. When asked what it meant, she said – strength.

      Jesus is the anchor of our souls; “we have this hope firm and secure,”(Hebrews 6). I trust in that strength, that he grabs hold of us even when we feel out of his reach – for his arm is strong, and he is never letting go.

     But there was a time I’d see the verses in the photo above on the wall behind our church alter every Sunday:

     “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (from the Book of John) 

and the words would seem so condemning and judgmental. How could people of the twenty-first century miss their exclusive claim? Where was the love, where was the mercy? During one service I got so irritated over the language that when I got home that afternoon, I actually got out my Bible for the first time in years and read the entire Book of John. There is something to be said for getting the whole story.

     I read it start to finish without getting up. And as I read, the words seemed to soften. They no longer felt condemning but full of love. There was only a pleading in the words – asking me to believe. Showing me how I was forgiven. Offering a peace in the love only Jesus can give.

     Jesus, you are the son of God. You died for each of us. You take all the baggage we have been dragging around and will never let us have it back no matter how hard it tries to pull us back down. Instead, you make us light and lifted in your resurrection promise- that we will be with you forever, that you will never let us go. And Lord, thank you for the verse left off that wall that appears in scripture between the two verses they used:

     “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” 

Jesus, you are the Anchor of our Souls.

"Beautiful Things"

What Is Truth - Deu 30:12-14

     It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?" Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, "Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?" No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

Deu 30: 12-14 

What Is Truth - Seed Pods?

Seed Pods?

   That is what Richard Dawkins in his book, The Blind Watchmaker, very plainly tells us we are. He writes that we exist to preserve the very essence of human life, our DNA. And, it is not the other way around. We are as the fluffy seed pods of willow trees that catch the wind and make their way through the world with the purpose of their DNA replicating to grow and produce more willow DNA so that the blueprint for willows will continue on into the future.

   It all makes very good sense scientifically. I see the allegory he creates and had found no fault in his presentation of natural selection as the cornerstone of evolution. Some molecular biologists like Behe, however, claim there is a whole lot more going on at the molecular level that does not so neatly follow the scenarios evolutionary biologists set forth.

     I don’t even have a problem with the claim that all life proceeded from a common ancestor (even Behe affirms this). It would seem common sense for God to use a single raw material to fashion the springboard of life. And I can agree with Dawkins that man is not the center of the universe. Perhaps God did create our world as a means to preserve and perpetuate the precious building blocks of life in seed pods. Perhaps we and all life are serving as his storage system to be retrieved at some future point, i.e. the new heaven and the new earth.

   But in the end, I see the seed pod as a symbol of choice. If you choose to be a seed pod and nothing else – and let’s be clear about this for Dawkins and many other scientists and philosophers see man as only biological with a mind that has misfired into consciousness — then you are forfeiting any claim to a spiritual nature. This includes any nonrational attributes such as “love, beauty, truth, grief and meaning.”   These attributes are nonempirical, they cannot be scientifically analyzed. It also means that you forfeit any moral responsibility for what you do on earth for how can a seed pod be held accountable? 

   Which brings me back to the imagery. Jesus tells many stories comparing people who have made choices to be without God to weeds or chaff, or even seeds that have failed to bear fruit. He tells us that they wither and die and will be burned. It strikes me as so ironic that someone like Dawkins who views God as a delusion would champion man as a seed pod.

What Is Truth - Am I "In" or Am I "Out"

A major objection expressed of Christianity is – how can there be only one way to God? 

     Apologetic writings address the question, but objections are raised to Christianity’s claim because adherents of different religions are dedicated and happy and produce great work in the world. You can’t examine major religions without discovering elements of beauty and truth in each. An obvious conclusion would be that faith and religious choice should be open to the believer - that Christianity has no right to claim the only truth. 

     We have to be careful because looking deeper, one can see there are aspects of each religion that single themselves out as being the only truth, or requiring devotion to specific ways of life or tenants that would exclude persons who are of a different faith. It is inaccurate then to only object to Christianity.

     So I spent a great deal of time reading of Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism. Buddhism is really a philosophy because it does not believe in a deity which is interesting because the life it calls adherents to live is the most similar to the life Christians are called to exhibit. I also read other philosophies including Platonism, existentialism, and postmodernism. Surely one system would rise above the others. When elements of one conflicted with another, one had to be right and one had to be wrong. They couldn't both be true. I wanted the religion I was raised in to rise to the top, but I was giving all others an opportunity to present their cases. 

     At that point in my life I was reading books about Christianity as a means of comparison, but I had not read the Bible in years. I wanted to believe everything I was taught as a child, but I couldn't pray. Oddly enough however, I still attended church and sang in the choir. Each Sunday we walked passed the alter to be seated, and every Sunday I would see the carved wooden wall-piece that framed the alter with these words carved and painted gold:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

     And every Sunday I’d think – there it is again, either you’re “in” or you’re “out.” And looking over the rows of people I'd think – it must be nice for them, but since I can’t believe like they do, I guess that makes me “out.”

Read the second part of this story, What Is Truth - The Anchor of Our Souls  here

What Is Truth - "Hallowed Place"

Hallowed Place

Step into the stream’s clear pool

Search along gray rock

That will not weather

Beyond sandbanks as they curve

Toward the sycamore, leaning

From spreads of fern

The water pulses

But is not rushing, is not deep

Compressed beneath the lowest root

Laid bare and reaching

Kneel to meet it bubbling forth

Washing over, flowing down

Rest upon the stretch of tree

Through shadowed branches

Daylight broadens vibrantly converging

How must one be in your presence

Who fills every part of me

And does not need me to speak of what's passed

For you were there so I could turn

And know you're here for me

J. Elliott Jackson

What Is Truth - Remember Your Sacred Places

     Let me step aside from my own journey in search of spirit and turn to a woman in her nineties who spoke to a gathering this evening about sacred places. We need to find a spot in our surroundings where we can be alone within our thoughts; even if we are not always by ourselves, it is a place we feel comfortable.

      It could be by a window where the sun filters in across our chair and flowers, or by a stream where branches bend low to meet the water. She was unashamed to talk of things holy, to tell how God’s spirit waits for her to join him in those places, and sits with her , and journeys with her, and holds her up in moments when life is not kind.

      As our speaker’s words drew images and recreated for us the sacred spaces she claimed as a child, a young adult, an elder, I am reminded of my own days under the blossoming apple trees, upon the branches of a willow, the sleeping sofa, the rock by the cool stream waters.

What Is Truth - "The Three of Us"

What is Truth - A Few Ground Rules

Huston Smith writes as a comparative religion scholar. He puts the contemporary tensions of religion and science into perspective. I have included quotes and points from his book, WHY RELIGION MATTERS in blue.

“The downside of Truth is the danger of fanaticism. Because absolutes brook no alternatives, conservatives are tempted to invade their neighbors’ autonomy and try to force Truth down their throats.”

“Liberals face the opposite problem, for the danger that stalks relativism is that it will bottom out into nihilism.”

*But Absolutism and dogmatism are at different axes:

Absolutism relates to belief; dogmatism is a character disorder

*The opposite of absolutism is relativism 

*The opposite of dogmatism is open-mindedness

Absolutism and Relativism are the two poles for a discussion of belief and faith. 

*Spirituality names what people generally consider to be good about religion. Spirituality is a human attribute so it is exempt from the problems of religion.

but

"It is a bad sign when spiritual, an adjective, gets turned into a noun, spirituality, for this has a dog chasing its own tail. Grammatically, spirit is the noun in question, and spiritual its adjective. Spirituality is a neologism that has come into existence because spirit has no referent in science’s world. . .”

Spirit not spirituality then would be the subject for a discussion of belief and faith.

“We generally assume that the findings of science have retired the traditional outlook [that values and knowledge stem from the same source], but that has been our big mistake, for those findings pertain to the physical universe only. . .whereas the metaphysical question is whether that universe is all that exists.”

Is the physical universe all that exists? - the question for a discussion of belief and faith. 

“If science cannot tell us what (if anything) is outside our universe, what can? Nothing definitively, but it would be foolish not to draw on every resource available. 

Inclusively, things are neither as science says they are nor as religion says they are. They are as science, and religion, and philosophy, and art, and common sense, and our deepest intuitions, and our practiced imaginations say they are.”

What Is Truth - Four Beginning Titles

     Here are the four books in my last post I referred to exchanging with a co-worker. The photos link to their source. You can click on them for more information.

The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God

Lee Strobel

Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief

Huston Smith

The Art of Loving

Erich Fromm

The Beatitudes for Today

James C. Howell

What Is Truth - Much Ado

     He gave me another Dawkins book, I gave him WHY RELIGION MATTERS by Huston Smith; he gave me an existentialism book, I gave him THE ART OF LOVING by Erich Fromm, he gave me a book from the perspective of Buddhism, I gave him THE BEATITUDES FOR TODAY by James C. Howell. The exchange was an enriching series of conversations.

     One comment about Dawkins’ work – For all the hype that goes with anything this man does or says and the accompanying debates over atheism, I found him to be a gifted writer, only so full of hate that most any point he made was choked by that bitter tone. There is one example he gives in one of his books, I believe when he is trying to make the point that scientists are inspired just as religious folk, where he goes into a long segment of flowing language to discuss the evolutionary limitations of insect sight. The point he develops is that the insect doesn't see as humans do because their world is so minuscule. They do not need the complex system of vision we have for color and depth and distance; our macro world is immense in comparison.  As I read and ever since, I wanted to shake the man and say . . . exactly! Just because the insect cannot perceive most of the universe he inhabits, does not mean it doesn't exist – just because man cannot perceive the supernatural with his eyes, does not mean it does not exist.

What Is Truth - What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

     I overheard co-workers laughing – exchanging quips over how ridiculous they felt it was for anyone to believe the world could be created in seven days. I don’t know what prompted their conversation. I just remember the exchanges of how they had once fallen into the trap churches create for people, but now they based their beliefs on science and reasonable evidence. At that time I was figuring out what my own views were as I read books on religious and philosophical perspectives so I wasn't enough of a hypocrite to criticize the fun they were making.

      “It is okay with me if you believe in God, if it helps you make sense of the world,” one of them said to me as if the purpose of belief was to make my life easier. God needs no defense, but I didn't like them making fun of him. So I began a conversation that lasted over a period of years. 

    We made an agreement. I would read books he suggested, if he would read books I suggested. He gave me THE GOD DELUSION by Richard Dawkins, I gave him THE CASE OF THE CREATOR by Lee Strobel.

What Is Truth - Shocked, Disappointed and Amazed

  Shocked is how R. Dawkins would have you react to Bible reading – more on him later.  But my surprise did not stem from social practices or warfare in the Old Testament. Instead, I honestly had no idea that the ancient Jewish religion was so bloody. Granted their sacrifices were of animals and not humans like some of their contemporaries, but the Old Testament seemed a bloody series of ritual though precise killing of animals and spreading of blood over alter and priestly clothing. I know the purpose was for atonement of sin. I respect that and make no judgment. When you examine these practices threaded through book after book coupled with other behaviors, and when you consider these people in scripture were only a small segment of humanity, it is no wonder man needed saving.

    Disappointment flashed through me briefly each time I came across one of the grand Bible stories we learn as children. For it seemed as a child the events were so much larger than they were given space in the Bible. I remember skits we would act out in Sunday School and flyers we would take home with pictures of events like Moses as a baby saved by floating in a basket or David killing Goliath. Instead of paragraphs and chapters, there are actually only a few simple verses.  I wondered then how these stories became part of the core events shared through the ages. But there is no denying the power God displays to bolster Moses who speaks to his people when the enemy is about to attack. He says, "The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still." There is no denying the playful innocent love David had for God his entire life even after he broke God’s laws.

    Amazed and full of wonder is how I felt when I read the final verse on the seventh day of the fifty-second week. You know what happens when you play the children’s “telephone” game where one whispers the story to another and so on around the circle until the last one says out loud what he heard and it is nothing of what the original person said. My conclusion after all the lines of law, history, wisdom, poetry, psalms, gospels and epistles is – It could not have been humanly possible to create such a seamless story. Unlike some holy books of other religions, the Bible was composed by many different persons across many different centuries. I am not talking about translations – but original authoring. I do not believe that many people through human talent alone could have collaborated to unfold such an epic story of life that meshes all that is wrong with the world with a beginning recognition of the need to atone for wrong-doing with a solution to fix all that is wrong for eternity. 

What is Truth - The Whole Bible?

“Have You Read the Bible?”

     It surprised me when I was asked this question.  I guess my contributions to our discussions showed that in actuality I had not. Of course I had read parts – most Christians have, especially from the New Testament and particular verses from the Old including Psalms. But really, how many professing Christians have actually read the whole Bible?

     At that time I was reading from many different historical religions curious about what components of their faith seemed true to me because I was struggling with belief in my own tradition. So I decided to read all of the Old and New Testaments – why shouldn't I give my own religion the same evaluative effort? How could I say for sure what I believed if I had never actually read the scriptures that form its foundation? 

     Fortunately I found a year-long reading plan that worked. It assigned each day of the week a different type of reading rather than going from page one to the end.  So every Monday for example you’d read The Law, every Tuesday, History, Wednesday Psalms, etc. After a while it was rather like tuning in to your favorite TV schedule anticipating what was going to happen in the next episode when that day of the week came around again.

     When the year came to a close, I was shocked, disappointed and amazed.

What Is Truth -

     In polls writers claim the majority of Americans still believe God exists though they see him in a deistic form – he created the universe then bowed to the background and hasn't and doesn't really concern himself with physical or worldly things. This means they do not believe God is personal – meaning he may be of spirit form, but not a being.  You cannot have a personal relationship with a deistic God which is why a great number of modern/postmodern people find it difficult to accept Christianity since a focal point of the faith is a personal relationship with God’s son, Jesus.

     This brings us to another difficulty, and that is belief in events that oppose our knowledge of science—the virgin birth, resurrection. You could list God becoming human or Holy Spirit empowerment at Pentecost, but by nature these are supernatural and could not logically be evaluated scientifically. So in our current age, choosing to be Christian is typically not something one becomes simply by virtue of family heritage.

     There are a significant number of people who believe in God and have accepted their family’s religious heritage. But at some point each has to come to terms independently with one’s own faith. And whether a person believes in God or not – each is a position of faith because neither is actually provable.

     What I hope to do through a series of posts is to relate how I have come to terms with my own faith. So I begin with a question and a statement two different persons shared with me some years ago.

“Have you read the Bible?”

“It is okay with me if you believe in God, if it helps you make sense of the world.”