Faith Venture

Chelsea football club, one of the top clubs in the English Premier League, traveled north to Everton to take on a team struggling to stay in the top league. For clubs outside the US, the bottom teams in the table are relegated to a minor league being replaced by the top teams of that league. So, teams lower in the table have a lot to play for.

Yesterday, Sunday May 1, Everton played all out. The goalkeeper made many fantastic saves. Two key defenders were tough against the Chelsea line. The forward converted his opportunity to score the game’s only goal. Fans sang club songs and cheered the entire 90 minutes. At the final whistle with an Everton 1-0 victory, 40,000 fans stayed and sang the club songs and cheered the team’s victory.

I was moved by the outstanding play and the fan’s emotion. My spine tingled and tears actually welled up. And I am not an Everton fan. But the experience was sublime.

Tor Nørretranders, writing in his study of consciousness, The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size, “The word sublime comes from Latin and means elevated, raised above the ordinary and humdrum.” He concludes his study discussing the sublime which is experience beyond consciousness.

I’ve explored such experiences for my entire adult life. Perhaps that’s why I’m moved by experiences such as that Everton sporting event. Contemplation for 55 years or longer has led to sublime experiences of God beyond rational interpretations of the Bible or of some major theologian. My touch of the sublime comes through quiet and contemplation. For others it is through charismatic gatherings of singing and praise. However you experience it, once you have experienced the sublime beyond consciousness, you are not going back.

Nørretranders’ book is not an easy read. The trail he forges through varieties of science fascinates and intrigues those willing to take the trip.

The first Jesus-followers strove to figure out this whole Jesus and resurrection and Messiah thing. They heard the first-hand stories and as the movement spread read reports of the resurrection. They began studying the Hebrew Scriptures for signs pointing to Jesus. Along the way, they picked up a few teachings. Such as, you shall have no graven images of Yahweh.

Unlike all the other religions, Jews did not make a picture or statue of their God. Christ-followers picked this up. As we read, for example in the gospel of John, God is spirit, worship in spirit and truth.

Evagrius writing in the 4th Century warns about how images may come to you in prayer and that these are the work of spiritual forces opposed to God.

When I began meditating at age 17 or so, I was sternly taught–no images. Do not picture God. Maybe staring at a mandala will help focus the mind, but in reality, these are to be avoided.

One of the sub-plots in The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky concerns whether it is right to have ikons. These have traditionally been popular within the Eastern Orthodox churches.

By the way, if you have not read this book or if it has been a long time, make it your next novel. Don’t watch the movie as a shortcut. It is a terrible representation of the book.

When I read this teaching in Evagrius, all these thoughts ran through my head. And, to this day, I do not visualize God when I meditate. I visualize nothing. I concentrate on my breath. Or, I say a mantra such as “God” or “Spirit” or the long form “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”. These can help slow the mind and aid focus. Mostly, I can just sit, adjust my breathing, and dwell in silence for a time. Done for a period of time, it effects physical changes in the brain and helps lead to a calmer life.

A famous Zen koan says “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?”

My first rational response years ago was, “Define sound.”

I heard a Zen teacher explain that meditating on this saying and others like it means entering a story. The saying usually makes no “sense” but you meditate on that and enter a story about you.

I thought about how Jesus spoke these sayings. Rational, literalist scholars and students try to parse out all manner of rational explanations. Perhaps they are on the wrong path. Perhaps the path is that of entering the story.

Remember Jesus’s earliest proclamation about the Kingdom of Heaven is here, around us, in us? Let’s take Jesus’s sayings of “the kingdom of heaven is like…”

The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard that grows into a big bush such that the birds of the air can build nests in it.

I’ve heard several scholarly explanations drawing on biology or zoology or even symbolism (birds represent evil and that means…).

What if Jesus is inviting us into story? I desire the kingdom of heaven to dwell within me. I sit in mediation and enter a personal story. I am despondent. My faith feels so small, just like that small grain of mustard. But wait, I love the taste of mustard on my sandwich. Perhaps I have the worth of adding flavor to the world around me. And the seed eventually grows so large that perhaps I can have hope that one day my faith will fill me such that others around can find support.

Perhaps your story is different. That would be OK. It would be your story. You and the kingdom.

And when you leave your mediation chair and go to work how different will you be when you are working and relating to people you meet? That also is a story.