Sunday, March 30, 2008
How can the One be 'far' or 'near'?
Don't know how Dr. ER does this sort of thing all the time. Woke up in 100 miles away in Tulsa, back to the house now to wash clothes, unpack and repack and get to the airport to go to Denver. Tiring. And I'm illin'. Ugh.
My back-pattin', BTW, was a second-place (with some others) in a spot news category, and a third-place in a feature writin' category.
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Meditation for today at Fellowship Congregational Church, Tulsa:
"The important thing is not to stop questioning." -- Albert Einstein.
CALL TO WORSHIP:
Leader: At times God seems far away.
People: At times we sense that God is very near.
Leader: But God does not come or go or move from place to place. God is not a thing, a being, a person who can be near one moment and far away the next.
People: Perhaps it is in our own thoughts and feelings that we sense that God is very near or far away. How can the One in all atoms and all places go far or come near?
ACKNOWLEDGING OUR NEED FOR HEALING AND HOPE (in unison):
"Eternal One, we admit there are days when we ignore Your presense. In our busy life we could not fit You on the calendar page. We are doing our best to pretend we are running the universe. Yet we get upset when our will is not done. We lament the things we have left undone. We double our efforts to control the future of the universe and discover we are having less and less fun. Help us to wake up to what is real and beyond our small self. Open our hearts to Your eternal Presence so we can return the job of running everything back to You. AMEN."
--ER
My back-pattin', BTW, was a second-place (with some others) in a spot news category, and a third-place in a feature writin' category.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Meditation for today at Fellowship Congregational Church, Tulsa:
"The important thing is not to stop questioning." -- Albert Einstein.
CALL TO WORSHIP:
Leader: At times God seems far away.
People: At times we sense that God is very near.
Leader: But God does not come or go or move from place to place. God is not a thing, a being, a person who can be near one moment and far away the next.
People: Perhaps it is in our own thoughts and feelings that we sense that God is very near or far away. How can the One in all atoms and all places go far or come near?
ACKNOWLEDGING OUR NEED FOR HEALING AND HOPE (in unison):
"Eternal One, we admit there are days when we ignore Your presense. In our busy life we could not fit You on the calendar page. We are doing our best to pretend we are running the universe. Yet we get upset when our will is not done. We lament the things we have left undone. We double our efforts to control the future of the universe and discover we are having less and less fun. Help us to wake up to what is real and beyond our small self. Open our hearts to Your eternal Presence so we can return the job of running everything back to You. AMEN."
--ER
Comments:
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Thanks! We heard the same today, all the way up on Vancouver Island. The road to Emmaus, and their eyes had to be opened to see that Jesus had been walking with them the whole time.
Liked yours so much, have sent it to my daughters at school.
Thanks again.
Liked yours so much, have sent it to my daughters at school.
Thanks again.
# posted by 
: 10:38 PM
: 10:38 PM
Yep, waking up in a strange room and having to lay there for a few moments before you can remember where you are is not a good feeling. Not as bad as waking up in an airplane and not remember getting on it.
It is my theory that air travel kills brain cells. I use that as one of my excuses at least.
It is my theory that air travel kills brain cells. I use that as one of my excuses at least.
Your question about God being far and near deserves some response.
The simple answer is of course that far and near are human concepts and are not applicable to God at all. God is a paradox in that having never been created he does not exist, while all existence testifies to his being.
In a rationalistic answer the concept is wrapped up in the circular nature of the natural order. God is both at the heart of the least sub atomic particle, knowing and conceiving of them at all times and for all time thus giving them existence. While he is the uncreated singularity at the creation of the universe and reaches out to the farthest elements of the cosmos composed of the smallest particles that he maintains . Quarks to Quasars is a model of that thought.
In the monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity, he is the distant, ineffiable, enigma of the unknown that is unknowable, with emanation's that reach out to elements of himself in his children. Those emanations, Shikhena, Logos, Holy Spirit, Sophia, Jesus and by other names, are God standing by , with, and in you as a personal part of himself tying you back to home. As a child we may see such an emanation as our guardian angel, as adults we may perceive it as our soul, in ecstasy we may embrace it as savior, occasionally we experience it, as God, even though God can not be experienced.
The model for this example is,"Some one is here".
The simple answer is of course that far and near are human concepts and are not applicable to God at all. God is a paradox in that having never been created he does not exist, while all existence testifies to his being.
In a rationalistic answer the concept is wrapped up in the circular nature of the natural order. God is both at the heart of the least sub atomic particle, knowing and conceiving of them at all times and for all time thus giving them existence. While he is the uncreated singularity at the creation of the universe and reaches out to the farthest elements of the cosmos composed of the smallest particles that he maintains . Quarks to Quasars is a model of that thought.
In the monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity, he is the distant, ineffiable, enigma of the unknown that is unknowable, with emanation's that reach out to elements of himself in his children. Those emanations, Shikhena, Logos, Holy Spirit, Sophia, Jesus and by other names, are God standing by , with, and in you as a personal part of himself tying you back to home. As a child we may see such an emanation as our guardian angel, as adults we may perceive it as our soul, in ecstasy we may embrace it as savior, occasionally we experience it, as God, even though God can not be experienced.
The model for this example is,"Some one is here".
Re, "God is a paradox in that having never been created he does not exist, while all existence testifies to his being."
I so like that. I wonder why people don't use that in an attempt to deal with the much lesser conundrum of God knowing the future without causing it to happen?
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I so like that. I wonder why people don't use that in an attempt to deal with the much lesser conundrum of God knowing the future without causing it to happen?
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