THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO FLOWERS!
Had to do a little homily from San Francisco, in the spirit of St Francis! So here’s a little flower sermon, since my hair is long now and I’m in San Fran:
The earth is always evangelizing as it says, so we are without excuse, the invisible qualities of God are all around us symbolized and encounter-able in nature. We, though, are more interrupted.
But the birds and trees are in the story directly. Our love gaze relieves their groan. We are writing our way into it, back home. They are not the ultimate, but are swimming in and expressing, and symbolizing it!
We tend to dip our toes into it, and retreat. Reality is too much for us. Even that amount of Love and Beauty intimidates us. Even a loving glance from a stranger, makes us shudder in unbelief. Embarrasses us. Causes us to retract, enacting the old shame in all its fear of beholding fully into being seen and so seeing, in Love.
Are we afraid to encounter it, or of being laid bare by it? If we see a single green glade well, will we be forced to unfurl ourselves? If we see God in a leaf, do we look the other way? Heaven and earth kissing in front of us-does that embarrass us? Do we fear their intimacies?!
A kingdom already in our midst, in tangible art all around us daily. A girl’s wrist in afternoon light, at any cafe, or a single flower, even at night, tells the whole gospel. A single sunset alone is opera, any child could not ignore or tune out! In art, we simply, and in a rudimentary way, emulate those hourly crescendos, we each walk by daily.
Our cat snow seems to get it-he is less worried about doctrine than being and love.
The inner life of leaves alone, their unity in diversity, compels me towards…not to mention the overt overture of flowers in their multifarious silent but sonic praises daily!
Perhaps we need more deeply to behold the gospel according to flowers, the inner geometry of the animal kingdom, if we can’t hear it elsewhere!
That way, we can’t just react to how poorly humans carry it. Nature speaks clearly like poetry. And it’s harder for the heart to argue with a poem.
Sorry for getting homiletic. But nature and my nature, compelled me too! What dense poetry we live in. Our aquarium compels us to learn to swim. Thanks for letting me go hippie on this sermon! Enjoying preaching from the city of flowers in your hair. Good reminder to notice them.
One old preacher said: “One can see the gospel in anything, if you look deeply enough.”
And as St Francis said: “If you look at a single flower, not to mention a person, deeply enough, in Love, you will meet God, and be changed.”
“God is not so “other” that He did not come down, incarnate, and express Himself; we can know His invisible qualities through His art which is all around us. A flower is enough proof to learn to live well in Love.”
(End of my hippie sermon from the flowers of San Francis’ city!)

Books arrive like friends…

Some other birthday friends arrived today in the post! Since I was a kid, books have been like friends to me, when they arrive again, i get very excited.

Two of my favorite Jewish thinkers from our century arrived today in the mail!

I’m replenishing a few lost books this season. I carried “I and Thou”, along with with Brother Lawrence’s “Practicing the Presence” around in my back pockets in my college days, but they fell out along the way-not out of my heart, or mind, but out of my clowny pockets.

The two great Jewish revivalist (tried to bring The Spirit back into their spirituality! As many Christians have struggled to do as well!) were friends in Berlin, so I think it’s cool they arrived in a package together today for a late birthday gift. I hope they enjoyed the journey here. Books really are like friends to me, as are flowers and many animals.

My mentor in college, was a catholic mystic aesthetician, and great friend of Buber’s thoughts. I’m thankful he taught me about art through Buber’s categories! To this day, i still try to find the inner “thou” in a piece of art I’m looking at, in order to even begin to interpret it! “Love in order to know.” as one clear headed monk put it!

Same with people or cities for than matter. Try to see heart to heart, spirit to spirit, deep to deep-see where the light is already shining, and increase it! And be transformed by that type of gazing. Try to have I-thou encounters with them, rather than I-it! I try to read books that way also! So they change me with their brightest seeds!

And of course, Heschel had such heart ecumenism and a poetic voice, he’s hard to ignore on any topic, especially the prophets, who are my favorites!

Enjoying overhearing them all dialoguing at my table this morning. Of course, Heschel and Buber were friends, so I think they liked being in the same package which arrived today in an unlikely simple package into my silver mail box. Such huge seeds come in tiny packages.

I left my last copy of “I asked for Wonder” on a plane recently, filled with my notes. Someone is surely enraptured in wonder now, and considering what really gives meaning to this short version of life down here…enjoying a study morning anyways with some old friends!

Again, when God asked Heschel what he wanted in life, he asked for wonder rather than success. God liked his answer and gave him both.

I’m throwing Walter Brueggemann, the christian old testament scholar, into the mix because his book on Sabbath has the same density of knowing as the other two, and it is good thinking about the commandments, mainly the ten but a few others, more deeply from a Christian perspective.

Nice rainy morning Monday meditations! So much to learn yet!

One thing about books and thinkers—like these flowers they seem to say more in conversation with one another, or become more themselves, and more than themselves, in unison.

Nice conversation to overhear thus far! Sorry for my loquaciousness, i get excited when friends show up! Even older ones.

We’re
Fables
And
Fable tellers
Sometimes the truth is best
Contained in
A tale.

Starting a series on books I’m reading, and why, and how! I like having I-Thou encounters with books and art. To be transformed by their most illuminated thoughts or ideas–what I would call their “revealed theology”. The best thoughts of men, pale in comparison to one single thought infected by God. I try to find God thoughts with books, and just as with people, search for the “good soil”–where God already is, and is working to form Himself. I start my conversation there, just as in counseling.

That’s how I read. I try to find God in other, and amplify in that area, until I can hear well. Usually it is where Love is. In conversations with people, i try to find where their heart is responsive to His Spirit and expand that area. I think it is the same with books for me. I love books, as if they were people. And some really can change your life, if you are willing to deeply encounter them. Some seeds are eternal. Some must be uncovered, others are more overt. When we love something, we start to see it as it is, and call it towards that place in itself. And in doing so, we are transformed. This is the art and purpose of seeing well.

I try to go spirit to spirit or deep to deep, or I to Thou when I read. It’s a bit redundant when actually reading I and Thou again, which arrived along with other friends in the mail today. I love getting books in the mail, tiny regalos or gifts containing whole worlds, just arrive in a little box, and when received as treasures, open up inner riches.

In this new series, i’m going to be writing about books I’m reading and some I’ve been reading for nearly 30 years and still gleaning from. These guys arrived today, so thought I’d start there.