what comes out...

Where’s evil come from, or for that matter, where’s good come from?

Is it inherent within us – is someone ‘more evil’ than someone else? Are there people that are ‘more good’?

Is one particular person predisposed to do either more good or evil than another? Would those traits therefore come from outside of us, either as an external force which we seek to control or maintain, or a genetic predisposition we seek to understand?

OR do we all have the same, or similar capacities? That is do we all have the potential to do good, and to do evil; to be a saint and a dictator?

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart. – Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Mark accounts Jesus as saying: “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

If we take seriously the thoughts of both Solzhenitsyn & Jesus then we may come up with the following:

- the propensity to good or evil is bound up with our identity as humans.

- evil (or good) is not something to vilify, nor glorify, abstractly.

- the reality of living a human existence is that we participate in doing good, and we participate in doing evil, both consciously and subconsciously.

- growing and developing an understanding of how it is our humanity (our propensity for great good and evil) is called to maturity in Christ – that is growing to a deeper level of awareness of ourself through virtues like grace, forgiveness, mercy, hope, acceptance, love and peace.

- through our humanity we remain bound and connected to the suffering of this world, and whilst another suffers, we suffer too.

Last week I spent some time with my in-laws before they headed off overseas for 7 weeks. On Monday Wollongong really turned it on for them when a whale and her calf lazed about 100m off the shore at Austinmer. Tuesday morning on my regular run north, Sarah’s dad and I spotted a pod of dolphins swimming up the coast, surfing in the waves. WOW!

Heaven by Live has the lyrics: “I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven, I look at my daughter, and I believe. I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth, I can see the sunset and I perceive.” What are the WOW moments that make sense - or perhaps create sense?

Psalm 84 speaks of how great it is to be in God’s dwelling place, in God’s house. God certainly is located in the beautiful, yet sometimes tragic, mystery of life. But how can this be a specific location. As people we are about connection, proximity, closeness. We need to connect with each other, but we also need to connect with the ‘other’ - the thing that is beyond us – the mystery we can’t explain. The beauty i'm drawn to is that God is in both. In Jesus God is here among us, in the friend or stranger we meet each day. The one we love and the one we despise. In creation, God is the untamed, the beyond our control, the transcendent one, the Other.

Seek God – in the world and in your relationships.

food, water - flesh, blood... jn 6

consumption…

of what? the tangible: food, water - flesh, blood?

trees, land, fuel, coal, energy?

love, people, trust, relationships, faith, respect?

integrity, honesty, the soul, ourselves?

nourishment…

with what? the tangible: food, water, flesh, blood?

trees, land, fuel, coal, energy?

love, people, trust, relationships, faith, respect?

integrity, honesty, the soul, ourselves?

contemplation

the sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart...

brokenness:
acceptable; a precursor; a desirable state?
...before god?

we shared psalm 51 in a contemplative worship gathering last night... a version of it by Sons of Korah was played over and over and over again. something happens in repitition, or perhaps something happens when the norm isn't followed. instead of this piece of music and the corresponding images being played just once, they were repeated, over and over for an hour... the situation likened itself to those times when people who know how to lead silence do so and lead it well, for it goes beyond the predicatable, beyond the comfortable, beyond the knowing and therefore forces a different type of response: a response that requires more, more depth, more honesty, more vulnerability. it invites one to shed pretense, control, knowledge or the needing to know, and invites oneto be. to be present in the moment; present and honest before themselves; present and honest before others; present and honest before god...

a broken spirit and a contrite heart....

the ability to be real, honest, vulnerable...
to name those places where the ego wrestles, where pride longs...
a place of letting go....
a place of holding on...
the inner place
a place of god