Lewis on the Love of God

“If God is Love, He is, by definition, something more than mere kindness. And it appears, from all the records, that though He has  often rebuked us and condemned us, He has never regarded us with contempt. He has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense.”  – C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, pg. 33

Buechner, it’s been awhile

“If we only had eyes to see and ears to hear and wits to understand, we would know that the Kingdom of God in the sense of holiness, goodness, beauty is as close as breathing and is crying out to be born both within ourselves and within the world; we would know that the Kingdom of God is what we all of us hunger for above all other things even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for. The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers. We glimpse it at those moments when we find ourselves being better than we are and wiser than we know. We catch sight of it when at some moment of crisis a strength seems to come to us that is greater than our own strength. The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all homesick for it.” – Frederick Buechner, The Clown in the Belfry, pg. 152-3

“May our hearts be open to holy affection…”

Merciful and ever-loving Father,

you have called us into fellowship with your beloved Son.

May our hearts be open to holy affection

and our minds readied to receive and cherish your truth.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

one God, forever and ever. Amen.

The opening prayer for Monday of this week (in the Paraclete Psalter) includes that surprising and slightly disorienting phrase highlighted above: “May our hearts be open to holy affection…” This little phrase has stuck with me the past two days and I have turned it over and over in my mind.

I don’t know the source of the prayer beyond the good people who compiled the Paraclete Psalter. It may be original with them. Jonathan Edwards, the well-known and highly regarded Puritan preacher from the 17th century, used this phrase referring to the fruit of the Spirit but that’s clearly not the case here.

Could it be that God wants us to experience his acceptance through feelings of affection?  Is this affection a result of that fellowship that we experience with his Son?

Simple, unobtrusive ideas like this sneak into our lives reminding us how much God really does love us. They remind us that his love is expressed not only through his acting on our behalf but through his heart. God’s love for us is expressed in his delight. He delights in us to such a degree that he has chosen to dwell within us. These little terms such as delight, dwell and affection give fresh expression to a phrase (God’s love) that suffers not from overuse but from indifference. God’s affection shakes us from this indifference reminding that we are both loved and liked.

In the interest of fairness … (Kingdom® and Copyright© redux)

Scot McKnight, over at Jesus Creed, has made a similar post publishing Mars Hill’s explanation regarding their cease and desist order issued last week. The links below take you to the statement put out by Mars Hill and to Scot McKnight’s comment.

Mars Hill clarifies cease and desist …

Jesus Creed, “Mars Hill Clarifies”

Kingdom® and Copyright©

Here is a post about Mars Hill Church in Seattle and their demand that another church change the name that they share. The irony is not so slight.

Another Argument on Mars Hill

Also included is a public notice from another congregation, Watermark, who politely warns others against copyright infringement.

Why you shouldn’t name your church Watermark

On a somewhat similar note, Notre Dame University is demanding that the high school in Chapman, KS (pop. 1300) stop infringing on their rights as well. I guess Chapman HS merchandise was flying off the shelves. The video shows the people of Chapman responding with class.

Notre Dame comes down on KS High School

Emilie Talks About Prayer

“There is a moment between intending to pray and actually praying that is as dark and silent as any moment in our lives. It is the split second between thinking about prayer and really praying. For some of us, this split second may last for decades. It seems then, that the greatest obstacle to prayer is the simple matter of beginning, the simple exertion of the will, the starting, the acting, the doing. How easy it is, and yet–between us and the possibility of prayer there seems to be a great gulf fixed: an abyss of our own making that separates us from God.” – Emilie Griffin, Clinging: The Experience of Prayer, pg. 1