Words
Words are important. Wouldn't you agree?
When I preach, I use words. When we read the Bible, we are reading words. When my children were little, just learning how to speak, Ginger and I would say to them, “Use your words. No, don’t bang the table; and don’t throw your food on the floor; use your words.”
Words are important.
In the church, worship is generally divided into two parts: the liturgy of the word, and the liturgy of the eucharist. The liturgy of the word focuses on that day’s scripture readings, with a homily or sermon by the minister or priest.
Words are important.
The words of scripture bear witness to God and to Jesus. If you want to get close to God and experience God, you need to read the Bible.
And yet, that’s not enough. I, and many others, find that the words of scripture are helpful - and necessary - but something more is needed. There is, as John Scotus Eriugena says, another book… one that has no words… a book that he calls “the living text of the universe.”
Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul
John Scotus Eriugena is one of several people profiled in a book I’m reading. The book is by John Philip Newell, and is called Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World. Each chapter of the book focuses on a different figure from history, someone who was influential in the development of Celtic wisdom and spirituality.
Chapter three is about John Scotus Eriugena. According to Eriugena, God speaks through two different books. There’s what he called “the small book” of holy scripture, and the “big book” that is the living text of the universe. To fully experience God, one needs to read the Bible, but one also needs to gaze in wonder at the stars, moon, and planets; one needs to walk through fields and meadows, and along free-flowing streams; one needs to experience the sounds of birds, breezes, and waves crashing.
Centuries later, Scottish immigrant John Muir would express similar thoughts in his writings.
Chapter one of the book Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul talks about Pelagius. Pelagius lived during the very earliest days of Christianity, not long after Christianity transitioned from being a grassroots movement of the people to the officially sanctioned religion of the empire. Pelagius taught about the value of finding God in nature, and in finding God in every living being.
For both Pelagius and John Scotus Eriugena, God was found both on the pages of scripture, and by contemplating the beauty and wonder of creation.
Pelagius & Eriugena
Believe it or not, these ideas got both Pelagius and John Scotus Eriugena in trouble. Both were condemned by church councils and political authorities. Popes for centuries to come forbade anyone from following or teaching their ideas.
What was it about their ideas that the political and religious leaders thought were so dangerous?
Well, their ideas threatened the hierarchical nature of the church and state. The Pope was the holy father, and the emperor was imbued with divinity. But if God could be found in nature and in every person - every creature - then that meant that the pope and the emperor were just like everyone else.
And it meant that the church and the state could not justify the separation of people into classes.
And it meant that the church and the state could not justify their oppression of the people.
These ideas were a threat to the entire oppressive socio-economic system of ancient Rome.
Original Sin or Original Goodness
Also: if God is present in every aspect of nature and in every human - then that meant that every aspect of nature and every human had to be, at its core, good. Good and holy.
But the church insisted that humans were inherently sinful. Humans were sinful. They were born into sin. What was in humans wasn't of God; it was opposed to God. And only Jesus could save them, by lifting them up to something higher, something greater, than what they were.
Pelagius and Eriugena, on the other hand, believed that humans were not born into sin. Humans, because they are holy, because God can be found in human lives, were created good. Humans are good and holy, and it is only when they forget their true nature that they sin.
What Jesus did, according to Pelagius and Eriugena, was restore humanity back to its true, original nature. Jesus didn’t make us into something we weren’t already; Jesus restored us to what we originally were.
A later chapter of the book focuses on Alexander John Scott, who lived in the 1800s. It’s interesting that he was arguing for reform in the Church in Scotland at the same time that some former Scottish Presbyterian ministers were starting the Disciples of Christ in the United States…
According to Alexander John Scott, “Sin does not define our nature; it infects our nature.” Sin can’t define our nature, because our nature is good and holy. Who we are - who we were created to be - is good and holy. Sin doesn't define our nature; sin can only infect it.
And, again, this idea was a threat to the political and religious establishment, which argued that, no, humans are sinful by nature.
Now, one could use scripture to argue for either side. Many of us grew up hearing about how humans are born into sin - original sin - as that is the predominant teaching among Christians throughout the centuries - especially among those who would identify as traditional Christians or “Bible-believing” Christians.
But the Bible also has a number of passages that would support the argument that humans are not sinful from the very beginning, but that they - like all of creation - were created good and holy.
The creation story is certainly a good place to start. There, we read that humanity was created in the image of God, and that God pronounced humans “very good.”
We also have today’s scripture. After reading about Pelagius and Eriugena last week, the first verse of Psalm 19 certainly caught my attention. “The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.” Creation itself speaks to us and reveals to us God's glory.
In the New Testament, it talks about Gentiles who did not have the benefit of God’s teachings in the form of scripture, yet they knew those teachings in their heart. They knew God in their heart, even though they did not have the scripture, the Torah. This makes it sound like the scriptures aren’t given to inform and instruct us of something new, but rather to remind us of what we already know, what we’ve known all along.
Then there's the time Jesus told a group of people that the kingdom of heaven is within and among them. Think about that for a second: the kingdom of heaven is within you. You are holy.
This is who we are. We are good and holy. God's spirit is within us. But we forget.
Eriugena said, “Everything is sacred, but we live in a state of forgetfulness of what is deepest in us and in everything that has being. The more we forget our true identity, the less we treat one another as sacred.” We forget our true nature. We forget who we truly are. We forget that we and everyone around us is holy.
Scripture calls us back to that knowledge. Jesus calls us back to that knowledge, and shows us how to honor the holy in every person. So many religious leaders in Jesus’ time as well as our own try to separate people into categories of “more holy” and “less holy,” “good” and “evil,” but Jesus saw the good in every person, and reminded people of their goodness.
No wonder he told us how important it is to love our neighbor as we love ourself.
Critics of Pelagius and Eriugena and other Celtic spiritual teachers accuse them of pantheism, which is the belief that everything is God. A rock is God. A leaf is God. A star is God. A person is God.
But what Pelagius and Eriugena and other Celtic spiritual teachers actually taught was not pantheism, but panentheism, which is the belief that God is in everything. A rock is not God, but God is in the rock. A leaf is not God, but God is in the leaf. A person is not God, but God is present in that person.
“The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” God is present in every aspect of creation. There is a sacred thread running through every thing, especially every living thing.
Alexander John Scott said:
"Who can gaze upon the moon beams streaking through the boughs of the dark forest trees - or the fir [tree] glowing in relief against the clear amber sky, or the mountain scenery which seems to partake more of the sky above than of the soft verdure that reposes at its feet - without feeling that they all speak of this world transformed and glorified, and of the world above made ours."
And if God is in everything, and in every living thing, and in every person, then how can people who follow God not be people of justice? Justice is making sure that everything is right for everybody. Justice is making sure everyone is treated fairly. Justice is a given when we look at every person, and see the image of God! How could it be otherwise? If you see and recognize the image of God in someone, how can you not treat them fairly, justly, with love and compassion?
The book said that Alexander John Scott condemned "the way organized religion either ignored justice issues or was used to sanction the political status quo… How did religion ever come to be 'another name for self-interest,' he asked, 'or at best for its extension into eternity,' in which the devout are more concerned about the salvation of their own souls than the well-being of humanity?"
Ideas like these led Scott to help start a Christian socialist movement in the UK in 1848, which called for "liberty, fraternity, and unity for all people under heaven," something which - I’m sure - got him into trouble, just like Pelagius and Eriugena got themselves into trouble centuries earlier.
All because of the simple idea that every aspect of creation, and every person, is good, is holy, and filled with the image of God...
No comments:
Post a Comment