The Implanted Word of Truth

James 1:17-27

¹⁷Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ¹⁸In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

¹⁹You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. ²¹Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. ²²But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 

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A question I have often asked students to ponder is: Just because it is legal is it the right thing to do? Businesses and organisations spend much time checking their practices against the written law to ensure that what they are about to do is legal, is it covered by law and, therefore, are they covered by the law from responsibility for the outcome of their actions.

Unfortunately this often comes unstuck at some point when people begin to realise the gap between what the lawyers say and what their common sense response is. This is not right.  Over the years we have seen this work out in terms of the Church and child abuse, governments and refugees, big business and such as mining and employee relations and more. We all can recall such stories and wonder at how this can happen.

The next question to students was ‘Just because you can do want you desire to, should you?’ This moves the question a little furher inward, away from the surface protection of the law and the outward justification for our actions.

Mark in his Gospel and James in the epistle reading remind us strongly that we can not rely on the law. In their settings, the law and he strict adherence to the words of the law was deemed to be sufficient for a good or righteous life. By simply endorsing the law verbally and in superficial practice ensured you were obeying the Torah as spoken by the religious leaders.

Jesus in Mark’s Gospel addresses the law which required people to follow an elaborate cleansing and table practice before eating, stipulating clearly what was appropriate – clean or unclean. Jesus says bluntly, what a load of old cobblers, don’t you blokes know anything? Food is just fuel for the engine and passes through and out when used up. It doesn’t make you unclean.  It is what sits within you and is used to justify your words and actions that determines whether you are good or righteous and that is much more than a finely scripted law with all it’s accompanying fine print.

James reminds us that God (James 1:18) “gave us birth by the word of truth”. This often interpreted as referring to the Good News that came in the form of Jesus and became known after his death and resurrection. The New Testament as the word. Is it? In the prologue to Johns Gospel we hear, ‘In the beginning was the word’, and if we understand the word to refer to the Christ then the word of truth is spirit and has always been available to us. JesustheChrist, and we should always connect the man Jesus with the eternal Christ or anointed one, is the spirit in human terms and we hold the potential to emulate him because the spirit, the Christ is within.

Here we begin to read below the literal words and touch the potential within. Muslim scholar, Louis Massignon, who inspired Merton in the use of the phrase "le point vierge", had written about how Mansur al-Hallaj (858-922) perceived the mysticism of the heart. According to this Suffi, when the heart is fully uncovered, what remains is the latent personality, the implicit consciousness called the sirr. For Hallaj and Massignon, the innermost secret heart (as-sirr) is "the virgin."  This most intimate centre of the heart is called a mystery, in which the creature meets his Creator. Al-Hallaj says, "Our hearts, in their secrecy, are a virgin alone, where no dreamer’s dream penetrates - the heart where the presence of the Lord penetrates, there to be conceived." [1] Here is where the word of truth is to be found, not in the words interpreted on the surface, but the journey into the deep, to that place where both self and Spirit are one.

James continues by saying (James 1: 21b) ‘welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.’ What is the implanted word? It is the implanted Christ who has been present from the beginning in all created things. It does not come from an external reading but an internal journey. An external reading reads as if it is reading a legal document, analysing and interpreting the written word in such a way that it gives credence to our existence, our way of believing.

The implanted word, the reality of JesustheChrist, awaits our listening heart as we separate ourselves from our ego self and begin to take on the nature and form of the Christ. It is then that the seed planted deep within begins to flourish and live in such a way that our external actions and words can be described, as Paul said, ‘it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives within me.’

To arrive at such an understanding we must embark on a journey that is fraught with danger, challenges and the ever-present temptation to fall back into our ego selves. The temptations of Jesus after his Baptism reveals how subtle and constant those temptations are and we can only overcome them by meeting the Christ within naked and helpless, ready to relinquish the power over our lives to the implanted word of truth.

It is only then that we can (James 1:22)

‘be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.’ We kid ourselves if we only adhere to the formulas and the creeds that pass for rational belief. Formulas and creeds are but scaffolding by which we are to journey into the experienced truth. Dogma or right belief will not save us, only praxis or right practice will when we jettison the safety of the formulas and creeds, and open ourselves up to terrifying possibilities of a life lived solely in Christ.

We started with the question if it’s legal does it mean it is right and we can answer no because the law suffices only to cover up our failure to live from the centre. We also asked ‘Just because you can do want you desire to, should you?’ And we can also answer no if that desire is based on your ego self.

We are called by both Jesus and James to take the time to reflect on what we say and do and to ascertain its source. We are called to listen deeply to the implanted word, that virgin place within us and to let go of our practices and words born of culture, tradition and bias which do not resonate with the eternal Christ.

We can do this through meditative reading of the Bible and other spiritual texts, by reflective journaling and writing, by taking time out to do nothing but listen, by beginning spiritual practices such as morning prayer, silent retreats and others activities that get you in touch with the word within.

It will involve us moving past the literal in terms of our reading of the world and the Bible and to seek the presence of the spirit in all. When we begin to see more than what meets the inner senses we will begin to see more than what meets the outer senses. Our vision of ourselves and our world will change.

Jesus and James pose the challenge. Are we up for it?

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[1] http://www.thomasmertonsociety.org/erlinda.htm

The Foolishness of Wisdom - God At Work in the World.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31, John 2:13-22 

The Bible is full of fools and foolishness. God’s story, old or new is full of fools and foolishness. Even the wisdom we discover there in seems to be at odds with the wisdom and learning we encounter in educational, institutional or everyday life. Paul points straight to the cross, Jesus points straight to the tearing down of the temple through the cross, Moses at 80+, Abraham and Sarah at almost 100 years of age, David as King and the list goes on.

Not only was the wisdom in the Bible at odds with the prevailing sense of the world, it simply marches to a different rhythm to the world we live in. 

Yet, the wisdom and knowledge the world we live in has grown up with is not certain and true.Take, for example, the creation of our universe which has been said by scientists to have begun with a big bang – the big bang theory. There are at least three other theories standing against the big bang theory. The latest from a group of scientists at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, suggests that the universe was simply there all the time and had no need for a big bang theory explain it.

Ideas such as the world isn’t flat, or it isn’t carried on the back of a large tortoise or the sun revolves around earth were all foolishness at one time or another. Over our lifetime we have seen the wisdom of the day overturned time and again, and what would have looked as foolishness, become the new wisdom. Who could have imagined we could instantly connect to someone on the other side of the world with out going through a telephone exchange, having someone dial the number, waiting for the operator on the other side of the world then finally connecting and have to listen through the crackle and noise inherent in the cables under the sea? 

The suggestion that God could be found present in the world in the person of Jesus from Nazareth was foolishness to those for whom God was distant, beyond the clouds and only to be found in the Torah or through interventionist acts from beyond, was foolishness. Even for the majority of Christians God was seen as part of a three tiered cosmos, outside our world, someone who chose who to rescue and not to rescue and was, arbitrary to some degree, in who was in and who was out of his kingdom.

Today we know that God doesn’t live beyond the clouds. We have been there and God, as a person cannot be found. We know, from experience, that God cannot be manipulated into rescuing, saving or healing us. We have come to understand what Jesus and Paul said was true and not foolishness. We are made in the image of God, God is within us and we are within God, and we are on a journey to discover ourselves as we discover who God is to us. Jesus oft said 'Today the kingdom of God has come near' reveals the truth that God is nearer to us than ourselves and our mission is to be still and know that I Am is God.

This was the message of the mystics of all ages and is the core message of John’s Gospel. John was Jewish and his language to describe Jesus and his purpose comes directly from Jewish mysticism. It is the language of unity, being and one-ing. Right at the beginning of his Gospel he lays a hymn of praise and recognition to such an understanding of Jesus. He is not talking about a physical being, a real person or a God who has become a man, but to a being who has always existed and is indelibly apart of the one who simply says I Am. And if we are made one with Christ then we are also made one with the ground of all being, I Am. John uses those two words over and over again to describe Jesus. He is not subtle.

In the temple John directly connects Jesus, I Am, with the temple and all that goes on there. The temple cult sat at the centre of Jewish religious, social and political life. It was the place where the Holy of Holies contained God, and to some sense, where God could be seen as holding them. Jesus, John’s I Am, comes and confronts this worldly wisdom and says this is simply man made. “Here you have created a place where you strive to contain and manipulate God according to the written law and practice. I will destroy the validity of such wisdom and replace it with what may seem like foolishness, a death that says relationships; emerging, growing and defining relationships, with creation and with each other become the places where you encounter God. The possibility of such a relationship is available to all, and especially those that make it real in their lives.

Paul reminds us: ‘For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.’ We could say that God’s love is greater than man’s law. The ongoing story of the two members of the Bali 9 and their struggle with Indonesian law challenges us all. The law is a straightener. It should be designed to bring people back to the centre of themselves and society. The parameters and the judgement of the law should be flexible and able to respond to the steps people make to come do so. To pursue the ends of law simply to make a point is pigheaded brutality and needs to be avoided.

Over and over again, in my engagement with young people in schools, I and those I worked with, faced such a challenge. Yes, this behaviour is inappropriate simply deserves severe censure or expulsion. Yet, what is the outcome we seek? That this child may return to the centre of his or her community and not be expelled from it. Therefore do we follow the letter of the law or do we find ways to allow this person to find redemption? The latter, often seen as foolishness by those for whom punishment is the only reward, was chosen more often and not. And it works.

Saw a message from a young man recently whose history is dotted with great failures. He is now a member of the Army Cadets and was recently promoted to a corporal. It is one of those wow moments. If his misdemeanours had been handled by the letter of the law, this may not have been possible. Relationships and compassion pave the way to redemption.

Sin is not a legal problem, it is a relationship problem; the relationship with self with others and with the I AM, and can only be solved by the foolishness of love, love in the shape of the cross and the taking up of that cross by us in a way that it allow others to journey back to the centre.

May we do this in a way that values individuals and their life experience, be they the young who need direction and correction, or us who are slightly older who need to know that, contrary to the wisdom of the day, are in fact the embodiment of the wisdom experience God has brought our way, if we have processed those experience through the foolishness of the crucified and reimagined Christ.