What’s It All About, Alfie?

This past Sunday I did my Q&A Sunday service, entitled “What’s It All About, Alfie?” for the 12th year.  Congregants wrote questions–way more than I could possibly answer–(1) on theological issues, (2) on Unitarian Universalism, (3) on thorny problems of living, and (3) on my personal/spiritual life.  At the time I introduced the program, I said that I would try to respond to the unanswered questions on my blog–but the sheer volume is going to prevent that.  So I have decided that I will respond to four of the most compelling questions from each group.  It will be difficult for me to choose only sixteen, because the questions were of such high quality, and virtually all interested me.  But alas, time is limited, and I could lose myself for weeks in all these questions–so here goes on a few of them.  I’ll do the theological questions first.

THEOLOGICAL ISSUES

Question: “Who is God?  How do you reconcile defining something that can’t really be defined?”

Answer: God is only the most common name for that which we cannot name.  Many other names are used, including Beloved, Holy One, the Sacred, the Great Mystery. Sometimes when I pray I begin, “One Whose Name I Cannot Know.”  We should understand that all naming is merely metaphor, because we are dealing in mystery.  We cannot know or understand the Infinite with a mind that is finite, and so we make comparisons with what we do know.  I like Tillich’s phrase “the ground of our being.”  Buddhists, who are non-theistic, speak of reality itself. 

No one can prove or disprove the presence of God.  One chooses to believe or not–to take Kierkegaard’s “leap of faith” or not.  I choose to believe.  I believe I am accountable to something greater than myself, though I cannot define or describe or label what that is.  Nevertheless, I have staked my life on it.

Question: “How can we understand the presence of evil in this world?”

Answer: This is the thorniest theological question of all time.  The closest answer I have found is in the Book of Job, when God answers Job’s agonized questions with a series of questions of His own, beginning “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”  In other words, you are not God, you cannot understand these mysteries, and since your cannot, you must simply live by faith.”

Evil is horribly operative in our finite world, but I believe there is an infinite realm where it is not operative.  I speak of a spiritual dimension in which all is reconciled, a realm of perfection, or one might say, the mind of God.  Individuals sometimes have mystical moments in which we feel “all is as it should be” or “everything is perfect, just as it is.”  I think in those moments we have dipped into that other world.  I think it is our true home.

Question: “What is the purpose of prayer?”

Answer: At one time in seminary I found myself in a spiritual fog, and my prayers seemed to go no higher than the ceiling.  I had heard of a wise Jesuit priest who sometimes counseled students, and so I went to see him and poured out my heart, and wept and wept.  He listened quietly.  And then he said, “Prayer is not about changing God.  Prayer is being with God.”

I believe that prayer can take many different forms, but it is always the sincere outpouring of the heart.  Prayer is valuable because when you pray, any false note will become apparent, and so you will find your heart’s own truth, a guide which will serve you well.  Prayer will help you focus on what is significant, will bring compassion as you pray for others.  Prayer will ground you as you go through your days, being pushed and pulled by so many competing forces. 

The scripture says, “Pray without ceasing.”  In other words, we are admonished to go through our days with the understanding that we are essentially creatures of Spirit. 

Question: “How do we handle dark nights of the soul?”

Answer: We must understand that these times of disintegration and lostness come to all spiritual seekers, even the saints.  In fact, these low periods seem to be a natural and necessary part of the spiritual journey.  During these times, we cannot feel the comfort of our faith, and we seem to wonder whether there is any God or even any meaning to life itself.  It is from these times of radical doubting that the deepest faith is born.

How do we handle the times?  We accept them.  We descend into the dark and live there as long as we need to–while still carrying on our functioning in the world, though we may feel that we have become an empty shell.  We must allow the emptiness in order for the new growth to take place. 

 

Living Well Each Day

This morning I opened the newspaper to learn that 153 passengers have died in a fiery plane crash at the Madrid airport.  I was in that airport just three days ago, on my way to Amsterdam, and from there, flying back to Portland.  I remember remarking to my companion, “It’s amazing how safe air travel is these days,” and I went on to quote the latest information I had read about all the safety features now incorporated into planes, features which have been added because of our learning from past accidents. 

Spanair Flight JK5022 was troubled from the beginning.  One attempt at take-off had been aborted, and departure was delayed for an hour.  (Oregonian, 7/21)  And then shortly after take-off, the plane swerved off the end of the runway, crashed into a ravine, and burst into flames.  Many of those on board were families headed to the Canary Islands for late-August holidays.  Remarkably, 19 passengers survived, including 2 children.  Some people actually walked away from the wreckage, said Ervigio Corral, head of emergency rescue services.  But he added that he and other emergency workers faced a “grim scene of widely scattered corpses . . . .”

So I am safely home, with nothing more than jet-lag to contend with.  And memories of a lovely vacation in which absolutely nothing went wrong.  No accidents.  No illness.  Not even a mistake in the reservations or getting caught in the rain.  And I am thankful, because it might not have been so.  I might have been on the plane, or a plane, that crashed.  Any one of us might have been. 

And so I’m taking time once again this morning to remember the fragility of the flesh.  To remember that today I am here, but I am not promised tomorrow.  To know that this day, this hour, this moment, should be cherished and lived well, for we have the present, and that alone.

Further, then, I must ask myself, “What does it mean, to live well?”  Perhaps it means to live each day as if it were the last.  To live without rancor, to act with kindness, to move among others with an open heart, to speak no nonsense but only the truth, to laugh from deep within, to see beauty wherever it appears, to look upon suffering with compassion but never with pity, to walk with humility, knowing that only by grace am I living at all.  To acknowledge that one day I will be among those who have run out of time, run out of opportunity to work and play and love, and therefore to be awake, fully awake, while I live.

 

Your Bully Uncle

We all have some relatives who are . . . well, difficult and embarrassing.  Suppose you had an uncle who, during holiday visits, was always first to the dinner table and then demanded that he get most of the food.  Suppose when others objected, he told them that he was a muscle-man and would simply push them aside if they resisted.  Suppose when people asked him to share, explaining that the children were hungry, he disregarded their pleas and looked only to fill his own stomach.  If you had an uncle like that, I expect it wouldn’t be long before he would no longer be invited to dinner. 

 

Well, we do have an uncle like that–Uncle Sam.  And it looks as if Uncle Sam is about to get his comeuppance.  World trade talks in Geneva collapsed recently, and the failure is being laid to the growing influence of China and India and the decreasing influence of the United States, on the world stage (NY Times, July 30).

 

The failure also signals the wavering credibility of the World Trade Organization, which makes and enforces international trade rules.  I was among the many protesters when the WTO came to Seattle in 2001.  The problem as I saw it then was that everyone needs to be at the table when such deals are cut–not just those wielding the most power.  Where were the representatives of the workers?  How was the environmental movement represented?  What about third-world countries with little economic power?

 

Unfortunately, the collapse of the talks will likely keep smaller and poorer countries from increasing their trade with more developed countries, and it could slow efforts to work out multilateral agreements on the important issue of global warming. 

 

The fact is that as soon as bullies can be avoided, they are no longer tolerated.  And the U.S. is fast losing its status as a superpower that can call the shots for the rest of the world.  I think Uncle Sam had better begin to learn some manners and develop some respect for others around the table, because those who misuse others will soon find themselves hungry and without friends.  “The times,” as Dylan sang, “they are a-changin.’”