Our theme for the weekend has been mindfulness, awareness and this has been the perfect place for us to reflect on it together.
The meditation exercises that we have engaged in (and I hope that you will continue to practice) have been related to an awareness of the body. The mystics have this in common: they try to move us beyond words and then beyond images because God is beyond words and beyond images. It was the great insight of the ancient Jewish people that to create an image of God is idolatry. Of course, words are themselves symbols and when we substitute the symbol for the thing symbolized we have mistaken the use of language. The word “tree” is not the tree itself. The word “lake” is not the lake itself. Words are shorthand symbols for a far greater reality. How can all that you see out there be captured in the word “lake”? The word has meaning for us only when we have truly experienced what it is like to be here, to sit outside, to see, to feel, to hear, to experience, t put you toes in the water, to kayak the lake.
So, God beyond words.
Today is Trinity Sunday when the church worships God for the wonderful revelation of Trinity in Unity, the One and the Many, the Three and the One. If the idea of Trinity teaches us anything it is that God is beyond words and beyond images. That three are one makes no linguistic sense. (Or should we say that three is one, we do not even have correct grammar for the idea). When well-meaning theologians have tried to popularize the idea of Trinity—St. Patrick’s three-leaf clover, water, ice and vapor—they distort the idea. By making it accessible they lose the mystery. They turn reality into error. When great artists represent Trinity the image is invariably of the Three and we lose the One. The idea of the Holy Trinity is to confuse us, to make our brains ache, to have us throw our hands up in exasperation and say “it makes no sense!” Our dear friends the Unitarians have missed the point. “The Trinity makes no sense,” they say, “so let’s lose the idea of Trinity.” Yet, that is the point. The Trinity makes no sense; the Trinity is, in fact, nonsense. Trinity is mystery. God is mystery. God is beyond words to formulate, God is beyond images to depict. If you can make sense of God, then you have reduced God to your understanding. The ancients insisted that “God is that than which nothing greater can be imagined.” If you can imagine God, then you have failed in your task. You have something less than God. God is beyond your ability to imagine. God is beyond your ability to describe in words.
Let’s not talk about God for a moment. Let’s talk about a lime. You can create an image of a lime, a painting, a digital photo. Yet, it is not the lime itself. It may help. But it is like a finger pointing to the moon. If you remain with the finger pointing, you will miss the moon. If you say the image is the lime, you have missed it.
You have a friend. Your friend is particularly partial to limes. You have never seen, touched, smelled or tasted a lime. You have seen a picture. You might be able to recognize a lime is you cam across real one. But you have not experienced one. Your friend who is erudite in the extreme, a true wordsmith, a philosopher of all things citrus, tries to help you. She describes the texture of the skin, the feel of a newly ripe lime. It is like a lemon, similar in shape but not quite, a little harder usually, the smell is tangy, but not as sharp, a somehow softer smell. Bite into the lime and it is tart, more so than the lemon, but not as much as vinegar. You will never mistake a lime for a lemon . . . and on it goes. A PhD in describing limes! All very good in its own way, but until you experience the lime for yourself, you have missed it.
Now back to God. If we cannot through words and images do justice to a simple fruit, how could we expect to do justice to the Ultimate reality of the universe? I do not want to belittle religious art, iconography, theology or philosophy. I think they are all very important and I am happy to give my life to reading, thinking and writing. But at best, it is all a signpost—it points the way. Religion is not the truth. Religion points in the direction of truth (at its best) and is a hindrance to truth (at its worst, and sadly we see so much of the worse).
So, we cannot remain with the words, with the image. We must move beyond to the experience of God directly. And in the words of the old Gloria Estefan song. “I’m trying to say I love you, but the words get in the way!”
Alongside your daily office, bible reading, speaking or thinking prayers and study build in the practice of silence, awareness, going beyond. That is why we have had a focus this few days on meditation exercises that do not feature words or images, but sensations, awareness of breathing, of our bodies. Christ in you. Without concepts.
I was sitting outside this morning looking over the lake. There is a deep silence in creation. It is not an auditory silence. It is very noisy! The water lapping the shore. It was like a thousand birds all singing at the same time. Flies buzzing. Fish jumping out of the water. The wind in the trees. A million leaves crashing into each other. A woodpecker banging the tree trunk. Yet, in it all is a deep silence. Awareness brings us to that. Beyond words, beyond images we find God.
+Ab. Andy
The meditation exercises that we have engaged in (and I hope that you will continue to practice) have been related to an awareness of the body. The mystics have this in common: they try to move us beyond words and then beyond images because God is beyond words and beyond images. It was the great insight of the ancient Jewish people that to create an image of God is idolatry. Of course, words are themselves symbols and when we substitute the symbol for the thing symbolized we have mistaken the use of language. The word “tree” is not the tree itself. The word “lake” is not the lake itself. Words are shorthand symbols for a far greater reality. How can all that you see out there be captured in the word “lake”? The word has meaning for us only when we have truly experienced what it is like to be here, to sit outside, to see, to feel, to hear, to experience, t put you toes in the water, to kayak the lake.
So, God beyond words.
Today is Trinity Sunday when the church worships God for the wonderful revelation of Trinity in Unity, the One and the Many, the Three and the One. If the idea of Trinity teaches us anything it is that God is beyond words and beyond images. That three are one makes no linguistic sense. (Or should we say that three is one, we do not even have correct grammar for the idea). When well-meaning theologians have tried to popularize the idea of Trinity—St. Patrick’s three-leaf clover, water, ice and vapor—they distort the idea. By making it accessible they lose the mystery. They turn reality into error. When great artists represent Trinity the image is invariably of the Three and we lose the One. The idea of the Holy Trinity is to confuse us, to make our brains ache, to have us throw our hands up in exasperation and say “it makes no sense!” Our dear friends the Unitarians have missed the point. “The Trinity makes no sense,” they say, “so let’s lose the idea of Trinity.” Yet, that is the point. The Trinity makes no sense; the Trinity is, in fact, nonsense. Trinity is mystery. God is mystery. God is beyond words to formulate, God is beyond images to depict. If you can make sense of God, then you have reduced God to your understanding. The ancients insisted that “God is that than which nothing greater can be imagined.” If you can imagine God, then you have failed in your task. You have something less than God. God is beyond your ability to imagine. God is beyond your ability to describe in words.
Let’s not talk about God for a moment. Let’s talk about a lime. You can create an image of a lime, a painting, a digital photo. Yet, it is not the lime itself. It may help. But it is like a finger pointing to the moon. If you remain with the finger pointing, you will miss the moon. If you say the image is the lime, you have missed it.
You have a friend. Your friend is particularly partial to limes. You have never seen, touched, smelled or tasted a lime. You have seen a picture. You might be able to recognize a lime is you cam across real one. But you have not experienced one. Your friend who is erudite in the extreme, a true wordsmith, a philosopher of all things citrus, tries to help you. She describes the texture of the skin, the feel of a newly ripe lime. It is like a lemon, similar in shape but not quite, a little harder usually, the smell is tangy, but not as sharp, a somehow softer smell. Bite into the lime and it is tart, more so than the lemon, but not as much as vinegar. You will never mistake a lime for a lemon . . . and on it goes. A PhD in describing limes! All very good in its own way, but until you experience the lime for yourself, you have missed it.
Now back to God. If we cannot through words and images do justice to a simple fruit, how could we expect to do justice to the Ultimate reality of the universe? I do not want to belittle religious art, iconography, theology or philosophy. I think they are all very important and I am happy to give my life to reading, thinking and writing. But at best, it is all a signpost—it points the way. Religion is not the truth. Religion points in the direction of truth (at its best) and is a hindrance to truth (at its worst, and sadly we see so much of the worse).
So, we cannot remain with the words, with the image. We must move beyond to the experience of God directly. And in the words of the old Gloria Estefan song. “I’m trying to say I love you, but the words get in the way!”
Alongside your daily office, bible reading, speaking or thinking prayers and study build in the practice of silence, awareness, going beyond. That is why we have had a focus this few days on meditation exercises that do not feature words or images, but sensations, awareness of breathing, of our bodies. Christ in you. Without concepts.
I was sitting outside this morning looking over the lake. There is a deep silence in creation. It is not an auditory silence. It is very noisy! The water lapping the shore. It was like a thousand birds all singing at the same time. Flies buzzing. Fish jumping out of the water. The wind in the trees. A million leaves crashing into each other. A woodpecker banging the tree trunk. Yet, in it all is a deep silence. Awareness brings us to that. Beyond words, beyond images we find God.
+Ab. Andy