Dear All of us,
Depending what time it is
where we are just now,
let's have a cup of coffee
or a glass of wine together
and do some God Talk -
mellow musing.
Now, none do God Talk
better than Jewish rabbis.
We do well to hear them,
learn from them,
God Talk like them.
With scripture, spirituality,
theology, nature,
religious/ascetical practice,
all God Talk is uttered
wonderfully wide:
"It can means this,
but then on the other hand
it can mean that,
and yet again it could mean
quite other."
They honor that God is too vast
to exhaust, even approximate,
in our understandings or words.
God Talk for them is
a definitely limited,
human expression about
what the ancient Israelites
referenced as
The Utterly Other One.
God Talk at best is a glimpse
of one leaf in an endless forest.
In the Jewish tradition
God Talk bespeaks
their lived experience
of God's dealing with them.
It does not try
to "grasp" God.
God Talk tells of
living God's lead,
or failing to.
We do well to be very Jewish
in our efforts at God Talk.
To do that well we need also
to carefully note our context.
We think and talk in terms of
a western culture.
As westerners we are
cursed by blessing.
We are blessed with marvels
of science, communications,
technology, manufacturing
ever multiplying and tripping
all over each other.
We are cursed and captive,
though, to intellectual arrogance.
That endangers our God Talk.
We westerners assume we can
figure and fix existence.
In reality we can learn and modify
to a limited, a very limited, extent.
That conditions, fudges, our God Talk.
We're like the child at the seashore
working to fill their hole in the sand
with the ocean.
Given that folly, we attempt
to parse, analyze, dissect God.
It throws us into
an idolatry of definition,
one that misstates God and
misguides our spiritual lives.
Valid, enlightening, inviting,
clarifying, encouraging
God Talk
flows from the
Union
Oneness
of Jesus and the Father,
of Jesus and us.
It tells of experiencing God
as revealed and shared by Jesus.
"The Father and I are one...
the Father is in Me and
I am in the Father."
John 10:30&38
"Whoever looks at me
is looking in fact, at
the One who sent me...
What the Father told me
I tell you."
John 12:45&50
The Message
translation
When we look at what Jesus does
and listen to what Jesus says, well,
now we're really talking God.
Jesus embodies, personifies,
bespeaks God
in a thoroughly human way.
He says God.
He acts God.
He shows God.
He reveals God.
He shares God.
He gives us what
God wants us
to have about God.
It is not at all exhaustive.
Way better, it's invitational,
a vigorous welcome to
an inexhaustive love affair -
Union
Oneness
It reveals God's love
for us and all creation.
Jesus invites us into
living God.
"I am the way,
the truth and the life.
No one comes
to the Father
except through me."
John 14:6
Slow, receptive reflection
on the Gospels reveals
the words and way of Jesus.
They talk God for us.
Jesus is God's Lexicon.
May he be the source book
for our God Talk.
After all, Jesus is
The Word of God.
All this flips the enterprise.
God Talk
is good.
Jesus Listening
is divine.
Thanks for the chance
to mellow muse together.
John Frank
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Good talking God together..
See you next week
******
So lets have a refill
and be like the rabbis
as we God Talk -
all God Talk is uttered
wonderfully wide.
Jesus is The Word of God
we hear, speak and live.
.
In some ways our God talk actually limits God , our relationahip.
Need to be careful here.
