I think I've posted something like this before, but indulge an aging guy's wandering mind...
Some people believe that permanence is the core of reality. Human beings need to seek and depend on those things that do not change. A rock will always be a rock. (We even use the word "rock" as a metaphor for that which stands firm and never changes.) In such thinking, life's goal is stasis or equilibrium - maintaining that which is or should be immutable in the midst of flux. This is how traditions come to matter as much as they do. Certainly the quality of life depends on seeing permanence as the foundation and goal of life - to a point.
However, the more I learn and experience, the more I realize that permanence isn't the core of life at all. Change is the core of reality. The rock is only permanent in our limited view. It is being smoothed and turned slowly into sand even as we speak. Atomic science helped us see that solid matter isn't the foundation of the universe. Atomic particles in constant motion in fields of energy make up what we perceive to be solid and unchangeable.
This latter view, true as I believe it to be, scares most people. I find it unsettling as well, and beyond my ability to comprehend or control. However, the reality of constant flux can lead us in one of two directions. It can take us to despair, realizing that nothing is permanent and unchangeable, including us. Or it can lead us to seek that which is beyond all of it, yet present, active, passionate, and real in the midst of constant change. And in this seeking, we can come to realize that we are sought by this One who is constant when nothing else is - God, revealed fully to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
I choose the latter. What about you? I'll see you around the next bend in the river. (A kayak is finally close - maybe by the end of January.)
Raking Leaves
-
Fall is here. The sun is moving towards the edge of the frame where, in
just a few weeks it will hit the bumper rail and start back towards the
other side...
2 years ago
2 comments:
Geoff,
This is the idea that Leonard Sweet pursued in AquaChurch, that the church is not a rock, or anchored to "the Rock" but is moving on the liquid surface of change of culture, society and progress. I find that in our church, the word "change" is even hard to say!
That's true in most churches, Dan. Somehow we got the idea that the church's job is to preserve and maintain. The Church began with the inane idea that an unemployed carpenter who got executed was the only hope for humanity. How was THAT not a radical change?!?
Post a Comment