One of the questions some modern theologians like to ask is the following: would this be something that Christians are apt to insert as being what they might want Jesus to have said? I think not. The church was evangelical. Not telling others about these miracles does not sound like something they would insert. We can feel confident Jesus really said it, several times. Personally, and this is just my quess, I think it could have been two things. It wasn't Jesus time for his final mission of death, and miracles raised the ire of his detractors. Also, practically speaking, miracles would attract a crowd. He was working at discipling his closest followers. He might not have been ready for the massive crowds that eventually did develope. Just a few thoughts!
From this text in Mark chapter 1, it seems that what Jesus wanted was to continue 'proclaiming the message'. Driving out evil spirits and healing people in their distress supported this mission - but may also have been a distraction. Being associated with doing exorcisms may even have been a liability - which provided an opening for his opponents to accuse him of collusion with those evil spirits that were acknowledging him as the son of God. Having legitimate representatives to speak on his behalf may have been what prompted him to call the Twelve in chapter 3. By chapter 7, he seemed to be at wit's end with his own people not getting beyond purity rules, and just wanted to get away from people.
I am reading Diana's "Christianity After Religion" and am especially encouraged by what I have read so far about the dynamics of her Armington Hall experience of Christian community - and alarmed by how insightful she has been about the mechanisms of authoritarian domination at work since then and where we and the world are now.
Hearing Brian McLaren speak was the first time I heard about that Jesus' 'message' in the context of his time, was not salvation for the life in the hereafter, but the advent of God's kingdom ('on earth as in heaven') which is consistent with what I have subsequently heard and read by Diana. She has used related terms to describe the dynamics of God's kingdom including "The 4th Great Awakening", "The Great (Re)Turning", "Awakening and Romantic Religion" that anticipates an 'emerging' transcendent social/spiritual reality. A specific phrase that brings these concepts together for me is "beloved community". It has roots in the Civil Rights movement of the '60s (part of some of Martin Luther King's earliest writings), it is an inclusive term for God's kingdom, and is a description that can't be so easily dismissed like the term 'woke'. I would like to know Diana's reflection on the term "beloved community" and how it may relate to where we are now.
An invtation to enter into mystery: "Following Jesus is a life of knowing and unknowing, of encountering a hidden God and God revealed, and of clouds that sometimes obscure the light."
“The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Faith also means reaching deeply within, for the sense one was born with, the sense, for example, to go for a walk.”― Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith <https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7611227-the-opposite-of-faith-is-not-doubt-but-certainty-certainty>
One of the things I love so much is the Mystery of it all. As far back as I can remember that was always the pull or draw for me. I didn't need to know, I just needed to understand that there were things beyond our knowing. Love the quotes as well. I miss Marcus Borg so much.
I resonate so deeply with what you're saying here about mystery, Diana. "We love mysteries — if they can be solved or are problems we can fix." Your thoughts here reminded me of Frederick Buchner's definition of the Trinity-- the Mystery beyond us, the Mystery among us and the Mystery within us.
One of the problems I have with our Creeds is that they draw some pretty deep lines to determine who is with "us" and who is not. In the process, whether intentionally or unintentionally, they trap God in a box constructed of attributes and definitions which, in the end, keeps God at arms length...if not farther.
Mysteries, as Richard Rohr has said, are to be entered into. It's not that they can't be understood, it's that they are endlessly understood. The deeper we go into the mystery, the more we understand. And at the same time we keep discovering that the mystery will endlessly draw us deeper into more things beyond the borders of our definitions.
Not too long ago, I wrote a creed for myself to try to clarify what I believe and understand about God beyond the credal boundaries.
I believe in the Mystery beyond us,
the One Who Is,
the Maker who imagines all things into existence,
the Impulse of Intent who turns quantum possibility into tangible reality,
the Love in whom we live and move and have our being,
endlessly revealed in microcosm and macrocosm,
visible in all that is.
I believe in the Mystery among us,
The Christ,
The nexus and intersection of Spirit and matter,
alive and vibrant in, with and under all things seen and unseen,
the Word of Creation who came to us as one of us,
revealed most fully in Jesus of Nazareth
in whom the fullness of the divine was pleased to dwell,
who, at the cost of his own life,
confronted coercive power with nonviolence,
greed with generosity,
oppression with liberation,
pain with healing,
and death with resurrection and new life.
I believe in the Mystery within us,
the Spirit who guides us into all truth,
the breath of life in every breath,
the wind who lifts the wings of our creativity,
the warm scent of goodness who entices us deeper
into the divine vision of who and what we are meant to be,
the relentless wind of evolution who transforms us in body, mind and spirit,
the cleansing breath of wisdom who opens our eyes,
and renovates our understanding,
the yearning who draws us together in the beloved community,
the whispering ache who opens our hearts with compassion,
the deep sigh of grace exhaled in forgiveness,
the sustaining breath who moves us to care for each other
and to live in harmony with all Creation,
the gasp of wonder who inspires us to live in gratitude.
Thank you, as always, Diana, for thinking through the faith with us--well, a little bit ahead of us, but we'll catch up.
This isn’t a cottage event. A group called Lumunos invited me. It is hosted by them and organized completely by that organization. I’m their guest speaker and know nothing of logistics or fees. The information is at the link. The date is Monday, Feb 12.
Really like this reflection: The paragraph following is probably one of the best descriptions of seeking the 'Christian' life I've ever read.
"That path of secrets and mystery is one of humility and listening. Be quiet. Pay attention. You don’t quite grasp what is really happening here. Following Jesus is a life of knowing and unknowing, of encountering a hidden God and God revealed, and of clouds that sometimes obscure the light."
By the way, I like the comparison of John/Baptist w/ the QAnon Shaman-- I laughed out loud. When I taught high school Theology, I told my students that if John/Baptist ever showed up at a Sunday Mass, the priest would freak out and probably try to bar the door. Sure, it's a stretch, but I imagine the Jewish authorities felt about John very much like we might w/ our Shaman fellow...
I am another "Diana," but when I meet another one I always say, "Princess Diana was named after me because I'm the older one."
I really enjoy reading your articles on Substack.com especially the Sunday ones because they follow the Lectionary. I'm an ELCA Lutheran, where we follow the same Revised Standard Version of the Bible Lectionary. It's a rare opportunity to hear two sermons from the same selection. While they are generally both very good it's amazing, to me, how different they can be. I've just started noticing this because I haven't been on Substack very long, and I don't usually hear two sermons from the same day. I really enjoy your articles and The Cottage will be my first subscription.
As an appreciative reader, I do wonder if comparing John the Baptist to the QAnon Shaman is appropriate. John was disruptive, but as part of God’s intervention for the sake of the whole world. The Shaman was part of a group attempting disruption for the purpose of imposing their self serving desires that would, at best, have disastrous effect on those outside their own group.
We all walk the path of mystery and pursue the living vision from the moment of our conception to the moment of our death, even though we may know nothing about it. And each of us does it in our own unique way. That is its own mystery. Will we receive the answer to the mystery of our own existence after our death?
For Christians, no one but Jesus has ever come back to tell us. And, even then, Jesus kept the secret. Even as the Resurrection was the demonstration of the answer, we still do not understand it.
Hi Diana; this was one of the most interesting unpackaging of mystery of belief. When I was younger, I proceeded from a certainty perspective. But living life, many things step out of the box. Especially with evangelizing, advocating truth is delicate. Yet proceeding from the hiddenness of God's mystery as a starting place, seems a strategy. Thanks Diana!
I'm a retired theater professor who wrote a book on play analysis, so I tend to look at everything through the lens of story structure (to a man with ahammer...). I find myself asking: what would happen if those he healed told other people? Well, word would get around, and he'd be inundated with people wanting to be healed. So? So that would attract attention and cause a stir. So? Well, who might notice the stir? The Romans! To some extent, Jesus isn't ready yet to confront the Romans (and he doesn'r until Holy Week). Am I crazy?
I did a search on the quote by which I was fascinated and got this: "The profound words, “The quest goes beyond what is visible and is enclosed on all sides by incomprehension, which is a kind of sacred darkness,” resonate with a sense of mystery and spiritual depth. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a specific attribution for this quote in my search results. It seems to be a thought-provoking expression that transcends any single author. Perhaps it’s meant to evoke our collective human journey toward understanding the unknown." I have to laugh....it sure backs up your point about "revelatory mystery."
One of the questions some modern theologians like to ask is the following: would this be something that Christians are apt to insert as being what they might want Jesus to have said? I think not. The church was evangelical. Not telling others about these miracles does not sound like something they would insert. We can feel confident Jesus really said it, several times. Personally, and this is just my quess, I think it could have been two things. It wasn't Jesus time for his final mission of death, and miracles raised the ire of his detractors. Also, practically speaking, miracles would attract a crowd. He was working at discipling his closest followers. He might not have been ready for the massive crowds that eventually did develope. Just a few thoughts!
From this text in Mark chapter 1, it seems that what Jesus wanted was to continue 'proclaiming the message'. Driving out evil spirits and healing people in their distress supported this mission - but may also have been a distraction. Being associated with doing exorcisms may even have been a liability - which provided an opening for his opponents to accuse him of collusion with those evil spirits that were acknowledging him as the son of God. Having legitimate representatives to speak on his behalf may have been what prompted him to call the Twelve in chapter 3. By chapter 7, he seemed to be at wit's end with his own people not getting beyond purity rules, and just wanted to get away from people.
I am reading Diana's "Christianity After Religion" and am especially encouraged by what I have read so far about the dynamics of her Armington Hall experience of Christian community - and alarmed by how insightful she has been about the mechanisms of authoritarian domination at work since then and where we and the world are now.
Hearing Brian McLaren speak was the first time I heard about that Jesus' 'message' in the context of his time, was not salvation for the life in the hereafter, but the advent of God's kingdom ('on earth as in heaven') which is consistent with what I have subsequently heard and read by Diana. She has used related terms to describe the dynamics of God's kingdom including "The 4th Great Awakening", "The Great (Re)Turning", "Awakening and Romantic Religion" that anticipates an 'emerging' transcendent social/spiritual reality. A specific phrase that brings these concepts together for me is "beloved community". It has roots in the Civil Rights movement of the '60s (part of some of Martin Luther King's earliest writings), it is an inclusive term for God's kingdom, and is a description that can't be so easily dismissed like the term 'woke'. I would like to know Diana's reflection on the term "beloved community" and how it may relate to where we are now.
An invtation to enter into mystery: "Following Jesus is a life of knowing and unknowing, of encountering a hidden God and God revealed, and of clouds that sometimes obscure the light."
“The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Faith also means reaching deeply within, for the sense one was born with, the sense, for example, to go for a walk.”― Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith <https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7611227-the-opposite-of-faith-is-not-doubt-but-certainty-certainty>
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up <https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/64918-the-test-of-a-first-rate-intelligence-is-the-ability-to
Thanks for the words from Marcus Borg!
Looking forward to meeting you Tuesday.
One of the things I love so much is the Mystery of it all. As far back as I can remember that was always the pull or draw for me. I didn't need to know, I just needed to understand that there were things beyond our knowing. Love the quotes as well. I miss Marcus Borg so much.
I resonate so deeply with what you're saying here about mystery, Diana. "We love mysteries — if they can be solved or are problems we can fix." Your thoughts here reminded me of Frederick Buchner's definition of the Trinity-- the Mystery beyond us, the Mystery among us and the Mystery within us.
One of the problems I have with our Creeds is that they draw some pretty deep lines to determine who is with "us" and who is not. In the process, whether intentionally or unintentionally, they trap God in a box constructed of attributes and definitions which, in the end, keeps God at arms length...if not farther.
Mysteries, as Richard Rohr has said, are to be entered into. It's not that they can't be understood, it's that they are endlessly understood. The deeper we go into the mystery, the more we understand. And at the same time we keep discovering that the mystery will endlessly draw us deeper into more things beyond the borders of our definitions.
Not too long ago, I wrote a creed for myself to try to clarify what I believe and understand about God beyond the credal boundaries.
I believe in the Mystery beyond us,
the One Who Is,
the Maker who imagines all things into existence,
the Impulse of Intent who turns quantum possibility into tangible reality,
the Love in whom we live and move and have our being,
endlessly revealed in microcosm and macrocosm,
visible in all that is.
I believe in the Mystery among us,
The Christ,
The nexus and intersection of Spirit and matter,
alive and vibrant in, with and under all things seen and unseen,
the Word of Creation who came to us as one of us,
revealed most fully in Jesus of Nazareth
in whom the fullness of the divine was pleased to dwell,
who, at the cost of his own life,
confronted coercive power with nonviolence,
greed with generosity,
oppression with liberation,
pain with healing,
and death with resurrection and new life.
I believe in the Mystery within us,
the Spirit who guides us into all truth,
the breath of life in every breath,
the wind who lifts the wings of our creativity,
the warm scent of goodness who entices us deeper
into the divine vision of who and what we are meant to be,
the relentless wind of evolution who transforms us in body, mind and spirit,
the cleansing breath of wisdom who opens our eyes,
and renovates our understanding,
the yearning who draws us together in the beloved community,
the whispering ache who opens our hearts with compassion,
the deep sigh of grace exhaled in forgiveness,
the sustaining breath who moves us to care for each other
and to live in harmony with all Creation,
the gasp of wonder who inspires us to live in gratitude.
Thank you, as always, Diana, for thinking through the faith with us--well, a little bit ahead of us, but we'll catch up.
Oh dear. Will the Monday night, February 11th be taped ? Unfortunately I will be able to attend. I am willing to pay the fee.
This isn’t a cottage event. A group called Lumunos invited me. It is hosted by them and organized completely by that organization. I’m their guest speaker and know nothing of logistics or fees. The information is at the link. The date is Monday, Feb 12.
Really like this reflection: The paragraph following is probably one of the best descriptions of seeking the 'Christian' life I've ever read.
"That path of secrets and mystery is one of humility and listening. Be quiet. Pay attention. You don’t quite grasp what is really happening here. Following Jesus is a life of knowing and unknowing, of encountering a hidden God and God revealed, and of clouds that sometimes obscure the light."
By the way, I like the comparison of John/Baptist w/ the QAnon Shaman-- I laughed out loud. When I taught high school Theology, I told my students that if John/Baptist ever showed up at a Sunday Mass, the priest would freak out and probably try to bar the door. Sure, it's a stretch, but I imagine the Jewish authorities felt about John very much like we might w/ our Shaman fellow...
Wondering
Question from last week - how do you follow the Liturgical Calender? Can you buy one?
I am wonder what you use Diane. Thank you!
I use the online Episcopal version of the Revised Common Lectionary: https://www.lectionarypage.net
Diana,
I am another "Diana," but when I meet another one I always say, "Princess Diana was named after me because I'm the older one."
I really enjoy reading your articles on Substack.com especially the Sunday ones because they follow the Lectionary. I'm an ELCA Lutheran, where we follow the same Revised Standard Version of the Bible Lectionary. It's a rare opportunity to hear two sermons from the same selection. While they are generally both very good it's amazing, to me, how different they can be. I've just started noticing this because I haven't been on Substack very long, and I don't usually hear two sermons from the same day. I really enjoy your articles and The Cottage will be my first subscription.
Diana Alm
Thank you so much! I am a new subscriber and so looking forward to your Lenten series
That is in addition to all of your other wonderful offerings. ☮️💕🙏
As an appreciative reader, I do wonder if comparing John the Baptist to the QAnon Shaman is appropriate. John was disruptive, but as part of God’s intervention for the sake of the whole world. The Shaman was part of a group attempting disruption for the purpose of imposing their self serving desires that would, at best, have disastrous effect on those outside their own group.
We all walk the path of mystery and pursue the living vision from the moment of our conception to the moment of our death, even though we may know nothing about it. And each of us does it in our own unique way. That is its own mystery. Will we receive the answer to the mystery of our own existence after our death?
For Christians, no one but Jesus has ever come back to tell us. And, even then, Jesus kept the secret. Even as the Resurrection was the demonstration of the answer, we still do not understand it.
Hi Diana; this was one of the most interesting unpackaging of mystery of belief. When I was younger, I proceeded from a certainty perspective. But living life, many things step out of the box. Especially with evangelizing, advocating truth is delicate. Yet proceeding from the hiddenness of God's mystery as a starting place, seems a strategy. Thanks Diana!
I'm a retired theater professor who wrote a book on play analysis, so I tend to look at everything through the lens of story structure (to a man with ahammer...). I find myself asking: what would happen if those he healed told other people? Well, word would get around, and he'd be inundated with people wanting to be healed. So? So that would attract attention and cause a stir. So? Well, who might notice the stir? The Romans! To some extent, Jesus isn't ready yet to confront the Romans (and he doesn'r until Holy Week). Am I crazy?
I did a search on the quote by which I was fascinated and got this: "The profound words, “The quest goes beyond what is visible and is enclosed on all sides by incomprehension, which is a kind of sacred darkness,” resonate with a sense of mystery and spiritual depth. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a specific attribution for this quote in my search results. It seems to be a thought-provoking expression that transcends any single author. Perhaps it’s meant to evoke our collective human journey toward understanding the unknown." I have to laugh....it sure backs up your point about "revelatory mystery."
It is from an old copy of The Cloud of Unknowing - buried in a box now in my office.