reading from defenders meeting
"In The Beginning" reading from meeting on 3/16/09
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Today at 12:35pm | Edit Note | Delete
A reading of "In the Beginning" by Alan Jones, retired Dean of Grace Cathedral, from his book Reimagining Christianity...
IN THE BEGINNING before there were any beginnings and endings, there was no place that was not already God. And we call this unimaginable openness, Ain Soph: beginning without end. Then came the urge to give life to our world and to us. But there was no place that was not already God. So Ain Soph breathed in to make room, like a father steps back so his child will walk up to him. Into the emptiness Ain Soph set vessels and began to fill them with divine light, as a mother places bowls in which to pour her delicious soup. As the light poured forth a perfect world was being created.
Think of it! A world without greed and cruelty and violence! But then something happened. The bowls shattered. No one knows why. Perhaps the bowls were too frail? Perhaps the light was too intense? Perhaps Ain Soph was learning. Almost no one makes perfect the first time. And with the shattering of the bowls, divine sparks flew everywhere! Some went rushing back to Ain Soph, some failing, falling, trapped in the broken shards to become our world and us.
Though this is hard to believe, the perfect world is all around us, but broken into jagged pieces, like a puzzle thrown to the floor, the picture lost, each peace without meaning, until someone puts them back together again. We are that someone. There is no one else. We are the ones who can find the broken pieces, remember how they fit together and rejoin them.
This is the repairing of the world ... the mending of creation in every moment, with every act, we can heal the world and us. We are all holy sparks dulled by separation.
But when we meet and talk and eat and make love, when we work and play and disagree with holiness in our eyes, seeing Ain Soph everywhere, then our brokenness will end, and our bowls will be strong enough to hold the light, and our light will be gentle enough to fill the bowls. As we repair the world together, we will learn that there is no place that is not God!
Share
Today at 12:35pm | Edit Note | Delete
A reading of "In the Beginning" by Alan Jones, retired Dean of Grace Cathedral, from his book Reimagining Christianity...
IN THE BEGINNING before there were any beginnings and endings, there was no place that was not already God. And we call this unimaginable openness, Ain Soph: beginning without end. Then came the urge to give life to our world and to us. But there was no place that was not already God. So Ain Soph breathed in to make room, like a father steps back so his child will walk up to him. Into the emptiness Ain Soph set vessels and began to fill them with divine light, as a mother places bowls in which to pour her delicious soup. As the light poured forth a perfect world was being created.
Think of it! A world without greed and cruelty and violence! But then something happened. The bowls shattered. No one knows why. Perhaps the bowls were too frail? Perhaps the light was too intense? Perhaps Ain Soph was learning. Almost no one makes perfect the first time. And with the shattering of the bowls, divine sparks flew everywhere! Some went rushing back to Ain Soph, some failing, falling, trapped in the broken shards to become our world and us.
Though this is hard to believe, the perfect world is all around us, but broken into jagged pieces, like a puzzle thrown to the floor, the picture lost, each peace without meaning, until someone puts them back together again. We are that someone. There is no one else. We are the ones who can find the broken pieces, remember how they fit together and rejoin them.
This is the repairing of the world ... the mending of creation in every moment, with every act, we can heal the world and us. We are all holy sparks dulled by separation.
But when we meet and talk and eat and make love, when we work and play and disagree with holiness in our eyes, seeing Ain Soph everywhere, then our brokenness will end, and our bowls will be strong enough to hold the light, and our light will be gentle enough to fill the bowls. As we repair the world together, we will learn that there is no place that is not God!