Hear the Ancient Wisdom. Charles Ringma
God’s presence everywhere working unseen and mysteriously to sustain, renew, and bring goodness and love.
We will need new eyes of faith to see such things. But the biblical story and the inspiration of the Spirit can give us such a new vision. And such a vision can provide a new impetus to the contemporary church in its witness to the world.
Thought
If God is not nowhere, then God is everywhere.
Matthew 6:9–10
January 21
Kingdom and Spirituality
When the church and the kingdom of God have been confused with each other then the church has received too much power and the church has been tempted to bring in the kingdom by human means. But the kingdom or reign of God is always first and foremost the presence and action of God in the world.
Florentius Radewijns, one of the key leaders of the Brethren of the
Common Life, stated: “Our aim and final destination is the Kingdom of God. The road which leads to that goal is purity of heart.”21
In this statement, the connection is made between personal and communal spirituality and the in-breaking kingdom of God. While our spirituality is not the ground of the kingdom, it is the fruit of the reign of God. And such fruit brings goodness wherever it is manifested.
An inner life devoted to prayer and the presence of God is a life marked by the kingdom and as such is a life that opens the door for being a servant of the kingdom that expresses the way of Christ rather than the way of the world.
Purity of heart opens the way for God’s love and justice to be
manifested in life-giving and empowering ways rather than the processes of manipulation. Such a purity of heart is to will one thing, that God may be manifested and glorified amongst us.
Reflection
To force the kingdom of God undoes the very nature of the reign of God. To pray for the kingdom is the way of peace. And to serve the kingdom is to follow Christ’s way in the world. This way brings forgiveness, healing, and justice.
James 3:17–18
January 22
The Praxis of Knowledge
Knowledge is never something neutral. Knowledge has
consequences. It calls us to responsibility and action. It calls us to be what we know and to do what we must.
In the West we have a tendency to separate things. Theory and practice often are not held together. Knowing and doing are frequently separated. Even emotion, passion, and wisdom are placed in separate boxes.
In the biblical story, it is all quite different. We learn, not so much about a God who thinks, but about a God who acts. In fact, we know the thoughts of God in and through the acts of God. God’s being is seen in his redemptive love and actions. We know God best through what he does.
And so it must be with us. The important theme in the biblical story is about a love that issues in action: care, support, mercy, and justice. The love of heart becomes the love of the hand in action.
The church Father Diadochus understood these things. He wrote: “Woe to the knowledge that does not turn to loving.”22
Knowledge can be used and misused in many ways. It can be
misused as a form of power that excludes others. But it can be a positive force when it issues in care for the other. To truly know is to care and this leads to love in action.
Thought
When I really know I will also love. And what I truly love I will shelter, care for, and support.
Psalm 27:4
January 23
The Beauty of God
If we think about God at all, it is usually in terms of God’s helpfulness. And while we may also think of God’s greatness, we hardly ever think of God’s beauty.
St. Augustine makes a helpful connection between nature and the being of God. He writes: “Now all the things that thou hast made are fair, and yet, lo, thou who didst make all things art inexpressibly fairer.”23
God has left us with a variety of traces and symbols that may help us understand who God is. All of these point back to the nature of God.
There is the book of nature. There is the book of books: Holy Scripture. There is the Word made flesh: Jesus Christ. There is the work and witness of the church. There is the book of life in which we may also see the traces of God. And there is our own personal journey marked by God’s generous sustenance and interventions.
With the eyes of faith and with a prayerful heart we may see the signs of God in each of these ways. While Jesus Christ will always be the greater sign than the book of life, and Scripture is clearer about who God is than nature, we can see God is not only forgiving and loving, but also beautiful.
God’s beauty is in his creative power, redeeming grace, the fructifying work of the Spirit, the beauty of nature, human creativity, and in all the ways goodness and wholeness come to us and to our world.
Thought
Beauty and justice do belong together. A just world where goodness is for all, and not merely for some, is where shalom reigns. This is an expression of beauty.
Acts 17:28
January 24
God Our Being
Living the Christian life does have to do with participating in a range of spiritual practices and disciplines. And so we pray, partake of the sacraments, read Scripture, and so on. But more fundamental to all of these activities is the joy of God’s presence within us and in our world.
At the very heart of Christian experience lies a profoundly mystical
reality: God at work within us through the Holy Spirit. And to put that more strongly: God makes himself at home within us. This is the swan song of Immanuel—God with us.
This has two important dimensions. The first, God makes himself at home in making us in God’s own image. And this creative initiative is complemented by the redemption in Christ where the Trinity abides with us and in us.
Gregory of Nazianzus, in the light of the above, reminds us that “we ought to think of God even more often than we draw our breath.”24
This is possible not so much because we are so hard at work in
remembering, but because God is constantly at work within us. Our awareness comes from God’s presence.
Like a fountain bubbling upward from deep and sometimes seeming desert places, the Spirit is mysteriously sustaining us and calling us to greater spiritual attentiveness so that the life of God may spring up within us and amongst us.
Reflection
When God is at the depths of our being, all we do has the flavor of the Spirit. This is living a graced life.
1 Corinthians 13:3
January 25
Generosity
Christ has given his very life for the world. We are invited to receive the benefits that flow from this generous self-giving. But we are also invited to give our all for God’s purposes.
Christ’s great act of self-giving love invites us to give of ourselves as well. As we have generously received, so we also give. We do this in gratitude and love.
It is one thing to do this in the joy and enthusiasm of a new found faith. It is another to continue to live a life of generosity in the long journey of discipleship. Since this road is long and may be hard, fervor can easily weaken or dissipate altogether. And in the latter stages of life, we can so