just kill time until death, but offers a way to live well.25
Musings from Hither and Yon
What is education (real learning) anyway?
Education has always been defined as the development of certain capacities (for example, critical thinking and the tolerance of ambiguity) that allow the educated person to live more productively and at peace in a complex and demanding world.26
The reason school is never out and we remain students all our lives is that learning is not a matter of simply coming to answers about the questions life offers. It means using critical thinking (in extremely short supply in the present culture) to enable us to find a way to live “in a complex, demanding, and ever-changing world.”
Followers of the Way are those who are supposed to be able to see things in a different way, who have a new perspective on life and its difficulties. I thought the idea was an original one, but I have discovered that many others have made the same suggestion:
(In the second half of life) the Eight Beatitudes speak to you much more than the Ten Commandments now. I have always wondered why people never want to put a stone monument of the Eight Beatitudes on the courthouse lawn.27
My take on the answer to this question is that the Beatitudes are much more demanding than the list of commandments (in the original Hebrew known as “The Ten Words”). When you read Matthew 5-7 you quickly discover that Jesus’ Way is much more than a list of rules; it is an entirely new way to see ourselves in this world and requires constant re-evaluation and critical thinking. School is never out when the Beatitudes become your directive for the Christian life.
This may be too much for some to take.
Authentic spirituality wants to open us to truth — whatever truth may be, wherever truth may take us. Such a spirituality does not dictate where we must go, but trusts that any path walked with integrity will take us to a place of knowledge. Such a spirituality encourages us to welcome diversity and conflict, to tolerate ambiguity, and to embrace paradox. By this understanding, the spirituality of education is not about dictating ends. It is about examining and clarifying the inner sources of teaching and learning, ridding us of the toxins that poison our hearts and minds.28
Parker Palmer is one of my favorite authors — a Quaker who offers me a way to find many truths that give my faith new depth. He offers again those challenging words: diversity, conflict, ambiguity, paradox. I am convinced that any mature spirituality will embrace these words. The Pharisees Jesus had a problem with were those who had eliminated them from their faith-stance and had no room for anyone who colored outside the lines of their narrow orthodoxy. (It should be remembered that not all Pharisees rejected the teaching of Jesus.)
When Jesus announced he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life, it sent those who decided to follow him on a new path into the discovery of new truths — many times an enlargement of truths they already held. My seeking of truth wherever it might lead has not brought me to a rejection of the basic tenants of my faith but an enlargement and flexibility that I did not find in my early church experience. Unfortunately, I now view that experience as one that was “signed, sealed, and delivered” with no tampering allowed. Certainly, no challenging questions allowed. If the goal is to eliminate diversity, conflict, ambiguity, and paradox from your faith it will mean a closing off to further exploration and discovery. Jesus’ promise of the coming Holy Spirit (His Spirit, God’s Spirit) was the promise of one who would lead into larger truth that at the time his disciples were not equipped to handle. Palmer’s book describes just how challenging some of that new truth was as the Good News made its way into the Gentile world.
It remains a challenge for me to put these into daily practice.
Response takes time, reaction is instantaneous.
So, the trick is to raise your consciousness from the lowest to the highest level of awareness no matter what is going on around you. Remember, reactions are instinctive, responses are thought out. That is, thoughts pushed forward.29
Much too often in my pastoral experience, I found myself reacting instead of responding. I found myself getting on the defensive instead of listening to a complaint to discover if there might be something I needed to work on. Much of this reaction was based on some past experiences that had not been worked though. It is so much easier to react because no thinking is required. (The thinking comes later when we try to figure out how to deal with a situation our reactions have made much worse.)
When James and John asked Jesus if he wanted them to call down fire on a Samaritan village that had refused him hospitality, it was a simple knee-jerk reaction. (I always wondered if this was in their power to accomplish). Jesus’ response was a thoughtful, “Let’s just go on to another village” (Luke 9:51f.).
The nickname “Sons of Thunder” already told us much about James and John. They had no idea that Jesus’ ministry was eventually going to include these despised Samaritans. You wonder why their listening to Jesus’ teaching had not brought them any further along. It is evident they had a long way to go. Question: Can I see myself in James and John? You know the answer to that!
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
1 What disturbed you most in this chapter and why do you think this was so?
2 Do you think that most of us have any idea of just how much more truth the Spirit of Jesus has for us?
3 Why do you think most of us are so uncomfortable with diversity, conflict, ambiguity, conflict, and paradox?
20 Tia Powell, Dementia Reimagined: Building a Life of Joy and Dignity from Beginning to End (New York: Avery, 2019), 2.
21 Ibid, 5.
22 Ibid, 138.
23 Ibid, 156.
24 Ibid, 172.
25 Ibid, 222.
26 Parker J. Palmer, To Know As We Are Known (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), xviii.
27 Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011), 119.
28 Parker Palmer, To Know As We Are Known, xi.
29 Neale Donald Walsch, When Everything Changes Change Everything (Ashland, OR: EmNin Books, 2009), 84-85.
Chapter 4:
Our Humanity
May Not Be Such
A Bad Thing
After All
Nothing is more incredible than the incarnation.
John
