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changeset 119:3658b1fa657e

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as sent to The Friend
author ht
date Wed, 13 Dec 2017 12:13:58 -0500
parents bbda1b9895b2
children 191550c1e091
files but_a_way.xml
diffstat 1 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) [+]
line wrap: on
line diff
--- a/but_a_way.xml	Tue Dec 12 11:44:07 2017 -0500
+++ b/but_a_way.xml	Wed Dec 13 12:13:58 2017 -0500
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  <head>
   <title>Not a notion but a way</title>
   <author>Henry S. Thompson</author>
-  <date>11 Dec 2017</date>
+  <date>13 Dec 2017</date>
  </head>
  <body>
   <div>
@@ -87,7 +87,44 @@
   </div>
   <div>
    <title>And this [we know] experimentally</title>
-   <p>So, what's the problem?  </p>
+   <p>But, what does that have to do with us, you may well ask? All that old
+language may be all very well, and give us a warm feeling of in-group-ness when
+we hear it, but what does it actually amount to here and now? It may be
+interesting in an intellectual sense to hear that historical Christianity and
+contemporary Judaism were/are founded on practice, but we're not about water
+baptism or attending Mass or circumcision keeping kosher.  What's so special
+about Meeting for Worship that it can sustain us in unity, preserve the
+effectiveness of our business method and allow our disagreements about belief
+language to be recognised without fear?</p>
+   <p>It's simple, readlly.  In Meeting for Worship, on a good day, we
+experience two things:  a presence and a possibility.  That's why we keep
+coming back, because at some level we know we need to keep having that experience.</p>
+   <p>What presence?  The technical term for it is 'transcendence'. We're not very good at talking about it.  We refer to a
+"gathered" meeting.  We say "Meeting for Worship is not just meditation".  We
+know it when it happens.  It's
+elusive, and if we try to pin it down we lose it, that feeling that we are
+joined with one another into something more than just our physical co-location.
+Accepting that it is "not just me" isn't easy in the resolutely individualistic
+culture we live in today, but if there is one item of faith we
+<emph>must</emph> confess, at least to one another, it is the truth of that
+experience, joining with and encouraged by 350 years of history and hundreds of
+Meetings around the world today.</p>
+   <p>What possibility?  The technical term for it is 'immanence'.  We see and
+hear it in the witness of those around
+us: the possibility of living an inspired life.  We <emph>recognise</emph> it
+most vividly in Meeting for Worship, when we hear authentic ministry, 'authentic' because it comes from someone
+we know is speaking as they live.  It cannot be be faked, it is unmistakeble,
+terrifying and uplifting in equal measure.  It
+calls us to what we aspire to.  It is at once daunting (how can I possibly do
+what they do) and reassuring (it is possible).  These are not celebrities or
+distant missionaries, they are each <emph>one of us</emph>.</p>
+   <p>Whole books have been written about both of these, I have barely scratched
+the surface.  My point is simply that <emph>this</emph> is what we need most to
+be talking about, and we don't need to agree about the <emph>words</emph> in
+order to get started, we just have to acknowledge that there is a shared
+<emph>experience</emph> that matters, deeply, to us, and that its reality and
+its significance are <emph>not</emph> compromised by our unsatisfactory
+attempts to talk about it.</p>
   </div>
   <div>
    <title>There's nothing wrong with talking about belief</title>