SEPTEMBER 8 2018
MY STRUGGLE
I grew up in a time in the Netherlands when all facets of my family life were ruled by RELIGION: I attended Christian schools on all levels. My father was a member of a Christian Political Party, then in power. My mother attended meetings of the Christian Women Association. My older brother played on a Christian Soccer Team. We read a Christian Daily Newspaper. Everything was Christian, Christian Radio, Christian …. You name it.
That same mentality was still alive and well among the thousands of Dutch immigrants, I among them, who arrived on Canada’s shores in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.
In 1955 we moved from Hamilton to St. Catharines, then a hotbed of that sort of thinking thanks to some leading figures there, such as Marinus Koole and Dr. Paul Schrotenboer, our minister, American by birth. Every week I met with a group to study the philosophy of Dooyeweerdt, a Free University (Amsterdam) professor, whose book was incomprehensible. Never mind. Also I was among the scores of young adults attending the Unionville conferences, where enthusiasm for a new approach to Christian thinking was invigorating.
I soon got involved in the Christian School Movement, functioning for 6 years as the secretary of both the board of Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools, and the local Christian School (1959-65). When in 1965 2,500 Christian Reformed young people from all over the USA and Canada came to a Young Peoples’ Convention in Niagara Falls, I chaired the committee organizing this huge 4 day event.
Always the activist, I was an elder in the Christian Reformed Church and, when we moved to Tweed, also in the Presbyterian Church, at one time chairing the regional assembly of their churches, the so-called Presbytery, for 2 years, and becoming the convener of the National Board of Trustees for 4 years, overseeing the denominational finances and pension funds.
Disillusioned?
Today I am not so sure any more about the merits of all these bodies. My outlook has changed, and I sense that stagnation has affected most Christian enterprises. So what’s lacking?
I believe it is the overall religious outlook that is missing. The late Dr. Evan Runner, Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Mich., some decades ago, coined the phrase LIFE IS RELIGION, a state that has been the norm from time immemorial.
Recently I started to read THE ILIAD by Homer, a 2500 year old 600 page Greek story, all about Helen and Troy, about Agamemnon and Achilles and, of course, Odysseus and the gods, oh my, all sorts of them: the book is saturated with religion.
I love the books by Tony Hillerman as he describes the goings on in Navajo country in New Mexico and Arizona, everything ensconced in religious symbols, so typical of most aboriginal life.
The Middle Ages were that too. Dr. Johan Huizinga starts his classic THE WANING OF THE MIDDLE AGES as follows: (As I only have the 1972, 50th anniversary edition in Dutch, HERFTTIJ DER MIDDELEEUWEN, here is my translation),
“When the world was 500 years younger (now 600 years), life’s happenings were much more sharply delineated than today. Between suffering and elation, between natural disasters and happiness, the distance seemed much greater than is the case now. Whatever people then experienced, it still had that quality of immediacy and finality, comparable to the joy and sadness so typical of children. Every expression of life’s happenings, every action was accompanied by highly expressive religious rituals, had the value and symbols of a strict and enduring lifestyle. Big events such as birth, marriage, death, because they were seen as fundamental, were anchored and shrouded in divine mystery. But also the less momentous occasions, a voyage, a certain undertaking, or simply a visit, were accompanied by an untold number of blessings, ceremonies, proverbs, and traditional formulations.”
The Middle Ages were so unlike today. Then “Religion” included every action, every movement. Today the connotation “Religious” suffers from negative overtones, such as anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-earth, anti-almost everything, but pro-heaven, pro-Trump, pro-gun and pro- economic growth.
We no longer are awed by anything, and with that lack of reverence, God too is gone, banned from his very own earth. Where not too long ago moving to a new continent meant parting for life, today we routinely travel to the ends of the earth as easily as visiting a neighbor – if we still do that.
God – religion – is reserved for an hour on Sunday, with only a minute portion of the population in attendance, usually old traditionalists and often fervent heaven-believers.
Will the church survive?
It’s difficult for the church today. The sex scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, and the division there between progressives- the Pope- and conservatives – the Curia – is out in the open. Also the entire religious spectrum has to compete with 24/7 TV ads, offering a much more attractive picture, while daily life is so busy that there is no time for reflection. Today conformity reigns.
Pope Francis again.
His visit to Ireland kindled all these reflections. There, once a bastion of Roman Catholic thinking, the Pope received a cold reception, greeted with jeers. How have times changed! Not so long ago Ireland was the most Catholic of all catholic nations. Not so long ago I was the most active of all active Christians. And how have I changed!
All inclusive.
In my church, St. Andrew’s Tweed, hangs a large Celtic cross crafted by one of our parishioners. The orb, the circle at the centre of the cross, is said to represent the globe, expressing the desire to hold together the revelation of God in creation and the revelation of God in the Scriptures. The cross, of course, represents Jesus’ sacrificial death to regain creation. Together they reflect the practice of listening for the living Word in nature as well as in the Bible.
That God is present in all creation was certainly the conviction of the ninth-century philosopher, John Scotus Eriugena, perhaps the greatest teacher of the Celtic branch of the church ever produced. His name simply means John, the Scotsman from Ireland.
He taught that Christ moves among us in two shoes, as it were, one shoe being that of Creation, the other that of the Scriptures, and stressed the need to be as alert and attentive to Christ moving among us in creation as we are to the voice of Christ in the Scriptures. One of his prayers was, “Show to us that in everything we touch, in every one we meet we see your presence.”
The basic goodness in creation is a special feature of Celtic Christianity. Says the Irish John: “God’s divine goodness is the essence of the whole universe and its substance. Evil is opposed to the existence of creation and where goodness is creative, evil is destructive.”
As so often happens in the church, true reformers and true radicals are not tolerated by the ecclesiastical authorities. I know that feeling. In 1225 the main writings of John the Irishman, were condemned by the Pope and in 1685 they were placed on the Index, the papal list of forbidden writings. But the Celtic influence persisted. The people of the many islands off the Scottish coast, the Hebrides, living in isolation for centuries, retained much of the Celtic religion in their traditions.
My struggle.
My struggle is with my growing conviction that today God has ceased to speak, has ceased to be heard in the church, has ceased to have any influence in society on a general level, even though he still works in people’s hearts.
My struggle concerns my growing unease, perhaps sadness that the message of an all-inclusive faith is not getting through. With Elijah I too take comfort from 1 Kings 19: 18, “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel–all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”
The attitude of The Irish John and Celtic spirituality in general is diametrically opposed to the materialism we have in our world, shaped by gnostic Roman Catholic and Protestant dualism. The bible is very clear on this.
Take Colossians 1:15 -20, that beautiful passage exemplifies the Celtic Spirit more than any other. This is what verse 15 says: Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Jordan Peterson in his book “The Twelve Steps, an antidote to Chaos”, points to this passage. I believe that when God planned the creation, he started with duplicating himself in the form of Jesus Christ, in the form of a human being, the firstborn of all creation. We are his image: we look like Christ, created from the lowest material, the ‘Ur’ stuff of creation: clay. That’s why we must love The Earth.
Verse 16 continues in that vein: “For by Christ all things were created.” That makes “all things” HOLY! Celtic Religion saw it that way, but the church objected, even till today: hence my struggle. Doctrine, church dogma, human wisdom, became the measure of faith at the expense of creation. We now see the result. We see a world plagued with pollution, plagued with poverty, plagued with a plurality of pains.
Again the closeness to creation, but also the sense that Christ is in everything, including ourselves, based on this very bible passage in Col.1:19, where it says that God was pleased to have all God’s fullness dwell in Jesus. Celtic confession states that,
Christ be with me, Christ within me
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
Celtic Christianity does not see a gap between heaven and earth, no, the two are seen as inseparably intertwined.
A long time ago the now defunct Presbyterian Record had a review on a book called: “The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christians can reach the West.”
The author outlines five proven Celtic Church practices he believes are needed today.
(1) We need to move from the ‘lone ranger’ approach in the church, where the minister is the all and in all, to partnership forms of ministry.
(2) We must create ‘neo-monastic church communities’ as places of formation for modern Christians.
I know that this is difficult in our subdivided world, where each is on his/her own in our own dwelling. Monastic means communal living, as in a convent or monastery, but then for families. It is something that need to be explored and, who knows, the future may impose this sort of living on us. Curiously in the October 9 2003 issue of the New York Review of Books, discussing Father and Son McNeil’s book, The Human Web, the authors recommend the formation of primary communities, ”Religious sects and congregations are the principal candidates for this role.”
(3) We must develop imaginative/ contemplative prayer patterns.
I have been a member of our prayer group for years and recommend this.
(4) Practice open and full hospitality as our prime response to those who are seeking.
We are all very private people and not prone to open our houses and hearts to others. In our busyness, we think we have no time for this.
(5) Rediscover that belonging comes before believing for those new to the faith.
These are new times.
We see every day what the current way of Christianity is bringing to the world: destruction and pollution.
The Celtic cross expresses this plainly. The orb, the circle at the centre of the cross represents the world, and expresses the desire to hold together the revelation of God in creation and the revelation of God in scriptures.
The Good News is that this evil world, now dominated by, yes, The Evil One, (see 1 John 5: 19), is about to undergo a metamorphosis – a total radical change. Only those who equally undergo a METANOIA – a total change of mind – a mentality that recognizes AND implements a life that, in principle, resembles life in eternity, will inherit the new earth: the meek, those who live simple lives, will inherit the earth. (Psalm 37: 11)
Sadly, I see little or no signs that this is happening on a communal level, which makes me echo Jesus’ words: Luke 18: 8, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”