An Afterword to All This, nd not my own...

Quotes from a book by Ken Gire called The Divine Embrace:

on the idea of how God speaks to each of us individually, as given metaphorically by the written Hebrew word:
The language of the OT is somewhat elusive because it was originally written only with consonants. The vowels, which were easily deduced by Hebrew readers, were omitted from the text. It wasn't until around A.D. 1000 that a group of Jewish scholars, known as the Masoretes, added vowels to the OT text. Even today, in most written Hebrew, such as a contemporary Jerusalem newspaper, the vowels are absent...
'Like the Hebrew alphabet,' Buechner writes, 'the alphabet of grace has no vowels, and in that sense his words to us are always veiled, subtle, cryptic, so that it is left to ourselves to delve their meaning, to fill in the vowels for ourselves by means of all the faith and imagination we can muster. God speaks to us in such a way, presumably, not because he chooses to be obscure but because, unlike a dictionary word whose meaning is fixed, the meaning of an incarnate word is the meaning it has for the one it is spoken to, the meaning that becomes clear and effective in our lives only when we ferret it out for ourselves.' " (pp.105-106)

on the ministry of Schweitzer, and how he dealt with the church in authority over his work condemning his doctrine:
"He went to Africa under the auspices of the conservative Missionary Society of Paris, but because of his theological views he agreed not to preach there but only to practice medicine. Years later, he told journalist Norman Cousins: 'I decided to make my life my argument. I would advocate the things I believed in terms of the life I lived and what I did.' (pp.154-155)

on the motivations that drive the likes of Pharisees and followers of Messiah:
"When our territory is threatened, a self-protective instinct rushes to suppress the threat. In the natural world, our competitive nature has helped us to survive. In the spiritual world, though, mere survival--whether it is the survival of a relationship or a business or a ministry or even of our physical existence--isn't the highest of heavenly concerns...John [the Baptist] knew he had been called to a dance, not a dance competition. "He must increase but I must decrease." John was so in tune with the divine orchestrations of events that he knew his place on the dance floor as well as the steps to the dance that God had ordained for him. And not one of those steps was a competitive one or even a self-protective one." (pp. 171-172)

on looking at the spiritual "last stand" of the martyr Ignatius:
"If Ignatius teaches us anything, it is this: The fear of criticism is silenced by falling in love. If we fall in love with Jesus, not only will nothing on this earth attract us, nothing on this earth will intimidate us." (p.177)

on the burdens unwelcome in the church of today, as quoted from Buechner's Whistling in the Dark:
Alcoholics Anonymous or A.A. is the name of a group of men and women who acknowledge that addiction to alcohol is ruining their lives. Their purpose in coming together is to give it up and help others do the same. They realize they can't pull this off by themselves. They believe they need each other, and they believe they need God. The ones who aren't so sure about God speak instead of their Higher Power...
Nobody lectures them, and they do not lecture each other. They simply tell their own stories with the candor that anonymity makes possible. They tell where they went wrong and how day by day they are trying to go right. They tell where they find the strength and understanding and hope to keep trying. Sometimes one of them will take special responsibility for another--to be available at any hour of the day or night if the need arises. There's not much more to it than that, and it seems to be enough. Healings happen. Miracles are made.
You can't help thinking that something like this is what the Church is meant to be and maybe once was before it got to be Big Business. Sinners Anonymous. 'I can will what is write but I cannot do it,' is the was Saint Paul put it, speaking for all of us. 'For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do' (Romans 7:18-19 RSV)...No matter what far place alcoholics end up in, either in this country or virtually anywhere else, they know that there will be an A.A. meeting nearby to go to and that at that meeting they will find strangers who are not strangers to help and to heal, to listen to the truth and to tell it. That is what the Body of Christ is all about.
Would it ever occur to Christians in a far place to turn to a Church nearby in hope of finding the same? Would they find it? If not, you wonder what is so Big about the Church's Business." (pp. 186-187)

...and on the why of this seemingly inevitable mutation that strikes almost every God-movement collectively claimed and named by men--why do they forget what drove their first love, the deep-knowing that Jesus came not for the healthy but for those needing a physician? In a word: perfectionism. A quote from Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.
I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each steppingstone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it. (p.180)

...so in light of all this, how do we pray? Gire closes the book with this reader's prayer:

Thank You, Lord Jesus,
Thank you for calling my name, extending your hand and inviting me
not only to be with you but to partner with you
in the work you are doing in the world.
How honored I feel that you not only want to dine with me
but also to dance with me.
Take my hand and draw me into the divine embrace.
In that embrace, help me to see myself not through my own eyes
but through yours.
Help me not to worry about my feet or wonder about the steps ahead
but merely to feel the music, fall into your arms, and follow your lead.
Thank you for all the places you are wanting to take me,
for all the things you are wanting to show me there and to tell me there.
I love the way you love me.
Strong and wild. Slow and easy. Heart and soul. So completely.
I love the feel of your name on my lips.
Jesus.
I is a beautiful name. No, it is the most beautiful name.
For all the longings I have for you, and for everything that stirs those longings,
I thank you.
I do love you so much. I long to love you even more.
Even more.
Help me to love you the way you deserve to be loved,
the way your Father loves you.
Like you are to him, I pray that you would be the delight of my life.
I pray that you would become my deepest hunger and my most satisfying food,
my most intense thirst and my most refreshing drink.
I know that if I just catch the slightest glimpse of your face
or hear the most distant echo of your voice that I will love you more.
So I ask for eyes to see all that in some way reflects you and ears to hear
all that in someway speaks of you.
I pray I could love you more each day than I did the day before
until, at last, metaphor becomes reality,
when I will see you face-to-face,
fall into your arms,
and dance!