14 December, 2013

Christmas Reflection - Time for Change

The Christian season of Advent is the beginning of the Christian year and it leads us up to Christmas. This is really like a New Year’s season for Christians which then leads on to the time of New Year.   It is customary for people to resolve to make ‘new year resolutions’.  These normally involve changes at the personal and relationship levels. For many, and I normally count myself in this number, the making of resolutions is undertaken with sincerity and some confidence, which very often ‘melts away’ as the New Year turns into spring. I am reminded of a paraphrase by the Christian Author Anthony De Mello. He was commenting on the tenuous nature of many resolutions. He remarked

 I can make my  New Year resolutions ‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’ but as time goes on these lapse and my life returns to ‘ ‘As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen’ 

So to return to Advent and to Christmas and  its  possible meaning both for myself and others, regardless of their Faith Tradition. What bearing could this have on my spiritual relationship with God and others?  For Christians, Advent is an important Season. It is  a time of preparation and reflection for Christmas, the Christian celebration of the birth (as a human) of Jesus the Christ. What could this mean for and how could  this help me on my spiritual journey and in all my relationships? Relationships are encounters between the ‘other’ and ‘me’, or as Martin Buber, the Jewish Philosopher , suggests  between the I  and the Thou. Therefore any reflection on my relationship with God (by whatever name I call She, He or It) involves my reflecting on my understanding of the I and the Thou. If, as I believe, that one of the main outcomes of His life was to set an example of  how to relate to others and to the God he called Abba , then how could this assist me in my relationships ?  How could it assist me in my relationship with God?

 But who or what is this ‘God’ that I claim to profess? Thomas Aquinas, arguably one of the greatest Christian Theologians, wrestled with this question when reflecting on the nature of the Trinity. This is an important Christian understanding  on the nature of the God and of relationship. Aquinas suggests three ways of ‘knowing’ God; God in Creation, God in the history of peoples and God as Unknowable or as Mystery.  The first two of these, creation and God in history, are open to our time-space understanding and the last of these, God as “mystery’ we can only get fleeting glimpses of. 


Now, we live in time and space and a dynamic cosmos, where everything is subject to change. Therefore, the ‘knowledge’ I have of God is mainly in this sphere and my relationship with this ‘God’ is subject to dynamic change. This is the first of many paradoxes. My relationship with the ‘Unchanging Reality’ is changing and therefore so is my relationship with Jesus the Christ.  Yet, when growing up, I was taught that this is an unchanging relationship and that the ‘truths’ of Advent and of the story of Jesus are unchanging. At one level this may be so but at another level this did not help me to grow in my understanding of my ever changing relationship with God. Anyway, scripture is merely a record of peoples experience and understanding of God but it is not God and each generation is challenged to understand scripture in the context of their understanding of God in Creation and in their history as well as their personal experience of the Unknowable Mystery. To relate to ‘God’ as Mystery requires each of us to get in touch with our inherent ability to find our own Inner Mystic.

Over a period of decades Satsang Member have listened to many  talks by  Sister Ishpriya on this topic . Her teaching and talks often address the mystic inside all of us and how the recent changes in our understanding of creation, the cosmos and ourselves require us to re-assess our understanding of God. We live in unprecedented times, with exponential growth in our knowledge at both the macro and micro levels of creation and the cosmos. Our ideas and understanding of God are influenced by our knowledge of creation and our experience of God in our times. For example, when human beings understood their world to be a flat plate, then it may have made sense to believe in a God above in the heavens and an evil power below. However, in the light of our current understanding of an ever expanding cosmos and  the on-going creation at both macro and micro levels, then how could this change our understanding of God?

So this brings me back to Advent  and Christmas and my understanding of Jesus, whose birthday it asks us to prepare for. But this is not just a commemoration of something that happened 2000 years ago. No, for me, it must surely mean a reflection each year on what ‘re-birthing’ may occur in me as I re-assess my understanding of God and how that changes my understanding of Jesus the Christ and the meaning of his message for me in my life. So many of the Christmas Carols and hymns that we sing are based on an older understanding of God and Creation and , for me, fail to convey the dynamic nature of my relationship with God. Surely, we need to face Jesus as a Cosmic Christ and our part in God’s on-going co-creative plan and to  enable this ‘truth’ to be reflected in our communal worship ?  In addition, I feel that the message of Jesus needs to be regularly re-birthed in my heart. I am reminded of the following lines from a more modern Christian Hymn

This is our God, the Servant King.
He calls us now to follow Him.
To bring our lives as a daily offering.

NOTE I have highlighted the word ‘ Servant’ as  I feel the word King, with its imperialistic connotations, is in direct contradiction to the essence of the life and example of Jesus

However, notwithstanding the word ‘King’ , these words convey part of what, for me, is one of the ‘demands’ that Jesus the Christ makes of his followers and one that better reflects my understanding of God in Creation and in the current history of peoples. We are to be a servant people, to place loving, compassionate service (Seva) at the heart of our lives.


So Advent is a timely reminder of the need to re-assess our understanding of God and, for Christians, of the birth of Jesus and the message and example of his life and his relationship with God – The Mystery. It is a time to reflect on how that re-assessment might lead to ‘new year resolutions’ in our lives and on our spiritual journey. May the love and peace of Jesus fill our hearts and our home with true Christmas Joy this year and every year?

SATSANG MEETING - January 2014

SATSANG MEETING Sat 18th Jan 2014

CHANGE OF DATE

Our next Satsang Meeting will NOW take place on Sat 18th January at 

The Friends Meeting House
8b Summerfield Road 
Wolverhmpton
1.30 - 4.30 p.m