Meditation suggestion:
Meditation is a way of being reconnected to the creativity that is deep within us. Find a quiet place to sit comfortably. Repeat silently the words from Psalm 104: “You ride on the wings of the wind.” Consider breathing out as you say the words, addressing God who dwells at the heart of your life and all of life. As you breathe in and feel your body expanding, be aware of creative energies opening up. Allow images of wind and wildness to be recalled. After 15 minutes, consider 5 minutes of prayer concluding with the Lord’s prayer.
the following is from the translation found in Celtic Benediction:
On the second day the storm kept stirring. It was the wind of new beginnings. God was
saying, “let there be a space for creation.” And the wind carved out a hollow in the deep
waters. It was a cradle for life. Above, beneath and on every side of it were the everlasting
waters. God saw that it was good. It was a place for birth and abundance. And there was
evening and morning, creation’s second day. La palabra de Dios. Te escuchamos, O Dios.
Chapter 2 - Day 2 (Much of what is sighted here is adapted or directly quoted ...without “proper citation” from Newell’s book: The Book of Creation...sorry Philip)
Genesis 1: 6-8 - (as Translated by J. Philip Newell)
On the second day the storm kept stirring. It was the wind of new beginnings. God was
saying, “let there be a space for creation.” And the wind carved out a hollow in the deep
waters. It was a cradle for life. Above, beneath and on every side of it were the everlasting
waters. God saw that it was good. It was a place for birth and abundance. And there was
evening and morning, creation’s second day. La palabra de Dios. Te escuchamos, O Dios.
Wild. When’s the last time you used the word wild....? In what context?
- to describe someone’s hair?
- a car ride
- a travel adventure
- a tatoo
- the behavior of a three year old?
- maybe you were just singing along to a song on the radio...
Believe it or not, Steppenwolf‘s not far from the mark of the aspect of Celtic spirituality we are going to talk about today...
This is week two of what will be our seven week look at Celtic spirituality, particularly as inspired by the seven days of Creation in Genesis 1,
And The book of J. Philip Newell entitled: The Book of Creation: An Introduction to Celtic Spirituality. will be our guide
I met Philip Newell about 4 years ago, and was immediately impressed by his work...
- an evangelist of Celtic Christianity which has come out of primarily the Islands of Great Britian, he hopes to offer a different perspective of Christianity from the the more influential theologies of Rome and Western Europe,
- He believes it is necessary and helpful
And in reading, talking with, and hearing Newell, I found that he’s onto something..
the Celtic perspective a breath of fresh air in my own faith seeking understanding.
Today’s focus is just another example as to why.
Last week, day 1, God spoke light into existence, a light within, over, behind, beyond all things. The light that shines from all of creation.
This week, Day 2 - Wildness of God.
How do the Celts get Wildness out of Day 2?
Before there was light, there were the dark mysterious waters of God.
The spirit or breath of God - ruah is the Hebrew word - hovers over the water like a fantastic bird -- A wild wind carrying life of the universe in its wings.
Into the waters that enfold all things a dome of space and time is created.
Like a womb of life...In it all that is to be created will appear...
All that is born in this dome of life has its beginning in the Infinite.
“If the ‘first day’ of creation is compared to the cosmic burst of light at life’s initial moment, the ‘second day’ can be viewed as the ongoing explosion of elemental particles hurtling through space.”
Not the typical the neat and tidy images we’ve had previously....
mighty creative energy from which the matter of life comes forth,--- flung almost discardedly across space.
An image of overwhelming power and expansiveness,
which seems to fit a well with what we know of space, time, and matter....
With these images in mind, the Celtic tradition has developed a strong sense of the wildness of God.
When’s the last time you described God as wild? Ever?
Sometimes when we pray we address God with some kind of descriptive title...
Dear God, Holy God, Loving God.... try, Wild God.
The Celts say: God’s wildness is unrestrainable...like nature herself.
Think of your most vivid memories of the wildness of nature....
- standing in the strong current of a river
- driving in a hail storm
- getting almost knocked over by the wind
- sitting among the blazing aspen leaves in the fall...
But, we’ve done a good job of shielding ourselves...for the most part, from nature’s wildness.
No one here froze last night as temperatures dropped...
There used to be many brown bears in this region...too wild...done away with
Have we shielded ourselves well from the wildness of God as we play church?
Annie Dillard thinks so...She says:
“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so [casually] invoke?
Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?
The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.
It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church;
we should all be wearing crash helmets.
Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.
For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense,
….or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. ”
Wild
In meditating on the mighty wind of the first chapter of Genesis one man saw the roof of his church being blown off.
How does our architecture or church operations reflect God’s wildness?
Solid walls to shield us.
Straight back pews and an ordered bulletin to keep us in line.
A Church constitution (Book of Order) that speaks of things done “decently and in order …”
I doubt the word WILD appears in the book of order.
Is it any wonder why so many mainline and historical churches with mantras of decently and in order, and well defined doctrines and creeds, continue to see a decline in participation and become more and more irrelevant in the world...
Where is the room for the holy spirit to hover over the spiritual vitality within each and every one of us...?
What if there were no pews, but instead movable chairs and couches in this space?
What if there were paintings on these white walls of the stories of Scripture??
What if there were even stained glass?
The wildness of the mystery of God is uncontainable.
True worship of God cannot be contained within the four walls of a sacred building...
in case anyone made that claim recently.
And taking it to another dimension, true worship of God is not restricted to the boundaries of any religious tradition.
The early people of Israel were discouraged even forbidden from building permanent structures for the worship of God...
instead they erected stones, or in some cases tents or booths.
The early Celtic Church worshipped and prayed under the open skies...
with high-standing crosses marking gathering places to serve as focal points of contemplation.
Crosses were situated in wild, exposed sites...
Earth, sea and sky, rather than enclosed sanctuaries, were the temple of God....
A friend will often say that he is going to worship god in the great cathedral of the outdoors...And I have no doubt that there in the wild-er-ness
he encounters God .... wildness...
.. and the wildness within ourselves?
Were we born to be wild?
Have you had moments when you felt a surging of wild swirling of energies.
Desires, emotions, creative urges suddenly surge from our depths like whilrwinds.
Is the wildness within something we need to guard against or seek shelter from? Is it something to be feared? Has it been subdued?
Well, some of the most terrible violence in our world we might call part of wildness rearing her ugly head.
And what about when we, in our own relationships, experience an eruption, something uncontrollable comes forth--we feel like we’re outside of ourselves--and has led us down a destructive path...
Anyone know what I’m talking about or is it just me?
Those “born to be wild” are a threat, ultimately harmful, and need to be contained or suppressed, including the wildness which exists in our own being...
Remember the book, where the wild things are? Max, the wild child, was sent to his room without supper because he was being WILD!
Consider even those more spiritual charateristics of our faith we constantly seek...
the gifts of peace and calm for our souls...
What would it be like to pray for wildness in one’s heart?
We know wildness can be destructive.
But, what the Celts want to also lift up is the wildness that is at the heart of creativity.
If channeled creatively the wildness within gives rise to artistic expression,
- to action for justice,
- it makes us feel alive in new ways,
- and open to new relationships and ideas.
From a spiritual perspective, the Celts worry that denial of the wildness within...
can lead to a further sense of unsettling,
which will turn to destructive or apathetic rather than creative energy.
Whether emotionally or sexually or artistically,
when fear of wildness suppresses the energies in us that have their origin in the wildness of God, they will be turned into forces of death rather than vitality.
Death as in apathy, meaning I no longer am willing to put energy into bringing about good...
Or even at another level, death as in violence... seeking to harm.
The Book of Genesis suggests all things are born out of the wild wind that swept over the face of the waters. And imagine that very spirit moving over the “turbulent waters of our lives.” With turbulence comes creativity...it can be at those most difficult turbulent moments of our lives when something beautiful within us - a poem, a song, a desire to reach out-- emerges.
Creativity seems to surges out of unordered energy rising from the unknown depths within.
And Newell says, “To be aware of creation’s power and natural wildness is a grace that can help us recover the depths of wild creative energies that are within us as well.”
The strength from a passion or emotion like anger, like the strength of a storm, can be destructive. With anger there is power for evil, but there is also power for good.
And this is true of any deep emotion or passion.
Newell wants to be clear: giving place to a wild energy from within ourselves is not about lawless self-will. It is not about doing whatever we please.
Doesn’t that make you feel a little better about this wild concept?
Wild energy is about obeying a law planted deep in our nature, made as we are in the image of the wild One.
And the story of Jesus portrays him as
- being angry at injustice in the temple,
- aggressively condemning hypocrites,
- woefully weeping at the death of his friend Lazarus,
Wild energies within us can lead us to something radical: loving service in the world.
The Celts encourage us to search deep within for the Mystery that is deep within creation, while at the same time infinitely other than anything we can know or name.
We find ourselves lead into wild and untamed places within ourselves as well as within nature.
I want to close by sighting some wild, and therefore less familiar passages of scripture:
Rev 10:1-4
The One who is the Alpha and the Omega speaks in the book of Revelation:
of a mighty angel coming down from heaven (think of the dome separating the waters below from the waters above)
The angel is wrapped in a cloud...,
a rainbow over his head;
his face was like the sun,
his legs like pillars of fire.
he gave a great shout, like a lion roaring.
And when he shouted, the seven thunders sounded.
that’s wild!
Rev 1:14-16
the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest.
His head and his hair were white as white wool;
his eyes were like a flame of fire,
his feet were like burnished bronze
his voice was like the sound of many waters.
from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword,
his face was like the sun shining with full force.
That’s wild!
Jesus came with a passion of love to bring fire to the earth (Lk 12:49)...and in his body and blood...and in his defeat of death through resurrection life
is the wildness of God.
That’s wild.
What are some of the wild ways God may be calling us to live...
Never gonna die!
Blessing:
THINE BE the might of the river,
Thine be the might of ocean,
The might of victory on the field.
Thine be the might of fire,
Thine be the might of element
The might of the love on high.