Seeking God 2008 (Revised 2012)
Seeking God

Men of Galilee, why are you gazing up into heaven?
 this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11)

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you;
 but if I depart, I will send him unto you. (John 16:7)

Ratzinger's Book All my life (and long before "fresh Expressions" of Church became fashionable) I have been seeking for a fresh expression of the Gospel which makes sense in the light of experience but remains true to the Bible and Tradition. Many more learned, holy and significant people than me have done so of course and I will recommend one from the top, as it were. Forty Years ago writing as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope wrote "An Introduction to Christianity". A friend discovered it and became entranced. He gave me and many other people a copy, but I am not going to quote it, I could not possibly do it justice. If you really want to understand the philosphy of Belief and the details  of the Creed then you must struggle with it yourself, because every paragraph is full of wonderful things. It has probably influenced what I write below, but what it really did was to give me the confidence to pursue my own agenda. One thing I will say to those who may remember the controversy surrounding Bishop Jenkins, the then Bishop of Durham. Had he and his critics read Ratzinger all could have been resolved amicably.

Jesus of Nazareth BookJesus of Nazareh BookMore recently His Holiness has written an easier to read book called simply Jesus of Nazareth. There are two volumes so far. The first covers the Baptism of Jesus up to His Transfiguration and the second continues from there through to the Cross and Resurrection. If you remember the Emmaus story at the end of Luke's Gospel where the Risen Christ "explained to them what was said about Himself in all the Sciptures beginning with the books of Moses  through to the writings of the Prophets  (Verse 27) and like me wished we could have a copy of what He said, then these books are to me pretty close. The Pope would dnot claim that but could claim that he does not gloss over the difficulties but recognises that Jesus is one speaking in riddles and parables. I shall allow myself one quote to give the flavour rather than substance:
Anyone approaching the Resurrection accounts in the belief that he knows what rising from the dead means will inevitably misunderstand those accounts and will then dismiss them as meaningless

Evangelicals would find little to challenge since the way they explain the Cross as Penal Substitution is to him Vicarious Atonement.
But they could learn much from his emphasis on the Eucharist.
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So what is wrong with the Gospel as it is preached by many churches especially the noisy ones?  It is all about how wonderful God is, together with what Jesus once did for us, whereas most people's experiences point in  the opposite direction. If there is a response at all from the Church, it is about sin and freewill and  basically it is all our fault and what we must do is read the Bible more and return to its principles. Another friend, to whom I have said God loves you, responds: He has a funny way of showing it. And he is right. We did not invent superbugs (or any bugs and viruses) nor earthquakes and it is grossly unfair that innocent, often vulnerable, people suffer because of the sins of others. So what did Jesus say?
  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation:
    but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

What did He mean? something like this poem perhaps and I set it alongside the 23rd Psalm, which everyone of my generation knew by heart.:

In His Steps

"The road is too rough, dear Lord," I cried,
             "There are stones that hurt me so."
"My child," He said, "I understand,
               I walked it  long ago."
"But there's a cool green path ahead,
              Let me walk  there for a time."
 "No child," He gently answered me,
             "The green   road does not climb."
"My burden," I cried, "is far too great.
              How can I  bear this load?"
"Dear One," said He, "I remember its weight
              I  carried my cross, you know."
"But," I said, "I wish there were friends with me,
             that would make their way my own."
"Oh yes," He said,
             "Gethsemane was hard to bear alone."
And so I climbed the stony path,
              Content at least  to know
That where the Master had not gone,
              I would not  have to go.
And strangely then I found new friends,
              my burdens grew less sore,
As I remembered long ago,
              He walked that way  before.

Olga J. Weiss
Psalm 23


1  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
            He leadeth me beside the still waters.

3  He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
            for His name’s sake.

4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
       I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me;
       Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.

5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
        Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
         and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Like most people, I have hithertoo thought of Psalm 23 mainly in terms of "green pastures" (see the page in the Temple), perhaps consigning the bit about the valley of the shadow to funerals after a "useful and honourable" lives. That is not, of course, what it says. What it is about is day to day living, overcast by shadows, when something awful might occur at any time. God is there with us and He has a staff to lean on and a rod to dispel the devil.  And the poem  suggests an answer to the question  Why? The attractive green path does not climb while the rough one does  and "climbing" is the object of life, seeking God with every step. As the first text at the top of this piece says: there is no point in looking up to the clouds to find Jesus, we have to climb a stony path  to get towards Him. And as the second text says He is also beside us in the presence of the Holy Spirit (Comforter). Footprints will be familiar with many people, copies of it are to be found at most Church Book Stalls. It has always left me unmoved wondering if it is just wishful thinking. It also, it seems to me, leaves out the third person on the Journey, the Devil, or more mundanely the human "spoiler" who always seems to be around. But then a TSSF Postulant in my group produced a Footprints Continued and I think that grounds the whole thing in reality and neatly completes what I wanted to say.

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