Being Nice or Being Made New?

MEETING JESUS AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME, Chapter 6 ~ Marcus Borg 
   
Starter Questions For a Study Group

1. Share the best thing that happened to you this week.
2. Share the worst thing that happened to you this week.  
3. Share a time last week when you saw God at work in your community or in another person.   

Questions for the Passage Below

1. How does Borg's transformist understanding of the Christian journey affirm or challenge your own understanding of Christian discipleship?  
2. If transformation is realized by concepts as well as practices, how does the concept of being "Christed" ("Christened", transformed into the "likeness of Christ", raised up into the "full stature of Christ") affect you?  
3. If transformation is more of an "inside job" (the fruit of life in the Spirit and ethos of the community of Jesus), what place is there for the external practices of living a holy life?  What is the relationship, if any, between outer conformity and inner transformation? 

Take Time to Pray Together and Bless One Another

     

__________________________________________________

    

Discipleship involves becoming compassionate.  "Be compassionate as God is compassionate" is the defining mark of the follower of Jesus.  Compassion is the fruit of life in the Spirit and the ethos of the community of Jesus.  
  
Thus we have what I would I would call a transformist understanding of the Christian life, an image of the Christian life richer and fuller than the fideistic and moralistic images I described in chapter 1.  It is a vision of the Christian life as a journey of transformation... from life under the lordship of culture to the life of companionship with God. 
  
It is an image of the Christian life not primarily as believing or being good but as a relationship with God.  That relationship does not leave us unchanged but transforms us into more and more compassionate beings, "into the likeness of Christ."  
  
Marcus Borg ~ "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time" 

Did Jesus die for our sins?

MEETING JESUS AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME, Chapter 6 ~ Marcus Borg 
   
Starter Questions For a Study Group

1. Share the best thing that happened to you this week.
2. Share the worst thing that happened to you this week.  
3. Share a time last week when you saw God at work in your community or in another person.   

Questions for the Passage Below

1. Have there been times in your life, or in the life of someone you know, when it was meaningful to understand the death of Jesus in terms of forgiveness of guilt and sin?
2. Have there been times in your life, or in the life of someone you know, when it was an obstacle to understand the death of Jesus in terms of forgiveness of guilt and sin?
3. Is this evaluation of the "sacrifice for sin" theory of atonement disturbing or freeing for you or both?  How?

Take Time to Pray Together and Bless One Another

     

__________________________________________________

   

To say that "Jesus died for our sins" is to interpret his significance within the framework of the priestly story.  [See "The Priestly Story" in the blog post below.  Although this language is sometimes used in the New Testament itself, this understanding of the death of Jesus did not become dominant in the church until the early Middle Ages.]  
  
...The priestly story's meaning is simple, direct and radical: we are accepted, just as we are... The priestly story means that our own sense of sin, impurity, and guilt need not stand between us and God.  It means that new beginnings are possible; we do not need to be held in bondage by the burden of our past.  And some people - those for whom the central issue in their lives is guilt or a radically negative sense of self-worth - very much need to hear this message.  
  
But... it leads to a passivity about religious life itself.  Rather than seeing that life as a process of spiritual transformation, it stresses that God has already done what needs to be done.  It leads to a passivity toward culture as well.  One can see this by imagining how our vision of the Christian life would be different if our church services regularly included a description of the human condition flowing from the other two macro-stories...  [See "The Exodus Story" and the "The Story of Exile and Return" in the blog post below.]  What if we were to say, "We are Pharaoh's slave in Egypt, and we beseech you for liberation"? Or "We live in Babylon, and we ask you for deliverance"?  One can understand why the church during the many centuries that is was the official religion of Western culture emphasized the confession of sin rather than saying that the culture we live in is Egypt or Babylon.  The priestly story is a politically dominating story.  The stories of bondage in Egypt and exile in Babylon are culturally subversive stories.  
  
Marcus Borg ~ "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time" 

What's the Problem?

MEETING JESUS AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME, Chapter 6 ~ Marcus Borg 
   
Starter Questions For a Study Group

1. Share the best thing that happened to you this week.
2. Share the worst thing that happened to you this week.  
3. Share a time last week when you saw God at work in your community or in another person.   

Questions for the Passage Below

1. Which of the marco-stories below are most central to your experience of Christianity? 
2. Which of the macro-stories below have been most helpful to you at different times in your life?  Which have been the most irrelevant or troublesome?  
3. Which of the marco-stories, or combination of macro-stories, below are most helpful for painting a meaningful portrait of Jesus? 

Take Time to Pray Together and Bless One Another
    

________________________________________________________

   
   

Is the human problem bondage, exile, or sin?  Is Jesus a Deliverer, a Home-Bringer, or an Atonement for Sin?  In Chapter 6, Marcus Borg outlines three "marco-stories" of scripture that are the most central for shaping the Bible as a whole.  Here is a summary quote.  
   
The Exodus Story
As an epiphany of the human condition and the solution, the story of the exodus images the religious life as a journey from the life of bondage to life in the presence of God.  Though we find ourselves in bondage to Pharaoh, it proclaims, there is a way out.  Through signs and wonders, through the great and mighty hand of God, God can liberate us, indeed wills our liberation and yearns for our liberation, from life in bondage to culture to life a a journeying with God. 
   
The Story of Exile and Return 
The feeling of being separated from home and longing for home runs deeply within us... Like the exile story, the story of exile and return is a journey story.  It images life as a journey to the place where God is present, a homecoming, a journey of return. And like the exodus story, this story speaks of God aiding and assisting those who undertake the journey. 
   
The Priestly Story 
The priestly story is not primarily a story of bondage, exile, and a journey, but a story of sin, guilt, sacrifice, and forgiveness... Within this story, we are primarily sinners who have broken God's laws, and who therefore stand guilty before God, the lawgiver and judge.  Seen through the lens of this story, the religious life becomes a story of sin, guilt, and forgiveness. 
   
Marcus Borg ~ "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time" 

Will the Real Jesus Please Please Stand Up?

"MEETING JESUS AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME" Marcus Borg
CHAPTER 6
 
Starter Questions For a Study Group

1. Share the best thing that happened to you this week.
2. Share the worst thing that happened to you this week.  
3. Share a time last week when you saw God at work in your community or in another person.   

Questions for the Passage Below

1. How much is your image of Jesus like the popular one described below?  
2. What difference does it make for you to understand the Jesus of history (the "pre-Easter" Jesus) as we now know him through recent centuries of biblical scholarship (described by Marcus Borg below)? 
3. How is your experience of the living Jesus who is present with us now effected by your portrait of the Jesus of history? 

Take Time to Pray Together and Bless One Another
    

___________________________________________________________

  

[The Jesus of history] is quite different from the popular image of Jesus, the Jesus many of us have met before. His own self-understanding did not include thinking and speaking of himself as the Son of God whose historical intention or purpose was to die for the sins of the world, and his message was not about believing in him. Rather, he was a spirit person, subversive sage, social prophet, and movement founder who invited his followers and hearers into a transforming relationship with the same Spirit that he himself knew, and into a community whose social vision was shaped by the core value of compassion. ~ Marcus Borg, "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time"

And the Sophia Became Flesh

"MEETING JESUS AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME" Marcus Borg
CHAPTER 5


Starter Questions For a Study Group

1. Share the best thing that happened to you this week.
2. Share the worst thing that happened to you this week.  
3. Share a time last week when you saw God at work in your community or in another person. 

 
Questions for the Passage Below

1. How does the metaphor "Son of God" help you to understand and relate to Christ?  
2. How could literalizing this metaphor (ie, we must believe that Jesus is literally a/the Son of God) be limiting for us in understanding or relating to Christ? 
3. How does the female metaphor "Sophia (Wisdom) of God" help you to understand and relate to Christ?  

 
Take Time to Pray Together and Bless One Another
    

________________________________________________________________

  

[Our exploration of the role of Sophia as wisdom in the Jewish tradition and in the New Testament] enables us to glimpse what may be the earliest Christology of the Christian movement.  The use of Sophia language ("Sophia", a feminine noun meaning "wisdom") to speak of Jesus goes back to the earliest layers of the developing tradition.  It is also, as we have seen, widespread across the tradition.  According to the synoptics, Paul, and John, that which was present in Jesus was the Sophia of God... 
   
This points to the impossibility of literalizing Christological language.  The multiplicity of images for speaking of Jesus' relationship to God (as Logos, Sophia, Son - to name but a few) should make it clear that none of them is to be taken literally.  They are metaphorical... 
   
The issue is no longer believing that Jesus was literally the Son of God, but appreciating the richness of meaning suggested by the multiplicity of Christological images.  He was "the Son," yes, but also the incarnation of the Word, which was also the Wisdom of God.
     

~ Marcus Borg 
    
CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY: WISDOM AND PRACTICE: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION  

Jesus, Son of God... Really?

"MEETING JESUS AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME" Marcus Borg
CHAPTER 5


Starter Questions For a Study Group
   

1. Share the best thing that happened to you this week.
2. Share the worst thing that happened to you this week.  
3. Share a time last week when you saw God at work in your community or in another person. 

   
Questions for the Passage Below

1. How does it affect you to hear that there was no official Christology in the New Testament period? 
2. What difference does it make to think of the son/father Christology as literal or as metaphorical? 
3. How many other images of Jesus are you aware of other than the son/father Christology? 

   
Take Time to Pray Together and Bless One Another
    

________________________________________________________________

  

The most familiar Christology (the branch of Christian theology that deals with the nature of Christ) to people within and outside the church is one that images Jesus' relationship with God as Son of the Father... So familiar is it that it is easy to think of it as the normative or definitive Christology. 

But this had not yet happened in the New Testament period. There was as yet no official Christology.  Rather, the New Testament contains a variety of Christological images, which function as metaphors for imaging the significance of Jesus and his relationship with God...  Developing alongside the early Christian movement's embryonic image son/father Christology was an embryonic wisdom Christology that ultimately saw Jesus as the embodiment or incarnation of "the wisdom of God."  
  
~ Marcus Borg 
  
CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY: WISDOM AND PRACTICE: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

Jesus and the Afterlife

The emphasis upon the graciousness of God in the message of Jesus often leads to questions about whether there is any element of of judgment at all.  A number of clarifying remarks may help.  The passages in the synoptics that speak of a last judgment with eternal consequences are largely the products of Matthew's redaction. Moreover, the notion that our life on earth is primarily about meeting God's requirements so that we may have a blessed next life is, it seems to me, foreign to Jesus.  Though I think he probably "believed in an afterlife," I don't think his message was about how to get there.  
    
~ Marcus Borg, "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time", excerpts from Chapter Four

     
TALK ABOUT IT

• What is the difference between "going to heaven when you die" and "entering the Kingdom of God which is at hand"?
• How do we enter the Kingdom?    

   

CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY: WISDOM AND PRACTICE: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

Jesus vs Christianity

This is the strongest consensus among today's Jesus scholars.  Whatever else can be said about the pre-Easter Jesus, he was a teacher of wisdom - a sage, as teachers of wisdom are called...
   

The way of Jesus also challenges many common forms of Christianity... In particular, it invites us to move from "secondhand religion" to firsthand religion.  Secondhand religion is a way of being religious based on believing what one has heard from others.  It consists of thinking that the Christian life is about believing what the Bible says or what the doctrines of the church say.  Firsthand religion, on the other hand, consists of a relationship to that to which the Bible and the teachings of the church point - namely, that reality that we call God or the Spirit of God.  

~ Marcus Borg, "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time", excerpts from Chapter Four
  
TALK ABOUT IT

• Why is Christianity built more on dogma (subscribing to truth statements) than most religions?  
• How do we rise above that level of religion?  
• What practices help to build a firsthand relationship with God? 

     
CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY: WISDOM AND PRACTICE: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

"Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time", Marcus Borg | Chapter Four

"The narrow way, the way less traveled, is the alternative wisdom of Jesus...  It is an invitation to a path that leads away from the life of conventional wisdom [the culturally reinforced wisdom of how to live the successful, affluent, or respected life based on standards set by society or religion] to a ... deepening relationship with the Sprit of God, not as a life of requirements and reward.
  
Jesus used imagery of the heart to speak of the need for an internal transformation...  What is needed is a new heart - an internal transformation brought about by a deep centering in God...  The narrow way as the path of internal transformation is a ... dying to the world of conventional wisdom as the center of one's security and identity and a dying to the self as the center of one's concern ... the ultimate letting go, and thus the opposite of grasping that marks the life of conventional wisdom."  
  
Marcus Borg, "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time", excerpts from Chapter Four
  
TALK ABOUT IT
Where does the alternative wisdom of Jesus challenge our culture?  Our religion?  
     
CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY: WISDOM AND PRACTICE: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

"Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time", Marcus Borg | Chapter Three

In the midst of our modern culture, it is important for those of us who would be faithful to Jesus to think and speak of a politics of compassion not only within the church but as a paradigm for shaping the political order.  A politics of compassion as the paradigm for shaping our national life would produce a social system different in many ways from that generated by our recent history...
  
Such an emphasis on could involve a recovery of ... "covenant" and "civic virtue" as images of community.  The issue of community (rather than the maximizing of individualism) would become the primary paradigm for thinking about the political order. It seems to me that, although Christians might disagree about the best way to implement such a system, a politics of compassion in our day clearly implies universal health care as an immediate goal.
    
Marcus Borg, "Meeting Jesus Again For the First Time", excerpts from Chapter Three
   
TALK ABOUT IT:
What other political issue comes to mind that would look different through the lens of compassionate communities rather than through the lens of individual rights?  How far would you go with this politics of communitarian compassion?  
   
CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY: WISDOM AND PRACTICE: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION 

"Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time", Marcus Borg | Chapter Three

Though compassion as the content of Jesus' imatatio dei (way of life as "imitation of God") was rooted in the Jewish tradition, it was not the dominant imatatio dei of the first-century Jewish social world.  Instead, a different imatatio dei, also grounded in the Hebrew Bible, had become the primary paradigm shaping the Jewish social world: "Be holy as God is holy".    

It is in the conflict between these two imatatio deis - between holiness and compassion as qualities of God to be embodied in community - that we see the central conflict in the ministry of Jesus: between two social visions.  The dominant social vision was centered in holiness; the alternative social vision of Jesus was centered in compassion...  

To sum up, the effect of the purity [holiness] system was to create a world with sharp social boundaries: between pure and impure, righteous and sinner, whole and not whole, male and female, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile...  There was something boundary shattering about the imatatio dei that stood at the center of Jesus' message and activity: "Be compassionate as God is compassionate."  Whereas purity excludes and divides, compassion unites and includes...  

This conflict and social vision continue to have striking implications for the life of the church today...  In parts of the church there are groups that emphasize holiness and purity as the Christian way of life, and they draw their own sharp boundaries between the righteous and sinners.  It is a sad irony that these groups, many of which are seeking very earnestly to be faithful to Scripture, end up emphasizing those parts of Scripture that Jesus himself challenged and opposed.  An interpretation of Scripture faithful to Jesus and the early Christian movement sees the Bible through the lens of compassion, not purity. 

   

Marcus Borg, "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time", excerpts from Chapter Three

   

TALK ABOUT IT:

Where do you personally experience the conflict between being right and being compassionate?  In the church, in the world, and in yourself?  

   

CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY: WISDOM AND PRACTICE: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION 

"Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time", Marcus Borg | Chapter Two

Jesus used spiritual practices, including both fasting and prayer.  We are told that he prayed for hours at a time, sometimes all night long, and presumably not because his prayer list had gotten exceptionally long.  Rather, it seems more likely that he practiced a form of contemplation or meditation similar to that of Hanina ben Dosa and Honi the Circle-Drawer.  About them it is said in the Jewish tradition that they would still their hearts before God before they would heal.  The practice of wordless meditation is not simply Eastern tradition, but is central to the Jewish-Christian as well. 
  
... It is plausible to locate Jesus' own spirituality within what we know of Jewish mysticism in his day.  Our picture of early Jewish mysticism has been growing, especially in the last several years.  The more we realize that there was a form of Jewish mysticism in first-century Palestine, the more likely it seems that Jesus stood in that experiential tradition.  
  
Marcus Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, pp 35, 36 
   
TALK ABOUT IT: 
If Christianity is uniquely grounded in historical reality rather than simply philosophical ideas, then how do we (the Church) incorporate the Jesus of history who is emerging as a "spirit person" or mystic?  
  
APPRENTICES OF JESUS, MARCUS BORG: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION  

The "Fall" Revisited, Richard Chilson

For what would be our lot had Adam and Eve not partaken of the fruit?  We would still be in that childlike garden, just half a step more evolved than the rest of the animal kingdom.  Our fall from that dreamlike existence of Eden provides us with our real humanity.  We would have remained children in Eden, for children are those who are ignorant of the difference between good and evil.  Would we wish our own children to remain ignorant of this distinction?  Would we want them to grow up with no conscience, no knowledge?  
  

By eating the fruit, Adam and Eve took a giant step forward, even though suffering became their lot.  For they left behind the smothering nursery of the garden and walked forth into the world as adults.  
   
Each of us has taken this step in our own life.  When examine our lives in terms of this story, we can find that movement from the protected garden into the world.  At some time, perhaps not traceable to any one event, we have fallen from the world of the child into that of the adult.  And it is truly described as a fall, for we have indeed lost something important: the nursery and its comfort.  Nor is it always obvious that we gain.  
       
Richard Chilson, The Way to Christianity: In Search of Spiritual Growth, pp 62-63 
    
TALK ABOUT IT
Can we get a glimpse of that fall in our own lives?  When and where did the world of childhood close us to and force us into the less secure and frightening world of adults?  
  
POST COMMENTS BELOW
THE "FALL" REVISITED, RICHARD CHILSON:  CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION  

Meditation - The Whole Point, James Finley

God loves... all that is lost and broken in everyone who lives.  So, too, [through the practice of meditation] you begin to realize that you are falling in love with each and every person in the world.  As you go on in this love for others, you fail in it again and again.  This is no obstacle so long as your failure to be compassionate toward others is realized [as in the practice of meditation] as just the latest opportunity to renew your compassion toward yourself and others.  What matters is that you have come to see a certain look of pain in the world's eyes.  You know that look well, for [as you have seen in meditation] that look has been in your own eyes as well.  It is the look of sadness and confusion in not realizing how loved and lovable one is in the midst of difficulties and shortcomings.  You begin to appreciate that every time you compassionately engage with another person, your reason for being in this world is honored and expressed.  For the world is the arena in which suffering continues to arise in the absence of love, and happiness continues to arise in the presence of love.
    
Meditation allows us to see the world through eyes of compassion.  This compassionate vision of the world impels us to live in ways in which our words and behavior toward others embody compassion.  Compassion forms the essential bond between seeking God in meditation and all forms of social justice.  For the more we are transformed in compassion, the more we are impelled to act with compassion toward others.
 
~ James Finley, Christian Meditation, pp 285-286
 
TRY AND TELL  ~ POST EXPERIENCES AND COMMENTS BELOW
Choose to be present in the immediacy of the present moment by simply relaxing into being right where you are, just as you are.  Settle into the intimate, felt sense of your bodily stillness.  Settle into being aware of your breathing and whatever degree of fatigue or wakefulness you may be feeling in your body at the moment.  Be aware of whatever sadness, inner peace, or other emotion may be present.  Be aware of the light and the temperature in the room.  In short, simply be present, just as you are, in the moment, just as it is.  Cling to nothing.  Reject nothing.  Rest in this moment, in which there is nowhere to go, nothing to achieve, nothing to prove, nothing to tend to except being simply present.  
    
You may discover yourself slipping away from the present-moment attentiveness into your customary round of thoughts, memories, and concerns.  This is ego consciousness reinstating its accustomed position as our primary way of being in the present moment.  The strategy of self-transformation at work in meditation is not to fight with the ego's efforts to reinstate its domain.  The strategy is rather that of sitting in a circle of simple presence that continues expanding outward to include any and all aspects of ego that may arise within it... without judging, without evaluating, without clinging to or rejecting the way we simply are.  
    
As we renew our present-moment attentiveness again and again, we can be reassured that we are renewing our awareness of the divine mystery that is manifesting itself in and as each thought that arises, endures, and passes away within us.  
    
POST EXPERIENCES AND COMMENTS BELOW
MEDITATION, JAMES FINLEY:  CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION  

Contemplation: Brian Taylor

With Contemplative Exercises
  
We are the body of Christ alive in the world, and he is the human face of God. But to manifest Christ in our lives, to reveal him to the world, we must undergo a journey of transformation by which we become him, and he becomes us. Contemplative prayer, practiced with faith and patience, undertaken in the context of the church's life, takes us on this journey into Christ.
   
~ Brian C Taylor
   
PERSONAL NOTE:  To contemplate means "to gaze upon".  It is about waking up.  It is to experience an event fully and deeply.  In a fast paced world and a culture that emphasizes doing, contemplation seems too inefficient and unproductive to have much value.  A contemplative person, however, recognizes that every experience offers more than meets the eye.  In every religion, contemplation is an important practice on the journey of raising consciousness and transformation of being.  Here are three contemplative exercises in the Christian tradition.  POST EXPERIENCES AND COMMENTS BELOW. 
   
PALMS UP, PALMS DOWN
CONTEMPLATING JESUS: 

• Take time to sit down and get comfortable.  Put both feet on the floor and your hands in your lap.  Breathe deeply and relax.  Place yourself in the presence of Jesus.  
• Turn your palms down.  Drop your cares, worries, agendas, experiences into Jesus' hands.  Let go of all that is heavy.  Breathe deeply.
• Turn your palms up on your knees.  Open your hands.  Receive what Jesus is wanting to give you. 
• When you are ready, tell Jesus what this was like.  Writing it down, if possible, is best.    

  
CONTEMPLATING PEOPLE:

• Take time to truly notice someone today.  Listen to them with your heart.  See them through God's eyes.  Be intentionally present to them. 
• Tell Jesus what you think you know about them, as well as what is mysterious to you about them.   Writing it down, if possible, is best.  

  
AIMLESS WANDERING 
CONTEMPLATING "WHAT IS" 

• Prepare by choosing a general location for your aimless wandering - beach, woods, back yard, city street, labyrinth, neighborhood.  Establish no goals, destinations, or agendas. Be free of intention. 
• Be as present as possible to your wandering.  There is nowhere to go and nothing to do.
• Let go of the need to keep track of anything whatsoever. As the mind seeks to set a course or recollect, drop the internal tracking and bring your attention to whatever is occurring.
• Allow yourself to appreciate whatever arises. Pause and carefully observe anything that attracts your attention. Give your curiosity free rein with sights, sounds, smells, and physical feelings that spontaneously guide your wandering.
• Be responsive to environmental cues: a bird bathing,  a breeze blowing, colors, sounds, nature — all are permitted to capture and lead your attention.
• Explore surprises and seeming coincidences. Notice and appreciate any excitement that may arise but refrain from embellishing it.
• Make no deliberate mental notes but simply disown experience as it arises. Quickly drop the tendency to overdramatize contemplative insight.
• Open yourself to the absolute freedom of having nothing to gain and nothing to lose. Simply marveling is a good way to conclude.  

    

CONTEMPLATION: BRIAN TAYLOR:  CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

Augustine of Hippo on Faith vs Contemplation

'I am the way, and the truth, and the life' (John 14.6).  Faith is our way, contemplation is the truth and the life.  'For now we see in a mirror dimly' (I Corinthians 13.12).  This is faith.  'But then face to face.'  This is contemplation.  Paul says again: 'Christ dwells in our hearts according to the inner man by faith.'  That is the road along which we can catch glimpses only. But he adds: 'You will know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge and you will be filled with all the fullness of God' (cf. Ephesians 3.16-19).  Contemplation is this fullness . . . 'You have died,' he says again, 'and you life is hid with Christ in God.'  That is faith.  But 'when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory' (Colossians 3.3-4).  That is the vision of God.  
   
'Beloved,' John says, 'we are God's children; it does not yet appear what we shall be.'  That is faith.  But he goes on:  'We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' (1 John 3.2).  That is contemplation. 
   
~ Augustine of Hippo, Sermons, 346,2 (PL 38,1523-4) 
   
TALK ABOUT IT  The Greek word for faith - pisteuo - means to trust or to entrust.  The Greek word for contemplation - theoria - means to look at things through the eye of the soul.  Both are considered divine gifts as well as human effort.  After reading Augustine, what would YOU say is the relationship between faith and contemplation? 
   
NOTE  Allow for some flexibility in the definition of these words in our discussion and practice.  In other contexts, the word theoria is used as a counterpart to praxis - theoria (a spiritual idea or teaching) vs praxis (spiritual experience or practice).  This can be confusing since contemplation (theoria) is often considered a practice.  
    
PRACTICE IT  (INWARD)  Where are you on your spiritual journey relative to faith and contemplation?  Where do you feel called to be?  Who can help you make progress toward your goal? 
    
PRACTICE IT (OUTWARD)  How do/can you practice entrusting others to God and looking at them through the eye of your soul?  
    
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO ON FAITH AND CONTEMPLATION: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION