about the soul

My long-time friend, Dan Miller, left this as a comment on one of my other blogs, burnettstories.

"It's all about the soul. Jesus understood this. James Brown understood this. In fact, every writer, poet, musician, evangelist, educator, philanthropist and motivator who finds success understands that the soul is the foundation from which vibrant life begins."

I thought it was so nicely put that it warranted the light of day -- or at least the light of a cathode ray screen.

justice

"When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

perichoresis

The model of relationships portrayed by the trinitarian dogma is neither hierarchical nor authoritarian. The relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not subordinationist, but – to use the technical term – perichoretic: God is essentially a dynamic communion of equally and mutually shared love. And this fact implies social impetus. Being made in the image of God calls for ethical and social consequences, it nurtures the spirit of solidarity. Of course, these consequences cannot be simply, mechanically transferred to the areas of human relationships. But they lead, or should lead, the confessor’s heart in an unambiguous direction – toward guarding the faith in the communion of creative love.

Jan Milic Lochman

inexcusable

C.S. Lewis has made the excellent point that there is a huge difference between forgiving and excusing; in fact, he says they might be opposites. His view was that once the excusable elements have been subracted from the equation, i.e. after the offense has been reduced down to the inexcusable, that’s the part that needs forgiveness.

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” C.S. Lewis
(Essay On Forgiveness – Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc., N.Y. 1960)

God Sings

“The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17, NIV

This little segment of ancient poetry is dense with mystical imagery. The first sentence states God’s nearness, potency, and liberation. The second sentence is a three-dimensional portrait of a shockingly good God.

Delight: There is an unshakable assurance of all-is-well in the notion that my Creator is happy with me. It forms a supremely livable world.

Quiet: I am a noisy-souled man and I live in a world of noise. Love brings peace and sorts the cacophony into intelligibility.

Music: Divine delight manifests in spontaneous melodic improvisation. Aesthetic order emerges in the sounds of everyday life. A key puzzle piece of my theology is that God sings.


Copyright Scott Burnett 2006