Comments on: The Reality of Spiritual Symbols http://thepreacher.cac2.net/2007/09/18/the-reality-of-symbols/ Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man - Ecclesiastes 12:13 Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:07:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Jonathan http://thepreacher.cac2.net/2007/09/18/the-reality-of-symbols/comment-page-1/#comment-758 Jonathan Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:09:01 +0000 http://thepreacher.cac2.net/2007/09/18/the-reality-of-symbols/#comment-758 One could look at it this way: Considered each by itself, just about any one of the individual symbolic actions that I employ to express my love for my wife could be considered "merely" a symbol. But...if I were to stop engaging in all of these symbolic actions, then my wife could quite justifiably retort that I do not love her, or at least I am making it very hard for her to tell that I love her. That last response assumes that love is not a relational term, that I could in theory love her entirely "in my heart" and surely we don't want to be saddled with denying that love is relational. So speculate: Why don't we get it that symbols are not mere window dressing, but rather a substantive part of our relationship to God? Is it because we have inherited a liturgy that emphasizes a "personal/spiritual relationship with Jesus"? Don't get me wrong--that's a pretty swell thing, but when it means something internal to the point that people talk about worshiping God but disliking organized religion, something is amiss. Or, maybe the problem results from not practicing enough liturgical symbolism. I am not going all Greek Orthodox here, just suggesting that in a sense the symbols that God has ordained are a significant way that God loves and shows His love to His people. Yet, we tend to scorn frequent practice of them, and thus do not have a good grasp of this reality of symbols. (?) (If I told my wife only quarterly that I loved her, do you think that she would believe me?) Cheerio, Jonathan One could look at it this way: Considered each by itself, just about any one of the individual symbolic actions that I employ to express my love for my wife could be considered “merely” a symbol. But…if I were to stop engaging in all of these symbolic actions, then my wife could quite justifiably retort that I do not love her, or at least I am making it very hard for her to tell that I love her. That last response assumes that love is not a relational term, that I could in theory love her entirely “in my heart” and surely we don’t want to be saddled with denying that love is relational.

So speculate: Why don’t we get it that symbols are not mere window dressing, but rather a substantive part of our relationship to God? Is it because we have inherited a liturgy that emphasizes a “personal/spiritual relationship with Jesus”? Don’t get me wrong–that’s a pretty swell thing, but when it means something internal to the point that people talk about worshiping God but disliking organized religion, something is amiss. Or, maybe the problem results from not practicing enough liturgical symbolism. I am not going all Greek Orthodox here, just suggesting that in a sense the symbols that God has ordained are a significant way that God loves and shows His love to His people. Yet, we tend to scorn frequent practice of them, and thus do not have a good grasp of this reality of symbols. (?) (If I told my wife only quarterly that I loved her, do you think that she would believe me?)

Cheerio,
Jonathan

]]> By: Jonathan http://thepreacher.cac2.net/2007/09/18/the-reality-of-symbols/comment-page-1/#comment-1563 Jonathan Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:09:00 +0000 http://thepreacher.cac2.net/2007/09/18/the-reality-of-symbols/#comment-1563 One could look at it this way: Considered each by itself, just about any one of the individual symbolic actions that I employ to express my love for my wife could be considered "merely" a symbol. But...if I were to stop engaging in all of these symbolic actions, then my wife could quite justifiably retort that I do not love her, or at least I am making it very hard for her to tell that I love her. That last response assumes that love is not a relational term, that I could in theory love her entirely "in my heart" and surely we don't want to be saddled with denying that love is relational. So speculate: Why don't we get it that symbols are not mere window dressing, but rather a substantive part of our relationship to God? Is it because we have inherited a liturgy that emphasizes a "personal/spiritual relationship with Jesus"? Don't get me wrong--that's a pretty swell thing, but when it means something internal to the point that people talk about worshiping God but disliking organized religion, something is amiss. Or, maybe the problem results from not practicing enough liturgical symbolism. I am not going all Greek Orthodox here, just suggesting that in a sense the symbols that God has ordained are a significant way that God loves and shows His love to His people. Yet, we tend to scorn frequent practice of them, and thus do not have a good grasp of this reality of symbols. (?) (If I told my wife only quarterly that I loved her, do you think that she would believe me?) Cheerio, Jonathan One could look at it this way: Considered each by itself, just about any one of the individual symbolic actions that I employ to express my love for my wife could be considered “merely” a symbol. But…if I were to stop engaging in all of these symbolic actions, then my wife could quite justifiably retort that I do not love her, or at least I am making it very hard for her to tell that I love her. That last response assumes that love is not a relational term, that I could in theory love her entirely “in my heart” and surely we don’t want to be saddled with denying that love is relational.

So speculate: Why don’t we get it that symbols are not mere window dressing, but rather a substantive part of our relationship to God? Is it because we have inherited a liturgy that emphasizes a “personal/spiritual relationship with Jesus”? Don’t get me wrong–that’s a pretty swell thing, but when it means something internal to the point that people talk about worshiping God but disliking organized religion, something is amiss. Or, maybe the problem results from not practicing enough liturgical symbolism. I am not going all Greek Orthodox here, just suggesting that in a sense the symbols that God has ordained are a significant way that God loves and shows His love to His people. Yet, we tend to scorn frequent practice of them, and thus do not have a good grasp of this reality of symbols. (?) (If I told my wife only quarterly that I loved her, do you think that she would believe me?)

Cheerio,
Jonathan

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