The sermon Sunday referenced the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee" as the song the doomed passengers on the Titanic sang as the ship slid into icy waters. The version in our inclusive language hymnal departs from the original by changing the pronouns and thus the rhyme by prescribing, "Nearer my God to You." When we sang it as the Hymn after the Sermon, some insisted on singing the original words and I played with the narcissist reading, "Mirror my God to Me." From a theistic perspective such a sentiment is heresy, even blasphemy. But from the perspective of extravagant welcome, it is really good theology. What might it be like to participate in a worshipping community in which we each took on the ministry of mirroring back to each other, not how we see each other, not how others see themselves or even how they want to be seen, but how God sees them? What if we reflected back to each other how God sees us, cares for us, loves us, welcomes us? That's the faith community I long for.
2 comments:
Sounds a lot like Buddhism, recognizing the holy in all creation. With humans, requires a certain ability to maintain detachment at the same time...this requires a lot of work.
Chris in Mexico
"What if we reflected back to each other how God sees us, cares for us, loves us, welcomes us? That's the faith community I long for."
Posted by Mark Lee Robinson at 11:40 AM
Mark, that is what we do in the Re-evaluation Counseling (co-counseling) community when people are practicing it like it is taught in their fundamentals classes. RC Theory is the best counseling theory out there because it mirrors that I and YOU are whole and complete causing emotional discharge to occur which integrates split off (repressed) parts of myself. The fact I didn't show you RC was a HUGE "miss" for me as you may have appreciated me far more in my understanding of true healing!
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