05.28.07

developmental faith

Posted in formation, gospel at 8:52 am by len

LeRon Shults asks “whether you think the experience of spiritual formation practiced by or promoted in your Emergent communities takes sufficient account of the need for “purgation,” for what the mystics called the Dark Night of the Soul.”

It’s probably important to relate that concept to another one: compunction – the wounding of the soul by God. The experience is captured by John Donne in his famous sonnet that begins, “Batter my heart, Three-personed God…”

It’s interesting for me to reflect on my years in a variety of communities through the lens of mystical experience. The charismatic communities I have been in definitely emphasized the via positiva…though not without a nod to mystery. In fact the Baptist and Mennonite communities tended to lean this way also, perhaps a little more balance in Mennonite circles, perhaps conditioned by their own history of persecution and their ongoing involvement in justice issues.

This weekend one of the leaders told the story of a hike and related the refreshing power and coolness of a waterfall to our life in God. But I wouldn’t have been surprised if he or someone else had later mentioned an experience of refining in God’s fire.

In general, communities do seem to get stuck in one more or the other: we seem to want a particular experience of God to dominate, and in our culture we are quite happy to embrace the power of the resurrection and neglect the call to Calvary. We want a theology of the Spirit without a theology of the Cross.

Last night we met with a few friends, and one brother shared of his own loneliness in the past month, and related that time to the refining work of God in his soul. I found myself thinking about Steve Bells song, “Burning Ember.” (see also my interview with Steve)

Judge for yourself if a fire isn’t safe,
When cities fall before her face.
Yet a flower can endure the course of a strom
by bowing to the tempest’s rage.
Oh love — more fierce than all the rest.
Oh raging joy within my breast..

Burning ember, I remember love’s first light in me
I was cold then, like a stone when
I saw your flickering.
Burn forever, let me never
Curse the pain you bring.
Somehow I know I will be whole
in your burning…

Coincidentally, the other mystic/poet who has often acknowledged the dark night of the soul is Bruce Cockburn. In one of his early songs he sings,

I’ve been touched by the beauty of jagged mountains..
and cut by the love that flows like a fountain from God.
SO I carry these scars, precious and rare..

And in a more recent song, reminiscent of GM Hopkins, he sings,

Sometimes the road leads through dark places,
Sometimes the darkness if your friend..

This idea of

I have a feeling that with communities, as with individuals, there is a developmental aspect to this. In the early and exciting days of new communities, the tendency is to emphasize God’s goodness and nearness, His gentleness and love – it’s part of an invitation to begin a journey. In later years a more rounded and embracing experience is likely to be the norm. But, like people, communities get emotionally and spiritually stuck at times and find ways to deny certain aspects of experience and of God. Charismatics want to live forever on the mountain top and start preaching health and wealth. And in our western culture, we aren’t quick to acknowledge death and pain: we find ways to medicate it. But of course so much of this is conditioned by where we begin. A community planted in the downtown core is going to have a difficult time denying the reality of pain and death and hardship – that’s one reason why the poor are such a gift to the church.

See also the poetry of St John of the Cross.

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