immanence and transcendence

Ever since people started labelling me, I guess I’ve felt I’ve been a ‘both/and’ kind of guy. It’s a place I feel comfortable in. However, when you get comfortable with something it’s easy to assume you’re there when you’re not. This week I’ve been caused to reflect on the tension between immanence and transcendence. It has to be ‘both/and’. Where does it feature in the worshipping rhythms of our Churches, but more pertinently, where does it feature in my own heart’s awareness of Christ? Emily asked this week why there’s little evidence of spiritual gifts on Sunday’s. I felt as if I gave her a history lesson and what amounted to a lame excuse. Then I read two things:

‘we expect movies to tell us stories. We expect no such awakening of our imaginations when we approach the Scriptures.’ (this was in ‘intuitive leadership’ by Tim Keel) and then:

‘Whatever we may think of the philosophical and ethical contours of late modernity, and whatever we may think of the revival of interest in spirituality in the last two decades, the overwhelming worldview that still dominates us is an undiluted pragmatism…. Our profound preoccupation is with the world of our own making…. We are engrossed with our own small world of living, loving, studying, working, relaxing, achieving, and producing.’ (this was in ‘The Seeking Heart – a journey with Henri Nouwen’, which is a wonderful book for a daily). May the Spirit empower me to live open to the mysterious, the supernatural, the empowering presence of God.

yeah I was up early this morning - had to take Tom & Rachel to catch the coach for the airport.