Supra-intellectual Spirituality
- davidwperk
- Aug 6, 2021
- 6 min read
Devotional Reflection, Thursday, August 5, 2021
Proper 13, the week of the tenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrase for reflection from today’s reading:
9:2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and
led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was
transfigured before them, 3and his clothes became dazzling white, such
as no one on earth could bleach them.
Today we celebrate the Feast of Albrecth Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and Lucas Cranach the Elder. (See below.)
Daily Office Lectionary readings
AM Psalm [83] or 34; PM Psalm 85, 86
2 Samuel 11:1-27; Acts 19:11-20; Mark 9:2-13
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Office Gospel, Mark 9:2-13
9:2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and
led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was
transfigured before them, 3and his clothes became dazzling white, such
as no one on earth could bleach them. 4And there appeared to them
Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5Then Peter said to
Jesus, `Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three
dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' 6He did
not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7Then a cloud
overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, `This is my
Son, the Beloved; listen to him!' 8Suddenly when they looked around,
they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no
one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen
from the dead. 10So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning
what this rising from the dead could mean. 11Then they asked him, `Why
do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?' 12He said to them,
`Elijah is indeed coming first to restore all things. How then is it
written about the Son of Man, that he is to go through many sufferings
and be treated with contempt? 13But I tell you that Elijah has come,
and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written about him.'
David's Reflections
Tomorrow we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. Today’s daily office Gospel contains Mark's account of the transfiguration of Jesus. The disciples were terrified by the experience; they had just encountered a direct revelation of God's glory and holiness.
In 1923, Rudolf Otto published his classic, The Idea of the Holy. He argues that our rational definition of God's holiness as absolute goodness reduces the concept to an ethical idea. Contrasted with that rational response to the idea of God the Bible witnesses to a nonrational response, a response that Otto called 'creature feeling'--a sense of our creatureliness in the presence of what he called the mysterium tremendum (tremendous mystery), the awesome mystery of the presence of God. See Isaiah 6 for an Old Testament example—Isaiah encountering God in the Temple. Revelation 1 has the seer encountering the divine presence in a vision.
Otto says that this nonrational response to God's mysterious and overwhelming presence has several common ingredients; for one, the element of awfulness, being filled with awe. In today’s Gospel Peter spoke impulsively because he was filled with awe. This numinous experience also leaves one feeling overpowered, feeling small and impotent. There also is an element of energy or urgency. Here Peter felt the need to DO something in the moment. There also can be a sense of the ineffable. One is in the presence of the transcendent, the wholly other with a sense that the mystery is beyond our grasp. This numinous encounter also has an element of fascination. Not only is one overwhelmed and awed but one feels the desire to draw closer.
So much of our spiritual experience is based in the intellect and reason. Yet, you may be able to recall moments when your skin crawled, when you felt a chill, when tears were near, when you felt filled with awe. It may have been during a particularly stirring hymn or sermon. It may have been in response to a natural phenomenon like an incredible display of lightening or a star-filled night or a meteor shower. It may have been when awakening from a vivid dream. It may have come while receiving Holy Communion or during prayers for healing. Perhaps you were reading the Bible or poetry or devotional literature and felt ushered into God's presence.
In such moments we are encountering something of the mystery and holiness of God, that ineffable and overwhelming presence. Yet, that presence is at once powerful and gentle, awe-filled and loving, dreadful and attractive. We are safe in that presence. It is God, coming to us to disclose to us a hint of God’s unlimited and pervasive being and inviting us to be in the divine presence.
I am not suggesting that spirituality is anti-intellectual. Rather, to experience the divine in these ways takes us beyond the intellect into a supra-intellectual space. At the risk of prolonging this reflectionRenaissance, consider these three examples of people experiencing the numinous.
German hymn by Tersteegen:
God himself is present:
Heart, be stilled before Him:
Prostrate inwardly adore him.
Augustine, The Confessions, ii., 9. 1.
"What is that which gleams through me and smites my heart without wounding it? I am both a-shudder and a-glow. A-shudder, in so far as I am unlike it, a-glow in so far as I am like it."
William James, Varieties of Religious Experience (p. 66).
"The perfect stillness of the night was thrilled by a more solemn silence. The darkness held a presence that was all the more felt because it was not seen. I could not any more have doubted that He was there than that I was. Indeed, I felt myself to be, if possible, the less real of the two."
Collect of the Day, Proper 13, the tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 232)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Albrecth Dürer (died 1528), Matthias Grünewald (died 1529), and Lucas Cranach the Elder (died 1553), Renaissance artists.
Collect of the Feast of Albrecth Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and Lucas Cranach the Elder
We give thanks to you, O Lord, for the vision and skill of Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder, whose artistic depictions helped the peoples of their age understand the full suffering and glory of your incarnate Son; and we pray that their work may strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and the mystery of the Holy Trinity; for you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Collect for Protection
O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 124)
For Quiet Confidence
O God of peace, you have taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 832)
In the Order of Worship for Evening
Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)
A Collect for Mission
O God of all the nations of the earth: Remember the multitudes who have been created in your image but have not known the redeeming work of our Savior Jesus Christ; and grant that, by the prayers and labors of your holy Church, they may be brought to know and worship you as you have been revealed in your Son; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 257)
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