beginning and ending with meister eckhart

only god has isness.
therefore everything that is created is in itself nothing.


the past week has brought frustration, anger, disappointment complexity and coughing.


a well known blogger and figure in the emergent church was at a conference i attended over the weekend. i considered much of what he said to be incredibly naive. indeed he said he aspired to having a naive faith. but naive and childlike are not the same, and a childlike faith might still be possible and desirable. as someone reminded me on thursday, children are inquisitive, they are provocative, they can see through bullshit, they can dismantle pretension in a moment, they are energetic, they are persistent, they can say it like it is.


the emerging church is bankrupt if emergent means same theology, different powerpoint background/ soundtrack/ venue/ male leader/ blog layout. it is the sexy new orthodoxy.


god is emergent
ergo
emergent is god?


where are our new ways of imagining?
where are our new ways of interacting with poverty, of mind as well as pocket?
where are the questions which don't seem to relate to faith and spirituality, and yet are the essence of both?
where are we laying down our assumptions?
where are our ways of encountering one another, face to face, not through a virtual interface?
where are we looking at our actions, to discern our beliefs, instead of the other way round?
where are we learning from children?


thanks to glenn for reminding me of our conversation on friday night. the kingdom of god just might be at my elbow after all. seeing the ikon art exhibition at the waterfront hall last night, and hearing padraig's poems cascading in the way they always do, made me think it might be so.


in god,
action and being
are one.