I am my father’s daughter…

Tags

And most importantly My Dad, Brene Brown, change, dream interpretation, dreaming, personal growth, vulnerability

It’s no secret that my father was a super hero.

A very dignified, English gentlemanly super hero. He was a little reserved, fiercely intelligent, deeply compassionate, gentle, loving, LOVED, sharp, cool, courageous, wise, funny – a ROCK star kind of super hero.

I adored him.

But he had an Achilles heel  … or two… or three

There were three things we were never allowed to do:

1. Tickle his feet
2. Mess up his hair
3. Or laugh at him…

This third one was SERIOUS “Are you laffing at me?” he used to ask us in his exasperated English accent and the answer was always “NOOOooo Dad, we’re not laughing at you!”

“ARE YOU LAFFING AT ME?” – *fits of giggles*, “No, Dad, we would never laugh at you …”

Laffing, was no laughing matter I can tell you.

Of all the beautiful and virtuous characteristics I could have inherited from my father, I inherited this one – the ‘are you laughing at me?’ induced terror one.

If you laugh at me, I die, just a little, inside.

My secret is out.

I am pride-full.

I of course would dearly love to justify this and call it something else, like sensitive, or vulnerable or … well anything other than what it is …

I may not be prideful in the arrogant sense of the word. Rather, I am prideful about letting people see my weaknesses, that is hard for me and it amounts to the same thing – a hardening of the walls around the heart so that people won’t hurt me. I pretend to be strong when I am not and I hide my anxiety and my confusion under a veil of ‘whatever’s’ or casual ‘I don’t really care what you think of me’s ’ when secretly I care. A LOT.

Brene Brown gives a beautiful perspective on our fears of shame and vulnerability on TEDtalks and if you haven’t seen it, watch it, its brilliant.

You will probably cry.

But over the last few days as I have reflected on the dream language that is highlighting my changing season, I have come to the realisation, that vulnerability is an incredibly strong growth tool. Pride is unhealthy because it draws a ring around ourselves, shutting out God and others as we seek to live securely within the walls of safety. It’s not necessarily bad, it’s just not what Jesus would call abundant living.

Remember the greenhouse from my previous post on dreaming? The place where God and I needed to do some pruning? Well the interpretations have ‘sprung up’ and the first is that a greenhouse is a place of ‘controlled growth’, it’s kind of a fake environment. So on the one hand – pat on the back P for working out that you need to change, but take off the blinkers, you cannot always be in control of what form that change takes. GASP.

I thought I was being all wise and virtuous in admitting the need for change, but in my ‘sensitively’ (ahem) prideful way, I was still trying to control the way the change was brought about. I don’t want it to hurt, I don’t want to look like a fool while I ‘grow up’.

But it doesn’t always work like that – good honest change is hard and it requires immense amounts of vulnerability and courage.  Hiding behind my safety ‘box’ and saying nothing and doing nothing will not help me grow or heal and I feel part of my listening this week has brought me to this place where what I hear is …

‘I am the gardener’, says God, ‘not you. I do the cutting, not you.’

What I have to do is go out on a limb (yes, well, sometimes the words just tumble together cleverly like that don’t they? *laffing*) I have to go out on ‘a limb’ and be vulnerable. This Seminary place is the purrrfect place of vulnerability, I look like a fool often. I feel a little isolated. I mispronounce names all.the.time. I know nothing about anything and my life is being evaluated 24/7 it seems. I am old and young in ways I can’t quite understand. I am definitely out of my comfort zone and it’s wonderful and terrifying and challenging and rewarding. Bliss (can you hear the hysterical laughter?)

I am learning Hebrew, struggling with Zulu, anticipating Greek, singing Twsana, actually I best just stop there, cos I am likely to upset someone by forgetting to include their identity or language or home place – no safety zones here I tell you – conversations are veritable land mines waiting to go off at the slightest provocation. Phew.

Vulnerability with a capital Z and totally out of my control…

But that’s ok isn’t it? Because I am not supposed to be in control, I am just along for the ride and as I grow and learn so God whips out the watering can and the shears and says, ‘Right child, let’s have some fun – NO ONE will laff at you while I’m in control!’ They daren’t! My Dad is now a Heavens Angel and he’ll have something to say for sure!

So, yes, there are some changes afoot, changes that need to take place outside of the greenhouse of safety. I am learning to be vulnerable, I am learning to be open- hearted about criticism and I am growing in stature and courage on a daily basis.

This is fighting talk, can you hear it? Let’s check in again next week and see how brave I feel then…

But in all honesty – I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than here, right now.

Grate-Phil.

The certainty of change…

Tags

change, Dreams, faith, John 15, Jung, new life, Resurrection, Richard Rohr

The one thing I am certain of since coming into ministry is never to be certain of what God is doing, or what God is going to do …

There have been times where I have been adamant about how or where God will use me only to find that it’s never in the way I expect it to be. I started out saying things like I believe God wants me to do x, only to find I am needed to do y …

I have found over and over again that the seasons of life are just that – seasons. When a season is over it’s time to let go and move on to a new place or a new role or a new way of being. It can be quite hard. Saying goodbye to people who were a part of our pasts because we now have a radically different present can been hard for us and confusing for the people who we leave behind. But it’s the way of life. Seasons change, people change, circumstances change and all we can be certain of is that we need not fear this change – We hear that phrase over and over in the scriptures, ‘Do not be afraid…’

But change can be scary, allowing the old the space to die to make room for the new can be confusing and painful. Just when we think we have our positions in life secured so a new experience pops up, asking to be learned or understood. We are going to experience that here at seminary whilst we come to grips with the loss of our friend and our leader. It’s difficult balancing the act of mourning with the necessity to plan and make room for new leadership – students have already started speculating, second guessing what will happen in the future – it’s natural I suppose. We miss Ross but we need someone to take the reins and lead us forward, not only as a seminary, but as a people in mourning.

I have had a series of dreams recently which seem to point me to another one of these seasons in my own life. Last night for instance, I dreamt I was walking around a greenhouse. There was a shadowy figure on one side of the garden who I recognise as my masculine self, the animus as CG Jung referred to it. It’s not always the same person because throughout my life that figure has changed as my personality has changed or matured, as my need for guidance has moved me to different places and so I recognised this person potentially as my current animus. (I say potentially, because I am still wrestling with the dream images).

All around where he was sitting, the leaves on the trees where browning and dying and as I moved to cut them down I became aware that it was only on one side of the garden. The rest of the garden was green and flourishing, but around this individual some ‘work’ needed to be done. (‘In its primary ‘unconscious’ form the animus is a compound of spontaneous, unpremeditated opinions which exercise a powerful influence on the woman’s emotional life’ – CG Jung, Memories, Dreams & Reflections)

So the question this dream asks of me is where in my life do I need to let go of old ways of being or thinking which are influencing my life at this time? Where in my life do I need to make some space for new growth?

What I find really interesting is that the night before I dreamt I was moving house but there was an enormous, heavy box blocking the doorway and we (I had a team of helpers) could not move it. It was blocking the exit which meant I couldn’t shift the other furniture out. Through a series of corresponding symbols I identified an aspect of seminary life which needs to be addressed. I think I know what is standing in my way of moving forward and my dream from last night seems to confirm this awareness, with that block out of the way, I am free to move ‘outside’ and continue the act of clearing and pruning any other parts that are ready for change.

This process of self-awareness and consciousness aids in my personal journey, whilst moving me in a direction I trust to God’s guidance. It is not yet clear what needs to be done or how, but I am at least conscious of the need to allow God  the space to show me what needs to be cut. “I am the true vine, and God is the gardener. God cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit God prunes so that it will be even more fruitful”. (John 15 1-2)

Change is certain. Death is unavoidable. But, as a resurrection people we are always assured that life transcends death, that hope is possible in the midst of trying times, that light shines out from the darkest places and that although this may not be immediately evident, we need not fear change because it heralds new life.

In Richard Rohr’s devotion today he spoke about the ‘feminine face of God’, this is how he closed …

The feminine body can be seen as a cauldron of transformation. Her body turns things into other things—her body turns a love act into a perfect little child. Yet, in her heart, she knows SHE did not do it. All she had to do was to wait and eat well, to believe and to hope for nine months. This gives a woman a very special access to understanding spirituality as transformation—if she is able to listen.

God is whispering in my dreams about the need for new life. I’m going to make some space to listen, allowing the mystery to unfold in its own time …

And all shall be well …

Tags

all shall be well, Julian of Norwich, mysticism, Ross Olivier

Today is the Feast Day of Juliana of Norwich (1342-1420) – one of the best known female mystics.

The phrase “…All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well” is said to have been revealed to her in a vision from God and was used by TS Elliot in the following:

Whatever we inherit from the fortunate
We have taken from the defeated
What they had to leave us—a symbol:
A symbol perfected in death.
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
By the purification of the motive
In the ground of our beseeching.

Tonight there is a small memorial service for Ross here at our Tuesday Communion service and how perfectly ‘divine’ that today would be a day to reflect on the theology of one who spoke of God as pure love and mercy to help honour a life lived in pure love and sacrifice.

All shall be well …

Yet, You are holy …

Tags

Alan Storey, depression, God, mercy, psalm 22, suicide

My friend Alan is a courageous, wise and sensitive preacher.

In the silence surrounding Ross’s death, he speaks passionately and whole-heartedly about depression, about suicide and about mercy…

Listen to his sermon…

“Suicide – when Sadness Suffocates” Psalm 22:1-31

 

The Gift …

Tags

comfort, creation, death, God, hope, life, love, Psalm 23, quilting

I received the most incredible gift last week – my first hand made quilt. My friend Colleen is a quilter of note and last year I (sort of) jokingly said to her – ‘will you make me a quilt when I get married?’

Her quilts really are a work of art and she could, if she chose to, sell them for vast amounts of money. I can’t afford vast amounts of money so it seemed a bit presumptuous to ask. But then she said she would make me one for seminary…  She asked what colours I wanted and I said BRIGHT colours. Red. Yellow. Green. Blue.

I collected it last week and when I opened it, my blood ran cold. It is exquisite.

It took me a few days to contact her and tell her that I had received it because I was so overwhelmed. I couldn’t find the words to adequately express just how much I love it and how touched I was that she had poured so much time and energy into something that is just for me.

On Sunday I took the quilt to church with me as the basis of my sermon… Psalm 23 – ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want …’

It sums up for me the gift of faith.

The gift of God, the gifts from God…

Yellow for the sun, for light.

Green for the earth, for peace, for balance.

Blue for water, the Spirit, for cleansing and restoring.

Red for the blood, the blood of humanity and the blood of Jesus connecting all of humanity – connecting God to humanity.

The underside of the quilt is a beautiful sky blue like Spirit, the undergirding of all life upheld by the Spirit -our lives held in the Spirit of God.  

This is a gift made up of Colleen’s thoughts and her love. Just like life is the gift of God to us. God’s presence and God’s self, interwoven in our lives. There is nothing we can ever do to repay that gift. There are no words which can capture what it means to live simply with the gift of God, with the earth and humanity and love and peace and acceptance.

This has been an incredibly tough week for us at seminary. So many questions, so much death, so much sadness and confusion. But through it all there is God – the source of love and the great comforter. As I have sat quietly in my room, reflecting on the events of the week and the sadness hanging over our home and community, I have sat with that quilt, and I have been ‘comforted’ by the gift that is God and God’s love.

The quilt is a symbol of light and hope and life in what can sometimes be a tough and cruel world and I am so grateful for the reminder that life is a gift, a gift not to be taken for granted. Whatever we face and whatever questions we may have, there is One who says, ‘My grace is sufficient for you. My love runs throughout and I will restore life to those who ask for it and who need it.’

Thank you Colleen for your gift of love to me.

Thank you God for reminding me that you are God, that life is sacred and that for all who ask, there is comfort, there is hope, there is life – eternal.

The Seminary’s heart breaks …

Tags

John 15, Ross Olivier, Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary

Today we learnt of the sad passing of our beloved Seminary President, Rev Dr Ross Olivier. It would appear that the grief I felt in my heart over the past week was even bigger than I could ever have imagined.

We knew Ross was ill. We knew he was struggling to get well again, but we didn’t fully appreciate just how much he was struggling.

Last night before bed the pain in my heart was back and so I got on my knees next to the bed and I asked for help. I asked for understanding. I asked for guidance.

This verse came to mind – ‘I am the vine, you are the branches.’ (John 15)

‘I am the source…’

‘…Of life, of love, of understanding – you are an extension of me’.

It gave me a measure of peace.

And then this news today…

Ross died this morning.

‘I am the vine. I am the source.’

God ran through Ross as Ross’s source, God runs through the life of this seminary via Ross’s heart and love and service – there are many of us today who stand as the fruit of Ross’s labour of love, as he so faithfully served his God.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You, Ross, are my friend. I no longer call you servant, because a servant does not know his masters business. Instead I call you friend, for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed YOU to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last … (John 15:13 – 16)

Ross Olivier, we are your fruit and the Seminary will last because of your legacy – you asked us at the beginning of the year to let our lights shine and today I say back, your light will shine in each of the lives that you have touched and there are many. Thank you for being light and life and love and understanding for so many people.

Thank you for your heart.

We wish you peace, we wish you rest and we say goodbye with hearts heavy with grief.

You are loved, your family is loved.

We will miss you ‘good and faithful friend’.

Listening to our hearts …

Tags

connectedness, grief, love

A very strange and tragic thing just happened at Seminary …

Last Tuesday night we had our weekly family communion service. Each week one of the covenant groups takes the service, and different people lead a portion – the prayers, the singing, the scripture reading and the sermon. This past week it was the turn of my flatmate’s group and one of the female seminarians read the scripture. She read John 21: 15-17 - where Jesus asks Simon Peter to love and take care of his people. She read the scripture in her mother tongue, a language I didn’t understand, but I knew what she was reading and I could hear the parts that I imagined Jesus would speak, ‘Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? – take care of each other’.

I was so moved by her reading I just closed my eyes and listened. It was quite possibly the most beautiful rendering of scripture I had ever heard… but whilst she read my heart began to ache. Ache in a way I cannot describe, it literally felt like it was being pierced, cracked open, it was deep and incredibly painful, as the service continued, so did the pain. I have had it before at various times and I have come to associate it with God, with listening. I never really know why and I am not always sure how to interpret it and mostly it goes away over time. But this Tuesday it persisted and it got worse, by the time I got back home I could hardly stand it. I asked my flatmate if maybe something had been said as part of the service that I didn’t understand, most of the prayers were in the vernacular as was the singing, so I thought maybe something was said or prayed, which my spirit or my heart had understood but which I had failed to hear or understand in my head. We couldn’t work it out.

The pain persisted over the next few days and I prayed into that scripture to see if I could try and work out if it was connected. It was the reading of the scripture that precipitated the pain, in my mind (and in my heart) there was no doubt.

Two days ago, we received the news that that Seminarian – the one who read the passage – lost her husband in a car accident. He was young. She is young. She has a tiny new baby, and at least one other child that I have seen. We have never really spoken except to greet each other in passing, so I don’t really know her… and yet, I am now convinced, her pain was laid on my heart…

Why?

I do not know … even if I could have foreseen it, I could not have prevented it – so why did I feel her pain – so acutely, so physically? I can still feel it.

I really don’t know – all I do know is that I have thought of this woman continually since hearing the news. Every time my heart hurts I think of her and I offer up another prayer, it’s as if I have been carrying her in my heart for a week – well in many ways I have. It made me realise just how connected we are, even when we don’t really know one another, how when one hurts that hurt is mirrored in others and how important it is to listen to our hearts. Listening to our hearts will remind us to care for each other, to look out for each other, to love each other desperately, because we never know what tomorrow will bring.

My heart aches for her, HER heart must be completely and utterly broken.

And all I can do is hold her pain and pray and pray and pray.

Life is short.

Listen to your hearts and LOVE one another – it’s all we are really asked to do.

I am so a number 7 …

Tags

basically just slacking, doing other stuff, enneagram, tis nice

I haven’t done much writing lately, have you noticed?

No?

Me neither …

*skips off to have some fun*

Trusting in my imaginary friend …

Tags

atheism, doubt, faith, God as provider, imaginary friends, Mystery, Psalm 121, trust, waiting on God

I had a 2 line twitter conversation with a South African journalist and atheist over the weekend. He was at an atheist convention in Australia and discovered there was no whiskey in his mini bar and so he tweeted, ‘Lord why have you forsaken me?’

I couldn’t help but respond, in jest mind you, ‘do you really need to ask that question?’ He of course doesn’t know me from Adam (or Eve) – I only know him through a few of his on line articles and of course with twitter there’s no way of knowing whether a person is joking or not – but he replied, ‘No I do, you’ll always be forsaken by imaginary beings. Rather put your faith in the car guard’.

Small wry smiles, ‘my, my we are clever, witty, intellectual creatures’ I bet we both thought … ‘she really doesn’t get it’, ‘he really doesn’t get it’ – we both get it, and neither of us really gets it!

Faith in imaginary beings… Who puts their faith in an imaginary being? Well, I guess I do. Every day. Sometimes I struggle to place my life and well-being into the ‘hands’ of the unknown and then there are days like today when I can’t help but laugh out loud at how small minded and ego-centric I am when I doubt the presence and provision of God. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when the things that happened today don’t make sense for me, (or when I just plain forget that they happen at all), but sometimes I struggle with how come this happens for me and not others?

Then I have to remember that trust is a basic component of life for everyone, no matter how much or how little we may have… and it is relative, trust is relative to our levels of faith and need.

I should explain. My car needs new shock absorbers. Big money, small budget. So I am thinking creatively as I start my day. Can it wait? Will some money come next month? Maybe I shouldn’t have bought groceries. And as I am thinking creatively I pick up my voice messages that were left last night. One comes from my friend at a church community I work with. She says, ‘I hear you need shock absorbers, go ahead and get a quote and let me have it’.

BOOM!

Really?

Real need, real cost, real solution.

‘I lift my eyes to the hills’ we said in chapel this morning, ‘from whence comes my help?’

A real community has answered my need, through the prompting of my imaginary friend perhaps?

Trust…

Moments like these happen over and over and over – a silent prayer for guidance, a person speaks about that exact thing. Discrepancy between outgoing expenses and new seminary stipend, a person offers to fill the gap. A heart felt need for companionship and friendship, a true and authentic person steps into my life. The list goes on and on and happens over and over again. A need in my new church community – over three days, three separate and random encounters offer the help and support we need!

What is that? … Mystery whispers into my heart and breathes life into my doubting self, the sibilant beautiful world and word of myssssstery… ‘ah yes my child – tis I, your imaginary friend…’

God takes care of my needs time after time after time. I don’t have abundance, but then again, surely having everything I need is abundance? I don’t need for anything, I want lots of stuff, who doesn’t, but I don’t need for anything. Where this gets tricky for me, like I said, is that whilst I am grateful, I recognise that others may not have their prayers answered in the same way – or do they?

People who display deep faith, also display unflinching trust, when they need that loaf of bread or that smile or that ray of hope beamed back at them, they recognise it when it comes. That’s faith. That’s trust. And for those who manage to display it in the face of insurmountable odds I am always slightly envious. People who have nothing seem far more faith-full than those who have much and I think it’s probably because they realise their needs are out of their sphere of control and so they have no option but to rely on the ‘imaginary being’ who some of us like to call God, the well spring and the provider of life.

The challenge though for those of us who have much, is whether or not we have the faith to share the much that we have. Do we trust that our needs will continue to be taken care of and that we can therefore share what we have? On the flipside, if we are waiting ON something, do we have the faith to trust that it will also be taken care of, in good time?

It’s a biggie – I’ll grant you that, but the beauty and the not-so mystery of creation is that there is enough for all of us, we just need to trust that knowledge and learn to share that which we have the great fortune to enjoy.

Faith.

Trust.

Today was a great reminder for a sometimes doubtful soul, so, to my imaginary friend (s) … thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

For those who are waiting on hope, provision, relief, release, light, guidance, love, practical assistance or strength, I pray you would give God a chance to do God’s thing – namely, step into the gap – and until that happens – let someone pray for you.

I will pray for you…

I lift up my eyes to the hills – From whence comes my help?

My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

God will not allow your foot to be moved;

The God who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, the God who keeps Israel

Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

God is your keeper; God is your shade at your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day,

Nor the moon by night.

God shall preserve you from all evil, God will preserve your soul.

God will preserve your going out and Your coming in

From this time forth, and even evermore.

(Psalm 121)

Violence and the Cross…

Tags

1 Kings 3, atonement, Crucifixion, grace, Jesus, Matt 10, Rene Girard, salvation, violence and the cross

The following are some very imperfect and embryonic thoughts about a topic we are dealing with in Systematic Theology … forgive me my ignorance and humble musings on what is a deeply complex theory …

We have just come through the Easter period, where we travelled with Christ to his violent and unmerited death on the cross. Christians have come to understand this event as a time of victory over death, over evil, over shame and as a time to celebrate the saving power of God through the sacrifice of God’s son. I have always struggled with the crucifixion. Most of my resistance to the doctrines of salvation and atonement come from the premise that an almighty, omnipotent God, who is all loving and all merciful, sent a man (albeit a God-man) to a violent and inhumane death on a cross in order to free us from our sin.

If that same God is ‘in charge’ of my life and my destiny, who’s to say that God won’t send me to a fateful, violent death in order to avenge someone else’s evil  doings, or to teach us a lesson? That is a God of punishment and retribution and goes against the unmerited grace which I believe was the gospel message of Jesus – ‘freely you have received, freely give’ (Matt 10:8). I understand that my faith centres on this event and so my struggles go deep to try and fully understand what was intended and what was achieved through this event and what it means for me today. When I came across this theory in McGrath’s book (Christian Theology – An Introduction) about the violence of the cross it went against the very essence of who I believe God is, but over the Easter period I wrestled with the violence of the cross in order to better understand it.

In short, Rene Girard (1923), who purported this theory, says that the crucifixion event is about human violence and jealousy – ‘mimetic desire’. McGrath describes Girard as an anthropologist not a theologian, although an article out of Stanford University where Girard worked for many years describes Girard’s work as crossing the ‘fields of literature, anthropology, theology, philosophy, sociology, psychology’. (Haven)  Girard, I think rightly, says violence is inherent in human nature and hence inherent in understandings of the divine and divine or religious ritual. According to Girard ‘mimetic desire’ spurs this need for violence – mimetic desire being the desire for something that another human being possesses. This theory is mirrored throughout the bible and specifically in the story in 1 Kings 3 where two women claim motherhood over one baby. The woman whose baby has died claims another’s baby as her own and assents to the King cutting the baby in half in order to solve the dispute with the words, ‘neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!’ (1 Kings 3:26)

When one individual or group of individuals wants something that belongs to another group then violence is often a by-product of that jealousy and greed according to Girard. One way to circumvent this is to divert attention onto another object – a scapegoat which then becomes the focus of the groups violence and the means of their ‘transformation’ – ‘this sacrifice serves to protect the entire community from its own violence’ – thus restoring harmony. (McGrath)

I am still uncomfortable with this theory, mostly because I am uncomfortable with referring to Jesus as ‘the sacrifice’, the ‘scapegoat’. But having journeyed with congregants and writers and their relative discomfort with the crucifixion event this year, I have come to think that we need to see our dark selves in the imagery of a violent community – a violent community who will condemn an innocent man because he dares to challenge us and our need for power, wealth, status and control. Not many people go as far as actual physical killing or inhumane acts of violence, but if we are honest and are able to stomach the idea that we have a tendency towards jealousy and greed, which enable us to turn a blind eye to injustice then I believe the violent crucifixion event and its powerful message may make us think twice about how we treat people and what we hold on to so fiercely and uncompromisingly – be they possessions or beliefs.

As for the sacrificial giving of God’s Son for our salvation, Haven’s (2009) closing remarks on Girard’s theory have helped me understand one reason why using Jesus as a scapegoat for ‘original sin’ is difficult for me to comprehend:

‘In a spellbinding lecture last year, Girard pointed out that we have reached a point in history where we can no longer blame scapegoats. The mechanism of scapegoating is too well known, so the ritual murder no longer expiates the society. War no longer works to resolve conflict—indeed, wars no longer have clear beginnings, endings or aims. Moreover, as weapons have escalated, war could destroy us all.’ (Haven)

Girard in the latter part of his life claimed that ‘the Bible [as] “anti-myth”— is a description of humankind’s long climb up from barbarity. Violence, retaliation and a vengeful God evolve over centuries into themes of forgiveness, repentance and the revelation that the scapegoat is innocent, culminating in the Crucifixion’. (Haven) 

What a hopeful interpretation of an uncomfortably prophetic statement on humanity - I guess my question is, will we ever really learn to listen? 

‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you’ (John 14:27)