The Threefold Way part 2: Via Illuminativa

Pentecost 7 year B Sermon 09

Last week we started a series thinking of our church family as a school of practice…learning to live and work…in the light of God’s love. In his book… Finding our way again…Brian McLaren suggests… if we’re not a school of practice… we’re in danger of being just another consumer group…or Sunday morning escape from reality.

So last week we considered how different it is to be part of a passionate dynamic learning congregation…how sometimes when our faith goes a bit stale…we can lose our way…and to find our way forward…we may have to look back through centuries of Christian practice…to see where we got off track in the first place…

We learned when we look back like this…we find a common ancient treasure… a portrayal of the Christian life as a journey… in stages…as life on the way. And in this…we re-discover the stages or seasons of spiritual growth… that derive from what the ancient church called

‘the threefold way’. three dimensions of the Christian life… as we seek to live in the light of God’s love. We discovered each dimension inherited two names… a Latin name… from the Western Church… and a Greek one… from the Eastern church.

So last week we began by exploring the first dimension…the Via Purgativa…[in Latin] or the practice of Katharsis [in Greek]

Practicing that dimension we learn to clean house so to speak… we take the boards off the windows of our lives… sweep out the rubbish that piles up so it blocks the light… we get rid of our idols and our preoccupation with power and pleasure and accumulating things… we remove the dark clouds… that keep God’s love and guidance from shining in…

And we imagined what the Via Purgativa would look like in our church…were we to help each other honestly examine how the pursuit of money, pleasure and power has a hold on our lives. How these forces affect our marriages, our parenting… our work… our friendships. We imagined how we could hold each other accountable…as we strive to practice for the opposite of those things…where we practice humility, self control and simplicity. [pause]

When we’ve cleaned house and the light can finally shine in … then we’re ready for a fresh vision of God…a new way of seeing one another and the rest of creation… and suddenly we’re ready to explore the second dimension of the threefold way

The Via Illuminativa …or Fotosis…This dimension is all about seeing everything in the light of God

When I was ordained… my friend singer Lorina Harding performed a song about it here in this church…[sing]

And to understand the Via Illuminativa… Brian McLaren suggests we imagine its mid-summer [don't we wish]…and we’re walking in a veggie garden…

We see ‘sunflowers facing east for the morning sun, runner beans climbing …pumpkin leaves… as big as two hands spread out together…with little baby pumpkins forming underneath…still dark green

And as we walk we’re reminded how living things draw their life from the sun. How if you take a plant inside the house…it will stretch toward a window… how if you hid it in the hot water cupboard it will wither and die without light.

McLaren says he sometimes thinks of this when he looks at people’s faces…some have seen too little light to thrive …too little of God’s light. Some seem to have been hidden in the shadows… maybe trapped… afraid to come out into the beautiful light of God’s love.

And we’ve all watched how the faces of flowers… follow the sun… as it moves across the northern sky…well I think practicing the Via Illuminativa…is something like that.

In his first letter, the apostle John makes a remarkable statement about God doesn’t he. John tells us … he’s about to summarise the message… he and his fellow disciples received from Jesus…the message they’re called to proclaim everywhere. ‘Here it is’ John says… and wraps it up in one simple metaphor… ‘God is light …and in God there is no darkness at all’.

…before we travel on the…the via purgativa… we’re still in denial about our pride our lust and our greed…we aren’t interested in God’s light. But now with some awareness… how destructive these forces are in our lives…

we can start to practice the second dimension… we begin to let the light of God into our insides… we want God’s light to enter every part of our being to drive the darkness away. So on the Via Illuminativa we begin to practice those things that let the light of God shine… into our minds and hearts.

One of these practices is study… not only the Bible… but other writing about God. Through reading …we welcome the light of God into our thinking and imagining. At church we’re eager to discover God’s light in the lyrics of hymns and song…and the sermons we hear. We look for it in the faces of other worshippers …. we smell it in the fresh baking and coffee after church… and we long to taste it in the sharing of Communion.

When we’re driving in the car… we welcome God’s light as we listen to the radio… or at home on telly or U tube …

we’re look for it in novels or poetry and art. When we go to the movies… we aren’t just looking for entertainment … we’re training in the Via Illuminativa……

Walking in solitude on the mountain or resting in our quiet space at home… we welcome God’s light. We welcome it in conversations with friends…in bird calls…in the night sky… the taste of food …And the more we welcome it… the more of God’s light we want.

We find the first dimension of the threefold way…

has tamed our insatiable desire for pleasure… and now something’s growing in its place … something new and beautiful… as we practice the second dimension of the threefold way…a hunger and thirst for truth and justice and goodness and beauty… what Brian McLaren calls… every pure and holy reality…

As we take ourselves out of the spotlight… well then we want to see everything in the light of God. We stop wanting to be stars and instead… we want to see the stars… and savour their beauty.

Freed from our craving to accumulate money and things…we learn the greater joy of accumulating light…as we hold out our branches and leaves to be warmed by God’s light.

So St John’s description of God as light…helps us to find our way again. We come to understand… that like light…God is everywhere… real yet immaterial… peaceful yet dynamic… powerful yet gentle.

We see the parallels…in the great mysteries of science... knowing we see everything because of light… yet having no idea… how light…can be wave and particle. In the same way… we live with the mystery of how God is… at the same time… Creator, Saviour and Spirit.

The metaphor of light helps us understand… how time and space are relative…how we’re part of something big and beautiful … fast and timeless… And yes…he Via Illuminativa is the way of delight…like children on the first day of spring running barefoot on the grass…like skiing in tee shirts…loving the warmth… getting more joy…[pause]

Yet everyone knows that an unavoidable part of understanding daylight… is the experience of night.

Those who practice the Via Illuminativa…know our enjoyment of God’s light can be interrupted… by long nights and spiritual storms…by low pressure systems…and atmospheric depressions…inversion layers where thick gray clouds
hang right down…for days or months…

We learn about the light… not just by its presence…but by its absence…Remember how we felt last Thursday…when the sun came out… in that vast cloudless sky…how we all wanted to get outside… to feel the warmth of the sun on our faces.

And you know what…it’s only those who’ve come to love the light…who’re devastated when it seems to be gone…in what St John O the Cross calls ‘the dark night of the soul’…

No one would choose to go there…but those who have been there…know there are gifts to be found there too…and wounds that won’t heal until the light returns.

And what’s more… as CS Lewis said… when we’re experiencing God’s light… we’re not content just to see it… ‘we want to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves…to bathe in it…become part of it.’

And…there are other ways to practice the Via Illuminativa…There’s contemplation…as we learn to be still…and receptive to God’s love in silence…we can practice lectio livina …allowing God to speak fresh understanding to us through the words of Scripture. There’s what’s calledpracticing the presence of God wherever we are…and there’s fellowship… where we seek to discern the light of God in one another.

And of course there’s worship….when we sing…and in singing…we bask in the light of God’s love like tuataras on a rock in the sun. In worship… we pray and read and reflect together… on the light of God’s love… keeping our communal spirit …open to God’s light and grace.

When we practice the second dimension of the threefold way… we gradually synchronize our lives to an ancient rhythm…praying… listening… reading… worshipping. …not as a grim duty…but as an expression of our growing desire to know God.

And we interweave and integrate these practices…

into everything else we do…drinking coffee at Muzza’s, chatting on Facebook, riding up the chair lift listening to the news on TV…or voting

What will it mean to practice the Via Illuminativa… next time you get your power bill… or argue with the one you love…or playing with your children. How could you stay open to God’s light on the golf course… or at the kids’ soccer match? Or when you’re so stressed out…you want to scream. [pause]

And right into the middle of our overly busy lives...the ancient threefold way… offers us an array of fascinating experiences…into which the light of God can shine.

And all along…the first and second dimensions are preparing us for the third …the Via Unitiva…or Theosis…but of course that’s next week.

In the mean time…as we sing our next song…I invite you…to be that sunflower seeking out the sun… your leaves just aching to stretch toward the light…[and if you can’t quite bring yourself just yet…to raise your hands…at least now you can understand why other people do…

And without much of a fuss maybe you can just cup them slightly…toward the light of God’s love.

At the very least…I invite you…to let your heart open wide as you sing… and in our worship together…and in our impact on the world… may we practice living in the light of God.

The Threefold Way part 1: Via Purgativa

Pentecost 6 year B Sermon 09

What do you want to learn about?

Fishing, golf, skiing, knitting quilting, gaming…what about Italian cooking…for any of these things… there’s a worldwide community to learn from … you can meet them on the internet or in books…special classes or training camps.

I hope our faith community is like that too. In his book… Finding our way again…Brian McLaren suggests… that’s exactly what our churches are meant to be… schools of practice…and if we’re not a school of practice… we’re in danger of being just another consumer group…or Sunday morning escape from reality.

And when we think of our church family as a school of practice… why there’s every chance we’ll be a learning community… with a transformational impact on the community around us.

The New Testament is a witness to this.

The Gospels weren’t written until decades after the events they describe – and maybe that's because Jesus created so much work for his disciples … it took twenty or thirty years… for anyone to catch their breath long enough… to write down what had happened. And Paul’s letters were only written… when he was forced to slow down… when he’s shipwrecked or in jail.

How different it is to be part of a breathless dynamic learning congregation…what a contrast to a placid group of religious consumers or an argumentative bunch of religious experts… who’d rather defend their positions …than learn anything new.

Our faith needs practice doesn’t it…and sometimes when our faith’s gone a bit stale…or our congregation’s become complacent… we can lose our way…and we need to find our way again. And to find our way forward we have to look back to thousands of years of Christian practice…to see where we got off track in the first place…

When we look back like this…way back…before the missionaries came to New Zealand …even before the Protestants split off from the Catholics …… even before the Great Schism…which divided the ancient church… between east and west…when we look way way back…we find a common ancient treasure shared by the whole church – a portrayal of the Christian life as a journey in stages…as life on the way.

And there are useful ways to help us rediscover these stages or seasons…of spiritual development… that derive from what the ancient church called ‘the threefold way’.

It’s tempting to make this about higher and lower levels of spiritual achievement… as though we could complete one stage and leave it behind or admire people who are above us or put people down…who are beneath us But it’s more accurate to describe the threefold way as three dimensions or zones… of our spiritual pathway as practicing believers.

But down through the centuries…Christians have discovered… that we have to learn about these three dimensions … in a given order…even though we continue to practice all of them.

So over the next three weeks we’re going to explore a different dimension of the threefold way.

So what are these three dimensions called? Well each one inherited two names… a Latin name… from the Western Church… and a Greek name… from the Eastern church.

The first of the threefold way is the Via Purgativa… or Katharsis…this is the dimension of self examination…where we uncover the frequency and power of our tendency to turn away from God…our own sin if you like…

Next is the Via Illuminativa or Fotosis…the dimension of enlightenment…which comes as we receive into our lives… the light of God’s truth… God’s character…God’s energy and love.

You could say that if Katharsis is like the removing of clouds so the sun can shine through… then fotosis is like exposing our whole selves to God’s light… so we can grow and flourish…like a tree… humming with photosynthesis…in fotosis our hearts and energies…are illuminated and warmed with the Light of God.

The third dimension… is the Via Unitiva or Theosis…where our will becomes increasingly united with God’s will, our words and actions… increasingly aligned with God’s words and actions revealed in Jesus. In this dimension… there’s a sense in which we’re taken into God… and as well you could say …God fills us.

And when we practice the via unitiva… our individual uniqueness isn’t wiped out by our union with God…but enhanced and sanctified as we learn to operate more and more on God’s wavelength, tune in… more and more to God’s frequency…as our lives become harmonized…with everything else that lives… in harmony with God.

The church has long discovered that to keep to the path…or find its way back to the path… it helps to practice this threefold way…collectively and alone… and in the world.

So we begin today…with the via purgativa…the practice of Katharsis…let me explain by giving you one of Brian McLaren’s analogies…I want you to imagine you’re a house that’s fallen into disrepair… or maybe a house that’s been abandoned and boarded up before anyone could move in.

To make it livable… you have to start… by purging by getting rid of… the rubbish and the dirt and the pests...that have accumulated. So the via purgativa…the purgative way…first instructs you… to take the boards off the windows and throw out the filthy covers that hide the mess underneath.

.Then it instructs you to get a bucket of soap and water ….and scrub the windows… till they’re clean. .Everything your doing…depends on letting the light come in…because without light… you won’t be able to see what needs to be thrown out… and what just needs to be cleaned up and repaired.

And the wisdom of the via purgativa tells us… if it’s too dark to see the mess inside ourselves… if something is obstructing God’s light… its likely to be one of three things…

The first thing that blocks our God’s light… is a preoccupation with ourselves and our own influence and power…in biblical terms this translates as the sin of pride.

Second is a preoccupation with pleasure in general and sexual pleasure in particular… this translates as the sin of lust. And third …is a preoccupation with money and possessions – which of course is the sin of greed.

Pride, lust, and greed…money sex and power…

A preoccupation with any one of these can create a very thick and dirty film indeed…which blocks out the light …of God’s guidance and love…and the via purgative teaches us… to carefully examine the power of these things in our lives…unless we do we simply can’t make much progress… in finding our way again.

And this is why our reading set down for today from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians…is so perfect…for talking about katharsis…You see Paul had cleaned house…Paul had examined his life.

So instead of bragging about his spiritual fitness …he points to his disabilities… what he calls… the thorn in his flesh. O certainly… Paul knows a guy… who’s experienced the pinnacle of spiritual ecstasy…a guy who says he’s been to paradise and back and Paul says yeah ‘I will boast about a man like that… but I won’t boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.’

There is for Paul even as he builds a reputation as one of the greatest Christian leaders ever…an acknowledged weakness …a thorn in his flesh…that keeps him humble…as he walks the way of Christ.

Paul confesses his weakness and he’s entirely ready to have God remove it…He’s prayed humbly for God to take it away it…but all he gets from God is this…

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Paul learns to identify and accept his weaknesses…and his powerlessness to overcome them by himself…and in that spiritual breakthrough…the light shines…andPaul discovers the meaning of grace. [pause] Even though he’s weak…God’s grace and mercy are still operating.

That’s why Paul says ‘Therefore I’ll boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so Christ's power may rest on me…For when I’m weak then I am strong.’

Maybe that’s why so many of us are prickly and cross and hard to get on with…maybe our insides are in disrepair … maybe one.. or all …of the three dark forces…are blocking out the light of God’s grace and love…maybe we need to practice the via purgativa

And when we do we’re likely to discover… that what needs cleaning up in our own lives… is also what infects our world… and with enough light… we can see the destructive forces of greed and lust and the worship of power… in the world in our community and even in the church.

Now wouldn’t we feel hopeless if we could never graduate from this stage of the threefold way …till we completely master… pride greed and lust in ourselves…but Paul tells us by God’s grace we can move on.

Only in honestly and humbly confronting our weaknesses can we enlist God’s help to withstand them. Only by facing our monsters and exposing them to the light of God… can we be cured of the dangerous naiveté… that we’ve made it all the way to highest spiritual rung of the ladder and will never fall off. [pause]

So what would the via purgativa look like… in our church…what about a small group of friends who gather weekly or monthly to review honestly how money, sex and power has a hold on their lives. How these three forces are affecting their marriages, their parenting… their work… how they’re blocking out the light of God’s love…

Imagine if these people were to journal every day… how greed or pride or a preoccupation with pleasure show up in their thoughts and words and behavior.

Or imagine these people were practice fasting… from those things that block out the light in their lives. Maybe they could give up pride one month and agree to go without defending themselves when they’re criticized…or maybe they could give up the influence and power they derive from gossiping…

Or maybe they could make a pact with each other…to find someone to help secretly… agreeing to give up the kudos they get. Or maybe they could practice fasting from the status they get from hanging out with the popular, the powerful and the prestigious and instead spend extra time with children, or the sick or the elderly or mentally handicapped… seeking to love and serve the powerless and lowly

Followers of Jesus understand that God forgives and saves by grace. So do you begin to see how purgation works?

It has nothing to do with paying for our sins. Purgation has everything to do with practice… not penance…with practicing humility and service… rather than pride and power…practicing generosity and simplicity… rather than greed…practicing self control and a willingness to suffer discomfort in a good cause… rather than a lust for pleasure and comfort.

If our church were a school of spiritual practice maybe we’d be helping each other say no to the three most powerful forces in our lives…and by the grace of God actively practicing their opposite… Next week we’ll explore the second dimension in this journey…