— The Beauty of the Way —

     The Christian Church is not all that it should be in the world. We are broken, wounded and often stumble in the darkness towards the Light. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Yet, I have sensed a greater force in my life, constant, strong and sometimes ineffable. This force draws , justifies and sanctifies me as I gravitate towards the Light. The force is Divine grace, without which I would forever be lost in darkness. This is the beauty of the Way.

                                                               Prevenient Grace

I found you as a babe[1],

left for dead in the outskirts

of the city, like discarded refuge

The blood from your mother's womb

still covered you like a garment

I picked you up and nursed you

I washed you in living waters,

anointed your head with oil

When you became a woman[2],

your beauty shined like the noon sun,

Your virtue was beyond compare

     If I believed in reincarnation, I would be convinced that in a previous life I was a Franciscan monk. Of all Christian traditions, the Franciscan tradition has always captured my imagination theologically and challenged  conventional epistemologies about American life. There is something alluring about the radical Franciscan world view that embraces poverty as a way to spiritual riches and commits itself to the care of the naked and poor. So often I have felt like the young Francisco Bernardone (St. Francis), the privileged son a wealthy merchant. Like Francis, in my youth I pursued the ways of pleasure and military glory. I rode off to war handsomely clad in fine armor and weapons seeking the temporary glory of this world. Moreover, in my quest for the kingdom of God, I too have wanted to strip off my fine garments in the city square, renouncing the way of materialism and wealth. I too have wanted to dawn the simple wool habit of the Franciscan monk, seeking the riches of the Kingdom of God. I'm sure my family would think me mad, but perhaps such radical renunciation of self, my autonomous self, is the only way to life. The longer I live, the more I realize I must lose to my life to find it. I must die to live.

    When I think about St. Francis' life, I reflect on the role of prevenient grace in the life of my Italian hero. Prevenient grace, the grace that is with us even before we are formed in our mother's womb is always with us. It is prevenient grace that causes the Triune God of all creation to pursue us, to woo us until we respond to Holy promptings. Through prevenient grace, the Lord pursued the young Francis, calling him to rebuild the Medieval Church, which was spiritually lying in ruins.

   As I reflect on my life, I realize that it was God's prevenient grace at work in me, even before I took my first mortal breath. When I was in first grade my father, after a row with my mom, threatened her with a butcher knife and abandoned our family. My father's violent disposition left my family traumatized and emotionally numb. Like Adam and Eve, we were left vulnerable and afraid. Yet, the Trinity in love found me abandoned and crying in a ditch. Yahweh picked me up, held me close and raised me in lovingkindness and truth. Yahweh the Heavenly Bridegroom raised me in everlasting arms of love. God washed me with living waters and anointed my head with oil.

     The prevenient grace of the Lord was unquestionably at work in drawing me into the world of Franciscan mysticism. As a poet with romantic sensibilities, Franciscan mysticism appealed to to my heart's deepest longings for intimacy with the Divine, an experiential knowing of the Triune God of creation. The Franciscans taught me that we the Church are the Bride of Christ, both corporately and individually. The quintessence of our faith is found in the living out this spiritual marriage through daily prayer and meditation in the Word of God. This paradigm shift in my view of the Trinity added needed breadth, depth and width to my relationship with the Lord. Through disciplined prayer and meditation in the Book of the Law, I sought to nurture this holy marriage:

Oh may He bless me[20]

With words that proceed

From His holy mouth.

For your words are better than life

Your oils have a pleasing fragrance

We will rejoice and be glad

We will extol your love more than wine

Draw me after you,

Let us run together,

For my Lord has brought

Me into His chambers

We will rejoice and be glad

We will extol your love more than wine

And so it is, the Lord's prevenient grace continues to draw and guide me in my pilgrim's quest towards a new country, the country of the Lord. It is the grace that opened my Sprit to a vocation in ministry that I would not have chosen for myself. Thus, Will Willimon asserts in his memoir Accidental Preacher:

Vocation is what God wants from you whereby your life is transformed

into a consequence of God's redemption of the world[3].

Through prevenient grace, the Lord called me to be a preacher of the gospel of Christ, God's great gift to the world. This is the beauty of the Way!

                                                             Justifying Grace

We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered[c] us into the hand of our iniquity.

(Isaiah 64:6-7, NRSV)

     It was the ministry of Franciscan recording artist John Michael Talbot that helped me to realize that I was a sinner in need of redemption. Prior to discovering John Michael's inspiring music for worship and spiritual writings, I was an archetypical Post-Modern American, duped by the fractured philosophical concepts of emotivism. Emotivism convinced me that moral ethics simply was an expression of personal feelings about moral action, as opposed to absolute truth based on realities outside of my personal mental sphere. John Michael's music for worship was like a portal into a world I had never imagined of contemplative prayer and communion with the Trinity. It facilitated encounters with a holy God whose light exposed the darkness and sinfulness of my heart. John Michael's music stirred in me a longing to know and love the Triune God of all creation and serve the Trinity with the fullness of my soul. Abiding in the presence of God in worship often opens our eyes to our own humanity, replete with its flaws, proclivities and imperfections. The Psalmist in Psalm 24 must have been keenly aware of this reality when he asserted:

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?

 Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,

who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
and do not swear deceitfully.

Encountering the Most High in worship convinced me that I was a sinner in need of redemption, the atoning work of Christ on the cross. It reminded me that I too have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I am in need of a savior to rescue me from my slavery to sin, to wash and cleanse away my sins now and forevermore.

     When I was young I used to wonder why it was necessary for Jesus to step into time through the incarnation and die on Calvary's cross for my sins. Why was the sacrificing of blood important to atonement? A few years ago, I was completing exegesis for a sermon I encountered this illuminating verse regarding blood sacrifices in the temple economy:

11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.'Leviticus 17:1

All throughout Old Testament history, justification before Yahweh was accomplished through the elaborate sacrificial system outlined in the book of Leviticus. There was a wide range of requisite animals to atone for a variety of sins. Indeed, it was the blood that made atonement for the soul. Jesus came into the world at the appointed time as the Lamb of God, who indeed takes away the sins of the world. Through justifying grace, God makes righteous all those who believe in Christ[4]. I cannot imagine navigating the waters of this life not knowing that I am forgiven and accepted by the God who knew me even before I was formed in my mother's womb. Because of God's justifying grace, I am declared righteous and holy. And so it is, God's justifying grace draws me and keeps me near to the God who loves me beyond measure. This truth is beautifully reflected in the book of common prayer:

O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved,

In quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift

us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God[5].

My savior endured the pain and suffering of the cross, that I might be forgiven, cleansed and declared righteous before Yahweh, the God who was, who is and is to come. This is the beauty of the Way!

                                                       Sanctifying Grace

2 Do not be conformed to this world,[a] but be transformed by the renewing of your

minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and

acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2, NRSV)

     As a fine art photographer, I love photographing butterflies in my English garden in the countryside. My garden is replete with summer flox, coneflowers and butterfly bushes that are a favorite of butterflies, from swallowtails to monarchs. It's not unusual on a beautiful summer day to have scores of butterflies feasting on the sweet nectar of perennials as they sway in the summer breeze. Butterflies are beautiful emblems of metamorphosis and spiritual transformation. They beautifully exemplify the metamorphosis that the apostle Paul speaks of in II Corinthians 5:17 :

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Here Paul speaks of spiritual rebirth that results in radical change of our lives. We die to the old man, the impulses of the flesh and live into a new reality, a new existence in Christ. This new existence involves the renewing of our minds that we might have the mind of Christ. It is a perpetual journey of dying to self and being conformed of the Image of Christ, the Imago Dei. This is the journey, as Charles Wesley would describe of sanctification.

     I remember reading as a young Christian, during one of my quiet times with the Lord, I Peter 1:15-16 which asserts:

        Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;

        for it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

It was clear to me that I was being called to a life set apart for the mission and purposes of the Divine in the world. As a citizen of heaven, I am called to a Christian ethic by a God and Kingdom that claims me[6].

     During my seminarian studies at Duke, I discovered the sublime tradition of Orthodox Christianity. After my third class with Father Rommen, my professor and mentor in the tradition, I discovered the tradition's focus on theosis, the progressive transformation of the soul into the Divine nature. This focus was beautifully articulated by the Patristic Father Athanasius who asserted "God became man that man might become God." Athanasius wasn't claiming that humankind would actually become Yahweh, but would become like Yahweh in the sharing of the Divine nature and image. To achieve this, the early monks committed themselves to the rejection of the passions, the eight deadly sins of avarice, gluttony, lust, sloth, despair, anger, vainglory and pride. This was the pathway to holiness, sanctification and ultimately a place unknowing and enlightenment. I recognize that as a Christian, the Triune God of all creation has called me to the process sanctification, whereby I might reflect the glory and the virtues of the One who created all things and is reconciling creation to its Creator. This is the beauty of the Way!

                                                                  Bibliography

Accidental Preacher, Grand Rapids: Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2019, Kindle Edition

Return to Nigeria, New York Times

Still, Harper One, Kindle Edition

[1] This poem is from the perspective of the Bridegroom.

[2] Illusions to Ezekiel 16

[3] Accidental Preacher (Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2019) Kindle Edition

[4] Http://www.bible.org, accessed 3/28/21

[5] Still, (Harper One) Kindle Version

[6] In her article A Return to Nigeria, Enuma Okoro explores the relationship between identity, belonging and country. These issues comport well with Christian identity, belonging and spiritual transformation. your text here...