“Religion, in the largest and most basic sense of the word, is ultimate concern. And ultimate concern is manifest in all creative functions of the human spirit.” Paul Tillich
I am wondering this morning why it took three years of AFL for me to finally get Paul Tillich's message of acceptance. Maybe I still had to purge the remainder of the baggage around terms like 'sin' and 'grace', so Tillich could redefine them for me. Courtney helped me into that space this morning. I am so grateful for her guidance on this journey. It really as made all the difference this time around. Thank you Courtney!
“Sin, to Tillich, is separation, an aspect of the experience of every human. “To be in the state of sin is to be in the state of separation...[which] constitutes the state of everything that exists...it is the fate of every life.”[641] There are three aspects of this separation (state of sin):
1. separation of individuals from each other,
2. separation of an individual from self, and
3. our collective separation from what Tillich calls the “ground of being.” ”
(Courtney Cantrell: Appetite for Antithesis)
This takes the concept of sin and gives it wings instead of the five thousand pound weight around my neck that the Christianity of my past gave me. Separation Is Normal. Separation happens as part of the human condition. That is the wings part of the picture. There seems no shame in that, there is only an awareness of that separation and an invitation for a coming together again. I think I just got recharged. Understanding that it is part of the human condition to be separated, even from myself, I can now make strides to find a coming together...even within me. That is beautiful. And that coming together might look alot like Paul Tillich's picture of 'grace'. Courtney again gives me such a beautiful synopsis of this.
“Grace is the acceptance of the rejected. Grace is one Life looking another (an Other) Life straight in the face and saying, “I accept you. I take you as you are, not asking for you to change. Not asking for you to make restitution. Not asking you to do anything. You don’t have to try harder. You don’t even have to try. You can rest in this acceptance. You can breathe. I accept you, and now you can breathe.” ”
(Courtney Cantrell: Appetite for Antithesis)
I am accepted. I started feeling like that in my star time. When I am alone with the stars, I feel like I belong to the greaterness of the space around me. I feel less alone and less alienated and less separated. Maybe that is my grace from the "Ground of Being" and I don't need anymore labels for it. I am here. Maybe that is enough. Maybe I don't need to limit that to just my parents having sex in summer of 1967. Maybe "I am here" can find a reality beyond that. Some would call that purpose. Again... no need for more labels.
“I want to state bluntly this point Tillich is making: you will never feel grace permeating you...you will never feel accepted...you will never be able to accept that you are accepted...until you acknowledge and admit sincerely that you cannot know who the other person is, you cannot know who you are, and you cannot know who/what “God” is because you are essentially (in your essence) abysmally divided from every last physical and “metaphysical” atom of all of it.
(You are not an onion. You are a mystery.)”
Courtney Cantrell: Appetite for Antithesis
I already embrace the idea that knowledge is beyond me. This isn't frustrating anymore, it's freeing!
I will end with the synopsis of this chapter that Courtney so beautifully left for me to ponder and wonder if I can join her in that space. It's kind of hard for me to forget what is still so prevalent around me, but I will try, if only for me in my own space.
“I am forgetting everything traditional I’ve learned about God. I am forgetting the word itself.
But I involve myself with mystery. I involve myself with depth. And that’s more of God than I’ve ever had before.”
Courtney Cantrell : Appetite for Antithesis:
