Delight – Don't Forget About Delight, a Reading List

I've been posting regular thoughts and quotes on delight which, along with mercy, I think is at the heart of the Christian and message of God's grace and love and how we should live in light of that grace and love. I expect to occasionally post more on the topic, but I am going to take a break so I can focus on some other things.Below are the lyrics of a song by Bruce Cockburn. If you are interested in reading more on delight, there is a reading list after the song.

Don’t Forget About Delight

Amid the rumours and the expectations

And all the stories dreamt and lived

Amid the clangour and the dislocation

And things to fear and to forgive

Don't forget

About delight

Ya know what I'm saying to you

Don't forget

About delight

Ya know

Amid the post-ironic postulating

And the poets' pilfered rhymes

Meaning feels like it's evaporating

Out of sight and out of mind

Don't forget

About delight

Ya know what I'm saying to you

Don't forget

About delight

Ya know

Though you find yourself alone and stranded

With no friend to take your side

On the endless road afoot and empty-handed

Where the wild-eyed Cossacks ride

Don't forget

About delight

Ya know what I'm saying to you

Don't forget

About delight

Ya know

Spring birds peck among the pressed-down grasses

Clouds like zeppelins cross the sky

Anger drips and pools and then it passes

And I say a prayer that I

Don't forget

About delight

Ya know what I'm saying to you

Don't forget

About delight

Ya know
 – Bruce Cockburn

Reading list on Delight and Related Concepts:

A great short introduction to the theme:

Stewards of God’s Delight – Mark Clavier

A serious theological engagement with the topic:

The Beauty of the Infinite – David Bentley Hart

Another serious theological engagement:

The Glory of the Lord, Vol. 1, Seeing the Form – Hans Urs von Balthasar

A wonderful book on Christian spirituality:

The World is a Wedding: Explorations in Christian Spirituality – A. M. Allchin

What the world as we know it reveals about God:

A Joyful Theology – Sarah Maitland

A classic be one of the great medieval English theologians:

Showings – Julian of Norwich

A 17^th century collection of meditations on delighting in God and creation:

Centuries of Meditations – Thomas Traherne

The poetry of Mary Oliver often expresses an attentive delight in creation

C. S. Lewis’ spiritual autobiography focuses on an understanding of longing and joy:

Surprised by Joy – C. S. Lewis

This essay by Lewis makes important points about engaging one another with delight:

The Weight of Glory – C. S. Lewis

Charles Williams was a theologian of God’s delight

Charles Williams, Selected Writings contains these essays:

The Way of Affirmation

Natural Goodness

The Way of Exchange

The Index of the Body

These two longer works are also good:

The Figure of Beatrice – Charles Williams

Romantic Theology – Charles Williams

Finally, this by a 19^th century Russian Philosopher/theologian

The Meaning of Love – Vladimir Solovyov

More Mercy and Delight:

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 1

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 2

More Mercy and Delight

Delight – Advent

This Advent

By Michael Coffey

You light candles and you wait,

not like waiting at the bus stop

with the rain soaking your day

and the time passing like tree growth.

You light candles and you wait,

not like standing in line at the grocery store

with your parsley dripping on your shoe

and the woman in front of you

wiring a check like a novel.

You light candles

as you sing songs of joy in minor keys,

and you wait

like a man sitting at the restaurant table

with the calla lilies in his hand

and the diamond ring inside

the death-by-chocolate dessert,

looking every direction every moment

to see his beloved appear.

You wait like this

even without anyone coming

to take your flowers,

year after year

war after war

death after death,

lighting candles one by one.

– Mystery without Rhyme or Reason

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 1

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 2

More Mercy and Delight

Delight – Ephrem of Edessa (the Syrian) on Paradise

Before Lothlorien or Narnia or Perelandra, there was Ephrem of Edessa's vision of Paradise.

Ephrem of Edessa (also known as "the Syrian") lived from around 306 to 373 and was one of the great theologians and hymn writers of the early church. He wrote in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke), and thus is not nearly as well-known in the western church as he should be. His Hymns on Paradise is a cycle of 15 hymns ranging in length from 11 to 31 verses (think of that next time you are tempted to complain about singing all the verses of a hymn in church).

Here is a selection:

1. In the world there is struggle,

in Eden, a crown of glory.

At our resurrection

both earth and heaven will God renew,

liberating all creatures,

granting them paschal joy, along with us.

Upon our mother Earth, along with us,

did he lay disgrace

when he laid on her, with the sinner, the curse;

so, together with the just, will he bless her too;

this nursing mother, along with her children,

shall He who is Good renew.

Response: Blessed is He who, in his Paradise,

gives joy to our gloom

2. The evil one mixed his cup,

proffering its bitterness to all;

in everyone’s path, he set his snares,

for everyone has he spread out his net;

he has caused tares to spring up

in order to choke the good seed.

But in His glorious Paradise

He who is Good

Will sweeten their bitter trials,

Their crowns he will make great;

because they have borne their crosses

He will escort them into Eden.

3. Should you wish

to climb a tree,

with its lower branches

it will provide steps before your feet,

eager to make you recline

in its bosom above,

on the couch of its upper branches.

So arranged is the surface of these branches,

bent low and cupped

–while yet dense with flowers–

that they serve as a protective womb

for whoever rests there.

4. Who has ever beheld such a banquet

in the very bosom of a tree,

with fruit of every savor

ranged for the hand to pluck?

Each type of fruit in due sequence approaches,

Each awaiting its turn:

fruit to eat,

and fruit to quench the thirst;

to rinse the hands there is dew,

and leaves to dry them after

–a treasure store that lacks nothing,

Whose Lord is rich in all things.

5. Around the trees the air is limpid

as the saints recline;

below them are blossoms,

above them fruit;

fruits serve as their sky,

flowers as their earth.

Who has ever heard

or seen

a cloud of fruits providing shade

for the head,

or a garment of flowers

spread out beneath the feet?

6. Such is the flowing brook of delights

that, as one tree takes leave of you,

the next one beckons you;

all of them rejoice

that you should partake of the fruit of one

and suck the juice of another,

wash and cleanse yourself

in the dew of yet a third;

anoint yourself with the resin of one

and breath another’s fragrance,

listen to the song of still another.

Blessed is He who gave joy to Adam.

[from hymn IX of Hymns on Paradise, p. 136-138]

More numerous and glorious

than the stars

in the sky that we behold

are the blossoms of that land,

and the fragrance which exhales from it

through divine Grace

is like a physician

sent to heal the ills

of a land that is under a curse;

by its healing breath it cures

the sickness that entered in

through the serpent.

[hymn XI, v. 9]

I enjoy the imagery in the verses above and there are more like them in the cycle of hymns. They remind us that our delight in creation here and now is a foreshadowing of the delight we will know in the New Creation of Paradise. For Ephrem, Paradise is not an escape from this world and physical reality. Rather, it is heaven and earth – along with us – renewed in Easter delight.

For the colors of Paradise are full of joy,

its scents most wonderful,

its beauties most desirable,

and its delicacies glorious.

[hymn IV, v. 7]

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 1

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 2

More Mercy and Delight

Delight – Banana Slug Encounter

I have kind of a thing for banana slugs which are native to the redwood forests of the west coast. The second-largest species of terrestrial slug in the world, they are fascinating. One could hardly imagine a creature on land that is more alien to human existence. Among other things, they are all hermaphroditic (male and female at once). They have bright yellow color, long, slimy bodies and leave a glistening, sticky trail behind them. But, in their way, they are beautiful and move with a slow-motion grace. And they play an important role in the ecosystem of which they are part.

Several years ago, while on sabbatical, I enjoyed hiking around beautiful Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in Felton, California where I occasionally encountered banana slugs. One day I was sitting on the bank of the San Lorenzo River which runs through the park. I was enjoying the sound of the water below and the breeze rusting in the leaves above, delighting in the play of light through the trees and on the water, and the feel of sun and breeze on my skin. To my left I noticed a banana slug resting on the trunk of a tree.

As I sat admiring the slug, it occurred to me that we were encountering one another for just a moment in our respective lives. To be honest, I don’t know how aware the slug was of me. But, I recognized that just as I had been up to things before sharing this space and time with this particular slug and would eventually leave and get on with my human life, the slug had been living its slug life before our paths crossed and would continue after I left.

I wondered what the slug’s life was like. In what bodily pleasures did it delight? What pain had it experienced? Did it have desires and fears? I tried to imagine this slug enjoying the feel of sun or rain on its back, the taste of whatever food it enjoyed. I wondered what banana slug romance might be like. Then I thought, “Here we are in each other’s presence and I am wondering all these things about you–and I do not even know your name." That was followed immediately by, "Ah, but, God does. Before and after our encounter, God was paying attention to you. God delights in your existence moment by moment."

At that point I had one of the handful of mystical-like experiences I have had in my life. I became acutely aware of my being intimately and inseparably connected with this particular banana slug and all other creatures. As a fellow creature participating in the wonder of life and held in the gaze of God’s delight, this slug and I were profoundly related to one another and to the trees and deer and fish and all else. 

Humans, created in the image of God and charged with stewardship of God’s creation, have a special place in that creation. But, it is imperative that we never forget that we are also part of that creation and all other creatures. We are related to everything because everything is related to God. The rest of creation is not there just of our use and consumption. Each other part of creation has its own integrity as the creature of God.  Every part of creation deserves our respect and reverence. And it requires our care – for its own sake as well as ours. 

God delights in the banana slug and as a fellow creature it is my sibling. Not in the same way as is another human being, but my sibling just the same, and thus worthy of my delight, reverence, and gentle regard.

Learn more on banana slugs here:

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 1

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 2

More Mercy and Delight

Delight – Thanksgiving & Our Mutual Dependence

This Thursday is Thanksgiving in the USA.

“On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence.”

~ William Jennings Bryan

One of my favorite prayers in the Book of Common Prayer is this one from the Order for Compline:

O God, your unfailing providence sustains the world we live in and the life we live: Watch over those, both night and day, who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other's toil; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, p. 134

It is a reminder that the world in which we live, the lives we live – all that we are and all that we have – is all the sheer gift of God. It is not something we can seize or hold. We can only receive and give thanks. This receiving is not passive but rather an active attentiveness to each moment as the irreplaceable, intimate gift of God. We thank God who wonderfully created us and still more wonderfully redeems us. It is no accident that the central practice of the Church is the Eucharist the root meaning of which is “thanksgiving.”

The prayer from Compline is also a reminder that we are dependent on each other’s toil. The notion of an autonomous individual, rugged or otherwise, is a false one. It is fundamentally absurd. We are born into, and dependent upon from start to finish, a web of relationships. We always and only live at the hands of others. Part of the discipline of active, attentive gratitude is giving thanks for everyone else. Margaret Visser writes, “Gratitude is always a matter of paying attention, of deliberately beholding and appreciating the other” (Gratitude’s Grace Can Be Itself a Gift).

Thanksgiving is a good reminder to pay attention to our interdependence and appreciate others on whom we depend. So, this Thanksgiving, thank God for his unfailing sustaining providence. And thank all those other folk on whose toil your life depends. Thank family and friends. But also thank everyone who had a hand in making your Thanksgiving feast possible: those who planted, those who harvested, those who processed and packed, those who drove the trucks and those who loaded and unloaded the trucks, those who stocked the shelves and those who checked out the groceries. Thank the utility workers who make sure the power gets to your home – sometimes in inclement weather. And thank sister turkey and brother pig for the sacrifice of their lives for your enjoyment and nourishment. And thank all who participate in one way or another in the web of mutual dependence.

Of course, the third Thursday of November is but a particular, public reminder of our dependence on God and one another. We can seek an active attentive gratitude day in and day out. One way to do that is to end each day with an adaptation of the Jesus prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Thank you.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Thank you.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Thank you.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Thank you for ____________.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Thank you for ____________.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Thank you for ____________.

Etc.

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 1

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 2

More Mercy and Delight

Delight – Expressing beauty in the everyday

Philosopher, Roger Scruton, writes that we can demonstrate delight and enact beauty in the everyday:

There is an aesthetic minimalism exemplified by laying the table, tidying your room, designing a web-site, which seems at first site quite remote from the aesthetic heroism exemplified by Bernini’s St Teresa in Ecstasy or Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. You don’t wrestle over these things as Beethoven wrestled over the late quartets, nor do you expect them to be recorded for all time among the triumphs of artistic achievement. Nevertheless, you want the table, the room or the web-site to look right, and looking right matters in the way that beauty generally matters—not by pleasing the eye only, but by conveying meanings and values which have weight for you and which you are consciously putting on display.

– Roger Scruton, Beauty: A Very Short Introduction, p. 9

How will you attend to the way of beauty today? How will convey meanings and values which have weight for you in your day to day activities and day to day encounters?

You can watch Scruton on beauty here: Why Beauty Matters

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 1

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 2

More Mercy and Delight

Delight – Attending to the grace & beauty woven into all creation

In a, well, delightful book, Mark Clavier writes,

Fundamentally, delight is enjoying something for its own sake. Delight is devoid of expectation and demand. It springs from the simple pleasure that something exists rather than doesn’t. That’s what makes delight completely different from entertainment. Entertainment has to stimulate us in order to remain entertaining; it distracts us. Delight, on the other hand, takes us deeper into the world around us. It involves a sot of communion or communication between that which pleases and the person who is pleased. Aquinas refers to this communion as “expansion” whereby our affection reaches out to the object of our delight “as though it surrendered itself to hold within itself the object of delight.” If I delight in a wildflower, for an all too brief moment I connect through something–an intuition, a feeling, call it what you will–with that flower. Love is present.

. . .

If you believe in a creator then a whole new dimension appears. I may not in the midst of delight love a wildflower in the same way I love a fellow human being, but something akin to love caused me to stop, notice the flower, and devote my attention to it. Augustine stated boldly that there is no love without delight and I argue that the reverse is also true–there is no delight without love. Because I believe that God created that wildflower, imbuing it with gentle beauty, I believe also that he, in a sense, wove grace into its atomic structure. My delight in the flower’s graceful beauty gives me a taste God’s own grace and beauty and that experience engenders love. Perhaps the reason for this is that God wove the same grace and beauty into me. In that sense, perhaps our appreciation of beauty and goodness in the other is really a resonance between the delight woven by God in us both.

– Stewards of God’s Delight, p. 60

Part of the discipline of paying attention is weaning ourselves from distraction and training ourselves to notice, appreciate, attend to, and give thanks for the beauty that surrounds us. As Clavier suggests, doing so is an act of worship and a means of communion with God who has woven his delight in all of creation.

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 1

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 2

More Mercy and Delight

Delight – Let me tell you why God made the world

The Third Peacock by Robert Farrar Capon in one of my all time favorite books. It begins with this whimsical version of creation:

Let me tell you why God made the world. One afternoon, before anything was made, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit sat around in the unity of their godhead discussing one of the Father’s fixations. From all eternity, it seems, he had had this thing about being. He would keep thinking up all kinds of unnecessary things, new ways of being and new kinds of being to be. And as they talked, God the Son suddenly said, “Really, this is absolutely great stuff. Why don’t I go out and mix us up a batch.” And God the Holy Spirit said, “Terrific, I’ll help you.” So they all pitched in. And after supper that night the Son and the Holy Spirit put on this tremendous show of being for the Father. It was full of water and light and frogs. Pinecones kept dropping all over the place and crazy fish swam in the wine glasses. There were mushrooms and grapes, horseradishes and tigers, and men and women everywhere to taste them, to juggle them, to join them and to love them. And God the Father looked at the whole wild party and said, “Wonderful! Just what I had in mind. Tove, tove, tove.” And all God the Son and God the Holy Spirit could think of to say was the same thing, “Tove, tove, tove.” So they shouted together, “Tove me’od – very good.” And they laughed for ages and ages saying things like how great it was for beings to be, and how clever of the Father to think of the idea, and how kind of the Son to go to all that trouble putting it together, and how considerate of the Spirit to spend so much time directing and choreographing. And forever and ever they told old jokes, and the Father and the Son drank their wine, inu ta te Spiritus Sancte, and they all threw ripe olives and pickled mushrooms at each other per omnia secula, seculorum. Amen.”

As, I said, it is a whimsical take on creation. Capon recognized that. But, it does remind us that the Christian vision of the world begins and ends in celebration. And that in, with, and under all that is – at the heart of everything – is the celebration that is the Holy Trinity.

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 1

Becoming a People of God's Mercy and Delight, Part 2

More Mercy and Delight

Abiding in the Love and Joy of Jesus

A sermon preached at Nashotah House Theological Seminary on May 7, 2015

John 15:9-17

Joy Davidman, whose husband was C. S. Lewis, wrote a book, Smoke on the Mountain, An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments. Toward the beginning of the book she shares this story. Though the language is a bit dated and Euro-centric, the main point remains pertinent::

There is a tale told of a missionary in a dark corner of Africa where the men had a habit of filing their teeth to sharp points. He was hard at work trying to convert a native chief. Now the chief was very old, and the missionary was very Old Testament – his version of Christianity leaned heavily on thou-shalt-nots. The chief listened patiently.

“I do not understand,” he said at last. “You tell me that I must not take my neighbor’s wife.”

“That’s right,” said the missionary.

“Or his ivory or his oxen.”

“Quite right.”

“And I must not dance the war dance and then ambush him on the trail and kill him.”

“Absolutely right!”

“But I cannot do any of these things!” said the chief respectfully. “I am too old. To be old and to be Christian, they are the same thing!”

Davidman continues:

Not a very funny story, perhaps; there is too bitter a point in the laugh. For, if all the truth were told, how many of us in our hearts, share the chief’s confusion?

How many thousands picture Christianity as something old, sapless, joyless, mumbling in the chimney corner and casting sour looks at the young people’s fun? How many think of religion as the enemy of life and the flesh and the pleasures of the flesh; a foe to all love and all delight? How many unconsciously conceive of God as rather like that famous lady who said, “Find out what the baby’s doing and make him stop”?

That is, how many of us both inside the Church and out have reduced the good news out of Nazareth to a list of thou-shalt-nots?

[...]      

We are in danger of forgetting that God is not only a comfort but a joy. He is the source of all pleasure; he is fun and laughter, and we are meant to enjoy him. Otherwise our Christianity is no better than [the chief’s impression of it].

God is "the source of all pleasure; he is fun and laughter,

and we are meant to enjoy him."

Christians believe that at the heart of all

there is the Joy that is the Trinity.

We believe the world – and each of us – was created for joy.

We believe that the story of creation ends in resurrection joy.

As that contemporary theologian, Bono of U2, writes,

                                    “Laughter is eternity if joy is real.”

To be a Christian is to believe that joy is real.

But, too often we come across as insecure,

cramped moralists, and political scolds.

There are "conservative" and "liberal" versions

of this rather joyless presentation.

But, the Good News we have received is

"of a great joy which will come to all people."

And our Lord came into our midst that

"my joy may be in you,

and that your joy may be complete".

We are meant to be agents of that joy in the world around us.

The mission of the Church is to live in expectation and anticipation

of the joy of God's kingdom.

Our mission is to smuggle some of that joy into a world

that is often all too joyless.

But, too often Christians appear to be just as joyless,

just as anxious,

just as angry

as anyone else –

sometimes even more so.

That is a scandal and a betrayal of the Gospel

If we abide in the love of Jesus

our joy should be evident and infectious.

If we abide in the love of Jesus,

we will know ourselves and the world around us

to be the delight of God.

If we abide in the love of Jesus,

we will know God’s mercy washing over us

and soaking us through and through.

If we abide in the love of Jesus

            we will know that nothing – nothing –

can separate us from the love of God.

If we abide in the love of Jesus

there is nothing to fear or be anxious about.

If we abide in the love of Jesus

            We can resist the fear-mongering of cable news,

social media

and advertising.

If I abide in the love of Jesus

there is nothing I need to prove.

            I do not need to prove my worthiness to God

                        or anyone else.

I can ignore all the naysaying voices in the back of my head:

Who do you think you are?

Today is the day they will discover what a poser you are.

Today your incompetence will be revealed.

Today is the day they will find out that you aren’t really that smart.

Today they will discover some of the internal ugliness

you try so hard to cover up.

Am I the only one here who has those voices in the back of his head?

            I didn’t think so.

I’ve got some bad news for you.

Getting a seminary degree won’t quiet those voices.

Being ordained a priest in God’s church won’t quiet those voices.

Becoming a seminary professor won’t quiet those voices.

I can tell you that being made a bishop doesn’t quiet those voices.

The good news is that

abiding in the love of Jesus

does silence those worries

or at least it reduces them to whispers

that are more easily ignored.

An abiding in Jesus frees us from imposing such anxieties

onto others.

                        It frees us from worrying about whether or not

others get it the way we think they should get it.

I encourage you to abide in the love of Jesus and his joy –

            especially once you are ordained

                        and serving and representing the Church.

Make time for prayer and devotional reading every day.

There is nothing more deadly to the Church

                        than joyless clergy.

What if Christians acted among themselves

and in the world

such hat those who heard our words

and witnessed our behavior

looked on with surprise

at our freedom from such anxieties

and wonderment at our joy?

That doesn't mean we should live in "blissed out" denial

of the difficult realities of our lives and those of others.

Nor does it mean that we never ask difficult

or awkward questions,

that we do not persist in resisting evil

or renouncing the evil powers of this world

which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.

Nor does it mean we should not be serious about obeying Jesus

But, even then, if it is not clear that our words and actions

are born of and lead to joy,

we will appear to those around us

like the missionary appears in Joy Davidman's story

and risk reducing the Good News out of Nazareth

to a list of thou-shalts and thou-shalt-nots.

That will not so if we abide in the love of Jesus

and allow his joy to complete ours.

If God is indeed the source of all pleasure;

if God is fun and laughter,

and if we are meant to enjoy him;

            shouldn’t we desire to abide him and his joy?

And shouldn’t the church be known for its joy?

And might we see part of our mission

to be smugglers of that joy

into the world around us?