Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

What Nature tells us of God

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Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

What may be known about God from nature? What is plain?

That God is a God

* of order.

* Of economy–in brilliant ecosystems in which everything is recycled and nothing is wasted. God values efficiency it seems, everything has its purpose.

* who loves beauty

* who is creative

* whose goodness is extravagant–orchids which no eye ever sees

* who works for the joy of work, creating animals, insects, plants, stars, which will never be seen except by himself

* whose generosity is built into creation–in general, one reaps more than one sows, a multitude of fruit from a single apple or tomato seed.

* whose love is built into creation, in the parent-love most living creatures have for their offspring (and the longing to/for a mate).  All living creatures are made to serve and be served, (to love and be loved–to take it a bit further). Everything is alive because of food and sustenance provided by other plants and animals, and they and their body, and life and endeavours will in turn provide food and sustenance for others. 


* who has made variety in his creations, and treasures human variety too

* who is both fierce and gentle–Lord of hurricanes and earthquake and gentle winds

* That life contains light and darkness, winter and summer, rain and sunshine, abundance in summer and autumn, paucity in winter. As there is no reason to doubt the return of spring in winter, or dawn in the middle of the night, there is no reason to doubt God’s goodness in times of sadness or reverses. One might even say that times of both plenty and paucity are encoded into creation.

* creation rewards diligence-the planting and tending of seeds

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What Nature tells us of God

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Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

What may be known about God from nature? What is plain?

That God is a God

* of order.

* Of economy–in brilliant ecosystems in which everything is recycled and nothing is wasted. God values efficiency it seems, everything has its purpose.

* who loves beauty

* who is creative

* whose goodness is extravagant–orchids which no eye ever sees

* who works for the joy of work, creating animals, insects, plants, stars, which will never be seen except by himself

* whose generosity is built into creation–in general, one reaps more than one sows, a multitude of fruit from a single apple or tomato seed.

* whose love is built into creation, in the parent-love most living creatures have for their offspring (and the longing to/for a mate).  All living creatures are made to serve and be served, (to love and be loved–to take it a bit further). Everything is alive because of food and sustenance provided by other plants and animals, and they and their body, and life and endeavours will in turn provide food and sustenance for others. 


* who has made variety in his creations, and treasures human variety too


* who is both fierce and gentle–Lord of hurricanes and earthquake and gentle winds

* That life contains light and darkness, winter and summer, rain and sunshine, abundance in summer and autumn, paucity in winter. As there is no reason to doubt the return of spring in winter, or dawn in the middle of the night, there is no reason to doubt God’s goodness in times of sadness or reverses. One might even say that times of both plenty and paucity are encoded into creation.

* creation rewards diligence-the planting and tending of seeds



Shade Gardening and Blooming where One is Planted

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Okay, after 5 years of being busy and preoccupied with other things, we are finally taming our garden. I’ve had gardens in India and in America, but this is my first English garden. Steep learning curve.

Speaking of which, please could somebody identify this bush with pink blossoms in our driveway

We’ve got 3 beds planted, and are working on the rest. Specializing in hellebores, and other shade plants.

Funny, when we lived in Virginia, our plot was shaded by massive trees. So, perforce, we had to indulge in shade gardening–hellebores, hostas, cyclamen, bleeding hearts, heuchera, solomon’s seal, arum italicum, orchids, trillium etc.

I wanted the flowers that grew in full sun, and was always sadly writing about making a virtue of necessity, blooming where you are planted, learning to love the hand of cards dealt to you. I  bought and studied books on shade gardening, and learnt a lot about woodland, forest and shade plants.

And now, I actually prefer shade plants–their gentleness, mystery, quietness, non-assertiveness, surprises. They are more intriguing to me than their bright, bold cousins. And I am now buying them, though we are not short of sun.

Our plot is an acre and a half. I have been reading a couple of books on the evolution of the English countryside, and about enclosure laws and edible hedges. Our garden was broken down into 6 little bits, each surrounded by a hedge and fence–a huge veg. garden, which we haven’t started using, an orchard, a main garden, divided into two by a fence and hedge, and a little side plot, currently fallow.

Now, this might be heresy to people who like the Sissinghurst and Hidcote style of gardening, but today Roy took his chain saw and sawed down the beech hedges separating them, as I don’t see the point of ruining the perspective with these tiny plots. 

I wonder if the land was subdivided into little plots per family with edible hedges in between them. Our hedges have apple trees and pear trees and blackberries interplanted with the hawthorn, and after researching ancient English edible hedges, we planted one in the middle of the paddock in the winter of 2006. Last year it yielded  plum cherries, and black, yellow and red plums. Really delicious. 
The hedge we planted in our paddock
We only started on March 6th, but we’ve been gardening seriously since then, putting in 2-3 hours of work a day between us.However, the garden ran away with us in America, and we’d spend 3-4 hours there at a stretch in the evenings and weekends. Now I work with a timer, and go in after an hour or so, and if I work longer in the garden, try to put in an equal amount of time on housework and decluttering, so the house does not get out of control.

Beginnings are such hard work, but soon, we will have the pleasure of seeing the plants we’ve planted grow, establish themselves, self-seed and hybridize. 

In any endeavour after the beginning, you get ever-increasing pleasure, leverage and return on your investment. However it takes faith to get past the beginning. 
Cherry blossom, in a hedge we planted.
hellobores




Close up of cherry blossom.

Our willow tree at sunset

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The Spiritually In and Out. Some surprises. Matthew 21 28-31

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Jesus “self-destructing.” Telling the truth regardless of the consequences.
The Parable of the Two Sons
    28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
   29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
   30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
   31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
   “The first,” they answered.
   Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

One son was outwardly acquiescent to his father, and in agreement what the father wanted. 
However, in reality, he did what he pleased.

The other son engaged with what his father wanted, and initially refused to obey him, though he ultimately came around and did it. 
And so he actually did what his father wanted.

So the ones whom the religious establishment considered as sinners, the prostitutes and tax collectors, initially said No, later repented, and so entered the Kingdom of Heaven. Whereas the outwardly righteous may have have their hearts far from God. 

We may be the son who says Yes, when outwardly we are good church-goers, and clean livers. Inwardly, we might be full of malice, envy, worry, anxiety, and hatred.

The one who is open about his failures, turns and does God’s will would be the one who enters the Kingdom of God.

The Greek for repent is μετανοέω, metamoeo, to completely change one’s mind, to radically change direction.

The fruit of one’s life shows whether or not one is obedient to God.


A cure for too much theologizing!

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When I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and
measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much
applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
-Walt Whitman

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The Spiritually In and Out. Some surprises. Matthew 21 28-31

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Jesus “self-destructing.” Telling the truth regardless of the consequences.
The Parable of the Two Sons
    28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
   29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
   30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
   31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
   “The first,” they answered.
   Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

One son was outwardly acquiescent to his father, and in agreement what the father wanted. 
However, in reality, he did what he pleased.

The other son engaged with what his father wanted, and initially refused to obey him, though he ultimately came around and did it. 
And so he actually did what his father wanted.

So the ones whom the religious establishment considered as sinners, the prostitutes and tax collectors, initially said No, later repented, and so entered the Kingdom of Heaven. Whereas the outwardly righteous may have have their hearts far from God. 

We may be the son who says Yes, when outwardly we are good church-goers, and clean livers. Inwardly, we might be full of malice, envy, worry, anxiety, and hatred.

The one who is open about his failures, turns and does God’s will would be the one who enters the Kingdom of God.

The Greek for repent is μετανοέω, metamoeo, to completely change one’s mind, to radically change direction.

The fruit of one’s life shows whether or not one is obedient to God.


There’s No One as Irish as Barack Obama

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The video reminds me of the wave of euphoria and optimism which swept the globe, when, 40 odd years after institutionalized segregation  in the American South–in buses, schools, cafeterias and water fountains–Americans redeemed their dark history of slavery and segregation by electing a black man as their President.

I thought of Wordsworth’s lines on the French Revolution,

          Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
          But to be young was very heaven!--Oh! times,
          In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways
          Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
          The attraction of a country in romance!

P.S. I enjoyed this comment on the Youtube video, “I’m not just as Irish as Barack Obama, I’m even more Irish than him, ’cause I’m actually Irish!”

. So on these pews, inside this very church, the president’s antecedents on his Irish side worshipped here on a regular basis.”

Obama’s links to the Church of Ireland also stretch further south to Kilkenny city, where another branch of the family claims a connection to him. Jane de Montmorency Wright said she had traced Obama to the former Anglican bishop of Kilkenny, John Kearney. “The president’s ancestor was a bishop here in Kilkenny city where he is buried in St Canice’s cathedral, so there will be plenty for him to see,” she said.
Hayes and Moneygall’s other 299 residents are expecting droves of other Americans to follow in the president’s footsteps. A few hours earlier two couples from Chicago, the base from which Obama launched his presidential bid, turned up to have their pictures taken outside the bar.

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The Annunciation

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Waterhouse, Annunciation

“Be it done to me according to thy will.”


That is secret of peace, isn’t it?–being able to say that.


That sort of surrender is beautifully expressed in The Imitation of Christ, a classic I came to somewhat circuitously through Maggie Tulliver of The Mill on the Floss. The quietist, pietistic spirituality of The Imitation brings her a kind of peace and radiance when a reverse in her family’s fortunes leaves her life narrow, circumscribed and cut off from all literary or intellectual pursuits. 


I used to pray this at 17, little knowing of what I spake!!


Imitation of Christ, Book III, Chapter 17

ALL OUR CARE IS TO BE PLACED IN GOD

THE VOICE OF CHRIST

MY CHILD, allow me to do what I will with you. I know what is best for you. You think as a man; you feel in many things as human affection persuades.

THE DISCIPLE

Lord, what You say is true. Your care for me is greater than all the care I can take of myself. For he who does not cast all his care upon You stands very unsafely. If only my will remain right and firm toward You, Lord, do with me whatever pleases You. For whatever You shall do with me can only be good.
If You wish me to be in darkness, I shall bless You. And if You wish me to be in light, again I shall bless You. If You stoop down to comfort me, I shall bless You, and if You wish me to be afflicted, I shall bless You forever.

THE VOICE OF CHRIST

My child, this is the disposition which you should have if you wish to walk with Me. You should be as ready to suffer as to enjoy. You should as willingly be destitute and poor as rich and satisfied.

THE DISCIPLE

O Lord, I shall suffer willingly for Your sake whatever You wish to send me. I am ready to accept from Your hand both good and evil alike, the sweet and the bitter together, sorrow with joy; and for all that happens to me I am grateful. Keep me from all sin and I will fear neither death nor hell. Do not cast me out forever nor blot me out of the Book of Life, and whatever tribulation befalls will not harm me.


And here is the same chapter in the older translation in which I first read it,

CHAPTER XVIIThat all care is to be cast upon God


1. “My Son, suffer me to do with thee what I will; I know what is expedient for thee. Thou thinkest as a man, in many things thou judgest as human affection persuadeth thee.”


2. Lord, what Thou sayest is true. Greater is Thy care for me than all the care which I am able to take for myself. For too insecurely doth he stand who casteth not all his care upon Thee. Lord, so long as my will standeth right and firm in Thee, do with me what Thou wilt, for whatsoever Thou shalt do with me cannot be aught but good. Blessed be Thou is Thou wilt leave me in darkness: blessed also be Thou if Thou wilt leave me in light. Blessed be Thou if Thou vouchsafe to comfort me, and always blessed be Thou if Thou cause me to be troubled.


3. “My Son! even thus thou must stand if thou desirest to walk with Me. Thou must be ready alike for suffering or rejoicing. Thou must be poor and needy as willingly as full and rich.”


4. Lord, I will willingly bear for Thee whatsoever Thou wilt have to come upon me. Without choice I will receive from Thy hand good and evil, sweet and bitter, joy and sadness, and will give Thee thanks for all things which shall happen to me. Keep me from all sin, and I will not fear death nor hell. Only cast me not away for ever, nor blot me out of the book of life. Then no tribulation which shall come upon me shall do me hurt.



















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