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Worship’s Harmonious Tension

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

The human is insignificant in one respect. Lives are born and destroyed every day. A human is literally a speck of cosmic dust in the vast universal expanse.

The human is the center of creation in some respects. Both physical and spiritual, uniquely able to reflect not only on itself, but even upon its own act of reflection (according to Kierkegaard). It names and defines all of nature, observable phenomenon, exploits its properties and governs its use.

The humans psyche can in one moment be at the height of ecstasy in its accomplishments and the joys of its discoveries and in the next be beaten down with the despair of helpless anxiety at its insignificance in the face of the external forces in this world.

So what is the human’s call; to be a humanist or an ascetic? How can one be both? And how can one be neither? In worship only is it possible to live in the tension.

In worship the individual is encompassed by God himself and his glory and the very words and thoughts which God has given are proceeding from the worshiper. He is humbled by the work of Jesus his Son who accomplished what no other human could. In worship also the soul is lifted up to the very throne of God and given its full worth as a son and daughter of God himself, one who’s value was appraised in the death of God’s own Son. Here alone is the human properly nothing and everything in perfect harmony.

Imaginings

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

When I was with a friend once driving through the countryside, we passed a field of daisies. I remarked that there were many young girls who would love to stroll through just such a field. My traveling companion replied that the dry stubble on the ground would only cut their feet, adding that the romantic is all in the imagination. I was troubled by this statement, but said nothing.

Many months later I was walking along a street in Europe and passed a poster with the photograph of a woman. The photo was clearly intended to catch the eye of the masculine sex–which, of course, it did. And I thought to myself: “how many other women are there on this very street of comparable beauty? And yet the mind is drawn to this particular photo.” The answer is that the woman in the photo was portrayed in such a way as to provoke the imagination. This disturbed me, but not quite as much as the statement of my traveling companion several months previous.

There would be no great buildings, colorful paintings, astounding achievements, apart from the projections of the imagination. Such things must first be seen in the mind, and desired, for them to come to fruition. So the imagination has the incredible power to bring forth reality, not on its own, but by its command of all the powers of the human psyche and body.

If it is the image of God to create, and so humans are builders and creators in their own right, then is it not also the image of God to be imaginators? If the Holy Spirit is God’s working agent, his indwelling and efficient doer, and if the Son is God’s word, his communicator to creation, we could say in one sense that God the Father is the divine imagination.

The tree of life is incomparably beautiful in that it prompts the imagination toward all that is in God, all that he desires to give. Yet Eve’s imagination was turned to the knowledge of good and evil, seeing that it was desirable. So then our sanctification is being renewed in the hope of the new creation in Christ, that is, obtaining a beatified imagination through faith in its perfect embodiment, the beautiful lamb, the crucified and risen Son.