DEEP CALLING TO DEEP

     We were walking the remnants of the old Humbug Mountain road.  Ken Salter, old friend and church colleague, and I, talked as our wives hiked on ahead.  I’ve probably talked more openly about theology with Ken than anyone.  He’s up to speed on the biblical and theological issues though his profession is education and church vocation music.

     I forget exactly what our focus was—something about how our intelligence is not all contained in our brain.  Not exactly a new idea.  Our very cells have “memory” that carries on from the gene pool.  The ancients talked about the feelings and emotions residing in the heart.  We talk about the emotional load which appear on our back (“get off my back”) or neck (“he’s a pain in the neck”).  Religion introduces the elusive soul as another locale for feeling and wisdom.

     Maybe the source of this conversation was with “old men’s talk” about the various symptoms we were feeling at the moment.  Our bodies were acting out their genetically determined roles with uncanny precision.  We were applying our minds to attempt to fend off these attacks.  It is apparent that our minds are only part of the “intelligence” system of our lives.

     My thoughts (in my brain) turned to the fact that we put so much effort into trying to make religion intelligent.  The old right brain, left brain thing.  I am torn between trying to figure out the mystery and letting the mystery be.

     Psalm 42 has a line that comes to mind from time to time.  “Deep calls to deep…”

     The text sounds like Paul Tillich’s theology of depth.  The holy in life is in depth.  “God” is the name of depth.

     In Psalm 42, that which calls out to depth from within us is also called depth.  It is not our conscious intelligence that calls out.  It is something much deeper than that.  The Shema has the words:

  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul
   and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)
     The Gospel of Mark offers the words more familiar to Christians:
  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul
   and with all your mind…” (Mark 12:29)
     In the pursuit of what is true many have given up on religion altogether because it is impossible to conceive of God—much less loving God—with one’s mind.  Many who drop out of church do so because of incongruity between religion and intelligence.  (The rest drop out from boredom!)

     However, if you look behind the scenes, there is a great surge of interest in non-church spirituality.  Some of it is intellectual, but most is not.  Note the books on meditation.  Note the books on spiritual healing.  Note the books on body-spirit harmony.  A recent page in our paper was devoted to silence and healing.

     From the Humbug Mountain road you can look out at the Pacific Ocean.  Sometimes we say “I see the ocean.”  Of course, we don’t begin to see it in its vastness and depth.  But as we watch, it speaks to something in us.  We are silenced and an internal healing and renewal rises within us. It is certainly not an intellectual exchange. “Deep calls to deep…”  The depth in us has its dwelling in every cell of our being.  “Be still and know…”  A good thought when we want to insist that religion make sense.

- Art Morgan