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O God

you must make your own human word,

for that's the only kind I can comprehend.

Don't tell me everything that you are.

Dont tell me of your infinity.

Just say that you love me,

just tell me of your goodness to me.

But don't say this in your divine langauge,

in which your love also means

your inexorable justice and your crushing power.

Say it rather on MY language,

so I won't have to be afraid

that the word 'love' hides some significance

other than your goodness and your gentle mercy.

Karl Rahner, Encounter with Silence.

And they say rahner is a complex, difficult to read theologian who uses obscure or sophisticated philosophical categories. maybe so. But this is the prayer of someone who knows the limits of language, the constraints on concepts, and the deficiencies of discourse when it comes to describing God, let alone addressing God – and when it comes to God addressing us, all language breaks down and we are presented with Personal Presence, the Word made flesh, God who has spooken in his Son.

 Lead us, great teacher Paul, in wisdom's ways,

And lift our hearts with thine to heaven's high throne,

Till faith beholds the clear meridian blaze,

And, sun-like, in the soul reigns charity alone.

Elpis, wife of Boethius (480-524)

Paul has come in for his share of criticism and even calumny in some circles of NT study – his views on a number of issues challenged, contested, the target for a dismissive reductionism. But there is great wisdom, and remarkable  intellectual vision in his writings. I've just finished yet another slow reading of Ephesians, and there are passages there that are amongst the highest points in all Christian literature.

So the prayer of Elpis to St Paul – let's not get into the theological soundness or spiritual efficacy of praying to one of the saints, even if it is Paul. I'd rather just echo the prayer and discover that the blessing of God isn't so hemmed round by theological proprieties as we might think. The direction of the heart Godward seems more important.

The day thou gavest, Lord, has ended;
the darkness falls at thy behest;
to thee our morning hymns ascended;
thy praise shall sanctify our rest.

2. We thank thee that thy church, unsleeping
while earth rolls onward into light,
through all the world her watch is keeping,
and rests not now by day or night.

3. As o'er each continent and island
the dawn leads on another day,
the voice of prayer is never silent,
nor die the strains of praise away.

4. So be it, Lord; thy throne shall never,
like earth's proud empires, pass away.
Thy kingdom stands, and grows forever,
till all thy creatures own thy sway.

The North east of Scotland has some of the most spectacular sunsets in Scotland. I know about the West coast, from Machrahanish to Ullapool, and I've watched sunsets there too. These pictures were taken last night, one of the most spectacular sunsets we've seen up here for years. Impossible not to link them with this evocative Victorian evening hymn. By the way, Lesley Garrett sings this hymn on her album Amazing Grace, and it is one of the most resoundingly over the top and enjoyable versions I've ever heard!

Readers of Living Wittily will know I have a particular interest in and affinity with the Gospel of John. It was the Gospel I worked through in the Greek text in College, guided by R E O White, for whom the Greek New Testament was peerless literature. He was a classic exegete, training us to explore the text by establishing the basis of the text, working through the grammatical and syntactical issues, carefully reconstructing background in cultural, social and historical contexts, and finally writing out the theological and practical implications of the text so explored.

Amongst R E O White's exegetical resources of first rank was C K Barrett, whose commentary on John was the class textbook. I have it in its revised form, and am sorry that when I bought the new edition I gave away my first edition – the one with the terracota coloured dustwrapper, a book whose very appearance conjured up impressions of serious, sober scholarship wrapped in unfussy but serviceable dustrwaps.

Today we heard of the death of C K Barrett at the venerable age of 94. So I took my Barrett on John from the shelves and spent a wee while browsing, remembering and giving thanks for the scholarship and devotion to the text of C K Barrett. Pencil marks in the margin still mark places where I had my eyes opened by Barrett. Just one example –

John14.6 is the famous threefold I am the way the truth and the life. Barrett is quite sure the primary claim is "I am the way by which men and women come to God". And he is certain that Jesus refers to his coming passion – "the way which he himself is about to take is the road which his followers must also tread. He himself goes to the Father by way of crucifixion and resurrection; in future he is the means by which Christians die and rise….Because Jesus is the means of access to God who is the source of all truth and life, he is himself the truth and the life for men and women."

Page 458, The Gospel According to John, (SPCK, 1978 rev.ed.)

Barrett unabashedly acknowledged that even the 1978 revised commentary on John was then old fashioned. So it was, and is. But it is old fashioned in the same sense as any classic – that is, old fashioned does not mean irrelevant, unimportant, dispensable. On the contrary – a classic commentary remains relevant, important and indispensable! I have a shelf of commentaries on John, and some of them I have read through, others have been consulted times without number. It would be untrue to say Barrett is my favourite – I have several favourites for different purposes – and Raymond Brown's two volume commentary is my most used. But Barrett on John was the first Greek Text commentary I worked through with grammar and lexicon, and that habit, instilled by R E O White has never left me as my favourite form of lectio divina. R E O White used to quote Noel Davey, one of Barrett's close friends, who urged students to 'bury your head in a lexicon and you'll raise it in the presence of God".

C K Barrett now knows the full depth of those words, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life…" May he now, with gladness and gratitude, raise his head in the presence of God and know the fullness of truth and life. Thanks be to God.