Our Activities

March 22, 2010

Lenten Class: The Realm of The Paradox: Inner Knowing and Parables of Jesus - 7:00 pm

On the Mondays in Lent, February 22 , March 1, 8, 15, and 22, from 7:00 pm to 8:15 pm in the Chapel, the Rev. Matthew Dutton-Gillett will lead a class entitled “The Realm of Paradox: Inner Knowing and the Parables of Jesus.”
Life for most of us is largely lived focused on the world outside of ourselves, the world we inhabit. The world “out there” is defined as the place where life happens, and the type of knowledge that is most valued is knowledge acquired in the outer world of work, family, society.

The spiritual life, however, is rooted in another kind of knowledge that is not better but different. It is rooted in knowledge of the inner world, the world that inhabits us—our minds, hearts, souls. One of the goals of all the great spiritual traditions, including the Christian tradition, is to befriend this inner world. When we enter this inner world, however, we discover it to be a place of paradox. Initially, most of us find this unappealing—paradox tends not to satisfy our minds. Yet, this inner, paradoxical world holds a new level of knowing, offering to us a different sort of knowledge that the outer world cannot give to us.

In the teaching of Jesus, the kingdom of God is very much a realm of paradox. In it, we are told, the first shall be last, death leads to life, and holding onto life leads to death. The rich are actually poor in this realm, and the poor rich. Jesus finds it impossible to speak of this realm of paradox directly, choosing instead to teach about it in the distinctive style of the parable. We will explore these parables and the ways in which they lead us into the realm of paradox—the kingdom of God—and into a greater inner knowing that contains within it the discovery of God and of our true selves.