Pastor Jeff's thoughts: Opens with Mac and Sarayu entering a garden that is described as both breathtaking and disorderly. Sarayu tells Mac it is designed as a fractal[1] which explains its claim to organization while appearing chaotic. The real surprise comes at the end of the chapter when Sarayu revels that the garden is Mac’s soul (p. 246). If we start with this revelation in hand, then we need to ask why Sarayu cleared the secluded piece of land. She said it was to make ready for something that would be planted tomorrow.
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS:
Ø Knowing that the garden is Mac’s soul, why do you think the Holy Spirit would clear a given space?
Ø What do you think was removed in order to make room for what was to come?
The other interesting discussion concerns the notion of good and evil, light and darkness. Sarayu asserts that such distinctions are highly subjective, that when opinions differ on what is good or evil, conflict ensues. Indeed, she sees the effort to label things either good or evil as a form of idolatry where we play God. She says,
“…and if there is no reality of good that is absolute, then you have lost any basis for judging. It is just language, and one might as well exchange the word good for the word evil.”
QUESTION/COMMENTS
Ø I noted that Sarayu did not suggest that God is the absolute measure for good and evil. That got me thinking. Could this be because our concept of God is no less subjective than our ideas of good and evil? If we asserted that God was the absolute measure than would we not argue over whose god?
There is also an interesting discussion of rights which here means the idea that we are owed something. Again Sarayu dismisses this concept. Rather, she places our worth not on rights but on our being loved. It is the love that justifies our worth. Along with this discussion of rights is her rejection of men and women’s desire for independence. It is in and through relationship, not isolation, that one’s path is made clear.
[1] See this link for a rather technical discussion of fractals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal
