CHAPTER 5: THINGS YET UNSEEN
4.2 Rohr
It’s a lived eschatology… a sense that our hope is not just waiting for pie in the sky when you die by and by. Our hope is that we can experience God and God’s reign now, on a daily basis. (John van de Laar, interview by Neil Vels 22, November 2011 in Cape Town (via Skype)).
Other respondents also picked up on the theme of hope being knowledge of God’s presence in the present, for example Lottering, “God is not for some distant future, but that the hope that God offers is hope for here and for now, and that God is at work…
it’s something that we begin to experience now,” and Jenny*, while recognising that there is still more than this life, described hope as “a big, all-encompassing, fulfilling kind of a hope that is not pie in the sky one day” (Jenny*, interview by Neil Vels, 21 December 2011 in Durban (via Skype)). George expressed the sense that hope is not just something that we move towards*:
It’s not so much a projection of something missing, and that I long for, but it’s the experience of something already there. And so hope is not so much a future action… I think there’s movement towards the future, but it’s more a current experience. It has an impact on my life here, so in other words it’s being aware of the fact that God is always busy before I know it. God is always active before I’m aware of it, and stepping constantly into that action field and knowing it is wider, it is bigger than me. (George*, interview by Neil Vels, 6 October 2011 in
Bapsfontein).
4.2.2 God everywhere (vs something in the future)
Rohr’s adherents see hope not so much in what will be one day, and see God not as only active in one place or with a few people; rather God is everywhere now, and it is this knowledge of God’s all encompassing presence, God’s being at work even in places where the individual would prefer not to find God (George*) that allows hope to be an important part of their worldview, granting them a “bigger picture of reality”
(Milandri), a picture which proclaims that one can discover God and God’s presence in everything around one (Howell). Milandri describes his experience eloquently:
I think the whole point of a spirituality is that we have a bigger picture of
reality… it’s like having spiritual eyes. In a sense you see more dimensions, and God is interwoven in reality, yet though God is unseen, but is actually seen everywhere so that there’s this wonderful translucence to everything, and hope is really knowing that there is a bigger picture… we’re part of a much bigger reality and our subjective sense always needs to be addressed in terms of a bigger, sometimes unfathomable, and sometimes wondrous reality which we’re floating on… (Sergio Milandri, interview by Neil Vels, 2 February 2012 in Cape Town (via Skype)).
Adherents spoke about the God’s presence being available consistently and constantly that their hope is to be able to partner with God in “what is going to happen, is
happening, and has already in some areas happened” (Paul Oosthuizen, interview by Neil Vels, 30 December 2011 in Edenvale). As suggested earlier there is a far more mystical understanding to the presence of God, and this extends into how Rohr’s adherents understand suffering.
4.2.3 God present in suffering (vs strength to carry on)
Where Buchan’s adherents see God as being present in their suffering to give them the strength they need to carry on, Rohr’s followers are more inclined simply to celebrate the presence of God in the midst of their difficulties. Howell speaks about how he sees hope in contrast to member of his congregation, speaking about some of the fears they have of what is happening in South Africa, “It’s not something that if I do this, this, and this, then everything is going to be all right. It’s a hope linked with “I know that God’s presence will always be with me in whatever situation.” (Terry Howell, interview by Neil Vels, 22 November 2011 in Secunda).
This view that darkness is not to be feared was expressed by several of the other respondents as well. Timmer spoke about darkness as possibility, the “promise of, the reality that life is not dead, even when it looks dead. God is at work, there’s possibility,”
(Brenda Timmer, interview by Neil Vels, 27 September 2011 in Soweto) and Milandri believes that in spite of all the ups and down of life there is still predictability (Sergio Milandri, interview by Neil Vels, 2 February 2012 in Cape Town, via Skype)).
So the darkness has a redemptive purpose. According to Fick it’s “in the dying and in the suffering that new life emerges, where healing comes, where wholeness comes…
you know that darkness has got it’s own treasures, that’s where hope comes in,”
(Marina Fick, interview by Neil Vels, 6 October 2011 in Benoni), a view echoed by Howell who suggests that as a result of the darkness, we’ll find meaning and our lives will be meaningful in relationship with God (Terry Howell, interview by Neil Vels, 22 November 2011 in Secunda).
Hope is more than just God being at work in the darkness, however. Another theme spoken about repeatedly by Rohr’s followers is that of God’s presence not just in the mess, but also in “my” mess, and the opportunity to experience God in failure and weakness.
4.2.4 God present in failure (vs dissatisfaction with self)
Rohr’s followers speak of acceptance of human failure and the welcoming nature of God, rather than a focus on our weakness and God’s judgement on that. Hudson says:
[Rohr has] encouraged me into the hope that all of my humanity, light and dark, mistakes, sins, failures, as well as successes, achievements, that God can kind of use all that stuff in God’s work in my life. So I think he has a very hopeful theology, that affirms every part of human existence… I think his one statement sometimes is that we come to God not by getting it right, but by getting it wrong.
It’s quite a hopeful statement for those who’ve got it wrong (Trevor Hudson, interview by Neil Vels, 20 December 2011 in Benoni).
Timmer believes that this understanding has been very helpful to her, “I think the greatest contribution of Rohr for me has been in the sense of being able to accept who I am, where I’m at, the way in which he just is able to hold the real me,” (Brenda
Timmer, interview by Neil Vels, 27 September 2011 in Soweto) and Fick is grateful that through this understanding she has come to experience the gospel really as good news, “this is good news that, that the mess is okay… [and] to say we don’t know what is right and what’s wrong in the end… And not to get all tied up in a knot about things, but to move with it… (Marina Fick, interview by Neil Vels, 6 October 2011 in Benoni).
Jordaan sums it up as she says, “the purpose of life for me that Christianity brings, that God brings to us is that it is good enough, we are good enough just as we are. Actually we don’t need fixing, we don’t need change, we actually just need to know that we are as we are… (Dalene Jordaan, interview by Neil Vels, 27 September 2011 in Ruimsig).