short-hand religion

“It’s short-hand religion without a deeper theology,” he said. “If you don’t have a theology of empathy, there is no Jesus there. Even if you look at someone who is gay [greedy, dishonest, hateful, racist] and you believe that’s not what God wants for people, Jesus encountered people throughout his ministry that would be doing things God wouldn’t want for them. And he always leaves them with more dignity than he found them.”

                                                              John Pavlovitz

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Why bother with faith?

Why bother, to put it more bluntly

With religion

I mean really, what a pain

You’ve got to give up part of a weekend

To go listen to some dude or dudette talk

And talk

And talk

you’ve got to give up not just time

but money

and perhaps

if your faith system has really got religion

things like

depending on your brand

pot

coffee and coke

alcohol

swearing (I mean WTF?)

and you’ve got to behave

or not

but seriously

what is it that moves a think adult

to embrace a religion

a lot of thinking adults aren’t, anymore

and so we have the “none”

As in I’ll have none of that!

But for those that remain….

Why?

Honestly it seems that for many it is a matter of….

Wait for it…..

Transaction

I participate in this faith thing

And I get blessed

I get prosperous

I get happy

I get saved

From eternal torment

Its turn or burn!

I ran across a song the other day

That might well be the national anthem

Of much of American Christianity

'll be so happy (Lord I'll be)

I'll be so happy (yes I will)

I'll be so happy (when I see his precious face)

I'll be so happy (When I see Jesus inside of me)

I'll be so happy (All my heartaches, they will be over)

I'll be so happy (All my sorrows, they'll be over)

I'll be so happy

(All my tears and my pains, it will be over, yes it will

Oh I won't have to bear noo, won't have to bear no more burdens

I'll be so happy

They'll be nothing but joy and peace over there

Every day will be Sunday

So Happy, Jesus and Me

Jesus and me

We are like “this”

And all is well with the world

Except

I wonder

Is that really what it’s all about?

As I think about my choice

To engage with a God who is love

There are of course “Jesus and me” moments

Yeah

Oh yeah

I want to be in communion with the Sacred

Drawn into a swirling vortex of Love

Forgiven

Healed

Empowered

I want to be filled to overflowing

With Sacred Presence

But there is the critical point

Filled with sacred presence not just

So that I can “be so happy”

But so full of God’s love

That I leak love

So full that it oozes out of me

And transforms

The way I see

The way I treat

Other people

All other people

Not just the easy people

The beautiful people

Rich people

Smart people

Kind people

Clever people

But all people

All meaning all

Even that dirty and drained soul lying on a park bench

Even that greedy and shriveled soul sitting in chairs of gold

My religion (I prefer spirituality)

Should be about how I interact with those people

Who I encounter

Each day

And I should be about one thing

One

Thing

Building a bridge between myself and the other

So that the Sacred can cross over

And do for that person

As much or more as the Sacred has done for me

What I want from my “religion”

Is to become human

To be drawn out of my subhuman

Selfishness and greed

Out of my need for power

And my need to put others down

Into the fullness of my humanity

Into my divine heritage

Into the image

So that I can work with God

To help others

Find themselves

Their true selves

That precious, amazing self

That reflects the very nature of the Sacred

What I want my religion to do

Is to make me a person

Who leaves other people

With more love

More hope

More joy

More peace

With more humanity

With more dignity

Than when I first met them

And that

Is why

I bother

Defy the darkness

“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”

                                                              Anne Frank

Endure the injustice and take the opportunity to put the extravagant love of Christ’s Kingdom into practice; bring the audacious and everlasting love of God into the daylight and dazzle those whose eyes have never seen or imagined such overwhelming and sincere love. This is how we change the world. This is how we transform our enemies into friends. This is how we end the violence. This is how we push back the darkness – not with more darkness – but with true, undeniable light; the light that only comes from God.  If the best we can do is take an eye for an eye, we will never escape this world of blindness.

                                                              Keith Giles (Our Christless Christianity)

____________________________________________

What do we do in times like this?

We know the litany of ills

The exclusion of the needy from our shores

The neglect and oppression of the poor and vulnerable

The proliferation of lies

The rise of hate

The destruction of the earth

We know them all to well

They are encroaching darkness

That threatens to smother us

And rob us of sight

And sound

And feeling

Leaving us

With nothing

Our hearts pound

Our heads scream with a thousand voices

As we are consumed by it all

And yet

And yet

And yet

We believe

Not in the power of the darkness

But in the power of the light

And we

Beloved children of God

Spirit carriers

Precious souls

Are the candle

We defy the darkness

For blown by the Spirit

Consumed by the flame of Sacred love

Through us sacred love

flames out (like shining from shook foil)  (Hopkins)

and we

by how we live

By how we accept and welcome

By our kindness and caring

By our generosity and service

By our love

Reveal the darkness for what it is

We define it as small

Empty and ugly

Powerful but powerless to defeat

And we shine on

Pushing back the darkness

Bringing “the audacious and everlasting love of God

into the daylight”

destroying the darkness with overwhelming and sincere love.

Bringing sight to the blind

Giving voice to hope

Thawing the frozen heart

We do this

We

One by one

Gathered

We shine on

With the “true, undeniable light; the

light that only comes from God”

and darkness define

and darkness defied

the kingdom comes

Do not be afraid

“Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”

                                                   Corrie Ten Boom

“I've spent most of my life and most of my friendships holding my breath and hoping that when people get close enough they won't leave, and fearing that it's a matter of time before they figure me out and go.”

                                                    Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet

“A psychiatrist once told me early in treatment, “Stop trying to make me like you,” and what a sobering and welcome smack in the face that statement was. Yet somehow, every day of my life is still a campaign for popularity, or better yet, a crowded funeral.”

                                                    John Waters

__________________________________________________

I don’t know when it started

this endless litany in my skull

you are not enough

you are not enough

no matter what you do it will not be enough

but I cannot remember a time when my stomach did not hurt

and each day

as life assailed me

I chewed an anti-acid

Even my grade school body

Revealing my anxiety

I know I wanted to please

I know I wanted to be liked

And the judges were out there

Real and imagined

My father

My classmates

That cute girl in 7^th grade math

And soon my life became

A test

Of value

Of worth

An examination in worthiness

And all too often

I failed

Not perhaps in other’s eyes

But always in my one

Do they like me?

Am I “in”?

Will she admire me?

Will he respect me?

And life was shaped

by my attempts to be

what I thought others wanted me to be…

and the voice in the head

that bully brain

continued the refrain…

“how am I doing?”

And still today

As I write my blog

Or give a sermon

Or work with a Mental Health client

I worry

And I want to make everyone happy

Everyone

Just try that these days !!!

I suspect there is plenty of evidence I do just fine

but then that comment comes

and it all floods in

the doubt,

the anxiety,

the pain

that I carry, carry, carry

in the aging body

and still at 68

as at 8

my stomach hurts

and my heart hurts

and I am haunted

by failures real and imagined

and then there is nothing to do

but to turn to the One

who always loves

always accepts

always sees me as a precious soul

there is nothing to do but to breathe

and sink into the depths

where love lives

and in that deep place seek God, and seek, perhaps myself

St. Francis of Assisi would spend whole nights praying “Who are you, my most dear God, and who am I . . . ?”

It is a good question

But who God is love

Unfailing

Unreserved

Unencumbered

And in that love one experiences

the absolute safety of God

one finds a God who is “always and forever larger than we expected” (Rohr)

and in that Sacred space, one finds one’s True Self,

I have become a fan of self-compassion

And there are standard phrases (metta phrases)

But here is mine

“As I wander deep within

May I find myself again

In the context of Sacred love

May my body be healed

May my mind be healed

May my heart be healed

May my soul be healed

May I be at peace”

It is in those moments when I find that peace

That I can quit trying so hard to please

Quit trying to make people like me

And just be

Honest

Brave

Kind

Loving

An agent of reconciliation

So that others

Do not have to be afraid

And do not have to wonder

Am I enough?