Well, it is almost a new year. And many of us as we approach the New Year
think about change. We think about our
lives, about how things have been, how we want them to be, and we make plans to
improve our lives, improve ourselves…..
Stephen, version 62.2
Usually our plans for change come in the form of those
wonderful things called resolutions.
Here are some resolutions I’ve run across in my reading: Pay attention… there may be some ideas in
here for you!
I
will no longer waste my time relieving the past, instead I will spend it
worrying about the future.
I
will try to figure out why I *really* need nine e-mail addresses.
How about this one?
“This year, I’m going to get ‘ripped abs’ No more middle-aged gut for me!” I love the commercial with Peyton Manning,
who sits down and says… “Hey, so you are going to get a flat stomach and
rippling abs? Well let me tell you
something. Unless you are under 23 years
of age or a professional football player, its not going to happen. So get real….”
I actually think there may be merit in lowering our
expectations. Think about it,
resolutions we can keep. I like this
list that some underachiever put together.
Gain
weight, at least 5 lbs
Read
less, it makes you think too much
Watching
more TV, you’ve probably been missing some good stuff
Procrastinate
more, starting tomorrow
Or one could ignore the idea of change all together. Instead of resolutions we could create
affirmations and just accept ourselves the way we are!.
“In
some cultures what I do would be considered normal”
“I
need not suffer in silence while I can still moan, whimper and complain”
But quite seriously
I have been thinking about this thing called New Years,
and what I have come up with is five resolutions for myself, as a follower of “The
Way”, and what might be called “Five Resolutions for the Church”
1. Don’t play
games with the Bible. Each week I worry
that I ‘read into” the Bible messages that are really more what I “want” to
hear than what I “need” to hear. I
resolve to try and be brutally honest, and not dodge the difficult
messages.
However, my task is nothing compared to the American
Church (I use the term loosely). How
can the church get rabidly upset over sexual preference (which isn’t a big
topic in the Bible), while ignoring the heart of the Gospel, passages such as
the Beatitudes, and overt instructions to feed the hungry, take care of the
poor, comfort the “alien” (read immigrant) in our midst?
2. Learn to “rest
in God” (Thich Nhat Hanh, p.181, Living
Buddha, Living Christ). All to often,
when trying to be God’s person, I get caught up in what can only be called “head
stuff”. I start worrying about dogma,
ideologies, concepts, and all of a sudden I am totally in my head. Then my faith becomes all about me. That is very limiting. My mind can only understand God, partially. My ability to live the life Christ teaches is
minimal at best. So I need to learn to
rest in God, and let God work in me. I
need to experience the sacred through the presence of the Holy Spirit, which
is, as Hanh puts it, “the energy of God that shines forth and shows you the
way.”
The modern church is all about itself. It’s cool music, its hipster ministers, its
praise songs, its overhead projectors.
Churches seem to be focused on entertaining. But they are also focused on shaming. Drawing people in the spiritualized bling,
and then roping them in, not with joy, but with guilt. We need to remember, it is all about going
deeply, and finding the sacred within.
3. Realize that activity does not replace presence. I admit it, I can be a work-a-holic. No joke.
A full time job, and a half-time ministry. Not to mention family, horses, and more. The bottom line? I get depleted. So depleted that I have moments, way too many
moments, when I have nothing to give. I
need to remember that is was not the words or teaching of Christ, nor even the
healing miracles Christ, that changed the lives of his disciples. It was his presence. And it is his continued presence that changes
my life right now. Here, today. I need to be present with people. I need to sit with those who wander into my
path, my day - and then
listen deeply, and speak with loving speech.
The church also needs to be a presence. Often the church is a center of frenetic
activity - groups, meetings, services, practices, more. But it is not present in its community. It squats in the middle of its neighborhood,
but is not part of its neighborhood. Not
in a meaningful way.
4. I want to water
the positive seeds, and not feed the negative seeds. Jesus talks about the mustard seed, which if
planted grows into a tree and become a place where birds can rest. The presence of God, the love of God, the
compassion of God can grow, if I water it an nurture it. The fact is that “iIn our consciousness,
there are many negative seeds and also many positive seeds. The practice is to
avoid watering the negative seeds, and to identify and water the positive seeds
every day (Hanh).
I can do this with prayer. I can do this by resting in God. I can do this by slowing down, and by letting
the Christ in me flourish. I can recognize
the negative stuff when it arises, the fare, the hate, the anger, and the
greed. I can acknowledge it, and bring
it into my soul, into that place where God is, so that I can heal it, and
dismiss it. Do I really know how to do
this? Not well! But I am getting there.
The church seems to believe it can flourish by watering
the seeds of negativity. The church in
America, in particular delights in growing a garden of toxic fruit. The focus of the church on “right belief ( as
it defines it), on sexual preference, on “the lazy poor”, on greed (it pushes
greed through the prosperity gospel, thus watering a negative seed), on a hate
of other faith systems. When the church
buys into the “war on Christmas”, and delights in mobilizing the masses to be AGAINST
things, it has lost its way. It becomes
angry and cruel.
The church too needs to nourish the good seeds. Acceptance. Love. Compassion.
It needs to be doing kind things in its community. It needs to be advocating for the poor. It needs to be holding the political right
accountable for taking care of the poor.
Its time to water positive seeds.
5. Finally I want
to be kind to myself. I have become a
firm believer in self-compassion. I have
developed my own little set of “self-compassion” phrases (metta phases).
May I find the Sacred 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
The American Church needs to learn self-compassion. It needs to help people love themselves,
forgive themselves, accept themselves….. as they are. After all, isn’t that what Jesus did? It is when the church does this that people
can be safe enough, free enough, to be honest, and open, and let God do what
only God can do!
Re-light the light
Heal the wounds
Forgive what needs to be forgiven
Release the love
OK. This has gone
on too long… and I really should re-read it.
But I am going to start my resolutions early
It is time to go for walk… and see God in the sun
God in the snow
God in the does
God in the mountain
God in the breeze
God in the trees!
