Saturday

Riotous summer is long gone

brilliant yellows and red

bright greens

faded

into the muted tones of fall

and then

deeper still into the grey and brown

of winter

a death

spring lies in a tomb

of frozen earth underneath the trees

reluctantly thawing and softening

giving hope that it will yield

and life will again emerge

from dark

dirt

and so we wait

and wait

for the tomb to crack open

and a gentle green

piece of life

to push its way into the cool clean air

Holy Saturday

the vitality of one

fully sacred

fully human

is gone

brutally killed for being love and reconciliation

in a world of hate a violence

gone is the man

entombed in stony darkness

and yet

hearts are reluctantly thawing and softening

hoping

that the tomb will crack open

and love and life

will flow again

into waiting hearts

and so this day

we wait

we wait

No spectators allowed

Don't just learn, experience.

Don't just read, absorb.

Don't just change, transform.

Don't just relate, advocate.

Don't just promise, prove.

Don't just criticize, encourage.

Don't just think, ponder.

Don't just take, give.

Don't just see, feel.

Don’t just dream, do.

Don't just hear, listen.

Don't just talk, act.

Don't just tell, show.

Don't just exist, live.”

              Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

_____________________________________

It is easy to go through life, just going through the motions

Being a human doing, and not a human being

We often are the “hit and run drivers” of the universe

Careening throughout day

Without engaging

We are not touched

By the sky

The sunrise

By the person in front of us

We are observers of life

Detached

A half a step outside

The world

Perhaps

If we want to transform the world

(I certainly do)

We cannot be spectators

Yes, life is messy

Situations and relationships

Are messy

But I suspect that just as the Sacred is woven into the mess

(think incarnation if you will)

We are to be participate in the mess

We cannot run away from our garbage

We cannot run away from other people's junk.

People are dealing with pain, hurt, and difficulty all around us.

We cannot touch this pain from a distance

We cannot love from a distance.

We must get our hands

And our hearts

Dirty

And listen, even when it’s hard

See, when we don’t want to

Feel, even when it hurts

There is love

To be done

Lightness

And

For no reason

I start skipping like a child.

And

For no reason

I turn into a leaf

That is carried so high

I kiss the Sun's mouth

And dissolve.

And

For no reason

A thousand birds

Choose my head for a conference table,

Start passing their

Cups of wine

And their wild songbooks all around.

And

For every reason in existence

I begin to eternally,

To eternally laugh and love!

When I turn into a leaf

And start dancing,

I run to kiss our beautiful Friend

And I dissolve in the Truth

That I Am.

Hafiz

__________________________

It seems

I have to have a reason

To be happy

It seems I have to have a reason

To be content

With who I am

Wealth

Power

Success

Titles

Love

Intimacy

Adoration

Bring it on

All those provisos

With which I must surround myself

In order to lift my head

And crow

“I am King of the World!”

Or perhaps

Merely

“I am OK”

So much energy goes into collecting

Grasping

Fusing

With these things

And they are

So

Heavy

So burdened one simply cannot dance

And yet life is the dance

Ah

May I find lightness

And walk with the unencumbered

Step of a child

May I be so buoyant

That I rise

Lost in the unfathomable sky

Lost in the greatness of it all

Lost in the greatness of the Sacred

So lost

That I am found

Acceptance and Commitment

“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night,

and in between he does what he wants to do.”

                                            Bob Dylan

______________________________________

Here I am

Now

Noticing what I am thinking

Accepting what I am feeling

And doing what I care about,

Anyway

Living in the moment

Not fused to the past

Not fearful of the future

But just being where one is, in the moment

Noticing the person in front of you

Feeling the warmth of the sun

Being awed by the clouds

Accepting that life is full of all kinds of

Joy

And all kinds of pain

Embracing the feelings that come

Without judgement

Saying

“I am having a human experience”

And then

Focused on one’s values

On what is important

On love, and service

On the things that make a difference in people’s live

And living towards one’s values

Doing one act

And then another,

And another

That takes one toward those values

Doing the thing one wants to do

That is how

One finds some peace

At the end of the day

That is how one falls asleep

With

A

Smile

new eyes

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

                                                                        Marcel Proust

______________________________

There are those moments

In the midst of an ordinary day

While in the ordinary places

Surrounded by the ordinary people

That our lives are changed

Something changes

Deep down at the center of who we are

In that Holy place

Where the Sacred dwells

Nothing has changed

Yet everything has changed

For good or for ill

And in an instant

Or perhaps two

The world is different

The sky is bluer, or grayer

Our heart expands or shrinks

And we see

With eyes physical

With eyes spiritual

The world differently

Others differently

Ourselves differently

There are times when I pray for new eyes

That I might see that person in the mirror with eyes of love

That person whom I hate (yes I admit it)

Yes that one who acts in ways I despise

That one who hurts and wounds, with eyes of compassion

So that I might see not the flaws but the beauty

Not the deficits, but the potential

And gaze into the future with expectation not fear

May I wake some morning

Perhaps not this morning

But some morning

and find the world a place

Not filled with evil

But filled with the Presence of the Sacred

And see the sun

As angel fire

Cracked

May the blessing of light be upon you,

Light on the outside, Light on the inside.

With God's sunlight shining on you,

May your heart glow with warmth,  Like a turf fire

that welcomes friends and strangers alike.

May the light of the Lord shine from your eyes,

Like a candle in the window,  Welcoming the weary traveler.

_________________________________________________

I want to be a person

Of hospitality

I want to be a person from whose eyes shines

The light of love

I want my compassion to be so complete

It is like a beacon

Drawing people

Welcoming them

Into a place where they are safe

And accepted

I want to have a heart that glows

With the warmth of that which I have first received

Holy fire

Sacred love

Love received , love given

It is the Sacred way

Sounds simply

But its not

Sometimes the “Anthem” plays through my mind

Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)

That's how the light gets in

It  seems odd sometimes

that my desire to be a heartening

presence should be rooted

not in strength and purity

but in brokenness.

Jesus is our example

How was Jesus the light?

Sure he gave us amazing teaching, words to live by,

Sure, he performed miracles

But is that how Jesus was the light?

It seems to me that Jesus was the light through the way he touched the lives of people

Through the way he touched, and loved, and restored, and lifted up

The sick, the sinful, the poor, the hurting, the outcasts

And he was the light, most of all, by dying on a cross

By being battered, and beaten, and, yes,

Killed

Jesus who changed the world, and opened the door to the Sacred

Not through power but through brokenness

It is when we are struggling in the dark

When we are stumbling around

Needing light

Needing love

Needing God

Hungry, seeking, wounded, and full of cracks

It is then that the light finds its way into our souls

It is through our cracks

Through our brokenness, our need

Our hunger, our seeking

That the light gets in

And that is also how the light gets out!

We share the light

Not through power

Not through strength

Not by us being a “perfect offering,” by buying into the “purity project”

We share the light not when we stand on spiritual pedestals and proclaim our truth as the truth

Not when we tell everyone around us how bad or evil they are

Not as we judge and reject, not when we are strong, and quite often arrogant…

But when we let the light we have received

shine back out through the cracks

It is how we are in the darkness

It is how we are in our pain

It is how we are in our failure

It is how we are in our weakness

That most reveals the light in us…….

And it is in this way

That we become

A welcoming person, in whose presence

People can find the freedom, to be themselves.

Who are you going to serve?

“You're gonna have to serve somebody;

well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord,

but you're gonna have to serve somebody...”

                                                          Bob Dylan

______________________________________

We all serve someone, or something

Whether we admit it or not

Like it or not

Its true

We all have something or someone who influences

Everything (perhaps) we do

That shapes what we believe

That determines what we see

And sadly, the truth is that often

We don’t know

What drives us

We just don’t

There really is only one way to find out

And that is to look in the mirror

Look at how we treat others

Where we put our energy

Who we choose to align ourselves with,

In short,

How we live

Do we hate?

Do we grasp?

Do we lie?

Do we treat others cruelly?

Do we support people who are dishonest, greedy, hurtful?

Do we side with power and wealth?

Who would our master be, if we behaved like that?

Do we love

Do we give

Are we honest, and full of integrity

Do we treat others with compassion

Are we people for others, especially for the poor?

What kind of Master would cause us to behave like that?

Think about it!

Because

“You're gonna have to serve somebody;

well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord,

but you're gonna have to serve somebody...”

I am

When Akiba was on his deathbed, he bemoaned to his rabbi that he felt he was a failure. His rabbi moved closer and asked why, and Akiba confessed that he had not lived a life like Moses. The poor man began to cry, admitting that he feared God's judgment. At this, his rabbi leaned into his ear and whispered gently, “God will not judge Akiba for not being Moses. God will judge Akiba for not being Akiba.”

                                                                        From the Talmud

__________________________________________________

The Sacred only asks one thing from us

That we be who we are

That we be the unique special

Carrier of the Sacred

We were created to be

I cannot believe I am merely an accident of history

The result of random history

Of casual couplings

There is a mystery in all this

Something mystical

About my presence

I am

I am here

I am here now

In this time and in this place

For a reason I might well never understand

But for a reason

And that reason is nothing more

Than to do the best I can with the gifts I have been given

To do my best

Knowing that I will fail and succeed

Be weak and strong

Wise and foolish

Calm and anxious

Do my best to be me

Allowing that the Sacred Presence

Which makes me “me”

To guide me

Empower me

And define me…

I will not be a Moses

I will definitely not be a Jesus

But perhaps I can be

Stephen

Child of God

Thin Places

Heaven and earth are only three feet apart,

but in thin places that distance is even shorter.

                                           Old Celtic Saying

______________________________________

Sometimes the air is thick

With the heaviness of earth

And so we trod

Heavy too

All the weight of hate and fear

Burdens us

We are bent beneath it all

But there are moments

When we walk into

A thin place

and the Sacred caresses our soul

We can sense the bright mountain behind the mountain,

Taste water cold and clear from an inexhaustible stream

Lose ourselves as the sky opens and we are drawn into a great openness

That expands into eternity

Then the door between the world

And the next

is cracked open for a moment

and we can see

heaven

and we are light

and we are light

Open hands

“In a world that lives like a fist

mercy is not more than waking

with your hands open.”

                              Mark Nepo

__________________________

how do I walk through my day?

fists clenched?

angry at what I see,

angry at those who dare affront me

confront me?

Angry at the things that are not fair,

Are not right?  (by my definition of course)

It is so easy to become a tight ball of resentment

So easy to see the world as dangerous and dark

It so easy to put my energy into those people (Trump and crew)

Into those events (school shootings)

Those beliefs and values

That I judge (alas, I did say judge)

As wrong

As ungodly

As not “Jesus” (or Buddha or….)

How much harder it is

To live mercy

To walk through the day

Unencumbered

With mind open

Heart open

Soul open

Hands open

Ready to receive

Ready to give

Ready to hug

Closed hands can receive nothing

And do nothing

(except hit)

Closed hands cannot contain anything but emptiness

Cannot grab hold of what is good

Cannot caress

Cannot comfort

May I, as the sun rises

And as the sun sets

And in every moment in between

Open my hands

Palms up

And wait for what comes

Let it go

“let it go -- the

smashed word broken

open vow or

the oath cracked length

wise -- let it go it

was sworn to

go

let them go -- the

truthful liars and

the false fair friends

and the boths and

neithers -- you must let them go they

were born

to go

let all go -- the

big small middling

tall bigger really

the biggest and all

things -- let all go

dear

so comes love”

― E.E. Cummings

----------------------------------------

When we hang on to the ugly things

The hard things

The deceitful things

When we become fused with those things

That diminish

And burden

then

We

walk through life

head down

Hands closed

Heart cold

It is only when we accept things as they come

And see them for what they are

Things that are not

“me”

That we can let go

Lift up our heads

Open our arms

And find our hearts ablaze

Only then are we free

To

Love

This is how lies die

How haters are confused

How evil is overcome

This is how greed loses

And generosity wins

And power that is not power

Is consumed by

Compassion

Let it

Go

Let it all

Go

So comes love

Let it go

“let it go -- the

smashed word broken

open vow or

the oath cracked length

wise -- let it go it

was sworn to

go

let them go -- the

truthful liars and

the false fair friends

and the boths and

neithers -- you must let them go they

were born

to go

let all go -- the

big small middling

tall bigger really

the biggest and all

things -- let all go

dear

so comes love”

― E.E. Cummings

----------------------------------------

When we hang on to the ugly things

The hard things

The deceitful things

When we become fused with those things

That diminish

And burden

then

We

walk through life

head down

Hands closed

Heart cold

It is only when we accept things as they come

And see them for what they are

Things that are not

“me”

That we can let go

Lift up our heads

Open our arms

And find our hearts ablaze

Only then are we free

To

Love

This is how lies die

How haters are confused

How evil is overcome

This is how greed loses

And generosity wins

And power that is not power

Is consumed by

Compassion

Let it

Go

Let it all

Go

So comes love

Let it go

“let it go -- the

smashed word broken

open vow or

the oath cracked length

wise -- let it go it

was sworn to

go

let them go -- the

truthful liars and

the false fair friends

and the boths and

neithers -- you must let them go they

were born

to go

let all go -- the

big small middling

tall bigger really

the biggest and all

things -- let all go

dear

so comes love”

― E.E. Cummings

----------------------------------------

When we hang on to the ugly things

The hard things

The deceitful things

When we become fused with those things

That diminish

And burden

then

We

walk through life

head down

Hands closed

Heart cold

It is only when we accept things as they come

And see them for what they are

Things that are not

“me”

That we can let go

Lift up our heads

Open our arms

And find our hearts ablaze

Only then are we free

To

Love

This is how lies die

How haters are confused

How evil is overcome

This is how greed loses

And generosity wins

And power that is not power

Is consumed by

Compassion

Let it

Go

Let it all

Go

So comes love

I met God

“People encounter God under shady oak trees, on riverbanks, at the tops of mountains, and in long stretches of barren wilderness. God shows up in whirlwinds, starry skies, burning bushes, and perfect strangers. When people want to know more about God, the son of God tells them to pay attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for their pay. Whoever wrote this stuff believed that people could learn as much about the ways of God from paying attention to the world as they could from paying attention to scripture. What is true is what happens, even if what happens is not always right. People can learn as much about the ways of God from business deals gone bad or sparrows falling to the ground as they can from reciting the books of the Bible in order. They can learn as much from a love affair or a wildflower as they can from knowing the Ten Commandments by heart.”

                                            Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

________________________________

This morning I met the Sacred in worship

perhaps it was an accident

its all the fault of that young child

who had never been at a church service before

for him everything was mysterious

everything was a mystery

I am not sure he understood what was going on

Snuggled next to mom

Sitting on the piano bench next to grandma

But his eyes shone

And his smile was quick

And he hugged me when it was all over

Some hit and run warmth on his way to the cookies

And I know that he drank it all in

The smiles and the hugs

The old ladies patting him on the head

I know he felt welcomed

And loved

This morning I met the sacred

Not in the space

Not in the music, or the liturgy

Or in the stolid presence of the faithful

But in the eyes of a boy

Who proudly proclaimed

“I am in the second grade

And the cookies were really good”

wide open

“If you put a spoonful of salt

in a cup of water

it tastes very salty.

If you put a spoonful of salt

in a lake of fresh water

the taste is still pure and clear.

Peace comes when our hearts are

open like the sky, vast as the ocean.”

Jack Kornfield

__________________________________

Our souls are salted with many things

Fear

Hate

Greed

and when our souls are tiny

constricted due to ideology

or theology

when our lives are squeezed down

by social norms

and expectations

we can so easily lose our humanity

but worse, our divinity

the sacred image we carry

becomes blurred

sometimes beyond recognition

and we become unable to give

to offer compassion

to forgive

to love

how do we open our hearts?

how do we throw open the windows of our soul

to the wind of the Sacred?

We walk

We breathe

We notice the stars

We gaze in wonder at the mountain

And celebrate the sky

We dance in the dust

And the mud

And the snow

We throw our arms wide open

And embrace the Sacred

As She/He/It comes

small packages

It was a momentary thing

A Safeway thing

Head down

Roaring through the aisles

List in hand

Things to do

Places to go

And then a child

Following her mother

Serious and intent

Just like me

But in a moment

Her head raised

Her eyes caught mine

And she smiled

A tentative little smile

Offered freely

A tiny hint of empathy

In a day sorely lacking

Big gifts

Come

In small packages

Be Calm

You have traveled too fast over false ground;

Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up

To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain

When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,

Taking time to open the well of color

That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone

Until its calmness can claim you.”

                                            John O'Donohue

____________________________________________

I have been taught

My whole life

That my worth is dependent upon what I do

And so I have worked

Hard

To produce

To accomplish

To do the right thing

That I might be valued

Accepted

Admired

Perhaps, even, loved

Can’t say that it worked….

But now I am older

And after years of being

A human doing

Perhaps

Perhaps

Perhaps

It is time

To be a human being

To slow down

All heaven breaks loose

“When we practice generating compassion, we can expect to experience the fear of our pain. Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allow ourselves to move gently toward what scares us. The trick to doing this is to stay with emotional distress without tightening into aversion, to let fear soften us rather than harden into resistance.”

                                                                                      Pema Chodron

______________________________________________________

If anything it true about Jesus

It is this

Jesus came to reveal God's compassion

Which really ruined things for the religious status quo

Who were all about rules and merit

Who saw themselves as the gatekeepers

But Jesus came and turned this upside down

He was the great disturber

Which is why the way of Jesus (aka the Gospel) tends to be: good news for the poor

disruptive to the status quo

offensive to the rich

and terrifying to those in power.

Think about all of the times, in Jesus ministry when he overturned the “tables”

When he simply ignored the rules and rituals

And showed…. Compassion.

Compassion for the Samaritan woman at the well. She was considered impure by bloodline and behavior.

Compassion for the woman accused of adultery threatened with stoning. She was surely considered impure and the written laws said so.

Compassion for sheep who are not yet part of God's fold ( Who are those people in our communities?)

God, Jesus is saying, is accessible to everyone

God Jesus is saying, is love

God Jesus is saying, is compassionate

All people have access to God, because of that compassion,

But Jesus says more than that doesn’t he?

If God is about compassion, we have to be about compassion

That is if we want to reflect the fact that we are created in the image of God

The fruit should fall close to the tree

But compassion isn’t easy

It means we have to be open, and vulnerable

We have to go outside our comfort zone

It means we have to let go of so much that gives us security

And when we feel like closing up

Rejecting

Excluding

Protecting

We can’t

We just can’t

That is the time we become softer

More open

More forgiving

More generous

Compassion leads us into the unknown

Into fear

Into pain

And then…

All heaven breaks loose

hate doesn't work

“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies. (from "Loving Your Enemies")”

                                           Martin Luther King Jr., A Knock at Midnight

________________________________________________

Love your enemies

Really?

I mean who does that?

Who can do that?

I’ve tried

God knows I’ve tried

I’ve tried to love that person who lied about me

That person who cost me a job

That person who attacked me in order to promote themselves.

I’ve tried to love that person

Who abuses others

Exploits others

That one who is greedy, and hateful

Angry and violent

That one who lies, and lies, and lies again

Sometimes I can do it

But oh, how I want them to respond

After all, my feeble one time effort should totally change them, right?

Not

Love is patient

I hate that

That need to love, and love, and love and love

And keep loving even when the lies keep coming

Even when the behavior continues

That need to love even when one is attacked for loving

Or considered week

Or foolish

Or stupid

Even who love results in anger and rejection

Is it really true that love wins?

Is love truly redemptive?

Could the weight of love

Individual love, collective love

Bend history?

Could love change me, from the insecure person I am

(yes I know I am 66 and have pretty much been successful, but still…..)

Into a person who believes in himself.

Could love make Trump compassionate?

Could love stop racism?

Or calm fear

Could love make us generous?

Or kind?

I don’t’ know

But it seems like it’s worth a try

Because it is all too clear

That hate and violence

Don’t work