still I speak

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope:

 “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”

 Elie Wiesel

____________________________________________

It has been suggested that at time (at the very least)

I am caught up in hate

that hate oozes from my words

which I suspect, means it oozes from my pores

I cannot help but reflect on whether this is true

I do believe that hate, and particularly, the acting out of hate

The violence, the guns, the bullying, the ridicule and minimization

is a something that does not

in the end

work

and yet there is a side of me

that struggles with silence

and perhaps, what I would call passivity

there is something in me that rebels against

things (and people) I see as destructive

and in those moments, when I am faced with words

or behaviors

or policies that I believe hurt the vulnerable

I find myself unable to be indifferent

I find myself speaking out

Sometimes bluntly

Sometimes with a bit of finesse

but still I speak

and I fear that sometimes

I cross a line

and move too far toward reciprocal hate

I can try to justify

And point to the prophets

Who were anything but gentle

Or perhaps John the Baptist crying “You brood of Vipers”

Or even to Jesus with his “woes”

And yet I struggle

How far is too far

What does it mean to resist evil, and yet not be caught up in it?

I appreciate those who challenge me in my anger

who put the mirror in front of my face

and ask me what I see

I have no good answers

Somethings must be confront

There are moments not to be silent

And yet it matters “how” we resist

I matters how we confront

How far is too far?

How much is too much?

When do we cross the line and move into the kingdom of hate?

When we hold back, and commit, functionally, the sin of indifference?

This stuff is not for the faint of heart, and honestly, I have no answers

I would love to be a Martin Luther King Jr. or a Gandhi.

I would love, like Thich Nhat Hanh to be so centered, and so at peace

That I can approach what I see as evil

More gracefully

All I do at this point

Is seek to do the best I can do

Be aware that there are lessons to be learned

And seek to grow

And in the meanwhile

Rest in grace

And place those I struggle with, into the hands of grace

And wait

And hope

For those who struggle with my anger

Which is rooted in my concern for the vulnerable (with whom I work daily)

I am sorry

I am trying to walk that line

Between meaningful confrontation

And hate

I know at times I fail to walk that razors edge.

Mea Culpa

Mea Maxima Culpa

Kyrie Eleison

Something about love

“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!

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5)

Really?

That is what it takes to live as a Sacred Child?

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 have tried to love those who removed me from my job

Without even actually talking to me about what they though was wrong

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

I have tried to love Trump

Really I have

And I have tried however feebly to have seek to understand

And dredge up compassion

for young men who walk into mosques and churches and malls and schools

and start shooting

Sometimes I can do it

Sometimes I can’t

But still the call remains

Challenging, humbling

Love, and keep loving

Because 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 when 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 almost 68 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

Or soften the hate?

Could it silence the guns?

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

go beyond

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.”

― W.B. Yeats, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

_______________

What is the latest on the news?

Another shooting

Another angry white guy with a gun

Killing innocents

Leaving bloody bodies behind as he laughs

And posts evil on facebook

Add this on top of

The latest lie

Or latest rabid tweet from our liar in chief?

Another tax cut for the very rich?

Another protection removed

Another assault on the planet earth

What is next?

More Christians justifying hate and greed?

Everything seems to be running down

Down

Down

Where are the good people?

Where are the faithful people?

Christ is not ambivalent

Love!

Give!

Be generous!

But the people who claim God

Seem to be the worst

Full of destructive intensity

Willing to destroy the earth

Erase protections for the poor

Exclude the strange

Oppress the vulnerable

Its enough to make God cry

It is enough to make me despair

Some say this is the way of the world

This the way it has always been, and the way it always will be

Some suggest (most those already on the right) that we fight fire with fire.

We put guns in the hands of teachers,

we wall up our borders,

we exclude the immigrant and refugee

we respond to hate and violence with hate and violence.

How has that worked?

I struggle to remember

That this  is not the way God designed the world.

And I vow

Compelled by the Gospel

And Jesus

And the Sacred that lives with in me

To counter these narrow, closed, violent, hateful ones

who believe they can shape the world their way through abusive and deadly power.

As Richard Rohr has noted,

Albert Einstein once wrote

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. One experiences oneself . . . as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of one’s consciousness. . . . Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

We are call to embrace not exclude

To love not hate

To heal not destroy

We are called drag the Kingdom of God,

However difficult that task is

Into reality

Into this world

Into this time

We are to be the place where earth and heaven meet

This is what it means to be a Sacred Child

“. . . God is a beggar of love seeking to be love at the heart of this evolutionary creation; yet God cannot enter into our world without us.

Our challenge today is to stay the course of love in a world that resists love,

fears love, and rejects the cost of love.” (Richard Rohr)

God who is love

Is always seeking to move in our souls

Always seeking to fill us with the kind of love

Shown by the Muslim in Christchurch who greeted his killer

With the words, “Hello Brother”

This fight is beyond me, beyond you, beyond us

But it is not beyond God

Who enables us to go beyond

And imagine and create a world worth of love (Rohr)

“Christian life is birthing love into greater unity;

it is our contribution to a universe in evolution.

We point the way to something more than ourselves,

something up ahead that we are now participating in,

where heaven and earth will be renewed (Revelation 21:1). " (Richard Rohr)

Where do heaven and earth meet?

The history of almost every religion begins with one massive misperception; it begins by making a fatal distinction between the sacred and the profane. Low-level religions put all their emphasis on creating sacred places, sacred time, and sacred actions. While I fully appreciate the need for this, it unfortunately leaves the majority of life "un-sacred." I remember reading about an Irish missionary's attempt to teach the Masai people about the Catholic Sacraments. The missionary said that a sacrament is a physical encounter or event in which you experience Grace or the Holy. The people were then confused and disappointed when they were told there were only seven such moments. One Masai elder raised his hand and said, "We would have thought, Father, there would be at least seven thousand such moments, not just seven."

                                                                                    Richard Rohr,  Blog, 2/17/16

_______________________________________________________________________

It is an important question…

where is that place where sacred and profane meet?

where sacred shines through,

where we can catch a glimmering, glistening momentary

flash of holiness?

is it, as the priests of Israel insisted,

on Mount Zion, in that place behind the veil?

on the seat of mercy?

is in the cathedral

or country church,

where prayers are often spoken

and sometimes left unspoken?

Is God present in the chalice upheld,

“behold the cup of the new covenant!”

Is the meeting place where mountains thrust boldly into azure blue,

or where sky and land greet each other at the rising

or the setting of the sun?

is it in the journey of the stars across the sky?

or is that place where heaven and earth collide

in the grasp of a baby’s hand,

or in the smile of a child?

or perhaps, in the drop of a quarter into the cup of a homeless man?

in words of forgiveness

in our welcome of the immigrant

in our acceptance of that person so different from ourselves

perhaps it is found

when we feed the hungry

protect the child

lift up the elderly

value the poor

Where do heaven and earth meet?

Choices Matter

“There were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you become the plaything to circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity.”

                                                                                                Viktor Frankl

_________________________________-

There are always choices to be made

10 times

100 times

Thousands of times a day we make choices

Some big, some small

Some casual, some intense

Some irrelevant, some critical

We choose how to spend out time

What to eat

How long to sleep

We choose where we will invest our energy

To whom we will give, or withhold our love

And our choices reveal who we are

Or perhaps, more accurately

They reveal who or what we have allowed to shape us.

What values we embrace

Who is important to us

What we value

What shapes us can be an emotion, such as fear

I can be an ideology, which values power and wealth

Or an ideology which values compassion and generosity

It can be a culture

A faith system (religion)

Or what shapes us can be the Sacred

The indwelling presence of the Sacred

Which irresistibly bubbles up from with in

Changing us dramatically

Creating us new

Changing us forever.

What can shape us can be the Sacred

Which frees us from the powers of the world

And keeps those things that would distort us

And blur the Sacred Image from destroying us

But it’s our choice

And saying we are making choices because…. God

That do not reflect the nature of God,

Does not mean that those choices

Are Spirit driven

Not at all

At all

How do we know we are shaped by the Sacred

Spirit driven?

How do we know we are free (at least somewhat)

From the powers of the earth

And how do we know we still reflect our Sacred DNA?

The Beatitudes make sense

We have glad and generous hearts

We welcome and embrace

We are appalled at the abuse of power

and at the obscenity of extreme wealth

We love God

And we Love others

All others

all

Period

seeing what we want to see

Do not try to explain

They will only understand you

as much as they see and hear

                                                Rumi

_____________________________

it is an undeniable truth

people see what they want to see

and hear what they want to hear

those who want a savior President

will have their savior President

no matter what

those who want immigrants to be a threat

will see and hear only that which confirms their bias

those who believe that climate change is a hoax

or that supplement “A” will cure cancer

or that vaccinations more dangerous than the diseases they prevent

will see and hear only that which keeps their beliefs intact

this tendency knows few limits

and is no respecter of ideology

we find it on the left and on the right

(perhaps not equally, but it is there)

people who want to diminish you

because you are a woman

or colored

or from another culture

or hold fast to another creed

or because you were born LGBTQI

will always see and hear that which enables them

to reject you

exclude you

marginalize you

it works both ways

lifting people up

and tearing them down

confirming and denying

and so too our relationship with Jesus

and with the Sacred/God

we tend to see what we want to see

hear what we want to hear

we ignore what does not fit our framework

Oh the pieces of scriptures we grab onto with vicious intensity

Oh the verses we simply ignore

Sadly the ones we hold fast too are often socially and culturally determined

by the time in which they were written

while the ones we ignore?

God is love (not judgement)

God loves all (not just me or us)

God expects us to feed the hungry

Welcome the stranger

God loves all

Not just those we approve of

God is not pro-power

Not pro-wealth

God is pro-sharing

Pro-giving

Pro-sacrifice

(Don’t believe me?  Read the beatitudes)

If we would walk this earth

Open

Generous

Caring

Accepting

Loving

we have to go beyond what we want to see and hear

past our own bias

and privilege

we have to go past all of that

to the place where truth lies

where the Sacred dwells

Sure, we will find, sometimes what we want to find

Sometimes?

Perhaps not

Perhaps what we will find will challenge our hearts

Our minds

And change us forever

Whatever happened to grace

Grace is the celebration of life, relentlessly hounding all the non-celebrants in the world. It is a floating, cosmic bash shouting its way through the streets of the universe, flinging the sweetness of its cassations to every window, pounding at every door in a hilarity beyond all liking and happening, until the prodigals come out at last and dance, and the elder brothers finally take their fingers out of their ears.”

Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon & Three: Romance, Law & the Outrage of Grace

____________________________________________

whatever happened to grace

that powerful child of Love that should make us

sing to the heavens,

dance with light feet

open our hearts

our minds

our arms

whatever happened to grace

which should free us from our chains

those we forge ourselves

our of fear and heat

greed and a lust for power

how is it those who take the name

of the one who lived grace

and revealed Love

have become those trudging through life

weighed down

bowed over

closed and rigid

excluding, judging

oppressing, minimizing?

we should be assailing the world

with laughter and joy

with love, generosity and compassion

drawing all in

to the vortex of the Sacred

the perichoresis

the whirling dynamic dance of Love

grace is “a floating, cosmic bash shouting its way through the streets of the universe,

flinging the sweetness of its cassations to every window,

pounding at every door in a hilarity

beyond all liking and happening, “

until those unloved and unlovable

until those who are fearful and lost

oppressed by sorry

brutalized by guilt

catch the joy

and come out at last and dance,

and those who are stuck and tired

carrying the weight of their own salvation

self burdened

and burdening

join in

Whatever happened to grace?

It is still here

As near as our breath

As near as a heart

open

Deeper Eyes

The Yoruba tradition uses the term ashe to mean the essential divine nature in everything.  It is the idea that within all things lives sacredness if looked for with “deep seeing eyes”.  Even negative people or events are not void of ashe; it just takes deeper eyes to see it

                                                            Laura Berman Fortgang.  Little Book of Meaning, p.95

______________________________________________________________________________

Sometimes I have trouble remembering

That Sacred came down

Incarnated

That Sacred made itself touchable

Seeable

In that incarnation we call the earth

Bang

And Sacred was everywhere

And in everything

I have no troubling believing

That the first incarnation was in the

Moment we called creation

I can see Sacred in the bright blue sky

The white peaked mounting soaring

In the eagle, the hawk

In the deer who leap nimbly through the woods

even in the turkeys, predatory and messy

But the sacred also came down in a person

A baby

A brown man who walked the dust of Palestine

Who taught and lived and died

Divine nature beautifully aroused and visible

To remind us that the Divine is in people too

Those seemingly twisted and messed up creatures

Who afflict the planet

Their very home

I can little trouble seeing the divine in the faithful people who sit

In old pews, keeping hope alive

I an often see Sacred in smiling children

In the enthusiastic young

But it takes more work to see Sacred in those people

Who for one reason or another are,

Challenging.

The one who is violent

Or who struggles with addiction, and turns his desires in on himself

In the one is fearful

And then there are others

Way too many others

Where I struggle to see Sacred Presence at all

My vision is blurred

There are so many things that blind me

An Ideology of hate(that’s a big one – I admit it)

Greed

Fear

Cruelty

Lies

People actively tearing others down to build themselves up

All of a sudden all I can do is label

Categorize

Judge

I no longer have deep seeing eyes

With some people

(to my regret)

I am almost blind

Lord give me eyes that see

That recognize

Divine presence

For there is something divine, good, right

Something blessed in every person

If I have the eyes to see it

Yes, this idea challenges me

Expands me

I don’t want to believe this about some

(my favorite villains, who will go unnamed)

But even they

Even they

Have essential divine nature

I just have

To look

With

Deeper eyes

Winners and winners

" Other's weakness

cannot be  your strength. "

- Wasif Ali Wasif

___________________________

this is the lie

that far too many believe

this is the flaw in the American ethos

that we can get to that mythical place of wealth and power

by ourselves

that all that matters is that WE get there,

no matter what happens to others

that it is acceptable for others to LOSE

as long as we WIN

in fact we take a certain, sick delight

in using power on others

on having power over others

subjugation is the name of the game

marginalization, minimization

whether it be our country over others

our religion over others

our gender over the other

our race over others.

it plays out in so many ways

with whites marginalizing

men marginalizing

the rich marginalizing

Christians marginalizing

Ah, what we can do when we go to this place

where we ensure our safety

amass our wealth

build our egos

by making others less

we can play deadly and destructive political games in South America

we can abuse and use women

we can shame the poor

we can systematically destroy, literally, by taking away hope

and taking away life from young people of color

we can rejects and demonize people born LGBTQI

we can bully

we can ridicule

we can exclude

we can lie

we can even worship and cheer in our

fearful gatherings (such as CPAC and some churches)

a “leader” who embodies the lifestyle of a predator

feeding off of, devouring others

in order to exist

seeking to find his own strength

in the destruction of the vulnerable

but we cannot find our strength in the weakness of others!

for each person carries the DNA of the Sacred

we are all “children of God”

we are in this together

and the Sacred design is that we all find our way to that place

where Love lives and rules

together

no one left behind

no one excluded

or minimized

or marginalized

a philosophy of life that believes

We can diminish and crush others to benefit ourselves

is an affront to the Sacred

it tears at the fabric of who we are

the weakness of others is our weakness

and we can only find our true strength

by lifting them up

welcoming them in

embracing

loving

caring

helping

in the divine math

all means all

Say it

You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing

You say I am strong when I think I am weak

You say I am held when I am falling short

When I don’t belong, oh You say that I am Yours

And I believe (I), oh I believe (I)

What You say of me (I)

I believe

                                    Lauren Daigle

__________________________________

there are times

when everything the world around us rages

crashing against our of “self”

battering

assaulting

wearing us down

wearing us away

eroding us until we become thin

almost ghost like

no longer at home in the world

no longer at home in our own skin

there are times

when no matter what we do for ourselves

when all the practices in the world

cannot rescue us

all our neat tricks

deep breathing

meditation

music

even walks with happy dog

in full beauty of winter

are not enough

in such moments it is nice to hear

that someone believes in you

so that you can believe in yourself

human voices are nice

those voices that say ‘thank you”

“I appreciate you”

“nice job”

I hear such voices

from 80 and 90 year old ranch widows

who have seen and done it all

from younger folk

and yes, from children

with their energy and hug and smiles

and it all counts

but it is when I understand

it is when I “hear”

in whatever way it is that we hear from the Sacred

that I am enough

that I am strong

that I am loved

that the world

becomes a different place

and I once again find my place

and my role in it

it is then

that I believe

in myself

in hope

in love

the thing is

relationships are often the bridge

God/Spirit/Sacred/Love

Walks over

that voice of the Sacred is often

found in the voice of another person

how many people are out there

who just need to hear from one person

“you count”

“you are special”

“you are loved”

and this day

each day

fine someone

anyone

and let them know

that you love them

and God does too

say it

live it, though welcome and acceptance

through forgiveness and generosity

and compassion

help them

believe

I might be wrong

"One is

in one’s worst state

when one considered himself or herself

.... good and pious. "

- Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya

________________________________

what I know is that I do not know

what I understand, is that I am a beautiful and terrible mixture

of strength and weakness

intelligence and rank stupidity

persistence and irresolute

faithful and doubting

and I know, that this is good

for when I forget that I might be wrong

and might be selfish

and might be controlling

then I am likely to be a danger

to myself and others

the error of those who resisted Jesus

was not that they did not believe

nor was it that they did not want to be “holy”

they were not people of evil intent

but they were people who did not understand

that there is no hierarchy in the kingdom

we are all “in Christ”

all participants in something we cannot begin to understand

or define

something that permeates creation

and permeates each one of us

and we all have one job

to awaken to this Presence as best we can

give this Power (we call it The Spirit) room to move

and then live accordingly

as best we can

(Jesus is our model)

So we cannot say

As those who stood on the street corner, aloof and proud

We cannot say from pulpits high

Or from the safety of our pews

“Thank God I am not like them”

For we are.

We can not say

“There but for the grace of God go I”

But must instead understand, that at a profound level

“There am I”

Call it Spiritual humility

Call it theological flexibility

Call it what you will

I often think of the story Jesus tells

of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

I hate the way the story ends

So I want to write a new end to this story

I don’t want the Pharisee to go away, arrogant, entrenched and separated

I don’t want the tax collector to go away, still, perhaps,

wondering if he is really loved by God

And still outside the circle, still trapped in his old life.

I want the Pharisee and the tax collector to move toward each other

For the Pharisee to come down off those steps (move away from the Temple)

And the Tax Collector to move out of his hiding place, out of his place of shame (get out of the gutter)

I would like to think of them, meeting, perhaps in the middle of the road

Standing ankle deep in dust

And hugging, perhaps crying

Both aware of their failure, yes, but both aware, so aware of God

of God’s love, and God’s power

And aware of, and open to, each other

I would like to think of them standing there, together

There in the middle of the road,

Bound together by love