Welcome

Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Thursday, December 19, 2024

Be a light

Be a light in the darkness

Be a light

Be

 

If only I could

But it is not so easy to be the light

In a world that embraces darkness

 

It is not easy to be light

When people condemn you for shining light

In the dark places

 

And call you divisive

A hater

 

Gaslighting kills light

 

And so one sits in the darkness

Flickering

The light barely alive

 

While the darkness grows and grows

Gaining power through lies

And abusive power

And wealth

 

While darkness sits in the halls of power

In the courts of justice

While the greedy and abusive win

 

While the people of the lie (Scott Peck)

Call good evil, and evil good

And up down, and down up

 

The children of darkness abandon and vilify

The homeless

The immigrant

The poor

 

Those souls so foolish

As to not be rich, and powerful

 

One cannot help but remember the words of the prophets

Who also saw times like this

 

“Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds!

At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.

They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them.

They defraud people, rob them

Therefore, the Lord says:

I am planning disaster against this people”  (Micah)

 

Dare we believe that our helplessness is not definitive?

That their unchecked power is not definitive?

That there is a higher law

A deeper truth

 

That will turn the darkness against itself

Until it cracks

And once again, the light leaks in

 

Can we continue to be light until then

Can the light of love, and hope

Peace and joy keep burning

Through the long night

 

Perhaps I will never see

the time when light returns

Perhaps our world, our country

Will continue to slide into the abyss

 

It has happened so many times

Yes, resurrection has happened

A new thing has been birthed, time and time again,

 

But only after destruction

Only after all is gone

And nothing is left but rubble

 

But still

We can, perhaps hope

We can be people with soft fronts

Refusing to live in hate

 

We can be people with strong backs

Refusing to accept quietly

The lies, the hate, the injustice

Refusing to let people silence us

By making us the haters, when we call out hate

Making us divisive when we call out the lies

 

We are all too eager to let them

Gaslight us

And silence us

Because we care, it matters

We want to be fair. We have our doubts

We want to be people of grace

 

Is there still hope?

can we live in a way that keeps the light alive

Even as we die

Are silenced and suffocated

 

Perhaps we can keep burning

 

And perhaps

Even if our light goes out

We will have lit the flame in another

 

Perhaps

Perhaps we who are losing our will to burn

Can still be a light for others

 

Perhaps

But at this point?

I am no longer sure


Monday, December 16, 2024

Compassion is resistance

“Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness.”

              Walter Brueggemann

________________________

 

Ah Lord

May I call you that?

 

I am crushed, sickened.

I am soiled

As if I have trod through the ooze and slime

And old decay (CS Lewis)

 

Of human greed, and megalomania

Of anger turned to enmity

Worry turned to hopelessness

 

I feel like I no longer see a way forward

Through the dumpster fire of

Resentment, envy, and discontent

 

It feels like hate has won

Voted into power, dominating and retributive

 

As if the world is spinning apart

its heart breaking

the center, the core

Of decency, morality, truth,

disintegrating

 

Until good is evil, and evil is good

Truths are deemed lies, and lies are accepted as truths

Justice is deferred and denied

Equity is a joke, and

Equality is a threat to be assailed

 

We have handed ourselves over

To fools

To people who would manipulate, misinform, and destroy

 

Gloom permeates the air

Like a winter fog

 

I want to lash out

But how does one hit fog?

Blows are useless

 

I try to speak the truth in love

But the love seems to be missing

 

And my words, my passionate writings

My earnest pleas

My kind words, my angry words

My measured words, my bitter words

 

Do nothing (Good)

 

What can I do, Lord?

How do I resist?

 

Perhaps there is a lesson

To be learned from your quiet entry into the world

A lesson to be learned from your living

And your dying

 

Your refusal to answer hate with hate

Violence with violence

Domination with domination

 

Perhaps the answer is to found

In your compassion

For all people

No matter who they were, or what they had done

No matter what lies they had believed

Or choices they made

 

Even when they chose a thief, a killer

Over you

You remained compassionate

 

I think the lesson is there Lord

Compassion is resistance. 

Resistance to the darkness. 

Resistance to all the things that hurt, and divide. 

 

Compassion is a radical form of criticism,

It insists that hurt, in whatever form it comes

Is not acceptable

That greed and abuse are abnormal

That injustice must be taken seriously

 

But compassion is also a strategy

It is what leads us to feed the hungry,

clothe the naked,

fight for justice

protect the vulnerable

welcome the stranger

 

Lord

Wash the anger, confusion, and resentment

From my soul

Fill me with love and compassion

 

In your tender mercy, come like the rising sun

Shine on us, living in this darkness

In the shadow of death

 

And guide our feet into the path of peace  (Luke 1)

 

 

 

 


Saturday, December 7, 2024

Lean in

One must push deeper and deeper into Jesus, and let him illuminate deeper and deeper levels of reality within oneself… We are to feel ourselves transparent so that this light of the Source can shine through us… We simply open ourselves and let our whole awareness be of God’s life in and through us to whatever work or expression of divine beauty and goodness is.

              Beatrice Bruteau – Radical Optimism

____________________________________

 

Jesus was full of the Sacred

Stuffed with Love

 

We barely know how to talk about it

So we write creeds

Trying to put on paper that which cannot be contained

 

What we do know

Is that the love and power of God flowed through Jesus

And those who got near to him

Those who touched him

 

Were touched back

Like when woman on the road, barely touched his robe!

Jesus said, “Someone touched me. I know power has gone out of me.”

 

Jesus was

Transparent

All that is Holy shone in him, and through him

Into the world, and into those precious souls

Who gathered around him

 

And as he was preparing to go home

He prayed that those who love him

Might be with him where he is

 

That is not just about our homecoming

That is about our living

 

We are called to be people

Filled with the Sacred

Full of love

 

Not so we can hang onto that love

But so that it can flow through us

Into a hurting world

 

Flow from the heart of Jesus

To our heart

To the hearts of those whose lives touch ours

 

Jesus was an expression of God’s beauty and goodness

Us too

 

We are to “be Jesus”

The ongoing incarnation

 

We are to have the outlook of Jesus

We are to see with his eyes

And feel with this heart

 

And we are to practice radical compassion

Fierce love

 

We are to share his

“care, his concern, his will to heal” (Bruteau)

 

Our walk with God is not about dominating or controlling

Protecting or coercing

It is about compassion

And healing

 

In Advent we prepare for Christ’s coming

 

But Christ has already come

And Christ has never stopped arriving

As he incarnates in our hearts

And shines through our lives

 

May we fall deeper and deeper into Christ

May we lean back

Into that reality that is the Source

 

Drawing closer and closer to Jesus

Until we are consumed

Until we not only lean into Christ

But lean into each other

 

All of us

Meeting at the heart of Jesus

The same kind of motley transformed crowd

That met in a stable

Under the light of a star


Monday, December 2, 2024

Believe in the Light

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.  He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

 

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

                             John

___________________________________________________________

 

It feels so heavy

this darkness which seems to creep

across this planet

 

It presses down upon me

Bowing my back

Pressing me down to my knees

Where I can only lament

 

Out of the darkness I hear the voices

Of those demonized and threatened

Those whom Empire has deemed less-than-human

 

Immigrants threatened with deportation

Queer people who are demonized and minimized

Trans people who are told they should not exist, who are deluged with hate,

and whose existence is threatened.

 

I hear the voices of the poor,

who are getting poorer as wealth trickles up

and of those for whom there is, no longer,

any justice

 

I hear what sounds like rain

But is perhaps

The tears of Jesus falling

 

As he weeps over this world

As he wept over Jerusalem

 

Weeping because we do not see

Do not hear

Do not love

Do not serve

 

Because we walk down the path toward domination and wealth,

Instead of the path to the heart of Jesus

To that place where compassion, and service,

generosity and mercy, humility and love

are embraced and lived.

 

It seems so dense, so pervasive

This darkness

Impenetrable, overwhelming

 

And yet

And yet

 

Jesus comes, and comes, and comes again

A light shining in the darkness,

 

And even as the darkness crushes us to the earth

and so much that is good, dies, and is buried,

we affirm that the darkness has not overcome the light

We affirm that it still shines

 

We confess that often we struggle to believe

And that all too often we choose poorly

 

We lament that we do not recognize Jesus when he comes

Embodied in the immigrant,

The poor and the elderly,

In all those we degrade and discard.

 

We admit that all too often we do not receive

The One who comes

And slide into our own darkness of anger and hate

despair and hloplessness

 

And yet

The light is not overcome

 

We must remember that good can indeed come into the darkness

And transform it

“...new life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground,

a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.” (Barbara Brown Taylor)

 

In this dense darkness I can barely stand

My feet are heavy, and the way is hidden

 

But I believe in the light. 

I believe God when God says,

“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” (Isaiah 42:16)

 

I affirm the song of Zechariah,

“Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

 

The Word has come and has made his dwelling among us

The light, even now shines in the darkness

 

And when we hear, and see,

When we are awake to the presence

We become the children of God

 

Light bearers

Who live love and compassion, generosity and kindness

Who shine like stars in the world (Philippians 2)

 

Welcome to  Advent!

 


Friday, November 29, 2024

Decisions, Decisions

This is a quote from my friend and fellow PCUSA pastor (Boise, Idaho), Andrew Kukla.   Think about what he writes here, in the context of how we sort out all the stuff coming in toward us from all sides, and how we make our decisions.

 

Remember, Paul urges us.  "Do not let the world shape you into its mold, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds." (Romans 12)

 

 "[Barth]...upon leaving Bonn, is rumored to say something to the effect of, “I have three words for you: exegete, exegete, exegete.”

 

Exegesis means literally “critical interpretation or explanation of a text”.  More than that it breaks down to mean “to draw out of”… as opposed to read into a text our meaning (eisegesis). Barth knew we had to be such interpreters not only of ancient texts… but of our everyday world.  And as we get fake news…. As we get radical mistruths masquerading as reality… I repeat those words:

 

Exegete my friends. Cultivate the ability of critical thinking. 

Ask who benefits… and who is protected.

Look for the words behind the words.

Break down and analyze the surface, the underlying, and the intent.

And evaluate it all…

 

The world needs us to do this hard work EVERY day.

There is no objective reality. But the reality of more people than I count needs you, and me, and all of us, to care to spend every day… exegeting!"

 

Exegete  Another way to say think critically! 

I love the question WHO BENEFITS?

 

And I will add this thought.  Too often our only concern is whether it benefits us.  But if that is our only criterion, and we do not think about the impact of our decision on vulnerable people.  Immigrants, for example.  People who are LGBTQI+.  Then we still may end up in the wrong place.

 

My faith system, most faith systems, asks us to think about others.

To pay attention to the pain around us, and to pay particular attention to those who are vulnerable.

 

Psalm 82:3 - “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.”

Psalm 140:12 - “I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.”

Proverbs 31:8-9 - “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

James 1:27 - “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Luke 14:13-14 - “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Isaiah 1:17 - “Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.”

 

Is it OK for me to make a choice that perhaps benefits me, if it leaves vulnerable people fearful, neglected, oppressed, or abused?

 

I would add one more thought.  It is not the end until it is the end.  I love what John Lennon is purported to have said:  “Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.”

 

I believe in what is sometimes called repentance. I also believe in redemption and reconciliation

 

Repentance is a recognition that we are not on the right path, and a decision to turn around and go a different direction.  We need to constantly let the Sacred touch our hearts and minds and show us how we need to change our beliefs, values, and yes, our actions.

 

God never gives up on us.  That God can and will restore us, and God can and will draw us back together.  Somehow.  Someway.  If our hearts are open.

 

We can't quit trying to be God's people

Thoughts for today, precious souls!


Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Anger Transformed

A lot of us are so angry. Angry that our inherent worth and dignity seems up for debate by those who have never had their worth and dignity questioned in courts of law. Angry that love of power seems to trump love of neighbor. Repurpose our anger into righteous action, Lord.

 

(Personal note: My fear is turning to anger and I am afraid that my anger can turn so easily to hate and hate is the thing I say I am against. Turn me away from hate. My heart can’t take that kind of brittleness because I need it to give and to receive love. Remind me that my heart is spoken for.)

              Nadia Bolz-Weber

 

I went to bed angry

I woke up angry

 

Or perhaps it was not so much anger, as emptiness

As if a void has opened up in my soul

As if love, hope, peace and joy

Have been sucked out of my core

 

Leaving a black hole

That I cannot fill

 

And that is the point I suppose

That I cannot fill that space

I can only offer it

 

Offer it to the One who is love.

 

Jesus said that he is the way.

A road

A road is something you walk on

A path that gets you from here to there

I can only seek to walk, step by step

Down that path, into the depth of Jesus’ heart

Hoping that perhaps, I am also walking

Step by step into my own heart

 

Come Lord Jesus

Is not an empty cry

Or an angry cry

Come Lord Jesus, and set things straight

Come Lord Jesus and make things right

 

It is so easy to let the emptiness fill with foul things

With hate

And a desire for retribution

With fear, and a desire to grab

Power and wealth

As a solution

 

But come Lord Jesus and fill my heart

With the love, joy, hope, and peace that has been lost.

 

Don’t transform them.

Transform me

 

So that in love, I can help change the world.

 

Yes, it seems helpless!

I cry with the Psalmist, “How long, O Lord, how long” (13)

I raise my anguished questions to the heavens

“Why does the way of the wicked prosper?

Why do all the faithless live at ease?”  (Jeremiah)

 

Teach me Lord

Walk with me down that road we make by walking (Paolo Freire)

That road we make with persistent love

 

I know I need to challenge

Those things that are not right in the world

I need to make Those who have fused with values and agendas

That are not Yours

Uncomfortable,

so that they themselves may challenge

What they have blindly accepted

 

(There are many times I might well be wrong.

But some things, hate, fear, retribution, lies, and racism are clearly wrong)

 

I need to ask hard questions.

Not accusing, blaming, or shaming,

But asking those questions that, if answered may, may

Open hearts and minds

 

But I can only do that with others

after I have done that with myself

 

Lord, I am afraid, and my fear is turning to anger

And my anger might well turn to hate

 

Lord, remind me that heart is spoken for

And walk with me

 

Walk with me into the wilderness of my heart

Touch my brittle heart

Soften it

 

I am angry Lord

It is not wrong to be angry.

 

But turn me away from hate, so that I can share your Love

 

For

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate,

adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” (MLK Jr.)


Thursday, November 21, 2024

Truth shall rise

"Easter says you can put the Truth in a grave, but it won't stay there."

Clarence W. Hall.

__________________________

 

There was a day when the sky turned black

When the thunder rolled and the earth shook

And the way and the truth died

 

When those who followed the truth embodied

Love personified

Cried

 

When grief overcame hope

 

There was a day

When those who would dominate and control

Stood secure

Sure

 

They had won!

They had used the power of Empire

They had defeated, even eradicated

They were in control

They could celebrate and gloat

All was well

 

But though you can

Conquer, control, and oppress

Though you hold the power of empire in your hand

There is a deeper magic

 

You can kill and bury Truth, Love, and Hope

In the grave

But they won’t stay there

 

They will, ultimately rise,

As surely as the sun

As surely as the sun

 

During this time, as Empire gloats

And the angry and hateful ones dance

In Orc-like ecstasy

As those misled and deceived, even now

Believe that greatness has come

While others cower in fear, as Empire comes seeking them

Reading to deport, suppress, control

Even destroy

 

This certainty remains

Death is swallowed up in victory

The first shall be last, and the last first

Good will overcome evil

 

Love will not be mocked.

Empire can do what it will.

It can win elections, and legislate hate

It can put foolish and destructive people into positions of power

 

And the consequences of hate and fear will be what they have always been

Pain and destruction

Foolish leaders, full of themselves will do what they have always done

Abuse power

 

But in the end

Truth will rise out of the ashes created by lies

Love will rise out of the rubble created by hate

Hope will come, and replace the fear

 

Yes, the world will be in travail

There will be pain and trial

There will be times when we will wonder

And doubt

Some will die.  Some will be deported. Some denied care

Others oppressed

 

This is not a shallow hope.

It comes from understanding

That the deep magic of love is real

 

And that we can hope and against hope

That truth and love will rise

Even while some dance on their grave

 

 


Monday, November 4, 2024

Teetering on the edge of eternity

Tomorrow I travel

It is not a trip to Disneyworld

or to a beach somewhere far far away

 

It is to an area where there is enmity and strife

And perhaps a little danger

 

This journey, this pilgrimage has a purpose

And I am called to go

And so I will

 

But I feel my mortality.

I walk through my home seeing it

As if for the last time

Hugging what is precious to me close

And wondering what this space would feel like

With me gone

 

I see my spouse, my land, my animals

The mountain I love in a new way

The unbearable beauty

Of the earth

And of love relationships

 

I teeter on the edge of the unknown

The abyss of the new

 

It is not lost on me that tomorrow is also

Election day

 

And I feel the power and danger

What will happen

I think about my freedom,

I think about the nation as it is

 

Incredibly imperfect and flawed

And yet still

At this moment, my country

 

I think of the core values that drive me

Those my mother taught me

Who was a person who served

And my father who was a healer

And even my church, which (Presbyterian) fed me a steady diet

Of love and hope

Rather than hate and fear

 

I think of the values that shape this nation

(how every imperfectly those values are embraced and lived)

 

I think of freedom, safety

Equity, equality, justice, abundance

 

I am an idealist, I know

But I think of a nation that takes care of its vulnerable

And welcomes refugee and immigrant

 

A nation where one’s vote counts

And one can speak up (even, as we have seen, what is said is hateful and false)

Where children are educated AND protected

And women are not second-class citizens

And people have the freedom to worship how and whom they please

(not the freedom to impose their faith system on everyone else)

 

And I feel the mortality of our country

Its fragility

 

God knows we have never been

What we have aspired to (or even claimed)

But this has been a nation I have loved

With all its flaws

 

And I realize that even for nations

Life is fleeting

And there are moments of danger

When, in a moment, all can be lost

 

We stand precariously on the edge of the abyss

Will we slide into the darkness

Tumble into hate and fear, greed and inequity?

 

I feel all of this

In my throat, my chest

My beating heart

My breath

 

How precious is life

How cherished are the blessings we have received

As individual soul, as communities, as a nation

 

Nothing lasts forever

But there is so much worth living for

Risking for

Voting for

 

Blessings my friends

You are precious souls

God loves you

 

Believe it

And be not afraid


Friday, November 1, 2024

Living forward

Once we see that our deepest self, the real person in us is not limited to being any one particular image-self but is actually a Child of God, one who simply says “I am I, here, now”  -  once we really grasp that all need for this elaborate and expensive defense system evaporates  Then we are free to love others, to will abundant being to them, to all…

 

Our sense of feeling good in being ourselves does not come from any kind of contrast or comparison with others  It comes directly and immediately out of our realization of being a creative act of God, simply unique and absolutely precious.

 

We [should] have a sense of ourselves as the process of be-ing, as an ever-renewed act, a continuous motion of living, which is God’s ever-present act of creating us.  Looking toward others we sense them also as creative acts of God, being made fresh from moment to moment, not limited to the descriptions of their past qualities or acts…

              Beatrice Bruteau, Radical Optimism, p. 69  Sentient Publicatons, 1993, 2002

____________________________________

 

This morning the world changed.

Brown and gold became white.

As the world

Ever renewed, despite our best attempts to destroy it

Became, in a moment, something new

 

And here am I

A creative act of God

Always changing, being ever renewed

A child of God

 

Creation and I both reflect God

We are both, in our own way, incarnations of a God who

Is transcendent, immanent, and cosmic

 

I sometimes call the reality that we experience through creation, God

But the name God is inadequate for the task

It touches on the transcendence of God perhaps

The fact that God is “beyond”

 

To transcendent we have to add cosmic

Which reminds us that God is not only vertically beyond imagination

But is also horizontally transcended, broader and wider than we can contemplate

covering and embracing all

 

And then there is immanence. Presence

The Sacred being woven into the fabric of creation,

Into the rocks and trees, mountains and rivers

Flora and fauna

 

Woven into us as human creatures

Into me.  And you.

 

So, we have God

this transcendent, Cosmic, immanent being

this reality is that beyond

that is Sacred

that is Love

 

Once upon a time this reality

The Sacred, Creative, Loving

Something bigger

 

Became a focused presence

In a child, an adolescent, a man we call Jesus

 

And we were reminded of the nature of

What I will call God (it is just easier)

 

And we were reminded who we are

Children of God

Creatures in the process of be-ing,

as ever-renewed acts of creation

always growing and changing

surrounded by others, by a creation

that is constantly being renewed (day by day)

 

In a sense I cannot, need not be defined

Any more than God can be defined

 

I am a presence, I have this body

But I am transcendent, as I participate in God

And I am cosmic, as I but necessity must also be

Connected to all other human creatures (and more)

 

“I am you, and you are me and we are all together”

Who could have known Lennon and McCartney would get it right?

 

I love the idea that I am being made fresh, moment-by-moment

And I love the idea that each person

Is being remade moment by moment

Every other person

Kamala, Donny, that person who can’t control their use of alcohol

Who lives down the street

That person who helped me, and the one who hurt me

The one who looks like me, and the one who doesn’t

The MAGA Republican, the Democrat

The Indigenous person, the immigrant

All

 

All are creative acts of God.

And I can look at myself, and look at others

Without being limited to their past qualities

Or their past acts

Their past success or failures

 

For they are constantly being created

And are unique and absolutely precious.

 

This gives me hope, because who knows what God can do

With me, with you, with them

This gives me the capacity to forgive

Because each person, even Donald Trump is poised right on the edge

Of newness

 

It is easy, in this time of strife and chaos,

in this time marked by hate and violence (verbal and physical)

To give ourselves, and those around us, hard edges

To define people as static and stuck

They are a libtard

MAGA

an animal

garbage

male, female, black, white, and everything in between

 

enemy, friend

 

but what if we understood that this moment is only a moment

and in the next moment we, they, can be different

will be different

 

What if we tried to live forward

Not just live forward but live forward in expectation and love

Uniting with others where they are

In this moment

Knowing it is just a moment

And that love and forgiveness, hope and joy

Just might change who they are

In the moments to come?

And change us too?

 

Can we give each other

That gift?

 

 


Tuesday, October 29, 2024

In this moment, I will blaze

“I used to think that hope was the confidence that what I fear won’t happen.”  Then she added, “Now I think that hope is the confidence that what I fear will happen, but that I don’t have to be afraid.”…

 

… here is the presence of doom we find a portal into maturity and wisdom.  Domm challenges us to face our greatest fear, and as we do, we discover that this fear played a big part in driving us toward doom in the first place.

              Brian McLaren, “Life After Doom”

__________________________________

 

Today my eyes opened

And my heart broke open.

 

And as I walked along familiar paths

And did accustomed things

 

The sky shone cerulean.

And  golden rays broke through the darkness of the tress

Splashes of gold among the emerald green and brilliant gold

Of the fall grasses

 

Everything seems precious

A treasure I wanted to hug close to my soul

 

Today I felt my mortality

I realized I am a light

A candle

I am alight, here and now

I am “wax and wick of unknown length,

carrying a fragile gift of flame”

for a time

 

Today I imagined the world without me

And all became precious

The colors deepened and I realized how precious

Each moment is

 

I felt my connection to the earth,

And to the animals who

let me love them,

the people too

 

it all feels so precarious

as wars rage and the plant is tortured

by our greed

as damaged people create damage and division

in families, communities

and nations

 

it is easy to be afraid,

but much harder to hope

when hope is based on the fact that I will die

later or sooner

and that evil might prevail, at least for a season.

 

But that while I am still alight

I can do what I can, in this moment

To bring peace

And kindness

Into the world

 

I am a candle

Wax and wick, flesh and bone

 

And in this moment I will blaze

(or perhaps flicker)

As best I can

For the time gifted me

 

I will seek to be the living flame of love” (St. John of the Cross)

And will live forward in hope

Rather than in fear


Monday, October 28, 2024

The other as not other

Our usual perception of the world shows us all being as carefully defined, with distinct edges, all outside one another… We are finite, contingent, and conditioned beings, and nothing more… The heart of the mystic discovery is that we are all one, and that One is unconditioned, unlimited, and undefined.  This, of course, is the foundation of neighbor love.. until we see ourselves in our undefined reality we won’t have the freedom, the power, and the energy to love our neighbor in the neighbor’s undefined reality…

 

Nobody denies that dividing, as a vehicle for better understanding is useful.  But along comes the mystic and puts the separated things together, and all the “rational” people cry Paradox! or worse, Heresy!

 

… the unity is there… both elements of the paradox are simultaneously the case.  The bush burns and yet is not consumed.  Reality is both changing and unchanging. One is both one's self and intimately united with all others.  What one does is done by both oneself and the Supreme Being.  You don’t have to choose between them.

              Beatrice Bruteau, Radical Optimism

 

______________________________________

 

Dualism

Individualism

Call it what you will

 

It has hard edges

It divides and separates

It forces us into radical polarities

 

Us, Them

Good, Bad

Sacred, Secular

Powerful, weak

Right, Wrong

Republican, Democrat

 

The other is other

All outside us, our individual, self, our political party, our country

Is “another”

 

But not just “another”

Another who because they are distinct

And take up their own space in the universe

And use the same resources we do

And compete with us

In opposition

 

Are not simply distinct, different (perhaps very different)

But a threat, even an enemy

 

So much for love of neighbor

How can we possibly love our neighbor as ourselves

Unless we see the other as not other

But as one who participates in the One with us?

 

A distinct, and yet not distinct

An individual, and yet united with us at the deepest

And most meaningful level

 

I love this!

I hate it!

 

I love the idea of being united with a Gandhi, a Nelson Mandela

A Desmond Tutu, a Martin Luther King Jr.

 

It is not so much fun to embrace that unity

When one thinks of Donald Trump,

And the racist waving that Nazi flag

And the second amendment extremist carrying an AR-15 in McDonald's

 

Yet what would it mean to see those people from whom we feel alienated

Those people who violate our moral, ethical, and spiritual values

Those people who we, frankly dislike, immensely

 

As people with whom we are one

As we participate in the One?

 

It is easier to slide back into dualism

And an individualism that is, ultimately, toxic

Than to embrace the reality

That they too are our neighbors

 

It is easier to create distinctions and boundaries

And huddle behind the sharp boundaries

And give ourselves permission not to interact with them

Not to listen to them

Not to see them as fully human

 

And simply throw them away,

As garbage

 

Yes, I know

It seems as if that is exactly what they have done with so many others

The poor, and ill

The immigrant, and the Indigenous

The people who happen to be LGBTQI+

 

But isn’t it the failure to see the other as not other

That leads to a focus on distinctions

That creates fear, and then, worse, hate

And causes one to remove the other's face?

Dehumanize them?

 

And isn’t this that which enables them,

And us if we are not careful,

To reject, demean, ridicule, oppress,

And even kill?

 

The bush burns but is not consumed

That is the mystery of the Sacred

They are people who are (insert a word here)

Deplorable?

Evil?

Toxic

 

And they are united to me (and you)

We are one?

Neighbors, brothers, sisters, children of God

All of us

 

Oh God

I cannot grasp this

I cannot see some people this way

With charity and compassion

 

I need help

I need help to find my unity with them

To feel even the slightest spark of love

To accept them as brother, sister

 

As individuals who participate with me in

the One that is you.

 

And yet I realize I will never find peace, hope

Justice and equity

 

That I will never fully enjoy the Kingdom

Until I do.


Friday, October 25, 2024

Follow the North Star

The Bible is a complex book.

It is a progressive and ever-changing record of our attempts to explain

that transcendent and yet immanent power that is woven into the universe

and woven into our lives.

 

All of us corporately

Each of us individually

 

There are a few verses that are my north star   Paul’s words in Romans ring true:

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”  says the Lord. On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 

 

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

 

And these words from Micah

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

 

Be a person who engages in the cause of Justice.

Strive against the misuse of power by individual people, churches, politicians, or institutions.

I believe we are called, all of us, to make right that which has been unjust.

We cannot let inequity, injustice, oppression, and suffering have the last word.

We cannot

 

Be a person who has humility.

This is not about discounting ourselves.

There are plenty of people around who will do that.  We shouldn’t do it to ourselves.

(and often do)

This simply means that we do not think of ourselves more highly than we ought.

It is not all about us! We are not the center of all that happens.

Really!

It means we do not put ourselves (or our country, party, or leader) in the place of God.

 

Be Kind

Look at others with the eyes of Jesus.

See the “other” (even that concept is troublesome) as valuable, loved by Sacred, a unique creation of God.

See that they are beautiful, broken, capable, struggling, joyful, grieving

See them and understand that there is more going on than you see

The common saying is true

“Be kind, everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about

 

Kindness is power

Kindness is freeing

Kindness is healing

Kindness is love

 

And kindness is a commitment.

To walk through each day

Noticing

The glimmers of pain, joy, distress, worry

And doing those random acts of kindness

 

Which might be as simple as a smile

Which might be stepping back

Being silent

Saying words of compassion

 

This is a new day

We are all walking together into a new future

We will all participate

By how we live

In shaping that future

 

So let us act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

Let us overcome evil (and evil people and movements)

With good


Thursday, October 24, 2024

Fueled by Resentment

“My students remarked that the Fascist chiefs we remember best were charismatic. Through one method or another, each established an emotional link to the crowd and, like the central figure in a cult, brought deep and often ugly feelings to the surface. This is how the tentacles of Fascism spread inside a democracy. Unlike a monarchy or a military dictatorship imposed on society from above, Fascism draws energy from men and women who are upset because of a lost war, a lost job, a memory of humiliation, or a sense that their country is in steep decline. The more painful the grounds for resentment, the easier it is for a Fascist leader to gain followers by dangling the prospect of renewal or by vowing to take back what has been stolen.”

              Madeleine K. Albright, Fascism: A Warning

_________________________________________

 

All living creatures need fuel.

Some sources of energy

That gives them life, even power

Animals need food, plants need sunlight

 

We, human creatures, seem to need a little more

A fuel that is emotional or spiritual

 

What fuels us, drives us, matters

 

Because what fuels us as individuals

As movements

As nations

Shapes our values and our priorities

Influences how we perceive things

And determines our choices, words,  and behaviors

 

This is perhaps why the author of Proverbs writes

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

And why Jesus warned the people

That “the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart,

and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts.

 

This raises the question

 

As we look around us, and what is happening in our country, our culture

As we watch people make choices about who to support (vote for)

Who to welcome, or exclude

Who to help or abandon

 

As we listen to the words that come out of the mouths

Of leaders and followers alike

 

As we see people lie, and hear them demean others,

And stir up enmity

 

What is driving us?

 

Jesus said clearly that we ought to be shaped by love

Love God, love yourself, and have those two loves create a third love

Love of others

And do it with all your heart, soul, mind and strength

 

But it seems clear that love is not the fuel that powers MAGA

Or the church

It doesn’t matter if one is traditional, or oriented toward change (which they see as progress)

 

We watch as division tears at the fabric of our nation

And we hear lies that wound and harm

We see anger, even rage

We see hate written on faces

 

And we watch as neighbors, friends, and family

Make choices that surprise and confuse

And seem to violate who they are,

Or who we thought they were

 

We watch as people we believed were grounded and rooted

Injustice and equity

And yes, compassion and

 

Ignore, even enable

Racism, bigotry, misogyny, vulgarity

Dishonesty and cruelty

 

Even vote for those things.

 

I have thought variously, that this was about fear

Or perhaps anger

Or that it was the result of people being misinformed and mislead

By people they trust

 

But at this point, for me, it all distills done to one word.

 

Resentment

 

People resent change, which often means they have to change

People resent the push for equity and equality, which asks them to let go of privilege

People resent immigrants, who make them uncomfortable or afraid

They resent inflation (which does hurt)

 

They resent everything and everyone they think has cost them or will cost them,

Comfort, power, privilege, or wealth

 

And now they have someone

Who has created an emotional link with them based on resentment

And who has dragged bitterness out of the depths of their souls

Out of the collective soul of much of America

 

And if resentment (and its political embodiment, MAGA) prevails,

it will damage America profoundly

especially those who have embraced it

 

Resentment is a poison

Oscar Wilde when talking about resentment once wrote

“One cannot always keep an adder in one's breast to feed one, nor rise up every night to sow thorns in the garden of one's soul.”

 

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (4) implored the people to

“walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”

 

He pleaded with them not to let people manipulate them with bitterness

“… No longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speak the truth in love”

 

And He asked those who would follow Jesus to let go of resentment (which becomes ugly things like hate, a desire for retribution, and a need to control) and

 

(gasp)

 

Have a spirit of forgiveness.

 

“So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Those who steal must give up stealing; rather, let them labor, doing good work with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”

 

In this time when some want us to be our old deluded selves

We are called to clothe ourselves with the “new self”

And put away resentment

And put on kindness and generosity

 

And live (and vote) accordingly.