The THREE TEMPTATIONS OF CHRIST - AND US
I am visiting dear friends in Prince George. Yesterday was the first Sunday in Lent and we attended mass at their neighbourhood Catholic church. Without going into detail I am pleased to share that the experience was a good one. I was certainly uplifted in general but then again, I was not challenged.
The main text was the story of Jesus going into the desert after his baptism where he was tempted three times: Firstly, to make bread from rocks; Secondly, to fling himself from the top of the temple wall in Jerusalem in the knowledge that God would save him, and Thirdly, that all the kingdoms of the world would be under his power if he would but worship the Devil.
The priest did a usual ho-hum talk about how we need to lead good lives of moderation and belief. He missed a great chance to proclaim God’s Word for our time.
Here we are, looking forward to the substance and centre of the Christian belief. Lent is the best chance to re-discover and claim for our own the message that has changed the lives of so many. In the hope of entering into the story for ourselves, that we might understand it, let’s take a closer look.
The setting of the text couldn’t be more clear. Jesus has just been baptized, making the first hard choice toward faithfulness. He has declared publically what he was leaving and to what he was going. Baptism then was a sign and symbol of repentance, of the decision to lead a new life that was directed to and by God’s challenging love and justice.
After this decision came a time of testing. This is always the way. The hardest steps are the first ones. The greatest temptations are met at the start of any journey. One never realizes the challenges of change until the first steps are taken. As it still is today, choosing to follow the way of God for Jesus went against the things and assumptions that popular knowledge held to be true. The three temptations of Christ were symbolized these three precisely.
What are the three things we wish for? Ask anyone, now or then. The answers are the same: wealth, fame and power. Isn’t this what we assume will make us happy? Isn’t that what the commercials tells us? Isn’t that the basis of our decisions regarding our vocations and future, our savings and career choices? Aren’t these three the objects of most of what rules our present society? There is no doubt. Although these three objectives may not have the same power in Jesus’ time, they were as real in their coercive tempting then as they are now.
Books could be written about each one, about how we rationalize our daily surrender to these temptations, as a culture, nation, church and as individuals. What could be wrong with wealth? Couldn’t we then use it for the cause of GOOD? Couldn’t my loved ones use some more stuff? And why not be famous? Wouldn’t that enable us to be more affective for GOOD? And of course we could use a little more power! We would be more affective in doing good for everybody/family/church/country/ (add what ever you want). What seductive arguments, each with just enough truth to seduce.
Jesus certainly became famous in his small place. He even had influence and power. But there is absolutely no doubt that he did not seek any of the three for their own sakes. They may have been granted him by others. But he always gave them away, the same as he gave wealth away. He reserved his harshest criticism for his followers who tried to increase their popularity and/or power.
He was not only spiritually wise, he was smart. He knew and tried to tell/show his followers how destructive, unhealthy and unloving a life would be if based on any of these desires. To be part of God, to claim ‘heirship’ as a child of God, to seek for growth, to become healthy, wise or happy, how ever we think of things, we must react to the temptations as did Jesus of Nazareth. We simply cannot change, cannot grow, cannot be happy, cannot help the world or others, unless we categorically reject wealth, fame and power.
And thereby, paradoxically, we will find true wealth, recognition and true power. This is not just pie-in-the-sky stuff, but real, identifiable, measurable and an irrefutable fact. But you have to ask the questions. You (we) have to recognize the dozens of ways we are tempted by assumptions and systems that surround us. Wouldn’t it be great if it were as easy for us as in the gospel story, to be led into the desert and to have the Devil tempt us, to have it over in a mere fourty days?. All we would have to do is say NO three times and that would be that. But no such luck. We have been blessed/cursed by living in a culture that has been so ruled by the forces of POWER, WEALTH AND FAME that we don’t even recognize them as temptations. For us they are merely the facts of life. We will always be tempted. We have to say NO many times.
In the Christian traditions we have six weeks to choose our baptisms as our own, again, to choose again to be faithful to God’s Call, to see clearly enough to recognize the tempting forces that will stop us right where we are if we let them. What a temptation, to continue as we are, seeking wealth, fame and power, and still believe in our spare time. We can root for Jesus and cheer him as he goes into his ministry. We can vote for him and urge him to go on to Jerusalem. We might even accompany him from time to time. But go in with him? No Way! We’ll be quite all right believing in Him and living in the “real” world.
If we don’t believe in any faith, we can do the same, remaining in the mainstream of our society but believing that there really is a better way, but not caring enough about ourself or anything else to stop long enough to take a better way seriously.
But in the doing, we’ll not grow, not learn, not risk, remain as unhappy and dissatisfied with life as ever. The world and all around us will get worse and so will we and our loved ones.
Don’t put it off another year. Let this Lent become a time you will never forget, the time you chose to take seriously what you have theoretically agreed with for so long. If you don’t care about Lent, think of it as a good thing to do as Spring approaches. A step toward new life. For just once, allow what you really know and believe to dictate what you do, how you live, how you spend, who you talk to, what you see and what you say. Start to live in love and not fear.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
What are Our Society's Values? - Terrorists
WHAT ARE OUR VALUES? / TERRORISTS
If our culture gathers around the Super Bowl more than any other event, it could very well be argued that we value nothing more than what is basically a collection of youngish millionaires getting paid to push/carry/throw a ball from one end of a field to another. What do we value as a society? I know we say a lot of things, but show me something we value more than sports or our appearance. Do we value our religious beliefs? More Americans watched the Super Bowl game yesterday than attended worship. We spend far more on cosmetics than we give to churches or to the poor. When we use any standard, our culture , without a doubt, has, for its main value,the desire to accumulate and spend wealth, and goes to great trouble ignoring anything else.
Look at The Antique Road Show on TV. Here people bring their antiques to experts to find out the history and story of items. There is no doubt that the most important aspect to most is the evaluation of the item at the end. That alone gets a real reaction from the folks. The background of the piece may be nice. The fact that it might be worth many times what was originally paid is fantastic.
On the news this morning was a tragic story of a family in the eastern U.S. where the fourteen year-old boy killed his siblings and parents, shot them with his father’s hand gun. In no way am I blaming this tragedy on the Super Bowl, but can we be surprised if happenings like this occurr even more frequently in a culture that has such a values vacuum?
We have deluded ourselves in thinking that we value freedom, especially those of us in the U.S. That is obviously garbage to anyone outside of America. Most non North Americans can see the obvious, that we are a people nearly bankrupt of all positive values. As such, we export our value-less-ness and are threatened by other cultures or attitudes that DO have values.
Let me ask a question of you. For what would you die? What to you is more important than life? Is there a cause, an ideal, a movement, a hope, for which you would lay down your life? I truly hope there is. If so, you are rare indeed.
For many hundreds of millions of people outside our culture, they simply would not believe you if you answered in the affirmative. They believe what they see, what they have experienced. And they see us building and perpetuating a system that clearly has no value other than the accumulation of wealth, taken from the people and the earth and directed toward the already rich.
And we are so blind and stupid as to be astonished when there is a reaction from those of other cultures? We really DO expect others to be as valueless as we are! When others question our ways we write them off as being old-fashioned, ignorant or hopelessly idealistic. When others voluntarily give there lives to strike a blow, however small, at our way of life, especially by blowing themselves and a few symbolic others to pieces, we call them terrorists and in the naming we place them in a category that includes the mentally insane, misguided, delusional, nameless, worthless ‘other’ people. We are really frightened when someone acts, really DOES something for a cause that we would never do for any cause. The very fact that some people think that there are some things bigger and more important than life, scares us.
What else scares us? Nothing scares us more than a possible stock market crash. We are that separated from reality, to values shared with most of humanity. We clearly don't value our health, judging at how we self abuse. We clearly don’t value the earth, since we are wrecking it so much. We don’t value future generations since we have no compunctions to leaving them so little resources and so much of a mess. How can we possibly be surprised when those of other ideologies and cultures feel strongly enough to give their lives in the hopes that things might be changed?
I think it very strange that there aren’t more so-called suicide bombers. I bet that security was tight at the Super Bowl on Sunday. If I had wanted to make a statement against this stupid and evil culture, that’s where I would have headed. I’m a disciple of a pacifist so don’t worry about me. I do what I believe and I don’t believe in killing. The point I’m trying to share is that the event of Sunday was as worthy of attention as were the twin towers. Let’s see things as they are. Let's not be surprised with there are those who give their lives to stop us when we, by living the way we do, are taking the lives of so many, not only today, but for generations to come. Just who is committing suicide here, anyway?
“Names are used for calling when there’s nothing more to say.” - Gordon Lightfoot
Freedom: Nothing left to lose. - Chris Kristopherson
If our culture gathers around the Super Bowl more than any other event, it could very well be argued that we value nothing more than what is basically a collection of youngish millionaires getting paid to push/carry/throw a ball from one end of a field to another. What do we value as a society? I know we say a lot of things, but show me something we value more than sports or our appearance. Do we value our religious beliefs? More Americans watched the Super Bowl game yesterday than attended worship. We spend far more on cosmetics than we give to churches or to the poor. When we use any standard, our culture , without a doubt, has, for its main value,the desire to accumulate and spend wealth, and goes to great trouble ignoring anything else.
Look at The Antique Road Show on TV. Here people bring their antiques to experts to find out the history and story of items. There is no doubt that the most important aspect to most is the evaluation of the item at the end. That alone gets a real reaction from the folks. The background of the piece may be nice. The fact that it might be worth many times what was originally paid is fantastic.
On the news this morning was a tragic story of a family in the eastern U.S. where the fourteen year-old boy killed his siblings and parents, shot them with his father’s hand gun. In no way am I blaming this tragedy on the Super Bowl, but can we be surprised if happenings like this occurr even more frequently in a culture that has such a values vacuum?
We have deluded ourselves in thinking that we value freedom, especially those of us in the U.S. That is obviously garbage to anyone outside of America. Most non North Americans can see the obvious, that we are a people nearly bankrupt of all positive values. As such, we export our value-less-ness and are threatened by other cultures or attitudes that DO have values.
Let me ask a question of you. For what would you die? What to you is more important than life? Is there a cause, an ideal, a movement, a hope, for which you would lay down your life? I truly hope there is. If so, you are rare indeed.
For many hundreds of millions of people outside our culture, they simply would not believe you if you answered in the affirmative. They believe what they see, what they have experienced. And they see us building and perpetuating a system that clearly has no value other than the accumulation of wealth, taken from the people and the earth and directed toward the already rich.
And we are so blind and stupid as to be astonished when there is a reaction from those of other cultures? We really DO expect others to be as valueless as we are! When others question our ways we write them off as being old-fashioned, ignorant or hopelessly idealistic. When others voluntarily give there lives to strike a blow, however small, at our way of life, especially by blowing themselves and a few symbolic others to pieces, we call them terrorists and in the naming we place them in a category that includes the mentally insane, misguided, delusional, nameless, worthless ‘other’ people. We are really frightened when someone acts, really DOES something for a cause that we would never do for any cause. The very fact that some people think that there are some things bigger and more important than life, scares us.
What else scares us? Nothing scares us more than a possible stock market crash. We are that separated from reality, to values shared with most of humanity. We clearly don't value our health, judging at how we self abuse. We clearly don’t value the earth, since we are wrecking it so much. We don’t value future generations since we have no compunctions to leaving them so little resources and so much of a mess. How can we possibly be surprised when those of other ideologies and cultures feel strongly enough to give their lives in the hopes that things might be changed?
I think it very strange that there aren’t more so-called suicide bombers. I bet that security was tight at the Super Bowl on Sunday. If I had wanted to make a statement against this stupid and evil culture, that’s where I would have headed. I’m a disciple of a pacifist so don’t worry about me. I do what I believe and I don’t believe in killing. The point I’m trying to share is that the event of Sunday was as worthy of attention as were the twin towers. Let’s see things as they are. Let's not be surprised with there are those who give their lives to stop us when we, by living the way we do, are taking the lives of so many, not only today, but for generations to come. Just who is committing suicide here, anyway?
“Names are used for calling when there’s nothing more to say.” - Gordon Lightfoot
Freedom: Nothing left to lose. - Chris Kristopherson
On the Super Bowl
THOUGHTS ON THE ‘SUPER BOWL’
Like tens of millions of others, there I was, yesterday at 6:00 eastern standard time, eating and drinking with friends in front of a huge TV, getting ready to watch the SUPER BOWL. I actually had seen part of the previous play-off games so I knew what teams were playing and the rough history behind the game, but me, a football fan? NOT! Some good friends were putting on the party so Judy and I were glad to attend and contribute to the fun. But we certainly didn’t care who won.
But Damn! Within a half an hour, there I was, as enthralled as the best (worst?) of them, whooping it up in favour of the New York Giants. Why not the Patriots? No reason at all, except that I’m usually in favour of the underdogs.
There’s no doubt that it was a great game. Good entertainment right up to the last second. But later, when I had a chance to digest the whole thing, I tried to figure out what it was that really made it so fun to watch. The outcome certainly wasn’t important in any real way, to me or to most of the other millions who watched. O sure, we had a betting pool going and someone won twenty or thirty bucks. There were certainly millions of dollars, maybe billions, changing hands over the outcome, but for most of us, betting was merely a way to increase the excitement.
It was not a spiritual matter. It was not a family matter, nor a national one like a World Cup Soccer match would have been. For the players and team, it was personal, kind of, but the pride and bragging rights were well encased with money. And six million dollars per half a minute per TV commercial time? There’s no doubt as to the reason for the whole affair.
Isn’t this symbolic of everything I’m against? How could I even attend in good conciounce? But there I was! And I’d do it again. Next year for sure.
I think the fact that it is basically meaningless is the very reason it is popular. There is no way that anybody will be offended. There is absolutely nothing there of value. The day is based upon pure materialism and frivolity, a show piece to parade the biggest and fasted and richest of our little boys who have spent their lives moving a little ball down a big field, thinking that it was the most important thing in the whole world. And for a few hours we are united in the hope that this lie is true. For that short time there is no more important purpose. No Truth. No better Way. No needy whose dying eyes and streching arms ask us to change. No earth in need of justice and clean air. Just millionair gladiators with their little ball. Pure escape. God knows, I needed it. The Romans had their circus’, we have sports. Great stuff!
As long as we don’t take it seriously.
Like tens of millions of others, there I was, yesterday at 6:00 eastern standard time, eating and drinking with friends in front of a huge TV, getting ready to watch the SUPER BOWL. I actually had seen part of the previous play-off games so I knew what teams were playing and the rough history behind the game, but me, a football fan? NOT! Some good friends were putting on the party so Judy and I were glad to attend and contribute to the fun. But we certainly didn’t care who won.
But Damn! Within a half an hour, there I was, as enthralled as the best (worst?) of them, whooping it up in favour of the New York Giants. Why not the Patriots? No reason at all, except that I’m usually in favour of the underdogs.
There’s no doubt that it was a great game. Good entertainment right up to the last second. But later, when I had a chance to digest the whole thing, I tried to figure out what it was that really made it so fun to watch. The outcome certainly wasn’t important in any real way, to me or to most of the other millions who watched. O sure, we had a betting pool going and someone won twenty or thirty bucks. There were certainly millions of dollars, maybe billions, changing hands over the outcome, but for most of us, betting was merely a way to increase the excitement.
It was not a spiritual matter. It was not a family matter, nor a national one like a World Cup Soccer match would have been. For the players and team, it was personal, kind of, but the pride and bragging rights were well encased with money. And six million dollars per half a minute per TV commercial time? There’s no doubt as to the reason for the whole affair.
Isn’t this symbolic of everything I’m against? How could I even attend in good conciounce? But there I was! And I’d do it again. Next year for sure.
I think the fact that it is basically meaningless is the very reason it is popular. There is no way that anybody will be offended. There is absolutely nothing there of value. The day is based upon pure materialism and frivolity, a show piece to parade the biggest and fasted and richest of our little boys who have spent their lives moving a little ball down a big field, thinking that it was the most important thing in the whole world. And for a few hours we are united in the hope that this lie is true. For that short time there is no more important purpose. No Truth. No better Way. No needy whose dying eyes and streching arms ask us to change. No earth in need of justice and clean air. Just millionair gladiators with their little ball. Pure escape. God knows, I needed it. The Romans had their circus’, we have sports. Great stuff!
As long as we don’t take it seriously.
The Jubillee Movement?
THE JUBILEE MOVEMENT January 31
As you know by now, words and names are important to me. They may be temporary and approximate, but they are helpful and often necessary for a time. I have been looking/searching for a name/concept, that is close to what my heart says my goal/calling is all about. For now I have found something that seems to fit.
The ancient Jews had a tradition of the Year of Jubilee, where every 49 (seven times seven) years most things were forgiven and set back to square one. Slaves were set free. Debts were forgiven. Land went back to the original families. Those working off debts could go home. Boundaries were re-established. This was to ensure that the wealthy could not go without limits, that there was at least hope for the children of slaves, that the accumulation of wealth would not forever be on the backs of the poor.
Historically, it is very doubtful if the tradition was ever actually practiced, certainly never in total. But the ideal was there. People knew what aught to happen, even if it didn’t. Because the wealthy always ruled, then as now, it was given lip service only. You can imagine what the reaction would be if someone had actually tried to enforce it. Here or anywhere else. In any time. No matter what so-called- tradition was on record.
The trouble was, it seems like Jesus of Nazareth took the whole idea seriously. In the Gospel we call Luke it is his first action in public ministry. He reads from Isaiah about the year of Jubilee (translated often as ‘The Acceptable Year of God’) and states, “This is the Year!” It’s no wonder he didn’t live long after that. All but the poor would have been correctly threatened by his intentions.
But what a concept! To return things to a way of justice and equity. To try to right the wrongs. To change direction. Really! Not to merely believe that it would be a good idea, something nice to pray about, but to really DO.
A JUBILEE MOVEMENT! Think about it. Is it a good name? It sounds happy to me. A good thing to consider. Not too scary. (Not until you start to actually move on it!) Sounds like fun. I think I’ll join!
“The world’s great religions, as they are now, are unable to cope with the almost overwhelming challenge presented by what we have done and are doing to the earth.” - Tom Harper
“People are very, very hungry for some kind of contact with a world greater than the one which they can immediately perceive.” - Robertson Davies
“Without VISION, the people perish.” - Jewish proverb
As you know by now, words and names are important to me. They may be temporary and approximate, but they are helpful and often necessary for a time. I have been looking/searching for a name/concept, that is close to what my heart says my goal/calling is all about. For now I have found something that seems to fit.
The ancient Jews had a tradition of the Year of Jubilee, where every 49 (seven times seven) years most things were forgiven and set back to square one. Slaves were set free. Debts were forgiven. Land went back to the original families. Those working off debts could go home. Boundaries were re-established. This was to ensure that the wealthy could not go without limits, that there was at least hope for the children of slaves, that the accumulation of wealth would not forever be on the backs of the poor.
Historically, it is very doubtful if the tradition was ever actually practiced, certainly never in total. But the ideal was there. People knew what aught to happen, even if it didn’t. Because the wealthy always ruled, then as now, it was given lip service only. You can imagine what the reaction would be if someone had actually tried to enforce it. Here or anywhere else. In any time. No matter what so-called- tradition was on record.
The trouble was, it seems like Jesus of Nazareth took the whole idea seriously. In the Gospel we call Luke it is his first action in public ministry. He reads from Isaiah about the year of Jubilee (translated often as ‘The Acceptable Year of God’) and states, “This is the Year!” It’s no wonder he didn’t live long after that. All but the poor would have been correctly threatened by his intentions.
But what a concept! To return things to a way of justice and equity. To try to right the wrongs. To change direction. Really! Not to merely believe that it would be a good idea, something nice to pray about, but to really DO.
A JUBILEE MOVEMENT! Think about it. Is it a good name? It sounds happy to me. A good thing to consider. Not too scary. (Not until you start to actually move on it!) Sounds like fun. I think I’ll join!
“The world’s great religions, as they are now, are unable to cope with the almost overwhelming challenge presented by what we have done and are doing to the earth.” - Tom Harper
“People are very, very hungry for some kind of contact with a world greater than the one which they can immediately perceive.” - Robertson Davies
“Without VISION, the people perish.” - Jewish proverb
Small, Personal Steps of Conversion
Judy and I are now making decisions based upon wants and needs. It’s not hard. But we started some years ago so it’s been a gradual process. We decided we didn’t need the house, so we sold it. We’ve given some money away and are trying to pay down debts to reach that freedom of thought that only comes without them. We had planned on sailing round Cuba this spring with a friend but canceled. It was a want. I hope to sail across the Atlantic this summer with a friend - a need. I took my van off the road and am now only using a bike and the T.T.C. It was hard to give away that power. But it feels good and I’m keeping in better shape because of the biking. A real win-win decision.
Life has never been better. Choices are so much more fun and even easier to make. I bought Judy a nice hat yesterday. It was definitely a want. A want on my part more than hers. I recognized it for what it was and it made it the more special. We can all live with so much less than we’re supposed to! It feels so good to laugh at the adds on TV. And it seems even sadder to see people taking them right in. And seeing the children being raised as they are.
But my life has never been so good!
Not that I'm suggesting that any others need to make the specific choices we have. It would benefit few if five million people in the Toronto area decided to live on boats! But I hope others will learn to live asking the same questions. What are needs and what are merely wants? And give away most of the money (power) saved to help meet real needs of others. Believe me, it is the only way to really live!
“Do not wear yourself out trying to get rich.” - Jewish proverb
“We may not all be guilty, but we are all responsible.” - Neil Bissonbath
Life has never been better. Choices are so much more fun and even easier to make. I bought Judy a nice hat yesterday. It was definitely a want. A want on my part more than hers. I recognized it for what it was and it made it the more special. We can all live with so much less than we’re supposed to! It feels so good to laugh at the adds on TV. And it seems even sadder to see people taking them right in. And seeing the children being raised as they are.
But my life has never been so good!
Not that I'm suggesting that any others need to make the specific choices we have. It would benefit few if five million people in the Toronto area decided to live on boats! But I hope others will learn to live asking the same questions. What are needs and what are merely wants? And give away most of the money (power) saved to help meet real needs of others. Believe me, it is the only way to really live!
“Do not wear yourself out trying to get rich.” - Jewish proverb
“We may not all be guilty, but we are all responsible.” - Neil Bissonbath
The Call to Conversion/Repentance
It’s like I’ve been out shopping for boots, footwear that I can use for all occasions and terrain. They’ve got to be durable, adjustable, waterproof, not encumbering and above all, comfortable. I’ve searched high and low and suddenly, there they are. I try them on and they fit. I walk around in them and they’re like an extension of my feet. They will be a part of me from now on.
Such it has been with the concept of REPENTANCE. In the four days since the last I wrote, when I introduced the idea, things have been turning over and over in my head/heart/soul. In the process, my Calling, the path before me, the wonderful possibilities, the nearly insurmountable obstacles, all of these have taken new forms. Bare with me as I try to share it with you, using words that are loaded with meaning, but often not the same for each of us.
For most of us, we have only heard the word REPENT on TV or in the movies. It is associated with Christian evangelicals who are ranting about leaving lives of sin and choosing to “accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.” I need to say that I’ve nothing against that. But it’s not what I am about here. But the form is true enough.
To REPENT is to change direction. Before you can do that you need to know where you are presently going and where you will be going after you’ve made the change. Using the old evangelical terminology, you were convicted of your sins, before you could choose and come to believe. Conviction, in our case is simply an understanding of things as they are, of the reality of the world and our part in it, an awareness of how each thing we possess, each mile we drive in each vehicle, hurts the earth. Of how each thing we use inevitably takes from someone else, of how our blind participation in this society promulgates injustice and poverty for many others, of how we ourselves suffer from illnesses and stress because of this way of life, of how we have become spiritually deficit to the point of being only nominally human. To those that do not realize this in at least some degree, a call to repentance will be meaningless.
This old and most destructive way of life must be named. “Materialism” is so overdone that it has lost much of its meaning although we all know how the acquisition of material wealth has ruled our lives and culture for many generations. But what we are against, what must be turned away from is even more than the worship of MAMMON. It is a life ruled by FEAR. Be it fear of self, fear of others, fear of inadequacy, fear of death, fear of poverty, fear of the loss of control, fear of responsibility, fear of life, FEAR itself now rules much of the earth and our culture in particular. Only the naming of that power, looking it squarely (or even obliquely) in the eye, seeing it for what it is, will give us the knowledge and wisdom to turn away and find a new path.
If repentance, as a term has too much negative baggage for you, try conversion. The same steps apply. A BEFORE and AFTER are needed. Lives are changed. Feet are moved. Action is necessary. Again, this is not a doctrinal issue. It is much bigger than that. We use the term as to ‘convert’ from the Anglican church to the Roman Catholic Church, from Christianity to Judaism, etc. That is not what we mean. We are calling for REPENTANCE, a CONVERSION from a life based on fears to a life based upon love. Leaving one set of assumptions and paradigms for a new ones.
Again, definitions and explanations are probably in order. LOVE is not meant in the romantic way (however great and possible that may be), but in the biblical sense, where there were many levels of love. The most basic level of LOVE in the Jewish understanding was JUSTICE. In that knowledge we can ‘love our enemies’ and even love all people. We might not know them, we might not like them, even hate them, but we can recognize them as other children of God with rights to life and to have their needs met. We can love others as we do ourselves, working toward wholeness in them the same as we seek/need wholeness in ourselves.
It is very hard to do that if we are fearful. Impossible, even.
If you are religious, think in terms of God calling the whole world to repent, to a conversion that applies to humanity as a whole. If your understanding does not include a God/Spirit entity, think in terms of the world as a whole, as the people present and in the future crying out for renewal and hope, for justice and wholeness. It matters not from where you are standing.
If, however, you think that the here and now for you is all that matters, that what you do and the suffering it causes has no results that count in any way, that you are important enough or deserving enough to warrant the consequences of your lifestyle, that the person who dies with the most toys really does win, go ahead and don't consider changing. But see and understand the facts. Choose as you will.
If you chose against conversion you will surely be in good company. Most will choose by not listening. The powers-that-be and the momentum of society are all against any repentance/conversion. Let’s look at just a few examples of that.
I’ve mentioned before, and you know as well as I, how we are bombarded 24/7 with the message that “ we ARE what material possessions we have. We ARE what we CONSUME. We are deficient unless we possess. We are not whole without this stuff.” What a new thought process we would need in order to ask ourselves that we really need, and buy no more. Do we need a bigger home? Isn’t the one we have now already much bigger than the one in which we were raised? Do we need a second car? Even one? Really need? Do we need to order in pizza every thursday? Do I need ten pair of shoes? Do I need a new party dress? Or are these merely WANTS? Are there people whose needs I can meet by denying my wants? How do I help them?
The most immediate consequence of conversion away from a life of fear to a life of love will be that you will have more money at your disposal. Even if you are living on a very limited income, you will have more. I know many who live near poverty who spend much of their spare time shopping the garage sales, getting more stuff and judging their week by how many "good buys" they made. Rampant materialism is not only for the rich or middle class. It may well be that future examples of CONVERSION of poorer people will prod and encourage the more wealthy to change. It really takes very little to meet the needs of life. We all need the same things, materially. We all need the same things spiritually and socially. Only together can we have all of these things.
At the same time as we “save” (divert, convert) money (power) away from wants born from fears, we must convert them to the direction of love. Not wait. Not hesitate. Not invest. But give them away. And not to some local church to be used to pay the heat or staff salaries. But to the poor and needy to whom it will make a real difference of life. To create a water source. For a screen to keep infected mosquitoes away while children in the tropics sleep. For start-up funds for a local business or farm. Only when you know that your money is doing more for someone else than it is for you, will you be encouraged enough to look for more wants that can be converted into needs.
Again and again I will stress the need to do this with others. You simply will not be able to sustain your conversion alone. The power of consumerism will beat you down and you will end up even worse off than before, for you will then be a failure. With others you will gain knowledge, wisdom and enthusiasm. The good news is that it takes the shared power of only a few to confront the powers of FEAR and materialism.
I mentioned before how stupid/wrong and self defeating it is for us to not be open to living in a more shared way. This topic brings out most strongly the fears we hold. In most areas of Toronto there are over twice as many bedrooms as there are people. How can we claim that we know anything about love and accept this? When many of us claim/assume it is our right to control space like this, in this time of need and crisis, it is a wonder that there isn’t far more violence and anger. Those that pride themselves in their large and empty homes are patently evil and blind. I think that I can say that beyond any doubt. Those of us who control and use more than we need are part of the problem that is killing. Period.
Again I remind myself and you that this call is not a matter of religious doctrine. It is bigger than that. The CALL for Repentance/Conversion comes from God, Allah, the Earth, our Children, the Great Spirit, your Consciousness, who cares? This repentance/conversion is beyond yet includes belief. It is the totality of our thought and actions. If we accept the CALL it will change all around us. It will disrupt the present economy, but we will survive. It will change how we live, but we will be more happy and secure. It will create enemies, but we will find ourselves in the process. Hope and purpose will replace fears. People of all faiths and no “faith” will have far more in common than could have been previously believed. Many faith communities (churches) will be scandalized by the idea that something claims to be more important than their understanding. Others will see it as complimenting their understanding. For all who answer the call, LIFE will be their goal. There will be something more important to them then mere living, but the goal of living more completely will be enough.
Hear this as a call to you and to all the world, a small call from the desert, perhaps, but hear it never-the-less. You will know if it is valid for you. But only if you talk about it with someone you know is wise. Don’t ask a fool. You know what I mean. The validity of your asking depends upon the company in which it is asked and answered. Choose for life. It is your own and for those who follow you. So-Be-It.
“The real superstition is thinking that you can reject things unexamined.” - Robertson Davies
“If we refuse to acknowledge the past, we conceal the nature of suffering and therefore cannot understand demands in the present.” - Hugh Brody
“Blessed and joyful are those who are without fear.” - Jewish proverb
“Spending money is how you really vote in this world. You do it every day and it alone determins how the world works. It is more significant than how you cast your ballot. - Michael Linton
Such it has been with the concept of REPENTANCE. In the four days since the last I wrote, when I introduced the idea, things have been turning over and over in my head/heart/soul. In the process, my Calling, the path before me, the wonderful possibilities, the nearly insurmountable obstacles, all of these have taken new forms. Bare with me as I try to share it with you, using words that are loaded with meaning, but often not the same for each of us.
For most of us, we have only heard the word REPENT on TV or in the movies. It is associated with Christian evangelicals who are ranting about leaving lives of sin and choosing to “accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.” I need to say that I’ve nothing against that. But it’s not what I am about here. But the form is true enough.
To REPENT is to change direction. Before you can do that you need to know where you are presently going and where you will be going after you’ve made the change. Using the old evangelical terminology, you were convicted of your sins, before you could choose and come to believe. Conviction, in our case is simply an understanding of things as they are, of the reality of the world and our part in it, an awareness of how each thing we possess, each mile we drive in each vehicle, hurts the earth. Of how each thing we use inevitably takes from someone else, of how our blind participation in this society promulgates injustice and poverty for many others, of how we ourselves suffer from illnesses and stress because of this way of life, of how we have become spiritually deficit to the point of being only nominally human. To those that do not realize this in at least some degree, a call to repentance will be meaningless.
This old and most destructive way of life must be named. “Materialism” is so overdone that it has lost much of its meaning although we all know how the acquisition of material wealth has ruled our lives and culture for many generations. But what we are against, what must be turned away from is even more than the worship of MAMMON. It is a life ruled by FEAR. Be it fear of self, fear of others, fear of inadequacy, fear of death, fear of poverty, fear of the loss of control, fear of responsibility, fear of life, FEAR itself now rules much of the earth and our culture in particular. Only the naming of that power, looking it squarely (or even obliquely) in the eye, seeing it for what it is, will give us the knowledge and wisdom to turn away and find a new path.
If repentance, as a term has too much negative baggage for you, try conversion. The same steps apply. A BEFORE and AFTER are needed. Lives are changed. Feet are moved. Action is necessary. Again, this is not a doctrinal issue. It is much bigger than that. We use the term as to ‘convert’ from the Anglican church to the Roman Catholic Church, from Christianity to Judaism, etc. That is not what we mean. We are calling for REPENTANCE, a CONVERSION from a life based on fears to a life based upon love. Leaving one set of assumptions and paradigms for a new ones.
Again, definitions and explanations are probably in order. LOVE is not meant in the romantic way (however great and possible that may be), but in the biblical sense, where there were many levels of love. The most basic level of LOVE in the Jewish understanding was JUSTICE. In that knowledge we can ‘love our enemies’ and even love all people. We might not know them, we might not like them, even hate them, but we can recognize them as other children of God with rights to life and to have their needs met. We can love others as we do ourselves, working toward wholeness in them the same as we seek/need wholeness in ourselves.
It is very hard to do that if we are fearful. Impossible, even.
If you are religious, think in terms of God calling the whole world to repent, to a conversion that applies to humanity as a whole. If your understanding does not include a God/Spirit entity, think in terms of the world as a whole, as the people present and in the future crying out for renewal and hope, for justice and wholeness. It matters not from where you are standing.
If, however, you think that the here and now for you is all that matters, that what you do and the suffering it causes has no results that count in any way, that you are important enough or deserving enough to warrant the consequences of your lifestyle, that the person who dies with the most toys really does win, go ahead and don't consider changing. But see and understand the facts. Choose as you will.
If you chose against conversion you will surely be in good company. Most will choose by not listening. The powers-that-be and the momentum of society are all against any repentance/conversion. Let’s look at just a few examples of that.
I’ve mentioned before, and you know as well as I, how we are bombarded 24/7 with the message that “ we ARE what material possessions we have. We ARE what we CONSUME. We are deficient unless we possess. We are not whole without this stuff.” What a new thought process we would need in order to ask ourselves that we really need, and buy no more. Do we need a bigger home? Isn’t the one we have now already much bigger than the one in which we were raised? Do we need a second car? Even one? Really need? Do we need to order in pizza every thursday? Do I need ten pair of shoes? Do I need a new party dress? Or are these merely WANTS? Are there people whose needs I can meet by denying my wants? How do I help them?
The most immediate consequence of conversion away from a life of fear to a life of love will be that you will have more money at your disposal. Even if you are living on a very limited income, you will have more. I know many who live near poverty who spend much of their spare time shopping the garage sales, getting more stuff and judging their week by how many "good buys" they made. Rampant materialism is not only for the rich or middle class. It may well be that future examples of CONVERSION of poorer people will prod and encourage the more wealthy to change. It really takes very little to meet the needs of life. We all need the same things, materially. We all need the same things spiritually and socially. Only together can we have all of these things.
At the same time as we “save” (divert, convert) money (power) away from wants born from fears, we must convert them to the direction of love. Not wait. Not hesitate. Not invest. But give them away. And not to some local church to be used to pay the heat or staff salaries. But to the poor and needy to whom it will make a real difference of life. To create a water source. For a screen to keep infected mosquitoes away while children in the tropics sleep. For start-up funds for a local business or farm. Only when you know that your money is doing more for someone else than it is for you, will you be encouraged enough to look for more wants that can be converted into needs.
Again and again I will stress the need to do this with others. You simply will not be able to sustain your conversion alone. The power of consumerism will beat you down and you will end up even worse off than before, for you will then be a failure. With others you will gain knowledge, wisdom and enthusiasm. The good news is that it takes the shared power of only a few to confront the powers of FEAR and materialism.
I mentioned before how stupid/wrong and self defeating it is for us to not be open to living in a more shared way. This topic brings out most strongly the fears we hold. In most areas of Toronto there are over twice as many bedrooms as there are people. How can we claim that we know anything about love and accept this? When many of us claim/assume it is our right to control space like this, in this time of need and crisis, it is a wonder that there isn’t far more violence and anger. Those that pride themselves in their large and empty homes are patently evil and blind. I think that I can say that beyond any doubt. Those of us who control and use more than we need are part of the problem that is killing. Period.
Again I remind myself and you that this call is not a matter of religious doctrine. It is bigger than that. The CALL for Repentance/Conversion comes from God, Allah, the Earth, our Children, the Great Spirit, your Consciousness, who cares? This repentance/conversion is beyond yet includes belief. It is the totality of our thought and actions. If we accept the CALL it will change all around us. It will disrupt the present economy, but we will survive. It will change how we live, but we will be more happy and secure. It will create enemies, but we will find ourselves in the process. Hope and purpose will replace fears. People of all faiths and no “faith” will have far more in common than could have been previously believed. Many faith communities (churches) will be scandalized by the idea that something claims to be more important than their understanding. Others will see it as complimenting their understanding. For all who answer the call, LIFE will be their goal. There will be something more important to them then mere living, but the goal of living more completely will be enough.
Hear this as a call to you and to all the world, a small call from the desert, perhaps, but hear it never-the-less. You will know if it is valid for you. But only if you talk about it with someone you know is wise. Don’t ask a fool. You know what I mean. The validity of your asking depends upon the company in which it is asked and answered. Choose for life. It is your own and for those who follow you. So-Be-It.
“The real superstition is thinking that you can reject things unexamined.” - Robertson Davies
“If we refuse to acknowledge the past, we conceal the nature of suffering and therefore cannot understand demands in the present.” - Hugh Brody
“Blessed and joyful are those who are without fear.” - Jewish proverb
“Spending money is how you really vote in this world. You do it every day and it alone determins how the world works. It is more significant than how you cast your ballot. - Michael Linton
A "Downer" in a successful church
Yesterday was my birthday and we attended a large local church that prides itself in good, modern preaching. The congregation is obviously wealthy (no homes less than $700k in the area) and worship was well attended. There were about twenty children in attendance. Good. I was hoping for a meaningful and challenging message, a change from the smaller congregations we have visited. I should have known better. (After all, they didn’t know it was my birthday.)
My first warning came in a line from the ‘Call To Worship’ -”God Justifies us by faith and not by works.” I’m not sure what that even means but it certainly doesn’t sound like God really want us to do anything, does it?
The service continued in a nice and predictable manner. The music was good, the choir excellent, but it should be, considering the money they’re paying the section leads.
The sermon started out as very promising. The speaker did a great job of telling us about what Jesus’ calling his disciples would have meant to them, how the power of the Romans and the priorities of that empire was against God’s kingdom, how the call to repent meant a complete turning against those values. I thought, O Boy! At last I’m going to hear something real!
But he just stopped. He gave some platitudes about how we are called to believe and do better. Nothing about how the values of our ruling materialism is just as powerful and insidious as Rome ever was, how we are lulled into following the current ways of death as truly as the ‘holy’ people were two thousand years ago. Nothing. No learning. No challenge. I wanted to leave after the sermon, but Judy wouldn’t have it. Not even on my birthday.
This congregation represents my last hope for congregations. Do any of you know of a place where I might find any truth preached? I don’t care what name is on the sign. Church, Temple, Meeting, Pub - I don’t care.
If I can’t find some existing group soon I will have to try and start a gathering of my own. I would much rather not. But as I’ve said, I need to be fed with community worship; things can happen there that are unique. But most of the time I attend worship I end up mainly frustrated and saddened. I can do that on my own, thank you very much. Really, I need some help here.
Thanks.
“I hate your solemn assemblies, filled with iniquity! I will not listen: your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your doing. Cease it. Learn to do good; seek justice. The land shall be redeemed by those who repent.” - the prophet Isaiah
My first warning came in a line from the ‘Call To Worship’ -”God Justifies us by faith and not by works.” I’m not sure what that even means but it certainly doesn’t sound like God really want us to do anything, does it?
The service continued in a nice and predictable manner. The music was good, the choir excellent, but it should be, considering the money they’re paying the section leads.
The sermon started out as very promising. The speaker did a great job of telling us about what Jesus’ calling his disciples would have meant to them, how the power of the Romans and the priorities of that empire was against God’s kingdom, how the call to repent meant a complete turning against those values. I thought, O Boy! At last I’m going to hear something real!
But he just stopped. He gave some platitudes about how we are called to believe and do better. Nothing about how the values of our ruling materialism is just as powerful and insidious as Rome ever was, how we are lulled into following the current ways of death as truly as the ‘holy’ people were two thousand years ago. Nothing. No learning. No challenge. I wanted to leave after the sermon, but Judy wouldn’t have it. Not even on my birthday.
This congregation represents my last hope for congregations. Do any of you know of a place where I might find any truth preached? I don’t care what name is on the sign. Church, Temple, Meeting, Pub - I don’t care.
If I can’t find some existing group soon I will have to try and start a gathering of my own. I would much rather not. But as I’ve said, I need to be fed with community worship; things can happen there that are unique. But most of the time I attend worship I end up mainly frustrated and saddened. I can do that on my own, thank you very much. Really, I need some help here.
Thanks.
“I hate your solemn assemblies, filled with iniquity! I will not listen: your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your doing. Cease it. Learn to do good; seek justice. The land shall be redeemed by those who repent.” - the prophet Isaiah
Warning In A Dream
As a youngster I don’t recall failing at many things. But one botched attempt stands out. We lived on a small farm and after butchering a cow I got permission from Dad to try to tan the hide. I had read up on the subject and was all excited with what I could do with the leather. It was the time when Davey Crockett story was popular and I wanted to look like him. I could make that leather outfit myself! (I was nine years old.)
I had no idea it would be so much work! The hide was huge! Surely it came from an elephant, not one of our cows! Spread out on the ground it was as big as a room. I never even got it really scraped clean. I was simply not up to the job. It ended up in the garbage for the wild animals to fight over.
Dad never said a thing about it and neither did I. Perhaps he knew all along what would be the likely outcome and thought that it would be a good learning experience for me and just let me go ahead and learn. One way or another, wit wouldn't cost anything.
In the dream, two nights ago, there I was again, with the chance to tan a cow hide, trying to figure out how much room I would need, if I had all the ingredients and equipment that was necessary. Would I try it? I didn’t really know. The dream ended there.
The dream experience was very sobering for me. Here I am, trying to keep up my enthusiasm, trying to share it with others in hopes that some change for the good can be made in lives. All I’m trying to do, really, is to change the world! And a small task like tanning a hide makes me question?
Sometimes (often) I marvel at my weaknesses. It was just a small dream. And it’s good and needed to be slowed down a bit, I guess, sometimes. But Hey, after all, it's not going to cost me anything to try, is it?
“Our future lies in group survival and success, not in individual achievement.” - David Suzuki
"If at first you don't succeed....."
"If at first you don't succeed, give up and watch TV." - Homer Simpson
I had no idea it would be so much work! The hide was huge! Surely it came from an elephant, not one of our cows! Spread out on the ground it was as big as a room. I never even got it really scraped clean. I was simply not up to the job. It ended up in the garbage for the wild animals to fight over.
Dad never said a thing about it and neither did I. Perhaps he knew all along what would be the likely outcome and thought that it would be a good learning experience for me and just let me go ahead and learn. One way or another, wit wouldn't cost anything.
In the dream, two nights ago, there I was again, with the chance to tan a cow hide, trying to figure out how much room I would need, if I had all the ingredients and equipment that was necessary. Would I try it? I didn’t really know. The dream ended there.
The dream experience was very sobering for me. Here I am, trying to keep up my enthusiasm, trying to share it with others in hopes that some change for the good can be made in lives. All I’m trying to do, really, is to change the world! And a small task like tanning a hide makes me question?
Sometimes (often) I marvel at my weaknesses. It was just a small dream. And it’s good and needed to be slowed down a bit, I guess, sometimes. But Hey, after all, it's not going to cost me anything to try, is it?
“Our future lies in group survival and success, not in individual achievement.” - David Suzuki
"If at first you don't succeed....."
"If at first you don't succeed, give up and watch TV." - Homer Simpson
On Bobby Fischer
Like many of you, perhaps, I had forgotten about Bobby Fischer, the chess hero/icon/ mystic of many decades past. His death last week brought his face and story to our attention once more. What a genius. How filled with hate and paranoia, unable to live without blaming his supposed worries on faceless others, refusing to take responsibilities himself. It is enough to really get one discouraged about the human species. If a genius like Bobby Fischer is that out of whack, what chance to we mere mortals have of getting it together?
At times it seems like reason and valid hope is as near as the person sitting next to you in a pub. And you regain hope. Then the smart of the world, the intellectuals, those in power or “in-the-know” do or say the most stupid things. Or, more importantly, they do not DO what needs to be done when they have the chance. Does the world have a chance? Are we as stupid a life-form as we appear? God, are we the best hope you have? (I truly hope that there are ETs out there - that we are NOT the most advanced life form in the universe.)
Bobby, you had it all. The world was yours. You blew it.
Isn’t he a paradigm for us all? The world is ours. We have all we need. We could feed the world’s starving on what is discarded from the tables of the wealthy. A fraction of the world’s weapons budget would literally solve the financial needs of the poor. But we don’t accept responsibility.. Fear rules us. We blame others. Just like Bobby Fischer.
But there is no cosmic Iceland to take us in and care for us. (The country of Iceland gave Bobby Fischer sanctuary.) We are on our own, assuming that there are no benevolent aliens to play the part. Imagine Bobby Fischer’s last years without an Iceland refuge. Those last years for him personally would have been much like the future years for the earth if we don’t change, if the ordinary person doesn’t start to act a bit more extraordinary and stop following the “know-it-alls” of the world.
“Most people want to find happiness but you don’t just find it anymore than steel is just found. You refine steel from the rough ore and in the same way you fashion happiness from life’s opportunities.” - Charles Templeton
At times it seems like reason and valid hope is as near as the person sitting next to you in a pub. And you regain hope. Then the smart of the world, the intellectuals, those in power or “in-the-know” do or say the most stupid things. Or, more importantly, they do not DO what needs to be done when they have the chance. Does the world have a chance? Are we as stupid a life-form as we appear? God, are we the best hope you have? (I truly hope that there are ETs out there - that we are NOT the most advanced life form in the universe.)
Bobby, you had it all. The world was yours. You blew it.
Isn’t he a paradigm for us all? The world is ours. We have all we need. We could feed the world’s starving on what is discarded from the tables of the wealthy. A fraction of the world’s weapons budget would literally solve the financial needs of the poor. But we don’t accept responsibility.. Fear rules us. We blame others. Just like Bobby Fischer.
But there is no cosmic Iceland to take us in and care for us. (The country of Iceland gave Bobby Fischer sanctuary.) We are on our own, assuming that there are no benevolent aliens to play the part. Imagine Bobby Fischer’s last years without an Iceland refuge. Those last years for him personally would have been much like the future years for the earth if we don’t change, if the ordinary person doesn’t start to act a bit more extraordinary and stop following the “know-it-alls” of the world.
“Most people want to find happiness but you don’t just find it anymore than steel is just found. You refine steel from the rough ore and in the same way you fashion happiness from life’s opportunities.” - Charles Templeton
Reflections on the Stock Market Downturn
Every week-day morning the routine on board the SWAN OF TUONELA , is this: the alarm goes off at 6:00, Judy and I snuggle for about five minutes, I get up and go to the galley, put on water for tea, come back to the aft-cabin and dress and then return to the galley to fix breakfast while Judy gets dressed. Due to the small floor space in the aft cabin it is easier if one of us gets dressed at a time. Then I bring the complete breakfast back to the cabin and we eat in bed while watching the morning show on CTV. A great way to start the day.
This morning the main story news was, of course, the near melt-down of most of the stock markets around the world. There were interviews of many people, a couple of which advised folks to just hang on for the world wasn’t really coming to an end. Others had lost tens of thousands of dollars and were very upset. I could identify with both. Judy and I have investments too.
But I felt so lucky. Lucky that our priorities were such that stock market gains or losses have nothing to do with what is important to our present and future. The question I ask of events is this, “Will it change what I have for breakfast in the morning?”. If the answer is no, then the problem/possibility isn’t important enough to get in a fuss over. Let’s be honest. For a vast majority of the investors, the funds they have in the market represent future spending on wants, not needs. They have put their resources where they did in hopes of getting more return than in secure investments. I did too. But I doubt very much of even losing a third of their funds would change what they have for breakfast. What is more important is who you are having it with and if they look forward to each day.
Very few of us will voluntarily change our way of living although we know, beyond a doubt, that it would be much better for us and the world, in all ways. We live in a world of constant change. The stock markets are great examples of institutions that are based on whim, greed, winds of chaos and whim. We need to view “market adjustments” like those of this week, as much needed reminders of what is real and what is illusion, of what is really important and what isn’t, what are needs and what are wants. Sometimes it takes a hammer to awaken us.
If you’ve lost a bundle, relax. It’s money you’ve never seen. Enjoy your breakfast, hopfully, with a friend or five.
“Those who trust in their riches will wither.” - Jewish proverb
“All day long the wicked seek more wealth.” - Jewish proverb
This morning the main story news was, of course, the near melt-down of most of the stock markets around the world. There were interviews of many people, a couple of which advised folks to just hang on for the world wasn’t really coming to an end. Others had lost tens of thousands of dollars and were very upset. I could identify with both. Judy and I have investments too.
But I felt so lucky. Lucky that our priorities were such that stock market gains or losses have nothing to do with what is important to our present and future. The question I ask of events is this, “Will it change what I have for breakfast in the morning?”. If the answer is no, then the problem/possibility isn’t important enough to get in a fuss over. Let’s be honest. For a vast majority of the investors, the funds they have in the market represent future spending on wants, not needs. They have put their resources where they did in hopes of getting more return than in secure investments. I did too. But I doubt very much of even losing a third of their funds would change what they have for breakfast. What is more important is who you are having it with and if they look forward to each day.
Very few of us will voluntarily change our way of living although we know, beyond a doubt, that it would be much better for us and the world, in all ways. We live in a world of constant change. The stock markets are great examples of institutions that are based on whim, greed, winds of chaos and whim. We need to view “market adjustments” like those of this week, as much needed reminders of what is real and what is illusion, of what is really important and what isn’t, what are needs and what are wants. Sometimes it takes a hammer to awaken us.
If you’ve lost a bundle, relax. It’s money you’ve never seen. Enjoy your breakfast, hopfully, with a friend or five.
“Those who trust in their riches will wither.” - Jewish proverb
“All day long the wicked seek more wealth.” - Jewish proverb
Please, Go Ahead and Be Selfish!
Maybe I just like to make myself miserable, but once in a while I tune in to a TV evangelist. The last time I did there was the usual ranting on of how selfish and self centered we sinners are. But, you know, I think he has gotten it all wrong. Look at the problems we face. As a society we are grossly overweight and unfit. We watch too much TV. We don't exercise enough. We isolate ourselves from each other, suffer from a very high rate of mental illness and stress. For most of us there is no WE but only a loose collection of I's.
Do these symptoms point to selfishness? I don't think so. Stupidity, perhaps, or ignorance, at least. If we were selfish, wouldn't we be doing what was good for ourselves? If we loved ourselves would we be pushing poisons into our mouths? If we loved our children would we be putting them in front of TVs for six hours per day? Would we be feeding our faces to the point of diabetes and obesity if we desired our best? If we wanted the ultimate for our descendants would we knowingly be kicking the shit out of the world? Of course not! I think that our real problem is that we despise ourselves!
What the world needs now is people who care about themselves. Really! Go ahead and be selfish. Don't apologize. Learn to love yourself. It's what God, the world and the rest of us need. The god of materialism is killing us. The love of self has been abandoned for the love of excess and abuse. If we loved ourselves we wouldn't need beauty aids, fancy cars, face lifts, the latest fashions and fifty dollar hair cuts. We would know enough to not be taken in by the "What Toyota Are You?" adds. We would know who we are and who we aren't, and maybe even, who we could become.
Most of my dearest friends and family simply do not know how to love themselves. They spend most of their time and resources on things which are destructive to their bodies and spirits. According to what we hear and see, that is what we are supposed to do. The religious noise we hear says otherwise but they nor anyone else seems to provide any examples to back us the words. It is all so sad.
But talk about an opportunity! Do you love yourself? I've asked it before and I'll keep it up. Haven't you been given a brain that can tell the difference between life and death? Don't you really know what is good for you and what is not, what is good for your children and what is evil/unhealthy/deadening/stupidening?
God gave us all the reason and free will. If we continue to each stay isolated/stupid/blind and dying, it is simply by our own choice. And don't any of us dare complain, now or later. None of us has anything to complain about. We chose each day to live the way we are. Don't we dare blame the government or corporations or the schools or churches. WE are all of these things. We alone must accept what we will and do not doe. YOU and I perpetuate the lies and pass them on to those around us by our inaction and apathy, by how we spend our money and our time.
Are you what you drive? Is that all you are? If so, fine. But if you aren't, if you would be more and leave a legacy of more, you know what you can do about it. Start with one other person and talk. Ask yourself what you would really do if you really loved yourself. And DO it. Share it with just one other. That is a must. If you start with just doing one thing and sharing it with just one other, the world will become a new place for you. I promise. Even if I'm wrong, what would you lose?
When you say “Take care,” so someone, mean it. Take care of yourself. Really.
As Red Green says, "We're rootin' for you.”
“To get wisdom is to love oneself.” - proverb
“This, above all: refuse to be a victim. Unless I can do that I can do nothing.” - Margaret
Do these symptoms point to selfishness? I don't think so. Stupidity, perhaps, or ignorance, at least. If we were selfish, wouldn't we be doing what was good for ourselves? If we loved ourselves would we be pushing poisons into our mouths? If we loved our children would we be putting them in front of TVs for six hours per day? Would we be feeding our faces to the point of diabetes and obesity if we desired our best? If we wanted the ultimate for our descendants would we knowingly be kicking the shit out of the world? Of course not! I think that our real problem is that we despise ourselves!
What the world needs now is people who care about themselves. Really! Go ahead and be selfish. Don't apologize. Learn to love yourself. It's what God, the world and the rest of us need. The god of materialism is killing us. The love of self has been abandoned for the love of excess and abuse. If we loved ourselves we wouldn't need beauty aids, fancy cars, face lifts, the latest fashions and fifty dollar hair cuts. We would know enough to not be taken in by the "What Toyota Are You?" adds. We would know who we are and who we aren't, and maybe even, who we could become.
Most of my dearest friends and family simply do not know how to love themselves. They spend most of their time and resources on things which are destructive to their bodies and spirits. According to what we hear and see, that is what we are supposed to do. The religious noise we hear says otherwise but they nor anyone else seems to provide any examples to back us the words. It is all so sad.
But talk about an opportunity! Do you love yourself? I've asked it before and I'll keep it up. Haven't you been given a brain that can tell the difference between life and death? Don't you really know what is good for you and what is not, what is good for your children and what is evil/unhealthy/deadening/stupidening?
God gave us all the reason and free will. If we continue to each stay isolated/stupid/blind and dying, it is simply by our own choice. And don't any of us dare complain, now or later. None of us has anything to complain about. We chose each day to live the way we are. Don't we dare blame the government or corporations or the schools or churches. WE are all of these things. We alone must accept what we will and do not doe. YOU and I perpetuate the lies and pass them on to those around us by our inaction and apathy, by how we spend our money and our time.
Are you what you drive? Is that all you are? If so, fine. But if you aren't, if you would be more and leave a legacy of more, you know what you can do about it. Start with one other person and talk. Ask yourself what you would really do if you really loved yourself. And DO it. Share it with just one other. That is a must. If you start with just doing one thing and sharing it with just one other, the world will become a new place for you. I promise. Even if I'm wrong, what would you lose?
When you say “Take care,” so someone, mean it. Take care of yourself. Really.
As Red Green says, "We're rootin' for you.”
“To get wisdom is to love oneself.” - proverb
“This, above all: refuse to be a victim. Unless I can do that I can do nothing.” - Margaret
Reflections on the 'Bridge" dream
STEP 29 REFLECTIONS ON THE DREAM
If you've been following along in my journey, you know that I've been on this writing stage for over a month. All along I've been telling you and myself of the need to activate beliefs or they die, to share with others in order to DO, that a person alone can do nothing. But NOTHING is precisely what I've done. My son has offered to build me a web sight to help me communicate but I've procrastinated and haven't gotten back to him.
I'm scared. I'd rather sit back and write to myself, make believing that that is enough. I'm afraid and dread the attention/looks/scorn?/pressure/scepticism/that might be directed my way if/when I start to really travel.
So, once more, an answer(s) have come my way. From God? Or my own convictions? Who knows? Who cares? Not me. I know that if I don't do what I know is my calling, I will be miserable and incomplete. I know that I am not up to the job, whatever it is. I know that much of what I bring, much of the baggage I have brought along is inadequate and might have to be discarded. I can only hope that many unseen others will be going my way and will give me a hand. In short, I have to trust a bit and get on with what is my best.
But I'd rather be sailing! And my boat is ready!
(I have had a love/fear relationship with my father. In reflecting upon the dream, its most wonderful gift was at the very end of the vision, he appeared. After going over some of the details of the bridge, where he put in his 'two cent's worth', we shared a warm and lasting hug. Just the memory of that enbrace brings tears to my eyes.)
“The object of teaching a child is to enable him/her to get along without the teacher.” - Elbert Hubbard
If you've been following along in my journey, you know that I've been on this writing stage for over a month. All along I've been telling you and myself of the need to activate beliefs or they die, to share with others in order to DO, that a person alone can do nothing. But NOTHING is precisely what I've done. My son has offered to build me a web sight to help me communicate but I've procrastinated and haven't gotten back to him.
I'm scared. I'd rather sit back and write to myself, make believing that that is enough. I'm afraid and dread the attention/looks/scorn?/pressure/scepticism/that might be directed my way if/when I start to really travel.
So, once more, an answer(s) have come my way. From God? Or my own convictions? Who knows? Who cares? Not me. I know that if I don't do what I know is my calling, I will be miserable and incomplete. I know that I am not up to the job, whatever it is. I know that much of what I bring, much of the baggage I have brought along is inadequate and might have to be discarded. I can only hope that many unseen others will be going my way and will give me a hand. In short, I have to trust a bit and get on with what is my best.
But I'd rather be sailing! And my boat is ready!
(I have had a love/fear relationship with my father. In reflecting upon the dream, its most wonderful gift was at the very end of the vision, he appeared. After going over some of the details of the bridge, where he put in his 'two cent's worth', we shared a warm and lasting hug. Just the memory of that enbrace brings tears to my eyes.)
“The object of teaching a child is to enable him/her to get along without the teacher.” - Elbert Hubbard
A Dream of Building a Bridge
STEP 28 A DREAM OF BUILDING A BRIDGE
the night of January 18, 2008
An all weather road had to be built in a wilderness area, a road on which I would be frequently traveling. It crossed a stream bed that was now dry but would often be filled with run off from the storms, so the job of building some sort of a bridge had to be done as soon as possible. I had a bunch of material left from other projects and I thought they would suffice. But I certainly couldn't do the work alone. I thought I knew where I could get a tractor or two to help move some logs.
My plan was to put a number of plastic culverts across the bottom of the stream bed, put logs above them to the depth of several feet and then fill over it all with dirt, on the top putting more logs length-wise on which to drive. I had never done this before but the idea was the best I could come up with and the material was all at hand.
To my pleasant surprise, I easily persuaded half a dozen people to give me a hand. They all lived up the road and were glad to help as it was to their benefit also.
The one snag in my scheme was that many of my materials were simply inadequate for the job. When I got them on sight and looked at them, what I had thought were culverts turned out to be plastic flower pots! But more usable stuff was soon found. How, or by whom, I don't know. And I don't know if we used the tractors. All I remember is a bunch of shovels and a large pile of dirt.
The results was good: a useable bridge, but not one on which you would drive a Rolls Royce. It would stand up to a few high waters and maybe last for several years before it would have to be replaced or repaired.
(Throughout the dream there was an ongoing presence of my father who died some twenty-five years ago. In the dream he was very supportive of the project but could not take direct part himself because of an illness. I had to promise him that I would leave some work for him to do when he was able; he wanted so very much to be a part of the project.)
“The last cenury made the world a neighbourhood; this century must make it a family. The more I have studied economics, the more I have come to the conclusion that this is true. The chose is that or the deluge.” - J.S. Woodsworth
“Many hands make light work.” - common saying
the night of January 18, 2008
An all weather road had to be built in a wilderness area, a road on which I would be frequently traveling. It crossed a stream bed that was now dry but would often be filled with run off from the storms, so the job of building some sort of a bridge had to be done as soon as possible. I had a bunch of material left from other projects and I thought they would suffice. But I certainly couldn't do the work alone. I thought I knew where I could get a tractor or two to help move some logs.
My plan was to put a number of plastic culverts across the bottom of the stream bed, put logs above them to the depth of several feet and then fill over it all with dirt, on the top putting more logs length-wise on which to drive. I had never done this before but the idea was the best I could come up with and the material was all at hand.
To my pleasant surprise, I easily persuaded half a dozen people to give me a hand. They all lived up the road and were glad to help as it was to their benefit also.
The one snag in my scheme was that many of my materials were simply inadequate for the job. When I got them on sight and looked at them, what I had thought were culverts turned out to be plastic flower pots! But more usable stuff was soon found. How, or by whom, I don't know. And I don't know if we used the tractors. All I remember is a bunch of shovels and a large pile of dirt.
The results was good: a useable bridge, but not one on which you would drive a Rolls Royce. It would stand up to a few high waters and maybe last for several years before it would have to be replaced or repaired.
(Throughout the dream there was an ongoing presence of my father who died some twenty-five years ago. In the dream he was very supportive of the project but could not take direct part himself because of an illness. I had to promise him that I would leave some work for him to do when he was able; he wanted so very much to be a part of the project.)
“The last cenury made the world a neighbourhood; this century must make it a family. The more I have studied economics, the more I have come to the conclusion that this is true. The chose is that or the deluge.” - J.S. Woodsworth
“Many hands make light work.” - common saying
Another False Doctrine - Inerrancy of Scripture
STEP 27 ANOTHER FALSE DOCTRINE - THE INERRANCY OF SCRIPTURE
The scripture of the Jewish faith was something in motion and transition. It was not frozen until the first and second century A.D., after many of the newer writings had been used to lead the people to revolt against the hated Roman occupation. The understanding then was that if a writing was used to back a losing cause it could not be a Word of God. However, within the Jewish faith there has continued to be a great variety of life and change because of the custom of debate that has been maintained.
The Christian cannon was establised more for political reasons (of the Roman Empire) and was never blessed with the tradition of debate. For much of its history, until the 1600's or so, most "believers" were illiterate, so little discussion and questioning took place. It was very easy to assume a static and "once is forever" value. Nothing could be farther from what the original writers wanted.
What they passionately desired was to convey/communicate the reality of love/God to the world around them so that others might live in the joy and freedom they were experiencing. They certainly didn't expect or hope that their words were the only and last words on the subject. That would hardly have been good news to them.
Within the Christian cannon of scriptures we have a great variety of writings: private letters, open letters, letters in the name of others (as was the custom), gospels from various communities of faith that are based upon the available sayings and traditions of Jesus of Nazareth but fleshed out in ways that best told the truth in story form. To take these writings most seriously, each has to be looked at on its own. If we are to get the most from them we first ask the questions of who wrote them? Why? Who were they addressed to? What were the assumptions and the conditions of the time? Only when we answer these questions can we begin to answer our own question, "What does it mean for us?" When we don't honour the texts enough to do our homework we make grave errors. When we remain ignorant and unquestioning we are vulnerable to any interpretation of others and often give in to the blatantly stupid.
An easy example of this is that the Jehovah Witnesses place a great deal of importance on an insignifant passage from Revelations where it says that 144,000 will enter heaven. That sounds like a pretty small number. And when you know that those of your sect are at the top of the list, and that there are many millions of Jehovah Witnesses, they you’d better work your butt off getting to the top of the line. You’d better knock on as may doors as possible for every convert you bring in pushes you up the line a bit. Not a happy bunch. Not much love. It’s a double shame when even a few minutes researching the source reminds us that as in all apocolypic writings, (done in times of persecution) symbols and psyduodymns are used to protect the people. In the language of the believers, following the Jewish customs, seven and twelve were perfect and blessed numbers. So what would be more perfect and blessed than twelve twelves (144)? And what was the biggest number in the Roman system? One thousand.
So what would symbolize the biggest, most perfect number immaginable? 144,000. Exactly the opposite meaning that the Witensses have adopted as the one truth upon which to build their house of cards. (And still people join them! Doesn’t say much for our intellegence, does it?)
So, yes, I prioritize scripture. I read all through the lense of LOVE. I believe, as a child of Mother/Father God, I have been given reason and soul that I might find and know the truth. I know that what we call "The Holy Bible" is indeed holy. So are many other writings. Anything is holy if through it true understanding has been found and can be found. But this doesn't mean that all words within these writings are for us as they stand. Some, in fact, might be warnings to us, pointing to how we and others can and have warped and misunderstood God's Will for us.
So you can understand that many say that I am NOT a Christian. But that's all right with me. I don't claim to be one. What I am is one who knows that the WAY of Jesus of Nazareth is the way for me to live, to get the most out of life and to journey toward the Source of All. I call myself a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. That's plenty. All I read, be it from scriptures deemed "holy" or from popular si-fi novels, is read with this in mind and heart. How could it be otherwise?
“Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth.” - Buddha
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowned us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” - Galileo Galilie
“Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half the population is stupider.” - George Carlin
“Artificial intelligence is no match for human stupidity.” - Red Green
The scripture of the Jewish faith was something in motion and transition. It was not frozen until the first and second century A.D., after many of the newer writings had been used to lead the people to revolt against the hated Roman occupation. The understanding then was that if a writing was used to back a losing cause it could not be a Word of God. However, within the Jewish faith there has continued to be a great variety of life and change because of the custom of debate that has been maintained.
The Christian cannon was establised more for political reasons (of the Roman Empire) and was never blessed with the tradition of debate. For much of its history, until the 1600's or so, most "believers" were illiterate, so little discussion and questioning took place. It was very easy to assume a static and "once is forever" value. Nothing could be farther from what the original writers wanted.
What they passionately desired was to convey/communicate the reality of love/God to the world around them so that others might live in the joy and freedom they were experiencing. They certainly didn't expect or hope that their words were the only and last words on the subject. That would hardly have been good news to them.
Within the Christian cannon of scriptures we have a great variety of writings: private letters, open letters, letters in the name of others (as was the custom), gospels from various communities of faith that are based upon the available sayings and traditions of Jesus of Nazareth but fleshed out in ways that best told the truth in story form. To take these writings most seriously, each has to be looked at on its own. If we are to get the most from them we first ask the questions of who wrote them? Why? Who were they addressed to? What were the assumptions and the conditions of the time? Only when we answer these questions can we begin to answer our own question, "What does it mean for us?" When we don't honour the texts enough to do our homework we make grave errors. When we remain ignorant and unquestioning we are vulnerable to any interpretation of others and often give in to the blatantly stupid.
An easy example of this is that the Jehovah Witnesses place a great deal of importance on an insignifant passage from Revelations where it says that 144,000 will enter heaven. That sounds like a pretty small number. And when you know that those of your sect are at the top of the list, and that there are many millions of Jehovah Witnesses, they you’d better work your butt off getting to the top of the line. You’d better knock on as may doors as possible for every convert you bring in pushes you up the line a bit. Not a happy bunch. Not much love. It’s a double shame when even a few minutes researching the source reminds us that as in all apocolypic writings, (done in times of persecution) symbols and psyduodymns are used to protect the people. In the language of the believers, following the Jewish customs, seven and twelve were perfect and blessed numbers. So what would be more perfect and blessed than twelve twelves (144)? And what was the biggest number in the Roman system? One thousand.
So what would symbolize the biggest, most perfect number immaginable? 144,000. Exactly the opposite meaning that the Witensses have adopted as the one truth upon which to build their house of cards. (And still people join them! Doesn’t say much for our intellegence, does it?)
So, yes, I prioritize scripture. I read all through the lense of LOVE. I believe, as a child of Mother/Father God, I have been given reason and soul that I might find and know the truth. I know that what we call "The Holy Bible" is indeed holy. So are many other writings. Anything is holy if through it true understanding has been found and can be found. But this doesn't mean that all words within these writings are for us as they stand. Some, in fact, might be warnings to us, pointing to how we and others can and have warped and misunderstood God's Will for us.
So you can understand that many say that I am NOT a Christian. But that's all right with me. I don't claim to be one. What I am is one who knows that the WAY of Jesus of Nazareth is the way for me to live, to get the most out of life and to journey toward the Source of All. I call myself a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. That's plenty. All I read, be it from scriptures deemed "holy" or from popular si-fi novels, is read with this in mind and heart. How could it be otherwise?
“Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth.” - Buddha
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowned us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” - Galileo Galilie
“Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half the population is stupider.” - George Carlin
“Artificial intelligence is no match for human stupidity.” - Red Green
Jesus Was No Sacrifice
STEP 26 THE FALSE DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE
I am frequently asked to explain how Jesus' death saves us from hell. There is no doctrine that is more central to the official church belief nor more of a barrier to non-believers. This is truly an ironical and unnecessary tragedy.
There is no doubt that Jesus was killed by the Romans for crimes against Rome. There were three charges; guilty on all accounts: urging people to not pay their taxes to Rome - causing a revolt - claiming to be king (Messiah). (His followers claimed as much and that was the same thing under law.) There was also no doubt that Jesus could have gotten away. In a very real way he chose to die. I'm not going to un-pack the resurrection experiences at this point, but the truth was, his followers did experience his presence after his death in ways to change their whole lives and points of view. Afterwards they could only try with all their hearts to answer the questions of, why did he chose to die, what did he die for and what did it mean to them.
The immediate followers understood that the death and resurrection of Jesus proved that the WAY of Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the WAY of Yahweh, the Giver of Life. Jesus had died in order to show them that truth. That understanding allowed and gave them the courage to live that WAY in spite of all else. It was not a matter of doctrine but of experience and a change of being. Guilt and sin was not really a part of it. Life was. Death didn't matter any more. They were free of the power of death so they could get on with a life of love. It was the only thing that mattered.
But this event/understanding did not stay isolated. Saul of Tarsus (Paul) and others took the message to those in the Greek-mentality world around them. Their message was simple: "The loving God of creation, known primarily by the Jews, is available and open to all and can be known through the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Through him you can be freed of what binds you to ways of evil and death. Jesus has shown that those powers are meaningless! Believe. Follow. Live."
The words, symbols and actions used in this message were, of course, different than with the Jewish core. Those in the Greek understanding thought in terms of sacrifice, not love. Literally every Gentile understanding of the divine in back then included buying off the gods in some way. Any people who were involved with the "holy" were kept poor by the assumed and constant need to appease the gods. Gods of love, of travel, of weather, of crops, of sex, etc., etc,. There were few traditional gods that could be thought of as even being neutral. The most people could hope for was to be ignored. Gifts (sacrifices) to the many temples were how to keep the gods happy or away from you. Religious people's lives meant enslavement to sacrifice. It would never stop.
Obviously, the idea of freedom through Jesus (soon to be called the Christ) meant a change of all that. Sacrifices were no longer needed. Also obviously, because they had always thought in terms of sacrifice, if sacrifices were no longer needed, it had to be, in their thought, because a bigger and better, the biggest and best sacrifice possible had been made. This sacrifical way of thinking was so pervasive that literally every meat/butcher shop in every city was dedicated to one or more gods. As long as you were eating meat, it might as well be at least a semi-sacrifice to a god. It couldn't do any harm, even if you didn't really buy into it. Every death was seen as connected to a god. How could it be any different in the case of Jesus of Nazareth? What more logical way of making sense of his death? When Paul, a Jew and one who saw sacrifice as something else entirely, was trying to explain to others the importance of Jesus, how natural it was to speak in terms of sacrifice, the ultimate gift of love that enabled all to be set free. It worked. It connected. It made the "WORD" become FLESH to those people.
But to us? It sounds crazy. It goes against our thoughts and experiences. To us the scenario spells out something likes this. "There is a one and loving God of the universe. He had one Son whom He loved more than all of creation. God loved this Son so much, God sent Him down to earth in the form (lowly, sinful, fleshy, abhorant) of a person. People wouldn't believe and follow this Son of God so God had him killed so that God could raise Him from death, that the sinful and stupid people would believe. Those that do believe, finally, God welcomes to eternal life and those that don't understand, fry forever. (God still loves them, of coarse, but tough luck.) That the believers get to heaven at all is made possible by the fact that the Son willingly choose to die, becoming a big enough sacrifice to balance off all the mean and dirty stuff that humans have ever done and even will ever do. All those who were born before Jesus’ sacrifice or who haven’t heard? Again, tough luck. They fry also.”
The trouble is, we just don't think in those terms. We don't believe that a loving parent with ten imperfect children and one perfect child would/should/could ask the one good kid to kill himself. We don't think that it would make everything that the other ten had done suddenly all right. It doesn't make sense. It isn't loving and it isn't right. So don't believe it. And so we shouldn't.
So what do we do? We go back to the question that the doctrine/explaination of sacrifice answered then, and ask it using our own words and sybols. Don't let Paul get you confused. Read his words for what they were and are, not as the specifics as how we need understand the death of Jesus, but as a true example of how that changed lives back then, and be encouraged and challenged to re-hear the news anew for ourselves. If we allow ourselves to be limited by that language, how tragic, wasteful and sad. How deadly, for us and the world.
If Jesus took the form of sacrifice for the people then, if that was the paradymn that fitted and explained for them the new life that was offered, what is the paradymn for us? Before we answer, we need to remind ourselves repeatedly of how the earliest followers, those Jews who had known Jesus, thought of him. Remember how they lived, following the WAY, looking to Jesus as One Who showed and spoke God's WORD. Maybe that's enough, now as it was then. Maybe all we need to do is read what is there and look around the imagry that doesn't make sense to us and take seriously the results that the gospel had upon the people at that time. But we need to beware of the words of today that do not result in results of new life and love. They must be rejected. And they surround us. When we run into language that insults our intelligence, we need to throw them out, but not throw out the baby. Toss out the stuff that are barriers but keep the truth. Don’t feel guilty about challenging scripture. If these words in the Bible are indeed holy, God's Word will come through to us, if we are looking.
“It does not take many words to speak the truth.” - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce
“If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its devolopment.” - Aristotle
I am frequently asked to explain how Jesus' death saves us from hell. There is no doctrine that is more central to the official church belief nor more of a barrier to non-believers. This is truly an ironical and unnecessary tragedy.
There is no doubt that Jesus was killed by the Romans for crimes against Rome. There were three charges; guilty on all accounts: urging people to not pay their taxes to Rome - causing a revolt - claiming to be king (Messiah). (His followers claimed as much and that was the same thing under law.) There was also no doubt that Jesus could have gotten away. In a very real way he chose to die. I'm not going to un-pack the resurrection experiences at this point, but the truth was, his followers did experience his presence after his death in ways to change their whole lives and points of view. Afterwards they could only try with all their hearts to answer the questions of, why did he chose to die, what did he die for and what did it mean to them.
The immediate followers understood that the death and resurrection of Jesus proved that the WAY of Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the WAY of Yahweh, the Giver of Life. Jesus had died in order to show them that truth. That understanding allowed and gave them the courage to live that WAY in spite of all else. It was not a matter of doctrine but of experience and a change of being. Guilt and sin was not really a part of it. Life was. Death didn't matter any more. They were free of the power of death so they could get on with a life of love. It was the only thing that mattered.
But this event/understanding did not stay isolated. Saul of Tarsus (Paul) and others took the message to those in the Greek-mentality world around them. Their message was simple: "The loving God of creation, known primarily by the Jews, is available and open to all and can be known through the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Through him you can be freed of what binds you to ways of evil and death. Jesus has shown that those powers are meaningless! Believe. Follow. Live."
The words, symbols and actions used in this message were, of course, different than with the Jewish core. Those in the Greek understanding thought in terms of sacrifice, not love. Literally every Gentile understanding of the divine in back then included buying off the gods in some way. Any people who were involved with the "holy" were kept poor by the assumed and constant need to appease the gods. Gods of love, of travel, of weather, of crops, of sex, etc., etc,. There were few traditional gods that could be thought of as even being neutral. The most people could hope for was to be ignored. Gifts (sacrifices) to the many temples were how to keep the gods happy or away from you. Religious people's lives meant enslavement to sacrifice. It would never stop.
Obviously, the idea of freedom through Jesus (soon to be called the Christ) meant a change of all that. Sacrifices were no longer needed. Also obviously, because they had always thought in terms of sacrifice, if sacrifices were no longer needed, it had to be, in their thought, because a bigger and better, the biggest and best sacrifice possible had been made. This sacrifical way of thinking was so pervasive that literally every meat/butcher shop in every city was dedicated to one or more gods. As long as you were eating meat, it might as well be at least a semi-sacrifice to a god. It couldn't do any harm, even if you didn't really buy into it. Every death was seen as connected to a god. How could it be any different in the case of Jesus of Nazareth? What more logical way of making sense of his death? When Paul, a Jew and one who saw sacrifice as something else entirely, was trying to explain to others the importance of Jesus, how natural it was to speak in terms of sacrifice, the ultimate gift of love that enabled all to be set free. It worked. It connected. It made the "WORD" become FLESH to those people.
But to us? It sounds crazy. It goes against our thoughts and experiences. To us the scenario spells out something likes this. "There is a one and loving God of the universe. He had one Son whom He loved more than all of creation. God loved this Son so much, God sent Him down to earth in the form (lowly, sinful, fleshy, abhorant) of a person. People wouldn't believe and follow this Son of God so God had him killed so that God could raise Him from death, that the sinful and stupid people would believe. Those that do believe, finally, God welcomes to eternal life and those that don't understand, fry forever. (God still loves them, of coarse, but tough luck.) That the believers get to heaven at all is made possible by the fact that the Son willingly choose to die, becoming a big enough sacrifice to balance off all the mean and dirty stuff that humans have ever done and even will ever do. All those who were born before Jesus’ sacrifice or who haven’t heard? Again, tough luck. They fry also.”
The trouble is, we just don't think in those terms. We don't believe that a loving parent with ten imperfect children and one perfect child would/should/could ask the one good kid to kill himself. We don't think that it would make everything that the other ten had done suddenly all right. It doesn't make sense. It isn't loving and it isn't right. So don't believe it. And so we shouldn't.
So what do we do? We go back to the question that the doctrine/explaination of sacrifice answered then, and ask it using our own words and sybols. Don't let Paul get you confused. Read his words for what they were and are, not as the specifics as how we need understand the death of Jesus, but as a true example of how that changed lives back then, and be encouraged and challenged to re-hear the news anew for ourselves. If we allow ourselves to be limited by that language, how tragic, wasteful and sad. How deadly, for us and the world.
If Jesus took the form of sacrifice for the people then, if that was the paradymn that fitted and explained for them the new life that was offered, what is the paradymn for us? Before we answer, we need to remind ourselves repeatedly of how the earliest followers, those Jews who had known Jesus, thought of him. Remember how they lived, following the WAY, looking to Jesus as One Who showed and spoke God's WORD. Maybe that's enough, now as it was then. Maybe all we need to do is read what is there and look around the imagry that doesn't make sense to us and take seriously the results that the gospel had upon the people at that time. But we need to beware of the words of today that do not result in results of new life and love. They must be rejected. And they surround us. When we run into language that insults our intelligence, we need to throw them out, but not throw out the baby. Toss out the stuff that are barriers but keep the truth. Don’t feel guilty about challenging scripture. If these words in the Bible are indeed holy, God's Word will come through to us, if we are looking.
“It does not take many words to speak the truth.” - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce
“If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its devolopment.” - Aristotle
Many Words in Churches are Not True
STEP 24 THE WORD AND BEING PART OF IT
From the earliest awarenesses of what we call GOD the ancients (Jews) knew of a concept that could only be called WORD, intimitant and personal communication that was/is one with power and action. This is and demonstrates God's WAY with creation and us as children. "In the beginning.... God created...God said.....and it was.....and it was good." Again and again we are told, "and God said..." We know of God's WORD, then, in creation. Again and again "and God's WORD came to ......" we are told of the prophets. The followers of Jesus of Nazareth heard and understood the WORDS of the Holy anew through him and could only continue in that tradition by writing in the Gospel we call John, "In the beginning was the Word.....and the Word became flesh and lived among us..." so real was God's Word to them through the experience of Jesus, to them the Christ.
God's WORD was not a static or a "then" thing but a constant yet fluid reality, a present condition of God and characteristic that proved and even force communication, love and the awareness that the reality of God brought. God was/is not distant. The Bet Middler song "From a Distance" would have been known as a lie. That it wasn't to us shows our grave ignorance and immaturity spiritually.
The most basic tenants of Jewish belief included that fact of communication between God and us. It is not just a possibility, it is simply the way things are. We as people are called (communication again) to be children. We are made this way, able (if not willing) to communicate. And to communicated with others. Although we have individual realizations and WORDS, if you will, come to us in individual communication with God (call it prayer, visions, flashes, meditation, etc.) any supposed WORD can only become real and be verified as true or untrue through the light and scrutany of others and the world around us.
In fact any Word must be shared. If it stays unshared it dies. It is wasted. And woe to the person, or group to whom the Word came if it isn't shared. Not that they're going to any Danteian Hell but any Word that is held within will fester and be forever an incomplete void in the heart and soul of those who captured and held it forever, who were stupid/cowardly/arrogant and unloving enough to judge God's Word themselves. God's Word needs to be shared/heard/passed on and debated in order to become action. This is true of all aspects of the Word. As I have mentioned, this is one great shortcoming of most churches. God's Word is limited to the experts. The majority of church goers sit and listen; they do not participate in any way in God's Word. So of course they stay small in understanding and even smaller in doing. We have re-written John to "and the Word was made flesh in our clergy and is told to us.." We are afraid to debate any spiritual understanding or action. We assume that Jesus was an enemy of those with whom hee debated (ususually Pharaces) when as a teacher he knew that debating is the only way we learn.
If we don't participate in the word, not only do we not grow, we literally kill the word. So the habit of the most churches in limiting discussion and involvement is not only not good, it is plainly evil. Any minister who preaches only, who doesn't make it as easy to dialogue/question/share re his sermon as it was easy to come and hear it, is not only shirking his duty or being "modern", he is actually lying to the people and keeping them small. He is acting against God's WILL and WORD. S/he is deluding children of God by actions and inaction that imply that sitting on their and hearing is all that is available to us, that we, the resultants is what God as Parent has in mind.
Those of us within worship congregations, in any/all ways you can, challenge your leadership and provide leadership yourselves to allow God's WORD to be shared within your church. If it simply can not happed, leave it now! Of chose to simply not grow and waste your life and what growing influence you might have been to those around you had you become yourself more a part of God's WORD. And if you are not in a faith community, become one. Know that we each and all can become a conduit for God's WORD. We don't have to feel we have any answers of something to preach. But we do have ourselves to share, questions of life and love to kick around. Let us know that in doing so we are recognizing ourselves as HOLY. This doing is as much "We are each free to answer. We do this with each other. It is not difficult. And it is so much more fun to be free with others in God's WORD than to remain alone.
Know that you often won't agree. But neither did the followers of Jesus. Know that you will be challenged and uncomfortable. Know that because most of us haven't done this very much and will get to excited for we have long been in the habit of arguing and condeming instead of debate and sharing. Remember to listen with love for it is risky for another to be open to any others about their questions and experiences. Remember that all people really do share common questions and needs of life but that their words may be radically different. Remember that God loves them as much as you. Stand up for your rights to be heard. Hope to be understood but don't expect it. Even Jesus wasn't understood most of the time. But above all, become part of the WORD. The cost is well worth it!
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pearse
"Language exerts hidden power, like moon on the tides." - Rita Mae Brown
From the earliest awarenesses of what we call GOD the ancients (Jews) knew of a concept that could only be called WORD, intimitant and personal communication that was/is one with power and action. This is and demonstrates God's WAY with creation and us as children. "In the beginning.... God created...God said.....and it was.....and it was good." Again and again we are told, "and God said..." We know of God's WORD, then, in creation. Again and again "and God's WORD came to ......" we are told of the prophets. The followers of Jesus of Nazareth heard and understood the WORDS of the Holy anew through him and could only continue in that tradition by writing in the Gospel we call John, "In the beginning was the Word.....and the Word became flesh and lived among us..." so real was God's Word to them through the experience of Jesus, to them the Christ.
God's WORD was not a static or a "then" thing but a constant yet fluid reality, a present condition of God and characteristic that proved and even force communication, love and the awareness that the reality of God brought. God was/is not distant. The Bet Middler song "From a Distance" would have been known as a lie. That it wasn't to us shows our grave ignorance and immaturity spiritually.
The most basic tenants of Jewish belief included that fact of communication between God and us. It is not just a possibility, it is simply the way things are. We as people are called (communication again) to be children. We are made this way, able (if not willing) to communicate. And to communicated with others. Although we have individual realizations and WORDS, if you will, come to us in individual communication with God (call it prayer, visions, flashes, meditation, etc.) any supposed WORD can only become real and be verified as true or untrue through the light and scrutany of others and the world around us.
In fact any Word must be shared. If it stays unshared it dies. It is wasted. And woe to the person, or group to whom the Word came if it isn't shared. Not that they're going to any Danteian Hell but any Word that is held within will fester and be forever an incomplete void in the heart and soul of those who captured and held it forever, who were stupid/cowardly/arrogant and unloving enough to judge God's Word themselves. God's Word needs to be shared/heard/passed on and debated in order to become action. This is true of all aspects of the Word. As I have mentioned, this is one great shortcoming of most churches. God's Word is limited to the experts. The majority of church goers sit and listen; they do not participate in any way in God's Word. So of course they stay small in understanding and even smaller in doing. We have re-written John to "and the Word was made flesh in our clergy and is told to us.." We are afraid to debate any spiritual understanding or action. We assume that Jesus was an enemy of those with whom hee debated (ususually Pharaces) when as a teacher he knew that debating is the only way we learn.
If we don't participate in the word, not only do we not grow, we literally kill the word. So the habit of the most churches in limiting discussion and involvement is not only not good, it is plainly evil. Any minister who preaches only, who doesn't make it as easy to dialogue/question/share re his sermon as it was easy to come and hear it, is not only shirking his duty or being "modern", he is actually lying to the people and keeping them small. He is acting against God's WILL and WORD. S/he is deluding children of God by actions and inaction that imply that sitting on their and hearing is all that is available to us, that we, the resultants is what God as Parent has in mind.
Those of us within worship congregations, in any/all ways you can, challenge your leadership and provide leadership yourselves to allow God's WORD to be shared within your church. If it simply can not happed, leave it now! Of chose to simply not grow and waste your life and what growing influence you might have been to those around you had you become yourself more a part of God's WORD. And if you are not in a faith community, become one. Know that we each and all can become a conduit for God's WORD. We don't have to feel we have any answers of something to preach. But we do have ourselves to share, questions of life and love to kick around. Let us know that in doing so we are recognizing ourselves as HOLY. This doing is as much "We are each free to answer. We do this with each other. It is not difficult. And it is so much more fun to be free with others in God's WORD than to remain alone.
Know that you often won't agree. But neither did the followers of Jesus. Know that you will be challenged and uncomfortable. Know that because most of us haven't done this very much and will get to excited for we have long been in the habit of arguing and condeming instead of debate and sharing. Remember to listen with love for it is risky for another to be open to any others about their questions and experiences. Remember that all people really do share common questions and needs of life but that their words may be radically different. Remember that God loves them as much as you. Stand up for your rights to be heard. Hope to be understood but don't expect it. Even Jesus wasn't understood most of the time. But above all, become part of the WORD. The cost is well worth it!
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pearse
"Language exerts hidden power, like moon on the tides." - Rita Mae Brown
God's WORD - Being Part if It
STEP 24 THE WORD AND BEING PART OF IT
From the earliest awarenesses of what we call GOD the ancients (Jews) knew of a concept that could only be called WORD, intimitant and personal communication that was/is one with power and action. This is and demonstrates God's WAY with creation and us as children. "In the beginning.... God created...God said.....and it was.....and it was good." Again and again we are told, "and God said..." We know of God's WORD, then, in creation. Again and again "and God's WORD came to ......" we are told of the prophets. The followers of Jesus of Nazareth heard and understood the WORDS of the Holy anew through him and could only continue in that tradition by writing in the Gospel we call John, "In the beginning was the Word.....and the Word became flesh and lived among us..." so real was God's Word to them through the experience of Jesus, to them the Christ.
God's WORD was not a static or a "then" thing but a constant yet fluid reality, a present condition of God and characteristic that proved and even force communication, love and the awareness that the reality of God brought. God was/is not distant. The Bet Middler song "From a Distance" would have been known as a lie. That it wasn't to us shows our grave ignorance and immaturity spiritually.
The most basic tenants of Jewish belief included that fact of communication between God and us. It is not just a possibility, it is simply the way things are. We as people are called (communication again) to be children. We are made this way, able (if not willing) to communicate. And to communicated with others. Although we have individual realizations and WORDS, if you will, come to us in individual communication with God (call it prayer, visions, flashes, meditation, etc.) any supposed WORD can only become real and be verified as true or untrue through the light and scrutany of others and the world around us.
In fact any Word must be shared. If it stays unshared it dies. It is wasted. And woe to the person, or group to whom the Word came if it isn't shared. Not that they're going to any Danteian Hell but any Word that is held within will fester and be forever an incomplete void in the heart and soul of those who captured and held it forever, who were stupid/cowardly/arrogant and unloving enough to judge God's Word themselves. God's Word needs to be shared/heard/passed on and debated in order to become action. This is true of all aspects of the Word. As I have mentioned, this is one great shortcoming of most churches. God's Word is limited to the experts. The majority of church goers sit and listen; they do not participate in any way in God's Word. So of course they stay small in understanding and even smaller in doing. We have re-written John to "and the Word was made flesh in our clergy and is told to us.." We are afraid to debate any spiritual understanding or action. We assume that Jesus was an enemy of those with whom hee debated (ususually Pharaces) when as a teacher he knew that debating is the only way we learn.
If we don't participate in the word, not only do we not grow, we literally kill the word. So the habit of the most churches in limiting discussion and involvement is not only not good, it is plainly evil. Any minister who preaches only, who doesn't make it as easy to dialogue/question/share re his sermon as it was easy to come and hear it, is not only shirking his duty or being "modern", he is actually lying to the people and keeping them small. He is acting against God's WILL and WORD. S/he is deluding children of God by actions and inaction that imply that sitting on their and hearing is all that is available to us, that we, the resultants is what God as Parent has in mind.
Those of us within worship congregations, in any/all ways you can, challenge your leadership and provide leadership yourselves to allow God's WORD to be shared within your church. If it simply can not happed, leave it now! Of chose to simply not grow and waste your life and what growing influence you might have been to those around you had you become yourself more a part of God's WORD. And if you are not in a faith community, become one. Know that we each and all can become a conduit for God's WORD. We don't have to feel we have any answers of something to preach. But we do have ourselves to share, questions of life and love to kick around. Let us know that in doing so we are recognizing ourselves as HOLY. This doing is as much "We are each free to answer. We do this with each other. It is not difficult. And it is so much more fun to be free with others in God's WORD than to remain alone.
Know that you often won't agree. But neither did the followers of Jesus. Know that you will be challenged and uncomfortable. Know that because most of us haven't done this very much and will get to excited for we have long been in the habit of arguing and condeming instead of debate and sharing. Remember to listen with love for it is risky for another to be open to any others about their questions and experiences. Remember that all people really do share common questions and needs of life but that their words may be radically different. Remember that God loves them as much as you. Stand up for your rights to be heard. Hope to be understood but don't expect it. Even Jesus wasn't understood most of the time. But above all, become part of the WORD. The cost is well worth it!
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pearse
"Language exerts hidden power, like moon on the tides." - Rita Mae Brown
From the earliest awarenesses of what we call GOD the ancients (Jews) knew of a concept that could only be called WORD, intimitant and personal communication that was/is one with power and action. This is and demonstrates God's WAY with creation and us as children. "In the beginning.... God created...God said.....and it was.....and it was good." Again and again we are told, "and God said..." We know of God's WORD, then, in creation. Again and again "and God's WORD came to ......" we are told of the prophets. The followers of Jesus of Nazareth heard and understood the WORDS of the Holy anew through him and could only continue in that tradition by writing in the Gospel we call John, "In the beginning was the Word.....and the Word became flesh and lived among us..." so real was God's Word to them through the experience of Jesus, to them the Christ.
God's WORD was not a static or a "then" thing but a constant yet fluid reality, a present condition of God and characteristic that proved and even force communication, love and the awareness that the reality of God brought. God was/is not distant. The Bet Middler song "From a Distance" would have been known as a lie. That it wasn't to us shows our grave ignorance and immaturity spiritually.
The most basic tenants of Jewish belief included that fact of communication between God and us. It is not just a possibility, it is simply the way things are. We as people are called (communication again) to be children. We are made this way, able (if not willing) to communicate. And to communicated with others. Although we have individual realizations and WORDS, if you will, come to us in individual communication with God (call it prayer, visions, flashes, meditation, etc.) any supposed WORD can only become real and be verified as true or untrue through the light and scrutany of others and the world around us.
In fact any Word must be shared. If it stays unshared it dies. It is wasted. And woe to the person, or group to whom the Word came if it isn't shared. Not that they're going to any Danteian Hell but any Word that is held within will fester and be forever an incomplete void in the heart and soul of those who captured and held it forever, who were stupid/cowardly/arrogant and unloving enough to judge God's Word themselves. God's Word needs to be shared/heard/passed on and debated in order to become action. This is true of all aspects of the Word. As I have mentioned, this is one great shortcoming of most churches. God's Word is limited to the experts. The majority of church goers sit and listen; they do not participate in any way in God's Word. So of course they stay small in understanding and even smaller in doing. We have re-written John to "and the Word was made flesh in our clergy and is told to us.." We are afraid to debate any spiritual understanding or action. We assume that Jesus was an enemy of those with whom hee debated (ususually Pharaces) when as a teacher he knew that debating is the only way we learn.
If we don't participate in the word, not only do we not grow, we literally kill the word. So the habit of the most churches in limiting discussion and involvement is not only not good, it is plainly evil. Any minister who preaches only, who doesn't make it as easy to dialogue/question/share re his sermon as it was easy to come and hear it, is not only shirking his duty or being "modern", he is actually lying to the people and keeping them small. He is acting against God's WILL and WORD. S/he is deluding children of God by actions and inaction that imply that sitting on their and hearing is all that is available to us, that we, the resultants is what God as Parent has in mind.
Those of us within worship congregations, in any/all ways you can, challenge your leadership and provide leadership yourselves to allow God's WORD to be shared within your church. If it simply can not happed, leave it now! Of chose to simply not grow and waste your life and what growing influence you might have been to those around you had you become yourself more a part of God's WORD. And if you are not in a faith community, become one. Know that we each and all can become a conduit for God's WORD. We don't have to feel we have any answers of something to preach. But we do have ourselves to share, questions of life and love to kick around. Let us know that in doing so we are recognizing ourselves as HOLY. This doing is as much "We are each free to answer. We do this with each other. It is not difficult. And it is so much more fun to be free with others in God's WORD than to remain alone.
Know that you often won't agree. But neither did the followers of Jesus. Know that you will be challenged and uncomfortable. Know that because most of us haven't done this very much and will get to excited for we have long been in the habit of arguing and condeming instead of debate and sharing. Remember to listen with love for it is risky for another to be open to any others about their questions and experiences. Remember that all people really do share common questions and needs of life but that their words may be radically different. Remember that God loves them as much as you. Stand up for your rights to be heard. Hope to be understood but don't expect it. Even Jesus wasn't understood most of the time. But above all, become part of the WORD. The cost is well worth it!
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pearse
"Language exerts hidden power, like moon on the tides." - Rita Mae Brown
How To Go From Congregation to Community?
STEP 23 FROM CONGREGATIONS INTO COMMUNITY
Church congregations that are dying rarely have grown spiritually to the point of community, let alone family. The members merely congregate around worship and paying the bills. And if the worship is not attractive to outsiders than of course the group eventually dwindles and dies. They have nothing to offer.
A group that becomes or starts out as a real community has much more to offer than mere individuals is isolation. It is an entirely different animal and is experienced by the newcomer most differently. All of us need community. We are communal/social animals. We need a place/opportunity to receive, give, share, be taken seriously, live, die, celebrate and mourn. We need others in order to be and become ourselves. We need a place in which to ask questions and share answers. This does not happen in a congregation. It happens only within community, a place of family in the good sense. People that enter the church for the first time are impressed mostly by what sense of community (family) they experience. They may not be able to put it into those words but that is what it is usually about for them.
The music is important. So is the sermon and minister. Were they greeted warmly and honestly? Did the people hang around before and after talking and sharing? Were all ages and types at ease and welcome? Was there LIFE there, things going on that told you that words became action? But mainly, is there a feeling love? Do they care about each other? Would they care about you? Would you have to change and conform before they did? In short, firstly, is there real community and secondly, is it a community to which you would like to be a part of?
If you would survive and grow, churches, you must know that you only have yourselves to offer to others. You can not offer God/Christ apart from through you. And you can not do this as individuals only but only through community. Your first question MUST be, HOW CAN WE BECOME MORE OF A COMMUNITY OF FAITH (FAMILY)? At all board meetings this must be the underlying question and criteria for all other decisions. Questions regarding worship must be only answered by how a certain practice would build or detract from the sense of community. How dollars are spent. How seating is arranged. What happens to the children during worship. When the church building is open or closed. How the annual fund raising is done. Who greets at the door. If there is coffee after the service. Is there an open discussion after the service for those who have questions/comments/things to share.
I have been in very few church meetings where this is even mentioned. Those congregations were all in trouble though usually in a state of denial. A sense of community is built it to some traditions. Quakers, Hutterites, Mennonites, the Salvation Army, Mormons, and no doubt some others are built around the reality of community. Some so tightly that there is a real sense of exclusiveness, a them and us mentality that is quite unChristian. We must remind ourselves at all times that although the early People of the Way were most definitely a community/family and thrived because of this, they were open and welcoming to all around them. They were not dogmatic and narrow as many of the current examples are.
As I have mentioned before, the fact that new people keep entering churches of real community even though their theology and beliefs may be unreal, obscure and even bizarre only proves the fact that many people need community beyond all else. And it offers great hope to those churches that will strive to be both real in their practices and offer themselves as a believing, living, caring and loving community of faith. I don't really understand why they would want to be anything else in the first place.
One short event to share. Much earlier on, STEP I think, I mentioned how bad for worship the seating of the choir was in the church Judy and I were attending. As chance would have it, on Christmas Sunday the electric organ went on the fritz resulting in the choir having to actually leave their hidden cave and joining the worshipers below. We sat in the front pews (otherwise unoccupied) and went forward to sing from the steps that mounted to the elevated front of the church. It worked wonderfully! The choir increased the number of people by twenty-five per cent and changed the whole feeling. There was real communication in the the choral numbers. There was no doubt that the sense of community was greatly enhanced. Some of the choir members hated it; they weren't free to read or to sleep during the sermon. But many loved it.
What will happen to the congregation? Will a lesson be learned from this accident? Will an observation be made or a question asked? I doubt it. I certainly made my views known. But my opinion wouldn't count unless I was there for the long haul. The sense of community doesn't count either in that church. Too bad. They'll not be around for long. They're offering only words, not themselves. If they weren't there I doubt if many would notice. But a great piece of real estate would be open for another use. Maybe a community of faith.
"Where two or more are gathered in my name, I will be with them." - Jesus of Nazareth
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
Church congregations that are dying rarely have grown spiritually to the point of community, let alone family. The members merely congregate around worship and paying the bills. And if the worship is not attractive to outsiders than of course the group eventually dwindles and dies. They have nothing to offer.
A group that becomes or starts out as a real community has much more to offer than mere individuals is isolation. It is an entirely different animal and is experienced by the newcomer most differently. All of us need community. We are communal/social animals. We need a place/opportunity to receive, give, share, be taken seriously, live, die, celebrate and mourn. We need others in order to be and become ourselves. We need a place in which to ask questions and share answers. This does not happen in a congregation. It happens only within community, a place of family in the good sense. People that enter the church for the first time are impressed mostly by what sense of community (family) they experience. They may not be able to put it into those words but that is what it is usually about for them.
The music is important. So is the sermon and minister. Were they greeted warmly and honestly? Did the people hang around before and after talking and sharing? Were all ages and types at ease and welcome? Was there LIFE there, things going on that told you that words became action? But mainly, is there a feeling love? Do they care about each other? Would they care about you? Would you have to change and conform before they did? In short, firstly, is there real community and secondly, is it a community to which you would like to be a part of?
If you would survive and grow, churches, you must know that you only have yourselves to offer to others. You can not offer God/Christ apart from through you. And you can not do this as individuals only but only through community. Your first question MUST be, HOW CAN WE BECOME MORE OF A COMMUNITY OF FAITH (FAMILY)? At all board meetings this must be the underlying question and criteria for all other decisions. Questions regarding worship must be only answered by how a certain practice would build or detract from the sense of community. How dollars are spent. How seating is arranged. What happens to the children during worship. When the church building is open or closed. How the annual fund raising is done. Who greets at the door. If there is coffee after the service. Is there an open discussion after the service for those who have questions/comments/things to share.
I have been in very few church meetings where this is even mentioned. Those congregations were all in trouble though usually in a state of denial. A sense of community is built it to some traditions. Quakers, Hutterites, Mennonites, the Salvation Army, Mormons, and no doubt some others are built around the reality of community. Some so tightly that there is a real sense of exclusiveness, a them and us mentality that is quite unChristian. We must remind ourselves at all times that although the early People of the Way were most definitely a community/family and thrived because of this, they were open and welcoming to all around them. They were not dogmatic and narrow as many of the current examples are.
As I have mentioned before, the fact that new people keep entering churches of real community even though their theology and beliefs may be unreal, obscure and even bizarre only proves the fact that many people need community beyond all else. And it offers great hope to those churches that will strive to be both real in their practices and offer themselves as a believing, living, caring and loving community of faith. I don't really understand why they would want to be anything else in the first place.
One short event to share. Much earlier on, STEP I think, I mentioned how bad for worship the seating of the choir was in the church Judy and I were attending. As chance would have it, on Christmas Sunday the electric organ went on the fritz resulting in the choir having to actually leave their hidden cave and joining the worshipers below. We sat in the front pews (otherwise unoccupied) and went forward to sing from the steps that mounted to the elevated front of the church. It worked wonderfully! The choir increased the number of people by twenty-five per cent and changed the whole feeling. There was real communication in the the choral numbers. There was no doubt that the sense of community was greatly enhanced. Some of the choir members hated it; they weren't free to read or to sleep during the sermon. But many loved it.
What will happen to the congregation? Will a lesson be learned from this accident? Will an observation be made or a question asked? I doubt it. I certainly made my views known. But my opinion wouldn't count unless I was there for the long haul. The sense of community doesn't count either in that church. Too bad. They'll not be around for long. They're offering only words, not themselves. If they weren't there I doubt if many would notice. But a great piece of real estate would be open for another use. Maybe a community of faith.
"Where two or more are gathered in my name, I will be with them." - Jesus of Nazareth
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
The Need for Community/Family
STEP 22 ONE BASIC TRUTH – THE NEED FOR FAMILY
It's time to share one imperative, one truth that simply must be observed if any change/growth is to happen with any of us. WE SIMPLY CAN NOT DO IT ON OUR OWN! Certainly we believe on our own. We meditate on our own. We can pray on our own. There are many things spiritual that we are able to do alone. But we can not grow without others. We meet God only through others, through the interaction, the challenge, the imperfections, frustrations, love and support of and from another. This is the family, what Jesus was talking about when I said that those around him, those with whom he was debating, sharing, risking, loving, these were his family.
Discipleship is risky, dangerous, unusual – an adventure not to be entered into lightly. Few can do it on their own. Indeed of they start alone they will (must) soon join others for the very process necessitates it. Jesus made the decision to journey in the desert, alone. But he immediately called others to join him. If he needed others, why would we think we can do it alone?
There are millions of people in our society who have left organized religion but who are self declared “spiritual”, many of whom have adopted parafanalia from various groups and beliefs. Wicken, Buddhists, Native American, Christian, New Age, etc. The deceive themselves into thinking all is fine and maybe it is. But what it is NOT is growing. Growth is only possible if you are on a path and that path is shared, not necessarily with one who has identical words, visions and pasts, but one that is close enough to shout to, to share with, to support and be supported by, in a word, to love.
To chose the road of discipleship is to risk and few of us have the resources and confidence to risk alone. Only in the company (family) of others do we have the freedom to journey. And I mean this in the most real of terms. Financial, spiritual, social. Like the early church. They shared. They risked. They grew. They journeyed.
Jesus didn't leave a belief. He left a WAY. A way of life that had love as its centre. A way that people in all cultures and times could emulate. Not copy. For in each time and place the specifics might be different, spelled out in new words, customs and details. But the questions being the same: HOW CAN WE GROW IN FAITHFULNESS, EVEN TO THE STATURE OF CHRIST? The early church developed different doctrines in different places in answer to that question. Told different stories and shared different rituals to claim and make the truths they knew into actions. Only a community of faith could nourish, sustain and pass on the WAY. A person may not believe in organized religion but you can not grow spiritually without others. The challenge is to be with others that resists limits and begins to insist on rules other than love.
Whoever is reading these words is reading them by themselves. If they agree, great. If they don't share them with another they are dead as is any truth that is within them. If they are shared then there is life and hope. If they are disagreed with, debated, changed, acted upon, then the WORD of God is alive and well.
I know that it is common knowledge that we are never to talk about politics and religion. That is true if you think that you know and have all the answers and that you don't want to change/grow. I pity you and your unlived life. If you would go for it in any way, if you realize there is any kind of spark in your soul, any hint of something bigger than you are, I urge you, beg you, please talk about it with someone. Anyone. Everyone. You'll find that others are much more like you in your questions than they are dissimilar. Start by sharing some questions. Then by sharing some answers. Then by some shared doings. Don't get too organized but you'll find that you'll probably need some framework in order to feel safe, in order to be risky in some other aspect.
Go to where you can search and share. Have fun. Be joyful. Be very aware that all of this takes others. You simply can not have fun and be joyful by yourself. And if the journey is not basically a joyous one you will not stay on if for long. If you do these things you will create family. Welcome to discipleship!
Give me a shout if I can be a help or just to share news. News is to share, you know!
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of being." - Carl Jung
"The only way to have a friend is to be one." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
It's time to share one imperative, one truth that simply must be observed if any change/growth is to happen with any of us. WE SIMPLY CAN NOT DO IT ON OUR OWN! Certainly we believe on our own. We meditate on our own. We can pray on our own. There are many things spiritual that we are able to do alone. But we can not grow without others. We meet God only through others, through the interaction, the challenge, the imperfections, frustrations, love and support of and from another. This is the family, what Jesus was talking about when I said that those around him, those with whom he was debating, sharing, risking, loving, these were his family.
Discipleship is risky, dangerous, unusual – an adventure not to be entered into lightly. Few can do it on their own. Indeed of they start alone they will (must) soon join others for the very process necessitates it. Jesus made the decision to journey in the desert, alone. But he immediately called others to join him. If he needed others, why would we think we can do it alone?
There are millions of people in our society who have left organized religion but who are self declared “spiritual”, many of whom have adopted parafanalia from various groups and beliefs. Wicken, Buddhists, Native American, Christian, New Age, etc. The deceive themselves into thinking all is fine and maybe it is. But what it is NOT is growing. Growth is only possible if you are on a path and that path is shared, not necessarily with one who has identical words, visions and pasts, but one that is close enough to shout to, to share with, to support and be supported by, in a word, to love.
To chose the road of discipleship is to risk and few of us have the resources and confidence to risk alone. Only in the company (family) of others do we have the freedom to journey. And I mean this in the most real of terms. Financial, spiritual, social. Like the early church. They shared. They risked. They grew. They journeyed.
Jesus didn't leave a belief. He left a WAY. A way of life that had love as its centre. A way that people in all cultures and times could emulate. Not copy. For in each time and place the specifics might be different, spelled out in new words, customs and details. But the questions being the same: HOW CAN WE GROW IN FAITHFULNESS, EVEN TO THE STATURE OF CHRIST? The early church developed different doctrines in different places in answer to that question. Told different stories and shared different rituals to claim and make the truths they knew into actions. Only a community of faith could nourish, sustain and pass on the WAY. A person may not believe in organized religion but you can not grow spiritually without others. The challenge is to be with others that resists limits and begins to insist on rules other than love.
Whoever is reading these words is reading them by themselves. If they agree, great. If they don't share them with another they are dead as is any truth that is within them. If they are shared then there is life and hope. If they are disagreed with, debated, changed, acted upon, then the WORD of God is alive and well.
I know that it is common knowledge that we are never to talk about politics and religion. That is true if you think that you know and have all the answers and that you don't want to change/grow. I pity you and your unlived life. If you would go for it in any way, if you realize there is any kind of spark in your soul, any hint of something bigger than you are, I urge you, beg you, please talk about it with someone. Anyone. Everyone. You'll find that others are much more like you in your questions than they are dissimilar. Start by sharing some questions. Then by sharing some answers. Then by some shared doings. Don't get too organized but you'll find that you'll probably need some framework in order to feel safe, in order to be risky in some other aspect.
Go to where you can search and share. Have fun. Be joyful. Be very aware that all of this takes others. You simply can not have fun and be joyful by yourself. And if the journey is not basically a joyous one you will not stay on if for long. If you do these things you will create family. Welcome to discipleship!
Give me a shout if I can be a help or just to share news. News is to share, you know!
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of being." - Carl Jung
"The only way to have a friend is to be one." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Learning From My Son
STEP 21 LEARNING FROM MY SON
Judy and I are spending a few wonderful days visiting my son and family in Ottawa. A glorious winter setting of warmth, good food, fire place, shared memories and hopes. If I am a complete failure in all other aspects of life, if I arrive at some pearly gates and a St. Peter has before him multiple sheets of my failures and shortcomings I am confident that if I remind him that my son is my son I will be welcomed into the fold on that recommendation alone.
He is well aware that he is a child of God. I am his favourite preacher but he still supports and frequents the Unitarian Church and the Friends. He is a wonderful father and friend to many, including his fellow workers. He strives to live faithfully in his urban society and job, having no television or car. Every time we visit I am amazed at feeling so much at home in his home and by how encouraged and invigorated I am by the whole experience. Even with all the busy people traffic and the noise from the children I am getting so much done! I'll write a bit, share a bit, read stuff to him, read stuff that he has to share, talk some more, write some more, shovel some snow, eat some chocolate, drink some wine, write some more, listen to some music, play some music, write some more, eat some more, sip some more, play with my grand daughter some more, etc, etc.. How the time flies. How the pages get filled!
When I become discouraged, as I often do, I only have to think of him to be smartened up. What a gift to me and to the world! When I leave here in a couple days I'll have more contacts and resources than I'll be able to use in a month. And enough new ideas to toss around for a year.
How rare and wonderful to have family really be connected at the sole level. So often family are just family, loved but not really shared with because of the differences in values and perceptions. The family I came from is like that. We enjoy each other but on an increasingly superficial level. We long ago learned what topics we could talk about and what we couldn't and so we do and don't. There's no sense in arguing at our rare and brief reunions.
Discipleship calls us to a love that is deeper than family, that indeed goes beyond any bounds or limits, that is scandalous in its unidentifiability. It has no rules other than itself and recongizes to critique. It is more important than any earthly marriage and in fact is radically anti “family” in value, much to the shargin of our so-called fundamentalist cousins. The earliest, the very first mention of the early Christians (The People of the Way) was in a journal of a Roman governor of a province in Asia Minor complaining about this new group who was destroying the peace of the countryside by urging children (adults) to leave their families and who were even destroying marriages! Imagine putting faithfulness and love before the customs and bonds of society!
We forget or tend to ignore the fact that Jesus was killed for some very good reasons and his followers were not popular with the establishment until the movement was watered down and adopted by Constantine some two hundred years later. How wonderful to share God's Call with others! Doubly wonderful when it is one you are already one with. Family within Family. Thank you, Son.
"Don't expect miracles, but recognize them when they happen." - Traditional Jewish saying
Judy and I are spending a few wonderful days visiting my son and family in Ottawa. A glorious winter setting of warmth, good food, fire place, shared memories and hopes. If I am a complete failure in all other aspects of life, if I arrive at some pearly gates and a St. Peter has before him multiple sheets of my failures and shortcomings I am confident that if I remind him that my son is my son I will be welcomed into the fold on that recommendation alone.
He is well aware that he is a child of God. I am his favourite preacher but he still supports and frequents the Unitarian Church and the Friends. He is a wonderful father and friend to many, including his fellow workers. He strives to live faithfully in his urban society and job, having no television or car. Every time we visit I am amazed at feeling so much at home in his home and by how encouraged and invigorated I am by the whole experience. Even with all the busy people traffic and the noise from the children I am getting so much done! I'll write a bit, share a bit, read stuff to him, read stuff that he has to share, talk some more, write some more, shovel some snow, eat some chocolate, drink some wine, write some more, listen to some music, play some music, write some more, eat some more, sip some more, play with my grand daughter some more, etc, etc.. How the time flies. How the pages get filled!
When I become discouraged, as I often do, I only have to think of him to be smartened up. What a gift to me and to the world! When I leave here in a couple days I'll have more contacts and resources than I'll be able to use in a month. And enough new ideas to toss around for a year.
How rare and wonderful to have family really be connected at the sole level. So often family are just family, loved but not really shared with because of the differences in values and perceptions. The family I came from is like that. We enjoy each other but on an increasingly superficial level. We long ago learned what topics we could talk about and what we couldn't and so we do and don't. There's no sense in arguing at our rare and brief reunions.
Discipleship calls us to a love that is deeper than family, that indeed goes beyond any bounds or limits, that is scandalous in its unidentifiability. It has no rules other than itself and recongizes to critique. It is more important than any earthly marriage and in fact is radically anti “family” in value, much to the shargin of our so-called fundamentalist cousins. The earliest, the very first mention of the early Christians (The People of the Way) was in a journal of a Roman governor of a province in Asia Minor complaining about this new group who was destroying the peace of the countryside by urging children (adults) to leave their families and who were even destroying marriages! Imagine putting faithfulness and love before the customs and bonds of society!
We forget or tend to ignore the fact that Jesus was killed for some very good reasons and his followers were not popular with the establishment until the movement was watered down and adopted by Constantine some two hundred years later. How wonderful to share God's Call with others! Doubly wonderful when it is one you are already one with. Family within Family. Thank you, Son.
"Don't expect miracles, but recognize them when they happen." - Traditional Jewish saying
The WORD Must Become Flesh
STEP 20 SOME REAL IDEAS/EXAMPLES OF/FOR NEW LIFE
To enact new life a congregation or an individual must ask and answer one question: HOW CAN GOD'S WORD BE MADE FLESH WITHIN ME?” Not only how can you DO the work of God but how can you BE SEEN to BE the word of God. Not just how can you preach but how can your actions be one with what say and claim. The good news and the bad news is the same: people have long ago expected anything positive from churches/Christians. For generations new we've made noise, looked nice, asked for money and have disappointed. When the average person thinks of churches they rightly are reminded of rules, judgementalism, false piety and dress-up. Weddings, funerals, meaningless baptisms and Christmas concerts. Everyone believes in some aspect of a God, a God of love and that Jesus of Nazareth had some meaningful connection.
But when they think of churches they don't think of love. What really turns people's heads are acts of love. That was true eighteen hundred years ago and is true still. All we have to do is make love real. It's simple. It's even easy. We need to give stuff away. With no strings. What a scandle!
Look at the one great example we have, that of the SALVATION ARMY.
Here we have a hoplessly outdated church that has based itself on service. And it is thriving. Millions are given each year by outsiders simply because they know that the Army helps others. The Sally Ann is doing what all are called to do and they are supported even if their theology, dress, church organization and language is foreign to most of the doners.
How do congregations give stuff away, provide needed service to those around them? Giving to overseas churches and missions doesn't count. That kind of stuff is great but it doesn't make THE WORD to become FLESH locally. How about being honest with people? Be honest in fund raising. Don't hide the fact that the congregation is self supporting. Label your fundraising events as such. Then label your fund-giving events as such. You don't have any? Then get them! You have garage sales/flea markets or such? How many hours are spent organizing and pricing out stuff, hauling stuff in and then dealing with the mountains that are unsold? Why not advertize of a giant GIVE-A-WAY, suggesting that a donation be given on the way out with a tax reciept for anything over twenty dollars?
You might be amazed at how much less work, how much money and how different the whole event would feel. It would certainly be perceived in a new light by those outside the congregation. Take advantage of the fact that money is valued above all. Give it away. Be different. Show another way. Some might even become curious.
What else do people value? TIME. It's the thing we each have the same amount of, the thing that so many never have enough of, that of which we talk the most about along with money and the weather. How is your church spending its time? I don't mean the individual members but as a group - in the name of your beliefs? In order for God's Word to be made Flesh through anyone or group it must be recognizable. To do something in secret is just fine if you don't want any learning to come from that action. Outsiders expect a church to invite people in to the building or to an event that allows for the chance for them to be preached to. But to be just helped, or served, or fed, or taught, or cared for, without any preaching being rammed down their throats, THAT just might be a new experience for them. Of course it must be done because they are loved, because the doers WANT to do it. If not done with authentic Spirit it had best be left undone.
I truly doubt that any congregation that has debated/searched for and chosen ways to give and to serve and have followed through, in LOVE, have not grown in Spirit themselves. We are promised that what we give will be brought back to us many times over. This is true. But we must honestly DO these things, wanting to , needing to, being joyful in the doing, being seen and alive in the process, coming together as a faith family in the doing and being recognized as a faith family by others. We will be different in the eyes of others and in the seeing of that reality others will learn and make choices of their own. We need to be salt and light. Tasted and seen.
There would truly be hope for new birth if even with only twenty aging parishioners and ten thousand dollars equity left, those twenty were to chose to give all ten thousand away, to share it with those around them who were in need. If nothing else, what a way to go!
"Those not busy being born are busy dying." - Bob Dylan
"Every material possession you acquire becomes a stick to beat you with." - Roseanne Cash
"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have.... Be careful lest you let others spend it for you." - Carl Sandburg
To enact new life a congregation or an individual must ask and answer one question: HOW CAN GOD'S WORD BE MADE FLESH WITHIN ME?” Not only how can you DO the work of God but how can you BE SEEN to BE the word of God. Not just how can you preach but how can your actions be one with what say and claim. The good news and the bad news is the same: people have long ago expected anything positive from churches/Christians. For generations new we've made noise, looked nice, asked for money and have disappointed. When the average person thinks of churches they rightly are reminded of rules, judgementalism, false piety and dress-up. Weddings, funerals, meaningless baptisms and Christmas concerts. Everyone believes in some aspect of a God, a God of love and that Jesus of Nazareth had some meaningful connection.
But when they think of churches they don't think of love. What really turns people's heads are acts of love. That was true eighteen hundred years ago and is true still. All we have to do is make love real. It's simple. It's even easy. We need to give stuff away. With no strings. What a scandle!
Look at the one great example we have, that of the SALVATION ARMY.
Here we have a hoplessly outdated church that has based itself on service. And it is thriving. Millions are given each year by outsiders simply because they know that the Army helps others. The Sally Ann is doing what all are called to do and they are supported even if their theology, dress, church organization and language is foreign to most of the doners.
How do congregations give stuff away, provide needed service to those around them? Giving to overseas churches and missions doesn't count. That kind of stuff is great but it doesn't make THE WORD to become FLESH locally. How about being honest with people? Be honest in fund raising. Don't hide the fact that the congregation is self supporting. Label your fundraising events as such. Then label your fund-giving events as such. You don't have any? Then get them! You have garage sales/flea markets or such? How many hours are spent organizing and pricing out stuff, hauling stuff in and then dealing with the mountains that are unsold? Why not advertize of a giant GIVE-A-WAY, suggesting that a donation be given on the way out with a tax reciept for anything over twenty dollars?
You might be amazed at how much less work, how much money and how different the whole event would feel. It would certainly be perceived in a new light by those outside the congregation. Take advantage of the fact that money is valued above all. Give it away. Be different. Show another way. Some might even become curious.
What else do people value? TIME. It's the thing we each have the same amount of, the thing that so many never have enough of, that of which we talk the most about along with money and the weather. How is your church spending its time? I don't mean the individual members but as a group - in the name of your beliefs? In order for God's Word to be made Flesh through anyone or group it must be recognizable. To do something in secret is just fine if you don't want any learning to come from that action. Outsiders expect a church to invite people in to the building or to an event that allows for the chance for them to be preached to. But to be just helped, or served, or fed, or taught, or cared for, without any preaching being rammed down their throats, THAT just might be a new experience for them. Of course it must be done because they are loved, because the doers WANT to do it. If not done with authentic Spirit it had best be left undone.
I truly doubt that any congregation that has debated/searched for and chosen ways to give and to serve and have followed through, in LOVE, have not grown in Spirit themselves. We are promised that what we give will be brought back to us many times over. This is true. But we must honestly DO these things, wanting to , needing to, being joyful in the doing, being seen and alive in the process, coming together as a faith family in the doing and being recognized as a faith family by others. We will be different in the eyes of others and in the seeing of that reality others will learn and make choices of their own. We need to be salt and light. Tasted and seen.
There would truly be hope for new birth if even with only twenty aging parishioners and ten thousand dollars equity left, those twenty were to chose to give all ten thousand away, to share it with those around them who were in need. If nothing else, what a way to go!
"Those not busy being born are busy dying." - Bob Dylan
"Every material possession you acquire becomes a stick to beat you with." - Roseanne Cash
"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have.... Be careful lest you let others spend it for you." - Carl Sandburg
STEP 18 MATERIALSIM – THE ROTTEN CORE
As grevious as is the previous sin of omission by collective Christianity it is a symptom of a much deeper and more malignant cause/condition. While maintaining the words, symbols and traditions of that which was dedicated to doing the WILL of the God of love and the Creator of all things, the soul of western churches has long been firmly in the hands of the god of materialism. I am not breaking new ground here in this declaration. Any person, church goer or not knows this. Turn on the TV evangelists. Look at a congregation's budget. Listen to what church boards discuss. Review the stats on how the average church goer spends their money. Listen to the great void, the lack of sermons (let alone discussions and debates) of how we, the wealthy and priviliged of the world can faithfully spend/share that over which we have control.
In most worship gatherings the congregation eventually join in saying The Lord's Prayer in which they recite “give us this day our daily bread...” which of course, is the minimum of what we each need. Jesus didn't suggest that we were due or deserved or we should pray for four eight course meals per day. We should pray for just enough to live and to do God's WILL.
We need to know the difference between what we need and what we want. The sad truth God calls us to share (give away) what we do not need. That's what the early church did. They really did share. Their coats. Their homes. That's what got them attention, caused others to become curious and convinced of their truths and caused the early movement (The People of the Way) to grow so that it challenged the power and assumptions of Rome. Rome eventually won much of that battle and MAMON (greed) has certainly won over LOVE today.
A great song from Gilbert and Sullivan's MY FAIR LADY goes “All I want is a room somewhere, far away from the cold night's air, with one enormous chair, now wouldn't it be lovely? Lots of chocolate for me to eat. Lot's of coal makin' lots of heat. Warm hands, warm face, warm feet, now wouldn't it be lovely?” It was sung by a street person dreaming of having the basics of life, a warm room, basic comfort and enough food, even a treat or two. These are needs. These we deserve. This we can pray for. This we can faithfully strive for and even demand. But not for more.
If we have more than this basic ENOUGH we can only faithfully strive for, pray for and demand the same ENOUGH for others. To spend time, prayer and effort striving for even more for ourselves or even maintaining an excessive condition is not only a waste of our time, etc. it is an act of sin and unfaithfulness, not only hindering and stopping the WORD of God but of poluting it and lying to the world by implying to others that that is what God , through Jesus, has to say. A congregation deciding to hire another staff person instead of training volunteers: stupid and unfaithful. Or to fund a new organ “for the glory of God”: the same (Wouldn't God be given more glory by ten thousand Africans having mosquito netting around their beds?) Most church attenders actually feel that when they are supporting their churches they are giving to others! Instead they are perpetuating the belief that God believes in what they believe in. They are creating God in their own image, the oldest and most acceptable of sins.
Conrad Black has nothing personal to pray for accept for God to be with him, as God of course is already. Very few of us has any physical needs. We all want more, always have and always will. The churches should (and can) be the place to help us figure out the difference but they won't and don't. So they shouldn't even be.
There is some good news, GOSPEL in this for all people. For many generations the early followers of Jesus of Nazareth kept mainly faithful to his WAY, to the point that the fundamentals of Roman might were threatened. If we allow the Christ Child to not only be born among us but to be raised within us, we too can be strengthened guided, and enabled to confront the power and habit of gross materialism and greed that has so captured our society and churches. We CAN become the light we are called to be. It will take a new paradymn, new imagry and above all, action. It will require the death of much we have long taken for granted. Christians must become disciples and not mere believers. (I am certainly not a Christian, but that is for anther STEP.) And the newly born will most certainly be branded as radicals, non-believers, communists or whatever other names people use when they run out of reason. We must realize once more that we are to take the Gospel seriously when we are reminded that Jesus never thought that his WAY would be a majority movement, that it was to be SALT to the stew of the world,
and LIGHT for the valley. It will be nearly impossible for individual congregations to lose their desire to be popular and successful and to be instead, faithful. Most will die in their attempt to survive unfaithfully. Such waste. Such sadness.
But what room for resurrection! What opportunity for some crazy disciples to band together enough to attempt faithfulness in this materialistic and cold culture! This would be as radical, newsworthy, frightening and wonderfully loving as were those People of the Way nearly two thousand years ago who lived in an empire of materialism and militarism. (Sound familiar?)
What do we do? If you are in a church, pray for it. But then DO it. If you “pray for the world” and then hop into your gas guzzler and drive home, DO something about it! Make a change! If you pray for the poor and put an extra ten dollars into the plate, pray for forgivenss most certainly, but more importantly, curb your wants and give MUCH to the needs of those who seriously have needs (probably not in North America). If you pray for those in power, in government, and DO nothing, you are being a stupid hypocrite. There is plenty you can DO. So DO. If you pray for the homeless and there are three hundred (pick any number) empty bedrooms in the houses of the congregation, shudder and be truly fearful for your churches (and your) lack of love and faithfulness. You truly deserve to die as a so-called People of God.
Most congregations will eventually will/should die but just maybe your church
congregation has within it enough of the faithful to enact change, to search, to pray, to do, to let die and to nourish new life to enable resurrection within it. Don't count on it but miracles do happen.
Christianity has made a huge mistake in understanding the concept of resurrection. Because one example/experience of this created our faith the whole idea has been relegated to that event or to some heaven/last day occasion. If we open our eyes a bit we can see that resurrection is not a miracle: that is the way that God usually to works. It usually takes death to allow for new life. Look at the world around us. That's how it works. True newness is in the genes of the newborn. Call it evolution or just LIFE. Look at the seasons. View the mini life and death of night and the new day. To make life the circle has to be completed by death. Death and resurrection is what we should expect. It is a miracle if we see God within and through it. That we must also do. We can always count on the cycle of life/death and shouldn't be surprised and/or disappointed to see that this truth is alive and visible with an institution especially one that claims to be of God. On the other hand, to have change demonstrated within a live, now that's really against the odds. A true miracle. In that we can really see God at work. There we can truly meet God, Emmanuel.
I have rarely been part of that reality but I know it is possible. Where a church is open to this, HALLELUIAH! Let's search for these rare examples and give them what they need. And let's equally recognize those what are just going to die and help them along speedidly. I would be honoured to be a resourse in either situation.
"If any would follow me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and do so... For what would it profit any it they gain the whole world and waste their life?"-Jesus of Nazareth (Luke 9:23-25)
"This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." - Jesus quoting Isaiah (Mark 7:6)
As grevious as is the previous sin of omission by collective Christianity it is a symptom of a much deeper and more malignant cause/condition. While maintaining the words, symbols and traditions of that which was dedicated to doing the WILL of the God of love and the Creator of all things, the soul of western churches has long been firmly in the hands of the god of materialism. I am not breaking new ground here in this declaration. Any person, church goer or not knows this. Turn on the TV evangelists. Look at a congregation's budget. Listen to what church boards discuss. Review the stats on how the average church goer spends their money. Listen to the great void, the lack of sermons (let alone discussions and debates) of how we, the wealthy and priviliged of the world can faithfully spend/share that over which we have control.
In most worship gatherings the congregation eventually join in saying The Lord's Prayer in which they recite “give us this day our daily bread...” which of course, is the minimum of what we each need. Jesus didn't suggest that we were due or deserved or we should pray for four eight course meals per day. We should pray for just enough to live and to do God's WILL.
We need to know the difference between what we need and what we want. The sad truth God calls us to share (give away) what we do not need. That's what the early church did. They really did share. Their coats. Their homes. That's what got them attention, caused others to become curious and convinced of their truths and caused the early movement (The People of the Way) to grow so that it challenged the power and assumptions of Rome. Rome eventually won much of that battle and MAMON (greed) has certainly won over LOVE today.
A great song from Gilbert and Sullivan's MY FAIR LADY goes “All I want is a room somewhere, far away from the cold night's air, with one enormous chair, now wouldn't it be lovely? Lots of chocolate for me to eat. Lot's of coal makin' lots of heat. Warm hands, warm face, warm feet, now wouldn't it be lovely?” It was sung by a street person dreaming of having the basics of life, a warm room, basic comfort and enough food, even a treat or two. These are needs. These we deserve. This we can pray for. This we can faithfully strive for and even demand. But not for more.
If we have more than this basic ENOUGH we can only faithfully strive for, pray for and demand the same ENOUGH for others. To spend time, prayer and effort striving for even more for ourselves or even maintaining an excessive condition is not only a waste of our time, etc. it is an act of sin and unfaithfulness, not only hindering and stopping the WORD of God but of poluting it and lying to the world by implying to others that that is what God , through Jesus, has to say. A congregation deciding to hire another staff person instead of training volunteers: stupid and unfaithful. Or to fund a new organ “for the glory of God”: the same (Wouldn't God be given more glory by ten thousand Africans having mosquito netting around their beds?) Most church attenders actually feel that when they are supporting their churches they are giving to others! Instead they are perpetuating the belief that God believes in what they believe in. They are creating God in their own image, the oldest and most acceptable of sins.
Conrad Black has nothing personal to pray for accept for God to be with him, as God of course is already. Very few of us has any physical needs. We all want more, always have and always will. The churches should (and can) be the place to help us figure out the difference but they won't and don't. So they shouldn't even be.
There is some good news, GOSPEL in this for all people. For many generations the early followers of Jesus of Nazareth kept mainly faithful to his WAY, to the point that the fundamentals of Roman might were threatened. If we allow the Christ Child to not only be born among us but to be raised within us, we too can be strengthened guided, and enabled to confront the power and habit of gross materialism and greed that has so captured our society and churches. We CAN become the light we are called to be. It will take a new paradymn, new imagry and above all, action. It will require the death of much we have long taken for granted. Christians must become disciples and not mere believers. (I am certainly not a Christian, but that is for anther STEP.) And the newly born will most certainly be branded as radicals, non-believers, communists or whatever other names people use when they run out of reason. We must realize once more that we are to take the Gospel seriously when we are reminded that Jesus never thought that his WAY would be a majority movement, that it was to be SALT to the stew of the world,
and LIGHT for the valley. It will be nearly impossible for individual congregations to lose their desire to be popular and successful and to be instead, faithful. Most will die in their attempt to survive unfaithfully. Such waste. Such sadness.
But what room for resurrection! What opportunity for some crazy disciples to band together enough to attempt faithfulness in this materialistic and cold culture! This would be as radical, newsworthy, frightening and wonderfully loving as were those People of the Way nearly two thousand years ago who lived in an empire of materialism and militarism. (Sound familiar?)
What do we do? If you are in a church, pray for it. But then DO it. If you “pray for the world” and then hop into your gas guzzler and drive home, DO something about it! Make a change! If you pray for the poor and put an extra ten dollars into the plate, pray for forgivenss most certainly, but more importantly, curb your wants and give MUCH to the needs of those who seriously have needs (probably not in North America). If you pray for those in power, in government, and DO nothing, you are being a stupid hypocrite. There is plenty you can DO. So DO. If you pray for the homeless and there are three hundred (pick any number) empty bedrooms in the houses of the congregation, shudder and be truly fearful for your churches (and your) lack of love and faithfulness. You truly deserve to die as a so-called People of God.
Most congregations will eventually will/should die but just maybe your church
congregation has within it enough of the faithful to enact change, to search, to pray, to do, to let die and to nourish new life to enable resurrection within it. Don't count on it but miracles do happen.
Christianity has made a huge mistake in understanding the concept of resurrection. Because one example/experience of this created our faith the whole idea has been relegated to that event or to some heaven/last day occasion. If we open our eyes a bit we can see that resurrection is not a miracle: that is the way that God usually to works. It usually takes death to allow for new life. Look at the world around us. That's how it works. True newness is in the genes of the newborn. Call it evolution or just LIFE. Look at the seasons. View the mini life and death of night and the new day. To make life the circle has to be completed by death. Death and resurrection is what we should expect. It is a miracle if we see God within and through it. That we must also do. We can always count on the cycle of life/death and shouldn't be surprised and/or disappointed to see that this truth is alive and visible with an institution especially one that claims to be of God. On the other hand, to have change demonstrated within a live, now that's really against the odds. A true miracle. In that we can really see God at work. There we can truly meet God, Emmanuel.
I have rarely been part of that reality but I know it is possible. Where a church is open to this, HALLELUIAH! Let's search for these rare examples and give them what they need. And let's equally recognize those what are just going to die and help them along speedidly. I would be honoured to be a resourse in either situation.
"If any would follow me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and do so... For what would it profit any it they gain the whole world and waste their life?"-Jesus of Nazareth (Luke 9:23-25)
"This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." - Jesus quoting Isaiah (Mark 7:6)
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