One Disciple

2008-11-10T10:09:00.001-05:00

FALL IS HERE - SUMMER IS GONE

I haven’t written a word all summer - have been in BOAT MODE the whole time and it’s been great. The previous summer was all repair and trauma in preparation of going offshore. This last summer it was playing catch-up, just sailing, relaxing, sailing, reading, sailing, doing nothing. We were away from our home dock thirty-one nights. A very good season. Great for my head and spirit.
But now it’s fall. The SWAN OF TUONELA is on the winter dock. With shore power as there’s not enough solar power now for us. But more than the season has changed. Compared to six months ago it is a new time. And a new world. Ask anyone. We all know it. There has been no lack of issues for talk shows. The elections here and in the U.S. have even taken back seat to the basic changes in the economic systems of the world and the implications to all on the planet. We simply do not know what is happening and where we are going. Many are fearful. I’m not. In fact, I’m optomistic and pleased.
Why? Because what we are hopefully leaving is decades of abuse of the earth and the rule of rampant materialism. What the world has seen in the recent past is the unquestioned right of the wealthy to exploit. The rule of GREED had to be checked, and finally it did it to itself. Now, even in the hurt and fear that this change brings, we have the chance to look at the whole picture and make some choices. Most of us only change when we are hit with a good sized hammer. This is one of those times. If we fear, it is proof of our limited thinking, proof that we value monetary wealth over all else for what we fear is the possibility that we might not be able to accumulate that which we have come to believe was our right. We are fearful of losing money.
Are you fearful of losing money? I’m sorry for you. And hope that you can find something more important than money in your life.
As individuals, as groups and as humanigy we have the ability to see a larger and more real reality, to find good and life-revealing truths in this forced transformation. I have no doubt that this is one of the rare, world-wide events that is an ocassion and possibility for renewal, even for a true renaissance. After all, we DO have literally the knowledge and the abiltiy to deal with simply all and every problem the world faces. Only greed stands in the way. Wanting to live beyond our means (greed) has done us in and we have needed to be reined in for some time now. Now that it’s happened let’s have the wisdom and nerve to give thanks that it’s finally happened and in a way which won’t really be all that bad. Now it’s up to each and all of us to take the time to see our part in the old and dead WAY and to chose once more, but this time for LIFE.
I have fears. They are that we won’t chose for a new way but that we’ll try once more to flog the dead horse, truly, one or more of the horses of the apocolypse. If we continue to judge our lives by how much money we control, then the world and our grandchildren is doomed. Then the coming winter will be truly one of discontent and death. If we see things as they are and decide to take our parts in the world, and this time as an opportunity for new life, then we and the world will truly be blessed and the spring to come will be amazing in its gifts.
I’m more excited about the future than I’ve been for some time. If we do our parts, this time of crisis will be remembered as the advent of true hope and justice for all.

Think I’ll go sailing this weekend and enjoy the last of the great fall colours along the shore.

Have a good day. Anthony, as usual, sailing upwind

TO SENIORS re. THE STOCK MARKET LOSES

My finances are better than some of us; I have investments in the very low six digits to augment my C.C.P. and old age pension. I live on a boat which translates into pretty low rental costs. There is only room enough in my share of the hanging closet for six pair of pants at any one time and there isn’t room on board to store much stuff so we buy mostly needs and few wants. We don’t pay for any power costs for half the year because of our solar and wind set-up. But on the other hand we certainly aren’t in the top half. No real estate. Only some mutual funds.
And we too have lost about 30% of the value of the paper in the last few months. We also are bewildered at how the Canadian dollar can be valued so much below our huge but bankrupt and irresponsible neighbour to the south. Is anything in the financial world based on reality? The answer of course is, not much. The whole monetary system is a head trip, a matter of confidence. It rarely has to do with anything tangible. The only facts that count are the numbers placed in the system that are themselves the products of guesses, fear and greed.
At one time finances were tied to products of worth. The gold standard. Remember those days? They disappeared some time ago. Many of us didn’t realize it. So now we’re stuck with numbers that are relatively meaningless. What do we do? As seniors it would be so very easy to despair, for we’ve spent the last few decades looking forward (positively or fearfully) toward retirement and the accumulation of money was the beginning and the end of that preparation. Now it turns out that money is very questionable in itself.
If the amount of money we have in retirement remains the core value of how we retire, we are truly in deep dog duey. Get out the sack cloth, cover yourselves in ashes, hang your heads and cry a lament. Or we can get smart, and realize that in our lives money has never been the basis for happiness at any other stage of our lives, so why should we despair now, even though we may have one third less (pick any number here) as much as we had figured. How did we derive happiness before? What were the GOOD TIMES?
Chances are the best of our times were when we were sharing with others, trusting others, making do with what there was in common, caring and being cared for out of love and not for hire.
Why need we be so stupid as to think that these lessons of life do not apply to us now, merely because we are seniors? Were these lessons only for the young, for the unworldly, the ignorant? Or have we forgotten the important lessons of life and have been so caught up in the deadly materialism of our culture that we’ve painted ourselves into a no-win corner?
Is there any joy better than the joy of sharing and caring? Is there any confidence deeper than knowing that others will hold you and share with you what they have, in sickness and in health, whether richer or poorer? I’m not talking about marriage here, but life.
I have many friends, singled or partnered, who are wringing their hands about all the money they have lost. And they live in their debt free houses, moaning about the taxes and upkeep and being alone (lonely) most of the time. Were they raised this way? Of course not! That same house once sheltered six people or more. Aunt Gert came and spent her last twelve years with them before she died. And there were foster children in the sixties. And his father moved in with them after grandma died. But they (or she/he) are now all alone and complaining about so much, when they really do have so much. But only if it IS shared. If that house is not shared it remains a prison/reminder/handicap/worry.
Remember how we used to know how to share? Even today some people still do. (But they’re probably new Canadians trying to save money until they can get enough ahead to get their own huge houses so they also can grow old alone and worried). How easy it would be for senior centres to become agents/connectors for those with empty rooms and those who needed room? When some of us, especially in places like Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton can simply not afford to rent even a one bedroom apartment, and many more of us are rattling around in a now too big house, it is simply stupid of us to not see some answers here. Sharing your home with one person would pay for the taxes. The second would pay for the upkeep. What would be the risk if the senior centre acted as contact and helper? Couldn’t it be a Win-Win? Why not give it a thought?
If we put our trust in the financial markets, we have gotten what we deserve. It is what every ancient teacher has said, from Jesus to Budha. It’s true. If we don’t re- learn to trust each other enough to give us a chance our lives truly have been lived in vain. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that written on my tomb stone. So sure, I hate to see my savings and pension getting smaller. I guess I’ll have to just make sure my friendships get stronger. I do know that as unreliable as people are, my average neighbour is a hell of a lot more dependable and more sharing than the stock market. And a lot more fun.
Think about it. Do something about it. I doubt that you’ll lose 30% and you just might find that your life is a lot more fun and meaningful in the doing.

Anthony, as usual, sailing upwind

45)

SENIORS, TIME TO EARN SOME RESPECT

In writing some strong stuff to you of my generation, I hope you realize that I’m challenging myself as well. We’re in this together. Stay with me here for a bit and see if this makes any sense to you.
I’m tired of hearing many of us playing the old age card: “We’ve done our part. Now it’s time we took it easy. It’s someone else's turn now. I deserve a discount. I’ve put stuff in for all my life and now I should be able to just take it out.” There’s justification and even some justice in all of this and we each feel it. But we and even the whole world is paying a high price for this reasoning.
It sounds much like whining. And no one respects a whiner. One aspect of our culture is that as a group, seniors are not respected. In most of the earth’s cultures, the elders were the keepers of knowledge, of values, of wisdom, of the truths. The elders were the leaders. Not in our society. There are no doubt many reasons for this, but one cause for certain is the fact that most of us plan and hope and do, give up responsibility and leadership as we age. Success to us is reaching a state where all we have to do is spend money and become isolated from the rest of the world. And complain when we don’t get our way. I know I am overstating the case, but to most of the rest of society, when they think of the elderly, they certainly do not think of leadership, involvement and wisdom. And yet we wonder why we are not respected. As a generation, what is there about us to respect?
Isn’t the earth much worse off now than it was when we were young? Isn’t there a far greater disparity now between the few rich and the many poor? Can we say that humanity is any wiser because of us or because of what we have done? Are there fewer cases of genocide? Is the world better educated in the things that count? My grandfather was an avid gardener whose standard for success was by evaluating the soil; did it get better each year? The crops would vary with the weather but the soil, the basics should improve. A smart gardener will always improve the soil. You can’t take out more than you put in if you care for the future. Any wise person would use this rule to judge all portions of life. With this in mind, what do we zoomers/boomers/seniors deserve? Certainly not much respect as a whole. We can’t be surprised if our requests are given lip service only.
But wait! Why does it have to end like this? Look at us as a group. There has never before in history been a group that has had such a background of education, experience and wealth. And now we have some free time. There are alternatives to just taking it easy and worrying about losing our money. Imagine what a difference we could make, not only here, but to all the world, if we would actually recover some wisdom and begin to lead instead of retreat! At one time we were known as the generation with the ideals, not afraid to take on the world, who dared to dream and try new things. Along the way we bought into the stuff that was offered in the TV commercials, but deep inside of each of us there is still the spark of knowledge that there is a better way.
Now the world is in dire need of leadership to find that better way that will help us all to change direction. Now, finally, after all these years is the time to recover our wisdom and lead, to not retire but to retry. Just imagine what a difference it could make if most of us changed our wills to give even ten percent to meet the needs of the world, as opposed to giving it all to our descendents who will use it to buy more wants. I don’t mean just giving donations to local do-good stuff like churches and food banks. They want money but it rarely goes for more than wants. How about a real transfer of funds (power) to meet real needs, where people are literally dying or existing without the basics? Imagine if many of us would start voting for people and policies that were good for our grandchildren and not for our pension funds! Far too many of us now vote with our pocket books instead of our brains and hearts. Most Canadians under 22 voted GREEN. Tell me again why we aren’t? Imagine if our senior centres had some real stuff going on, were places of debate and action, not only bingo! Imagine if we began once more to earn some respect! If we can imagine it, we can do it.
As a generation we have the time, the money, the knowledge and the opportunity to do anything we want. We have no cause to gripe or to ask for more. We’ve really blown the first two thirds of our lives. We certainly don’t have to keep repeating the mistakes in our final third.
We can only make a difference if we start to work together, so talk about it in your groups. Start doing. Start listening. And let me know what happens. Use the many avenues of communication you have to share and start rumors. We’ll find that life is much more fun if we’re back in the conspiracy business to make a difference.

Peace. Anthony, as usual, sailing upwind

Joining the Green Party

2008-03-31T14:07:00.002-04:00

Joining the GREEN PARTY

Yesterday, around the world, people were encouraged to turn off the lights for an hour in an attempt to raise awareness of how our lifestyle is damaging our earth. Good job. But how feeble and small the attempt. Better than nothing, but barely.
Judy and I have recently joined the GREEN PARTY in the realization that the issue of our environment is really the only issue. All other problems and topics simply are not important unless our world is taken care of. We have voted for all of the main parties in the past. They all have good people and good ideas that make sense. But right now they simply do not stand for anything that counts.
The Conservative Party of Canada is laughable in its name because it clearly represents the interests of those who are least interested in conserving. What do they stand for? Making the wealthy more so, as far as I can see. What about the Liberal Party of Canada? They’re only purpose is getting elected. They will adopt any policy that they feel will get them votes. They claim to be the most ‘centered’ party and therefore the most meaningless. The N.D.P. have often gotten my support in the past but their focus on middle class families and jobs is putting the cart before the horse. If you don’t care for the earth, there will be no middle class.
What do the Greens say about education, economics, foreign policy, transportation, equalization payments or anything else? As far as I am concerned, they don’t have to have any definite policies in any specific areas other than to view and act on all issues through the lens of what is best for our world. That issue is the concrete of the foundation of all else. What is good for the world is good for all of us and what is good for all of us is good for the world. Protecting the poor and needy, urban development, trade practices, justice issues, all issues, can only take on their proper perspective when viewed in total with it’s place in the world and our environment. The Green Party of Canada is the only group that is trying to do this.
The four by-elections of a few weeks ago (I actually got off my butt and helped in one of them) showed that about 15 % of the people agree with me. Maybe we’ll wake up enough to allow the Green Party to take part in our public debates on TV. They (we) have as much support as the N.D.P. after all!
Not many of us think that enough M.P.s will actually be elected to form a government but that’s fine. Already the Green Party is getting enough votes to scare the politicians of the other parties and a scared politician is a good politician. When a few M.P.s are wearing green and the national numbers for support is around 20 %, them we’ll really start to see some uncommon sense and policy.
If you’re following my writings you know that for me, taking care of the world is an expression of my spiritual belief. But even if it wasn’t, I hope I would be smart enough to realize that it is also the best thing to do from purely a selfish motive. Continuing like we have been and putting up with government that seems powerless to DO anything meaningful in this most essential area, is just stupid. Whatever your motives, I encourage you do send out a small shock wave in the political arena and join the GREEN PARTY OF CANADA. There probably isn’t any more important thing you could do today. Or tomorrow.
All for now on March 30. Have a good day. Work and hope for a good tomorrow.
Anthony

The Tragedy of Palm Sunday

2008-03-19T22:29:00.002-04:00

The Tragedy of GOOD FRIDAY

This coming weekend hundreds of millions of Christians around the world will celebrate Good Friday, that pivotal event when Jesus of Nazareth entered Jerusalem, being welcomed by cheering crowds as their Messiah. In tens of thousands of churches of most Christian denominations there will be hymns of triumph, children waving small palm branches (made in Sunday school of paper, or purchased for the occasion). It will definitely be a happy time and well attended, a great start to the traditional Holy Week which will, of course, end in Easter Sunday. This week holds the entire basis and reason for Christianity. Get this wrong and it’s a farce. That’s what we’re doing. Tragedy number one.
To help get it right let’s look at the event historically and with the knowledge and brains that we have been given. Jerusalem is a fortified city.
The Romans rule, have ruled in fact for about fifty years and have had a military presence for twenty years. The largest building inside the city is the Fortress Antonia, located just inside of and controlling the main gates. Next to the Fortress is the Temple - directly next to it, sharing a wall even. You can look down from the fortress wall directly into the temple grounds. There is a legion of soldiers stationed in the Roman fortress, one thousand of the best.
Since King Herod died, the land has been ruled by a governor appointed directly by Rome. This small land is so strategically located that its rule cannot be in any doubt. It’s present ruler is Pontius Pilate, one of Rome’s most able (read ruthless and cruel) administrators. He has been there for several years. Several years before this over three thousand unarmed men, women and children were massacred in front of the Temple when they came to peacefully demonstrate against the Standards of the Roman Legion that had been erected within the holy Temple grounds.
There are three ways to view the event that is celebrated on Palm Sunday. One, it is entirely a fabricated tale. Two, it was such a small and insignificant event that the Romans never even noticed it, just a few scragglers from out of town doing some shouting as they joined the others who were coming in for Passover celebrations. Three, it was a very large event indeed, one which the Romans chose not to challenge immediately. I believe the third is the truth.
The city of Jerusalem had a live-in population of about fourty thousand. At Passover, the population swelled to four or five times that, most of the people camping out in the surrounding hills. From all over the eastern Mediterranean Jews came, if they were able, to celebrate this most holy festival in the Holy City. A city that belonged only to God. A city sworn to pay no tribute to any other god. A city who now paid taxes to a tyrant in Rome who claimed to be a god. (It said so right on the Roman coins. To say, “Hail Caesar!” was indeed a statement of belief and worship.)
Revolution was not just a political choice or option. For the religious it was a necessity. For many and perhaps most of the Jews, it was just a matter of time before the Romans were thrown out. And also the matter of having a Messiah. There had to be one who was called by God to lead. One who was recognized as chosen.(the title ‘Messiah’ means ‘Anointed by God’) They would wait until there arose such a person, otherwise their efforts would be in vain. When he was found, they would follow him against the hated Romans, against all odds, knowing Yahweh would be with them.
But at the moment the odds WERE with them. There were only one thousand Romans soldiers, mainly hiding within the fortress walls. They were hardened and capable soldiers, but were not suicidal enough to come out and mingle with crowds that were so antagonistic, where there could be a sword or dagger under any robe.
And here was Jesus of Nazareth! Nobody had excited the people as much! He spoke out against the wealthy and proclaimed a kingdom of justice and love. There was healing and understanding of God’s Way. Surely he was the longed for Messiah!
At least twice before people had tried to get Jesus to declare himself to be the Messiah. He had roundly refused. When Peter had named him as the Messiah, Jesus had told him in the rudest New Testament language we have (cleaned up in translation) to shut up and never say it again. Yet his followers persisted. The people persisted. They simply could not evision God acting in any other way. The Romans must go. God would act by enabling a just and loving king (Messiah) to rule, a Son of David, a true Son of God, whose kingdom would dominate and bring good times to the People of God.
Try as he did, Jesus just could not make them understand that God’s WAY was not the way the people wanted. He had simply done all he could to make them see. He had failed. His closest, his disciples, argued among themselves who would have the most power, sit at his right hand, when Jesus came to the throne. Since they refused to understand his words, maybe they would understand if he showed them. How to show them? Become the Messiah and then reject it! That’s what he did.
Jesus allowed his followers to literally take over the city. Everything was planned out. It was not a secret. He WAS welcomed into the Holy City as the Messiah. In the traditional way, obvious to all. Especially, the Romans, who looked directly down on the procession from the Fortress Antonia. So, yes, there were crowds of people. They ARE cheering. Everyone is happy. But look closely at Jesus. Does he have his arms raised high? Is he beaming? Does he look victorious? You know he doesn’t. He isn’t. There are tears in his eyes. He knows what is to come. He knows what must lie ahead, what must happen before the people can begin to understand God’s WAY. Why couldn’t they be more aware? Why does this have to be part of his awareness? But the decision had been made, in Garden the night before. He knew that this was the only way. That is ministry would be meaningless if this wasn’t played out to the last. The die was cast. Here he was, gaining the throne of violence in order to reject it. So be it. Abba, thy will be done.
He entered the city gates, went to the Temple and literally closed it down, calling the High Priest a theif in the process. (The Roman Governor appointed the High Priest to the highest bidder - he and his family were Roman stuges.) The Romans fearfully waited behind their walls, wondering how long it would be before they would have to make a break for it. They were certainly too outnumbered to make a stand or to go on the offensive. For the time being, they would wait and hope for the best. These crazy Jews - You never know what is going to happen!
The the unexpected DID happen. That night, when he had the city in the palm of his hand, after sharing the traditional Passover meal with his disciples, Jesus just up and left the city! In doing so he rejected the palace, the crown, the way of the Messiah. He went back to his camp in the hills. To a place that was unprotected and easily accessible to a Roman commando raid a short time later.
What comes later is for later. What is for now is hopefully, an understanding of how the followers of Jesus saw what they wanted to see, how they ignored the message of Jesus and re-made him to suite themselves, how their blindness and stupidity killed him. That was tragedy enough. But we do the same. Even though we now have not only the words of Jesus, we have the lessons of his DOING, we repeat, again and again, the mistakes of those blind and stupid people. We turn Palm Sunday into a time of triumph and celebration. We dress up in our best, drive to church in our cars and SUVs, ignore what Jesus said and did and are content and even proud to claim him as our own. Be believe. And continue to support the ways of power, privilege and violence that enables us to live the way we are. Jesus is on our side. He MUST be. We simply cannot comprehend any other way.
What a tragedy! For us and for all the world. What needless waste of our lives of of the lives of others, now and for many tomorrows. That we should cling to our lies and yet claim to follow one who has so plainly shown us the WAY!
So, to all of those who are having (or had) a great Palm Sunday, I hope your good times make up just a little for the sorrow of Christ, the sorrow that his followers then and now are perpetuating and causing throughout the world.
Just once in while, though, take a moment to question your life, comparing it to the life of Christ. Look at Jesus. He is still weeping.

Our Three Temptations - And Christ's

2008-02-24T16:59:00.003-05:00

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.

What are Our Society's Values? - Terrorists

2008-02-24T16:57:00.001-05:00

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

On the Super Bowl

2008-02-24T16:51:00.001-05:00

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.

The Jubillee Movement?

2008-02-24T16:50:00.001-05:00

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

Small, Personal Steps of Conversion

2008-02-24T16:49:00.001-05:00

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

The Call to Conversion/Repentance

2008-02-24T16:48:00.003-05:00

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

A "Downer" in a successful church

2008-02-24T16:45:00.001-05:00

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

Warning In A Dream

2008-02-24T16:44:00.002-05:00

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

On Bobby Fischer

2008-02-24T16:43:00.002-05:00

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

Reflections on the Stock Market Downturn

2008-02-24T16:42:00.002-05:00

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

Please, Go Ahead and Be Selfish!

2008-02-24T16:40:00.001-05:00

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

Reflections on the 'Bridge" dream

2008-02-24T16:38:00.001-05:00

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

A Dream of Building a Bridge

2008-02-24T16:37:00.001-05:00

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

Another False Doctrine - Inerrancy of Scripture

2008-02-24T16:35:00.000-05:00

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

Jesus Was No Sacrifice

2008-02-24T16:30:00.001-05:00

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

Many Words in Churches are Not True

2008-02-24T16:28:00.000-05:00

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

God's WORD - Being Part if It

2008-02-24T16:26:00.000-05:00

How To Go From Congregation to Community?

2008-02-24T16:25:00.001-05:00

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

The Need for Community/Family

2008-02-24T16:23:00.000-05:00

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

Learning From My Son

2008-02-24T16:15:00.001-05:00

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

The WORD Must Become Flesh

2008-02-24T16:14:00.001-05:00

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

2008-02-24T16:12:00.000-05:00

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)

Materialism - Our Rotten Core

2008-02-24T16:08:00.000-05:00

Christianity's Biggest Sin - Ignoring the Earth

2008-02-24T16:06:00.000-05:00

STEP 17 CHRISTIANITY'S MOST GREVIOUS SIN

The Earth as a whole and all its parts is now in crisis. This is not news. Even the G.W. Bushes and Stephen Harpers of the world grudgingly acknowledge the fact of global warming, the peril it presents, the causes and the probable actions that must be taken to offset the effects. It is the single most discussed topic worldwide. Leaders have emerged to take centre stage in the campaign against the causes of this phenomonem, some of them credible in their background and some that have suspiciously just seen the light. And good for them. We need leadership from any and all backgrounds to effect change enough to make a difference.
But where is the Christian voice? Where is leadership from the Churches? I don't mean individual (Al Gore is a Christian) efforts or even special worship services at any given congregation on some National Earth Day but real, visible, audible, sustainable, prophetic leadership on this spiritual matter?
Spiritual, you say? EXACTLY! “God so loved the world...” “..and God created the Earth.....and it was good.” “The world is the Lord's and all that is thereon.” I could fill pages with biblical quotes that say what every Christian, Jew and Moslim has always known, that all the earth is holy, that how we treat the earth is an expression of our faith, that we are faithful to our calling when we are good stewards.
There is absolutely no doubt that every nearly every church has been terrible, faithless and blind stewards over the last thirty years. I need to be clear that I am painting with a broad brush here. There are some wonderful exceptions, many of which I am no doubt ignorant. In Canada I am well aware that the Menonites and Quackers have attempted to be prophetic voices of sorts and feeble sounds have come from the head offices of some of the moderate churches but there has simply not been a voice/message from the churches that has been recognizable. The only defender of the earth didn't wake up to do the job.
Now many have gotten on board for their own good reasons. People are going to die. Lives are going to change. Profits are going to be lost. The general economy of the world is being affected. The most greedy and inhuman are now concerned. And still today, where are the Christians? They are as badly divided as always, even while the world as a whole is ralying around.
This issue has exposed the shallowness of the “belief” system of current western Christianity like no other. Churches, how can you expect or ask for respect, attention and curiosity when your heads are so far in the sand? How could you have not been awakened by the words of your songs and scriptures in the last thirty years? What other forces blind you to God's WORD

"Everyone is guilty of the good we did not do"- Voltaire

"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance." - Socrates

2008-02-24T16:05:00.001-05:00

STEP 16 BEING WHERE YOU WANT TO BE – MINDS ARE TO CHANGE

At least once a week someone will ask me if I'm not disappointed in not being in the Caribean or Mediterranean this winter instead of the cold and snow of Canada. They are obliquly referring to our plans to retire last summer and to sail to Europe this last fall. Because of engine problems it was the end of August before we could set sail. There wasn't enough time to do the leisurely exploring of the Canadian maratime proveninces we so desired before we headed across so we decided to stay here another winter. Judy soon found a wonderful job and I'm busy and challenged in many ways, not the least of which is the sharing in THIS. So, NO! We are exactly where we now want to be. No, it's not where we had planned on being a year ago. But so what? That's what you call LIFE! Make the most of it!
If plans don't work out it isn't necessarily a failure. Happiness is a state of mind that we are largely in control of. Right now I truly would not want to be in any other place or time. Judy and I are both challenged and are loved by each other, by many friends and by God. She is filling needs in her work and I have been given the time to do what I need to do. For what more could we ask? We now plan to stay in our present situation for another year or so, if possible. But who knows the future? Certainly not us! Minds are to change. What we will do is chose the path that is for us the most fun, the most challenging, the most serving in ways that we are called. If we are bored, we're out of here. Right now we are definitely not bored!
If you meet us and know of our dreams to sail around the world, yes, the boat is ready. No, we want to be here. Please don't ask us again. Thanks.

"If everything is under control, you are going too slow." - Mario Andretti

A Last X-Mass Word - We All Know the Truth

2008-02-24T16:02:00.000-05:00

STEP 14 CHRISTMAS DAY

Merry Christmas! I really mean it. After all the grousing and criticizing I've shared with you I need to say that I've rarely had a better Christmas. Judy and I stayed over with a dear friend and her love after a great meal and woke up to the traditional opening of gifts, breakfast and yule tide cheer. I bicycled back to the boat, maneuvering over the ice and snow through the park to the boat. Some Santa had left gifts for Judy and me on board. Great feeling! A fellow live-a-board and I spent a couple of hours putting up safety railings on the dock. The folks from the third boat in our little winter flotilla forced some very smooth scotch on us. A wonderful morning. Throughout the whole day all I saw I greeted everyone I met with a boisterous “Merry Christmas”!
And to you also! Although I am often saddened by what the season is not, I am deeply thankful and appreciative of what it is. May we be open to God's blessings, every one. AMEN! EMMANUEL! GOD AMONG US!

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Those to whom this emotion is a stranger, who no longer pauses to wonder and stand it rapt awe, are as good as dead." - Albert Einstein

Merry Christmas!

2008-02-24T16:00:00.000-05:00

2008-02-24T15:59:00.001-05:00

STEP 13 WAKING UP, REMEMBERING AND SOME DOING

The next morning was Christmas Sunday. What a wonderful gift to me that dream was! I shared it briefly with Judy over breakfast and as we prepared to attend church with our friend and sing in the choir as usual. I had gladly agreed to share one song with the congregation on that day, the MARY HAD A BABY that I had done previously at Fat Albert's. Buoyed up by the dream I simply had to say something yet I didn't want to hijack the service or be inappropriate nor to embarrass our friends.
I guess I did all right, which probably means that no one understood a word of what I was trying to say. I reminded the congregation that the stories in the birth narratives (which had all been read in the service by that time) should be heard not as cute stories for the children but as warnings to us because everyone in the stories that found the baby were either outcasts (shepherds) or non-believers (astrologers). All those who were “in the know” missed the proverbial boat. “Isn't that an obvious warning that in our religious stuff we're probably missing out too?”, I suggested. “If we don't feel warned or in danger at Christmas we should be worried, if we are preoccupied by warm and fuzzy stuff we're in a state of self delusion and are missing out on the reality of Emmanuel.” As the refrain in the song reminds us “and de people keep a coming' and de train done gone.”
That song of slavery tells of people continually needing liberation and life but sometimes the train has just done gone. Has the church today done gone? Gone to bazaars, teas, pageants and fuzzy manger scenes? Leaving the underground railways for more acceptable and less risky pastimes?
After this short introduction we sang the song and everyone after the service said it was great. “ How nice it is to have a new Christmas song! Bring your guitar more often.” Nobody understood.
I can see how some of the prophets in old Israel did some weird things. They had to do something in order to get people's attention. By-in-large people only hear what they want. Can't blame them. We all do. Who wants to change?
Was I disappointed? Certainly. Surprised? Not really. It was about as I expected. I'll try to learn from it. After all, I've only begun to hand out bottles of water.
Dear One, thanks for the dream.

"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music." - Angela Monet

"Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart to give yourself to it." - Buddha

2008-02-24T15:56:00.001-05:00

STEP 12 A DREAM (In answer to a prayer – really!)

Judy and I owned a small piece of land in the country, a bunch of rocks, scraggly trees and brush with a few paths clear enough on which to walk A good road was along one end. As we rarely used the land we were considering selling it so we thought we'd better give it a good “once over” before we decided.
After leaving the road and walking for just a short distance we heard the soft gurgling sound of flowing water. A few minutes of searching brought us to a pile of rocks from which a spring of water gushed up, flowed a few meters and disappeared back in the ground. The vegetation surrounding the spring was lush and appeared nearly untouched, so very different than the rest of the property.
I knelt down and scooped up some water in my hands and took a sip. It was most wonderful. Judy did the same. Standing there we heard sounds of more water coming from farther away and a brief walk brought us to the overview of a huge falls, water of the same kind gushing from a cliff to tumble down to a place obscured by the mist of the falls itself even though the sun was streaming in through the surrounding trees.
On the way back to the car we talked about the amazing taste and quality of what we had found, deciding that we would be missing a great opportunity if we were to sell the land and the treasure it held. We would start small, using what resources we had in order to bottle enough water to just give away to the households in the area. If the water was as good for others as it was for us, word would spread. There was water enough there for all.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams; live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the law of the universe will become more simple." - Henry David Thoreau

Reflective Prayer After a X-Mas Concert

2008-02-24T15:40:00.001-05:00

Sunday, December 23, 2007 REFLECTIVE PRAYER

Dear ONE,
You were with me and the others at City Hall on Friday at the CHRISTMAS CHORAL CONCERT. Judy, two friends and I arrived early in order to get good seats. I stayed to stake our claim to them while the others roamed on Queen Street to view the grand decorations in the windows of THE BAY and EATONS. The choirs were warming up. Directly before me was the High Park Youth Choir. I had forgotten once more how simply angelic people can appear when they sing their hearts out. Especially when they are otherwise hell raisers in grades eight and nine. To see their faces as they sing such beautiful carols of love and hope you just know that they would never, ever have a wicked or discourteous thought.
After the practice one of the angels came to join her parents who were sitting next to me. How could such tone and attitude come from the mouth of one who had just sang so purely of the Sweet Little Jesus Boy? The transformation from angel to little bitch was worthy of Hollywood.
Dear ONE, You made us so able to be HOLY and evil nearly simultaneously. At Christmas this is abundantly clear and made even obvious. We need the HOLY and are instinctively drawn toward what YOU give and yet we do our best, it seems to water that down so that the message is hidden and ignorable. The City Hall concert was a good example. We were assured by a grade eleven student that the meaning of Christmas was the good feeling one received when we gave to others that materialism was not really the way to happiness. The usual Christmas message now-a-days. Of course, apart from the traditional carols there was no mention of Your or Jesus.
I should have been prepared mentally for it. An event at City Hall could not have been anything else. For a while I was so saddened and angry I could only sit there and control myself. What would YOU have me do? I feel your CALL in me, a prophetic one to be sure but am I to ruin “nice” occasions in your name? I doubt that that would be beneficial for anyone. Or am I just wimping out, showing my lack of nerve and the shallowness of my call and understanding. Am I to speak only in safe situations? The event certainly gave me a lot to think and pray about.
I was glad I went. And it had its positive side. Sure the words were largely tripe, the theology hopelessly from another time and insulting to our intellect, the symbolism for another time and people, but the fact is that people still came to it. Maybe for reasons of habit or nostalgia, maybe to just hear some beautiful music from talented folks of all ages who had spent many hours to prepare and share with us. But they came for reasons that were good and meaningful to them. Good on them!
I know I'm an idealist and so am by definition of unsound judgment but I can't help but believe if people gather to events such as that that many would be even more attracted to where they could hear and see your WORD becoming flesh among us! I am fully aware of how many millions in our society throng to the nice/meaningless/easy/beautiful and materialistic half truths of City Hall or religious evangelists but I simply MUST believe that there are many who long for more and who recognize the smallness of what most accept as Christianity. Where are churches in all of this? ore.

"I think we have ruined God." - Bono

"The first and greatest commandment is this: don't let them scare you." - Elmer Davis

"Most people would die sooner than think. In fact, they do so." - Bertrand Russell

"The world is craving spirituality so much right now. If they could sell it at McDonald's, it would be there." - Carlos Santana

rev.Billy

2008-02-23T23:11:00.000-05:00

Test-text

The importance of music to me - two examples

2008-01-22T22:47:00.001-05:00

Like many people who are quiet and perhaps even shy, I find music to be a wonderful and needed form of expression. I sing and play the guitar OK and have no aspirations to do other than share who/what I feel with others through the medium. The other side of this reality is the receiving of others' gifts through their music. I write a few original songs, doctor and add to some but mainly enjoy singing and hearing songs whose words and tunes express what I know and feel. On most Wednesday evenings I join many others at FAT ALBERT'S, the oldest ongoing folk club (I believe) in Canada. Like most of the folks who attend, I sign up and sing my two numbers each time I go and once a year, again like most of the others, I get to do an extended set of about a half an hour. Christmas is only two weeks away now and so I've been thinking about what I would do tonight.

My first number will be a spiritual from the slaves of the old American South, a song that has long been a favorite and that I try to sing every year, one place or another. It goes like this:
Mary had a baby. Oh Lord. Mary had a baby. Oh yes, Lord. Mary had a baby. Oh Lord,
An de people keep a comin and de train don gone.
2) What did she call him?-------
3) She called him baby Jesus-----
4) Where was he born?-----
5) He was born in a manger.-------
6) Why did he come here?-----
7) He came to show the way.-----

The refrain," An de people keep a comin' and de train done gone" would have been a code message referring to the underground railroad with brought slaves up to Ontario to freedom. How ironic and aprapo that the words are just as meaningful today but in a new context. We are enslaved today to our blindness and materialism and we just keep a comin', needing to be set free. But it certainly does seem that the train is gone and we're left behind. Is there anyone/group to lead us to new life?

The first song was chosen but what should follow? What came to mind was not a song of the season as such but one that gives guidance as to what the last verse in the previous song was about. It is about "The Way" that to which Jesus and the "birth narratives" point and a song that I can well imagine being a favourite of Jesus had he lived in this setting. It is a song therefore of idealism and love, from the 1960's of course, song by The Holleys. The words "in God I'm" in the third line are my own insertion.
I invite you to hear the words as those of the angels or to be a star toward which you are called to follow. Think about it and even pray. Enough said.

The road is long with many a winding turn that leads us to who knows where, who knows when?

In God I'm strong, strong enough to carry him. He ain't heavy; he's my brother.
So on we go. His welfare is my concern. No burden is he to bare; we'll get there.
For I know he will not encumber me. He ain't heavy; he's my brother.
If I'm laden at all, I'm laden with sadness that everyone's heart isn't filled with the gladness of love for one another.

So on we'll go where ever the road will turn. While we're on our way to there, why not share?
And the load doesn't weigh me down at all. He's ain't heavy; he's my brother.

The Church's Lack of Leadership at Christmas

2008-01-22T22:45:00.001-05:00

Our public in general, largely ignore the churches. We have many reasons to do so, one being their general lack of leadership in anything that is relevant. We are usually ahead of the churches when it comes to ethics and spiritual understanding. As an example I bring up the fact that most people here, religious or not, know that Christmas is much too materialistic; we spend far too much money and not enough time at Christmas. The huge gap between the reality and the hope of the season causes it to be the most stressful event of the year. The rate of suicide and mental illness peaks at this time. And we all know this. Every year there are numerous polls that confirm this knowledge and people individually vow to break the trend to evaluate the Christmas season by the effort/time/expense of gifts. Some people and families agree to donate to the needy or to designated causes instead of the usual swap of stuff. But most people slide back into the commerce induced habit of spending. This is one good example of how difficult it is to change anything important when you are basically alone.

I'm certain that every year, in every pulpit there are many cries of despair at the materialism of Christmas, of how far off the mark our society has "strayed" from the mark we Christians claim as our own. But what are the churches doing about it except weeping privately and wringing their collective hands? There are obviously many "unchurched" who agree with them and would like to be affective in changing what, they know, from various points of view, is a wrong and damaging trend. How difficult would it be for churches to organize a multi denominational and cross cultural campaign to de-commercialize Christmas? With a little publicity, (it would certainly be newsworthy), and word-of-mouth circulation, a movement like this would be a very real help to our culture and a sign that maybe there's something to value in organized Christianity after all. All you would need to do is provide meeting places in each neighborhood, a few designated people (each from a different church), and a few examples of faithful giving/causes to support. Treat it like an AA meeting, perhaps, encouraging people to share how crazy the Christmas season had become for them and to explore alternatives together.

No "evangelism" please, churches. You see, we have no reason to believe your words. We need to see some action, some proof that YOU believe your words. Churches, we need you to become real to us, to be TRUTH to us not mere story, not something that once was. So don't keep Jesus and God's WORD in the manger or on some hillside. Figure out some ways that you can BECOME the story to and for us! Churches, you are there. Let us hear from you in our time of need. In your time of crisis. Listen to us, the people around you. We are believers in the HOLY and in God's LOVE but we don't see it in what you are doing. In this season of Christmas when we know how crazy things have become PLEASE come to us with something more than manger scenes, teas, bazaars and choir concerts! Wake up to your blindness and deafness in order to see, hear and DO.

Step 10: A Song for All Seasons

Step 8: Faithfulness is a Journey

2008-01-22T22:42:00.000-05:00

One other truth told us in the birth naratives of both gospels is that faithfulness is a journey; don't expect to stay as you are if you want to grow in love/spirit. Just because we are loved/forgiven/accepted by God just the way we are does not mean that God doesn't will much more for us, doesn't offer us ways of growth and paths to discovery. In the same way that a parent loves and accepts a mischievous four-year-old but hopes they will grow up some day and does their best to present to them paths of maturity and love in the hopes that the child will chose them for their own.

The three astrologers (wise men) embark on a journey toward a new king, a smart move politically and economically. They made their calculations, their choice and then went for it. The wealthy and powerful in Herod's court knew everything that the wise men did but chose to stay at home. They missed out. Joseph and Mary figured out the facts and journeyed to Egypt, to refuge. When the time was right they chose to journey back. In the Lukan narratives Mary travels to visit Elizabeth. (This would have been very unusual thing for a lone woman to do.) Mary and Joseph travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The shepherds leave the flocks and travel to (or into) Bethlehem.

We shouldn't be side tracked by any arguments over the details. A few miles or a long and dangerous journey. These are truths to teach us not historical acts. These are present perogatives. For us. For all. For then. For now. For all time. If we desire to become more. If we really want to claim out heritage as God's Children. If we could grow, even to the stature of Christ. If we would follow in the WAY of Jesus of Nazareth we must chose the journey. What are the "stars" that point the way? Identify them and then really do search for them knowing that what may be the obvious may not be the true. Be calculating about it. God gave you a brain. Aren't you really stupid if you don't go for all that live has to offer?

Is there someone who you think might be able to help/guide/challenge/support you? (Elizabeth) What's keeping you from going/seeking and learning from them?
What is threatening us, endangering our growth, our Herods? How can we escape from it? Where is a haven to where we can go that will facilitate our growth, and "Egypt" for us?

Do we listen for God's WORD in the world around us? If we do hear it do we ignore it? Where will we most likely hear it? Do we assume that, common as we are God's WORD is not for us? (Remember the shepherds).

What are the things that hold us back from our journeys? Remember that the shepherds had to leave their flocks. (This didn't mean total abandonment for they no doubt would have had cousins that would have looked after them for a while. All the same, it would have been a risk.
Enter your journey with both eyes open knowing that you not only don't know what you will be involved with on the journey, or how the journey will turn out, but that you can assume that the journey you foresee is only the start in itself; the journey you are trying to identify is only itself the first step in a greater journey. There will be results./affects to the trip that will enable and call you to more. Jesus certainly had more to do when he returned from Egypt. What Mary learned from Elizabeth helped to prepare her and guide her all her life. In the story of the astrologers we aren't told of any results in their lives but their journey changed many others, setting in motion other journeys. The shepherds returned as different people, enabled and changed in their proclamation of God's love.

The message, the truth, the WORD is there for us: God's CALL is all around us, there for us to see and hear. Those that should be most aware of it often (usually) miss it or try to mold it to suite their own agendas. We have full power to answer it or ignore it. We are given our minds and experience to help us in our choice. To follow is dangerous and unusual. Power and Wealth is against us. We will be changed and risk much in the journey. It is open ended and the only promise is that God will be with us.

This is not kids' stuff. We can easily understand how the manger scene and Santa are more popular than what the gospel writers had to tell us. The truths of the birth narratives are so much more difficult than belief even of the birth from a virgin. It's better public relations wise to cover up a difficult truth with a belief in the impossible.

But through it all God still come to us. Vulnerable, loving, accepting, humble and open, just like a little babe born of poor and outcast parents of an oppressed people in a conquered land.

Step 9: The Church's Lack of Leadership at Christmas

Step 7: The Christmas Story in Luke

2008-01-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

The gospel we call Luke is clearly for the underdog, the poor. The message for the reader is that the birth (understand life, words, ministry, purpose, etc.) of Jesus of Nazareth is predicted and recognized by the PROPHETIC in the person of John the Baptist. Now John was certainly a real person in history, a prophet who, as usual, was outside the mainstream religion and certainly not well thought of in official circles. We are fairly certain that he was killed by the rulers of his day. Prophets are rarely popular with those in authority. John was a proverbial shit-disturber and his recognition and validation of Jesus would warn the reader that the things John got in trouble for would be multiplied in Jesus. The song that Mary sang is clearly revolutionary in every way and can be overlooked or misinterpreted only by those who are blinded by wealth and power. Throughout the Lucan narratives this theme holds true. The background of John the Baptist is outside of the mainstream and unexpected. As is the birth of Jesus.

An outcast? In a manger? No room for them? Recognized only by the most maligned and "unclean" people in that culture, shepherds? Who do God's angels talk to? The educated? The religious of the day? The rulers? NO WAY! They are all completely unaware and uncaring.
This is scary stuff. It would have been revolutionary to read two thousand years ago and it had better be now also or else we are clearly either missing the whole point or are part of the majority that are just blind to what is going on in God's world. I know it scares (and enlives) me for I am among the wealthy of the world, am well educated and am part of the establishment. Do I really understand God's call to us in Christ? I can only try to listen from my own hillside and try to hear what is sung to me and to follow as I am guided.

Is this WORD what we hear in churches at Christmas? Where is the danger, the calling, the warnings, the hope and joy of the change that can be ours and the world? Enough of the cuddly manger scene! It makes me sick! What was meant to warn and guide us in life and death has been relegated to a cute children's story. What a sin! What a waste!

Step 8: Faithfulness is a Journey

Step 6: More on the Christmas Story in Matthew

2008-01-22T22:39:00.000-05:00

As stated earlier, the purpose of the birth narrative in Matthew is not to teach us history but to remind us of truths we really all ready know. Things that we should hold in mind as we read the body of the gospel. The lens through which we'd better be seeing if we're going to have a chance to understand the fullness of the GOOD NEWS imparted.

The condensed story is this: when King Herod was on the throne three astrologers some to court in order to give homage to the newly born heir to the throne. Of course the whole court is traumatized because there is no such person. Because of an obscure passage that looks forward to a future king being born in Bethlehem, the three inquirers are sent there with the understanding that they are to report back. The short (five miles) journey is made and the baby is located in a house (not a manger as in Luke). The three men do as their custom requires and they leave for their home after being warned in a dream not to return to Jerusalem to Herod. When Herod figures out what happened he has all the young boys in Bethlehem killed but Joseph and Mary had already left town and were on their way to Egypt.

What would have the original readers of this story understood? Firstly, as Gentiles (non-Jews) they would feel invited and included by the story because in it the first to seek Jesus were also Gentiles. To recognize and follow Jesus you certainly wouldn't have to be a Jew. This was a universal affair. Secondly, they would recognized the reality that the Word of God in any form is never appreciated and usually is in opposition to those in power. Power and wealth is always threatened by LOVE. Wealth always does what it can to destroy LOVE. If LOVE is going to survive it must be smart and mobile and recognize the peril and preciousness of its position.
There are other themes and lessons from Matthew but these are the greater. I have rarely heard them proclaimed in challenging ways in this season. Yet how many "wise men" have we all seen? Cute little kids in robes and crowns. Photo opportunities. Lost chances to learn and grow. The clergy know this stuff but are too lazy or scared to share the meaty stuff. So we get the fluff year after year.

Step 7: The Christmas Story in Luke

Step 5: The Virgin Birth

2008-01-22T22:37:00.000-05:00

Most non-Christians assume that all Christians believe in the doctrine of the virgin birth. Although that is not true during the Christmas Season we certainly run up against this belief at every turn. It is certainly assumed in our carols and pageantry. Few Christian habits/traditions are as destructive and misinformed as is this one. The story of Mary being a virgin is a great story and has truths to tell us but it is not history. That many believe it to be fact is a tragic exposure of ignorance, spiritual laziness and the power of the first aforementioned sin.

Belief in the virgin birth was clearly not important to all early Christians because it is not mentioned in the earliest Gospel, Mark, or in the latest Gospel, John. Indeed, that only two of the Gospels, the ones that have birth naratives at all, mention it is some context should inform us that the idea was a tool used by those early evangelists and not a main part of the message itself. And it is only used in the birth narative sections of these two gospels. There is absolutely nothing within the body of any of the gospels that imply anything out of the ordinary regarding the family of Joseph and Mary. The story is told in Matthew but only after the author goes to great lengths to impress upon the readers that Jesus of Nazareth is part of and indeed the product of all the good and holy men that had come before him within the Jewish people. He is a descendant through Joseph. The writer of this gospel is very concerned to prove that Jesus was predicted by Jewish scriptures and bends over backward in his proof-reading and searching for anything that could possibly be construed or contorted to be used to that affect. It is clear that much of what he writes is to support these scriptures. It is ironic that the quote he uses as proof is in error. He is quoting from he modern Greek translation of his day. The problem lies in the fact that in the original Hebrew, the word used is that Matthew reads as "virgin" really is "young woman'. No virginity is implied. Every translator today know this. But the tradition is followed. It seems as if we don't have enough nerve to correct the translation glitch.

There was another reason for the virgin birth to be included in birth narratives. We must remember that the gospels as we have them were written to Gentiles in a Greek-thinking culture by other Gentiles. This was done some thirty to seventy years after Jesus, after his followers began to understand that Jesus was not going to come back and lead them to glory. With this change in understanding they became aware of the need to write things down in ways that would help future people to understand, believe and follow. Although they were not Jewish (the Jewish followers of Jesus being mainly killed by the Romans in the rebellion in the 60's) they used the Jewish forms of literature. Two gospels, those we call Matthew and Luke adopted the Jewish custom of introducing the main part of their writing with stories that set the stage, that told the big truths that were bigger than time and history. The best example of this in Jewish scriptures is the first ten chapters of Genesis that sets the stage for and lays out the truths in a rememberable and challenging, but yet unhistorical way for the rest of the Torah.
So how to tell present and future Greek thinking people about Jesus of Nazareth? Fact: the TRUTH and WORD of the God of Israel was and is found in Jesus of Nazareth, now for them CHRIST. What forms of speech and imagery would best be used to convey this truth? To the Jew, The SON OF GOD meant someone who was especially close to God, but had certainly no divine connotation. To those with a Greek cultural background it meant much more. In Greek mythology Hercules was the offspring of Zuse and Princess Lia (or her stand-in). In their mythology gods were very sexual and randy beings. So the Virgin Birth helped to explain the reality of what people experienced in Jesus to be understood withing the Greek culture for whom the gospels were directed.

There was also within Greek culture (as opposed to the Jewish) an understanding that anything good and of God was not earthy and of course, sex was very unholy. How could one through whom God comes to us be sexual or even be born because of sex? Again this concern was solved by the story of the virgin birth. It is tragically ironic that this simple story that was told to clear things and help in understanding now is such an obstacle. It us used by the so-called fundamentalists proof of belief. If one does not believe in the virgin birth they are definitely not Christians and are therefore going to fry! How stupid, un-Christ like and how very unlike the early church. Saint Paul didn't know anything about it so if it doesn't make sense to us, don't worry about it.

I long to hear a good sermon preached on the virgin birth, on how it answered questions in that time, questions that we still have today. Questions about how God comes to us and leads us through this Jesus of Nazareth, questions of life and birth and death. But the questions and answeres must be in language and imagery that are our own, not that of a foreign culture two thousand years ago. Use the imagery but remake it to be your own. When you sing "Silent Night" don't take it literally but allow it to take your mind and soul on a search of mysteries, of God, earth and you, to awaken yourself to the possibility of God becoming real within you again, like a baby, ready to be raised again in new life.

Step 6: More on the Christmas Story in Matthew

Jesus, the Messiah? No Way?

2008-01-22T22:35:00.001-05:00

We are now well into the Christmas Season. I’ll try not to bore you and depress myself with the usual and well shared observations of how our habits and displayed values at this time are so opposite to what we know is faithful to the meaning of the spirit to which we give lip service. What I will do is highlight some deathly errors in understanding that have been perpetuated for many centuries. They are deadly in that they lull their believers into laziness and stupidity, keeping them/us from growth and life.

Last Sunday, the first of Advent, there was the predictable Jewish scripture readings that looked forward to a Messiah. In the Christian tradition these have been taken as proof that indeed Jesus of Nazareth was that foreseen person. We continue to unquestioningly follow that assumption with dozens of songs and sermons that refer to him as messiah or king. Nothing could be more contrary to the message, life and death of Jesus of Nazareth.

First of all, some definitions and education. The word MESSIAH is used to describe the king of Israel in the same way that CZAR was the king of Russia or PHARAOH was the king of Egypt. It did not have any divine connotation other than the hope that the messiah would be a person who ruled as God willed, that is, with justice and love. The Jews were very realistic about their rulers. Even the best example of their considerable run of messiahs (King David) was not remembered as being perfect in any way. Indeed, no other people of ancient times was more earthy and realistic about past rulers.

At the the time of Jesus the Jews had been ruled by oppressors for many generations and longed for a messiah to claim the throne and lead them in faithful revolt against Rome and all she stood for. The first task of the claimant to the title and throne would be to kill the present rulers, Roman and those Jews who had been co-opted by their "Pax Roma" and wealth. All who read or have even a passing knowledge of what Jesus did and said well know that Jesus not only didn’t fit the job description, he wasn’t even interested in the job. Even more than that he thought the job unfaithful and against the will of God.

Within the writings we call the New Testament there are at least three times the people tried to make Jesus the Messiah (King). He rebuked them each time. He refused to become ruler. When he asked Peter who the people said he was Peter answered that many, Peter included, wanted him to be the Messiah. Jesus harshly cut Peter off with the famous "Get you behind me, Satan"! But they simply wouldn't take him at his word, assuming that of course he wanted to be the messiah. Who wouldn't? Can't God use all the earthly power and influence available? Finally, in agony, resignation and sadness, as a last resort to make them understand, he allowed them to have their way. What we observe on PALM SUNDAY is Jesus entering Jerusalem as Messiah, his followers literally taking control of Jerusalem, offering Jesus the throne and assuming that they would be reigning with him in God's new kingdom, the kingdom of Israel. What did he do? He deserted the city, allowing the Romans to come out of their fortress Antonia where they had holed up and to again take control in the name of Caesar.
Only by showing them in this most radical and costly way could they be made to truly understand that Gods WAY was not the way of violence and enforced piety.

And at last his followers understood. For about two hundred years the early church was able to follow THE WAY of peace and radical love. They in fact the followers of the risen Christ were first known to others as THE PEOPLE OF THE WAY, living lives of a radical and new kind of love in the example of what was shown them in Jesus of Nazareth. They knew as did Paul of Tarsus whose writings in our "New Testament" are the earliest we have and who tells us that "all are called to grow, even to the stature of Christ." Jesus was not a messiah to them to be merely believed in but the true example of what there were called to become. His WAY, the WAY proven to be that of God was the only way worthy of their lives. But gradually the need to be accepted and popular overcame the movement and faithfulness gave way to faith. Jesus became more of a king and less of a suffering servant. The person of Jesus became more important than the WAY he showed us in word and life. But we can’t be too hard on the Christians back then. Have we done anything differently?

We so dearly want Jesus to be KING. We long for, desire a king – it’s instinctive. A good king will solve all our problems, fix all the wrongs, will do everything for us. All we’ll have to do is cheer as he comes by, pay the taxes he levies and give up much of our freedom. Small prices to enable us to believe in a king who is divine and all seeing, He’ll know we are cheering in our belief, take note of us, kiss us and make "it" better.

Although we humans claim to want independence we are really quite lazy in most things. We’d really rather not get involved with much of the reality of this world. Live is so much easier when we can believe that LOVE has nothing to do with JUSTICE, that what we do and want affects only those in immediate contact and the problems of the world and reality of poverty is the responsibility of a higher level of authority or "people" in common, not our affair as a person. Let’s trust in democracy, we tell ourselves, vote the right person in and then we can forget about it. Let’s make Jesus King and then all we have to do is believe and not follow.
But if we value at all the person of Jesus, somewhere we must recall him telling others that as children of God they were to DO. His whole message was that ALL are children of God, that nothing is more important than doing/living a life of LOVE in God’s Spirit. Everything he did and said led and called others to assume responsibility for their journey and to take the courage and direction to get on with that wonderful and risky life. Jesus did nothing for us but to show us the way. He was not a magical king who did it for us. What he did was show us the way, get killed because the WAY of God is usually threatening to those in power. If the experience of his followers had ended with the cross (the usual form of Roman execution) we wouldn’t be writing/reading this for the WAY of Jesus would have obviously NOT have been the WAY of God. The experiences of the resurrection validated what Jesus did and said, exposing as a lie the assumption that power/wealth/death rules and dictates how we should live. Only after that experience did the followers of Jesus know that his WAY was truly God’s WAY.

But Jesus as Messiah? NO WAY! As our king to bow down to and worship? Nothing would be more abhorrent to Jesus of Nazareth. He told them and tells that we still have to do it ourselves. It is up to us, entirely. We now know beyond a doubt what and where the real power lies but we still must claim it and do it. Jesus has saved us by opening our eyes, not by taking any responsibility for us. He has not taken any sins away. He couldn’t care less about any past sins. What he cared about then was that people wouldn’t waste their lives by not growing in love. It’s tragic that we haven’t learned but are still sinning.

Talk about SIN! The most deadly sin is to chose to stay small in love, to make a king of Jesus so we don’t have to think, feel, love and grow. Yes, we’re all sinners, but not how we’re used to thinking of it. Every time we hear about "King Jesus" or the "Messiah is Born", and are comfortable about it, shudder a little and understand your and my sin. None of us want to take responsibility for our spiritual selves.

Don't expect churches to start to deleting or changing their hymns/carols and speech. To become communities of PEOPLE OF THE WAY would necessitate many giving up power, presitge and false assumptions that have been the foundations of faith for generations. It isn't likly to happen. The death of the old and rebirth of the new is much more feasible. But we can always hope for the unexpected.

In the meantime, "the little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay." Let’s just let King Jesus do it! Back to our Christmas shopping.

Step 5: The Virgin Birth

Step Three: December 3, 2007

2008-01-22T22:33:00.000-05:00

We braved the snow and attended worship with about twenty-five others at the little church we are currently attending (singing in). I wouldn’t have missed it in spit of my love/hate relationship with "the church". If I have the honour of you following along in my mutterings I’d better spent a few lines on the "love" part of that relationship since most of the time I’m finding faults with and "doomifying" the church.

No matter the denomination, Catholic, Baptist, United, etc., I love the people and the clergy. As they understand it they are sincere and are trying to be good. They are coming together in a way that is meaningful to them and in which their experience has shown can bring them closer to God. Together and alone they are there to hear what God has to say to them. In church they hear and talk about things that are much greater than themselves. They are presented with ideals and absolutes that they know can not be achieved but only, perhaps, be approached. But the best of things, like LOVE, FAITH, HOPE and JOY are put out there to be looked at and searched for.

Where else in our society does that happen? Who else has the nerve, audacity or good sense to strive for these great things? What other other beacon do we have? When I share in worship I am greatly strengthened by the others around me because the fact is that things happen in groups that simply can not happen when alone. Even when I am deeply aware of being different in some understandings, in background, colour or age, just the fact that others share the space and the assumption/knowledge that we are all God’s children and that God IS and with us. What more unifying force could there be? How could that not bring strength to me? Even the fact of my discomfort with so much that is or is not happening within churches enhances my need for community worship. The very act brings into focus the truth that God is bigger than each and all of us; that God is very well indeed if Her Spirit can be heard is so many ways.
And I need the reminder (time and time again) that mine is not the only WORD and way. Every person around me has their own journey and calling. Mine is only one and no more important to me than are others to themselves. It is only in the coming together that these differences and similarities can be shared, questioned and understood. A church should be where all that can happen. Sometimes it does. That it often doesn’t is not a reason to condemn but to critique and to try harder.

Churches remind us that we are not traveling in a vacuum but come from a past and with others. The traditions and stories of the past need to be part of us before they can be understood and the lessons relearned in our time. Who/What but the churches try to pass this on?

I may be saddened by what does or does not happen in church, I may be called to question the limitations of the system and the narrowness of the prophetic call and understanding; I may believe that perhaps the only way forward is death and then resurrection. But I am as much a part of the Christian Church as any. If I didn’t love, value and respect it, If I didn’t desire deeply its rebirth in faithfulness I would abandon it – give it up for nothing or try to foster an alternative.

Step Four: December 4, 2007

Step Two: A Problem Protestant Clergy

2008-01-22T22:27:00.000-05:00

The vows of ordination in all Christian traditions are similar in that there are promises to preach the word of God and to do it faithfully within a congregation. The problem is that both of these can’t be done – for long. Not in this materialistic society.

The old Jewish system that fostered ours had two recognized "holy" functionaries, the priests and the prophets. The former did the cultic and "people things, leading and directing at religious functions, burying, marrying, etc. and keeping the system running. The prophets set the people, rulers, rich folks and the system straight, reminding them of why they were there and reminding them all that God was indeed their parent; if they were God’s children they’d better start acting like it or they just might be treated like naughty children.

Two needed functions. Two opposites. In our ignorance we’ve put them together. They don’t mix well, not at all, really. The result is that the system and God’s WORD suffer.

How can a pastor challenge and call to task those who pay his/her salary? How can you criticize a way of life or situation when you yourself are required to be an integral part of it? Is it any surprise that God’s WORD is so seldom preached from pulpits in the wealthy world? It is true that no one can serve both God and mammon. Ministers are expected to be examples of the congregation’s self image, similar (or better) in dress, manners, housing and behaviour.

An immediate and visible result of this tension is the fact that very rarely is the call of faithfulness (a way of life that is based upon God’s will) heard from preachers. Faithfulness has been replaced by mere FAITH, belief that God is or that Jesus is. This change of emphasis and accepted since there seems to be so much more about faith in scriptures then faithfulness. But the truth is that over three fourths of the times when the print says FAITH, in the Greek, the original language of our gentile scriptures, FAITHFULNESS is clearly implied. Even though we now know better, we continue to follow the lead of the early reformers in the 1500’s who were big on the FAITH issue. Their reasons were real in their time for translating the Greek word as FAITH To be accurate and true to God’s WORD to us we need to correct this deadly error. Until then, faith replaces faithfulness clergy are caught and limited and few people grow in understanding for fewer are challenged by what they hear.

This making the clergy responsible for every aspect of Christianity, of service to people and the proclamation of God’s WORD is a hindrance to both and all. As a profession clergy have a higher rate of mental illness and family breakdown than any other group. Ordination is clearly not helpful in the long run. If the protestant clergy/church system is compared to other examples within Christianity we find that it is not successful either. It seems that mainly clergy are put on pedestals and then stoned if necessary.

Since they are the designated as spiritually zapped SUPER CHRISTIANS a congregation’s success is of course measured by the number of its staff. Pity the poor congregations that have to share a minister! What a day it is to celebrate when a growing congregation can afford two or more professionals! And what a sign of failure then, even after all that time at fund raising and budgeting you have to reduce the clergy staff!

They are the doers. The members of the congregation are the believers. The clergy are expected to live vicariously in faithfulness (as the parishioners interpret it) and those that sit in the pews have faith, do little but pay the bills. Lip service is given to the concept of the PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS but even that concept is doomed because it is not translated as the PRIESTHOOD OF THE FAITHFUL as is should be.

We are so tied to the clergy system! In my last church I tried in vain to be hired as half time, with the other half of my salary going to training members of the congregation. Just imagine, I implored the board, what difference it would make of teams of people could be trained and empowered in special areas and really DO in those areas! You won’t be able to stop the congregation! I would be the leader of the worship, visitation and outreach and be resource to all.

Of course they wouldn’t go for it. They were mainly afraid that others would think them a failure for not having a full time minister.

I should have resigned at that point. But no, I was too blind, cowardly and used to the clergy system myself to take a chance.

So many congregations are caught in this downward spiral that is in a large part caused by the very system that has made them. Their leaders simply can not be faithful to themselves or God unless they alienate those who keep the church together. The WORD of God is not proclaimed. Most of the energy of the members goes to pay the salaries of those who can’t do fulfill their calling so little effort goes to the real work of God in the world. So few outside of the church see anything within it to be curious about. Far fewer new people join than die or move away. Eventually the congregation joins another to form a larger dying congregation.

WHAT TO DO

It’s time to rely on RESURRECTION. The fact that the system is largely hindering rather than helping God’s WORD can be an exciting understanding. The acceptance of that as fact opens us to the realization that it is merely us that is the problem and not God. The age-old message that God is indeed with us in all our times can then be taken at face value and instill within us the courage and vulnerability that will enable us to face the changes that SPIRIT will bring. Be we the jailers/household or the slave woman (in the Paul & Silas story from Acts), our worlds will be turned upside down in our liberation.

Any church system that can not accept the fact that God’s WORD needs to be heard more clearly not only is doomed, it in fact should die now. The present role of clergy is too entrenched to be changed. But the figure of the biblical prophet can be recognized and given room. The church system need not fund it. In fact that would be contrary to the very validity and call of the prophet. But any congregation/church that indeed wants to grow into faithfulness simply must demand to hear a prophetic WORD by a non-supported source. As in the ancient Jewish faith, that message would not automatically be accepted as God’s WORD to them without debate, evaluation and prayer, but at least it would be out there. At least it would aliven those that heard it, awakening them to the fact that there was at least a possibility that there were other possibilities of faithfulness than theirs. Nothing would be risked accept complacency and spiritual stagnation.

There are plenty of religious critics. Are they prophets? They are only prophets to Christians if the Christians are looking for prophets, if they recognize the possibility that God can and does have something to say to them through outsiders. I hear prophetic words every day. It is just as rare for the speakers to think of themselves as prophets in the religious sense as it is for people within churches to recognize them and give them space or time. We have allowed the fundamentalists to change the definition of prophet for us, from one who proclaims God’s WORD into one who predicts the future. Mind you, there is always a future element. I am a prophet. If I am true or not is for others to say. My WORD is for today and now. But part of that is for tomorrow also. It is this : Most churches today are doomed to die. They should die now because they are not attempting to live a life of faithfulness. Christians are not being challenged to proclaim and DO as Jesus did. Churches are not feeding and being lamp, salt, food and WORD; God’s WORD is not being fleshed out. Much has to die. And it will die. If is dying.
Repent. Change. Be part of the resurrection. Be ready to be changed. Prepare for new birth. Prepare for death. Be ready to be unprepared but be confident that God will be with you in ways you have yet to dream of. Open your eyes to new things and use your God-given sense to close your eyes and minds to those things that are holding you back from becoming part of the new future.

In this season of ADVENT we await a new beginning. Look through all the garbage of the season and the watered down clichés that we hear from the pulpit, the cutsy sermons and oo-so-nice manger scenes, try to hear again the call to change that comes to us year after year at this time.

More later. Since it isn’t raining, snowing or blowing right now I’d better get some Christmas lights up on the boat or Jude will kill me. I can only write (share) this stuff for a little while at a time - I get so fired up – need to get outside and so something physical.

Step Three: December 3, 2007

Step One: Interlude

2008-01-22T22:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, on the invitation of a dear friend, Judy and I accompanied her to church and sang with her in the small choir. There was so much good will and love. So much acceptance. But for me there was more sadness than joy. The congregation was six funerals away from death but it was clear that they didn’t know it or at least acknowledge it. Only twenty parishioners were in the sanctuary while twelve choir members were hidden in the balcony loft (with the organist/director). How I wanted to help, to make suggestions that might improve or give them strength! For instance, if the choir and leader were seated within the congregation’s vision what an increased sense of community there would have been!

The minister was young and well spoken and the sermon predictably semi-evangelically fundamentalist. Strong on the belief side and weak on the do. The scripture mostly talked about was the story from ACTS about Paul and Silas being tossed in jail after Paul had exorcised a demon from a slave woman. The demon had given her the power to predict the future and see the present and the slave owner was naturally perturbed when his property lost its valuable gift.

It is much more safe to preach on faith than it is on faithfulness and that is what the pastor chose to do. In the scriptures used there were several examples of faithfulness and as always, all were risky. Faithfulness necessitates change, not always the kind that we can predict and request. The young minister spoke about the belief of the jailer and family that happened afterwards in the story and I understand why. It’s good news and had a happy ending (or at least, a happy start). On the other hand the poor slave woman has lost her value to her owner and we have no reason to think that anything positive came from Paul’s impulsive action as far as she or her master is concerned.

What would have been the faithful sermon, the WORD of God to this congregation? The slave, her master and the jailor (with his household) all had certainly been changed. To survive meant to evaluate, accept and adapt to a new reality for each. To survive and be faithful, the congregation would have to certainly have to do these things also.

But should the seeming mortally ill be informed (or reminded) of their condition by a brash outsider? Is it better that they continue in their limited love and understanding, unaware that they are indeed dying or hope for new life? Does TRUTH always set us free? Whose truth?
I have usually erred on the side of what I saw was the truth and have paid dearly for it. But this congregation is not mine and I doubt if any words of change I might offer would have more than a negative affect on anything. No doubt that part of the sadness I feel is self pity for I realize that I lack the nerve and strength to risk sharing my insights with them and to face being partially responsible for the agony and hurt that would inevitably occur if they indeed were to chose to change. I’ve been there before.

Yet there are thousands of congregations in this near-end state. I know in my heart that change is possible (not really change, but resurrection) and that a small portion of them would be reborn. And no-one is there to help in most situations. And not me.

Forgive me, Lord.

Step Two: A Problem Protestant Clergy

The Start

2008-01-22T22:18:00.000-05:00

The most difficult and important step of any journey is the first one you take. So very many things make it difficult. They will vary from person to person, journey to journey but they are always there, visible or unseen, recognized or subconscious, but there, never the less. The innumerable things and events that have brought us to the point of departure – the present and past that we may be jeopardizing in the taking of that step – the sheer audacity, possible terror, hope, fear, excitement, etc, of finally choosing to not just think and dream about it but to really do it. TO GO!

And you know how important it is. So important that if you dwell on it for long you are immobilized and never move. Since that’s how it’s been so many times before maybe now you just step out with little conscious decision. But, of course, you’ve been over every conceivable aspect how often? So, which way to move? To which star will you set your compass? You know course corrections can be made later on but that takes so much more energy and time. And you don’t want to waste time.

Isn’t that why you are embarking on this journey? Because you are wasting your precious time (life) as you are?

Any written work is a journey with accompanying baggage, risks, considered destinations and the acceptance of unforeseen possibilities. The more personal the topic is to the writer the more difficult it is to begin. As I will be trying to fully share my thoughts on faith, spirituality, organized Christianity and becoming human, I must first strive for full disclosure on my baggage, etc. not only to myself but to all who might accompany me.

After twelve years of teaching and cattle ranching I sold out and enrolled in Vancouver School of Theology which was at that time, as it turned out, was probably the most forward thinking seminary on the continent. I had been raised in the church but thoroughly bored. In my 20’s, through friends, I had become involved with a more enthusiastic and fundamentalist approach to Christianity and became more spiritually alive and questioning. I entered seminary to explore only; the last thing I thought of was being clergy!

After two years study I was begged by a northern B.C. congregation to take the pulpit for six months since their minister had suddenly resigned and they needed time in which to find a permanent replacement. Finally, I accepted. I was green and very un-ministerial. They loved me into the job and I flourished. After nearly two years I left, only because there was a time factor on my completing my degree.

Because of that great experience I felt that perhaps the church had room for me after all and I accepted ordination upon graduation. Although I certainly had some wonderful times in the next twenty years and was blessed through hundreds of people, I grew increasingly frustrated by the general lack of spiritual growth of the congregations. And increasingly there was a gap between my calling and my job as minister. And I was too stupid/blind/arrogant/etc. to recognize the trouble I was getting into. I entered into a deep depression and burned out, unhelped by those around me largely because of my own denials.

It is now ten years later. I remain wounded but mostly healed. Retired but, frustratingly, still called by God to share with others. I now have nothing to hold me back – no church board to please or job to lose. Every day is filled with time to fill as I chose. So I clean the boat and keep it in repair, do the odd jobs that are required, bike some to keep my knees in shape and do some reading Now is start something new and old – communicating with others what I know and hear to be God’s WORD to me and to my world. To do it is hard. To not do it is much harder. To try is the least I can do. I tell myself that the first step is just to get the word out there and to not worry about what might be next. That’s God’s business.

I see myself in the tradition of the prophets of old, trying to communicated God’s WORD to those around them. It’s not fun, profitable or popular – just something that has to be done. And in this time and place that is so damn unloving I surely can’t hurt anything. Most prophets had a pretty short time of activity. Their WORD was addressed to certain people at a certain time. So maybe I’ll do my thing for a few months and then be done. Time will tell. As to the truth of what I say, only those who receive it can tell. If it is truth to a few then it is well worth it. Even if it finds no ears it needs to be said because it festers within me if left.

God be with us all as we try to become part of the WORD, hearing, understanding, struggling, speaking, and doing. AMEN!

On to Step One: The Interlude