Month: April 2017

I teach research. It is all about asking good questions, asking the right question. In the movie I Robot, Detective Spooner is trying to solve a complex mystery. The holographic program he is interacting with keeps saying it is not programmed to answer his questions. In one last attempt, he asks the holograph a question and its response is what I work on from my students every class, “now you have asked the right question” and the mystery is solved.

I wish I could tell you and my students that this is how it works in the research world, but often we just end up with more questions. Oh, wait, isn’t that just like life? I think spiritual life is about asking the right questions and not at all about any of the answers. Like prayer. We have this notion that prayer is about asking God for or about things. It is not about the answers we think God is giving us but about the questions we are asking of God.

Let’s face it, there are only four answers God can give: yes, no, maybe, and not now. Oh wait, those are the same four I had to offer to my daughter as she was growing up. Sadly, we are all about the answer with God, rarely about the question, which is the very act of having a conversation with the Eternal Creator of the Universe.

Now that should cause you and I to pause: The Creator of All wants to hear from us? We matter that much? Then maybe the answer has already been given and we need to learn to focus on the questions. When asked about where he lived, Jesus simply said come and see. No answer, just an offer. When we ask God, we are not given an answer but asked to come and see. That is an offer to view the question from God’s perspective instead of our own. Only then do we know how to ask the right questions.

The honest truth is that when we get to the point where we see from God’s perspective, the answer no longer matters. Instead, we learn to “come and see”. We learn that an answer is no longer needed. We learn to ask better questions of God, then we learn that we already knew the answer. My mother died almost 15 years ago. It was difficult and my first question, quite naturally, was why? I learned that this question is not a good one. Oh, not because of the lack of any good answer but because it is not the right question. When we ask that our of our pain, hurt, anger, and deep sense of loss, we are really asking a very selfish (and very normal) question: “why is this happening to me?”

The right question is not why but “what now”? That is a question that we should ask every time we chat with the Eternal. Not why, but what now Eternal One? That becomes an offer to be part of the answer. With this one question, we become partners in life with the Eternal. Now that’s the right question!

TMM

Have you ever lost your balance? In my youth, someone invented a thing called a skateboard. No,  not one like today, these had metal wheels taken directly from roller skates and put on a board intended to result in skinned knees, broken bones and possible death.  Well, okay, I exaggerated a little. I was on one of these deadly toys when I lost my balance, landed flat on my back and had all my wind knocked out of me. I lay there all alone on the sidewalk and could not breathe. It was terrifying.

These many years later, I am well trained about balance because I am a martial artist and it is all about taking away the other  person’s balance. This is how a small person like my daughter can literally throw a larger person, like me, through the air. It is all about balance. As I have gotten older, I have come to see that a balance in what I eat is important. A balance in what I teach in the classroom is important. A balance in what I plant in the garden is important. And, a balance in the spiritual life is important.

I think Church has lost its balance. Ronald Rolheiser writes about this need for balance and points toward the conclusion that churches are full of answers but no longer asking questions. Full of rules but no longer full of responsibilities. Full of laws  but no freedom. I agree and will add to this by saying, in these current days there is so much talk about Millenials and that they are leaving church and any sort of religious life, though seeking spirituality and it is our fault.

I am the parent of a Millenial and the teacher of hundreds of them. Rolheiser is correct in his analysis of church. That being said, let my generation and those that came before accept responsibility. We caused this. We allowed our children and our churches to become these things, because it is what we wanted. If you would like to know what gave rise to the Emergent Church of today, look in the mirror first thing each morning and all around you on Sunday morning. That is your answer, you (we) caused it to happen.

Does not every sacred text talk about a balance in life? It is clear in the Christian scriptures. Jesus was leaving the wilderness and was tempted to turn stones into bread. So are we by the way. This temptation is us, our need to continually satisfy what we want in life. It is always tempting to turn the stones to bread and eat right. The theologian Miroslav Volf, made this point in a recent conference. He added that we want more and better bread! And, this throws us out of balance because this immediate gratification of everything is not how life works.

Jesus’ life is the “narrow path” that we are called to follow. But even he was clear that we do not live by bread alone. We need balance between bread and water, self-service and self-sacrifice. We need to work on our balance, every day, to stay spiritually “fit”. And, we must  balance our need for answers with the joy of the question.

 

TMM

It is spring, life starts over again. I drive about 20 miles to my college down a mostly two lane highway. One long stretch is almost completely canopied by the trees. I am always fascinated and in awe this time of the year. It seems like magic, one day the trees are bare, the next, green with new life. No matter how many times I have seen this in life, it still fascinates me.

This time is also reflected in the church calendar, the austere days of Lent, followed by the glorious “resurrection” of life and the movement toward fully alive, called Pentacost by the church. Fifty days to become fully awake and fully aware of all that is possible in life. In nature this is a time of rapid growth. So too I think in the spiritual life.

I watch my grandson as he grows. It is like the miracle of the trees on the way to work. One day it seems like there isn’t much going on and then here he is, sitting in his own little recliner, eating some breakfast and watching Sesame Street like a little man. It is truly amazing to watch the transformation of the grandson. I wonder if God does the same with us? One day we are unaware of the Eternal, then we discover how much we are loved and we are born. The Eternal is amazed by us. We are Beloved after all.

I love to think that the Eternal is fascinated watching us blossom and grow. If this time of the year we realize that the cross is but a symbol of the eternal cycle of life death and life again, we might shift our perspective a bit. Christ shows the way of life by living a life in perfect harmony with the Eternal; by taking all of the evil of the world and turning it into grace.  Sin is overcome not by a death but by a life. In that wooden cross we have our perspective resurrected, we see a new way to live, each day of that life a testimony to all that is and can be good in the world.

 

TMM

It is Easter Sunday. Across the Christian world the phrase, “Christ is Risen” is met with the response, “Christ is Risen Indeed!” Around the world, these words echo and on this day Vigils were kept and people are in church, no small number of whom only go to church on this day.

But what does this day really mean? Yes, of course, Christ was not in the tomb and not dead. Yes, the women found the empty tomb and  they told the men. Yes, they were confused and fearful. But why bunnies and eggs? A cute Scottish commercial is going around these days and the young daughter asks that specifically, why a bunny? She then asks “is it in the Bible?” Dad is caught trying to explain the bunny and the chocolate.

Bunnies? Chocolate? And, of course the best, chocolate bunnies. This day, unlike Christmas, is specific because of the Passover celebration referenced in the New Testament. Spring is the time when the world re-awakens. It is the time of Oestra from older pagan religions. For the Jews, it is the time of extreme sacrifice and sudden freedom. Bunnies represent the older tradition of spring and reproduction. Eggs, those are from the Seder meal, when Jews remember Passover and eggs represent a new beginning, with all of the hope that goes with a new birth.

I want to add another idea, taken from my contemplative readings and from living out contemplative life. Merton speaks of Easter being a daily celebration found in the Liturgy of the Mass, where Christ is “crucified”, Christ rises from the dead, Christ ascends to Heaven. For all of us who choose this Christian faith, Easter should be a daily celebration. We go to bed, the time of “sleep” represents being dead, and when we awaken, that is our Resurrection and then our day is lived in the company of the Holy Spirit. The entire life cycle in every single day.

What would your day to day life, or mine, be like if we celebrated life like it was Easter every day? I am trying to do that and I discover that if I celebrate my daily resurrection, I want to celebrate the resurrection of every other person in the world. We each get to start over, with a clean slate every day. That is the meaning of Resurrection. That is Easter.

 

TMM

Have you ever had someone explain that what they said they meant literally? “He literally fell of his seat he was laughing so hard”. “She literally kicked him on the shin.” So, a fall and a kick really happen. And, there were times when my mother told me something as a child that she meant to be taken literally. “If you touch that you will get burned” and I do have the scar.

There are times when literal is important, like  when a car is coming, or a tornado, or the boss. But, there are lots of other times when literal doesn’t help and just might make things worse. In the New Testament, Jesus says if “your right eye offends you, pluck it out”. Take that literally and you have a real problem. There are other times, again my dear mom said “shake a leg” when she wanted me to hurry. It only took the smart alecky kid about twice of getting swatted for literally shaking a leg instead of hurrying up. Thing is, I knew what she meant and chose to be silly.

Sadly, this doesn’t seem to apply to church folk. There are people who believe all scripture is literal and inerrant, not open for interpretation. They say this and then cannot possible live it out. The eye for an eye verses or sacrificing lambs on the alter, which would be very messy in a modern church. You see even those who say they are literal, really aren’t, what they are, truly, are people of convenience. I am not condemning folks that believe this way or are taught to believe this way. I am saying that it is a tough position to take.

Today is Easter Sunday and one of the scripture that is read is the road to Emmaus story. I never noticed until today that Jesus tells the two disciples about being literal. He tells them they are slow of heart to “believe all that the prophets have declared”. I never noticed that this was stated in this way. The next sentence he interprets things about himself, starting with Moses. So, these two disciples got it wrong because they took every word of the prophets literally and did not think of what was meant.

Faith is not a matter of convenience, or taking things literally, or following the letter of the law. It is a matter of paying attention to the signs and world all around us. To listening to and following our hearts. We don’t have to follow all the rules, we just have to follow one law, the law of love. Taking things literally, when it involves faith, only ever causes division and hurt feelings and confusion.  On this day, when we are all given a new way to see things and a new way to understand things, let’s become like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who “felt there hearts burning within them” because they listened to what Christ’s life really meant, to Love.

 

TMM

What is home? There are lots of sayings, like “home is where the heart is” or “home is where they have to take you in”. There are others but each of us define home in our own way. I have to admit, for me, home has a rather different meaning and feel, at least from my childhood. There were lots of issues in my childhood home life. Fighting parents, a brother 8 years older and no extended family around. So in my childhood, home was not a place of comfort.

Please don’t t feel sorry for me, that is not my reason for telling you about it. The reason to share this is to simply say, we all have our own picture of home. Sometimes it is real, sometimes it is longed for but either way it is a place in our own heart. At my college, there are two young men who lived on the streets of Dallas for several years. Today, they are kind, intelligent and decent young men who are doing well in school. I can only imagine what “home” means to them but I know our college is home now.

Home should be that place of comfort, support and where you can take off all of the masks you wear each day. I have a home now. It is joyous in its simplicity and comfort. It is and provides a state of mind for me. Is it perfect? Uh……no. It is home. It is safe haven, where I can hide from the world a bit, contemplate a bit, and work in my yard as worship.

In the African American church, they don’t have a funeral, they have a “home goin”. I love that, going home. Doesn’t that sound peaceful? And it is the place where the Eternal will take you in, always, every child of the Eternal on this earth, will one day get home. In that home we can take off who we think we are, who we think we must be and let the Eternal wrap us in love. And isn’t that really what being at home is about? That place where we can be who we are, unashamedly and honestly.

Here is the joy of it all, we don’t have to wait, we can be “home with the Eternal” right now. We can live in the kingdom, in the Eternal’s loving household right now. The prodigal son wanted just to be a servant at his father’s home, but instead was an honored guest. Do you know that you are the honored guest at the Eternal’s home? All that holds you back is, well, you. So today, open the door and walk into the Eternal home. Be the honored guest, the Beloved of God.

TMM