Month: January 2018

When I was much younger, I remember adults saying, “he (or she) is the spittin’ image of their father/mother”. Now, I am still not sure what a “spittin’ image” actually is but it doesn’t sound so very nice.  A little search on the internet and you find so many ideas, but the one that strikes me as close to real is the one that says “spittin image” means someone who looks so much like someone else, it is as if they were literally spit out of the other’s mouth.

Ugh, imagery is not always good in an active mind. Put that aside and consider what this means. A person so much like another person, you basically see them as the same person. Identical twins can often look that way but other than that how else can one be a spittin’ image? Well, it just so happens that you and I, all of us are an exact spitting image of the Creator of the Universe.

Before you get agitated over this idea (as happened to me once in a group discussion), go read Genesis. God says “let us make man in our own image”. Sadly, over the years we have forgotten this. Religious traditions have taught us that we are separated from God, we are not in God’s image. We have gotten it so wrong and caused so much misery for ourselves and others.

At the Abbey, hospitality is extended to any who come to the door. The Rule of Benedict teaches that the person at the door must be seen as the face of the living Christ. Mother Theresa said the same when asked how she could minister to the sick and poor every day…..they are the face of the Living God. So, we are in God’s image, exactly. We  have not ever and cannot ever be separated from God, except in our own mind.

You do know it is okay to change your mind and your beliefs, right? You do not have to believe you are separated from God. A lot of gospel tracts show this great chasm between us and God, bridged by the Cross. I used to use and believe these tracts. Not any more. I now understand that I have never been separated from God, not ever. It is not possible because we come into this world as One.

Imagine what our world would be like if we could let ourselves see that we are all part of the One, that we are the One. How would we treat each other? How would we treat ourselves? It is time to put away “childish things” and accept the reality that we are part of God and God is part of us and that is always has and always will be that way. Kinda makes all of the things we allow to separate us from others look petty doesn’t it?

Come with me on a new adventure that I have been working on for awhile now. Let’s just become part of the flow of the love of God, let’s become the true “instruments of peace” and of love. Let’s learn together how to look like God.

TMM

Have you ever met a person that was “well connected”? Sounds sort of like a mafia thing doesn’t it? Sounds like a way to gain an advantage or get something extra. Being well connected often refers to a certain socioeconomic status and with that, a certain level of privilege and entitlement.

Do you realize that we are all well connected? In the creation story God creates us in the very image of God. From the moment of our creation, we are connected. How well connected you might ask? The answer is we are each connected to the creator of all universes and all worlds. We are directly connected to all of creation, a creation that God made and then said, “It is good.”

Why do we feel so distant from the Creator that has always and completely been within us? Most often it is either guilt or what we were taught. I come from a religious tradition that sees each of us as fallen, as broken, and sinful (or for Reformed folks, in utter depravity). I was taught, as many of you were, that we are not now and never will be good enough and that Jesus had to come to earth and save us from ourselves. And, this leads us to guilt and shame.

It has taken me a long time to understand that all that I was taught is not true. I am not broken, I am not evil, I am not now, nor have I ever been, apart from God. I am God’s creation and had “It is good” pronounced over me at the moment of my creation. I do not have to be more than I am at this very moment. I should never feel guilty for being human, it is who I am. And, Jesus was not Plan B, put in to play because all humankind is evil and lost.

Jesus was always plan A. He came to show us that we can live in direct connection with God and what a life like that would look like. I have a friend who said it this way: “We are all called to do God’s will, which is to love God, self, and others. But if we seek the deeper will of God, we can find that will that makes our hearts happy. But, beware, that deeper will of God does not mean bad things will never happen to us.” Profound words from a profound friend.

Shame and guilt are our own creation, not God’s. We have the example of life in concert with God. In the 70’s, there was a saying “God don’t make no junk”. That is still true and has always been true, not one of us is junk. The greatest joy you can know is to come to the moment when you realize that the Creator looks at you and says, “It is good”. That moment, when you know that you and God are now and have always been together……..that is the moment of your salvation. You are then saved from fear, guilt, hopelessness and shame.

TMM

I am part of a community of monks at the Abbey of Gethsemane. As a lay member, I live in the world and try to conduct my life by the Charism of the Cistercian order and the Rule of St. Benedict. I have written before about my “Abbey heart” when I drive onto the Abbey grounds. In some ways though, my heart is always there, drawing peace and strength and returning prayers and support. You could say that my heart “aches” to be there, though I know that is not my calling. But, today my heart aches because one of the monks has cancer. This monk touched my heart and my life at a time when I was on retreat and frightened, about things that I did not even realize at the time.

Heartache can be bitter sweet or it can just be painful. My heart aches at certain times each year as I long to have one more chat with my mother or my brother. It aches when I see families who do not appreciate that they are still alive and able to have the chat that I cannot. My heart aches when I see my college students struggle and work and claw their way to a better life. I cannot and will not interfere in the process, though I would like to make it easier for them. To interfere would be to rob them of the value of their life experience.

My heart aches sometimes for my daughter and her ministry because I know she has a giving spirit and yet, sometimes, she gives too much. My heart aches when I am away from home too long. I ache to hold and be held by my wife, to pet my dogs and cats, to sit on my own porch. My heart aches to be on retreat at the Abbey and my heart aches for those who do not have enough bread, who do not forgive or feel forgiven and for those who want to joyously do God’s will but cannot seem to discern it.

What does your heart ache for? One last visit with a loved one? That place where you watched that beautiful sunset or had that special experience? Those are the bittersweet aches that come from our longing for the past. Be careful! We cannot live in the past. I cannot live at the Abbey and abandon the world I am called to live in. I cannot go back and talk to my mother or brother and I cannot fix my brother monk with cancer.

So what is the point of this note and of heartache? Those things our hearts ache about show us that we are alive, connected to the Sacred and thus to the entire world. Heartache should and must lead us to prayer and to rest in the Sacred Presence. We are created in the very image of God and that “likeness” has been within us from the moment of our creation. Heartache is that part of the Sacred connected to the entire world. We ache because it is how we are made, to be in touch with all of creation.

When you heart aches, let it. Don’t try to ignore the pain, it won’t make it go away. Instead, embrace the heartache. Let it tie you to that place or person or experience. Seek, in the ache, to find the very face of the living Christ, who ached in the very same way you do.

 

TMM