Month: April 2019

“Be all that you can be” was the tagline for an Army advertising campaign a few years ago. It was intended to show how being in the Army could help one to discover all of your potential. The ad never said that the Army fully controls what you discover. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but it has its own context.

I started thinking about that ad and began to wonder why we Christians don’t use that same tagline to help people discover Christ and the Church. After all, isn’t that the entire point of the life of Jesus? In his life, we can discover what we were meant to be from our first moment of life. But just like the Army, there is a context here. The context is that we can find all that we can be in what we see in the life of Jesus.

The standard of the Christian faith has always been the life of Jesus, the very Christ himself. That is not only who we can be, but it is also who we already are if we will simply let go of how we want things to be and let life “in Christ” happen to us. Too many churches and denominations have changed to taking the Bible as their standard of faith. I know why. It is because it is so easy to hide behind rules, mandates, and shaming people to God. As opposed to the more difficult path (the narrow path) of living like Jesus lived and doing what he did and letting that be the Good News.

I have grown weary and am saddened by this hiding. Jesus never shamed anyone into following him. He always said, “come and see”. That’s it. Not repent, do better, or admit you are utterly depraved. Not once in the Gospels do you read that. Guilt, shame, utter depravity are all ways to control people and put everything in black and white. I am so sorry but we do not live in a black and white world.

Following Jesus and living his way is the path of “maybe yes, maybe no” or “I don’t have all of the answers”. It is not rules, mandates or “have tos”. It is not rigid, unbending or literal. It is a life of living without guilt or shame. It is being “all that we can be”.

TMM

Back in the day (as my students would say) we had no smartphones or video games. Heck, we had rotary dial phones that were attached to the wall. Back in the day, we played tag and hide and go seek. That last one was always fun. The person who was “it” would go seeking and often saying “come out, come out, wherever you are”. We could play for hours and if it was a large area, it was not very easy.

Around Easter, we all have in our hearts the joy and thought of resurrection. Jesus came to his friend Lazarus’ tomb and said, “Come out” and he did! Jesus soon did the same and came out of the tomb. There is a clear message here for all of us: quit hiding and come out! That childhood game of hide and go seek means a lot more than we kids realized. It is the actual game of the spiritual life. \

No matter where we hide or what we hide behind, the Eternal Seeker goes through the world shouting “come out, come out wherever you are”. The moment comes when we hear that call, the call to life, and we do indeed come out. We come out of that place within ourselves where we have been hiding from our true selves.

In this modern society, we hide with things, with drugs, with hatred, with fear, with status. We use these and more and we tell ourselves and sometimes others that these keep people out. Keep people at arm’s length and we say it is because we don’t want to get hurt or abused or manipulated. All of those reasons are of our own creation. They are barriers that are not keeping others out, they keep us in. In the “tomb” of our own fears. These are keeping us from coming forth from that tomb.

We have given that “moment we come out” a name, it is called resurrection. It is called the salvation moment. It is called salvation. It is the moment we know that coming out means letting go of all of the fear and excuses and being alive again. Today, come out, come out wherever you are, the Eternal Seeker is not going to give up, so just give in. Get found!

TMM

Years ago, the movie Lion King came out and my daughter, then much younger, loved it. Heck, I loved it. At the time, it was for very different reasons. For me, it was representative of what I tell students all of the time: you are so much more than you think you are. This animated movie had many layers to it. One of the layers was the music and in it, the Circle of Life.

Tribal societies all get this right. Life is a circle of birth, death and rebirth. It is natural, normal, and expected. It is not feared because in those societies you grow up knowing it. Our modern society fears death because it is usually seen as the end of everything. We truly have lost our way! Some Christian churches have a better grasp. The African American church has a “home goin” for the one who has “transitioned”. I like that word, transitioned. That word is more honest for us since the resurrection of Christ.

Death no longer has a sting, it is defeated. Here is a secret, it has never existed! We have always been eternal, created in God’s image. The resurrection has always been there, throughout the Old Testament it is mentioned. A great example is in Ezekiel, with the dry bones image. The resurrection teaches us that we need to see ourselves as God does, eternal souls. The joy of the resurrection is that we no longer have to live in fear. Death is revealed as nothing more than the gateway to an eternity we have always had inside.

The circle is the circle of life, not the circle of life and death. That is where we miss it. It has always been from life to life. And this is what the Christian view gives that other religions are maybe not so clear about. The life and resurrection of Christ was personal. We learned that the God out there, was actually the god in here. A personal godliness that we let out, no one that has to be put into us. Other religious paths seek to be good enough, humble enough, whatever enough. We have always been enough. We have always been eternal.

TMM

I have friends who are pagan. It’s okay, really, they are good people and they celebrate Easter too! In fact, they are the original celebrants of Easter. Oestra was and is a pagan holiday. It is a celebration of the renewal of life throughout the earth. I think my pagan friends have gotten something right.

What they have gotten right is to celebrate all of the earth and all living things. We, in the Christian church, have gotten completely absorbed by Christ being resurrected, we have forgotten the real message: we are all resurrected. Each of us is eternal and cannot die. Jesus himself, before being the resurrected Christ, pointed out that the Hebrew scripture said we are all gods. This matters, it recognizes that each of us is made to live a resurrected life.

Bunny rabbits and eggs? Have you not wondered why those are part of this day? Because they both represent reproduction, renewal, life itself. And why chocolate? Because this new life should taste sweet to us. It should make our hearts happy. And an Easter egg hunt for the kids? We must teach the little ones to seek life, every day. To look for the little signs of life. And all of those colors? Every life has its own beautiful color. Every life is joyous……if we will see it the way God sees life.

You thought this was just a day to go to sunrise services, dress in your very best Easter clothes, and go to a nice lunch. The Western church has taken the joy out of Easter. We have been taught that it is all about the Christ and about our escape from hell. It is so very much more than that. It is a celebration of every life, every living thing. So my pagan friends can teach us all…..celebrate life, every single day. Celebrate the life in our good Earth (Gaia) and in every animal, every tree, flower and yes, the person next to you in the pew and in the line in the grocery store.

Early on the first day of the week, do what I did this day: go outside and let the birds sing an Easter chorus for you, while the living earth paints the picture of life anew. If you will listen closely, you will hear that “still, small voice”.

TMM

The Beatles had a song, “All you need is love” when I was a good bit younger. It was simple and fun to listen to and, well, it was the Beatles singing it. In those days of rebellion and experimentation and looking for a new perspective in our society, I think we missed something profound.

I discovered that all I needed was love almost 50 years ago. When I made the decision to love and be loved by Christ, it was not the result of guilt, remorse over my sins, fear of hell, or because I wanted to repent. I just wanted to be loved! As a teenager, it was not something that I knew much about. I am sure my parents each loved me in their own way and they were not bad people, it is just that love was never spoken of in my young life. Sadly, that left me empty and needy.

Why has the church, in general, failed us all? Why has the church worked so hard to remind us that we are sinners, utterly depraved, and in need of forgiveness? Jesus never ever did that to anyone. He never said to Mary Magdalyn, go and remember how unworthy you are, how much you need me and then we will talk. No, it never happened that way. All she needed, all Christ needed was love. No extras, no repentance and no guilt.

In my time of greatest need and greatest loneliness, I discovered love. I was wrapped in it, bathed in it (baptized in it) and turned on by it. Overall of the ensuing years, the church put that fire out. No sermons about the deep, deep love of Jesus, even though we sang the hymn. No Sunday school lessons on just how loved and beloved I was, no time spent in simple adoration of the wondrous love of Jesus, even though again, we sang about it.

I have been taught by the best preacher I know that worship must touch all of the senses to truly be worship. I should hear the love in the music, I should see love in the people and in the visual experience. I should smell love (usually the incense used at some churches). I should be able to touch love by the passing of the peace with my brothers and sisters. I should even be able to taste love, in the Eucharist!

As I ponder it now, I should have listened to the Beatles. All I have ever needed is Love. And all I have ever need to give in return is love. There are no rules for this, it is just love. And that my friends is the explanation of what a Christian mystic is. We ponder the “deep, deep love of Jesus”, of the Father through the Son, in the presence of the Holy Spirit. So, read this word with the hyphen and be-loved!

When I fly, I prefer for the skies to be clear and sunny. I just want the pilots to see things clearly. I have been on flights where it was only a few hundred feet up that you could actually see the ground. I know that the instruments guide the pilots and plane to where it needs to be but I just prefer a clear line of sight.

As I drink coffee some mornings, the steam fogs up my glasses. As the mist goes away, I can see clearly again. Then it dawned on me, this is the spiritual life. We discover we are imbued with the living God but it is just a blur. As the mist recedes, we can see more and more clearly until everything comes into focus. The spiritual life sharpens our focus but it also widens our focus until we can look upon the whole world the way God does.

Sharp focus is great, but what about line of sight? You see, the “foggy glasses” part is us growing in the Spirit from within. Line of sight is how we see the world. This is where it gets more complicated because things can block our view, our line of sight to see the Living God in others. Our sight most often gets blocked by our own ego, our understanding that we know best. It can also be blocked by fear.

These barriers to our “line of sight” are many. Some we put there ourselves, like fear, ego, or shame. Some arrive there through the world around. Isn’t it interesting that Peter is a great example of this. In almost one breath, Peter acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah and then tries to tell Him what he should do. Jesus response, I believe, reflects this notion of line of sight. Jesus says, “get behind me Satan”. In that phrase, Jesus is clearing his line of sight to his heavenly Father.

I think I have some work to do. First to clear them mist from my spiritual glasses and then to remove the objects blocking my line of sight. This is the process of becoming a contemplative or a mystic. You see we cannot just clean our glasses and leave the objects. We must clean our glasses (do the interior work) so that we can see the objects blocking our sight. So, what say we clean our glasses, put them on and see clearly what is keeping us from seeing the living Christ in everyone, everywhere?

TMM

What does it mean to be anointed? We see it often in church, we put oil on people as a sign of prayers of healing or have the sign of the cross put on our forehead with sacred oil. The use of oil, in Biblical terms has always represented the presence of the Holy Spirit.

We always think of the anointing as the act or even that sets someone or something apart. Jacob anointed a stone that represented holy ground for him. We read in Psalm 23 that God anoints our heads, “in the presences of our enemies”. And Mary, anointing Jesus’ feet with a very expensive oil. But in each of these cases was the point being made that the Holy Spirit is now present in those things or people?

I am a little stretched to see a spirit filled stone. I am also a bit perplexed to think that Jesus needed to be anointed with a holy spirit he already had within him. Perhaps being anointed means something else? Richard Rohr indicates that this something else is that pouring oil over something, anointing something (or someone) does not give that thing or person anything, anointing, instead reveals what is already sacred or the sacredness of it.

Now it makes sense, the presence of the Holy Spirit simply reveals the sacredness of each of us. Jacob pouring oil over the stone did not make it sacred, it showed that it already was. The 23rd Psalm does not say we become sacred being anointed, it means that in the presence of all of our enemies, the Holy Spirit simply reveals who we are in God. And Mary, anointing Jesus’ feet now makes sense as well. She was simply showing that the Spirit was revealing who Jesus really was and is.

All of creation, from Genesis 1:1 has been anointed with the Holy Spirit. Think of that, from day one of our lives, we have the Holy Spirit within, we are anointed. That Spirit simply reveals how Sacred we already are. As we move through life and more of that Spirit is revealed (the more aware of that Spirit we are) the more we realize how Sacred we are to God. How Sacred all of creation is to God.

TMM

We all have or had a mother. Of course this is true but that experience can be anything from glorious to disturbing. If it was of the glorious type of relationship, then our experience is beautiful and sacred. If it is the other direction we are at a loss and often have a longing for such a love in our lives.

I have a life experience sort of in between. My mother loved me deeply, of that I am sure. I always knew that love was there and she would tell of emotional things in her life to me and no one else. That is where I learned to be a good listener and probably where I started to become a good therapist. My mom was not perfect however, whose is? There was always an unwritten expectation to always be better and in her case, to always be thinner. This was unwritten but it always played in my life as I was never quite good enough.

I lost my mom many years ago and that longing is always there, though less painful than at first. I have looked at that love and been honest with myself about it. It made me who I am, warts and all. This reflection on a mother’s love has led me to think about how it molded my life. I am a pretty good father because I have seen the gaps and worked to fill them with accepting love.

And then, I read Isaiah 49 and it struck me that the Eternal has always had those loving arms wrapped around me. In that chapter it talks about would a mother ever abandon her child. And then this idea: even if she would, I never will! Now, consider that. I could (and did a few times) disappoint my mom. No matter what I do, I cannot win God’s disapproval. No matter what, God wraps those arms of unceasing love around me.

If your life experience was of a mother (or father) that was not there to wrap those loving arms around you, that is okay. The Mother of All creation has always had her arms around you and will never, ever let go. Today, feel those loving arms wrapped around you. As in the picture of the last supper, lean of the breast of the only Lover of yours soul you have ever needed.

The idea of a caterpillar emerging during these early spring days is wondrous all by itself. The entire Northern Hemisphere has spent the last several months wrapped in a cocoon of darkness. Now, the grass, trees, flowers begin to emerge in all of their splendor. It should not be lost on any of us that this is the same for the Lenten time leading to Easter.

It is important to understand Lent from a variety of thoughts. Yes, it is a time of self-examination, repentance and reconciliation. It is not, however, a dark and dreary time. It is like the early spring, a time of growth in the cocoon of Lent directed at emerging with Christ on Easter and being reborn. He was wrapped in the cloak of death (to borrow from James Finley) and emerged as pure light and life.

Do you realize that we too are able to emerge as pure light and life? We all spin our own cocoons you know. We usually take years to wrap ourselves in our fears, failures, losses and guilt and then so many never emerge! Salvation is that moment when you realize you are reborn daily in Christ, that we can emerge from our self-designed cocoons and be the light that this world needs.

In recent years, the church as the body of believers (not a particular denomination) has become the emergent church. The thinking is that the church re-emerges about every 500 years as a new version of the body of Christ. The last emergence was called the Reformation. We most certainly need to re-emerge. This time as the mystical body of Christ that opens its arms wide to all of God’s wondrous children and all of Creation. It is only then that the church universal will emerge as the pure light Bride of Christ.

TMM