Month: November 2019

“Quit being so materialistic”. That command seems, on its surface, to be a good command to be spiritual, not material in life. It is fascinating that we separate the two and yet, in the New Testament times, it was assumed that it was all one thing. Then the belief was that if you were holy, the sign of that was your wealth that represented God’s favor.

The church, in Western society still believes it. Enter the misuse of Calvinism and the result is a clear separation of material from spiritual. Out of this idea rose the Protestant work ethic that says we know who is blessed by their good works and their prosperity. This could never have been written by a poor person. Only someone writing from a privileged place could conceive that God’s love is clear in the things you have.

This ability to separate the material from the spiritual is how you can have a free market system that represents the need to produce more and more and to have more and more. Remember the young rich man who asked Jesus how to get eternal life. He asked what he could “do”, not how he should be. Jesus shut it all down in a sentence, “go sell all that you have and give it to the poor”. The issue was not wealth but ego, of believing what his faith had taught him, that wealth represented God’s favor.

Is it wrong to have much? No! In truth having great wealth does demonstrate God’s favor. This is not to say one person with money is better than another, only that all that we have is given by God. The point of the story is that unless your entire life is in balance, you are not on the “narrow” path. We need to quit separating material from spiritual and make life whole again. All that we have, all that we are, is because of God’s grace. It is only a problem when our ego tells us differently.

I believe this was the problem for the young rich man, his ego would not let him see himself without his wealth, without his material blessings. It was about him, not about how blessed he was. In our society, we are always keeping score by our stuff. Maybe it is time to keep score by who we are and how we love.

TMM

The word politics has been a source of fighting for hundreds of years. We are not allowed to talk about politics (or religion) at family gatherings, church fellowships or most anywhere. It just upsets people and starts arguments. No one wants to fight with Uncle Bill with turkey about to be served!

Therein lies the problem. If we cannot talk about religion and politics with our family we have a real problem. The real problem is we refuse to talk about controversial things that make us uncomfortable and we do not want to hear someone disagree with us. This makes us modern Pharisees and Sadducees. When we don’t discuss things that matter, things that impact millions of people, we are not following Christ.

Let’s be honest here, Jesus was put to death because he dared to point out the politics of his day, the religious who were conspiring with Rome. In political terms, Jesus was what is called a radical. Not a conservative, neo-conservative, liberal, neo-liberal or even libertarian. Jesus was beyond that scope. Gandhi, Mandela, King, these were radicals because they did not care about who was right, they didn’t care to punish those who oppressed, all of them were so radical that the goal was reconciliation.

What does the Gospel call us to do? To feed the poor, heal the sick, love the oppressed, take care of the widows and love our enemies. Now that is radical! Jesus was clearly a socialist in that from day one, everyone shared and everyone was their brother’s or sister’s, keeper. It is irrelevant as to the label given this behavior. It is called being a follower/disciple of Christ. We don’t want to talk about these things because it exposes us for who we really are instead of who we say we are.

Until we can (as my college students might say) “Speak truth” to one another in love, more will continue to go hungry or be sick or be oppressed. Jesus spent 33 years standing up for the oppressed, both spiritually and politically. He was not afraid to talk about the issues and to point out where the people in power of his time got it wrong and what it would take to fix it. With a few exceptions noted in Scripture, they refused to listen, kept the “party line” and when they had heard enough and seen enough, they murdered him. Make no mistake, Rome put this rabble-rouser to death and the Jews sat back and approved of it.

Today, in this world, are we not doing the same? Christians across this country are standing idly by, not talking about what is going on and letting people go hungry, die without healthcare or sleep on the streets. From the very beginning, God put humankind in charge of all of creation, to tend it as the Good Shepherd tends it, to love it, to honor it and to hold it Sacred. Maybe it is time we became the shepherds and vinedressers Jesus used in so many parables. Maybe it is time to embody love by standing for those who cannot stand for themselves and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

TMM

Silence is one of those spiritual disciplines that we often take for granted and yet rarely experience it. We have a hard time unplugging from the world we live in and we feel guilty if we are not doing something “meaningful” every moment. I think most of the time we don’t spend time in silence because we are afraid of what we will find there.

Instead of silence, we fill our lives with talk and music and even “white noise” to blot out all of the other sounds. There always seems to be something to interrupt the silence. Now, silence in this sense does not mean absolute quite. In the mornings when I spend time in silence, the furnace cuts on and off and the air cleaner rattles a bit as it is running. No, it is not totally quiet but it is silent in that I have disconnected from the usual noisy world.

The first time I went on a retreat to an abbey, I had some concerns about being in silence. It is a mistaken notion that monks take a vow of silence, trust me they do not. One of the funniest people I know is a monk and has been for almost 50 years. He loves to laugh and has a delightfully twisted sense of humor. And, yet, when I am with this monk, there is a peaceful silence between us.

You see, quieting your very heart is to move into silence. When I am at peace, my heart is in silence. I do this driving to work each morning, praying for all using my prayer rope. The road noise is still there and the orchestral music is softly playing, but it is silent in my soul. I have learned to love silence and I have learned that if I don’t have some once in a while, I the worse for it.

It is okay to sit on your porch and listen to the world as it really is and experience the silence of your soul. You see, when you take away the have tos and the musts of your life, the world becomes a lot quieter. And, when you can finally get past the guilt and shame of your own life, you are in silence with the One who loves you most. Pogo was right, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”

So, let go of the have tos, let go of the self-consciousness and step into the silence of your very soul. It does take some effort and practice, but imagine what even five minutes per day of having a silent soul might do for the health of your soul.

TMM

What am I to be mindful of exactly? I don’t know about you but across the years I have been asked (more often told) to “keep this in mind”. Or other variations: keep in mind, just remember this, be reminded, well you get the idea. My experience is that this is said when negative consequences could be just around the corner.

What is this mindfulness we are supposed to keep? The ever-present Wikipedia says that it is: the psychological process of purposely bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment without judgment. So, let me examine this: first and foremost it is a process, something to learn and to be practiced. That makes sense, we all have to be mindful of what we are doing, seeing, hearing, experiencing. Another way to say this is to be “living in the moment”.

However, there is another part here that is so very easy to overlook and that would be the without judgment part. This is the part that matters and that is so very difficult to deal with. We are, quite often, not judgmental of those experiencing the moment with us. We are often incredibly judgmental of the very one experiencing the moment – ourselves. To be able to live in the moment is not what we have been taught, we must lay judgment aside and take in the moment.

Here’s the thing, I struggle with laying judgment aside. It is hardest to lay aside my judgments about the things occurring in the moment and most of all, my judgments about myself and how I fit into that moment or if I even deserve to be having that moment. And this is what makes praying difficult. To pray is to be “in the moment” with God, without any judgment. How can we love our enemies? By being totally in the moment without judgment.

There is a larger question here, though. The real question we all struggle with is being in that very moment with the Creator of the Universe, the All-Knowing God, the Most High. That brings to mind the very judgment we are supposed to lay aside. Why is it so hard for us to remember that we are called to be “in the moment” with the Lover of our soul, the Creator that looked at us and said, “it is good”.

Contemplation is to be mindful, to be in the moment with God. It is a place to live from, but it takes practice. You have to ease into living aware of all without judgment. This path seems frightening because we are being called to let go of all that we have preconceived and been taught and live in the moment with God. Think for a second: this is true freedom. I don’t have to judge anyone or anything, I don’t have to decide, I just have to be in this moment and experience Grace.

TMM