Month: January 2020

What does abundance mean? The dictionary says an ample quantity is an abundance. I have often wondered if we truly understand that word? We have turned that word into a description of wealth and material goods. Used in this way it becomes a rather elitist word that most cannot relate to, but what if that meaning is of our creation and not the true meaning?

If one takes the word as the representation of wealth and material success, then the words of Jesus: “I have come so they have life and that life in abundance”, are problematic for most of us. We do not have overflowing things in life. Instead, we strain, struggle and stress to just make enough and/or have enough to live. This definition of abundance makes that life and that promise impossible to embrace or even imagine.

What if we were to take that basic meaning as the important one: abundance is an ample quantity? Now does Jesus’ words make sense? Do they take on a meaning all of us can relate to? I think the answer becomes yes. If the abundant life is having enough, an ample amount to live on, then Jesus’ promise is good for all.

You might be asking, what about the poor? What about the sick? If you are like me, those questions immediately come to mind and they would be leading us in the wrong direction. Jesus always spoke about life in the Spirit, in God. If we take that as a spiritual promise, then it is absolutely true. Perhaps a better way for us to say it is that life in God will always provide us with enough.

There is another piece to this that we truly never talk about. I have read these verses for so many years as Jesus giving us this great life and we don’t have to do a thing for it. Many churches preach that we cannot be good enough or do enough to deserve it, it just is. What if that is not true? What if that promise is that abundant life is always and forever available to us but we have to take it and use it? We must stop being passive in our spiritual life. God’s promise is to always be there, to be available and to make an abundant life available, but if we just sit here, if we wait for God to do all of the work, we will never know abundance.

The African American theologian, Howard Thurman describes the life of evergreens above the tree line and describes those trees as “using to the full every resource in me and about me” to have life. Now, that is the meaning of abundance, when we chose to use all that is available to us to live! What would our lives be like with that attitude? I will use all that God has provided to the fullest. That is a statement of believing in abundance.

TMM

When I was a child and it was cold, I was told to “wrap up” before you go outside. The word “wrap” is used less to identify a coat or sweater or shawl than it once was but it is perfectly descriptive. Put something around yourself to protect against the cold is wise advice.

These days a wrap is an order at a restaurant or fast food place. A turkey wrap is tasty (especially with cheese) but it just doesn’t mean the same as the wrap mom told me to put on. Having grown up in South Texas, the days I had to put a wrap on were rather few in number so that coat or sweater lasted a long time.

This got me to thinking when we are told to wrap up, we are trying to keep something out, the cold or rain maybe. But, Christmas and birthday presents come wrapped. A nice Irish chocolate bar comes wrapped. In these cases, the wrapper is to keep something in place and/or keep it out of sight. There are those patriotic sorts that “wrap themselves in the flag” and that carries a rather political tone.

What about Christians? Do Christians come wrapped? Do they need to be unwrapped? And if they do, how do you unwrap one? Sounds silly doesn’t it, but truly it is the journey of us all, first to learn that we do indeed come wrapped. That wrapping is the God of the universe, the Creator God, whose deep and abiding love is our wrapping. And most of us, I dare say all of us, take the wrap off as soon as we can and immediately forget that we ever had it on!

Our ego, our desire to go our own way, is that nature that tells us to take the wrapping off, we don’t need it anymore, we are just fine the way we are. Then, if we are paying attention, a day, perhaps a moment comes when we realize we want that wrap, we sort of remember how it felt to have the Wrap of God’s love around us and we want it back. Then we spend a lifetime trying to keep it on and remember where we put it in the first place.

Know this dear one, that Wrap of Love can never be taken off! We do indeed forget we have it on and where it came from, but it never comes off, the Eternal God would never let us come unwrapped. Today, take a moment to feel wrapped up in the love that never ceases.

TMM

Why is the one question that you never ask a teenager or, in the profession of social, you never ask the client. The reason is that there is no way to answer that question in a meaningful way. We all do things and have no really good explanation as to why. Perhaps the most painful version of this is when we have lost someone or some very difficult event has crossed our paths. We ask, “why me” or “why now”.

The real question is not why but what now? Why something happens is irrelevant. There is no good answer for that particular why. Instead, we must ask what now. You see, asking why paralyzes us and keeps us in the negative cycle of needing to understand something that cannot be understood rationally. What now moves us forward.

In the New Testament, you find the verses that say, “everything works for good, for those who love God and are called according to His purposes”. Taken at face value this seems to teach us that bad and evil things are done by God and we need to accept it. Perhaps there is another view. Perhaps the verse points us away from why and toward what now.

If you take these verses as the what now, then they make sense. In the worst of times, we are not alone and we can choose to take that experience and use it to learn something or to inspire ourselves. the part about “called according to His purposes” directs us to do things from a point of faith, that point where we put our ego (our personal needs) aside and search for the way through the ordeal.

Perhaps, just maybe, we should start each day with “what now” and look for the way through.

TMM

Have you ever been asked to do something that you just knew would not work? There are those bosses, supervisors, and even parents who ask you to do something that you don’t think will work and/or you don’t believe in. If you are like me, the response is, “you want me to do what?”

Some of those requests are things that just have to get done, no matter what and if I don’t do it, some else will have to. At work, we often call that “and other duties as assigned”. That part of your contract which is unwritten but expected.

In scripture there are several examples of this: Sarah, when she hears she will be old and pregnant has the “do what?” response. Moses had that response, “do what with Pharoah?” Perhaps the one we forget about is the wedding at Cana. You know the story, Jesus’ own mother asks him to do the impossible and resupply the wine at the wedding. And water miraculously turns to wine.

It is always taught that the lesson is about the miracle. In the Meeting God Bible (a very nice lectio divina styled bible) another point is made and that is, what about the persons filling the posts with water? YOu know for sure that one came under “other duties as assigned” because those pots of water were used to wash people’s feet when they first came to the wedding. You can just hear those servants saying, “Do What?” They were tired, they were not really part of this grand party and their feet and backs probably hurt to boot. But they did it even though they did not believe in it.

Aren’t we all that way with God? We see a path that we doubt but we know we should try. We converse with God and often start with “you want me to do what?” Silly things, you know, like forgiving others just the way God has forgiven us or remembering those who have no bread while we calmly eat ours. Or how about this one, even crazier, loving those who hate us, who are our enemies? Or perhaps the most important and craziest of all, be aware of all of those who are hungry, homeless, in prison or just in need?

This life we are called to if we say we are Christian begins with a huge “do what?” God, you want me to do what? Give up my ego, my way of doing things and trust you? Are you kidding, I cannot see how that is going to help me whatsoever. Maybe today is the day we each decide to just fill the pots with water, without even knowing what the outcome will be. Maybe faith is filling waterpots.

TMM

What’s in a name? What a profound question. Our name is what we know ourselves by, what we are used to hearing from others when they call us. It is our sense of identity. Without a name we become but a faceless number, a nobody. So names are precious.

What is in a name? In truth all that we are is in our name, it is supposed to sum us up. “When I think of ________, I think of _________. ” Fill in your name and how you want to be known or remembered. For me, it would go like this (ideally), “When I think of Phil, I think of gentleness.” Now, there is also an idea of living into or living up to your name. It is very personal and can be deeply cultural.

For some of us, our given name can inspire us. Shel Silverstein was a poet and a humorist. He wrote a poem that became a Johnny Cas song,
“A boy named Sue”. The humor of this is that the distant and absent father names his son Sue because he knew he would not be around and needed his boy to grow up tough. It is a humorous approach to the question at hand, what is in a name?

A boy named Sue, and I guess a girl name Ralph if we are to be fair, is supposed to poke fun at how we are named, but with a serious undertone of becoming aware of our names and how they impact our lives. I have a name that derives from greek of phil hippos, lover of horses. Now as a good Texan I have ridden a horse or two. I have an abiding respect for these noble animals, but love them? Nope, give me a golden retriever every time!

So, what is in a name? How about Psalm 43, where it says “I have summoned you by name, you are mine”. Suddenly, when I see and hear that the Creator of all knows my name and calls me by it to let me know I belong to that Creator, that is awesome in the true sense of the word. It is also incredibly personal, God just doesn’t call me as one of the flock, God calls me by my name and then claims me.

What if we lived up to that name that the Creator calls us by? What if we behaved and thought from a viewpoint that says the creator of all knows me personally. So for a day (growing into a lifetime) let’s rejoice in this very personal God who knows us personally and calls us to Herself by name. If there is a sense of familiarity with this notion, hear these baptismal words, “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased”. That is the Father claiming the Son as his very own.

So, dear ones, start today by hearing the Sacred One of all call you by name, summoning you personally and remember that God is well pleased with you.

TMM

I once had a martial arts student who used this phrase as the answer every time something went wrong. It was the same when this person was my college student as well. Heck, Adam did it in the Garden. God: “Did you eat that fruit I told you not to eat?” Adam: “I didn’t do it, it was that woman you gave me”. Face it, much of the time all of us begin here, I didn’t do it.

The truth is often that “I didn’t do it!” is true, you or I did not do it. Instead, we let it happen. Consider that for a minute, we let it happen. On quote that I saw awhile back indicated that when we quit talking about religion and politics in family gatherings and other “polite” settings (read church here) it was the beginning of us letting institutions act any way they want.

In my own denomination, we have allowed LBGTQI persons to become second class citizens that are welcome to come to our churches but not be a part of them. And, we point to one group or the other as the culprit. WE let this happen. We are the same way with our government at all levels. There are homeless people, “I didn’t do it”; there are people going hungry, “I didn’t do it”; and, the traditional church is dying, “I didn’t do it”.

We as Contemplatives and Christians can say all we want that it isn’t my fault, I didn’t do it and we will always be lying to ourselves. We are called to speak for those who have no voice. We are called to help the “least of His children”. That is what the series of verses is about when we just blithely go ahead and let things happen. When we do not speak up and speak out, we are complicit with the sins of society. Scripture says we will hear, “I never knew you”.

Perhaps an active faith is one that says, “I am part of the problem, what can I do to make it better?” That is what we are called to do, to make it better in our society and in our churches. But, to do this we must speak up. It is not easy and it is what got Jesus killed after all.

TMM

To be “woke” is a term I hear at my college fairly often. It is a slang sort of word that means to be aware of the underlying social justice issues and to not just accept things as they are. This matters a great deal in the communities for people of color in this country and for people who might be different with regard to religion or other cultural issues.

Being “woke” matters because it means to be aware of things the general leadership would rather you and I did not think about. In my generation, we expressed it as “don’t trust anyone over 30”. It is the notion that perhaps we should not just blindly follow authority.

I believe that this is what is happening in the organized Church today. People are waking up, are woke, to the idea that perhaps following rules blindly is not a good choice. After all, wasn’t this the issue for the Sadducees and Pharisees? They were proud of their ability to follow the law. And Jesus woke them up to a whole new way of thinking and believing.

Richard Rohr writes about the notion that we are born with the Indwelling and indestructible spirit and that we must first awaken to its presence and then choose to let it be the guide for our lives. Now this makes sense to me, we are all God’s beautiful creations but until we realize and acknowledge that it is true for us, we miss out on so much of life. This is the meaning of free will and perhaps this is what people mean when they say they “have been saved”. Perhaps they are now “woke” to what has always been going on behind the scenes of their lives.

TMM

There is an old Simon and Garfunkel song that has this as part of the refrain: the “sounds of silence”. Now, how counterintuitive is that? The sounds of silence? Doesn’t silence mean no sound? Perhaps that is not the point. We think of silence in the physical realm but is that what silence is, simply a lack of noise?

In the contemplative life, one of the things that are sought is silence and solitude. Many sincere contemplatives spend a great deal of time seeking that perfect silence, that place or space where noise is not present. This is simply not possible, even at the Abbeys around the world, the great wildernesses you might find, they are not without noise. I recently visited a beautiful cathedral in Ireland. It was expansive and it was beautiful to the eye, but it was not without noise. In the same way, a visit to a 6,000-year-old stone circle in Ireland was not without noise, it was only a few meters from the road and yet, there was overwhelming silence, in this case, a silence from and for the ages.

So what is or are the sound(s) of silence? Silence in contemplation is that moment at which your very soul becomes quiet, empty of your own ego, and leaves a void then filled by the Presence of another. My first visit to the Abbey of Gethsemani I was overwhelmed (joyously so) by the silence. There was (still is) noise but it was silent, devoid of the need for me to do or say or even think anything. I have always described that first realization of what silence really is as “thunderous peace”.

Silence is that moment when you know you are not the center of the universe. That moment when you no longer have or need the answers. That moment when words just won’t do. That is silence. In Centering Prayer and most types of meditative practices, people think that silence is the goal, it is not. The goal is to be empty, that place where you are but a part of something so much greater. Even as I write this, I am in silence. Even with the clacking of keys, meditation music softly playing in the background and the morning noises of the house, I am in silence. My soul is empty except for the “thunderous peace” that I have come to know as practicing the presence of God.

That is the sound of silence. That is the place where we all can practice the presence of One so much greater than ourselves. For far too long I did not get it. I did not understand, until that first time at the Abbey and now each time I go back. Even in the middle of the whirlwind that is a our life each day, there is a silent place we can go.

One of my favorite hymns, perhaps my favorite is “It is well with my soul”. Horatio Spafford was a lawyer and businessman who wrote the hymn after horrible loss and tragedy in his life. It begins with “when peace like a river attendeth my way…” and that, dear ones is the silence we are seeking. That is the peace that passes all understanding. That is the silence and the “still small voice” in the middle of the whirlwind that we are all listening for. We only need to let go of our egos and enter the silence.

TMM