Month: January 2021

It is not unusual to wonder what the Bible means when it says that Adam and Eve were not to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you take it on the literal level, you are faced with the notion that all of God’s creation must never understand good and evil. That quickly devolves into just follow the rules and you will be safe and, if we are honest about how this story is interpreted, you will be loved by God.

This notion, based on following the rules and not on love, has led to a path that says sin came to the world because a woman could not resist temptation and a man couldn’t resist doing what his wife said. Really? So, as it happens often, we blame women and then we tell them that they will have “pain in birth” because of it. You see, this is exactly why God told them not to eat from that tree, because without maturity and love, it simply becomes a blaming process.

Is it possible that God didn’t want them to eat from that tree before they were mature enough to understand that God’s lover is the way to interpret good and evil? I believe that is exactly the point of the story, that before we begin to judge and develop the idea of “sin” we must be mature enough to trust God. If we learn of “good and evil” from the place of love, then we understand the life of Christ and the law of love.

How is it that church teaches us to obey and that because we don’t obey, we are sinful and must pay for those sins? And, then we are taught that because we are simply human, we cannot always obey so our humanity is what put Jesus on the Cross. Perhaps, with maturity, we are able to see that this is not the case. Jesus died to teach us that our lives matter but that even when they matter, it might go horribly wrong.

I am in agreement with Richard Rohr, Jesus was not plan B. Jesus was plan A always! He came to show us how to live, how it is possible to live life a different way, the way of Love. “I have come that you might have life and that life in abundance”. That life that he showed us, that is the “blueprint” for what we should do. We love, we accept, we forgive, and we go the extra mile. It is because he lived that we are saved, not because he died.

TMM

I have been in the Christian life for 50 years now. I have read the following scripture I don’t know how many times:

For through the law, I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; ²⁰and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. (Galatians 2:19 – 21)

I finally understand it, it is the description of being contemplative, of moving toward a deeper life. These scriptures are clear, it is not about the rules, the Law, or the orders of the Church. It is, instead, about the Life of Christ. It is the idea of “living into” that life. This is what “take up your cross daily” refers to. Each day, by choosing to do things God’s way, we live into the life of Christ. We accept more of that precious gift we have been given.

Don’t misunderstand, this is not easy. Intellectually, it readily makes sense but in living it out, if you are like me, it is hard to get past what society tells me, what Church tells me, and worst of all what I tell myself. Paul is clear, the old ways he followed (The Law) just don’t work.

It has taken me over 30 years as a contemplative to discover what these verses really mean. I wonder why the Church never explained this? I get it, control matters to any organization but so many are left to believe that they have to follow the rules, acquire the beliefs, and do what they are told. Christ is our example of what the Christian life is to look like, live in love with all and do as much good as you can as long as you can.

My concern is that the Church is too busy explaining the rules, the theology, and the behaviors required but never offer these simple thoughts of Paul as the life we are called to. Fr. Richard Rohr talks about the two halves of life, Paul is referring to the second half, where we truly become free. All of the “have-tos” of the world are replaced by the “want tos” that are the true essence of living the Christian life. To feel that one must follow what they are told is not empowering, the fancy name is social control. To be honest, Church is, most often, an instrument of social control.

To be empowered is to make choices because they are good choices, not because we have to do something. When “have to” enters in, empowerment leaves quickly. So, Christ came to empower us, let us do as Paul has said, “to live is Christ”.

TMM

Over all these years, I have just assumed that parables were stories to contemplate, to figure out, or to open our minds. Parables are those stories that make important spiritual points. They also leave a great deal of room to interpret them within our own lives and generations. That is the thing about all of those parables of Jesus, they were very complex stories with layers of meaning.

But, what if all of those stories, all of those parables were intended to point us the the “great parable”, the life of Christ? The scriptures say that he told these parables to all who would listen, “those who have ears to hear”, but that he explained them to his disciples. Perhaps that is what we are called to do, to listen to the life of Christ and live out that parable, that life that represents what all Christians are called to do.

I have a picture or these words painted on a building in New Orleans, “live a great story”. There was a movie about the life of Christ called “The Greatest Story Ever Told”. I believe that is what we are called to do as Christ followers, live out the “greatest story ever told” daily. That is the greatest parable, the life of Christ.

Think of this, each of us is called to live that “great story” in our own way but always with the rule of love as the guide. There were so many layers to Christ and His life, so too there are many layers to our own lives. Like any good parable, the life of Christ was full of many layers of meaning. From his birth, in a stable with no fanfare at all to his death that ultimately filled the world with a fanfare for all. That is the greatest “Parable” ever told. That is what we are called to do, to live out his “great story”.

TMM

In the middle of a pandemic, where I cannot see my students, cannot go to my church, and rarely leave home, I have been finding myself on autopilot. You know, like those things in airplanes where the plane flies itself. I was unaware that those are now so good, they can land the plane with little help from the pilots. That is a level of trust that is supreme.

In these days of restriction to home, it is easy to get on autopilot, to just go through each day, since they are all the same, without thinking much about what we do. We get up, take medicine, make coffee, check messages, read, and then……well that is the issue really, there may or may not be an “and then”. For me, this is a time to know grace, that thing that the Divine gives us moment by moment. Autopilot living makes it hard to remember what and why you do things, you just do them from rote memory and without much thought.

I wonder how many of us are guilty of living “autopilot” lives. You know, we just trust the routine, do it without thinking, and just keep moving forward. Now, don’t get me wrong, routines are important, like going to work, going to church, and taking care of chores. These are healthy and necessary. What I mean is those times when we derive our meaning from that routine, from what we are doing instead of who we are as people. Do we spend time with our families just following the routine? Do we spend time with our spouse just following the routine? Do we go and worship because it is on the list to do? Is our life with the Sacred just a routine? Are we even aware of the Other in our lives?

I think this is why retirement is so hard on so many people. They have taken their self worth from the routines, the motions they are going through, the jobs they have and never stopped and said, “hey, wait, I am me. I am not a job, not a routine, not an activity”. Retirement is hard when you have taken all of your self worth from what you do and not who you are. God does not call us to do, God calls us “to be”.

I think these days of isolation and pandemic are ones we can put to good use. It is a time where being introspective is important and when we just might find that we matter because we are God’s good creations and that is the only reason. We matter because we are loved by the Creator of the Universe. That unconditional love, that is God’s inescapable Grace.

TMM

It has been many months of absence from writing here and that is mostly due to the pandemic that has been going on for almost a year. I must confess that a good deal of life has gone on and I have not written about it here. I never want to be political here but I must also acknowledge that as a contemplative Christian, I must be involved.

We have lived through very difficult times over the past year. Many have been ill and far too many have died. Our political world in America has been in disarray for a good while as well. I hear people often say, “how did we end up this way”? I have had the same answer for a number of years and that is this, the Church let this happen.

Here is what I mean, the Church universal in this country (and many others) did not speak up, did not take a stand, did not speak to the church members in ways that would make a difference. The current president is not the illness, he is a symptom of what our country is and has been for a good while. Do we believe that anger, hate and fear are new? No, they are with us always. What we as the church did was to allow such things to lead us as God’s people.

Recall that Eve “ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”. We never really talk about that tree do we? How can God not want us to know good from evil? The picture here is not that Adam and Eve would never “eat of that tree” but that they were not mature enough to do so. Once our eyes are open to that knowledge, we become accountable. When we choose to disregard that accountability, we choose to go our own way, to live life our way.

This is what “take up your cross daily” means: we have to choose each day, sometimes moment by moment if we will choose our way (ego) or God’s way to see life and live it. That is the meaning of the knowledge of good and evil….that ability to make that choice to do things God’s way or according to our own way. As “young people” Adam and Eve were not ready for, had not lived enough life to make good choices, to make selfless choices like doing things God’s way.

And now, here we are as Christian (Muslim, Jewish) people who have chosen not to “know” what is going on, to not be involved. We abdicated living the very life Christ came to show us. We must hold ourselves accountable first, then the Church, and then those who are in office. We put them there and we are responsible.

I cannot leave things all negative, that is not me and not good Christian mysticism because, you see, God is good and so are the people created by that good God. I believe that we must see the God that is in every person. My daughter is a pastor and she ends each children’s sermon with this prayer:

“I see the love of God in you, The light of Christ comes shining through, and I am blessed to be with you, O Holy Child of God.”

Perhaps each of us should make this our life song.

TMM