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I don’t know about you but I am at an age where I try to practice gratitude as often as I can. It hasn’t always been that way with me. In earlier years, it was not that I wasn’t grateful, it was just that it didn’t enter my awareness. I think many of us are this way, we just don’t notice or we are too busy. But be careful in thinking about this, saying thank you is not really gratitude.

True gratitude comes from the heart, with full intent to express love. God’s sort of love that is, you know, the kind you never earn and don’t deserve. Fr. Ronald Rolheiser  goes so far as to say that gratitude is the basis for all holiness. Now, consider that…..to be holy is to be grateful. The model prayer teaches us that if we will listen. We live in God’s kingdom as full citizens, grateful for our place in the kingdom and mindful that we have enough to eat and we have forgiveness.

Do we need a better reason to be grateful? Throughout the life of Jesus, we see him expressing true and deep gratitude: a cup of water, a donkey to ride, a few loaves of bread and  a fish or two. Every time, he gave thanks, deep gratitude. I sometimes think he was most grateful for every person that listened to him and every person who wanted to follow him. God was “well pleased” with Jesus and that truly is gratitude.

Does it dawn on you (and me) that the Eternal is grateful for us? That we are beloved? At this moment are you thinking no way that applies to me? Please don’t because it is God’s truth. He delights in us and is grateful because He enjoys our company, our very presence. We matter to the Creator of all, we are born with the Spirit of the living God within us.

What bothers me today about millennials is that there is very little gratitude on their part. I know they often feel entitled, they demand that you accept them just like they are, without any judgement at all. If that generation is bereft of gratitude, guess who is to blame? All of us as parents, church members, teachers and yes, even pastors. In fact, the many ministers who preach a prosperity gospel have contributed greatly to and fostered this lack of gratefulness.

So, I have decided to be grateful every time I possibly can. Grateful that my college students took my class, grateful for their great discussions, grateful when my wife does even the smallest thing for me. Grateful to have a daughter who is a minister of the gospel. Grateful for another daughter who never had to accept me into her life…..and did it anyway. Grateful for the food on my plate, the car I own and so much more. And what about you dear friend, what opportunities for gratefulness are you missing? At every moment, there is an opportunity, what  say we agree to seek them out.

TMM

There is no place like visiting the ocean to give you perspective. As I write this I am sitting at a table, outside, 30 feet from Aransas Bay. The gulls are floating on a rather heavy breeze from the Gulf. I am watching the sunrise and of course, contemplating ……things like how can that gull literally hang in the air like that? Why is the air so nice to breathe in? How does a blood red sun occur?

In the old mini series, Roots, the father takes the newborn Kunta Kinta out in the night, holds him up to the night sky and says, “behold, the only thing greater than Yourself”. That is a powerful way to begin life. To know that you matter greatly in the universe. The ocean teaches us just how vast it is and how small we are, I am. And yet, I am not insignificant. Neither are you.

As egotistical as it might sound, a great way to start the day is to look at ourselves and say, behold the only thing greater than yourself. You see, it is most certainly true, the Son said we would be heirs with Him and then, he stretched out his arms wide and gave his life. We are so precious to the Eternal that this perfect creation, the Son, was sacrificed. At that moment, we became greater than Himself.

So, as I feel the strong breeze and watch the coastal cloud cover blow inland, I will remember that I am an important part of all of this, if I will but allow it. Being a Child of the Eternal is my natural state, the way I was created to be. It is just who I am, not something I try to be. I cannot be greater than I am right now. And letting the waves and breeze be who they are, while I let myself be of an open heart? That is the Peace that passes all understanding. I am part of all of this, all of creation. I am small, but very significant. So are you, all that is needed is to be who you were created to be…….open your heart to the world, it will give you much back.

TMM

What is my name? What does it mean? Many traditions about names exist and they vary greatly. Many cultures name children as a way of inspiring the child to live up to the name. In other cultures, it is just a label. My mother chose the name Philip. I was never told why, but I have long known that it is the Greek spelling, like the New Testament, one “l”. That one “l” has cause problems all my life. All three times I graduated from college, I had to wait for my diploma because of an added “l”. Oh, and according to the Greek it means “lover of horses”. Yeahhh, not so much.

Names are important to me though. As a professor I work hard to pronounce my students’ names correctly. That is not only fair, but it is the right thing to do. It represents who they are to the world and that matters. I have a number of Hispanic students and friends and nothing irks me more than when, even though we live in Texas, people refuse to give those names their proper Spanish pronunciations. The same for my friends around the world, though I do confess to struggling with the names of my friends in India. Fortunately, they used Christian names, English names to make my life much easier.

Jesus asked that question once, of his disciples. One of them, Peter, got it right. I am convinced Peter was guessing, he really didn’t know that Jesus was God incarnate. Well, not when Jesus asked at least. Later, I am quite sure he figured it out. When Peter said Messiah and God, Jesus told him to keep it to himself. I have wondered about that. It could not have been a secret with all Jesus was doing. So why not talk about it? Well, right after that, Jesus talks about what it will mean to follow him, taking up a Cross daily. Jesus wants them to deeply consider what is in a name.

In this case, to be called by the name Christian is a death and resurrection proposition. Now, for most of those who go by the name Christian, actual death is not the issue, though in our current times, there are many in our world that it can be and is a death sentence. So, maybe, it is a name that one must deeply consider. The death is to ourselves, who we think we should be, want to be or who the world tells us we are. Instead, we take up our cross and follow the Incarnate God, living life as he did, getting it right sometimes.

The name is not just a label, it is a way of life. So, what is in a name? Life is in a name, in the name we have given to God Incarnate, Jesus the Christ. And, interestingly enough, that name embraces love in all its forms. I think to get this right, I will keep the lover part of my name and, forgetting those horses, I will love the world the best I can. And the toughest part of calling myself by the name Christian is that I have to embrace not only my enemies but myself. My entire self, good, bad, ugly and indifferent. That is what makes it a narrow way, to embrace Philip from God’s deep and loving point of view.  From that point of view my name is Beloved. So is yours!

TMM

When you hear the word Gethsemani, most will think of Jesus in the Garden just before his crucifixion. But for me, that word takes me to the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. For me it is a place of thunderous peace. A place where time is different, where life is less complex. It is a large property, 2500 acres in the knobs of Kentucky and populated with a wonderful Abbey church, guesthouse, and so much more. It is not fancy but it most certainly is holy.

The Abbey is about 30 miles from where my mother grew up and is buried. I have known of the Abbey all of my life because they have always made wonderful cheese (no cheese these days), fruitcake, and fudge, the latter two laced with Bourbon. Wherever my family lived, my aunts would make sure we got cheese and or fudge at Christmas. My mother loved this place and, though she was Protestant, she had a deep respect for the monks and their way of life.

I go to this Abbey because I am a part of it as a Lay Cistercian of the Abbey of Gethsemane. At least once per year, I go on retreat there and when I am about an hour away my heart starts to change, to calm down, to begin to let go of all of the burdens it has been carrying. For each of us in LCG, and I think every person who goes to this place of peace, it is both deeply personal and commonly peaceful. When I drive into the parking lot, I take a breath and suddenly, my Abbey Heart opens up. I am at peace, though the world out there is still there, and for a few days, my Abbey Heart rules.

And then, I have to leave. Go back to the “real” world, to a faster pace, to more cares. That world has never gone away and I know that. My Abbey heart, you see is a choice I make, not a magical event in Kentucky. Life at the Abbey is balanced, it is about keeping that balance between work, prayer, worship, and quiet. The monks make that choice and contrary to what you might think, it is not all that easy. They really are a microcosm of the world, not a separate world. Yes, they are separated by a wall and live in that one place, all the time, but they struggle with all of the human emotions, fears, and hopes. Hmmm, just like me.

An old story about abbeys and monks goes like this. A man walks by the abbey every day and wonders what they do in there. Finally, the Abbot is at the gate and the man approaches him and asks the question, “What do you monks do in there all day?” The Abbott’s gentle and surprising reply was, “We fall down and we get up.” All sinners can be saints and all saints are sinners. That is the school of love I am a part of, where they fall down and get up. It is a place of great courage too, because you see, it is hard to fall when others know about it and harder still to put our egos away and get up.

So I think I shall work  on choosing my Abbey Heart every day, at home, at the college and at work in the garden and yard. It is a choice, that I must make in order to find the peace “that passes all understanding”. And I will keep getting up.

TMM

 

I have had a few game changers in my life: a beautiful new daughter; a new Ph.D.; a new job; getting fired; and a few more that shall go unnamed in this note. It has not always been events that did it, more often it was something I read or heard that challenged me to think in new ways. And that, my friends, is the hardest of all, to change your mind. If it was easy, there would be no addicts after the first rehab treatment. There would be no broken relationships. Frankly, a lot fewer people would give up, if they could just change their minds!

Jesus was the real game changer. No, not what you might think, not by dying or rising again, although those events are important. Jesus came to challenge us to think differently about God and about each other and about ourselves. Now this is where I am going to push you a little, to do what I do in my classrooms each day, I am going to push you to think in new ways about old ideas.

God has loved us from the beginning. Jesus was going to come from the very beginning. Sin did not cause Him to come and it didn’t cause him to die. I know, now you are ready to quit reading, but stay with me a bit longer. Try thinking in a new way. What if Jesus came to change our view of God, how we think of God and not to change God’s view of us. It is Jesus’ life and words that are game changers. He came to show us how God feels about us. That God would let his Son die to prove that he loves us eternally, and always has.

If you were to dare to think in this new way, would it change the game for you? Could you see yourself as beloved? Could you see everyone as beloved? Could yo see the world as a beautiful and wonderful place? Most of all, would that help you see that the Eternal is right where the Eternal has always been, in you. In me. In us all, forever and always. It could change the game for you and all the world.

TMM

I teach research. It is all about asking good questions, asking the right question. In the movie I Robot, Detective Spooner is trying to solve a complex mystery. The holographic program he is interacting with keeps saying it is not programmed to answer his questions. In one last attempt, he asks the holograph a question and its response is what I work on from my students every class, “now you have asked the right question” and the mystery is solved.

I wish I could tell you and my students that this is how it works in the research world, but often we just end up with more questions. Oh, wait, isn’t that just like life? I think spiritual life is about asking the right questions and not at all about any of the answers. Like prayer. We have this notion that prayer is about asking God for or about things. It is not about the answers we think God is giving us but about the questions we are asking of God.

Let’s face it, there are only four answers God can give: yes, no, maybe, and not now. Oh wait, those are the same four I had to offer to my daughter as she was growing up. Sadly, we are all about the answer with God, rarely about the question, which is the very act of having a conversation with the Eternal Creator of the Universe.

Now that should cause you and I to pause: The Creator of All wants to hear from us? We matter that much? Then maybe the answer has already been given and we need to learn to focus on the questions. When asked about where he lived, Jesus simply said come and see. No answer, just an offer. When we ask God, we are not given an answer but asked to come and see. That is an offer to view the question from God’s perspective instead of our own. Only then do we know how to ask the right questions.

The honest truth is that when we get to the point where we see from God’s perspective, the answer no longer matters. Instead, we learn to “come and see”. We learn that an answer is no longer needed. We learn to ask better questions of God, then we learn that we already knew the answer. My mother died almost 15 years ago. It was difficult and my first question, quite naturally, was why? I learned that this question is not a good one. Oh, not because of the lack of any good answer but because it is not the right question. When we ask that our of our pain, hurt, anger, and deep sense of loss, we are really asking a very selfish (and very normal) question: “why is this happening to me?”

The right question is not why but “what now”? That is a question that we should ask every time we chat with the Eternal. Not why, but what now Eternal One? That becomes an offer to be part of the answer. With this one question, we become partners in life with the Eternal. Now that’s the right question!

TMM

Have you ever lost your balance? In my youth, someone invented a thing called a skateboard. No,  not one like today, these had metal wheels taken directly from roller skates and put on a board intended to result in skinned knees, broken bones and possible death.  Well, okay, I exaggerated a little. I was on one of these deadly toys when I lost my balance, landed flat on my back and had all my wind knocked out of me. I lay there all alone on the sidewalk and could not breathe. It was terrifying.

These many years later, I am well trained about balance because I am a martial artist and it is all about taking away the other  person’s balance. This is how a small person like my daughter can literally throw a larger person, like me, through the air. It is all about balance. As I have gotten older, I have come to see that a balance in what I eat is important. A balance in what I teach in the classroom is important. A balance in what I plant in the garden is important. And, a balance in the spiritual life is important.

I think Church has lost its balance. Ronald Rolheiser writes about this need for balance and points toward the conclusion that churches are full of answers but no longer asking questions. Full of rules but no longer full of responsibilities. Full of laws  but no freedom. I agree and will add to this by saying, in these current days there is so much talk about Millenials and that they are leaving church and any sort of religious life, though seeking spirituality and it is our fault.

I am the parent of a Millenial and the teacher of hundreds of them. Rolheiser is correct in his analysis of church. That being said, let my generation and those that came before accept responsibility. We caused this. We allowed our children and our churches to become these things, because it is what we wanted. If you would like to know what gave rise to the Emergent Church of today, look in the mirror first thing each morning and all around you on Sunday morning. That is your answer, you (we) caused it to happen.

Does not every sacred text talk about a balance in life? It is clear in the Christian scriptures. Jesus was leaving the wilderness and was tempted to turn stones into bread. So are we by the way. This temptation is us, our need to continually satisfy what we want in life. It is always tempting to turn the stones to bread and eat right. The theologian Miroslav Volf, made this point in a recent conference. He added that we want more and better bread! And, this throws us out of balance because this immediate gratification of everything is not how life works.

Jesus’ life is the “narrow path” that we are called to follow. But even he was clear that we do not live by bread alone. We need balance between bread and water, self-service and self-sacrifice. We need to work on our balance, every day, to stay spiritually “fit”. And, we must  balance our need for answers with the joy of the question.

 

TMM

It is spring, life starts over again. I drive about 20 miles to my college down a mostly two lane highway. One long stretch is almost completely canopied by the trees. I am always fascinated and in awe this time of the year. It seems like magic, one day the trees are bare, the next, green with new life. No matter how many times I have seen this in life, it still fascinates me.

This time is also reflected in the church calendar, the austere days of Lent, followed by the glorious “resurrection” of life and the movement toward fully alive, called Pentacost by the church. Fifty days to become fully awake and fully aware of all that is possible in life. In nature this is a time of rapid growth. So too I think in the spiritual life.

I watch my grandson as he grows. It is like the miracle of the trees on the way to work. One day it seems like there isn’t much going on and then here he is, sitting in his own little recliner, eating some breakfast and watching Sesame Street like a little man. It is truly amazing to watch the transformation of the grandson. I wonder if God does the same with us? One day we are unaware of the Eternal, then we discover how much we are loved and we are born. The Eternal is amazed by us. We are Beloved after all.

I love to think that the Eternal is fascinated watching us blossom and grow. If this time of the year we realize that the cross is but a symbol of the eternal cycle of life death and life again, we might shift our perspective a bit. Christ shows the way of life by living a life in perfect harmony with the Eternal; by taking all of the evil of the world and turning it into grace.  Sin is overcome not by a death but by a life. In that wooden cross we have our perspective resurrected, we see a new way to live, each day of that life a testimony to all that is and can be good in the world.

 

TMM

It is Easter Sunday. Across the Christian world the phrase, “Christ is Risen” is met with the response, “Christ is Risen Indeed!” Around the world, these words echo and on this day Vigils were kept and people are in church, no small number of whom only go to church on this day.

But what does this day really mean? Yes, of course, Christ was not in the tomb and not dead. Yes, the women found the empty tomb and  they told the men. Yes, they were confused and fearful. But why bunnies and eggs? A cute Scottish commercial is going around these days and the young daughter asks that specifically, why a bunny? She then asks “is it in the Bible?” Dad is caught trying to explain the bunny and the chocolate.

Bunnies? Chocolate? And, of course the best, chocolate bunnies. This day, unlike Christmas, is specific because of the Passover celebration referenced in the New Testament. Spring is the time when the world re-awakens. It is the time of Oestra from older pagan religions. For the Jews, it is the time of extreme sacrifice and sudden freedom. Bunnies represent the older tradition of spring and reproduction. Eggs, those are from the Seder meal, when Jews remember Passover and eggs represent a new beginning, with all of the hope that goes with a new birth.

I want to add another idea, taken from my contemplative readings and from living out contemplative life. Merton speaks of Easter being a daily celebration found in the Liturgy of the Mass, where Christ is “crucified”, Christ rises from the dead, Christ ascends to Heaven. For all of us who choose this Christian faith, Easter should be a daily celebration. We go to bed, the time of “sleep” represents being dead, and when we awaken, that is our Resurrection and then our day is lived in the company of the Holy Spirit. The entire life cycle in every single day.

What would your day to day life, or mine, be like if we celebrated life like it was Easter every day? I am trying to do that and I discover that if I celebrate my daily resurrection, I want to celebrate the resurrection of every other person in the world. We each get to start over, with a clean slate every day. That is the meaning of Resurrection. That is Easter.

 

TMM

Have you ever had someone explain that what they said they meant literally? “He literally fell of his seat he was laughing so hard”. “She literally kicked him on the shin.” So, a fall and a kick really happen. And, there were times when my mother told me something as a child that she meant to be taken literally. “If you touch that you will get burned” and I do have the scar.

There are times when literal is important, like  when a car is coming, or a tornado, or the boss. But, there are lots of other times when literal doesn’t help and just might make things worse. In the New Testament, Jesus says if “your right eye offends you, pluck it out”. Take that literally and you have a real problem. There are other times, again my dear mom said “shake a leg” when she wanted me to hurry. It only took the smart alecky kid about twice of getting swatted for literally shaking a leg instead of hurrying up. Thing is, I knew what she meant and chose to be silly.

Sadly, this doesn’t seem to apply to church folk. There are people who believe all scripture is literal and inerrant, not open for interpretation. They say this and then cannot possible live it out. The eye for an eye verses or sacrificing lambs on the alter, which would be very messy in a modern church. You see even those who say they are literal, really aren’t, what they are, truly, are people of convenience. I am not condemning folks that believe this way or are taught to believe this way. I am saying that it is a tough position to take.

Today is Easter Sunday and one of the scripture that is read is the road to Emmaus story. I never noticed until today that Jesus tells the two disciples about being literal. He tells them they are slow of heart to “believe all that the prophets have declared”. I never noticed that this was stated in this way. The next sentence he interprets things about himself, starting with Moses. So, these two disciples got it wrong because they took every word of the prophets literally and did not think of what was meant.

Faith is not a matter of convenience, or taking things literally, or following the letter of the law. It is a matter of paying attention to the signs and world all around us. To listening to and following our hearts. We don’t have to follow all the rules, we just have to follow one law, the law of love. Taking things literally, when it involves faith, only ever causes division and hurt feelings and confusion.  On this day, when we are all given a new way to see things and a new way to understand things, let’s become like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who “felt there hearts burning within them” because they listened to what Christ’s life really meant, to Love.

 

TMM