Transimmanence

Is there any time or place when or where God is "not?"

Two words often used to describe the nature of God are "transcendence" and "immanence."  Transcendence is used when talking about a God apart and separate from creation.  Transcendence also infers that God is not bound by time and space.  Immanence, on the other hand, describes a God intimate and connected with and in creation, and implies presence in time and space.

Perhaps neither word really describes God, but rather describes how we experience God.  Sometimes we perceive God as detached and at other times connected, all depending on our perspective or circumstances.  Modern scientific exploration and thought has led us into new understandings of time and space. It has also given us new insight into how our brains function, showing us how our own consciousness participates in this dance of transcendence and immanence.

What if God is neither transcendant or immanent, but transimmanent - intimately present beyond space and time, everywhere, all the time?  What if God simply "is" while absence and presence are left up to us?

There is a popular greeting for some church gatherings in which one persons says, "God is good."  to which the group responds, "All the time."  Then comes the solo response, "All the time." followed by "God is Good."

For today I suggest an adaptation of this greeting that is grounded in a contemporary understanding of infinite time and space.  The greeting is also as ancient as the biblical story when Moses is told God's name is "I am."   The greeting goes like this:

"God is."
"Everywhere and always."
"Everywhere and always."
"God is."




   

Ashes and Dust

 Abraham answered, "Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 
- Genesis 18:27

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.   
- from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer burial service  

We are stardust. We are golden. And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

- Joni Mitchell 

"From dust you came to dust you shall return."  These words will be said and heard many times today as Christians around the world enter the season of Lent.   

Traditionally, the ashes that begin lent are a symbol of human mortality and frailty reminding us all that someday we will die.  To contemplate and reflect on our death is also an invitation to do the same about our life.

All of this has me wondering today if perhaps the ashes of Ash Wednesday could not only symbolize our mortality, but ultimately our immortality.   Not immortality in the traditional religious sense of "life after death," but, rather immortality as participants in the awesome and mysterious interconnected and interdependent cycles and evolving wonder of all creation.  

"Dust to dust" leads us into the primal spiritual questions:  Where did we come from?  How are we living now? And, were are we going?

In this way Ash Wednesday is not about dying as much as it is about living in full awareness that we are connected to and interdependent with all of creation, now and always.

If you are in the DC area and would like to observe Ash Wednesday in such a way as I've described above, I invite you to join me and others tonight at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church for "Stardust to Dust - A Deep Time Liturgy for Ash Wednesday."  The experience is self-paced so you can begin anytime between 7:30 and 8:30 pm.  

I hope you can join us.  

    

Currency

Currency:  "...something that is in circulation as a medium of exchange."

When I picked up the newspaper this morning a headline below the fold caught my attention:  "Virginia-only currency one step closer to reality"  It seems that folks in Virginia and other states are considering their own currency.  The article goes on to say this "...reflects a deep distrust in...the dollar."

Perhaps this distrust is not only a sign of the factional splintering in our world today, but  is also indicative of what and whom we trust.  It also brings up the questions: What exactly is our currency?  What is the "medium of exchange" in our lives?

That which or whom we trust is another way of expressing belief.  Biblical linguists generally agree that belief in the Bible is much closer to trust than to a more common modern understanding of intellectual assent.  Trusting infers dependence and interdependence, not head knowledge.  

As for our "currency", the only things in this world we really possess are our lives: our ideas, our abilities, our talents, our compassion, our love..."

The above definition of currency also mentions "circulation."  The process of exchange means that when we give we receive something in return.  Regardless of whether the return is tangible, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise, that which we receive will in some way mirror whatever we have given.  

Jesus said, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?"  Matthew 16:25-26

Forget about the dollar.  What is your currency of your life?   What medium of exchange are you putting into circulation?

Here, I Made This

At the beginning of this month I attended a small gathering of 17 people who were willing to share an idea, dream, or project.  The meeting was one of many held that same day in numerous places around the world.  These meetings, called Icarus Sessions, were the idea and dream of online innovator, entrepreneur, author, and speaker, Seth Godin.  The project is designed to allow people with ideas, dreams or projects an opportunity to stand up and say to other people, "Here, I made this."  What I shared that night, I'm about to share with you.  

I write and speak a lot about taking risks, stepping through thresholds, trusting the abundance of Creation and having faith in our God-given imaginations and abilities.  Well, today I'm practicing what I preach.


I've created an interactive website in order to share ideas, struggles and musings from my life in hopes of hearing from other people their thoughts and stories on religion, faith, and spirituality.   In order to create a conversation, I basically ask the question:  What does your spirituality (and/or faith) feel like, sound like, and look like outside the confines of your respective religion?

I won't say any more about it now, other than, "Here, I made this." -  Anonymous Religion.

One more thing, if you know of someone who may be interested in the site please share it with them.   Thanks.





  

Lip Syncing Life

Some of us remember when the music media of the day was a cassette tape.  In those days there was a television commercial that asked the question, "Is it real or is it Memorex?"

Well, we're asking the question again.  Of all the truly important things said and done during the President's  Inauguration this week, the big question is: Did Beyonce lip sync or not?  My latest understanding of the situation, which could change at any moment, is that she did both.  It appears that she actually sang along with a recording of her voice and the Marine Band accompaniment made for the occasion.

All of this has me thinking - how much of our lives is lip-synced and played out according to a script or sound tract to which we are merely mouthing and going along?  And, if we are lip-syncing life, whose recording are we using?

In many ways we live the life we imagine.  Our thoughts create feelings and actions which in turn shape the world in which we live.  It might even be said that we pre-record our lives by the thoughts we choose to keep in our minds.  Whatever we are thinking, feeling, and acting on today becomes the sound tract for tomorrow.  Could we be continually pre-recording our own sound tracts?

After all, whether it was "real or Memorex" it was still Beyonce and the Marine Band we heard - and it was wonderful.

"Let it be done.."

Last week my wife, Peg, and I had the privilege and pleasure of spending a few days in Key West, Florida (which is one reason I didn't blog last week). One of the things visitors to Key West are encouraged to do is visit the historic Key West Cemetery that sits at the center of the island.  One of the most popular and frequently visited crypts in the cemetery is that of B.P. "Pearl" Roberts whose crypt stone reads:  "I TOLD YOU I WAS SICK."  A note in the self-guided tour brochure says Ms. Roberts was a "Local hypochondriac who had the last word with her marker."

Once one gets past the humor of this epitaph and notices that Ms. Roberts died at age 50, a profound sadness and truth sets in that more than likely she not only had the "last word" but also fulfilled her own expectations of life.

In several incidents in the Gospel of Matthew when people approach Jesus asking for some form of healing he responds with, "Let it be done to you as you - wish, believe, or have faith."  In other words our deep beliefs and expectations determine outcomes in our lives.  We get out of life what we expect.

Of course, this is not a magic formula of direct ratio.  Nor is it wishful thinking or hard nosed determinism.  What Jesus, and so many other spiritual masters through the ages, teaches is that our fundamental perspective on life, our world view shapes, molds and filters how we see, experience, and react to the people and events of our lives.

If we see creation as basically flawed and humans as inherently sinful, then this is the way we will experience them.  If we understand creation as God-proclaimed-good and humans as reflections of that goodness, then our experience of life becomes quite different.

Is this perspective of life a denial of pain, suffering and death?  Absolutely not.  In fact, the stories of people approaching Jesus are exactly that--stories of people in the middle of pain, suffering and death to whom Jesus offers the way to comfort, healing, and life.  And that "way" lies within the suffering person themselves.  "Let it be done unto you as you..."

What do we expect from life?   Chances are, whatever it is, this is what we will have.  

Time and Wonder

I was awakened this morning by an alarm, a soft musical sound but just the same an alarm.   The holidays are over and it's back into the world of clocks and calendars.  And this has me thinking about time and how we perceive it, order it, and experience it.  I nearly used the word "spend" instead of experience but resisted the urge to see time as a commodity that is bought, sold and spent.

I'm wondering this morning how to bring some of the timeless rhythm of holidays into work days, how every night can be New Year's Eve, every morning New Year's Day, every day a Christmas birthday of God in our lives, and every moment an experience of One Eternal Presence of life.  Then again, just to wonder it may be enough.

Life, Death and Love

"Thus you shall say to the Israelites, "I am has sent me to you.' "
Exodus 3:14

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
Revelation 22:13

In the fresh and turbulent wake of last Friday's terrible events, there is a cry and hue, as well as a rush to "do something."   It seems to always be this way in the aftermath of tragedy and especially human caused tragedy.  Too often our "doing" consist of saturating ourselves in what seems to be an unquenchable thirst for information as consumers of a media frenzy.  Hearing and seeing the same things repeatedly and melodramatically in some way creates an illusionary substitution of knowledge for action.  Once we know all the facts and are satiated with the details, express our horror, disgust, anger, and grief then we are ready to move on.  Another scenario is to immediately identify what caused the tragedy and to go about fixing a problem by closing the barn door after all the cows are already out, and adding to the layers of fear and insecurity to which we have grown so accustomed.  The problem with both of these reactions of "knowing" and "doing" is that neither really does anything but take us through a familiar cycle until the next tragedy de jour.    

Of course, in the midst of lives directly affected by tragedy there is plenty to do as people, with the comfort and support of family, friends and neighbors, put lives back together and slowly begin to imagine how to continue living in a profoundly altered world.  But even our human caring, compassion, and resiliency for suffering are but coping mechanisms, unless there is an awakening of heart, spirit, and soul to our individual and collective fear of death and to the marvelously mysterious, interconnected reality of existence in which we participate.

When we can embrace birth and death, the worst and the best, exile and homecoming, manger and cross, the beginning and the end as all part of Divine experience, then as the poet Hafiz says,

…God has stopped playing child's games

With your mind

And dragged you backstage by

The hair,

Shown to you the only possible

Reason

For this bizarre and spectacular

Existence.

Go running through the streets

Creating divine chaos,

Make everyone and yourself ecstatically mad

For the Friend's beautiful open arms.

Go running through this world

Giving love, giving love,...

("If The Falling of a Hoof", from The Gift)

When we truly know that Life, Death and Love are inextricably intermingled and interwoven within the wholeness of creation, then we will be prepared to act from compassion that not only heals, but also brings us into new ways of knowing, being, doing and living.

Go here for an excellent discussion/interview on Life, Death and Love.

Good News!

The angel replied [to Zechariah], "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.
- Luke 1:19

But the angel said to the shepherds, "Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people…  
- Luke 2:10

So, with many other exhortations, John [the Baptist] proclaimed the good news to the people.  
- Luke 3:18

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…"  
- Luke 4:18


There is a clear message at the very center of Advent and Christmas.   Some translations of scripture call it "glad tidings",  some "good news", some "preaching", and others "gospel".    The Greek word is "Euaggelizo" which comes from two words that mean "good" and "message".   The message part is also the root word for "angel."

The Advent and Christmas stories are of angels bringing good news of the birth of two babies, John and Jesus, who in turn as adults preach good news, and in effect become angels.   The message and the messenger are both good news.

But it's not just John and Jesus who become angels.  It's also the shepherds, Mary, the Magi, the people who come into John's wilderness, the disciples, the crowds who listen to Jesus, the sick who are healed, the writers of stories passed down through the ages, and eventually us.  We receive Good News from all of these angels in order to become Good News ourselves - We Are Each Other's Angels.

Practice As Preparation

"Prepare the way of the Lord."

Isaiah 40:3

There is a dynamic in life that says in times of difficulty or crisis we will usually default to that which we already know.  When we don’t know what to do we do what we know.  (Sometimes even when we consciously know what to do we still do the opposite because this is what is ingrained in our sub-conscious.)

Soldiers, athletes, artists and mystics have known this for centuries.  This is why their lives are described as lives of discipline because they continually practice that which they want to become the default response of their lives.

Could this be what Advent is all about?   

If we want a world of hope, joy, peace, and love then perhaps these need to become our disciplines, our preparation, our daily practice.

Then Advent becomes not waiting for Jesus to come, but preparing for Christ coming in our lives by actually living the way Jesus taught and showed us to live. 

This way Christ is born into the world through us. 


From the sermon "The Hope of Advent" on Dec. 2, 2012

  

Winter - Friend or Foe?

It’s cold outside this morning, the first really cold morning in these waning days of fall.  The light of day is getting shorter and trees are bearing their limbs.  Soon the starkness of winter will be with us.

It’s about this time of year when I recall the first few lines of a poem I memorized in a high school French class.  Through the marvel of the internet I found the entire poem by Charles d’Orleans that was eventually set to music by Claude Debussy.

Yver, vous n'estes qu'un vilain;

Esté est plaisant et gentil

En témoing de may et d'avril 

Qui l'accompaignent soir et main.

Esté revet champs, bois et fleurs

De sa livrée de verdure

Et de maintes autres couleurs

Par l'ordonnance de nature.

Mais vous, Yver, trop estes plein 

De nège, vent, pluye et grézil.

On vous deust banir en éxil.

Sans point flater je parle plein,

Yver, vous n'estes qu'un vilain.

Winter, you're naught but a rouge.

Summer is pleasantness and kindness,

as we see from May and April

which accompany it evening and morning.

Summer, by nature's order, clothes

fields, woods and flowers

with its livery of green

and many other hues.

But you, Winter, are too full

of snow, wind, rain and sleet.

We must send you into exile.

I'm no flatterer and I speak my mind.

Winter, you're naught but a rouge.

The other side of this poem is that during these short days we also experience some of the most vibrant blue skies of the year, the long nights bring crystal clear heavens that are often obscured by the heat and haze of summer, and there is regenerative mystery in the barrenness and dormancy of nature where new growth is nurtured.

It is no wonder that at this time of year we also begin to decorate our houses and streets with light and celebrate the coming and Presence of Light in the world.

By the way, tonight is a full moon.  I hope the skies are clear where you are – enjoy!

Give Thanks!

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.

- Meister Eckhart.

O give thanks to the Lord, for Lord is good, for God’s steadfast love endures forever. 

- Psalm 136

Giving thanks is a liberating and cleansing act. When we are thankful there is no room for lack or scarcity of anything.  When we are grateful our world is bigger and brighter.  Thanks and gratitude are thresholds into the fecundity of creation.

The expression of thanks and gratitude is perhaps the most important practice we can have in our lives, not just one day of the year, but every day.

As we sing every Sunday in our congregation while bringing our offerings:  “Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Holy One.”

Happy Thanksgiving! 

"...And Beyond"

"Thin place" is how 20th century reviver of the Iona Abbey in Iona and founder of the Iona Community, George MacLeod described Iona, Scotland - a place where the temporal and eternal meet, the visible and invisible mingle.  - from One Eternal Presence, Sabbatical - Oban and Iona

Box Canyon at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico is a thin place. To get to Box Canyon you hike up a gently graded stream bed that is easily crisscrossed. The farther up stream you go the larger the rocks in the bed become as the mesa walls get closer and higher. After climbing over and through one final stand of bolders you are in Box Canyon.  

It is a natural cathedral with high concave walls that arch overhead framing a circular section of sky above.  Except for the sound of trickling water from several places in the wall, the silence encompasses you.  There is a large bolder with a flat top near the center of the canyon floor serving as a natural alter.  It is truly a place where the temporal and eternal meet, the visible and invisible mingle.  Once you get there you don't want to leave.

About half way up the trail to Box Canyon, before the mesa walls become steep and narrow there is another trail marked with a sign:  "To Upper Camp and Beyond."

This trail is winding and steep and goes to a natural "campsite" several hundred feet above Box Canyon.   "...And Beyond" goes even higher to the lower levels of Mesa Montosa, which on its top is close to two thousand feet above the trail head to Box Canyon.  From "...And Beyond" looking back down on Box Canyon (which by the way you can't really see) what you see is an ancient river bed winding down a valley until it comes to a drop off that was once a waterfall. It becomes evident that Box Canyon cathedral was once the plungepool for that waterfall.

My observation here is simple:  from "...And Beyond" what we had thought and experienced as eternal becomes more temporal and what was invisible to us before is now more visible.  From "...And Beyond" we discover a different "eternal" and "invisible" - another thin place.  That is until the next "...And Beyond." 

When was the last time you explored "...And Beyond?" 

The Day(s) After

I’m writing this on Election Day not knowing the outcomes, while knowing you will read it the day, or days, after.  To some, whose candidates won, it is a time of relief, celebration, and anticipation. To others, whose candidates fell short, it is a time of melancholy and reflection, with retreating glimpses of what might have been.

Regardless of election outcomes, what really matters is our knowing who we are and how to live in the present moment, fully embracing our joy or sadness.

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

- Rilke, Book of Hours, I,59.  Translation, Barrows and Macy

                       

I heard this poem on the radio program / podcast “On Being with Krista Tippett” and strongly recommend you listen to or read the transcript of one of the most moving interviews I’ve heard there:  

A WILD LOVE FOR THE WORLD, a conversation with Joanna Macy, a philosopher of ecology, a Buddhist scholar, and translator of the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke.

After The Storm

A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"   

-Mark 4

For most of the world it goes unnoticed.  But for those at its center it is the world.  That's the way it is with storms of all kinds whether they be wind and waves, snow and sleet, water and mud, or words and emotions.  Storms consume those caught in their paths, mostly for hours or days but sometimes forever.  Storms change coastlines, landscapes, skylines, neighborhoods, and lives.  Storms come and storms go but not without leaving awe in their wakes.  

Melody and Harmony

Sometimes people use this very old expression, “unity in diversity.” I very much like the way Japanese speak—not about unity in diversity, but “harmony in diversity.”   There is this great diversity at every level—and diversity is part of the superabundance of life. Diversity is an absolute necessity for something to emerge and come into being.    

 - Ursula King

Melody is the single strand of music that is usually recognizable, familiar, and comfortable to our ears and voices.  Melody can be sung by one person, or by several in unison.  Melody is the story of life as we may imagine or wish it to have happened: simple, straight forward, independent, and tidy.   

Harmony derives from melody as different but related tones add depth and texture to the melody.  Harmony brings in the mysterious, the nearly recognizable, the not so familiar, and perhaps even the discordant.  Harmony requires more than one voice.  Harmony is the story of life as it most likely is: rich, layered, interconnected, and often messy.   

What are the songs of our lives, and are they mostly melody or harmony?   

If we are to truly embrace the wonder of life and the majesty of creation perhaps a beginning is learning to harmonize. 

"O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth."

- Psalm 96

More Holy Ground!

Since I've recently written about my time in New Mexico, I just had to share these photos with you.  They appear on Jeff Sockwell's blog, with whom, along with Bill Owens, I was together in NM.  

Enjoy!

Photos of more holy ground!

Barefoot

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"...the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing... and the Lord said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
- Exodus 3


Recently when I was in New Mexico the high altitudes of the mountains were painted with the brilliant yellow of aspens in their glory, while far below lining stream beds was a different but equally beautiful yellow of the cottonwoods. Today when the first rays of morning sun touch the maple tree outside our front door it glows and shimmers in red hues.  This time of year, I have no trouble whatsoever believing in burning bushes. 

It's a good time of year to wear slippers.     

View From The Cheap Seats

How can I write about anything else today besides baseball?   Today, for the first time in forty-eleven years (Who knows how many? Every thing I read and see has a different number), a loooong time, there will be a post-season baseball game in Washington, DC.

Back in 2005 when the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals and season tickets went on sale I was among the first in line (my account # is in the low 400's).  I've been a baseball fan (and player in youth) my entire life then suddenly I lived close enough to the ballpark to walk to a major league game.  (As an aside, I attended the very first National League Championship Series game between the Braves and Mets in 1969, but that's another story).   How could I not have some kind of season ticket?  It was only a 20 game ticket for two seats in the "cheap seats", but it was baseball.   And as I learned to say in during some lean years as an Atlanta Braves fan, "Bad baseball is better than no baseball at all."

Then the Nats moved to the new ball park, and after one season there I upped my tickets to 40 games and split with a close friend who loves and enjoys the game as much as me.  Since then there have been times when neither of our wives could go so we ended up going to a lot of the games together.  So, suffice to say in the 8 seasons the Nationals have been playing, I've seen a lot of baseball, and been in the park for more then several crushing defeats as well as glorious walk off wins.

My friend and I will be in Nationals Park today.  It happens that both our wives are out of town with work.   And win or loose, we, along with thousands of others and the entire city of DC will be celebrating the long awaited fruit of the initial return of baseball to DC, of planning, persistence, patience, and above all hope.

We're still in the "cheap seats" but today every seat in the ballpark is a box seat!    GO NATS!

Thanks for indulging a little sentiment today.

Lessons From The Trail

OEP 10-3-12

When is the last time you learned something by getting it right? It happens occasionally but more often than not we learn from our mistakes, our failures.

Yesterday was a perfect example of this dynamic for two friends and me. The three of us were hiking at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico and had set out about 9:00 a.m. with plenty of food and water for the top of Mesa Montosa . My friends had made the hike before and had successfully come off the mesa down a dry stream bed, but didn't remember exactly where it was.

To make a long story (and long day) short, suffice to say we had numerous "learning experiences" as we searched for our way down, always keeping in mind to leave enough daylight to make our way back to the trail we had taken up.

At the end of the day even though we were tired and sore, and had not reached our intended destination, we considered the day a great success. We enjoyed the camarderie of the hike, saw spectacular vistas, re-discovered physical capabilities of younger days, and learned a great deal about Mesa Montosa that we hadn't know before. Most of all we learned that we're going to find the end of that elusive stream bed and make our way up it, so that next time we'll know our way down.

There is no such thing as failure as long as we are willing to learn from our mistakes.

For and Against

"...no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against you is for you..."      Jesus to his disciples in Mark 9


"Whoever is not against you is for you" is a lot different from the inverse of the statement which seems to be more commonly used: "If you are not for me you are against me."  The main difference is in pure numbers.  There are a whole lot of people, probably most people in the world, who are "not against you", while those who actually know you and are "for" you are probably few in number.  

Jesus' way of seeing "for and against" immediately assumes inclusion and acceptance of others.  The other way assumes exclusion and rejection.

The 8th Chapter of Romans eloquently articulates the world view available to us when we discover the Eternal Presence of God, the Spirit of Christ, in our lives and the lives of others, the summation of which is:  "If God is for us who can be against us?"   And even though it is a rhetorical question, the answer is provided: nothing can "separate us from the  love of God."

A juxtaposition of Mark and Romans gives us a pretty good way to see the world:
Whoever is not against you is for you.  If God is for you who can be against you?
     

Words

…those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it…Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed…

Mark 8:35,38

-today's message is from my sermon Playful, Powerful Words, September 16, 2012:

Jesus uses the words that he nearly always uses to describe himself:  “Son of Man.”  This is a title with which the disciples would be familiar. It appears in numerous places in the Hebrew Scriptures and has a wide range of meaning that encompasses the fullness of the human/divine relationship.

By calling himself Son of Man instead of Messiah, Jesus places himself among not above humanity.  He offers his own life as the example and says follow me. And in doing so he shows us how to be truly and fully human - which also means claiming the divine spark within ourselves.

This is the “life” we discover when we loose the “life” we perceive as separate from God, and thus separate from one another, and all of Creation.

In other words, how can we be fully human, how can we live as we were created in the Divine Image, if we are ashamed of being human?

The life we give up and the life we gain can be put this way: We can see ourselves as fallen creatures unworthy of Divine love, or we can claim life as God infused humanity by following Jesus and living his words.

Ultimately, I think Jesus ends up saying, whoever we say he is, whatever words we use to describe him, will determine who we say we are.

And the words we use to describe ourselves, determine the words we use with others, which ultimately determine the life we live.

Listen to the entire sermon here.

Learn more about how to join the "Evolving Christian Faith" conversation taking place now at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church and beyond.

September 10 and 12

If we really knew it was "goodbye", would we leave?
- Unknown

The Good News of the Gospel is that the worst thing is never the last thing!    
- Rick Wilson

For eleven years people around the world and in the The United States especially have paused on and around September 11 to remember and reflect.

We remember the surprise, the shock, the horror, and the deep sorrow.  We remember the unfathomable and senseless loss of life.  We also remember how for a brief moment the majority of the world was united by all of these things and joined together in condemnation of violence perpetrated in the name of militant religion.

As I remember and reflect I can't help but think of the before and after of that day.  I reflect on how the problems and worries of September 10, 2001 suddenly became far less so, and how the routine yet final meals, conversations, and embraces of so many people suddenly had lasting significance.  And then the sun came up on September 12.   The world, changed as it was, carried on.  We carried on in healthy, loving, constructive ways, as well as dis-eased, fearful and destructive ways.   And the world we live in today is significantly so because of the choices we made then and continue to make today in response to those and other shocks, horrors, and sorrows.

It may sound simple and perhaps even glib, yet profoundly true:  we have choices and make decisions every moment of every day that contribute to and create what tomorrow will be and how we look back and remember the "last" opportunities of our lives.

Everyday of our life is another chance, another September 10 or 12.


  

Meaningful Work?

"The opposite of vacation would be occupation, a word we commonly use to describe that which we do with most of our lives - our work."    -Sermon, Capitol Hill Presbyterian, Sept. 2, 2012.

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."   Frederick Buechner on Vocation

As we leave the season of vacation and re-enter lives of occupation some people may again be entertaining questions like:  "Why am I doing what I do?", "Is my work meaningful?", or "Am I personally fulfilled by my work?"  And there are many people for whom the the question may be, "When will I work again?"   

Whatever our work may be or whatever work we may seek, answers to questions like those above are best found from within.  Work itself has no inherent value, meaning, or purpose.  Value, meaning, and purpose come from our own perspectives and can range all the way from "saving the world" to "paying the bills", "to meeting customers' or clients' needs", or simply because "we enjoy it."

Tradition has it that the Buddha said when someone asks, "Who am I?"  the answer is, "Who is asking the question?"

Is our work meaningful?  A lot depends on how we see it.  And then on how we go about doing it.

Here's a great "On Being" podcast on "..work, education, and civic imagination..."