Christmas 2011

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Jesus
Jesus, He’s us,
Jesus, He’s us, Jesus,
He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus,
He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us,
Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us,
Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus,
He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus,
He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us,
Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us,
Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus,
He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us, Jesus, He’s us,
Jesus, He’s us,
Jesus, He’s us,
Jesus, He’s us,

Spiritual Listening

Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God."

It is not enough to know God through the written word; we must also experience God as the Living Word in our hearts. If God knows all shouldn't we spend more time listening and less time talking in prayer? I was introduced to a form of contemplative prayer many years ago in which I would meditate on a central idea or phrase from a biblical passage for several months. This is a powerful form of prayer in that layers of meaning continue to unfold and deepen as we re-visit an idea repeatedly over time.

One of my first experiences with this kind of prayer focused on the above phrase from David's 46th Psalm. In this approach to prayer, one doesn't so much think about the meaning of a phrase as much as one opens up to the revelation of its meaning through the Holy Spirit. There is a specific attitude one must cultivate to attain this prayerful mindset. It is an attitude characterized by openness, receptivity and patient anticipation. This is not an intellectual exercise of deciphering meaning from Bible verse through clever deductions or interpretations. It is a surrender to the Revelatory Power of the Holy Spirit. By emptying out the voices in our own heads that typically dominate the "airwaves", we open ourselves to a deeper truth. "In the beginning was the Word" - God's first call to us is an invitation to listen! Later, the Living Word is revealed as Jesus the Christ. We are instructed to 'hear the Word and abide by it.' One can not happen without the other. We must first hear the Word deep within our hearts and souls for it to become alive in us.

How do we listen to God? We stop listening to ourselves! The mind will keep us occupied with fodder and filler for as long as we choose to listen to it. The Revelation of the Word happens when we stop talking and start listening. Spiritual listening is an act of faith and surrender. In the same way we are called to love God with the entirety of our being, we also must learn to listen with the fullness of our being. Before the fruit of love - compassionate service - can be harvested, the seeds must be firmly planted through listening. Listening is the internal, passive side of love that eventually grows into action.

Nature abhors a vacuum and a mind without focus will drift and attach to stimulus impulsively and compulsively. A prayer focus allows the mind to continually anchor itself on the island of prayer. Whenever my mind wanders during these month-long prayer sessions, it naturally seeks a return to the island. Like a seabird on a reconnaissance flight, the mind will return to its home-base time and again. The mind needs an anchor or it will wander aimlessly into troubled waters. In a world with endless noise and temptation, a prayer-anchor is essential for staying on course- ' the narrow path of righteousness.'

Gently, without the force of will, spiritual listening develops into a way of being. "Be still and know...." I carried that with me for six months and longer. Over time, my mind slowed and quieted around this central idea. I began to hear something beyond and behind the din of everyday life. God spoke! The Word became flesh. I felt the Living Word inside me and understood then how I could be the Living Temple. And I was saved {from the trappings of my own mind}.

SCHIZOMERICA

MATTHEW 12:25 “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and no town or house divided against itself will stand.”

The most severe forms of mental illness - Schizophrenia, Multiple Personality Disorder and Bi-polar Disorders - all have certain things in common: they are characterized by fragmented, split-off “selves” working in divergent and opposing directions. The internal tension caused by such processes are extreme and lead to some severe form of implosion or explosion. One can easily imagine the destructive force of such a condition if it were physiological in nature. Here, one leg would try to go forward as the other pulled backwards. The eyes would crisscross and never focus together. The index finger and thumb, instead of joining harmoniously to perform tasks, would pull away from each other as if a magnetic field stood between them. Such deep-rooted incongruence takes a heavy toll on the psyche of an individual. It cannot be endured for very long. Implosion, in the form of suicide, catatonia and the like is one possibility. Explosion, in the form of violent behavior, is another. One or the other is inevitable in order to relieve the smoldering internal tension.

Under ideal conditions, there is one, whole integrated self in which all the component “parts” work together toward a common goal - i.e.., survival, happiness, health, etc...

If an individual’s psyche can be frayed and torn apart by polarizing psychological processes, it stands to reason that the “collective psyche” or mental health of a nation can be similarly weakened. Diversity of opinion, freedom of expression are healthy aspects of American culture. I’m not referring to that here. I’m talking about something insidious and dark - a people divided against itself. I believe we may have been at such a crossroads at the time of our Civil War. We were facing a core identity question then that had to be resolved one way or the other. We could not continue as both a ‘slave state’ at home and the ‘harbinger of freedom’ to the rest of the world. We could not purport democratic values of equality and human dignity while perpetuating the evil of slave labor. Something had to give and it did in the form of Explosion!

Today, as a Christian nation once again trying to restore our soul, we are implored to aspire to Christ’s example in all things - to ask the question, “What would Jesus want us to be”? Yet as an imperial military power and an impersonal capitalist machine, we often find ourselves at odds with Christian principles. This internal conflict tears at the fabric of our national mental health. In the same way that geological forces can cause such underlying tension in the earth that it cracks and quakes, our cultural inconsistencies and duplicities cause chasms and rifts in our psyche. There are so many examples of this that I’ll name just a prominent few: The gospel command to ‘heal and serve the poor‘ simply doesn’t align with the Darwinian creed, ‘every man for himself’; the gospel command to ‘love our neighbors‘ cannot co-exist with cultural attitudes and policies that promote ‘fear of those who are different’; hailing the rights of the “unborn” while ignoring the rights and the needs of the “already- born” is the kind of hypocrisy Jesus railed against. Such polarizing forces within our collective psyche serve to weaken our national sanity until the dueling tensions between our fragmented “selves” reaches its breaking point. When this happens to an individual, we call it a psychotic episode or “breakdown”. The person is being torn apart at their soul-level. I believe we’re close to that breaking point as a nation. The tension between our private lives, which the majority of us describe as faith-based and God-centered, and our public lives, whereby the prevailing notions are the amoral creeds of ‘might is right‘ and ‘greed is good’, is about to tear us asunder. We cannot serve two masters.

When the Roman Empire fell, in large measure, it fell under the weight of its own contradictions and hypocrisy. On the one hand, it aspired to be a great “civilization” with parliamentary democratic processes, judicial systems , rule of law and even civil rights. On the other hand, it was very much married to Barbaric culture in which, for sport, Christians were fed to lions, gladiators fought to the death and dissent was crushed with unmitigated, brutal police force. Rome couldn’t figure out what kind of empire it really wanted to be. In the end, I believe, this caused its demise. We are facing a similar question as a nation and as an empire. Who do we want to be? Do we abandon Jesus and his ideals because they are inconvenient and impractical in a materialistic world? Or do we embrace him more fully and challenge ourselves to be ‘his people on earth’?

Are we to be, in the truest sense of the word, a Christian nation or an A-bomb-in-nation?

IDENTITY THEFT

Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.”

The greatest case of identity theft in history - The original Bleeding Heart, The Sacred Heart of Jesus, is reinvented as a cultural, economic and political tyrant. The atrocities below have all been committed, directly or indirectly, in Jesus’ name.

He who told the rich man to give all his riches to the poor now supports “trickle down” economics.

He who urged us to forgive our worst enemies now supports retribution and capital punishment.

He who referred to His constituency as “the least among us” now calls his constituency the “haves and have mores”.

He who said “judge not lest you be judged” now condemns people to hell at their own funerals.

He who never wielded a weapon of any kind is now a gun show enthusiast.

He who said “turn the other cheek” now supports pre-emptive war.

He who denounced violence at every turn now calls murder “collateral damage”.

He who chased out the “money changers” from the temple now bails out the richest money changers in the world.

He who said of children that “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” now grants pedophiles comfortable pensions.

He who said “Love you neighbor as yourself” now builds fences along the border.

He who said of children that “it is not the will of the Father that even one of these be lost” now looks away with indifference when Iraqi and Afghani children are killed.

My God, forgive us for our blasphemy. What could be a more egregious sin than to re-create you in our own image and likeness in order to justify our own corrupt agendas? Is there hope for us yet? By your grace, “lead us not into temptation and deliver us from all evil.” Amen.

Revolution through Revelation

Matthew 15: 10-19 “Hear and understand: not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of a mouth, this defiles a man......... what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.”

On the heels of so many economic crises - from the corruption in the banking and mortgage industries to environmental disasters such as the BP oil spill - the question presents itself: Can capitalism and Christianity co-exist? In Michael Moore’s movie, Capitalism, a Love Story, a Catholic Bishop, a priest, and Michael Moore himself seem to conclude that capitalism is inherently evil and therefore cannot be reconciled with Christianity. Certainly. when we juxtapose the present day version of capitalism with the gospel they seem like disparate bedfellows. Modern day capitalism is characterized by an impersonal, carnivorous pursuit of profit whereas the gospel emphasizes self sacrifice for the betterment of others. Nonetheless, the wholesale rejection and vilification of capitalism seems simplistic and perhaps a little too convenient. Reflecting on Jesus’ teaching about defilement, it is clear that corruption and evil develop from the inside out - from what comes out of our hearts and minds. Applying this principle to economics, we can infer that systems, institutions and organizations do not define us; we define them. If Jesus is the CEO of any company, or the leader of any commune for that matter, it will be a beautiful thing. On the other hand, place Hitler in the same positions and the system or organization becomes vile. We put too much stock, even misplaced faith, in systems. Jesus was deliberately apolitical. Despite the pressure on him to challenge Rome’s corrupt authority, he seemed disinterested. I believe his indifference towards political action is rooted in the profound wisdom that change must begin from within. Then and only then can our systems be transformed - ‘new wine must be poured into new wineskins’. Change, as a revolutionary gospel concept, is the transformation of a human being from one born of the flesh to one born of the Spirit. It is this rebirth that has the regenerative power to change everything in our lives. Jesus said, ‘You will know my true followers by their fruits’. Those who are truly born of the Spirit have their primary identity rooted in Christ. The “born again” experience has nothing to do with some form of demonstrative hysteria such as ‘speaking in tongues’ or fainting. It is the process, highly individualized and varied, by which a person’s primary identity becomes rooted in Christ. In the same way that a tree branch cannot work against its own trunk, those rooted in Christ cannot compartmentalize any aspect of their lives in order to exclude or undermine him. Doing business is simply an extension of one’s Christ-based self. Thus, we “do business unto others as we would have business done unto us”. Capitalism does not necessitate greed and corruption. People have defiled this system and many others throughout history by what comes forth from our hearts and minds. Real change, revolution, comes through the revelation of Jesus Christ as the core of our individual and collective identities. Only then will our human systems reflect the greatness of God’s will and the fullness of His glory.

Son Rise

RE-CONSIDERING JESUS: A MAN FOR OUR TIMES

One of the most unfortunate developments regarding the question of “who is Jesus” is that the debate has been limited to the singular issue of divinity. Is he or isn’t he the divine son of God? This narrow focus has squelched and overshadowed intelligent inquiry and examination of his teachings. On the one hand, religious extremists concern themselves solely with the issue of salvation and aggressively ask: “Do you or don’t you accept Jesus as your personal savior”? On the other hand, staunch atheists like Bill Maher tend to be just as selective, close-minded and polarizing in their approach by scoffing at the notion of divinity without acknowledging his teachings. It’s not dissimilar to when a politician attacks his opponent’s character in lieu of honest debate about content issues and topics. In the case of Christian extremists, they rarely make reference to the gospel teachings of Jesus and are more likely to quote the Old Testament. I believe this evasion is based on the fact that such people are often at odds with the fundamental teachings of Jesus. They want salvation without compliance. With hostile atheists, their agenda is to mock and ridicule rather than to engage in honest and open debate. They rarely discuss the merits of Jesus’ teachings but regularly poke fun at the notion of faith. After all, it could be uncomfortable for a celebrity atheist like Maher, who prides himself or at least sells himself as being a rebel and free thinker, to find that he’s in agreement with things Jesus actually taught. Ridicule and mockery, which are the currency of such figures, could be difficult to sustain or justify if the teachings of Jesus were discussed, understood and, God forbid, validated.

What is most tragic about this development is that, regardless of where one falls on the question of Jesus’ divinity, his teachings are more timely and relevant than ever. We need to be talking about them, Christian and non-Christian alike. A contradiction in modern American culture is our familiarity and estrangement from Jesus at the very same time. Jesus has a prominent place in the American psyche; a majority of Americans seem to prescribe to the idea of a Christian nation. Yet no man’s teachings have ever been so grossly misrepresented or misunderstood. Somehow, He’s both the Prince of Peace and a gun show enthusiast. He’s the paragon of tolerance and acceptance and the reason we’re building thousand-mile fences around our borders. Otherwise intelligent people reject him offhand without ever knowing what they’re rejecting. They answer ‘no’ to the question of his divinity – the only question proffered by extremists – and that’s the end of it. This approach is as foolish and short-sighted as someone who refuses to listen to the Dalai Lama speak about peace or world affairs because they do not believe, as many Tibetan Buddhists do, that he is a ‘god among us’. It is not a prerequisite to accept the Dalai Lama as a divine being in order to benefit from his wisdom. Jesus, before he becomes anyone’s savior, ought to be a teacher that one has studied and comprehended. For those who call him savior but fail to understand or practice what he taught, their faith is childish, superficial and hypocritical. For those who reject him outright without first considering his teachings, their rejection is foolhardy, disingenuous and cowardly.


What did Jesus teach? Before we go calling ourselves a Christian people, we ought to know who and what we are following. For example, Jesus taught non-violence. This isn’t a subjective opinion. It is an unambiguous teaching that is stated clearly, consistently and recurrently throughout the gospel. Pick your favorite reference: ‘Forgive and love your enemies’, ‘Turn the other cheek’, ‘Put down your sword’, ‘Forgive those who hurt you’. These verbal teachings only reflect and corroborate the life decisions and choices Jesus made during his earthly ministry. There was intense pressure amongst his followers to raise up arms and rebel against Rome. He repeatedly discouraged and deflected the violent impulses of those around him. Even when his closest disciple, Peter, cuts the ear of a Roman soldier during Jesus’ arrest, he chastises Peter and heals the soldier, showing compassion for his accusers. If Jesus didn’t support violence during the time of his arrest, trial or execution, is there really any scenario in which he would? He prayed for his executioners while on the cross! One simply doesn’t get more nonviolent in their approach to life than this. Ironically, many so-called Christians are staunch proponents of violent solutions in our present world {see George Bush}. We live in a violent world. Jesus teaches non-violence. If you’re not on board with that, you’re not on board with Jesus. Conversely, many atheists who express hostility toward Jesus are strong proponents of non-violence. We can find these strange allegiances and incongruities across the full spectrum of Jesus’ teachings.


In modern culture, a prevalent theme that affects us all is the abuse of power through greed and corruption. What does Jesus have to say about this? Jesus reserves a special wrath against human greed and the abuse of power, especially in the economic realm. Most famously, he chases the ‘moneychangers’ out of the temple for using their position in the church to extract high interest rates from everyday people. In another instance, he urges the rich man to ‘give away everything he has to the poor’. He declares that the ‘poor shall inherit the earth’ whereas the ‘greedy man will apparently have one heck of a time getting into the kingdom of heaven’. He teaches compassion and service for the ‘least among us’. Are the atheist haters out there really against compassion and service for the poor? More importantly, are those who call themselves Christians aligned with Jesus’ teachings? A catholic priest during the recent presidential election cautioned his parishioners from voting for Obama based on the abortion issue. He went as far as to threaten them with ex-communication. I wouldn’t have a problem with this position if there was any consistency and integrity of thought over the full range of issues. If a Christian is going to staunchly defend the rights of the unborn, they better be equally passionate about the rights of the "already born" who are the ‘least among us’ in terms of socio-economic power and justice. Mexican immigrants, gay couples, HIV/AIDS victims, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, Arabs and Muslims, the displaced and traumatized children of war. It is the marginalized that Jesus called us to embrace and serve. He didn’t qualify this call based on political or religious affiliations. Ethnic minorities like the Samaritans, women of the night, lepers, slave owners, the poor and sick, the homeless – all of these Jesus served and healed. Who are we to determine who among us is worthy of love and compassion? Shame on the catholic priest! How dare he use the pulpit for such selective proselytizing? Jesus tells us, ‘judge not and be not judged’.

If you are a Christian, Jesus is your leader. Are you following his teachings? He reserved his greatest wrath for religious hypocrites. It is not enough, as some extremists purport, to utter the "magic words" that 'Jesus is my savior'. There has to be congruency between words and deeds, faith and action. If we live our lives according to our own rules, biases and politics, regardless of Jesus’ teachings, and expect to gain eternal salvation because we uttered the magic words then we take God to be a fool.

On the other hand, is it possible that many atheists unwittingly follow Jesus’ teachings? After all, if you support the values of human dignity, equality, justice, compassion, forgiveness, peace, communal well-being over individual gain, and the sanctity of life then you are strongly aligned with the teachings of Jesus Christ even if you don’t believe in his divinity.

For me, I believe in His Divinity, in part, because I believe so strongly in the virtue of his teachings. My faith is not dependent on the teachings but they certainly reinforce my faith. It would be near impossible to imagine choosing Jesus as my Savior if I was in fundamental disagreement with any of his core teachings. For those who proclaim Jesus as their savior and yet seem hostile or at least averse to his teachings, exclusive and perhaps blind emphasis on salvation may be the only way to close this gap of incongruence. The question of Jesus’ divinity cannot be intelligently answered without an honest examination and evaluation of his teachings. If you don’t stand in alignment with his teachings and are unwilling to follow them, the worst thing you could do is call him your savior. According to the gospel, hypocrisy is an especially vile form of sin. When we try to invent Jesus in our own image and likeness instead of receiving him as he is, we are on unholy ground, in the realm of great darkness. When we make him out to be a warmonger or a racist or an elitist, God help us. Dishonest, uninformed atheists and religious extremists have a lot in common. They both tend to ignore Jesus' teachings in lieu of promoting their own agendas. We need more honest and intelligent inquiry into the teachings of Jesus. Rejecting his divinity should not cause a wholesale rejection and suppression of his teachings. Focusing solely on his divinity can serve to squelch and discourage inquiry into his teachings. His teachings are vital to our survival in this present age. It is Easter. Re-consider the man Jesus if not the risen Son of God.

The free will to choose God's will

“You can’t have your cake and eat it too” applies to the spiritual realm in a number of interesting ways. Many people express frustration with God for his apparent absence in human affairs. Interestingly, some of the angriest voices on this subject come from atheists. How can they be angry with something they don’t believe exists? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you don’t believe in God, stop blaming him for everything that’s gone awry in this world. If you do believe in God, do your part to bring about His Vision for humanity.

If we value free will and recognize that it is a remarkable gift that elevates humankind to a unique position in Creation, is it fair to blame God for not stepping in and making everything right in our world? Free will cannot reign simultaneously with God’s Absolute Dominion. On earth, human will rules. Yet God is involved with “our” world and intensely interested in our affairs. But He will not impose His will upon us. This is not His way. A parent who loves his child does not seek to control her. He gently guides and nourishes the child to help her grow into the complete person she is able to become. A parent who squelches a child’s free will, crushes it even, in order to institute a more ‘perfect’ domain is a tyrant or abuser. To exercise total control over another being, no matter the reason, is oppression and dominance. Is this what we want from our god? If God were to sweep into the world right now wielding a sword of lightning and strike down all evil-doers and demand submission and devotion from us all, would he be the God of love? Is a parent who gains submission and obedience from a child by overpowering her, a loving parent? We want our cake and eat it too. We want free will – the autonomy, the joy, the power of it – without the responsibility. Our collective free will makes us responsible for the state of our world. This is hard too swallow even for atheists. We need a scapegoat and God has become just that.

So if we are responsible for the state of our world, does God have any role in this world? I believe that Jesus came to earth to reveal God’s will. Reveal not impose. What did He reveal? That God abhors injustice and loves peace. That God is unimpressed with outward appearance and status but knows and cares deeply about what is in our hearts. That God forgives and redeems all of humanity because of His Love for us. Jesus, the son of God, showed us a glimpse of his Father’s will. Jesus is the spiritual equivalent of Johnny Appleseed. Jesus, the Great Gardener, came to earth and planted the seeds of God’s Love among us. Jesus gave us a template, a road map if you will, pointing to where we need to go, pointing us to the kingdom of heaven on earth. Clearly, we are not there yet. 2000 years, I suspect, is a fraction of time in God’s plan. He is waiting for us to catch up with His Vision for humanity. Jesus gave us a glimpse of this vision – one in which the sick are healed, the dead are resurrected and prejudice, inequality, violence and hypocrisy are replaced with justice, harmony, love and righteousness. 2000 years later those seeds are growing and bearing fruit. Despite what the cynics may say, progress has been made and is being made. Yet we have a long way to go.

God’s fertile ground is our souls. In the soul-fields of humanity, God’s Love continues to grow. God’s love is the seed. Jesus is the gardener. We are the laborers who must cultivate the soil. We must pull out the toxic weeds of sin. We must continually assure that the seeds remain in the fertile soil of faith. And we must turn towards the Son to receive the Light that is necessary for spiritual photosynthesis to occur - the process by which sinfulness is converted into Holiness, corruptible matter into Eternal Life,..

God will wait for us in the same way a loving parent will wait for his child to grow up. The parent nurtures the child’s growth and waits faithfully for the child to become fully formed as to be capable of a deep and reciprocal relationship. God is waiting with patience and longing for our arrival and maturation. Then we could meet, in the Garden, without the distance our ignorance creates. Until then, God will not impose His will. While we are young – that is, unprepared, unyielding, defiant – God waits. We must grow towards His Light and be ready to embrace and enact His Vision as it is in heaven. Then we can say with the full conviction of our free will, “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Valentine's Day and Jesus

Tis the season to celebrate love - at least according to Hallmark. For Christians and many other people of faith, God is love. Like Christmas, God has been all but removed from the Valentine's celebration. The holiday has been marketed as a celebration of romantic love with the emphasis on desire. However, when love is "true", it's defining feature is sacrifice not desire. Sacrificial love is the love of Jesus and the gospel. When we truly love somebody or even some thing, we express this through sacrifice. A mother gets up early to feed her child breakfast before school. A friend goes out of his way to check in with you even when he's very busy. A child works hard in school, sacrificing a certain amount of play time, in part, to show her love for a devoted parent. A dog lover gets up in the middle of the night to walk his dog. Martin Luther King sacrifices any semblance of a normal life in order to pursue a love for justice. Jesus Christ lays down his life for his friends - the ultimate expression of true love.

Desirous love is self-serving and self-gratifying. Sacrificial love blesses the other. We live in a world that celebrates desire and ridicules sacrifice. Remember God's love and sacrifice during this time of celebration. Amidst the flowers and the candy, pay homage to the One from whom love itself derives. Bring Christ back into Christmas and true love - the love of God- back into Valentine's Day.