Thursday, July 30, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, July 31, 2009


What's coming will come and we'll just have to meet it when it does.

There is no good or evil: only power and those too weak to seek it.


- J. K. Rowling, author (“Harry Potter”), born on this date, 1965


One of my most beloved friends of many many years called tonight. Her daughter is apparently having to deal with a second round of cancer. I think what Rowling has been through – homeless, destitute, and now one of the most “successful” women in the World. “What’s coming will come and we’ll just have to meet it when it does”. The question, of course, is: have we been given, have we learned, the skills of heart and mind and spirit to meet what comes when it does. Those skills and gifts come to us in many ways. I believe they are all part of the Mystery we call “God”, or Love.

Acquiring those skills should be what philosophy and religion and “spirituality” are all about. And they are either powerful or they are not. In the end, in my opinion, they either give us the power to meet what comes or they do not. Either they lead us to Life or they don’t. If they don’t, they are worse than useless. I have spent my Life trying to point people to a “God” Who shadows us into Life; to rejecting any “false god” that doesn’t. Knowing the God of Life means knowing the One Who meets us at the edge of the desert and walks with us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. When we “fear no evil”, we know we are blessed.

Life in imbued, utterly infused with Power. And I am intrigued with Rowling’s words: “There is no good or evil: only power and those too weak to seek it”. “God” is about that Power. If we have good teachers, we are led to that Power. Alas, many are neglected and left too weak to seek it. But my friend is full of the Power. Her daughter had a good example, and found her own way.

I know the Power in my Life. I’ve met many challenges to my Life in the past few years, and met them in confidence. My friends will too. We are not afraid of seeking the Power. Don’t you be either.

Brian+

Wednesday, July 29, 2009




Hey Kids, what time is it!?

- “Buffalo Bob” Smith, of the
Howdy Doody Show, who
died on this date, 1998, age
80


Memories are wonderful things! I watched Howdy Doody on TV (in Canada) from the very beginning. The show started in 1947, when I was just over 1 year old. It played until 1960, so I saw many years of it. When Buffalo Bob would say, “Hey Kids! What time is it!”, I would shout at the TV, “It’s Howdy Doody Time!!!” And I loved it! I remember all those characters. And I can’t help but wonder what influences came my way from that show, and what has persisted in my psyche until this day. No one can tell me that what we see on TV doesn’t influence us profoundly. And that makes me think of the appalling violence on TV today. Beware.

Memories. I was deeply grateful when the 1979 Book of Common Prayer came out. By then, I had been a priest for 6 years – but we had been using the developing texts since 1970. It made it clear that the only sacrament necessary to share in the Eucharist was Baptism. As soon as I became a parish priest, I started inviting all the little children to come and receive Holy Communion. Of course I was always aware of the awe and the wonder of all of us receiving the mystical “Body and Blood of Christ”. But the little ones! Little hands folded and open. Receiving Communion, their wide eyes sparkling, their eagerness and excitement. That changed their lives! I know that those kids will be affected by that early experience all their lives. It was a powerful moment. And I’ve lived to see the effects of that decision.

Think what a difference being loved, what the memories of being loved, does for our lives! Or the opposite, God forbid. No child who can remember from early times what being loved was like will, I think, fail to make it in Life. There may be a lot of difficulties, as we all have. But the memory of being loved will almost always trump everything.

No wonder the great Jewish summary of the Law is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and your neighbour as yourself”, and that Jesus’ summary was “Love one another as I have loved you”.

“Hey Kids! What time is it?” “It’s Howdy Doody Time!”. Decades later, I know what “Howdy Doody Time” is. Time to pour out the Love.

Brian+

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 29, 2009


It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more
mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent.


- Vincent Van Gogh, artist , who committed suicide on
this date, 1890, age 37


I’m for “high-spirited”! Oh, ok, a little prudence now and then - and being prudent doesn’t have to equate to narrow-minded, though it often does in the sense of not being open to fresh possibilities and realities and truths.

Prudence is, to my mind, a curse of the church, of religions. Maybe prudence serves some good purpose now and then. But my experience tells me that it is usually an instrument of death. As I see it, if the Church and religions had over the centuries been more “high-spirited”, as therefore more open, much anguish and death and prejudice and war and hate and ignorance would have been avoided. Alas, religion is still the same – more often an instrument of ignorance and oppression than of healing, inclusion, liberation.

Prudent people make as many mistakes as high-spirited people. Prudence is no constant virtue. Bottom line: I believe the Gospel entices us on to be high-spirited. The “Kingdom of God” will come much faster, I am convinced, when guided by high-spiritedness than by “prudence”.

A few mistakes can’t trump or hinder the natural urge towards human glory.

Brian+

Monday, July 27, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 28, 2009


We must confront the privileged elite who
have destroyed a large part of the world.


- Guess who - born on this date, 1954

This quote is aimed at the 99.9999999% of you (including me) who will be getting this Reflection. We are members of the “privileged elite”. To my mind it is uncontestable that, since Time Immemorial, we have destroyed a large part of the World, primarily to give ourselves power and comfort. Included in this small percentage are people of every sub-category of the human race. The “privileged elite” transcend every aspect of human distinction.

Now, can you not imagine Jesus saying these words? Or Gandhi? Or Nelson Mandela? Or Chief Black Elk? Or Elijah? Or John XXIII? Or those determined to oppose those who go on polluting the Earth to gain riches, regardless of those following us who will live with disease and squalor and hate and warfare?

If Christianity means anything to those who follow it’s Path, especially those like us who are among the top .5% of the world’s population, it means that we must radicalize ourselves. No one is going to do it for us. “God” is not going to force us – God never does. If World or personal events “push us”, that is our interpretation, not God’s manipulation. All God said was, “I am Love; Love one another”.

And we must remember something else. “God” has no preference for any political system. “God” does not care if people are democratic, or socialist, or communist, or benevolently dictatorial, or anything else. All “God” cares about is that Her people have what they need not only simply to sustain Life but to live in selfless service to each other, to laugh, to have what is needed to make Life a blessing. Everyone. Not just a privileged elite.

Retirement has been a great blessing for me. I have quickly seen what I do not need, and seen what really makes Life wonder-ful.

Don’t panic. You/we don’t have to live in squalor. Just simply. Just knowing what makes Life joyous. But what a Journey that will be! And yet Jesus promises: if you have given up everything for “His Sake” – a metaphor for Love and Justice – one receives a hundred-fold, blessings full and spilling over.

Let’s give it a thought today.

Brian+

Oh: quote from ………. Hugo Chavez.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend_July 25, 2009


O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong,
nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as
our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not
the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Collect for the Sunday nearest July 27, Book of Common Prayer [Proper 12 b]


Let’s “deconstruct” this Collect.

First: How does “God” protect us? As always, it’s a matter of Faith – all those principles deeply lodged in our core and by which we live. Bottom line, God does not protect us from the realities of Life, from the common cold, to death, to financial stress, to breakups of marriage/relationships, to cancer, etc., etc., etc. God is not in the business of turning the norms of mortal Life upside down. What God IS in the business of is liberation. Faith allows us to sit easily with out mortality, grounds us in making the utmost of every minute, frees us to hang in to every minute of Life’s wonder while depriving Fear of it’s power to kill.

Second: strength and holiness constitute the Mystery of the Being of Creation which infuses us and all things. Without this, we are indeed weak.

Third: “Divine Mercy” is not some condescension, a forgiveness of our patheticness. Oh no. Divine Mercy is a flooding in of power, lifting us above an impoverished self-understanding.

Fourth: God does not (IMHO) “rule” us. God is not our tyrant, our slave-master, our “Lord” in the feudal sense. But God IS our Guide. We know the essence of God is Love. When Love “rules”, we find freedom in selfless service, we are guided along the paths of unity with all things.

Fifth: This Life is not a game of skillful avoidance, by which, if careful, we can sneak through unnoticed to a better Life “beyond”. No. All Life is parallel realities. The principles are the same for all.

Be fully fed for Life; there is no lack. This is the message of Jesus feeding the 5000.

Brian+

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, July 24, 2009

Dead Cow Farm

An ancient saga tells us how 

In the beginning the First Cow 

(For nothing living yet had birth 

But Elemental Cow on earth) 

Began to lick cold stones and mud: 

Under her warm tongue flesh and blood 

Blossomed, a miracle to believe: 

And so was Adam born, and Eve. 

Here now is chaos once again, 

Primeval mud, cold stones and rain. 

Here flesh decays and blood drips red, 

And the Cow’s dead, the old Cow’s dead.

- Robert Graves, poet, born on this date, 1895


Well, it’s been over three years now I think. That I have been writing these Reflections, five or more times a a week. I have over a thousand of them now. I’ve sent them to friends, and parishioners. They have been forwarded by many to their friends. I’ve been linked to a website or two here and there. I post them on my Blog - and who knows who sees them there! I think of them floating out there in cyberspace. I think of them as part of my own journey, shared. I think of them as encouraging people to think outside the box – and that is primarily why I write them. I have no desire to “tell” anyone what to think or believe. That’s up to each of us. Primarily, I write them for myself; they are part of my Journey.

What a delightful mythological image for the “primeval Deity” – the First Cow! I’ve never liked the Judeo-Christian idea of a Male God in that role! Very problematic, right down to today. Along with Graves, I can live comfortably with the First Cow – as I rather like cows, especially as they usually smell OK!

I think Graves is correct: the “old Cow’s dead” – the “old gods/goddesses” have slipped into oblivion, mostly because not of their own irrelevance but because of human lack of imagination. And we are back at a place where “primeval mud, cold stones and rain” have slithered over what we often call “civilization”. We are again at a time when “flesh decays and blood drips red”.

Ah. Where shall we go?? To what image of the mythical licker-into-being of a noble humankind – for I note a distinct lack of nobility among us but for a very few examples? I remember from my childhood Elsie the Cow on the side of our milkman’s cart. As a child, a winsome image of “All’s Well”!

Our concept of “God” – if we must have one - must change. The images we have created over the millennia have slid into hideous piles, useless as nourishers of a humanity sprinkled with nobility and delight and beauty.

The deities are our own creations – icons of that which hold us to our superb human dignity. It is time to reinvent them.

Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, July 23, 2009


A person is what his shraddha is.

- The Bhagavad Gita [17:3]


The brilliant translator Eknath Easwaran says that the concept of shraddha is an untranslatable concept. But, that the nearest English equivalent is “faith”. But, that it means much more. He says that it means “ ‘that which is placed in the heart’ – all the beliefs that we hold so deeply that we never think to question them. It is the set of values, axioms, prejudices, and prepossessions that colours our perceptions, governs our thinking, dictates our responses, and shapes our lives, generally without our even being aware of its presence and power.”

The Bible says basically the same thing: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

So: it is clearly crucial what is “in our hearts”. Depending what is in our hearts, what our “faith” is, determines the power we have either to heal or to harm. Including ourselves. A person with a serious illness believes that she has a contribution to make to the world and so recovers; another believes her life is worthless and dies.

Our lives are an eloquent expression of our belief: what we deem worth having, doing, attaining, being. What we strive for shows what we value: we back our shraddha with out time, our energy, our very lives.

“Faith” is not some groundless belief in some fantasy, as many believers – Christian or others – seem to exhibit today - especially in America. Faith is exactly the opposite. “Faith” is principles we have hard won, after much thought and examination – hopefully! “Faith” is what we are willing to give our Life for. As Jesus did, Gandhi did, Oscar Wilde did – so many many others.

I worry. I see many hearts and minds in America and in the World being filled with hate, prejudice, narrow-mindedness, contempt, militarism, greed. And these, perversely, as part of some religious “faith”! Madrassas, charter schools, religious schools – many of which thrive on the support of close-minded supporters. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

Jesus is clear: “faith” is belief in our unity with the God of Love and each other, belief in Compassion, Justice, selfless service in love. The Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita (“The Song of the Lord”), The Gospel, the Buddha, all agree.

Is it not time to cleanse the inner temple of false principles of “faith”, and re-establish what the authentic ancient truths have taught?

Brian+

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, July 23, 2009


A person is what his shraddha is.

- The Bhagavad Gita [17:3]


The brilliant translator Eknath Easwaran says that the concept of shraddha is an untranslatable concept. But, that the nearest English equivalent is “faith”. But, that it means much more. He says that it means “ ‘that which is placed in the heart’ – all the beliefs that we hold so deeply that we never think to question them. It is the set of values, axioms, prejudices, and prepossessions that colours our perceptions, governs our thinking, dictates our responses, and shapes our lives, generally without our even being aware of its presence and power.”

The Bible says basically the same thing: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

So: it is clearly crucial what is “in our hearts”. Depending what is in our hearts, what our “faith” is, determines the power we have either to heal or to harm. Including ourselves. A person with a serious illness believes that she has a contribution to make to the world and so recovers; another believes her life is worthless and dies.

Our lives are an eloquent expression of our belief: what we deem worth having, doing, attaining, being. What we strive for shows what we value: we back our shraddha with our time, our energy, our very lives.

“Faith” is not some groundless belief in some fantasy, as many believers – Christian or others – seem to exhibit today - especially in America. Faith is exactly the opposite. “Faith” is principles we have hard won, after much thought and examination – hopefully! “Faith” is what we are willing to give our Life for. As Jesus did, Gandhi did, Oscar Wilde did – so many many others.

I worry. I see many hearts and minds in America and in the World being filled with hate, prejudice, narrow-mindedness, contempt, militarism, greed. And these, perversely, as part of some religious “faith”! Madrassas, charter schools, religious schools – many of which thrive on the support of close-minded supporters. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

Jesus is clear: “faith” is belief in our unity with the God of Love and each other, belief in Compassion, Justice, selfless service in love. The Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita (“The Song of the Lord”), The Gospel, the Buddha, all agree.

Is it not time to cleanse the inner temple of false principles of “faith”, and re-establish what the authentic ancient truths have taught?

Brian+

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 22, 2009
[ Feast of St. Mary Magdalene in the Christian Calendar]


Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room

Soup should be heralded with a mellow horn, 

Blowing clear notes of gold against the stars; 

Strange entrees with a jangle of glass bars 

Fantastically alive with subtle scorn; 

Fish, by a plopping, gurgling rush of waters, 

Clear, vibrant waters, beautifully austere; 

Roast, with a thunder of drums to stun the ear, 

A screaming fife, a voice from ancient slaughters! 



Over the salad let the woodwinds moan; 

Then the green silence of many watercresses; 

Dessert, a balalaika, strummed alone; 

Coffee, a slow, low singing no passion stresses; 

Such are my thoughts as -- clang! crash! bang! – I brood 

And gorge the sticky mess these fools call food!

-Stephen Vincent Benet, poet, born on thus date,
in Bethlehem, PA, 1898


I love poetry ….. well, poetry I can understand – and a lot of it I can’t, so what is the point??

Anyway, I loved this poem by Benet! I see “lunch” as a metaphor - for Life. Jesus did too, apparently. Which is why the Christian Church (well, a large part of it) centers around the “Lord’s Supper”. If we can in any way think that, in “instituting” the Common Meal, Jesus had a conscious intent, then I think that Jesus meant His followers to see Life as a banquet - the whole thing, from “soup to nuts”, as a feasting upon God. And to understand that this feast of the soul was the essence for Life.

Without knowing it, Benet was sort of “used” – as I think poets are – as an instrument for explicating and sustaining Life. So much comes out way! Soup, entrees, fish, flesh, salad and other greens, desserts, coffee. All symbols for the phenomenal variety of experiences that enrich Life – all of them heralded by a thrumming of our amazing senses, including those of the spirit. What an amazing experience the Feast of Life is! And the question is – how attuned are we to it all?

How crassly we often make of it a “sticky mess”! We just shovel in Life like fools, oblivious to the music that accompanies every course of it, inviting us to see and swoon at the wonder of it all!

Living is not a “quick lunch room”. Living is a gourmet extravaganza!

For Jesus, bread and wine was a godly feast. And so should our Life be.

Brian+

Monday, July 20, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 21, 2009


All good books have one thing in common –
they are truer than if they had really happened.


- Ernest Hemingway, author, born on this
date, 1899


Fiction. That’s what I mostly read, and have read, for over four decades as the best source of solid theological reflection. I certainly have preached more sermons with illustrations from fiction than any other source. And my practical theology has been solidly based on fiction – where the most profound human issued are dealt with. In this, I include the Bible. The Bible is essentially fiction – stories told by great storytellers, confronting and interpreting the great human issues, as well as those issues that have created the stories of the Deities.

Human experience is the place where you will find the most solid basis for our understanding of “God”. And the Hebrew scriptures are a grand example of that truth. The image of God has always arisen out of human experience, out of the amazing human consciousness and human imagination.

And so, this point: if you are seeking “God”, look within. Ask yourself: What am I seeking that will shape, support, determine, the glory of being human, of being myself? We must be like the Hebrews, rejecting deities demanding human sacrifice. From there, we move on. Rejecting a “God” who is unfair, unloving, partial, vindictive, meanspirited, ungenerous, judgmental, tyrannical. In Jesus, as seen freed from all those limiting characteristics imposed by his early followers who sought to establish their power, we see an icon of the True God. For all people. That “Jesus” has been revealed in every age, by many cultures and religions.

Myth, i.e., the telling of the Truth, is the greatest treasure of our human history.

Treasure them. Plumb their depths. Be discriminatory. Enter into them. They offer freedom.

Brian+

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, July 20, 2009


Five enemies of peace inhabit with us –
avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride;
if these were to be banished, we should
infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.


- Petrarch, Italian scholar & poet, born
on this date, 1304.


I rather think that Petrarch – and countless people like him throughout recorded “history” – have said the same thing with a shake of the head and a sigh. It will never, in my opinion, be so. Ever. Not universally.

We can only start with ourselves. We must be working on being free of those five things, in our own hearts. The problem we have in the World today is that most of the people seeking Peace are at war within. And the blind cannot lead the blind. I cannot think of any World political leader who is so personally free of Petrarch’s characterizations that she or he is free to work for true Peace. [Care to nominate anyone?] We are all at each others’ throats, many just to survive – some of us at a much higher level than others.

One heart at a time. Day by day. Gently, firmly banishing avarice, ambition, envy, anger, pride. It won’t happen for a long time. But we must start again, somewhere.

Brian+

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, July 17, 2009


When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true


- Disneyland opened on this date,
1955, in Anaheim CA
[lyrics by Ned Washington; music by Leigh Harline;
Performed by Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards) ]


I always found the bumper sticker from the 80’s (have I got the right decade?) amusing, and somewhat touching - “Life is hard, and then you die”. I liked the reality – like another fav, “Shit Happens”. And there were lots more like those! I am a big fan of acknowledging the Reality of Life and then dealing with it (yes, even though I am an "avoider"!) – and there are LOTS of options for dealing with it. And lots of resources.

All kids my age remember Jiminy Cricket singing this song. I’ve remembered the lyrics to the first verse (I don’t remember hearing the others) for over 55 years.

I am not a hard-ass “stare things squarely in the face” guy as the only approach to Life’s challenges. I’m in favour of “cushions” that help us get to the point of being able to deal with stuff. People have invented “God/gods/goddesses /spirits/fairies/etc” to help. Jiminy sang that “Fate” is kind, surprising us with strength and paths that “see you through” and make our “dreams come true”. But we all know that, somewhere in the process, when we’ve gotten our balance and our breath, we have choices to make and courage to ignite and help to accept to face what we need to face and do what we need to do.

I’m in favour of songs of encouragement (including hymns), of wishing upon stars, or calling upon the divinities. It reminds us that there are indeed ways through our difficulties. Finding those ways are the work of a Lifetime. There is an enormous amount of wisdom in the World, and the blessing of friends.

When trouble next comes, picture little Jiminy singing this song. Gaze in wonder at an icon of a loving, caring Deity. Go to Disneyland for a day, or the Grand Canyon, or your local wonder! Be centered – and then forge ahead with confidence and trust.

Things will indeed “work out”. And in the process we learn a lot.

Brian+

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, July 16, 2009


Sin brought death, and death will
disappear with the disappearance of sin.


- Mary Baker Eddy, founder of “Christian Science”,
born on this day, 1821


First of all, sin did not bring death. This is BCO [Brian’s Considered Opinion]. Human beings have always been mortal and death has always been a given. You will of course, find both ideas in the Bible – Baker’s and mine, as well as St. Paul’s, and others. If we take this literally, it makes no sense. But, if we take it mystically, we understand what it means. Metaphorically, “death” is the “spiritual” state of having become a diminished human being by the failure to love. Metaphorically, “Life” is the opposite.

The loveliness is, it is possible for human beings to move “from death to life” in the proverbial twinkling of an eye. The only thing that is necessary is the willingness to recognize and be honest about our Unlovingness – and we all know, down deep, how unwilling we all are to be honest about this. Excuses, excuses, excuses; oh, we are so good excuses!

The joy of something like the Gospel is that it “proclaims the Good News”: confession and repentance - that is, self-honesty and the desire and determination to amend our ways – flips the coin. At one moment, we are “in death”, the next, we “live”.

I know almost nothing about Eddy – and actually I don’t really care to. She may have had a very literal mind about this. But whatever, mystically she is correct. As soon as we turn to love, Death “disappears”.

Not only does this make life on this earth wondrous. It also softens the distinction between Time and Eternity – opens up the “narrow gate” for us all to move through.

Sin is mystical death, and Love the resurrection to Life. We are free to choose, every moment or every day.

Brian+

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 15, 2009


Perhaps misguided moral passion is
better than confused indifference.


- Dame Iris Murdoch, born
on this date, 1919


No. No, no, no, no ,no!! Give me “confused indifference” anytime!

I am willing to think that there can be some moral passion that is not misguided. But I would guess that this is very “personal”. I personally think that Martin Luther King’s moral passion was not misguided, but I know (alas) many who do. As an Episcopalian Christian, I think that the passion at our General Convention fully to include Gayfolk in it’s life is not misguided – but there are apparently hoards in the Anglican Communion who do, and many Episcopalians and other Christians as well. As I cast a long glance down through “history”, there is a lot of moral passion and it’s consequences that I support – but most I reject.

On the whole, it is misguided moral passion – to my lights – that has caused a huge portion of the World’s suffering, be it inspired by religious or by secular sources. Wars, Inquisitions, Holocausts, prejudice, racism, patriarchy, bigotry – most roar with the fires of so-called moral passion. And they have plagued the World with misery.

No. Give me Confused Indifference anytime! It might make it harder to rally folk around Compassion, Justice, Mercy – but it will probably save a huge amount of agony. It would make it clear when wacko, anti-social psychopaths were raising their ugly heads. And hopefully then rightly-guided moral passion will awaken, and sensible, rational people will take action.

“Moral passion” is for the most part like “dirty” bombs in the hands of crazed terrorists. I prefer sober reflection.

Brian+

Monday, July 13, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 14, 2009


Acceptance is a dynamic act. It should not signal inertness, stagnation,
or inactivity. One should simply ascertain what the situation requires and
then implement what one thinks is best. As long as one's deeds are in accord
with the time and one leaves no sloppy traces, then the action is correct.


- Deng Ming Dao


I wonder: is it because I am in my seventh decade that I find the concept of “acceptance” attractive? It seems to me that young persons equate “acceptance” with “resignation” – and resignation is not something that most young person relate to.

But Deng (who is a living contemporary Chinese philosopher and author) eliminates any sense of resignation. He eliminates any sense of moral judgment or turpitude (love that word!). What he is saying is simply that “acceptance” means acknowledging Reality, rejecting denial, seeing Truth. I like this.

We waste a lot of time and energy in Life avoiding stuff. In the end, Reality eventually catches up with us – as it should. I have done a lot of that in my Life. I think it was not just because of fear, though that comes into play. It was also a sense of inadequacy. We all feel that – a lot!

Deng’s advice is wise. If one needs a platform for taking action, then much better to take hold of the situation, “ascertain what the situation requires and then implement what one thinks best”, than to give Fear the power. “Acceptance” means staring Fear down. It is Fear that underlies “inertness, stagnation, or inactivity”. In the end, Life gives us what it gives us – that is morally neutral. Life is not generally “out to get us”. Life simply challenges us to engage, trusting in our own gifts, reveling in the freedom we have to shape our lives.

Even if we leave “sloppy traces” – and we will! – they are but another thing to accept and use.

Though I must say: I don’t want to be “correct”, rather ….. charmed!

Brian+

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, July 10, 2009

God preordained, for his own glory and the display
of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the
human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal
salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their
sin, to eternal damnation.


- John Calvin, “reformation” theologian, born on this
date, 1509


I thought (too late) of asking my oldest friend Martin to guest-write this Reflection. We were “raised” together in the Presbyterian Church of Canada. Our parish always had imported Scottish ministers. Martin describes himself as an “Atheist Presbyterian”, and he loves the idea of “predestination”!

I don’t know much about John Calvin - though I once read parts of his “Institutes”. So, I have no idea out of what experiences in his life John Calvin came up with his idea of “predestination”. From my own perspective on the Bible, I do not think the doctrine is Biblical. It may be my Episcopal “messy theology”, but the Bible as interpreted in my tradition upholds free will and the unequivocal freedom from “damnation” (which I don’t personally believe in) through sincere repentance.

So, I will give John Calvin the benefit of the doubt: the basis for his doctrine was in an attempt to exalt, as he puts it, God’s “attributes of mercy and justice”. In other words, humanity can be certain that if they trust in God’s Grace they will be “saved” (something else I don’t believe in as it is generally enunciated in mainstream Christian theology), and if they don’t, into the firepits of Hell you go! It's theological hyperbole for the sake of clarity. I also think that the doctrine of predestination is just another example of the theological scare tactics of the times in which Calvin lived – and which persist in present day Christianity in what I consider to be unevolved thinking, or as a result of the idolization of the Bible. What don’t some people understand about Unconditional Love?

Here’s the skinny according to Brian: none of us are predestined to anything, period. As Einstein said in another context, “God does not play dice”. To be made in the Divine Image simply means that what constitutes the essence of God also constitutes the essence of the human person. If God is free, we are free. Like it or not, our ultimate destiny is up to us – something many “believers” shudder to embrace - by the choices we make and the forgiveness we accept. Any doctrine that exempts a person from the daily striving to be “good” and to “become as Christ” is rot.

You are not a toy being played with by some Deity. You are a being worthy of being inhabited by God – and are!

Stand tall, and shape your destiny. Life in God is no predestined Dead End.

Brian+

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, July 9, 2009

Death is
the opposite
of time.


- Deng Ming Tao (Taoist)


At death, nothing is actually destroyed. The body disintegrates into its various bits, physical, chemical, other more mysterious things. We human beings, of all religions, have come up with some either charming or distasteful ideas of what that disintegration “looks like”. But we don’t know – despite all the lovely pictures or scary pictures that the Scriptures or various people have come up with, rising up like wraiths from the vast imaginations of bewildered or just curious human beings.

What we really seem to worry about is our “identity”. What happens to that when we die? But it worries us. And we have come up with amazing ideas that cushion our anxiety about losing our “Identity”, our self-consciousness. One is that we will all be reunited with our Loved Ones “in the deep by and by”. It will be one grand party with family and friends (and we forget about the enemies!).

I’m beginning to appreciate the “Eastern” idea that the “identity” is but a “garment”, or a multi-layer of garments, like those worn by the shaman. At death, it/they “fall away”. But there is still “someone”, underneath. Deng says that once we understand who that someone is, “death no longer bothers us. Nor does time”.

I don’t think he is saying that personal identity is not important. It is, as we negotiate this earthly Life. But it is not important eternally. Therefore, we need to sit lightly with it in the realm of time. And once we do, we are free, free to Live, here and beyond.

One thing the death of Jesus tells us is that abundant Life flows out of “dying to self”. Jesus Himself is reported to have said that those who are willing to give up their Life for His sake and the Gospel’s will have a hundred-fold in this life, and in the world to come Life Everlasting.

We have two strikes against us in this “sitting lightly” with our Identity. One, human arrogance, and two, the Western cult of the Individual. Perhaps, though, we can enter into the Mystery of which Jesus speaks. If so, I suspect Life here will begin to sparkle with a delicious freedom!

Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 8, 2009


To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself
as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties
can comprehend only in their primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling,
is at the center of true religion.


- Albert Einstein


I am a unashamed delighter in elegant, exuberant liturgy. I have experienced it in many ways. The Feast of Corpus Christie at St. Mary’s, Bourne Street, London., or St. Mary the Virgin, NYC. (Despite the glory of the edifice, liturgy at Santa Maria del Fiore, Firenze, is ugly, alas!) Buddhist & Hindu temples. An American Indian celebration of the Earth. Bom Fin in Brasil, in the old days, and the Candomble festival of the sea goddess. So many different places!

I find most worship today too “wordy” and, despite a few colourful vestments, too drab. (And here let me give a cheer for St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco – drab it is not!) Wordy and drab is mostly unable to awaken us to the “impenetrable that exists”. Einstein is correct – our faculties are dull (or maybe “dulled?), and they need help to peer into the Great Mystery that is Life. I rather think that liturgy planners need to be consciously motivated by a desire to manifest the “highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty”. We might not get too far, we may only expand the “primitive forms” a bit, but any success would be a welcome achievement!

I realize these days how much I have ignored the “highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty” which has surrounded me all my life! I have always been aware of it at some level – which is probably why I wanted to be a priest from such an early age, urged on by Medieval art! And now, away from the bureaucracy of “church”, I feel it even more. I want my Life to be lived in the context of “highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty”.

I’m working on nurturing this context. Because I think Einstein is bang on.

If we are going to practice a “religion”, we need to take care to what we are attaching ourselves.

Brian+

Monday, July 6, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 7, 2009

A Bottle and a Friend

There's nane that's blest of human kind,
But the cheerful and the gay, man,
Fal, la, la, &c.

Here's a bottle and an honest friend!
What wad ye wish for mair, man?
Wha kens, before his life may end,
What his share may be o' care, man?

Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man:
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not aye when sought, man.


- Robbie Burns, Scottish poet, who died
on this date (which is also the date of
my birth 150 years later, in 1946), 1796


Ah yes. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die”. I rather like thinking about this whole business as I celebrate my 63rd birthday today. I am looking at a picture on the lovely library table which Dennis bought be as a birthday gift. My paternal Scottish relatives. There were a lot of them. My grandmother bore twelve children, nine of whom lived, my father being the youngest. Plus there are the great aunts and uncles and their children. Quite a crowd, the McHugh’s were/are! Hailing from Dundee.

The McHughs are Lowlanders, but I rather fancy kilts. The one I have chosen to wear is the Orrock tartan – that of my paternal grandmother Elspeth – who was a “bastard” in the old (and I might say extremely stupid) way of looking at things.

But, back to Robbie Burns. I do not believe in the idea that we should limit our lives to a “moral” narrowness on this Earth, rejecting all pleasure, etc. Theologically, I think this is a bunch of crap foisted on us by wacko warped psychopaths. Why do we have a body, and why do we have such a glory of pleasure possibilities?? If you believe in a God who wants us to be happy and to enjoy Creation (as well as to understand that Doing Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You is the bang-on baseline), then let’s stop being sniffily haughty!

As Robbie (if he doesn’t mind me being familiar) says, the really blest of humankind are the “cheerful and the gay” (hee, hee!). Who could want more than a good bottle of some distillation and honest friends! Life is usually full of “care”, despite all we think we have in our culture to smooth the way. We have to make good use of the opportune moments, and use them as gifts from God for delight! Happiness is “shy”; so Carpe Diem!! And any sensible person would know that we are all interconnected in this.

If your “God” disapproves of delighting in Life – find another!

Brian+

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, July 6, 2009


[The] vital force, which supports and sustains all life, has been given many names. The
Chinese call it `chi'i', the Hindus call it `prana', the Hebrews call it `ruach', and the
American Indians name it `the Great Spirit'….. Some people call this power-that-connects
LOVE, or divine energy. According to these theories, we are healthy when this energy is
flowing through us in a balanced and unrestricted fashion. When the energy is blocked
in some way, be it through poor life-style habits, stress, or negative emotions,
then in time these constrictions manifest as physical or mental disease. The energy is blocked
by "swimming against the Tao" ….. "the essence of health is to fall in with the patterns of
life. To be in harmony with the Tao".


- Chop Wood, Carry Water, pg 186

“Poor lifestyle habits, stress, or negative emotions”. Uh oh. I have a terrible craving for good bread slathered with olive oil, and roasted Yukon gold mini-potatoes in garlic, fresh rosemary, and ….. olive oil ….. and English crumpets infused with a good “spread” and Bonne Mama Three-berry jam. (I know, I know: the olive oil is ok!). Stress? I can’t imagine that there is anything stressful about 27 years as a parish priest, 11 of them pasturing two congregations at a time ….. is there??? Negative emotions?? Surely 40 years of rage at being discriminated against and scapegoated by church and state as a Gay person while trying to behave as a follower of Jesus ….. surely that wouldn’t generate “negative emotions”??? Ah ….. would it??

In seven years: Aortic valve replacement; gall bladder removal (very diseased); cyst removed from throat; burst colon and colostomy; e-coli bacterial infection for months; reversal of colostomy and abscess to bowel reversed 6 months later; double hernia repaired; hole in heart repaired. You don’t suppose that not being in “harmony with the Tao”, or “divine energy”, has anything to do with this ….. do you???

How ….. dumb.

OK. I get the message. I’ll get to work on this.

Maybe an object lesson here for any of you??

Brian+

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Sat, July 4, 2009

Jesus called the Twelve to him, and sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority and power to deal with the evil opposition. He sent them off with these instructions: "Don't think you need a lot of extra equipment for this. You are the equipment ….. Keep it simple….. Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency that life can be radically different; right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick, anointing their bodies, healing their spirits. ….. They [had] nothing but themselves and the message of God’s Love.”


- Mark 6: the Gospel for Pentecost 5 B (RCL)_The Message

Learning Love. This is what is at the heart of Life, and, I am convinced, at the heart of God, of Jesus, of His Gospel, and of the Scriptures He was raised with and, as we hear today, expounded in the synagogue. Jesus could not have made it plainer than by giving the New Commandment to “love one another as I have loved you”. In my over 40 years of ministry, it is that question that has been writ large in front of me: What does it mean, to love? We Christians believe that we can find the heart of the answer in Jesus, whom we have invited to reign in our Inner Country. I still believe that Learning Love, day by day, over and over again, is the core enterprise of Life, certainly of being a Christian.

In our own small circles of families and friends, in our own country celebrating the great ideals of equality and Justice set forth in the Declaration of Independence, in our deeply troubled, anxious, fearful World, we have been asked to speak the message of Divine Love. Today’s theme is the courage to set forth on the unknown path. Christ says that Love will “send the demons packing”. What is our answer to Annie Dillard’s suspicion? Do we believe a word of what we say about the power of Love?


Come to the edge, he said.
They said, We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them…
And they flew.
[Peter McWilliams]

Brian+