Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, June 12, 2012

There are two freedoms –

the false, where a (wo)man is free to do what (s)he likes;

the true, where (s)he is free to do what (s)he ought.

Charles Kingsley, Anglican priest, teacher, and author;

he was born on this date, 1819, at Holne Vicarage, Devon, England

People often say to me when I have “done something” for them, “You didn’t have to do that!” My response is always, “I know I didn’t; I did it because I wanted to; I rarely do things I am told I have to do!”

I find that Americans are into the False Freedom. We have been raised culturally on the principle that no one shall tell us what to do … because this impinges on our American sense of Freedom.

Christians, on the other hand … that is, Christians whose understanding of the Gospel has trumped that of American culture … understand the True Freedom. We know that we can never be free until all are free. We know that the Gospel teaches that Love requires us to act in Love … and that means accepting the “oughts”. The “oughts” of Love don’t limit us, they enlarge us as a person and as a member of God’s family … the Human Family.

Eventually, a Christian does what (s)he ought because it is what (s)he likes.

Freedom!

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, June 11, 2012

Because you cannot see him,

God is everywhere.

Yasunari Kawabata,

Japanese author (Snow Country)

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1968

He was born on this date 1899 (died April 16,1972)

 There are lots of ways to think about “God” … if one is even inclined to think about “God”.

Kawabata’s comment invites me/us to think about “God” as context … as the invisible context in which we live Life.

There are infinite concepts of “God”.

In which context do you or I choose to live our lives?

It is our choice … and on the choice hangs our own peace and power, and that of Humanity.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, June 8, 12 - Muhammad

You will not enter paradise until you have faith.

And you will not complete your faith until you love one another.

The Prophet Muhammad; this is the

1380^th anniversary of his death, in 632

This is a quote found on a Sufi website called Islamic Renaissance. I deeply respect the Sufis … perhaps because I feel they are doing what I have tried to be doing for most of my Life:  to perceive the great truths about human life that are so often obscured by the veils of human obscurantism, fear, lust for power, and all the other things that stand in the way of Love.

“Paradise” is not a place … it is a state of being. It is eternal, through all stages of existence, of Time and Non-Time.

“Faith” is not a belief system. It is committing oneself to a Path by which all humanity grows in Love, Respect and Honour for each other and for oneself.

Both Muhammad and Jesus and many others advocate Love as the Path. It’s the traces of those paths that I try to seek each day and walk.

I’m amazed at my failures … but undaunted about the wisdom of holding to the way.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, June 7, 2012

Be assured, I believe the Bible to be the Word of God - but not the "words" of God.

That is, I do not believe that the Bible was dictated by God

and written down by scribes of one sort or another,

unmediated by the scribes' own life experiences, culture, religious belief and context.

Bishop Gene Robinson, Episcopal bishop of the

diocese of New Hampshire (and seminary classmate of mine);

he was elected by the people of New Hampshire on this date, 2003

+Gene is a lovely, kind, articulate, brave, bright, humble, loving man. I was at seminary with Gene. He was “sexually confused” then … by which I mean, he had been repressed by his upbringing. He married a woman, had children … and then he and his wife amically separated when it was clear to them that he was Gay. He was the Canon to the Ordinary in the diocese of NH for many years… and the people loved him … enough to elect him their bishop … knowing full well the controversy that would ensue. Despicably, right-wing opponents opposed him, lying bald-faced about him. But he was confirmed … and he and his husband Mark have been fine examples of Christian life and leadership since this date. He will retire in 2013 … and I hope that +Gene and Mark have many opportunities to enjoy the company of the many Christians who live in freedom from either the tyranny of literalist Biblicists or those trapped by a vision of the love of God that does not live up to the radical Divine Love that is represented in the Cross.

The Bible, like all Scriptures, is a product of human minds, in which the subtle working of the Mystery of Love – which is the foundational principle of Life’s meaning – can be discerned. In essence, the Message of the Bible is:  God is Love, You are a creature of  Love, Live in Love … on this Path will you find your Bliss (as Joseph Campbell might have said).

Go for it. And: Thank You Gene for your loving witness to the true meaning of Jesus of Nazareth.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Spirituality means waking up.

Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep.

They're born asleep,

they live asleep,

they marry in their sleep,

they die in their sleep

without ever waking up.

They never understand the loveliness and the beauty

of this thing we call human existence.

Anthony de Mello

I often, in the past, thought I was “awake”. Now I know I wasn’t … “amn’t” ! I’ll be thinking about this today.

Now I have a deeper perception and insight into what the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus was all about … and about what “being born in the spirit” means. This dynamic often called the Holy Spirit is The Great Waker-Upper”! So now I also have a different sense of what being “slain in the Spirit” means too!

As a friend of mine used to say (and I copy her often), “Ain’t Life Amazing” … though I morphed it to “Ain’t people amazing”.

I wish us all today a deeper understanding of “the loveliness and the beauty of this thing we call human existence”.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, June 4, 2012

A system of morality which is based

on relative emotional values is a mere illusion,

a thoroughly vulgar conception

which has nothing sound in it

and nothing true.

Socrates, Greek philosopher; he was born

on this date, 469 BCE, at Athens

Socrates said that he must be one of the wisest of men … because he knew that he know Nothing!

“Morality” has to do, essentially, with a conception of “right and wrong”. Personally, I think such conceptions are relative … to culture, time, moral thinking, etc. I do not believe that there is such a thing as a universally applicable “morality”.

I think Socrates is correct. Moral systems cannot be based on how we “feel”. Building a moral basis for living is like Loving:  Love has little to do, essentially, with how we feel. Love, like morality, is based on the foundation of careful reflection of human nature and behaviour … and the often hard decision to love despite the chaos our emotions can trap us in. In my view, you can be sure that in the Christian Myth Jesus put aside any emotional feelings in making His decisions for Love, freeing Him to push aside those feelings that might have pushed Him to live by Fear.

Feelings will often betray us. Shakespeare powerfully tells us this in the story of Othello and Desdemona. Love is the core foundation of being human … and in essence Love is an act of the Will and not of the Emotions. This is the foundation of Jesus’ teaching, “Love your enemies”. It forces us to “build our house (our Life) upon rock” rather than upon “sand” … upon will, mind, and the true teachings of the Heart rather than upon the volatile and all to easily corrupted Emotions.

In America today we have too much religion and morality based on “relative emotional values”. To me its vulgarity, lack of soundness, and falseness is only too apparent in the collapse of civility and of compassion and of kindness.

No illusions for us.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Sunday, June 3, 2012

Christians do not worship a creed. The Nicene Creed was written some three centuries

after Jesus taught his followers to love God and their neighbors. For the first three

hundred years of church history the followers of Jesus worshipped God, served others,

preached, taught, baptized, and evangelized the world without the benefit of a formal,

universal doctrinal statement. The creeds developed in the context of a living, transformative,

prayer-filled, risky, and active spiritual life— not the other way around. Indeed, a creed

is considered a “symbol” of faith, not the faith itself. The words function as an icon, a

linguistic picture of a divine reality beyond the ideas and concepts, a window into the world

beyond words. Creeds are not unimportant; they are important only in the right order.

Bass, Diana Butler (2012-03-13). Christianity After Religion: The End of Church

and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening (p. 131). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

[ The Collect and Readings for Trinity Sunday can be found at:

http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BTrinity_RCL.html ]

I always smile at the beginning of the Liturgy on Trinity Sunday when we get to the Collect … the prayer that gathers us together for our worship. And in the days when the priest alone said the Collect (most of the places I know, everyone now says the Collect together), I could barely get through it (or the Proper Preface, the seasonal prayer added in the Sursum Corda); I knew it was supposed to be “solemn” … but it’s tongue-twisting convolution amused me as I thought about what the congregation was making of it!

The Nicene Creed (developed at the Council of Nicea in 325) became a test of “right belief” … and, in my view, it has become a “stumbling block” on the path to the God of Love. I would encourage Christians on this Sunday to remember that they are not a council of theologians debating obscure theological fine points. We are people gathered to … among other things … give thanks for the mysterious working of the Mystery of Love in the Universe and in our lives. Yes, it was the purpose of the bishops and the Emperor Constantine at Nicea to establish that Jesus of Nazareth was God, “equal” to the Father and the Spirit. But, as Dr. Bass points out (read her book!) the Nicene Creed is essentially an expression of TRUST in the great power of Love at work in all Being.

Think on that this Sunday. When you get to the recitation of the Creed, substitute in your mind:

I trust in God the Father/Mother

I trust in Jesus Christ

I trust in the Holy Spirit

I trust in the Holy Catholic Church

I trust in the Communion of Saints

I trust in the forgiveness of sins

I trust in the resurrection of the body

I trust in the Life everlasting.

And then strive to live day by day into that Trust. This is the Gospel Path.

Brian+