Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 11, 2010

[Canadian Thanksgiving; Indigenous Peoples' Day in South Dakota]

The feelings of my smallness and my
nothingness always kept me good company.

Pope John XXIII; on this date in 1962, he
convened the first session of Vatican II


If most other people had said this, I would have dismissed it as poor self-esteem or false humility. But, in my humble opinion, Good Pope John was a wise and sane man (the only Pope I am willing to say that about; though perhaps one other would be Pope Celestine V, the only Pope to abdicate, in 1294). And of course, suggesting we think about our smallness and nothingness is a little challenging, so I’ve waited until the late morning to send this along, to spare you undue hours of anguish ………. well ok; I was lazy last night!

As you will know, I am a fan of thinking well of our Humanity, of who we are individually and as a Human community. This is a firm theological principle in my Life and in my understanding of “God” and of the Gospel and of other great Teachers. And yes, this despite the “fact” that I am at present beset with a deep sense of the primitiveness of our present human condition and in moderate despair of any improvement.

Being an Anglican (not the present confused aspect of “Anglican” but the classic one), I think Balance is a wise thing. So, every now and then, it is a helpful thing to recall that we are just teensy specks of Being in a vast Universe (or perhaps in an infinite number of Universes).

That makes you, like John, a wise and sane person! Isn’t it nice how being Small and Nothing can make you feel so good!

Cheers!

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Sunday, October 10, 2010

…. ten lepers approached him ….. they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us!" ….. they were made clean. Then [a Samaritan, the only
one of ten] …. prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him ….. Then
Jesus ….. said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Luke 17 (from the Gospel for Sunday, October 10, 2010)


It is very unclear whether this is being reported as an event in the Story of The Christ, or as a parable Jesus told. It feels, to me anyway, like the latter. The four “canonical” Gospels often report things differently.

Clearly, we are meant to focus on the issue of the connection that is implied between wholeness, faith/trust, and thanksgiving. Nine of the lepers were cured, but only one was thankful … or at least only one expressed his thankfulness.

I think I understand the point Jesus is making. It’s about what “wholeness”, healing, actually IS. We all go through – and believe me I know! – getting better from human illness, of all sorts, physical, mental, emotional, etc., even many life-threatening illnesses as I have, by the grace of human knowledge and medical skill. But Jesus is always interested in full Wholeness - in people becoming fully Human as the Gospel understands that Wholeness.

The nine others lepers were cured of their leprosy; off they went to the priests to get “certified” as cured, get accepted back into society, and presumably go on with their lives. But one, a Samaritan, a “foreigner” (in order to emphasize the point that so many of us think we “deserve” blessings) comes back thankful. So, nine went off and, though cured, didn’t grow in Humanity, as Jesus always desires. One did grow.

Faith is trust (Latin: “fidere”, to trust; “fides”, fidelity) that, if we seek to grow and deepen in the Humanity which is offered by God through The Christ and through many other ways, we will do so!

And Thankfulness for the mysterious blessings of Life will be a sure sign that we have become more Whole, and know that we have been blessed by that great Mystery called “God”.

Maybe (as I have experienced) we don’t get physically cured; but we are thankful for the Life we have been given to live, in whatever state. That is a character of the Life of Faith. As I was once quoted as saying: “The Life of faith is a Life of endless horizons”.

How have you grown in Wholeness? This is what God is interested in.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, October 8, 2010

I cast my bread on the waters long ago.
Now it's time for you to send it back to me –
toasted and buttered on both sides.

Jesse Jackson Sr. Prophet, patriot. He was born on this day, 1941


I don’t know the context of this quote attributed to Jesse Jackson Sr. But I would guess that it was made in the course of one of his attempts to get elected President, or some other political campaign.

However: I can imagine “God” saying this. To all human beings. What “God”? The one great Mystery behind Life – Who may or who may not existentially exist, but Who certainly exists in the minds of countless human beings.

Many ages and times have been like ours. Our age is not unique. But: we are the ones living in this age, and we must hear the message of the Universe in our own ears, hearts, minds - in our own deepest human Mystery.

Long ago, in every Time and Universe that has ever been, “God” cast Her bread upon the waters. “Love. Be compassionate. Be Just. Be generous. Be kind. The Hebrews got my Message: I will never again destroy the Earth. But you might, the Earth and each other, now in your Time.”

Those who have ears to hear, let us hear.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, October 7, 2010

On this day, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a Gay college

student, was gay-bashed, robbed, and left tied to

a wooden fence post in Laramie, WY in freezing

temperatures by two young men. He died 5 days later.

I shall never forget.

Matthew was God’s Beloved Child.

…..

"American Triangle" [Elton John]

Seen him playing in his backyard

Young boy just starting out

So much history in this landscape

So much confusion, so much doubt

Been there drinking on that front porch

Angry kids, mean and dumb

Looks like a painting, that blue skyline

God hates fags where we come from

'Western skies' don't make it right

'Home of the brave' don't make no sense

I've seen a scarecrow wrapped in wire

Left to die on a high ridge fence

It's a cold, cold wind

It's a cold, cold wind

It's a cold wind blowing, Wyoming

See two coyotes run down a deer

Hate what we don't understand

You pioneers give us your children

But it's your blood that stains their hands

Somewhere that road forks up ahead

To ignorance and innocence

Three lives drift on different winds

Two lives ruined, one life spent

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Gay Liberation? I ain't against it, it's just
that there's nothing in it for me.

Bette Davis, actress; she died on this
day, age 81, in 1989


What I remember is “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”. Whoa! That was powerful, especially because I was quite young – 16 years old. Bette was a total BITCH! It made quite an impression on me. Happily, being a delightfully naïve wholesome Canadian, I didn’t transfer that to all women! Hey, well, it’s just part of my gift as Gay man; “we” don’t do that sort of thing because it isn’t in “our” genes!!

“There’s nothing in it for me”. There’s the Shakespearean rub. A problem of the whole human race, bottom line. Bette was, I am sure, being ironic about it. It’s especially a rub for “wealthy” societies anywhere in the World. Religion makes no difference. Well-off Americans and Saudis and Sudanese and Danes and Greenlanders and Thais, Christians or Buddhists or Muslims or Jews or Zoroastrians – once we get to a certain stage of privilege, we easily marginalize the needs of our fellow human beings. Jesus talked about it a LOT! As did the Jewish prophets. “Woe to you who put your finger on the scale and try to cheat the poor!”

Oh. We take meals to the poor and the homeless. We give them the shampoo and the Conditioner we snitch from the fancy hotels we go to and the clothes we don’t want anymore. But we really don’t work to change the systems that KEEP people poor! Mostly because that would radically change OUR lives – and we like how we live as the top 1% of the World’s population.

Every great Teacher, “Christ”, Bodhisattva, Saint, Enlightened One tells us in some fashion that if we want to be “rich” we must give everything away; if we want Life we must be willing to “lose” it. They point to the truth that if we live by the principle that “there’s nothing in it for me”, there won’t be!

The message? Many have said it better than I. Every human being is my sister or brother. The less they have, the less my Humanity – and my Happiness.

Ponder. Can we learn this lesson and live it? Look at the World now. We have not learned the Lesson.

We must.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Love, love me do.
You know I love you,
I'll always be true,
So please, love me do.
Whoa ccc, love me do.

Love, love me do.
You know I love you,
I'll always be true,
So please, love me do.
Whoa, love me do.

Someone to love,
Somebody new.
Someone to love,
Someone like you.

Love, love me do.
You know I love you,
I'll always be true,
So please, love me do.
Whoa, love me do.


Love, love me do.
You know I love you,
I'll always be true,
So please, love me do.
Whoa, love me do.
Yeah, love me do.
Whoa, oh, love me do.
whoa ,oh love me do
why dont cha love me do

The Beatles; this song was
released on this day, 1962


This was the Beatles’ first “big hit”. Interesting that it was about Love. It amazes me that a song could be such a hit with such a limited vocabulary! But then, I’m looking at it from the perspective of a 64 year old fogey.

I’d like to think that it was because it was about Love that it was such a hit in 1962 – and maybe so, I don’t know. But it was the sixties – and I LOVED the sixties! Hippie me, I often wish that we could go back to that era. Oh, I know I know. If I looked back at the history, it was probably just as “bad” then as it is now. After all, John Kennedy was shot and killed, and Robert Kennedy, and Dr. King. There was Vietnam, etc.

In 1962, I was 16, and a Junior in High School. In 1967, I was a novice monk in the Order of the Holy Cross. In 1968, our Novice Master took us to the March on Washington. I’ll never forget the night of the March. We went to an Episcopal Church at Midnight; the Liturgy lasted until 5am. And the passing of the Peace took over an hour!!! The only other experience I have had where the Love was SO palpable was during the years that I was the AIDS chaplain in the diocese of RI.

The only God I embrace is the God of Unconditional Love. The only Absolute I may acknowledge is Love. The only core Mystery is Love. The only definitive Path to Wholeness and Life is Love. And The Christ’s choice of the Cross is the essence of the Way of Love.

What a Journey we have to being Human! What Wisdom to learn!

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Sunday, October 3, 2010

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior….

Collect for Sunday, Oct 3, 2010 [Episcopal Lectionary]

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. "Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

Luke 17 - the Gospel reading for today [Proper 22C RCL]


Forget any modern connotations about “slaves”. Jesus’ words are not about the justice of slave-owning; we don’t want to get caught up in that Red Herring.

Jesus is, as always, concerned about his followers understanding how to be “right with God” ….. taking our rightful position (spiritually) and therefore with heart and mind in that “space” where we stand open and humble and eager for the great Mystery of God’s Compassion and Love and Longing to make us whole human beings.

The Collect expresses both our human desire for this Wholeness, and our concept of a God Who knows our longing far more profoundly than we do. We express our faith that this God will not let our ignorance or fear stand in the way of our becoming Whole. This is what Christians understand the very heart and nature of the God of the Gospels to be. To put it another way, Christians believe that Existence is “for us”. If we surrender ourselves trustingly to the work of Life – as the image of the faithful and hard-working slave represents – Life will bless us.

I absolutely believe this. Abandoning ourselves to the Mystery of Love and allowing ourselves to be swept along by it, working hard to relinquish our misguided grip on control, the often huge “mulberry tress” that block our path will be uprooted, our path “made straight in the desert”, and we will fly like an arrow to Be as Christ.

We do not need to work hard. We need to surrender hard. This is what is meant by Freedom.

Brian+