Brian’s Reflection: Monday, February 28, 2011

Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.

Michel de Montaigne, philosopher; he was
born on this date, 1533



[ Note: Dennis and I are “on the road” this week, so the Reflections may be a little sporadic! ]


As the wonderful cartoon in the New Yorker once said, “Wrongitty wrong wrong!”

MdeM is in one sense “correct” if he is talking about the death of our material bodies. But not when we think about Life and Death in a “larger” way. [Yes, I know, I know; since teaching a course on Cynthia Bourgeault’s book “The Wisdom Jesus”, I’ve become a little “obsessed” with trying to puzzle out the challenges she offers in the understanding of Life ….. sorry!]

So-called physical death is but a step in the process of Life. If we want to understand the much larger dimension of Life, “dying” needs to become a daily if not more frequent activity. Let me put it very simplistically: we can live a Little Life (where we are each separate little beings living in a small circle of Love), or we can live a Big Life (where we are at One with all Existence, Being, Reality, and living as best we can in an infinite circle of Love).

You’d think that the Little Life might be easier? I don’t think so; that’s just fear. The Big Life is far more “wild and precious”! (Mary Oliver) And once we wade in, fear and anxiety dissipate, and it gets more fun! And infinitely more satisfying.

So, MdeM is wrong. Every moment we die to the Little Life (and that can be like a constant orgasm!), we are called to new “obligations” ….. but of course, on the Yellow Brick Road to the Big Life, “obligations” become blessed desires!

Cheers!

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, February 25, 2011

Pope Pius V excommunicated
England's Queen Elizabeth I ;
on this date, 1570

As people on Facebook would say: WTF!?


Very “Christian” of Pius V, don’t you think?? Not only did he excommunicate her, he stated that any person who killed Queen Elizabeth would go straight to Heaven. Pius V should be grateful that Jesus “died for his sins” too.

Well: it’s Feb 25th. On this date, 1836, Samuel Colt patented his revolver. Now, hasn’t that been a lovely addition to our civilized development! If Jesus had been alive, I’m sure He would have cheered. Ya, right!

In 1913, on this date, The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect. That allowed us, we Americans, to use, at present, more than 1/3rd of our tax dollars to maintain the by-far-largest military complex on the planet – meaning that we have no money to care for our people. Charming. Very Christian, in this nation which many claim us to be. I spoke to Jesus the other day and asked Him about this. He could only manage a wan smile.

1943: Beatle George Harrison was born on this date, in Liverpool. Dead now. And he would have been today only three years older than I. Makes one sit up and take notice!

1964: Cassius Clay (who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali) became the world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach. So tell me: just how much has boxing advanced the humanity of human culture? How much did it make us more like the God of Love??

In 1991 on this date, an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 Americans during the Persian Gulf War. War. Is this the behaviour of evolved human beings ….. after 110,000 or more years of development of homo sapiens?? Do we just go in cycles? Is there any actual forward advancement?? (Listen to the daily news.)

1999: A jury in Jasper, Texas, sentenced white supremacist John William King to death for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., an African-American man. Twelve years later, he is still on Death Row. Whatever you think of the death penalty, what does this say about American justice, and about our commitment to eradicate racism?

1965: Dame Myra Hess (b. 2/25/1890), English pianist, died. Has music actually in any way “soothed the savage beast”?? What has rap contributed? Come on folks! What do we really stand for in America??

Many folk like to claim that we are a “Christian” nation. I don’t see it much. Do you? Is there much evidence to support our claim?

1870: Hiram Revels, a Mississippi Republican, was sworn in as the first black member of the U.S. Senate. Today, how many African-American senators do we have? None.

WTF??!!

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, February 24, 2011

All this hurrying soon will be over.
Only when we tarry do we touch the holy.

Rainer Maria Rilke


Ah Rilke. I am so grateful that this poet existed! Well, first of all, what’s the “holy”? I have lots of friends who would never think of using such a word, or acknowledging such a concept. Personally, my thinking has changed over the decades. I used to think in terms of “holy” and “profane”. I don’t anymore. I’ve come to that inner place where everything is holy ….. or profane: - there is no difference. The Universe id what it is ….. and one can either see it as cut up into diverse pieces, or a Unity. Theologically, philosophically, emotionally, psychologically, it seems more sane to me to think of the Universe as a Whole ….. just as I think about myself.

As to “hurrying”. I hurried for decades of my life. And all that hurrying - never leaving enough time for the things to be done in the day, raging when my timing was scuttled by traffic or phone calls, and a million other things - shredded my life and, I think, contributed to my various illnesses. Dennis gets a little edgy because, now that I am “retired”, I don’t “hurry” anymore. I’m not in that mode. I basically drive the speed limit; I don’t do too many things in a day (two at the most). You know what I mean - if you are retired and somewhat hear my age. I am an avid birder; I used to grab twenty minutes to see a migrating bird and be frustrated when it “didn’t appear”. Now, I leave three hours, and just “hang out”; and shrug if the bird had other things to do.

“The holy” has to do with Wholeness, from the Old English “halig”. With not being fragmented, in pieces, torn. It’s very easy to be un-Whole, especially in our modern World where living Life at the upper end in order to have as many goodies as possible entices us with such power.

“All this hurrying will soon be over.” Indeed it will, indeed it will. A friend of mine at age 44 and in “good health” keeled over and dropped dead of a heart attack. Friends’ daughter-in-law died of lung cancer with 3 young children. Seventy-five or more people died in a powerful earthquake in New Zealand. And even if you live eighty years, it will seem short.

Tarry. Tarry. Touch the holy.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives
are princesses/princes, who are only
waiting to see us act, just once, with
beauty and courage. Perhaps everything
that frightens us is, in the deepest
essence, something helpless that wants
our love.

Rainer Maria Rilke – “Letters to a
Young Poet”


I am kind of stunned by this quote. Why? Because it does two things. It proposes that the “negativities” we find within ourselves we create ourselves! That we look at aspects of our Humanity, and we assign them, often, negative values. But. Why, when we recognize these things about ourselves, do we reject them? Why do we dismiss them as without value? Rilke proposes that they are “Angels”, calling us to manifest ourselves in beautiful and courageous ways. I like this! It says that everything we are draws us towards being beautiful creatures. Is that not a wondrous way of understanding ourselves?

We often experience Fear. It is so easy to brand what brings us Fear as evil. Thinking this way divides us against our Self, and against each other. Rilke suggests that whether it comes from within or without, whatever frightens us need not be seen as the “enemy”. We can see it as our helpless Friend, reaching out in Love, for Love. And Love heals all.

We all have a shadow. Enfolding it is the only way to deny it power to destroy us.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, February 21, 2011

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did and it never will.

The life of the nation is secure only while the
nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.

Frederick Douglass, prophetic witness; he
is remembered in the Episcopal Church
Kalendar of “Holy Women, Holy Men”
on February 20th

Frederick Douglass was born a slave, in 1818. He experienced a conversion to Christ in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and his recollection of that tradition’s spiritual music sustained him in his struggle for freedom: “Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds.” A strong advocate of racial integration, Douglass disavowed black separatism and wanted to be counted as equal among his white peers. When he met Abraham Lincoln in the White House, he noted that the President treated him as a kindred spirit without one trace of condescension.

Power without Love is death-dealing, both to those who wield it and to those who are it’s victims. Think about the story of the Israelites created by the Hasmonean dynasty between 167-67BC. They portray God as “on their side”, leading them out of bondage.

What a few weeks this has been in our World! Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Wisconsin. We are seeing, I think, a spiritual awakening along with the politics. Douglass made it clear that people will be oppressed by Power to the extent that they will permit it. Many people have had enough. Many people in America are watching and experiencing oppression by the moneyed, the privileged, the powerful. Many may be realizing the corrupting influence power has to gain power under false pretenses and then enslave those without power.

What has become obvious over the past several years – at least to me - is that our nation is not by any means “honest, truthful, and virtuous”. And this is true of many many nations in the World. Hence the turmoil we are in.

Frederick Douglass spoke Truth to Power - a former slave to an American President. God, the God I know in Jesus, in my understanding is never “on the side” of Power that oppresses and denies the Humanity and freedom of Her people.

I think we are in for a long siege of conflict in the World. I doubt I will live to see a peaceful resolution. But it will come. There will always be people like Frederick Douglass, who know in their heart their intrinsic value and dignity. And they will fearlessly speak Truth to Power. It is my sincere hope that those who voted in the present House of Representatives will soon realize with a shock that they have engineered their own enslavement. Power, once given, enslaves both the rulers and the ruled.

Happily, God cannot be co-opted by the rich and powerful. Stones are rolled away from the tombs in which they have tried to bury Love ….. and as St. Paul said, Love and its companion Justice have the greatest power.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, February 18, 2011

Death and love are the two wings
that bear the good man to heaven.

Michelangelo, visionary genius; he
died on this date, 1564


Even Jesus courteously put down someone who tried to corner the market on deciding who was “good”. He wouldn’t even accept the accolade for Himself! Point being made? Who is “good”? The Bible makes it abundantly clear that it is not for us human beings to judge. And that if we do judge, we will be judged in return. Secondly, let’s be clear: “man” is the patriarchal clap-trap of the time; to “God”, there is “neither male nor female”, as Paul the Apostle wisely said.

That having been said: on Death as a “wing to heaven”, Il Beatissimo (the divine Michelangelo) was correct. What else, right? You die, you die. You are off onto the next stage of the Journey. And let’s face it: for all the speculation and hope, none of us knows what that next part of the Journey IS ….. if any. It seems perfectly clear to me that the “promise of Eternal Life” is, like the Next Part of the Journey, Unknown. And may I say, I think it is perfectly OK for us to speculate as to the character or nature of the AfterLife based upon what we “know” (or choose to know) about the Mystery we call God.

And “Heaven”. Well, Heaven. We have lovely visions of Heaven, created by the minds and feelings and imaginations of people who have applied their poetic skills to a description of Heaven ….. but that is their speculation, and who really knows? Everything said by “God” in the holy books is said by people who have taken upon themselves to act as God’s mouthpieces ….. and who really knows the state of their Unconscious or their mental health??

“Love bears the good “person” to heaven”. Yes. I have pondered the principles of Christian theology for many decades. In terms of the “revelation” of the nature of God/The Christ, I choose to believe that God is Love. I am sustained in this by many statements in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other religions. Human Love is the other wing that bears us to Heaven. To me it is simple: Heaven (be it beyond death or in the Consciousness) is the homeland of Lovers, and one enters The Homeland not by goodness, but by surrender to the God of Compassion and by God’s Forgiveness, thus embracing our own”larger mind”, or “full Humanity”.

Have you loved? Guilty …..or Not Guilty??

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, February 16, 2011

All literature is political.

LeVar Burton [ Geordi, in Star Trek];
he was born on this date, 1957


Hello. My name is Brian, and I a Star Trek-aholic. [ I hope you all responded enthusiastically, “Hi Brian”!]

When Star Trek is on, I ignore all phone calls. I even lie to people to get back to the show.

Look. Star Trek understands Life - just as the New York Times does not: it has no cartoons!

Now. LeVar’s comment applies to the Bible. Yes, the Bible – and a lot of other “Scriptures”, including the Tanakh and the Qur’an. They are Literature, composed for various reasons by various people to promote various political views or agendas. The Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures) were composed in their present form by the Hasmonean dynasty, founded by Judas Maccabeus, which ruled in Israel from c.167-37 BCE. The Gospels were composed, more accurately “redacted” or edited, by post-apostolic Christians in the 2nd to early 4th Cs in order to support the Literalist Christian Church against the Gnostics. And the Qur’an was composed in it’s final form as late as the 9-10th C by editors from the various collections of texts and “hadiths” (sayings of the Prophet). None of these texts were dictated to humans by God. So a large number of scholars agree.

And, as LaVar says, they are political in essence. They are being used to establish, or try to establish, one group in political and ecclesial power over another. It would horrify you to know what was done to destroy the Gnostic Scriptures and peoples, as would a reading of the meeting of the Council of Nicea in 325 CE.

Yet, the workings of the Mystery we call God is, I believe, at work in these Scriptures. They are the record of the experience of human beings struggling to find the meaning of Life within the confusing politics of the community, and of the community in conflict with others. The Holy Presence manages to seep through and, when it meets a heart open to the Truth, takes up residence. But it takes work! Hard work. It has to fight its way through enormous barriers, in the World and in us; and a Seeker has to work hard to open to the Mystery.

As you read, try to see through the politics. Discard all the political agendas. A glimmer of the Holy One and of the Peaceable Kingdom will reach out to you.

Embrace it.

Brian+