Weekly Recap for Tuesday, August 18, 2015 from ProgressiveChristianity.org in Gigs Harbor, Washington, United StatesDo you laugh enough? Read last week's Liturgy on Laughter. Thank you for your interest and support!
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Mindful Christianity: On Being Jesus’ TwinJim Burklo
In moments of mindful attention, it is no longer my small-s self at the center of my being, but the awesome capital-S divine Self, the Ultimate Reality of the universe.Mindful Christianity: On Being Jesus’ Twin by Jim Burklo
This is an excerpt from a book Jim Burklo is writing this summer: MINDFUL CHRISTIANITY. The research he’s doing for this project has taken him deep into the history of Christian spirituality. According to Jim: “The more I learn, the more I have to learn!”
Mindful Christianity: On Being Jesus’ Twin
Saint Paul wrote: “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) In moments of mindful attention, it is no longer my small-s self at the center of my being, but the awesome capital-S divine Self, the Ultimate Reality of the universe.
In that most mystical of the gospels, John, Jesus keeps repeating the phrase “I am”, and keeps asking the question “Who do you say that I am?” He answers his own question: “I am the door” – “I am the way” – “I am the truth” – “I am the light of the world” – “I am the life”. “Before Abraham was, I am,” he said, enraging his enemies. But what did he mean by this? The phrase “I am” refers to God’s answer to Moses from the burning bush. Moses asked whom it was he had encountered, and God’s answer was “I am that I am.”
This sounded like heresy to the religious authorities of Jesus’ day. But the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh put it beautifully: “…we must distinguish between the “I” spoken by Jesus and the “I” that people usually think of. The “I” in His statement is life itself, His life, which is the way. If you do not really look at His life, you cannot see the way. If you only satisfy yourself with praising a name, even the name of Jesus, it is not practicing the life of Jesus. We must practice living deeply, loving, and acting with charity if we wish to truly honor Jesus.” The “I am” to which he referred is the Ground of Being of the universe. It is God, who manifests within us as the loving observer in mindfulness practice. The historical personality of Jesus is a metaphorical door for us to open into this “I am” experience.
“I am a mirror to you who know me…this human passion which I am about to suffer is your own.” sang Jesus in the early Christian text, The Round Dance of the Cross. The great scholar of early Christianity, Elaine Pagels, explained that in this text, “Jesus says that he suffers in order to reveal the nature of human suffering, and to teach the paradox that the Buddha also taught: that those who become aware of their suffering simultaneously find release from it.” A similar teaching of Jesus is found in the Gospel of John: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up…” The people of Israel during their exodus suffered from snakebites, and the cure God offered was for them to gaze at a bronze serpent. The Gospel of John says that the image of Jesus on the cross mirrors our own suffering. Gazing at it is a mindfulness practice that is a homeopathic cure for the human condition.
In the early Christian Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is quoted as saying “whoever drinks from my mouth will become as I am, and I myself will become that person, and the mysteries shall be revealed to him.” Jesus’ apostle Thomas was called Didymus, or “the twin”. The canonical gospels of the New Testament do not indicate the identity of his twin. But some early Christians understood Thomas to be Jesus’ spiritual twin – a status which anyone can attain. In another early Christian text, the Book of Thomas the Contender, Jesus is quoted as saying “Since you are my twin and my true companion, examine yourself, and learn who you are… Since you will be called my (twin)… although you do not understand it yet… you will be called ‘the one who knows himself’. For whoever has not known himself knows nothing, but whoever has known himself has simultaneously come to know the depth of all things.” Through mindfulness practice, we become “twins” of Jesus.
Jesus, the mystic, was accused of blasphemy for saying that the “I am” was his true Self. And the mystics who followed Jesus often have been accused of the same thing. Meister Eckhart had the good sense to die of natural causes before he was taken to trial for heresy; the Church was building a case against him toward the end of his life. Other mystics weren’t so lucky. They were misunderstood, just as people so often missed the point of Jesus’ teaching. Christian mystics know that experiencing your true self as God is very different than expecting other people to worship you as God. “He is your being, but you are not his,” wrote the anonymous 14th century English author of the Cloud of Unknowing, one of the great classics of Christian spirituality.
Our identity with the divine is a paradox rhapsodized by St. Symeon the New Theologian, an eleventh-century Eastern Christian monk: “You have made me, a mortal by my nature, a god, god by adoption, god by Your grace, by the power of your Spirit, uniting miraculously, God that You are, the two extremes.” Bede Griffiths, a 20th century Catholic monk who lived for decades in an Indian ashram, explained it in the language of Hinduism: “Behind all knowledge is the Knower, which can never appear, never be seen, never become an object…. It is the subject, not the object, of thought, the ‘I’ that thinks, not the ‘I’ that is thought. It is the Ground of consciousness just as it is the Ground of existence… This is the experience of the Self, the Atman, beyond being in so far as being is an object of thought, beyond thought in so far as thought is a reflection, a concept of being. It is pure awareness of being, pure delight in being….” We experience God as the Ultimate Reality of our being, the true Knower of our thoughts, but this reveals to us that there is infinitely more to God than we know.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught the practice of mindfulness: “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” In ancient times all the way until the Renaissance, most people, including Jesus, believed that the eye was indeed a lamp. You were able to see by casting light out of your eye and letting it interact with the light in the world around you. You know that little glimmer in your eye, which we now understand as a reflection? Virtually everyone thought it was a light from within. They believed that the source of this light was the highest celestial realm of God himself. God’s light was inside human beings, and if you lost this light you were not only blind to the world but also blind to your own mind, your own inner realm.
Jesus fanned the divine flame of light within his followers so they could see what was real, inside and out. “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All… the kingdom is inside you, and outside you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty,” said Jesus in the early Christian text, the Gospel of Thomas. “I came to make the things below like the things above, and the things outside like those inside. I came to unite them…” said Jesus in the early Gnostic Christian text, the Gospel of Philip. Consistently in the ancient texts that describe his life and his teachings, Jesus urges his followers to watch their thoughts.
In the fourth and fifth centuries, the “hesychasts”, Christian monks who lived in caves and cells on the edges of the civilized world, developed a body of sayings and stories for guidance. These passages from the Apophthegmata Patrum, or Wisdom of the Desert Fathers, reveal a form of mindfulness practice in the context of temptation, confession, and repentance: “A brother monk asked one of the Desert Fathers, ‘What shall I do then, for I am weak and passion overcomes me?’ He said to him, ‘Watch your thoughts, and every time they begin to say something to you, do not answer them but rise and pray; kneel down, saying, “Son of God, have mercy on me.’” “An old man said, ‘What condemns us is not that our thoughts enter into us but that we use them badly; indeed, through our thoughts we can be shipwrecked, and through our thoughts we can be crowned.’”
Jesus taught that your prayer, and God’s hearing of your prayer, are one and the same. “Look, the Lord is our mirror. Open your eyes and see your eyes in him,” reads Ode 13 of the Odes of Solomon, an important hymnbook used in early Christian churches. The hesychasts took seriously this admonition from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.“ (Matthew 6)
“Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6)
It is important to understand early Christian cosmology in order to make sense of the Lord’s Prayer as Jesus taught it in the Sermon on the Mount. The cultural assumption in the Roman Empire in the first century was that there were seven heavens. This system, known as the Ptolemaic universe, consisted of the earth, and above it rotating crystal spheres in which the moon, sun, and planets were attached, in ascending order, up to the highest heaven, which was the realm of pure divinity and light. St. Paul used a variant of this scheme when he said he’d been lifted up to the third heaven. He was referring to the earth as the first, the crystal spheres of the visibly moving celestial bodies as the second, and the highest realm as the third. The lower heavens were in degrees of spiritual purity, with the earth the least pure. The early Christians believed that the coming of Christ marked a cataclysm in the cosmos, establishing direct rule by God of all levels of the cosmos, so that God’s will would be done on earth as it was in heaven. They believed that this process was unfolding, and would be completed during or shortly after the lives of people at the time. The early Christian text, The Prayer of the Apostle Paul, yearns for this transformation: “My redeemer, redeem me, for I am yours, one who has come forth from you. You are my mind; bring me forth. You are my treasure; open to me. You are my fulfillment; join me to you!”
Mystical Christianity is the direct experience of the divine, bypassing the ordered spheres of the heavens and hierarchical political and religious systems. It is sharing Jesus’ experience, becoming his “twin” in spiritual practice. It is the direct encounter with the “I am” in the burning bush ablaze in our hearts. In a 6th-century mosaic in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, Moses is depicted as being confronted by not just one, but many burning bushes all around him. The whole world is suffused with divine light in this early Christian interpretation of the myth. It is a flame that burns on, illuminating our inner experience, without consuming us. If we lose the light, if we get sucked unconsciously into our thoughts and feelings without being able to stand back and observe them, then these thoughts will consume us until we are able to return to the point of view of the Loving Observer. Mindfulness practice warms and illuminates us while leaving us whole.
JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
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Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California
A Matter Of BeliefRandall Wehler
Perhaps the decision to simply follow the ways of Jesus trumps matters of belief ...A Matter Of Belief by Randall Wehler
In most conservative Christian circles, the importance of belief is talked about
“You’ve got to see God like we see Him — for salvation, you can’t do without!”
They say it’s all there in the Bible, needing to take it as the actual words of God
Any doubt is faith weakness from the Great Deceiver, Satan, as they give their nod
If you don’t profess Jesus as God’s only true and begotten, virgin-born son
There will be no heaven for you on judgment day that you could have won
If you don’t believe that Jesus paid the price for our retched (Adam’s) sinful ways
A fiery pit will be your eternal destiny, true believers rising past you will amaze!
A strictly literal reading — that has all the makings of a right believing, you say?
But maybe the road to God need not be paved in such a narrow and lock-step way
Perhaps the decision to simply follow the ways of Jesus trumps matters of belief
Realizing his loving, accepting, and sacrificial life may come with an aware relief
The Bible viewed more as a richly written story-experience and wisdom creation
No devil leading us astray — it’s rather a human choice — no Satan’s temptation
Jesus, born of a woman, not negating biological reality with a miraculous birth
A fellow child of God bringing the divine to humankind, wonderful was his worth
Jesus’ death never paid any debt for sin to get us — as substitution — “off the hook”
Humans responsible for their own behavior, no one else — let’s take another look
Our eternity shaped by spiritual growth and how we live our lives on Earth
What we believe is secondary to living Christ-filled lives — that has worth!
Verse by Randall Wehler, 2014
I, RacistJohn Metta
... a terrorist massacred nine innocent people in a church that I went to, in a city that I still think of as home... despite any misgivings, I needed to talk about race.I, Racist by John Metta
What follows is the text of a “sermon” that I gave as a “congregational reflection” to an all White audience at the Bethel Congregational United Church of Christ on Sunday, June 28th. The sermon was begun with a reading of The Good Samaritan story, and thiswonderful quote from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah.
Credit for this speech goes to Chaédria LaBouvier, whose “Why We Left” inspired me to speak out about racism; to Robin DiAngelo, whose “White Fragility” gave me an understanding of the topic; and to Reni Eddo-Lodge who said “Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race” long before I had the courage to start doing it again.
A couple weeks ago, I was debating what I was going to talk about in this sermon. I told Pastor Kelly Ryan I had great reservations talking about the one topic that I think about every single day.
Then, a terrorist massacred nine innocent people in a church that I went to, in a city that I still think of as home. At that point, I knew that despite any misgivings, I needed to talk about race.
You see, I don’t talk about race with White people.
To illustrate why, I’ll tell a story:
It was probably about 15 years ago when a conversation took place between my aunt, who is White and lives in New York State, and my sister, who is Black and lives in North Carolina. This conversation can be distilled to a single sentence, said by my Black sister:
“The only difference between people in the North and people in the South
is that down here, at least people are honest about being racist.”
There was a lot more to that conversation, obviously, but I suggest that it can be distilled into that one sentence because it has been, by my White aunt. Over a decade later, this sentence is still what she talks about. It has become the single most important aspect of my aunt’s relationship with my Black family. She is still hurt by the suggestion that people in New York, that she, a northerner, a liberal, a good person who has Black family members, is a racist.
This perfectly illustrates why I don’t talk about race with White people. Even — or rather, especially — my own family.
I love my aunt. She’s actually my favorite aunt, and believe me, I have a lot of awesome aunts to choose from. But the facts are actually quite in my sister’s favor on this one.
New York State is one of the most segregated states in the country. Buffalo, New York, where my aunt lives, is one of the 10 most segregated school systems in the country. The racial inequality of the area she inhabits is so bad that it has been the subject of reports by the Civil Rights Action Network and the NAACP.
Those, however, are facts that my aunt does not need to know. She does not need to live with the racial segregation and oppression of her home. As a white person with upward mobility, she has continued to improve her situation. She moved out of the area I grew up in– she moved to an area with better schools. She doesn’t have to experience racism, and so it is not real to her.
Nor does it dawn on her that the very fact that she moved away from an increasingly Black neighborhood to live in a White suburb might itself be a aspect of racism. She doesn’t need to realize that “better schools” exclusively means “whiter schools.”
I don’t talk about race with White people because I have so often seen it go nowhere. When I was younger, I thought it was because all white people are racist. Recently, I’ve begun to understand that it’s more nuanced than that.
To understand, you have to know that Black people think in terms of Black people.
We don’t see a shooting of an innocent Black child in another state as something separate from us because we know viscerally that it could be our child, our parent, or us, that is shot.
The shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston resonated with me because Walter Scott was portrayed in the media as a deadbeat and a criminal — but when you look at the facts about the actual man, he was nearly indistinguishable from my own father.
Racism affects us directly because the fact that it happened at a geographically remote location or to another Black person is only a coincidence, an accident. It could just as easily happen to us — right here, right now.
Black people think in terms of we because we live in a society where the social and political structures interact with us as Black people.
White people do not think in terms of we. White people have the privilege to interact with the social and political structures of our society as individuals. You are “you,” I am “one of them.” Whites are often not directly affected by racial oppression even in their own community, so what does not affect them locally has little chance of affecting them regionally or nationally. They have no need, nor often any real desire, to think in terms of a group. They are supported by the system, and so are mostly unaffected by it.
What they are affected by are attacks on their own character. To my aunt, the suggestion that “people in The North are racist” is an attack on her as a racist. She is unable to differentiate her participation within a racist system (upwardly mobile, not racially profiled, able to move to White suburbs, etc.) from an accusation that she, individually, is a racist. Without being able to make that differentiation, White people in general decide to vigorously defend their own personal non-racism, or point out that it doesn’t exist because they don’t see it.
The result of this is an incessantly repeating argument where a Black person says “Racism still exists. It is real,” and a white person argues “You’re wrong, I’m not racist at all. I don’t even see any racism.” My aunt’s immediate response is not “that is wrong, we should do better.” No, her response is self-protection: “That’s not my fault, I didn’t do anything. You are wrong.”
Racism is not slavery. As President Obama said, it’s not avoiding the use of the word Nigger. Racism is not white water fountains and the back of the bus. Martin Luther King did not end racism. Racism is a cop severing the spine of an innocent man. It is a 12 year old child being shot for playing with a toy gun in a state where it is legal to openly carry firearms.
But racism is even more subtle than that. It’s more nuanced. Racism is the fact that “White” means “normal” and that anything else is different. Racism is our acceptance of an all white Lord of the Rings cast because of “historical accuracy,” ignoring the fact that this is a world with an entirely fictionalized history.
Even when we make shit up, we want it to be white.
And racism is the fact that we all accept that it is white. Benedict Cumberbatch playing Khan in Star Trek. Khan, who is from India. Is there anyone Whiter than Benedict fucking Cumberbatch? What? They needed a “less racial” cast because they already had the Black Uhura character?
That is racism. Once you let yourself see it, it’s there all the time.
Black children learn this when their parents give them “The Talk.” When they are sat down at the age of 5 or so and told that their best friend’s father is not sick, and not in a bad mood — he just doesn’t want his son playing with you. Black children grow up early to life in The Matrix. We’re not given a choice of the red or blue pill. Most white people, like my aunt, never have to choose. The system was made for White people, so White people don’t have to think about living in it.
But we can’t point this out.
Living every single day with institutionalized racism and then having to argue its very existence, is tiring, and saddening, and angering. Yet if we express any emotion while talking about it, we’re tone policed, told we’re being angry. In fact, a key element in any racial argument in America is the Angry Black person, and racial discussions shut down when that person speaks. The Angry Black person invalidates any arguments about racism because they are “just being overly sensitive,” or “too emotional,” or– playing the race card. Or even worse, we’re told that we are being racist (Does any intelligent person actually believe a systematically oppressed demographic has the ability to oppress those in power?)
But here is the irony, here’s the thing that all the angry Black people know, and no calmly debating White people want to admit: The entire discussion of race in America centers around the protection of White feelings.
Ask any Black person and they’ll tell you the same thing. The reality of thousands of innocent people raped, shot, imprisoned, and systematically disenfranchised are less important than the suggestion that a single White person might be complicit in a racist system.
This is the country we live in. Millions of Black lives are valued less than a single White person’s hurt feelings.
White people and Black people are not having a discussion about race. Black people, thinking as a group, are talking about living in a racist system. White people, thinking as individuals, refuse to talk about “I, racist” and instead protect their own individual and personal goodness. In doing so, they reject the existence of racism.
But arguing about personal non-racism is missing the point.
Despite what the Charleston Massacre makes things look like, people are dying not because individuals are racist, but because individuals are helping support a racist system by wanting to protect their own non-racist self beliefs.
People are dying because we are supporting a racist system that justifies White people killing Black people.
We see this in how one Muslim killer is Islamic terror; how one Mexican thief points to the need for border security; in one innocent, unarmed Black man shot in the back by a cop, then sullied in the media as a thug and criminal.
And in the way a white racist in a state that still flies the confederate flag is seen as “troubling” and “unnerving.” In the way people “can’t understand why he would do such a thing.”
A white person smoking pot is a “hippie” and a Black person doing it is a “criminal.” It’s evident in the school to prison pipeline and the fact that there are close to 20 people of color in prison for every white person.
There’s a headline from The Independent that sums this up quite nicely: “Charleston shooting: Black and Muslim killers are ‘terrorists’ and ‘thugs’. Why are white shooters called ‘mentally ill’?”
I’m gonna read that again: “Black and Muslim killers are ‘terrorists’ and ‘thugs’. Why are white shooters called ‘mentally ill’?”
Did you catch that? It’s beautifully subtle. This is an article talking specifically about the different way we treat people of color in this nation and even in this article’s headline, the white people are “shooters” and the Black and Muslim people are “killers.”
Even when we’re talking about racism, we’re using racist language to make people of color look dangerous and make White people come out as not so bad.
Just let that sink in for a minute, then ask yourself why Black people are angry when they talk about race.
The reality of America is that White people are fundamentally good, and so when a white person commits a crime, it is a sign that they, as an individual, are bad. Their actions as a person are not indicative of any broader social construct. Even the fact that America has a growing number of violent hate groups, populated mostly by white men, and that nearly *all* serial killers are white men can not shadow the fundamental truth of white male goodness. In fact, we like White serial killers so much, we make mini-series about them.
White people are good as a whole, and only act badly as individuals.
People of color, especially Black people (but boy we can talk about “The Mexicans” in this community) are seen as fundamentally bad. There might be a good one — and we are always quick to point them out to our friends, show them off as our Academy Award for “Best Non-Racist in a White Role” — but when we see a bad one, it’s just proof that the rest are, as a rule, bad.
This, all of this, expectation, treatment, thought, the underlying social system that puts White in the position of Normal and good, and Black in the position of “other” and “bad,” all of this, is racism.
And White people, every single one of you, are complicit in this racism because you benefit directly from it.
This is why I don’t like the story of the good samaritan. Everyone likes to think of themselves as the person who sees someone beaten and bloodied and helps him out.
That’s too easy.
If I could re-write that story, I’d rewrite it from the perspective of Black America. What if the person wasn’t beaten and bloody? What if it wasn’t so obvious? What if they were just systematically challenged in a thousand small ways that actually made it easier for you to succeed in life?
Would you be so quick to help then? Or would you, like most White people, stay silent and let it happen?
Here’s what I want to say to you: Racism is so deeply embedded in this country not because of the racist right-wing radicals who practice it openly, it exists because of the silence and hurt feelings of liberal America.
That’s what I want to say, but really, I can’t. I can’t say that because I’ve spent my life not talking about race to White people. In a big way, it’s my fault. Racism exists because I, as a Black person, don’t challenge you to look at it.
Racism exists because I, not you, am silent.
But I’m caught in the perfect Catch 22, because when I start pointing out racism, I become the Angry Black Person, and the discussion shuts down again. So I’m stuck.
All the Black voices in the world speaking about racism all the time do not move White people to think about it– but one White John Stewart talking about Charleston has a whole lot of White people talking about it. That’s the world we live in. Black people can’t change it while White people are silent and deaf to our words.
White people are in a position of power in this country because of racism. The question is: Are they brave enough to use that power to speak against the system that gave it to them?
So I’m asking you to help me. Notice this. Speak up. Don’t let it slide. Don’t stand watching in silence. Help build a world where it never gets to the point where the Samaritan has to see someone bloodied and broken.
As for me, I will no longer be silent.
I’m going to try to speak kindly, and softly, but that’s gonna be hard. Because it’s getting harder and harder for me to think about the protection of White people’s feelings when White people don’t seem to care at all about the loss of so many Black lives.
READ ON ...
Weekly LiturgyWeek of: August 9, 2015
Laughter
If it is true that, as Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” and since the outward manifestation of joy can be deep laughter just as easily as deep tears, then laughter must be a most beloved emotionLaughter
Week of August 9, 2015
If it is true that, as Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” and since the outward manifestation of joy can be deep laughter just as easily as deep tears, then laughter must be a most beloved emotion. To see the humor in a situation and share a good laugh over it is to bond without words. Humor, laughter, joy … part of our authentic human selves, part of our authentic progressive spiritual experience.
Worship Materials: Reverence and Humor
From the Celebrating Mystery collection by William Wallace
THEME: The unmasking of the unreal
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
Practice noticing what is humorous and on reflection you will be able to fill your life with laughter.
The person who can laugh at disaster has conquered it.
Laughter breaks the cycle of worry.
From laughter, to silence, to prayer.
If you can laugh in the presence of God you will know that your spirituality is totally healing and divine.
Laughter and awe are two faces of the one experience of divinity.
Make sure that when you laugh at God it is only your image of God and not the mystery itself.
Do not take words too seriously.
Play with them and in that play hear God speaking.
It is better for mental health to take yourself hilariously rather than too seriously!
To laugh at others is a sign of weakness,
to laugh at oneself is a sign of strength,
to laugh with others is a sign of at oneness.
There is such a thing as reverent humor and also such a thing as irreverent seriousness.
One of the secrets of life is to transform what has to be done into a pageant of playfulness.
Wisdom does not consist of becoming more and more serious but in knowing when to laugh, when to wonder and when to do both together.
The beginning of wisdom is to laugh at oneself.
The goal of wisdom is to laugh with God.
This world will not be a safe place for all human beings until power is in the hands of people who are secure enough to be able to laugh at themselves and the institutions they control.
Foolishness lies in viewing other people as fools.
Peace without humor is little more than a narrow-minded tyranny.
The clown is a healer who can help save us from suffocating on our own solemnity.
Those who can see how funny other people are without noticing how funny they are themselves have missed the point of the joke!
It is easier to laugh at one’s humanity than to laugh at one’s divinity but it is only the latter people who can safely be entrusted with power.
If you want to change the world make sure that you do not exterminate all the clowns in the process and thereby create a grimfaced tyranny.
I bowed to God and God winked at me and I knew that we were friends.
When work and play are as one all life shall be creative holy fun.
The saint is a mystical clown!
PRAYERS
Liberate us, O God, from that intensity of belief which prevents us
from laughing at our most sacred causes and grant that by using
your gift of humor wisely, we may increasingly be able to distinguish
between what is pretence and what is reality.
O God, who comes to us as both the holy fool and the solemn sage,
help us to hold in balance our humor and our intensity,
that we may neither relapse into destructive humor
nor irrelevant abstraction.
This we pray through the Spirit of liveliness
who invites us all to join life’s sacred dance.
O God, lighten our solemnity with laughter, our boredom with dancing and turn our work into joyful play; for you are the God of humor and the source of all playful creativity.
O God of work and play, give us both your humor and your sense of purpose that all our actions may reflect your justice and your joy.
HYMNS
I’m on the road to nowhere. (BL)
There’s a beautiful place in our minds. (BL)
When we find beauty. (BL)
The darkness and the light. (BL)
Not every day. (BL)
If you want to be happy. (Beatitudes) (BL)
How liberated are those. (Beatitudes chant) (BL & SE/MU)
There shall be life and love.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
God gives the song.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
The spring will come again.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
How happy are those. (Beatitudes) (SE/MU)
CHORUSES (children’s)
Give me laughter.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
Life is for living now. (SYSJ)
Blow your whistle, beat your drum. (SYSJ)
POEMS / REFLECTIONS
THE PURSUIT OF THE PROFOUND
We experience the profound not so much because we have struggled to find it, but because we have trained our mind to be empty, allowing space for silence and stillness.
THE CHURCH COURT (caught?)
Laughter and tears
neighbored in my
uncomfortably attested
and bored mind –
laughter at
the wake
of able people
solemnly, seriously,
paternalistically
playing word games;
tears for their God-given
life-force neutered
by self-imposed sterility.
O God where have all the clowns gone?
REVERENCE AND HUMOR
Reverence the ancestors but be prepared to laugh at them.
Reverence yourself but also be willing to laugh at yourself.
Reverence the images of God but also allow yourself to laugh at them.
Without reverence we descend into banality.
Without humor we revert into idolatry.
It is usually only those who confuse the image of God
With the mystery of God who react violently
When the image becomes the source of humor.
TO PLAY
To play
is
to
be
in touch
with your body
your sense of fun
and delight,
your creativity
and your freedom.
To play is to care
for the CHILD
in your own heart
GRIM CLUTCHING
Life is not something to be clutched at,
hung on to grimly
but something to be lived
with joyous abandon,
shared,
enjoyed,
played with,
celebrated,
in joyous
self-giving.
EARTH’S WOMB
I will travel
to that recess
of mind
where ferns unfold
and song birds sing,
allow myself to be nourished
in earth’s cruel and comforting womb
then, reaching skyward
like some forest giant,
tip my crown
and wink
at heaven’s
cosmic brightness.
FOCUS FOR ACTION
What are those aspects of my life and belief which I would be most upset about if someone laughed at them? What deep hurts lie behind my intensity about these matters?
Is my life full of serious people? If it is how can I make contact with my own inner clown and with other clowns?
Reverence and humor can live together within worship services when the members of the congregation or group are given the opportunity to share their stories within an accepting environment. If our worship would be shattered by such a mixture of the serious and the hilarious then perhaps we should examine how profound our seriousness really is for true profundity can hold everything together whereas superficial profundity cannot. Is there a way in which I can help my congregation or group to achieve a better balance between the humorous and the serious?
LOGO NOTE: At the heart of the mystery all the separate boxes disappear and all is one, all is love.
Text and graphic © William Livingstone Wallace but available for free use.
Psalm 23 by Jim Burklo
God is my personal consultant. I have it made. She lets me kick back and relax, knowing that with her guidance, everything will go smoothly. She gives me a much-needed boost. She tells me the right way to handle things — and let’s face it, she does it partly to preserve her own reputation so she can get more consulting jobs. God’s on my side. Her advice, her connections, they comfort me. Even though my job is on the line, my family is mad at me, I’m way deep in debt, and I’ve got a dangerously high cholesterol level, I am not sweating any of it. She’s calling a conference to work things out with everybody who is breathing down my neck, and she has a plan that will get me through it — she has it greased, and I’m gushing with gratitude. Pain and heartache are ahead of me, but because of her, surely goodness and mercy will follow me — so I’m extending her consulting contract with me indefinitely.
Anything Under the Sun: Shaping Contemporary ‘Sunday Morning’ Experiences by Rex Hunt
The first of three presentations during the launch of the Lay Forum, a progressive lay movement within the Queensland Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia
our hills are not silent but shout tall
Our rivers sing their own song to southern seas…
(Best 2005).
Introduction
How can we sing in a strange land… when the Spring festival of new life called Easter ‘down under’, comes in Autumn, the season of little deaths when leaves turn gold, fall, and the grass has turned from green to brown? Or when the warmth of Christmas is not from some domestic fire in an iron grate, but from the sun high overhead – 38 degrees celsius and rising?
Thank you for the invitation to be present here this weekend, as you celebrate the launch the Lay Forum, a progressive theological movement within the Queensland Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. It is both an honour and a privilege to be here.
You are joining an important and growing grass roots movement. The movement of progressive religious thought both here in Australia and around the world. Voices in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA and Gt. Britain “are celebrating a lively, open-minded and open hearted” (Taussig 2006:2) approach to religion in general and Christianity in particular.
A grassroots movement, whose practitioners are, to use the words of American New Testament scholar and researcher, Hal Taussig:
“refreshingly confident about a new lease on Christian expression that is strikingly different than both the fundamentalism or the flailing denominations often featured in the… press”(Taussig 2006:2).
I also wish to pay my respects to the Jagera and Turrbal People, and to those who have cared for this part of the land from time immemorial.
In the three presentations I have been invited to give this weekend I want to sew some seeds, about (i) progressive liturgy, (ii) progressive theology, and (iii) progressive biblical studies expressed in the parables.
oo0oo
Shaping a distinctive Australian theology is a recurring problem for us in Australia generally, and for those of us who have the communication task of shaping the ‘Sunday morning’ worship experience, specifically. Especially when we are invited, if not expected, to follow a Lectionary and liturgical year shaped in the main by natural European/northern hemisphere seasons, as well as it “reflecting an ancient cosmology that is no longer credible” (Shuck 2005).
How to face this contextual problem constructively has exercised my imagination and liturgies, for many years now. And some of the ways I have attempted to respond to this situation is through the study of narrative communication, progressive theology and biblical criticism, and the use of contemporary language which is both story and image based rather than propositional.
However a radical ‘call to arms’ was issued in early 2005 when the founder of the Westar Institute, the now late Robert Funk, in his editorial in the January/February issue of The Fourth R, issued this call to a group of scholars and associate church leaders:
“throw the old forms out and start over (again)… design a new Sunday Morning experience from the ground up… new music, new liturgy, new scriptures, new ceremonies, new rites of passage” (Funk 2005:2).
and what goals might this ‘experience’ contain? Funk made a few suggestions:
(i) it should square with and thus confirm the modern world as the horizon of our bona fide religious experience;
(ii) the experience should include confession: confession of the church’s moral failures;
(iii) it should have scriptures, selectively chosen, from the Bible and other sacred texts, ancient and modern;
(iv) the experience should grant permission to undertake journeys of faith into unchartered territories;
(v) be radically inclusive;
(vi) should praise new icons who have pioneered the way in new paths of trust and openness;
(vii) it should be a celebration of life, and
(viii) support the creation or identification of new music and symbols.
So with these suggestions as our matrix, let us both experience and explore some liturgical possibilities and actualities just a little.
The experience of living in the 21st century and/or in the Southern hemisphere shapes the words of this contemporary hymn, “As the sun beats down”. It is published in a collection of contemporary hymns called ‘Faith forever singing’. The hymn’s author is Bill Bennett from New Zealand. It is new words to new music.
“As the sun beats down” (Tune: 10 7 10 7) 2 FFS
As the sun beats down and the heat invades,
and creation burns and dries;
let us sing to God of a promised hope
in the midst of anxious cries.
As the parching winds relentless blow,
and creation browns away;
let us sing to God, who restores and calms
all foreboding and dismay.
As the feed dies back and the stock decline,
and creation’s bones show through;
let us sing to God of the bread of life,
to refresh, restore, renew.
As the silent birds sing a silent song
in creation’s still blue sky;
let us sing to God of the songs of hope,
through a gentle rain’s reply.
As the season comes and the season goes,
and we search the skies each day;
let us sing to God of a rainbow faith,
and a promised green display. Bill Bennett
And this contemporary hymn, “Whispers rippled through the cosmos”, written by British hymn writer, Andrew Pratt – new words using traditional music – from his personal collection distributed as and when world-wide situations arise.
“Whispers rippled through the cosmos” (Tune: ‘Nettleton’, 87 87. 392 TiS)
Whispers rippled through the cosmos,
pan-galactic breath of God;
marking paths of whirling planets,
stellar strings where stars first trod.
Major chords of constellations
ringing on the staves of time,
soften to a sombre minor,
echoes of an ancient rhyme.
God is in this wild confusion
bringing order, giving grace;
author, ground of all creation,
fount of being, Lord of space.
All transcendent power and glory
now distilled, condensed, confined;
shaped while shaping rich resources
cradling waiting humankind. © Andrew Pratt
Finally, Gretta Vosper’s “Sing praise to all” uses progressive theology to a very traditional hymn tune… if you are over the age of 50 years:
“Sing praise to all” (Tune: ‘Lobe den Herren’, 14 14 4 7 8. 111 TiS)
Sing praise to all that has offered us life and sustains us-
All that has opened our hearts to the love borne within us:
Family and friends,
Beauty we see without end-
Gifts that our lives lay before us.
Sing praise to all that has opened our minds to new vistas-
All that has called us to seek out new truths through the ages:
Vision and word,
Music that sought to be heard
These are the gifts that will mould us.
Sing praise to minds that will fashion our bold new tomorrows-
Yesterday’s wisdom released from its dogma and credos.
Evermore free
To live out what we believe
Walking the path that Life hallows. (Gretta Vosper/wwg)
Thank you. At this early point I need to make a few disclaimers.
Even ‘down under’ it is not as simple as it sounds. For nearly 10 years I lived in Canberra ACT, a cool to cold climate, where our national fore fathers and mothers were keen to replicate the English/European country side. So the thousands of imported trees do indeed change their colours in some glorious autumn seasons, and after a cold snap or two, lose their leaves by the millions. But not every tree. Not the native eucalyptus!
And while there is frost and sometimes light snow in the outer suburbs, there is no general closing down of the land. I am assured by others, among them Cheryl Maddocks the Gardening writer with Good Weekend, that species of flora continue to flower during winter and, in fact, such a season is an opportune time to plant many native plants. So the Canberra spring, for instance, is not the land celebrating life from a winter induced death, but rather the beginning of an intensification of colour.
Similarly, it is said Canberra boasts four distinctive seasons. But that may not be the case in other parts of this same country called Australia. Australian poet Les Murray highlights this when he suggests:
“In (some) parts of the continent it can often seem that the seasons comprise essentially summer and non-summer. A reign of heat, flies, snakes, beach culture and burgeoning growth is followed by a cooler time in which the discomforts disappear and both beach-going and burgeoning tail off. And there is that bit of sniffling cold in the middle” (Quoted in Ranson 1992).
And then there are the wild cards of drought, bush fire and flood – upheavals that can happen at any time “affecting and altering any of the seasons” (Ranson 1992).
So whatever I say, must be reinterpreted and reconstructed. And as you reconstruct my hope is you will seek to acquire a real understanding and experience of this country’s life – in all its endless variation.
With that off my chest I guess it might now be appropriate to offer the fragments of my thesis for this presentation:
• only when our liturgies have about them the flavour of story can we expect them to have the resonance we would like them to have;
• the challenge of our liturgies is to retell our personal experiences in the light of our Australian experience of the natural seasons, and
• our preaching should be intellectually and theologically honest – keeping what we know and what we believe, together – delivered in conversational or ordinary language.
Liturgy
Liturgy is an oral/aural celebration of life (Vogt 1927), the whole of life, where we gather the folks, break the bread and tell the stories (Shea 1978:8) . Indeed it is one of the ways we make sense of the world around us.
It is not about the past, but real life in the present, immersed in and surrounded by, an ever present sense of the sacred, many call God. It is also about co-operative participation(Wieman 1929) rather than crowd participation or pseudo-togetherness. Where people are given the respect to be actors rather than just reactors.
Liturgy shaped by story attempts to take seriously the fact we live in a culture which is dominated by television… and television lives on story and image.
So in all this it is important that those who share in the liturgical experience are able to see and hear their experiences, even though they may not be able to put those experiences into their own words. Our worship liturgies need to be both sensitive and intelligent, resonating with something within (experience of the world, memories, etc.), bringing that experience to ‘the surface’, and reshaping or transforming our sensitivities and feelings about that experience and/or those memories (Vogt 1927).
If I may suggest a word picture: worship which is arranged by a traditional ‘Order of Service’ would be drawn as a brick wall, with the parts of the service being the bricks, one on top of the other. You must have the first brick before you put the second brick in place, and so on. On the other hand, worship which is shaped by narrative would be like a road map, weaving its way across the countryside, taking in tourist sites and towns here, passing through various other roads there.
Language
If liturgy is not about the past, but real life in the present, as I have suggested, then the language of the liturgy (including preaching) should be accessible by people living in that real and present life.
Gone, thank goodness, are the days when people were prepared to put up with “theobabble” (Windross 2001) – that “peculiar language much loved by some preachers, consisting of theological words strung together in the hope they might add up to something meaningful” (Windross 2001, www.tcpc.com).
Within the Australian context, such language will more than likely be ordinary everyday, “earthy and horizontal” (Tacey 2000) rather than exalted and technical or specialised. And such language will nurture folk to sense the presentness and embodiment of the sacred or
G-o-d in the rich diversity and variety of life in this dynamic and unfolding world – and not is some ‘world to come’.
It will also be inclusive, progressive, and respectful of the intelligence of its hearers.
Story and image should intentionally shape the language in all our liturgies, but especially in our liturgies celebrating community, the sacrament of Holy Communion. So, I am of the opinion (along with Australian author and liturgist Bruce Prewer) that if the season of the year is the Australian summer, then our liturgical language should play with such images as: “God of the lingering sunset and early dawn… of the hot north wind and the cool water bag”. Likewise if the season is winter this too could reflected in appropriate Australian images: “God of mystery, wind and storm… of brisk winter mornings, frosted back lawns, of warm socks, coats and gloves”.
Thus, I am suggesting that: all our speaking and thinking of G-o-d or the sacred presupposes a “constructive imaginative activity” (Kaufman 2004:121).
Prayer
Prayer for progressive christians is not talking to a supernatural being, Harry Potter style, hoping if one uses the right gestures or says the right words, he (traditional images of G-o-d are nearly always in masculine terms) will manipulate the situation for us. Neither is it Santa style – be good and get what you ask for.
For progressives prayer could be described as poetry or the ‘language of the heart’. Not just in some interior realm. And certainly not is some oral heavenly escape. But as an invitation to sense the connectedness of the whole of life – and the “in-between-ness of God” (Taussig 1999:131) – the “always present God” rather than “an elsewhere God” (Morwood 2003:8). Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once commented ‘prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays’. Others have refined that a bit, to: ‘Prayer doesn’t change things. Prayer changes people and people change things’.
Inclusive language is used in reference to God and humankind in both prayer and meditation. And rather than an emphasis on petition prayer, many progressives experience prayer as:
• listening in silence
• giving insights into ourselves and possibly others
• connecting us to each other.
Coupled with this experience there should also be free time for sharing joys and concerns, including a symbolic action such as lighting a Care candle.
Music and hymns
We believe what we sing. Hymns are religious artefacts created to allow us to speak of our experience of the sacred. They are also historical artefacts.
A hymn is not written to be sung once but rather a hundred times (Bell 2000). To become part of the familiar, often-used tradition of a living religion. But that is also reason why it is very important to sing new songs/hymns and appropriate ones at that, because those same hymns weren’t written to be sung for a hundred years! Our perceptions and experience of the sacred, change. And so too should what we say and sing.
John Bell from the Iona Community, rightly points out, I reckon, that we are in danger of developing a ‘sloppy relationship with Jesus’ unless we can be honest in our theological imagining.
For our age and time, many of the contemporary hymns by Shirley Murray and Bill Wallace (NZ) and Andrew Pratt (GtB) for example, enable a fuller theological expression and experience. Four resources which appeal are: Alleluia Aotearoa and Faith forever singing – both coming from a New Zealand landscape, Andrew Pratt’s fine collection called Whatever name or creed, and the efforts of Australian George Stuart called Singing a new song. While general landscape and/or ecological examples from another resource yet to be explored more fully here in Australia, can be found in Singing the living tradition which comes out of the Unitarian/Universalist tradition in the USA.
oo0oo
After more than 40 years as a progressive, shaping and reshaping liturgies, I have come to the position that worship is not about the praise of G-o-d. It is about the celebration of life, the whole of life.
A couple of years back I wrote about my understanding of the Sunday morning experience called worship:
• It is a human activity, celebrated in the presentness of G-o-d/the sacred rather than praise required of us by G-o-d/the sacred.
• Must be broad enough to create a co-operative experience (rather than
collective) – cognitively and emotionally.
• Be a celebration of whole of life (in ordinary times).
• Have form/shape.
• Use of artistic media/symbols highlights the ‘art/creativity’ of worship.
• What is brought to the service can be as, or more important as content.
• Be ‘landscape’ and ‘intellectually’ honest (RAEHunt web site).
And the goal of worship? To help us know and feel how we relate as individuals to ourselves, others, the world, the universe. To celebrate that relationship. To touch sources of creative transformation. To reinterpret our experiences. To reaffirm living in this world.
The form or shape of my liturgies offer six encounter points:
• Gathering • Centering • Exploring • Affirming • Celebrating • Scattering
While other aspects of my liturgies include:
• both biblical and non-biblical/contemporary readings consistent with the spirit of Jesus
• use of contemporary affirmations or celebrations of faith rather than traditional creeds
• new hymns and hymn tunes which use progressive language and new metaphors for G-o-d
• Holy Communion as ‘celebrating community’
• Baptism as ‘celebrating belonging’
• the rediscovery of lament
• centering silence
• a spiritual vitality earthed in the Australian here and now
• non-anthropomorphic prayers and God-talk
• an insistence on church with intellectual/biblical integrity
Scholarship
However… all this is really just a preamble to saying: the church at large has seldom handled change, especially critical scholarship (biblical, theologically, liturgical) well in the congregations. Reflecting on my own theological formation in the late 1960s the positive thing I can say about it is: we were taught to think theologically. We were introduced to creative critical scholarship. But… we weren’t given an adequate model of how to present it in our preaching and teaching and liturgies. I, along with a few others, have had to work that out for ourselves.
Observing colleagues, drinking coffee with them and sharing stories about ‘grassroots’ congregation/ministry life, as well as listening to the multiple stories from those who belong to the ‘church alumni’, the gap between pulpit and pew frustratingly remains. When it comes to initiating change, such as sharing the results of critical biblical scholarship with one’s congregation, the options which many clergypersons often adopt seem to be:
(i) ignore it,
(ii) resort to confessional apologetics (especially attractive to fundamentalists),
(iii) escape into postmodern doublespeak (tell the story and don’t worry folk with facts).
But as colleagues from the progressive movement (especially those from the Westar Institute/Jesus Seminar) remind me, there is a fourth option:
(iv) embrace critical scholarship. Be honest. Speak openly and publicly about it in teaching and preaching.
The problem seems to be such scholarship is viewed as a threat to faith. Well, that’s right. It does make people question and doubt their confessional heritage and re-evaluate what they believe and what they think is important. Learning does have a way of “opening up new vistas and eroding uninformed opinion” (Funk 1988:xiii). That is excellent! “Critical scholarship,” my colleagues go on to suggest,
“is a gift to the church. It is our friend. Whether or not the church embraces this friendship [still] remains to be seen” (JShuck. Shuck & Jive blog.2009).
Change
So what is a change process or model for introducing all this to a congregation. Let me offer some suggestions which might be helpful.
(i) Be courageous.
Have a go! Part of ministry leadership is to be a change agent. The great majority of ministers/parish leaders have already had access to and assimilated contemporary scholarship…
“They’ve traversed that scary land of the big questions and [believe it or not] come out the other side” (Vosper 2008:269).
On behalf of the ‘church alumni’ in congregations and those who have left congregations, be honest, be open, be courageous.
(ii) Be satisfied with tentative answers or working ideas.
The possibility of reshaping the ‘Sunday morning experience’ includes the certainty that all our efforts are finite, and that they can and will be faulted by colleagues and congregants. It is an ongoing experiment, so stay the course of time rather than quitting after one week.
(iii) Stay close to ‘ground-level’ experience.
The hard work of others in exploring both the embodiment of the sacred and human existence in non-supernatural ways
“…should always be appreciated. One can not dig deeply into the stuff of human life without the sweat and toil of others” (Barrett 1993:12).
Gather together your resources. But in the end of the day, the liturgy needs to be prepared and celebrated.
When selecting a reading (biblical or non-biblical) or other resource, some simple selection criteria, suggested by Gretta Vosper, might be helpful:
(a) does it make a claim that cannot be substantiated?
(b) does it lift up so-called universal values or universalise local or tribal values?
(c) does it lift up the life-enhancing values the community has identified as sacred?
(d) is it engaging? (Vosper 2008:336-37).
(iv) Watch your language.
If we see ourselves as an inclusive community then our language must also be inclusive, and not just gender-inclusive stuff. For instance, if we can
“crawl underneath the titles and names used for god, find the essence of what we believe is worthy of being named in sacred space, and bring it forward” (Vosper 2008:320) then we will have moved some way, gently, along the way of developing inclusive language. And kept one’s integrity.
(v) Keep it WWKAWWB honest.
In all our much needed liturgical reform we must go beyond the “intellectual two-step” called “latitudinarianism” (Davidson Loehr) – that is, preserving one’s intellectual integrity by proclaiming belief beyond literalism, but continuing to use the anthropomorphic language or images of the traditional hymns, liturgy and creeds “in order to remain within the tradition”(Loehr 2000:8).
“But playing this game compromises our integrity and our religion… [because] it is another example of keeping what we know and what we believe separated” (Loehr 2000:9).
oo0oo
Robert Funk’s radical call to design a new Sunday morning experience from the ground up, will be too radical for many, although after more than 40 years of trying to shape contemporary liturgical worship, I resonate with his call. However, it also needs to be said great change has already taken place in some quarters.
I have shared with you some of characteristics of my personal reshaping of the Sunday morning experience. Another from the Southern hemisphere to offer suggestions is Lloyd Geering from New Zealand, who has said:
“Reflecting on our cultural origins will still have its place; that is what Bible readings provide. Time will still be set aside for meditation; that is what the prayers provide. Mental stimulation, which is what the sermon provided, will remain an essential ingredient. It is the content rather than the form that needs to change” (Geering 2005:52).
In the main, many folk within the church today are tired of the translating and editing that has to go inside their head as they try to create an awkward fit with what they believe… What they hear and what they sing. And we ignore them at our peril!
So in the spirit of these comments and this occasion, let us again sing the progressive theology we have been speaking about – this time from the creativity of Shelly Denham, called “We laugh, we cry…” published in the collection Singing the living tradition:
“We laugh, we cry” (Tune: ‘Credo’, Irreg.) 354 SLT
We laugh, we cry, we live, we die;
we dance, we sing our song.
We need to feel there’s something here
to which we can belong.
We need to feel the freedom
just to have some time alone.
But most of all we need close friends
we can call our very own.
And we believe in life,
and in the strength of love;
and we have found a need to be together.
We have our hearts to give,
we have our thoughts to receive;
and we believe that sharing is an answer.
A child is born among us and
we feel a special glow.
We see time’s endless journey
as we watch the baby grow.
We thrill to hear
imagination freely running wild.
We dedicate our minds and hearts
To the spirit of this child.
And we believe in life,
and in the strength of love;
and we have found a time to be together.
And with the grace of age,
we share the wonder of youth;
and we believe that growing is an answer.
Our lives are full of wonder and
our time is very brief.
The death of one among us
fills us all with pain and grief.
But as we live, so
shall we die and when our lives are done
the memories we shared with friends,
they will linger on and on.
And we believe in life,
and in the strength of love;
and we have found a place to be together.
We have the right to grow,
we have the gift to believe;
that peace within our living is an answer.
We seek elusive answers to
the questions of this life.
We seek to put an end to
all the waste of human strife.
We search for truth,
equality, and blessed peace of mind.
And then, we come together here,
to make sense of what we find.
And we believe in life,
and in the strength of love;
and we have found a joy being together.
And in our search for peace,
maybe we’ll finally see;
even to question, truly, is an answer. (Shelley J Denham)
Notes:
- Barrett, J. E. 1993. “Pragmatism, process, and courage” in (ed) W. C. Peden; L. E. Axel.New essays in religious naturalism. GA: Macon. Mercer University Press.
- Bell, J. L. 2000. The singing thing. A case for congregational song. GtB: Glasgow. Wild Goose Publications.
- Best, D. C. 2005. …from under the bench. NZ: Wellington. Steele Roberts Ltd.
- Faith forever singing. New Zealand hymns and songs for a new day. 2000. NZ: Raumati. New Zealand Hymnbook Trust.
- Funk, R. 2005. “Editorial” in The Fourth R 18, 1, 2, 20.
- Funk, R. W. (ed). 1988. The parables of Jesus. Red Letter edition. CA: Sonoma. Polebridge Press.
- Geering, L. 2005. The greening of Christianity. NZ: Wellington. St Andrew’s Trust for the Study of Religion and Society.
- Kaufman, G. D. 2004. In the beginning… creativity. MN: Minneapolis. Fortress Press.
- Loehr, Davidson. 2000. “Salvation by character: How UU’s can find the religious center” inJournal of Liberal Religion 1, 2, 1-14 (PDF).
- Morwood, M. 2003. Praying a new story. VIC: Richmond. Spectrum Publications.
- Pratt, A. Unpublished. “Whispers rippled through the cosmos”. From the author.
- Ranson, D. 1992. “Fire in water. The liturgical cycle in the experience of South East Australian seasonal patterns” in Compass Theology Review 26. (Photocopy in private circulation).
- Shea, J. 1978. Stories of God. An unauthorized biography. Ill: Chicago. Thomas More Press.
- Shuck, J. 2005. “What to preach? The challenge of the Jesus Seminar to contemporary homiletics”. Westar Institute. Santa Rosa. Photocopy. In private circulation from the author.
- Tacey, D. 2000. Reenchantment. The new Australian spirituality. NSW: Sydney. HarperCollins.
- Taussig, H. 2006. A new spiritual home. Progressive christianity at the grass roots. CAL: Santa Rosa. Polebridge Press.
- Vogt, V. O. 1927. Modern worship. New Haven. Yale University Press.
- Vosper, G. 2008. With or without God. Why the way we live is more important that what we believe. Canada: Toronto. HarperCollins.
- Wieman, H. N. 1929. Methods of private religious living. NY: New York. The Macmillan Co.
- Windross, A. 2001. “Why bother to go to church?” in The Newsletter, The Centre for Progressive Christianity, Web site.
Events and Updates
Confronting the Powers: An Anti-Racism Workshop by Partner Org PCU
Are you unsure what the difference is between racism and personal prejudice? How is racism a system beyond individual choices?
Confronting the Powers: An Anti-Racism Workshop by Partner Org PCU
Are you unsure what the difference is between racism and personal prejudice? How is racism a system beyond individual choices? Why does racism still grip the United States? And how can we participate as people of faith in its dismantling internally and socially?
If these questions interest you, you should consider attending PCU’s fall 1.5 day workshop, organized in collaboration with the Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism Committee of the Disciples of Christ! You don’t have to have been trained before. All it requires is some time and an open heart and mind. Activists, laity, clergy, and allies are all welcome!
The training will be at Westminster Gardens in Duarte, CA. Costs will be minimal other than for food and hotel (if you live too far away to commute). More details and a registration page to come soon! Visit our Website Here.
Friday-Saturday 9/18-19, Anti-Racism Training
We will have the Revs. Sandhya Jha and David Bell leading a 1.5 day retreat on combatting racism in our world, our churches, and our lives. Jha and Bell are excellent facilitators; you don’t want to miss this! Cost is $10.
Friday, September 18
1 PM – 8 PM
Saturday, September 19
9 AM – 5 PM
Start:
September 18, 2015
End:
September 19, 2015
Location:
Westminster Gardens
1420 Santo Domingo Ave
Duarte CA
Organization:
Progressive Christians Uniting
Website:
http://www.progressivechristiansuniting.org/PCU/Events.html
Email:
admin@pcu-la.org
Telephone:
213-625-0149
View all upcoming events here!
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ProgressiveChristianity.org
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