"Weekly Recap" for Tuesday, April 12, 2016 of ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Is the Christian Faith part of evolution? This and more in our Free Weekly Recap of our most viewed and new resources from last week.
Last Week At ProgressiveChristianity.org ...
We delved into the topics of Success and Leaps of Faith, Wounding God, Evolutionary Christian Mysticism and Easter Poems.
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"Success and Leaps of Faith: Part 1" by Steve Robertson
Each step of our life’s journey, whether we are aware of it or not, is a series of leaps of faith.
READ ON ... Each step of our life’s journey, whether we are aware of it or not, is a series of leaps of faith. Certain moments of our life, seemingly dramatic in nature, serve to punctuate and mark major turning points that define who we believe we are, what we have accomplished, relationships of meaning and opportunities that lead to a particular experience.
We are always guided. Some pay close attention to the clues that help us to discern which paths we take, that most serve our highest learning and greatest good. Others give occasion to such awareness, and as a result, happiness and life’s successes seem hit or miss and chance-like. Still, others appear to live in a state of sleepwalking, their lives are filled with dramatic experiences, a roller coaster of great emotional pain and suffering.
Along our life journey, with each step we take, we present ourselves with clues that point the way towards our ultimate goal of learning, BEING and re-remembering the love we already are. In the book Island by Aldous Huxley, the story revolves around a group of enlightened people who live on an island. Their collective desire is to remain in an enlightened state of consciousness. The island, isolated as it is from the rest of humanity, offers its own set of distractions, which compete for the attention of its aware inhabitants. Ever conscious of their commitment toward enlightenment, the islanders decide to meet and create a strategy to keep them collectively focused on their goal. Deciding that they collectively require constant reminders to remain in their enlightened state, they note that their island is filled with thousands upon thousands of parrots. Brilliantly, they decided to teach the parrots two words which they know the birds will repeat 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The two words: PAY ATTENTION.
Our awareness, our paying attention, to the feelings and flow of information that we are constantly receiving and transmitting, nanosecond after nanosecond, provides us with detailed clues about the direction and progress we are making towards love, our ultimate life mission. These clues or spiritual road signs are designed to guide us onto the highway of our life’s mission and the following of our bliss. When we fail to pay attention and heed these signs, we eventually discover that we have driven ourselves off the main road and are dramatically now driving to avoid obstacles of fear and states of suffering.
As our thoughts consider a particular person, a past or future event, a subject matter or planned activity, etc., certain feelings arise and come into the frame of our consciousness through our body’s five senses, and more importantly, the intuition. When this information shows up, it is always accompanied by certain feelings and emotions. Feelings represent our interpretation of energy vibrations. Emotions, represent the way our mind aggregates, assembles and interprets vibrations into a scripted form from which the mind better understands the information. When feelings and emotions are properly tuned to and guided by the intuition, we have a precise way to find the true course of love.
Our intuition extends our awareness far beyond the reaches of our body’s senses. It is the soul’s tool, liken to a tribal scout who travels great distances beyond the reaches of its people in search of food, water, shelter, safety and other resources. Miles away, the scout communicates telepathically back to the tribal leader, they have no other way.
In one book called Mutant Message Down Under by Mario Morgan, a female city person (her biographical journey), observes this phenomenon as she travels with Australian Aborigines. As the tribe eventually catches up with the scout, she inquires with him to see if he was indeed communicating telepathically with the tribal leader. The scout replies yes, in a very matter of fact way. He further states, “You could do this too, but you have lies in your consciousness.” Lies meaning none truth and/or attachments to fear and drama.
Therefore, the quality of our mental stillness and aware mindfulness is what determines the level of clarity from which we receive and transmit information and navigate along our life’s journey. If our mind resides in a place of lies, then it is like our consciousness is being tuned into a TV or radio channel of static. When we are present, peaceful and mindful, we readily tune into the Divine broadcast of love. In this space of mental tuning, we do have the ability to transcend the intuition and experience KNOWING, the awareness of pure truth, non-duality and only love.
In this state, our thoughts begin to manifest into a form that represents that which we most want and lovingly desire to create. In other words, we create from what ultimately serves our highest and best good. In an unconscious and fearful state, the exact opposite occurs, we get what we do not want. All thoughts are really prayers. They call into form specific realities of either love or fear. It is always our choice. As such, the choices we make can be seen as a series of leaps of faith. Anyone who has ever achieved anything of importance and note has made the choice to make such leaps of faith.
Read Part 2 Here
READ ON ... Each step of our life’s journey, whether we are aware of it or not, is a series of leaps of faith. Certain moments of our life, seemingly dramatic in nature, serve to punctuate and mark major turning points that define who we believe we are, what we have accomplished, relationships of meaning and opportunities that lead to a particular experience.
We are always guided. Some pay close attention to the clues that help us to discern which paths we take, that most serve our highest learning and greatest good. Others give occasion to such awareness, and as a result, happiness and life’s successes seem hit or miss and chance-like. Still, others appear to live in a state of sleepwalking, their lives are filled with dramatic experiences, a roller coaster of great emotional pain and suffering.
Along our life journey, with each step we take, we present ourselves with clues that point the way towards our ultimate goal of learning, BEING and re-remembering the love we already are. In the book Island by Aldous Huxley, the story revolves around a group of enlightened people who live on an island. Their collective desire is to remain in an enlightened state of consciousness. The island, isolated as it is from the rest of humanity, offers its own set of distractions, which compete for the attention of its aware inhabitants. Ever conscious of their commitment toward enlightenment, the islanders decide to meet and create a strategy to keep them collectively focused on their goal. Deciding that they collectively require constant reminders to remain in their enlightened state, they note that their island is filled with thousands upon thousands of parrots. Brilliantly, they decided to teach the parrots two words which they know the birds will repeat 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The two words: PAY ATTENTION.
Our awareness, our paying attention, to the feelings and flow of information that we are constantly receiving and transmitting, nanosecond after nanosecond, provides us with detailed clues about the direction and progress we are making towards love, our ultimate life mission. These clues or spiritual road signs are designed to guide us onto the highway of our life’s mission and the following of our bliss. When we fail to pay attention and heed these signs, we eventually discover that we have driven ourselves off the main road and are dramatically now driving to avoid obstacles of fear and states of suffering.
As our thoughts consider a particular person, a past or future event, a subject matter or planned activity, etc., certain feelings arise and come into the frame of our consciousness through our body’s five senses, and more importantly, the intuition. When this information shows up, it is always accompanied by certain feelings and emotions. Feelings represent our interpretation of energy vibrations. Emotions, represent the way our mind aggregates, assembles and interprets vibrations into a scripted form from which the mind better understands the information. When feelings and emotions are properly tuned to and guided by the intuition, we have a precise way to find the true course of love.
Our intuition extends our awareness far beyond the reaches of our body’s senses. It is the soul’s tool, liken to a tribal scout who travels great distances beyond the reaches of its people in search of food, water, shelter, safety and other resources. Miles away, the scout communicates telepathically back to the tribal leader, they have no other way.
In one book called Mutant Message Down Under by Mario Morgan, a female city person (her biographical journey), observes this phenomenon as she travels with Australian Aborigines. As the tribe eventually catches up with the scout, she inquires with him to see if he was indeed communicating telepathically with the tribal leader. The scout replies yes, in a very matter of fact way. He further states, “You could do this too, but you have lies in your consciousness.” Lies meaning none truth and/or attachments to fear and drama.
Therefore, the quality of our mental stillness and aware mindfulness is what determines the level of clarity from which we receive and transmit information and navigate along our life’s journey. If our mind resides in a place of lies, then it is like our consciousness is being tuned into a TV or radio channel of static. When we are present, peaceful and mindful, we readily tune into the Divine broadcast of love. In this space of mental tuning, we do have the ability to transcend the intuition and experience KNOWING, the awareness of pure truth, non-duality and only love.
In this state, our thoughts begin to manifest into a form that represents that which we most want and lovingly desire to create. In other words, we create from what ultimately serves our highest and best good. In an unconscious and fearful state, the exact opposite occurs, we get what we do not want. All thoughts are really prayers. They call into form specific realities of either love or fear. It is always our choice. As such, the choices we make can be seen as a series of leaps of faith. Anyone who has ever achieved anything of importance and note has made the choice to make such leaps of faith.
Read Part 2 Here
"Success and Leaps of Faith: Part 2" by Steve Robertson
In the film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” the actor Harrison Ford, who plays the role of Indiana Jones (Indie), leads a team of fellow adventurers and archeologists to find the Holy Grail. They are in a race to find it before the Nazis do. The Germans get to the secret hiding place first and begin their search of a special passage within the cave, which leads to the Grail. Indie and his team hide carefully and watch from above. Unable to interpret the spiritual meaning and symbolism of the ancient map, which leads to the Grail, one German soldier after another literally loses their head as they enter the cave’s special tunnel. Suddenly, one of Indie’s team members accidentally dislodges a stone, which rolls down to the Germans below and reveals their hiding place above. Unarmed, Indie and company are captured and brought down to the German commander.
Once there, the German commander demands that Indie retrieve the Grail. Having just watched one German after another die after entering the special passage, Indie refuses. Immediately, the German commander turns his gun to Indie’s father, played by Sean Connery, and shoots him in the stomach. The German commander now says to Indie: “it’s your choice: Either your father drinks from the Grail and lives, or does not and dies.” Indie has no choice. He is forced to take the Hero’s journey.
The ancient map that disclosed the location of the Grail, that which originally launched Indie’s quest, and that, which was recently stolen from him by the Germans, was now returned to him. Carefully reading the map and deciphering its message, Indie is able to avoid the first booby trap of decapitating blades as he enters the tunnel. Next he must step on specific stones that spell out an ancient and old dialect name for God. A misspelling and misstep, which he almost does, is designed to cause the stone floor to fall away and plummet the spiritually unworthy to their death.
Having passed what he thought was one of the greatest challenges, Indie now comes to the end of the cave’s special tunnel. There, between where he stands and the opening to the cave of the Grail, is a huge ravine hundreds of feet across and thousands of feet down. There on the other side, Indie sees the last of the mystical Knights of King Arthur’s Round Table, who still stands as a watchful guard over the Grail’s cave entrance. Suddenly and at the same time of this observation, Indie hears the cry of his team who yell through the tunnel, that time is running out, his father is near death, he must hurry. Frantically, Indie looks for a way to cross to the other side. There is no rope to swing across and clearly no way to jump across. He consults the ancient map. It clearly depicts a person walking in midair to the other side. Indie has no other choice and steps to the edge of the ravine’s precipice. His facial expression quickly shifts from fear and panic to a fearless resolve and KNOWING that he has no other choice. He commits to taking this leap of faith. Bravely, Indie courageously steps his foot out over the ravine’s edge, to what looks like, a perilous fall. Instead, as he steps out and down, his foot is met and supported by an illusionary bridge, a bridge that could not have been seen nor experienced unless someone had first had the courage to take the leap of faith.
When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be. — Patañjali, the compiler of the Yoga Sutras (Sanskrit: 150 BCE)
Step out to the edge of your heart’s greatest calling, brave and courageous adventurer. Still your mind, listen deeply within, follow your intuition and take the leap of faith that will always bridge you from fear of the unknown, to the KNOWN and Holy Grail of your life’s loving mission and realized bliss.
Article Originally Published Here: Huffington Post
---------------------
"Wounding God" by Chris Glaser
It is a sacred challenge to administer justice without vengeance... Justice requires truth-telling, changing our ways, and making amends (penance).
READ ON ... Something burning in my heart is demanding the oxygen of expression.
Regular readers of this blog know I am not persuaded by one line of thinking about the crucifixion: I don’t believe God demanded the death of Jesus to forgive our sins. Of the Passion narrative, I’ve written that the crucifixion was our idea, while the resurrection was God’s idea, however we understand resurrection.
Yet I do believe the story of the crucifixion reminds us that we wound God.
I know that’s not an original thought—many theologians, contemplatives, writers, and preachers have written about this. But it’s being brought home to me in several ways that culminated this past Holy Week as I read again The Temple of God’s Wounds.
Monday night of that week I attended the fourth and final class on the themes of theConfession of Belhar, which the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. is in the process of welcoming into its Book of Confessions. It was adopted during the days of apartheid in South Africa by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church resisting the government’s separation of the races.
Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary offered it online, but I attended its meetings in person at the Martin Luther King Center near our home in Atlanta because I wanted to engage in the conversation directly. I thought this would be a way to hear concerns that current movements such as Black Lives Matter raise, but in a context of shared faith. As an aside, I felt very welcomed as a gay man.
The class was small, about 70% African American and 30% Anglo-European, though the final Monday I was the only white person attending.
Long before the course I had concluded that there is no way white people will ever understand the experience of black people in American society. The brutalization of slavery and the degradation of racism and segregation that followed (and still follows) cannot be erased, no matter how forgiving African Americans may be and no matter how transformed Anglo-European Americans may become.
During one class session, we listened to the tape of the families of those murdered in the Charleston church offering forgiveness to their vicious and racist assailant, and I noticed that alongside “I forgive you” were cries of pain and anguish and grief at their loss, calls for repentance of the perpetrator and an expectation of justice for the victims so that “hate doesn’t win,”something the media largely left out in its eagerness to report their forgiveness.
Their mercy was transforming for South Carolina, bringing down the confederate flag, while affecting broader American sensibilities as well.
But, as one woman pointed out to me after class, “There was a lot of anger in black communities for how easily they forgave” that young man. Yet hearing their forgiveness while holding him accountable suggested they were not offering cheap grace.
In class I told the story of participating in a “dog and pony” show at four venues around the state of Iowa for UCC pastors as their denomination was changing its positions on LGBT issues some years ago. One pastor had asked, “Where’s the repentance?” At first we thought he was expecting repentance from LGBT folk, but what he meant was, where was the church’s repentance for its mistreatment of LGBT people?
I suggested to the class that maybe the church needed something like South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission where wrongs could be named—the wounding of all kinds of folk because of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Ultimately this is how we wound God.
By the next session of the course I had learned that several presbyteries have passed “A Healing Overture for the Admission of, and Apology for Harms Done to the LGBTQ/Q Members of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Family and Friends.” Hallelujah!
When I’ve written on this blog about the need of being forgiving in the spiritual life, I’ve sometimes received friendly pushback from those who have been abused or work with the abused. It’s been pointed out to me that forgiveness in certain circumstances may not always be possible, even may not be a healthy choice.
In “Forgiveness: The Last Step,” Marie Fortune writes in the context of family violence, “Once justice has been accomplished, even in a limited way, forgiveness becomes a viable opportunity. Prior to justice, forgiveness is an empty exercise.” She points out that Jesus said, “If another sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.” [See Luke 17:3-4 NRSV.]
That suggests at least four steps toward reconciliation: confrontation, confession, repentance (as in metanoia, an “about face”), followed by forgiveness. Only when justice is served, she writes, is “a victim of violence and abuse…freed to forgive.”
On Maundy Thursday last week, Wade and I were part of a support community for a friend in a recovery program. After an afternoon meeting with our friend, a counselor, and a dinner out, that evening we attended what was essentially an Al-Anon meeting for support communities of others in recovery. Emotions ran high, as they must have when Jesus shared his last meal with his disciples: communion and hope, but also shared grief and feelings of betrayal, denial, abandonment.
Some could tell stories in which the recoveries of their loved one held; others told stories of multiple heartbreaking attempts; many acknowledged that they too were powerless over what addictions were doing to their loved ones. I was deeply moved by the love and commitment in that room. I awoke Good Friday morning with involuntary tears streaming from my eyes thinking of them.
The Twelve Steps are all about truth-telling, another requirement of justice. And the eighth and ninth steps are about making “a list of all persons we had harmed” and making “amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”
I had thought that I should find some service to attend the evening of Good Friday, when a close friend told us that the day was the 20th anniversary of the death of his beloved partner to AIDS. So he came over and we ordered Chinese take-out. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Good Friday. And I better understood his flash of anger about the Reagans when Hillary Clinton misstated after Nancy’s funeral that they had been instrumental in the “national conversation” about AIDS.
A blog reader once pointed out to me that Jesus did not forgive those who betrayed, denied, abandoned, tortured, and crucified him, but rather, asked God to forgive them. That makes sense, for only God could administer the justice required for mercy. Could that be how Jesus’ sacrifice came to be understood as expiation for our sins?
It is a sacred challenge to administer justice without vengeance. Jesus calls us to go the extra mile beyond retribution (“an eye for an eye”) and love our enemies. But real love holds the beloved accountable.
The biblical witness is of a God of justice and mercy. Both are required for transformation. But scapegoating is never just, even if it is Jesus as the sacrificial lamb. Justice requires truth-telling, changing our ways, and making amends (penance). Only then, to paraphrase Psalm 23, can “mercy and justice follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Click Here to Link to Chris Glaser’s Blog: Progressive Christian Reflections
"The Way of the Wind: The Path and Practice of Evolutionary Christian Mysticism" by Bruce G. Sanguin
This book explores the Christian faith from the perspective of evolutionary spirituality. It looks at the life and teaching of Jesus through this lens.
READ ON ... This book explores the Christian faith from the perspective of evolutionary spirituality. It looks at the life and teaching of Jesus through this lens.
The author asserts that evolution is the fundamental dynamic of our universe, transcending biology, to include culture and consciousness. Jesus himself was tapped into a sacred evolutionary current to transcend, yet include, his own religious lineage. This urge for self and cultural transcendence therefore is an essential element of the Christian faith: there is no final iteration of the Christian faith.
Everything, including the Christian faith, is in the process of transcending itself. When we realize the mystical awareness that we are the presence of a sacred evolutionary process awakening to itself, we catalyze the power of what traditionally has been called the Holy Spirit.
About the Author
Bruce Sanguin is a world leader in evolutionary Christian spirituality. He graduated from the University of Winnipeg without, as far as he can remember, having read a book. Except one, by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on Transcendental Meditation. This woke him up to a vocation that transcended the dream of dunking the b-ball and playing professional tennis. TM gave way to born again Christianity, to liberal Christianity, to the total loss of conviction (they are connected), to evolutionary Christian mysticism. Bruce has been an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada for 26 years and is a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family therapy.
Read is book The Advance of Love: Reading the Bible with an Evolutionary Heart Here
purchase for $19.25
---------------------
Weekly Liturgy
"Wounding God" by Chris Glaser
It is a sacred challenge to administer justice without vengeance... Justice requires truth-telling, changing our ways, and making amends (penance).
READ ON ... Something burning in my heart is demanding the oxygen of expression.
Regular readers of this blog know I am not persuaded by one line of thinking about the crucifixion: I don’t believe God demanded the death of Jesus to forgive our sins. Of the Passion narrative, I’ve written that the crucifixion was our idea, while the resurrection was God’s idea, however we understand resurrection.
Yet I do believe the story of the crucifixion reminds us that we wound God.
I know that’s not an original thought—many theologians, contemplatives, writers, and preachers have written about this. But it’s being brought home to me in several ways that culminated this past Holy Week as I read again The Temple of God’s Wounds.
Monday night of that week I attended the fourth and final class on the themes of theConfession of Belhar, which the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. is in the process of welcoming into its Book of Confessions. It was adopted during the days of apartheid in South Africa by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church resisting the government’s separation of the races.
Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary offered it online, but I attended its meetings in person at the Martin Luther King Center near our home in Atlanta because I wanted to engage in the conversation directly. I thought this would be a way to hear concerns that current movements such as Black Lives Matter raise, but in a context of shared faith. As an aside, I felt very welcomed as a gay man.
The class was small, about 70% African American and 30% Anglo-European, though the final Monday I was the only white person attending.
Long before the course I had concluded that there is no way white people will ever understand the experience of black people in American society. The brutalization of slavery and the degradation of racism and segregation that followed (and still follows) cannot be erased, no matter how forgiving African Americans may be and no matter how transformed Anglo-European Americans may become.
During one class session, we listened to the tape of the families of those murdered in the Charleston church offering forgiveness to their vicious and racist assailant, and I noticed that alongside “I forgive you” were cries of pain and anguish and grief at their loss, calls for repentance of the perpetrator and an expectation of justice for the victims so that “hate doesn’t win,”something the media largely left out in its eagerness to report their forgiveness.
Their mercy was transforming for South Carolina, bringing down the confederate flag, while affecting broader American sensibilities as well.
But, as one woman pointed out to me after class, “There was a lot of anger in black communities for how easily they forgave” that young man. Yet hearing their forgiveness while holding him accountable suggested they were not offering cheap grace.
In class I told the story of participating in a “dog and pony” show at four venues around the state of Iowa for UCC pastors as their denomination was changing its positions on LGBT issues some years ago. One pastor had asked, “Where’s the repentance?” At first we thought he was expecting repentance from LGBT folk, but what he meant was, where was the church’s repentance for its mistreatment of LGBT people?
I suggested to the class that maybe the church needed something like South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission where wrongs could be named—the wounding of all kinds of folk because of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Ultimately this is how we wound God.
By the next session of the course I had learned that several presbyteries have passed “A Healing Overture for the Admission of, and Apology for Harms Done to the LGBTQ/Q Members of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Family and Friends.” Hallelujah!
When I’ve written on this blog about the need of being forgiving in the spiritual life, I’ve sometimes received friendly pushback from those who have been abused or work with the abused. It’s been pointed out to me that forgiveness in certain circumstances may not always be possible, even may not be a healthy choice.
In “Forgiveness: The Last Step,” Marie Fortune writes in the context of family violence, “Once justice has been accomplished, even in a limited way, forgiveness becomes a viable opportunity. Prior to justice, forgiveness is an empty exercise.” She points out that Jesus said, “If another sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.” [See Luke 17:3-4 NRSV.]
That suggests at least four steps toward reconciliation: confrontation, confession, repentance (as in metanoia, an “about face”), followed by forgiveness. Only when justice is served, she writes, is “a victim of violence and abuse…freed to forgive.”
On Maundy Thursday last week, Wade and I were part of a support community for a friend in a recovery program. After an afternoon meeting with our friend, a counselor, and a dinner out, that evening we attended what was essentially an Al-Anon meeting for support communities of others in recovery. Emotions ran high, as they must have when Jesus shared his last meal with his disciples: communion and hope, but also shared grief and feelings of betrayal, denial, abandonment.
Some could tell stories in which the recoveries of their loved one held; others told stories of multiple heartbreaking attempts; many acknowledged that they too were powerless over what addictions were doing to their loved ones. I was deeply moved by the love and commitment in that room. I awoke Good Friday morning with involuntary tears streaming from my eyes thinking of them.
The Twelve Steps are all about truth-telling, another requirement of justice. And the eighth and ninth steps are about making “a list of all persons we had harmed” and making “amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”
I had thought that I should find some service to attend the evening of Good Friday, when a close friend told us that the day was the 20th anniversary of the death of his beloved partner to AIDS. So he came over and we ordered Chinese take-out. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Good Friday. And I better understood his flash of anger about the Reagans when Hillary Clinton misstated after Nancy’s funeral that they had been instrumental in the “national conversation” about AIDS.
A blog reader once pointed out to me that Jesus did not forgive those who betrayed, denied, abandoned, tortured, and crucified him, but rather, asked God to forgive them. That makes sense, for only God could administer the justice required for mercy. Could that be how Jesus’ sacrifice came to be understood as expiation for our sins?
It is a sacred challenge to administer justice without vengeance. Jesus calls us to go the extra mile beyond retribution (“an eye for an eye”) and love our enemies. But real love holds the beloved accountable.
The biblical witness is of a God of justice and mercy. Both are required for transformation. But scapegoating is never just, even if it is Jesus as the sacrificial lamb. Justice requires truth-telling, changing our ways, and making amends (penance). Only then, to paraphrase Psalm 23, can “mercy and justice follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Click Here to Link to Chris Glaser’s Blog: Progressive Christian Reflections
"The Way of the Wind: The Path and Practice of Evolutionary Christian Mysticism" by Bruce G. Sanguin
This book explores the Christian faith from the perspective of evolutionary spirituality. It looks at the life and teaching of Jesus through this lens.
READ ON ... This book explores the Christian faith from the perspective of evolutionary spirituality. It looks at the life and teaching of Jesus through this lens.
The author asserts that evolution is the fundamental dynamic of our universe, transcending biology, to include culture and consciousness. Jesus himself was tapped into a sacred evolutionary current to transcend, yet include, his own religious lineage. This urge for self and cultural transcendence therefore is an essential element of the Christian faith: there is no final iteration of the Christian faith.
Everything, including the Christian faith, is in the process of transcending itself. When we realize the mystical awareness that we are the presence of a sacred evolutionary process awakening to itself, we catalyze the power of what traditionally has been called the Holy Spirit.
About the Author
Bruce Sanguin is a world leader in evolutionary Christian spirituality. He graduated from the University of Winnipeg without, as far as he can remember, having read a book. Except one, by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on Transcendental Meditation. This woke him up to a vocation that transcended the dream of dunking the b-ball and playing professional tennis. TM gave way to born again Christianity, to liberal Christianity, to the total loss of conviction (they are connected), to evolutionary Christian mysticism. Bruce has been an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada for 26 years and is a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family therapy.
Read is book The Advance of Love: Reading the Bible with an Evolutionary Heart Here
purchase for $19.25
---------------------
Weekly Liturgy
Week of: April 3, 2016
Easter Season Poems
Poetry and religion seem to go together: two approaches to the challenge of trying to capture the ineffable in words.
READ ON ...
Poetry and religion seem to go together: two approaches to the challenge of trying to capture the ineffable in words. And since every effort to do that is not now and never will be completely satisfying, because its goal is by definition unattainable, there will always be room for more poetry and yet another attempt at religion.
Easter Season Poems
Poetry and religion seem to go together: two approaches to the challenge of trying to capture the ineffable in words.
READ ON ...
Poetry and religion seem to go together: two approaches to the challenge of trying to capture the ineffable in words. And since every effort to do that is not now and never will be completely satisfying, because its goal is by definition unattainable, there will always be room for more poetry and yet another attempt at religion.
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear
On the surface, it seems that death is triumphant.
It appears as though those who conspired to do evil have won.
read moreIt appears as though those who conspired to do evil have won.
The Gift: A poem for Lent
No one’s raised who did not fall
No one saves whom God did not send
No one stands whose knees won’t bend
No helper’s not been helped at all
read moreNo one saves whom God did not send
No one stands whose knees won’t bend
No helper’s not been helped at all
----------------------
"Perfect Love Casts Out Fear" Written by Matt Carriker by Polly Moore
On the surface, it seems that death is triumphant.
It appears as though those who conspired to do evil have won.
Yet God does not inspire fear, hatred, or violence.
God did not inspire the fear, hatred, or violence of the bombers in Brussels.
“Perfect love casts out fear” says the words of scripture.
Any voice or action that comes from a place of fear or harm- that is not the voice of the Beloved.
The Beloved whispers softly to the soul:
“You are blessed. You are beloved. You are a reflection of me.”
You can tell it is the voice of the Beloved because it doesn’t stop there.
The voice keeps pointing to everyone and everything:
“You are sacred. You are blessed. You are beloved. You are a reflection of me.”
To listen to this voice is to treat each creature,
each precious child,
as an expression and manifestation of the Divine.
God does not inspire violence,
but always love.
This day, may we listen to that love,
open to that love,
spread that love.
Most of all, may we embody that love in the face of fear and hatred,
remembering our sacred calling as expressions of Light.
“Perfect love casts out fear,” the Voice whispers.
“Listen to your heart’s song. Listen to your soul’s song.
Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
"Perfect Love Casts Out Fear" Written by Matt Carriker by Polly Moore
On the surface, it seems that death is triumphant.
It appears as though those who conspired to do evil have won.
Yet God does not inspire fear, hatred, or violence.
God did not inspire the fear, hatred, or violence of the bombers in Brussels.
“Perfect love casts out fear” says the words of scripture.
Any voice or action that comes from a place of fear or harm- that is not the voice of the Beloved.
The Beloved whispers softly to the soul:
“You are blessed. You are beloved. You are a reflection of me.”
You can tell it is the voice of the Beloved because it doesn’t stop there.
The voice keeps pointing to everyone and everything:
“You are sacred. You are blessed. You are beloved. You are a reflection of me.”
To listen to this voice is to treat each creature,
each precious child,
as an expression and manifestation of the Divine.
God does not inspire violence,
but always love.
This day, may we listen to that love,
open to that love,
spread that love.
Most of all, may we embody that love in the face of fear and hatred,
remembering our sacred calling as expressions of Light.
“Perfect love casts out fear,” the Voice whispers.
“Listen to your heart’s song. Listen to your soul’s song.
Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
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"Oh, Yes…" For Roi Barnard in memory of Joe by Richard Holdsworth
Can this mind be at peace with the moon and the stars
In my nights?
Will these feelings repose with sun, rain and clouds
All day long?
Could my body relax with trees, flowers, grass
For each dawn?
And at evening light
Are vague hopes made bright
As the glint of childhood eyes?
Oh, yes…
If my moments rejoice
In that generous chorus
Of thankfulness graciously born
"Oh, Yes…" For Roi Barnard in memory of Joe by Richard Holdsworth
Can this mind be at peace with the moon and the stars
In my nights?
Will these feelings repose with sun, rain and clouds
All day long?
Could my body relax with trees, flowers, grass
For each dawn?
And at evening light
Are vague hopes made bright
As the glint of childhood eyes?
Oh, yes…
If my moments rejoice
In that generous chorus
Of thankfulness graciously born
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"The Gift: A poem for Lent" by Jim Burklo
"The Gift: A poem for Lent" by Jim Burklo
(This poem, which I wrote during Lent in 1981, appears in my book, BIRDLIKE AND BARNLESS – it is based on Numbers 21: 4-9, John 3: 13-15)
THE GIFT
No one’s raised who did not fall
No one saves whom God did not send
No one stands whose knees won’t bend
No helper’s not been helped at all
While being raised we each shall die
The poison has an antidote
God may sleep in my storm-tossed boat
But when she rises, so shall I
Here where nothing grows which cannot bear the windy blast
And serpents live because they hug the ground
A person lives by eating what he’s found
And gazing at the victims of the missiles he’s cast
The one who knows heaven as well knows earth
The victim and convict of our crime
Will raise the veil of space and time
She plumbs the grave who fathoms birth
It finally made us face our spite
So lift God’s gift above the plain
With our blood its teeth and skin are stained
To remind us of our hope and plight
JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See my GUIDE to my books, “musings”, and other writings
Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California
THE GIFT
No one’s raised who did not fall
No one saves whom God did not send
No one stands whose knees won’t bend
No helper’s not been helped at all
While being raised we each shall die
The poison has an antidote
God may sleep in my storm-tossed boat
But when she rises, so shall I
Here where nothing grows which cannot bear the windy blast
And serpents live because they hug the ground
A person lives by eating what he’s found
And gazing at the victims of the missiles he’s cast
The one who knows heaven as well knows earth
The victim and convict of our crime
Will raise the veil of space and time
She plumbs the grave who fathoms birth
It finally made us face our spite
So lift God’s gift above the plain
With our blood its teeth and skin are stained
To remind us of our hope and plight
JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See my GUIDE to my books, “musings”, and other writings
Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California
---------------------
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Events and Updates
Awakenings 2016
United Congregational Church, Holyoke, MA
An ecumenical/interfaith conference for lay and clergy bringing together thinkers, musicians, artists, and visionaries to re-imagine faith.
READ ON ...
Awakenings 2016
An ecumenical/interfaith conference for lay and clergy bringing together thinkers, musicians, artists, and visionaries to re-imagine faith
Presenters and Musicians
Dr. Diana Butler Bass, keynote, declares in her recent book, Grounded: Finding God in the World—A Spiritual Revolution (HarperOne, 2015), that “People believe differently than they once did. The theological ground is moving; a spiritual revolution is afoot.”
Rev. Felix Carrión is a Project Director for the United Church of Christ denomination, a consultant, pastor and keynoter who empowers clergy and laypersons for effective ministry and witness in church and society.
Dr. Patrick Evans returns to awakenings to explore congregational song and world music in today’s church. He’s Chair of the University of Alabama Birmingham, Department of Music.
Amy and Jonathan Gilburg will introduce “World Café” and “Open Space Technology” as ways to help communities make meanings out of what’s being experienced. They are partners in Gilburg Leadership, Inc.
Heshima Moja is a musician/singer/songwriter using music as a tool for healing the spiritual and emotional conditions of our society.
Onawumi Jean Moss is an award-winning storyteller whose personal warmth and inspiring presence returns to her second awakenings.
Roberta Morkin is an accomplished organist, choir director, and part of the pastoral team with her husband, Chuck. She’ll play the historic E.M. Skinner pipe organ during awakenings 2016.
Rabbi Rami Shapiro is one of the most creative figures in contemporary American Judaism. His prayers are included in worship services across the interfaith and ecumenical spectrum of American congregations. He will speak on Saturday evening, and preach on Sunday.
Bishop John Shelby Spong, keynote, has become one of the definitive voices for progressive Christianity. He has over two-dozen challenging and thought-provoking works published. His book, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy – A Journey into a New Christianity through the Doorway of Matthew’s Gospel, comes out in February, 2016.
Willie Sordillo returns to awakenings with jazz pianist, Mina Cho, vocalist, Zoé Krohne and others. They will lead a moving jazz communion with the Rev. Anthony Livolsi – all from Old South Church in Boston.
Rev. Winnie Vargese is the Director of Community Outreach at Trinity (Wall Street) Church in NYC. She appears in “Living the Questions” teaching series, chairs the Board of the Episcopal Service Corps, and is a blogger for the Huffington Post.
The United Congregational Church of Holyoke, MA
An Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ
Register Today — Meals Are Included.
Images
Start:
April 28, 2016 02:30 PM
End:
May 1, 2016 01:00 PM
Location:
The United Congregational Church
300 Appleton St.
Holyoke United States Massachusetts
Contact:
Chuck Morkin
Organization:
The United Congregational Church
Website:
http://www.awakeningsconference.com
Email:
chuckmorkin@gmail.com
---------------------
View all upcoming events here!
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Our mailing address is:
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Click on Amazon Smile and choose ProgressiveChristianity.org as your charity - when you shop Amazon donates .05%.
Events and Updates
Awakenings 2016
United Congregational Church, Holyoke, MA
An ecumenical/interfaith conference for lay and clergy bringing together thinkers, musicians, artists, and visionaries to re-imagine faith.
READ ON ...
Awakenings 2016
An ecumenical/interfaith conference for lay and clergy bringing together thinkers, musicians, artists, and visionaries to re-imagine faith
Presenters and Musicians
Dr. Diana Butler Bass, keynote, declares in her recent book, Grounded: Finding God in the World—A Spiritual Revolution (HarperOne, 2015), that “People believe differently than they once did. The theological ground is moving; a spiritual revolution is afoot.”
Rev. Felix Carrión is a Project Director for the United Church of Christ denomination, a consultant, pastor and keynoter who empowers clergy and laypersons for effective ministry and witness in church and society.
Dr. Patrick Evans returns to awakenings to explore congregational song and world music in today’s church. He’s Chair of the University of Alabama Birmingham, Department of Music.
Amy and Jonathan Gilburg will introduce “World Café” and “Open Space Technology” as ways to help communities make meanings out of what’s being experienced. They are partners in Gilburg Leadership, Inc.
Heshima Moja is a musician/singer/songwriter using music as a tool for healing the spiritual and emotional conditions of our society.
Onawumi Jean Moss is an award-winning storyteller whose personal warmth and inspiring presence returns to her second awakenings.
Roberta Morkin is an accomplished organist, choir director, and part of the pastoral team with her husband, Chuck. She’ll play the historic E.M. Skinner pipe organ during awakenings 2016.
Rabbi Rami Shapiro is one of the most creative figures in contemporary American Judaism. His prayers are included in worship services across the interfaith and ecumenical spectrum of American congregations. He will speak on Saturday evening, and preach on Sunday.
Bishop John Shelby Spong, keynote, has become one of the definitive voices for progressive Christianity. He has over two-dozen challenging and thought-provoking works published. His book, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy – A Journey into a New Christianity through the Doorway of Matthew’s Gospel, comes out in February, 2016.
Willie Sordillo returns to awakenings with jazz pianist, Mina Cho, vocalist, Zoé Krohne and others. They will lead a moving jazz communion with the Rev. Anthony Livolsi – all from Old South Church in Boston.
Rev. Winnie Vargese is the Director of Community Outreach at Trinity (Wall Street) Church in NYC. She appears in “Living the Questions” teaching series, chairs the Board of the Episcopal Service Corps, and is a blogger for the Huffington Post.
The United Congregational Church of Holyoke, MA
An Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ
Register Today — Meals Are Included.
Images
Start:
April 28, 2016 02:30 PM
End:
May 1, 2016 01:00 PM
Location:
The United Congregational Church
300 Appleton St.
Holyoke United States Massachusetts
Contact:
Chuck Morkin
Organization:
The United Congregational Church
Website:
http://www.awakeningsconference.com
Email:
chuckmorkin@gmail.com
---------------------
View all upcoming events here!
News
Job Listings
FacebookTwitterWebsiteEmailYouTubeOur mailing address is:
ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Point Fosdick Drive NorthWest#80
Gig Harbor, Washington 98335, United States
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