We delved into the topics of God, Music, Spiritual Revolution and Transforming Visions.
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God is a fuzzy word. ... I don’t know all that God is or all that the word God means: that’s why I speak it and write it.
Who or What Is God?
by Jim Burklo
As you may have noticed from my recent “musings”, I’ve been spending a lot of time with professed atheists lately. In particular, this week I found myself engaged in a rich email dialogue with Gretta Vosper, pastor of West Hills United, a congregation of the United Church of Canada. She describes herself as an atheist. Few openly atheist pastors of Christian churches are seen in the US, but there are many in Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, including some who were part of this email exchange. The atheists on the email thread challenged us post-supernaturalist theists to give up God because the term is too associated with “guy-in-the-sky” theology.
These encounters have inspired me to consider again what I mean when I use the word God, and why I still feel the urge to use it.
A few years ago, I wrote a poem to this end: “Musing on God” . It still speaks for me, but since writing it, and since these recent engaging discussions with atheists, I find I have more to add.
Jokingly, I have referred to myself as an “agnatheist” – someone who is not sure of the existence of atheists. How can you unbelieve in something that defies definition, I ask? When I talk about God, you are hearing poetry. And poetry is why I talk God-talk. Poetry evokes. Like God, poetry does not define and decide and determine and direct. God is a fuzzy word. God is a fuzzy God, for that matter. I don’t know all that God is or all that the word God means: that’s why I speak it and write it. The word God is not one to lose: it’s one for the muse to use.
Poetry depends on the spiritual, living power of words. You can’t do poetry, you can’t enjoy poetry if you treat words as blank, lifeless, arbitrary mental place-holders for real, discrete things that exist in the world. If you think God is just a noise or an arbitrary set of marks on a page that is supposed to refer to a Guy in the Sky, well – it’s no wonder you might go down the atheist road, if there is one. You look in the sky, there is no Guy, so you drop the word along with that to which it was supposed to refer.
But wait: the word God is potent and rich. It doesn’t refer to something else. It is something else. It does something else.
The word God evokes highest aspirations. It suggests the whole, and what makes me whole. It delivers me into the rich darkness of mystery, the allure of the unknown. It provokes possibility. It aims beyond what I can explain. The word God invites me beyond what I can imagine. The word God hints at the personality of the universe. It touches me with all-surpassing Love. The word God invokes curiosity, creativity. My uncertainty about what the word God means spins me into a healthy, humbling disequilibrium. It leaves me giddy.
In the Bible, the word God has no clear, unequivocal referent. Is God a nationalistic, jealous deity? The essence of existence? A Godhead or council of supernatural beings? A giver of laws, a judge of deeds? A clumsy creator, an inept parent? A human named Jesus? Love itself? A careful reading of the Bible ought to be enough to bash away any remaining certainty about the meaning of the word God.
The great mystics of the world’s religions made a habit of chanting or mentally repeating the word “God” or its equivalents over and over again as a form of prayerful contemplation. They understood that the word God doesn’t refer to God: it is God. It’s not a concept to be believed. As was true for them, God is in us, and we are in God, simply by invoking the word.
JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See a video interview about my new novel, SOULJOURN
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Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California
Gifted with a broad, soaring vocal range and crystalline tone Peia’s voice pierces the heart with bell like clarity.
Peia: Four Great Winds – Music CD
by Peia Luzzi
Gifted with a broad, soaring vocal range and crystalline tone Peia’s voice pierces the heart with bell like clarity. She sings with depth and beauty, moving audiences to tears and inviting listeners to reconnect with one’s own purpose and the heart of the Earth. Accompanying herself with Charango, Harmonium, and Guitar, Peia’s music creates an organic soundscape for deep vibrational healing.
As a sacred song preserver Peia has gathered songs from indigenous traditions all across the globe, as well as the stories and teachings with which they are woven. She has traveled extensively and studied from the rich lineages of Medieval Chant, Bulgarian and Celtic Folk Music, Medicine songs from the Native peoples of North and South America and Indian Classical Raga. Peia’s original song writing draws upon a deep well love and respect for Mother Earth and the Spirit of all Life.
This particular Compass Rose resembles a star which relates to my name Peia or Cassiopeia. Peia is not my birth name, I was lovingly called Jessy or Messy Jessy growing up. Cassiopeia was the name my father chose for me before my birth as he looked to the north star navigating at sea. He says the constellation of Cassiopeia would always call to him. To this day he still spends half of his time on the water.
The original map had the words: ‘Universal depiction of the world as we know it 1550′ written in Latin. I changed this to read:
‘We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.’
These words were written by Chief Seattle as a warning “Teach your children what we have taught ours, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
Watch Peia’s video: Machi from Four Great Winds Here:
Rainn Wilson talks about the coming spiritual revolution that must happen in order for us to move forward as a human race.
Rainn Wilson talks about the coming spiritual revolution that must happen in order for us to move forward as a human race.
Transforming Visions
Metanoia… change your thinking… see differently…
Transforming visions can do that for us.
Transforming Visions
Metanoia… change your thinking… see differently… Transforming visions can do that for us. A sudden understanding of the trajectory of time and where we are headed, a surprising revelation of the true person standing before you, a poetic metaphor that forever alters your perspective. Once you have had such a vision you are never quite the same again.
The "End Times" Scenario
Creation through God, the Divine Force — humans look to the facts
As I write this, even as you read it — those are certain human acts
The “End Times” Scenario
by Randall Wehler
Creation through God, the Divine Force — humans look to the facts
As I write this, even as you read it — those are certain human acts
Our existence, for sure, known to us through our finite lives on Earth
Born into God’s Earthly kingdom by way of a “miraculous” human birth
A Genesis account written poetically in homage to God’s creative love
Ancient peoples looking skyward to see their God somewhere “up above”
As grass withers and flowers fade, humans envision the end of mortal life
Many look to the Bible to allay their fears and reduce existential strife
Some folks jump to Revelation, the Apocalypse, to reveal what will happen
Wanting an assured crystal ball of certainty, hoping their hearts will gladden
Millennium, seven years, beast, Armageddon — even the word “rapture”
Terms of so-called truth emanating from an final book granted little stature
A book written several millennia ago during an ancient unscientific time
Can one assumed author say how humanity will go through its decline?
An author’s vision-dream taken as a literal revelation of what God will send?
My divine-given rationality cries out that such concrete reasoning must end
The forces of nature and our corporate living will surely go on to tomorrow
The Creator’s spirit is in control — no need to worry and no need for sorrow
Word Jazz
In the beginning is the Word
W-O-R-D
And the Word is with God
And the Word is God
And the Word is the bird
That Jesus talked about
Word Jazz
To be recited with the accompaniment of a saxophone by Jim Burklo
In the beginning is the Word
W-O-R-D
And the Word is with God
And the Word is God
And the Word is the bird
That Jesus talked about
When he pointed at the bird
In his Sermon on the Mount.
The birds of the air
Don’t store in the barn,
The birds, they never worry
So don’t you ever fret
Except against the strings
Of a guitar’s fretted neck
Or you’re gonna be a wreck
Wracked with anxiety
That you just don’t need
In heaven’s reality
That you are going to see
When you listen for the Word
In the singing of the bird
That the Almighty feeds
Day by day, while you pray
And say hey, Dear God
In your beginning is the Word
And like a winging bird
I’m feeling free
In the awesome presence
Of your eternity
That’s beyond theology
Defying explanation.
But we groan in expectation
Oppressed with the cogitation
That it’s cool to suffer from alienation
Drifting apart in inebriation
When we ought to be claiming your liberation
From fear and greed and discrimination.
Oh! the misery of comparing one to another
The wrongful judgment of sisters against brothers
Husband against wife
All that family strife
The religious hypocrisy
That claims superiority
To all of that the Word is No!
All that jive has got to go
Over the cliff where Jesus sent the hogs
Out of the eyes where he took out the logs
Out of the ears where he pulled out the mud
Off the cross where he shed all the blood.
The Word, the Word, the Word is YES
To all that for hearts and souls is best
Trust and faith and hope and grace
Belief in the future of the human race
The artistic, mystic
Pluralistic, humanistic
W-O-R-D
Whispered again to you and me
Can you hear it? Can you feel it?
Can you start to catch the beat?
Can you stand to feel the heat?
Can you sense the buzz about it
That is spreading on the street?
Are you hip to the Word
The still small silent Word?
The Word insinuated in the coolness of a cat
Who shows a brother kindness
Even when he plays the brat?
The Word that changes spelling
The Word that keeps on telling
The Word that’s still upwelling
From the depths of this and that
From the hearts of you and me
When we finally start to see
That the package that we bought
Was completely full of rot
That the only way to get it is to give up all we thought
That the way to find abundance is to share all that we’ve got
That the way to change the System is to blow ‘em all away
With the love in our intentions and the truth in what we say.
The Word, the Word, W-O-R-D
The ultimate cosmic graffiti
The Alpha, Omega, beginning and the stop
I’m prayin’ and I’m preachin’ till I finally gotta drop.
The Word, W-O-R-D
The Word is the sound of the tables Jesus turned
Dumping all the money for the sacrifices burned
Dumping all the lies of the powers that be
They say that freedom’s precious but they head toward tyranny.
Is the Word really heard when they tap our telephones
Can they hear the wails and moans
Of the mothers in the war
And the inner city poor
And the millions uninsured
To whose plight we’re so inured?
Are we listening
To the W-O-R-D?
That’s the ultimate verbal authority
Structuring our moral integrity
Giving us the spine
To stand for what’s divine
And do the thing that’s kind
Kind, kind.
Let’s just be kind.
And patient.
And humble.
And sweet.
And bold!
And free!
And Whee!
The serendipity!
Of knowing you and me
Express divinity!
Oh yeah! W-O-R-D –
I hear you in the forest
Behind a redwood tree
I hear you in the waves
That are crashing in the sea
I hear you in the desert
Speaking soft to me:
Peace
Truth
Forgiveness
Acceptance
Courage
Is there more, more, more, more
More you have to say?
Can I bear to really hear
That I’m nowhere nearly clear?
My ears burn, my feet are sore
My eyes sting, my fingers ache
Can I type another Word?
W-O-R-D
It seems absurd
That more could be in store.
Resonations, conflagrations,
Inhalations, excitations,
Inspirations, exclamations
I’m ready.
I’m birdlike.
I’m barnless.
I’m as hollow as a swallow
I’m as pinched as a finch
I’m as slow as a crow
Eager as an eagle
Un-uptight as a goose in flight
I’m a bird, God,
I’m your bird, Word,
I’m ready, Lord,
W-O-R-D
O let me be
All yours.
Amen.
From BIRDLIKE AND BARNLESS: Meditations, Prayers, and Songs for Progressive Christians (St Johann Press, 2008)
Worship Materials: Transfiguration
THEME The Vision that Transforms
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
1. To see Christ in another human being is illumination. To see Christ in all human beings is transfiguration.
Worship Materials: Transfiguration
From the Festive Worship collection by William L. (Bill) Wallace
THEME The Vision that Transforms
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
To see Christ in another human being is illumination. To see Christ in all human beings is transfiguration.
Abandon yourself to the otherness and you will find yourself in the process.
From the point of light I come,
to the point of light I move,
in the point of light I AM,
or as St Paul said ‘In God we live and move and have our being’.
(Acts 17:28)
Even the most wonderful experience of God can become a hindrance to growth if we seek to turn the boundless mystery into some limiting concrete manifestation.
Nurture the mystic within you for she is the guardian of the most sacred mysteries. She alone is the You that cannot be destroyed for her name is compassionate wisdom and her aspect is divinity.
The story of the transfiguration underlines the rhythm of work and worship, the place of the ancestors, the enlightenment of the darkness, and the power of the reflective activist.
Transfiguration is seeing things in a different way. Have you ever thought like a mountain? See hymn
The beginning of the process of enlightenment is the dawn of awareness.
The goal of the process of enlightenment is immersion in the mystery.
No one can own the mystery, but all can delight in it.
No one can own the mystery, but all can discover they are part of it.
To be at one with all things one must first have imagined what it is like to be a rock, a plant, another animal, the sky, the sea, another person, the earth and even the sacred mystery of God.
The sounds of heaven are the song of the earth.
The mountain of mystery and the plains of suffering and oppression all belong within the one vision and are both parts of the topography of life.
Whether we live on the top of a mountain of wealth, possessions, power, learning, social status, or live in the valley of the oppressed and the marginalized, the call comes to us all to walk with the people, to dance reverently on the earth and to descend into the manger of our own heart.
The spiritually empowered walk a fine line between quietism and activism.
PRAYER
O Jesus Christ whose presence we can discern both in life’s illuminating hills and its shadowy valleys, help us not to limit you to the world of human beings, nor the accounts of human history, but to perceive you in all your cosmic glory.
HYMNS
There’s no two-ness in God. (BL)
We believe in a mystery we call God. (BL)
If Heaven is more than simply a place. (BL)
Come, let us think like mountain rocks (BL)
The right time has come.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
Help us, O Christ, to choose the path.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
There shall be life and love.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
In the first stage of seeking (stages of spiritual growth).
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
All will be well.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
You do not need to come, O God.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
On top of the mountain. (STS1)
When the temple veil is torn in two. (STS1)
Epiphany of wisdom’s dawn. (STS1)
Singing the Sacred, Vol 1, 2011 World Library Publications
POEMS / REFLECTIONS
TRANSFIGURATION
I find myself when I am not me,
When I am the primal explosion that birthed the atoms of my cells,
When I am the darkness out of which the sun emerged,
the darkness that birthed the chaotic complexity of my innermost unknown.
When I am the dialogue between the wave and the beach
like the interaction of my thoughts with the substance of my brain.
When I am the rock and our common ancestry,
When I am the rhythm and the flowing of the river and the sea
When the veins of the leaf are the veins of my body
And the universe and I are one
then I AM.
RESPONSIVE READING
In the radiance of the face of Christ,
In the soft smile of tender love,
In the compassion of the healer’s hands,
In the playfulness of the Inner Child
WE SEE THE LIVING-GOD
AND THROUGH ALL THESE VISIONS WE ARE TRANSFORMED
In the glistening of the crystal raindrops,
In the wild interplay of sea and sky,
In the struggle to protect the forests,
In the challenge to nurture God’s good earth
WE SEE THE LIVING GOD
AND THROUGH ALL THESE VISIONS WE ARE TRANSFORMED
In the loving that embraces outcasts,
In the poor who work for peace and justice,
In the strong who share their wealth and power,
In the wise who know life’s fragrant worth,
WE SEE THE LIVING GOD
AND THROUGH ALL THESE VISIONS WE ARE TRANSFORMED
AN INTERPRETATION OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
When we come to a point of awareness, a point of enlightenment, a point of great spiritual insight the inner light of our spirit is reflected in our whole body and can be perceived by those close to us.
Divisions and dualisms melt; life and death, past and present become as one. The cloud of enlightenment is a cloud of inclusiveness and so there is the presence of the shadow as well as the dazzling whiteness, a shadow of mystery and of unknowing that goes beyond any desire to limit the experience to concrete manifestations. An intrinsic part of the experience is an affirmation of ‘that of God’ which is within each person, the I AM. The enlightenment which Christ experienced did not lead him to become a reclusive world-denying mystic, but instead to become a prophetic life-affirming mystic, who immediately descended into the valley of the suffering and oppression of the ‘people of the land’.
FOCUS FOR ACTION
Do I view history as something that has been superseded by the advance of science, or is there wisdom that I can learn from history if I interpret it in the light of modern thought? Should this affect the way that I view the Bible?
How do I link my mystical experiences of God with my everyday life? Do my experiences of God/Mystery/Life Force need reinterpreting?
Do I see all life as one interconnected and interacting reality? Or do I still have some separate boxes in my mind e.g. spirituality and sexuality, spirituality and politics, anger and love?
Text and image © William Livingstone Wallace but available for free use.
Events and Updates
Bishop Spong Lecture and Book Signing
March 6th -8th
First Community Church
377 Dublin Road,
Columbus, Ohio
Bishop Spong / March 6th-8th / FIRST COMMUNITY CHURCH
Fri,Sat,Sun March 6th-8th
Events:
Friday: 7 p.m. Lecture
8.30 p.m. Reception/Book Signing
Saturday: 9 -10.15 a.m. Lecture
11 – 12.30 a.m Lecture
Sunday: 9.45 a.m. Worship Service: North Campus
3777 Dublin Road, Columbus, OH 43221
11 a.m. Worship Service: South Campus
FCC South Campus, 1320 Cambridge Blvd.,
Columbus, OH 43212
Start: March 6, 2015
End: March 8, 2015
Location: FIRST COMMUNITY CHURCH
3777 Dublin Road,
Columbus OH US
Contact: The Rev. David Hett
Email: hettds@fcchurch.com
Telephone: 614-488-0681 Cell: 614-204-4522
Fri,Sat,Sun March 6th-8th
Events:
Friday: 7 p.m. Lecture
8.30 p.m. Reception/Book Signing
Saturday: 9 -10.15 a.m. Lecture
11 – 12.30 a.m Lecture
Sunday: 9.45 a.m. Worship Service: North Campus
3777 Dublin Road, Columbus, OH 43221
11 a.m. Worship Service: South Campus
FCC South Campus, 1320 Cambridge Blvd.,
Columbus, OH 43212
Start: March 6, 2015
End: March 8, 2015
Location: FIRST COMMUNITY CHURCH
3777 Dublin Road,
Columbus OH US
Contact: The Rev. David Hett
Email: hettds@fcchurch.com
Telephone: 614-488-0681 Cell: 614-204-4522
ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Pt. Fosdick Dr. NW
#80Gig Harbor, Washington 98335 United States
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