Weekly Recap for Tuesday, December 6, 2016 from ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Do your Christmas Cards reflect your personal theology? 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: Christ Has Many Disguises, The Trauma of the Election, Theologically Thoughtful Christmas Cards and Christmas Poetry.
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Keep Watch: John the Baptist, Like Christ Has Many Disguises!
Rev. Dawn HutchingsThere was a young woman who lived in an apartment, in a very rough neighbourhood. It was the east end of a very large city. Many of the people who lived in this neighbourhood got by on welfare, others earned their living any way they could. The young woman moved into the apartment because it was close to the office where she worked, the rent was cheap and quite frankly she was young and foolish. She ignored all the warnings of her family and friends and moved into the apartment convinced that she could handle anything that came her way.
Her neighbourhood contained the most unsavoury of characters. The office where she worked was just down the street from her apartment and every morning as she walked to work she would meet some of her neighbours returning home from an evening of plying their trade on the streets and in the alleys. Each morning, she would be met at the entrance to her office by an old man named Ed.
Ed had been living on the streets for years. He was very hairy, very dirty, and he tended to rant and rave a lot. Ed was a wild man. He slept on the doorstep of the young woman’s office because it was somewhat protected from the winter weather. Even though Ed made the young woman nervous, she got used to seeing him in her way.
Ed always gave the young woman a warm welcome when she arrived. He knew that when she got inside, she would brew fresh coffee. He used to tease her that, she was a sucker for a sad face as he waited patiently for her to bring him a cup of coffee. They never talked much, though. Ed would just rant and rave about the injustices of the world. The young woman never found out how Ed ended up on the streets. She didn’t know how he spent his days.
As Christmas approached the young woman became very busy with her preparations for the holiday. This was the first year that she had more money than she needed to celebrate with.
She decorated her apartment, she bought all sorts of gifts and spent hours wrapping each one.
This year she wasn’t going to be rushed. She wasn’t going to miss out on anything. Christmas wasn’t going to come and go without finding her in the Christmas spirit.
That year the young woman had drawn the short straw and had to work on Christmas Eve. So, before she left her apartment, she packed a small package of goodies for Ed. She was delighted that she was so well prepared that she could take time for others. But when she got to the office, Ed was no where in sight. She asked some of the women who worked the streets if they had seen old Ed. But no one knew where he was.
The young woman went about her duties and soon forgot all about old Ed. She finished her work early and went off to celebrate Christmas Eve with her friends. She had been looking forward to Christmas for weeks and was eager to celebrate. Together, she and her friends shared a fine Christmas goose with all the trimmings and then they went of to a candle light service. The service was beautiful. They really pulled out all the stops, great music, lots of activity. The preacher even managed to keep his sermon brief. But somehow the young woman was left feeling like there was something missing.
The next morning she celebrated with her family. Her nieces eagerly unpacked dozens of presents and on the whole the family managed to keep their disagreements down to the minimum that year. But the young woman felt detached, like she was just going through the motions. Despite all the elaborate trimmings, she felt like she had missed out on her fair share of the Christmas spirit.
As she drove back to her apartment in the city she found herself wondering if this was all there was to it. Christmas had come and gone and she didn’t feel like anything had changed at all. By the time she had parked her car, she was feeling quite depressed. Christmas was over and nothing much had changed.
When she got to the entrance of her apartment, she saw Ed. She had never seen him anywhere near her apartment before and it made her more than a little nervous. She wondered how he had found out where she lived. Indeed, it frightened her that Ed had taken the trouble to find her apartment. Ed looked very agitated.
Nervously the young woman greeted Ed and asked him why he was at her doorstep. Ed explained to her that he needed her help. The young woman became very uneasy. The odd cup of coffee at work was one thing, but this old man showing up on her door step was quite another. And now he wanted something. Ed asked the young woman if she would come with him to the park. Caught off guard, the young woman reluctantly agreed. When they arrived in the park, Ed introduced the young woman to Karen.
Karen was a very scared looking teenager. She couldn’t have been more than about fourteen years old. Ed explained to the young woman that Karen had run away from home on Christmas Eve. He said that lots of kids ended up on the streets at this time of year and there were usually lots of unsavoury characters to meet them when they arrived. When Karen arrived at the city bus depot, Ed had spotted her. From the moment she arrived, Ed had carefully watched over Karen, making sure that she came to no harm in the city. Karen’s two days on the streets and Ed’s gentle persuasion had convinced her that she should really go back home and try to work things out with her parents. Ed explained to the young woman that Karen needed money for a bus ticket home.
After they had called Karen’s parents and safely loaded her onto a bus, the young woman asked Ed if he would come and share a meal with her. Ed refused the offer of a meal but agreed to share a cup of coffee with the young woman.
In the coffee shop, I took a long hard look at old Ed. That night in the coffee shop, I looked into the eyes of a wild man. I didn’t know it then, but I know it now, in his own way, Ed had helped me to prepare the way for Christ. Ed was the prophet who pointed to Christ. I had almost missed it. Christ had come. I was so busy looking up that I had forgotten to look around me.
Christ came to me in Karen. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Christ comes to us in the most unlikely of places wearing the most unlikely of faces.
Just as Advent moves us toward the remembrance of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem in the first century, it also reminds us that most of the world was preoccupied and utterly unprepared for that first Advent and many missed the whole thing. The question is: “Will we miss the whole thing again?” For we do not know the day or hour, no one knows.
Therefore keep awake–Christ may come suddenly and find you asleep. So be prepared. Keep awake! Watch for we know not when Christ comes. Watch, so that you might be found whenever and wherever Christ comes. Prepare the way for Christ.
Visit Rev. Dawn Hutchings’ website
READ ON ...
-------
Her neighbourhood contained the most unsavoury of characters. The office where she worked was just down the street from her apartment and every morning as she walked to work she would meet some of her neighbours returning home from an evening of plying their trade on the streets and in the alleys. Each morning, she would be met at the entrance to her office by an old man named Ed.
Ed had been living on the streets for years. He was very hairy, very dirty, and he tended to rant and rave a lot. Ed was a wild man. He slept on the doorstep of the young woman’s office because it was somewhat protected from the winter weather. Even though Ed made the young woman nervous, she got used to seeing him in her way.
Ed always gave the young woman a warm welcome when she arrived. He knew that when she got inside, she would brew fresh coffee. He used to tease her that, she was a sucker for a sad face as he waited patiently for her to bring him a cup of coffee. They never talked much, though. Ed would just rant and rave about the injustices of the world. The young woman never found out how Ed ended up on the streets. She didn’t know how he spent his days.
As Christmas approached the young woman became very busy with her preparations for the holiday. This was the first year that she had more money than she needed to celebrate with.
She decorated her apartment, she bought all sorts of gifts and spent hours wrapping each one.
This year she wasn’t going to be rushed. She wasn’t going to miss out on anything. Christmas wasn’t going to come and go without finding her in the Christmas spirit.
That year the young woman had drawn the short straw and had to work on Christmas Eve. So, before she left her apartment, she packed a small package of goodies for Ed. She was delighted that she was so well prepared that she could take time for others. But when she got to the office, Ed was no where in sight. She asked some of the women who worked the streets if they had seen old Ed. But no one knew where he was.
The young woman went about her duties and soon forgot all about old Ed. She finished her work early and went off to celebrate Christmas Eve with her friends. She had been looking forward to Christmas for weeks and was eager to celebrate. Together, she and her friends shared a fine Christmas goose with all the trimmings and then they went of to a candle light service. The service was beautiful. They really pulled out all the stops, great music, lots of activity. The preacher even managed to keep his sermon brief. But somehow the young woman was left feeling like there was something missing.
The next morning she celebrated with her family. Her nieces eagerly unpacked dozens of presents and on the whole the family managed to keep their disagreements down to the minimum that year. But the young woman felt detached, like she was just going through the motions. Despite all the elaborate trimmings, she felt like she had missed out on her fair share of the Christmas spirit.
As she drove back to her apartment in the city she found herself wondering if this was all there was to it. Christmas had come and gone and she didn’t feel like anything had changed at all. By the time she had parked her car, she was feeling quite depressed. Christmas was over and nothing much had changed.
When she got to the entrance of her apartment, she saw Ed. She had never seen him anywhere near her apartment before and it made her more than a little nervous. She wondered how he had found out where she lived. Indeed, it frightened her that Ed had taken the trouble to find her apartment. Ed looked very agitated.
Nervously the young woman greeted Ed and asked him why he was at her doorstep. Ed explained to her that he needed her help. The young woman became very uneasy. The odd cup of coffee at work was one thing, but this old man showing up on her door step was quite another. And now he wanted something. Ed asked the young woman if she would come with him to the park. Caught off guard, the young woman reluctantly agreed. When they arrived in the park, Ed introduced the young woman to Karen.
Karen was a very scared looking teenager. She couldn’t have been more than about fourteen years old. Ed explained to the young woman that Karen had run away from home on Christmas Eve. He said that lots of kids ended up on the streets at this time of year and there were usually lots of unsavoury characters to meet them when they arrived. When Karen arrived at the city bus depot, Ed had spotted her. From the moment she arrived, Ed had carefully watched over Karen, making sure that she came to no harm in the city. Karen’s two days on the streets and Ed’s gentle persuasion had convinced her that she should really go back home and try to work things out with her parents. Ed explained to the young woman that Karen needed money for a bus ticket home.
After they had called Karen’s parents and safely loaded her onto a bus, the young woman asked Ed if he would come and share a meal with her. Ed refused the offer of a meal but agreed to share a cup of coffee with the young woman.
In the coffee shop, I took a long hard look at old Ed. That night in the coffee shop, I looked into the eyes of a wild man. I didn’t know it then, but I know it now, in his own way, Ed had helped me to prepare the way for Christ. Ed was the prophet who pointed to Christ. I had almost missed it. Christ had come. I was so busy looking up that I had forgotten to look around me.
Christ came to me in Karen. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Christ comes to us in the most unlikely of places wearing the most unlikely of faces.
Just as Advent moves us toward the remembrance of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem in the first century, it also reminds us that most of the world was preoccupied and utterly unprepared for that first Advent and many missed the whole thing. The question is: “Will we miss the whole thing again?” For we do not know the day or hour, no one knows.
Therefore keep awake–Christ may come suddenly and find you asleep. So be prepared. Keep awake! Watch for we know not when Christ comes. Watch, so that you might be found whenever and wherever Christ comes. Prepare the way for Christ.
Visit Rev. Dawn Hutchings’ website
READ ON ...
-------
Responding to the Trauma of the Presidential Election in Four Dimensions
John C. RobinsonIntroduction
The 2016 presidential election triggered an unexpected and nearly unbearable trauma for over half of the American people. For many, it felt like the death of a loved one, or the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy, or the nightmare of 9/11. It felt like a wrecking ball shattering our nation’s fragile architecture of decent human values, urgent climate plans, and steadily expanding civil rights. Like many, I shared my distress wherever I went – in my men’s group, spirituality group, conscious aging circle, and conversations with loved ones, and knew that this threat to our way of life was magnitudes worse for vulnerable peoples – immigrants, religious and racial minorities, and the poor. We discussed protests, marches, political action and civil disobedience. I imagine that many of you had similar conversations in your communities as disbelief, shock, grief, tears, fear, insomnia, and horror fragmented psyches all across our land.
What can we do in traumatic times like these? How do we cope? How can we respond? As a psychologist, interfaith minister, mystic and writer on conscious aging, I see this crisis in four dimensions: psychological, spiritual, mystical, and the wisdom of the Sage. Let’s spend some time in each of these dimensions and then see where we end up. Also, as you proceed through this piece, go slowly, consciously consider each idea and suggestion, notice where and how you respond, and let yourself be changed. This paper is a call for profound personal growth and real awakening.
Psychological
This pain hurts. It cuts deep. Its scale is traumatizing. At times like these, we are tempted to explode in rage, run away, or go numb, responses consistent with our deepest animal instincts of fight, flight, or freeze. We might add a fourth emotional response – collapse. However none of these responses will solve our problem. We are too raw, and the realities we face too complex, to fix things with such reactively. We need to process our pain instead, to work on it until we have a clearer and more stable sense of who we are and what the problem really is.
Here are some suggestions for working in the psychological dimension:
• What we need most in the beginning is to support each other with compassion and understanding, to hold our shattered hearts until some basic healing begins. We are too broken and traumatized to act constructively.
• Feel your feelings. Let yourself experience the full range of emotion. Feelings are not reality but they need to be processed if we are to act effectively. Don’t be impatient or critical with yourself or others; we are all struggling, we are doing the best we know how at this moment.
• While reactive behavior toward perceived enemies can vent emotion, it is often premature and counterproductive in crisis circumstances, causing recurring cycles of reactivity on all sides. When all the acting out is done, you’ll still have to deal with the underlying pain.
• Remember that anything you feel changes as you feel it. That’s what working through means. More importantly, you’ll see the situation more clearly as painful emotions heal and release their energy for constructive planning.
• Working through also involves seeking new insights into oneself and others. What does your emotional reaction say about your values, assumptions and beliefs, and what else what may be going inside you and in the country that is important but not obvious? New insights catalyze new ways of thinking that can move us beyond reactivity into greater psychological understanding.
• Stay in community, don’t isolate. We need each other more than ever. Divided, we cower, together we can be an amazing force of healing, creativity and commitment.
• Working though trauma at the personal and community levels inevitably takes time – in this case, it will take weeks, months, even years. Stay with it. Our lives and our community will grow as we process this struggle together.
• Continually assess reality. What’s happening right now? How are things changing? Which issues are fading and which growing? Reality is evolving too. When the time comes, action needs to be grounded in an objective awareness of actual circumstances.
Spiritual
Each of us creates a personal spirituality – beliefs about the divine, the ultimate significance of life and death, and what it means to be human – based on our religious background, individual experiences, and thoughtful reflections. No two people have the same spirituality even in the same religion. One of the gifts of spirituality, however, is that it can provide a framework of hope and values to support us in times of crisis.
Here are some ideas for working in the spiritual dimension:
• Ask yourself big questions like “What are my ultimate spiritual beliefs about why things happen?” “What is the spiritual significance of all this?” “What might our shared traumatization and polarized relationships suggest about humanity’s spiritual evolution?”
• Take some time to wonder what the world’s great religious teachers would tell us about this situation and how we should respond to it.
• Return to your spiritual practices, like prayer, meditation, and yoga. Your inner stability will be restored as the mind settles and you ground yourself once again in your spiritual values.
• Let your beliefs and practices awaken the love, compassion and courage inherent in your spirituality. Realize that this struggle now engages your spiritual practice.
• Ask yourself “What is my spiritual purpose or work here?” Write at least ten responses and then see which ones feel the most valid.
Mystical
Mysticism refers to first hand experiences of the divine – moments when we feel touched or surrounded by a safe and loving consciousness that many call the Presence. We can come into God’s Presence in countless ways, through spiritual practices like prayer, meditation or tai chi; time spent in nature; inspired reading; the experience of awe in the night sky, great cathedrals or natural wonders; extraordinary moments like childbirth, sudden danger, or the death of a loved one; and even the zone of athletic endurance. In the experience of Presence, time stops, the mind ceases its chatter, and we feel one with the living divine universe, safe and loved in a world that is infinitely beautiful, precious and sacred. In the Presence, our lives are far different than we think and so full of love.
Here are some ideas for working in the mystical dimension:
• Reflect on when and where you sense the divine Presence. Spend time quieting the mind and experiencing God’s consciousness in or around you. What does it feel like?
• The direct experience of Presence heals us. Upsets and reactions are softened, violent emotions melt away, and calmness gradually restores. We discover again that reactivity breeds reactivity but Presence brings peace.
• Spending time in the Presence also changes us as people, making us more like the Presence itself. We become more centered, serene, patient, loving and kind, more aware of the beauty and value of everyday life and all living things. We become better people. We learn to stand in the fires of change without losing ourselves.
• Time in the Presence doesn’t fix problems, but it profoundly changes our perception of them. From this deep sense of peace, we see behind others’ masks of hatred and blame into their vulnerability and woundedness. We experience compassion.
• Consciousness filled with Presence is the source of all genuine and spiritually enlightened action. Spend time in the Presence before considering any action and always ask for its guidance. Then try to stay in the Presence as you act in the world.
• Discover the power of love. Mystical unity means that we are the One and that in oneness our sincere intentions can effect the entire field of being.
The Sage’s Wisdom
Conscious elders are everyday people who decide to approach aging with clarity and intention. For them, growing old emphasizes the growing. Conscious elders seek to understand the meaning of their life stories, heal old emotional wounds and put their affairs in order. They explore their hopes and fears, face their mortality, and deepen their spirituality and relationship with the divine. They create a personal legacy to leave for others and continue to express the unfolding self. In this process, and drawing from decades of experience, conscious elders acquire enormous wisdom about themselves, human history and the purpose of life. From this wisdom, they find the authority of the transpersonal voice, a voice that speaks for humanity, all sentient beings, and the future we create for coming generations. Depending on one’s Sagely talents, the conscious elder may be a wisdomkeeper, historian, healer, mentor, teacher, mystic, prophet, or protector of ultimate values. Which are you?
Here are some ideas for working in the Sage’s dimension:
• Review all you have learned about conscious aging in books, classes and workshops. Use these insights to become your best and most mature self. This is the self that evolves into the Sage, the self that can act maturely in the world.
• Enter the awakened consciousness of the Sage. Here’s one way to do that: Stop thinking for a moment, heighten sensory awareness, and open your capacity for awe. In this state of radical awe, sense the Presence all around you. As your consciousness expands, trust your own knowing – the wisdom, love, joy and compassion that arise in this mystical experience. Notice how differently the world its problems appear in this state.
• Find your own voice but speak for all beings. Speak clearly, calmly, consciously. Speak with a moral voice. Stand behind your words.
• Apply the unique gifts and talents that make up your True Self to the challenges we now face. Find out what brings you alive and do that for the world.
• Use the savvy acquired in sixty or seventy years of life to approach problems from a higher perspective. This is not your first rodeo. You’ve seen this before. Be present more than action-oriented in the beginning, skillful more than confronting, and let your doing come from deep being.
• If you’re not an elder, use the life experience you have acquired so far and act from the best and highest self you can muster. Wisdom is not limited only to conscious elders.
• Use non-adversarial communication and deep listening. Don’t talk at or over people, listen with your heart and ask deep and sincere questions. Let everyone participate in creating solutions.
• Build loving community with all people, friends, strangers and adversaries alike.
• Grow into a Divine Human filled with love. Be unafraid to stand for love.
How to Live on Four Levels
I hope you are beginning to see the immense resources available to all of us from these four dimensions of experience. We are neither helpless nor alone. In fact, every thought and action now becomes sacred, every possibility filled with divine potential for healing and transformation.
Here are some final ideas for working in all four dimensions:
• Use the resources available in each dimension to address your experience of trauma. What are you learning? How are you changing?
• Try not to use one dimension to avoid another (for example, thinking that the Presence will fix things without your involvement or that being a sage means you won’t hurt any more); that never works for long. Conversely don’t ignore any dimension for each contributes something incredibly valuable for coping with trauma.
• With each new development in this national drama, move again through the four dimensions, returning to the work of feelings, spiritual meaning, mystical awareness and Sagely wisdom.
• Distrust simple and reactive answers. We are multifaceted beings in a multidimensional world – simple and impulsive answers are nearly always suspect.
• Work in all dimensions concurrently to evolve a plan for mature action. Eventually they will blend into one. Then you’re ready. Then you know who you really are and what you must do.
• Stay in community. Share your feelings. Support others. Love the world and assist the whole human family in solving its problems. We will only succeed if we all succeed.
Conclusions
We elders have been here before. We were here during the Civil Rights Movement and the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. We were here during the Viet Nam War. We were here following 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will be here again. This is not the end; it is another call to grow in consciousness, love, courage, goodness and wisdom. We are in this for the long run. Though we cannot know what will happen, we can act from our deepest knowing and our greatest love, for these are the fundamental ingredients of constructive and long lasting change.
Now go back over your responses to the ideas and suggestions presented in each dimension. Identify two or three “aha’s” that really moved you. These personal responses begin your path through this trauma. See where it leads. As I said at the start, this paper is a call for profound personal growth and real awakening. Maybe that’s the ultimate purpose of our struggle.
About the Author
John Robinson is a psychologist with a second doctorate in ministry, an ordained interfaith minister, and the author of nine books on the psychology, spirituality, mysticism of the New Aging. Recent books on aging include The Three Secrets of Aging, Bedtime Stories for Elders, What Aging Men Want, Breakthrough, and The Divine Human. Learn more about his work at his website.
READ ON ...
-------
The 2016 presidential election triggered an unexpected and nearly unbearable trauma for over half of the American people. For many, it felt like the death of a loved one, or the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy, or the nightmare of 9/11. It felt like a wrecking ball shattering our nation’s fragile architecture of decent human values, urgent climate plans, and steadily expanding civil rights. Like many, I shared my distress wherever I went – in my men’s group, spirituality group, conscious aging circle, and conversations with loved ones, and knew that this threat to our way of life was magnitudes worse for vulnerable peoples – immigrants, religious and racial minorities, and the poor. We discussed protests, marches, political action and civil disobedience. I imagine that many of you had similar conversations in your communities as disbelief, shock, grief, tears, fear, insomnia, and horror fragmented psyches all across our land.
What can we do in traumatic times like these? How do we cope? How can we respond? As a psychologist, interfaith minister, mystic and writer on conscious aging, I see this crisis in four dimensions: psychological, spiritual, mystical, and the wisdom of the Sage. Let’s spend some time in each of these dimensions and then see where we end up. Also, as you proceed through this piece, go slowly, consciously consider each idea and suggestion, notice where and how you respond, and let yourself be changed. This paper is a call for profound personal growth and real awakening.
Psychological
This pain hurts. It cuts deep. Its scale is traumatizing. At times like these, we are tempted to explode in rage, run away, or go numb, responses consistent with our deepest animal instincts of fight, flight, or freeze. We might add a fourth emotional response – collapse. However none of these responses will solve our problem. We are too raw, and the realities we face too complex, to fix things with such reactively. We need to process our pain instead, to work on it until we have a clearer and more stable sense of who we are and what the problem really is.
Here are some suggestions for working in the psychological dimension:
• What we need most in the beginning is to support each other with compassion and understanding, to hold our shattered hearts until some basic healing begins. We are too broken and traumatized to act constructively.
• Feel your feelings. Let yourself experience the full range of emotion. Feelings are not reality but they need to be processed if we are to act effectively. Don’t be impatient or critical with yourself or others; we are all struggling, we are doing the best we know how at this moment.
• While reactive behavior toward perceived enemies can vent emotion, it is often premature and counterproductive in crisis circumstances, causing recurring cycles of reactivity on all sides. When all the acting out is done, you’ll still have to deal with the underlying pain.
• Remember that anything you feel changes as you feel it. That’s what working through means. More importantly, you’ll see the situation more clearly as painful emotions heal and release their energy for constructive planning.
• Working through also involves seeking new insights into oneself and others. What does your emotional reaction say about your values, assumptions and beliefs, and what else what may be going inside you and in the country that is important but not obvious? New insights catalyze new ways of thinking that can move us beyond reactivity into greater psychological understanding.
• Stay in community, don’t isolate. We need each other more than ever. Divided, we cower, together we can be an amazing force of healing, creativity and commitment.
• Working though trauma at the personal and community levels inevitably takes time – in this case, it will take weeks, months, even years. Stay with it. Our lives and our community will grow as we process this struggle together.
• Continually assess reality. What’s happening right now? How are things changing? Which issues are fading and which growing? Reality is evolving too. When the time comes, action needs to be grounded in an objective awareness of actual circumstances.
Spiritual
Each of us creates a personal spirituality – beliefs about the divine, the ultimate significance of life and death, and what it means to be human – based on our religious background, individual experiences, and thoughtful reflections. No two people have the same spirituality even in the same religion. One of the gifts of spirituality, however, is that it can provide a framework of hope and values to support us in times of crisis.
Here are some ideas for working in the spiritual dimension:
• Ask yourself big questions like “What are my ultimate spiritual beliefs about why things happen?” “What is the spiritual significance of all this?” “What might our shared traumatization and polarized relationships suggest about humanity’s spiritual evolution?”
• Take some time to wonder what the world’s great religious teachers would tell us about this situation and how we should respond to it.
• Return to your spiritual practices, like prayer, meditation, and yoga. Your inner stability will be restored as the mind settles and you ground yourself once again in your spiritual values.
• Let your beliefs and practices awaken the love, compassion and courage inherent in your spirituality. Realize that this struggle now engages your spiritual practice.
• Ask yourself “What is my spiritual purpose or work here?” Write at least ten responses and then see which ones feel the most valid.
Mystical
Mysticism refers to first hand experiences of the divine – moments when we feel touched or surrounded by a safe and loving consciousness that many call the Presence. We can come into God’s Presence in countless ways, through spiritual practices like prayer, meditation or tai chi; time spent in nature; inspired reading; the experience of awe in the night sky, great cathedrals or natural wonders; extraordinary moments like childbirth, sudden danger, or the death of a loved one; and even the zone of athletic endurance. In the experience of Presence, time stops, the mind ceases its chatter, and we feel one with the living divine universe, safe and loved in a world that is infinitely beautiful, precious and sacred. In the Presence, our lives are far different than we think and so full of love.
Here are some ideas for working in the mystical dimension:
• Reflect on when and where you sense the divine Presence. Spend time quieting the mind and experiencing God’s consciousness in or around you. What does it feel like?
• The direct experience of Presence heals us. Upsets and reactions are softened, violent emotions melt away, and calmness gradually restores. We discover again that reactivity breeds reactivity but Presence brings peace.
• Spending time in the Presence also changes us as people, making us more like the Presence itself. We become more centered, serene, patient, loving and kind, more aware of the beauty and value of everyday life and all living things. We become better people. We learn to stand in the fires of change without losing ourselves.
• Time in the Presence doesn’t fix problems, but it profoundly changes our perception of them. From this deep sense of peace, we see behind others’ masks of hatred and blame into their vulnerability and woundedness. We experience compassion.
• Consciousness filled with Presence is the source of all genuine and spiritually enlightened action. Spend time in the Presence before considering any action and always ask for its guidance. Then try to stay in the Presence as you act in the world.
• Discover the power of love. Mystical unity means that we are the One and that in oneness our sincere intentions can effect the entire field of being.
The Sage’s Wisdom
Conscious elders are everyday people who decide to approach aging with clarity and intention. For them, growing old emphasizes the growing. Conscious elders seek to understand the meaning of their life stories, heal old emotional wounds and put their affairs in order. They explore their hopes and fears, face their mortality, and deepen their spirituality and relationship with the divine. They create a personal legacy to leave for others and continue to express the unfolding self. In this process, and drawing from decades of experience, conscious elders acquire enormous wisdom about themselves, human history and the purpose of life. From this wisdom, they find the authority of the transpersonal voice, a voice that speaks for humanity, all sentient beings, and the future we create for coming generations. Depending on one’s Sagely talents, the conscious elder may be a wisdomkeeper, historian, healer, mentor, teacher, mystic, prophet, or protector of ultimate values. Which are you?
Here are some ideas for working in the Sage’s dimension:
• Review all you have learned about conscious aging in books, classes and workshops. Use these insights to become your best and most mature self. This is the self that evolves into the Sage, the self that can act maturely in the world.
• Enter the awakened consciousness of the Sage. Here’s one way to do that: Stop thinking for a moment, heighten sensory awareness, and open your capacity for awe. In this state of radical awe, sense the Presence all around you. As your consciousness expands, trust your own knowing – the wisdom, love, joy and compassion that arise in this mystical experience. Notice how differently the world its problems appear in this state.
• Find your own voice but speak for all beings. Speak clearly, calmly, consciously. Speak with a moral voice. Stand behind your words.
• Apply the unique gifts and talents that make up your True Self to the challenges we now face. Find out what brings you alive and do that for the world.
• Use the savvy acquired in sixty or seventy years of life to approach problems from a higher perspective. This is not your first rodeo. You’ve seen this before. Be present more than action-oriented in the beginning, skillful more than confronting, and let your doing come from deep being.
• If you’re not an elder, use the life experience you have acquired so far and act from the best and highest self you can muster. Wisdom is not limited only to conscious elders.
• Use non-adversarial communication and deep listening. Don’t talk at or over people, listen with your heart and ask deep and sincere questions. Let everyone participate in creating solutions.
• Build loving community with all people, friends, strangers and adversaries alike.
• Grow into a Divine Human filled with love. Be unafraid to stand for love.
How to Live on Four Levels
I hope you are beginning to see the immense resources available to all of us from these four dimensions of experience. We are neither helpless nor alone. In fact, every thought and action now becomes sacred, every possibility filled with divine potential for healing and transformation.
Here are some final ideas for working in all four dimensions:
• Use the resources available in each dimension to address your experience of trauma. What are you learning? How are you changing?
• Try not to use one dimension to avoid another (for example, thinking that the Presence will fix things without your involvement or that being a sage means you won’t hurt any more); that never works for long. Conversely don’t ignore any dimension for each contributes something incredibly valuable for coping with trauma.
• With each new development in this national drama, move again through the four dimensions, returning to the work of feelings, spiritual meaning, mystical awareness and Sagely wisdom.
• Distrust simple and reactive answers. We are multifaceted beings in a multidimensional world – simple and impulsive answers are nearly always suspect.
• Work in all dimensions concurrently to evolve a plan for mature action. Eventually they will blend into one. Then you’re ready. Then you know who you really are and what you must do.
• Stay in community. Share your feelings. Support others. Love the world and assist the whole human family in solving its problems. We will only succeed if we all succeed.
Conclusions
We elders have been here before. We were here during the Civil Rights Movement and the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. We were here during the Viet Nam War. We were here following 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will be here again. This is not the end; it is another call to grow in consciousness, love, courage, goodness and wisdom. We are in this for the long run. Though we cannot know what will happen, we can act from our deepest knowing and our greatest love, for these are the fundamental ingredients of constructive and long lasting change.
Now go back over your responses to the ideas and suggestions presented in each dimension. Identify two or three “aha’s” that really moved you. These personal responses begin your path through this trauma. See where it leads. As I said at the start, this paper is a call for profound personal growth and real awakening. Maybe that’s the ultimate purpose of our struggle.
About the Author
John Robinson is a psychologist with a second doctorate in ministry, an ordained interfaith minister, and the author of nine books on the psychology, spirituality, mysticism of the New Aging. Recent books on aging include The Three Secrets of Aging, Bedtime Stories for Elders, What Aging Men Want, Breakthrough, and The Divine Human. Learn more about his work at his website.
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Theologically Thoughtful Christmas Cards by BeyonderingThis Christmas, rather than tired and clichéd cards, why not send your friends and family a card with a message which more truly reflects the subversive and world-changing message of Christmas. These 10 unique designs are a little bit subversive, a little bit funny. Cards such as:* Tidings of Discomfort and Joy
* I’m dreaming of an ethnically diverse Christmas
* Merry Resistmas
… plus more!
Cards come in either a 10 pack of all designs or in individually selected packs of 5.
So purchase your cards BEFORE December 11th through our online store and also check out the Beyondering podcast and make sure that this Christmas, it really is the thought that counts!
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Liturgy Selection
Christmas Poetry
The season of Christmas holds a myriad of emotions, and that makes it fertile ground for the poet. Poetry as part of liturgy can help us express those emotions in our worship services, sometimes even better than prose can. The season of Christmas holds a myriad of emotions, and that makes it fertile ground for the poet. Poetry as part of liturgy can help us express those emotions in our worship services, sometimes even better than prose can. Most of the classical poets wrote about Christmas (try googling “Christmas poetry” for a selection). Here are some from contemporary sources.
Incarnation Meditation by Jim Burklo
The season of Christmas holds a myriad of emotions, and that makes it fertile ground for the poet. Poetry as part of liturgy can help us express those emotions in our worship services, sometimes even better than prose can. The season of Christmas holds a myriad of emotions, and that makes it fertile ground for the poet. Poetry as part of liturgy can help us express those emotions in our worship services, sometimes even better than prose can. Most of the classical poets wrote about Christmas (try googling “Christmas poetry” for a selection). Here are some from contemporary sources.
Incarnation Meditation by Jim Burklo
I am what comes before sand and sandstoneChickens and eggs.
I am the unproven truth
On which all proofs depend.
So why this stirring, this painful urge
To emerge through the cosmic pelvis?
Why this wanting to breathe thin air,
To play in the dirt, to shave wood, to cleave to flesh?
To make friends I could lose,
To share love that could break,
To mingle in blood and spit and mud?
On this side I am a wingless angel floating,
Sustained by all that surrounds me,
Breathless in bliss, in timeless sabbath rest.
On this side, I am someone else’s idea.
All that without will or effort is, I am.
Out there are choices to be made:
Laments or laughter, caresses or crosses.
Out there are surprises —
Unspeakable horrors, ineffable ecstasies.
Out there is a Way,
Narrow or wide, slippery or safe?
Out there I dread, but yearn to go….
Out there is Christmas.
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Christmas Haiku by Rev. Roger Lynn
Christmas Haiku by Rev. Roger Lynn
Advent comes againtime for watching and waiting
fill your days with hope
God is with us now
even in the darkest times
joy is our response
peace seems so fragile
in the midst of our fighting
but shalom endures
trusting God – we wait
knowing that love will find us
indeed, it is here!
God’s gift at Christmas
Emmanuel – God with us
now and forever
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Modern Magnificat by Joy Cowley
Modern Magnificat by Joy Cowley
My soul sings in gratitude.I’m dancing in the mystery of God.
The light of the Holy One is within me
and I am blessed, so truly blessed.
This goes deeper than human thinking.
I am filled with awe
at Love whose only condition
is to be received.
The gift is not for the proud,
for they have no room for it.
The strong and self-sufficient ones
don’t have this awareness.
But those who know their emptiness
can rejoice in Love’s fullness.
It’s the Love that we are made for,
the reason for our being.
It fills our inmost heart space
and brings to birth in us, the Holy One.
from John Shelby Spong’s website “A New Christianity for A New World” 19 Dec 2007
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We are delighted to announce our first Embrace Festival! May 4-6, 2017 in Portland, OregonEmbrace Festival is a 3 day, international, sacred community and social transformation gathering, which will be held May 4-6, 2017 in beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon for those wishing to positively transform their lives, their local communities, and the world.
Vision
In May 2017, people from all over the world will gather in Portland to share knowledge and wisdom, learn from each other, celebrate, be inspired, and find the tools needed to create and enliven local movements within our communities. Together we will explore Sacred Oneness, Christ Consciousness, Eco-Spirituality, Social Justice and the way of Universal and Personal Transformation that honors the Divine in all.
We want you there! Please save the date and consider joining us! Tickets are currently set at Early Bird Pricing so take advantage and get yours soon!
We are delighted to announce our first
Embrace Festival!
Embrace Festival is a 3 day, international, sacred community and social transformation gathering, which will be held May 4-6, 2017 in beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon for those wishing to positively transform their lives, their local communities, and the world.
Vision
In May 2017, people from all over the world will gather in Portland, Oregon to share knowledge and wisdom, learn from each other, celebrate, be inspired, and find the tools needed to create and enliven local movements within our communities. Together we will explore Sacred Oneness, Christ Consciousness, Eco-Spirituality, Social Justice and the way of Universal and Personal Transformation that honors the Divine in all.
We want you there! Please save the date and consider joining us! Tickets are currently set at Early Bird Pricing.
Venues
Portland Art Museum
First Congregational UCC
Eliot Center
Offerings
3 day event including:
Presentations by over 30 leaders, teachers, authors, theologians, activists, and artists
Ceremony and Ritual Celebration, Dance, Entertainment Live Art, Music and Performance
Sacred Community, Social Gathering & Networking
Learning, Worshops, & Breakouts Additional Leadership Training Track/Certification
Yoga, Qi Gong, Meditation, Dance, Drum circles
Village Marketplace with art, music, books, crafts, and more!
Join us as we co-create a new vision that we can all take into the world and into our local communities, creating positive transformation at the local and global levels.
Intentions
Our intention is to engage the hearts and minds of those present in finding the divine in each other and in all things, to inspire and enliven local movements and communities, to celebrate, play, and co-create a deeper vision for the future of a new Christianity and spirituality as a whole. We aim to raise consciousness, build bridges toward unity and sacred oneness, and eradicate the illusion of separation from each other. We invite participants to be open to new music, new liturgies, and new ideas that inspire hopefulness about the future. We invite participants to embrace a global community of people who will share in inspiration and knowledge. It is our intention that practical guidance will be offered so that we might heal ourselves, our communities, and the planet in on-going ways moving forward.
Visit EmbraceFestival.com to buy tickets and find out more!
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View all upcoming events here!
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FacebookTwitterWebsiteEmailYouTubeCopyright © 2016 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
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Gig Harbor, Washington 98335, United States
------- Weekly Recap for Tuesday, November 29, 2016 from ProgressiveChristianity.org from Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Can you love your neighbors as radically as Jesus did? This and more in our Free Weekly Recap of our most viewed and new resources from last week."
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Weekly Recap for Tuesday, November 29, 2016 from ProgressiveChristianity.org from Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Can you love your neighbors as radically as Jesus did? 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: Progressive Christian Doctrine, Social Justice, Racial Injustice and Giving Thanks.
Visit our website to join in on the discussion and to view our thousands of spiritual resources!
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ProgressiveChristianity.org is a global portal for authors, scholars, theologians and liturgists to share their resources for the progressive spiritual journey. 
Progressive Christian Unapologetics
Jim BurkloWhen it comes to doctrine, we progressive Christians have nothing for which to apologize. We don’t believe the old dogma that gets in the way of kindness, inclusion, science, and common sense. No wonder, then, that few of us know much about “apologetics”, a major preoccupation of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who memorize answers to the dozens of common objections to their doctrines.
Recently I met with a student in an emotional crisis because she questioned the doctrines of the campus evangelical club to which she belongs. She was deeply disturbed about the origin of the Christian Bible. She rightly questioned the dogma that it is the literal Word of a supernatural God. She realized that the whole edifice of evangelical theology is founded on the assumption that the Bible is the true, final, authoritative expression of God’s will. But if the Bible is the product of human beings with their own points of view and axes to grind, rather than directly inspired by The Guy in the Sky, that pulls the ace out of evangelicalism’s tottery house of cards.
She asked specific questions, and I gave her specific answers. After forty-five minutes, she stood up and left because otherwise she was going to be late for class. As she walked out the door, I realized that while I answered her questions, I had failed to ask her ones that were just as important. Why does this question matter to you? How do you feel about your doubts and uncertainties? What is at stake for you in this exploration? Are you afraid that if you died right now, you might end up in hell? This is a real concern of many evangelical Christians who harbor doubts about the beliefs they are expected to espouse.
Progressive Christian unapologetics begins with deep compassion for people who have been mortally terrorized with the threat of eternal damnation for failing to accept doctrines that don’t make sense to folks like this student who was blessed, or perhaps cursed, with a keen intellect and a natural curiosity.
We have little to defend, but a lot to describe. Because the oppressive religion that drove this smart, inquisitive young woman into an emotional and spiritual crisis has come to define Christianity in America. If we want to be effective in offering a viable alternative, we must explain our faith at three levels: street signs, elevator speeches, and “white papers”.
Some progressive Christian “street signs”:
Love is our God: kindness is our religion
We keep the faith and drop the dogma
Our deeds are our creeds
The Jesus story is a true myth
We take the Bible seriously, not literally
Questions matter more than answers
Our way to God is good, and so are other ways
Park your car in our lot, but not your brain
God is bigger than our religion
God evolves and so does our faith
We celebrate same-sex marriages
A progressive Christian “elevator speech”: In loving fellowship, we progressive Christians follow the historic traditions of Christian faith, interpreting and practicing them in light of social and scientific progress. We worship God, who is Love, and we follow Jesus’ way of radical compassion. We find grace in intellectual engagement with our faith. We believe there is more value in questioning than in absolute answers. The Bible gives us a beautiful language to express our spiritual experience: we find inspiration in its myths and its poetry. We affirm that other religions can be as good for others as ours is good for us: we are eager to learn from other faiths. We are called to preserve our earth as a heavenly place of peace, justice, kindness, inclusion, and beauty. (More at The 8 Points of Progressive Christianity)
“White papers”: books such as my own “Open Christianity” or my condensed version of the same thesis: “What Is Progressive Christianity?”
At one point in my conversation with the student, as I was describing the stories about Moses in the Hebrew Scriptures as mythological, she asked: “What about the plagues? You don’t believe that the Nile turned to blood?” I answered: “No, but it is still an important part of the myth of the Exodus.” Following an apologetic script, she said, “But it could have been an algae bloom in the water that turned it red.” If that was the case, the red of the nile Nile was neither blood nor miracle, but rather a natural phenomenon needing no explanation based on supernatural intervention. One branch of evangelical apologetics consists of attempts to validate the miracle stories of the Bible in this futile manner.
Progressive Christianity offers liberation from such tortured mental gymnastics. There’s another way to practice the faith, another way to understand it. One that takes all that energy wasted on defending the implausible, and focuses it on something much more difficult and important: loving our neighbors, and even our enemies, as radically as Jesus did.
ABOUT JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See the GUIDE to my articles and books
Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California
READ ON ...
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ProgressiveChristianity.org Interview Series – Social Justice
Recently I met with a student in an emotional crisis because she questioned the doctrines of the campus evangelical club to which she belongs. She was deeply disturbed about the origin of the Christian Bible. She rightly questioned the dogma that it is the literal Word of a supernatural God. She realized that the whole edifice of evangelical theology is founded on the assumption that the Bible is the true, final, authoritative expression of God’s will. But if the Bible is the product of human beings with their own points of view and axes to grind, rather than directly inspired by The Guy in the Sky, that pulls the ace out of evangelicalism’s tottery house of cards.
She asked specific questions, and I gave her specific answers. After forty-five minutes, she stood up and left because otherwise she was going to be late for class. As she walked out the door, I realized that while I answered her questions, I had failed to ask her ones that were just as important. Why does this question matter to you? How do you feel about your doubts and uncertainties? What is at stake for you in this exploration? Are you afraid that if you died right now, you might end up in hell? This is a real concern of many evangelical Christians who harbor doubts about the beliefs they are expected to espouse.
Progressive Christian unapologetics begins with deep compassion for people who have been mortally terrorized with the threat of eternal damnation for failing to accept doctrines that don’t make sense to folks like this student who was blessed, or perhaps cursed, with a keen intellect and a natural curiosity.
We have little to defend, but a lot to describe. Because the oppressive religion that drove this smart, inquisitive young woman into an emotional and spiritual crisis has come to define Christianity in America. If we want to be effective in offering a viable alternative, we must explain our faith at three levels: street signs, elevator speeches, and “white papers”.
Some progressive Christian “street signs”:
Love is our God: kindness is our religion
We keep the faith and drop the dogma
Our deeds are our creeds
The Jesus story is a true myth
We take the Bible seriously, not literally
Questions matter more than answers
Our way to God is good, and so are other ways
Park your car in our lot, but not your brain
God is bigger than our religion
God evolves and so does our faith
We celebrate same-sex marriages
A progressive Christian “elevator speech”: In loving fellowship, we progressive Christians follow the historic traditions of Christian faith, interpreting and practicing them in light of social and scientific progress. We worship God, who is Love, and we follow Jesus’ way of radical compassion. We find grace in intellectual engagement with our faith. We believe there is more value in questioning than in absolute answers. The Bible gives us a beautiful language to express our spiritual experience: we find inspiration in its myths and its poetry. We affirm that other religions can be as good for others as ours is good for us: we are eager to learn from other faiths. We are called to preserve our earth as a heavenly place of peace, justice, kindness, inclusion, and beauty. (More at The 8 Points of Progressive Christianity)
“White papers”: books such as my own “Open Christianity” or my condensed version of the same thesis: “What Is Progressive Christianity?”
At one point in my conversation with the student, as I was describing the stories about Moses in the Hebrew Scriptures as mythological, she asked: “What about the plagues? You don’t believe that the Nile turned to blood?” I answered: “No, but it is still an important part of the myth of the Exodus.” Following an apologetic script, she said, “But it could have been an algae bloom in the water that turned it red.” If that was the case, the red of the nile Nile was neither blood nor miracle, but rather a natural phenomenon needing no explanation based on supernatural intervention. One branch of evangelical apologetics consists of attempts to validate the miracle stories of the Bible in this futile manner.
Progressive Christianity offers liberation from such tortured mental gymnastics. There’s another way to practice the faith, another way to understand it. One that takes all that energy wasted on defending the implausible, and focuses it on something much more difficult and important: loving our neighbors, and even our enemies, as radically as Jesus did.
ABOUT JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See the GUIDE to my articles and books
Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California
READ ON ...
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ProgressiveChristianity.org Interview Series – Social Justice
Toni Reynolds, a Union Theological Seminary student and “Young Leader in Religion”, shares her thoughts on what social justice issue she is being called to work on right now.
Toni Reynolds, a Union Theological Seminary student and “Young Leader in Religion”, shares her thoughts on what social justice issue she is being called to work on right now.
These interviews were conducted by ProgressiveChristianity.org at a Westar meeting as part of a series on Christianity, spirituality, religion, church, God, Jesus, sacred community, social justice, youth, and social transformation. More to come soon!
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“Stay Woke” this Thanksgiving!
These interviews were conducted by ProgressiveChristianity.org at a Westar meeting as part of a series on Christianity, spirituality, religion, church, God, Jesus, sacred community, social justice, youth, and social transformation. More to come soon!
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“Stay Woke” this Thanksgiving!
Irene MonroeAs I prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday, I am reminded of the autumnal harvest time’s spiritual significance. As a time of connectedness, I pause to acknowledge what I have to be thankful for.However, as one who resides at the intersections of multiple identities – gender, race, sexual orientation, class, to name a few, – this Thanksgiving, nonetheless, will be challenging for me because I wake up each morning hoping to find the portal to November 7th, the day before the election, to linger and dream and feel safe there a little while longer than where I am presently. I never thought a 2016 presidential election would have me not only time travel back to the 1950s and 1960s, but reside there at least for the next four years.
While this Thanksgiving season might not feel like a cause to celebrate for many of us I realize for many of my Native American brothers and sisters this holiday has felt this way for centuries, irrespective who was elected as president.
Historically, since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Coles Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning of this U.S. holiday. And for the Wampanoag nation of New England whose name means “people of the dawn,” this national holiday is a reminder of the real significance of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 as a symbol of persecution and genocide of their ancestral nation and culture as well as their long history of bloodshed with European settlers.
However, the Pilgrims, who sought refuge here in America from religious persecution in their homeland, were right in their dogged pursuit of religious liberty. But their actual practice of religious liberty came at the expense of the civil rights of Native Americans.
Case in point: homophobia is not indigenous to Native American culture. Rather, it is one of the many devastating effects of colonization and Christian missionaries that today Two-Spirits may be respected within one tribe yet ostracized in another.
“Homophobia was taught to us as a component of Western education and religion,” Navajo anthropologist Wesley Thomas has written. “We were presented with an entirely new set of taboos, which did not correspond to our own models and which focused on sexual behavior rather than the intricate roles Two-Spirit people played. As a result of this misrepresentation, our nations no longer accepted us as they once had.”
Traditionally, Two-Spirits symbolized Native Americans’ acceptance and celebration of diverse gender expressions and sexual identities. They were revered as inherently sacred because they possessed and manifested both feminine and masculine spiritual qualities that were believed to bestow upon them a “universal knowledge” and special spiritual connectedness with the “Great Spirit.” Although the term was coined in the early 1990s, historically Two-Spirits depicted transgender Native Americans. Today, the term has come to also include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Native Americans.
The Pilgrims’ animus toward homosexuals, especially Two-Spirits and LGBTQ Native Americans not only impacted Native American culture, but it also shaped Puritan law and theology.
Here in the New England states, the anti-sodomy rhetoric had punitive if not deadly consequences for a newly developing and sparsely populated area. The Massachusetts Bay Code of 1641 called for the death of not only heretics, witches and murderers, but also “sodomites,” stating that death would come swiftly to any “man lying with a man as with a woman.” And the renowned Puritan pastor and Harvard tutor, the Rev. Samuel Danforth in his 1674 “ fire and brimstone” sermon preached to his congregation that the death sentence for sodomites had to be imposed because it was a biblical mandate.
Because the Pilgrims’ fervor for religious liberty was devoid of an ethic of accountability, their actions did not set up the conditions requisite for moral liability and legal justice. Instead, the actions of the Pilgrims brought about the genocide of a people, a historical amnesia of the event, and an annual parade and national celebration of Thanksgiving for their arrival.
This Thanksgiving might not look hopeful for many but I draw my strength and models of justice from the interconnections and intersections of various struggles and activist groups across the nation as well as the world.
For example, the United American Indians of New England (UAINE), a Native-led organization of Native people supports Indigenous struggles in New England and throughout the Americas, as well as the struggles of communities of color, LGBTQ, Muslims, women, and yes, the Pilgrim refugees who arrived in the 1600’s.
“Most pilgrims would have died during the harsh winter had it not been for the open arms of the Native Americans,” Taylor Bell wrote in ’The Hypocrisy Of Refusing Refugees at Thanksgiving.”
Trump’s presidency worries me. But I’m optimistic in spite of this difficult and divided time America is in because the words and acts of justice spring up organically in places and times and even in people you least expect from, signaling the struggle continues on.
“We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us — our planet, our children, our parents — or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us… This wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men [and] women of different colors, creeds, and orientations, “Brandon Victor Dixon, the actor who portrays Aaron Burr in the Broadway hit “Hamilton,” told Vice President-elect Mike Pence during his night at the theater.
It is in the spirit of our connected struggles for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we not solely focus on the story of Plymouth Rock, but instead as Americans we focus on creating this nation as a solid rock that rests on a multicultural and inclusive foundation.
And in so doing, it helps us to remember and respect the struggles that not only this nation’s foremothers and forefathers endured, but it also helps us to remember and respect the present-day struggle many disenfranchised communities across the country face – especially our Native American brothers and sisters, particularly on Thanksgiving Day.
***“Get woke” and “Stay woke” refers to being aware of what’s going on around you in regards to racism and social injustice issues. “Woke” is the past tense of “wake,” and it refers to waking up to what’s going on around us.
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Liturgy SelectionGiving Thanks
Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but giving thanks is a practice for everyone, around the world, at all times. Thankfulness – gratitude — is one of the keys to a happy life.
Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but giving thanks is a practice for everyone, around the world, at all times. Thankfulness – gratitude — is one of the keys to a happy life. As the 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart is often quoted, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you,’ that will suffice.”
Everything I needed by Dawn Grace Peters
One: I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.Many: I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to learn to solve.
One: I asked for prosperity and God gave me a brain and brawn to work.
Many: I asked for courage and God gave me dangers to overcome.
One: I asked for love and God gave me people to help.
Many: I asked for favors and God gave me opportunities.
All: I received nothing I wanted and everything I needed.
Rev. Dawn Peters, First Congregational Church, San Jose, CA
read more
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God Gives, God Takes by Rabbi Allen S. Maller
God gives
opportunities
but not forever.
God takes opportunities away
after a while.
So don’t hesitate or delay
or curse the darkness
while remaining mired in hopelessness,
because God gives;
and God takes away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD.
But why bless the LORD when God takes away?
Because if the opportunities
were always there,
we would wait until the time was right
and never make the leap,
and another year would waste away.
So each year God gives and God takes away
opportunities for a better year.
read more
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God Gives, God Takes by Rabbi Allen S. Maller
God givesopportunities
but not forever.
God takes opportunities away
after a while.
So don’t hesitate or delay
or curse the darkness
while remaining mired in hopelessness,
because God gives;
and God takes away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD.
But why bless the LORD when God takes away?
Because if the opportunities
were always there,
we would wait until the time was right
and never make the leap,
and another year would waste away.
So each year God gives and God takes away
opportunities for a better year.
read more
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The World Needs Love by Philip Sudworth
The World Needs Love by Philip Sudworth
Tune: FinlandiaThe world needs love; so many hearts are hurting.
Lord, work through us, help us to spread your peace,
bringing to all – through your forgiving spirit –
freedom from guilt, from bitterness release.
Reconcile us; help us to share your calmness,
’till anger stills and all our conflicts cease.
The world needs hope, a vision for the future,
what life might be, if all would live in you.
Help us to lead – through your transforming spirit –
lives that reflect what you would have us do,
to share our gifts, show forth your loving kindness,
encourage all to find their hope in you.
The world needs faith, a willing dedication
of all we are and all we might yet be.
Help us to serve – through your empowering spirit –
in active faith in our community.
Love for each soul, respecting and upholding,
declares the worth of all humanity.
The world needs joy, a sense of celebration
that human lives have such diversity.
Help us to see – through your dynamic spirit –each person’s part in life’s vitality.
Sharing our joys, supporting others’ sorrows
make our small world a better place to be.© Philip Sudworth 2002
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What can we do in these extreme times from ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Violence, greed, disparity, inequality...it can all feel overwhelming. What can be done to grow the movement of inclusion, equality, and social and environmental justice?"
We are facing extreme times and strong resistance to social and environmental justice. Fundamentalism, the Religious Right movement, and continued class inequality, institutional racism, and economic disparity are fueling confusion, despair and violence. With each step we take forward it’s as if the regressive element of our society fights harder to prevent it.
Join the people of ProgressiveChristianity.org who are leading the way in shaping values and affecting positive social change. Our actions, leadership, resources, curricula, and liturgies have been easing the pain, suffering and degradation inherent in society today. For 20 years Progressive Christianity has been changing the world by encouraging spiritually minded individuals and organizations to adopt a revitalized faith.
Progressive Christianity transforms the world and individuals by:
Teaching and spreading a path of joy and loving kindness
Reclaiming a compassion based Christianity
Taking a stand against exclusion, hate, ignorance, and violence
Recognizing Jesus as a historic teacher and activist
Encouraging peaceful and positive inter-faith relations
Nourishing a deep spirituality in children
Building and supporting community around intention and meaningful action
Encouraging protection and restoration of our earth home.
Today is Giving Tuesday...If you contribute, your donation will help to change the world one person, one church, one law, at a time – just like your life may have been changed as you began to move toward a more progressive Christianity. Your gifttoday enables us to lead the fight for a compassionate Christianity with intellectual integrity and REAL RESULTS. We desperately need your gifts to continue the cause.
We have changed hearts and minds, now we need to change policies and actions.
How? Through writing letters, calling people out, informing Christian leaders, changing the way church is done, contacting news outlets, and using social media to change the way Christianity interacts with government and affect policies.
Please donate now as we work toward of goal of $60,000 raised during our annual end of year fundraiser. As a thank you for your donation of any amount we will send you a free copy of our 8 Points Study Guide PDF.
.We simply can't do this without you. Help us continue to grow this vital movement.
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What can we do in these extreme times from ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Violence, greed, disparity, inequality...it can all feel overwhelming. What can be done to grow the movement of inclusion, equality, and social and environmental justice?"We are facing extreme times and strong resistance to social and environmental justice. Fundamentalism, the Religious Right movement, and continued class inequality, institutional racism, and economic disparity are fueling confusion, despair and violence. With each step we take forward it’s as if the regressive element of our society fights harder to prevent it.
Join the people of ProgressiveChristianity.org who are leading the way in shaping values and affecting positive social change. Our actions, leadership, resources, curricula, and liturgies have been easing the pain, suffering and degradation inherent in society today. For 20 years Progressive Christianity has been changing the world by encouraging spiritually minded individuals and organizations to adopt a revitalized faith.
Progressive Christianity transforms the world and individuals by:
Teaching and spreading a path of joy and loving kindness
Reclaiming a compassion based Christianity
Taking a stand against exclusion, hate, ignorance, and violence
Recognizing Jesus as a historic teacher and activist
Encouraging peaceful and positive inter-faith relations
Nourishing a deep spirituality in children
Building and supporting community around intention and meaningful action
Encouraging protection and restoration of our earth home.
Today is Giving Tuesday...If you contribute, your donation will help to change the world one person, one church, one law, at a time – just like your life may have been changed as you began to move toward a more progressive Christianity. Your gifttoday enables us to lead the fight for a compassionate Christianity with intellectual integrity and REAL RESULTS. We desperately need your gifts to continue the cause.
We have changed hearts and minds, now we need to change policies and actions.
How? Through writing letters, calling people out, informing Christian leaders, changing the way church is done, contacting news outlets, and using social media to change the way Christianity interacts with government and affect policies.
Please donate now as we work toward of goal of $60,000 raised during our annual end of year fundraiser. As a thank you for your donation of any amount we will send you a free copy of our 8 Points Study Guide PDF.
.We simply can't do this without you. Help us continue to grow this vital movement.
Donate today
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ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Point Fosdick Drive NW#80
Gig Harbor, Washington 98335, United States
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