Seeing More Clearly

Gospel Lectionary Reading - Reflections on Mark 9:2-9 - Transfiguration Sunday

2012-02-14T13:34:00.000+02:00

Richard Rohr has described us as circumference people with little access to the centre. He goes on to say that we live on the boundaries of our lives confusing edges with essence. Putting it simply, it's like looking at an orange and confusing its skin for the orange itself, thus, missing the very heart and taste of the fruit. Of course, the skin isn't bad, it's part of the orange, but there's far more to the orange than its skin. In the same way circumferences are not bad, they're part of life, but there's far more depth to life than its circumferences.

I'm convinced that behind all of life, deeper than its circumferences and boundaries, there is the brilliance of personal transformational Divine Presence, energy and spiritually charged movement, out of which all creation flows. Many have touched this reality through what can only be described as mystical and self-transcendent experiences that have had both extraordinary and ordinary elements about them. I have just recently described two such ordinary experiences on my new blog Natural Presence, if you're interested in reading them.

The transfiguration of Jesus, which we celebrate this coming Sunday, reminds us of all this. Not only does it describe in the most wonderful way his relationship with the Divine, but it also lifts the veil and enables us to see in to that spiritually charged and transfiguring reality. Bruce Epperly describes it as this: "Dazzling to all who behold him, Jesus’ mystical quantum identity is revealed. Who knows what the disciples actually experienced? But, for a moment, they may have seen the lively energy in the depths of reality, shining forth from Jesus." You can't come away from an experience like that without being transfigured yourself in some way or other.

I have often asked myself, what it is that enables us to look throught the circumferences of life and in to its dazzling and transfiguring essence? Three things have stood out for me and all three were profoundly part of Jesus' life.

First, a contemplative way of seeing things. Jesus saw a woman baking bread and putting yeast in to it, but in the action he contemplated the reality of God. He saw a sower planting seed, and in that action he again saw the reality of God. Jesus looked with contemplative eyes and always saw the Divine reality behind it all. It's one of the great gifts he gives to each of us.

Second, he was one who was aquainted with suffering, both in others and in himself. To be in the presence of suffering, or to suffer, in whatever form, has this ability to take us in to depths we don't normally experience. Suffering transfigures us and enables us to perceive with far more clarity and intensity.

Third, creative imagination. Imagining, and creating out of this imagining, somehow puts us in touch with this spiritually charged and moving reality. To be at one with it is to be at one with the Divine creative process, and this can lift us in to a transcendence and fulfilment which often has dimensions of ecstacy about it.

So, this Sunday we celebrate the transfiguration of Jesus, and as we do, let's remember the words of that wonderful poet, Elizabeth Barret Browning, “Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes. The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”

Let's stop plucking berries and rather seek to truly see, and in the process be transfigured by what we see.

Part 5 - Process Theology - God, Sin and Evil

2012-02-09T15:12:00.000+02:00

In this post we look at Process Theology's attempt at seeking to understand evil and how God relates to it. Again we speak of an "attempt" because that's what it remains, only an attempt. Sin and evil always have a dimension of mystery to them which we cannot grasp. We'll also essentially confine ourselves to moral evil, in other words, the nature of human moral choice.

Now, there's no better place to begin than the temptation narrative in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt 4:1-11). It's the account of Jesus being tempted in the desert. The thing to notice in the story is this: what Jesus faces are two potentialities. The potential for good - the following of God's ideal, but also the potential for evil. These two potentials are neutral while they're awaiting his choice. It's only when he appropriates the one or the other through the action of free choice that it becomes a good or destructive reality in the world. Jesus of course chooses the Divine ideal. Like Jesus we too face the same choices every moment of our lives.

Now, having said that, it's interesting to watch how Jesus engages with both these realities. He doesn't simply suppress the one and refuse to listen to it. The "devil" presents his case. Jesus gives space to this presentation; he listens to it and in his listening discerns that that is not the way to be followed, and hence, chooses the Divine way. And so in a strange way, against the backdrop of the "devil's" presentation, Jesus grasps and begins to understand God's way. It sometimes takes the dark to help us understand and grasp the light. It's as if the devil's presentation helps him to know what he must and must not choose.

Christianity has often failed to see this. It has taught people to simply cut destructive attitudes, or sinful tendencies out of their lives without really listening to them and understanding where they've come from and how they've arisen. Jesus said that we have to be careful of just cutting out the weeds because in doing so we may cut out the wheat also. For example, if you are assailed by constant jealousy it's not going to go away if you simply try and cut it out of your life. But when you engage it, listen to it and discern where it's really coming from, only then does it slowly begin to fall away. It's called working with the shadow side of our lives instead just simply trying to cut it out or suppress it.

Our shadow side, even when destructive has the capacity to inform us about ourselves and about God's way for us. This is precisely what happens with Jesus. God's vision for his life is also informed by the shadow side that addresses him, together with the light which comes to him, and that's how it happens with us. Our choices are of immense importance. They can either add to the light or to the darkness. This is true not just individually, but collectively as well, in fact more so collectively because much of the destruction taking place in the world comes out of powerful collective sources, obviously fueled by individual choices.

And so, it is important for us to understand that Process Theology sees the essence of reality as being made up of the potential for destructiveness and the potential for good. These two concepts are intricately connected, like the dark and light side of a mirror, and are essential in making the world a place where freedom of choice is exercised and where spiritual and moral growth is possible. God works within and through this context, feeling it and experiencing it in its pain and joy, not with a dominant and all powerful power that will simply change it with a stroke, but with a persuasive power drawing us through love in to those paths God has prepared and provided for us, even using our own destructiveness to this end.

On the basis of all this, Process Theology can be seen to be non-dualistic and does not believe in a devil, but sees the name simply as metaphorically representing that which is destructive, or potentially destructive in life and the world..

A word needs to be said about what is often called "natural evil." Here I' ll let a process theologian speak:

"Volcanoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes are not evil in themselves,

but they certainly can have evil effects—“natural evil”—for living

creatures! Illness and death have also been called “natural evils.”

All living creatures are by definition mortal; hence all will die. Is

this what you mean by evil? In a process universe, every creaturely

becoming takes place in a myriad of other creaturely becomings.

There is necessarily a measure of conflict built into the system,

particularly given our interdependence. For process thinkers, this

is all part of the dynamism that makes existence on our planet

possible. Thus, the fact that sentient creatures experience pain is

part of the price of our existence."

I would like to add to this: It's precisely these kinds of natural disasters and illnesses which have drawn out human responses of profound love and compassion. In them we've witnessed the Divine at work through human agency in the most beautiful and inspiring ways. Again, strangely, it's the very destructiveness and evil which brings out these kinds of Divine/human responses which rise with beauty and nobility above the events themselves.

Let me end by saying again, this post is not meant to be an exhaustive explanation of sin and evil. Rather, it's meant to stimulate questions and thinking, not to give answers. I hope it will do precisely that.

Just a Bit of News

2012-02-07T12:26:00.001+02:00

Something I enjoy very much is how everyday things seem to have presence and a voice. They speak in to our experience and address our lives in all sorts of ways. It's almost as if they present us with a kind of natural spirituality. It's a part of my experience which I've tried to nurture and keep free from assertive religious influences.

I've also noticed how this side to my experience has often informed and nurtured my Christian walk, challenged and broadened it. Some may wonder, why this separation? Well, I don't really know. It just works for me. I don't see it as a separation, but rather as an intimate dialogue between the two going on inside of me.

So I've started a blog where, once a week I'd like to share some of those thoughts and experiences because those experiences often inform what I communicate on this blog. I've already posted three posts. Here's the link for those who might be interested: Natural Presence - the voices of nature, art and things.

I'll be publishing Part 5 of Process Theology on Thursday. I 've enjoyed your comments as well as the numerous emails you've sent. I've also been touched by the openness and the courage many have displayed in their struggle with some of the concepts. What has been good to hear is an overall sense of "freedom" being expressed. The last three posts will deal with sin, prayer and process theology's understanding of Jesus.

Thank you for walking along.

A Friend and a Wooly Necked Stork

2012-02-03T14:20:00.000+02:00

She was a wonderful woman, full of compassion and a good friend. One morning she stepped out of her kitchen, and there standing in the doorway of her lounge, was a Wooly Necked Stork. She thought she was dreaming, but the Stork was as real as the porridge she had just made for herself.

Why had it come? Was it a sign? Was it an omen of some kind? Did it mean something good or bad was about to happen? Merle, being a practical woman, knew it was none of these things. As far as she was concerned the bird had arrived because it was hungry. The drought was taking its toll, and birds do strange things in times of drought. She turned and went back in to the kitchen and came out with a piece of whole-wheat bread. Shaking its wings, the stork stepped forward and pecked the bread from her hand. An unforgettable moment for Merle.

And so started a year long relationship with at least three visits a week. Then, as suddenly as the Wooly Neck arrived, she stopped coming. She never returned and something of Merle departed as well.

Eventually Merle went and lived in England. It was hard for her to leave. Africa had touched her deeply. Just before her departure she composed a poem about her small home being visited by the stork. I was touched by a haunting and beautiful line, "Will the Wooly Necked Stork remember me." Merle died in December last year, and by now the stork must be dead as well.

I often think of those two, Merle and the Wooly Neck. I wonder if those moments of meeting are inscribed on some universal and invisible hard drive, just waiting to be experienced again. I can’t believe that moments like those are lost forever. Is that just wishful thinking? I hope not.

Part 4 - Process Theology - God and Suffering

2012-01-31T11:52:00.000+02:00

How can God standby and allow all this suffering to happen? Why doesn't God intervene and do something about it? Two questions I've been asked many times, and two I've certainly not been immune from asking myself, especially in situations of suffering and pain.

I've noticed I rarely ask those questions now, not because I'm insensitive, but because I think my image of God has changed. Suffering and the Divine response to it, will always be a mystery to us, but our image of God will go a long way in helping us to deal with this mystery.

In Part 1 of the study we looked at the image of an external God "out there" or "up there" somewhere who works from the outside "on," and the one of God being "within" and working "through," the image Process Theology holds. I venture to say, it is the latter which enables us to find greater comfort and meaning in the sufferings of life. Why is this so?

There's always a distance between the world and the external God "out there" or "up there." God is called upon to intervene. God comes from "out there" in to the situation and can therefore also leave that situation. This distance between God and ourselves becomes deeply problematic. It gives birth to a faith fraught with uncertainty and disturbing questions about suffering - why doesn't God come and do something about it? Why won't God intervene? Those are questions which naturally flow from a perception of God "out there" - "O God you're standing there watching, apart from it all, why don't you get involved and do something about it?"

But what if God is "within" already sharing in it, feeling it and working with it? What if God is that life-giving presence permeating us all, holding us all together and who also suffers the pain and anguish as that union is fractured and broken. A great theologian, Jurgen Moltman, spoke at length of the God who suffers with us, who not only suffers, but who with love beyond our comprehension, works to restore, in other words, the God of Process Theology.

Two things about such an image of God. First, we can never say, "God, why don't you do something about it?" Second, because God is within it all, already at work through us and everything else, we take responsibility, and instead of asking where God is, we allow ourselves to become channels of Divine love and restoration in whatever suffering circumstance it may be. This for me is a far better way and I suspect it's the reason why I don't ask that question so much any more.

What about the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus within the framework of this image of God? Well, our perception of God in the suffering of Jesus has too often been one of distance between God and Jesus. It's as if God stands by and watches Jesus suffer crucifixion and death. You even hear some people say, especially in fundamentalist circles, that God turned God's face away from Jesus as Jesus took on the sin of the world. God abandoned him in the darkness he was experiencing.

Nothing can be more far from the truth. The Divine in Jesus, and Jesus in the Divine, suffer the pain and the anguish of the crucifixion. You can't separate them. In Jesus God and humanity, by virtue of the deep union and "inness" of the two, together feel the pain , the anguish and the darkness. When Jesus cries out "forgive them" that is the cry of God as well, in Jesus.

The resurrection, on the other hand, is the symbol of the Divine at work, not standing on the outside looking at or in, but in the midst of that terrible suffering and death, in it, feeling it, experiencing it, bringing about restoration and life. Therein lies our hope in the heat of all suffering and pain. Process Theology holds to this understanding and that's what makes it so relevant today.

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NB Here are some texts which will help us grasp this image of God within: Luke 17:20-21, John 17:20-23, Acts 17:27-28. There are many more. I also found Allan's comment very interesting and valuable in the last study. If you'd like to read it again, scroll down to Part 3 and click comments and look for Allan.

"Lowering ' The Last Supper ' through the roof of the National Gallery"

2012-01-28T09:27:00.000+02:00

I was describing to a friend of a friend our visit to the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition at the National Gallery in London. In the one room all Da Vinci’s preparatory drawings for “The Last Supper” were exhibited and I was telling him about this enormous painting, measuring 450 x 870 centimetres, that was actually painted on the end wall of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan.

He was quite taken with the whole thing. Then, as if out of the blue, he suddenly asked me if the painting had also been exhibited in the room with all the drawings. I stopped talking, gave him a quizzical look and waited for him to laugh. He didn’t and I knew he had no idea about what he’d said.

At that moment I was overcome by a vision of monks cutting the monastery’s wall out, transporting it to London and lowering it through a space created in the roof of the National Gallery. I began to chuckle. He said. “What!” I said, “No, nothing” and changed the subject.

Just before we parted, he gave me a troubled look, “By the way,” he said, “how the hell did they get that painting in to the National Gallery?” ”Through the roof,” I said. “What! Really?” He shook his head, “Bloody genius,” he muttered, and walked away.

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Part 3 - Process Theology - Freedom of Choice

2012-01-24T14:05:00.000+02:00

As we saw in the previous post, God does not pre-determine life. Such a belief is not consistent with Process Theology or Process thought. Of course the Divine seeks to infuse the human spirit with love, compassion, justice and all the other values which nurture and build life, but not through a process of pre-determination.

I've always found the colouring book to be a good metaphor. The pictures are already pre-determined for the child. The freedom lies in the colours to be used, that's all, but the child must colour within the lines. The child plays no role in the creation of the picture. She simply enhances what is already there. People tend to think like this when it comes to God and life. God gives the picture and we colour between the lines and dare not go beyond them.

Process Theology sees it differently. The relationship between the Divine and humanity is not simply one of colouring in between pre-determined lines, but also of participating with the Divine in the creation of the picture itself. That's the beauty and uncertainty of the unfolding vision, and that's why some have called our walk with God a holy and creative adventure filled with infinite possibility.

Even though there may be some difficulties here, I must confess that I am far more comfortable with this than with the other. God's vision is not something written in stone which God forces everything into. Rather, the Divine vision is something which is flexible and creative, responding with flexibility and change when necessary. The Old Testament is right when it speaks of the changing mind of God.

A natural question is, how does this process work itself out in our lives?

Well, it's true that God seeks beauty, compassion and truth in every experience and every moment of our lives. In other words God has a vision for such experience and moments and we are free to choose that vision or not. If we don't, our lives in that moment, move on in a way that is different from what the Divine originally sought for us; but Divine grace and flexibility persists in expressing itself through us in the change that our decisions bring. God goes on to present a new vision in a new set of circumstances with new possibilities of choice, and so it goes, on and on. Grace is never exhausted.

In the life of Jesus we see a human being participating in a unique way in God's vision for him and for the world. He discerns and lives out God's ideal in a way that is beyond anything experienced, so much so that in him we experience the very essence of Divine and human union and participation. It's the living out of this ideal which ultimately takes him to the cross. The cross was not a predetermined means of sacrifice that had to happen in order to appease God and to forgive sin. Rather it was the natural outcome of a life lived in complete union with God, in a world that does everything to live contrary to that ideal.

Perhaps at this stage we're beginning to ask, but what about evil? More of that and the cross later.

Let's end with some words from Bruce Epperly's "Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed:"
"In an open system universe, our creativity and freedom is not necessarily a fall from grace, but an adventure in action and imagination that enables God to do new things."

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NB - If you're interested, you may want to look at these two short reflections on the Genesis Creation stories. They speak in to what is said in this post. You may be shocked by these interpretations, but they are part of the Christian Tradition. We've just not placed any emphasis on them. One of the finest theologians of the 20th century, Paul Tillich, held to this, and there were others. It's just so sad that we are never given the opportunity to be exposed to them. Just another example of one particular interpretation being held up as the only true one - which is nonsense.

Genesis Creation stories Part 2 and Genesis Creation stories Part 3

Hanging Your Painting On A Gallery Wall.

2012-01-20T10:38:00.000+02:00

Thought I'd just break the seriousness of our study of Process Theology with my quick reflection on a marvellous little story I found:

Let's be honest, most of us, in some way or other, yearn for a little recognition and respect. We wouldn't be human if we didn't. People who have both, conveniently preach "delayed gratification" and remind us of how, "it all takes time you know, and has to be earned."

The Actual Picture

Well, that's true, but certainly not easy, especially if you grew up with the words of Freddy Mercury ringing in your ears, "I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now."

But here's the thing, Polish art student Andrzej Sobiepan who wanted a bit of recognition and respect, thought, to hang with it, he wasn't going to wait decades for his work to appear in galleries, so he just quietly walked in to the gallery of the National Museum in Wroclaw, and when no one was looking, hung one of his paintings on the wall and nonchalantly walked out of the gallery.

I love it. Can you just see the sheer cheek and guts of the guy, and the posh discussions going on around the strange painting on the wall?

Andrzej then started getting plenty of attention after a nationwide TV channel reported on his stunt. He announced with breathtaking confidence and bravado, “I decided that I will not wait 30 or 40 years for my works to appear at a place like this. I want to benefit from them in the here and now.”

The painting is now on display in the museum's cafe and it's going to be offered for sale at Poland’s biggest charity auction on Sunday. Who knows what price it will fetch?

Delayed gratification? Not always. Sometimes fortune favours the brave. Just ask Andrzej Sobiepan.

Part 2 - Process Theology - God Nurtures, Rather Than Dominates

2012-01-17T23:05:00.000+02:00

Last week I watched a TV program of a mother doing all she could to encourage her fourteen-year-old daughter to become, not just a model, but a super model. That was her vision for her daughter, and come hell or high water, that's what her daughter was going to become. It was tragic to watch because it was clear to everyone that that was not what the daughter wanted for her life. In the whole situation there was very little nurturing and freedom and at times it all resembled a boot camp, rather than a loving relationship between parent and child. It had more to do with the mother's failed vision of herself and her vicarious living through her daughter.

Any good parent knows how detrimental it is for a youthful spirit to be shaped and forced in to a destiny it feels it can't accept, especially in a context where the possibilities are infinite. If this is the case with a human parent, how much more so with the Divine?

And so with this in mind, let me share the following:

I struggle deeply with the concept of pre-determination in our relationship with the Divine. Many believe, especially in more fundamentalist circles, that God has a fixed vision for every person, community, nation and the world and that through Divine power and control persistently shapes it all in to that vision. The Jeremiah text 1:4-5 is often quoted as an example of this: "The Lord said to me, 'I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations.' "

Of course a key example of this is also found in that of Jesus. He fulfilled all the prophecies that were made of him as if his life was completely planned out down to the minutest detail. His very death on the cross was seen to be inevitable because that's the way God had planned it. He had to die on a cross. That's the way it had to happen.

Under this kind of scenario Jesus becomes more of an automated robot, controlled by an unmoving and unbending Divine mind, than a free creative, decision-making human being. I sense this way of thinking goes back to the previous post where we looked at the distinction between God working on life, rather than in and through life. The first is dominant and authoritarian concerned little with freedom and creativity, while the second is participatory, nurturing, free and full of creativity and possibility. Process theology is far more akin to the second.

While we're here I just want to say a word about God's call on the lives of women and men.

Too often, I feel, we see this call as only being something God initiates and imposes on us. Our task is to discern and accept it. It kind of comes from the outside, as in the diagram, and we have to obediently submit to it.. What if the initiative is within us? What if call is something that rises up within, and in participation with us, the Divine encourages, nurtures and affirms it? What if we were to read the calls of Samuel, Jeremiah and the many other great Biblical characters in this way? What if we were to see God's call on the lives of modern day men and women in this way as well? It's an aspect and dimension which process theology also takes very seriously.

Let me end this post with the words of Bruce Epperly in his book, "Process Theology - A Guide for the Perplexed: "Although God's vision is intimate and global and embraces infinite possibilities, process theology suggests that God can be imagined as an intimate, creative and freedom supporting parent who says to her/his child, 'Surprise me, do something I hadn't fully expected so that together we can bring about something new and exciting.' " The Divine, for Process Theology, is always filled with profound encouragement when it comes to human initiative and creativity, rather than condemnation and unbending control.

In the next post we'll take a closer and more practical look at what has been shared here, and also how it was reflected in the life of Jesus.

Part 1 - Process Theology - In The Beginning

2012-01-12T22:51:00.000+02:00

Proponents of the new atheism often use first man in space, Yuri Gagarin's words, to drive home a point: "I looked and I looked, but I didn't see God." The common Christian response is, "Well, of course not! God is Spirit. You can't see God."

Now, that's fine and acceptable, but what we forget as Christians is that Yuri Gagarin may have been a hardcore materialist believing only in what he could see and touch, but his words were also motivated by a
particular Christian view of God being "up there" or "out there" somewhere; you just have to watch our sports people who seem to always look up and give thanks as if God is in some distant realm up in the heavens somewhere.

Process theology does not think in this way. The Divine is always seen to be a reality within. God expresses God-self from within and through creation. A beautiful illustration of this, and I always come back to it, is a seed. The seed, moved by something within, unfolds in to what it is meant to be. Outwardly you can do to it whatever you like, but if it doesn't have within it that inner design or energy to unfold in a process of becoming, it will simply remain a dead, hard little husk.

To begin to understand process thought and the concept of God being within, there's no better place to start than with Scripture and the beginning - the Genesis creation stories.

The traditional way of understanding God's creative work in these stories is by saying that there was a time when God was alone, and then, suddenly, God decided to create the earth and everything else, almost as if God got a little lonely and wanted companionship, a kind of Gepetto and Pinocchio thing. The big word theologians use for this is, Creatio ex Nihilo. It simply means God created all creation out of nothing. In other words, before creation there was only God, nothing else. This for centuries has been the orthodox way of believing and it has had a profound effect on the way our faith has been shaped. In some of the next studies we'll see how. Many of us to this day continue to believe in this way.

There is however a different interpretation of the creation stories and it's the one process theology holds. It's this.

According to these creation stories God does not create the world out of nothing. At no time in these stories is God pictured as being "alone" with nothing else present. On the contrary we're told, "In the beginning when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness and the Spirit of God was moving over the water."

Right in the beginning the Divine Spirit and the stuff of creation are together, relationally and intimately connected, even though the stuff of creation is desolate and formless. We cannot separate God's presence from creation, nor can we separate creation from God's presence.

And so God speaks from within the stuff of creation and the reality of creation begins to unfold and take shape, something which is still happening as it all grows in to greater levels of love, truth and consciousness. So God's continuous act of creation is in and through creation and not on creation from the outside.

The concept of creatio ex nihilo - God creating out of nothing and being separate from creation, has led to devastating consequences for our world. A classic example today is the profound concern being expressed for the environment. The moment we come under the illusion that we, like God (being made in God's image) are also separate from the created world, we begin to somehow believe that we can do anything we like to the natural world without it ever affecting us, almost as if we are immune by virtue of our being separate from it. On the otherhand, the realization that we are created in the image of God who is intimately connected and embedded in creation, helps us to experience our dependence on and the sacredness of creation.

As we will see later, the concept of creatio ex nihilo not only affects our relationship to the natural world, but also many other aspects of our faith. The great shift that we have to make in postmodern Christianity is the one from separation to deep connection, from without to within. Process theology helps us to do that. Once we have made this shift it becomes the foundation on which we can build anew. There's much that we have to unlearn. It's scary, but wonderfully exciting and full of adventure.

Between this post and the next, let's just think deeply around this issue and comment as we feel. See if you can make any other connections, besides the one I've described with the natural world, in the way you practice your faith.

Process - Another Perspective

2012-01-10T11:25:00.000+02:00

Its been no secret that I've struggled immensely with traditional Christianity. Some of the posts in this blog are examples of this struggle. I'm not anti-tradition and do not hold to a belief in discontinuity.

For me the metaphor of the tree has always been an important one. It roots itself in to the ground and out of its rootedness it unfolds and expands. The moment you severe it from its roots it dies. But the roots are not everything. There's more to a tree than just its roots. It unfolds in to something that is attached to its roots, but goes beyond them. That for me is healthy spirituality.The problem is that we get stuck in the roots and begin to believe that that is all there is and miss the unfolding process of becoming a tree.

Process theology, perhaps a big word to some, is a particular approach in the Christian faith that takes this process of unfolding very seriously. It also presents a different view of God and the way God engages in this process.

If you are someone who finds now that some of the old traditional ways of faith don't make sense any more, then the process way may provide for you an exciting alternative. That's not to say that process theology has got it all together and everything else hasn't. It's simply a different approach which I've found to be extremely helpful and wonderfully challenging in giving me a sense of newness and freshness in my faith.

And so in the next couple of posts I'd like to share just some of the insights from process theology that have helped me, trying to make them as simple as possible, and hoping they will provide that same challenge and freshness for those who may be interested. Watch for the coming posts and I hope you'll join me.

Epiphany

2012-01-06T17:10:00.000+02:00

While in London I visited the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Just a wonderful experience of fun, lights, food, music and joy. While watching a whole lot of people skating, I noticed a little guy struggling to do so. Proficient skaters were whizzing by him upsetting him even more. Suddenly, his feet slipped from underneath him and he fell rather hard on the ice. A young guy, one of those proficient skaters whizzing about, stopped and lifted him up and coaxed him back on to his feet. It was a lovely moment, simple, yet beautiful in its kindness. Others also saw it. It was a kind of epiphany of light to us all.

This inconspicuous little event got me thinking about Epiphany and its celebration this Sunday. The word means an appearance or manifestation, or a sudden intuitive insight into the reality or essential meaning of life and the Divine. In the Christian sense it means all this centred around the appearance of Jesus, particularly as it's portrayed in the story of the Magi. The story seems to be saying three important things about epiphanies in life.

Firstly, they're not manifested in the neon lights of the world, but in the homely commonplace occurrences of life -experience, sometimes where you least expect them, like in stables and on ice-rinks etc.

Secondly, they're universal. The image of the Magi is a universal one. They represent all peoples. Epiphanies are common to all faith traditions. They all share in them and all people are capable of experiencing moments of epiphany. Yes, on Sunday it is a uniquely Christian celebration focussing on the Christ-child, but let's not forget the universality of the celebration. Epiphany, being about the appearance of the Divine in the concreteness of life, is always bigger and goes beyond any particular faith tradition.

Thirdly, they have the power within them to change the direction of our lives. We're told that the Magi, after their epiphany, "returned by a different way." I certainly left that ice-rink a little different from what I was when I first arrived. May our celebration of Epiphany on Sunday invite us too, to choose a different road.

An Open And Evolving World

2012-01-02T14:29:00.002+02:00

Many people still hold to the illusion that the world is complete, finished and concluded, like a clock, and that when we’re born, we’re born in to such a world which we kind of experience outside ourselves and which we need to get to know like the workings of a clock.

A particular understanding of the creation stories in the Bible seems to re-inforce this illusion. God creates and is then finished. God stands back and looks at the Divine work in its completed and ordered form and calls it good.

When the world is perceived as a closed and complete system simply waiting to be understood, then everything else in it becomes closed and complete, and this includes our spirituality. It isn’t surprising that the more literal we become with the creation stories, the more fundamentalist we are in outlook. Dogmatic and authoritarian constructions of faith find their source in such a worldview with no place for critical and open thinking because things are fixed and finished; after all, the faith knowledge we’re given and have, is like the world we live in, ordered and complete and therefore can't in any way be challenged or questioned. Epiphany is unlikely to be experienced in such a perception of the world. Barely two centuries ago this particular worldview still held sway.

A change in perception is upon us. The old illusion is dissolving and a more open and evolving view of the world is materializing challenging our false securities rooted in our assertive and imperious bodies of religious knowledge.

While a closed and finished world nutures a closed and finished spirtuality, an open and evolving world nurtures an open and growing spirituality, one with immense possibility. This means two things: As the perception changes, either we retreat back in to the safety of our closed systems of belief, or we move out with courage in to the wilderness of crisis and begin appropriating the gift of a new way of being and responding to the Divine.

The philosopher, Jean-Francios Lyotard, makes the point that we’re now living in a time where the old “master narratives” (just a fancy way of describing our previous ways of believing and doing things) are in crisis and in decline. This goes for some of the old “master narratives” in Christianity itself, and indeed in other religious traditions as well.

We find ourselves in wonderfully challenging times full of uncertainty, but absolutely pregnant with promise and new potential, especially in the whole dimension of our spirituality, whatever tradition we belong to. May this new year, which lies open before us, be a year of courageous spiritual exploration for us all.

A big thank you to all of you who have walked with me in 2011. You're emails and comments have not only been a gift to me, but in many cases deeply nurturing and challenging. I look forward to being with you all again in this new year 2012.

Denying Life Experience Is Not The Way

2011-12-30T13:54:00.000+02:00

The present season is a time of much talk about "incarnational spirituality" - "incarnational" meaning, "embodied in flesh" in other words a spirituality that is not other worldly, but expressed in the embodiment of our concrete living and experience.

Christian spirituality has too often made the mistake of seeing its source as an other - worldly one - something that comes to us from another dimension or world, where the Divine is seen to enter human life from above somewhere. See my post, "Advent - There's No Coming Down To Visit."

Nothing transforms us more than experience. That's why our life experiences are so important. The Divine meets us in these experiences, whether they be positive or negative, and shapes us through them, because that's where the Divine is from the beginning. That's incarnational spirituality, and that's why living in an other- worldly way making us want to avoid or be unconscious to experience, is so destructive.

The more unconscious we are to our experience, or the more we seek to protect ourselves from life experience, the more we deny ourselves the opportunity of being transformed by the Divine. I suspect that's why Jesus refused to take the wine on the cross. He wanted to enter the experience being fully conscious.

Too many lives are spent denying life, especially the hurtful and negative aspects. We don't easily give ourselves to life. To think in other-worldly terms is far easier; but when we do consciously give ourselves, we are changed in ways we never dream possible. I suspect that this was also something of what Jesus meant when he spoke about, losing your life, if you perpetually try and preserve it.

May this new year be a time where we fully give ourselves to life and experience transformation in ways we've never experienced before.

"The Horse at Water" A look at a Sculpture

2011-12-23T11:14:00.000+02:00

My visits to London inevitably lead to an exploration and an appreciation of the sculpture pieces scattered throughout the city, whether these be on monuments or simply put there for aesthetic value.

The other day I was deeply moved by Nic Fiddian-Green's sculpture, "The Horse at Water." As I stood and looked at this marvelous work, the thought came to me that living well is not so much about right and wrong, but of balance and proportion. Both these aspects just radiate from this sculpture. Life needs to express balance and proportion. In doing so it takes on a beauty and uniqueness of its own, which it in turn, pours out in to the great pool of life.

It was strange how that evening I watched the movie, "The Black Swan" which portrays a life that is out of balance and proportion. The main protagonist, a ballerina, is able to dance the part of the white swan, but not that of the black swan, the reason being an ongoing denial and suppression of an essential part of herself. Ultimately, this leads to a freeing, but tragic consequence. Just a beautiful and profound movie.

Too much spirituality in the past has encouraged, even brow-beaten us to deny essential parts of ourselves, and instead of bringing balance and proportion to life, it has brought the very opposite.

Advent - There is no Coming Down to Visit

2011-12-16T08:02:00.000+02:00

The idea of the Divine, "coming down" from some pristine heavenly world up there somewhere no longer holds credence. Continuing to announce such an image simply reinforces in people an outmoded and disconnected sense of relatedness to the Divine.

We forget that conception in a womb is what images the unfolding of Divine presence in humanity. Nothing is more inward than that. The Divine expresses itself, not from above, but from within the heart of humanity, like a seed holding within itself the essence of the unfolding flower.

The Divine does not come down and visit our souls with "Thine own ardour glowing." The Divine is permanently there seeking with ardour to express itself through the portals of our humanity. That is what Advent is about - God who is already within seeking expression through.

St Paul reminds us that we live, move and have our being in the Divine. It is an imbedded inner reality waiting to be birthed in to the world through each of us.

Losing and Finding Diamond Rings

2011-12-10T20:24:00.001+02:00

I read a marvellous story the other day. A woman threw some trash in to her trash-can and never realized that her diamond ring fell in as well. It was only after the bags had been removed that she realized her ring was gone and that the only place it could've been was in the trash-bag. She rushed down to the local refuse sorting facility and explained to the manager what had happened. He took her in to an enormous sorting room where all the rubbish of that day was lying on the floor ready to be sorted. She immediately began the unenviable task of sorting through the heap of trash. Eventually, after what seemed like hours, she recognised a piece of her own refuse and knew she was close. Suddenly, there it was, in all its brilliance, lying on the cement floor. She had finally found it - indescribable joy and reward for her supreme feat of persistence.

Reading this story I was reminded of how my mother lost her diamond ring. My father and her were spending their honeymoon at a resort on the Vaal river. One afternoon they decided to go rowing. Because my mother was worried that the oar might dislodge her ring from her finger, she asked my father to place it in his shirt pocket, which he duly did. After some time it became so hot that my father removed his shirt and placed it under my mother's seat. Just as the sun was setting, my father called to my mother to pass him his shirt. Forgetting about her ring, she picked up the shirt and tossed it at him. A sudden little "plop" sound brought a look of horror to her face. The ring had fallen in to the river.

Sadly, it was never recovered and I always wondered why my dad, the hero, never dived in after it. Only when I was older did I realize the futility of such an action. African rivers are notoriously muddy and dangerous. To have done so would have been an act of madness.

One ring found, the other lost. Both stories reminded me of that overworked little phrase, "You can do anything you want." Really! Sometimes you can persist and achieve the almost impossible, but there are times and circumstances when there's just no chance of you ever achieving it, and to try is simply futile and a waste of time, in spite of its value. I think, in life, the trick is to know the difference.

COP 17 Climate Change Conference - An Absence of the Sacred

2011-12-06T12:09:00.001+02:00

Call me naive, even ignorant if you like, but I cannot help feel that something is missing in all the deliberations, and protests for that matter, taking place in Durban at the COP 17 Conference on Climate change.

This "something" lies at the very heart of our relationship with the natural world and has everything to do with a sad and troubling absence of a sense of the sacred.

The reality is, we will neither love nor save that which we do not experience and hold as sacred. Therefore, in all our struggles to adjust our human presence to the natural world, this sacred relational dimension has to be taken seriously. Without it, the natural world is still primarily seen as a commodity for human use, and not as a mode of sacred presence to be cherished and venerated.

As long as this dimension of the sacred is absent, efforts, no matter how sincere and intelligent, to curb environmental devastation through the use of renewable sources of energy, will continue to have an air of futility about them.

Only our sense of the sacred, and the efforts that flow from it, will ultimately save us. This is sadly missing in Durban.

Meditation - Jonah's Big Fish Experience - Jonah 1:15-17

2011-12-01T09:05:00.001+02:00

There are times in life when we suddenly find ourselves confined and restricted in some way or other. It's almost as if we are taken out of the main stream of life in order to have space to reflect on what is actually happening in our lives. In the words of the parable it is described as, being swallowed by a large fish and spending time in its belly.

This fish's belly becomes a place where we're away from the distractions and seductions of life enabling us to really reflect and get some perspective.

Sometimes we go in to this fish's belly voluntarily. We withdraw in to a quiet space, whatever that may be for us, and sometimes we're put there whether we like it or not. Ask anybody who has suddenly been confined to a hospital bed. You do a lot of thinking and reflecting there.Whatever the place, like Jonah, we inevitably go through a period of intense self examination.

In spite of the difficulty of the place, Jonah makes a change, and when he's ready, he's, "spewed out on the beach," and finally begins to move in the direction he should have done in the first place.

That's what big Fish experiences do for us in life. They confine us to get our attention, then, they lead us in to much needed moments of self-reflection, and lastly, put us back on to new shores of possibility. It happened with Jonah and it happens with us.

The question is, how well do we mine and use these big fish experiences?

Our Desire For Certainty

2011-11-27T08:10:00.001+02:00

A friend of mine, who had been retrenched from his work, responded with some revealing words: “I wish things were just a little more certain,” he said. I think we all identify with that – I certainly do. Is there not a place of deep uncertainty in us all, out of which words like these come? Sadly, religious fundamentalism sees this as vulnerability and exploits it through its frozen and legalistic approach. It reduces mystery, freedom and creativity by removing “uncertainty” and replacing it with “safe predictability” which it calls faith. Tragically, by doing this, it welds our lives and our world closed and slowly begins to apply its conforming power.

Naturally, in such a system it doesn’t take long to find out that doubt is always labeled an enemy, and if it dares to lead in to a rethinking of our faith, it’s pronounced devilish. Does that then mean that all forms of certainty are problematic? Certainly not (excuse the pun). For instance, at the heart of all living, the certainty of being loved needs to be experienced for life to flourish; also, certainty in the integrity of our interactions with others is essential, if our communities are to become places of trust and reliance. Sound spirituality will always nurture the capacity to discern between realistic and unrealistic certainty. It will perceive healthy moments of doubt as being filled with immense potential for new insight. Paul Tillich once said: “The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when god has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.”

Much of the shallowness in religion, which fundamentalism perpetuates, is related to an inability to manage and negotiate seasons of doubt. In these circles doubt always seems to be experienced as threat. For this reason, one of the great gifts we can give to each other is space for the vocalization of our doubts. Together, in the accepting and engaging spirit of this space, we are able to struggle with integrity in the discovery of new insight and truth.

Our world is open and free, not encrusted with certainty. It’s out of the gift of uncertainty that the material for life comes. As life-artists, filled with the Divine Spirit, every one of us is free to create and build in the looseness of uncertainty. This can be extremely scary, but deeply fulfilling.

To breath the air of uncertainty is to live. It’s the very soil out of which the shoots of surprise sprout. Jesus knew it, that’s why he said to Thomas who came looking for certainty: “Do you believe because you see me? How happy are those who believe without seeing me!”

The COP17 Conference On Climate Change - Durban South Africa

2011-11-24T16:26:00.001+02:00

The COP17 Conference on Climate Change begins on Monday in Durban. All over our landscape, especially in Durban, green projects are springing up like the first shoots gracing our mielie (corn) fields. After all, the delegates must have something to look at, and we certainly need something to boast about.

People will dance, and celebrate, and eat, and earn Oscars in political correctness and green embellishment, and when everyone finally leaves, it'll be back to business as usual.

Once again we've got our hands on a serious issue, which we'll use to try and enhance our rather diminishing standing in the world, and then, when it all comes to an end, we'll toss it out like a used up toy.

Call me a cynic, I really don't mind, but South Africa is as far from green as Cairo is from Cape Town, and that's not stretching it. Apart from so much else, simply look at the country's rivers and it's coal-powered electricity plants, and you'll know this to be true.

We've become masters of disguise and deception. We can talk about our glorious democracy, yet begin a process of pushing through a secrecy bill which assaults the very fibre of our democratic living and practice. We can talk about our deep concern for the poor, but personal enrichment surges on, even more so with those in power, who hypocritically declare loud and clear their solidarity with the poor. Now, with the Conference on Climate Change being held in our backyard, we've all suddenly become so thoroughly green and environmentally conscious. The charade continues and it's enough to turn your stomach.

Don't get me wrong; COP17 is of immense importance and we look forward to all its crucial deliberations. I also hope that Asad Rehman's dream of establishing a global climate justice movement to put pressure on world leaders to act, comes to fruition. But, hell, let's stop the play acting and call a spade a spade. After all, it's the only way real change takes place.

Meditation - The "god" of Jonah's Understanding - Jonah 1:4-17

2011-11-22T16:29:00.001+02:00

Building on the previous meditation, it's clear that Jonah's perception of the Divine was exclusive, prejudicial of others, tribalistic and nationalistic. Sounds very familiar. Things haven't changed much. In Jonah's mind and in that of the nation, Israel's god belonged only to Israel and cared only for the people of Israel. Others were beyond the scope of Divine love and compassion as far as they were concerned. Suddenly, or gradually, it doesn't matter which, Jonah's narrow and exclusive perception of the Divine is jarred and challenged by an awakening of Divine universal concern. This he just cannot accept and so he runs from it.

I love the "downward" expression of the text in Jonah's running away. It says of him, "He went down to Joppa." And then further on it says, "But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell in to a deep (sinking down) sleep." To me this language describes a conscious and almost willful suppression, a pushing down, of a deeper spiritual awakening seeking to instill itself in Jonah. It's an awakening that wants to break through all the tribalistic and nationalistic and prejudicial boundaries in his image of the Divine. It's striking to see how Jonah's refusal to entertain and nurture this new awakening leads him and others in to a dangerous and violent storm.

Religious exclusivity, in whatever form, is extremely dangerous. Our history is peppered with religious storms and conflict caused by such exclusivity, sometimes on a scale so frightening, that people have had some pretty harsh things to say about it. It was Oscar Wilde who said, "The history of theology is the history of madness." Rather over the top, but it certainly bears thinking about. The Jonah story clearly teaches the inherent dangers of a narrow and sectarian view of the Divine.

In the story, I find it wonderfully revealing that those on the boat, while being threatened by shipwreck and drowning, are drawn together in an incredible example of religious diversity and common endeavour to save the boat: "The sailors were terrified and cried out for help, each one to his own god. Then, in order to lessen the danger, they threw the cargo overboard." Guess whose absent? Yes, Jonah. He's below the deck sleeping. That's what religious exclusivity does to us. We exclude others and unconsciously get on with our superior and surpassing ways.

Two things are even more revealing. Firstly, it takes a person who, as far as Jonah is concerned is beyond Divine grace, in the form of the captain of the boat, to wake him up and encourage him to be part of what is going on: "What are you doing asleep? Get up and pray to your god for help." Sometimes it's people beyond our religion, gender, culture and nationality that wake us up to deeper truth concerning our lives and faith. Secondly, notice how when the source of the exclusivity, Jonah himself, is thrown overboard, the storm calms down and peace is restored, reminding us that the removal of exclusivity and superiority inevitably leads to a greater sense of openness, composure and goodwill.

Being Christian, I can only speak from a Christian context. For too long Christianity has arrogantly perceived itself as having exclusive access to truth. Everybody else has been excluded and only included when they've accepted what Christianity has imparted as being true. Even within Christianity itself division and exclusivity has been rife. We are having to learn that we are on a boat of immense diversity and that truth is expressed through this diversity. Does that mean we simply let go of our faith? Of course not! It does mean, however, that the degree to which we are open to others of a different persuasion, is the degree to which our faith and lives can be enriched and deepened together with theirs.

Let me end with some words from the Roman Catholic theologian, John Dunne, which capture something of the spirit of our inclusive age:

"What seems to be occurring is a phenomenon we might call 'passing over,' passing over from one culture to another, from one way of life to another, from one religion to another. Passing over is a shifting of standpoint, a going over to the standpoint of another culture...way of life...religion. It is followed by an equal and opposite process we might call 'coming back,' coming back with new insight to one's own culture...way of life...religion...Passing over and coming back, it seems, is the spiritual adventure of our time."

The story of Jonah is not only an account of this "passing over" and "coming back" in the lives of individuals, but also in the corporate lives of communities and nations. That's precisely what makes this ancient story so pertinent today.

Meditation - The Flight of Jonah - Jonah 1:1-3

2011-11-18T20:31:00.001+02:00

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

There are no limits or boundaries to Divine love, and although we may constantly profess that, we seek to avoid it at all costs. Rather, we set ourselves up as the appointed guardians of Divine love deciding as to who is worthy of it, and who is not. The arrogance with which we do this is simply breathtaking. We tend to live comfortably within the bounds of exclusivity, but cannot abide the widening embrace of inclusiveness. Sadly, this attitude becomes more embedded the longer we live in religious contexts dominated by this way of thinking, and a large proportion are.

The story of Jonah depicts the immense struggle in the human heart to break out of this and to learn to love and accept and communicate beyond all false barriers of separation. After much conflict, Jonah, for one shining moment seems to get it right, but then suddenly reverts back to his narrow and haughty perception. In the end he doesn't get it right and that's good news for us, because his story becomes ours - we too don't get it right

The story starts with some penetrating words: "The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai. Go to the great city of Nineveh..." Two dimensions here, a Divine communication of love and concern (word), and a context (Nineveh), in which that communication is to be voiced and lived out. But here's the issue; the people of Nineveh, as far as Jonah's exclusive thinking is concerned, can never be recipients of Divine love and grace, only Divine distaste and rejection.

For Jonah the rift between his kind and them is beyond any sense of communal engagement, and what's more, the god of his understanding sanctions that rift. But, the Divine word that comes to Jonah communicates the exact opposite and he flees from it, he can't abide it, he suppresses it and instead goes to Tarshish, the symbol of exclusivity. There's something very secure in a form of spirituality which practices exclusivity. When you believe Divine favour rests only on you and not on others, you feed on a rather neurotic sense of assurance and conceited superiority.

The truth is, we cannot escape the gentle pressure of the Divine heart and mind on ours, always moving us towards transcending the barriers of separation, enlarging us and nurturing within us a greater sense of connection and union with all peoples, no matter what their religion, race, social standing, politics or culture. In surrendering to this gentle pressure we begin to participate in a love given to us, but which is far larger than ourselves stretching way beyond us and our own.

I've often been asked, "Is such an acceptance and union possible? Surely not." I try not to think of it in terms of large-scale, but in everyday acts of living. This I know, when we respond to that Divine word of inclusiveness and cross those barriers of separation, whatever they may be, something beautiful happens, love happens and that's enough for me because we're experiencing a foretaste of what is possible.

Lets end with some meditative questions: Why do we struggle so with being inclusive in our spirituality? In what way are we being challenged by the Sacred to extend our love and presence beyond present boundaries? What is the Nineveh we're being challenged to go to in our lives?

A Pair Of Shorts, A Pair Of Boots And A Coat

2011-11-14T17:39:00.001+02:00

Have you ever become so attached to a piece of clothing that you 've found it terribly difficult to get rid of? I was like that with a pair of shorts I had. These shorts had a real history. They were bought as part of a soccer kit and spent many practicing hours on a soccer field. I then used them for running in and then sleeping in. Eventually they ended up as a pair of gardening shorts.

You can imagine what they looked like - not a pretty sight, but I had grown so attached to them that I couldn't get rid of them, much to my wife Jane's frustration. Eventually I reluctantly and ritually placed them in a rubbish bag and they were never seen again. I've never forgotten those shorts. My sharing this bears testimony to that.

Vincent Van Gogh's painting of the boots is a moving one. Strong evidence exists that the boots were his own. If his relationship to them was anything like mine to my shorts, I can certainly understand him painting them in the way he did.

They say, in Jungian dream typology, apart from other things, boots or shoes are the symbol of the condition of one's chosen direction. If that is the case imagine where these boots had been and what they'd seen. Imagine the story behind them reflecting the movement, the burning passion and the ultimate exhaustion and dissolution of Vincent's life. What a profound and beautiful symbol of all that.

I suspect that clothing can take on an almost spiritual significance, especially when it's intimately connected with human story. The very smell in clothing can launch us in to memories of those we love, whether they're still with us, or not. St Paul, in a beautiful moment, while languishing in prison, cold and tired, slips these words in towards the end of his second letter to Timothy: "When you come, bring my coat that I left in Troas with Carpus." He remembers his coat. I wonder how attached he was to it? Imagine being able to see and experience that coat?

Recently, I read something about Paris Hilton. Apparently she never wears a set of clothing more than once. Rather sad, don't you think? I think there's a depth to clothes, but sadly a superficiality as well.

Contemplation - A View From The Sidewalk

2011-11-08T21:25:00.000+02:00

Every morning early, when I do my daily walk, there's a particular point along the road that bends sharply to the right. It's at this point that I have to cross the road to get to the beach. The difficulty experienced is trying to see the oncoming traffic. A vehicle can suddenly come around the bend, and before you know it, it's virtually on top of you. It can be quite dangerous.

But I've discovered something. You can manoeuvre yourself to a point on the sidewalk, on the bend, where you're able to see the traffic on your left and on your right. In fact you're able to see the movement of all the traffic. On this spot the corner is no longer blind; you can cross safely. And so everyday now I negotiate the crossing of this road at that particular point. I've even got a little marker on the spot.

There's a kind of seeing that refuses to look at just one perspective. Even when it comes to the dark and threatening aspects of life, it brings all that in to its vision as well. It knows that truth is also experienced there and to ignore, or deny these aspects, would be to miss that truth.

Healthy spirituality always seeks to see or perceive in this way. It's called mystical seeing, or contemplation. It never gets in to an "us-and-them" kind of seeing. It knows that we need "them" as much as we need "us" to get to a more holistic and truthful picture.

In contemplation, the dualistic "us-and-them" becomes the holistic "us-together." It holds everything, both positive and negative, in a kind of creative tension and discerns its path out of the crucible of this tension. In other words it always seeks to place itself at that point on the sidewalk where it sees not just left, or right, but both left and right; in fact it seeks to perceive all angles, and on the basis of that, negotiates its crossing and path in to truth.

Imagine what would happen to all the violence and discontent in the world today, especially in the whole area of religious conflict, if we all began to see in this way. True spirituality will always work hard in nurturing the contemplative way.

Falling Overboard While Preparing To Take a Pee

2011-11-04T16:48:00.001+02:00

Can you imagine being on your boat alone sailing the seas. It's night time. You suddenly feel the urge to wee. You cautiously squat, or stand, or whatever you do on a sailing boat to take a pee, only too aware of the vast and inky blackness around you. Then the unimaginable happens - you fall over board and watch your boat slip away in to the darkness. There you are, alone, bobbing up and down in a gentle swell with miles and miles of nothing around you, with absolutely no memory of the original urge.

It happened just the other day to 54-year-old Florence Arthaud, the French winner of the 1990 Rout du Rhum single-handed transatlantic sailing race. "I quite simply fell in to the water while preparing to take a pee," she said.

She was finally rescued, and you won't believe how. It puts to shame the old adage, "I can't understand her; she just never goes any where without her cellphone."

When Florence fell over backwards, like a diver on a diving expedition, yes, you guessed it, she had her mobile with her, and no, she never prayed to the Lord of the Seas, or the God of the Universe, she called her mother, who in turn raised the alarm like only mothers can do.

Thanks to her mother and the GPS system on her mobile, Florence was rescued near the island of Corsica.

I must say, after reading Florence's story, I feel far more comfortable now about my closeness to my mobile. I'm not as neurotic as I thought. I'm going nowhere without it, and that includes the toilet. You never know what may happen.

Why Do We Want To Own And Control Everything?

2011-11-01T16:36:00.000+02:00

I remember standing with a group of people in one of our national parks and looking down on a magnificent clump of wild flowers. Swaying in the wind, wild and free, in a wide expanse of grassland, I had a profound sense of them being in the right place, where they belonged. They just seemed to expressed a oneness with their surroundings as if flower and grassland would never be the same without one another.

Photo by Jane Scrooby

Then someone said something I've never forgotten: "Oooo! They'd look so lovely in my lounge." Now, I don't have anything against flowers in a lounge, but I couldn't help but think that this person missed the beauty of the moment. Her only thought was of picking the flowers and putting them in her home.

Ownership and control - isn't it strange how difficult it is to leave things be and to simply experience them as they are. Owning them and controlling them is the order 0f the day and we're never satisfied without always doing this.

To "touch lightly" is a phrase I've really come to appreciate. All it means is to allow people and things "simply to be." It's a phrase which describes being connected, but without the obsessive urge to want to own and control.

Imagine the impact on our environment, and our economics, for that matter, if we just practiced this one simple principle. Imagine the impact on our relationships. To be free to experience one another's beauty and craziness without wanting to own, control or to change, is a beautiful thing. Doesn't relating in this way enable us to enter the true wonder and mystery of the other, as well as nature herself?

I think Jesus "touched lightly." You see it in his words and actions: "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." You can't get much clearer than that. You can't control the wind. All of Creation is of the Spirit and can only be "touched lightly." It will not be owned and controlled; that's just not in its nature. I'm reminded of William Blake's beautiful words:

He who binds to himself the joy
Doth the winged life destroy.
He who kisses a joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.

Come Dine With Me, South Africa

2011-10-28T11:16:00.000+02:00

I'm a sports fanatic, but don't you get so tired of the mantra, "Sport builds our nation" as if nothing else in our country has this hallowed capacity?

Then, without any pomp and ceremony or political announcement, along comes a TV program from England, "Come Dine With Me, South Africa" and graces us with a dimension of nationhood the likes of which both sport and politics, and even the church for that matter, (and we've been trying for years), can only dream of giving.

Suddenly we're seeing people, not just meaningfully crossing racial lines, black, white, indian and coloured, but also, gay straight, male, female, religious and atheist etc.

Never has a dinner table in South Africa given such remarkable insight in to who we are as a people. The interaction is both wonderfully entertainting and instructive, with all our idiosyncracies on display, at times a little embarrassing, but nevertheless real. Most of all we're able to laugh at ourselves, and our support for the contestants inevitably goes beyond the barriers that so often divide us.

Without really knowing it the BBC Entertainment network has given us a gift, the likes of which, I think, was not invisaged. Strangely enough, these always seem to be the best of gifts.

Then, of course, there's David Lamb, the hidden star of the show. What would the show be without his ready and ironic commentary? No doubt, he's the real sauce in it all.

Watch it! You won't be sorry.

Egotistical Prophetic and Social Action

2011-10-25T18:30:00.000+02:00

Much of what is defined as social or prophetic action can be so egocentric that the word "social" becomes a misnomer for a "look at me - see what I'm doing" kind of syndrome. This overbearing "wanting to save the world" kind of perspective, with its self-inflation and importance, can become so cold and rigid, that nothing of the deep compassion that so defines authentic social action, is experienced or seen.

Simplicity in social prophetic action is a beautiful thing. There's a natural expression to it. It flows out of a deep place of connection and compassion. It doesn't always have to pronounce itself in neon lights and demand to be heard and followed, and then fiercely judge if it isn't.

I wonder if the essence of social and prophetic action hasn't got more to do with lifestyle than with anything else? Isn't it something we live out and practice in our everyday living within the contexts in which we find ourselves? That's not to say there's no place for visible community expression in the form of marches and sit-ins etc; these certainly have their place and importance, but, in the end, what they convey has to be embedded and continually lived out in the lifestyles and everyday living of people.

Jesus spoke of the slow and resolute work of yeast in dough. I suspect this, in his mind, had much to do with everyday prophetic living and its impact on the communities in which we live and serve.

A Celebration on the Sea

2011-10-22T13:12:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we celebrated my sister and brother-in-law's wedding anniversary with a boat trip around Durban bay. We left just as the sun was beginning to set. It was absolutely magnificent. There was a moment when we left the safety of the bay and launched out to sea.

As the boat surged forward I was reminded again of just how much of our lives are spent in the safety of harbour experience, embraced and held by the certainties we cling to, especially in our faith, which can be so domesticated and tame with very little adventure in to new thinking.

Standing on the bow with the wind blowing in my face I was struck by the speed with which the swells raced towards the boat. No respecter of persons or things they simply slammed in to it, lifting and dropping it with supernatural strength, and then racing away with a detached and arrogant kind of nonchalance. The frightening neutrality of nature can be deeply disturbing, but its wildness and sheer freedom touches something deep inside.

We arrived back invigorated and alive, and I had the distinct feeling that I needed to inject something more adventurous in to my living. That's what happens in a real encounter with nature. It's like being grasped by a powerful epiphany.

Desmond Tutu, We Love you, But Please, be Careful.

2011-10-17T13:46:00.000+02:00

The dust seems to have settled now after the South African government's embarrassing visa blundering around the Dalai Lama's attendance at Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday bash. But the whole incident still leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of many.

The fact that those, knowing so well the bitterness and hardship of oppression, could compromise themselves in such a way, was deeply saddening. But also of concern is the past and present outpourings of what can only be described as infantile religious vitriol.

Sometime ago President Jacob Zuma announced with breathtaking confidence that the African National Congress would rule South Africa until Jesus returned. He went on to say that a vote for other political parties would be a vote for the devil, and that people who voted in this way, would be sorted out when Jesus finally relieved the ANC of the burden of governance.

Responding to the government's handling of the Dalai Lama affair, Archbishop Desmond Tutu with what seemed to be his own direct line to God, quaked with anger and shouted: "We will pray, as we prayed for the downfall of the apartheid goverment, we will pray for the downfall of a goverment that misrepresents us... Watch out ANC goverment! Watch out!"

Jackson Mthembu, spokesperson for the ANC responded with the words, "He (Tutu) should know deep in his heart that the ANC is doing its best, therefore very few in the religious community will pray for the demise of the ANC."

Sound prophetic outspokenness, which by the way we've not had enough of since the ANC came into power, is absolutely essential, but one cannot help but feel decidedly uncomfortable with this vehement and ongoing tug-of-war over God's political affiliation. It has a manipulative and infantile ring to it, and it becomes a little more disturbing when a religious leader of the calibre of Desmond Tutu engages in it. No doubt it flowed out of a strong sense of exasperation and passion, but its dangerous. We forget that the whole structure of our devastating past was built on a so called Divine affiliation to one of the most oppressive policies ever seen. God can never be a puppet dangling on the end of our strings of political association.

Archbishop Tutu, sir, our deep love and repect for you will never waver, but please, do be careful, especially when in anger you make pronouncements of what God will and will not do. You and what you stand for are way beyond this kind of puerile religious bickering.

Embracing Our Past Understandings

2011-10-08T23:19:00.000+02:00

Are you fond of hiking? If so you'll know the feeling of struggling up a steep incline, getting to the top and looking back with satisfaction on the path you followed up. In those moments the whole struggle, all the way up, is embraced and celebrated.

Something similar happens when we reflect and look back on our faith-walk, particularly when reflecting on earlier convictions and perceptions. Sadly, we often do this with a sense of aversion. We find it hard to believe that we could have felt the way we did about certain things. We look back on them with judgement and arrogance and even embarrassment. But feeling this way really means we've not accepted our whole story, and that's certainly not conducive to nurturing inner peace and compassion.

Learning to embrace those earlier convictions and perceptions, and seeing them as being part of our whole story, is essential to spiritual health. That's where we were at the time, and how we felt then, was absolutely necessary for where we are now.

Everyone has their own unique story, and the arrogance with which we treat our own past understandings, is the same arrogance we impose on others wherever they may be in their perceptions.

Are we not called to embrace all of our history? Our histories are stories of gradual and unfolding truth. No moment is more important or of greater value than another. They are all beautifully held together in love's infinite patience and understanding, and the degree to which we practice this love and patience with ourselves, will always be the degree to which we practice it with others in their understanding of truth.

Seeing only in Part

2011-10-01T20:44:00.000+02:00

Going through some photographs the other day I was once again made aware of how they capture, so beautifully, moments in time. In some cases my memory was also prompted in to remembering the bigger picture and story behind each of the images. For instance, one photograph taken on the beach, brought back memories of a whole holiday we spent together as a family. That's the nature of photographs, they form parts of a whole.

I got to thinking about the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. What we're seeing is only a small part of the whole picture as to responsibility for Michael Jackson's death. Is it feasible that only one man can be held responsible? What about the many who used Jackson's wonderful talent and transformed him in to the tragic spectacle he became? Are they not also responsible? Is he himself not also responsible?

Of course court trials are an essential part of our social context, but lets face it, they present only a small part of the whole story. Certainly, in the case of Michael Jackson, if they were more holistic in thought and approach many more would be called to account.

In our perception and judgement of things, we forget just how little we know and see. Our discernment and assessment of people, situations and events will always be in part, making the need to try and see as much of the picture as possible, of crucial importance.

St Paul's words are a profound reminder of this: "What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete - as complete as God's knowledge of me." These words may speak of a life beyond this one, but let's not kid ourselves, they also address our blindness in this life and our need to do all we can to see the whole picture in all our judgments and assessments.

When we are not Cured

2011-09-26T15:41:00.000+02:00

We often live under the misconception that every flaw, or defect , or wound, or burden has to be cured if life is to be meaningful and significant. How I wish this was true. The reality is that many of us have things we struggle and wrestle with and try as we may they just don't seem to yield and go away. Sometimes the tiredness and the disillusionment that flows from the struggle is overwhelming and the desire to roll up in to a small ball and forget everything is deeply tempting.

We forget that maybe these particular issues can't be cured and that we simply have to learn to live with them and manage them. I've noticed, not only in my own life, but in the lives of others that when you finally grasp this truth, something rather wonderful happens. After all the wrestling and strain it's as if we suddenly come to terms with it and it gives us its blessing. And so, it's there, it doesn't leave us, but it's managed, and in being so it also feeds our souls with a particular grace only it can offer. Ask any alcoholic, they, more than most, understand.

Let's go back to the marvellous figure of Jacob as in the previous post. It was said of him: "So Jacob was left alone , and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said,'Let me go, for it is daybreak.' But Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' ...The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip."

Yes, what we wrestle with and ultimately manage by coming to terms with, does cause us to limp, it does wound us, but in doing so it conveys in to us an inner grace and blessing which not only enriches our lives, but the lives of those we connect with. Our limping often heals or brings comfort to the limping in others, sometimes in ways we're not even aware of.

Sacred Space

2011-09-21T12:11:00.002+02:00

It's a wonderful thing to see how people always seem to seek out particular places where they can experience what can only be described as Holy Presence. Having moved a lot, my life is dotted with such places which I remember vividly. By simply closing my eyes I can see and feel them. They become so real it is as if I'm there again.

Obviously there are no places that can "contain" the Divine. I'm only too aware that even place can take the form of idolatry, but it nevertheless assists us in our experience of the numinous in ways that are beyond explanation. It's quite understandable why the old patriarchs wanted to build altars in places where they felt the presence of the Divine. Who can forget Jacob's inimitable action: "Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. Jacob named the place where God had talked with him, Bethel."

Mountain tops, lakes, valleys, forests, deserts, river banks and almost any kind of terrain can become a sacrament of that unspeakable presence we all yearn for. Common to these special places is a particular kind of spaciousness, quiet and intimacy that seeps into our tightness and opens us up to the mystery and expansiveness of life. It's not surprising then that sacred space is something affirmed virtually in all religions and cultures.

Where do you experience sacred space? Have you ever had the desire to want to pour out a drink offering, or to do something else that will mark that space as sacred? I have, and I often wander if those little mounds of stone I built in numerous places, still stand.

When We're not Aware of what We're Doing

2011-09-16T22:42:00.000+02:00

Have you ever put your all in to something only to see it fall apart and fail? You bemoan your wasted energy, your focus and application; you question what you did wrong and you realize your little venture was made so much part of who you are that its failure was absolutely all embracing. Life is unfair, unjust and is really not interested in your contribution. You retire in to a ball of anger and self-pity.

I was feeling a bit like this the other day and I got to thinking about this kind of "forced" action in our lives. The thought came: I wonder if there aren't times when some of the most significant things in life are achieved without us even being aware of doing them. Maybe it's in those times that our natural creativity is able to flow, free of all conscious obstacle and intention.

Was this not something of what Jesus meant when he described in a parable the response of those who couldn't remember doing what they did: "When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"

Perhaps some of the most significant things in life do get done in these egoless and forgetful moments - more than we dare to acknowledge. Perhaps, under the veil of the ordinary and insignificant lies the true formation of life.

Only Hard and Difficult Action can be called Good and Virtuous - Really?

2011-09-13T17:15:00.000+02:00

The German poet Schiller said this: "How gladly I'd serve my friends, but alas, I do so with pleasure. And so I have this nagging feeling that it's unethical."

What I find so sad about this quote is that Schiller feels almost guilty about something good (serving his friends) which he naturally finds pleasure in doing. And so because it's pleasurable it has this unethical flavour about it.

Where does this kind of feeling stem from? I think it comes from that unbalanced view that we are naturally evil and that our natural inclination is always to do evil. It says further that only action which is hard and difficult to perform can ultimately be called good or virtuous. Many will say, well, yes, the words of St Paul affirm this - "For what I do is not the good that I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." There's truth here, but as with everything, when you push it too far it starts becoming false.

What about balancing, then, Paul's experience with Jeremiah's words; "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts." Just maybe in these words a natural going with the grain of our inmost being naturally issues forth in goodness and virtue. Maybe, expressing virtue doesn't have to be this hard and demanding struggle. Maybe it's the most natural thing we can do. Perhaps, we've just lost touch with this part of ourselves because for too long we've been told otherwise.

Matthew Fox makes the point that for ages we've laboured under the weight of original sin conveniently forgetting the innate beauty of our original blessing, and that the time has now come to correct this sad imbalance. What would that ultimately mean for us? A new found trust in the Divine and ourselves? I believe so.

Truth - a Threat, yet Freeing

2011-09-12T13:37:00.001+02:00

Truth can be both freeing and threatening. We quickly find this out in our recognition of those little internal prisons we've built which restrict our living and perceptions in a myriad of ways. To slowly free ourselves from them is not an easy task.

So much of what people define as meaningful and of value in life is perceived from these narrow prison walls. To simply let go of them without some kind of balanced discernment and transition can plunge a person in to a serious quandary. To ram and batter those prisons without the person being ready to leave, can be extremely harmful. Just being a parent to teenagers soon teaches you this.

There is a rhythm to the human spirit when it comes to apprehending truth. Sometimes it is a slow and intricate dismantling of those prison walls, in other cases a sudden crisis or breakdown, a "kairos" moment. In whatever way truth reveals itself, the human spirit needs to be ready for its inception, and this readiness always needs to be carefully discerned.

The very process of revealing truth is presided over by the Divine. To know and understand this Divine rhythm in ourselves and others, is to be awakened to the necessary discernment, compassion and wisdom. Jesus knew it only too well: "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he/she, the Spirit of truth, comes, he/she will guide you into all truth."

Jesus was completely attuned to this Greater rhythm and his call to us is to be that too.

Meditation on Lectionary Gospel Reading - The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant - Matthew 18:21-35

2011-09-07T13:58:00.000+02:00

The Gospel Lectionary Reading this week centers around the The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. The obvious theme of the parable is that of "Forgiveness." Keeping this in mind, I've tried to come at it from another angle which I think may be a little different. If you're interested in reading the meditation, here is the link to the post on my other blog: Meditation on the Lectionary Gospel Reading.

Home and Homecoming

2011-09-05T20:34:00.001+02:00

Home! It's a beautiful word rich in meaning and repose. Who can ever forget Steven Spielberg's ET, that wonderful little creature with his long and poignant finger pointing up in to the skies and his deep yearning expressed in the word, "Hommmme! Hommmme!."

Yesterday I watched the birds chirping and chattering away and flying all over the place bringing back bits of grass and palm tree leaves for their new nests - homes in which the next generation will be cared for and launched in to the world. In the evening, as I stood on our front porch with the homely aroma of cooking food permeating the air, I watched the Hadedas, squawking loudly and returning home to roost in a small clump of trees down in the garden. Also the gate to our complex kept on opening and closing as people wearily returned home from a hard day's work seeking rest and repose.

Deeply touched by the whole scene, I was overcome by a wonderful sense of home, that place of shelter, belonging and rest, that place where we can fully and safely be ourselves. Gratitude for my own home swept through me and I grasped in a new way the meaning of the phrase - there's no place like home. But what about the homeless. This thought and its pain also filled my mind.

In all these musings Jesus' words came to me: "If anyone loves me they will obey my teaching. My Father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them." Is it not out of this Divine Home of shelter and love that all homes flow? Is not all human sense of home embraced and fed by this Divine home in which we live and move and have our being? Are our little homecomings not strangely linked to some great and mystical homecoming we only know in part? I think so.

Spiritual Abuse

2011-09-01T12:19:00.000+02:00

Just this last week I've encountered examples of what I can only describe as spiritual abuse. It saddens one, because what is meant to be life-giving, is turned in to death-like clouds of oppression, and that, by the very people who should know better.

Vulnerability to this abuse is widespread and the causes are many, but I think one of the biggest issues is the obsession with the Bible being a book of rules defining specific behaviour as pleasing, or not pleasing to God. The mindset this creates is that the "average" person, or "layperson" has very little or no real capacity to discern scripture for themselves. They have to be told what is true and untrue and the highest virtue they can practice in the faith community they serve, is that of obedience. They are not encouraged to think for themselves and for them to question anything is always seen as threat.

Now, put people who are not encouraged to think and question and who have no confidence in their own discerning abilities, together with strong leaders who believe exactly how to "interpret" these rules and impose them, and you have the ultimate recipe for abuse, especially where leaders are locked in to their own performance and achievement. People then simply become pawns on the egocentric chess boards of these leaders.

What makes this worse is that people become part of a church and a god created in the image of the leadership, serving the ego needs of that leadership, with faith having nothing to do with gaining a deeper understanding and experience of God and Church. In fact, such a deepened understanding may just expose the abusive system for what it is, causing it all to come crumbling down. Sometimes that's precisely what is needed to enable the birth of a Divine infusion of authentic work and service.

One such community I know has now met this fate. The human pain left in its wake is hard to describe and will have to be dealt with, with all the compassion it so richly deserves.

Are our churches places of life-giving exploration where people are free and are encouraged to inquire and question, or are they communities solidified with attitudes of threat, cemented dogmatism and dictatorial leadership?

We Belong to the Earth

2011-08-30T20:56:00.001+02:00

We belong to the earth! I can almost see those whose spirituality is of the other-worldly sort throwing up their arms in alarm and saying, "No we don't! We're only passing through. Our real home is in heaven!"

Well that may be for some people. All I know is that when I'm planting seedlings and digging my fingers in to the loose earth and smelling its primeval aroma, something whispers, "This is where you belong."

Then my mind goes to that beautiful text - "...and the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground," and I know exactly why the planting of seedlings and that whisper mean so much.

But,what about, "...and breathed in to his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Yes, certainly at the heart of life, but something tells me it's more about living in "earthiness" than in "heavenliness." I tend to be far more Jewish in perception than Greek.

The Language of Touch

2011-08-27T15:42:00.000+02:00

Some years back I found myself standing in the middle of St Peter's Basilica in Rome. What I felt there that day can only be described as breathtaking. In the midst of my sheer wonder of the place I saw to my right the statue of St Peter, the famous one with the foot worn smooth by constant human touch. People were lined up touching it as I watched. It was obvious to me that as they did this, they were being touched by something wonderfully deep and profound. I remember going over and also standing in line. When I finally touched that foot, an almost numinous feeling came over me, a feeling of being part of something far, far bigger than me, yet with my minuscule place in it. It was an extremely moving moment for me, one I've never forgotten, and it came through touch.

But touch is not just something physical. I was pondering on how we use the word "touching" to describe a book, or a story, or film which reaches deep in to the core of our being awakening us to realities and depths of life we don't easily experience without such touches. Sometimes they are so intense they're life changing, a kind of theophany we never forget. We touch people and they touch us through words, actions and body language etc. Our very lives are created in such a way that they have this beautiful capacity to touch and be touched. Therefore the question always arises for each of us - in what way does our presence touch the world around us? Is it healing and inspiring, or destructive and deathlike?

John O Donohue beautifully describes the language of touch in these words: "Touch and the world of touch brings us out of the anonymity of distance in to the intimacy of belonging... Rediscovering the sense of touch returns you to the hearth of your own spirit, enabling you to experience again, warmth, tenderness and belonging."

There was once a woman who found this all to be true when she secretly touched the clothes of the Master. And after being touched by him, she was never the same again.

NB
See some Meditative Thoughts on "touch" around the events of Jesus and this woman on my other blog - Words, Ancient yet Present - Meditative thoughts on the Scriptures

Compensatory Actions Are Healing Actions

2011-08-22T14:19:00.003+02:00

I was chatting to someone the the other day who has really got in to gardening. His attitude to what he grows and cares for is so gentle and kind and nurturing. I asked him about his love of gardening and he said that whenever he worked in the garden it brought about a a deep sense of peace, and something else he couldn't really put his finger on. I knew he'd grown up in a very abusive home, and so I asked if he didn't feel that he was nurturing the garden with all the kindness and care he himself never got and that that was perhaps the something he "couldn't put his finger on." It struck a deep cord. I could see it in his eyes and in the nodding of his head.

I came away thinking about the mystery of our hearts and how we have this tendency to compensate for what has happened to us, in other ways. And as we practice these compensatory actions, not only do they give us peace and joy, but gently and gradually heal us without our even knowing it. I found myself thinking of something I really enjoy doing now, and suddenly I knew why. Making connections is a wonderfully healing thing.

I wonder if Jesus meant something of this when he spoke of the seed growing in secret, even as we slept and were awake, and us not knowing how it happened, or when. I somehow think he did.

Self-examination and Reflection

2011-08-19T22:16:00.000+02:00

I was listening to a group of people on Sky News discussing the riots in England. One person made a rather perceptive point. Many of those who took part in the rioting and the looting, he felt, suffered from a basic inability to reflect inwardly and examine themselves. Life for them is simply lived on the surfaces of gratification and ethical poverty. Obviously, it's only part of the problem, but nevertheless real.

It's true that a lack of depth lurks in many today and that the ability to reflect inwardly is sadly lacking. Too much dancing along the surfaces of life. The consequences are often seen in the expression of destructive unconscious behavioural patterns which not only alienate people from themselves, but also from one another and their environment. The Psalmist has some profound words. He says of God: "Surely, you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place." Ps 51:6. You can't get deeper than that, and its got nothing to do with peverse kinds of introspection, but everything to do with an inner understanding of what is going on inside of one and how that is being expressed externally. See David's experience with the prophet Nathan in a post on my second blog. The words of Psalm 51:6 need to be interpreted within this context.

Surely, one of the healthiest things we can do, is to take a regular time of quiet and work with the Spirit within, and examine ourselves. It's so easy to suffer from large doses of self-deception, hiding our faults from our own scrutiny and pretending they're not there - maybe in everybody else, but not in me.

In these moments of quiet, reflecting on our instant reactions to others and to certain situations can tell us much about ourselves. Often what we condemn in others is only too present within us. Seeing the truth is always the beginning of being set free. It takes honest inner reflection and examination, in the presence of the Divine, to bring about authentic transformation. No doubt, it's an essential part of living wisely, ethically and congruently.

Please Stop "Evangelizing"

2011-08-12T17:11:00.001+02:00

I was reading an article by Carl Medearis, an expert in Arab-American and Muslim - Christian relations, about why evangelicals need to stop "evangelizing." In the article he shares a personal experience: "When I used to think of myself as a missionary, I was obsessed with converting Muslims (or anybody for that matter) to what I thought of as “Christianity.” I had a set of doctrinal litmus tests that the potential convert had to pass before I would consider them “in” or one of “us.”

He then went on to say something deeply significant, something that many Christians find difficult to grasp: "What if evangelicals today, instead of focusing on “evangelizing” and “converting” people, were to begin to think of Jesus not as starting a new religion, but as the central figure of a movement that transcends religious distinctions and identities? Jesus the uniter of humanity, not Jesus the divider. How might that change the way we look at others?"

Medearis speaks of the real distinction between "evangelizing" and simply speaking of one's experience of Jesus. The one is practiced from a position of superiority and a monopoly of truth, while the other is simply a sharing and a listening to each other's faith experience in a deeply relational context. The latter makes far more sense to me.

I have set out my own understanding of faith-sharing in a post entitled "Christian Presence - Imperialistic or Humble" if you would like to read it.

The Illusion of Possessiveness

2011-08-10T11:11:00.000+02:00

The Illusion of Ownership

Anne W Schaef, a best selling author, describes in one of her books how she asked Don Coyhis, a Mohican writer and consultant, if she could use some of his words from a book he had written on meditation. Coyhis responded: "You don't need to ask me permission to quote something I have written or said. We are both doing the work of the Creator. Our responsibility is to get the information out there. Use whatever you like."

I found this response rather refreshing, especially in a world so obsessed with ownership and the possession of things. How do we own our words once they leave our lips or the key boards of our computers? Yes, we take responsibility for them, but we don't possess them, just like we don't possess and own anything else. It's an illusion. Our very transcience makes ownership and possession a deception. It all belongs to something far greater than us. Ultimately, we possess nothing. For many that's hard to stomach.

I wonder to what extent Jesus was talking about this illusion when he said: "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." I don't know exactly what he means here, but as I listen to these words a strange sense of freedom and peace comes over me. I'm not sure why, but I'm quite comfortable with leaving it that way.

Re-constructing the concept of the "Kingdom of God"

2011-08-06T14:39:00.005+02:00

In the previous post I spoke of the four significant inadequacies that have to be dealt with in any deconstruction of the term "Kingdom of God." They are as follows, and I hope you don't mind me repeating them:

Too often the "Kingdom of God" has been interpreted as the Divine rule coming from the outside in - God, who is outside, or up there (supernatural theism), coming in to human life and setting up his/her rule in and over that life.

The "Kingdom of God" has often been seen as a set of external principles, or propositional truths which are imposed and have to be adhered to under the rule of God.

The "Kingdom of God" is a concept which has become highly exclusive - you are either in the Kingdom or not. The "us and them" syndrome flourishes under the term "Kingdom of God." It has divided people in to those who either possess the Kingdom, or not.

The very words "Kingdom" and "rule" and "King" etc., belong to a bygone era and don't really make sense to people today. The term "rule" speaks of dominance and of a kind of blind obedience, concepts which are highly suspect in an age punctuated with examples of the misuse of power and dominant rule. The "Kingdom of God" is also a term which is certainly not gender sensitive, and becomes an affront to the growing influence and strength of women in the world.

In reconstructing the concept of the "Kingdom of God," each of the above inadequacies need to be addressed and reinterpreted.

First, Jesus speaks of this Kingdom, not as something on the outside, or up there somewhere, but rather as being within. The "Kingdom of God" for Jesus is the, "Reality of the Presence of God" within, in the very depths of our being. Note what he says: "The Kingdom of God does not come visibly, nor will people say, 'Here it is' or 'There it is' because the Kingdom of God is within you." And so the reality and the presence of the Divine is within us, and as we become conscious of that presence, it fills us with that reality and life which ultimately flows through us out in to the external world.

Second, the "Kingdom of God" has nothing to do with external principles or external propositional truths which are imposed from the outside, rather it has everything to do with becoming conscious of the Divine life and love that seeks to well up from within. It's an inner growing awareness of opening one's life to the transforming grace and goodness of the Divine, not a set of principles imposed on us from the outside by which we are ruled.

Third, if the "Kingdom of God" is the "Reality of the Presence of God" within the very depths of our being, then that Presence dwells within every human being. There can be no exclusivity here. We all, no matter who we are, or what we are, possess the Kingdom of God in the form of the Divine Presence and life at the very heart of our beings. There can be no "us and them" syndrome. The only issue is the degree to which we are becoming conscious of and living in that life and reality. And as I have said many times before, it is through the great religious traditions of the world that people grow in to a consciousness of this Divine Life and Reality which always, by the way, remains a profound mystery, beyond our comprehension. I have found this Reality in the Christian Tradition, a tradition which has nurtured it in me and to which I am deeply committed. Others have found it elsewhere.

Fourth, for me the words "Kingdom" and "rule" and "King" etc., are no longer helpful for the very reasons given. I prefer the phrase, "The Reality of the Presence of God" which makes itself known through the growing awareness and consciousness of all humanity enabling, not oppressive, egotistical, Kingly power, but the power of love, humility and service to all.

Surely, all of this is far more closer to what Jesus meant than those first inadequacies we spoke of.

De-constructing the Concept of "The Kingdom of God"

2011-08-02T12:33:00.010+02:00

The de-construction and re-construction of Christian concepts and categories has become extremely important in an age where religion is being challenged to its very roots. Of course there are those who disagree. I for one am in favour of this, not to foster any evangelical fervour to convert the world, but to pursue truth and enable a greater sense of love, oneness and unity. And so to this end I'd like to do a couple of posts around the whole subject of "The Kingdom of God" hopefully nurturing another dimension to our understanding.

In this post I simply wish to describe the inadequacy of the dominant perception of the term "Kingdom of God," or as some would have it, the traditional perception. Here are four significant inadequacies. Obviously, there may be more, but these four are certainly at the heart of the matter:

First; too often the "Kingdom of God" has been interpreted as the Divine rule coming from the outside in - God, who is outside, or up there (supernatural theism), coming in to human life and setting up his/her rule in and over that life.

Second; the "Kingdom of God" has often been seen as a set of external principles, or propositional truths which are imposed and have to be adhered to under the rule of God.

Third; it is a concept which has become highly exclusive - you are either in the Kingdom or not. The "us and them" syndrome flourishes under the term "Kingdom of God." It has divided people in to those who either possess the Kingdom, or not.

Fourth; The very words "Kingdom" and "rule" and "King" etc., belong to a bygone era and don't really make sense to people today. These terms speak of dominance and of a kind of blind obedience, concepts which are highly suspect in an age punctuated with examples of the misuse of power and dominant rule. The "Kingdom of God" is also a term which is certainly not gender sensitive, and becomes an affront to the growing influence and strength of women in the world.

So, these are four important specifics which have to be dealt with in any process of deconstruction. It would be good to ponder on each of these deficiencies before we do the work of reconstruction. Again, may I say that many may be very comfortable with these specifics as they are, and that's fine, but I know there are also many who can no longer live with them. I include myself among them.

In the next post we'll reconstruct new ways of seeing and understanding the term "Kingdom of God."

Men, Dogs and Daisies

2011-07-28T15:25:00.002+02:00

I remember visiting an elderly man who had lost his wife suddenly. He lived alone in a small flat and had a daughter and son-in-law who popped in regularly just to make sure he was coping.

The times spent with him were deeply significant. Listening to his story touched me in so many ways. One can only describe his history as being that of a man’s man. He grew up in a traditional family where the roles of men and women were clearly defined. After his marriage those roles were continued. He went on extended hunting and fishing trips. He was emotionally distant from his wife and children leaving her to do most of the nurturing in the family. He spent hours making knives. He drank heavily and the club became a second home. However, in spite of all this he was materially a good provider and often prided himself in this.

In the later years, because of ill health, he became more and more dependent on his wife. As this happened, he was plagued by guilt for things he did and didn’t do. The more she helped him, the guiltier he felt. Then, one night, they went to bed and she died in her sleep of a heart attack. His struggle to recover from this was at times absolutely unbearable.

I saw him the other day. He has taken to planting and nurturing the most beautiful African Daisies. To see this hard man with his gnarled fingers planting and stroking these little flowers has done something to me. He also has a little dog now which he dotes upon.

Why is it that so many men only discover their nurturing capacities late in life? If only his family could have received just something of what he now gives those flowers and that little dog. But, thank God for little dogs and daisies. I think in the deep recesses of this man’s mind and heart he knows this regret, hence the tears that often well up in his eyes. As I watched him, something of him disturbingly stirred in me.

Some say it’s in the genes, men are like that. I don’t believe it. Male nurturing is as natural as the rain. We’ve just lost the ability and the world is the poorer for it.

Article firstpublished as Men,Dogs, and Daisies on Blogcritics.

The Divine - Personal or Impersonal (2)

2011-07-26T12:48:00.005+02:00

After receiving a couple of good comments and pondering a little more, I thought I would do another post relating to the last one "The Divine as Personal or Impersonal."

We know that there are those who feel that we can no longer call God personal because God transcends the personal. God, for them, is therefore seen to be transpersonal. Even as I use this word "transpersonal" I experience discomfort. Its sense of discontinuity with the personal, almost as if it expresses something other than personal, is what I struggle with.

We have to be careful here. This stance is no doubt a reaction to limited and dogmatic personal images imposed upon the Divine. To react to dogmatic images by saying that God is transpersonal is to make the mistake of saying that those dogmatic personal images are all there is when it comes to our understanding of the personal.

But what if the personal transcends itself beyond anything we experience now, but remains personal. Would it be wrong to call God personal? I don't think so. It would be wrong to trap God in limited personal categories, but not wrong to see God as transcendent personhood. God is still experienced as a "Thou" as in Buber's words, but a transcendent "Thou" beyond existing personal categories of thought, yet still personal in ways we've not even begun to experience.

We sometimes forget that the personal is a mystery in itself which cannot be exhausted. As long as we understand this, surely we can always refer to God as being Personal, without sacrificing the mystery of the Divine.

The Divine - Personal or Impersonal

2011-07-25T11:56:00.002+02:00

Is God personal or non-personal? It's a good question having deep significance for our relatedness to the Divine. Saying God is personal presents a set of difficulties which are highly problematic. The concept "personal" is essentially a human category; it's what we believe "personal" to mean. For this reason, when we say God is personal, we are really projecting on to the Divine our limited understanding of what personal means.

It's here that we come up with all sorts of absurdities - a god who is manipulated in ways we manipulate each another, a god who gives one group victory over another in the horrors of war, a god who is drawn in to our sporting events giving one person or group, victory over the other, a god who loves a particular people to the exclusion of others, and one can go on and on. All of this arises out of our too personal understanding of the Divine. God is seen to be too much like us.

On the other hand, saying God is impersonal also comes with its particular set of difficulties. How do you relate to something which is not personal? Martin Buber calls it an "I-It" relationship. Can relating to an "It" be called relationship. I suppose to a degree, yes, but certainly not in the true sense of the word.

In my own experience I have come to that place where describing the Divine as being non-personal does not mean impersonal, but simply that the Divine is not constrained or bound by the personal as we know and experience it. The Divine transcends our personal terms, and because of that, is always before us as mystery. I feel a deep comfort with this. The prophet Isaiah, expresses it so succinctly: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Finches and Doves

2011-07-22T08:39:00.006+02:00

This morning I watched a community of finches. Their nests hung from the branches of two trees next to each other. The scene was extremely busy. They were fluttering all over the place, hanging upside down, noisily chattering and nattering away and occasionally doing some work on their nests. The trees were a hive of activity and you couldn't help but look as you passed by.

A little way off, on the overhead cable, two doves sat still and reflective. Every now and again one of them would let out that beautiful cooing sound that doves make and it seemed to balance the sharpness of the noisy chatter of the finches. It was a beautiful moment. I couldn't help but think of how both dispositions are so essential to life.

So today you may find yourself noisily chattering away, but try in the midst of it to build in some silence and reflection. Watch your words and let them flow out of that place of quiet and reflective discernment.

Organized Religion - A momentary experience

2011-07-21T22:05:00.000+02:00

Sharing with some people the other day I once again realised just how tired I have become of organized religion. It's constant attitude of divisiveness in separating so called "true believers" from "unbelievers," the "saved" from the "unsaved," the "baptized" from the "unbaptized," the "truth" from "falsehood," its fear dominating ethic as apposed to that of love, has become for me so offensive, so loveless and so totally unacceptable.

Fraught with tribalistic tendencies it continues to promote the superiority of one group over another. That's not to say that within its ranks there are those who seek to move people in to a greater God-consciousness, thus, enabling these people to expand their lives, cross barriers and transcend boundaries, but these enablers are few and labour heavily under the dominant religious mindset described. My mind turned to them and I felt a strong sense of solidarity and thankfulness.

The Visible and the Invisible

2011-07-10T18:12:00.002+02:00

St Paul Paul describes the Creation as having two dimensions, that which is visible and invisible. He says, "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible..." We need only look at ourselves. Within every person these two dimensions exist, that which is seen, the bodily expression, and that which is unseen, the invisible inner person permeating the bodily expression.

Sometime ago I came across these images of a species of butterfly which can only be described as being transparent, both visible and invisible. It's almost as if we have here a complete integration of both dimensions. Too often we think of spirit being distinct from the physical, a remnant of Greek thought, when in actual fact the two are an integrated whole. These butterflies are for me a beautiful metaphor of this truth. Let's also not forget the ultimate image of this integration, the transfiguration of Jesus himself - the coming together of the seen and the unseen.

The Divine Will Happens in spite of Us

2011-07-04T12:25:00.001+02:00

A friend of mine sent me this extract from a book by Melody Beattie. For me it brings about a wonderful sense of balance and sanity around the whole issue of God's will. It reads:

"God’s will most often happens in spite of us, not because of us.

We may try to second guess what God has in mind for us, looking, searching, hypervigilant to seek God’s will as though it were a buried treasure, hidden beyond our reach. If we find it, we win the prize. But if we’re not careful, we miss out.

That’s not how it works.We may believe that we have to walk on eggshells, saying, thinking, and feeling the right thing, while forcing ourselves somehow to be in the right place at the right time to find God’s will. But that’s not true.God’s will for us is not hidden like a buried treasure. We do not have to control or force it. We do not have to walk on eggshells in order to have it happen. It is right there inside and around us. It is happening, right now. Sometimes, it is quiet and uneventful and includes the daily disciplines of responsibility and learning to take care of ourselves. Sometimes, it is healing us when we’re in circumstances that trigger old grieving and unfinished business. Sometimes, it is grand.

We do have a part. We have responsibilities, including caring for ourselves. But we do not have to control God’s will for us. We are being taken care of. We are protected. And the Power caring for and protecting us loves us very much.

If it is a quiet day, trust the stillness. If it is a day of action, trust the activity. If it is time to wait, trust the pause. If it is time to receive that which we have been waiting for, trust that it will happen clearly and with power, and receive the gift of joy.

Today, I will trust that God’s will is happening as it needs to in my life. I will not make myself anxious and upset by searching vigorously for God’s will, taking unnecessary actions to control the course of my destiny or wondering if God’s will has passed me by and I have missed it."

(From Melody Beattie’s book “The Language of Letting Go”)

Beyond and Within Boundaries

2011-07-04T11:51:00.000+02:00

I enjoy places where somehow I'm able to experience the Divine Presence without any sense of boundary. Moments like these free me from the idolatry I'm so prone to practicing. Give me mountains, wide open spaces, deep valleys, the sea, rushing and silent rivers, the African Savannah, there I experience the Divine beyond the terse and absurd little dogmatic descriptions so often called faith.

But then a strange thing happens, I make the journey up to Gauteng from the South Coast and inevitably stop off at the little church in Van Reenen, said to be one of the smallest churches in the world, nine pews, and I find myself sitting quietly in the confines of the narrow space, sensing in the tightness of boundary, the personal and intimate embrace of the Divine.

Which of these perceptions am I more comfortable with? I think the first, but I know in my heart of hearts, I have the need to be touched by the second as well.

A Hat With Many Colours

2011-06-27T15:18:00.001+02:00

Continuing the theme of religious diversity and truth, I thought I'd share a mythic story from West Africa which I found in one of my favourite books, Joseph Campbell's "The Hero With A Thousand Faces." The myth is about the god Edshu.

One day he came walking along the path between two fields. In each field a farmer was at work. Touching the front of his hat he greeted each of them. The hat was multi-coloured, the one side being red, the other white, with green in front and black behind. When the two farmers went home, the one said to the other, "Did you see the old man go by with the white hat?" To which the other replied, "It was red, not white." "But it was white," insisted the other. "No, it was red, I saw it with my own eyes." "Well you must be blind," said the other and a fight ensued. It got so bad they eventually ended up stabbing one another with knives.

When the neighbours brought them before the Headman for judgement, he was at a loss on how to judge the case. Edshu was among the watching crowd. Suddenly, at the appropriate moment, he stepped forward and revealed his hat. The mystery lifted and everyone understood.

Any religious tradition that persists in calling the hat a particular colour is deeply bigoted and unconscious. When it's prepared to go to war over that, then it loses all credibility. Having walked in the Christian tradition for a long time now, I've seen, and to my embarrassment, even been part of the arrogance and imperialistic attitudes that have so dominated this tradition.

I celebrate that we find ourselves in a world now where this kind of witness is being profoundly challenged forcing us to to take a long and hard look at ourselves and our presence in the world. Hopefully it will lead to a far greater attitude of openness, humility and listening, rather than a continuous, exclusive and imperious assertion of so called ultimate truth.

Religious Diversity - My Response

2011-06-22T17:44:00.004+02:00

The last two posts on my blog dealing with religious diversity have invoked quite a bit of email contact with people. Some have been a little shocked at what I said, while others have expressed relief. In view of this I'd like to set out briefly and simply my stance and attitude towards other religious traditions.

First, I cannot believe that only Christians are really in relationship with God. Having gained some knowledge of other religious traditions, and also having met people from them, has made it impossible for me to believe in Christian exclusivism with its monopoly on truth. I just cannot go down that road.

Second, given the nature of creation's immense diversity, a diversity which comes from the hands of the Creator itself, it just doesn't make sense that this Creator would express itself through one particular faith tradition, in our case Christianity.

Third, my being Christian has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity being the only way to God. In fact if I was forced to believe this I would find it terribly difficult to be Christian. I have no doubt that God speaks through all the great religious traditions of the world, Christianity being one of them. The similarities these traditions convey with Christianity gives greater credence to Christianity itself. But, when Chritianity claims to be the one and only vehicle of Divine truth, it begins to lose its credibility in a world that is both pluralistic and diverse.

Having said all this, I am rooted in the Christian Tradition. This is where I've found meaning and purpose, where I've been mesmerized and moved by the man Jesus in whom I've seen humanity in beautiful harmony with Divinity. I love this tradition and the wisdom and the insight it has given to the world. This is the garden in which I've been planted and I love it. But I will always be open to the insight offered from other gardens which in turn, I know, will not threaten mine, but enrich it.

Many will say then: "What about all those exclusive texts that speak of Christianity as an exclusive way?" I can only say that those texts have been interpreted in certain ways, which have been dogmatised and written in stone, and we've not been open to any of the other ways of interpretation.

Let me end with the words of Tilden Edwards, words which I have always treasured and pondered deeply upon:

"If we do not allow ourselves to go down deeply somewhere, we are in danger of floating on the surface in an erratic, unaccountable and lonely way. Our humanity calls for particularity - a particular channel of grace. My own primary channel through Jesus Christ and the historical and living community that takes seriously his claimed intimacy with ultimate Truth, offers a very personal , particular "way in" to universal reality. My commitment to truth through him opens my eyes to grace everywhere. He is not someone to protect and defend. He reveals the loving light that frees me to live in the naked simplicity of nothing ultimately to protect and defend.Then I am free to claim every moment and person as friend - and to see the grace in every tradition as mine; as part of our common human treasure."

NB: Check below the two posts in question

Can't do Without the Wisdom of the Great Religious Traditions of the World

2011-06-22T14:09:00.000+02:00

I shared in a Teleseminar the other day on the whole subject of what is termed Evolutionary Spirituality. Its one of numerous groups in the world today seeking a form of spirituality which can speak in to our modern day context. It's clear that the proponents of Evolutionary Spirituality and certainly other groups on the same quest have real difficulties with organised religion. Somehow they feel that organised religion, because of its solidification, has very little to say to people in this day and age.

I must confess that a lot of what they express I concur with. As Bishop John Shelby Spong has said: "Institutional Christianity seems fearful of inquiry, fearful of freedom, fearful of knowledge - indeed, fearful of anything except its own repetitious faith, which has its origins in a world that none of us any longer inhabits." Thankfully new and emerging forms of Christianity are beginning to manifest themselves and this is extremely exciting and deeply hopeful.

But in all of this there's something I find decidedly disturbing. It's this tendency to want to break away from the great religious traditions of the world, the tendency to believe that these traditions with their profound wisdom no longer have anything more to say. This I believe to be extremely naive and even dangerous, because whether we like it or not, these ancient traditions of wisdom root, anchor and guide us. A rejection of them will set us adrift in a sea of whim and dangerous fancy.

Laurens Van Der Post describes it for me when he speaks of the natural vegetation of Africa. "Like vegetation everywhere else, Africa's contains as much poison as it does nourishment and we could obviously not have turned with impunity to what merely looked appetizing in that fertile and over-abundant bush. I have often thought that if we had access to a casualty list of all the men and women who have died in discovering what was poison and what was edible in the vegetable kingdom from the beginning of time, it might exceed the list of people who have perished in wars."

The accumulation of this wisdom of our vegetation cost us much and we cannot do without it. Is the wisdom of our great religious traditions not the same? At what cost have they been given to us? To begin to dissociate ourselves from them would be the height of folly. They are our roots and we cannot move in to a new spiritual future without their presence and influence.

Approaching Diversity

2011-06-21T22:04:00.000+02:00

I was reading an article the other day in the Huffington Post on diversity and inclusion. Here's an extract I found to be particularly poignant:

"Globalization has deepened the links and contacts between cultures. Migration has increased, with humanity on the move more than ever before. New technologies have revolutionized information and communication, opening fabulous opportunities for exchange and cooperation, especially for young people.
However, every day, it is becoming clearer that we are not yet fully equipped to tackle such dynamic processes. Rigid stereotypes are back. As the world becomes more connected and societies more diverse, humanity still lacks the basic tools it needs to handle its own cultural diversity.All of this makes the protection of cultural diversity and its democratic governance more urgent than ever. We believe our work must be sharper at three levels.
First, it is vital that we understand better the distinction between embracing cultural diversity - the vision of a pluralistic world where diverse peoples and communities with several affiliations and identities can cooperate in productive harmony - and focusing on cultural differences, the fact that these multiple adherences are becoming juxtaposed in new and sometimes dramatic ways. We must identify the moment when diversity turns into difference and difference into violence. These are the moments that we must work on."

Obviously you can't speak about diversity without addressing the all important issue of religious diversity, especially with our long history of religious conflict which has caused unimaginable human pain. Being a follower of Jesus I can only speak from a Christian point of view. I'm must confess that I'm embarrassed by the sheer imperialistic arrogance of the Christian faith in believing that it, and it alone, has the sole monopoly on truth. I often cringe when I hear Christians demonising every other religion but their own. There's something deeply sad about this attitude.

The article speaks of our lacking the basic tools in handling our diversity. Well, Christianity certainly lacks these tools when it comes to its relationship with other Faith Traditions. It's so used to being right and dominant that to engage on equal footing has just not been in its nature. If it refuses to grow in this area of its witness, it will slowly lose its credibility.

As the world becomes far more connected, Christianity has to learn to deal with religious diversity in ways that are no longer superior and judgemental, but equal and accepting in the process of enriching us all with truth.

Encouragement: The Heartbeat of the Spirit

2011-06-14T15:22:00.001+02:00

I've been reading Michael Parkinson's autobiography called "Parky." It's a beautiful book with some real human stories. One such story revolves around his interview with past and famous actor Henry Fonda. Fonda loved to talk about his talented children, especially Jane. In the interview he said the following about her: "She is one of the most incredible actresses I have ever seen . When I saw "Klute," as an example, I couldn't wait to sit and talk to her, not father to daughter, but actor to actor. I realised one scene that particularly knocked me out was improvisation, which I couldn't do if I was paid a lot of money. It just tore me apart."

Many years later Parky was interviewing Jane Fonda and she was sharing how distant her father had been, how he seemed unable to communicate with his family. Remembering the interview he had had with Henry Fonda, Parky told her what he had said about her. She responded rather sadly, "He never told me." Parky then said to her that in the interview her father had described her as one of the most extraordinary actresses he had ever seen. Her eyes filled with tears. "Why didn't he ever tell me," she said. At the end of the show she was given a copy of that interview so that she could finally hear her father's words about her. Parky writes, "How strange he could have so publicly and proudly praised her and yet not found it possible to tell her himself, knowing, as he surely must have, how much she craved his approval."

There's something profoundly sad about this story, so human, it could pertain to any of us. I wonder how many times words of encouragement needed to be said and heard and never were, especially by the significant others in our lives. I'm not surprised that in those lists of gifts of the Spirit we find the gift of encouragement. I think because of its almost hidden and unassuming nature we don't take it that seriously, yet, when you really think about it, it's the power of encouragement that moves the world forward; it loves potential and ability in to existence; it nurtures and supports risk, always pushing the boundaries in to deeper experience and truth; in days of uncertainty, when the flow of this potential comes to a standstill, it affirms and confidently moves it all forward again.

The very essence of the Spirit can be described as encouragement and when people are full of the Spirit they vibrate and brim with encouragement and inspiration. No small and silly little insecurities and competitions in their presence. They want everyone to experience the fullness of life and to that end they will always offer the gift of encouragement. When the words need to be said and the help needs to be offered, they speak them and always offer a hand. It's called walking in the Spirit. It's precisely how Jesus lived.

Pentecost - The Breath of the Spirit

2011-06-10T16:06:00.000+02:00

Have you ever experienced that moment between sleep and awakening where you're kind of awake but not. It's a moment of lostness. You awareness is misty and twilight-like and you're not sure who you are, where you are, or what you are. It's almost like being lost between two worlds. Then, suddenly, as you emerge from sleep your awareness grows and you become conscious of little things in the room which you slowly recognize and which nudge you into deeper awareness; and then your eyes go to the window and you see the blurred forms and shapes of the outside world. Suddenly, you're back in the world of full awareness and you know, see and feel fully. You're there again having come through the darkness of the night. It's always a fascinating and wonderful experience.

I've often related the experience to that moment of our creation so beautifully and mythically described in Genesis - "And the lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed in to his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." The clay lies there still and inert, no life, in the night of its existence. Then the Spirit breathes in to the nostrils and the clay begins to move and transform and becomes a living and an aware being leaving the night behind; and from that moment on the Spirit doesn't stop breathing in him deepening his awareness of life and all that is within and around him. The Spirit deepens and heightens his consciousness to levels not dreamed of. The same goes for Eve. The Spirit takes humanity both male and female on that great journey in to the deepening knowledge of life and all the beauty and the pain that involves.

Jesus becomes the one full of the Spirit, the Spirit person who reveals to us what humanity is capable of when it awakens to the Divine Spirit that brought it in to existence in the first place. He says, "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you in to all truth."

I often think that we are only at that moment in our existence of that misty awareness described in the first paragraph and that we are still awakening to the day not knowing fully who we are, where we are and what we need to be doing. Pentecost is a celebration of the Spirit's continual work of deepening our awareness and consciousness of all this and awakening us to the day that lies before us.

May you all be moved this Pentecost by the Divine Spirit within who is always breathing new insight and deeper truth in to our hearts and minds.

The Right To Be Here

2011-06-06T12:40:00.002+02:00

To be passed over is not a pleasant experience. It's a bit like those moments where you stand in a group waiting to be picked by either team leader for some game or other. Some say our feelings in that kind of situation have more to do with ego than with anything else. I wonder?

Sure, ego wants to shove itself forward, but one has to be able to sift ego from a genuine desire for significance. There's a difference between brash egotistical assertions and the simple right to be acknowledged - the right to be here.

The modern passion for seeking out and identifying our roots has much to do with plotting ourselves and our significance in the impersonal sea of humanity. Watching the British TV series, "Who do you think you are" brought this home to me.

Each participant was profoundly moved as they became more and more aware of their own origins. Not only were they able to plot themselves, but the discovery of their roots had a profound effect on bringing strength and coherence to their identities. They seemed also to become far more grounded and earthy in attitude. To see Jerry Springer go through this process in one of the episodes was deeply moving. I'm convinced the experience had a profound effect on his life and that he would be the first to acknowledge that.

Unfortunately many people move through life without any real sense of their "right to be here." Through actions, speech and disposition, and in a myriad of other ways, they always seem to be apologising for and excusing their presence.

Sadly, certain forms of spirituality tend to perpetuate this by teaching that spirituality is concerned only with the realms of non-physicality. They even go so far as to say to their followers that they don't really belong in this world, that they are citizens of some unseen reality which has nothing to do with this world, which, by the way, is essentially evil. All this is taught in spite of the fascinating genealogies found in those great bodies of religious literature which have everything to do with charting and locating human identity and grounding it both individually and collectively in the earthiness of life and place.

One of the greatest gifts we can give to each other and to ourselves is the gift of grounding and recognition. In receiving this gift we become secure, present, focused and dynamic. We find our centre, and standing firmly on our own two feet, we are not overwhelmed by the world of daydream and fantasy.

There's a saying that goes like this: "The mighty oak was once a little seed that stood its ground."

Article first published as The Right to Be Here on Blogcritics.

Mountains

2011-06-04T13:00:00.001+02:00

I've always been profoundly struck by the stillness and silence of mountains. From ancient times they've joined heaven and earth and have stood rooted to place surveying from their lofty heights the march of time and event.

I often look at them and ask myself, what have they seen, what images lie buried deep in those stony memories. I often imagine entering in to the very soul of a mountain and seeing and experiencing its life and memory, even though with an air of dignity and privacy it gives the impression that it keeps this all locked away in itself.

One of the great vows of Benedictine spirituality is the vow of stability, and if ever there's an image of stability, it's the mountain. When all is loose, shifty and crumbly, the mountain stands level-headed and tranquil. When the rains come and the winds rise and the snow falls and the seasons come and go, it stands composed and still, always true to its own rhythym. Is this not the spirit we all yearn for? Perhaps that's why mountains feature so often in all the great religions of the world.

"Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them."

Restoring Reverence

2011-06-03T17:26:00.000+02:00

The application by Shell to prospect and mine for gas in the Karoo in South Africa by way of Hydraulic Fracturing, raises huge environmental concerns. Once again one sees the mechanistic mind at work, its characteristics a litany of ruination.

Having little reverence, it struggles in recognising the value of presence in anything. No real sense of wonder or mystery is grasped. It simply treats everything as lifeless objective material to be shoved around and used at its behest. It's dead to the unity of all things and has little respect for nature's mysterious and exquisite interconnectedness. It selfishly uses people and nature with material profits dominating its ends. Profoundly sad, but deadly in its application.

How we long for that kind of spirit that discerns the sacred presence in all things, the spirit that knows only too well that when it diminishes people and the rest of nature, it dimishes itself, and when it diminishes itself it diminishes others.

Nothing is more desperate than restoring our capacity for reverence. The functional mind seeks only to own and control, while the reverential mind allows things to be and celebrates their sanctity, beauty and presence without seeking to own and control.

Which mind will triumph in the Karoo? We don't know, but the struggle has begun.

Article first published as Restoring Reverence on Blogcritics.

Beauty's Visits

2011-06-01T12:54:00.000+02:00

Sitting on the beach this morning, the sea stretched out before me. The sun, bright and warm, glistened silver on the water and in the blue distance a paddle skier cut his way through the gentle swell. It was one of those beautifully calming sights.

I found myself surrendering to the scene and once again just realized how we feel most alive in the presence of beauty. Beauty has this wonderful way of feeding the needs of the soul. Its sudden illuminations from behind ordinary appearance always convey a sense of wellbeing, connectedness and life-energy not easily expressed in words.

Moments such as these are sheer gift.

Obsessive Analysis

2011-05-25T09:58:00.000+02:00

"When you love someone it is destructive to keep scraping at the clay of your belonging. Such insidious analysis can become obsessive and destructive of the lyrical presence of love."

Reading these words of John O' Donohue I couldn't help but think of the obessive preoccupation Christians practice with their relationship to the Divine. It is constantly measured, analysed, assessed and interfered with, held under the light of observation until the light itself begins to darken it.

Of course relationship has to be worked at, but I've come to understand that a kind of healthy neglect also works wonders. That place of connection is a mysterious and secret place. It has a life of its own and doesn't take kindly to too much analysis and explanation. This is true not only of our connection with the Divine, but also of our relatedness to one another.

Next time you sit down and find yourself caught up in relational evaluating and appraising, just relax and be.

Meister Eckhart - God as Action

2011-05-24T22:25:00.000+02:00

Nothing is more off putting than saying something but never backing it up with action. We all do it in a myriad of ways and it's the cause of much hypocrisy. Nothing has done more harm to Christian presence in the world than this.Too many faith journeys have been filled with much loving speech but with very little loving action.

"Dabhar" or the "Word" is a key concept in Meister Eckhart's spirituality. This Word or Dabhar is beautifully described in the first chapter of the book of Genesis. It's powerful, vigorous, active and profoundly creative. "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." When the Divine, who is the Word, speaks it happens. No contradiction exists between what is said and what happens. Word and action are one. What is said actually happens.

For Eckhart, God is a "Speaking, Creating, Action." God speaks the whole of the created order in to existence. God does not ruminate about truth or about the act of creating. God does it. Truth is something which is done, not something we trap in some nebulous thought pattern and debate. It was St Francis who said: "Preach the gospel at all times. Only when it's necessary use words."

One thing becomes clear in all this; Christian spirituality, for Eckhart, is something which is done. The essence of Christianity is love, love for God, oneself, others and the whole of the created order We cannot simply talk about creating love. It has to be done. " Let there be love, and there was love." There can be no hypocrisy in that.

And so Jesus for Eckhart is the language of God expressed in action. Jesus becomes God's speaking action and in him we are able to see the Divine Word in action. But he goes on and says something absolutely marvellous. He says that as Jesus-consciousness grows and unfolds in each of us, we too become Divine words spoken by God. Jesus is the Divine Word, but in him we become Divine words (small words) expressed in all of life.

It's a wonderful thing to think of your life as a word of the Divine, as God's language being spoken in the unique context in which you find yourself.

Meister Eckhart - "Giving Birth to God"

2011-05-23T11:12:00.002+02:00

In the second of his sermons Meister Eckhart says this: "God dwells in the innermost dimension of the soul and in the highest aspect of the soul. And when I say 'the innermost' I mean the highest. When I say 'the highest' I mean the innermost region of the soul. The innermost and the highest realms of the soul - these two are one."

Because God is not 'out there' or 'up there' but within us, God seeks to express God-self through us. For Eckhart God is in situations and and is always seeking to express Himself/Herself through us in those situations. He calls this 'giving birth to God' in any given situation. Obviously he doesn't mean this literally; it's just a beautiful way of describing how God expresses His/Her Presence through us.

And so, for Meister Eckhart it's absurd to ask, 'Where is God?' in any given situation. Rather we ask, "How is God wanting to express Himself/Herself through me in this given situation." God is within all situations through us. This is real incarnational, God-in-humanity spirituality. The prayer, "God, do something" is not in Eckhart's book. Rather, it is the prayer, "O God you seek to act through me. What is it you will have me do?" It's the spirituality Jesus lived and breathed. One can hear it in his words:

"I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world may believe you sent me...I in them and you in me, so that they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me."

For Meister Eckhart God's way of coming to us is through each other. It's the very essence of his belief.

Meister Eckhart - God "Spoken" and "Unspoken"

2011-05-10T16:57:00.001+02:00

Nothing is more annoying as when someone says to you, "I know exactly how you think," or, "I know exactly what you're like." It's such an arrogant statement. How can anybody simply tie you up and define you in their words and thoughts. None of us are that simple or predictable. Not only are we a mystery to ourselves, but also to one another. Something dies in our relationships when we no longer acknowledge mystery in one another. It's a good feeling when you've been with someone for over thirty years and they still surprise you.

Meister Eckhart when speaking about God describes God as being "Spoken" and "Unspoken." The language is strange, even obscure, but understanding it opens us up to the marvellous breadth of his spirituality. Paradoxical expression is his way - paradox being something which sounds absurd, yet, on further reflection is well founded and actual. "Spoken" and "Unspoken" sounds absurd, but with deeper reflection meaning unfolds.

God is a profound mystery, says Eckhart, beyond our grasp and understanding. A famous prayer of his says: "O' God rid me of god." In other words remove from me those limited and dogmatic perceptions, those idols I've created and perceived God to be.

Our age is one in which God has become so consumerized, so packaged, so small, so manipulated for our own ends, that what we worship and prayerfully engage at times, is really an idol, a construction of our own minds having very little to do with who God really is.

Eckhart brings a beautiful balance. On the one hand he says that God is "spoken" meaning that we can experience and speak of God, but also "unspoken" in that our words and experience can never have the final say over who and what God is. God is always beyond the definitions, names and decriptions we give. He writes: "We can find no name which we dare to give God. Nevertheless, we are allowed those names with which the saints have named him and which God has dedicated in their hearts and which God has permeated with divine light...God is elevated over all names and remains inexpressible."

All this goes for the Bible as well. God is not trapped and defined in the Bible. No book can contain all who God is. It's absurd to think that it can. The Bible contains the wonderful record of human experience of God, but God is always beyond it - in it, but beyond it.

So God can be spoken but is also unspoken. Therefore, for Eckhart, in our worship and prayerful engagement God is grasped, but always remains a mystery beyond our grasp. For him healthy Christian spirituality and worship will always keep this balance. Eckhart stands in the Tradition of Isaiah: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Is 55:8-9)

Easter Meditation on the Resurrection - The Emmaus Road of Recognition (Luke 24:13-35)

2011-05-04T21:22:00.002+02:00

Something that has always fascinated me is how we can read a particular book and not really be touched by its contents. And then one day we pick it up again, and as we read, we begin to see things we never saw in the first reading. Suddenly insights leap out at us and the book takes on a whole new perspective.

What is it that actually happens? Well, it's hard to describe. It's all a bit of a mystery, and that's good. We certainly can't define or control it. One sure thing is that we have moved on in life. Something has changed in us which now enables us to see and respond to what we never saw in the first place. It's almost as if we weren't ready for it when the book was first read. Somehow, between those two readings, little changes or resurrections, conscious or unconscious, have awakened us to something not felt and experienced in that first reading.

Verses 16 and 31 are both striking in the story of the walk to Emmaus. Verse 16, "...they saw him, but somehow did not recognize him." And then verse 31, "Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him..."

There are three crucial dimensions in that journey to Emmaus. First, the two are engaged in discussion, and second, they are joined by another presence, Jesus himself, who also begins to engage them. Initially they don't recognize him, and then third, they move to a place where they suddenly see and ultimately understand.

Have you ever been engaged in a discussion where in your talking, insight just begins to flow in to you. It's not as if you are generating it yourself. It comes in spite of you. It's almost like another voice that reveals and gives a deeper perception in to the truth of things. For me it is the voice of Christ, some may not recognize it as such, who speaks to us on the road of life and leads us in to those places where we begin to see and understand far more deeply; and that in my mind has everything to do with resurrection and change.

I love the way that voice in the story is experienced as conveying revelation. It reveals truth to us. It speaks truth and recognition in to our hearts and minds. I love the way it comes to us within the context of togetherness, community,discussion and worship. No going off on an individual tangent here. I love the way it speaks even when it is not recognized. This voice speaks in to all human life even though it is not initially identified. It prepares and makes ready enabling insight, recognition and resurrection, as in the lives of those two disciples who walked on that road that day.

America, May I Dare To Speak

2011-05-04T14:09:00.002+02:00

Permit me to speak as one beyond the borders of the USA. Not being an American, and therefore not understanding your context, I hesitate to speak. But I do feel compelled to say just a few words concerning the death of Osama Bin Laden.

I have long been an admirer of the great ideals enshrined in your constitution. You are and have been a beacon of hope, freedom and democracy in a world too often dominated by dictatorship and despair. But the celebration and nationalistic triumphalism that swept your country on the death of Osama Bin Laden was decidedly disturbing and questionable.

I'm sure many in the USA are feeling a tremendous sense of relief, retribution and vengeance, but you must know that all of this will never be able to address the underlying issues that face you as a nation, and indeed the Western World, and I don't speak as one who demonises the West, but as one whose cultural roots are deeply embedded in her. Those celebrations were too reminiscent of the many we have seen in the very countries who themselves espouse violence and terror. Surely America is better than that. Please give me hope and tell me that America is better than that.

Dare I say that many detect in your national psyche the disturbing growth of a narcissistic nationalism and an overbearing selfrighteousness and aggression, which in many cases creates much fear and caution in people. Sometimes I wonder to what extent these very things fuel the anger against you.

Yes, who Osama Bin Laden was and what he did was totally unacceptable and can never be condoned in any way, but whether we like it or not he has also become for many in the Middle East and elsewhere a profound symbol of anger against all that is imperious and insincere.

Dealing with the enemy out there is only half the story. It's the enemy within that also has to be addressed and dealt with. If America can pursue that inner enemy with the same vigour and determination with which she pursued Bin Laden, the victory and celebration will be true and honourable transcending everything we saw today. Would that not be your real gift to us?

Article first published as America, May I Dare To Speak on Blogcritics.

Meditation on the Resurrection - Mary Magdalene, Don't hold on to me (John 20:11-18)

2011-04-29T15:26:00.001+02:00

In the beginning of the year I watched a mother and a father saying goodbye to their little boy who was starting school for the first time. There was a heartrending moment when the little boy, while being coaxed away by a teacher, reached out with his arms to his parents pleading for them not to leave him. It was so painful to watch. Yet at another level I knew, and so did his parents, that the separation had to be made. It would be the first of many separations enabling that little boy to adequately negotiate the "clinging" stage of his life, and begin the arduous and exciting journey in to his own true identity and the recognition of that in others.

Allan Jones shares a wonderful insight: "We either contemplate or exploit. We either see persons and things with reverence and awe, and therefore treat them as genuinely other than ourselves; or we appropriate them and manipulate them for our own purposes." Nothing is more detrimental to relationships than a persistent clinging to the other. It imprisons and suffocates the other as well as ourselves. We expect the other to live up to our expectations and to meet our needs. There is no creative and mutual growing space between.

When Jesus said to Mary, "Do not hold on to me..." I suspect that he was saying just that. Jesus' life was anything but static. The way she knew and experienced him was about to change and she could no longer hold on to the old way of relating. We tend to forget that resurrection and change in the lives of others, especially those close to us, are far more threatening to us than to them. We fear change in others because of where it puts us. By saying to Mary, "Go to my brothers and tell them I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and to your God," Jesus invites her to let go of the old and confined, and to take hold of the new and ever expanding experience of resurrection.

Our relationship with the Divine and with one another always undergoes change. We cannot cling and hold on to perceptions as if they're defined in stone. They are filled with movement and life and the gift we bring is an openness and a readiness to shift and move. Surely, that is what resurrection is all about.

Easter Meditation on the Resurrection - Mary Magdalene called by Name (John 20:11-18)

2011-04-24T08:48:00.001+02:00

One Sunday I was in a worship service leading the congregation in prayer, when suddenly, in the distant background I heard a small child start to cry. The crying obviously came from the creche situated in another part of the building, but in close proximity to where we were. To my amazement, as soon as the crying started, a young mother in the worship service immediately got up and quickly made for the door and left. She knew the sound of her child's crying in spite of the fact that there were many other children in that creche that day. I've never forgotten that beautiful moment - a mother hearing and knowing the sound of her child's cry and responding immediately with concern - a personal recognition and response. To this day I'm still moved by that mother's action when I think back on it.

Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" Who of us have not at times felt that we live in a universe which is impersonal, cold and really without love, not only when we see what's happening around us, but when we oursleves are on the receiving end of life's wounding. Such feelings can be devastating for our faith. It's a terrible thing to simply feel lost in the impersonal masses of life.

My mind goes to the distress of Mary outside the tomb on that Easter Sunday morning. I suspect she was feeling something of this. Then comes that beautiful moment. In to her distressful, cold and impersonal context comes the sound of her name, "Mary." There's nothing like the sound of our name spoken in love. It resurrects us. Mary comes alive. She immediately begins to see past her tears. It draws us out of remote and impersonal clouds and says, "You matter; what is happening to you is seen by that which loves you beyond comprehension. Your cry is heard and recognized by Divine hears and responded to with divine love even though you may find it hard to believe."

Because the Divine deals with us in this way, do we not then need to deal with one another in the same way? When we do, the grey impersonal clouds of life's struggles lift, and we breathe the brightness of personal resurrection love in to one another's hearts and in to the wider world, particularly when we call one another by name.

Easter Meditation on the Resurrection - Thomas and the wound in the side (John 20:24-29))

2011-04-22T20:11:00.000+02:00

Nothing is more annoying and insensitive than imposing a purely rational solution on a difficulty filled with deep emotional pain. That's not to say there's no place for rational thought in sorting out the difficulties we face and go through in life. Of course rationality is able to cut through the clouds of emotion, but on its own it can be extremely cold and distant. Relationships, where only the head rules, tend to be cold and unfulfilling.

It's interesting to watch the action of Jesus with Thomas. No doubt Thomas is essentially a head person. One can just hear his rationality in the words he utters, "Unless I see the scars of the nails in his hands and put my finger on those scars and my hand in his side, I will not believe." Things have to be completely logical and cerebral for Thomas or else they just don't make sense. People like this are real gifts to us, but there is often a degree of indifference and remoteness about them.

What is so striking about Jesus' action with Thomas, is that he does precisely what Thomas asked for. He takes Thomas's hand and puts it in his side. Thomas's finger is placed in the wound. He touches and feels it and when he does, he cries from his heart (notice how his heart is awakened by the touching and feeling of the wound), "My Lord, and my God." When we truly touch and feel human pain, we realize very quickly that it cannot just be eased and healed by the intellect; the heart has to be brought in to it as well. It has to be felt and connected with.

The head creates order and structure while the heart breathes life and sensitivity in to this order and structure. When Thomas finally balances these two, head and heart, he experiences resurrection. Is this not true for us as well?

Easter Meditation on the Resurrection - Mary Magdalene called by Name (John 20:11-18)

2011-04-22T17:03:00.001+02:00

I was in a worship service leading the congregation in prayer, when suddenly, in the distant background I heard a small child start to cry. The crying obviously came from the creche situated in another part of the building, but in close proximity to where we were. To my amazement, as soon as the crying started, a young mother in the worship service immediately got up and quickly made for the door and left. She knew the sound of her child's crying in spite of the fact that there were many other children in that creche that day. I've never forgotten that beautiful moment - a mother hearing and knowing the sound of her child's cry and responding immediately with love - a personal recognition and response. To this day I'm still moved by that mother's action when I think back on it.

"Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, 'Rabboni'!" Who of us have not at times felt that we live in a universe which is impersonal, cold and really without love, not only when we see what's happening around us, but when we oursleves are on the receiving end of life's wounding. Such feelings can be devastating for our faith. It's a terrible thing to become lost in the impersonal masses of life.

My mind goes to the distress of Mary outside the tomb on that Easter Sunday morning. I suspect she was feeling something of this. Then comes that beautiful moment. In to her distressful, cold and impersonal context comes the sound of her name, "Mary." There's nothing like the sound of our name spoken in love. It resurrects us. Mary comes alive. She immediately begins to see past her tears. It draws us out of remote and impersonal clouds and says, "You matter; what is happening to you is seen by that which loves you beyond comprehension. Your cry is heard by Divine ears and responded to with Divine love even though you may find it hard to believe."

Because the Divine deals with us in this way, do we not then deal with one another in the same way? When we do, the grey impersonal clouds of life's struggles lift, and we breathe the brightness of personal resurrection love in to one another's hearts, particularly when we call one another by name.

Easter Meditation on the Resurrection - The Visit to the Tomb (John 20:1-10)

2011-04-19T19:48:00.002+02:00

"Then Peter and the other disciple went to the tomb...He bent over and saw the linen wrappings, but he did not go in."

Living on the Kwa/Zulu Natal Coastline we are often visited by the little Natal green snake. Being so plentiful, it's quite common to find their discarded skins in some of the most troubling of places. We've found them on our window sills, in the courtyard, on our front porch, in the garden and even on the roof.

Shedding is the process by which snakes periodically discard the outer portion of their skin. It's an activity associated with growth, and healthy snakes shed their skin 4-8 times per year. And so whenever I find a dried up little snake skin, it's a reminder of what was, and what is now.

The image of Peter and John on that Easter morning in the tomb, staring at the linen wrappings - Jesus' empty grave clothes - is a beautiful one. Not only did it speak of a particular experience of Jesus that was, but also of a new experience and understanding that was to come.

Shedding is an essential part of our spiritual walk and has everything to do with resurrection. It's a letting go, through the Spirit, of destructive attitudes, of those things that have become too cramped and tight, and a moving on in to wider and deeper fields of relationship with the Divine and all of life, culminating of course in the ultimate shedding, this life for the next.

Many say that these tombs and grave clothes we let go of along the way, should never be revisited or gone back to. This is only partly true. Having let go of them, or having been healed of them, they should be intergrated back in to our personal stories. The reason being that when we go back to them and look at them from a healed perspective, they then actually become experiences that enable us to be compassionate and empathic towards others. They enable us, through the Spirit, to impart resurrection insight in to the lives of others.

I saw an amazing example of this on TV the other day. I watched a program where a woman shared her experience of having been a bully in school and the immense pain she had inflicted on others. Eventually she was awakened to what she was doing and underwent a remarkable healing and change. She has spent the last four years addressing schools on the subject of bullying, especially conversing with bullies themselves. She's been extremely affective because of her own experience, which she has not forgotten, but has turned into the stuff that resurrects others from this destructive behaviour. And so she often looks in to that tomb and at those grave clothes, but only to enable her to draw close to others and provide help.

The tombs and grave clothes that punctuate our stories are filled with the potential to do the same, provided we are healed of them and are willing to use them.

Easter Meditation on the Resurrection - Jesus' Encounter with Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18)

2011-04-19T17:40:00.001+02:00

"Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing there; but she did not know it was Jesus"

Nothing can be more healing for a person who is in pain than to be given a listening ear and a secure space to share their story. Deep down we all long for this. Two important things happen when we are given this gift. First, we feel relief as our inner pain is safely shared. Second, as our anguish is unlocked and released, there's the inevitable unfolding of insight. It's as if when the barrier lifts, we begin to see with new eyes - a new perspective dawns. We in actual fact begin to experience a little resurrection out of our pain.

This was clearly Mary's experience. She stood outside the tomb and we are told she was crying, no doubt absolutely griefstricken. She then suddenly encountered Jesus who she thought was the gardener. It's here that we see the healing and the beauty of Jesus' encounter with her. He knew she was in deep pain and began by very sensitively asking questions. Questions, when posed with compassion and empathy, encourage expression which is precisely what is needed when a person is in pain. Questions help a person to put their finger on the source of their struggle and to express it.

So Jesus, through his questions, encouraged Mary to speak and share her anguish. As it eased with her sharing, Jesus, at the appropriate moment, said her name. With that she moved in to immediate recognition. She suddenly saw what she was unable to see, what she was in actual fact looking for and couldn't see. Notice how Jesus never told her who he was. That, she discovered herself. The way he approached and encountered her enabled her to make that discovery herself. We witness a profound respect in Jesus for Mary's own capacity for seeing. He simply nurtures it, but she does it. What we ourselves discover has far deeper roots than what we are simply told.

Jesus' approach here is one that infuses resurrection power and healing in to the heart of Mary. It describes and models the Divine's encounter with us, and what our encounters should be like with one another. Wherever such encounters take place, the beauty of resurrection always unfolds and pushes back the clouds of limitation.

Easter Meditation on Forgiveness - A Different Perspective

2011-04-13T20:02:00.002+02:00

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing"

As we move into Easter, the emphasis on that little phrase, "Jesus died for our sins, " is becoming more and more problematic for many people. It invokes meaning they can no longer adhere to. The dominant perspective is this. All have sinned against God and stand guilty before God. The only way in which our sin can be forgiven is through an adequate sacrifice. God's justice demands it, so God sends Jesus as the perfect human making him the perfect sacrifice. Jesus dies on the cross and this sacrifice makes forgiveness possible, but only for those who believe that he died for their sins.

There are real difficulties here. What kind of god demands sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin, demands pain and suffering before forgiveness is given. This not only sounds primitive and vengeful, a life for a life, but also imposes restrictions on the power of Divine forgiveness. it holds that forgiveness is not forthcoming unless someone pays the price. The image of Jesus'cruel death on the cross, somehow placating God's anger and calling forth forgiveness out of the Divine heart, is one many struggle with.

A second difficulty is with the fact that the cross was not just the consequences of Jesus living out Divine truth in the world, but an absolute necessity for the forgiveness of sin. Jesus had to die. It was foreordained. Reconciliation could not take place without his death. His death was essential to the Divine plan of salvation. So Jesus' death becomes a kind of inbuilt automated path which overrides human freedom and choice. There's something rather inadequate about this as well.

Far more comforting and acceptable is the approach which sees Jesus' life (not just his death), his death and his resurrection as "the way" or "the path" through which spiritual transformation takes place. That transformation becomes ours as we follow him. It is the way of an expanding consciousness of the Divine life and its call on ours. It was Jesus' expanding consciousness of his relationship to the Divine and its call on his life that ultimately led him to the cross, not because it was ordained to be, but because that was the ultimate consequence of that path. And when he uttered those words from the cross, "Forgive them for they know not what they do," he did not see himself as a sacrifice for sin enabling Divine forgiveness, but rather expressing forgiveness because at that moment his humanity was so permeated with Divine life and forgiveness that it flowed from him too. That's why we are able to say that in Jesus we see the expanse of Divine forgiveness itself.

In his life, death, and resurrection Jesus demonstrates what is already there, and possible for us, a reality of Divine grace, love and forgiveness, that doesn't have to be wrung out of a reluctant God through sacrifice and blood.

Does that mean there's no cost involved? Of course not! The cost is immense. There's a tremendous cost to growing into God-consciousness. Jesus revealed this, only too well, in all that happened to him.

Article first published as Easter Meditation on Forgiveness - A different Perspective - on Blogcritics

Easter Meditation on Forgiveness - Forgiving Slowly

2011-04-13T20:00:00.001+02:00

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing"

There's is a kind of hurt so stabbing and painful that to talk about forgiveness just switches us off. Sometimes we are hurt to such a degree that we find it almost impossible to forgive. And then inevitably someone will come along and say, "You must forgive!" And as they say it we know in our hearts that they haven't the faintest idea of how we feel.

The forgiveness Jesus offered was instantaneous, as his words from the cross indicate, and certainly serves as the absolute call to us to forgive, but, and this may come as good news to many, most often forgiveness starts slowly, especially where the hurt and the pain and the anger has been intense. We struggle with it for so long that we cannot remember the moment we actually let go and forgave. We just suddenly wake up one morning and find that we no longer hold anything against the person or persons. It's gone and we know we have forgiven them - a beautiful work of the Spirit.

Corrie Ten Boom, who suffered immensely in the concentration camps, and lost her entire family, gives a wonderful illustration of what it means to forgive. She says that forgiving is like the ringing of a bell in a church steeple. While you hang on the rope and pull it down with all your strength, the bell rings in your ears and violently pulls you up and you have to pull down on the rope again. Eventually you're absolutely breathless. And then comes that marvellous moment when you let go of the rope. The bell still goes on ringing, but gradually becomes slower and softer, until eventually, there is that last gong, and then peace and quiet.

Often with forgiveness there is that instant when we let go, but the anger and the hurt still go on ringing, but then it ultimately comes, that last gong, and then the peace and quiet. We have at last forgiven and are free.

Response to the Muslim Marriages Bill

2011-04-07T19:46:00.002+02:00

In the name of that noble activity, consultation, which too often has more to do with dragging things out than applying them, the South African Justice Departmernt has once again extended the deadline for comments on the Muslim Marriages Bill.

Now this would really be consultative and accommodating of them if the first draft hadn't been published 10 years ago - yep, you heard right, 10years ago. And after all, it only centres around that nasty bit of business of women being given equal rights, and this in a country who now has one of the finest constitutions in the world, after an extremely painful history of oppression and injustice.

Certain clerics and members of the Council of Muslim Theologians are hellbent on wrecking the Bill. The ultimate test in all this is whether the supreme authority over the lives of Muslim women and children is vested in fundamentalist clerical bodies, or in the constitution of our land.

It's deeply troubling to know that the patience displayed by politicians, when handling Islamic matters, is in direct proportion to their unreserved wariness of the extremity to which certain members - again I say, only certain members - of the Muslim faith are prepared to go, in order to maintain their religious stance.

But it has to be widely broadcasted, that when it comes to issues of human rights and justice, there can be no pandering to absurd and unjust religious edicts. Our constitution and the majority in our land know what has to happen. The question is whether our goverment has the strength and moral fibre to apply it. The people of our land are watching.

Easter Meditation on Forgiveness: Our Desire for Revenge

2011-04-03T23:34:00.001+02:00

Jesus said, Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing

Rooted deeply in the human heart is the primitive dictum, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Nothing seems more fair than to make the other pay for what was done to you. The desire to balance the scales is overwhelming, and revenge seeks to do precisely that. No matter how loving we profess to be, this ominous visitor from our depths will always rise up in indignation and demand its pound of flesh.

Here's the problem. Revenge can never balance the scales. When I am hurt by you, the hurt always feels more intense than the hurt I cause you. On the other hand, when I hurt you, the hurt I cause you never feels as intense as the hurt you cause me. While this persists the scales can never be balanced.The desire for revenge persists. It all simply multiplies and increases in intensity and vengeance.

To put an end to the cycle, our desire for revenge has to be relinquished. In the act of relinquishment we are saying, "With me it stops, right here. It will go no further. I will no longer be a conductor for the current of revenge." Only this surrendering of our urge to get even, puts an end to our desire for revenge and the growing intensity of the pain and disorder it causes.

The most profound image of this is seen in Jesus uttering those words of forgiveness from the cross, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." Here he refuses to become a conductor of revenge. With him it stops. He gives up his right to get even (if anyone had this right, it was him) and responds with forgiveness and compassion. Like a human shockabsorber he takes the shock in to himself and forgives. It's precisely this kind of act which stops society from being shaken apart.

But, here we have to remind ourselves that by giving up our desire for revenge, we are not giving up on justice. The divide between the two is often ill-defined. Revenge has everything to do with personal gratification, while, justice has to do with moral accountability. One can ultimately forgive the murderer of a loved one, but that does not take away the claim of justice on the murderer's act of murder. In fact it is often when justice is done that it assists in the act of forgiving. However, it also needs to be said that forgiving transcends even our perceptions of justice. Jesus showed us that.

Easter Meditation on Forgiveness: Seeing Behind the Behaviour

2011-04-03T23:26:00.005+02:00

Jesus said, Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing

One of the most difficult obstacles to offering another the gift of our forgiveness, is the inability to see behind the hurtful and wounding action, especially in cases where the behaviour has been extremely cruel and debilitating. This inability, though understandable, has to be overcome if the first step towards forgiveness is to be made.

The reason for this inability is described beautifully by Lewis Smedes. He speaks vividly of what we tend to do to the person who has hurt us. "We shrink him to the size of what he did to us. He becomes the wrong he did. If he has done something truly horrible, we say things like, 'He is no more than an animal." Or, "He is nothing but a cheat." Our "no more thans" and our "nothing buts" knock the humanity out of our enemy. He is no longer a fragile spirit living on the edges of extinction. He is no longer a confusing mixture of good and evil. He is only, he is totally, the sinner who did us wrong." When a perception of this nature persists, it becomes immensely difficult to forgive.

What has to happen? Well, we have to learn to look behind the hurting behaviour and to see the actual person, a struggler, full of contradictions and inconsistencies, also wounded and hurt and diminished in so many ways, much like us all. That doesn't mean we excuse the behaviour or play it down, but it does mean that we recognise ourselves as being part of the same broken and impaired family of humanity. Only when this begins to come home to us, are we able to make our first steps towards forgiving the other.

The phrase "for they do not know what they are doing" ushers us in to the depths of Jesus' consciousness. It was a consciousness that discerned deeply the vulnerability and sheer ignorance behind the actions of those who were there. Divine compassion, permeating Jesus' humanity, flowed out of that consciousness and discernment, and in a way that goes beyond our understanding, offered limitless forgiveness for all that had been done to him - "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."

Are we able to see behind the actions of those who have hurt us? Are we able through our own flaws to feel our connectedness with them. If so, we'll find that offering our forgiveness will become far more easier. Perhaps this Easter is a good time to begin.

Terry Jones and the Burning of the Qu'ran

2011-04-02T15:22:00.003+02:00

The burning of the Qur'an by Pastor Terry Jones at his church in Florida once again raises crucial issues. Should the structures of democracy allow such acts to take place? Some say yes. If Terry Jones was not free to burn a Qu'ran democracy would not be democracy. The fact that he's free to do this somehow gives credence to what we mean by the term democrcay, they say,. That's fine. But what about when his freedom impinges on the rights of others.

Surely the burning of the Qu'ran is a totally insensitive and irresponsible act (that's not to deny what is often done in the name of Islamic faith), a slap in the face of the many who reject religious extremism in any form whether it be Christian or Islamic. Should there not be some kind of control over such damaging and outrageous acts? Of course, the freedom to agree and disagree has to be protected at all costs, but is the issue not about the way we express these opposites in our communion with one another. If we can't do this with decency then we need something to help us along in regard to this. Burning each others' sacred scriptures is certainly not the way.

But what about the reaction to this deed in Afghanistan? The overrunning of a UN compound and the killing of at least seven international staff needs to be treated with the outrage and contempt it deserves. There can be no justification for these attacks. How can the burning of scripture warrant such action? What does it say about our faith practice in whatever form?

Terry Jones told the British Broadcasting Corporation that he did not feel guilty over the deaths in Mazar. "We are not responsible for their actions," he said, when asked about the attack. No doubt this attitude arises out of his fundamentalist and individualistic theological belief, absolutely no concept of our interdependence.

There's really very little distinction between Jones and those who did the killing. They share the same attitude. Both are accountable for the untold agony and pain in the lives of so many people.

Freedom - Free to Question

2011-03-28T21:17:00.004+02:00

There's a beautiful image in Luke's Gospel of Jesus as a child being found by his parents after having been lost. "After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions."

Someone once said that the power is not in the answers, but in the questions. So wonderfully true. One of the beauties of childhood is the sheer wonder of life out of which the questions come. We take the questions of children seriously and always encourage them to ask more. In doing this, we know that the world opens itself up to them,more and more. Perhaps this is part of why Jesus said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Reality of God."

Every person deserves to be free to question, especially within the context of our faith journeys. The very nature of questions spur us on in to greater vistas of truth. Whenever we get to a place where we no longer ask questions, something extremely precious in us has died. We remain infantile, narrow and small.

The most profound struggle Jesus had was with a closed and unmoving religious structure. It's not surprising then to see how often he asked questions. I think there were two reasons why he did. Firstly, to challenge those religious structures that were so unbending and ungiving and simply told people what to think and believe, and secondly, to encourage people to think. Nothing is more vulnerable than a person who no longer uses his or her intellect, and that's quite fashionable in many Christian quarters. It's almost as if intellect is the enemy of faith. Without the workings of intellect, people are open to all sorts of religious fads and manipulation.

A community of faith who simply tells people what to believe providing no space for questions, is a dangerous community. The mark of true faith and community is the freedom to question and explore. Such faith and such community is always alive and sparkles with possibility.

Tsunamis and Earthquakes - Where was God?

2011-03-22T16:48:00.000+02:00

In the past weeks tsunamis and earthquakes have been uppermost in our minds. Who of us were not shocked and deeply moved by the profound images that came to us from Japan and also New Zealand. In terms of faith many struggle to make sense of this and the question of how God could've stood by and allowed it all to happen dominates religious discussion every where.

Photo Washington Post

How do we even begin to grasp God's action in it all, not only in the events themselves, but in the aftermath of intense human suffering? Can one truly trust in a God of love against the backdrop of all that has happened, or are we just the victims of a random set of impersonal circumstances which we need to accept and try and rise above?

In situations such as these, explanations and theological reflections always seem so trite, insensitive and inadequate, yet it is in our nature to at least try and make some sense of these things. So this is purely an attempt to offer some kind of perspective which might alleviate just something of the mystery and the pain.

A large part of our struggle to understand comes from a particular perception we have of God. It is the perception of theism, a theistic God who stands apart from and looks upon, all creation. Such a god is called upon to intervene in times of trouble and when such intervention is not forthcoming, the very existence or attitude of such a god is called into question. How can God not act in this situation? we say. How can God look on so dispassionately and do nothing? This perception of God being detached from everything is highly problematic, especially in events like we've witnessed in these past weeks.

On the other hand we have what we call a panentheistic view of God. This perception doesn't solve the mystery, but it certainly brings light, comfort and a perspective of God which is far more credible and deeply more comforting to live with. In this view God is not seen as being separate, but as being in everything. God is both in and all around everything. Jesus expresses this view when he says, "On that day you will realise that I am in my Father and you are in me, and I am in you." This language of "inness" reminds us that God is within, not separate, that somehow our lives and everything around us are in the Divine life, like a fish in water which is within and without. Paul also expresses this view when he says that, "We live and move and have our being in God." There's no separateness between ourselves and God as there is no separateness between God and nature. Everything lives and moves and has its being in God.

The moment we grasp this then all pain and suffering and struggle is seen in a new light. If God is in all and all is in God then all human pain and disaster is felt and experienced by God. We don't call on God to intervene, because God is already there. We don't accuse God of standing by and doing nothing because God is in it all and feeling it all. But more than this, God is not simply feeling and experiencing it, but is taking it in to Godself and actively working to redeem it all, to bring light out of darkness and resurrection out of death. The degree to which we participate with God in this, is the degree to which we become extensions of God's redemptive purposes in whatever situation it may be.

And so, when it comes to the shocking things that have happened in the past weeks, lets not ask where God is, or why God didn't act; rather lets discern closely and see Divine and human suffering permeating each other with love and compassion and working towards Divine restoration and hope. That's a life-giving image of trust and vision. It's the one I would certainly rather nurture and nourish.

A New Book - Rob Bell

2011-03-22T13:55:00.001+02:00

The whole doctrine of eternal punishment is being deeply questioned by American pastor Rob Bell in his book "Love Wins: "Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived." Certain historic expressions of Christianity have long held to the belief that eternity can be one of either eternal reward in heaven, or eternal punishment in hell. This belief has dominated much of Christian spirituality, and what I find so deeply troubling is the reaction to the book in certain quarters which can only be desribed as cruel and harsh. One cannot help but ask how people who hold to to the love and grace of God can respond in such threatening ways. It's as if the thought of others being shown that same grace and love is just too much for them to accept No doubt such response gives deep insight into the intensity of religious neurosis plaguing us. On the other hand, what a joy it is to see such positive and affirming response.

Bell is not saying anything new in his book, but offers the gift of unearthing and making available the rich tradition of Christian thought, who many are unaware of, centering around the subject of heaven and hell. Christians need to see this perspective, particularly those who live in a perpetual "us and them" syndrome.

For Bell, heaven and hell are real but they're what we create here on earth in our either receiving or rejecting the gift of life God offers. He says, "I begin with the world that we live in right now and the simple observation that we can choose heaven and hell right now. I see lots of hell around me all the time. We all do. From greed to abuse to rape to genocide to exploitation of people who are vulnerable — we see this around us all the time." But for Bell the opposite is also true. We see lots of heaven around us in the ways of love and compassion, of forgiveness and generosity.

For him, freedom of choice lies at the heart of the concepts of heaven and hell. We are created with the gift of being able to freely choose. Therein lies the possibilities of either creating heaven or hell on earth. Yes, these two states continue beyond death, but then, he says, we begin to move in to the area of mystery and speculation. Bell points out, that since the early church fathers, Christians have held that since God’s central essence is love, it is reconciliation and not eternal suffering that brings God the most glory.

With regard to this, let me end with some words he expressed in an interview: "God essence is love and that essence can never change. The gates of heaven never shut, for even as God will not abide injustice and sin in his realm, he by nature is always desiring the reconciliation and restoration of all things. God can never stop being God which means that in the end, love has to win."

The book, "Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived" was published by HarperOne on March 15, 2011. Really worth getting. It is obtainable at Amazon.com. Use the title link if you're interested in purchasing the book.

Loneliness or Solitude

2011-03-12T23:55:00.000+02:00

Early in the morning last week some time, I was walking on the beach, when, suddenly, I realized I had gotten there earlier than usual. There was just no one around, not even any fishermen, which in itself was quite strange. As I got to some rocks I stopped and simply stood with only the noise of the sea in my ears. It was then that I felt it, a profound feeling of aloneness. I'm not sure how to describe it, just terribly alone, kind of detached from everything, yet there. It was a feeling completely opposite to a number of experiences of oneness and union I've had with things around me.

Standing there and just allowing the experience to wash over me, I slowly began to grasp, in the discomfort, the marvel of my separateness, that it was this separateness that actually enabled me to look at and love the wonder and the beauty all around me, although in a strange way I was also at one with it. I'm not sure I'm making sense, but its difficult to explain. I was alone, yet part of.

What was even more striking was the fact that as I pondered on this, the uncomfortable feeling of being so alone gradually left me. Suddenly, although I was alone, I was not, and I was touched by a sense of deep peace and connectedness.

I think Paul Tillich describes it so beautifully in saying: "Our language has wisely sensed two sides to a person's being alone. It has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."

I think in the gift of that early morning moment I experienced both.

Individual and Collective Expression

2011-03-11T15:28:00.003+02:00

Unified but Apart

Flowers, a yellow community,
One, unified through branch and root,
Yet distinct in expression.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Freedom - Vocation and Work

2011-03-11T15:26:00.005+02:00

Carl Jung, one of the great thinkers of the last century said, "If you don't write your own agenda for your life, the world will write it for you." He wasn't being selfish by saying that, he was simply communicating that if we didn't grow or "individuate," as he put it, in to our own unique individual identity, the world would ultimately shape us in to what it wanted us to be.

In the previous post we spoke of the importance of doing this and the inevitable struggle and conflict that would bring, especially with those closest to us. Jesus' words, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword," were quoted.

It's in the free discovery of individual identity, which is essentially the work of the Divine within us, that we are able to make our own unique contribution to the world around us. The degree to which we are prohibited from this discovery, is the degree to which our work and service cannot find real meaning and purpose. A direct relationship exists between our discovery of who we really are in God, and our vocation and work in the collectivity of the world. The two always go together.

The ultimate example of the positive side to all this is seen in the life of Jesus. What he did flowed out of who he knew he was which in turn flowed out of his deep listening relationship with the Divine. It happened at great cost and struggle. This is inherent in his words in the Gospel of John describing his relationship with the Divine: "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do." Remember, "glory" in the Gospel of John is always associated with Jesus' struggle, particularly on the cross. Once again, to follow him means to take the same road.

Freedom - Individual Identity

2011-03-08T21:09:00.012+02:00

In the little holiday town of Margate I watched a whole group of women selling their wares along the beachfront. Every one of them had the same products for sale, set out in the same way and for the exact same price. It was obvious that a set of powerful collective expectations governed every aspect of their trading. This was affirmed after speaking to a number of them. One could only admire the expression of collective care and sensitivity, but underneath the display of collectivity and mutual care, those I spoke to also expressed the desire for more freedom, personal initiative and creativity. It was a classic example of the struggle between individual and collective identity.

People naturally find a strong sense of security in group identification. No doubt the herd instinct is powerful in human life and not necessarily bad, as seen in the above illustration; but for true collectivity to express itself, we have to be free to grow in to unique individual identity. True collectivity is a body of free individuals together expressing unique identity and contribution for the common good. St Paul’s concept of the Body of Christ is precisely this – see (1Corinthians 12:12-26).
Jesus speaks some deeply troubling words. He says: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his farther, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

Tribal loyalties are among the strongest. They nurture us, and we need to affirm that, but they can become extremely oppressive. To begin to sever them (the image of the sword) in order to nurture true individual identity, can become extremely painful and conflict ridden, often with the very ones we love most, as Jesus says – the family. But this differentiation of personal identity from the group ultimately enables us to re-connect with it again in a free and positive way, even though conflict may still be the order of the day.

Jesus’ own life took on this road and was victorious in every way. Following him has everything to do with making this conflicting journey into freedom.

Freedom - Always flows out of Containment

2011-03-07T20:44:00.001+02:00

In the previous post on freedom I mentioned that containment and limitation are not necessarily bad, unless they become ends in themselves rather than the springboard from which we are launched in to the process of becoming free. Just to expand a little on this.

One of the most beautiful images describing this concept is Jeremiah's image of the "Potter." When clay is shaped in to what the potter visualizes, his or her hands continually hold and support it as it is shaped and formed. If that support or containment is not there the clay simply collapses. Its ultimate shape freely flows out of that constraint. Inevitably the moment comes when it stands on its own, strong and free, and doesn't need to be contained any more.

If this is true for the potter and the clay, then how more true must it be for nurturing compassion and love in the human heart. It begins within the boundaries of law, but ultimately must move on to loving freely out of the deeper motives of compassion.

I think this is what Jesus meant when he said: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Freedom, in whatever form, will always begin its journey out of containment and constraint. It includes, but always transcends.

Freedom - Comes at Great cost

2011-03-07T18:30:00.001+02:00

It is a fact of life that we are acted upon before we learn how to act in freedom. Nowhere is this more evident than in our being born in to this world. No matter who we are, none of us are born free. The womb is a place of security, rather than of freedom, and the world we are born in to is a web of containment, limits and control, but also a crucible in which our capacity for true freedom is birthed and ultimately expressed. Containment and limitation are not necessarily a bad thing, unless they become ends in themselves rather than the springboard from which we are launched in to the process of becoming free, which is the Divine destiny of us all.

The gift of freedom is not something just suddenly receive. We all experience from the time of our birth, social, cultural, political and economic pressures which seek to mold our lives in particular ways, all this apart from other negative perceptions we project on ourselves and others.

Behind every free person, community or nation there is a history of adversity, pain and struggle. Freedom is not something which is natural, nor does it come easily. Wherever it is achieved it comes at great cost. W need only look at the Middle East, right now, to see this.

Jesus said, "If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." For him truth and freedom were inextricably linked. You cannot have the one without the other. The most profound example of being born in to this world, living the truth and experiencing the freedom which that brings, I believe, is found in the life of Jesus, and it is there we must go to find what it truly means to be free.

You Can't Buy Faith

2011-03-05T23:32:00.003+02:00

Walking through a Christian bookstore the other day I was struck by the vast amount of literature giving the impression that faith in God can be bought. There were books about following the tips of impressive people of faith, prayers that cured illnesses, increasing church membership, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, how to increase church finance, how to (this one really got to me) make the sacraments more affective, and on it went, more "how to's" than people in the Mall, and it was the end of the month.

I couldn't help but feel I was walking past shelf after shelf filled with potion after potion. What I was really looking at was magic, not faith, and there's a world of difference between the two. Magic is a form of control and manipulation, a getting what I want now, in order to impress, entertain and manipulate. Faith is a response to the Divine, not to get what I want, but to begin the long and arduous journey in discovering what God ultimately wants.

I have nothing against books or bookshops, I love them, but then there are "books" and books, and "shops" and shops. Too many of them are wrapped up in the words of Simon the Magician to St Peter: "When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the Apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, 'Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.' "

I wonder how often this kind of transaction goes on across the counters of our bookshops.

Polishing Shoes, Governing Countries and Practicing Religion

2011-02-24T23:51:00.005+02:00

Watched a guy today sitting on the sidewalk polishing his shoes. Rather amusing and quite out of the ordinary. After shining his shoes with numerous pieces of newspaper, he got up, looked down at the bright leather hugging his feet, and proudly walked off leaving a mountain of crumpled paper on the sidewalk. Clean shoes, a littered sidewalk, it made no sense.

It got me thinking about all this sudden hypocritical condemnation of Middle Eastern dictators by Western goverments who helped put them there in the first place. What was that all about? It too just didn't make any sense.

Then I remembered a wonderful interview with social scientist Carol Tavris. Asked about her parents she said: "They respected people who were religious, if they had thought about why they were believers and weren’t hypocritical. My mother’s father used to say to his children, 'You may fast on Yom Kippur if you choose to honor this tradition, and you may eat on Yom Kippur if you do not believe in fasting, but you may not say you will fast and then smuggle in a sandwich.' ” This made all the sense in the world.
Imagine a world where polishing shoes, governing countries and practicing religion, is done without the slightest hint of hyprocrisy. What a place!

"Packing Up Your Wife?"

2011-02-19T12:27:00.002+02:00

I was reading an article recently in EthicsDaily.com about older adults seeking religious education. I came across these words:

"When I was a young seminary student just out of the military, I was befriended by my next-door neighbor in seminary housing. He was in his early 50s with grown children. After serving as a lay leader in churches for a number of years, he had been ordained to the ministry, called to a small church in east Texas and packed up his wife and moved to Fort Worth to attend seminary. His experience and common sense enriched my life as I embarked on ministry as a life's work."

All was well until I got to, " ...called to a small church in east Texas and "packed up his wife" and moved to Fort Worth..." You pack clothes, your camera, your toothbrush, your books etc., things that have no say over where you're taking them, surely not your wife. A vision of this guy getting to Fort Worth, lifting his luggage from the carousel and hearing the plaintive voice of his wife coming from it, "Are we in Texas yet," graced my mind.

You're making too much of it, just a figure of speech, you may say. Well, I suppose so, but then I'm not so sure. Sometimes figures of speech belie our attitudes. In a lifetime of ministry I've seen too many wives "packed up" without any say and taken on so called "God has called us" journeys. Apart from that, I enjoyed the article.

Hidden Growth

2011-02-16T16:37:00.002+02:00

A charming story is told of Sir Hubert von Herkomer, a famous painter and sculptor, who founded the Herkomer School of painting. His old father, who was also a sculptor, came to spend the last years of his life with him. In the evenings he often ask Hubert for a piece of clay which he would model away upon. But, because of his age and failing sight he would eventually put aside the clay in absolute despair, not being able to shape it in to what he wanted it to be. After his old father had gone to bed, Hubert would take the clay and secretly work on it. In the morning his father would come down and look at his work of the previous evening and, never knowing that another hand had touched it, would exclaim with delight: “Why, it isn’t as bad as I thought!”

Christianity often obsessively emphasises that our growth is in our own hands, in what we must always do, and of course there’s truth in this, but there’s also a hidden Divine work of change going on in our depths, beyond what we do, something profoundly mysterious, gracious and beyond our grasp and understanding.

Like Hubert’s father we too have moments when we are suddenly made aware of it. The beauty of change mysteriously reveals itself in us and we’re also not quite sure of how it came about. Moments like these remind us that we are always in greater hands than our own.

It’s what Jesus lived and taught: “This is what the Kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces corn – first the stalk, then the ear, then the full kernel in the ear. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come " (Mark 4:26-29).

Underlying Divine Action

2011-02-15T17:33:00.002+02:00

Eugene Peterson makes the point: "What we don't do for God is often far more critical than what we in fact do." It seems to be a complete reversal of what so much Christian teaching says about doing for God. Our obsessive doing, which is often defined as real spirituality, very quickly becomes blind and deaf to that underlying layer of Divine action working itself out below the surface of all life.

The discerning eye of Jesus was deeply aware of this contradiction. He expressed it in the following words: "Many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God's message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!' Then I will say to them, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!' "

Harsh words, but they express a profound truth. For Jesus too much so called "doing for God" or "religious action" is done detached from that underlying and unseen layer of Divine action, hidden from the undiscerning human eye. Mostly, it is action fuelled by ego and self inflation, hence, action lacking in fruitfulness, duration and meaning.

When we ultimately decide to stop and stand back from our feverish egocentric activity for God, and discern deeply, we begin see another world, the world of the Divine with something far clearer and saner going on. As we join with that action and that world, only then are we able to begin to enter in to the experience of Jesus described in his words as being: "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and finish the work he gave me (not what I gave myself) to do."

Living at this level is not easy. Perhaps that's why so few do. It calls for deep devotion, discernment and sight.

The Illusions We Build

2011-02-09T17:25:00.001+02:00

People just have this uncanny ability of letting you down and causing disappointment. But, before we get too self-righteous, we too, do it to others. Our vulnerability to this kind of disappointment never ceases to amaze me. Why this vulnerability, and I'm not talking about those terrible and deep moments of abuse, just those everyday disenchantments we all experience with others?

I wonder how much of it has to do with the illusions and expectatations we build around people. We think them to be real, and when they pop, our world falls apart and we soon learn that the size of our illusion and expectation is the size of our vulnerability, and ultimately our letdown.

Dropping these illusions certainly makes for easier living with others. The reality is that people will let us down and we'll let them down, that's the nature of our humanity. The sooner we see in to this, the more at peace we'll be.

I'm convinced that dropping our illusions about people enhances our ability to love them, and their ability to love us. Seeing them with new eyes, our common vulnerability seems to come to the fore and strangely unites us. Jesus knew this. He certainly had no illusions concerning people. He saw in to them, beyond the false impressions, and loved them. The misguided rich young ruler was just one of many. We are told that: "Jesus looked at him and loved him."

When the soberness of his look becomes ours, it certainly makes for deeper love and relationship, I'm convinced of that.