Occasional Soundings

[D. Allan]

Care and Spirit

Peace of Mind

"I do not agree with the popular success literature that says that self-esteem is primarily a matter of mind-set, of attitude - that you can psych yourself into peace of mind. Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way." -Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey

The bookstores are full of self-help books that offer people many ways to achieve personal goals and dreams. At stages on our spiritual journeys, we may look for just the "right" book on religion, spirituality, psychology, business, athletics, health, fitness, or such in hopes that it will bring positive change in our lives. Many of these books can be helpful, but we all know that reading alone will not bring the desired change. It requires focus and commitment, perhaps even an inner awakening or transformation.

Often we go from one thing to another without truly staying with whatever program is offered. People who benefit from a particular book or approach may encourage others to embark on the same path with an evangelical zeal. While the substance of any program is important, it is more important for someone to stick with one thing that seems to work for them than to look constantly for the next new approach.

I think the work of Stephen Covey has had staying power because it reaches some deeper truths about people and the process of change. I share his skepticism that you can talk yourself into peace of mind, although I do believe that prayer and meditation can quiet the mind of fear and anxiety. At some foundational level, it is living life consistent with certain principles and values that brings peace of mind.

For Covey, the principles and values are the seven habits of highly effective people, but I believe that underlying it all is a life of faith or trust. At some point, no matter what happens, we have to stake our very lives on a loving God who knows us and never will let us go. That brings true peace of mind.

Peace and blessings,

James M. Long

Minister of Pastoral Care

from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

A Psalm for the Shadows Monday, December 24, 2007

"Come Be My Light" was the recent book written about the spiritual struggle of Mother Teresa. We discovered long after her death that she was terrified by doubt and the fact that God seemed not to be present to her. Her spiritual life was lived almost exclusively in the shadow of doubt and seeming abandonment.

Bottom line: Mother Teresa simply shoved her painful struggle aside, didn't gripe, kept praying anyway and kept doing good. In an earlier book about her life, a rendition of Psalm 23 was printed. This translation was a favorite of Mother Teresa in the moments of doubt and shaky faith.

If you don’t need this translation for your life now, there will be a day you do, so keep it close by.

"The Lord is my pacesetter…

I shall not rush;

He makes me stop for quiet intervals;

He provides me with images of stillness

which restore my serenity.

He leads me in the way of efficiency through calmness of mind

and his guidance is peace.

Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day,

I will not fret, for his presence is here;

His timelessness and his all importance will keep me in balance.

He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity

by anointing my mind with his oils of tranquility;

My cup of joyous energy overflows.

Truly harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours

for I shall walk in the Pace of my Lord

and dwell in his house for ever."

— A version of Psalm 23 from Japan, as reprinted in

Mother Teresa, Life in the Spirit:

Reflections, Meditations, Prayers

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

The Life

Monday, December 24, 2007

The last in that trinity of "I Am" statements accorded to Jesus in John 14:6 is "I Am, the Life."

His followers saw and experienced in Jesus the embodiment of God. As later followers searched the Hebrew scriptures to describe their experience of Jesus, one idea they latched on to was "Immanuel," God-is-with-us (Isaiah 7:14). They saw Jesus living out the true Life: both gentle - "a bruised reed he will not break (Isaiah 42:1-4) - and powerful - "he will bring forth justice to the nations," dethroning the mighty and lifting up the poor (Samuel 2:1-10; rf. Luke 1:46-55).*

God-with-us is what we really celebrate at Christmas - the personal incarnation of Divine Being in a particular person in a particular place in a particular historical time. But that's not just about Jesus, in my opinion.

Nor is it the opinion of Meister Eckhart, the 13th century Christian mystic: "People think God has only become a human being there - in his historical incarnation - but that is not so; for God is here - in this very place - just as much incarnate as in a human being long ago. And this is why God has become a human being: that God might give birth to you as the only begotten Son [or Daughter], and as no less."

Many spiritual traditions, including Christianity, identify this personal essential identity as a singular shooting star of light shining in the utter black void of the night sky.

In the mystical Christian tradition, more appropriately for Advent, this personal essential identity has been symbolized in the Star of Bethlehem

- it arises to witness the birth of essence in its own particular way in your soul. You, a particular incarnation of the Divine, are a particular shooting star of divine light in this field of Mystery.

Or, as Donice Wooster reminded me of the language given this idea by Jungian analyst Pauline Napier of Pittsburgh: We are all shards of the Godhead, and each of us is the only one that can live out the shard that we are.

Shalom,

*Early Christian usage of the Hebrew Bible belies humorist Stephen Colbert's great little snippet: "After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up."

David Hett

Minister of Religious Life and Learning

from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

God's Whisper of Love

I know what is inside your heart.

I see your courageous impotent love, and your fear, and the

tears you would cry if you could.

And I do so love you.

- Gerald G. May, M.D.

At a recent gathering of the Shalem Society for Contemplative Leadership, I was given a copy of these words by the late Dr. Gerald May, psychiatrist and contemplative theologian at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. According to Jerry, these words "seemed to be whispered by God to me." They spoke of God's love.

Most of us have a hard time accepting that God really loves us. We may proclaim God's unconditional love and grace for all people, but down deep it does not seem to apply to us. We are too used to evaluating ourselves and being evaluated by others. Our world seems to contradict any notion of unconditional love.

And yet, mystics and poets through the ages have proclaimed God's unconditional love found in that still, small voice within each of us. It seems that only in prayer, that deepest, most intimate encounter with God, can we find this love.

Dr. May wrote a book on the Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross, called The Dark Night of the Soul. Although John wrote commentaries on his poetry, he recognized that words were inadequate in describing the spiritual life. Only poetry could come close to expressing this deep reality of God's love.

In The Living Flame of Love, John wrote:

How gently and lovingly

you wake in my heart,

where in secret you dwell alone;

and in your sweet breathing,

filled with good and glory,

how tenderly you swell my heart with love.

This is what Jerry encountered when he heard God whisper, "And I do so love you."

Peace and blessings,

James M. Long

Minister of Pastoral Care

- from a blog at www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

The Truth

Jesus embodied the divine Presence. It is clear from the reaction to his death that those closest to him experienced God in him. Later followers who mystically experienced Jesus the Christ, could put in his mouth these words so misused and misunderstood: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life."

In this statement, says Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth, Jesus "speaks of the innermost I Am, the essence identity of every man and woman, every life-form, in fact."

This is the significance of the "I Am" statements in John. The I Am is the Truth. The I Am is the great source of life; It is the manifested life in each moment; in fact, It is All there is.

Thus, Tolle can say, "you are the Truth. If you look for it elsewhere, you will be deceived every time. The very Being that you are is Truth."

As I write this, I am looking at the kindergarten and preschool pictures of my two granddaughters. If they are not the reflection of Truth, then I don't know what is. Those are Beings of divine essence, and it wouldn't matter if they happened to be born into a Buddhist family, a Muslim family or a family of atheists. God is not threatened by this. Jesus is not threatened by this. Why should I be?

There is no question that Jesus was a seeker after Truth. Jesus' life, therefore, points to the Truth for Christians: that the Truth is loving and therefore can be followed all the way, even if that means giving up outmoded ideas contained in the Bible, or outmoded concepts of God, or even those about Jesus himself. It's also why we needn't fear the scientific truths that have been discovered over the past 500 years or more like some Christians seem to be.

I don't know why this is so hard to grasp, but even that reality - that the Truth is often feared and denied - is part of the Truth that is God, that is Love. This is why for me, the message of Jesus is so inclusive - it includes everyone and everything.

Thus, Jesus could say "Come to me, all who are burdened down…my yoga (practice) is easy…relax into me and I will give you peace."

Shalom,

David Hett

Minister of Religious Life and Learning

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

Journey to the Center of the Soul

I've had to read some Freud lately. Not so easy going.

But Freud was writing about soul-work, and that gets lost in translation, especially by his American interpreters: where Freud used the German word for "soul," English translations changed it to "mind" or "mental" - a huge difference.

Bruno Bettelheim explains this and other translation errors and obfuscations in a little book called Freud and Man's Soul. And, regardless of your view of Freud, I primarily want to share and annotate one of the quotes from Bettelheim, because it so well describes what the spiritual journey is about:

In The Interpretation of Dreams [one of my required readings], Freud told about his arduous struggle to achieve ever greater self-awareness. In other books, he told why he felt it necessary for the rest of us to do the same. In a way, all his writings are gentle, persuasive, often brilliantly worded intimations that we, his readers, would benefit from a similar spiritual journey of self-discovery.

Like many great spiritual teachers, Freud tracked his own experience to arrive at profound new metaphors of the inner psychic structures. Then, in one brief statement, Bettelheim defines spirituality:

Freud showed us how the soul could become aware of itself.

And, then, in a complete understatement:

To become acquainted with the lowest depth of the soul - to explore whatever personal hell we may suffer from - is not an easy undertaking.

No kidding, Bruno! But he follows with this:

Freud's findings and, even more, the way he presents them to us give us the confidence that this demanding and potentially dangerous voyage of self-discovery will result in our becoming more fully human, so that we may no longer be enslaved without knowing it to the dark forces that reside in us.

True spirituality does not pull us out of life; it puts us more deeply into the world, "becoming more fully human." Thus, we can learn how to love:

By exploring and understanding the origins and the potency of these forces, we…gain a much deeper and more compassionate understanding of our fellow man.

That's a good description of the path and the goal of the spiritual journey, by whatever name you call it: the way of Jesus, or Torah; the way of Buddha or Muhammad; even the way of Freud or Jung. It is a journey to the depths of the soul, the heart of God.

Shalom,

David Hett

Minister of Religious Life and Learning

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

Advice to Myself

Leave the dishes.

Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator

and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor…

…don’t worry

who uses whose toothbrush or if anything

matches, at all.

Except one word to another. Or a thought.

Pursue the authentic—decide first

what is authentic,

then go after it with all your heart.

—Louise Erdrich, from "Advice to Myself," in

Original Fire: Selected and New Poems

At the end of an hour-long inquiry with a friend of seven years, I forgot her name. It was one of the singular most powerful and meaningful experiences of my life.

I used to pride myself on remembering peoples' names, and spent a great deal of time in conversations firming up in my mind the name of a new acquaintance. Correspondingly, I also used to severely beat myself whenever forgetting or mistaking someone's name. But with age, the brain synapses have slowed, I forget or mistake names more often, punish myself lightly and forgive myself easily. But this summer retreat incident was of a different order.

The irony of this exercise with my friend was that we were inquiring into our "social skills," focusing on how those have played out in our own relationship, and how they were playing out right in that exercise! We fostered such an open and honest discussion that we became quite vulnerable to each other, miracle enough in itself.

And then, at one moment near the end of the exercise, I looked her in the eyes and realized that I could not, for the life of me, remember her name. Usually, I would let this embarrassing "lapse" pass by without comment, but we were fully open and engaged in that moment; since this was arising in my experience, I decided to share it. I told her, "You know, it's amazing, I've just forgotten your name!"

There was no way I could have expected her response. She was delighted, even thrilled: "Wow, that is so great! It's like all the superficial identity has dissolved, and now we are just two humans of Being sitting here."

That was indeed true. And it was truly beautiful. Go figure.

Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything

except what destroys

the insulation between yourself and your experience

or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters

this ruse you call necessity.

Shalom,

David Hett

Minister of Religious Life and Learning

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

Religionless Christianity

Paul often gets a bad rap, but I am convinced he was redefining religion. Rather than trying to create a new religion, he basically states outright that becoming a Jew, staying a Pagan, even becoming a Christian, does not in the end, matter.

He wrote his letter to the Galatians as a diatribe against those trying to tell pagans that to follow Jesus they must be circumcised. But then he ends it by wiping out his entire argument: For neither is circumcision anything nor is uncircumcision anything. What is something is the new creation (Galatians 6:15).

The New Creation is a community of love, and for Paul it replaces paganism and Judaism - and Christianity, for that matter. For Paul, the "new humanity" (Galatians 3:28) are those who serve one another in a community of mutual concern - the "new creation." Scholar Ernst Kaseman once commented, "God, according to Paul, does not want more religion, or more religiosity." Rather, where love is, there is God.

The philosopher Richard Rorty died this summer. He was an atheist (although the grandson of the founder of the Christian social justice movement), but his philosophy embraced this same truth: "My sense of the holy," he said, "is bound up with the hope that some day my remote descendants will live in a global civilization in which love is pretty much the only law." As Paul knew, love transcends religion.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed we were moving toward a "religionless Christianity." Unfortunately, he had no time to articulate his vision before his execution by the Nazis in 1945, only concluding, "It is something I am thinking about a great deal."

John Spong has been thinking about it for a long time, and credits Bonhoeffer for the focus of his newest work, Jesus for the Non-Religious. "Being a Christian...in Bonhoeffer's words, is not to be a religious human being; it is to be a whole human being...Jesus was not divine because he was a human life into whom the external God had entered, as traditional Christology has claimed."

For me, too, Jesus discovered his divinity by becoming fully human. To become fully human is the Way. To be fully human is to discover that we, and all humans - and the entire creation, for that matter - are made out of Love, and constantly held in that same Love.

Shalom,

David Hett

Minister of Religious Life and Learning

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

God Likes Variety

– The Reverend Dr. Richard A. Wing, Senior Minister

“God likes variety,” I said as if I knew what I was talking about. Someone asked, “How do you know that?” I said, “I have six children who came from God, and trust me, God likes variety.”

I am convinced that most talk about diversity today comes from people’s heads and not their hearts. We buy into it as a “great idea,” but look around you: we are drawn automatically to people most like us. We like likeness. We are most comfortable with likeness.

Here comes Scott E. Page, Professor of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan. He is a scientist, and so he doesn’t ask questions like “why can’t we all just get along?” Instead, he asks, “How can we all be more productive together?” The answer he says is in “messy, creative organizations and environments with individuals from vastly different backgrounds and life experiences.”

Dr. Page and others discovered that diverse groups of problem solvers outperformed the groups of bright-but-similar individuals at solving problems. The reason: the diverse groups got stuck less often than the smart individuals, who tended to think similarly. Do you remember the general in the Second World War who said, “If we both agree on everything, then one of us is unnecessary.”

Dr. Page concludes: collective accuracy = average accuracy + diversity.

When Hopi Indian youth were given an IQ test, the instructor put the youth in a private room and started the clock going. Immediately, they all formed a circle and started working on the problems together. The instructor said, “Oh no, you have to do it individually.” They did not understand the concept. The youth told the instructor, “What we know individually is not important; what we can do together is.”

True for work.

True for play.

True for the Kingdom of God.

True for this church.

Peace to you,

Dick

- from the church newletter at - www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

Everyday Mystics

We are all potential mystics, so perhaps 2008 can be a year to hone our mystical instincts.

Paul Laughlin points to the fact that "the only thoroughgoing non-mystics, if such people exist, would be people who live purely superficial lives in a vapid flatland of everydayness and ordinariness, blithely unaware of any depth dimension to human existence."

"Even common experiences may provide mystical moments spontaneously and without being recognized as such," writes Dr. Laughlin, from Otterbein College in his article A Mystical Christian Credo.

After Easter, Grey Austin will be leading discussions about Paul Laughlin's Mystic Credo in a Sunday morning seminar series.

I believe that each and every moment of our lives is mystical because each moment - all of life - continually arises out of the Divine Source. If a mystic is someone who directly accesses the divine in the midst of human experience, then we all have the mystic capacity.

On the other end of the mystical spectrum, physicist Brian Swimme points to the projected image of the Rosette Nebula at a conference, and proclaims, "Here is the sacred."

The Rosette Nebula is a 4 million-year-old cluster of sparkling young stars that blend together to form a beautiful fuchsia-colored rose in full bloom. Outer space, according to Brian Swimme, is humanity's ground of being - the setting where subatomic waves and particles and combinations of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen began to bring forth bacteria, rocks, water dinosaurs, butterflies, roses, mountains, fleas, frogs, hummingbirds, and humans some 13.7 billion years ago.

Like a true mystic, Swimme reconnects science, the earth, and the cosmos back to the human, and thus divine, experience, concluding, "The incredible thing is now we know that the stars actually gave birth to us…whatever we are is somehow a further development of what the star is."

In a quip to his audience, Swimme makes the mystic's point: "It's hard to believe that 13.7 billion years of creation has come down to people spending all their time at the mall."

Brian Swimme will be our Spiritual Searcher the weekend of June 13 and 14.

In between, there are many ways to consciously practice mysticism, from prayer and meditation, to quiet walks outside, to a deepened connection with a friend - all you really have to do is be the human of Being that you are.

Shalom,

David Hett

Minister of Religious Life and Learning

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

Did Jesus Have to Die in Order for God to Feel Good About You?

"There is a thought that has meandered through Christian history that I have never bought. It is the substitutionary doctrine. This doctrine says that Jesus needed to suffer on the cross for your sins and mine in order to get rid of God's anger about us messing up so much.

"Let me say this about that:

"I never bought into this doctrine - even as a child. It never made sense, even in 3rd grade.

Any fool knows that it is immoral, illegal, and sick for a parent to kill his kid. Amazing that we are asked to praise God for doing something that would land any human in jail for life!

Jesus showed us what God is like. Jesus threw out bookkeeping religion forever and showed us the heart of God for the human family is one of accepted tenderness.

Read James Alison’s book Undergoing God. Alison says of the substitutionary doctrine: "You’ve all got it the wrong way round. It is human beings who are angry and demand (appeasement). By letting himself be put on the cross, God is declaring that the whole system never made sense (in the first place)."

God is saying that to desire appeasement is not a way for humans to live and that is not what God wants. "What God offers," says Alison, "is forgiveness" - which immediately leads to a new relationship.

Jesus came to us as an answer to God's bad reputation. God is not amused when represented as vindictive and judgmental, when indeed, God is long suffering, forgiving, and will never let us go.

"Lent is a season of seeking the truth about God that gets temporarily hidden under human misrepresentations."

Peace to your Lenten path,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[olger]

First, we have the conclusion that God made a "mistake" in the first place.

Nay, "But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations."

Secondly, while it may seem interesting to speculate about ways to tunnel under the curtain, God has drawn the curtain aside in the Great Controversy.

Thanks,

oG

[phkrause]

I have never looked at it that way. Doesn't Paul say that the wages of sin is death. So Jesus (God) need to pay for our sins. I don't think that that made God's anger for us go away. I believe that God was very sad that that had to happen. At least that is how I see it. But I understand what your saying. Very interesting thought.

pkrause

[D. Allan]

Of the five theories of atonement, the cross as sacrifice, victory, penal substitution or as moral example, Dr. Wing seems to believe in the last one. Moral example:

Quote:

The cross as a moral example

Moral influence theories or exemplary theories comprise a fourth category used to explain the atonement. They emphasise God's love expressed through the life and death of Jesus.

Christ accepted a difficult and undeserved death. This demonstration of love in turn moves us to repent and re-unites us with God. Peter Abelard (1079-1142) is associated with this theory. He wrote:

"The Son of God took our nature, and in it took upon himself to teach us by both word and example even to the point of death, thus binding us to himself through love." -Peter Abelard

Abelard's theory and the call to the individual to respond to Christ's death with love continues to have popular appeal today.

"...Our redemption through the suffering of Christ is that deeper love within us which not only frees us from slavery to sin, but also secures for us the true liberty of the children of God, in order that we might do all things out of love rather than out of fear - love for him that has shown us such grace that no greater can be found." -Peter Abelard -source http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/whydidjesusdie_2.shtml

*****************

Here is an explanation which seems to be more in line with a view of the character of God that most Christians embrace. It is from a talk by Jeffrey John. One can read it or hear it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/whydidjesusdie_3.shtml

Quote:

The cross, then, is not about Jesus reconciling an angry God to us; it's almost the opposite. It's about a totally loving God, incarnate in Christ, reconciling us to him. On the cross Jesus dies for our sins; the price of our sin is paid; but it is not paid to God but by God. As St paul says, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Because he is Love, God does what Love does: He unites himself with the beloved. He enters his own creation and goes to the bottom line for us. Not sending a substitute to vent his punishment on, but going himself to the bitter end, sharing in the worst of suffering and grief that life can throw at us, and finally sharing our death, so that he can bring us through death to life in him.

There's a song by Sidney Carter which ironically sums up our misunderstanding of the cross, in the words of the impenitent thief:

"It was on a Friday morning when they took me from the

cell,

And I saw they had a carpenter to crucify as well

Well: you can blame it on Pilate, you can blame

it on the Jews

You can blame it on the Devil - but it's God that

I accuse;

It's God they ought to crucify instead of you and

me -

I said to the Carpenter a-hanging on the tree."

Like the impenitent thief, we too can be so fixated on our picture of the punishing God of power we imagine up in heaven, we can't grasp he's really down here, bleeding and dying at our side.

The most powerful illustration of this I know comes not from a Christian writer but a Jew, Elie Wiesel, the holocaust survivor and Nobel prize winner, who described his experience of Auschwitz in a famous book called Night. In the face of so much horror and evil many lost their faith; yet for a few it became, paradoxically, a new realisation of God's closeness to them. In one harrowing passage Wiesel tells how a young boy was punished by the guards for stealing food. He was hanged on piano wire, while all the other prisoners were forced to watch:

For more than half an hour the boy stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony before our eyes. We were all forced to pass in front of him, but not allowed to look down or avert our eyes, on pain of being hanged ourselves. When I passed in front of him, the child's tongue was still red, his eyes not yet glazed. Behind me a man muttered, 'Where is your God now'? And I heard a voice within me answer him, 'Where is he? Here He is. He is hanging here on this gallows'.

For me - if not for Ellie Wiesel - this above all is the meaning of the Cross: that God is one with us in our sufferings, and not just 2000 years ago but through all time.

On the cross God absorbs into himself our falleness and its consequences and offers us a new relationship. God shows he knows what it's like to be the loser; God hurts and weeps and bleeds and dies. It's a mystery we can hardly glimpse, let alone grasp; and if there is an answer to the problem of suffering, perhaps it's one for the heart, not the reason. Because the answer God's given is simply himself; to show that, so far from inflicting suffering as a punishment, he bears our griefs and shares our sorrow. From Good Friday on, God is no longer "God up there", inscrutably allotting rewards and retributions. On the Cross, even more than in the crib, he is Immanuel, God down here, God with us. -Jeffery John

[D. Allan]

I have never looked at it that way. Doesn't Paul say that the wages of sin is death. So Jesus (God) need to pay for our sins. I don't think that that made God's anger for us go away. I believe that God was very sad that that had to happen. At least that is how I see it. But I understand what your saying. Very interesting thought.

pkrause

Thanks for your comments, pkrause. I see the 'angriness' of God as merely an anthropomorphic attribution. The idea of God suffering with us, as stated by Jeffery John seems more true to the character of God, to me.

[phkrause]

I agree.

pkrause

[D. Allan]

The Subtle God

by Rev. David Hett

The Rev. David Hett, Minister of Religious Life and Learning, explores the many elements that make up the individual and corporate journey into a new way of being in the world.

Like the refrain from an old song that keeps coming into your mind unbidden at the strangest times, I've had a couple of lines from the prophet Isaiah's first "Servant Song" popping up in my mind willy-nilly over the past year: "a bruised reed he will not break…a dimly burning wick he will not quench" (Isaiah 42:3).

These words and others from this "Servant Song" describe the subtle, nonviolent way God works in our lives and in the world, so I’m not surprised they’ve become my internal mantra.

Over the past few years I have been increasingly aware how a certain kind of inward gentleness is required to notice the subtle movement of God's spirit within, and how delicate a flower is this Spirit of the Holy…how quietly attentive I must be to discern its healing flow in and around my heart and soul.

Parker Palmer says that "the soul is shy" and must be gently approached: "If we want to see a wild animal, we know that the last thing we should do is go crashing through the woods yelling for it to come out." So, if we want to catch a glimpse of this wild animal - the soul - we must "walk quietly into the woods, sit patiently at the base of a tree, breathe with the earth, and fade into our surroundings."

We need to create space for our soul - find times when we can quietly and patiently observe the delicate movement within - it's surprising, even in otherwise quiet moments how noisy it is inside our own being…the constant activity of the mind, or the pains and tensions that grab our attention and hold us tightly.

But if we can, occasionally, ignore the ego activity and allow those pains and tensions to relax just a bit, we might begin to glimpse those subtler movements of God's "servant" in our beings; indeed, we then might experience our divine essence, as delicate as a flower beginning to bloom, as gentle as a newborn baby’s unconscious grasp of your finger.

This is the loving touch of God that is present among us even now, that lives and moves and dances in the very core of our beings this moment, and each and every moment of our lives.

Shalom,

David Hett

Minister of Religious Life and Learning

-from a blog at www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

Holiness is on Hard Times

by Dr. Richard Wing, Senior Minister of First Community Church

Holiness is a word we don't like to use. Why? First, it sounds far removed from daily life and unachievable. Secondly, it sounds so goody-goody in the worst sense of the word. So, we don't use the word or aspire to its promised pinnacle.

William J. O'Malley, a teacher at Fordham Prep School in the Bronx, urges us not to give up the word. He suggests it's time to dust it off and discover its true meaning. The season of Lent is a good place to start.

Listen to this guy: "Holy is really a synonym for successful, fulfilled, well-rounded. Each of those words describes what God intended fully evolved human beings to be. We are the only species that is incomplete, whose nature is not an inevitable blueprint but an invitation. Everything else from rhubarb to rabbits fulfills God's intentions without insubordination. They have no choice but to glorify God with an obedience that is, more exactly, helpless conformity. Only we, of all creatures, can choose not to live up to the inner programming that invites us by a quantum leap above even the most intelligent animals."

"Those who rise to the challenges of understanding more and loving more at least seem more alive, more fulfilled as specifically human than those who succumb to the allurements of the beast in us" (pride and other lesser angels).

"This is - or ought to be - the goal of a lifelong education: not merely to make a living but to find out what living is for. With that understanding, it becomes more obvious that holiness, the full evolution of humanity, is not inaccessible to ordinary people, but it is also not commonplace. It takes a lot of effort."

True holiness might be on hard times, but remember, hard times are actually those moments that reveal a holiness within the human family that could not be seen when sleepwalking with prosperity.

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

-from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

Remembering True Reality

-by The Rev. David Hett, Minister of Religious Life and Learning

Next time I get stuck in my insulated self, mired in my own personal concerns and discouraged about the prospects for the world, I have a new mantra to remember, thanks to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

While waiting for his own arrest at the height of Nazi Germany's power, when any person of conscience and compassion couldn't help but be discouraged, he reminds us that "these realities, myself and the world, are themselves embedded in a wholly other ultimate reality, namely, the reality of God the Creator, Reconciler, and Redeemer."

It's so easy to live in the normal, consensual reality, I constantly need his reminder.

Huston Smith, in his Spiritual Searcher visit, described the three characteristics of "the final nature of reality." "Ultimate reality," he said, is:

1. Unified - we don't normally view it as other than chaotic, if not simply diverse, because "we see it from the wrong side of the tapestry."

2. Better - better, that is, than we normally find our life experience to be. Being on the "wrong side" of the tapestry we too easily miss the richness and beauty, the depth and majesty, and, of course, the wholeness and harmony of life.

3. Mystery - finally, ultimate reality is far more mysterious than our "normal" view. All of our egoic filters are designed to reduce mystery and make life predictable, and therefore manageable and safe, but also drab, stagnant, and lifeless.

"The further we advance in our understanding of Mystery," said this humble mystic, "so it equally recedes from us, like waves going back out into the vast ocean." The more we understand of God, the greater the Mystery grows.

To me, that is the most hopeful quality of an unknowable, ambiguous, unbounded God - the more one tastes this Holy Mystery, the more one recognizes that there are infinite depths to yet be explored. And, all of it - even the dark and painful and terrifying realms - are enveloped in Love.

Or as another Spiritual Searcher, Edwina Gateley, said more simply: "We swim in God."

So, concludes Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Of ultimate importance, then, is not that I become good, or that the condition of the world be improved by my efforts, but that the reality of God show itself everywhere to be the ultimate reality."

Remembering this, I can dive once again into the journey - or at least put in another toe.

Shalom,

David Hett

Minister of Religious Life and Learning

-from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

How Can You Help?

by Dr. Richard Wing, Senior Pastor of First Community Church, Dublin-Granville (Columbus), Ohio

"Let us be confident, then, [in approaching God, that we will] find grace when we are in need of help." Hebrews 4:16

Norman Maclean wrote A River Runs Through It, a mostly autobiographical novel. The story surrounds a minister who has two religions: Biblical faith and fly-fishing. The minister has two sons, the younger is alcoholic. There is a great deal of discussion on how to help the younger son and brother, even though he is not looking for help.

"You are too young to help anybody and I am too old," said the father. "Help is giving part of yourself to somebody who comes to accept it willingly and needs it badly."

"So it is," he said, (sounding like a preacher now), "that we can seldom help anybody. Either we don't know what part to give or maybe we don't like to give any part of ourselves. Then, more often than not, the part that is needed is not wanted. And even more often, we do not have the part that is needed. It is like the auto-supply shop across town where they always say, 'Sorry, we are just out of that part.'"

The father concludes, "I try [to help] him. My trouble is that I don't even know whether he needs help. I don’t know - that’s my trouble." After a pause, the father says, "We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed?"

Ram Dass and Paul Gorman in 1986 wrote "How Can I Help?" The book is full of essays dealing with the question. Their conclusion was this: "We can help through all that we do. But at the deepest level, we help through who we are. We work on ourselves, then, in order to help others. And we help others as a vehicle for working on ourselves."

I know of no other words more trustworthy and true in my ministry than these.

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

-from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

Disorganized Religion

by Dr. Richard Wing, Senior Pastor of First Community Church, Dublin-Granville (Columbus), Ohio

Saturday, June 06, 2009

I wish I had one dollar for every time someone has said to me "I don’t believe in organized religion." I normally reply, "So, do you like disorganized religion?" To that, I get a blank stare. Shirley warns me not to be sarcastic or cynical when I say that.

The gripes are about what happens in most churches in America: poor attendance, bad music, clergy incompetence, mean-spirited congregations (not unkind - downright mean), and preoccupation with survival.

I've heard it all.

Preacher and author Barbara Brown Taylor's experience is like mine when she says "I almost never hear about the intellectualization of faith, which strikes me as a far greater danger than anything else on the list."

For sure, we take the simplicity of the path of Jesus seen in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and discuss it and intellectualize it until we no longer can hear it, much less follow its burdens and blessings.

Taylor said, "In an age of information overload, when a vast variety of media delivers news faster than most of us can digest it - when many of us have at least two email addresses, two telephone numbers, and one fax number - the last thing any of us needs is more information about God. We need the practice of (God in the flesh), by which God saves the lives of those whose intellectual assent has turned as dry as dust, who have run frighteningly low on the bread of life, who are dying to know more God in their bodies. Not more about God. More God."

Carl Jung at the end of his life said he was not aware of a single patient in the second half of life whose problems could not have been solved by contact with what he called "the Numinous" and which we call God.

Most come to church with a need which, were it verbalized, would look like this: "I need God. Not the God of intellect and discussion groups, but the God who can turn my dull life into a life of godly service and delight."

To meet that need is enough for us to aim for in our second century.

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

-from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

[Gail]

Taylor said, "In an age of information overload, when a vast variety of media delivers news faster than most of us can digest it - when many of us have at least two email addresses, two telephone numbers, and one fax number - the last thing any of us needs is more information about God. We need the practice of (God in the flesh), by which God saves the lives of those whose intellectual assent has turned as dry as dust, who have run frighteningly low on the bread of life, who are dying to know more God in their bodies. Not more about God. More God."

Amen to that!

[D. Allan]

. . .the God who can turn my dull life into a life of godly service and delight.

That's the God I want.

How do we allow Him to do that?

dab

[D. Allan]

Nothing

by Dr. Richard Wing

06/29/10 15:06

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

I Corinthians 13:1-2, paraphrased in The Message by Eugene Peterson

Forty years ago (June 6, 1970), the hands of the church were laid upon me and I was ordained into the Christian ministry.

Two things surprised me on that day: First, the physical weight of 30 people putting their hands on my head and shoulders. The weight of those hands and a prayer, which was too long, made a crick in my neck. Seriously. The second surprise was the text chosen by my professor of Old Testament, Dr. Rolf Knierim.

I wanted the predictable text from Isaiah for ordination: “Here am I send me.” But, Dr. Knierim preached a sermon titled The Ultimate Goal of the Christian Ministry. He said the sermon was for me alone and that others could listen if they wanted to. With wide eyes and a pointed finger, he personalized the text from I Corinthians 13: “Richard, if you speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, you are nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.” He gave great emphasis to these words: “You are nothing.” He left the text and kept going: “If you have the largest church in your denomination, but have not love, you are nothing. If you have the knowledge of much learning and don’t have time to listen to a child, you are nothing. If you are adept in psychology and don’t know how to cry instead of advise people with their grief, you are nothing.” After that service I was totally exhausted.

The following morning I began my first day as an Associate Minister at a Community Church and realized in the first hour that I didn’t have the faintest idea what I was doing. The custodian came by and confirmed that with me: “I can see that you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s the same with every minister we have ever had. Just keep showing up and you’ll be fine.” Incidentally, this is the same church where a woman came up to me and said, “Dr. Wing, you have no idea how much your sermons have meant to my husband since he lost his mind.” Affirmations like that keep me going.

Forty years after ordination I have come to realize what a big mistake the church has made in our time. The mistake is best described by UCC minister, Rev. Robin R. Meyers who said, “The idea of faith so narrowly defined (as belief) has probably done more than anything else to drive thoughtful people out of the church. . . . If the church does not succeed in restoring the idea of faith as ‘being’, and not ‘believing,’ then the gospel story of Jesus as the heart of God in the flesh will wither and perish.”

More simply stated, we have made the Christian faith one of verbal creeds instead of loving deeds. When really, God doesn’t care one bit about creeds; God cares totally about deeds of love. What is needed most in the church today is the internalization and imitation of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, 7).

Today I invite you to kneel with me at the altar of ordination, because we are all ministers of the Good News: Protestant, Catholic, seeker, doubter - together let us pledge that we will not forget Matthew 5, 6, 7 and the unmistakable, non-negotiable call to love in the name of the risen Christ.

Before we get off our knees let us hear the rest of the text:

1Cor. 13:4 Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

1Cor. 13:5 Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of wrongs,

1Cor. 13:6 Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

(Love) takes pleasure in the

flowering of truth,

1Cor. 13:7 Love puts up with A LOT,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end. (Peterson)

When the clergy and laity of the Christian faith get this message straight, you had better come to church early if you want to get a seat.

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

from a blog at www.fcchurch.com

[D. Allan]

Forgiving Yourself

07/22/10

Harder than forgiving another person, is forgiving yourself. We don’t forgive others to the same degree we don’t forgive ourselves (or we forgive others to the same degree we forgive ourselves).

Jesus told us on the hillside in Galilee that we are never to judge another person. Why? Because we judge most harshly in others that which is our own greatest weakness. The judgment we silently hold on ourselves is the judgment we project and dump on others. Jesus said we don’t know how to judge, so don’t do it!

Every week of our lives, clergy hear people saying, “I just can’t forgive myself.” I remember when I couldn’t forgive myself for that which I was deeply sad and sorry. I went to a retreat led by a Catholic priest and told him privately of my inability to “forgive myself” for the chaos and heartache caused and received in my divorce.

The priest turned to me and said, “How arrogant you are!” I said, “What?” He repeated it. “How arrogant you are in not forgiving yourself for that which God has long since forgiven you. Your holding onto your guilt is an accusation against God. You are accusing God of not forgiving.”

Tom Butts reminded me of this true story. Preacher and author Dr. George Buttrick talked with a woman who came to see him about a forgiveness problem. She said she had nagged her husband to go on a vacation. During their seaside vacation he was hit by a motorboat and killed. The woman fell into a deep depression. Finally, she came to see Dr. Buttrick and said to him: “I cannot forgive myself.” Dr. Buttrick said to the woman: “My dear, forgiving yourself is not your business. It is God’s business.” Tom says, “There is a real sense in which we cannot forgive ourselves by ourselves. Unless God becomes operative in the process, we are eaten up by guilt. When God removes our transgressions from us ‘as far as the east is from the west,’ it is a self-inflicted wound to continue wallowing in guilt that is long gone.”

Next column I will talk about “Grievance Collecting” which is a relative of not forgiving yourself. For now,

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

from a blog at www.fcchurch.com