more on transformation

Commenting recently on a blog talking about how the church restricts God, I wrote, "The way of Jesus is the way for us all... suffering, death, resurrection. The sad thing is that there are few who know how to get to that place. Our self righteousness prohibits us. We are taught to avoid suffering. "Suffering is bad." "Suffering hurts."

Then today in my email I get this taken from Richard Rohr's Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction:

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34). Wow! If Jesus said this, he was surely not expecting the religion of niceness, of pretty words and feel-good experiences that we have become. He knew that Big Truth always divides before it can unite a few at a deeper level. I think most of the thousands of sermons I've heard in my life have been about “being nice” in one way or another. That's how domesticated the gospel has become--as if Jesus were a Divine Miss Manners, and the Church existed to maintain proper social order and class. Yet many are entirely content at that level, and Church has not usually been a passionate search for God. The word nice isn't found anywhere in the Bible, to my knowledge.

"There's nothing more dangerous to true religious thinking than conventional thinking, easy conformity, being like everybody else in our social group. There's no depth or power at that level. Mass consciousness is never going to be ready for anything that asks them to “die” or that does not make them feel secure and superior. So we have settled largely for civil religion and cultural Christianity. It's so much more comforting to be nice and “moral” at a small level--than to be faithful to Big Truth—which cuts us all open like a sword."

I'm not sure the church can restrict God, but I do think the church, for the most part, sees itself as responsible for "right relationship with God" by keeping moral codes and principles through discipline. This approach does not work. At least not from a heart level. Our self righteous ways will never put us in right standing with God. Performance and conformity are futile. We will eventually wear ourselves out trying to be good enough or by trying to attain some position or perform deeds that are pleasing to God. These actions eventually lead to suffering. Coming to the end of ourselves happens only when we have suffered enough. Then comes death. And, in due time, resurrection and re-creation.

fear is expensive

Back from vacation...

I heard Carlos Santana, guitar master, last night during the San Francisco Giants baseball game, say that "fear is expensive, love is free". The hitch is that most people don't know how to access the love and therefore live lives of fear and control. Until we become aware of who we truly are, we will allow our ego to rule and in turn continue walking in the fear parade.

"it is for freedom"

Reading my local paper this morning online, I found a story about a controversy that is occurring locally concerning prayer in the public forum. A neighboring city council has had different preachers praying "in the name of Jesus" during the invocation at city council meetings. Evidently a local person informed the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation group that this was happening. In turn the Freedom From Religion group sent a "terse letter" saying the city council had been violating recent court decisions regarding public prayers. The Council in turn asked all preachers to stop praying using the name of Jesus. But the preachers didn't stop.

Now we have people marching in the streets (mostly peaceably) demonstrating their differing points of view. Most "anti-Jesus' name" folks are fine with the praying part, they just want Jesus kept out of it. The atheists in the group want a moment of silence instead of a spoken prayer. Some Christians are insisting that the "in Jesus' name" words should be spoken.

IMHO, it seems that it would be acceptable to have a moment of silence as an invocation at each meeting. Everyone should be content with that, I think. Certainly the atheists would be. All other religions, as far as I know, allow for silent prayer. I think that stillness actually could make a person more aware of presence, whether it be the "presence of God" for Christians, or the presence of Allah for Muslims, or the presence of the multitudes of Hindu gods, or the undefinable god (who may or may not exist) for the Buddhists. Why the big hubbub?

Why push the "in Jesus' name" prayers even after the city council asked the preachers to stop? Me thinks there is a little too much "ego" going on here. The pushing of views by any group will undoubtedly offend others. Certainly no one appreciates another viewpoint pushed down their throat. The one pushing and the one protesting are both demonstrating how active the ego can become.

Did Jesus push his point of view? On the religious hypocrites for sure he did, but his message was one of love.

If people think that their God will somehow not hear their silent prayers then perhaps a new god is in order. It seems he might be a bit limited. If the belief is that God will punish us for not acknowledging him publicly, perhaps an understanding of "pray in your closet" would be in order.

And we already see what pushing onto others our viewpoints produces. How about obeying those in authority (city council asking for no "in Jesus' name" prayers)? Isn't "winning" people to Christ the main object of Christianity? Prohibiting the forcing of opinion and belief on others is exactly what the founding fathers of the United States had in mind when they clearly preferred separation of church and state. Freedom was the goal, not dictating religious preference.

The "in Jesus' name" group has become a little like King George it seems to me. Of course, in colonial times it was Christian groups/denominations that were seeking freedom to worship. We don't live in colonial times however. We live in a diverse nation whose best interest is to uphold the freedom of religion clause found in our Bill of Rights. Insisting that Christians are the majority and that their religion should trump all others is simply forcing a belief on those that don't believe... again, King George-ish. Seems clear to me.

All said, insisting on one's position over the position of others won't produce peace. Freedom needs to be the banner cry... not religious preference.

Say

Here's a video of John Mayer's song Say. When life is reduced to a few important things, reality and truth become very important. Time in this present earthly state will not continue on forever. By continually creating, rehearsing, and believing stories in my mind, awareness of the here and now is lost. Better to be real and offensive than to bottle up inside what should be said.

Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems
Better put them in quotations

Say what you need to say (8x)
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead
If you could only

Say what you need to say (8x)
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You better know that in the end
It’s better to say too much
Than never to say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to
Say what you need to

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
(Fade)
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say