Father Richard describes how we can grow in our love for God, others, and ourselves: 

The God Jesus incarnates and embodies is not a distant God that must be placated. Jesus’ God is not sitting on some throne demanding worship and throwing down thunderbolts like Zeus. Jesus never said, “Worship me.” He said, “Follow me.” He asks us to imitate him in his own journey of full incarnation. To do so, he gives us the two great commandments: (1) Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength; and (2) Love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:28–31; Luke 10:25–28). In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29–37), Jesus shows us that our “neighbor” even includes our “enemy.” 

So how do we love God? Many of us seem to have concluded that we love God by attending church services. For some reason, we think that makes God happy, but I’m not sure why. Jesus never talked about attending services, although church can be a good container to begin with. I believe our inability to recognize and love God in what is right in front of us has allowed us to separate religion from our actual lives. There is Sunday morning, and then there is real life. 

The only way I know how to teach anyone to love God, and how I myself seek to love God, is to love what God loves, which is everything and everyone, including you and including me! “We love because God first loved us” (1 John 4:19). “If we love one another, God remains in us, and God’s love is brought to perfection in us” (1 John 4:12). Then we love with God’s infinite love that can always flow through us. We’re able to love people and things for themselves and in themselves—and not for what they do for us. That takes both work and surrender. As we get ourselves out of the way, there is a slow but real expansion of consciousness. We’re not the central reference point anymore. We love in greater and greater circles until we can finally do what Jesus did: love and forgive even our enemies. 

Most of us were given the impression that we had to be totally selfless, and when we couldn’t achieve that, many of us gave up altogether. One of John Duns Scotus’ most helpful teachings is that Christian morality at its best seeks “a harmony of goodness.” [1] We harmonize and balance necessary self-care with a constant expansion beyond ourselves to loving others. This is brilliant! It’s both simple and elegant, showing us how to love our neighbor as our self. Imagining and working toward this harmony keeps us from seeking impossible, private, and heroic ideals. Now the possibility of love is potentially right in front of us and always concrete. Love is no longer a theory or a heroic ideal. Love is seeking the good of as many as possible.  

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Who Are Jesus’ “Brothers”?

Few topics make modern people more uncomfortable than judgment. There is a false narrative that judgment is something people did in the past, but today we’ve grown more tolerant and accepting—other than religious people who would prefer to remain in the past. This is, of course, nonsense. Every society judges. What is today’s “cancel culture” if not an updated version of religious ex-communication perpetually judging what voices, people, and ideas are acceptable and which are to be condemned? The ubiquity of judgment, although often misguided and destructive, is rooted in the admirable human desire for justice. We want good praised and evil punished. We want victory for victims and villains vanquished. While we may have glimpses of justice now, Jesus promises true and final justice will come with his kingdom.In Matthew 25 Jesus compared the final judgment with a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats in his herd. Some have tried to find significance in the imagery of the animals, but that is a case of over-interpreting the metaphor. In ancient Israel, goats were not viewed negatively and were often herded together with sheep. Goats were even identified as an acceptable sacrifice for the Passover lamb (see Exodus 12:5). The emphasis of Jesus’ metaphor is not on the nature of sheep or goats but on the eventual separation of two groups. Much like the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matthew 13:24-30), the righteous and unrighteous, the just and the unjust, are allowed to coexist until the end of the age when they are finally identified and separated at the judgment. The basis for their separation is ultimately how they acted toward “the least of these my brothers” (25:40).Who are these “brothers” Jesus refers to? The entire meaning of the parable hangs on that question, and there has been much debate over the correct reading. Some argue that Jesus’ was speaking of his disciples. He uses similar language in Matthew 10:40-42, but that is a text about mission and not the final judgment. There are many more instances in Matthew where Jesus uses the word brothers without referring to his disciples. Furthermore, there is no support elsewhere in Scripture that the final judgment will be determined solely by how the world serves or neglects Christians, or that Christians will be exempt from judgment as this interpretation would imply. Finally, when the judgment is repeated for the “goats” in verse 45, Jesus does not include the word brothers but only speaks of “the least of these.”For these reasons—and numerous others—the most common view has always been that Jesus’ “brothers” in the story refers generally to people in need who’ve been neglected by the world, and those who are declared righteous are the ones who showed compassion. As we find throughout the Bible, in Matthew 25 we see personal righteousness (our standing before God) being inexorably linked to social righteousness (how we have cared for those mistreated by the world). With this important matter of interpretation in hand, we will explore the scene in more depth in the days ahead. Until then, consider who in your community Jesus would identify as his “brothers.” DAILY SCRIPTURE MATTHEW 25:31-46 JAMES 2:14-17 WEEKLY PRAYER From an African Christian O God, enlarge my heart that it may be big enough to receive the greatness of your love. Stretch my heart that it may take into it all those who with me around the world believe in Jesus Christ. Stretch it that it may take into it all those who do not know him, but who are my responsibility because I know him. And stretch it that it may take in all those who are not lovely in my eyes, and whose hands I do not want to touch; through Jesus Christ, my Savior. Amen.

Father Richard reflects on how the Spirit’s presence can transform our lives and institutions:  

Without a conscious living in the flow of the Spirit—through us, within us, and for us—and those are the three movements—I think prayer can become merely functional. But if we live within that flow, prayer can become an experience of mystical communion. There is no problem to be solved; it’s simply enjoying what is, learning how to taste it, learning how to receive it, learning how to see God in it, and knowing that this now—whatever it is—is enough.    

When that flow is not there, church becomes overly problem-solving and practical. Sacraments without the Spirit become strategic. They become something we feel obligated to attend or belong to in order to go to heaven. Church becomes about paying fire insurance dues. We don’t really want to be there, but we go along for the ride in case the whole thing just happens to be true. I know this might be shocking to say and hear, but this kind of church deserves to die. There’s no life to it; there’s no future to it. It is not of the Spirit. It is precisely a blocking of the Spirit, but it’s disguised as if it’s spiritual.    

Outside of the Spirit, reading the Bible can also become nothing more than ego ammunition. Without the Spirit, Bible study does not lead to divine intimacy and union; rather, it can lead to self-sufficiency and confirmation about why we’re right. Instead of leading us to God, it becomes a way for us to protect ourselves and to judge and diminish other people. But when we read the scriptures inside of the energy and flow of the Spirit, the stories themselves reveal a thousand confirmations of that very pattern—people allowing the flow, people resisting and opposing the flow, and sometimes, finally being swept up by it. They become models for us that allowing the flow of the Spirit leads to new life.  

Outside of the Spirit, authority becomes domination. Inside of the Spirit, authority becomes service. Outside of the Spirit, politics becomes control. Inside of the Spirit, leadership is something we know is given to us to offer to others: not authority over people but authority to call forth the presence of God within so they can be in the same flow and enjoy the same freedom. 

I think the simplest way to discern the presence of the Spirit is to look for where there is unity, where there’s movement toward reconciliation, for two becoming one, for enemies becoming friends. The Spirit self has no need to think of itself as better than anyone. We just live with an energy and aliveness that Paul called the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). Our job is simply to stay inside the flow of the Spirit which is love.  

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John Chaffee 5 For Friday………Jesus Was a Troublemaker

1.

“Yeshua was a troublemaker.”

– James Cone, Methodist Minister and Theologian

This may not come as a shock to some of you, but Jesus was a troublemaker.  He stood in the same lineage of the prophets and spoke hopeful critiques of the status quo of his day.

However, sometimes we think that Jesus was a troublemaker toward those outside of the religious sphere.  The problem is that he was not violent, did not overthrow the Roman oppressors of his day, and try to establish himself as a new emporer or pharaoh.

Rather, Jesus was quite a troublemaker WITHIN the religious sphere.  He challenged the special seats, those with impressive titles, the class systems of the Temple, what defined ritual vs spiritual cleanliness, and so much more.

Jesus was a troublemaker because he upended the religious paradigm from within itself while staying true to the roots of his tradition: Judaism.  In many ways, he was such a radical and faithful Jew that it gave him a target on his back from the religious leadership of his Jewish tradition.

It is then ratcheted up to an even higher degree when we contemplate the Christian tenet that Jesus was God incarnate, and it was God himself who was upending religious paradigms from within!

This earnestly makes me question what kinds of things God would be willing to overturn today within the religious sphere.

2.

“The only thing that matters is you getting better at your craft.”

– Jerry Seinfeld, American Comedian

This past week, as I contemplated my work in the world, this insight from Jerry Seinfeld spoke to me.

Some may like what I do, some may not.  I cannot control that perception of my work and certainly cannot persuade someone to like it if they don’t.

The only thing we can do is focus on what we are here to do and dive deep into that task, so deep that we cannot be bothered with outcomes or approval.

The only thing that matters is doing what we are here to do.

3.

“I am neither of the East nor of the West, no boundaries exist within my breast.”

– Rumi, Sufi Mystic and Poet

Rumi has spoken to me for a while.  Ever since the Philly band mewithoutYou introduced him to me through their lyrics, his poetry has been something  I return to frequently.

There is so much division within the world because there is so much division within ourselves.  We love to separate or divide.  We think it is a mark of maturity or intellect or holier-than-thou-ness to hold ourselves in differentiation from people and things.

But what if the world peace we are all looking for, hoping for, and praying for is a personal issue?  What if external wars end because we have learned how to reconcile the internal wars within each of us?  What if the solution to our loneliness is solidarity with those around us?

What would happen if we lived lives that had “no boundaries” at all?  Is it possible we might start seeing everything as connected?  Is it possible we could see how we are all already in this together if we just stopped to realize it?  Are we not all on the same team?  Are we not wanderers each walking one another home?

4.

“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

– 1 Corinthians 15:22

The ratio is 1:Infinity.  As all die, all will be made alive.

The First Adam’s capacity for chaos is eclipsed by the Second Adam’s ability to redeem.

5.

“Love and do what you will.”

– St. Augustine of Hippo, 4th Century Philosopher and Theologian

This is both easy and difficult to grasp.  Within the Christian faith, there is a constant dialogue/struggle between obedience and freedom.

However, obedience is not slavery and freedom is not anarchy.  Freedom without any purpose or guardrails is chaos.  Freedom must be governed by something or else it can devolve into disconnected, unbounded, wildness.

That said, if Love is present, then Love redefines obedience and freedom.  The one who Loves will not seek anything that causes hurt or harm to someone else, it will not allow us to use and abuse one another, Love is the fulfillment of the Law.

Author Lisa Sharon Harper describes the diversity of the early church: 

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit rushed in and caused all those present to speak in languages that were not their own. Each person understood the others…. God established the confusion between languages at the Tower of Babel (see Genesis 11). At Pentecost, God brought the languages together, but not in the way we would imagine. God did not unite the world under one imperial language. Rather, the power of God made it possible to have unity in the midst of diversity. God made it possible for people to speak languages that were not their own and to understand one another.   

And in the same way Jesus had broken gender and class barriers, this multiethnic, multilingual group turned its back on misogyny and economic favoritism. Peter [quoting Joel 3:1–2] explained to the crowd why women and slaves were prophesying along with free men:   

In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy (Acts 2:17–18)….   

In other words, all the cultural, economic, and gender barriers between them were broken down. [1]   

Theologian Luke Powery names how the Holy Spirit’s presence is given for all, not just some: 

Pentecost shows that the Spirit loves us so much that she wants to get inside of us, dwell in us, and commune with us in a bond of love. This divine outpouring is love for each person. The Spirit honors the bodies of all people—young, old, male, female, all human beings throughout the world.… The Spirit is an equalizer and holy resister to racism and racial hierarchical systems.  

That the Spirit fills all and rests on all, not just some bodies … provides an opportunity for those deemed nonhuman to reclaim their humanity in God. Pentecost shows us that the spiritual is linked to the material, and thus that all human bodies matter to the life of faith. The glory of God is revealed through all human flesh and is the “sign of special favor from the spirit.” [2] At Pentecost, each body and ethnicity is affirmed as sacred and of worth, a human being loved by God.… 

No human voice or body is denied the presence and fire of God. Humans, regardless of ethnicity or race, speak a multiplicity of languages to reveal the diversity of God from the beginning, which is the vision of the end….  

Pentecost … creates a new world. It is a new creation ignited by the Spirit. The Spirit may be “unsought” or “unwanted” but is “intent on making all things new.” [3] This includes new flesh, a new body for the people of God. [4] 

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

 I, the Creator of the universe, am with you and for you. What more could you need? When you feel some lack, it is because you are not connecting with Me at a deep level. I offer abundant Life; your part is to trust Me, refusing to worry about anything.
     It is not so much adverse events that make you anxious as it is your thoughts about these events. Your mind engages in efforts to take control of a situation, to bring about the result you desire. Your thoughts close in on the problem like ravenous wolves. Determined to make things go your way, you forget that I am in charge of your life. The only remedy is to switch your focus from the problem to My Presence. Stop all your striving, and watch to see what I will do. I am the Lord!

RELATED BIBLE VERSES:

Romans 8:31-32 NLT
31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?

Additional insight regarding Romans 8:31-34: Do you ever think that because you aren’t good enough for God, he will not save you? Do you ever feel as if salvation is for everyone else but you? Then, these verses are especially for you. If God gave his Son for you, he isn’t going to hold back the gift of salvation! If Christ gave his life for you, he isn’t going to turn around and condemn you! He will not withhold anything you need to live for him. The book of Romans is more than a theological explanation of God’s redeeming grace – it is a letter of comfort and confidence addressed to you.

Micah 7:7 NLT
7 As for me, I look to the LORD for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me.

Additional insight regarding Micah 7:7-10: Micah showed great faith in God both personally (7:7) and on Israel’s behalf (7:8-10) as he proclaimed that (1) he would wait upon God because God hears and saves when help is needed, (2) God would bring his people through when times were tough, (3) Israel must be patient in punishment because God would bring them out of the darkness, and (4) their enemies would be punished. We, too, can have a relationship with God that can allow us to have confidence like Micah’s. It doesn’t take unusual talent; it simply takes faith in God and a willingness to act on that faith.

Today’s Prayer: Lord, You, the Creator of the universe, are with me and for me. What more do I need? When I feel lacking, it’s because I’m not deeply connecting with You. You offer abundant Life; help me to trust You and refuse worry. It’s not the events but my thoughts about them that cause anxiety. My mind tries to control outcomes, forgetting You are in charge. Help me shift my focus from the problem to Your Presence. Help me to stop my striving, and let me watch what You will do in awe and amazement. Amen.

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Brian McLaren reflects on the Holy Spirit’s work in the early church and today:  

Following Jesus today has much in common with the original disciples’ experience…. But there is an obvious and major difference between our experience and theirs: they could see Jesus and we can’t. Surprisingly, according to John’s Gospel, that gives us an advantage. “It’s better that I go away so the Spirit can come,” Jesus said [John 16:7]. If he were physically present and visible, our focus would be on Christ over there, right there, out there … but because of his absence, we discover the Spirit of Christ right here, in here, within….  

At the core of Jesus’ life and message, then, was this good news: the Spirit of God, the Spirit of aliveness, the Wind-breath-fire-cloud-water-wine-dove Spirit who filled Jesus is on the move in our world. And that gives us a choice: do we dig in our heels, clench our fists, and live for our own agenda, or do we let go, let be, and let come … and so be taken up into the Spirit’s movement? [1]  

Theologian Grace Ji-Sun Kim urges Christians to be open to the Spirit’s life-giving movement: 

The Holy Spirit makes us “spiritually” alive. It inspires and strengthens us and gives us aspirations, inspirations, and intuitions. It opens us to new truths and enables us to integrate these truths into our minds and lives…. We want the Spirit to open us to its presence so we may be transformed. We believe that this openness to God’s transforming presence will make us truly alive. [2] 

We must be guided by the Spirit in all that we do. We work with the movement of the Spirit as wind, light, and breath to change us and empower us to be agents of change.  

When the Spirit fills our lives, we follow the rhythm of the Spirit. We are guided by the Spirit to become new creatures and become agents of change. We become workers in the Spirit and for the Spirit….  

The love of the Spirit will empower us to work for God: to generate justice, be merciful, and fill the world with God’s love…. As we experience God’s presence, we each contribute to the building of the reign of God here on Earth. It is a task that calls all of us. 

We recognize that this Spirit transforms us to become the best that we can be by our love. Love is the force that challenges us to move towards justice and wholeness. [3]  

Brian concludes: 

In a world full of big challenges, in a time like ours, we can’t settle for a heavy and fixed religion. We can’t try to contain the Spirit in a box. We need to experience the mighty rushing wind of Pentecost. We need our hearts to be made incandescent by the Spirit’s fire. We need the living water and new wine Jesus promised, so our hearts can become the home of dovelike peace. [4] 

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Spinning Our Vices into Virtues

When a man asked Jesus to side with him in a family dispute over inheritance, he flatly refused. Instead, he told the man and the crowd a parable about a rich landowner with an abundant harvest. “What shall I do?” the rich man thought to himself. “ I have no place to store my crops.” In the story, the man decided to build larger barns to keep his great harvest. Satisfied with his plan the man thought to himself, “I have plenty of grain for many years. I will relax; eat, drink, and be merry.” Why did Jesus choose to tell this story to the man wanting his brother to share the inheritance? After all, the man had come to Jesus with a request for justice. He wanted Jesus to settle a family dispute. Beneath the surface, however, Jesus saw something else at work. He recognized the dangerous sins of greed and covetousness in the man’s heart. The man was merely using a desire for justice as a cover for his desire for wealth.In this, he is not alone. Many of us mask our sinful intent with a veil of righteousness and even religiosity. Knowing our true intentions are less than noble, we dress them up in a disguise that makes us more acceptable to others and to ourselves. Eugene Peterson said it this way, “There is nothing more common among those of us who hang out in the company of men and women who follow Jesus than using what everyone agrees is a good thing and essential to the kingdom of God to disguise our sin.”What does this look like? Well, it can take many forms. Arrogance and pride are vices most Christians would frown upon, but these can be easily rebranded as “effective leadership” or “theological conviction” and applauded by Christians. Doing this flips a sinful vice into a spiritual virtue. Likewise, we can spin gluttony as “self-care,” we can justify abusive leaders as just “passionate for the mission,” and reframe gossip as a commitment to “expose the truth.” The examples are endless, but they all show how we will go to extraordinary lengths to hide our sin—especially from ourselves. This was Jesus’ issue with the man asking him to intervene in a family dispute. On the surface, he appeared to be concerned with justice and family fairness, but Jesus was able to discern his heart. There he saw greed that even the man himself may not have recognized. Like him, we should present to Jesus our requests. In fact, Jesus commands us to, but we shouldn’t be surprised when he then exposes layers of motivations, desires, and even sins that we had no idea were within us. Our capacity for self-deception is limitless. Thankfully, so is Jesus’ capacity for grace. DAILY SCRIPTURE LUKE 12:13-21  1 TIMOTHY 6:6-11  HEBREWS 4:12-13WEEKLY PRAYERFrom John Baillie (1886 – 1960) God, let me put right before interest, Let me put others before self, Let me put the things of the spirit before the things of the body. Let me put the attainment of noble ends above the enjoyment of present pleasures. Let me put principle above reputation. Let me put you before all else. Amen.

Religious historian Diana Butler Bass describes the intimate relationship between Jesus and the Spirit: 

The Spirit empowers Jesus to be continually present in the world, and, it must be admitted, the same Spirit has been fully at work since creation…. Indeed, God’s Spirit conceives Jesus, initiates his public ministry, and sustains his spiritual life. The Spirit is the driving force, the animating creative life of the entire cosmos, responsible, in particular, for the vision of those in human history most attuned to the heartbeat of God. Even the apostle Peter recognized this as he preached to the Gentiles: “You know … how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed … for God was with him” (Acts 10:36–38).  

To separate Jesus from the Spirit is nearly impossible. Jesus would not exist without the Spirit; Jesus would have been a humble tradesperson sans Spirit; Jesus would not be a continuing presence if not for the Spirit. Christian theology has typically privileged knowledge about Jesus as the way to know the Spirit, but the Christian life works the opposite way. We cannot know Jesus without the Spirit.  

In the scriptures, the Spirit is called the ruach, pneuma, and the shekhinah, the “wind,” the “breath,” and the “dwelling.” [1] Theologian Marjorie Suchocki refers to these as God’s power, wisdom, and presence. Those three things are the heart of redemption, of experiencing the full life God intends for all:  

God as presence answers alienation and loneliness with love; God as wisdom answers the loss of time with trust; God as power answers injustice with empowering hope. This vision of a redemptive God of presence, wisdom, and power comes from the biblical revelation of God’s presence in Jesus of Nazareth, named the Christ. [2]  

When Jesus is understood in relationship with Spirit as presence, wisdom, and power, we can experience Jesus as a dynamic figure, one related to God’s mysterious activity and one who dwells with us, always present.  

Butler Bass shares how Jesus’ Jewish followers might have understood his connection to the Spirit:  

Jesus, as a Jew, would have been familiar with the idea of shekhinah, the presence of God dwelling with the world. As Amy-Jill Levine says, “Judaism has the idea of the Shekinah, the feminine presence of God descending to earth and dwelling among human beings.” [3]…

Was that not how Jesus’s first followers experienced him?… As a person inhabited by shekhinah? That he somehow was the dwelling place of God, and that there was no real conflict in the mind of his brother and sister Jews between bearing the mystery of the sacred and being fully human? And if that is who he was, is that who he still is? The presence, the wisdom, the divine dwelling with us, the feminine spirit, here and now?  

Jesus Is Not On Your Side

Jesus was prompted to tell another parable when a man in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” At that time it was not uncommon for rabbis to settle disputes within families or villages, but Jesus responded emphatically. “Man, who made me judge or arbitrator over you?” Why did Jesus reject this man’s request for help? Why wouldn’t Jesus, who possessed divine wisdom and authority, judge between the brothers?It is important to recognize the form of the man’s request. He did not ask Jesus for help dividing his dead father’s estate. Instead, he asked Jesus to side with him against his brother. In the man’s mind, innocence and guilt were already established. He was right and his brother was wrong. The man merely wanted to use Jesus as leverage against his brother, and Jesus would have none of it. The impulse to employ Jesus as a weapon against those we disagree with remains common today in our personal relationships, theological debates, and politics. Declaring, “I think you’re wrong and so does Jesus!” is a defensive move that excuses me from doing the uncomfortable work of self-examination. It quickly shuts down the inconvenient possibility that I may be in error, or that my own perspective may be warped in some way. It also prevents me from empathizing with my opponent or recognizing any element of truth in his position. Simply put, if God agrees with me then I never have to change.Such arrogance and certainty are antithetical to the Christian life. Instead, Jesus calls us to acknowledge the log in our own eye rather than the speck in our brother’s. And God promises his grace to the humble who confess their wrongs, not to the arrogant who can see no fault in themselves. In fact, God promises to oppose the proud just as Jesus opposed the man wanting to use him against his brother.Like that man, we often want Jesus to join our campaign, bless our agenda, or defend our position, but are we seeking to be instruments of God’s will or merely seeking to make him an instrument of ours? As Abraham Lincoln said when asked if God was on the side of the North in the Civil War, “Sir, my great concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” DAILY SCRIPTURE LUKE 12:13-21  JOSHUA 5:13-15  ROMANS 12:1-2 WEEKLY PRAYERFrom John Baillie (1886 – 1960) God, let me put right before interest, Let me put others before self, Let me put the things of the spirit before the things of the body. Let me put the attainment of noble ends above the enjoyment of present pleasures. Let me put principle above reputation. Let me put you before all else. Amen.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
—Acts 2:1–4  

In this Pentecost homily, Father Richard Rohr encourages Christians to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit, a gift God has already given us!  

It’s a shame that the Holy Spirit tends to be an afterthought for many Christians. We don’t really “have the Spirit.” We tend, I’m afraid, to simply go through the motions. We formally believe, but honestly, there isn’t much fire to it. There isn’t much conviction. There isn’t much service. We just sort of believe. That’s why in the Gospels there are two clearly distinguished baptisms. There’s the baptism with water that most of us are used to, and then there’s the baptism “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11); that’s the one that really matters.  

The water baptism that many of us received as children demands little conviction or understanding. Some parents simply do it to make their parents or grandparents happy. Until this baptism by water becomes real, until we know Jesus, and we rely on Jesus, call upon Jesus, share and love Jesus, we’re just going along for the ride.  

We can recognize people who have had a second baptism in the Holy Spirit. They tend to be loving. They tend to be exciting. They want to serve others, and not just be served themselves. They forgive life itself for not being everything they once hoped for. They forgive their neighbors. They forgive themselves for not being as perfect as they would like to be.  

Even though we so often pray, “Come, Holy Spirit,” the gift of the Spirit is already given. The Holy Spirit has already come. We all are temples of the Holy Spirit, equally, objectively, and forever! The only difference is the degree that we know it, draw upon it, and consciously believe it. All the scriptural images of the Spirit are dynamic—flowing water, descending dove or fire, and rushing wind. If there’s never any movement, energy, excitement, deep love, service, forgiveness, or surrender, we can be pretty sure we aren’t living out of the Spirit. If our whole lives are just going through the motions, if there’s never any deep conviction, we aren’t connected to the Spirit. We would do well to fan into flame the gift that we already have.  

God doesn’t give God’s Spirit to those of us who are worthy, because none of us are worthy. God gives God’s Spirit in this awakened way to those who want it. On this Feast of Pentecost, quite simply, want it! Rely upon it. Know that it has already been given.   

Welcome the Holy Spirit

In an early book, Richard Rohr names the ability to love as the essential gift of the Holy Spirit: 

At the end of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells his followers, “Stay in Jerusalem until you are covered by the power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The disciples remained as they were told until the Spirit descends upon the gathered community on the feast of Pentecost. Suddenly, there is a new vitality in the Church, a new source of power and love. Just as Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit, now the followers of Jesus are empowered by the same Spirit. 

By living in the Spirit, Jesus’ disciples can do what God does. Or as Jesus puts it, “Be compassionate, just the way your Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:36). It is by the power of the Spirit that they follow Jesus’ alternative way:  

Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you; pray for those who treat you badly. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer your other cheek. If someone takes your coat, let them take your shirt as well. Treat others the way you want them to treat you (Luke 6:27–30).  

The gift of the Spirit is God’s own power to love unconditionally—and to transform the world by that power. 

This gift of knowing the Spirit, of being able to love as God does, is the same gift we need today. We see the world on the brink of destruction, yet we are too often apathetic about it. We hear of wars and famines, yet we choose to ignore them. We watch the earth degrade around us, and we simply adjust our thermostats. Too many of us just want to be left alone, not bothered by someone else—not even God—making demands on us. All of this is evidence of something missing in our lives, and reveals that we do not really know the Holy Spirit. 

The Spirit is always a gratuitous gift. It’s always an unmerited favor. It’s always pure grace. Like wind, it cannot be seen. Like smoke, it cannot be controlled. The Spirit is elusive, blowing where it wills. Yet like fire, the Spirit can be felt. The Spirit is experienced as the warmth of God’s love. And like blood, it is experienced as an inner vitality. The Spirit is supremely intimate, yet supremely transcendent. 

To enter into relationship with the risen Christ, we have to let go of ourselves, surrender control of our lives, and let the Spirit be given to us. We think that we might lose our individuality, yet surrendering to God actually increases it. For once in our lives, we’re truly free to become ourselves rather than what others want us to be. The highest form of self-possession is the capacity to give ourselves away. By giving ourselves completely to God, we come to be possessed by God and in full possession of ourselves at the same time.   

Stolen, Starved, and Choked

We’ve already looked at how in Jesus’ parable the same seed is cast upon different soils, which means the same potential of life in the kingdom is given to all kinds of people. The wildly different outcomes in the story are not a result of different seeds, but instead the types of soil that receive it. In each case, apart from the good soil, some external force interrupts and prevents the seed from following its natural course to bear fruit.The seed that falls on the path is stolen by birds, the seed on the rocky ground is starved by lack of soil, and the seed among thorns is choked to death. What makes the good soil “good” is the fact that it is just soil—no birds, no rocks, no thorns. There’s nothing to get in the way of the seeds’ growth. This draws our attention to the truth that God’s kingdom represents the natural way things ought to be, and that it is the addition and interference of evil that prevents its growth.Very often we assume a fruitful life with God requires the addition of devices or activities. More church programs, more Bible studies, more spiritual disciplines, or more elaborate systems of religious observance. There are times when addition is certainly necessary, just as a seed can benefit from the addition of fertilizer or water. But we mustn’t underestimate the importance of subtraction in spiritual formation either.A flourishing life with God often requires the removal of obstructions that block our vision of his goodness or entangle us in the thorns of sin. I am increasingly convinced that the greatest hindrance to my life with God is my phone. Putting this device aside regularly, removing its nagging notifications, and shutting off the comforting distraction of social media opens me to things essential to a life with God—self-awareness, connection with others, and prayer. In some ways, my phone interferes with and interrupts the growth of God’s kingdom in me and through me.What is getting in the way of your spiritual growth? What do you need less of in your life in order to experience more of God? DAILY SCRIPTURE MATTHEW 13:1-9  MATTHEW 13:18-23  HEBREWS 12:1-2 WEEKLY PRAYERC. Eric Lincoln (1924 – 2000) Lord, let me love, though love may be the losing of every earthly treasure I possess. Lord, make your love the pattern of my choosing. And let your will dictate my happiness. I have no wish to wield the sword of power, and I want no man to leap at my command; nor let my critics feel constrained to cower for fear of some reprisal at my hand. Lord, let me love the lowly and the humble, forgetting not the mighty and the strong; and give me grace to love those who may stumble, nor let me seek to judge of right or wrong. Lord, let my parish be the world unbounded, let love of race and clan be at an end. Let every hateful doctrine be confounded that interdicts the love of friend for friend. Amen.

Brian McLaren shares his vision of a restored Earth where humans live equitably with the Earth, other humans, and the more-than-human world:  

This is my dream, and perhaps it is your dream, and our dream, together: that in this time of turbulence when worlds are falling apart, all of us with willing hearts can come together … together with one another, poor and rich, whatever our race or gender, wherever we live, whatever our religion or education. I dream that some of us, maybe even enough of us, will come together not only in a circle of shared humanity, but in a sphere as big as the whole Earth, to rediscover ourselves as Earth’s multi-colored multi-cultured children, members of Team Earth.  

I dream that the wisdom of Indigenous people, the wisdom of St. Francis and St. Clare and the Buddha and Jesus, the wisdom of climate scientists and ecologists and spiritual visionaries from all faiths could be welcomed into every heart. Then, we would look across this planet and see not economic resources, but our sacred relations … brother dolphin and sister humpback whale, swimming in our majestic indigo oceans, with sister gull and brother frigate bird soaring above them beneath the blue sky. We would see all land as holy land, and walk reverently in the presence of sister meadow and brother forest, feeling our kinship with brother bald eagle and sister box turtle, sister song sparrow and brother swallowtail butterfly, all our relations.  

In my dream, the reverence we feel when we enter the most beautiful cathedral we would feel equally among mountains in autumn, beside marshes in spring, surrounded by snow-covered prairies in winter, and along meandering streams in summer. In my dream, even in our cities, we would look up in wonder at the sky, and a marriage between science and spirit would allow us to marvel at the sacredness of sunlight, the wonder of wind, the refreshment of rain, the rhythm of seasons. At each meal, we would feel deep connection to the fields and orchards and rivers and farms where our food was grown, and we would feel deep connection to the farmers and farmworkers whose hands tended soil so we could eat this day with gratitude and joy.  

In my dream, our life-giving connection to each other and to the living Earth would be fundamental, central, and sacred … and everything else, from economies to governments to schools to religions … would be renegotiated to flow from that fundamental connection. In my dream, we would know God not as separate from creation, but as the living light and holy energy we encounter in and through creation: embodied, incarnated, in the current and flow of past, present, and future, known most intimately in the energy of love.  

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John Chaffee; 5 For Friday

1.
“We are not the avatars we create.  We are the light that shines through.”

• Jim Carrey, Canadian Actor and Comedian
   
  Jim Carrey’s personal transformation from being the goofball we all loved, whose movies we all watched, into something of a philosopher-painter has been fascinating to follow.  It is clear that in more recent years he has become a student of religion, spirituality, and consciousness and it has led him to be able to make such comments as is shown here.

Curiously, I wonder if he has come into contact with Thomas Merton’s teachings on the True Self and the False Self…

Merton taught that we all develop a False Self, a version of ourselves that is not quite evil but is a shadow or a fragment of our True Self.  We put on this False persona because we believe it is the version of us that is most loveable and able to navigate the world.

In Jim’s vocabulary, it is our “avatar.”

The only solution to the False Self is the True Self.  To give up the vain pursuit of impressing one another, ourselves, and even God.  To be Truly Ourselves is the work of a lifetime and worth every effort to do sooner rather than later.

2.
“Tragedy and trauma are not guarantees for a transformational spiritual experience, but they are opportunities. They are invitations to sit in the fire and allow it to transfigure us.”

• From Caravan of No Despair by Miribai Starr
   
  Miribai is a respected teacher of interfaith dialogue and spirituality.  I had the good fortune to meet her several years ago and found her to be a humble and warm person to be around.

On the day that she released her translation of St. John of the Cross’s famous work, The Dark Night of the Soul, she lost her daughter, Jenny, in a car accident.  The paradox/synchronicity/mystery of those two events happening on the same day is heart-ripping.

That said, she is most able to speak about tragedy and trauma and its potential transformational power.

3.
“In this world, with its modern ‘sickness unto death’, true spirituality will be the restoration of the love for life – that is to say, vitality.  The full and unreserved ‘yes’ to life, and the full and unreserved love for the living are the first experiences of God’s Spirit, which is not for nothing called the fons vitae, ‘the well of life.’
 
If we wish to resist the cynical annihilation of what is alive in the world of human beings and nature, we must first of all resist in ourselves the tendency to grow accustomed to this annihilation…
 
The spirituality of life breaks through this inward numbness, the armour of our indifference, the barriers of our insensitivity to pain.  It again breaks open ‘the well of life’ in us and among us, so that we can week again and laugh again and love again.”

• From The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation by Jurgen Moltmann
   
  This coming Sunday is Pentecost, the day upon which the Holy Spirit descended on “πασαν σαρκα/pasan sarka (all flesh).”  As a result, I found time this week to look back through my favorite book on the Holy Spirit… The Spirit of Life by Jurgen Moltmann, a former WWII POW and revolutionary theologian.

It is fair to say that Moltmann completely reframed how I understand the Holy Spirit, how it is a universal experience that transcends traditions, and how tightly interwoven it is with living life abundantly and overflowing with zest, joy, and vitality.

4.

“Joy and sorrow are this ocean 
And in their every ebb and flow 
Now the Lord a door has opened 
That all Hell could never close 
Here I’m tested and made worthy 
Tossed about but lifted up 
In the reckless raging fury 
That they call the love of God.”

• From The Love of God by Rich Mullins
   
  I was driving in my Jeep this week and something brought up within me the phrase, “The love of God is a reckless raging fury.”

Of course, this meant I had to revisit Rich Mullins’ song that lyrically borrows from GK Chesterton.

The song itself reflects the time it was recorded, 1999, but its lyrics are timeless.

5.
“I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.”

• Walt Whitman, American Poet and Essayist
   
  Human language will never fully name reality.

Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics.
—Charles Péguy, Notre Jeunesse 

Father Richard shares how a regular practice of contemplation changes how people behave in the world, even on a larger scale:   

It seems to me that a regular practice of contemplation makes it almost inevitable that our politics are going to change. The way we spend our time is going to be called into question. Our snug socioeconomic perspective will be slowly taken away from us. When we practice contemplative prayer consistently, the things that we think of as our necessary ego boundaries fall away, little by little, as unnecessary and even unhelpful. 

Whatever our calling on behalf of the world, it must proceed from a foundational “yes” to God, to life, to Reality. Our necessary “no” to injustice and all forms of un-love will actually become even more clear and urgent in the silence. Now our work has a chance of being God’s pure healing instead of our impure anger and agenda. We can feel the difference; so many works of social justice have been undone by people fighting from their small or angry selves.   

Because contemplation feels like dying and is, in fact, the experience of the death of our small self, we can only do this if Someone Else is holding us in in the process, taking away our fear. If we trust that Someone Else to do the knowing for us, we can go back to our lives of action with new vitality, but it will now be much smoother. It will be “no longer we” who act or contemplate, but the Life of the One “who lives in us” (see Galatians 2:20), now acting for and with and as us! 

Henceforth it does not even matter whether we act or contemplate, contemplate or act, because both articulations of our faith will be inside the One Flow, which is still and forever loving and healing the world. Christians would call it the very flow of life that is the Trinity. “We live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) inside of this one eternal life and love that never stops giving and receiving. This is how we “die by brightness and the Holy Spirit,” according to Thomas Merton. [1] 

Contemplation is no fantasy, make-believe, or daydream, but the flowering of patience and steady perseverance. When we look at the world today, we may well ask whether it can be transformed on the global level; but I believe that there is a deep relationship between the inner revolution of prayer and the transformation of social structures and social consciousness. The Book of Wisdom says, “the multitude of the wise is the salvation of the world” (6:24). Our hope is that contemplation really can change us and the society we live in by guiding our actions for compassion and justice in the world. 

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

 It is good that you recognize your weakness. That keeps you looking to Me, your Strength. Abundant life is not necessarily health and wealth; it is living in continual dependence on Me. Instead of trying to fit this day into a preconceived mold, relax and be on the lookout for what I am doing. This mind-set will free you to enjoy Me and to find what I have planned for you to do. This is far better than trying to make things go according to your own plan.
    Don’t take yourself so seriously. Lighten up and laugh with Me. You have Me on your side, so what are you worried about? I can equip you to do absolutely anything, as long as it is My will. The more difficult your day, the more I yearn to help you. Anxiety wraps you up in yourself, trapping you in your own thoughts. When you look to Me and whisper My Name, you break free and receive My Help. Focus on Me, and you will find Peace in My Presence.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Philippians 4:13 (NLT)
13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Proverbs 17:22 (NLT)
22 A cheerful heart is good medicine,
    but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us? —Dorothy Day, Loaves and Fishes 

Authors LaUra Schmidt and Aimee Lewis Reau consider the impact of a heart-centered revolution made possible through our connection to one another:  

We can experience joy, love, and beauty on this planet, even as it changes around us. To do this, we have to build personal and collective resilience—an ability to find equanimity in unpredictable times and as the suffering around us increases. We do this not by avoiding the Long Dark but by facing it, moving with it…. 

Connection has the power to ground us when the world is chaotic. Connection gives our lives meaning and offers joy, even in the dark [of the unknown]. We can then invest ourselves into meaningful action—the kind that promotes relationship and regeneration. Meaningful action can be a salve for painful feelings like ecoanxiety, ecodistress, climate grief, and overwhelm because meaningful action isn’t dependent on outcomes…. We do [this work] because it’s what needs to be done. It’s generative work, and it fills us with purpose.  

It also lays the groundwork for a heart-centered revolution. In this revolution, we center relationships, connectedness, and love in times of suffering and disconnection. We open to our interconnectedness with all beings and make decisions based on compassion and insight instead of egocentric motivations. The heart-centered revolution is brought about by our inner equanimity and our love for each other, ourselves, and our planet as a whole. Instead of thoughtless and selfish actions, we reinvest ourselves with an understanding of the consequences to the larger world…. 

The calling of the heart-centered revolution is to find opportunities to cultivate a truly just and life-centered world, even if we never see it come into existence. [1]  

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis writes of the solidarity necessary to transform our culture and our world: 

In order to live a moral life, a good life, an ubuntu life, we must commit to a life of love that means seeing all the things. See your neighbor suffering and do something about it.… 

Friend, you are the only one standing where you stand, seeing what you see, with your vantage point, your story. You are right there for a reason: to have, as my dear friend Ruby Sales says, “hindsight, insight, and foresight.” I want us to learn to see, with our eyes wide open, how best to be healers and transformers. I want us to really see, to fully awaken to the hot-mess times we are in and to the incredible power we have to love ourselves into wellness…. 

I want us open to revelation, not afraid of it, and open to the ways that it will provoke us to believe assiduously in how lovable we each are, and in the love between us and among us because, actually, believing is seeing. [2]  

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Spending time alone with Me is essential for your well-being. It is not a luxury or an option; it is a necessity. Therefore, do not feel guilty about taking time to be with Me. Remember that Satan is the accuser of believers. He delights in heaping guilt feelings upon you, especially when you are enjoying My Presence. When you feel Satan’s arrows of accusation, you are probably on the right track. Use your shield of faith to protect yourself from him. Talk with Me about what you are experiencing, and ask Me to show you the way forward. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to Me, and I will come near to you.

RELATED BIBLE VERSES:

Revelation 12:10 NLT
10 Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has come at last— salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth— the one who accuses them before our God day and night.”

Additional insight regarding Revelation 12:10: Many believe that Satan still has access to God until this time (see Job 1:7). But here, his access is forever barred (mentioned earlier in Revelation 9:1 NLT—Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to the earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit). He can no longer accuse people before God.

Ephesians 6:16 NLT
16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.

James 4:7 NLT
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Additional insight regarding James 4:7: Although God and the devil are at war, we don’t have to wait until the end to see who will win. God has already defeated Satan (Revelation 12:10-12), and when Christ returns, the devil and all he stands for will be eliminated forever (Revelation 12:10-15). Satan is here now, however, and he is trying to win us over to his evil cause. With the Holy Spirit’s power, we can resist the devil, and he will flee from us.

Our great mistake is that we tie hope to outcome. —Cynthia Bourgeault 

Brian McLaren suggests a continuing source of hope not dependent on the outcome:  

If we can see a likely path to our desired outcome, we have hope; if we can see no possible path to our desired outcome, we have despair. If we are unsure whether there is a possible path or not, we keep hope alive, but it remains vulnerable to defeat if that path is closed.  

When our prime motive is love, a different logic comes into play. We find courage and confidence, not in the likelihood of a good outcome, but in our commitment to love. Love may or may not provide a way through to a solution to our predicament, but it will provide a way forward in our predicament, one step into the unknown at a time. Sustained by this fierce love (as my friend Jacqui Lewis calls it), we may persevere long enough that, to our surprise, a new way may appear where there had been no way. At that point, we will have reasons for hope again. But even if hope never returns, we will live by love through our final breath.  

To put it differently, even if we lose hope for a good outcome, we need not lose hope of being good people, as we are able: courageous, wise, kind, loving, “in defiance of all that is bad around us.” [1] …  

We feel arising within us this sustained declaration: We will live as beautifully, bravely, and kindly as we can as long as we can, no matter how ugly, scary, and mean the world becomes, even if failure and death seem inevitable. In fact, it is only in the context of failure and death that this virtue develops. That’s why Richard Rohr describes this kind of hope as “the fruit of a learned capacity to suffer wisely and generously. You come out much larger and that largeness becomes your hope.”

Hope is complicated. But … even if hope fails, something bigger can replace it, and that is love. [3]  

Choctaw elder Steven Charleston places love at the center of our hope. 

The key to stopping the environmental apocalypse is not science but love. For decades now we have been staring at the scientific reports. They have not sufficiently inspired us to change our apocalyptic reality. But where science has failed, faith can succeed. We must help humanity rediscover [Mother Earth], their loving parent, the living world that sustains them. We must help them feel her love just as we show them how that love can be returned. And it can begin by gathering people around two simple questions: Where were you in nature when you experienced a vision of such beauty that it took your breath away? And how did that make you feel? If you can answer those two questions, you are on your way to meeting the Mother you may never have known before. [4]  

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The Subtlety of Seeds

Our noisy world has abandoned the grace of subtlety. Some estimate we are assaulted by 5000 ads every day. They come at us from every direction as we move through the world. Each one shouting at us or demanding our attention. We are incessantly bombarded by so many messages that it has become increasingly unlikely for any one voice to get through. As a result, we feel the need to crank up the volume, excitement, and emotion of everything in the hope to communicate anything. This applies to the church as well. What passes for “worship” in many places is loud enough to move one’s internal organs if not one’s spirit. And when one congregation’s gathering gets predictable, we look for something bigger and more exciting to inspire us. Likewise, rather than the simple work of loving our neighbors and serving those in need, we put our hope in the next “faith-based” blockbuster movie to reach the culture for Christ. The problem, I suspect, is that while we prefer the spectacular, God is happy to work through the subtle. And while we think outcomes are based upon how God’s word is proclaimed, he knows the outcomes are actually determined by how his word is received.This is evident in Jesus’ parable of the soils. He said the seed sown is the “word of the kingdom” which people hear. Seeds, of course, are tiny, nearly invisible things. There is nothing attention-grabbing about seeds. If we were in charge of determining how the word of God is spread, we’d prefer fireworks, synchronized music, and a laser light show—something spectacular that is likely to produce equally spectacular outcomes. But the point of Jesus’ story is precisely the opposite. The outcome is not dependent upon the seed, nor the technique employed by the sower to throw it. Instead, it’s all about the soil that receives it. We want to believe that the effectiveness of Christ’s ministry resides in our strategies or spectacular gifts, but Jesus knows there is a far deeper mystery at work. One that is hidden from our sight and far beyond our control. Therefore, the Lord is quite content for his word to go forth in subtle, unspectacular ways even if we are not. DAILY SCRIPTURE MATTHEW 13:1-9  MATTHEW 13:18-23  1 KINGS 19:11-13 WEEKLY PRAYER. From Clement of Alexandria (150 – 215) Be kind to your little children, Lord. Be a gentle teacher, patient with our weakness and stupidity. And give us the strength and discernment to do what you tell us, and so grow in your likeness.May we all live in the peace that comes from you. May we journey toward your city, sailing through the waters of sin untouched by the waves, borne serenely along by the Holy Spirit. Night and day may we give you praise and thanks, because you have shown us that all things belong to you, and all blessings are gifts from you. To you, the essence of wisdom, the foundation of truth, be glory for evermore.Amen.