Parakalein

I imagine how the disciples must have felt.  They had spent three years with Jesus.  They had mountain top moments, Mt of Transfiguration, moments of deep disappointment, like when Peter was told to get behind me Satan, and moments of disillusionment when they began to hear that Jesus was going to leave them all alone.

No one likes being all alone.  Recall that "it is not good for man to be alone".  There is a difference between needing some alone time and being all alone.

Saturday, is the day between the death of Jesus on Golgotha on Friday and the Resurrection on Sunday morning.

Grief is a dark and lonely place where one feels abandoned by the one who is gone.  But really, the one who is gone has left everyone.  Suddenly it seems grief is very selfish, it is all about me and my loss.  Not really in fact what if it is all about, in the loss, finding great gain.

Adam and Eve felt so much grief, so alone, so separated from God and each other that blame and shame filled the sacred space of the garden.  THey went into the cave of aloneness to hide from the God who was quick to offer the smile of grace.  Not a smile that says it does not matter nor a frown that blames and shames.  God's smile is one of an understanding face and of transformational grace.  Grace that transforms the darkest of moments.  The midnight madness of despair into the midnight of clarity and compassion.

What if Adam and Eve knew that nothing, neither wrong doing or right doing, neither heights of achievements nor depths of despair, nothing can separate us form the love of God that is in the face of Jesus Christ.

In the dark despair and grief of feeling abandoned and alone we see with true light the truth that we are never alone, that we are accepted, adopted, and abundantly forgiven. Just as we are without one plea except that we know God's love is greater, richer and deeper than any pit.  As Corrie TenBoom once said, "There is no pit so deep, that God's grace is not deeper still."
So, I say to all,  when you are falling in grief and feeling all alone, let go and fall into the hole of God's grace.

When Jesus said in that dark moment of his soul, "My God, My God Why have you forsaken me" he was falling into the hands of His father's Grace.

Adam and Eve did not fall from grace, grace was not necessary until they sinned.  They fell into he hole of God's grace.

Violence comes from within.  Inside all of us is a part that wants to win and hates to lose.   That parts presents an internal conflict that creates polarities in the system of our hear and mind.

Recently I invited a group to think about someone or something they hated.  Then I asked them to focus on the part of them that hated that person or thing.  To imagine that they were right to hate and that justice would be served by expressing that hate.  Then i asked them to imagine another part that saw such hatred and justification of hatred as anything but just.  Then I asked them (and myself as I was a participant and a presenter) if they could breathe space into their internal system and invite compassion to sit where judgment sat, to look at the part hated for good reason and with good reason, and ask that judgmental part to step aside, making room for grace and releasing it from the grave of darkness into the grave of grace.  Here where grief and grace meet is where light shines.  This light does not dismiss the darkness but dispels the illusion of darkness and opens the space up to light.

Then refocus on the part in the person you hate or the thing you hate and look at that part with the compassion and calm within you.  Let he goodness within you not be overcome with the evil outside but overcome that evil outside with goodness from inside.  Evil is not good but when met with goodness it fades into the faith that sees it with grace.

Imagine that to be the message of Easter.  Let the evil of hatred and violence in the world be met by the part of me that settles the hatred and violence inside with the compassion that looks with the eyes of grace at the betrayal, the burden, the bruised and the beaten parts of me and the parts of me that would betray, burden, bruise, and beat others.

While I can justify anything from my reactions to other to warfare, that does not make it just.  Innocent parts in my brother or sister are wounded like innocent people in all wars are wounded and die.  That is not just, it is never just.

Justice is never served by acts of justice but by being just in our thoughts, feelings, reactions and actions.

It was not just that Jesus died for my sin.  But it was just for the God of justice to give himself to die to teach us that the road to justice is being just toward all within and without.  To welcome all parts of all people regardless of anything, with compassion, calmness and care and without fear of loss, desire for gain, without agenda or assumption, and with liberty and justice for all.

Christians need to lead the world in sacrificing what they want to impose on the world and embrace what they can offer to the world.

We need to get over the "Jesus is the only way thing" so that we can present and live the "Jesus is the only way truth".

The way of Jesus is the way of love and peace.  All who covenant to live in love and peace are living the Jesus way even if they do not name him as savior and Lord.  Just like many who name him savior and Lord, do not live the Jesus way, so many who have been judged and prejudged by the narrow definition of the way of Jesus do live the Jesus way.

Soren Kierkegaard said, "To know the truth and not be (live) the truth is to embellish that very truth with error".

The way of Jesus is not any particular religious or church way though some try to define it so.  The way of Jesus is a way of being and living that embodies the qualities of the divine Self in all of us as the image of God namely:  calmness, compassion, courage, and creativity.

I believe more than ever that "Jesus is the only way" but the way is narrowly and broadly defined as opposed to imposed in a narrowly defined way.

No fooling.

Attempting to communicate a new idea and a new way of being is difficult.

Part of the presentation "Parakalein on Violence" presented the idea that all external violence occurs because of internal fracturing and fragmentation between parts, inside all of us, that want to win and hate to lose.  The dual drive of human nature is the desire to win, conquer or control, and the fear of losing, being conquered or being controlled.  Inner parts often feel that it is a winner take all world so they protect and defend.  The attack defend that is automatic in our human nature takes hurts and pains and translate them into justification to act out in attacking and defending ways.  I must act out and kill you because if I do not you will act out and kill me.  War and disputes are a  projection of the fear of loss and the desire for gain.

There is also inside all of us the "image of God".  We can nurture the nature of humanity or the nature of God within.  Jesus said the "kingdom of God is within you".  What is the divine nature? First, it is the willingness to suffer (The I am cannot lose) loss and not defend oneself as a loser but as someone so internally secure that we do not have to prove or win external approval or fear disapproval. Second it is the sereneness of Self (The I am who is I am, need not gain) that is unthreatened by loss and unreduced by power and gain.

So the idea of "going inside" and identifying not justification for action, hatred, attacking, or defending but identifying the serene and sacrificing capacity that retains a "loving compassionate presence and a peaceful calm presence" that transforms inner hurt and pain into a way of caring for that hurt and pain.  The way to speak for the hurt and pain, to refuse to be overwhelmed by hurt and pain as a way of justifying violence, and to present hurt and pain in a healed way that does not condone the aggression but transforms the aggression to the assimilation of validation and valuation vs victimization or villanization.

To summarize I presented the anagram of Giraffe.
Go
Inside
Redeem (make what is inside encounter the peace and love that welcomes all things of humanself and transform that thing thru the nurturance of divine Self)
All
Frustrations
Fragmentations
Energizing (positive inclusion and transforming grace that neither condemns or condones but brings compassion to and form all) 

"If you could know the inner hurt and pain of your most ardent enemy it would be enough to disarm all your hostilities and grant peace to all"    Ralph Waldo Emerson

So go inside identify the thing you hate. Identify and accept the thing that triggers your angry and aggressive part and invite that part to let go of the venom and vengeance that mirrors and reflects the hurt as justification for judgment.

There is no such thing as a just war or holy war.  We can justify war and aggression but such justification perpetuates violence and precursors peace.  In any aggression no one really wins and everyone loses innocent life and that is never just.

The giraffe has a long neck and sticks it out for peace.

As I spoke on Parakalein on Violence in the world I focused on the inner violence within us that gets acted out in the world.  James 4:1-2  Where do wars come from? Do they not come from within where parts of us, members within, war against each other.

As an intro and back drop I spoke of how the creator God made everything and imbued all that was made with peace and love.  The world was created with diversity and polarities but all polarities were intentionally made not to create oppositional reaction but all oppositional reactions when held in love and peace work together for the good o fall.  Balance and harmony create and sustain calmness and compassion toward all that God made.  God creates everything with rounded edges, spheres that reflect the roundness and soundness of the qualities of calmness and compassion love and peace.  Frustration and fragmentation result from a point counter point mentality.  In a point counter point world you never know the point except it always causes hurt in pain in someone somewhere.

To illustrate the point I used three shapes: football, baseball, and a box.
All that God's created was in the shape of a a sphere.  The solar system, the planets, the earth, the moon/sun, all plant life, all people, the face, the eyes, the heart, the lungs, the brain etc. God does not create anything as a box.  People and religious systems create boxes but God does not.  God wants us to be free and flowing like a rive of love.  God is not into boxing  us up or out from boxes.

I was presenting a talk about "where do wars, fractions, fights, conflict come from and how to resolve them.  I used a football to illustrate that because it has two points it is unpredictable and can bounce literally in a multiple of directions as impacted by a multiplicity of factors.  In a point counter point world when anyone gets the point it also causes hurt and pain and often cuts into the heart of relating. In a winner take all world everyone wants to be a winner and no one wants to be a loser.

Yet everything that God has made is in a sphere of some kind with no defined point but a rounded flow.  From the oval nature of the universe and the patterns of the orbits, to the planets themselves, to the human body to the face, eyes etc.  So I held up a baseball to symbolize the sphere of God's creative reflection.  Everything God has made that has a point counter point to it is rounded out by the love and grace of the creator.  God does not make boxes but people, religion, social systems etc., do make boxes.  Boxes have corners that hurt and cut, they are hard to get out of, and are used often to box people in as well as box others out.

God created all things to reflect the sphere of the creators love not boxes that constrain and restrain the flow of love.

Let's roll love on all people from the balance and harmony in the sphere of our loving.

The power of political persuasion is not a persuasive as many politicians think.  Most of us see through all the "politicizing, politicking, and pseudo politeness.

My favorite political speech was given by former President Bill Clinton at the Democratic Convention in 2007.  He stated:  "the world is not so much impressed by the presence of our power but by the power of our presence".

It is not my ability to impress people with what i know or do not know or how I wield the power I have or do not have.  What really impresses people is "my presence" without a need to impress but with the willingness to make an impression of the truth that "it is not about me", it is about us!"

True power or what Hilary Clinton later referred to as "smart power" is thoughtful, kind, considerate, respectful, humble, honoring, honest, firm and flexible.  I tis not power over, under, or through but power all around all of us.  It is presence.  It is the essence of spirituality: "peaceful and loving presence" that has no agenda and no conditions but all enveloping compassion which harmony and balance within and without.

I watched some birds flying on to our porch looking for a place to build their nest.

They like me are a little confused by mother nature who is messing around with father time.  Is it the first day of spring, is winter still coming, is it summer?  The birds obviously think we should have our planter out but our plants are barely ready to go outside and we do not trust the calendar or how it feels today.

I mused that we live the most free when we do not trust the think or thing we think we know (the calendar in our head) or the feeling we get from the experience we are having from the outside in (the weather of the day that we feel).  We are the most free and the most ready when we live from the inside out making the best of whatever is: enjoying when it feels good and when we feel secure and confident when it feels badly and shakes our sense of security.

Paul said, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein in to let my sense of security be my source of contentment."

Contentment is being "secure inside" regardless of the content of my day or the comments toward me in my day.  Content in this that you are at peace and are surrounded by loving energy regardless of anything.

How do you spell security: "contentment"

Oh and to the birds:  I told them I will get on getting our planters all hung for them by the end of the day!

Last weeks lectionary couple two messages that seem to polarize the reader.   In Numbers 21 the text presents the story of the people of Israel grumbling about the food and water they so God sent judgment on them and people died which seemed to represent a God of wrath.  In the Gospel (John 3:14-19) God is represented as a God who sent his son "not to condemn the world but to nurture people to true wholeness.

The children's sermons theme was "God loves you no matter what".  The adult sermon presented the theme, that God is angry when we act like the problem is what he is providing or not. God is angry with our feeling entitled a real problem in our world but in Numbers as well.  A youth summarized the conflict to his mother, after church in this way: "So Mom, here is what I learned in church today:  God loves us no matter what but if I whine, or grumble he gets mad and kills me".

Really!  What a polarity.  I heard the polarity and attempted to address it in my children's sermon that day.  I said that my son would sometimes tell me when he was younger that God loves me no matter what after doing something clearly bad.  It was his "entitlement part".  I would say to him that while I love him no matter what we need to have a serious talk with that part.  God loving me no matter what does not entitle me to do whatever I want but rather entitles me to be responsible for the "what that I do".

God loves me no matter what and when I do something that acts like I am entitled he wants me to look up and see his Love and be healed of the burden of entitlement and embrace the blessing of God's love.