Parakalein

Since the early 1950's this country observed and the president proclaimed a "National Day of Prayer".  Today in the National Cathedral and throughout the country in small hamlets and in large cities and in places in between, people will gather to pray for God's guidance on our leaders.

Driving to work the other day I heard of a movement to ask the President to declare a parallel National Day of Reason.  While I know that whoever is behind that movement it is probably due to the nature of the national Day of Prayer having a "Christian agenda" and implying that God favors a nation that prays.
At the same time, prayer, that is calling on a power beyond, outside and yet alongside of me when in distress is a very reasonable thing to do.  It is a way of stepping outside of our problems into light and that is a good thing to do fro perspective shifts and perception changes.

Former President Bill Clinton said in a speech at the 2008 Democratic Convention, "The world is nto so impressed by the Presence of America's power in the world as they are impressed by the Power of America's presence in the world".  Prayer calls on our leaders to know that it is "presence" not "power" that turns the heads and hearts of humanity.  Prayer is a way of practicing the presence of a power greater than ourselves and who sees presence as true power.

This is not a day to call for God to bless America no matter what or to make America, God's favorite nation.  It is to ask for God's favor to come upon all of the citizens and the leaders of our nation so we might be a people, "under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all".  To this end we pray.

Romans 12 tells us to be "transformed by the renewing of our minds" over and against the "being conformed to this world".

People over the ages, wise sages have interpreted this passage in many different ways.  All have a point within the context of living.  Few factor in "sacrificing" as part of living.  The argument goes:  I do not need to sacrifice to you as I have my rights too.  You are not more important than me. You may have the right to have it your way but does that mean I have to live the way you define? I do not have to be a rug and let you walk all over me. These parts of you or me have a point and are true butt they are not willing to sacrifice what they think to the way someone else thinks and certainly do not see how to create a win-win orientation and reality to this polarity.

Enter the gates of sacrifice, rather the willingness to sacrifice, and find the light of love shining a beam of transforming light.  With our minds we often think it is about someone wanting me to conform to their way or me getting people to conform to my way.  One person's distinctive can create indignity for an other's.  Embracing another persons right to believe or behave differently demands a deference to without creating an agreement with the other person.  When our minds think in "over and against" or "win-lose" ways we choose to empower conformity and uniformity.  When we let out minds be transformed we move to an "alongside of and win-win" orientation we choose to embrace autonomy and authenticity.

When humanity was first created humanity knew and appreciated all it had.  All things were valued and all were welcomed without any agenda and with full acceptance.  There was no shame or blame or guilt.
When we renew out minds we move back into a state of "welcoming all parts in and around us as well as welcoming all parts in and around everyone".  With this renewed mind all are at peace.  There is balance and harmony.  There is love without limits and love that is willing to sacrifice all and everything for anyone and everyone.

Maybe this is what Paul meant and means.  Are we willing to sacrifice our right to have what we want or like, what our egos need to be satisfied for that which satisfies beyond our ego.  The egos thirsts for power, control and conformity is set aside and the ego embraces the internal living water which is a perpetual thirst quencher.  It is the "willingness to sacrifice in me" meeting the "willingness to sacrifice in you" which creates a mindset of mindfulness.  The win-lose mindset of the world that calls us to conform is transformed into the win-win mindset of Christ whose mind was the dichotomy of "living sacrifice" and the anatomy of humility and grace.

It is surprising what we could accomplish in the world if we did not worry about who gets the credit but just joined hands in a partnership propelled by a "renewed mind".

Today, we build the highest and most secure building in NYC on ground zero.  We believe in the power of rising above trauma, in resiliency of spirit, and in the embrace of all.  Higher, bigger or taller buildings may feed our egos, or declare our ingenuity, or represent our resiliency but the greatest expression of power is when we can honor all people who have suffered at the hands of people defending their or someone's honor,  when we can be honest with ourselves and defer to others, and when we can humble ourselves and choose to set aside agendas and accolades in exchange for embracing autonomy, authenticity, audacity, and acceptance.

Tolerance of others leads to acceptance of all parts of all people regardless of anything and that leads not to the illusion of peace but to the transformation to peace.

So what if while building a tall building to say we stand tall in the wake of tragedy, we also began to practice being together as one.  In our differences we can defer to one another.  In deferring to one another we expand our universe to be inclusive not exclusive, attentive not attention seeking, and an us not a me.  In deferring we embrace our differences and distinctives with respect and true reverence.

When we honor our differences, we are honest about our uncertainties, and we are humble and certain of only one thing:  we are one and so we ned to live as one with respect toward all.

Today I sat in a "memorial service" of an obviously loved and loving pastor.

I listened as person after person spoke about how she would not have believed that this many people would show up as she never really thought of herself s special but always treated people as if they were very special and unusually important.  This theme was spoken by the voices of old and young, nuclear family and church family, and religious community and general community.

The church was filled beyond capacity for this memorial service for this special person who treated everyone as special but did not think of herself as special at all.  This is why she would be so surprised to see hundreds of people there, nearly 500% of regular church attendance.

Philippians 2:3b "In humility consider others as better than yourself".  What a mindset to be mindful of others rather than minding other people's business. To esteem others better than yourself, not because they are, but because in doing so you are fulfilled while simultaneously fulfilling others.  In the economy of "spirit energy" when a humble spirit treats others as if they are more important than themselves the other person feels so valued and valuable that they automatically respond by treating you as having more importance than them. Instead of a mutual admiration society what this command intentionally creates (which is the intention of the creator) is a mutual affirmation of worth society that makes us all live better and be better inside and out.

What a gold mine toward "transformation".  As a group of youth put it to me upon discussing this principle and passage of scripture.  If I treat everyone as better than me and if everyone does that for everyone then everyone would feel better and be better toward everyone.  What a way to transform the world!  Imagine!

The secret of this pastor is that she practiced:  "in humility esteem others as better than you" and you will be affirmed as the best by all.

No wonder they came from far and wide to say "you made us feel loved" because she really loved them.
This is a tribute to a person and a principle.

In the sacred space of your today do and be sacred to others and sacred will come back to you!

I visited a good friend and found that her husband had died.  Our paths crossed in church life but our hearts were wormed not by the crossing of the paths at church but the intersection of the open heart and open mind of Bill.  He was a very strong and opinionated man but as strong as his opinion was also the strength of his heart of compassion and care.  He sang from his heart and lived from his heart and that is the heart of the matter.

As I left a time of sharing grief together with his wife who had recently been through a triple bypass of her heart, perhaps anticipating that her heart need to be strengthened for the loss of her life companion.
They as a couple and he as an individual gave from their heart in everything they did: from committee member to choir member and just being present. His seat in the chair in the corner of the coffee hour will never look the same.  I noticed their neighbor across the hall had a saying on her wall by her door, it read:

Peace 
It does not mean to be in a place
Where there is no noise, trouble or hard work   It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart
Author Unknown


I mused as Bill and I had often mused together so here is my musing in honor of and in memory of Bill:
Peace does not mean being in a certain place during a swirling storm or a surging tsunami where there is no noise, no trouble, or no hard work of cleaning up after the storm

Peace means having a certain calmness that keeps the heart calm in the presence of the storm, the noise, the trouble or hard work of grief. 

The perfect storm of grief that swirls around us and threatens to engulf us is always met by the perfect calm of grace that sits in the center of the swirl with the certainty and courage of a calm and compassionate heart.




That was and is Bill!


Thank you for touching my life and so many other lives in your living!

Last Thursday, April 19, 2012, Ruth Graham http://blog.beliefnet.com/safeplacewithruthgraham/was the speaker at the Albany Area Prayer Breakfast.  Her theme was that "Praise was the Language of heaven".   As I shook her hand before the breakfast started, I recalled internally shaking her Dad's hand 22 years ago.  I felt a message as I did.  I needed to listen to her words for a message to her dad and to me as a grandfather.

As I heard her of her dad, "As Dad grows older, I have watched his fires of compassion wane into embers. I am more impressed today by the embers, than I ever was by the fire" (or something close to that).  That was the message.  I got it. We all have egos and our egos are fed by the fires around us and inside of us.  I used to preach with "the fire of compassion" now I think it is more like the "embers of compassion".  Our spirit is present in the embers of compassion not so much in the "fires of our good passions".  I was also reminded in reflection that the embers burn more steadily and longer without any help or care than the fire ever did. In what matters for eternity and reflects our true heart it is the embers of our presence more than the fire of our preaching.  The eternal measure of time and value is different than that of earth.

So I want to thank Ruth for that thought and the courage to speak it.  I also want to thank Billy Graham for a message through his embers to all of us. It might be the most eternally valuable message of our day.

I also am thank that God who is a consuming fire sets aside his fire and invites us to know the embers of compassion at the cross of his passion for the world.  God received the fiery anger of humanity and transformed it into the embers of God's love.

Thanks be to God

Everyone wants to be sure of something as it seems to give the illusion of certainty.

But being comfortable even comforted in uncertainty expresses a certain confidence and calmness that itself is comforting.

Enforcing my Certainty about anything  breeds prejudice, narrow mindedness, ego centricity
Impulsivity, hostility, exclusivity, and global conflicts 

Embracing uncertainty with Open mindedness and open hearted ness breeds expansiveness, inclusivity, cooperation,  coalescence, global community. 


I am sure of it.

Our nation is again rocked with racial tension since George Zimmerman allegedly gunned down Treyvon Martin in Florida.  Last week George Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder.  Clearly Treyvon Martin did not deserve to be shot.  Clearly for justice to be done in this case all factors of both individuals need to be justly and honestly assessed and appropriate accountability and responsibility enforced.  Regardless of how the case goes the tension will continue.

On Saturday, April 14th, 2012 the Boston Globe on page A1,and A4 published the article copied below.  I leaped for joy as an act of colorless bravery was courageously placed on page one of the Globe.  Most of the time these good stories are reserved for somewhere inside the paper but this took prominence!

Saving a fellow pilot regardless of anything about that pilot except that he was a fellow countrymen or just a fellow human being in distress had these two brave soldiers tell a story that goes beyond color or creed.  A man by the name of Thomas risked his own life to attempt to save Jesse a kinsman navy pilot whose plane had crashed.  Thomas crashed his won plane in an attempt to save his kinsman.  He said, no heroism here is was "the only thing to do".  It was not an issue of right or wrong, nor an issue of color, nor an issue of creed, "it was the only thing to do".  How wonderful a legacy to follow.

Recently, my wife and I attended a play, "Black Pearl Sings" in which there was a line, "stupid comes in all colors".  Kindness and compassion comes in all colors, in all creeds, in all ethnic and social strata.  Being calmly compassionate and courageous is always and everywhere "the only thing to do".

Imagine if we all lived that way!

PS  Maybe the Navy Warship Should be called The Thomas-Jesse Ship?

As I spoke to a congregation at the Pascal Eve Service I invited everyone to close their eyes and enter into the darkness of their own inner world.  I invited them to imagine Jesus in the darkness of the grave on that longest day of darkness, despair and aloneness.  Their is no place of aloneness as dark and dismal as the place of total abandonment, detachment, and despair like the grave.  Jesus spent a few hours in the grace on Friday night and if tradition holds a minute in the grave on Sunday morning but an entire 24 hours of the whole of Saturday in the dark deep hole of aloneness and tomb of numbness.  He spent only a minute of Sunday in the grave to fulfill hat he had to be in the grave for three days but he refused to let the grave hold him for anymore than one minute on that third day so a s tradition holds at 12:01 am, up from the grave he arose.

I invited the congregation to return to the place of darkness and to recall a time that they felt all alone and to receive what might be what Jesus would speak to us in the darkness form the darkness:


"I sit alone in the darkness, I need no light as their is a light inside of me.  That light is the essence of peace and love that is with me as clarity and confidence in the darkness.  While I fee alone I am not alone.  When I spoke from the cross 'Father forgiven them they do not know what they are doing' I was speaking as many of you know to those who had put the nails in my hands and feet, hung me on the cross, and mocked the very love and peace I offered them.  It was the light inside that had me speak.  I expected their anger and wrath as they had set that intention against me form before my birth in the manger.  They had mangled and murdered many children out of that hatred.  It was one thing to spill blood in hatred and another to spill blood in a loving living sacrifice.  They did not get the difference.  I also said, 'Father forgive them they do not know what they are doing' to those who abandoned me because of their fears, who I had healed by my touch, who I had loved with my heart, who I had taught from my mind, all those who I had given to they all of them were in denial, betrayal, or cowards filled with avoission (combination of avoidance and aversion of pain and suffering).  The sword that pierce my side was "them".  I did not expect the desertion and the denial of pain and suffering.  To them I also spoke 'Father forgive them as they do not know what they are doing'.  Protection or preservation of life was their intention.  My intention was to lead by example into the darkest arena of loss and grief of total aloneness and to there in the cavern of the tomb know the presence of light that preserves and protects life into eternity." 

I invited the congregation to see the light in their darkness to consider all the wounds of grief that have pierced their side by people closest to them and then to offer them light and love.  Then I invited them to open their eyes.


Corrie Ten Boom said in her book The Hiding Place: "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still".  Let grace meet your grief in the light of God's love in the darkness of your hole no matter how dark that hole is.  In the Darkness see light.


"Nothing shall separate you form the Love of God, neither height nor depth, principalities or powers, things present or things to come nor anything shall separate you from the love of God which is in you form Jesus Christ" Romans 8:31

What is the core value we embrace?

At the core of my being there are two driving forces that create polarity but intend to create or propel community, cooperation and collaboration.

There is the human-self with the drive to lust or long for control over others and the fear of the loss of control or domination and oppression of others.

There is the divine or Spirit-Self that has no agenda but to be with all and in all with compassion, courage,  creativity and calmness.

When the needs and desires, the fears and threats dominate we are in chaos confusion and conflict.

When the peace and love of the core dominate there is self-control, self awareness, self-clarity and other respectfulness.  Balance and harmony in any system perpetuates community in the system.

The core value I embrace is balance and harmony inside and living from that balance and harmony a life of love and peace in the world.

Regardless of anything I want and purpose to live not the my purpose driven life but the release driven life.

The Jesus way.  We are more us than me.  Jesus is with us to make us more one than many.  Father may they be one as you and are are one was his prayer.

They will be done. Amen