"Is My Pain Transmitted or Transformed?" by Richard Rohr

Is your religion helping you to transform your pain? If it does not, it is junk religion. We all have pain—it’s the human situation, we all carry it in a big black bag behind us and it gets heavier as we get older: by betrayals, rejections, disappointments, and wounds that are inflicted along the way.

If we do not find some way to transform our pain, I can tell you with 100% certitude we will transmit it to those around us. We will create tension, negativity, suspicion, and fear wherever we go. Both Jesus and Buddha made it very clear to their followers that “life is suffering.” You cannot avoid it. It is no surprise that the central Christian logo became a naked, bleeding, suffering man. At the end of life, and probably early in life, too, the question is, “What do I do with this disappointment, with this absurdity, with this sadness?” Whoever teaches you how to transform your own suffering into compassion is a true spiritual authority. Whoever teaches you to project your doubt and fear onto Jews, Moslems, your family, heretics, gays, sinners, and foreigners, or even to turn it against yourself (guilt and shame) has no spiritual authority. Yet these very people have often preached from authoritative pulpits.

Church Membership - Substitute Spirituality or Spiritual Transformation?

One of my favorite writers on the spiritual life is Richard Rohr. He writes so well on the contemplative live and it's interaction with our daily living. Here, he has some great thoughts on church membership. I have been giving "church membership" alot of thought lately mainly because I believe it's a system that perpetuates spiritual immaturity when, in reality, it should promote spiritual maturity. Here are some thoughts from Rorh on church membership.

Historically, religion has more often been a belonging system or a belief system,than an actual system of transformation. When belonging and believing is yourprimary concern, you do not really need healing or growth, or even basic spiritualcuriosity. All your homework is done for you and handed to you. If you let thegroup substitute for your own inner life or your own prayer journey, all you need todo is attend. Church for several centuries now has largely been a matter ofattendance at a service, not an observably different lifestyle. Membership requirements predominated, not the “change your life” message that Jesus so clearlypreached.

Membership questions become an endless argument about who is in and who is out, whois right and who is wrong? Who is worthy of our God and who is not? Thisappeals very much to our ego, and its need to feel worthy, to feel superior, to be apart of a group that defines itself by exclusion. The Country Club instinct, youmight say. That is most of religious history. The group’s rightness or superioritybecomes a convenient substitute for knowing anything to be true for oneself. Wheredid Jesus recommend this pattern? It has left Christian countries not appreciablydifferent than other countries, in fact, sometimes worse. The two World Warsemerged within and between Christian countries. We can do so much better.

Pay Attention to Beauty and Goodness...Or Walking Right Past It

The following is a great story used by Rob Bell in a recent sermon. It illustrates perfectly that experience we might have when we are so caught up in other things that we walk right past beauty and goodness - in other words, we are walking right past God. Read on and let truth sink in.

Washington D.C. Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately 2000 people went through the station, most of them to work. After 3 minutes a middle-aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule. After 4 minutes the violinist received his first dollar – a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk. After 6 minutes a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him , then looked at his watch and started to walk again. After 10 minutes a three year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly. After 45 minutes the musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour he finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces of ever written, with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

We often walk right past the "free concert" we are given everyday in our God-soaked, God-drenched world. More words from Rob Bell to consider:

“Do you and I walk on holy ground all the time, but we are moving so fact and returning so many calls and writing so many emails and having such long lists to get done that we miss it?” (Rob Bell)

Autobiography in Five Short Chapter by Portia Nelson

1) I walk down the street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I fall in.I am lost . . . I am hopeless.It isn't my fault.It takes forever to find a way out.

2) I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I pretend I don't see it.I fall in again.I can't believe I am in the same place.But, it isn't my fault.It still takes a long time to get out.

3) I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I see it is there.I still fall in . . . it's a habit.My eyes are openI know where I am.It is my fault.I get out immediately.

4) I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I walk around it.

5) I walk down another street.

The Idolatry of Complete Understanding

"The opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear. Faith implies risk. I will cast my life on this possibility that God is for me. I do not have any proof except my commitment. I do not have to claim complete understanding - that is idolatry. The faith view of reality is frightening in its openness, and so institutions that are always trying to control reality with dictums and and laws and creeds."
(Verna Dozier, The Dream of God )

For the longest time I understood "having faith" as "never having any doubts." It was almost as if one had to reach a certain level of spirituality before you could qualify as one that "had faith." So, for a long time I pretty much saw myself as one that was "faithless" or without faith - mainly because I tend to have questions and I have my doubts.

But in my spiritual evolution I have some to see - and embrace - the reality that doubt is not the opposite of faith. In fact, I pretty much feel that it takes alot of faith to have doubts! Doubts have been my entry port into a deeper faith. It's not always easy or fun. And, sometimes it can make me downright irritable. But I have tried to be patient with my doubts and my questions because they have often led to deeper growth.

In the above quote, it's challenging - and helpful - to be reminded that complete understanding is akin to idolatry. So, if I don't understand everything there is to be understood, that is okay. To say that I completely understand and "get it" puts me in the position of being in control and that is the seedbed of idolatry. To be "in control" is the goal of all of us but it's not God's way for us. God is not about us being "in control" as being dependent upon God for all we are and well we can be. Only when I am completely dependent upon God and living into that benevolent unknown do I truly know what it means to live in faith - to cast my life on the possibility that God is for me.

"The Gospel in a Pluralist Society" by Leslie Newbigin

"Hopeful action means having something to which one can confidently look forward. It means having a horizon. As I said earlier, apart from what has been done in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we are shut up to only two possibilities. One possible horizon for our action is a vision for the future of the human race, a future in which we shall have no part. The other possible horizon is a personal future for me beyond death. From that future the world in which I now seek to serve God is absent. Its future is not part of my future. The one possibility gives meaning to my participation in the public life of neighborhood, nation, and world at the cost of marginalizing the human person. The other provides meaning for the individual human person at the cost of marginalizing our shared public life. What is made possible through the gospel is a life looking toward a horizon which is different from either of these. That horizon is defined in the words "He shall come again." For a Christian the horizon for all action is this. It is advent rather than future. He is coming to meet us, and whatever we do -- whether it is our most private prayers or our most public political action -- is simply offered to him for whatever place it may have in his blessed kingdom. Here is the clue to meaningful action in a meaningful history: it is the translation into action of the prayer: 'Your kingdom come, your will be done, as in heaven so on earth' "

"Jesus As Our Disequilibrium" by Alan Hirsch

Here is a good read by blogger and author Alan Hirsch. He talks about how Jesus came to disturb the status quo...not bless it.

"Why do we need to constantly reboot back to Jesus? It seems to me that the problem is that his people have a nasty habit of pushing Jesus out of his own community. Of displacing him. Think this is wrong-headed? Well, even in the NT itself we have a scene of Jesus knocking at the door of the church asking to be let in (yes, Rev.3 is not about personal evangelism after all.) Question: What is he doing outside his church when he is meant to be Lord of the church?! It seems that it didn’t take long for the church to remove Jesus from his rightful place in his community.

But why do we do this when all our confessions call him ‘Lord?’ Well I think it is because Jesus is always very difficult to deal with, and religious-minded people really do struggle with his form of ‘religion.’ Actually what Jesus taught cannot properly be called religion at all, in fact Ellul rightly calls it ‘anti-religion’ precisely because it undoes all religion. It effectively dissoves any need for a complex mediating institution with all its priestly/churchly paraphrenalia, and opens up the God-relation to all who will repond direclty to its call. That’s why the religious folk hated him. He de-legitimizes everything they stand for (priesthood and institution) and opens it up to the people. they must take him out.

Here’s what I think: Christianity minus Jesus equalls religion. And this happens in more churches than we are given to believe. We marginalise Jesus all the time and in so many subtle ways. And we do this because dealing directly with Jesus (or God for that matter) is always a disturbing thing to a sin-wracked people who would prefer a stable, more controllable, religion. Like all living systems, churches seek equilibrium. We want to settle down. We want to bolt down the Revelation and make God understandable, accesable, and therefore more controllable–a ‘God-on-tap.’ Sociologists call this ‘the routinization of charisma’ (google that!) and it is written through the structures of all religions including our own.

But Jesus disturbs our equilbrium. He won’t be controlled. He won’t be handled only by priests and professional religionists. He won’t be domesticated. He is Lord! Yes, Jesus is our disequalibrium. And the way back to an authentic Christianity is simply to put Jesus back into the equation. Christianity plus Jesus equals World Transformation."

"Softening Toward Liberation" by Fr. Alfred Delp, SJ

"When a person's heart softens and loses its numbness he actually brings about his own liberation. Like all surrender that is not prompted by creative assent this can be a painful business. But it is restorative and a step toward freedom---the torrent at last finds an outlet to its own ocean. The overcoming of icy isolation, of lack of love and self-sufficiency---that is the task of the Holy Ghost in us."

Happiness

Today's edition of USA Today had an article in it on how to be happy during not-so-good times. It really was an article that raised the issue of how does happiness occur and where does it come from...and is it something we can actually pursue or are people simply predisposed to being happy. One of the points the article made is that wealth can be found in ways other the money. Wealth is not simply defined by our bottom line or our income. Wealth also has to do with our social network, relationships, and fulfilling our sense of purpose in life. If we have that kind of "wealth", we can also experience a sense of happiness.

One of the points in the article is that experiencing simplicity can also be a source of happiness...or planting seeds of happiness. Simplifying our lives causes us to refocus and not put so much emphasis on stuff or things...or what we don't have. Simplicity invites us to think about what is truly important. Along with simplicity the article said that focusing on gratitude and also increase happiness. It told of some folks who keep "gratitude journal" in which they intentionally take a look at their life and write about what they are grateful for. It tends to reframe their life in such a way that they realize they might have more then they thought they did. One person put it this way, "I think what the gratitude journal does is it shows me I actually have some good stuff in my life, I feel at peace. I feel happy because of that."

Happiness is always in intriguing topic for me. I think it's important for people to be happy...and I like experiencing happiness...but it is such a bad thing when you aren't happy? In other words, have we created too much pressure on people to feel as if they should be happy all the time and when they aren't, they feel something is either wrong with them or wrong with their life?

Also, have we made happiness too circumstantial. In other words, too dependent on our circumstances - which can change as quickly as the weather. What happens when we are going through a not-so-good season in our life and happiness is hard to come by? Do we change our disposition? Change our circumstances? Or both?

Maybe, in some ways, we as Americans have been somewhat spoiled...and that has also spoiled our spirituality. We have turned happiness into a religion...even an idol. We have felt that happiness is something we are entitled too...and it has been somewhat easy for us to "be happy" in the last few years when the economy was doing well. Now that the economy has gone flat so has our happiness. The scary thing is considering how much our happiness is tied into ...and dependent upon...what we possess, own, have, and consume. Also, we try to find happiness in other people meeting our needs and fulfilling those empty places in our life. And that always seems to be a dead end street.

What do you think it means to be happy? What makes you happy? What does it mean for spiritual people to be happy? Write me with your ideas at scottwagoner62@yahoo.com or post your comment. I'm interested to know.

The Descending Way

The following was written by Gordon Cosby. Any chance I get to read something by Gordon Cosby I do. For me, he lives and describes what I believe it is to be a Kingdom person within a Kingdom community.

"In the Gospel it is quite obvious that Jesus chose the descending way. He chose it not once but over and over again. At each critical moment he deliberately sought the way downward. Even though he was without sin, Jesus began his public life by joining the ranks of sinners who were being baptized by John in the Jordan. If you were especially gifted, don’t you think you would have said to John, “I’m going to bypass this little arrangement. It’s all right for these other characters but, you know, I’ve got hold of this”? But Jesus said, “I want to join the others in this rite of baptism.” And even though he was full of divine power, he believed that changing stones into bread, seeking popularity, and being counted among the great ones of the earth were temptations. Again and again he opted for what is small and hidden and poor, and declined to wield influence.

In all this it becomes plain to us that God has willed to show love for the world by descending more and more deeply into human frailty. The more conscious Jesus becomes of the mission entrusted to him, the more he realizes that mission will make him poorer and poorer.
God is the descending God. The movement is down, down, down, until it finds the sickest, the most afflicted, the most helpless, the most alienated, the most cut off…. Being with the least is difficult enough, but even more difficult is that other step of becoming the least of the least. Our trouble is that we live in a debilitating dichotomy. We listen to this “weakness” stuff, this “servant” stuff, but we just do not believe that the way to God, the way to fulfillment, is the downward way, the way of descent.

We spend our best thinking and energies on the upward way and are distressed if we slip a bit and are not recognized or appreciated. And if sometimes through God’s help we manage a miracle, we hope the recipient will tell everybody. We do not tell the person not to tell. We want our reputation to be enhanced, we want to be known as the one who can perform miracles in Christ’s name.

We do not say that Jesus lived a great life but ended that life poorly. The crowning event of his life was the death that he died, the poverty, the leastness of those final hours. The death is the glory…. This expression of total poverty—the dying on the cross—was the total descent and thus the height of the glory. This life, when it reaches the depths, as it reached those depths in Jesus, explodes into infinite newness. The only man ever resurrected was the one who hit the bottom and knew total poverty. He was the one who was resurrected, no one else. And so we have a new injection into the life stream of humanity—a totally new enhancement of the common good.
The ascending way never explodes into newness. We hold on to certain names, remember and sometimes envy their accomplishments and write much of our history around those names. We don’t write history about the poor, the real people…. Suppose the only God that exists is the descending God. Suppose the only way to be reconciled to God is to be reconciled with the least, who are at the bottom. If God is going down and we are going up, it is obvious that we are going in different directions. And we will not know him. We will be evading God and missing the whole purpose of our existence."

N. Gordon Cosby is co-founder of The Church of the Saviour and served as its minister for 62 years. This piece is an excerpt from a talk about servant leadership in 1989 that was published in a collection of sermons called By Grace Transformed: Christianity for a New Millennium, available from the Potter’s House.