The Potter

I think of creation and its ongoing activity with stars forming, becoming super novas, blowing up, black holes and new stars, galaxies, planets forming, as something done by "The Potter."  A potter works on creating something and when it is not quite finished, or quite as she might want it, she takes it apart and reusing the same clay, and maybe some new clay, continues to create the pottery.  The attitude of the potter is, "not quite."  That is, things are not quite as they can be or the potter envisions it.  I am like a mound of clay and the "Great Potter" is working on me.  I am "not quite." When I am unbalanced, not quite all that I can be, the Potter takes me apart a bit and works on me some more.  Spiritual growth is the "not quite," not yet all that I am meant to be.  I can only hope that being completed shattered is behind me, that I am on more of a continuum to some completion of the Potter's plan for me.  I don't think that death will end the process.  I may not be in this human flesh, but as with all creation, once you are, you are.

We, Not Me

HOMILY, Sunday, August 12, 2018
John 6: 41-51
Someone reminded me that the first step of the twelve step recovery program begins with the word, “we” and not “me.”  The wisdom of “we” is that no one recovers alone, no one develops a spiritual life in isolation.  I have met people who say they do not drink or drug, but “don’t go to meetings anymore.”  It reminds me of many a Christian who wants there holy communion each week but is otherwise not much interested in anyone else in church or their neighborhood or place of work.  They interact when they need to, but otherwise tend to be judgmental, with a lack of kindness or compassion.  But that very holy communion was an act of friendship and bonding on the part of Christ.  “This is my body and blood” sounds like a rather intimate act.  I think that Jesus was about oneness amongst differences.  It is in community that we grow, learn acceptance, forgiveness, and compassion.  The Western brand of Institutioal religion tents to singularity.  The idea of “more” means that someone else will have less.  That is how it works out.  In recovery programs, people are always reaching out to be helpful to the person who is feeling “less recovered.”  The giving of time and self, gets people out of a bondage to self.  Bondage to self is a subtle foe.  It can show up in self-improvement programs, religion, even meditation when they all keep a person focused on self.  After I meditate, or go to the gym, or do a long run, stretch, I must ask myself, “Who might need some help today?”  If I am spiritually fit, God will show me the next right thing.  I need to be a “we” or I will be a disaster.

Wheat And Weeds

Do you sometimes feel like a weed that does not fit in, is not wanted, nor belongs in the wheat world around you?  Well, Barbara Brown Taylor, in one of her stories sees a place for wheat and weeds to serve one another.  Let the wheat and weeds grow together.  When the reapers come along, they gather the wheat to bake bread.  The weeds are then gathered and made into bricks for the oven that will bake the bread.  Everyone gathers together to enjoy the fresh baked bread, thanks to the weeds that baked it.  No one is useless.  Everyone belongs.  We all need one another. And don't be labeling yourself.  We are all shining like the sun, but many of us don't know it or see it in ourselves and in one another.

The Weaver

I learned about the weaver bird’s wisdom.  It builds its nest upside down to hang off of very thin branches.  One nest per branch.  To get to the op[ening of the nest the weaver has to come up underneath to feed the young.  Why, you ask?  Predators.  Squirrels and snakes cannot get a grip on the thin branch and are too heavy, so they simple fall to the ground.  The weaver neither fights nor flights from danger, but rather figures out how to live in some harmony with those who might otherwise do it harm for their own food desires, the weaver eggs in the nest.  What to learn?  Instead of fight or flight when we perceive danger or opposition, there might also be a chance for “flow.”  How can you flow with those around you so you can all live together given everyone’s seeming separate needs.  The weaver is not close buddies with the snake and the squirrel, but the bird has found a way to survive and live in the same community as these other animals.  Smart bird.

Virgin

The Virgin Birth

If God is the Creator of all, and in Genesis God says, “It is good,” meaning all of creation.  Sex is part of God’s creation.  When God came into the world as Jesus, why would God bypass sexual intercourse, which is part of God’s good creation?  This brings me to the Virgin Birth.  Is it factual or symbolic?  If it is factual, how do the facts help you to live the teachings of Jesus?  My sense is that for many, factual is comforting, but does little to to make one a follower of Jesus.  It is also easier for many people to be told what to think rather than how to think.  Only in religion do people seem to find comfort in being told what to think.  Comfort is often about the fear of death and afterlife.  It is easier to believe the right teaching, than to live the Jesus life.  Jesus did not talk about Virgin Birth.  He did talk about the Sermon on the Mount.  I am fine with Virgin as in my Creed, but many are not.  The virgin birth is difficult for some folks to believe… here’s another way to look at it.

 I want to attempt to look at it symbolically.  Each one of us is energy from the Big Bang.  Creation is all about change, chemistry/physics change.  A super nova star comes into existence, lives and then runs out of energy to hold itself together and blows up making for a chemical reaction that goes on to make our solar system, planet earth and us. Modern science has revealed these connections.  This earth life is where our energy becomes human, bodily, personal.  I become me, the human, Terry Ryan.  

Creation is the incarnation of God, in all things, all matter and energy. All is God. Human life has been evolving for a long time before Jesus came along.  There has been a lot of unique God-bearers, full of love for centuries before Jesus.  But at some point, the Creator is going to reveal how this energy is going to come together, in a heightened fashion, a process that has not happened yet in time. It might be called, “The Fullness of Time.” This is the conception and birth of Jesus.  Call it Virginal because it is new and powerful, the most human that God can be, but not unrelated to the way humans come into existence.  It is what happens when the Creator takes on a human body like never before.   It could be a birth that points to the future since creation is evolving.  Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and live it to the full.”  The way that Jesus lives his life and his teachings, so filled with the Divine that it is pointing to the way we can live both now and toward the future.  Jesus is the Divine, the Creator, in flesh, pointing to a near and distant future.  We have potential. He has fullness.  His humanness gives us hope we can follow.  

When we live according to Jesus’ teachings we are energized.  Our bodily chemistry has a spiritual dimension that  activates this energy and is manifested in daily life.  It is called, “Love.”  God is Love, the fulness of life.  Now why is Mary called Virgin?  It is not about having no husband or no sex.  Sex is not the focus or non-focus.  It is about the power of woman, especially in cultures where she is diminished.  She has the power to hold in her body for all those months, the quickening, or fullness of the Spirit that animates all creation.  She is not obliterated by it.  What is her power?  It is her ability to say “Yes,” to something new, “virginal” as God is bringing her into a future that she does not fully understand.  It is trust, hope, love and cooperation, all the things one needs to live the Gospel Jesus proclaimed.  It is called Grace. It will make Mary, all that Mary has the potential to be.  

So Mary is still special, still unique, and still a model of “follower” of Jesus.  She is still with the title, “Virgin” and God-Bearer, and lots of other titles,  but all this is to challenge us to allow our own bodily energy to quicken, to unleash the chemical/spiritual processes to make us all that God created us to be.  To say yes to Grace.  Be God-bearers.  Love is what will bring us along into a new future that becomes a bit more present as we live it.  Jesus’ teaching gives us the Love map.  

Jesus is God’s plan for humankind in the evolving future as it is lived now uniquely in Jesus.  He is God in all the fullness of the Creator’s plan.  He can do all these miracles and teach all this wisdom, and forgive all the power hungry religious rule makers, because that is what a God-filled person can do.  We are not there yet, but we can draw a bit closer to the Jesus way by living as he lived, in love, his way of love.  

When Jesus dies, he is dead.  No pretend.  It is as the Big Bang meant creation to be, but God reveals that death is not the end of life.  Resurrection is not afterlife.  There is no after.  There is change of how energy connects, functions.  He reveals an energized future, all those electrons, photons, and so on, if you will, of Jesus, reforming as something new, but also connected to the earthly body. It is the Divine of Jesus pointing ahead. Energy is never extinct, or at least not yet.  Jesus can be recognized, talk, eat, but function in new ways, such as suddenly appearing, and then disappearing.  He is what we are all called to: “A fuller life.”   Will believing a creed do it for you, when simply told what to believe?  Maybe.  Does it energize you to live the Sermon on the Mount?  If so, then you are good to go.  

I am trying to make sense of all this for the many who have heard the creed, found it incredulous and watched how congregations and individual believers live.  Then they have walked away.  Plus they may have read a bit about science, chemistry, physics, astronomy, most of which Aristotle and Plato did not have.  God’s universe is expanding, changing, evolving.  Maybe our explanations of belief need to keep up.  Or maybe I will just burn. 

The Gardener

I am puzzled as to why Christians who receive Holy Communion, make a big deal out of it, but practically ignore their neighbor sitting in the pew or chair in church.  Look at the scene in the cemetery garden where Mary Magdalen is weeping tears of love for her dead friend.  She looks up and sees what?  A gardener is what she sees.  It is the risen Jesus, but I guess he looks pretty ordinary even if he is risen.  He speaks her name with love.  Now her love connects with his love and she sees more than the ordinary gardener.  The point?  The ordinary is never ordinary.  Those Christians sitting together in their church chairs or pews are all "shining like the sun."  They are God-filled, but all the attention is on the host they just consumed.  The host is like Jesus in the garden, risen in all the fullness of God. It looks ordinary, but it is not.  It is supposed to awaken our love and insight into the beauty of one another, that we might reverence the sacredness in one another, maybe speak a word of recognition or welcome.  Alas, it is more like grocery shopping.  Everyone is individually shopping for the food of their own eternal salvation, a place in heaven.  They are doing fine individually loving their God, but they forgot that the wisdom saying was, "Love God and neighbor."

Prepare The Soil

Before you plant a seed, you need to prepare the soil to receive the seed so it can germinate and grow.  Mediation is what we do when we are preparing the soil of our inner self.  We are opening the ground of ourselves to receive what God wants to seed in us.  We don't provide the seed.  God does.  Now if you don't believe in a god, and are into the 12 step program, the 11th step is where you prepare the soil of your inner self to receive the Power with which you have been enjoying the miracle of stopping your addictive behavior.  You are opening the soil of yourself to be of service.  But you don't know yet what kind of service will be asked or best suits you at this time.  The "seed" is planted to show you the way and give you the power to actually do service, be selfless.  If you believe in none of this, step program or God, meditation still is preparing the soil of your inner self to be the best that you can be.  How does this happen?  You might ask the same thing of the seed you planted in the ground or pot with soil all prepared.  A miracle!