Where Do You Experience The Sacred (3/15/15)

Last week, my wife and I went to Grace Presbyterian Church in Springfield, VA. I was invited to give a presentation in which I used a scripture and a piece of music. The associate pastor commented that she found lectio divina less meaningful than music divina – avenues of awakening to the mystery of the divine, the sacred, the presence of what we call God. So I got to thinking about that! Here is a little experiment.

Scripture reading from Psalm 139:7-12 for your meditation and reflection. You may want to read this slowly and aloud to yourself.

7 – Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your Presence?

8 – If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

9 – If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10 – Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.

11 – If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me;

12 – Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You

Some music for your meditation and reflection. Let the music flow into your heart opening inner spaces.

Which is more meaningful for you? Or maybe both? Now, you and I know that it is not just in scripture and music that we are touched by the Spirit. Spirit is with us in our breathing, our eating, our making love, our walking and talking, our laughter, our working, our sleeping, our living, and our dying.

In all life, we know that ‘we live and move and have our being in God.’ [Acts 17:28]

The one thing we know is that God cannot be absent.

“Bidden or not bidden God is present.” -Carl Jung

The Reverend Barbara Brown Taylor, Episcopal Priest, and well known writer and preacher at The Chautauqua Institution, comments: “Where is God in this picture? God is all over the place. God is up there, down here, inside my skin and out. God is the web, the energy, the space, the light, not captured in them, but revealed in that singular, vast net of relationships that animates everything that is.”

Words from a great hymn come to mind: ‘To all life thou givest – to both great and small; In all life thou livest, the true life of all.”

I hope you have something to think about, to ponder in your heart. Where is it that you most often sense the Presence of God? I welcome your responses.

No one has the franchise on God.

With you in awakening to the mystery of God’s Presence in all life.

We are all sparks of the Divine flame
Blessed Be
Compassionate Be
Boldly Be

Song of the Soul (3/8/15)

May the eyes of our hearts be awakened.

The wise heart in the mystery of the ineffable God, trusting God in whom there is incarnation, living and dying, births and deaths, and resurrections – beginnings without end.

I say: YES!

“We live and move and have our being in God.” [Acts 17:28]

And YES!

God lives and moves and has being in us – in all of us. God has come down to earth in humankind. God has always been with us (Emmanuel – God dwelling with and within us) only it has taken humanity such a long time to awaken to the mystery of God’s Presence in our midst, here and now.

A question for you: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” [1 Cor 3:16]

“God the ineffable inhabits the magnificent and the common, the grandiose and the tiny facts of reality alike.”
-Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

“What you are waiting for is already here but you do not realize it.”
-Jesus of Nazareth from The Gospel of Thomas

With you in awakening – may the eyes of our hearts be opened.

We are all sparks of the Divine flame
Blessed Be
Compassionate Be
Boldly Be

Spirit Of The Living God (2/10/15)

Good Morning Friends!

I was so touched by this on the news – you could see the spirit of life, of God, in this young woman. Please click on the link below to read Scott Pelley, a news anchor from CBS News, discuss “Kayla Mueller Was A Light In The Darkness.”

Thinking about prayer this morning. Prayers brings us openness and new depths of understanding and insight. This has been a favorite prayer for many years. I invite you to read it slowly and aloud to yourself.

A Gathering Prayer by George Appleton

Give me a candle of the spirit, O God
as I go down into the deep of my own being
Show me the hidden things. Take me
down to the spring of my life, and
tell me my nature and my name.
Give me freedom to grow so that I
may become my true self – the
fulfillment of the seed which you
planted in me at my making.
Out of the deep I cry unto thee, O God.
Amen.

I believe that five minutes of early morning prayer can make a difference in our lives as we go through the day, opening us to the mystery of God, letting God take our self off our hands. We can be more compassionate and wise in the way we relate to others. We can be more carefree, spontaneous and loving.

“To discover God is not to discover an idea but to discover oneself. It is to awaken to that part of one’s existence which has been hidden from sight and which one has refused to recognize.”
-Taken from Awakening by Bede Griffiths

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
-1 COR 3:16

With you in awakening to who we are in God and to who God is in us here and now.

We are all sparks of the Divine flame
Blessed Be
Compassionate Be
Boldly Be

How Do We Identify Ourselves? (2/9/15)

Good Morning friends!

Thinking about who we are – how do we identify and understand ourselves? Surely, we are more than sin encapsulated egos. I like what Meister Echkart wrote: “Though we are God’s sons and daughters, we do not realize it yet.” Hildegard of Bingen makes the same point: “O, humans, you do not even know who you are!” Finally, Julian of Norwich says: “Between God and the soul there is not between.” Also, St. Paul wrote: “We live and move and have our being in God.”

And it seems God lives and moves and has being in us.

A new friend of mine puts it this way: All 1 R We

Jesus has a prayer: “Father, May they all be one as we are one.”

What we are coming to know in our own experience is that divinity is not outside of us. We are in God and God is in us. This sense of oneness is liberating, life giving. “Taste and see the Lord is good.” When this awareness dawns on us, we are filled with awe, wonder, and unspeakable gratitude. This at-one-meant with the mystery of God is inspiring, empowering, and transforming.

The Quakers have a saying: “Walk the earth in gladness answering to that of God in everyone and everything.”

And that of course, includes yourself! Of course!

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of God and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
-1 Cor 3:16

Awed by the mystery of God’s Presence in our midst, gratefully we celebrate life, and work for peace and justice.

With you in awakening to God’s PRESENCE all around, about and within us, here, now, always and forever.

The Courage To Create (2/8/15)

Good Morning!

“There lives a creative being inside all of us and
we must get out of its way
for it will give us no peace unless we do.”
-M.C. Richards

“Am I being asked to enter a new passage in the spiritual life – the journey from false self to true self? Am I being asked to dismantle old masks and patterns and unfold a deeper, more authentic self? Am I being compelled to disturb my inner universe in quest of the undiscovered being who clamors from within?”
-From When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions (Plus) by Sue Monk Kidd

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
-Gospel of Thomas

Creativity, compassion, and courage

God Is All There Is (2/7/15)

Good Morning Lovers and Seekers of the Mystery of God!

In Genesis 28: 16-17, we have the story of Jacob’s awakening to the presence of God in his life.

“When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought,
‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’
He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place!
This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.'”

How is this a story in your life? What about your moments of awakening? More than a few of you have told me of your experiences of grace, moments of breakthrough, moments in what is called the “thin places” where there is the unitive ineffable experience of the divine indwelling ourselves and all life. Might we be learning that the gate of heaven is everywhere?

That as Paul says, “we live and move and have our being in God.”

What we have so longed for over the years has always been there awaiting our recognition – our awakening. I found this new piece of music mentioned in Integral Christianity: The Spirit’s Call to Evolve by the Rev. Paul R. Smith. He applies Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory to Christianity in a spacious and free way.

I invite you to listen to this music for your time of morning prayer and reflection. Let the music flow through you – opening inner spaces, awakening something deep within you.

“The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things.”
-Mechthild of Magdeburg

With you in awakening to who we are in God and to who God is in us.

Come And Find The Quiet Center (2/5/15)

Good morning lovers and seekers of the mystery of God.

“A mystic is not one who sees God as an object,
but one who is immersed in God as an atmosphere.”
-Ken Wilber

Many of you have told me that poetry opened and deepened your life, connecting you with new depths of your own being, opening new avenues of insight and understanding – a growth spurt awakening you on your journey to God “in whom we live and move and have out being.”

I invite you to read this slowly and aloud to yourself – over look the sexist lanaguge please. You may want to read it a second time, again slowly and aloud to yourself – prayerfully.

For The Time Being
-WH Auden

He is the Way.
Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.

He is the Truth.
Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.

He is the Life.
Love Him in the World of the Flesh;
And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.

May you gift yourself with quiet moments apart from the chaos and the clutter, calming your mind, opening your heart to the mystery of God’s Presence. May you come and find a quiet center within the depths of your own being here and now.

“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” -1 COR 3:16

May you be filled with loving kindness
May you be peaceful and at ease
May you know that the Spirit is with and within you always

Love to you and a gentle hug

We are all sparks of the Divine flame
Blessed Be
Compassionate Be
Boldly Be

Dr. Howard Thurman (12/27)

Questions to ponder in your heart:

• Could there be in you an inner Herod who resists and wants to kill the new life that is seeking to breakthrough into your being?
• What is the cost/promise of your action or of your refusal to act?
• Are you willing to consent to the Spirit’s presence in your life?

Dr. Howard Thurman, theologian and civil rights leader, came to The Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in my second year for one semester in the 1960s. All of the faculty and students were deeply engaged and influenced by his presence. We took an active part in prayer vigils and marches and demonstrations for open housing, civil rights, for justice and equality for all. It was a most creative and moving time – a palpable sense of presence was felt by all.

Please allow these words taken from Dr. Howard Thurman’s Footprints of a Dream: The Story of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples to flow deeply into your heart for the living of your life now?

“The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men and women often calls them to act against the spirit of their times or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making. In a moment of dedication, they are given wisdom and courage to dare a deed that challenges and to kindle a hope that inspires.”

Prayerfully, allow the words, images, and music to flow through you – opening inner spaces within your heart.

“When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.”
-Dr. Howard Thurman

Dare to live your one wile life with courage and with holy boldness.

We are all sparks of the Divine flame
Blessed Be
Compassionate Be
Boldly Be

Selma Movie (12/26)

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
-The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

During the struggle for civil rights, justice and equality – what did you do?

Were you part of the problem or part of the answer?

In your Morning Prayer, how is God’s Spirit calling to you now?

Consciousness, compassion, courage and equality for all.

Mary Oliver (12/23)

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
[1 Corinthians 3:16]

The word for today is “Presence”. We could say “In the beginning was the Presence.” Our task as human beings as to awaken to the mystery of Presence. You know these words from Mary Oliver:

“O Lord, how shinning and festive is your gift to us,
if only we look and see.”

Archibald MacLeish wrote to Mary Oliver:

“You have indeed entered the Kingdom. You have done something better than create your own world; you have discovered the world we all live in and do not see and cannot feel.”

Mary Oliver can be our teacher awakening us to the mystery of the Kingdom. She calls us to be conscious, to be mindful, to come to our senses – to see, to feel, to taste, to touch, to hear, to know in our own experience the divine mystery.

Take a few long, slow, deep cleansing breaths. Notice how Presbyterian Minister and world famous writer, Frederick Buechner, call us to be conscious, to be awake, to come to our senses.

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”

Awed by the mystery of God’s Presence in our midst, gratefully we celebrate life and work for justice and for peace.

With you in Awe – Wakening.

We are all sparks of the Divine flame
Blessed Be
Compassionate Be
Boldly Be