Presbyterians, Evolution, and Darwinmas

I have been elected to be a delegate for the 2012 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)  I have never been a delegate before so I am looking forward to the week in Pittsburgh this summer.   One of my hopes for the General Assembly is that they will endorse the Clergy Letter Project like the United Methodist Church has done. 

It is too late to send an overture to General Assembly from my presbytery as we will not meet again until March and it will miss the deadline.  My questions to my Presby friends are these:

• Has any presbytery submitted an overture affirming the Clergy Letter Project?
• If not, do you know of any plans to do so?
• Still no?  Anyone game to work with me on getting this going?

Meanwhile, I hope that you have Darwinmas on your liturgical calendar. Evolution Weekend is February 10-12. I hope it is a sacred time for you as it is for me. And may you experience the joy of natural selection not just during one weekend but the whole year long.

Presbyterians Profit from Israeli Occupation

This is a well-written and accurate letter in the Layman by Will McGarvey regarding Alan Wisdom's attack on the stated clerk of the PC(USA). 

I see that Alan Wisdom is up to his old tricks again (“GA set to tangle again over Israel divestment” 12-15-11). For anyone who has followed church discussions and policies on our hope for a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians for any amount of time, to read Wisdom’s latest piece, is an insult to our faith and intelligence.

Since 1967, when Israel invaded and occupied the West Bank and Gaza and began colonizing those territories with permanent settlements and economic controls against international law, it has been the policy of the PCUSA’s predecessor bodies and our church today to stand by our Christian partners in the region who were displaced and forced off their land. Wisdom doesn’t use the term “occupation” once in his own narrative, but only includes the term so crucial to understanding what is going on in the quotations of those he is attacking. The corporations that MRTI has finally voted to divest from are profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. Their products are being used to destroy Palestinian homes, olive orchards, roads and build walls between these same peoples and their farmlands and orchards, while allowing an occupying army to regularly invade Palestinian controlled areas and detain or jail Palestinians without habeus corpus rights. The whole point of a “phased-selective divestment” process was to study who was profiting from the dispossession of those in the West Bank and Gaza so as not to do so any longer. It took less than 12 months for the PCUSA to divest from Talisman Oil in Sudan when they were profiting from the selling of oil futures to the government of Sudan to buy armaments to be used against their own people. Why is it so hard for us to stop profiting from the occupation of Palestine? MRTI has resisted taking a stand since 2004, and now that corporate engagement has proven ineffectual in between four General Assemblies, they cannot pretend that another chance exists that appealing to these corporations will change their behavior. They have proven that we need to add them to the list of those we would rather not invest in – or be in open contempt of our own policies of socially responsible investment.

We are a denomination whose Scriptures call us to the ways of Jesus of Nazareth, who resisted the Roman occupation of Jewish lands in his own day. Our own confessions compel us to be reconcilers, not appeasers, to the injustice we see in our own day. And yet Wisdom, and others have succumbed to a form of Christian Zionism that doesn’t know how to question the harmful actions that the state of Israel continues to enact against the Christians and Muslims in Palestine. There is not an “anti-Israel alliance” in the PCUSA. Pretending that the stated clerk does anything but express the policies of the General Assembly is more than an ad hominem attack, it is slander. To me, Wisdom owes Parsons a public apology.

What this article points out is that there is a growing pro-peace, justice movement of members, ruling elders and teaching elders who have studied this issue, and who hold to our constitutional forms of mission, action and solidarity – even with that slim minority of Palestinian Christians who continue to live out their faith in the cradle of Christianity. That Wisdom and his organization is so quick to work against their survival is its own testament to his position and work.

Rev. Will McGarvey, pastor currently serving Community Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, Calif.

The Way, the Truth, and the Life--A Sermon

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

John Shuck

First Presbyterian Church

Elizabethton, Tennessee

New Year’s Day 2012

John 14:1-31

I am excited about my new radio program, Religion For Life, that begins airing this Thursday.   I have recorded and produced several interviews already.   Anthony Flaccavento is this week’s guest and then our own Jennie Young will be on the following week talking about mountain top removal strip mining as a moral issue.   

This past week I interviewed Carol Delaney, professor emerita at Stanford.  She is now a research scholar at Brown.  I used her book Abraham on Trial as a resource for my series of sermons on Genesis.  Her latest book is about Columbus.    It is called Columbus and The Quest for Jerusalem. 

Do you know why Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 14 hundred 92?

It wasn’t to prove the world was round.
That was common knowledge already.

It wasn’t to be greedy or imperialistic. 
Nor was it a matter of curiosity.

It was because of religion. 

He wanted to get to China to get gold and spices, not just for the sake of gold and spices, but to fund something else.  He needed to get enough capital to fund a crusade to take Jerusalem from the Muslims.   Why? 

Only when Jerusalem was in Christian hands could the temple could be rebuilt.  Then the stage would be set for Christ’s return.    Columbus saw himself as part of a divine plan to wrap up the end of time for Jesus. Lest anyone think that religion is not a powerful motivator look to Christopher  “Christ-bearer” Columbus.

Columbus was not unusual.   He was unusually bright, gifted, and creative.  His beliefs were not unusual.  He was devout.  He acted on his beliefs.   His beliefs would have been common for the medieval period.    In his world, there was one true faith.  Muslims, Jews, and other sects were mistaken, wrong, and false.  Religious diversity was not a value or even a possibility.

Columbus and those of his time saw Earth as the center of the universe.  The sun, moon, stars moved around it.   Christ, the Father, and Spirit, sat on the heavenly thrones just  beyond these heavenly bodies.   The universe wasn’t particularly old, 6,000 years or so and it would end, Columbus believed, less than 200 years from his own time.  He had calculated the end for himself by reading the Bible.  

Changes were happening around them and Columbus saw these events as signs of the end.  The clock was ticking and the faithful had work to do.  They needed to prepare Earth for Christ’s return.  That meant making sure that the false believers were not in control of the holiest of places, Jerusalem.   Columbus wanted to finance a holy quest, a holy war, to take back Jerusalem.   That is why the rhyme tells us:

He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

Why tell this business about Columbus?  In part, because I want you to listen to the radio program when it airs.    I also want to illustrate how foreign his world is from ours.   That foreign aspect is not just in terms of technology, that we have fancier ships and google maps. 

His world is different from ours on multiple and significant levels.  When you enter his world both in terms of time, space, and theology, you can see how his views at least fit his universe.    His view of Earth was small, contained in time and space and central to existence and human beings were the apex of creation.

For us, Earth is not the center of the universe.  It is a pale blue dot in the suburbs of a galaxy that is one of billions of galaxies.    The universe is 14 billion years old.    Homo sapiens are so late to arrive it is difficult to plot our arrival on the time scale.    The universe will do its thing billions of years after the last of the homo sapiens has breathed her last.   There is no “end”, certainly in human time.     

In terms of the time and space of what we even know of the universe, we are a speck of sand on a beach.    Human beings are evolved not created and not above but related to all other forms of life.    We are only beginning to imagine what “meaning” is in that universe.  We need to catch up with the universe as we discover it and explore ways of creating meaning in it.

Columbus’s theology, philosophy, and motivation are not possible today, except in the minds of the deluded and there are plenty of those.     It is a good thing that the majority of us do not embrace his world-view.  Imagine starting a holy war to win back Jerusalem from the Muslims so that Jesus will return.   How insane is that?  The insanity is that there are people who still believe that today.    We do not want those people to have access to weapons of mass destruction.

Columbus is 500 years before us.  If his world is foreign to us, go back another 1400 years to the Gospel of John.     Yet there is less difference, far less difference, in terms of world-view between the time of Jesus and the time of Columbus than the time of Columbus and our time.   

The modern symbol of Columbus, imperialism and genocide, is a myth.   As professor Delaney discovered from her research, the historical Columbus was actually a devout, good person.   His beliefs were not unusual for his time.  They were just really wrong.   It didn’t happen.   It is important to state that obvious point.   The purpose, the goal, the whole reason for his voyage never came true.  He never started a Crusade and Jesus didn’t return.    He was wrong.  History took a different turn.

Here we sit in church reading a text 1900 years old that was written by people who had a view of the world far closer to that of Columbus than us.    A text in which Jesus says,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life…no one gets to the Father unless it is through me.”

And he says,

“If I go to prepare a place for you, I’ll return and embrace you, so where I am you can be too.”

Columbus read that same text.  He thought it meant that Christ and Christendom is the only way and the goal is getting to the place that Christ prepared, a new Earth that will be created by Christ who is now in heaven just above the stars.    Christ will return, destroy the old Earth and make a new Earth.    That is what Columbus thought.  Columbus was wrong.

He wasn’t the only one wrong about that.   The Apostle Paul was wrong.  As was John the Baptist.  While there is debate regarding the historical Jesus, as to what he thought, it is possible that he thought he lived in the end times too, and if so, he was wrong.   A plethora of prophets predicting the end of days since then all have one thing in common.  They were wrong.  The guy who predicted the rapture this past May and again in October, was wrong.  Those who want to search the mysteries of the Mayan calendar and predict that “the end” will occur on 12/12/12 or 12/21/12 or whenever, will be, you guessed it, wrong. 

What is the point of these sacred texts if reading them leads us to do some really strange things?  Things that are wrong and potentially harmful?   If you really believe the end of the world is coming, what is your ethic?  Columbus’ ethic was crusade and holy war.    I am going to go out on a limb and say that is not good. 

If you are still searching for a New Year’s resolution, I will offer an option:  resolve not to believe wrong things.  Even if, especially if, these wrong things are shrouded in sacred tradition and holy hoopla.   Be blasphemous.   Blasphemy may be the only thing that will save us from those who think they are divinely inspired to start holy wars.

This season is the via creativa, the spiritual path of creativity and imagination.   I do think that we need creativity and imagination to face the task before us as human beings at the start of 2012.   One of the tasks is to create meaning and to find a goal, a reason, and a purpose.  

Columbus and medieval Christendom lived in a world of meaning and purpose.   It was wrong, but cozy.   Our challenge is more difficult in some respects.  Our world is not cozy and tidy in terms of time and space.   How do we live in a universe that will exist long after we as individuals and as a species are gone?  How do we live accepting that we are not the center or the goal of the universe?    Our religious traditions don’t prepare us for those questions.   

Columbus had a grand scheme.  He thought he was part of a divine plan to end the world.  

• What if we lived as though we were not part of a grand plan but rather something quite other entirely?   
• What if we trusted the truth that we are the eyes, ears, and voice of the universe right now, in our own way? 
• What if we valued our purpose on on that scale?    
• What would happiness, peace, justice, and contentment look like if our god was a god of small things?    
• What if our goal was not to end the world or to live forever on a new Earth, but to be authentically human in this one?    
• What if our purpose was to be comfortable in our own skin? 

I think that Jesus was much smaller than the tradition wanted him to be.  The Gospel of John said that his smallness was cosmic.   I read this gospel as an invitation to be real and present to life as it comes to us.    The disciples want “the Father.”  They want the big deal.  Jesus says you have seen the Father when you see me.   

I don’t think the historical Jesus said that, that is John’s creation, however, the point is that it is in the historical person of Jesus and in his life in the present that we see the Father.  That is what the author of John's gospel saw in Jesus.    It is in the everyday doing and being that we find the holy.    For Jesus, it was a life of compassion for others, for himself, and a profound respect for life.     

His purpose was to love.

If you are like me at all, you spend more time thinking about what will happen or might happen or what has happened than about what is happening.   We might spend a lot of time judging our past and our future.     We over-think things.  We allow our emotions to control us and that can tend to make us anxious about life.    The truth is that while we have thoughts and while we have emotions we are not those things.  We can step back and be conscious of them.

So when Jesus says he is the way, the truth, and the life, I see it as an invitation to live here and now with awareness.    The only way to be authentically here and human is to be here.   

And the place that "he has prepared for us" is right here and now 

when we give ourselves permission and time to be here and now 

and to accept who we are here and now 

and to love ourselves here and now 

as we are here and now.  

There is nothing else we have to be.

Nothing else we have to do.

I said that a possible New Year’s resolution is to resolve not to believe wrong things.

A second one is to believe something about yourself that I think is right.

You have been thrown into this world, now, in this time, for a purpose.

That purpose is to love.

Love yourself.

Love others.

Love life.

Love this moment.

Love it all.

Amen.

Blessings at Year's End

This is from Howard Thurman.  I post it for you on this last day of 2011. 

Blessings At Year's End

I remember with gratitude the fruits of the labors of others, which I have shared as a part of the normal experience of daily living.

I remember the beautiful things that I have seen, heard, and felt—some, as a result of definite seeking on my part, and many that came unheralded into my path, warming my heart and rejoicing my spirit.

I remember the new people I have met, from whom I have caught glimpses of the meaning of my own life and the true character of human dignity.

I remember the dreams that haunted me during the year, keeping me ever mindful of goals and hopes which I did not realize, but from which I drew inspiration to sustain my life and keep steady my purposes.

I remember the awareness of the spirit of God that sought me out in my aloneness and gave to me a sense of assurance that undercut my despair and confirmed my life with new courage and abiding hope.

Religion For Life in Today's Johnson City Press

Thanks to Madison Mathews and the Johnson City Press for this article in today's Faith Section, "Faith on air:  Weekly radio show takes look at religion and society."

Religion is a complicated thing. Talking about religion and how it ties to various aspects of society is often even more complicated. But a new half-hour program on WETS-FM/HD will explore the role religion plays in society and how it intersects with social justice and public life.

The weekly program, “Religion For Life,” will be hosted by the Rev. John Shuck, pastor of First Presbyterian of Elizabethton. It begins airing on WETS Thursday at 8 p.m.

Shuck said the show is designed to be an educational program that looks at religion from an academic perspective rather than a sermon-based program. In each episode, he’ll interview local and national figures from a variety of religious traditions and perspectives.

“So in some cases it will be how people of faith or a religion or spirituality are motivated to do good things and sometimes it’ll be a more academic analysis about how religion affects things,” he said.

Those effects — both the good and the bad — will offer a variety of talking points to be discussed during each show.

Initially, Shuck was approached by Teresa Keller, manager of Emory and Henry’s WEHC-FM, to host a religious-themed program for their radio station. After talking with both Keller and WETS director Wayne Winkler, Shuck decided to broadcast “Religion For Life” from the station in Johnson City.

The program will be re-broadcast on WEHC in Emory, Va. on Mondays at 1 p.m.

Although Shuck has been in the ministry for nearly 20 years, he started out as a radio broadcaster in Seattle and Boise, Idaho. He’s excited to have an opportunity that will allow him to utilize both his training in broadcasting and work within the ministry.

“I’ve often thought about ways to integrate these two loves of my life — broadcasting and religious study and religious issues — and, so, it seems like a great way to do that,” he said.

The first episode will feature a discussion with Anthony Flaccavento of SCALE, a private consulting business dedicated to catalyzing and supporting ecologically healthy regional economies and food systems, about building local and sustainable economies.

Other upcoming programs will feature discussions with author Sarah Sentilles, whose book “Breaking Up With God” recounts her disillusion with the church and its patriarchy; local activist Jennie Young, who has been working on informing Tennesseeans about the effects of mountaintop removal mining; and Mazen Alsaqa, a Christian refugee from Iraq who now lives in Michigan.

Shuck said he hopes discussions with these people and others will allow him to present listeners with people whose religion inspires them to do good for the world.

“Religion, however, in practice, does not always lead to the good. I will also present voices who provide a critique of religion especially when it leads to violence, exclusivity and injustice to others and to our Earth. Sometimes, it is the people who are not religious who show us what true religion is to be about,” he said.

“Religion For Life” will broadcast on WETS every Thursday at 8 p.m. and re-broadcast Sundays at 2 p.m. Podcasts will be available at www.fpcelizabethton.org.

For more information on the program, visit Shuck’s blog, www.shuckandjive.org, the program’s pages on Facebook and Twitter or at www.wets.org.

Bookmark, subscribe to, and otherwise read my new blog, religionforlife.me for all the news about upcoming programs and how you can listen via live streaming or download podcasts.

New Blog for Religion For Life

I put together a new blog for Religion For Life, check it out at www.religionforlife.me  That blog will be strictly about upcoming shows and what not.  

The broadcast begins Thursday, January 5th.  My first guest is Anthony Flaccavento of S.C.A.L.E.   

He is an incredibly bright, articulate, and visionary person.   The program will focus on building local and sustainable economies.


Thursday 8pm and Sunday 2pm on WETS, 89.5.
Monday 1pm on WEHC, 90.7.

Religion For Life on WETS and WEHC

I am hosting a new radio program on two local public radio stations, WETS in Johnson City, Tennessee and WEHC in Emory, Virginia.   Here is the press release:

 

The role of religion in society will be explored on a new program, a joint production of public radio stations WETS-FM/HD (89.5 MHz) in Johnson City, Tennessee and WEHC-FM (90.7 MHz) in Emory, Virginia. Religion For Life will be heard on WETS Thursdays at 8 pm with a rebroadcast Sundays at 2 pm.   It will be heard on WEHC Mondays at 1 pm following "Fresh Air"

 

This half-hour educational program will focus on the intersection of religion and public life and religion and social justice. The locally produced program will feature interviews with local and national figures from a variety of religious traditions and from a variety of perspectives, and will address the effects of religion – both positively and negatively -- on public life. 

The host of the program is the Reverend John Shuck, a Presbyterian minister for 19 years and currently the minister at the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton, Tennessee. Prior to entering the ministry, Shuck was a radio broadcaster at stations in Boise, Idaho and Seattle, Washington. 

Upcoming programs include author Sarah Sentilles whose latest book, “Breaking Up With God” recounts her disillusion with the church and its patriarchy. She took leave of the church and let go of a belief in a personal god just as she was about to enter the priesthood.  Another program focuses on local activist Jennie Young, who is alerting Tennesseans about the encroachment of mountain top removal mining. She sees this destructive mining practice as a moral issue and shows how faith communities are taking the lead in resisting it. 

In other programs, Mazen Alsaqa, a Christian refugee from Iraq now living in Michigan, talks candidly about the violence against Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and the causes of this violence since the U.S. invasion in 2003.  Shuck also interviews Carol Landis, the chair of the board of directors for the Green Interfaith Network or GINI in the Tri-Cities. GINI is a coalition of faith communities taking an active role in care and advocacy for the environment and communicating accurate, scientific information to the public. 

WETS-FM/HD is a service of East Tennessee State University, and WEHC-FM is operated by Emory and Henry University. Podcasts of Religion For Life will be available at www.fpcelizabethton.org and more information about the program will be available on Shuck’s blog, www.shuckandjive.org as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Other interviews include 

• Rev. Jacqueline Luck of the Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Gray, TN about Unitarian Universalism,  
• Anthony Flaccavento of S.C.A.L.E. about building local and sustainable economies,  
• Sandy Westin of United Religions Initiative about religious cooperation,  
• Thomas Hill of NYU about peacebuilding in the U.S. and Iraq, and  
• Carol Delaney, professor emerita at Stanford, about her books on Abraham and Columbus.

If you don't live near our mountain, you can still listen live via live streaming both to WETS and WEHC.  I am looking for interesting people (local and national) to interview for this program.   Contact me with your suggestions.   

The Light of the World--A Sermon

The Light of the World

John Shuck

First Presbyterian Church

Elizabethton, Tennessee

Christmas Day 2011
John 1:1-18 (Scholars' Version)

Light was shining in the darkness,

And darkness did not master it.

Is that true?   

Is that true for you?
Is that true for our world?

We all know about darkness in our world and in our own lives.  You can fill in the blanks regarding specifics.   We know the darkness is powerful.  Whether it be the darkness of greed, war, cruelty, or our own personal sadness and loss.    We can feel lost in the dark and without hope. 

We can even make a religion out of darkness.  Apocalyptic religion is based on the belief that our world is a lost cause.   It believes that the forces of darkness are so powerful that they control the world and that to destroy the darkness, the world must be destroyed with it.   It is a tempting religion for those who have lost hope or who have had engrained in them the belief that humanity is fallen, sinful, and evil. 

I don’t think that was the belief of Jesus or Buddha or Muhammad or of other great spiritual leaders.  They saw instead that there is light in this world and that it shines and that it shines in you and in me.   This is not a matter of will or of moralizing or of claims that some people are more special and enlightened than others.  It is a matter of promise and hope and trust.  It is a matter of being in a position to see, of letting our eyes adjust so that we can see enough light to take another step.

During the season of Winter that started a few days ago, we will find each day get progressively longer.  More light each day.   Christmas borrowed from more ancient traditions and placed the birth of Jesus near the winter solstice.     Jesus took on the role of the sun god who brings light to the world.   It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that symbols change and that our sacred stories are borrowed.    It is only when we get literalistic about it and think our symbols are facts or historical events that we develop a tin ear. 

When we allow symbol, myth, and legend to become a kaleidoscope of light, we can see that our ancient stories and symbols are true in a deeper sense than we previously thought and that our various religious traditions are more alike than different.     The symbol of light shining in the darkness is a universal symbol that is as old as the old star watchers who had enough time to spend figuring out the patterns of the night sky and the rhythms of Earth.    

Our modern era based on the magic of fossil fuels gives us light 24-7.  With that we have lost the need and the skill to watch with eyes adjusted and open to the patterns of Earth and sky.   Those who have insight are alerting us that we may be needing those skills again.   

I have borrowed from theologian Matthew Fox and his four paths or four vias.   For each season of the year we honor a spiritual path.    

• During summer we travel the path of awe and wonder, the via positiva.  
• Fall is the path of letting go and letting be, the via negativa.
• Spring is the way of compassion and justice making, the via tranformativa and 
• Winter is the path of creativity and imagination, the via creativa. 

There is nothing absolute about any of that.   I just decided to arrange our celebrations and rituals that way.   I have chosen for this season of Winter, the via creativa, to read the Gospel of John in a new way.    For the next thirteen weeks we will be reflecting on scenes from the Gospel of John from a naturalistic or mystical perspective. 

The Jesus Seminar who looked through all the traditions of Jesus to separate what they thought went back to the historical person of Jesus found virtually nothing in the Gospel of John to go back to Jesus.  That doesn’t mean the Gospel of John is bad or doesn’t have value, it is just that it is a creative, imaginative reconstruction.   

In the Gospel of John, Jesus the historical person was transformed into the cosmic Christ.  This process happened before John, but you really see it in John.     What that means to me is that the author of John felt that he had permission to cast the Jesus story in this way.    If he had permission to tell the story of Jesus in a way that made sense, inspired, and told his truth, maybe we do as well. 

Since it is Christmas it is a good time to tell the truth, or at least to be honest about what we think is truthful.   To regard Jesus in a first century way as a supernatural being who comes to Earth, dies for sins, comes back to life, and goes back to heaven in the sky with the promise that he will come back again, is less than compelling for many of us.    If we don’t find it compelling it isn’t because we are bad or that we don’t have faith.  It is that we don’t live in that world and the symbols of that world don’t translate easily. 

That supernatural story fits the Gospel of John’s world.  He lived in what he thought was a geocentric universe and he saw the gods inhabiting the heavens and breaking into the world.   The scandal of John’s gospel is not that Jesus was a supernatural being and so forth, but that all of that elevated language was attributed to Jesus, as opposed to say, Augustus. 

Jesus was a nobody who was executed by the government as a criminal.    The elevated supernatural god language and miracles and what have you is not the scandal or the interesting part.  That all of that was applied to Jesus is the interesting part.  That is the scandal.  It can be life-changing if we let it.

I have been a minister for nearly twenty years preaching on these same texts and talking with people.  I find the same thing again and again.   We have been told all our lives that faith is about believing stuff, virgin birth, miracles, Jesus dying and rising, and that God is a supernatural being.    We end up wondering what is the least amount of stuff we have to believe and be OK.   I say none of that stuff matters.    Defining faith as belief in impossible things misses the point.   At least I think so.     

I see Jesus as John presents him as the myth of the authentic human.   Jesus 'shows us the Father" which I take to mean Jesus shows us how to become human, how to become real and authentic, how to live a life that matters.    That we can live a life that matters takes a great deal of faith. 

Here is the deal.  If Jesus represents the light that comes into the world at Christmastime, a light that the darkness does not overcome, what kind of light is that?   Further, if Jesus said that we are that light, what does that mean for us?  What does it mean to be light in the world? 

What I know of the historical person of Jesus is that he stood up for people who were put down.  He was accused of eating with sinners.   He knew that sinners were more fun.   He lived courageously.  He saw the wool that was being pulled over people’s eyes by those who were in charge.   He challenged the pretensions of the elite, and he told people who were nobodies like him, that they mattered.

“You are the light of the world,” he said to them.   

He talked about sharing, giving your coat and your shirt, going the second mile, turning the other check.   He said to give to those who beg from you.   He said live life as a passerby and travel lightly.    He talked about loving neighbors and loving enemies and forgiving people who wrong you.  He congratulated the poor.   He valued fairness, mercy, and compassion.  

The world said that is no way to run a government.  He said it is in my world.    He got on the wrong side of somebody and ended up being executed along with thousands of other “disturbers of the peace”.   

Then something strange happened.   His life and teachings touched a nerve, warmed a heart, transformed a mind, and people who remembered who he was and what he stood for wouldn’t let him go.   They decided to live his vision of a life that matters.   They felt his presence with him when they decided to live counter to values that they saw as darkness and injustice.     They felt empowered by the light of compassion and hope for the least of these.     They collected what they remembered of what he said and did.   They made a bunch of things up, but in many cases they were good things.  They attributed miracles to him because that is how they honored people then. 

After years had passed his life was put in story form.  The gospels were written including the Gospel of John.  The scandal of John’s gospel, like the others, is that they saw in this counter-cultural figure, this social prophet, this teacher of a strange kind of wisdom that the elite called foolish, they saw in him the way the world could be and really is at its heart.   

They decided that this is the light. 

This is the light that is in the world. 

This is the light that darkness cannot overcome. 

It is the light of joy at every child’s birth.   

It is the light of compassion for those who hurt in mind, body, and spirit. 

It is the light of concern for those mistreated.

It is the light of truth for the lies that are told to keep the powerful in power. 

It is the light of laughter. 

It is the light of delight in simple things like lilies and sparrows. 

It is the light of friendship. 

It is the light of simple decency. 

It is the light of Christ.  

It is in us.  

They decided to live the light.

It will never go out as long as we never forget who we are. 

That was their faith.  

That is the light we celebrate at Christmas. 

Light was shining in the darkness,

And darkness did not master it.

Is that true? 

My faith says yes it is true.

That light may be little more than a single candle.

But it is enough light to take the next step. 

A book about Christmas that I particularly like is Howard Thurman’s, The Mood of Christmas.  I have taken a number of passages from it during this season as prayers and reflections for the bulletin.    Howard Thurman died in 1981.  He was influential in the life of Martin Luther King.    Thurman understood Christmas and its symbols as well as Christmas as a symbol.     I will let him have the last word on this Christmas Day.

The symbol of Christmas—what is it?  It is the rainbow arched over the roof of the sky when the clouds are heavy with foreboding.  It is the cry of life in the newborn babe when, forced from its mother’s nest, it claims its right to live.   It is the brooding Presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked paths straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hopes stir with newness of life.  It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil.    P. 3  

Amen.

I Will Light Candles This Christmas

Merry Christmas, Beloveds.

Where ever  you may be this holiday I wish for you deep peace and joy.  

If you are in the area, I invite you tonight to participate in our Christmas Eve service at ten p.m.  We will have candlelighting, music, dance, poetry, and story.   We will take an offering to be divided between the Shepherd's Inn, Food for the Multitude, Community Day Care, and Assistance and Resource Ministries. 

On Sunday, Christmas Day, join us for worship at 11 a.m.  We begin the via creativa with a ritual to embody the Light! 

If Christmas finds you in a time of unease in mind, body, spirit, or relationship, I light my candle for you.   

I Will Light Candles This Christmas

Candles of joy, despite all sadness,

Candles of hope where despair keeps watch.

Candles of courage for fears ever present,

Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days,

Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens,

Candles of love to inspire all my living,

Candles that will burn all the year long.

--Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas

Spong and Universal Consciousness

Our Thursday study group (Thursdays with Jesus) finished reading John Shelby Spong's, Eternal Life:  A New Vision, Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell.   His thoughts were well-received by most of the group.   Some hadn't read him previously.  We watched a few on-line videos of his speeches and interviews when we discussed his book.  

I have great admiration for him, so much so, that I even named my dog for him, "Shelby."   He takes seriously modern scholarship, challenges outdated dogmas, and is a strong advocate for equality.   The church could use more like him in my opinion.  

In this book he takes on the issue of whether or not there is an afterlife.   Most of the book is a fun deconstruction of religious claims.   He rejects supernaturalism, theism, eternal rewards and punishments and much more.   He advocates living fully in this life.  At the end of the book he embraces something he calls "universal consciousness."  With this concept he says he believes in life after death.   He writes:

  

The goal of all religion is not to prepare us to enter the next life; it is a call to live now, to love now, to be now and in that way to taste what it means to be part of a life that is eternal, a love that is barrier-free and the being of a fully self-conscious humanity.  That is the door way into a universal consciousness that is part of what the word "God" now means to me.  This then becomes my pathway and, I now believe, the universal pathway into the meaning of life that is eternal.  p. 204

I agree with most of what Spong writes especially his deconstruction of religious supernaturalism.  I do find myself befuddled regarding this universal consciousness business.    If I had him in the room with me I would ask him to explain to me what the difference is between universal consciousness and no consciousness.

Beginning January 5th we will be reading, Deepak Chopra's The Third Jesus.  I have never read anything by him so I am looking forward to the adventure.  


If you are interested in stimulating conversations, order the Chopra book and join us Thursdays from 10:30 to noon at FPC Elizabethton.