This year, we replaced the word Advent with awakening. The reason for doing that is advent means coming or arrival of Jesus. We should no more wait for the arrival of Jesus because he arrived 2000 years ago. What we need to do is, instead of waiting for Jesus, we need to wake up to him.
To help you do that, today's sermon is titled, from constipated consciousness to cosmic Christ. Let me explain what I mean I by that.
You know what physical constipation is. In hospice care, we deal with that quite a lot especially with elderly patients in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. They sit in their wheel chairs or lie in bed all day. They don't drink enough fluids. They take a lot of medications. I have patients who are on 15 different pills. Combine all that with the aging of the body, and you get a plumbing system, that is stuck. Physical constipation can be extremely uncomfortable.
How about spiritual constipation? If you have any of the following symptoms, you are spiritually constipated. Fear, anger, jealousy, anxiety, prejudice, judgmentalism, unwillingness to learn new things, unwillingness to let go of the past, feelings of superiority, close mindedness, refusal to change your opinions inspire of new evidence, lack of flexibility, getting stuck in your ways.( pardon the pun)
One of the top symptoms of a constipated consciousness is fear and there is plenty of it around these days. The other day, I was having breakfast with a friend of mine who said:” Paul, I am walking around with this terrible anxiety in my heart. After the events of 9/11 I have been on edge. But over the years, it had subsided. But the rise of ISIS and the recent events in Paris and California have shaken me up again.”
I am afraid, something like that could happen here. He said, imagine, a busy Saturday in December at the Saw Grass Mills Mall. A crazy person with a home made bomb could walk in there and easily kill hundreds of people. It could happen in the American Airlines Arena when a basket ball game is on or at the Dolphins stadium when a football game is on. My friend is living with a constipated consciousness. He does not experience the joy of living and it is a sad way to live.
I refuse to live like that regardless of what is happening around me now or what might happen in the future. That is not the abundant life that Jesus promised. That is not the peace that the angels promised at the birth of Jesus. Remember that announcement to the shepherds: “Glory to god in the highest, and peace to men of good will.” What happened to that.?
How can we experience that peace today in the middle of ISIS threat? How can we enjoy that peace while living in an apparently hostile and unpredictable world?
We can do that, if we are willing to wake up to a different way of celebrating Xmas.
I see 3 ways of celebrating Xmas. The first is based on the shopping mall. Most of the western world follows this model. Its focus is to buy the right stuff for yourself, and to find the ideal gift for your loved ones. It is centered around black Friday and Cuber Monday. You put all those stuff under the Xmas tree, open them on Xmas morning, have a great Xmas dinner with family and friends and the day after Xmas is just like nay other day. I owe, I owe, therefore off to work I go.
The second way of celebrating Xmas is based on the gospel of Luke. What do I mean by that? Only Luke writes about the baby Jesus being born in a manger. Only Luke tells us about the angels making birth announcement to the shepherds. Xmas songs like “silent night holy night”, “Joy to the world”, “O little town of Bethlehem”, and “O come all ye, faithful” would not have existed without the gospel of Luke.
For majority of Christians, their Xmas is centered around the events described in the gospel of Luke. Most of the third wold which is economically poor, celebrates Xmas the Lukan way. When I was growing up in India, we celebrated it that way. We had a small manger at home with statues of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, the three kings and a few ceramic sheep. We had no black Friday madness in the malls, because we had neither the malls nor a Thanksgiving weekend. We had no Cyber Monday shopping because we had no computers. It was very basic.
If you really want to experience the peace and joy promised at the birth of Jesus, If you really want to experience Christmas joy beyond Xmas day, you have to wake up to celebrating Xmas using a third way. It is based on the gospel of John.
The gospel of John, does not mention the angels or the manger. It does not mention the shepherds or the three wise men from the east. There is no holy family of Joseph Mary and Jesus and there is no virgin birth. None of the external paraphernalia that we associate with Xmas is in the gospel of John.
John describes Xmas in just 8 simple words.
“The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (Jn 1:14)
The implications of those 8 word are huge. If you can wake up to the real meaning of those 8 words your life will change.
In Greek, the language of the Bible, word is Logos which means God. Logos is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God who is creator of everything. John begins his gospel with this declaration. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.”
We see the same phrase in the first verse of the first chapter of the book of Genesis “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.” By using the same phrase, John is saying that Jesus is God.
Then he makes a startling statement: This all powerful God, this Logos, became flesh and dwelt among us. It doesn't say God became a holy man and dwelt among us, God became a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Muslim, an American, a Canadian or a Cambodian and dwelt among us. But ..God became flesh.
In other words, anybody who is in flesh, which is everybody on this planet, 7 billion people belonging to 400 different regions, 38000 Christian denominations, living in 200 plus countries, speaking thousands of languages—every one of them, men women and children, black white and yellow, straight and gay, is an incarnation of god...every one them is God made flesh...in varying degrees.
When you start thinking like that, your constipated consciousness about nationality, ethnicity and religiosity, loosens up, you expand your heart so wide to include all those people, which by the way, includes the ISIS terrorists, and the refugees too—you start experiencing the joy and peace of Xmas.
You cannot experience the peace of Xmas by excluding people from your circle of concern. Mother Teresa once said that we don't have peace because, we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
You cannot celebrate the birthday of the God made man, if you can't celebrate mankind with all its flaws and flavors. You cannot experience true Xmas joy if you cannot extend your hands wide and embrace the entire humanity which is 7 billion pieces of God made flesh spread around the planet.
Let me tell you a story. Few weeks ago, I was co-officiant at a Hindu-Catholic wedding. The bride was Catholic and and groom was Hindu. The bride had tried all the local Catholic churches in Broward and Palm Beach counties to find a find a priest. No priest would join the Hindu priest because that would give the false impression that both religions are the same.
In the mind of the priest, Christianity is a better region than Hinduism. By the way, if you harbor feelings of superiority with regard to other people or religions, you are downgrading the God made flesh in those people.
So, this bride sitting in her apartment in Chicago, clicked on a website called “rentapriest.com” where I am listed as a wedding officiant. She sends me an email asking if I was available for a Hindu-Catholic fusion wedding on Saturday November 28th. I replied yes. All I am thinking at that point is, I am going to be part of the life journey of two people whom I have never met and what a blessing that is.
I never thought about the superiority of Christianity over Hinduism. I didn't say to myself: “According to John 3; 16, the bride is saved because she believes in Jesus, but the groom is doomed to hell because his is a Hindu..these are all thoughts coming from a constipated consciousness.
I had none of those thoughts. I am going to be a witness to the love of two souls and thank you Jesus for making me a part of it. Period. End of story.
As soon as I replied yes my phone rang. It was the bride. Her name was Anona. As we began talking, I came to find out that her parents who live in Boca, are from the same state in India where I come from. In fact, her mother and I grew up in the same town.
The next day, her father called me and I went to visit the parents in Boca.
As soon I saw then, I recognized them. I had met them in 1988 at the house of a mutual friend in Coral springs. At that time, the bride was just 5 years old. I had no memory of the girl but I remembered her parents.
Fast forward 27 years, this girl who is 31 years old, is connecting with me to officiate her wedding. And I am connecting with her parents after a 27 year gap. The mystery of the circle of life.
It was a huge wedding with about 250 invited guests..more than half of them were Hindus. There were statues of Hindu Gods all around the wedding venue. The Hindu priest and I stood side by side on the podium. There were three readings from the Bible. I talked about the sacrificial love of Jesus as the basis of Christian marriage. The Hindu priest did several rituals invoking the name of Rama and Krishna in prayers.
I was totally comfortable and at ease, being with a group of people who were celebrating one of the most joyful events of life. There was so much joy, and laughter and love in that room.
The 250 people in that room regardless of their faith, or the gods they prayed to, the customs they practiced, the holy books they read from, were all—at the end of the day, children of the same God and part of a world God so loved.
At the end of the ceremony I said this. “My presence here today is no coincidence. I don't believe in coincidence, I believe in “God-incidence.” In the world wide web of humanity, all of us are connected by an invisible, but real bond. Very often, we are not conscious of that bond,because we place veils of separation such as religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation etc. and hide behind them.
But every now than, God lifts that thin veil of unconsciousness and gives us an opportunity to see that bond. This event is one such moment.”
Every interaction with another human being is an encounter with the Word made flesh. There is an invisible bond between you and all other humans on this planet. Awareness of that bond will help you see the Cosmic Christ in everything and in everyone.
We cannot meaningfully celebrate the birthday of the God-made-man, without acknowledging, accepting and celebrating humanity in its entirety. Anything less is dishonoring the “Word-made-flesh.”
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Saturday, December 12, 2015
SECOND SUNDAY OF AWAKENING: "Awaken to John 3:16"
This year we are preparing for Xmas in a different way. Instead of waiting for the coming of Jesus which is what advent means, we are talking about waking up to Jesus who has already arrived. He arrived 2000 years ago. The tragedy of Christianity is the lack of awareness of his arrival. So today I like to talk more about awareness, which is the same as consciousness or waking up. I also will talk about the importance of waking up and the process of waking up.
But before that, let me share with you a conversation I had last week with a friend of mine who is a priest. I told him that I am replacing the word advent with awakening. His first question was who gave you permission to do that. Because in his thinking, he has to get permission from his bishop to do anything like that.
It is usually children who need permission to do something. If you want your child to go on a school trip you have to sign a permission slip. Permission is also about control. You want to be in control of your child's whereabouts at all times. But true spirituality will never flourish in a childish, controlled environment. The holy spirit is a free flowing reality. That is why Jesus said, “the wind blows where ever it pleases. Your hear its sound. But you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with every one born of the spirit.(John 3:8). So, if you are constrained, consigned and cocooned in our life, the Holy Spirit may not be working in you.
So when I put the permission issue to rest, he raised another point-the issue of tradition. For 2000 years, the church has designated the four weeks before Xmas as the season of advent. The word advent is printed on all calendars. We have advent candles, advent wreath, advent liturgy. Who gave you the authority to change that. So, it is actually permission issue related to control.
Basically what he was asking was who gave you permission to think outside the box? How dare you Paul V. paint outside the frame? My answer to that is if you don't think outside the box, you will always live inside the box and such a life is a limited,controlled, constricted existence., a life devoid of spirit.
Let us say, you purchased a refrigerator. It was delivered on a Saturday morning. The guys installed it in your kitchen. And left the huge box in your garage for you to dispose of on garbage collection day. Instead of putting it on the curb, imagine you get into the box and living in it.
Your heart muscles will grow weak because it doesn't need to stretch to pump blood for a body that is actively living in the world. You will never know the beauty and elegance of the larger world out there. It is a suffocating existence smeared with drudgery, boredom and predictability. Religious life is like that for many people. There is no excitement or feeling of abundance in a choreographed life punctuated with rules, rituals, rubrics and traditions.
Speaking of traditions, I am always inspired by these words of Jeroslav Pelican who was a Lutheran pastor. He said; “tradition is the living faith of the dead and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” Now think about it for a moment. What we call tradition is something that was done in the past by our forefathers. Notice the words, past and forefathers.
They lived in the past and they did things that they found meaningful then. It was their living faith then. They are dead now. We cannot and should not just cut and paste their traditions into our life without examining and understanding it. When we do that it is called traditionalism and it becomes dead faith of the living. A lot of that is happening in religion and that is why even though the world is filled with religious people the world is not a paradise. The ISIS terrorism is an extreme example of this. They want to establish a caliphate based on the customs and traditions established by Mohamed in the 7th century.
A lot of people are going thru the motions. They are sleep walking thru life. They need to wake up. There is a famous 18th century bedtime prayer for children that goes like this:
I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
Bless me Lord my soul to take.
I think we should change one line of that prayer. Instead of "If I should die before I wake" we should pray: "Wake me up before I die." Waking up in the morning implies, opening your eyes, shaking off the blanket, sitting up in your bed, then standing up and walking to the bathroom or kitchen or where ever you wan to go. So waking up requires a little shaking up. It requires coming out of the safety and comfort of the so called security blanket and out into the open. There is some discomfort involved in that. Unless we are willing to undergo that discomfort, we can't wake up and do what needs to be done such as get ready for work and go to work and earn a living and maintain a family.
Spiritual life is not any less different than that. If you want to have a vibrant spiritual life that brings love and peace and joy and hope into your life—which by the way, are represented by the four advent candles, be prepared to wake up and be open to some shake up. It is a good thing. It is a sign of life. Because the only place there is no movement, no sign of life, is when you are in the coffin.
Awakening is so important in life because, you are only affected by what you are aware of. You are only influenced by what is within your awareness or consciousness. Nothing else matters regardless of what it is or how much it is. It is like 2 trillion dollars circulating in the US economy any given day. What matters is what is in your savings or checking account. Awareness is like that. If you are not aware of something, it makes no difference for you.
If you are not aware that Jesus has already arrived but you are still looking for him on Xmas day, nothing changes for you. If you are unaware that the person standing in front of you is Jesus in disguise, you are unlikely to treat him with love or respect.If you are unconscious about the availability of abundant life now, you wont experience it now. You will expect it only after you die.
Let me tell you a story to prove to you that unless you are conscious of something, it has no no impact on you. In other words, only what you experience, understand and are conscious of can affect your thinking and behavior and ultimately your life. That applies to all areas of life-physical, emotional and spiritual.
We have a dog. Her name is Sally. She is a young, energetic, beagle mix who loves to run. If she gets a chance she will bolt thru the door and run wild thru the neighborhood. When that happens, and it has happened a few times until I put up a fence in the back yard- we become very anxious. We are worried that she would bolt across the street and get hit by a car or she would bite somebody and we will get sued.I am not a happy camper when that happens.
My wife would get into her ca and drive around the neighborhood looking for Sally. She will spot her somewhere, stop the car and call her ...the dog will come close and as soon as my wife tries to grab her, she would bolt again. She is playing. What do you expect from an unconscious animal? Every time it happens, it is a forty five minute to an hour of anxiety, anger, frustration and pure pain in the neck experience. And it is no fun.
A few months ago, I was home alone. My wife and son had gone shopping on a Saturday afternoon. I hear this noise outside the door and I see Sally standing there panting heavily..apparently she had escaped thru a hole in the fence and was gone for a while...running around the neighborhood. Since I had no awareness of her escape, I had no heart palpitations, no anxiety, no anger..I was just relaxing and watching TV the whole time. The point is that only what you are conscious of can make a difference in your life.
So on this second Sunday of awakening, I like you to wake up to the purpose of Jesus's birth as it is stated by Apostle John. Because that is the one you are most familiar with. Jn 3: 16. Every Christian, knows that phrase by heart. You see them as bumper stickers. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Have you seriously thought about it or are you just repeating it? If you are just repeating it without understanding what it really means, if you are not conscious of its meaning, it won't transform your life and that seems to be the case with a lot of Christians. They will put it on their cars and proudly drive around town, but if you stop and ask them what it really means, they are unlikely to give a conscious answer.
Very often it is used as a statement of exclusivity..that Jesus is the only son God. If you don't believe in him, you will perish. But if you do, you will have eternal life. Believing in him is usually understood as believing in certain doctrines about Jesus..that he was born of the Virgin Mary, that he is the son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he rose again and will come again to judge us at the end of the world. And if you believe all that, you are eligible for eternal life, which his usually life after death.
If that is all you know about that verse, you are unconscious. Understanding John 3.16 like that will not give you the Xmas experience of love, peace joy and hope.
You have to wake up to the real meaning of that verse. First of all, focus on the first line: It says,God so loved the world. It doesn't say, God loved America, Israel, India, Canada or God loved the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims;God loved the world which means the whole world with its 7 billion people and the entire creation. If your love is exclusively for only certain group of people, or let us say, you dislike some religions like Islam or some groups like the gays, you cannot have full Xmas experience of love peace and joy.
If you think that those who don't believe in Jesus will perish as as John 3.16 implies, you won't enjoy the Xmas experience because more than half of humanity does not believe in Jesus. If you take john 3.16 literally, you will have to sent 1.2 billion Chinese into hell because they don't believe in Jesus. What kind of Xmas experience of joy and peace do you expect to have after consigning the entire Chinese population to hell?
Look at the current refugee crisis in light of john 3.16. The Syrian refugees who flee their homes with the clothes on their back and the kids on their shoulders are part of the world that God so loved. We know that 31 state governors including ours have told the president, we don't want them here, because we are afraid of them..some of them could turn into terrorists...
How can we celebrate the birth of the son god of we are afraid of other sons and daughters of God who are suffering in this world that God so loved? If you are unsympathetic to the refugee crisis you will sleep walk thru the advent season. I like you to wake up to the fact Jesus is the son of refugees.Mary and Joseph were like refugees in Bethlehem because they had no place to go. They ended up in a manger and gave birth to Jesus. But he was not safe there because King Herod wanted to kill him like Asad is killing hundreds of Syrians now. So Mary and Joseph had to pick up Jesus and escape to Egypt.
The irony is that during the Christmas season, Christians will display manger scenes in front of their homes without realizing that they are displaying a refugee family...
They will pay homage to baby Jesus in the crib who is the son of refugees and at the same time oppose admitting Syrian refugees into the country.
It is that disconnect that makes our Christmas so meaningless. That is why I am talking so much about the need for awakening.
When we wake up to the truth that every human being—all 7 billion of them-that includes the terrorists and the refugees-- is part of a world that God so loved and we open our hearts to love them as God did, you will start experiencing Xmas in a whole new way... and that is my prayer for our congregation this year.
But before that, let me share with you a conversation I had last week with a friend of mine who is a priest. I told him that I am replacing the word advent with awakening. His first question was who gave you permission to do that. Because in his thinking, he has to get permission from his bishop to do anything like that.
It is usually children who need permission to do something. If you want your child to go on a school trip you have to sign a permission slip. Permission is also about control. You want to be in control of your child's whereabouts at all times. But true spirituality will never flourish in a childish, controlled environment. The holy spirit is a free flowing reality. That is why Jesus said, “the wind blows where ever it pleases. Your hear its sound. But you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with every one born of the spirit.(John 3:8). So, if you are constrained, consigned and cocooned in our life, the Holy Spirit may not be working in you.
So when I put the permission issue to rest, he raised another point-the issue of tradition. For 2000 years, the church has designated the four weeks before Xmas as the season of advent. The word advent is printed on all calendars. We have advent candles, advent wreath, advent liturgy. Who gave you the authority to change that. So, it is actually permission issue related to control.
Basically what he was asking was who gave you permission to think outside the box? How dare you Paul V. paint outside the frame? My answer to that is if you don't think outside the box, you will always live inside the box and such a life is a limited,controlled, constricted existence., a life devoid of spirit.
Let us say, you purchased a refrigerator. It was delivered on a Saturday morning. The guys installed it in your kitchen. And left the huge box in your garage for you to dispose of on garbage collection day. Instead of putting it on the curb, imagine you get into the box and living in it.
Your heart muscles will grow weak because it doesn't need to stretch to pump blood for a body that is actively living in the world. You will never know the beauty and elegance of the larger world out there. It is a suffocating existence smeared with drudgery, boredom and predictability. Religious life is like that for many people. There is no excitement or feeling of abundance in a choreographed life punctuated with rules, rituals, rubrics and traditions.
Speaking of traditions, I am always inspired by these words of Jeroslav Pelican who was a Lutheran pastor. He said; “tradition is the living faith of the dead and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” Now think about it for a moment. What we call tradition is something that was done in the past by our forefathers. Notice the words, past and forefathers.
They lived in the past and they did things that they found meaningful then. It was their living faith then. They are dead now. We cannot and should not just cut and paste their traditions into our life without examining and understanding it. When we do that it is called traditionalism and it becomes dead faith of the living. A lot of that is happening in religion and that is why even though the world is filled with religious people the world is not a paradise. The ISIS terrorism is an extreme example of this. They want to establish a caliphate based on the customs and traditions established by Mohamed in the 7th century.
A lot of people are going thru the motions. They are sleep walking thru life. They need to wake up. There is a famous 18th century bedtime prayer for children that goes like this:
I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
Bless me Lord my soul to take.
I think we should change one line of that prayer. Instead of "If I should die before I wake" we should pray: "Wake me up before I die." Waking up in the morning implies, opening your eyes, shaking off the blanket, sitting up in your bed, then standing up and walking to the bathroom or kitchen or where ever you wan to go. So waking up requires a little shaking up. It requires coming out of the safety and comfort of the so called security blanket and out into the open. There is some discomfort involved in that. Unless we are willing to undergo that discomfort, we can't wake up and do what needs to be done such as get ready for work and go to work and earn a living and maintain a family.
Spiritual life is not any less different than that. If you want to have a vibrant spiritual life that brings love and peace and joy and hope into your life—which by the way, are represented by the four advent candles, be prepared to wake up and be open to some shake up. It is a good thing. It is a sign of life. Because the only place there is no movement, no sign of life, is when you are in the coffin.
Awakening is so important in life because, you are only affected by what you are aware of. You are only influenced by what is within your awareness or consciousness. Nothing else matters regardless of what it is or how much it is. It is like 2 trillion dollars circulating in the US economy any given day. What matters is what is in your savings or checking account. Awareness is like that. If you are not aware of something, it makes no difference for you.
If you are not aware that Jesus has already arrived but you are still looking for him on Xmas day, nothing changes for you. If you are unaware that the person standing in front of you is Jesus in disguise, you are unlikely to treat him with love or respect.If you are unconscious about the availability of abundant life now, you wont experience it now. You will expect it only after you die.
Let me tell you a story to prove to you that unless you are conscious of something, it has no no impact on you. In other words, only what you experience, understand and are conscious of can affect your thinking and behavior and ultimately your life. That applies to all areas of life-physical, emotional and spiritual.
We have a dog. Her name is Sally. She is a young, energetic, beagle mix who loves to run. If she gets a chance she will bolt thru the door and run wild thru the neighborhood. When that happens, and it has happened a few times until I put up a fence in the back yard- we become very anxious. We are worried that she would bolt across the street and get hit by a car or she would bite somebody and we will get sued.I am not a happy camper when that happens.
My wife would get into her ca and drive around the neighborhood looking for Sally. She will spot her somewhere, stop the car and call her ...the dog will come close and as soon as my wife tries to grab her, she would bolt again. She is playing. What do you expect from an unconscious animal? Every time it happens, it is a forty five minute to an hour of anxiety, anger, frustration and pure pain in the neck experience. And it is no fun.
A few months ago, I was home alone. My wife and son had gone shopping on a Saturday afternoon. I hear this noise outside the door and I see Sally standing there panting heavily..apparently she had escaped thru a hole in the fence and was gone for a while...running around the neighborhood. Since I had no awareness of her escape, I had no heart palpitations, no anxiety, no anger..I was just relaxing and watching TV the whole time. The point is that only what you are conscious of can make a difference in your life.
So on this second Sunday of awakening, I like you to wake up to the purpose of Jesus's birth as it is stated by Apostle John. Because that is the one you are most familiar with. Jn 3: 16. Every Christian, knows that phrase by heart. You see them as bumper stickers. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Have you seriously thought about it or are you just repeating it? If you are just repeating it without understanding what it really means, if you are not conscious of its meaning, it won't transform your life and that seems to be the case with a lot of Christians. They will put it on their cars and proudly drive around town, but if you stop and ask them what it really means, they are unlikely to give a conscious answer.
Very often it is used as a statement of exclusivity..that Jesus is the only son God. If you don't believe in him, you will perish. But if you do, you will have eternal life. Believing in him is usually understood as believing in certain doctrines about Jesus..that he was born of the Virgin Mary, that he is the son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he rose again and will come again to judge us at the end of the world. And if you believe all that, you are eligible for eternal life, which his usually life after death.
If that is all you know about that verse, you are unconscious. Understanding John 3.16 like that will not give you the Xmas experience of love, peace joy and hope.
You have to wake up to the real meaning of that verse. First of all, focus on the first line: It says,God so loved the world. It doesn't say, God loved America, Israel, India, Canada or God loved the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims;God loved the world which means the whole world with its 7 billion people and the entire creation. If your love is exclusively for only certain group of people, or let us say, you dislike some religions like Islam or some groups like the gays, you cannot have full Xmas experience of love peace and joy.
If you think that those who don't believe in Jesus will perish as as John 3.16 implies, you won't enjoy the Xmas experience because more than half of humanity does not believe in Jesus. If you take john 3.16 literally, you will have to sent 1.2 billion Chinese into hell because they don't believe in Jesus. What kind of Xmas experience of joy and peace do you expect to have after consigning the entire Chinese population to hell?
Look at the current refugee crisis in light of john 3.16. The Syrian refugees who flee their homes with the clothes on their back and the kids on their shoulders are part of the world that God so loved. We know that 31 state governors including ours have told the president, we don't want them here, because we are afraid of them..some of them could turn into terrorists...
How can we celebrate the birth of the son god of we are afraid of other sons and daughters of God who are suffering in this world that God so loved? If you are unsympathetic to the refugee crisis you will sleep walk thru the advent season. I like you to wake up to the fact Jesus is the son of refugees.Mary and Joseph were like refugees in Bethlehem because they had no place to go. They ended up in a manger and gave birth to Jesus. But he was not safe there because King Herod wanted to kill him like Asad is killing hundreds of Syrians now. So Mary and Joseph had to pick up Jesus and escape to Egypt.
The irony is that during the Christmas season, Christians will display manger scenes in front of their homes without realizing that they are displaying a refugee family...
They will pay homage to baby Jesus in the crib who is the son of refugees and at the same time oppose admitting Syrian refugees into the country.
It is that disconnect that makes our Christmas so meaningless. That is why I am talking so much about the need for awakening.
When we wake up to the truth that every human being—all 7 billion of them-that includes the terrorists and the refugees-- is part of a world that God so loved and we open our hearts to love them as God did, you will start experiencing Xmas in a whole new way... and that is my prayer for our congregation this year.
Friday, December 11, 2015
FIRST SUNDAY OF AWAKENING: "Awaken to Mt: 28:20b"
Time flies is isn't it? I was just the other day we celebrated Christmas and it is Christmas again in less than a month. And then a few weeks later we will start the season of Lent and then Holy week, and Easter. As we go thru these seasons and celebrations, what happens to us? Does anything really change in our lives or are we just going thru the motions?
My feeling is that we are doing all this because that is what we are supposed to do as Christians. These seasons and celebrations are part of being a church. But beyond that, I am not sure what does all this mean?
This year we are entering Christmas season in the shadow of the Paris Massacre. The huge tragedy that shook Paris a few weeks ago. I was watching TV and this breaking news came on and sat there and began weeping...this deep sadness pervaded my heart...sadness for the suffering of those innocent victims who were enjoying a meal in a restaurant or music in a theater.
What saddened me even more is the fact that it was done in the name of God. As they were shooting, the terrorists were chanting Allahu Akbar which means “God is great.” I have no ideas who that God is...but they are convinced that their God wants it this way. What are we to do? How are we to process a horrific event like that? What are we to think of a God like that?
So, on an international level, we have ISIS wreaking havoc—Beirut, Paris, Mali. There is a huge refugee crisis going on in Europe where families are displaced, lives are lost and hope for a peaceful world seems to be diminishing each day. And we are entering a season of of Advent in the middle of all this.
And then there is more. Look at what is happening nationally here at home. The election season is heating up and it is nasty out there. A certain segment of the population is extremely angry and you can see that anger and frustration finding voice thru the vitriolic speeches from some candidates. It is cut throat competition out there in the campaign field.
So we have international problems, National problems and thee is at least one more thing we have to add to that. Our personal problems. I don't know what you may be going thru, but I am sure we all have something, right? Cheryl is taking care of her ailing mom, which is a very difficult job.
In the midst of all these unrest and uncertainty, problems and challenges, what is the season of advent and celebration of Christmas going to do for us?
If the past is any indication, the answer is, nothing much. Today we will observe the first Sunday of advent and will light one candle, next week, 2 candles, and then three, and four and a then during Christmas eve ,..all four candles will be lit, Christmas songs will be sung, we will wish merry Xmas to each other...go home open our presents..watch some parades or sports...enjoy the weekend and Monday morning..back to work. I know the drill, because I have been there. We all have been there.
This year I want it to be different for us. I don't want you to go thru another traditional advent and Christmas season. So, I am going to propose a few changes. Change is hard, but stay with me, have an open mind and watch what happens. What is the harm in trying something new. We have done the traditional stuff for so long and nothing much changed. So let us give it a try. We have nothing to lose. So be open minded and be excited.
In fact, I am not going to say anything new. It is very old, as old as the scriptures..Either you have not been told the real meaning of things or you have not really understood some basic stuff about being a christian.
I promise you one thing. I will stick with Jesus..If anything I say in this church during the weeks and months ahead, is against the teachings of Jesus and what you read in the four gospels, I want you to challenge me and even ban me from coming back.
Don't argue using a verses from the Old Testament or a single verse from St. Paul's letters to contradict something I might say. Stick with the four gospels, because that is where we meet Jesus. Even there, we won't be able to meet the 100 percent real Jesus because Jesus is presented there thru the eyes of Mt, Mk, Luke and John. That is why they are called gospel “according to”
Having said that, let me propose a simple change..it is just the change of a word..but the implications are huge. This year, let us delete the word “advent” from our vocabulary and our consciousness. Where ever you see the word advent, replace it with Awakening.
Now, why is that important you might ask. It is important f because words do matter.
Let me tell you a story. There is an experiment about the power of words. A man sat at the corner of a NY subway station with a cardboard sign which said: “I am blind, please help”. Some people threw money onto plastic cup placed on the sheet in front of him. In one hour he collected $15.37.
Then he changed the words on the sign. It read: “It is a beautiful day, but I can't see it.” Now throngs of people began putting money into his plastic cup and it overflowed into the sheet on which the cup was placed. In one hour, he collected $123. 10 cents. That is the power of words.
So how is replacing the word advent with awakening going to help us spiritually? First let us look at the meaning of the word advent. It literally means, coming or arrival. It comes from the Latin word venire, to come.
So what we have been doing for centuries is, set apart four weeks before Christmas to prepare ourselves for the coming or arrival of Christ. On the first Sunday of advent we usually read about John the Baptist preparing the the crowd for the coming of the messiah.
The notion of “coming” or “arrival” of Jesus masquerades the reality that Jesus is already here. It perpetuates the notion that we have to “wait” for him rather than “witness” to him. When you are expecting Jesus, you fail to experience him. The fact of the matter is that Jesus has been already here for 2000 plus years. The question is not, “How to prepare for his he coming?” but “Have I met him?” So instead of “waiting” for his arrival, we need to “wake up” to his presence within us and around us.
Now you know why the bulletin says First Sunday of Awakening. Jesus is in your hearts already. He was born in your heart the day you were formed in your mother's' womb. You need to wake him up..commune with him, consult with him, take him with you where ever you go. You have to make a conscious decision to do that.
Jesus—that is a powerful name. The man behind that name is the savior of the world. There is no other name given under the sun by which man may be saved, says apostle Peter.
We don't have to wait for another four weeks to meet him. You don't have to do extensive preparations to welcome him on Christmas night. Jesus said to his disciples: And surely, I am with you always, till the end of times.” Those are the last words of Jesus according to the gospel of Mt. That is the last verse of the last chapter of Mathew's gospel. It is a promise and a guarantee from the Lord. I want you to wake up those words.
I am with you always. Jesus didn't say, I was with you for 3 years, now that I am dead, I am sorry, I can't help you, you are on your own. He didn't say, I “will” be with you at a later date, in the future. If you get into trouble, or you can't manage things by yourself, call me and I will help you in the future.
He said. I AM with you Always...now in real time..There is not a moment in our lives when Jesus is away from us. We may be away from him plenty of times during the week, but he is not.
So, wake up to those five powerful words: I am with you Always....Don't wait any longer and be miserable and unhappy in the meantime. Waking up to those words mean, become conscious of it.
When you become conscious of the presence of Jesus with you and around you all the time, advent and Lent will become unnecessary. You will feel like Christmas every day; you will live risen life every day. Not just 4 weeks before Xmas and 6 weeks before Easter.
On the other hand, if you are aware of the presence of Jesus only during Xmas and Easter time, that is a tragic way to live a Christian life.
Waking up to Jesus means two things. It is not actually two separate things, but two aspects of the same reality. First, you have to feel the presence of Jesus inside you.. Don't live your life feeling empty inside or fill the inside with feelings of anger, jealousy, frustrations and bitterness and all those negative stuff.
When you do that, Jesus is dead inside. With a dead Jesus inside, you cannot see the living Jesus outside.
What you see outside is a reflection of yourself. You see the world as you are, not as it is. That is why Wayne Dyer said: A happy person lives in a happy world, a miserable person lives in a miserable world.
When Jesus is alive on the inside, you will start seeing Jesus in others. “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.” Those words of Jesus would become alive for you.
My feeling is that we are doing all this because that is what we are supposed to do as Christians. These seasons and celebrations are part of being a church. But beyond that, I am not sure what does all this mean?
This year we are entering Christmas season in the shadow of the Paris Massacre. The huge tragedy that shook Paris a few weeks ago. I was watching TV and this breaking news came on and sat there and began weeping...this deep sadness pervaded my heart...sadness for the suffering of those innocent victims who were enjoying a meal in a restaurant or music in a theater.
What saddened me even more is the fact that it was done in the name of God. As they were shooting, the terrorists were chanting Allahu Akbar which means “God is great.” I have no ideas who that God is...but they are convinced that their God wants it this way. What are we to do? How are we to process a horrific event like that? What are we to think of a God like that?
So, on an international level, we have ISIS wreaking havoc—Beirut, Paris, Mali. There is a huge refugee crisis going on in Europe where families are displaced, lives are lost and hope for a peaceful world seems to be diminishing each day. And we are entering a season of of Advent in the middle of all this.
And then there is more. Look at what is happening nationally here at home. The election season is heating up and it is nasty out there. A certain segment of the population is extremely angry and you can see that anger and frustration finding voice thru the vitriolic speeches from some candidates. It is cut throat competition out there in the campaign field.
So we have international problems, National problems and thee is at least one more thing we have to add to that. Our personal problems. I don't know what you may be going thru, but I am sure we all have something, right? Cheryl is taking care of her ailing mom, which is a very difficult job.
In the midst of all these unrest and uncertainty, problems and challenges, what is the season of advent and celebration of Christmas going to do for us?
If the past is any indication, the answer is, nothing much. Today we will observe the first Sunday of advent and will light one candle, next week, 2 candles, and then three, and four and a then during Christmas eve ,..all four candles will be lit, Christmas songs will be sung, we will wish merry Xmas to each other...go home open our presents..watch some parades or sports...enjoy the weekend and Monday morning..back to work. I know the drill, because I have been there. We all have been there.
This year I want it to be different for us. I don't want you to go thru another traditional advent and Christmas season. So, I am going to propose a few changes. Change is hard, but stay with me, have an open mind and watch what happens. What is the harm in trying something new. We have done the traditional stuff for so long and nothing much changed. So let us give it a try. We have nothing to lose. So be open minded and be excited.
In fact, I am not going to say anything new. It is very old, as old as the scriptures..Either you have not been told the real meaning of things or you have not really understood some basic stuff about being a christian.
I promise you one thing. I will stick with Jesus..If anything I say in this church during the weeks and months ahead, is against the teachings of Jesus and what you read in the four gospels, I want you to challenge me and even ban me from coming back.
Don't argue using a verses from the Old Testament or a single verse from St. Paul's letters to contradict something I might say. Stick with the four gospels, because that is where we meet Jesus. Even there, we won't be able to meet the 100 percent real Jesus because Jesus is presented there thru the eyes of Mt, Mk, Luke and John. That is why they are called gospel “according to”
Having said that, let me propose a simple change..it is just the change of a word..but the implications are huge. This year, let us delete the word “advent” from our vocabulary and our consciousness. Where ever you see the word advent, replace it with Awakening.
Now, why is that important you might ask. It is important f because words do matter.
Let me tell you a story. There is an experiment about the power of words. A man sat at the corner of a NY subway station with a cardboard sign which said: “I am blind, please help”. Some people threw money onto plastic cup placed on the sheet in front of him. In one hour he collected $15.37.
Then he changed the words on the sign. It read: “It is a beautiful day, but I can't see it.” Now throngs of people began putting money into his plastic cup and it overflowed into the sheet on which the cup was placed. In one hour, he collected $123. 10 cents. That is the power of words.
So how is replacing the word advent with awakening going to help us spiritually? First let us look at the meaning of the word advent. It literally means, coming or arrival. It comes from the Latin word venire, to come.
So what we have been doing for centuries is, set apart four weeks before Christmas to prepare ourselves for the coming or arrival of Christ. On the first Sunday of advent we usually read about John the Baptist preparing the the crowd for the coming of the messiah.
The notion of “coming” or “arrival” of Jesus masquerades the reality that Jesus is already here. It perpetuates the notion that we have to “wait” for him rather than “witness” to him. When you are expecting Jesus, you fail to experience him. The fact of the matter is that Jesus has been already here for 2000 plus years. The question is not, “How to prepare for his he coming?” but “Have I met him?” So instead of “waiting” for his arrival, we need to “wake up” to his presence within us and around us.
Now you know why the bulletin says First Sunday of Awakening. Jesus is in your hearts already. He was born in your heart the day you were formed in your mother's' womb. You need to wake him up..commune with him, consult with him, take him with you where ever you go. You have to make a conscious decision to do that.
Jesus—that is a powerful name. The man behind that name is the savior of the world. There is no other name given under the sun by which man may be saved, says apostle Peter.
We don't have to wait for another four weeks to meet him. You don't have to do extensive preparations to welcome him on Christmas night. Jesus said to his disciples: And surely, I am with you always, till the end of times.” Those are the last words of Jesus according to the gospel of Mt. That is the last verse of the last chapter of Mathew's gospel. It is a promise and a guarantee from the Lord. I want you to wake up those words.
I am with you always. Jesus didn't say, I was with you for 3 years, now that I am dead, I am sorry, I can't help you, you are on your own. He didn't say, I “will” be with you at a later date, in the future. If you get into trouble, or you can't manage things by yourself, call me and I will help you in the future.
He said. I AM with you Always...now in real time..There is not a moment in our lives when Jesus is away from us. We may be away from him plenty of times during the week, but he is not.
So, wake up to those five powerful words: I am with you Always....Don't wait any longer and be miserable and unhappy in the meantime. Waking up to those words mean, become conscious of it.
When you become conscious of the presence of Jesus with you and around you all the time, advent and Lent will become unnecessary. You will feel like Christmas every day; you will live risen life every day. Not just 4 weeks before Xmas and 6 weeks before Easter.
On the other hand, if you are aware of the presence of Jesus only during Xmas and Easter time, that is a tragic way to live a Christian life.
Waking up to Jesus means two things. It is not actually two separate things, but two aspects of the same reality. First, you have to feel the presence of Jesus inside you.. Don't live your life feeling empty inside or fill the inside with feelings of anger, jealousy, frustrations and bitterness and all those negative stuff.
When you do that, Jesus is dead inside. With a dead Jesus inside, you cannot see the living Jesus outside.
What you see outside is a reflection of yourself. You see the world as you are, not as it is. That is why Wayne Dyer said: A happy person lives in a happy world, a miserable person lives in a miserable world.
When Jesus is alive on the inside, you will start seeing Jesus in others. “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.” Those words of Jesus would become alive for you.
Monday, November 9, 2015
SPIRITUALITY OF CURIOSITY
A little girl asked her Mom, “Where do humans come from?”
Her Mom answered, “God made Adam and Eve and they had children and that’s how we all descend from.”
A few days later the girl asked her Dad the same question.
Her Dad answered, “Many years ago there were monkeys from which people evolved.”
The confused girl returned to her mother and said, “Mom, how is it possible that you told me that people were created by God, and Dad said people evolved from monkeys?”
Her Mom answered, “Well, dear, it’s very simple: I told you about my side of the family, and your father told you about his.”
Children are very curious. I remember getting annoyed with my son Tommy because he asked too many questions. When we grow up, we become busy with life, get into a routine and pattern and live predictable lives with very little curiosity about anything.
You heard the expression, big data. Every day humanity creates data and information in staggering quantities. Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google once estimated that every two days humanity creates a quantity of data equivalent to the entire amount created from the dawn of time up until 2003. And he said that 5 years ago. Everyday humanity tweets 500 million times, shares 70 million photos on Instagram and watches 4 billion videos on Facebook. For every minute that passes, we upload 300 hours of new content on you tube.
I keep my curiosity alive because, there is so much to know and I know very little. I like to be in a marvel-mode as opposed to a mundane-mood.
Every night I watch Jeopardy. There are a total t of 60 questions/answers I should say spanning 12 topics each night. Most nights, I don't get any answers right. If the topic is Bible or religion, may be I will get a few here and there. And I am no dummy. I have spent 18years in graduate and post graduate school. I have a doctorate in theology and masters in psychology. I have 23 letters of the alphabet after my name. But still, I know only o.ooooooooooo 1 percent of the data and information out there.
My son Tommy is college and I look at some of this chemistry books. There is this chemical formula with starts.. CnH(2n + 1)OH (n ^1). I have no clue what that means and how that works. I am walking on Ramblewood blvd and I see this telephone technician standing in front of one of those central control boxes open with wires hanging all over; the guy knows what he is doing and how the whole thing works, and I am marveling because I have no clue how all that works.
I have no knowledge about technical, mechanical or scientific stuff. If life is about what I know and what I am capable of doing, we will be living in the stone age. Since I don't know much, I am curious about everything. How the planes fly, how the ships sail, how trains and cars run. I am curious about how a grocery store is organized, how an airport is operated and how a cruise ship gets ready to sail. I am curious about the computer, the calculator, the calendar, the cell phone.
I am curious about how a submarine operates, what happens in the Google headquarters in California; I am curious about how Geico comes up with these funny commercials. I am curious about everything. There is so much out there that I don't know nothing about.
I am curious about my neighbors; where they come from, what they do for a living, what is exciting about their jobs. Among my neighbors, there is USDA inspector, an insurance adjuster, an ophthalmologist, a building contractor, financial planner, a restaurant manager, two teachers, and a physical therapist. I know who lives in which house and what kind of cars they drive. It is all part of my curiosity. No, it is not stalking. I am just interested in them as fellow- humans, who they are, what makes them unique, what makes them roll. I love to hear stories of people's lives.
This is true of my work environment too. There are 16 people on my hospice team. I know about their families. I know what country they were born. I ask them questions, not because I am intrusive, but I am interested. I know what kind of car each of my team members drive. I don't follow them to find out. I pay attention.
We all work in the field visiting patients in various facilities. l see them driving to a nursing home or leaving one at the same time I am driving in. I just pay attention. Knowing what car someone drives is my way of caring about them. When I see them driving, I say a prayer.
Part of our job as hospice chaplain is that we have to do on-call twice a month. It is an 8 hour, shift during which you are called to visit a family if a patient dies.
I love going out on calls. It is an exciting opportunity to meet new people. I am going to walk into totally new situations and meet people whom I have never seen before.
Few weeks ago, I was called to attend the death of a patient in Hollywood. When I arrived there were 3 police officers, milling around the house. After I arrived, two of them left, but one stayed. We had to sit there for two hours waiting for the funeral home.
So I started talking to the policeman. I asked him: “Do you ever feel bad about giving traffic citations.?” He said no. Then he started telling me stories about the Canadian drivers who make illegal U turns and then argue with him about the tickets. He told me about a traffic stop that morning and the driver's excuse for speeding: “I was trying to keep up with traffic.” To which the cop replied, “There is no traffic.” And the replied with, “That’s how far behind I am.”
I was always kind of jealous about police officers taking their cars home. I wanted to know why it is better for the tax payer for the police to take the car home. The only benefit I thought was that having a police car in the driveway is good for neighborhood safety.
He enlightened me about what I was curious about, what I had no clue about. For example, if you give your car to the next officer after your 8 hour shift and he drives for another 8 hours and the next officer for another 8 hours...three separate drivers with different driving habits, continuously driving the same car is not good for the car in the long run. There are so many equipments in police car these days like computer, gas masks, revolvers, and accountability becomes an issue when different people use the same car.
Then I was curious about how many things a policeman had to carry on his person. He was happy to show me. He has a gun, flashlight, hand cuffs, maize, a folded baton, and a radio. I had an easier job because I can can go to work without any of those and this guy had to carry all that. I had a new appreciation for the job the police do..
I have a good friend who is curious like me and so he became an Uber driver. Anyone with a good car and likes driving and loves people can work for Uber and earn good money in the process.
If you are Uber driver, you have no idea who your next passenger is going to be. You could meet fascinating people from all parts of the country, even all parts of the world.
My friend had an interesting conversation last week with a passenger. After the initial pleasantries, my friend asked the passenger: “So what do you do for a living?”Without skipping a beat, the passenger said:”I am a drug dealer.” My friend who is a hospice chaplain, immediately replied: “Me too.” They were both curious about each other. He told the chaplain that he was trying to be funny. He was actually a pharmacist, who is technically, a “drug dealer.”
The pharmacist was curious about how the chaplain could be a drug dealer. The chaplain solemnly said: “Part of my job is to preach religion; didn't Karl Marx say that religion is the opium of the people?” The passenger laughed out loud. He was impressed by the clever Uber driver who was a hospice chaplain. They had a lively conversation about religion in America and the chaplain had a chance to talk about how Jesus changed his life.
I finished reading a book that just came out “A curious Mind” by Brian Grazer. He is a famous Hollywood producer of movies like Apollo 13, A beautiful mind. He has received 47 Oscar nominations and 149 Emmy nominations for movies and TV shows. He has been named TIME's 100 influential people in the world. Mr. Grazer attributes all his success and happiness to having what he calls, “curiosity conversations” with people. (good book to read).
What has curiosity to do with spirituality? If spirituality is about loving people, then showing interest in people and getting to know them is a good way of loving them. It makes loving them easier. If you are afraid of people or paranoid about them, more than likely, you don't know anything about them.
I have a little job in this church. When someone joins the church I write a blurb about them in the church chatter. I talk to them about who they are, what they like about this church, where they came from faith-wise and family-wise and it is a fascinating conversation. After that conversation, my feelings about them are very different. Knowing about them makes me a little closer to them which makes it easy to love them.
So curiosity is not about being nosy but being nice. It is not about being a stalker but a broker—brokering connections, communion and communication. It is not about interfering in people's privacy but being inquisitive about the mystery of their being. It is not for finding out their secrets; it is because I find people sacred. The purpose of curiosity is not to generate gossip, but to foster fellowship. Ultimately curiosity is about experiencing and loving God who is the ultimate mystery.
My first book was titled God is Plural. It has nothing to do with many Gods but everything to do with the many, who are manifestations of the One God. You experience the One by loving the many. I firmly believe that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God. The more images I connect with, the better picture of God I have. If your circle of concern is too small, your God is likely to be very small. If you have no interest in connecting with the spark of divinity in others, you are more than likely hiding behind walls of fear, suspicion and separation.
Was Jesus curious? I think so. Obviously, people were curious about Jesus. That is why the crowd followed him where ever he went.
There is a beautiful story of a man, in the gospel of Luke chapter 19, who was so curious about Jesus that he climbed on a sycamore tree to see him. His name was Zacheus. Visualize a short, pudgy guy, who was a tax collector, who was despised by society, climbing on a tree and hiding behind leaves to take a peek at Jesus.
It seems like Jesus was equally curious about Zacheus. Zacheus just wanted to just look at Jesus from a distance. But Jesus' curiosity was more personal. He not only stopped under the tree and looked up, he wanted to visit with Zacheus in his house. And we know what happened after that visit. A curious look turned into a life changing event for Zacheus. A greedy man who was exploiting the poor was transformed and he was willing to give away half of his wealth to the poor and pay restitution for all his misdeeds.
Look at the story of Nathaniel who was a friend of Philip whom Jesus had called. (Jn 1). Philip went and told Nathaniel about Jesus. But Nathaniel brushed him off asking “what good can come out Nazareth.” But Philip invited him to come and see.
When he saw Nathaniel approaching, Jesus complimented him by saying: “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile.” Look at the generosity of Jesus complementing a man who had ridiculed him.
Nathaniel was surprised by what Jesus said: “How do you know me”? We haven't met before” We have had no prior contacts.” And Jesus said: “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree, before Philip called you.”
Nathaniel was dumbfounded. He was humbled that Jesus was interested in him even though he was no interested in Jesus. He didn't notice Jesus. But Jesus noticed him. He didn't care for Jesus, but Jesus cared for him. And that changed his life.
How does Jesus care for people today? He uses us, his disciples, to continue his job of caring for people. Jesus has no eyes today, except ours; Jesus has no ears today, except ours; We are the eyes and ears, the hands and feet and heart of Jesus in today's world. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
With deep humility, I would even say: We are the second coming of Christ! I know you have grandiose images about the coming of Christ on chariots of fire with blazing saddles. I think it is indulging in fantasy to escape and avoid our responsibility to be Jesus-like in today's world.
When I tell people at work what kind of car they drive, they are surprised. They look at me like Nathaniel. “How do you know, I never told you about it.” they say. And like Jesus told Nathaniel, I tell them:”When you were getting out of your car at that Nursing home, I saw you.”
As disciples of Jesus, we are called to pay attention to others. We are called to connect with others and care about them. That is our calling card. Don't go through life all wrapped up in your little life. Pay attention to the people around you. Expand your horizons; show concern; be interested in others. Be curious about who they are and what they do. Share stories. It will change your life and theirs too.
Every encounter Jesus had with people were life changing for the people he met.
As disciples, we are called to re-enact and re-create those encounters with people today and transform their lives and ours in that process.
Her Mom answered, “God made Adam and Eve and they had children and that’s how we all descend from.”
A few days later the girl asked her Dad the same question.
Her Dad answered, “Many years ago there were monkeys from which people evolved.”
The confused girl returned to her mother and said, “Mom, how is it possible that you told me that people were created by God, and Dad said people evolved from monkeys?”
Her Mom answered, “Well, dear, it’s very simple: I told you about my side of the family, and your father told you about his.”
Children are very curious. I remember getting annoyed with my son Tommy because he asked too many questions. When we grow up, we become busy with life, get into a routine and pattern and live predictable lives with very little curiosity about anything.
You heard the expression, big data. Every day humanity creates data and information in staggering quantities. Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google once estimated that every two days humanity creates a quantity of data equivalent to the entire amount created from the dawn of time up until 2003. And he said that 5 years ago. Everyday humanity tweets 500 million times, shares 70 million photos on Instagram and watches 4 billion videos on Facebook. For every minute that passes, we upload 300 hours of new content on you tube.
I keep my curiosity alive because, there is so much to know and I know very little. I like to be in a marvel-mode as opposed to a mundane-mood.
Every night I watch Jeopardy. There are a total t of 60 questions/answers I should say spanning 12 topics each night. Most nights, I don't get any answers right. If the topic is Bible or religion, may be I will get a few here and there. And I am no dummy. I have spent 18years in graduate and post graduate school. I have a doctorate in theology and masters in psychology. I have 23 letters of the alphabet after my name. But still, I know only o.ooooooooooo 1 percent of the data and information out there.
My son Tommy is college and I look at some of this chemistry books. There is this chemical formula with starts.. CnH(2n + 1)OH (n ^1). I have no clue what that means and how that works. I am walking on Ramblewood blvd and I see this telephone technician standing in front of one of those central control boxes open with wires hanging all over; the guy knows what he is doing and how the whole thing works, and I am marveling because I have no clue how all that works.
I have no knowledge about technical, mechanical or scientific stuff. If life is about what I know and what I am capable of doing, we will be living in the stone age. Since I don't know much, I am curious about everything. How the planes fly, how the ships sail, how trains and cars run. I am curious about how a grocery store is organized, how an airport is operated and how a cruise ship gets ready to sail. I am curious about the computer, the calculator, the calendar, the cell phone.
I am curious about how a submarine operates, what happens in the Google headquarters in California; I am curious about how Geico comes up with these funny commercials. I am curious about everything. There is so much out there that I don't know nothing about.
I am curious about my neighbors; where they come from, what they do for a living, what is exciting about their jobs. Among my neighbors, there is USDA inspector, an insurance adjuster, an ophthalmologist, a building contractor, financial planner, a restaurant manager, two teachers, and a physical therapist. I know who lives in which house and what kind of cars they drive. It is all part of my curiosity. No, it is not stalking. I am just interested in them as fellow- humans, who they are, what makes them unique, what makes them roll. I love to hear stories of people's lives.
This is true of my work environment too. There are 16 people on my hospice team. I know about their families. I know what country they were born. I ask them questions, not because I am intrusive, but I am interested. I know what kind of car each of my team members drive. I don't follow them to find out. I pay attention.
We all work in the field visiting patients in various facilities. l see them driving to a nursing home or leaving one at the same time I am driving in. I just pay attention. Knowing what car someone drives is my way of caring about them. When I see them driving, I say a prayer.
Part of our job as hospice chaplain is that we have to do on-call twice a month. It is an 8 hour, shift during which you are called to visit a family if a patient dies.
I love going out on calls. It is an exciting opportunity to meet new people. I am going to walk into totally new situations and meet people whom I have never seen before.
Few weeks ago, I was called to attend the death of a patient in Hollywood. When I arrived there were 3 police officers, milling around the house. After I arrived, two of them left, but one stayed. We had to sit there for two hours waiting for the funeral home.
So I started talking to the policeman. I asked him: “Do you ever feel bad about giving traffic citations.?” He said no. Then he started telling me stories about the Canadian drivers who make illegal U turns and then argue with him about the tickets. He told me about a traffic stop that morning and the driver's excuse for speeding: “I was trying to keep up with traffic.” To which the cop replied, “There is no traffic.” And the replied with, “That’s how far behind I am.”
I was always kind of jealous about police officers taking their cars home. I wanted to know why it is better for the tax payer for the police to take the car home. The only benefit I thought was that having a police car in the driveway is good for neighborhood safety.
He enlightened me about what I was curious about, what I had no clue about. For example, if you give your car to the next officer after your 8 hour shift and he drives for another 8 hours and the next officer for another 8 hours...three separate drivers with different driving habits, continuously driving the same car is not good for the car in the long run. There are so many equipments in police car these days like computer, gas masks, revolvers, and accountability becomes an issue when different people use the same car.
Then I was curious about how many things a policeman had to carry on his person. He was happy to show me. He has a gun, flashlight, hand cuffs, maize, a folded baton, and a radio. I had an easier job because I can can go to work without any of those and this guy had to carry all that. I had a new appreciation for the job the police do..
I have a good friend who is curious like me and so he became an Uber driver. Anyone with a good car and likes driving and loves people can work for Uber and earn good money in the process.
If you are Uber driver, you have no idea who your next passenger is going to be. You could meet fascinating people from all parts of the country, even all parts of the world.
My friend had an interesting conversation last week with a passenger. After the initial pleasantries, my friend asked the passenger: “So what do you do for a living?”Without skipping a beat, the passenger said:”I am a drug dealer.” My friend who is a hospice chaplain, immediately replied: “Me too.” They were both curious about each other. He told the chaplain that he was trying to be funny. He was actually a pharmacist, who is technically, a “drug dealer.”
The pharmacist was curious about how the chaplain could be a drug dealer. The chaplain solemnly said: “Part of my job is to preach religion; didn't Karl Marx say that religion is the opium of the people?” The passenger laughed out loud. He was impressed by the clever Uber driver who was a hospice chaplain. They had a lively conversation about religion in America and the chaplain had a chance to talk about how Jesus changed his life.
I finished reading a book that just came out “A curious Mind” by Brian Grazer. He is a famous Hollywood producer of movies like Apollo 13, A beautiful mind. He has received 47 Oscar nominations and 149 Emmy nominations for movies and TV shows. He has been named TIME's 100 influential people in the world. Mr. Grazer attributes all his success and happiness to having what he calls, “curiosity conversations” with people. (good book to read).
What has curiosity to do with spirituality? If spirituality is about loving people, then showing interest in people and getting to know them is a good way of loving them. It makes loving them easier. If you are afraid of people or paranoid about them, more than likely, you don't know anything about them.
I have a little job in this church. When someone joins the church I write a blurb about them in the church chatter. I talk to them about who they are, what they like about this church, where they came from faith-wise and family-wise and it is a fascinating conversation. After that conversation, my feelings about them are very different. Knowing about them makes me a little closer to them which makes it easy to love them.
So curiosity is not about being nosy but being nice. It is not about being a stalker but a broker—brokering connections, communion and communication. It is not about interfering in people's privacy but being inquisitive about the mystery of their being. It is not for finding out their secrets; it is because I find people sacred. The purpose of curiosity is not to generate gossip, but to foster fellowship. Ultimately curiosity is about experiencing and loving God who is the ultimate mystery.
My first book was titled God is Plural. It has nothing to do with many Gods but everything to do with the many, who are manifestations of the One God. You experience the One by loving the many. I firmly believe that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God. The more images I connect with, the better picture of God I have. If your circle of concern is too small, your God is likely to be very small. If you have no interest in connecting with the spark of divinity in others, you are more than likely hiding behind walls of fear, suspicion and separation.
Was Jesus curious? I think so. Obviously, people were curious about Jesus. That is why the crowd followed him where ever he went.
There is a beautiful story of a man, in the gospel of Luke chapter 19, who was so curious about Jesus that he climbed on a sycamore tree to see him. His name was Zacheus. Visualize a short, pudgy guy, who was a tax collector, who was despised by society, climbing on a tree and hiding behind leaves to take a peek at Jesus.
It seems like Jesus was equally curious about Zacheus. Zacheus just wanted to just look at Jesus from a distance. But Jesus' curiosity was more personal. He not only stopped under the tree and looked up, he wanted to visit with Zacheus in his house. And we know what happened after that visit. A curious look turned into a life changing event for Zacheus. A greedy man who was exploiting the poor was transformed and he was willing to give away half of his wealth to the poor and pay restitution for all his misdeeds.
Look at the story of Nathaniel who was a friend of Philip whom Jesus had called. (Jn 1). Philip went and told Nathaniel about Jesus. But Nathaniel brushed him off asking “what good can come out Nazareth.” But Philip invited him to come and see.
When he saw Nathaniel approaching, Jesus complimented him by saying: “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile.” Look at the generosity of Jesus complementing a man who had ridiculed him.
Nathaniel was surprised by what Jesus said: “How do you know me”? We haven't met before” We have had no prior contacts.” And Jesus said: “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree, before Philip called you.”
Nathaniel was dumbfounded. He was humbled that Jesus was interested in him even though he was no interested in Jesus. He didn't notice Jesus. But Jesus noticed him. He didn't care for Jesus, but Jesus cared for him. And that changed his life.
How does Jesus care for people today? He uses us, his disciples, to continue his job of caring for people. Jesus has no eyes today, except ours; Jesus has no ears today, except ours; We are the eyes and ears, the hands and feet and heart of Jesus in today's world. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
With deep humility, I would even say: We are the second coming of Christ! I know you have grandiose images about the coming of Christ on chariots of fire with blazing saddles. I think it is indulging in fantasy to escape and avoid our responsibility to be Jesus-like in today's world.
When I tell people at work what kind of car they drive, they are surprised. They look at me like Nathaniel. “How do you know, I never told you about it.” they say. And like Jesus told Nathaniel, I tell them:”When you were getting out of your car at that Nursing home, I saw you.”
As disciples of Jesus, we are called to pay attention to others. We are called to connect with others and care about them. That is our calling card. Don't go through life all wrapped up in your little life. Pay attention to the people around you. Expand your horizons; show concern; be interested in others. Be curious about who they are and what they do. Share stories. It will change your life and theirs too.
Every encounter Jesus had with people were life changing for the people he met.
As disciples, we are called to re-enact and re-create those encounters with people today and transform their lives and ours in that process.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
YOU DON'T HAVE A SOUL, YOU ARE A SOUL!
Few weeks ago, in a bible study class, the leader passed out a white sheet of paper with the picture of a stone and the phrase:”Cast your cares.” It is taken from Ps. 55:22 which says. “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.” He asked us to write down all our worries and cares on that paper. And the group started writing. Few of them asked for more sheets of paper because their list of worries were too long to contain on that one sheet.
I sat there with my eyes closed.. I had nothing to write. Some group members looked at me funny, may be thinking, why is this guy not writing anything. Is he rebelling against the group leader or is he too lazy to write anything? The group leader said: “I was curious that you didn't write anything down, don't you have any cares or you don't care about my assignment?
And I said: “I have nothing to write because, my cares and worries are deleted by the divinity within me before I can write them down. They are resolved by dissolving them in my soul, before they evolve into major problems. I know it is heavy stuff. Let me explain.
The phrase “Cast your cares on the Lord” presupposes that God is is this supreme being up there and I am this helpless sinner down here. I don't see God and I like that any more. That changes everything.
Let me share with you my story. I am 64 years old. I take that back. This body is 64 years old. I am ageless. I am a spark of Divinity. I am a soul with a small s connected to the Universal Soul with a capital S. I am a physical manifestation of the big I AM who is God. I say that with no sense of arrogance or hubris but with utmost humility and responsibility.
I am not oblivious of my sorry-side, but I am highlighting my glory-side. I am not denying my shadow-side, but I am focusing on the light within. What is a shadow any way? You get a shadow when the light is either in front of you or behind you, which means the source of light is separate from you. When you are separate from the source of light, separate from from God, you will always have a shadow, in fact you live in the shadows—that is when you have cares and worries.
Didn't Jesus say you are the light of the world? Is it possible that we don't believer it, or we have not found it? Or may be we found it, but we don't know how to switch it on? May be the battery is dead?
Imagine buying the latest iPhone and walking around with it in your purse without charging it? You cannot do anything with it unless it is charged first.
For many, the divine spark in them is like an uncharged battery. It is dead. Just like dust and fungus grow on a dead battery, cares and worries contaminate our divine spark and then we wonder, why we are so anxious and miserable.
Back to my story. 64 years ago, in a remote village in southern India, a spark of Divinity was incarnated. When I use the word incarnation, you might immediately think about the incarnation of Jesus. How dare you use the same word for your birth? you might ask.
Let me tell you something. Every birth is an incarnation. Incarnation simply means “being in flesh or becoming flesh.” "Carnem" in Latin means flesh. Words like carnal and carnivorous come from the same root.
Like Buddha, Jesus and Mohammad, you are an incarnation of divinity that took flesh and appeared on earth at a specific time and place. Like them you are a promise of God; unlike them you rarely turn that promise into potential.
So, that tiny piece of God incarnated in that remote Indian village was wrapped in the tender body of a 7 pound baby boy and his parents named him Paul.
That is me. But for the first 45 years of my life, I was not aware of it. I was like an iPhone with a dead battery.
I was raised in a strict Catholic home. I went to church twice a week. Saturdays in honor of Mother Mary and Sundays to attend Mass and attend catechism class. I was an altar boy. I said my daily prayers. O I observed Advent and Lent. I celebrated Xmas and Easter. I engaged in a lot of religious practices.
Nobody told me I was a spark of divinity. No religion teacher ever told me that my soul was part of the Soul of God and that my mission in life is to manifest that soul. All the efforts were focused on “saving my soul” from this wicked world rather than “showing my soul” to this wonderful world.
Priesthood seemed like a good idea to accomplish that goal. I can save my soul and save the souls of others. I entered the seminary at the age of 16. During the next 9 years of training, I studied, scripture, church history, philosophy, theology, the sacraments. Made several retreats. Said so many prayers.
At the age of 25, I became a priest. I don't think anything had really changed at the core of my being. I still got frustrated with people. I still became anxious and afraid, I was jealous of other priests. I got offended when others were not nice to me. I really didn't care for those who didn't care for me. It took a long time to forgive others. I worried about all kinds of stuff. I had too many cares. Every day I cast them upon the Lord as I was told; but they seemed to boomerang than benefit me.
Another 20 plus years would pass and I repeated the religious insanity. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over rand expecting a different result. I said my prayers, I read the bible, I did my retreats, I went to church every day. I was the church, because I was the priest. But no real transformation.
In the early nineties, my consciousness shifted about who I was and who God is and that changed everything. Until then, I thought of myself as a sinner in need of salvation. A weak sinner born with original sin, destined to suffer and struggle in this valley of tears and somehow make it to heaven after death. I was basically living the life described by Fiction writer David Gerrold this way:
Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order.
I said to myself: A person who is created in the image and likeness of God, a person who is a spark of divinity should not be living such a marginal, miserable, mediocre life. It doesn't sound like the life that Jesus promised: “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.” Where is that abundance? How do I find it? Was that an empty promise? It can't be, because the whole purpose of the incarnation of Jesus was that we experience abundant life.
I was awakened to the realization that I was a soul not that I had a soul. That changed everything.
It is interesting that after a plane crash, the passengers are referred to as souls. As in “A plane was shot down over Ukraine, and there were 295 souls on board.”
Is it possible that we are so body focused that we fail to notice that we are souls, until we are at the brink of death? That they pray for our souls after we die, rather than live as souls before we die.
Understanding the difference between having a soul and being a soul is the key to a transformed life.
I wrote a book describing that shift in consciousness and I called it THRIVE: Six keys to a fuller life. Thriving is the same as living the abundant life. It is the same as living with the power of resurrection of Jesus.
I wrote this book not to become rich or famous (altho that would be nice) but to shake up and wake up people to see, experience and enjoy the fullness of life that is their birth right. That fulness of life is an undiscovered treasure, an unclaimed gift, a lottery ticket of ultimate bliss that is buried in a mess. It is like a a visa gift card that is not activated. That life is available and attainable and at your disposal, if you are disposed to see it.
You need to wake up from unconscious living. You need to see through socially and religiously induced illusions. You need to see God as part of you, not apart from you. You need to see yourself as co-creator with God, not co-dependent on God. You need to show your soul not save your soul. You need to charge the battery that is pre-installed in you and, like a fully charged iPhone, experience and enjoy the magic and majesty of the world at your fingertips.
The book contains my philosophy of life which has transformed my life. I describe how to Thrive in life by using the six letters of the word Thrive in six chapters. I will be using the next 6 sermons to explain each chapter. Having a copy and reading it in prep for the sermon will help you get more out of it. 200 page material. Can't explain all that in six sermons.
(If you want a copy I have some for $10. On Amazon it is sold for 15)
T in thrive stands for thinking. I blivet that our brain is the least used organ in the body. If we really use our brains to process our lives, the outcome would be very different. Thomas More said; Life is complicated. If you cannot think, reflect and actively imagine life into existence, you are condemned to a half-life of unconsciousness.
The H in thrive stands for Harmony. Experience the harmony of the universe around you. The cows graze gracefully, the dogs wag their tails joyfully, the fish swims freely and the birds sing soulfully. Humans are the only species that argue, complain, fight and struggle and make their lives miserable in the process.
The R in thrive stands for Re-cognition. Re-cognize means to re-understand or to know again. Many things we think about God and Jesus and life could be wrong or incomplete. We have to consciously unlearn a few things we may have unconsciously learned as children.
The I in thrive stands for introspection which is another word for meditation. He who does not go within, goes without.
The V stands for Vision. Many people go thru life seeing reality only thru their physical eyes. They have eyesight, but no insight. When we start looking at the world around us with the eye of the soul, everything changes. The illusions of separation becomes unity consciousness.
The E in thrive is for Expiration or death. Death is a dreaded word and a taboo topic. We refuse to talk about it with the unintelligent hope that if we don't think about it or talk about it, we don't have to deal with it. When you are constantly aware of the unpredictability and impermanence of life, love comes naturally. We erase our resentments faster, become less attached to stuff, we care deeply, share joyfully, forgive generously and attain peace with ease.
There is a bed time prayer that says: Lord, don't let me die before I wake up. You should reverse that prayer and say: Lord , wake me up before I die.
Wake me up to see my identify as an image of God, a spark of divinity as salt of the earth and light of the world. Wake me up to see the beauty of god's creation; Wake me up to see that every human being is my brother and sister; Wake me up to realize that I should die to my ego to manifest my soul. Wake me up to the reality that death is inevitable but resurrection is guaranteed if I walk the path of Christ- the path of passion, death and resurrection, in that order. An awakened life is a thriving life, a risen life.
Thriving does not mean that you will be doing LOL all the time.
Thriving does not mean, you won't be sad when bad things happen but that sadness will not control your life.
It does not mean that you will not be frightened when scary things happen such as getting a terminal diagnosis or suffering a terrorist attack, but that you will not be buried under that fear.
It is not that you will not get disabled, ill or die but none of those inevitable realities of life would have tyranny over your life.
It is about accepting that pain and suffering are endemic to our existence but happiness and joy are also available and attainable.
It is living with the awareness that the landscape of our life may be riddled with landmines such as loss, regrets, disease and death, but it also contains diamonds of pleasure, peace and ecstasy.
It means in the words of poet Jack Gilbert, having the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.
It is actually living the mystery of death and resurrection-the life of a follower of the risen Jesus.
I sat there with my eyes closed.. I had nothing to write. Some group members looked at me funny, may be thinking, why is this guy not writing anything. Is he rebelling against the group leader or is he too lazy to write anything? The group leader said: “I was curious that you didn't write anything down, don't you have any cares or you don't care about my assignment?
And I said: “I have nothing to write because, my cares and worries are deleted by the divinity within me before I can write them down. They are resolved by dissolving them in my soul, before they evolve into major problems. I know it is heavy stuff. Let me explain.
The phrase “Cast your cares on the Lord” presupposes that God is is this supreme being up there and I am this helpless sinner down here. I don't see God and I like that any more. That changes everything.
Let me share with you my story. I am 64 years old. I take that back. This body is 64 years old. I am ageless. I am a spark of Divinity. I am a soul with a small s connected to the Universal Soul with a capital S. I am a physical manifestation of the big I AM who is God. I say that with no sense of arrogance or hubris but with utmost humility and responsibility.
I am not oblivious of my sorry-side, but I am highlighting my glory-side. I am not denying my shadow-side, but I am focusing on the light within. What is a shadow any way? You get a shadow when the light is either in front of you or behind you, which means the source of light is separate from you. When you are separate from the source of light, separate from from God, you will always have a shadow, in fact you live in the shadows—that is when you have cares and worries.
Didn't Jesus say you are the light of the world? Is it possible that we don't believer it, or we have not found it? Or may be we found it, but we don't know how to switch it on? May be the battery is dead?
Imagine buying the latest iPhone and walking around with it in your purse without charging it? You cannot do anything with it unless it is charged first.
For many, the divine spark in them is like an uncharged battery. It is dead. Just like dust and fungus grow on a dead battery, cares and worries contaminate our divine spark and then we wonder, why we are so anxious and miserable.
Back to my story. 64 years ago, in a remote village in southern India, a spark of Divinity was incarnated. When I use the word incarnation, you might immediately think about the incarnation of Jesus. How dare you use the same word for your birth? you might ask.
Let me tell you something. Every birth is an incarnation. Incarnation simply means “being in flesh or becoming flesh.” "Carnem" in Latin means flesh. Words like carnal and carnivorous come from the same root.
Like Buddha, Jesus and Mohammad, you are an incarnation of divinity that took flesh and appeared on earth at a specific time and place. Like them you are a promise of God; unlike them you rarely turn that promise into potential.
So, that tiny piece of God incarnated in that remote Indian village was wrapped in the tender body of a 7 pound baby boy and his parents named him Paul.
That is me. But for the first 45 years of my life, I was not aware of it. I was like an iPhone with a dead battery.
I was raised in a strict Catholic home. I went to church twice a week. Saturdays in honor of Mother Mary and Sundays to attend Mass and attend catechism class. I was an altar boy. I said my daily prayers. O I observed Advent and Lent. I celebrated Xmas and Easter. I engaged in a lot of religious practices.
Nobody told me I was a spark of divinity. No religion teacher ever told me that my soul was part of the Soul of God and that my mission in life is to manifest that soul. All the efforts were focused on “saving my soul” from this wicked world rather than “showing my soul” to this wonderful world.
Priesthood seemed like a good idea to accomplish that goal. I can save my soul and save the souls of others. I entered the seminary at the age of 16. During the next 9 years of training, I studied, scripture, church history, philosophy, theology, the sacraments. Made several retreats. Said so many prayers.
At the age of 25, I became a priest. I don't think anything had really changed at the core of my being. I still got frustrated with people. I still became anxious and afraid, I was jealous of other priests. I got offended when others were not nice to me. I really didn't care for those who didn't care for me. It took a long time to forgive others. I worried about all kinds of stuff. I had too many cares. Every day I cast them upon the Lord as I was told; but they seemed to boomerang than benefit me.
Another 20 plus years would pass and I repeated the religious insanity. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over rand expecting a different result. I said my prayers, I read the bible, I did my retreats, I went to church every day. I was the church, because I was the priest. But no real transformation.
In the early nineties, my consciousness shifted about who I was and who God is and that changed everything. Until then, I thought of myself as a sinner in need of salvation. A weak sinner born with original sin, destined to suffer and struggle in this valley of tears and somehow make it to heaven after death. I was basically living the life described by Fiction writer David Gerrold this way:
Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order.
I said to myself: A person who is created in the image and likeness of God, a person who is a spark of divinity should not be living such a marginal, miserable, mediocre life. It doesn't sound like the life that Jesus promised: “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.” Where is that abundance? How do I find it? Was that an empty promise? It can't be, because the whole purpose of the incarnation of Jesus was that we experience abundant life.
I was awakened to the realization that I was a soul not that I had a soul. That changed everything.
It is interesting that after a plane crash, the passengers are referred to as souls. As in “A plane was shot down over Ukraine, and there were 295 souls on board.”
Is it possible that we are so body focused that we fail to notice that we are souls, until we are at the brink of death? That they pray for our souls after we die, rather than live as souls before we die.
Understanding the difference between having a soul and being a soul is the key to a transformed life.
I wrote a book describing that shift in consciousness and I called it THRIVE: Six keys to a fuller life. Thriving is the same as living the abundant life. It is the same as living with the power of resurrection of Jesus.
I wrote this book not to become rich or famous (altho that would be nice) but to shake up and wake up people to see, experience and enjoy the fullness of life that is their birth right. That fulness of life is an undiscovered treasure, an unclaimed gift, a lottery ticket of ultimate bliss that is buried in a mess. It is like a a visa gift card that is not activated. That life is available and attainable and at your disposal, if you are disposed to see it.
You need to wake up from unconscious living. You need to see through socially and religiously induced illusions. You need to see God as part of you, not apart from you. You need to see yourself as co-creator with God, not co-dependent on God. You need to show your soul not save your soul. You need to charge the battery that is pre-installed in you and, like a fully charged iPhone, experience and enjoy the magic and majesty of the world at your fingertips.
The book contains my philosophy of life which has transformed my life. I describe how to Thrive in life by using the six letters of the word Thrive in six chapters. I will be using the next 6 sermons to explain each chapter. Having a copy and reading it in prep for the sermon will help you get more out of it. 200 page material. Can't explain all that in six sermons.
(If you want a copy I have some for $10. On Amazon it is sold for 15)
T in thrive stands for thinking. I blivet that our brain is the least used organ in the body. If we really use our brains to process our lives, the outcome would be very different. Thomas More said; Life is complicated. If you cannot think, reflect and actively imagine life into existence, you are condemned to a half-life of unconsciousness.
The H in thrive stands for Harmony. Experience the harmony of the universe around you. The cows graze gracefully, the dogs wag their tails joyfully, the fish swims freely and the birds sing soulfully. Humans are the only species that argue, complain, fight and struggle and make their lives miserable in the process.
The R in thrive stands for Re-cognition. Re-cognize means to re-understand or to know again. Many things we think about God and Jesus and life could be wrong or incomplete. We have to consciously unlearn a few things we may have unconsciously learned as children.
The I in thrive stands for introspection which is another word for meditation. He who does not go within, goes without.
The V stands for Vision. Many people go thru life seeing reality only thru their physical eyes. They have eyesight, but no insight. When we start looking at the world around us with the eye of the soul, everything changes. The illusions of separation becomes unity consciousness.
The E in thrive is for Expiration or death. Death is a dreaded word and a taboo topic. We refuse to talk about it with the unintelligent hope that if we don't think about it or talk about it, we don't have to deal with it. When you are constantly aware of the unpredictability and impermanence of life, love comes naturally. We erase our resentments faster, become less attached to stuff, we care deeply, share joyfully, forgive generously and attain peace with ease.
There is a bed time prayer that says: Lord, don't let me die before I wake up. You should reverse that prayer and say: Lord , wake me up before I die.
Wake me up to see my identify as an image of God, a spark of divinity as salt of the earth and light of the world. Wake me up to see the beauty of god's creation; Wake me up to see that every human being is my brother and sister; Wake me up to realize that I should die to my ego to manifest my soul. Wake me up to the reality that death is inevitable but resurrection is guaranteed if I walk the path of Christ- the path of passion, death and resurrection, in that order. An awakened life is a thriving life, a risen life.
Thriving does not mean that you will be doing LOL all the time.
Thriving does not mean, you won't be sad when bad things happen but that sadness will not control your life.
It does not mean that you will not be frightened when scary things happen such as getting a terminal diagnosis or suffering a terrorist attack, but that you will not be buried under that fear.
It is not that you will not get disabled, ill or die but none of those inevitable realities of life would have tyranny over your life.
It is about accepting that pain and suffering are endemic to our existence but happiness and joy are also available and attainable.
It is living with the awareness that the landscape of our life may be riddled with landmines such as loss, regrets, disease and death, but it also contains diamonds of pleasure, peace and ecstasy.
It means in the words of poet Jack Gilbert, having the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.
It is actually living the mystery of death and resurrection-the life of a follower of the risen Jesus.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
LIVING JOYFULLY IN A CULTURE OF FEAR--Part Two
Today I like to reflect on Part two of living joyfully in a culture of fear. In part one, I talked about the fact that there is so much fear, anxiety and paranoia among people these days. Especially after the events of 9/11, America has become a besieged society.
The gist of my last sermon was that we have to use the God within us, to calm our fears and use it as a shield against potential dangers and threats. Instead of relying on guns and other man-made gadgets, we can use the image of God as a protective shield; the light within us as a flashlight to dispel the darkness around us.
So part one of the security shield is focusing on the God within us. Part two is focusing on the God with us. What is the difference? The God within us is like a torch in our hand. The God with us is the sun, the source of light itself. Or, the God within us like a drop of the ocean, the God with us is the ocean itself. Like the ocean that creates, contains, sustains and protects the drop, God has created us, sustains us, protects us.
Apostle Paul says: “If God is with us who can be against us.” Do you really believe that?
Let us start with one of the most repeated phrase in the Bible. More than eighty times, God tells someone. “Don't be afraid," or "Fear not."
He says it to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. He says it four times to Joshua after the death of Moses because Joshua was so afraid to take on the leadership of his people. He says it to each of the prophets, and tells them to say it to the people in his name. In the New Testament, Jesus repeatedly tells his disciples not to be afraid. In fact, the first words out of the mouth of Jesus, after his resurrection was “do not be afraid.”
In spite of hearing “be not afraid” so many times, we are still afraid. You know why? Because we don't totally trust the promises of God. We think that if we have to survive in this so called crazy world, we have to take care of business. We have to take matters into our own hands.
So many, bible believing, church going Christians have told me: “Paul, but we have to be practical. If we wait for God to take care of us, it could be too late.” “A good bible and a good gun offer the best protection” one guy told me. So we try hard; we use all human gadgets and weapons to defend and protect us.
From this day forward, I want you to stop trying so hard. Stop relying on your frantic efforts, but on God's generous grace; stop depending on your performance, but on god's providence; stop covering all the bases and turn your face towards God. Stop feeling abandoned in the middle of the ocean called life and start feeling embraced by the unending ocean of divine Grace.
We should live fearless lives not because we are brave, but because God is benevolent. We should be fearless, not because we are smart, but because the Lord is my shepherd. We can be free and fearless not because of our faithfulness to god, but because of God's faithfulness to us.
Now, listen carefully. I did not say, our faithfulness to God. Faithfulness is usually understood as an initiative we take, a discipline that we follow, an effort that we put forth to please God and we are blessed in return.
I invite you to imagine and experience the whole process in reverse; as God's faithfulness to us. It is initiated and sustained by God. We can see it in the history of salvation. God's faithfulness to the Israelite even when they were not faithful to God.
I' m inviting you to have a paradigm shift; a shift in consciousness to see God's faithfulness to us rather than our faithfulness to God.
It could change your life; It changed mine.
First, we have to abandon our notion of God as a old man with a white beard sitting on a golden throne somewhere up in the sky. We have to believe in a God who is part of us rather than apart from us. We have to experience God as a PARTICIPANT in our sufferings rather than the PERPETRATOR of it. We have to see God more as a PRESENCE, than as a PERSON.
It is the God of psalm 139:
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the havens, you are there; if I make my bed in the d depths, your are there; O Lord, You have searched me and you know me;” Then comes this powerful verse: “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb, I praise you because, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
I cannot imagine a God who created us with such love and care, will abandon us to fend for ourselves after we are born. I can't imagine Jesus promising us an abundant life and then pushing us into the abyss of an awful existence. Almighty God whom Jesus told us to call abba father, cannot and will not act that way towards his children.
A human father wouldn't do that to his child. Then how can God the father do it to us? I am thinking of my son Tommy. When he graduated from high school, I didn't say: “You are now 18, go to college and do what you need to do.” His mother and I prepared him for college with meticulous care. We drove him to Gainsville, set him up in the dorm, paid his rent and tuition, gave him a debit card, bought him a car, paid the insurance, gave him money for gas.
When saying good bye, Judy and I wailed like crazy people. We began missing him the minute we left him there. We anxiously waited for his phone call. It took three days for him to make a call to me. When I saw his name on the caller ID I was so excited. I thought he was going to ask me how I was doing. Or say he missed me. None of that. The first 9 words out of his mouth were:
“What is the pin number of my debit card?”
I was not offended. I smiled. That is Tommy. He is not touchy feely emotional guy. He is a teenager:
I think of him every day, I pray for his safety every day. I pray for a great future for him. I love him beyond measure. He is one of the tree people in this world I am willing to die for.
If we humans do all that, I can't imagine a God creating us and then abandoning us to be alone and afraid in this world. We are surrounded by Grace, all the time. But we don't acknowledge that; we don't respond to that.
We don't know how to immerse ourselves in that ocean of grace and thrive; we would rather barely survive in a scary world.
How do I know this God is going to protect me from all dangers?
To find that out, I turn my imagination towards the beginning of my life. I want you to join me in this fantasy tour; you can do it with you as the main character. I am 5.6 tall and weighs 167 pounds. There are about 75 trillion cells in this body. That is 75 with 13 zeroes! 75 million, million.
But this me standing before you, started out as a zygote, in a remote village in southern India. When I started, I was just 1 cell and each day, it multiplied exponentially and through an amazing process of miraculous metamorphosis and of meticulous manufacturing, I began to grow in my mother's womb. As weeks and months went by, I began to take shape. In the beginning I was just an undifferentiated mass of flesh. Hands had no fingers; legs had no toes; They were just stumps. Eyes had no lids; heart had no chambers.
Inside my mother's womb, God was at work. God was knitting me together. He made sure that I had a heart and it had four chambers;God made sure that the arteries and veins were properly attached. Then came the biggest project; the digestive system. It is four times longer than my height; Our digestive system, is about 24 feet long; but it stays so nicely tucked inside of us.
The mystery of my evolution in my mother's womb is that neither of my parents had to remember to do anything else after that night they came together. It is not like three months into her pregnancy, my mom said: Today is the day, the baby's lungs are made, I need to breath harder; or 6 months into her pregnancy, my dad said: “Today, he is going to get his legs; let me make sure he has two of them.”
No involvement; no participation; no planning; it all just happened with so much beauty and precision. Think about the first nine months of your life in your mother's womb. Do you remember worrying if God is going to give you one leg or two legs? Do you ever remember swimming in the amniotic fluid and wondering if God would remember to attach ten fingers to your hands? Were you anxious that God would remember to close your belly button and open your mouth at birth? Do you remember saying to yourself: “I hope my lungs that are flat like a pan cake will open up like a balloon when I come out.”
You didn't worry about any of that; you didn't become anxious about any of that. God, The creative force, the ground of your being, the alpha and the omega, took care of the entire process. And you came into this world perfectly beautiful. God was totally in charge; you totally relied on him during that time.
And I believe that providence and faithfulness of God never changes during the entire course of our lives. Because, God is constant in his affection for us. Jer 31:3 says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
Unlike human love which gets easily frustrated, turn fickle fast, suddenly fizzle and fade away, God's love for us is EVERLASTING, NO MATTER WHAT!
So, I live fearlessly, not because of promises pending, but because of promises kept.
I am not looking to the future with anxiety; I am looking at the past with gratitude.
I am not looking at the 75 trillion cells that I am today and worrying if some of them might divide fast and grow into cancer, but I am thinking of the single cell that I was, and how marvelously it turned out.
So life is not about being anxious and fearful, fighting and struggling; It is about trusting God, being in the moment and having a grateful heart.
Remember the words of Apostle Paul to Romans. He said: “All things will work together for the good, at the end.” Focus on two words: “together” and “end.” Don't give up in the middle because certain things may not be working out at a particular time in your life. We have to trust in the enduring faithfulness of God towards us.
There is a movie called, The Best Exotic Marigold hotel. In that movie, a group of retirees from England are looking into the option of moving to India because it is much cheaper. But they get angry frustrated, and impatient trying to adjust to the unfamiliar routines of living in a crowded city like Mumbai. Some of them wanted to quit and return home.
So the hero of the movie gave them this advise: “Everything will be alright at the end; if it is not alright,it is not the end.” He was echoing apostle Paul. He was right, because it worked out OK for all of them except for one lady who got frustratedly and angry, quit in the middle and returned to England.
British saint Julian of Norwich used to say: “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.” She did not say, all is well!
When you feel afraid of something or some one or feel anxious about a diagnosis, or worry about losing a job or something negative happening to you, or quitting in the middle of something, trust, trust and trust some more, because as Ann Lamott says: “The mystery of Grace is that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.”
What God told prophet Jeremiah gives me so much peace: “Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you.” Pondering that one phrase should be enough for a fearless life.
Let me end with these words of 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal. This is God saying to Pascal:
“You would not seek Me if you had not already found Me, and you would not have found Me, if I had not found you first.”
The gist of my last sermon was that we have to use the God within us, to calm our fears and use it as a shield against potential dangers and threats. Instead of relying on guns and other man-made gadgets, we can use the image of God as a protective shield; the light within us as a flashlight to dispel the darkness around us.
So part one of the security shield is focusing on the God within us. Part two is focusing on the God with us. What is the difference? The God within us is like a torch in our hand. The God with us is the sun, the source of light itself. Or, the God within us like a drop of the ocean, the God with us is the ocean itself. Like the ocean that creates, contains, sustains and protects the drop, God has created us, sustains us, protects us.
Apostle Paul says: “If God is with us who can be against us.” Do you really believe that?
Let us start with one of the most repeated phrase in the Bible. More than eighty times, God tells someone. “Don't be afraid," or "Fear not."
He says it to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. He says it four times to Joshua after the death of Moses because Joshua was so afraid to take on the leadership of his people. He says it to each of the prophets, and tells them to say it to the people in his name. In the New Testament, Jesus repeatedly tells his disciples not to be afraid. In fact, the first words out of the mouth of Jesus, after his resurrection was “do not be afraid.”
In spite of hearing “be not afraid” so many times, we are still afraid. You know why? Because we don't totally trust the promises of God. We think that if we have to survive in this so called crazy world, we have to take care of business. We have to take matters into our own hands.
So many, bible believing, church going Christians have told me: “Paul, but we have to be practical. If we wait for God to take care of us, it could be too late.” “A good bible and a good gun offer the best protection” one guy told me. So we try hard; we use all human gadgets and weapons to defend and protect us.
From this day forward, I want you to stop trying so hard. Stop relying on your frantic efforts, but on God's generous grace; stop depending on your performance, but on god's providence; stop covering all the bases and turn your face towards God. Stop feeling abandoned in the middle of the ocean called life and start feeling embraced by the unending ocean of divine Grace.
We should live fearless lives not because we are brave, but because God is benevolent. We should be fearless, not because we are smart, but because the Lord is my shepherd. We can be free and fearless not because of our faithfulness to god, but because of God's faithfulness to us.
Now, listen carefully. I did not say, our faithfulness to God. Faithfulness is usually understood as an initiative we take, a discipline that we follow, an effort that we put forth to please God and we are blessed in return.
I invite you to imagine and experience the whole process in reverse; as God's faithfulness to us. It is initiated and sustained by God. We can see it in the history of salvation. God's faithfulness to the Israelite even when they were not faithful to God.
I' m inviting you to have a paradigm shift; a shift in consciousness to see God's faithfulness to us rather than our faithfulness to God.
It could change your life; It changed mine.
First, we have to abandon our notion of God as a old man with a white beard sitting on a golden throne somewhere up in the sky. We have to believe in a God who is part of us rather than apart from us. We have to experience God as a PARTICIPANT in our sufferings rather than the PERPETRATOR of it. We have to see God more as a PRESENCE, than as a PERSON.
It is the God of psalm 139:
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the havens, you are there; if I make my bed in the d depths, your are there; O Lord, You have searched me and you know me;” Then comes this powerful verse: “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb, I praise you because, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
I cannot imagine a God who created us with such love and care, will abandon us to fend for ourselves after we are born. I can't imagine Jesus promising us an abundant life and then pushing us into the abyss of an awful existence. Almighty God whom Jesus told us to call abba father, cannot and will not act that way towards his children.
A human father wouldn't do that to his child. Then how can God the father do it to us? I am thinking of my son Tommy. When he graduated from high school, I didn't say: “You are now 18, go to college and do what you need to do.” His mother and I prepared him for college with meticulous care. We drove him to Gainsville, set him up in the dorm, paid his rent and tuition, gave him a debit card, bought him a car, paid the insurance, gave him money for gas.
When saying good bye, Judy and I wailed like crazy people. We began missing him the minute we left him there. We anxiously waited for his phone call. It took three days for him to make a call to me. When I saw his name on the caller ID I was so excited. I thought he was going to ask me how I was doing. Or say he missed me. None of that. The first 9 words out of his mouth were:
“What is the pin number of my debit card?”
I was not offended. I smiled. That is Tommy. He is not touchy feely emotional guy. He is a teenager:
I think of him every day, I pray for his safety every day. I pray for a great future for him. I love him beyond measure. He is one of the tree people in this world I am willing to die for.
If we humans do all that, I can't imagine a God creating us and then abandoning us to be alone and afraid in this world. We are surrounded by Grace, all the time. But we don't acknowledge that; we don't respond to that.
We don't know how to immerse ourselves in that ocean of grace and thrive; we would rather barely survive in a scary world.
How do I know this God is going to protect me from all dangers?
To find that out, I turn my imagination towards the beginning of my life. I want you to join me in this fantasy tour; you can do it with you as the main character. I am 5.6 tall and weighs 167 pounds. There are about 75 trillion cells in this body. That is 75 with 13 zeroes! 75 million, million.
But this me standing before you, started out as a zygote, in a remote village in southern India. When I started, I was just 1 cell and each day, it multiplied exponentially and through an amazing process of miraculous metamorphosis and of meticulous manufacturing, I began to grow in my mother's womb. As weeks and months went by, I began to take shape. In the beginning I was just an undifferentiated mass of flesh. Hands had no fingers; legs had no toes; They were just stumps. Eyes had no lids; heart had no chambers.
Inside my mother's womb, God was at work. God was knitting me together. He made sure that I had a heart and it had four chambers;God made sure that the arteries and veins were properly attached. Then came the biggest project; the digestive system. It is four times longer than my height; Our digestive system, is about 24 feet long; but it stays so nicely tucked inside of us.
The mystery of my evolution in my mother's womb is that neither of my parents had to remember to do anything else after that night they came together. It is not like three months into her pregnancy, my mom said: Today is the day, the baby's lungs are made, I need to breath harder; or 6 months into her pregnancy, my dad said: “Today, he is going to get his legs; let me make sure he has two of them.”
No involvement; no participation; no planning; it all just happened with so much beauty and precision. Think about the first nine months of your life in your mother's womb. Do you remember worrying if God is going to give you one leg or two legs? Do you ever remember swimming in the amniotic fluid and wondering if God would remember to attach ten fingers to your hands? Were you anxious that God would remember to close your belly button and open your mouth at birth? Do you remember saying to yourself: “I hope my lungs that are flat like a pan cake will open up like a balloon when I come out.”
You didn't worry about any of that; you didn't become anxious about any of that. God, The creative force, the ground of your being, the alpha and the omega, took care of the entire process. And you came into this world perfectly beautiful. God was totally in charge; you totally relied on him during that time.
And I believe that providence and faithfulness of God never changes during the entire course of our lives. Because, God is constant in his affection for us. Jer 31:3 says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
Unlike human love which gets easily frustrated, turn fickle fast, suddenly fizzle and fade away, God's love for us is EVERLASTING, NO MATTER WHAT!
So, I live fearlessly, not because of promises pending, but because of promises kept.
I am not looking to the future with anxiety; I am looking at the past with gratitude.
I am not looking at the 75 trillion cells that I am today and worrying if some of them might divide fast and grow into cancer, but I am thinking of the single cell that I was, and how marvelously it turned out.
So life is not about being anxious and fearful, fighting and struggling; It is about trusting God, being in the moment and having a grateful heart.
Remember the words of Apostle Paul to Romans. He said: “All things will work together for the good, at the end.” Focus on two words: “together” and “end.” Don't give up in the middle because certain things may not be working out at a particular time in your life. We have to trust in the enduring faithfulness of God towards us.
There is a movie called, The Best Exotic Marigold hotel. In that movie, a group of retirees from England are looking into the option of moving to India because it is much cheaper. But they get angry frustrated, and impatient trying to adjust to the unfamiliar routines of living in a crowded city like Mumbai. Some of them wanted to quit and return home.
So the hero of the movie gave them this advise: “Everything will be alright at the end; if it is not alright,it is not the end.” He was echoing apostle Paul. He was right, because it worked out OK for all of them except for one lady who got frustratedly and angry, quit in the middle and returned to England.
British saint Julian of Norwich used to say: “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.” She did not say, all is well!
When you feel afraid of something or some one or feel anxious about a diagnosis, or worry about losing a job or something negative happening to you, or quitting in the middle of something, trust, trust and trust some more, because as Ann Lamott says: “The mystery of Grace is that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.”
What God told prophet Jeremiah gives me so much peace: “Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you.” Pondering that one phrase should be enough for a fearless life.
Let me end with these words of 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal. This is God saying to Pascal:
“You would not seek Me if you had not already found Me, and you would not have found Me, if I had not found you first.”
Sunday, July 19, 2015
LIVING JOYFULLY IN A CULTURE OF FEAR-Part One
When I was growing up in India, in the early sixties, I thought of America as this far away place with nice, white, rich people. The only Americans I was exposed to were tourists and missionaries and they were always nice, white and rich. We had no television and so I had no chance of seeing any other aspect of American life.
I visited the USA for the first time in 1983 and it was in Disney world: again, nice, mostly white, happy place, 32 years ago.
I began living here in 1988. I still remember catching a flight out of Toronto. I walked straight to the airline counter at the gate and got my boarding pass. There was no check points, no removing the shoes or belt, no suspicious look from TSA agents, no pat downs, no questions, no stress, it was a joy to fly. These days, I dread flying.
September 11, 2001 was a huge turning point in the history of this nation. It fundamentally changed the character of America from being a friendly, hospitable, amiable place to a fearful, hostile, anxious nation. After the initial stage of shock and grief, we as a nation went into an attack mode. We invaded Iraq with the intention of killing the terrorists before they killed us. Islamaphobia was added to the list of fears. Our phones began to be tapped. We were told to look at people with suspicion rather than trust; “See something, say something” became our national security slogan. Protecting the home land became a priority and we created a new department of home land security.
Guns sales have gone up by 300 percent in recent years. Everyone is afraid of someone or something. The sale of security cameras have gone up a 1000 percent. It is hard to find a place these days without cameras watching your every move.
If you watch TV or go on social media, you will see that the level of animosity, partisanship and hatred among people is extremely high. Suspicion, paranoia, hate mongering and name calling are rampant. The Charleston church massacre, the discussions about confederate flag, and the supreme court decision on marriage equality have cumulatively brought out the worst in some people.
Many people live with a disease called the “mean world syndrome.” That phrase was coined by George Gerbner, a researcher at the U of Penn. He found that since we witness so much bad news, on TV and social media, we come to believe that the world is a scary and ominous place filled with danger. As a result, our first reaction to people is suspicion not compassion; We live in fear rather than with the freedom of the children of God. We become an anxious people living in a besieged society. When we assume that we are always at “at risk” we will treat others as potential threats.
I have a friend—Jim—who always talks about the “risks of living in a crazy world.” So he uses so much modern technology to protect himself.
His latest gadget is a mini camera attached to the rear view mirror of his car. He purchased it mainly to record the outside because he was worried about two things: People who might scratch or dent his car and leave, because nobody saw it. He also wants to protect himself from drivers who might hit him and lie about it.
Jim has also installed 4 cameras to protect his house. When he is away from home, he watches his house on the app on his smart phone. He has Life-lock to protect his identity. He also has guns to protect his family from intruders and robbers. He always talks about the “rough world out there” and the “crazy people” who are “sick and dangerous.”
I don’t have any of the above “protections” and I have no desire to acquire them.
Life is so fragile and there is no man-made gadget that can protect you from all eventualities of life.
So I don't protect myself with man made gadgets. I refuse to live in fear, being paranoid about other humans. First of all, I refuse to label other humans, who are my brothers and sisters, as “crazy and dangerous.” As soon as you see others as crazy and dangerous, your brain activates the fight or flight response; your defenses go up. Your blood pressure rises; you become fearful and suspicious. That is no way to live.
I believe in divine protection and it works. What I mean by divine protection is not about a God “up there” protecting you from outside. It is the God within you acting as a defensive shield.
You might think I am nave and unsophisticated. Let me explain what it is and how it works…It is free, no equipment to buy and no installation required. No monthly service fee that has to be convenient charged to your credit card.
The equipment is already there. You were born into this world, pre-installed. It is called your soul or the image of God within you. You are created in the image and likeness of God. People repeat that phrase, but I doubt they know what it really means and how it applies in their daily lives.
In technical language, I call the image of God in us, the “divine app.” You don't have to install it but you have to use it. It is like the apps in your smart phone. I have about 122 apps on my phone. But I use only a few of them on a regular basis. The others are just there, and has no impact on my life except that they drain the battery.
The divine app is like that; everybody has one; but only few people are aware of it and even fewer people use it.
So, how do you activate your divine app also called the divine spark? First of all you have to believe that you have it.
When the divine spark is sparkling inside, two things happen: First, the spark in you removes the darkness around you and secondly, you see the spark in others. If you see another human being as a “divine spark” you are likely to be relaxed and free in his presence. On the other hand, if you label him “crazy,” “dangerous” or a sinner because he is homosexual” you are making the whole situation dark.
Seeing others as Divine spark is an inside job. What you see out there is a reflection of what is inside you. We see the world as we are, not as it is. Wayne Dyer puts it this way: “A happy person lives in a happy world, a miserable person lives in a miserable world.”
Imagine two houses in your neighborhood. One of them has light inside and outside. The other is totally dark. Which house do you think has more of a chance to be burglarized? It is a rhetorical question.
If your divine app is working, if your soul is sparkling, if your light is on, the likely hood of being attacked is very low.
How do we make the image of God glow within us? First of all, we have to use our brains to process our life and part of that processing is the removal of ignorance. According to Buddha, the root cause of all our suffering is ignorance. Ignorance about who we are, ignorance about who God is, and ignorance about what life is.
Look at how ignorance permeated so much discussion in social media about the supreme court ruling on marriage equality. A friend of mine was so angry and frustrated that he posted this: “In all the postings on FB, the massive amount of ink spilled on the internet and news papers about the subject of gay marriage, I have yet to hear anyone talking about the long term fall out of this decision....years down the road, when the children of gay couples grow up in these homes, there anger, confusion, and identity crisis....pity all the counselors, caseworkers, social workers, psychologists and pastors who have to pick up the broken pieces.”
That statement is mired in ignorance. There are about 9 million children in America living with gay parents. There is no study indicating that children growing up with gay parents are angry, confused and acting out any more than those being raised by heterosexual couples. Gay marriage has been legal in Masachussets since 2004. There is no study showing that kids living with gay parents in MA are acting out more and having identity crises more than kids in neighboring New Hampshire.If anything, those kids will be more happy and better adjusted because their parents don't have to live with anxiety and shame anymore.
The behavior of children raised in heterosexual homes is nothing to write home about. In fact, starting with Cain who killed his brother, and Hitler, and Ted Bundy, and Charles Manson, Osama bin Laden, the Oklahoma City bomber, the Colorado theater shooter, the Connecticut school shooter, the South Carolina church shooter—they were all raised by heterosexual parents...enough said.
Then there is the lament about how what we do hurts the heart of God—that God is going to punish America as he did to Sodom and Gomorrah. The notion that what we do hurts God is based on ignorance about who God is. Any God who gets easily hurt is not big enough to be God to begin with.
I think it is ignorant thinking that a God who has not punished us for dropping atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing 700,000 people, a God who has not punished us for killing a 150,000 Iraqis, a God who has not punished us for polluting his earth, a God who has not punished us for corporate greed, a God who has not punished us for massive gun violence, a god who hasn't punished us for having Donald Trump and the Kardasian sisters, is going to finally punish us for letting two men love each other!
I see this ignorance playing out in a commercial for Toyota cars. People from Publisher's Clearing House show up at this guy's door and tells him: “Congratulations, you are a winner” and presents him with a check for one million dollars. He looks at the check and says: “This is the 2nd best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Then he is given a special deal for a Toyota Corolla and he his is jumping with excitement. He says: “This is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Very often, we are like the guy in that commercial. We are created in the image and likeness of God. But we see it as the second best thing that has ever happened to us. We see ourselves first, as weak and unworthy sinners. God created the world and called it “good” six times, but we see it as the second best thing; we see it first as a “mean and nasty world.” God created other human beings as our brothers and sisters. We see them first as “crazy and dangerous.”
Fear and ignorance are related. The level of our fear is directly proportional to the level of our ignorance. Or, the level of our awakening is inversely proportional to the level of our ignorance. Put it another way, the more awakened you are, the less afraid you will be!
The other ignorance we need to remove is the belief that God is separate from us—that other humans are separate from us. “Separation theology” creates “separation sociology” which sees the world as a hostile place inhabited by crazy people whose main purpose is to hurt us. When I experience inter-connection and inter-dependence, I will see the other person as an extension of myself. It is ludicrous to think that “myself” is going to hurt “me.”
When I love everybody—men, women and children everywhere on this planet, all seven billion of them, regardless of their race, religion, color, sexual orientation and hold them in the embrace of my energy field, the invisible but real field of positive energy becomes impenetrable to negativity.
Apostle John says: “There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out fear. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1Jn: 4:18)
So, if you are a fearful person, you may be lacking in love, because fear and love are contradictory emotions.
Jesus repeatedly said to his disciples: “Be not afraid. Let not your hearts be troubled..trust in me and trust in my father.” These words that Jesus spoke to his frightened disciples 2000 years ago, is not a pious platitude but a promise guaranteed by his resurrection.
The Psalmist repeated that sentiment years before that: “The lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. Even though I walk thru the shadow of he valley of death,I fear no evil for thou art with me.”
Apostle Paul echoed the same sentiment when he said to the Romans: “If God is with us who can be against us?” (8:31)
Paul is not talking about the distant God beyond the clouds.
The divine spark within you is God with you all the time, wherever you are.
Keep that spark sparkling and and it will serve as the best protective shield in all situations.
I visited the USA for the first time in 1983 and it was in Disney world: again, nice, mostly white, happy place, 32 years ago.
I began living here in 1988. I still remember catching a flight out of Toronto. I walked straight to the airline counter at the gate and got my boarding pass. There was no check points, no removing the shoes or belt, no suspicious look from TSA agents, no pat downs, no questions, no stress, it was a joy to fly. These days, I dread flying.
September 11, 2001 was a huge turning point in the history of this nation. It fundamentally changed the character of America from being a friendly, hospitable, amiable place to a fearful, hostile, anxious nation. After the initial stage of shock and grief, we as a nation went into an attack mode. We invaded Iraq with the intention of killing the terrorists before they killed us. Islamaphobia was added to the list of fears. Our phones began to be tapped. We were told to look at people with suspicion rather than trust; “See something, say something” became our national security slogan. Protecting the home land became a priority and we created a new department of home land security.
Guns sales have gone up by 300 percent in recent years. Everyone is afraid of someone or something. The sale of security cameras have gone up a 1000 percent. It is hard to find a place these days without cameras watching your every move.
If you watch TV or go on social media, you will see that the level of animosity, partisanship and hatred among people is extremely high. Suspicion, paranoia, hate mongering and name calling are rampant. The Charleston church massacre, the discussions about confederate flag, and the supreme court decision on marriage equality have cumulatively brought out the worst in some people.
Many people live with a disease called the “mean world syndrome.” That phrase was coined by George Gerbner, a researcher at the U of Penn. He found that since we witness so much bad news, on TV and social media, we come to believe that the world is a scary and ominous place filled with danger. As a result, our first reaction to people is suspicion not compassion; We live in fear rather than with the freedom of the children of God. We become an anxious people living in a besieged society. When we assume that we are always at “at risk” we will treat others as potential threats.
I have a friend—Jim—who always talks about the “risks of living in a crazy world.” So he uses so much modern technology to protect himself.
His latest gadget is a mini camera attached to the rear view mirror of his car. He purchased it mainly to record the outside because he was worried about two things: People who might scratch or dent his car and leave, because nobody saw it. He also wants to protect himself from drivers who might hit him and lie about it.
Jim has also installed 4 cameras to protect his house. When he is away from home, he watches his house on the app on his smart phone. He has Life-lock to protect his identity. He also has guns to protect his family from intruders and robbers. He always talks about the “rough world out there” and the “crazy people” who are “sick and dangerous.”
I don’t have any of the above “protections” and I have no desire to acquire them.
Life is so fragile and there is no man-made gadget that can protect you from all eventualities of life.
So I don't protect myself with man made gadgets. I refuse to live in fear, being paranoid about other humans. First of all, I refuse to label other humans, who are my brothers and sisters, as “crazy and dangerous.” As soon as you see others as crazy and dangerous, your brain activates the fight or flight response; your defenses go up. Your blood pressure rises; you become fearful and suspicious. That is no way to live.
I believe in divine protection and it works. What I mean by divine protection is not about a God “up there” protecting you from outside. It is the God within you acting as a defensive shield.
You might think I am nave and unsophisticated. Let me explain what it is and how it works…It is free, no equipment to buy and no installation required. No monthly service fee that has to be convenient charged to your credit card.
The equipment is already there. You were born into this world, pre-installed. It is called your soul or the image of God within you. You are created in the image and likeness of God. People repeat that phrase, but I doubt they know what it really means and how it applies in their daily lives.
In technical language, I call the image of God in us, the “divine app.” You don't have to install it but you have to use it. It is like the apps in your smart phone. I have about 122 apps on my phone. But I use only a few of them on a regular basis. The others are just there, and has no impact on my life except that they drain the battery.
The divine app is like that; everybody has one; but only few people are aware of it and even fewer people use it.
So, how do you activate your divine app also called the divine spark? First of all you have to believe that you have it.
When the divine spark is sparkling inside, two things happen: First, the spark in you removes the darkness around you and secondly, you see the spark in others. If you see another human being as a “divine spark” you are likely to be relaxed and free in his presence. On the other hand, if you label him “crazy,” “dangerous” or a sinner because he is homosexual” you are making the whole situation dark.
Seeing others as Divine spark is an inside job. What you see out there is a reflection of what is inside you. We see the world as we are, not as it is. Wayne Dyer puts it this way: “A happy person lives in a happy world, a miserable person lives in a miserable world.”
Imagine two houses in your neighborhood. One of them has light inside and outside. The other is totally dark. Which house do you think has more of a chance to be burglarized? It is a rhetorical question.
If your divine app is working, if your soul is sparkling, if your light is on, the likely hood of being attacked is very low.
How do we make the image of God glow within us? First of all, we have to use our brains to process our life and part of that processing is the removal of ignorance. According to Buddha, the root cause of all our suffering is ignorance. Ignorance about who we are, ignorance about who God is, and ignorance about what life is.
Look at how ignorance permeated so much discussion in social media about the supreme court ruling on marriage equality. A friend of mine was so angry and frustrated that he posted this: “In all the postings on FB, the massive amount of ink spilled on the internet and news papers about the subject of gay marriage, I have yet to hear anyone talking about the long term fall out of this decision....years down the road, when the children of gay couples grow up in these homes, there anger, confusion, and identity crisis....pity all the counselors, caseworkers, social workers, psychologists and pastors who have to pick up the broken pieces.”
That statement is mired in ignorance. There are about 9 million children in America living with gay parents. There is no study indicating that children growing up with gay parents are angry, confused and acting out any more than those being raised by heterosexual couples. Gay marriage has been legal in Masachussets since 2004. There is no study showing that kids living with gay parents in MA are acting out more and having identity crises more than kids in neighboring New Hampshire.If anything, those kids will be more happy and better adjusted because their parents don't have to live with anxiety and shame anymore.
The behavior of children raised in heterosexual homes is nothing to write home about. In fact, starting with Cain who killed his brother, and Hitler, and Ted Bundy, and Charles Manson, Osama bin Laden, the Oklahoma City bomber, the Colorado theater shooter, the Connecticut school shooter, the South Carolina church shooter—they were all raised by heterosexual parents...enough said.
Then there is the lament about how what we do hurts the heart of God—that God is going to punish America as he did to Sodom and Gomorrah. The notion that what we do hurts God is based on ignorance about who God is. Any God who gets easily hurt is not big enough to be God to begin with.
I think it is ignorant thinking that a God who has not punished us for dropping atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing 700,000 people, a God who has not punished us for killing a 150,000 Iraqis, a God who has not punished us for polluting his earth, a God who has not punished us for corporate greed, a God who has not punished us for massive gun violence, a god who hasn't punished us for having Donald Trump and the Kardasian sisters, is going to finally punish us for letting two men love each other!
I see this ignorance playing out in a commercial for Toyota cars. People from Publisher's Clearing House show up at this guy's door and tells him: “Congratulations, you are a winner” and presents him with a check for one million dollars. He looks at the check and says: “This is the 2nd best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Then he is given a special deal for a Toyota Corolla and he his is jumping with excitement. He says: “This is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Very often, we are like the guy in that commercial. We are created in the image and likeness of God. But we see it as the second best thing that has ever happened to us. We see ourselves first, as weak and unworthy sinners. God created the world and called it “good” six times, but we see it as the second best thing; we see it first as a “mean and nasty world.” God created other human beings as our brothers and sisters. We see them first as “crazy and dangerous.”
Fear and ignorance are related. The level of our fear is directly proportional to the level of our ignorance. Or, the level of our awakening is inversely proportional to the level of our ignorance. Put it another way, the more awakened you are, the less afraid you will be!
The other ignorance we need to remove is the belief that God is separate from us—that other humans are separate from us. “Separation theology” creates “separation sociology” which sees the world as a hostile place inhabited by crazy people whose main purpose is to hurt us. When I experience inter-connection and inter-dependence, I will see the other person as an extension of myself. It is ludicrous to think that “myself” is going to hurt “me.”
When I love everybody—men, women and children everywhere on this planet, all seven billion of them, regardless of their race, religion, color, sexual orientation and hold them in the embrace of my energy field, the invisible but real field of positive energy becomes impenetrable to negativity.
Apostle John says: “There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out fear. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1Jn: 4:18)
So, if you are a fearful person, you may be lacking in love, because fear and love are contradictory emotions.
Jesus repeatedly said to his disciples: “Be not afraid. Let not your hearts be troubled..trust in me and trust in my father.” These words that Jesus spoke to his frightened disciples 2000 years ago, is not a pious platitude but a promise guaranteed by his resurrection.
The Psalmist repeated that sentiment years before that: “The lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. Even though I walk thru the shadow of he valley of death,I fear no evil for thou art with me.”
Apostle Paul echoed the same sentiment when he said to the Romans: “If God is with us who can be against us?” (8:31)
Paul is not talking about the distant God beyond the clouds.
The divine spark within you is God with you all the time, wherever you are.
Keep that spark sparkling and and it will serve as the best protective shield in all situations.
Saturday, May 30, 2015
LOVE HANDLES
For a split seismic second, my soon-to-be Medicare-age male ego fluttered, flushed and felt faintly flattered—and flattened fast. I knew that the bikini-clad pictures the woman was texting me were not meant for me. It was an electronic error of a grieving widow who felt moribund and mortified about sending them to the priest who had conducted the memorial service for her husband two days earlier.
Jenny’s husband Jerry was 50 years old when he died of liver cancer. She honored him with a memorial service for his friends and family. The day after the service, I received a text from Jenny: “Thank you so much, pastor Paul for the service on Saturday. It was spiritual and touching; Jerry would have liked it.”
And I texted back: “Thank you Jenny. Glad to be able to help. I pray that God and Jerry’s angel help you move forward.”
That was it. I had moved forward.
The next day I received two photos of Jenny in bikini with a message in Spanish: Tengo q bajar los gorditos,jijiji. (I have to lose my love-handles,hahaha). My Spanish-ignorant brain thought it was something naughty.
Instantly, I showed the text and the pictures to my wife Judy, because I had nothing to hide. It is always a safe thing to do, to prove your innocence and maintain marital peace. I was as surprised as she was. Judy looked up the Spanish dictionary to find out the meaning of the message. It was innocent. Jenny was talking about getting rid of her love handles. I had a sigh of relief especially for Jenny’s sake.
Just as I had suspected, it was a misdirected text. While we were looking up the Spanish dictionary, my phone rang. It was Jenny. Her voice was quivering. She apologized profusely for sending those pictures to me. I allayed her anxiety and told her: “Don’t worry about it; this happens all the time; it was an innocent mistake; don’t be too hard on yourself; I just deleted them; be at peace.”
I told her about my faux pas, once sending a text message to my female boss: “Will pick you up after work and let us go for dinner first and for shopping later.” Of course, it was meant for my wife, but in my hurried, not-paying-attention-mode, I sent it to my boss. We both laughed out loud about our embarrassing electronic errors. Jenny was relieved that I didn’t mishandle the situation.
Jenny had texted the pictures to her girl friend, inviting her to go to the pool to exercise so that she can get rid of her love handles. . Since she didn’t hear back from her friend for hours, she wondered if she had gotten the message. So Jenny went back to her phone and checked and she almost fainted when she realized that the text had gone to my phone. She told me that she was sweating bullets before calling me. She was embarrassed and ashamed about sending her pictures in beach attire to a priest, especially a priest whom she had met once, who had just officiated a memorial service for her deceased husband.
The Information super highway is a good place to travel. It takes you to your destinations fast and easy. But, like any speed-way, wrecks are common and some of them can be deadly. Jenny’s was not.
It is always a good policy not to send any pictures to anybody unless it is a picture that you don’t mind the public to see. We also need to be extremely careful about what we write in our texts and emails. Unlike on a paper where we can go back and erase, correct and control, electronic transmissions, once the “send” button is clicked, are beyond your control. The unintended consequences of a hurried message or an image sent carelessly or in anger, can be unpredictable and sometimes, even dangerous.
Pay attention; be alert; take a deep breath; slow down. Take an extra second, and check twice before you click that “send” button on your electronic devices. It can save a lot of grief.
Jenny’s husband Jerry was 50 years old when he died of liver cancer. She honored him with a memorial service for his friends and family. The day after the service, I received a text from Jenny: “Thank you so much, pastor Paul for the service on Saturday. It was spiritual and touching; Jerry would have liked it.”
And I texted back: “Thank you Jenny. Glad to be able to help. I pray that God and Jerry’s angel help you move forward.”
That was it. I had moved forward.
The next day I received two photos of Jenny in bikini with a message in Spanish: Tengo q bajar los gorditos,jijiji. (I have to lose my love-handles,hahaha). My Spanish-ignorant brain thought it was something naughty.
Instantly, I showed the text and the pictures to my wife Judy, because I had nothing to hide. It is always a safe thing to do, to prove your innocence and maintain marital peace. I was as surprised as she was. Judy looked up the Spanish dictionary to find out the meaning of the message. It was innocent. Jenny was talking about getting rid of her love handles. I had a sigh of relief especially for Jenny’s sake.
Just as I had suspected, it was a misdirected text. While we were looking up the Spanish dictionary, my phone rang. It was Jenny. Her voice was quivering. She apologized profusely for sending those pictures to me. I allayed her anxiety and told her: “Don’t worry about it; this happens all the time; it was an innocent mistake; don’t be too hard on yourself; I just deleted them; be at peace.”
I told her about my faux pas, once sending a text message to my female boss: “Will pick you up after work and let us go for dinner first and for shopping later.” Of course, it was meant for my wife, but in my hurried, not-paying-attention-mode, I sent it to my boss. We both laughed out loud about our embarrassing electronic errors. Jenny was relieved that I didn’t mishandle the situation.
Jenny had texted the pictures to her girl friend, inviting her to go to the pool to exercise so that she can get rid of her love handles. . Since she didn’t hear back from her friend for hours, she wondered if she had gotten the message. So Jenny went back to her phone and checked and she almost fainted when she realized that the text had gone to my phone. She told me that she was sweating bullets before calling me. She was embarrassed and ashamed about sending her pictures in beach attire to a priest, especially a priest whom she had met once, who had just officiated a memorial service for her deceased husband.
The Information super highway is a good place to travel. It takes you to your destinations fast and easy. But, like any speed-way, wrecks are common and some of them can be deadly. Jenny’s was not.
It is always a good policy not to send any pictures to anybody unless it is a picture that you don’t mind the public to see. We also need to be extremely careful about what we write in our texts and emails. Unlike on a paper where we can go back and erase, correct and control, electronic transmissions, once the “send” button is clicked, are beyond your control. The unintended consequences of a hurried message or an image sent carelessly or in anger, can be unpredictable and sometimes, even dangerous.
Pay attention; be alert; take a deep breath; slow down. Take an extra second, and check twice before you click that “send” button on your electronic devices. It can save a lot of grief.
Monday, May 18, 2015
IT DEPENDS
During a talk at a church in Miami Lakes, two years ago, I asked a question: “Is it wrong to to be romantically involved with another person, while still being married to your spouse?
The room erupted in a collective gasp. They couldn't believe that I would ask such a question.
Slowly the group members began to respond. “The answer is Yes, that would be morally wrong” said one. “That is called adultery in my book,”said another. “Get a divorce first” another. Someone said, “It's OK if your wife gives you permission.” The consensus of the group was that it is the wrong thing to do. “Immoral, cruel, selfish, cheating” were some of the other words used to describe such a behavior.
What is your answer Paul, asked someone and I said: “It depends.”
Another gasp in the room. They couldn't believe their ears. Some of them thought I had drifted off the moral rails and fallen into a sludge of sin. You may be thinking that right now. I don't blame you, because “it depends” is at the outset, a “wishy-washy” answer. It sounds like an appallingly responsible answer when marital fidelity is in question, especially coming from a man of the cloth.
Before you judge me any further, hear me out: Let me tell you a story.
Jim and Jill were hospice patients on my team. They were residents of an Alzheimer’s unit in an Assisted Living Facility. They were among the twenty five patients living in a locked unit. They are mostly bed ridden, but sometimes they sit in their wheel chairs. They were in their early seventies and they have been diagnosed over five years. They were non-verbal but sometimes responded to a squeeze on the arm with a weak smile. They sit in their wheel chairs for hours, staring at the bare walls of the facility. Their daily routine mostly consists of three meals a day, three diaper changes and mostly sleep. One caregiver described her father as an “eating, pooping, sleeping machine.”
Alzheimers is one one hardest diseases to watch. It is a progressively degenerative disease that can be long and drawn out. As the patient goes through the ravages of the disease, it can take a huge toll on the caregivers. Alzheimers afflicts the individual patient, but affects the entire family. There is a book called The 36 hour day describing the challenges and hardships of caring for Alzheimers patients. The title says it all.
Jim and Jill had devoted spouses. Jim’s wife, Maria visited three or four times a week. She also attended the support group for spouses on Thursdays. They have been married for 54 years. Maria grieved the loss of her “amazing husband” to this “wretched disease.” Their plan of retiring together and traveling were all dashed. She felt like a crypt-widow among her couple friends, because, for all practical purposes, her husband was “dead’ but not exactly. After every visit, Maria returned to an empty home with a lonely heart.
Jill's husband, Matt is also a very devoted spouse. They have been married for 57 years. Jill had an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s at age 63. Matt took care of his wife in the house with assistance from round-the-clock aides for ten years before placing her in the Alzheimer's unit. He was not too happy to do that, but caring for his wife in the house became emotionally stressful and financially unfeasible. He would visit daily, sit next to her, holding her hands. He would talk to her tenderly, stroke her hair gently and whisper, “I love you honey” into her ears, before the parting kiss. Matt always talked about the wonderful life they had before the disease struck her.
Maria’s and Matt’s paths crossed several times while they were visiting their spouses. They attended the same support group. They were experiencing the same loss; they were fighting the same enemy; they were undergoing the same crisis; they spoke the same language; they felt the same pain; they were on the same ground; they traveled the same road; they swam in the same emotional ocean; they were in the same proverbial boat!
Their agonizing stories of loss and pain brought them together. After the support group meeting on Thursdays, they went out for coffee together; then it was dinner together and walks on the beach two miles away from Facility where their respective spouses lived.
Matt was a realist. He talked about his wife being no more present in Jill. “She is existing, not living” he told me. He must have been rationalizing to assuage any sense of guilt he might have had for being close to another woman while his wife was still alive.
Maria too had her moments of guilt but she assuaged them by thinking that if the shoe were on the other foot, her husband would not have behaved any differently than what she was doing.
On September 18, 2010, Maria’s husband died. I officiated at the funeral. Matt was at the service comforting Maria. Matt's wife, Jill, died the same year on December 3rd. She was cremated. I had the privilege of doing a memorial service for her in the club house at Matt's condo.
Few months after the death of their respective spouses, Maria sold her house and moved in with Matt.
In January 2012, I received a phone call from Matt. “Guess what chaplain Paul, Maria and I are thinking about getting married and we want you to marry us; you know our story more than anyone else.”
I was delighted that two souls had found each other again…that their common pain had brought them together and their lives—what is left of it—does not have to be lived in isolation and loneliness.
On March 18, 2012, I officiated the marriage of Matt and Maria near the Deer field Beach pier surrounded by their immediate family.
Matt was 82 and Maria was 78. While signing their marriage license, Matt and Maria might have been signing on to a new lease on their lives—and seeing the light of love again, at the end of the dark tunnel of illness, suffering, sadness and loss.
Life is very often, messy, complex and complicated. Most life situations are mired in mystery, riddled with difficult choices and pulled in different directions by competing claims and dilemmas. None of us will ever fully know what another person is going through, what challenges they are facing, what hardships they are enduring, or what pain they are experiencing. That is why Jesus said: “Do not judge and you will not be judged; Do no condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.”
Apostle Paul repeats that advise in his letter to the Romans: “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.”
I think “it depends” is a good phrase to remember when faced with the quandaries and mysteries of life.
We live in a world where, most people see life as black and white. Living in the gray area is very uncomfortable for many. They want an “yes or no” answer to their questions. “It depends” is not an acceptable answer. According to them, abortion is always wrong; gay marriage should never be allowed; it is against the sanctify of marriage. Children should have both a mother and a father. They forget that the “sanctity of marriage” is callously disgraced in 50% of cases due to divorce. They forget that 45 percent of children in this country grow up in single parent homes. They forget that King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
According to them, living in the gray area of life is being morally lax and, responding to life's questions with “it depends” is a wishy-washy approach.
If so, Jesus is the most morally lax and wishy-washy person who ever lived.
Jesus rarely gave a straightforward answer to any question. When the Pharisees asked “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” he did not say pay taxes or don't pay taxes. He asked them to bring a coin. Instead of answering yes or no, he asked them a question: “Whose portrait is it? “Cesar's,” they replied. And Jesus said: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's”-- an open answer that can be broadly interpreted.
Let us look at the story of the woman caught in adultery brought before Jesus. (John 8). The Pharisees gathered around the woman with stones in their hands, ready to stone her to death. They wanted an Yes or No answer from Jesus. If Jesus had said: “Yes, go ahead and stone her,” they could brand him a heartless, cruel man. If he had said, No, they could accuse him of not following the law.
The law is clear. Leviticus 20: 10 and Deuteronomy 22.22 says the same thing: “If a man commits adultery with another man's wife both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.”
It would have been so easy for Jesus to quote the law, answer the question and get out of there.
But, what did Jesus say: At first, he says nothing; he gives no answer. “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.” By not giving them a right or wrong answer, Jesus must have been encouraging them to think about the situation a little.
Think about why is it always the woman's fault? Why didn't they catch the man involved in this event? Where is he? How could they forget that Abram committed adultery with his maid-servant from which Ismail was born? How could they ignore that king David committed adultery with his soldier's wife and he was not stoned. How could they forget that Solomon had 700 concubines? Is this one poor woman more guilty than any of those men? Or is it because they are all men in powerful positions? There are so many questions and issues to consider before stoning a woman to death. Jesus must have been thinking about all that! Jesus was forcing the Pharisees to stretch their minds to see the facts and open their hearts towards compassion.
If you read the story, you will see that Jesus was not going to give an answer at all. But the Pharisees were persistent. When they kept on questioning him” he said to them:
“Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone...” and we know what happened. That was an “it depends answer” an answer that led to profound soul searching for the Pharisees and everyone one put their stones down and quietly left, leaving the woman alone.
The story reminds me of Pope Francis' response to the question about homosexuality. He said: “Who am I to judge? It is such a departure from his predecessor. Pope Benedict who was so sure about how bad it is. He said: “ homosexuality is intrinsically disordered.”
How about this one? While Jesus was teaching, some one asked him: (Lk: 13) “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? He did not answer that question like a Jehovah's witness. According to them only 144,000 will be saved when the rapture happens. He did not answer like an evangelical preacher. According to him, only those who believe in Jesus will be saved. This is the answer Jesus gave:
“People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.” It is a very open ended, general, wishy-washy answer. The phrase east and west, north and south, means there are no national, religious, ethnic or cultural boundaries. There are no requirements, qualifications, or credentials needed to sit at the feast in the kingdom of God.
When it comes to salvation, many people can't handle that answer. They want a clear-cut answer, a definite answer. Are you going to be saved or not? Few years ago, while discussing this issue in a Bible class, one lady said “I don't want to go a heaven where everybody else goes.” She was so sure that she was going to heaven, but her Muslim neighbor was not.
And then Jesus adds this line to the answer about people coming from east and west: “Indeed there are those who are last who will be first and first who will be last.” That is a bombshell statement that shakes the very foundation of human calculations, assumptions, presumptions and planning. We think that if we work hard, believe the right things, play by the rules, we should be rewarded. Not necessarily, it depends...
Before the crucifixion, Pilate asked a question to Jesus: “Are you the king of the Jews?” (J 18). He didn't answer yes or no. Instead, Jesus asked Pilate: “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me? Then Pilate asked: “What is it that you have done? Again, there is no clear answer from Jesus: He said:”My kingdom is not of this world? Pilate was so frustrated with Jesus that he was not answering any of this questions with a yes or a no.
At the end Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth”? He didn't even wait for an answer from Jesus, because, he knew he was not going to get one,because it is such a loaded question.
What is truth? What is the truth about life, death, life after death? What is the truth about other people's lives and what they may be going through in any particular moment? What is the truth about why people do what they do”?
We think we know, but we don't. We pass judgments based on what we think and know, but our thinking could be so off base and our knowledge could be incomplete or wrong.
Always remember that absolute answers are available only in areas science and math. For example if you add two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen you will get a molecule of water; you can do that in Australia, Alaska or Alabama, the result will be the same. Or you add 2 and 4 the result will be 4, be that in India, Indonesia or Indianapolis. By the way, I have to tell you that a friend of mine once told me that 2 and 2 does not add up to 4 always. “It depends” he said, and I asked: “How come?” And he said, “it depends if I am buying or selling. If I am buying it is 3 and if I am selling it is 4.” So, even in math, nothing is absolute!
The point is that, please know that life does not neatly fit into any scientific or mathematical formula. Life is messy and it rarely fits any precalculated patterns. Have the humility to admit that we know very little and the little we know could be wrong.
Socrates was one of the smartest philosophers of all time. His favorite saying was:
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
As disciples, we are called to be like Jesus. Thinking like Socrates is not bad either.
We are called to put on the mind of Christ? What is a Christ-like mind?
It is open, flexible, loving, gentle, generous, compassionate, non judgmental, forgiving and unconditionally loving.
Let us pray:
Lord help us to stretch our minds and hearts to the four corners of the earth to include all our brothers and sisters in our circle of concern. Make us realize that our knowledge is incomplete, our vision is limited, our opinions are biased, and our viewpoints are only views from a point. Help us resist the temptation to judge people without knowing the facts and make our hearts compassionate enough to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Inspire us to replace our narrow, limited, biased minds with the generous, flexible and non-judgmental mind of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
The room erupted in a collective gasp. They couldn't believe that I would ask such a question.
Slowly the group members began to respond. “The answer is Yes, that would be morally wrong” said one. “That is called adultery in my book,”said another. “Get a divorce first” another. Someone said, “It's OK if your wife gives you permission.” The consensus of the group was that it is the wrong thing to do. “Immoral, cruel, selfish, cheating” were some of the other words used to describe such a behavior.
What is your answer Paul, asked someone and I said: “It depends.”
Another gasp in the room. They couldn't believe their ears. Some of them thought I had drifted off the moral rails and fallen into a sludge of sin. You may be thinking that right now. I don't blame you, because “it depends” is at the outset, a “wishy-washy” answer. It sounds like an appallingly responsible answer when marital fidelity is in question, especially coming from a man of the cloth.
Before you judge me any further, hear me out: Let me tell you a story.
Jim and Jill were hospice patients on my team. They were residents of an Alzheimer’s unit in an Assisted Living Facility. They were among the twenty five patients living in a locked unit. They are mostly bed ridden, but sometimes they sit in their wheel chairs. They were in their early seventies and they have been diagnosed over five years. They were non-verbal but sometimes responded to a squeeze on the arm with a weak smile. They sit in their wheel chairs for hours, staring at the bare walls of the facility. Their daily routine mostly consists of three meals a day, three diaper changes and mostly sleep. One caregiver described her father as an “eating, pooping, sleeping machine.”
Alzheimers is one one hardest diseases to watch. It is a progressively degenerative disease that can be long and drawn out. As the patient goes through the ravages of the disease, it can take a huge toll on the caregivers. Alzheimers afflicts the individual patient, but affects the entire family. There is a book called The 36 hour day describing the challenges and hardships of caring for Alzheimers patients. The title says it all.
Jim and Jill had devoted spouses. Jim’s wife, Maria visited three or four times a week. She also attended the support group for spouses on Thursdays. They have been married for 54 years. Maria grieved the loss of her “amazing husband” to this “wretched disease.” Their plan of retiring together and traveling were all dashed. She felt like a crypt-widow among her couple friends, because, for all practical purposes, her husband was “dead’ but not exactly. After every visit, Maria returned to an empty home with a lonely heart.
Jill's husband, Matt is also a very devoted spouse. They have been married for 57 years. Jill had an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s at age 63. Matt took care of his wife in the house with assistance from round-the-clock aides for ten years before placing her in the Alzheimer's unit. He was not too happy to do that, but caring for his wife in the house became emotionally stressful and financially unfeasible. He would visit daily, sit next to her, holding her hands. He would talk to her tenderly, stroke her hair gently and whisper, “I love you honey” into her ears, before the parting kiss. Matt always talked about the wonderful life they had before the disease struck her.
Maria’s and Matt’s paths crossed several times while they were visiting their spouses. They attended the same support group. They were experiencing the same loss; they were fighting the same enemy; they were undergoing the same crisis; they spoke the same language; they felt the same pain; they were on the same ground; they traveled the same road; they swam in the same emotional ocean; they were in the same proverbial boat!
Their agonizing stories of loss and pain brought them together. After the support group meeting on Thursdays, they went out for coffee together; then it was dinner together and walks on the beach two miles away from Facility where their respective spouses lived.
Matt was a realist. He talked about his wife being no more present in Jill. “She is existing, not living” he told me. He must have been rationalizing to assuage any sense of guilt he might have had for being close to another woman while his wife was still alive.
Maria too had her moments of guilt but she assuaged them by thinking that if the shoe were on the other foot, her husband would not have behaved any differently than what she was doing.
On September 18, 2010, Maria’s husband died. I officiated at the funeral. Matt was at the service comforting Maria. Matt's wife, Jill, died the same year on December 3rd. She was cremated. I had the privilege of doing a memorial service for her in the club house at Matt's condo.
Few months after the death of their respective spouses, Maria sold her house and moved in with Matt.
In January 2012, I received a phone call from Matt. “Guess what chaplain Paul, Maria and I are thinking about getting married and we want you to marry us; you know our story more than anyone else.”
I was delighted that two souls had found each other again…that their common pain had brought them together and their lives—what is left of it—does not have to be lived in isolation and loneliness.
On March 18, 2012, I officiated the marriage of Matt and Maria near the Deer field Beach pier surrounded by their immediate family.
Matt was 82 and Maria was 78. While signing their marriage license, Matt and Maria might have been signing on to a new lease on their lives—and seeing the light of love again, at the end of the dark tunnel of illness, suffering, sadness and loss.
Life is very often, messy, complex and complicated. Most life situations are mired in mystery, riddled with difficult choices and pulled in different directions by competing claims and dilemmas. None of us will ever fully know what another person is going through, what challenges they are facing, what hardships they are enduring, or what pain they are experiencing. That is why Jesus said: “Do not judge and you will not be judged; Do no condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.”
Apostle Paul repeats that advise in his letter to the Romans: “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.”
I think “it depends” is a good phrase to remember when faced with the quandaries and mysteries of life.
We live in a world where, most people see life as black and white. Living in the gray area is very uncomfortable for many. They want an “yes or no” answer to their questions. “It depends” is not an acceptable answer. According to them, abortion is always wrong; gay marriage should never be allowed; it is against the sanctify of marriage. Children should have both a mother and a father. They forget that the “sanctity of marriage” is callously disgraced in 50% of cases due to divorce. They forget that 45 percent of children in this country grow up in single parent homes. They forget that King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
According to them, living in the gray area of life is being morally lax and, responding to life's questions with “it depends” is a wishy-washy approach.
If so, Jesus is the most morally lax and wishy-washy person who ever lived.
Jesus rarely gave a straightforward answer to any question. When the Pharisees asked “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” he did not say pay taxes or don't pay taxes. He asked them to bring a coin. Instead of answering yes or no, he asked them a question: “Whose portrait is it? “Cesar's,” they replied. And Jesus said: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's”-- an open answer that can be broadly interpreted.
Let us look at the story of the woman caught in adultery brought before Jesus. (John 8). The Pharisees gathered around the woman with stones in their hands, ready to stone her to death. They wanted an Yes or No answer from Jesus. If Jesus had said: “Yes, go ahead and stone her,” they could brand him a heartless, cruel man. If he had said, No, they could accuse him of not following the law.
The law is clear. Leviticus 20: 10 and Deuteronomy 22.22 says the same thing: “If a man commits adultery with another man's wife both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.”
It would have been so easy for Jesus to quote the law, answer the question and get out of there.
But, what did Jesus say: At first, he says nothing; he gives no answer. “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.” By not giving them a right or wrong answer, Jesus must have been encouraging them to think about the situation a little.
Think about why is it always the woman's fault? Why didn't they catch the man involved in this event? Where is he? How could they forget that Abram committed adultery with his maid-servant from which Ismail was born? How could they ignore that king David committed adultery with his soldier's wife and he was not stoned. How could they forget that Solomon had 700 concubines? Is this one poor woman more guilty than any of those men? Or is it because they are all men in powerful positions? There are so many questions and issues to consider before stoning a woman to death. Jesus must have been thinking about all that! Jesus was forcing the Pharisees to stretch their minds to see the facts and open their hearts towards compassion.
If you read the story, you will see that Jesus was not going to give an answer at all. But the Pharisees were persistent. When they kept on questioning him” he said to them:
“Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone...” and we know what happened. That was an “it depends answer” an answer that led to profound soul searching for the Pharisees and everyone one put their stones down and quietly left, leaving the woman alone.
The story reminds me of Pope Francis' response to the question about homosexuality. He said: “Who am I to judge? It is such a departure from his predecessor. Pope Benedict who was so sure about how bad it is. He said: “ homosexuality is intrinsically disordered.”
How about this one? While Jesus was teaching, some one asked him: (Lk: 13) “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? He did not answer that question like a Jehovah's witness. According to them only 144,000 will be saved when the rapture happens. He did not answer like an evangelical preacher. According to him, only those who believe in Jesus will be saved. This is the answer Jesus gave:
“People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.” It is a very open ended, general, wishy-washy answer. The phrase east and west, north and south, means there are no national, religious, ethnic or cultural boundaries. There are no requirements, qualifications, or credentials needed to sit at the feast in the kingdom of God.
When it comes to salvation, many people can't handle that answer. They want a clear-cut answer, a definite answer. Are you going to be saved or not? Few years ago, while discussing this issue in a Bible class, one lady said “I don't want to go a heaven where everybody else goes.” She was so sure that she was going to heaven, but her Muslim neighbor was not.
And then Jesus adds this line to the answer about people coming from east and west: “Indeed there are those who are last who will be first and first who will be last.” That is a bombshell statement that shakes the very foundation of human calculations, assumptions, presumptions and planning. We think that if we work hard, believe the right things, play by the rules, we should be rewarded. Not necessarily, it depends...
Before the crucifixion, Pilate asked a question to Jesus: “Are you the king of the Jews?” (J 18). He didn't answer yes or no. Instead, Jesus asked Pilate: “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me? Then Pilate asked: “What is it that you have done? Again, there is no clear answer from Jesus: He said:”My kingdom is not of this world? Pilate was so frustrated with Jesus that he was not answering any of this questions with a yes or a no.
At the end Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth”? He didn't even wait for an answer from Jesus, because, he knew he was not going to get one,because it is such a loaded question.
What is truth? What is the truth about life, death, life after death? What is the truth about other people's lives and what they may be going through in any particular moment? What is the truth about why people do what they do”?
We think we know, but we don't. We pass judgments based on what we think and know, but our thinking could be so off base and our knowledge could be incomplete or wrong.
Always remember that absolute answers are available only in areas science and math. For example if you add two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen you will get a molecule of water; you can do that in Australia, Alaska or Alabama, the result will be the same. Or you add 2 and 4 the result will be 4, be that in India, Indonesia or Indianapolis. By the way, I have to tell you that a friend of mine once told me that 2 and 2 does not add up to 4 always. “It depends” he said, and I asked: “How come?” And he said, “it depends if I am buying or selling. If I am buying it is 3 and if I am selling it is 4.” So, even in math, nothing is absolute!
The point is that, please know that life does not neatly fit into any scientific or mathematical formula. Life is messy and it rarely fits any precalculated patterns. Have the humility to admit that we know very little and the little we know could be wrong.
Socrates was one of the smartest philosophers of all time. His favorite saying was:
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
As disciples, we are called to be like Jesus. Thinking like Socrates is not bad either.
We are called to put on the mind of Christ? What is a Christ-like mind?
It is open, flexible, loving, gentle, generous, compassionate, non judgmental, forgiving and unconditionally loving.
Let us pray:
Lord help us to stretch our minds and hearts to the four corners of the earth to include all our brothers and sisters in our circle of concern. Make us realize that our knowledge is incomplete, our vision is limited, our opinions are biased, and our viewpoints are only views from a point. Help us resist the temptation to judge people without knowing the facts and make our hearts compassionate enough to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Inspire us to replace our narrow, limited, biased minds with the generous, flexible and non-judgmental mind of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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