The following is a link to a video/musical presentation inspired by the life of Albert Schweitzer. Very inspiring. God bless!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTf3G3S6UZI
Grace and Peace,
Mike
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Fields of Athenry
Check this out. A friend got me hooked on this group, and particularly this song.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9InnXP64To
Mike+
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9InnXP64To
Mike+
Call and Response
The other morning, while sitting on my back porch enjoying a time of prayer, I noticed a call and response sound coming from the nearby woods--whether it was the sound of insects or birds I am not skilled enough to know. As one call would crescendo, then diminish, the other (bird or insect) would start up and follow the same sound pattern in response. When this sound ran its course, the other would response. This went on for the entire time of my prayers, forming a rhythmic pattern of call and response. It occurred to me that this is the nature of prayer. Too often, we see prayer as a one-way conversation rather than an ongoing rhythmic call and response throughout life. Perhaps this is what St. Paul meant when he spoke of unceasing prayer. Just a thought, but try listening!
Mike+
Mike+
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Perspective
I was visiting with a member of my congregation today when she related a story to me, the insight of which, was deeply profoud. A number of years ago, while with another member of the congregation on a youth outing at a retreat center and surrounded by the beauty of the hills of West Virginia, she couldn't help noticing how smudged and dirty the glass door of the center was. As she was thinking about this "problem", her friend remarked how beautiful the scenery was. Both were gazing through the same door. One saw the beauty and the other saw the smudges. She said, that was a lesson she has carried with her these many years. What's your perspective? It will make all the difference in the world.
Mike+
Mike+
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Please Don't Pull Up that Sunflower
Last summer I was leading a work team in a community home rehabilitation mission. It was the last stop of a long and hard day when we came to the home of an elderly woman needing some light lawn work done. We were weeding and mulching her flower garden. Beneath the bird feeder there had sprung up a volunteer sunflower. The woman of the house told me to just pull it up, it was just a volunteer. That year I had gone through some particularly difficult circumstances in my life and I had come to learn the sometimes some wonderful and beautiful unexpected blessings spring up in places and from sources we least expect. The lesson of this volunteer sunflower had not been lost to me. I asked the woman if we could leave it, explaining my observation. She said to me words to the effect, "Preacher, if you want it to stay there, then I'll keep it." I drove by a couple of more time that season and watched as that sunflower grew and flourished. Don't let its lesson be lost in your life. Look for life's unexpected blessings which can bloom and blossom even in difficult or completely unexpected circumstances.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Reflections on the Kingdom of God
There is much misunderstanding regarding the central Gospel concept of the Kingdom of God. For most, the Kingdom of God is a static and future reality linked to the popular understanding of Heaven. In fact, St. Matthew's gospel does prefer the term Kingdom of Heaven, but as any parallel analysis of the usages of "the Kingdom of Heaven" in St. Matthew with "the Kingdom of God" in St. Mark and St. Luke demonstrates, these terms are synonymous. St. Matthew, who is is presumed wrote to a predominately Jewish audience, chose the Jewish practice of refraining from using the term "God" in favor of a euphemism, "Heaven". Dr. George Lamsa, the noted Aramaic scholar of the last century, has demonstrated convincingly that the writers of the Gospels intend us to understand the Kingdom of God in dynamic and immediate terms. Thus, the Kingdom of God is not just a future reality, but a present one as well, which of course, was the announcement by Jesus in the first place. (In Matthew 10:7, Jesus commissions his disciples to go and preach, "The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.". Further, many of Jesus' parables treated the reality of the coming Kingdom.) So, the Kingdom of God is not a place, but a reality waiting to be born--to overtake the present order of creation. Jesus indicates this in his famed words from Luke 17:20b-21 when he says, "The Kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among [the word among is derived from the Greek word "entos" meaning within/inside/in the midst of]. This envisions the Kingdom of God as an inner, spiritual reality.
What we have established is that the Kingdom of God is a dynamic inner reality which, when properly apprehended, manifests outwardly in creation. At the same time, this reality reflects the fullness of God's sovereignty over creation and is also bearing down in human history from outside of it. These two pressures are being exerted simultaneously, which is what St. Paul meant when he said (Romans 8: 19) "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; . . ." Thus, the Kingdom of God manifests first and foremost within human consciousness, which gets at how it is that the kingdom of God is within, as Jesus indicated in Luke 17:20b-21 (which we previously saw). It is a living and Divine reality we become consciously aware of, which, at the same time, compells us toward transformational living. In short, we elect (as we are drawn by the Holy Spirit) to participate in the Kingdom of God in advance of its full revelation known as the return of Christ.
As to the posture of ourselves and the world to this living reality, one can liken it to magnetic forces. As we learn in childhood about magnets, we know that the same poles repell and the opposite poles of the magnet attract. So it is with the Kingdom of God. When we place ourselves as god in our lives and over our experience, we create a false, but similarly charged pole which finds itself repelled by the True God, who is the creator of all. Our "godness" can only be expressed in duality--that is to say, separateness. This false god of self is situated within the human ego and recreates a universe where it alone reigns in isolation and over an above all else. The difficulty is, not only that this false god of self is not true, but the ego leads us away from the true purpose for which we were created (to be in union with the Creator for eternity). Thus, these two poles, claiming the same charge repell one another. Jesus, perhaps, had this in mind when he said in St. John 3: 3, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above" [i.e., has experienced a spiritual transformation of consciousness which orients one toward the kingdom of God].
By contrast, when we recognize that while we bear the image of the Creator, we are not yet in perfect union with the Creator, therefore we become an opposite pole which is magnetically attracted to God. Thus, when the kingdom of God is brought to bear, we are drawn to it. We have, in essence, turned away from our false identity as God and separate from God, and have turned toward God and the God's Kingdom and ultimate Divine unity. This turning [in Hebrew, shub; and in Greek, metanoia-both of which are translated repent or repentance] is the very act of turning away from the false god of the ego toward the true God, who is the One Divine Creator of all. So, Christ's invitation to the Kingdom of God is still his call to all of us in our day to a level of authentic awareness and Higher Consciousness, as we seek to be in union with the purposes of God for Creation. Let us join with Christ in both working for and praying that God's "Kingdom may come and God's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Amen, indeed.
What we have established is that the Kingdom of God is a dynamic inner reality which, when properly apprehended, manifests outwardly in creation. At the same time, this reality reflects the fullness of God's sovereignty over creation and is also bearing down in human history from outside of it. These two pressures are being exerted simultaneously, which is what St. Paul meant when he said (Romans 8: 19) "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; . . ." Thus, the Kingdom of God manifests first and foremost within human consciousness, which gets at how it is that the kingdom of God is within, as Jesus indicated in Luke 17:20b-21 (which we previously saw). It is a living and Divine reality we become consciously aware of, which, at the same time, compells us toward transformational living. In short, we elect (as we are drawn by the Holy Spirit) to participate in the Kingdom of God in advance of its full revelation known as the return of Christ.
As to the posture of ourselves and the world to this living reality, one can liken it to magnetic forces. As we learn in childhood about magnets, we know that the same poles repell and the opposite poles of the magnet attract. So it is with the Kingdom of God. When we place ourselves as god in our lives and over our experience, we create a false, but similarly charged pole which finds itself repelled by the True God, who is the creator of all. Our "godness" can only be expressed in duality--that is to say, separateness. This false god of self is situated within the human ego and recreates a universe where it alone reigns in isolation and over an above all else. The difficulty is, not only that this false god of self is not true, but the ego leads us away from the true purpose for which we were created (to be in union with the Creator for eternity). Thus, these two poles, claiming the same charge repell one another. Jesus, perhaps, had this in mind when he said in St. John 3: 3, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above" [i.e., has experienced a spiritual transformation of consciousness which orients one toward the kingdom of God].
By contrast, when we recognize that while we bear the image of the Creator, we are not yet in perfect union with the Creator, therefore we become an opposite pole which is magnetically attracted to God. Thus, when the kingdom of God is brought to bear, we are drawn to it. We have, in essence, turned away from our false identity as God and separate from God, and have turned toward God and the God's Kingdom and ultimate Divine unity. This turning [in Hebrew, shub; and in Greek, metanoia-both of which are translated repent or repentance] is the very act of turning away from the false god of the ego toward the true God, who is the One Divine Creator of all. So, Christ's invitation to the Kingdom of God is still his call to all of us in our day to a level of authentic awareness and Higher Consciousness, as we seek to be in union with the purposes of God for Creation. Let us join with Christ in both working for and praying that God's "Kingdom may come and God's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Amen, indeed.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
A Lesson from the Blackberry Bush
Last summer I was picking black berries in the nearby woods. As I set out I recalled the warnings my late grandfather always gave me. He would say something to the effect of, "Watch out for poisonous snakes. They like to stay around the berry bushes." I remembered that warning and then thought a little bit about my life. I thought to myself, "What is worse than being bitten by a poisonous snake while picking blackberries?" The answer was clear to me: to have never tasted the sweetness of the blackberry to begin with. Since then I have resolved that anything truly worth experiencing--love, life, happiness, etc.--is worth risking for. The greater tragedy would be to let fear hold us so captive that we are afraid to experience life in all of its beauty and fullness. Living is worth the risk of pain and suffering--it has to be! It all lay in the road to happiness. I have come to see that everything is a gift. Even the brokenness. If we can offer this up in faith, God can create a beautiful mosaic from the shards and fragments of our lives.
Such a view does not excuse senseless suffering, rather it defies it. To stand firmly in the face of meaninglessness with an audacious hope is to refuse to let evil and darkness win. We forge our own meaning from the world's meaninglessness and randomness. This is what it means to risk for the sake of living. The journey continues. . . .
Dr. Mike
Such a view does not excuse senseless suffering, rather it defies it. To stand firmly in the face of meaninglessness with an audacious hope is to refuse to let evil and darkness win. We forge our own meaning from the world's meaninglessness and randomness. This is what it means to risk for the sake of living. The journey continues. . . .
Dr. Mike
Sunday, April 19, 2009
You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover
Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk
This is the video of Susan Boyle, the phenon from Britain's Got Talent that has been all over the news lately. It reminds us, "If you judge a book by its cover, not only are you foolish, but you are going to get exactly what you deserve." Watch this and be inspired.
Grace and Peace,
Dr. Mike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk
This is the video of Susan Boyle, the phenon from Britain's Got Talent that has been all over the news lately. It reminds us, "If you judge a book by its cover, not only are you foolish, but you are going to get exactly what you deserve." Watch this and be inspired.
Grace and Peace,
Dr. Mike
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