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Category: Spiritual Life

Good Sportsmanship

Sun, July 8, 2018 Published by

You know it when you see it—good sportsmanship.  An example of good sportsmanship went viral last week when Japan suffered a 3-2 defeat in the final minute of injury time against Belgium to end their participation at the World Cup.  A team that was given little chance of advancing in the tournament reached the round of 16 and took a two-goal lead over powerful Belgium, and so the team’s sudden last-second loss left players stunned, fans speechless, and some spectators sobbing.  It was a heart-breaking way to go out but fans and players left a lasting impression of sportsmanship and courtesy in Russia.  Where fans of other teams hit the news for doing things like giving Nazi salutes, the Japanese football team bowed to their own fans in gratitude.  The players left behind a note that said “спасибо” (Russian for “thank you”) in their locker room AND they cleaned it up, leaving it looking spotless.  Despite being dealt a crushing loss, the Japanese fans gave the world a lesson in grace when they helped clean up the stadium.

After the story went viral a reader explained: “This is a part of our culture. Japanese school age children would have also done this. After a school day, they clean their classrooms. They even make their lunches in class and clean up after. Very different culture.” Another reader pointed out that UCLA’s legendary coach John Wooden expected the same of his players.  Then there was the story about the huge basketball fight that broke out at the FIBA World Cup qualifier game between the Philippines and Australia.  Players piled on top of each other as fists and chairs went flying, and one Australian player could be seen pinned under a courtside chair while being punched by a number of players from the home team.  The crowd got involved throwing bottles and booing.

When our daughter Madelyn was growing up she often participated in summer sports camps.  She particularly enjoyed gymnastics and was delighted when at the end of the week she and all the campers were presented with a trophy.  It was a nice award for a short summer experience but I’m afraid it fell short in helping her to understand sportsmanship.  Sportsmanship teaches lessons on how to lose with dignity and grace as well as how to win with humility and gratitude. Important lessons in athletics and in life.*

Only the Brave Weep

Thu, July 5, 2018 Published by

Early on in my ministry, I discovered that most people are uncomfortable with crying. I would not be able to count the number of times that someone has apologised to me for crying. “I’m sorry” they say between sobs, as though their natural reaction to their pain and loss is somehow something wrong, or a display of weakness which should be publically avoided

It wasn’t always the case that tears were seen as a sign of weakness. The bible is full of strong heroes who weep freely and very publicly. One of the greatest biblical heroes, King David, was a famous weeper. He breaks down when his best friend Jonathan is killed in battle, and he is inconsolable when his son Absalom is killed. Upon discovering that their camp had been raided by the enemy, their women and children taken captive, David and his troops “wept until there was no strength left in them to weep.” Lest the reader get the impression that this emotional outburst rendered these men helpless, the bible goes on to describe how David and his men tracked the raiders, resumed battle and returned with their wives and children.

In classical literature, the heroes of Homer’s epics are no less adept at displaying their emotions. The battle-hardened Achilles weeps bitterly when his friend Patroklos is killed, and he also has a tearful outburst when Agamemnon takes his new found love. In turn, Agamemnon’s tears flow freely, when he finally admits his mistake “weeping even as a fountain of dark water, that down over the face of a projecting cliff, poureth its dusky stream.”

Rather than seeing tears, particularly in men, as superficial and weak, these ancient sources imply the opposite. Weeping is an expression of a well-developed interior character. Words are inadequate to express the full depth and range of human feeling. Tears flow when language breaks down. When a dear friend of mine suffered a tragic and untimely death, I found language wholly inadequate to convey the full force of my feelings. To fight my tears would have been both a betrayal to myself as well as to the memory of my friend. Tears are important and necessary. Denying this most human of expressions is not always a sign of strength, but sometimes is quite the opposite. Sometimes it takes bravery to cry.*

Our Best Friends

Sun, June 24, 2018 Published by

I miss her. I miss our four-legged friend who shared our home for almost 14 years. Jasmine, our sweet Pug, was named after the Disney Princess in the movie Aladdin. We chose her from the litter because she was round and puggly and playful and she was a great dog. We recently had to bear the heartbreak of saying goodbye to Jasmine as she struggled to breathe due to collapsing trachea, a common condition for Pugs. I’m a die-hard dog lover who has always had at least one and sometimes a few companions to grow old with. Sometimes non-pet friends wonder why we do it? Why is it, that even though we know all the work and responsibility involved, even though we know we will have to bear the eventual heartbreak of watching our pets grow old, even though we know we will someday lose them altogether-why, then, do we still regard the prospect of sharing our homes with cats or dogs (or fish, or rabbits, or what have you) with such unalloyed joy? Anatole France said, “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”

We have a special bond with our pets. They unconditionally love us. Who doesn’t love opening the door from a hard day to be greeted by a happy dog or a purring kitty? Pets make us healthier and happier. They become our companions, each having their own personality and enjoying certain pleasures. Jasmine loved to find a pile of laundry or anything available and she would climb on top and rummage around in it until she found a spot to sit. She would sit in front of me and whine until I would give her another treat. She had a favorite spot under the Christmas tree. I love hearing the stories of the pets who share your homes and I share the grief and devastation you feel when you lose your special family member. Will Rogers said, “If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die then I want to go where they went.” I believe we will see our animals again in the eternity of heaven so as hard as it is when they cross that rainbow bridge I am comforted by that bond of love which is never broken.*

Living into the Fullness of Creation

Sun, June 17, 2018 Published by

Creativity, seen or unseen, is a natural part of the human condition. To not be creative is to not live into the fullness of who we are created to be. Throughout our Campus community, there are as many forms of creativity at work as there are people. We create relationships, conversations, new lives, homes, hospitality, as well as works of prose, art, music or crafts. In other words, this Campus is as much a venue for creativity as the Symphony Hall downtown.

Creativity is also often connected to personal cost. Many authors, writers, artists and musicians produce their most inspired work during difficult times.

There seems to be a profound connection between brokenness and openness in music, art and literature. Perhaps it is in the ‘telling of the tale’ that light can begin to penetrate the darkness of strain and suffering. As Leonard Cohen sang: “There is a crack… in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

In the gospels, when Mary of Bethany came to Jesus to anoint him with costly perfume, its sweet fragrance could only be released when the alabaster jar was broken. Creativity very often happens, not in spite of – but because of – brokenness. It is in going through the difficult challenges life inevitably throws at us that increases our potential for growth in our relationships and pursuits. A broken heart can become an opened heart.

As a Christian, I believe we are made in the image and likeness of God, and with that I believe  we have the ability and vocation to be co-creators with God.

Living into our creative abilities isn’t all about painting, writing or sculpting, especially when we do so with an open and enquiring heart. Eckhart Tolle reminded us that we all have the power to create something far more beautiful; “the power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment. You create a good future by creating a good present”. May we all celebrate the many unseen and unsung acts of creativity, beauty and kindness that quietly take place here in our community each and every day.*

Time to Think

Sun, June 10, 2018 Published by

“I hate my mom’s phone and I wish she never had one.”

Those are the bitter words of a seven year old girl whose teacher had asked her to name an item she wished had never been invented. Like many of her classmates, she chose the cell phone. It appears as though that girl is jealous because her mother appears so bound up in tweeting and texting and emailing that she has no time left for her, and last week her poignant reflection boomed around the internet, read no doubt by most people on their phones.

The problem is the pressure that so many of us place on time. It is too easy to view time as a commodity that needs to be exploited to the full. We can end up cramming every single second with activity so there is no space left in our lives at all. Pope Francis has invented a word for this tendency ever to increase the pace of life. He calls it rapidification. A faster pace of life means an ever greater consumption of the world’s finite resources, and so Pope Francis suggests that the pressure we are putting on time has become a critical issue for the future of the planet.

It may be that an eighth century Saint can pour some wisdom into this very contemporary conundrum. Bede was a monk who lived in the North of England around 672/3 – 735. Bede had a fascination with time. He monitored the tides, he watched the movements of the moon and stars, but Bede had a very different understanding of the purpose of time. For him time was not a commodity to fill up but a means of marking out the spaces where he could meet with God. It was a way of ensuring that life was fitted around a daily pattern of prayer and an annual calendar of seasons and festivals that told the story of Jesus. The purpose of time was to encounter the timelessness of God and, in so doing, to discover human identity.

Maybe there is something in Bede’s thinking that can help us all. Rather than seeing time as something we have to fill up and exploit to the maximum, perhaps we might begin  to see it as the space in which relationships can be fed and human purpose explored. Empty time is good time. Being with those who are close to us is time well spent. Why not lose the phone, slow down and ‘waste’ some time with the people you love.*

Sabbath Rest

Mon, June 4, 2018 Published by

As you are reading this, I will be on vacation enjoying some time with my husband and daughter before she goes off to college.  I will be doing my best to “disconnect” from the usual busyness of work and other responsibilities and I am looking forward to the Sabbath time. Scripture tells us to “Remember the Sabbath.” Remember that everything we have is a blessing.  Remember to stop and offer thanks for the wonder of life.  The assumption being that we will forget and given enough time we do.  In his book, Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest, author Wayne Muller says: “Long ago, the tradition of Sabbath created an oasis of sacred time within a life of unceasing labor.  This consecrated time is available to all of us, regardless of our spiritual tradition.  We need not even schedule an entire day each week.  Sabbath time can be a Sabbath afternoon, a Sabbath hour, a Sabbath walk.  Sabbath time is time off the wheel, time when we take our hand from the plow and allow the essential goodness of creation to nourish our souls.”  In many ways, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest.  Our society often reinforces that action and accomplishment are better than rest; that doing something is better than doing nothing.

I know that I am not good at doing nothing.  I easily become impatient when I am forced to do nothing such as when I need rest when I am sick.  Remember the Sabbath.  The body needs rest to heal from illness and from exhaustion.  Muller says, “Sabbath honors the necessary wisdom of dormancy.  If certain plant species, for example, do not lie dormant for winter, they will not bear fruit in the spring.  If this continues for more than a season, the plant begins to die.  A period of rest—in which nutrition and fertility most readily coalesce—is not simply a human psychological convenience; it is a spiritual and biological necessity.  A lack of dormancy produces confusion and erosion in the life force.  When we act from a place of deep rest, we are more capable of cultivating what the Buddhists would call right understanding, right action, and right effort.”

As the summer months begin, residents have shared with me that they are leaving for cooler climates or they are looking forward to family reunions or travel for rest and relaxation.  Some have shared that even though they will not be going anywhere to escape the heat, they will find moments of Sabbath on their morning walk, in prayer or worship or in moments of silence.  In some way, my friends, may you remember the Sabbath this summer and find restoration and renewal for your soul.*

Narnia: The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe

Tue, May 29, 2018 Published by

As a child a favorite book of mine was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis. It is an exciting, imaginative story set in another world which deals with trust, betrayal, hope, courage, sacrificial love and life after death. C.S Lewis created a world of talking animals, full of allegory and metaphor, which whether you hear the story as a child or an adult, offers us all insights into the nature of God.

Join us Monday June 4, 10:00AM in the Life Center when we will be showing the wonderful film adaptation of this tale. If you haven’t seen the movie, we hope that you will join us, and even if you have- come and see it again!

The film adaptation helps us to understand that God is not in our pocket, and God does not wait simply for us to make requests or commands. As people of faith, we believe in a God who is active and at work in our lives. At the end of the story, one of the characters watches Aslan the Lion (an allegory for Jesus) walk away into the distance and asks if she will ever see him again. She is told,

“He’ll be coming and going. One day you’ll see him and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down – and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”

Although within, God is also set apart from our comparatively safe world. God works in ways beyond our sight and comprehension. C.S Lewis has a wonderful way of taking complex theological points, and speaking to them in ways which we can all appreciate. When the children in the story first hear that Aslan is a lion they are concerned and ask, ‘Is he safe?’

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good, I tell you.”

God is neither tame nor safe, but God is good, and in this tale we are given many other insights into our relationship with God and the nature of God.

As we look around our world and see the darkness of war, areas of poverty and other world-wide problems – this tale reminds us to trust in our God who is good, our God who is neither ‘safe’ nor ‘tame’. We are reminded to look forward, in the hope that we have the courage to take risks, to make changes, to show God’s love and so to bring forward God’s kingdom in this world.

Hope is What Makes Us Strong

Mon, March 12, 2018 Published by

Last week, we hosted a special guest, The Very Rev. Tracey Lind, who came to speak about the spiritual insights and lessons she has gained from a life complicated by dementia. Tracey is a newly retired episcopal priest who for the last 17 years served as Dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland. On Nov. 8, 2016, Tracey was diagnosed with early stage Frontotemporal Dementia. In what some might consider a cruel twist of fate, the type of FTD Lind has, Primary Progressive Aphasia, affects the neurons in the part of the brain that involves communication and language. The woman who in 2004 wrote and published the book “Interrupted by God,” who wrote and delivered weekly sermons for nearly three decades, who could converse and joke as easily with a homeless woman as with a corporate CEO, was going to be robbed, gradually, of her ability to write, read, speak and understand what others are saying. As she spoke it was clear that the deep and abiding faith that has inspired this gifted preacher and teacher throughout her life continues to sustain her as she meets the challenges of the years ahead supported by her wife of 18 years. Tracey’s message was filled with honesty, courage, faith, and hope.

At lunch Tracey shared with us a blog she is writing using the story of Pandora’s box and how she had found new meaning in it. Of course, Pandora is well recognized as the Greek mythical character, the first woman, created by Zeus. Upon her creation, the gods gave her many gifts – beauty, charm, wit, artistry, and cunning; the last gift was curiosity. Included with the gifts was a box, which she was told to emphatically, “Never open the box.” She even hid the box deep in the ground but the pull of curiosity was too strong. Finally, she could hold back no longer, she lifted the lid, and out flew all the evils of the world, such as toil, illness and despair. That’s how most of us remember the end of the story, but wait, at the bottom of the box, the last creature that she let loose was HOPE. Pandora’s last words were: “HOPE is what makes us strong. It is why we are here. It is what we fight with when all else is lost.” The Very Rev. Tracey has preached about hope for years and now she is living it out in a new way. The diagnosis hasn’t stopped her from fully immersing in what life has to offer — and what she has to give.

Words of Wisdom

Mon, January 22, 2018 Published by

Some words of wisdom brought to us today by Dr. Bob Moorhead, a former pastor who wrote a collection of essays, prayers and homilies titled, “Words Aptly Spoken.” Here is his essay, “The Paradox of Our Age.”

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.

Remember to spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent. Remember, to say, ‘I love you’ to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.  And always remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by those moments that take our breath away.

A Future Not Our Own

Mon, January 8, 2018 Published by

Oscar A. Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, in El Salvador, was assassinated on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in a small chapel in a cancer hospital where he lived. He had always been close to his people, preached a prophetic gospel, denouncing the injustice in his country and supporting the development of popular and mass organizations. He became the voice of the Salvadoran people when all other channels of expression had been crushed by the repression.  A prayer was composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw for a celebration of departed priests that continues to be used on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Bishop Romero.  I think it is a powerful prayer as we start a new year.  It reminds us that we plant the seeds of future promise but our vision is limited and we cannot do everything but we can do something.

It helps now and then to step back and take a long view.

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction

of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of

saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives include everything.

This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one

day will grow. We water the seeds already planted

knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of

liberation in realizing this.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,

a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s

grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the

difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not

messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

In 2018, may we be about planting seeds and laying foundations trusting that the Lord’s grace will enter and do the rest.

The Gate of the Year

Fri, January 5, 2018 Published by

As the clamor of the holiday season has faded once more into hopefully happy memories of light and joy, we turn now and look to the future, as we step into the New Year of 2018.

There are many special days for us individually which cause us to pause and reflect on what has happened in our lives and what may be yet to come, but as we hang our new calendars on our walls and try to remember to write 2018 in our check books, we have a chance to collectively contemplate as we celebrate.

Looking back over 2017 we can remember both times of celebration and times of sadness and difficulty. Thinking firstly of celebrations, 2017 marked 500 years since the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, with events demonstrating unity within the Christian family of faith, while recognizing the contributions of Martin Luther and his fellow reformers. 2017 was also the year during which global measles deaths dropped below 100,000 for the first time – an 84% fall since 2000, and while after starting the season with odds at 15/1, the Houston Astros won the World Series for the first time.

Unfortunately, as well as being able to reflect joyfully on these and many other events, many of us will also be reflecting on how our lives have been touched by sadness this year on a personal level and on a global scale. During 2017 conflicts in the Middle-East continued to add to the largest humanitarian and refugee crisis since WW2, and the people around the world mourned together for the loss of lives in the Las Vegas mass-shooting and as a result of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

As we step in to 2018 we may ponder to ourselves what news the next twelve months will bring both in our own lives and in the wider world. Amid our wonder and our apprehension, perhaps we should greet 2018 with the words of this poem by M. L. Haskins in our hearts and minds;

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.”

May our New Year bring us closer to God, who walks beside us on our pilgrimage of life, and a Happy New Year to you all.

Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914

Tue, December 26, 2017 Published by

Over a century later, the story of the Christmas truce of 1914 has been remembered as a testament to the power of hope and humanity in a truly dark hour of history.  I share the story with you as written by Naina Bajekal in TIME magazine on December 24, 2014.

On a crisp, clear morning 100 years ago, thousands of British, Belgian and French soldiers put down their rifles, stepped out of their trenches and spent Christmas mingling with their German enemies along the Western front. In the hundred years since, the event has been seen as a kind of miracle, a rare moment of peace just a few months into a war that would eventually claim over 15 million lives. But what actually happened on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of 1914 — and did they really play soccer on the battlefield? Pope Benedict XV, who took office that September, had originally called for a Christmas truce, an idea that was officially rejected. Yet it seems the sheer misery of daily life in the cold, wet, dull trenches was enough to motivate troops to initiate the truce on their own — which means that it’s hard to pin down exactly what happened. A huge range of differing oral accounts, diary entries and letters home from those who took part make it virtually impossible to speak of a “typical” Christmas truce as it took place across the Western front. To this day historians continue to disagree over the specifics: no one knows where it began or how it spread, or if, by some curious festive magic, it broke out simultaneously across the trenches. Nevertheless, some two-thirds of troops — about 100,000 people — are believed to have participated in the legendary truce.

Most accounts suggest the truce began with carol singing from the trenches on Christmas Eve, “a beautiful moonlit night, frost on the ground, white almost everywhere”, as Pvt. Albert Moren of the Second Queens Regiment recalled, in a document later rounded up by the New York Times. Graham Williams of the Fifth London Rifle Brigade described it in even greater detail:

“First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words Adeste Fideles. And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing—two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.”

The next morning, in some places, German soldiers emerged from their trenches, calling out “Merry Christmas” in English. Allied soldiers came out warily to greet them. In others, Germans held up signs reading “You no shoot, we no shoot.” Over the course of the day, troops exchanged gifts of cigarettes, food, buttons and hats. The Christmas truce also allowed both sides to finally bury their dead comrades, whose bodies had lain for weeks on “no man’s land,” the ground between opposing trenches.

The phenomenon took different forms across the Western front. One account mentions a British soldier having his hair cut by his pre-war German barber; another talks of a pig-roast. Several mention impromptu kick-abouts with makeshift soccer balls, although, contrary to popular legend, it seems unlikely that there were any organized matches. The truce was widespread but not universal. Evidence suggests that in many places firing continued — and in at least two a truce was attempted but soldiers attempting to fraternize were shot by opposing forces.  And of course, it was only ever a truce, not peace. Hostilities returned, in some places later that day and in others not until after New Year’s Day. “I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence,” one veteran from the Fifth Batallion the Black Watch, Alfred Anderson, later recalled to The Observer. “It was a short peace in a terrible war.” As the Great War resumed, it wreaked such destruction and devastation that soldiers became hardened to the brutality of the war. While there were occasional moments of peace throughout the rest of World War I, they never again came on the scale of the Christmas truce in 1914. To mark the centenary back in 2014, Prince William unveiled a memorial on Dec. 12: a metal frame representing a soccer ball, with two hands clasped inside it, and a week later, inspired by the events of the truce, the British and German army soccer teams played a friendly match. And though the Christmas Truce may have been a one-off in the conflict, the fact that it remains so widely commemorated speaks to the fact that at its heart it symbolizes a very human desire for peace, no matter how fleeting.

Love Showed Up

Mon, August 21, 2017 Published by

How could I believe my eyes?  Men and women- many of them young adults -embroiled in violence – state troopers behind armor- pictures of swastika emblazed-confederate flags- wherever I turned on TV – internet -airwaves- the same scene bombarded me.  Is this the democracy, land of the free and home of the brave, where I grew up singing about our “sweet land of liberty”?

A kaleidoscope of emotions engulfed me: anger, agony, fear, aching for the victims.  I yearned to share my feelings.  On the internet, I read that many communities were already planning prayer vigils, most to be Sunday evening, August 12.  Late Saturday night I decided to email a few resident friends who hold concerns similar to mine about shifting values and priorities for our nation. I invited then to join me Sunday evening at 6:00 for a time of reflection and prayer. Sunday morning I notified our Spiritual Life staff about my intentions, and Chaplain Andrew Moore announced the vigil at our Campus Vesper Service. During that service Chaplain Andrew used this prayer, which speaks of our desire to overcome evil with love.

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us

through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole

human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which

infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us;

unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and

confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in

your good time, all nations and races may serve you in

harmony around your heavenly throne. Amen.

At 6:00PM on that Sunday evening, nine residents gathered to share reactions and seek guidance in responding thoughtfully to the terror in Charlottesville. Barbara Glenn read to us a message just received from Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray. She was the minister of the Unitarian-Universalist Congregation of Phoenix until her election in June as national president of this denomination. Here is a portion of that email entitled “Love Showed Up Today in Charlottesville.”

‘Today was a tragic day. We came to Charlottesville to bear peaceful witness but were met with hate and racist violence. My heart has been broken, and I am deeply troubled by what is happening in this community and cross this country. This morning faith leaders went to Emancipation  Park to block the entrance and prevent the Unite the Right rally from taking place. The message was clear – to stand with the community to say that hate has no place here.  The white nationalist protesters we faced chanted Nazi slogans between sexist and homophobic slurs. And they had automatic weapons, paramilitary uniforms, and clubs….They had their guns and shields.  We had our songs, our faith, our love. And we had each other.’

And here on this campus we have each other. Our reactions to changes in this nation will vary.  As we respond to the steady stream of “breaking news,”  may we seek to understand divergent views.  May our love for justice and peace leave no room for hate.

 

Guest Author this week is Rev. Dosia Carlson, Beatitudes Campus Resident
Liaison is Rev. Andrew Moore, Associate Chaplain of Spiritual Life

When God is Too Good

Sun, July 9, 2017 Published by

We are half way through our bible study on the Book of Jonah, which most know a bit about as the man who got swallowed by a whale for three days, but the rest of his story isn’t so well known.  Jonah is one of my favorites out of the minor prophets.  (Minor meaning it’s a small book with four chapters but it’s no less important than Isaiah with 66 chapters).  Jonah is a story that speaks of the meaning of grace and God’s purposes and our motivations.  Jonah is called to go to preach repentance to the Ninevites—the hated foreigners, the religiously incorrect, the racially impure, the decidedly unchosen.  And frankly, Jonah was angry about taking a message of hope and deliverance for them.  Frederick Buechner says that at the moment God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, the expression on Jonah’s face was that of a man who has just gotten a whiff of trouble in his septic tank.  “Anywhere, Lord, anywhere, but Nineveh!” Far from wanting the Ninevites to get saved, nothing would have pleased him more than to see them get what they deserved, what they had coming to them.  So Jonah decides to book it out of there and gets on a boat to go literally to the farthest reaches of the sea.  Fast forward, and a little meditation time in the belly of the fish provides the motivation for Jonah to reconsider.

Jonah still reluctantly goes and preaches his sermon of eight words, shortest sermon ever (we all love a good short sermon don’t we?!), “Yet, forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”  In the depths of his soul, Jonah believes that the Ninevites won’t change and he relishes the thought of their destruction, but he was surprised when the entire city repented from the king down to the lowest peasant and even the animals!  They promise to shape up and God decides to be gracious to them and bless them and Jonah is furious; he is seething.  He lets God have it: “You see God!  I knew all along you wouldn’t go through with it.  I knew you’d go soft, you’re too good—all gracious and merciful.  You think they’re really going to change?!  I’d rather die than live so take my life!”  History tells us the Assyrians (Ninevites) were brutal and violent.  Despite this, God sends them a word of redemption and grace through Jonah.  God counters their torturous behavior with grace and mercy.  How do we respond to acts of violence—with grace and mercy?  The lesson of the “wideness of God’s mercy” is a lesson most of us, most of the world, most of the church, has yet to learn.  We want God to be merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love when it comes to our own sins, but God don’t be too good to those others.  They deserve to get theirs!  God has an awesome sense of forgiveness.  There is more to God than we can or ever will understand.  To me there is great hope and promise in believing that.

What’s Your Ikigai?

Mon, June 26, 2017 Published by

Donald F. Fausel
Nov. 22, 1929 – June 12, 2017

For this article, I’d like to share one written by Dr. Don Fausel, one of our residents who passed away last week.  Don was a man of great insight and wisdom which you will find as you read his thoughts on “What’s Your Ikigai?”—Peggy R.

“It’s never been easy to be a human being! We have always had to wrestle with strong and painful fears. Now, if we face ourselves honestly, or if we merely eavesdrop on the secret murmurings of our heart, isn’t this what we discover—that one of our basic fears, the fear beneath many fears, is the dread of being nothing, of having no real importance, no lasting worth, no purpose in life.  It is precisely to this fear of being nobody, having no worth, that our Judeo-Christian-Humanitarian ethic reminds us that our basic value is not something we achieve in competition with everyone else, but something we gratefully accept along with everyone else. We need not become important, we are important. We need not become somebody, we are somebody. No matter what others may say or think about us, or do to us, we are somebody.

As we grow older and become less able to function physically or mentally as we did in our younger years, we need to remind ourselves, that we are still somebody, with the same dignity and worth, with the same God-given inalienable rights. Sometimes, when we’re not able to do a lot of the things we used to do, when our body is failing us and our short term memory is not as good as our long term memory, it’s hard for us to accept the fact that we are somebody worthwhile. That’s why it’s particularly important for us Elders to periodically ask ourselves, what is my purpose in life?

Several years ago, I discovered a Japanese word that captures the importance of having a positive attitude and purpose in our life. The word is Ikigai, (pronounced ee-ki-guy) the Japanese word used to describe why I get up in the morning, what my sense of purpose is. I love the word Ikigai! I like saying it! I like writing it! Ikigai, Ikigai! I think it was the beginning of my interest in happiness. I realized if you don’t have an Ikigai, you’re not going to be happy. I was even more impressed with the origin of the word and its application for us elders. Researchers have identified what they call Blue Zones. These are areas throughout the world with a high percentage of centenarians; places where people enjoy remarkably long full lives. Their lives are not only longer, but physically and mentally, they are more active than elders in other areas of the world. National Geographic’s, Dan Buettner, has traveled the globe to uncover the best strategies for longevity found in these Blue Zones. One of those areas is the Japanese island of Okinawa. It was there that he discovered that one of the characteristics for a long healthy life was having an Ikigai. To a resident of Okinawa, Ikigai can be anything from tending their vegetable garden, taking care of great grandchildren, to walking and exercising every day. Whatever it is that motivated them to remain involved, they give credit to their Ikigai. After years of research Dan Buettner concludes:

“One of the biggest revolutions in thought in our time is the changing of emphasis from physical health to mental health in connection to longevity. The effects of negative stress and ‘inflammation’ are cited more and more frequently as the cause of early death and lowered quality of life. One of the most important methods for counteracting that is Ikigai, a sense of purpose. … Ikigai is something that brings joy and contentment. It fills a person with resolve and a sense of satisfaction in what they are doing. Most of all, it brings happiness.”

In our own way, we need to seriously consider identifying our own Ikigai. We need to know and follow our values, passions and talents–and to share them by example, on a regular basis. It might be by living our lives, with our physical and mental restrictions, as a legacy for our grandchildren or great grandchildren, or showing compassion for those in need, who are less fortunate than we are. Whatever we choose to do, it’s our Ikigai. So what is it that gives your life a sense of worth? What gets you out of bed in the morning? Since I retired, my major Ikigai for the past five years or so has been writing. To paraphrase the French philosopher, Descartes, “I write, therefore I am!” What’s your Ikigai?

Off To Chicago!

Mon, June 5, 2017 Published by

As you read this article, Chaplain Andrew and I will be in Chicago at the 7th International Conference on Aging and Spirituality which began in Canberra, Australia in 2000 and until the 2015 Conference, all were held in countries of the British Commonwealth: Australia, New Zealand, England and Scotland.  This is the second time it will be held in the United States and Andrew and I are excited to attend. These conferences include voices from many parts of the world, voices from the domains of the academic and the aging services, voices from various faith traditions and voices representing the “spiritual, but not religious,” and they include a mixture of keynote speakers, workshops and papers of interest to those coming from a faith based approach and to those approaching spirituality from a secular viewpoint.

We will be meeting at the historic campus of Concordia University, Chicago which has a Center for Gerontology (the study of aging and older adults). The conference theme is “Transition and Transcendence: Transforming Aging through Spirituality.” Together we will explore navigating the transitions of aging, how transcendence is experienced in times of change, and how the experience of aging and our understanding of it can be transformed. “How do we, as persons who are growing older ourselves and who serve older adults, encourage ourselves and encourage them to find the spiritual paths and practices that will sustain them – and us – through hard change and loss?  And how does our spirituality help us to move from focusing on our own needs and pains to seeing ourselves as part of a wider world, where, in spite of limitations, there is still much we can offer and needs we can meet? How do we engage the wider cultures in which we live in conversation about the possibilities and promises of aging in the midst of all these transitions? In short, how can we harness the power of the spirit available to all of us to transform aging wherever we live?”

It is exciting that Andrew is one of the presenters speaking on: “The Road Goes Ever On – Viewing Aging As A Step On Our Spiritual Pilgrimage.” In his presentation, Andrew will be using the experiences of many people here at the Campus to demonstrate how beneficial it is to see aging not as a dilemma, but rather as an essential and beneficial part of our life-long quest for self-understanding and spiritual growth.

Having never been to Chicago, I am looking forward to seeing new sights and learning new insights.  Plus, I’ve heard they have some pretty good pizza!  Look for a future article in which we will share about our experience.

*By the way, the word “ageing” in the title is not a typo.  The Conference comes from other parts of the world, where they spell it as “ageing” rather than how we spell it here in the United States – “aging.”

A Place for the Tiger

Mon, March 13, 2017 Published by

While he was in prison, St. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus because they were quarreling with one another.  They were allowing their lives to be ruled by anger.  Here’s what he said:

Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.   Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life. Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.

Sometimes we feel we should never be angry, we should repress our true feelings. However, when we do that, our anger continues to simmer within us and ultimately festers or blows up and can be destructive.  Avoidance of conflict makes room for the devil.  Anger is a natural part of our emotional makeup as humans.  The scriptures record God becoming angry 375 times in the Old Testament and we know that Jesus got angry as well.  He was angry when the scribes and Pharisees were watching to see if He would heal the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day (Mark 3:5).  He was terribly and majestically angry when he made a whip and drove the moneychangers out of the temple. (John 2:13-17).

Paul gives specific and practical guidelines for dealing with anger.  He says, “Be angry!” emphasizing that anger itself is not a sin.  Then Paul adds do not let the sun go down on your anger. Plutarch tells us that the disciples of the philosopher Pythagoras, had a rule of their society, that if during the day, anger had made them speak insultingly to each other, before the sun set they shook hands and kissed each other, and were reconciled.  Sometimes we are called to be angry.  The world would have lost much without the blazing anger of William Wilberforce against the slave trade, and of Anthony Ashley Cooper, later named Lord known as the Great Reformer for his work to end the horrible conditions in which men, women and children worked in the 19th century.   If Martin Luther King had not been angry at racism, the civil rights movement might not have flourished. If Gandhi had not been angry at oppression, India’s independence might not have happened. Anger, channeled in a positive way, can be a catalyst for change.  The famous writer Dr. Samuel Johnson was once asked to temper the harshness and anger in a book he was about to publish.  His answer to that request was that “he would not cut off his claws, nor make his tiger a cat, to please anybody.”  There is a place for the tiger in life; and when the tiger becomes a tabby cat, something is lost.

 

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Mon, March 6, 2017 Published by

Rain is almost always welcomed here in the Valley, but that is not always the case elsewhere. In December 1944, General George Patton, commander of the American Third Army, was staring out of his window at the rain. For three months the constant deluge had been hampering operations. Tanks had been getting stuck in mud. Morale had been getting low, and everything depended on the weather. Suddenly, Patton had a brainwave. He called up the Catholic chaplain. “This is General Patton; do you have a prayer for good weather?” he asked. Within an hour Fr. James H. O’Neil had written his own prayer and delivered it personally to the General. “Have 250,000 copies printed,” barked Patton, “and see to it that every man in the Third Army gets one.”

Now, far be it from me to disagree with such distinguished theological company as General Patton, but I don’t think prayer works like this. It’s not about lobbying the almighty, nor is prayer an alternative way of getting things done in the world by cozying up to the divine. In contrast to this approach, perhaps Mother Teresa of Calcutta had it exactly right: “Prayer is not asking” she insisted. “Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”

The problem with General Patton’s approach to prayer is that it was all about him getting what he wanted. For him, in that instance, prayer was an extension of his will, a way of giving his own desire a metaphysical boost. But as, Mother Teresa reminds us, this is the precise opposite of what prayer is. Indeed, the point of prayer is for the “I” to get out of the way so that another voice can be heard. The art of prayer is not the art of more powerful speech but the art of more attentive listening.

For those of you who are wondering what happened to the rain, Patton’s prayer was issued to the troops between the 12th and 14th of December. A week later, the rain stopped, and on Christmas Eve the General awarded his Chaplain a Bronze Star medal.

Amongst other things, bad weather has called people to prayer since the very beginnings of human history. Perhaps that is because uncontrollable weather is one of the things that continually reminds us of the disturbing truth- we are not ultimately in control of everything. But remember; sincere prayer is about learning to deal with that and not simply a way to change it.