Universal Family: Recent Episodes
Jeff Wattles
A spiritual, religious, and philosophical podcast . . . presenting a philosophy of living in truth, beauty, and goodness . . . centered on the concept that we are all brothers and sisters in the universal family of God.
I've been on a quest to live--and write about--loving God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Yesterday I sent to my editor friend a revised section on strength. She discovered weaknesses in it. It didn't take long for me to realize (this is a pattern) that she had uncovered a fresh, hungry need for my growth. After sleeping on the problem, I woke up with a breakthrough. Of course it takes longer to form the habit and acquire the virtue. But here is an indication of what I've begun to form my habit around.
The faith of a little child not only enables us to join the kingdom family of God. It also continues to guide us as we progress. Jesus's teachings and interactions on this theme are each marked by a wonderful simplicity. And these teachings in their variety touch on several concepts that are part of the whole truth of faith.
A 21-year-old computer whiz liked the concept of the wonderfulness within but not the concept of the spirit of God within. He finds God through Edmund Husserl's phenomenological philosophy of religious experience.
After acknowledging the failure of an experiment in the last class meeting (falling across the finish line), I summarize a five-week class, "The Journey from Easter to Pentecost." Then I distinguish garden-variety spiritual experience from the taste-and-see variety.
In this class, I check people's driver's licence to make sure that everyone is over 75. Jesus called Lazarus to LIFE: "Lazarus, come forth!" He's calling you to share his original message, "[Your name], come forth!"
Here's a six-step process for cooperating with divine transformation in recycling that which is unbeautiful in us.
"Happy mourning" sounds like a paradox. Let's probe: mourning for past, present, future, for self and others, extreme affliction and daily sensitivity and responsiveness to human need.
Jesus is the model for leaders who make provision for their mission to continue after their death.
When Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the last time, he both communicated that he was on a mission of peace and was also militant in some of his words and deeds. How is one to make sense of this combination?
As a crisis leader, Jesus tried to keep the gospel movement on track, while adding to it the truth of his divine Sonship. What challenges do his efforts place before us today?
In response to a prayer request from a Ukrainian friend, I reflect on Jesus' willingness to lay down his life, his command that his followers be willing to do the same--and how we can ascend to that height. I include a couple of personal stories.
After skirmishes with some religious leaders, Jesus pre-empted an attack that was brewing in Capernaum. From the crisis that broke open there come lessons for leaders and team-members today.
John 6 tells the pivotal story of how the skirmishes between Jesus and his enemies became a full-blown crisis.
As the movement that Jesus led became strong, some religious leaders became defensive and hostile. Before their opposition reached the level of a crisis, there were some early skirmishes. Here we look at three of them to observe more of Jesus' qualities as a leader.
Jesus' character was strong, well-balanced, and centered in God. How did this center shape the kind of balance that he developed?
Jesus' balance was not simply touching important bases and none to excess. His balance established spiritual priorities by being centered in God, while he gave proper recognition to lesser values on material and cultural levels.
God chose Abraham, called Moses and some of the prophets, and sent Jesus. This suggests that it might be interesting to ask in some human situations how God may already have made--or be making--provision for leadership? In what ways can we see that God does not monopolize power and is not domineering?
In "Loving Jesus More," Phil Ryken tells the story of a little girl who told her minister that she didn't love Jesus. He asked her to repeat as often as possible, "Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me." I invite you to follow the path that she took or to creatively adapt it to your own spiritual path.
When an athlete or a team is doing poorly, it is common to say that they are struggling. But struggle is part of life on all levels. Here's how to do it beautifully.
This is a dialogue with Evan, the evangelist; Syd, the scientist; Sophia, the philosopher; mature Miguel; Nate, the nature-lover; Alicia, the artist; and Abe, the activist.
Self-respect, or the lack of it, can be based on superficial things. But true self-respect can be hard for us who evolved from animals. But when we engage ideals that are divine, spiritual, and eternal, it brings a new kind of respect. And the golden rule leads us to have a profound respect for every person we meet.
This is a passionate proclamation of discovery. It comes in the form of comments on two teachings, one about the supreme desire for righteousness and the other about how in liaison with God, nothing is impossible.
This list of rules deserves to go viral. Please help creatively. The text is in the blogpost on my website.
Fishing for souls means attracting people to join the universal family of God.
Politicians and partners can do it. "Be merciful as you Father is merciful." The more we discover the mercy of God, the more we want to extend that by forgiving others. Thank you for forgiving me.
Those who would spread a message of light: Be lucid about our current plunge and preserve the torch of truth for the planetary teachable moment.
Ethiopian philosopher Zera Yacob (1599-1692) was forced at age 27 to flee for his life from the king. He lived in a cave for two years until the death of the king; but during that time he began to piece together his philosophy. Here are excerpts and a bit of commentary. I find his thoughts very timely, and superior to what his Enlightenment contemporaries in Europe achieved.
The commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength has enough complexity to it to call for love in its simplicity.
A hackathon is a problem-solving event involving teams that compete in a fast-paced, high-tech "marathon."
This episode describes four manifestations of divinity in the process as I experienced it.
Civilization is a wagon train, and Jesus is the master wheelwright. A wheelwright is a person who builds and repairs wooden wheels. This episode explains the analogy.
How do we nourish ourselves on the bread of life?
This is a string of word pictures with a thread of meaning running through.
After Jesus healed ten men with leprosy, they went forth joyously, but one man turned back, and came to Jesus to give thanks and worship.
This episode tells how we can break through the momentum of lazy appreciation and activate worship.
A reflection framed by prayer distinguishes the justice of God; the justice that we look forward to in our planetary destiny when the kingdom of God will have come in its fullness; justice that is already established here and there; and justice that is evolving.
A reflection on the contrasting media images of response to the murder of George Floyd. An invitation to keep pondering.
70 diverse high school students are gathered for a three-day weekend at Camp Anytown (lots of details in the blogpost). After three days of organized interaction, they have confronted and exploded their prejudices and emerge as loving, mutually supportive, inspired leaders for positive social change. The last portion of the video presents comments/questions/criticisms that suggest paths of growth to add a layer of quality thinking to an already strong program.
The two kinds of anxiety: physical discomfort or worse; and performance anxiety.
What cures would you prescribe?
A divine commandment expresses faith in what you can do and be, orients your life, alerts you to the fact that the rewards of following are better than the consequences of rejecting, and promises support every step of the way.
An amoeba, a book on public speaking, and a question that has long awaited being raised.
Lao Tzu:
A noble man steeps himself in the Way, because he wishes to find himself in it.
When he finds himself in it, he is at ease in it.
When he is at ease in it, he can draw deeply upon it.
When he draws deeply upon it, he finds its source wherever he turns.
These phrases resonate with themes of Christian spirituality.
If we believe some spiritual truth that we know is supremely important, but we're not getting the transformation, we're still on the level of ideas.
Here are some paths that lead from the idea-level of belief to the liberation level of faith.
The human personality system: body, mind, soul, spirit.
When they are integrated and unified, the benefits are health, sanity, and happiness. Sanity means mental efficiency--so that we can use knowledge and wisdom to treat others as we want others to treat us; overcome the tendency to be invaded by fear and anxiety; cooperate responsibly with public health professionals and government authorities.
This is a time when we have a golden opportunity to realize and practice the truths of the universal family--the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man (however you express it).
Divine truth is like the light on a miner's helmet, illuminating the ever-changing scene, step by step. This is truth like a who. Those who know Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life will understand this, but the experience is not limited to Christians.
The truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience are all contained in divine truth, and we can use these various levels of truth as stepping stones on our way to a peak experience.
What would have happened to Mary Magdalene after she met Jesus? How would her transformation affected her self-respect, her confidence in her capacities for intuition, and her soul?
A Woman Jesus Can Teach by Alice Mathews takes us powerfully into the episode when Mary and her sons and daughters try to bring Jesus back home when they have heard that he is out of his mind. Jesus says, "Who are my mother and my brothers and sisters? Those who do the will of God are my mother and my brother and my sister."
This episode introduces you to the book and to this episode in the manner of sequenced activities for a retreat.
Lots of us find ourselves being judgmental at times. How can Jesus and his teachings help? First of all, there seems to be an inconsistency between Jesus' teaching, "Judge not," and his instruction not to "cast pearls before swine." once we clarify that seeming tension, we are are operating with both spiritual idealism and factual realism. Then we are ready for the next teaching: "Ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you." That teaching opens the door to the transformation that comes from the Spirit of Truth, which enables us to live the golden rule in the highest sense: Love one another as I have loved you."
German theologian Adoph Harnack (1851-1930) broke through to the recognition of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man as the core of Jesus' gospel.
But he rejected the truth of Jesus' divine Sonship and John's gospel generally.
So German theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968), criticized the concept of the brotherhood of man in favor of another side of Jesus' gospel--that we become children of God by faith.
Then in the 1960s, as feminism was doing important work standing up for the equality of women with men, Mary Daly and other theologians made a very influential critique against the father concept of God as sexist.
Now the followers of Jesus--Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant varieties, and none of the above--can break through to find Jesus in all these truths, leave one-sidedness behind, and learn to communicate the truth effectively to this person and that group, so that the emerging gospel of the universal family comes increasingly into fruition.
I have recently realized that there is tremendous leverage for the spiritual renaissance in understanding the figure of the shepherd in the Bible and in the life and teachings of Jesus. In particular, this inquiry enables to answer an extremely important question: How did Jesus interpret the meaning of his death on the cross? And a further question arises: How can we use the image of the good shepherd as a searchlight to explore for truth in other interpretations?
John Dominic Crossan's book, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, has been one of the most influential books on this widely discussed and controversial topic. This podcast episode introduces that book.
Confusion divides those who differ on how to respond to a teenager who wants to change to the other gender. If religious people can show how to love one another despite deep ethical disagreements, it could help the society a lot.
We need a philosophical distinction between (1) the spiritual affirmation of each person as an equally and infinitely loved child of God and (2) the ongoing scientific and ethical inquiry about treatments and responses for persons of different ages.
To fail to make that distinction risks seeing an opponent as betraying fundamental spiritual truth.
After reading articles by writers who described their anxiety, anger, depression, and grief over the country and the planet, I found myself wandering into anxiety, identified it frankly as ANXIETY . . . and then came a spiritual experience. I was just beginning to follow the steps of a method that I typically use when temptation arises . . . a method that is related here that is helpful during the normal times--the only justification for sharing an experience like this.
The family of God is like a man who had horses and would train the each young one to carry a rider by taking it out on his large fields. Whenever the horse would be frightened by anything, he would stop, get off the horse, and lead it back to the place where it could calmly look at, and become comfortable with whatever had caused it to spook and jump away from its path.
The law of God is like a friendly policeman who comes to the primary school to explain to the children some of the safety rules that they need to know.
The love of God may be seen by reflecting on the previous two parables. In every case there is an unfolding, a learning process, in which we have the opportunity for us to explore, understand, and be comfortable with, the dimension of reality in question.
Prophets often speak truth to those who refuse to hear. When they endure the consequences of their unrighteous personal lives and foolish conduct as nations, the resulting desolation gives occasion to grieve, to lament. But God is always waiting on the other side to bless and restore. What we could have realized so much earlier is: the faith of a little child.
We often express feeling with words like wow, cool, amazing, awesome, it feels so good. But imagine a school of feeling with courses in the arts, beauties of nature, and spiritual experience to cultivate your sensitive response to the full spectrum of varieties of beauty. Such an education would give us a much larger vocabulary to describe aesthetic experience.
This episode deals significantly also with Jesus and with life in our world, intensely struggling with evolution's ups and downs.
A couple thoughts about getting started with personal worship, imagining worshiping the Trinity on Paradise.
What a great hope, if all the professed followers of Jesus could unite in love and service! For this to happen, it will help to make spiritual peace (not intellectual agreement) regarding the doctrine of atonement. Here's how.
Jesus said, "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Have you ever tried this when you are having trouble sleeping?
Have you ever tried worshipping as you wait for the promised rest to arrive?
Have you ever partaken in one of life's pleasures as you rest in him who is the way, the truth, and the life?
Artistic living in general is, in its fullness, a fruit of the spirit. (See Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, chapter 5, for a fuller account.)
Happy resting in Jesus!
This is a talk prepared in response to a request that I share my personal experience with the spirit within, as a contribution to a project designed for young people, age 18-25.
When we fall from wholehearted loyalty to God through stages of partial loyalty, conflicted loyalty, indifference to his will, and revolt, we see the path of sin.
But like a ping-pong/table tennis player who has just lost one point, we can work harder to win the next point. We can learn to come back into the presence of God to sustain the same personal and wholehearted moral decision that launched us on the way of life.
I propose main points for Jesus' parable of the treasure hidden in a field and the pearl of great price. And I invite you to explore the meanings you will discover . . . by living in these parables.
Evangelist Evan reminisces about being moved to tears by reading the portrayal in the gospel According to Matthew of Jesus' beautiful wholeness of righteousness.
Scientist Simon responds that Jesus' beautiful wholeness was not only due to his spiritual living, but also to Jesus' scientific living. Simon quotes illustrations from chapter 3 in Jeffrey Wattles, Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness--the section on "Jesus' down-to-earth understanding of fact."
Philosopher Sophia asks evangelist Evan how to cope with the uncertainty about the appearance of bad planetary trends. Evan's reply includes explaining fruits of the spirit as one of two conditions for the spiritual renaissance. Alicia the artist describes a painting that for her is the perfect image of what Evan has been talking about. And then Sophia concludes by proclaiming a new spiritual fruit in response to uncertainty.
This conversation celebrates our human capacity for spiritual experience in dialogue with three questions. What about the fact that people of different religions tend to experience what their religions tells them they can or should or will experience? Isn't it problematic to judge particular experiences in terms of their spirit or truth content? And what about persons who report no spiritual experiences? Are they lost forever?
Liberation. Some people hear this word and think of social, economic, and political difficulties that need to be worked out in order for the planet to be reorganized. But within those difficulties there are spiritual difficulties; and if these are handled well, then we will be transformed in our ability to confront the social, economic, and political difficulties.
Spiritual difficulties may be inner resistance to the new life in God--anxieties, addictions, getting caught up in the self-centered and materialistic craziness about money, power, and sex. They may also involve our being overwhelmed by external obstacles over which we may have very little control, for example, a physical condition, for example.
In order to break through into the new life with God, we need spiritual force. Where shall we get that? Two ways. One way is to realize that as children of God our gift of faith comes with power to overcome all kinds of obstacles--so we simply need to use what we have. The other way is to do like the girl next door--lift her arms up to her very tall daddy and get picked up. So God picks us up if we stretch our our arms to him.
Spiritual teacher Evan and philosopher Sophia discuss dimensions of fact and value in spiritual truth--and in daily life.
In this dialogue, Sophia the philosopher and Evan the evangelist begin to clarify the overlap and difference between philosophical and religious responses to the question about knowing for sure about God. The overlap has to do with strengthening our intuitive spiritual experience. Evan's response emphasizes that if you receive God as your Father, you are a son or daughter of God, born of the spirit, with the power to overcome doubt—a victory that is your faith.
Seven friends, some leaning in a conservative direction, some in a liberal direction, discuss (in 12 minutes) whether Jesus taught that people had to believe in him to be saved, and how to reconcile apparent discrepancies that we find in Scripture on this topic.
Meet Sophia the philosopher and Evan the evangelist, as they discuss the possibility and implications of an idea about the meaning of the Biblical idea of "the heaven of heavens" or Jesus word that "In the Father's house are many mansions" or Paul in 2nd Corinthians referring to a man [probably himself] who was "caught up to the third heaven." Will those places be our homes as we accomplish stages of growth on the way to Paradise perfection?
Of the various reasons to reject the father concept of God, I consider two: some fathers are terrible parents; and generations of sensitive, well-informed, ethically committed persons have been taught that the father concept of God (at least in isolation from the truth of the motherhood of God) is sexist. I respond to the second concern by reading excerpts from chapters on scientific, philosophical, and spiritual living from my book Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.
Ali and Miguel are in a world religions class and begin discussing the teaching, "Happy are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
A story about a peacemaker family: the father was a diplomat, the mother a facilitator of public dialogue regarding contested issues, and the daughter a psychology researcher on the relationship of personal peace with social and political peace. One evening they had a conversation about the teaching, "Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."
A story of two women, best friends from childhood, who learned to forgive each other and creatively go through similar programs of personal growth. As a result, they came to a better understanding of mercy.
In order to add meaning and plausibility to the eternal truth: Happy are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted, . . . I offer a story.
Purity of heart means to will one thing--if that thing is to have as one's sole purpose in life to do the will of the God of love. But what does that mean? Here are several aspects of the outworking of that purpose.
This is a story of a meek boy and an antagonistic boy who grow up to cooperate. It symbolizes hope for our world and satisfaction for those who take to heart the promise: "Happy are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
Have you faced this question? Choose this day whom you will serve. Are you in or out? Is your life saying YES to God?
Salvation and spiritual rebirth are two ways to name the same event, an event that is widely misunderstood for two quite different reasons. . . .
When the Creator chose to launch imperfect, free-will beings on the stage of action on an evolutionary world, it was predictable that mercy was going to be needed. Mercy is the divine attitude that applies love to the understanding of a creature's motivation, circumstances, and personal history.
The New Testament book of Matthew 18:12-35 reveals the mercy process of forgiveness in its fullness.
What I have read about the opioid crisis says nothing about the lack of a sense of purpose in the lives of our brothers and sisters who consciously use dangerous drugs--and, for that matter, our brothers and sisters who deliberately profit from excessive opioid use. Yes, lack of the healthy momentum of a noble purpose is something we all experience at times. Moreover, a sense of hopeless often owes much to factors beyond the control of the individual.
That said, to experience the love of God is a game-changer. We get a new sense of who we are: a infinitely loved son or daughter of God and a brother or sister to those we meet--and the other aspects of better or worse this or that fall into perspective when we are anchored as members in the family of God. The eternal God, our Father and our friend, is present in each person, leading quietly, patiently, gently, powerfully, with abundant forgiveness, being a loyal companion as we go through whatever consequences are ours to live through on the way to a magnificent career beyond this world.
And God has a magnificent destiny for humankind. So our new-found sense of purpose can include making a contribution.
We enter the family of God with the faith of a little child, but that faith lacks the discernment and power of the faith of the adult child. When the thicket of problems becomes too difficult for our tools, when our resistance to the divine way or the earthly obstacles to our living the will of God mount up, then our faith moves from receptive mode to active mode--wholehearted adult faith. There's the power to overcome self-doubt. God does so much for us, but we alone must make the decisions that launch action. Let's go for it! In doing so, we gain the assurance that we need of the truth of faith. The soul knows.
Righteousness gets a bad name because of two distortions: legalistic religion that tries to control matters that should be left to individual freedom, and self-righteous swagger with its hostility toward for broad classes of humanity.
When Jesus assured us, "Happy are those who hunger and thirst for happiness," he had something different in mind. He was pointing the way to the beautiful wholeness of righteousness. The hunger and thirst is stage one. The divine gift of righteousness is stage two. Isaiah: "My soul shall rejoice in the love of my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and covered me with the robe of his righteousness." Stage three requires us to learn an expanded concept of morality that wisely coordinates an understanding of the truth of universe process as it takes place on this evolutionary world with an understanding of the meaning of the relevant truths of spiritual experience: love and mercy, worship and service, joy and liberty, faith and assurance, and so on. When we learn to live in such truth-coordination, we exhibit the beautiful wholeness of righteousness.
Social service defined: readiness to do good to anyone with any kind of need. It is common for love to be preferential in a way that is not based on our quality in the brotherhood of man/siblinghood of humankind. But everything changes when we recognize the spiritual core of our creation as personalities--unique, mysterious, and constant through change--each one a masterpiece of the Creator's art, whom our Father indwells by his spirit.
On this basis we begin to serve with the following motivation: We serve our Father in the persons of those whom he indwells by his spirit.
And thus we become ready to serve in a way that reveals God's love and mercy for the whole person.
When we say "God" we refer to the awesome Creator. But a full concept of God includes his intimate and personal relationship with us. He is also our Father and our friend.
Increasingly realizing this in our spiritual experience, we can more readily embrace the evidences of a friendly universe.
When we establish our core identity in the truth of our being a son or daughter of God, we have gone a long way to ending whatever craziness may have infected us. We can enjoy the beauty of nature and the arts, including healthy pleasures and uplifting recreation. And we can lead a life dominated by goodness and make a more effective contribution to the progress of sanity in our world.
We start physical life as a one-celled zygote. We start the development of our mind in complete ignorance. Why should we expect that our physical and mental development gives us advanced standing as we begin our spiritual journey?
Turning to him as his child, we can discover God as our Father. We thus discover a central truth of the Creator and the core of our own identity.
As a both-and thinker who sometimes recognize an either-or, I see that (1) there can be no peace between light (divine truth) and darkness (rebellion against God). But (2) countless other conflicts arise in which we can make tremendous progress if we mobilize different attitudes and tactics, such as we can learn from Marshall Rosenberg's methods of nonviolent communication and Thomas Aquinas's method of discussing disputed questions.
From Dante's Divine Comedy to 12-Step programs to the Enneagram, insight is mixed with overemphasis on the negative and a failure to recognize the new and better way: we (at least we non-addicts) can first be transformed by the Spirit of Truth before we go on to cleanse ourselves from all evils of mind and body.
Along with a revised version of the Serenity Prayer, this episode offers an outstanding spiritual practice of Stephen Post, and shows how to cope when we are relating to a person we find difficult to love. These examples make the philosophy of love come off the page.
The kingdom of God, the spiritual family of God, is open to all who seek it in the faith of a child. But a living faith is a growing faith; and as challenges rise, we may need to re-enter. But we may need more than a child's faith; we may need the spiritual force of the faith of a mature adult.
Christian teaching mingles life-giving teachings of Jesus with other teachings, some of which are needless obstacles for those who need to enter into the family of God. On a handful of key controversies, here are questions with contrasting possible answers.
Werner Herzog's film Huie's Predigt (Huie's Sermon)--the film is really in English with a few German subtitles) presents a worship service in an urban black church. The sermon which asserts over and over that God is in control--which seems to be refuted by images of the utter bleakness of a trashed out slum. A reflection on what it means for God to be in control accounts for the success of the sermon in its hearers.
Spirituality as connection to a larger, all-pervading reality (for example, God, as revealed in Jesus) is cultivated by spiritual direction. This book, based on the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, does an extraordinary job of introducing the reader in a gentle, perceptive, illuminated way to our images of God, our narratives of self, our need to listen and respond and engage. This book review of Jeffrey A. Nelson's Coffeehouse Contemplative summarizes the book and celebrates its effects in this reader.
The spiritual life involves seeking for value (which I symbolize by the term prayer) and celebrating value (which I symbolize by the term worship). Whichever one of these predominates flavors the experience of the other.
Nicole Stark relates a revelation of the kingdom of God within, and struggles after it is over. Although I encouraged her then about the quality of the event, I have more of an answer now.
The Last Jedi moves the viewer/hearer from the emotions of conflict to the thought of higher wisdom and the triumph of spirituality.
A philosophy of living functions as an art of thinking, but the art of living is practice, action, doing. Divine love motivates and beauty pervades its unfolding harmony.
Striving to love God with all my heart, I reflected on wholeheartedness and made a discovery. The tip of the iceberg: wholeheartedness is an experience of the soul, and it implicitly includes the heart, mind, and strength. But what is the heart? What is the soul, and how do we recognize it in experience? What is going on when we are half-hearted? And what can we contribute with our will-power?
This is a 3-minute appeal to strengthen our bonds with our siblings everywhere by giving thanks for blessings that we all share.
Jesus' last discourse in the temple, as we have it reported in Matthew 23 has two parts, the first of which reaches out in mercy with the universal truth of the Fatherhood of God and the siblinghood of humankind. The second is like the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence, enumerating a list of grievances against a particular group of religious leaders. Read well, this speech shows the coherence of mercy and justice.
The questions are designed to direct reflection on the listener's coming to know God, the gospel of Jesus and how its expression changes from one generation to another, diverse problems and practices of sharing and proclaiming in thought, word, and deed.
Why do we fall asleep when we hear these familiar teachings? What can prepare us to receive the divine affection? Are we ready to ask anew what does it mean to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? And what difference does this make in loving others? The Mount Everest ideals are not what God helps us to attain now.
This first in a new sermon series draws on history, psychology, neuroscience, and truth. Revelation in Jesus in dialogue with evolution in the form of insincere critique.
If you believe that God loves you but are not able now to experience it, here is a simple experiment that you may want to try.
Beauty is a quality of divinity, experienced in the spirit that dwells within. Like a chauffeur who drives a dignitary around here and there, so that the dignitary may function and manifest, our first duty and privilege is to facilitate the entry of this spirit into action.
Looking for a safe space? Here's a dialogue about problems, satisfactions, and promises relevant to that quest. The dialogue is followed by a story of a soul-satisfying experience of the presence of divine love, which raises a question of how a person becomes aligned in such a way as to be ready to receive such a gift. Each person's journey is unique, thinking, feeling, and doing interweave, enabling one concept to ripen and then another, until the person is ready for a larger insight. The beauty of it all is that one person's path through the logic of interconnected spiritual concepts and their spiritual realization cannot serve as a pattern for someone else to imitate.
Wanna become like God? It is likely that you will find a joyously abundant treasure trove of relevant lessons by looking back on the struggles of growing up, romantic adventures, marriage and child-rearing, caring for aging parents, and present relationships with immediate family and extended family. The basic virtues are virtues of family life. In becoming like God, these virtues furnish the ground floor of the edifice of noble character. Photo credit: By Mmijanrahman - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51699016
Here are two stories of prayer. The first tells prayer rising spontaneously into worship as the mind-soul entertains high meanings and values. The second tells of praying for a list of individuals, with some of whom there had been some difficulties in relationship . . . and how in very short order that roughness was transformed. Closing: a Good Friday coda.
Scientific cosmology recognizes what is called the Great Attractor. It is near Saggitarius, and everything in the universe goes around it. If we take relativity physics as our total theory of space, the idea of a centered universe is meaningless. But cosmology might be able to develop a way to honor relativity physics without eclipsing the fact of the Great Attractor--which fits perfectly with the idea of a heavenly Paradise where the Creator has his residence.
The present civilizational crisis can be understood as an imbalance between (1) material achievement and (2) wisdom and worship (and spiritual experience generally). Religion alone lacks the needed wisdom, and wisdom alone lacks the needed power; but in tandem they light a wonderfully bright torch.
A friend's story of spiritual transformation provides the metaphor. A passage from the Book of Job is reinterpreted. These components join together in an act that yields a new level of liberation.
Ungainly flapping. Only in mercy so thick could I take flight. Heavy heron wings, moving slowly—why would any flock of birds follow? Yet I fly to you unconcerned. By you, with you, and in you, I dive into the water, having glimpsed a fish and heard: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” No owl, I; but after wisdom-prowling long before the dawn, I turn toward sleep, open my beak, and the unmusical cry sounds forth. You still my mind. As the gentle cloud of peace comes over me, you still my fear of an ugly stirring as a dream takes wing. Friendly universe that embraces the fledgling! I will trust my self to this stillness. And now--a new and timely now--alert, refreshed, and calm, I give thanks for the night’s rest, and feed your young. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cocoi_Heron_(Ardea_cocoi)_-_Flickr_-_Lip_Kee_(1).jpg
We know we need to receive God’s love, but sometimes we don’t make the time or don’t know how. The simplest way is to accept the personal assurance: God is love, and his spirit gift lives within you. A longer way: we know God, and we can activate our God-knowingness. We can also ponder the meaning of love, different types of love, and the truth that God is spirit. Photo credit: Raphaël Quinet, Liège, Belgium. Raspberry on child’s hand. Wikimedia commons