Outlets of Grace

We are here,

Each one of us,

All of us,

Worldwide,

To be outlets of grace.

Grace is to be understood as “unmerited benevolence.”

Unmerited kindness, generosity, compassion, thoughtfulness…

An unmerited gift of exactly what is needed,

Where it is needed,

When it is needed,

Delivered precisely how it is needed to be delivered.

That’s grace.

And, it is not a way of getting what you think you need delivered back to you.

Grace is not tit-for-tat.

It is not “one good turn deserves another.”

It is not “I’ll scratch your back and you scratch mine.”

Grace is not out for its own good,

Its own advantage,

Its own reward.

Grace is not a way of earning merit

On some universal scale,

Accruing credit,

Gathering interest

Compounded by the minute,

To be paid out in benefits and privileges

Over the full course of eternity.

Grace is not to be exploited in any way.

Jesus said, “When you bring grace to life in the lives of others,

Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

Do it and forget you’ve done it.

And don’t keep score.

That’s grace.

Think you’ve got it?

Not so fast.

It gets tricky.

Hang on.

Grace doesn’t make you a doormat.

A Mr. or Ms. Easy Touch,

Always there,

Never let ‘em down,

Like a good co-dependent,

An enabler,

Who can’t say no.

Someone to be used up,

Taken for granted,

Thrown away.

That’s not grace.

Grace will not be taken for granted!

Assumed.

Counted on.

Guaranteed.

Grace is anything but guaranteed.

Grace is a shocking surprise.

A wonder.

An unbelievable, astounding, amazing,

Windfall.

Such a once-in-a-lifetime event

That you would never think of it happening again,

Much less regularly.

You can’t get over it happening!

You can’t imagine that it would go on happening—

Day after day,

Year after year.

That is not grace.

Jesus not only raised the dead.

He also left the dead to bury the dead.

He not only healed on the Sabbath.

He also said, “No sign will be given to you except the sign of Jonah.”

He not only forgave sinners.

He also cursed an innocent fig tree for not bearing fruit out of season.

You never know with Jesus.

That’s grace for you.

You can’t count on it.

You never know when it might show up,

Or, if it ever will.

And, when you least expect it,

There it is.

And, yet, we are all here to be outlets of grace.

In order to do that,

We have to understand:

Grace doesn’t only happen to us.

It also happens through us.

Yet, we can’t plan it.

We can’t think it into being.

Our role is to be ready, willing and able,

And get out of the way.

This makes grace happening through us

Exactly like grace happening to us.

We don’t initiate it.

It isn’t our idea.

Before we know it,

We catch ourselves in the act of being gracious—

Just like before we know it,

We catch ourselves in the act of being graced.

Our place is to be ready (willing and able)

To offer whatever the situation needs from us.

Sometimes, we raise the dead,

And, sometimes, we leave the dead to bury the dead.

Sometimes, we turn the other cheek,

And walk the second mile,

And, sometimes, we shake the dust off our sandals

As a sign against the scoundrels and ne’er-do-wells.

You never know with grace.

You never know with us.

That’s grace for you.

Be ready, willing and able,

And get out of the way.

Of Dreams and Glory, and What Are We Here For?

Joseph Campbell said, “Where you stumble and fall, there is the treasure.”

The thing that prevents us from reaching our goal opens the way to the goal.

We step into our life with a career plan, a blueprint for success and an itinerary in hand, checking off the milestones as we achieve them, on our way to fortune and glory, and all the accouterments attached to that prize—and damn for all eternity anything that inhibits our progress, or blocks our path.

People are always seeking miracles to deliver them from misfortune, and usher them into prosperity and peace everlasting.

Well. What’s the greater miracle—to stand up from your wheelchair and walk without a hitch in your stride, or to accept the fact that you will never walk again?

Substitute wheelchair and walking for whatever you think is standing in your way, keeping you from having your dreams come true.

What is the dream? What is preventing the realization of the dream? Who is to say what is the dream and what is the prevention of the dream? When does prevention shift the direction of our and open the way to realization of our life’s dream for us?

What are we after? Who is piloting our boat on its path through the sea? Who is in charge here? Whose cooperation is required for us to step forth into our life as complete human beings? Whose side are we on?

What is the end of the road, and what is an open door?

We are back to the Campbell quote about everything that happens to us being “an instrument of our destiny”—pulling us forth, eliciting the qualities of character and personality— of heart and soul—that are ours to share with the world as gifts of grace and blessing—which we would never know we possessed without the external events that trigger our internal response.

What is good luck? What is bad luck?

Luck is an illusion switching from good to bad, and back to good, then back to bad—as our perspective shifts, and we look at our luck in light of changing ideas of what is a favorable wind and what is an ill one.

The people who live out their life wishing they could leap out of their wheelchair and go dancing, spinning and leaping, into the night, could, instead, dance with their wheelchair throughout their life, and see what that opens up for them, and calls forth from them, in deepening, broadening, enlarging themselves and their life in ways that walking normally could never touch.

I’m not suggesting that we should choose handicaps to bring out the best in us. I’m suggesting that we see whatever happens to us as containing exactly what we need to fulfill our destiny—and that we should live in relationship with what happens as though we chose it, and not as something we hate, despise, dread and wish to be rid of.

At the end of the movie The Jersey Boys, Frankie Valli, reflecting on his career, said, “They ask ya, ‘What was the high point?’ The hall of fame, sellin’ all those records, pullin’ Sherry outta the hat? It was all great. But the first time the four of us made that sound under the street light, our sound, when everything dropped away and all there was, was the music…that was the best.”

The challenge for each of us is to find our music, and live it—to let the music live us—and see everything that happens to us, both positive and negative, as an opportunity to further align ourselves with the music, dance with what life brings us, and become who we are—understanding that to be the fortune and glory it is.

A Meditation on Light and Dark, Part 2

William Blake, in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, said, “Without contrary/Is no progression.”

The work that saves us and saves the world is the work of recognizing, accepting, integrating, and reconciling our contraries, contradictions, polarities and irreconcilable differences, within and without.

White/Black, Light/Dark, Good/Evil, Right/Wrong are all dichotomies begging to be integrated, reconciled, harmonized and made whole.

Consciousness is ideally suited for the work of holding opposites together—seeing connections, finding similarities, making peace. But it is difficult work, requiring not only that we pay careful attention to the conflicts and contradictions that swirl around us, and through us, but also that we contentiously, and faithfully, feel the agony of being pulled in different ways—and live within the tension without trying to force resolution or solution, but allowing the way of things to slowly work its own way to a shift of being that transcends anything we could think to do, and transforms our life and our world.

When consciousness—awareness—shuns its responsibility, goes over into unconsciousness, and lives without awareness of its living, the light becomes dark and that’s that. This is the easy way out, and we opt for it on a regular basis. All of our addictions of choice are ways of numbing ourselves to the conflicts of our life. We don’t want to think about it. We cannot bear the pain. So we make ourselves unconscious, and pretend there is no problem.

Consciousness exists to make the unconscious conscious. It is not a matter of consciousness extinguishing the unconscious. The wellspring of the water of life is inexhaustible. We learn to swim consciously in the waters of the unconscious by learning to interpret our dreams, and reading the clues that open the inner world to exploration and realization, and aligning ourselves with the unconscious drift of soul that leads us to confront our conflicts and live the life that is ours to live.

Our work is to expand, deepen, enlarge, and broaden consciousness by listening to the unconscious, and reconciling, integrating, the opposites that make up our world. We feel strongly both ways—or several ways—about a lot of things. What we want is canceled out by what we also want. Ambivalence is a primary factor of everyone’s life experience.

I want to be the best father in the world, and I don’t want to be a father at all. The same thing can be said about every other role I play, have played, or will play—and, in all probability, about you and your roles. Our opposites, contradictions, and polarities are thresholds to awareness, awakening, maturation, grace, mercy and peace. We only have to recognize them for what they are, bear consciously the tension of their opposition, and allow them to shape us into who we need to be in order to live the life that is ours to live.

And all we want a shortcut to soft and easy, and happiness everlasting. Sitting with the agony of ambivalence is the first thing on our bad list. Getting rid of—or denying—our conflicts is what we do best.

We come from a long tradition of killing our enemies—of running roughshod over that which stands in our way, blocking our path. Killing our enemies seems to be simpler than entering into conversation with them, and becoming friends and allies. But, we never run out of enemies to kill. The history of the world is the history of warfare, and it has gotten worse, not better, over time. We are past the time of finding a better way to manage our conflicts.

The answer to the old Biblical question, “What does light have to do with darkness?” is, “Everything!” Light and darkness are one at the heart of life and being. Rumi understood darkness to be the cradle of light—the source of light. The Lao Tzu says, “The source is called darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.”

Darkness is the enemy of light, because it strives to bring to light more than is seen to be light. Light doesn’t like to be enlightened. Enlightenment expands understanding, deepens realization, transforms what is known. We like things to stay as they have always been.

Darkness needs light to see itself, and exists to expand light, to deepen light, to become light—and light wants none of it. Darkness is the enemy to light because light resists enlightenment.

Light is attracted to darkness. Darkness is unconscious of conflict, of discipline, of opposition, chaos, mess. It’s easier to not know, and light yearns to not know what it does know, to know nothing, to become unconscious. Consciousness wants to shirk its duty and be unconscious of the pain of finding its way through contradiction and opposition.

Darkness is attracted to light. Darkness seeks to see, hear, know and understand—to experience itself and become itself. And yet, there seems to be within darkness itself a darker-darkness that likes things as they are there—murky, shadow, chaotic and chthonic. Perfect in every way!

Darkness is conflicted over light, light is conflicted over darkness. Both seek each other and are repelled by the other: “Love Me! Leave Me Alone!”

We are paradox to the core—opposites and polarities at the heart of life and being. And truth is found between the hands: On the one hand this, on the other hand that, and on still other hands, that and that and that!

We have to come to terms with how it is with us, and how it also is. We have to make our peace with the opposition at the heart of things, and consciously take up the work of integration and reconciliation.

The path to reconciliation, to integration, harmony and wholeness is conversation—dialogue with the dialectic—listening, hearing, understanding—with compassion for how things are (which includes how things also are), and patience with how things change.

Rumi says, “Be grateful for whatever comes/because each has been sent/as a guide from beyond.”

Jesus says, “Love your enemies.”

The enemy is our shadow, the darkness within seeking light, the light within seeking darkness.

Walt Kelly said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”

And it is up to us to work things out by placing ourselves at the midpoint of our polarities, and bearing the pain of the opposition, through transcendence and transformation to peace and harmony of life and being.

A Meditation on Light and Dark, Part 1

The Adams Family (You have to be old to know who I mean) were all nice people in their own way, but they were different.

How different can we allow people to be? How different can we allow ourselves to be?

How harmonized—how pasteurized and homogenized—do we have to be in order to be a community?

How different can we be and still be One—and still be a participant in community?

Differences become different-ness in no time.

Different-ness leads to suspicion, hostility, seclusion, exclusion, evasion, avoidance, shunning, ostracizing, bullying, tormenting, derision, humiliation, castigation, witch-hunts, lynch mobs, police forces, standing armies, warfare, and Armageddon.

It’s a slippery slope when we start thinking about Us and Them.

We better start re-thinking the whole thing.

We could start with ourselves,

And the concept of Light and Dark.

Darkness has always been something to avoid. Light has always been something to embrace.

Light is Good. Dark is Evil.

Since Zoroaster, ca. 2,000 BCE, we’ve thought of Light and Dark, Good and Evil, as being locked in a winner-take-all, fight to the finish.

STOP IT NOW!

The dichotomy can no longer be justified, or excused. The war is ended.

All the Light and all the Dark that ever has been or will be is floating around in each one of us.

WE contain the forces of Good and Evil, and it’s well past the time to start making peace and living together with the opposites within and without for the true good of all.

All it takes is a vision and a commitment to serve the vision with heart and soul, mind and body, all our life long.

It’s the next great adventure. Peace making. Within and without.

Good Religion

The people of the times that are at hand, need to take the tradition handed to them—whether Judeo/Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, Muslim or any of the other traditions—and revise it according to the worldview of the Age in which they live. “You have heard it said, but I say unto you,” does not abolish the Law or the Prophets, but fulfills them—for that Age.

We are always about the business of bringing the Law and the Prophets up to speed in the Age of our living. If people held slaves, or were slaves, in previous Ages, they are not going to have, or be, slaves in our Age! If people of color, and gay people, and women, etc. were disparaged and disenfranchised in previous Ages, they are not going to be so treated in our Age!

In setting the scriptures (of whatever religion) as they have been understood aside, and revising the way they are to be understood, we do not abolish the Law or the Prophets—we fulfill them, and create conditions in each age in which the people are able to be perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect.

Good religion would connect all the sacred symbols of every faith tradition, and reinterpret them in light of the spirit of the age.

The task of good religion in every age would be upgrading sacred symbols of all faith traditions in each age to stand as doorways to unconscious (So called because we are not conscious of it) reality.

Good religion hands us spirituality without any theology, dogma and doctrine attached.

Good religion hands us spirituality straight from the heart—

From the heart of good religion straight to our heart—

Without any of the embellishments, improvements, alterations and enhancements

That bad religion is so proficient in producing and providing.

I wish we had another word for “spirituality,”

Because it is so encumbered with theological augmentation

That you can’t possibly be a spiritual person without “good theology,”

Which is always the theology of the person examining our theology,

As though what we think is more important than what we know.

Spirituality is knowing that can’t be thought, told, defined or explained as in:

“The Tao that can be said is not the eternal Tao.”

Spirituality is the experience of our connection with the Invisible World—

With the world of unconscious reality,

Unconscious because it is more than can be made conscious,

Except through symbols and metaphors.

We have to talk about the unconscious world of Spirit,

Of Spiritual Reality,

With symbols and metaphors because we cannot say directly

What we know to be so,

Because what we know cannot be said.

So we talk about “the wellspring of living water,”

But it isn’t an actual well,

Or actual water,

And how can water be alive, anyway?

The entire vocabulary of spiritual discourse is such

That you have to know what I mean

Before you can understand what I’m saying,

And without the experience of the Invisible World,

There is nothing that can be said

To enable you to understand

What I’m talking about.

But, that doesn’t keep me from talking.

Jesus said, “Let those with ears to hear, hear!” and talked on.

We talk to those who can hear what we have to say,

and, in so doing, we say what we need to hear.

Growing our way toward being perfect as “our Father in heaven” is perfect.

In Praise of a Second Life

When I ask, “What are you going to do with what remains of your life? How will you use your time in the time left for living?” I am met with blank expressions and empty eyes. Many, no, most, people don’t know what I’m talking about. Tomorrow is going to be just like yesterday for the vast majority of the world’s population. They hope it won’t be worse.

Yet, how to live what remains of our life is our primary problem, over and above all of our other problems. But, our other problems keep us from considering our problem.

We have a hard enough time paying the bills and deciding what’s for lunch—not to mention our concerns with our health, and what is going to become of us if this, or that, or that over there happens, and whether we will make it to retirement, or will have enough money to make it through retirement…

Fear, worry, anxiety and depression are all we can manage. We can’t think about the kind of life we might live—it’s enough to think about how to stay alive with a roof over our heads. We just want a little relief! A reprieve! Deliverance! Peace of mind! We are sure that our life will take care of itself—as it always has—if we can manage to pay the bills, and find some way to relax and enjoy ourselves.

People need help with the life they are living. They don’t need to hear about the life they ought to be living, in addition to the one they already have going. It’s hard enough paying the bills and having a little fun. They don’t need one more thing to have to do.

It’s a hard sell, talking to people about their life and how to live it, when they are focused on trying to make ends meet and get to the beach at least once this summer. But. It is an important sell, and crucial that as many of us as possible begin to make it.

Two things that stand out as evidence of an unlived life that is tired of being ignored, and is using the resources at its disposal to wake us up, get our attention, and lead us in the way of the life that is ours yet to live are symptoms and self-destructive choices and behavior (Which I see as one thing, not two—the choice elicits the behavior).

The people who do not want to think about the life they are living, and do not consider that there may be another life that is theirs to live, a life that they are called to live, and uniquely suited to live—are awash in symptoms, both physical and emotional, and self-destructive choices and behavior.

They say they don’t have time to consider the possibility and implications of a second life because their hands are full with trying to live the life they are living. However, if their symptoms and self-destructive ways were reduced, they would have more than enough time to work their other life into their present life.

Beginning to live their second life would transform their first life—the old would pass away, and all things would be new. They would not be adding one more thing to their list of things they already can’t get around to. They would be radically enhancing their ability to be alive on all levels of both lives in the time left for living—and doing things they cannot imagine doing, until they take up the task of doing more than they think they are capable of getting done.

What are you going to do with what remains of your life? How will you use your time in the time left for living?

Holy Week

Palm Sunday is when we explain again

the un-Christ-like nature of the Christ

and everybody thinks how dumb the Jews were

to not get it, and we don’t get it either.

The Christ is not the Christ! Not then, not now!

How hard is that?

The Messiah we wait for is not coming! Never was, never will!

That’s the message of Palm Sunday and Good Friday.

But we won’t have it, and come up with Easter Morning

which allows us to settle back into looking for the Christ

we’ve always looked for

to come rescue us, set things right, and make life grand.

But the Messiah we wait for is not coming!

Easter Morning is about the unassailability

of the Christ—the Messiah—who IS,

not about the eternal reliability

of who we want the Christ—the Messiah—to be.

Sit with this: The Christ is not the Christ. Not then, not now.

Who then is the Christ?

The stone the builders reject, of course.

And who is the most unlikely of the lot, if not you? Me?

If not ourselves?

We will have none of it.

But if the Christ can be born of a virgin in a manger,

the Christ can be born in anyone, even you and me—

if we will but get out of the way

and bring forth what is within, waiting

well past the due date.

Getting out of the way

means not-knowing what we think we know.

It means radical openness to other possibilities.

Unheard of possibilities.

Revolutionary, ridiculous possibilities.

It all comes back to you and me.

When we get out of the way,

there we are.

Bringing forth what is within

means listening to the inner voices—

all of them—

until we hear something

that strikes a cord,

that resonates with something,

that moves us toward it

as it moves toward us

and calls for a response

that validates the entire experience,

affirms it,

expresses it,

incarnates it,

and brings it forth

into our lives,

into the world.

And, like that,

we are the Christ,

making visible the invisible,

declaring, “Thy will, not mine, be done,”

revealing in a thousand ways

“The Father and I are one,”

saving the world

again and again.

What a miracle!

Who would believe it?

There you are.

The Gospel plain and simple.

Death and Resurrection

There are all of us, and the life we are living, and the life that needs us to live it.

That’s it.

We have to be aware of it,

And get the ratios right—

How much for us,

How much for the life we are living,

How much for the life that is ours to live.

How much what?

Time and attention,

Devotion and loyalty,

Focus and concentration–

You know, that kind of thing…

We dig in and get to work at the points of conflict.

We generally don’t want anything to do with conflict,

So we dismiss, discount, deny and ignore it,

Thinking we can disappear it that way.

But.

Conflict denied becomes symptoms overnight,

And it goes downhill from there.

To disappear our symptoms,

We have to be intently, and intensely, aware of conflict—

Plow into it,

Explore it,

Examine it,

Know it fully.

Bear the pain,

And work it out.

Making it work.

One conflict at a time.

Our conflicts are the path

To reconciliation, integration, unification, wholeness and peace–

When walked with mindful, compassionate, awareness.

It will kill us to deal with our conflicts,

And it will bring us to life.

It’s like death and resurrection over and over.

You have to trust me in this.

The Messiah Is NOT the Messiah!

Fred Craddock said, “The message of the Messiah is, ‘There is no Messiah!’”

The Messiah is NOT the Messiah!

Our life is our responsibility.

We have to find our life and live it,

with none to help or point the way.

Well, not quite.

We have all the help we need to find the way–

IF we will but attend it!

IF we will but open ourselves to it!

IF we will but learn its language,

and spend the time necessary

on a regular basis

to listen!

All the help we need

is as close as a heartbeat,

as near as our next breath.

But.

There is a catch.

We have to give up our way

in order to be guided to The Way.

We have to hand over our quest

for the life we have in mind for ourselves

in order to live the life our Self has in mind for us.

It is a dilemma as old as the ages

from whence we come.

All are called,

but few have what it takes to heed the directions

and find the way

to the life that is theirs to live

in sync with the heart of life and being.

The Messiah is born in each birth of every generation

and, as with Adam and Eve, there are precious few there prepared

to live the life

Messiah-hood requires:

The life that was theirs to live

before they were born.

Everyone seems to have eyes for other things.

The Gospel Truth

I.

Sometimes, the scenario runs like this:

You have God and Jesus and the Undeserving Masses

and Satan, of course.

Then, there are the angels, the apostles, and the Holy Spirit

to complete the scene.

God is outrageously angry with the Masses

for all the wrongs they have done

(Never mind foreknowledge and omniscience

which should have tipped God off

as to the likelihood of the turn out,

and don’t waste your time wondering

what’s God got to be angry about,

knowing all along what was coming,

or why we let God get by with it

without saying he shot himself in the foot,

and brought it all on his own self–

which is what we would say about ourselves

if the shoe, so to speak, were on that foot).

But, not to worry.

Jesus is quick to thrust himself between God’s fury and the Milling Horde

just in time to prevent their everlasting destruction.

“No! Take me!” he shouts,

giving himself up for the sins of us all.

II.

And, sometimes it plays out like this:

God is dressed in a business suit,

like a high ranking government official,

maybe the head of the IRS,

wishing that things could be different,

and sorry that it has come to this,

but the Law is the Law, after all, you know,

and penalties must be imposed,

or what would people say?

But, Jesus steps forward,

in a corporate kind of way,

with a compromise proposal,

presented formally and with style,

suggesting that something might be worked out,

if the system could be satisfied

with one pure death in place

of the tarnished payment

of so many sordid lives.

III.

Then, sometimes, it goes like this:

God is anguished and torn,

the helpless victim of inner conflict,

pacing the floor,

trapped between

the mutually exclusive requirements

of Justice and Love.

Preoccupied and distraught,

God mumbles,

“My Justice Side says, ‘Kill them all!’,

and, surely, they deserve it,

but my Love Side says, ‘Don’t be like them!

You’re bigger than that!

Grant them full pardon!

Let them know who you are!’”

At the very moment God is about to collapse

beneath the weight of the un-choose-able choice,

Jesus knocks politely and enters to say,

“I have a plan that will satisfy your Justice

and express plainly your Love.”

IV.

No matter how the opening scene is depicted,

in Act II, the disciples come forward

to declare to the people

the great miracle of their deliverance

which lays dormant and un-actualized

until they hear what has been done

and believe it is so.

Believing is the activating agent

making The Deal operative

in the lives of the people,

getting them off the hook

and out of harm’s way–

and it doesn’t matter what Jesus has done

if they don’t believe he did it,

which, if you think about it,

changes absolutely nothing in the

deal God has made with the people:

The people still have to please God

by doing what it takes to be pleasing,

i.e., believing with all their heart

that Jesus is their Lord and Savior.

The burden remains on the people.

But they don’t tell it this way in Sunday Schools

or in the sermons.

The people aren’t delivered

until they believe they are,

and Satan can still win

by keeping them in the dark,

and hiding them from the truth,

sending Deceivers to distort

the disciples’ message

so that the people think the wrong things

and miss their chance.

And, the angels all stand on tip toe,

jostling for viewing portals,

holding their breath,

wringing their wings,

crossing their fingers,

shutting their eyes,

afraid to look,

while the Holy Spirit

strives to work mystic wonders

to break Satan’s spell

and save the whole show,

or the predestined portion of it

(this part is somewhat murky,

even in the ancient manuscripts),

before it’s too late and it’s all over

because time is running out,

even though there is eternity to play with

and what could the hurry possibly be?

V.

Well, that’s the gospel truth

which has been passed down from the apostles,

systematized by the theologians,

and preached by the preachers,

in one version or another

through long centuries of making things perfectly clear.

Yet, no matter how often

we hear it presented,

or see it enacted

in manger scenes

and Lenten Services,

we cannot ignore the obvious,

or avoid the inescapable conclusion,

that it has all the earmarks of an early draft

of a Rube Goldberg cartoon,

and realize that someone with all eternity to work with

could surely have come up with something better.