In Yoke

“Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. ~Habakkuk 2:3 Vision —what a concept. In Proverbs 29 the statement is made—where there is no vision—meaning a prophetic vision--the people perish. Is that true for our church? Is there a prophetic vision? If there is, I have no idea what it is. But, I am convicted that I must wait, and faithfully work - even though I am clueless about what our vision is…and even though we as a people may perish—and experience more attrition, and loss of people in the congregation. The group appointed to be the “strategic planning” team—has written a vision statement, but it is not a vision. It is a statement of posture, of “where we are now”, in terms of what we want to be…but it does not offer a “vision”. Do we have a vision? Can anyone artic...

The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.   – Brother Lawrence The mind has a tremendous natural capacity to dwell on things, and in repeating the sacred word , or in the hindu/buddhist tradition, the mantram- we are channeling this capacity to train the mind. It is the same capacity, only we are giving it a different focus. There is a story in the Hasidic tradition of Judaism in which a man asks his zaddik or spiritual teacher, “Do you mean we should remember the Lord even in the give-and-take of business?” “Yes, of course,” the rabbi replies. “If we can remember business matters in the hour of prayer, shouldn’t we be able to remember God in the transactions of our business?” ~ Easwaran Paul says that whatever we do, we do in the Nam...

Nonviolence is the supreme law of life.  – Hindu proverb The Sanskrit word for nonviolence is ahimsa: a means “not” or “without”; himsa is violence. This may sound negative, but in Sanskrit a word constructed in this way stands for a state both perfect and positive. Ahimsa implies that when every trace of violence is removed from the mind, what is left is our natural state of consciousness: pure love. Unfortunately, that love has been buried under layer upon layer of ill will and selfish conditioning. To have love bubble up to the surface of our life, all we have to do is systematically remove all those layers. There are three kinds of violence: one, through our deeds; two, through our words; and three, through our thoughts. Most of what we call violence is in the form of action, and it is with our actions that nonviolence naturally begins. But as long as our minds harbor violent thoughts, that incipient violence will find its way somehow into our speech and behavior. Th...

Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, “You owe me.” Look what happens with a love like that— It lights the whole world. — Hafez Christ’s crucifixion is a perfect image of the way Our Father loves us. He just does. In Christ’s death and resurrection, there is this love, that does not expect recompense. No, God did not cause Jesus to die in order to pay Himself a ransom so that He could get paid to forgive us. He didn’t need to be paid. In our binary thought patterns it doesn’t seem fair. But… He just loves.

My astute brother in law, Stephen Hollaway, Pastor of Harbor Church, in Block Island, RI, prefaced his sermon on March 28th, with this succinct quote by Kierkegaard: It is well known that Christ consistently used the expression ‘follower.’  He never asks for admirers, worshippers, or adherents.  No, he calls disciples.  It is not adherents of a teaching but followers of a life Christ is looking for.  His whole life on earth, from beginning to end, was destined solely to have followers and to make admirers impossible. To want to admire instead of to follow Christ is not necessarily an invention by bad people. No, it is more an invention by those who spinelessly keep themselves detached, who keep themselves at a safe distance. Admirers are only too willing to serve Christ as long as proper caution is exercised, lest one personally come in contact with danger. As such, they refuse to accept that Christ's life is a demand. In actual fact, they are offended at hi...

In the Apostle John’s testimony/gospel, he adds a crescendo to the story. In Chapter 11-after giving us background about his relationship to the Mary-Martha-Lazarus family of Bethany, John details the account of the death and burial of Lazarus, who was apparently one of Yeshua’s best friends in the Greater Jerusalem area.(in verse 3 of Chapter 11, the sisters send a message to Jesus, saying—”Lord, the one whom you love is ill”…) A couple of things jumped out at me this morning, as I re-read this account again, gleaning the Word for additional grains of truth. One key truth grain: Yeshua makes his point with Martha before Lazarus is raised: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” So then –he fulfills this word, raises Lazarus—who had been literally dead and in the grave for 4 days(11:39). He reminded Martha what he had said—then called Lazaru...

Jesus is the icon of what Paul in I Corinthians 2:6-16 alludes to as Christ Consciousness --the unitive view of life that 'encompasses paradox'. He is :  human-yet divine; heavenly-yet earthly; physical-yet spiritual; possessing a male body-yet a female soul; killed-yet alive; powerless- yet powerful; victim- yet victor; failure-yet redeemer; marginalized-yet central; singular-yet everyone; incarnate-yet cosmic; nailed-yet liberated; in one person solving the great philosophical problem of the One and the many. Take this an a Christian axiom: (1) All statements and beliefs about Jesus are also statements and beliefs about the journey of the soul (birth, chosenness, ordinary life, initiation, career, misunderstanding, and opposition, failure, death in several forms, resurrection, and return to God); (2) All statements about the Christ are statements about the Body of Christ, too. We are not the Historical Jesus, but we are the body of Christ. "Christ...