Knocking On Heaven’s Door

We have some visitors here this morning, particularly with the newcomer brunch. Maybe some of you are wondering what this place is all about? How do you know if you are going to fit in? Here’s a fun test.

If you don’t agree with half the things that I say, then you’ll fit right in.
If you think that Maria Montessori was the name of Jesus mother, then you’ll fit right in.

If you think the three sacraments are doubt, questioning and voting, then you will fit right in.
If you think “whatever” is a valid theological argument, then you will fit right in.
If you approach every belief with an open mind, and every discussion with an open mouth, you will fit right in.

I’m asking questions about life after death. What do you call a dead progressive? All dressed up with no place to go. Many progressives have given up believing in any afterlife whatsoever and taken the radical perspective that there is no afterlife.

However as I said last week, radical thinking is valid and encouraged but it’s only the first step. What next? What’s the point of being radical? Let me show you an example.

During the last hours of his life, Henry David Thoreau was questioned about his beliefs by a concerned neighbor, who asked, “Aren’t you concerned about the afterlife?”
To this Thoreau answered, “One world at a time.”

What a great answer. The purpose of being radical is to live more fully and freely in this life. One world at a time. One day at a time. One moment at a time. One opportunity to love and serve the world at a time.

Question Everything

Questioning has been a hallmark of liberal and progressive religion; from modern day progressives and Unitarians back to the enlightenment theologians who emphasized freedom to think for yourself and craft your own direct, spiritual experience.

In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer angers the KKK who burn a cross on the family’s yard. Later, in an effort to get the KKK off his back, Homer angers the local Unitarians who burn a huge question-mark into Homer’s grass.

As comedian Lenny Bruce said, “I know my humor is outrageous when it makes the Unitarians so mad they burn a question mark on my front lawn.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th century Transcendentalist was once giving a sermon in a famous church in Lexington. He was in full flight, in the middle of his sermon, when he paused, and said, “I no longer believe the previous statement.” Wouldn’t it be fun to present for that sermon?

I intend to take this freedom a step further. The statement I am about to make, I already disagree with. Questions make you humble. They keep you honest and open. They push you to new possibilities and increasing curiosity and wonder.

Euripides, the 4th Century BC Greek Playwright said, “Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.” I can only guess that Jesus was influenced by this Greek approach. If you go right through all the gospels, you discover that Jesus asked over 300 questions. He was the original radical, the interrogator, the one who asked hard questions and rarely accepted the status quo. More importantly, he was asked over 180 questions and get this- he only answered 3 of them. Instead of answering questions, he responded with another question or a story or even silence. Jesus seemed to use the Socratic Method of probing the questioner because they had the answers within them. It was more effective to find the answers themselves than be told what to think.

Maybe the same was true for Paul. In 2 Corinthians 12 he records what some consider to be a near death experience, but he says that while having his mystical experience he heard things that are not to be told: The teachings in Greek mystery cults were not to be revealed to the uninitiated. Sometimes mysteries and profound experiences are like that. You can’t describe them in words. You just embody their transformative wisdom in your life and give people freedom and safety to do the same.
Beyond freedom to think for yourself, what is the power of questions?

Questions open up new worlds of possibility

Imagine there is a town that is surrounded by giant walls. All the people of the town stay within the walls, apart from the occasional adventurer who climbs over the wall, never to be seen again. The town elders teach each successive generation that they don’t need to worry about what’s outside of the walls. Everything they need is inside the walls. In any case, the danger of venturing outside of the walls is too great. Eventually, the curiosity of the town elders gets the better of them. They decide to discover what is so attractive that no one ever comes back. They tie a rope around a volunteer, who climbs over the wall. After a time, they haul him back. They surround him and can’t wait to hear from him. They are bursting with questions, but the man is so overwhelmed by what he experienced that he is unable to speak; all he can do is smile.

Churches usually want to keep you inside the walls of their own ideas. It’s easier to control you that way. Historically, anyone who ventured outside the walls of orthodoxy was censured or in many cases executed. Galileo was censured, and imprisoned for daring to promote Copernicus’s challenge to the commonly held view of the day that the earth is the center of the universe and has a wall around its boundaries; somewhere on the other side of the wall is heaven.

Questions are often uncomfortable, but we’re here to question the answers of yesterday and ask new questions of today. What is the point of community? Ask questions in good company.

Consider the phenomena of near death experiences as an invitation to ask new questions.

Near Death Experience

Near Death Experiences are relatively common.

A 1992 Gallup Poll suggested that over 8 million Americans claim to have had a NDE. There are by some reports 800 every day in the US. NDE’s tend to include a feeling of being outside your own body, seeing a tunnel with a bright light at the end of it, and sometimes seeing loved ones who have passed away previously. More often than not, they are beautiful and peaceful experiences.




Elizabeth Kubler Ross tells the story of a man who was being picked up by his entire family for a Memorial Day weekend. Before arriving to collect him, the van was in an accident and the whole family was killed. The guy was completely devastated and ended up living on the street addicted to heroine. This lasted two years until one night when he was lying on a dirt road, stoned and waiting to die. He watched as a truck ran him over. He watched himself critically injured, as if from above his body. It was at this moment that his family appeared in front of him, in a glow of light with an incredible sense of love. They had peaceful smiles on their faces and they stayed with him in silence. He felt unconditional love. He made a vow not to join them, but to re-enter his physical body so that he could share with the world what he had experienced. It was like a Bodhisattva vow to keep coming back to life until all were liberated. It was after this vow that he watched the truck driver carry his totally injured body into the car. He saw an ambulance speeding to the scene of the accident, he was taken to the hospital’s emergency room and he finally re-entered his physical body, tore off the straps that were tied around him and literally walked out of the emergency room. He never had any aftereffects from the heavy abuse of drugs and alcohol. He felt healed and whole, and made a commitment that he would not die until he had the opportunity of sharing the mystery of life after death with as many people as would be willing to listen.

A common argument in favor of NDEs is that the incredible, peaceful experiences take place while no brain activity registers. This raises the possibility that consciousness resides beyond the brain. It also raises the possibility that there are other dimensions beyond our rational senses or the possibility of transcending time and space as we know it.

The counter argument is that a NDE is a dream like state that does take place within the brain. The light relates to the rapid eye movement, and the tunnel effect is lack of blood flow to the eye.

My interest is not to prove or disprove NDEs. You will have your own opinion about that. My interest is the effect of the experience. What positive effects do NDEs have on people once they come back to their bodies?

Often there is a loss of fear about death. The person has come so close to something eternal and is now open that there may be more to experience than this dimension. People often come to appreciate the impermanent nature of life and want to share their fearless appreciation of life with others.

Paul’s NDE

It seems that St Paul may have had his own out of body, mystical experience. Maybe it was even a NDE. What I like about the description of his experience is that it was no cause for boasting. He didn’t use the experience as a reason for pride or self righteousness. He used it as a motivation for service. The experience knocked some sense into him. He stopped living with hatred and instead became a force for love and unity between Jew and Gentile.

A man died and went to The Judgment. St. Peter met him at the Gates of Heaven and said, “Before you meet with God, I thought I should tell you — we’ve looked at your life, and you really didn’t do anything particularly good or bad. We’re not at all sure what to do with you. Can you tell us anything you did that can help us make a decision?” The newly arrived soul thought for a moment and replied, “Yeah, once I was driving along and came upon a woman who was being harassed by a group of bikers. So I pulled over, got out my tire iron, and went up to the leader of the bikers. He was a big, muscular, hairy guy with tattoos all over his body and a ring pierced through his nose. Well, I tore the nose ring out of his nose, and told him he and his gang had better stop bothering the woman or they would have to deal with me!”
”I’m impressed,” St. Peter responded, “When did this happen?” 
”About two minutes ago,” came the reply.

There was no resurrection for this guy, but I like his spunk.

Whether you have had a NDE or not, you have had your own brush with mortality. You have had your moments of honest reflection that you aint getting any younger and this aint no dry run. These are your experiences that knocked some sense into you. What questions do they raise for you? What do they motivate you to do with your life?

Does it expand the walls of your worldview, and lure you to dip your toes in the ocean on the other side? Does it leave you more open and gentle about different perspectives and experiences?

Perhaps this is the best clue I can give you about spiritual community. It’s not about the answers. They aren’t the answers for long anyway. Answers are often just lazy days in the sun for your mind; drifting off to sleep while new possibilities pass you by. The best clue I can offer about this community is that it’s not about having the answers, but asking the questions in good company.

I honor the quester in you. The one who seeks, and questions and wonders in me greets the same spirit in you. Namaste

Here are two helpful articles:

1. An argument that NDEs are real experiences?

2. An argument that is skeptical about NDEs.

For Further Reflection-

Do you think this life is all there is, or do you allow for the possibility of consciousness beyond your 5 senses and beyond your rational awareness?
What is the power of questions in your life? What wisdom have questions led you to?
In what ways have you felt limited by the church’s walls of orthodoxy?
How have you liberated yourself from other people’s or institution’s walls?

Reincarnation- A Call to Action in Haiti

There is a website called Reincarnation Station where you fill in a survey and it tells you what you will reincarnate as in your next life. The site tells you that if you live a virtuous life you will reincarnate as a highly respected animal. Otherwise you can expect to come back as a lower creature. So I took the test. The results came back and it turns out my next life will be spent as a Rhinoceros in Africa. I was quite pleased with that result.

The Rhino is a very handsome and distinguished animal with few predators. I mean it could have been worse. I could have reincarnated as a tapeworm. But then the survey told me that almost 27% of people will be reincarnated as a higher form of life than me. This was the summary statement, “You’re not perfect, but you’ve lead a better life than most. With a few changes now, your next life could be even better.” Well that’s encouraging. Basically, better luck next time.

What do you think about reincarnation? Do you think you get to live again and take care of unfinished business? Are you a believer or a skeptic? Americans are split 50/50 on this issue.

During World War 2, a 21-year-old fighter pilot was shot down by Japanese artillery. The Leiningers believe their 10 year old son James is a reincarnation of the pilot. It all started just after his second birthday, when he began having nightmares about planes. Then he started telling his parents details about a plane going down; the type of plane, the location of the bombing. They researched and discovered that the details matched very closely the demise of fighter pilot James Houston. He seemed to know details that a two year old should not know, as if they were actually memories. His parents were skeptical at first but eventually became firmly convinced that their son was indeed the reincarnation of James Houston. The fighter pilot’s sister is also convinced.

Of course there are skeptics. There is the argument that his parents took him to a World War 2 museum when he was a baby and fed him all the details, and that it’s all a hoax. I have to say that I saw the parents interviewed and they seem to genuinely believe that their son had had a past life. What impressed me the most was that the Leiningers were orthodox Christians who up to this point had believed in an orthodox afterlife with heaven and hell. They were asked if it had changed their worldview. They said it had enhanced it. They were even more firmly convinced that there is some sort of life beyond death, but they now find themselves more open to the mystery that no one can know for sure what happens after death.

Every now and again events take place that question the very bedrock of your beliefs. Maybe it’s an experience of wonder like the Leiningers that makes you more open to mystery. Maybe it’s the death of a child that makes you question the goodness of God or maybe it’s an earthquake destroying an already fragile country that makes you question the very justice of life. Some events have the power to turn a perspective into a passion, a worldview into a value, and a belief into a call to action.

This is true for all of us, not just those who question fundamental beliefs. As free spirits, many of us have enjoyed the freedom of abandoning a wrathful God, and questioning an inerrant Bible. I welcome and encourage this freedom. But what next? What happens to your worldview after Haiti? What happens now? What does the image of bodies piled in dumping grounds and survivors walking the streets moaning and lost do to your beliefs? Do they become a call to action?

From Belief to Action

There are three general stages in most new realizations; 1. Orthodox beliefs, 2 .Self Awareness and 3. A call to action.

Matthew’s gospel tells the story of Peter’s conversion, but it’s not a conversion to particular beliefs. It’s a movement from head to heart to hands. Jesus uses the Socratic method to help Peter come to this realization himself. He starts by asking a very general question- “who do people say that I am?” Peter gives the orthodox answer for his day. He says, “People say that you are the reincarnation of Elijah, John the Baptist or Jeremiah.” Then Jesus pushes Peter to self awareness, “Who do YOU say that I am?” Peter says, “You are the Messiah.” Finally Jesus pushes beyond words and beliefs to actions. He says to Peter, “Now be a Messiah yourself. Be a rock on which others can build their lives.”

Now relate these 3 stages to a belief in the afterlife. You may have certain ideas about the afterlife in your head. They could be heaven and hell, reincarnation or nothing at all. All are valid. But they are all speculative beliefs. When death comes close, your own or someone close to you, or global tragedy strikes, it suddenly becomes a matter of the heart, what you feel is true. This is usually a much softer, more permeable perspective, less dogmatic, more open. The final stage is to be so moved by death that you commit to creating heaven on earth and being the reincarnation of the highest humanity you can possibly muster.

The purpose of spiritual community is not to replace old beliefs with new speculative beliefs. This may happen in some cases but it’s not essential. The purpose is to help each other move from belief to value, via self awareness and a call to responsible and compassionate action in the world. How does this relate to reincarnation?

Reincarnation- You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere

Two dear old friends, Bill and Fred, had many conversations through their life about death and what they thought Heaven would be like. They made an agreement that whichever of them died first would make every effort to make contact with the one that was still living and tell them what Heaven was like.



Well, Fred was the first to pass away and about a year later, Bill was truly missing his dear friend. One day, when he was immersed in grief, the phone rang…and when he answered it, he heard a familiar voice on the line.



Bill said:



“Fred, is that you?”



“Yes it is my old friend, yes it is.”



Bill was overjoyed, and said:



“So, tell me dear friend, what is it like where you are?”



Fred said:

”Oh, it’s wonderful. You wouldn’t believe what I am experiencing now. The most plentiful food and lushest fields you have ever seen, I sleep in late, have a long luxurious breakfast, and then I go and make love.

If it’s a nice day I go out in the fields and make love some more. I come in and have a long lunch, then I go out into the fields again and make love all afternoon and retire early in the evening.” 



Bill responded:



“Heaven sounds so amazing!”



Fred immediately replied:



Heaven? Who said anything about heaven? I’m a rabbit in Minnesota!”

There is a case to be made that you aint goin nowhere when you die. Whether it’s through a specific reincarnation as a person or creature, loving deeds that create life that you aren’t even aware of, evolution, the passing down of genes, or whether it’s your body becoming worm food for the earth, a strong case can be made that you will be around for a long time to come.

The Sufi poet Rumi said:

“I died as mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was man.
Why should I fear?
When was I less by dying?”

-Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi (Persian Sufi)

Banda Aceh in Thailand was nearer to the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 than any other place. One fifth of the population was destroyed. But if you visit today, you discover a prosperous province where poverty has decreased post Tsunami and there is new peace in the region. The whole province has been reincarnated, mostly because the global community heard the call to action. Will the same thing happen in Haiti?

We could sit around and talk about our various beliefs about reincarnation and the afterlife until the cows come home. It would be interesting, but might not make an iota of difference in your life or make the world a better place. In Haiti death has struck, and we are compelled to move beyond belief to action.

Haiti is Heaven on Earth

It was unfortunate that Pat Robertson made his comments about Haiti and the pact with the devil. He revealed more about himself and his own prejudices than anything else. Now is the time to rediscover the beauty of the place. Haiti has just become your heaven on earth, because this is where your actions will make the most lasting difference.

Begin by celebrating the depth of culture that has emerged from that place, and will again.

It was the first independent nation in Latin America. It was the first black independent republic of this hemisphere. It was the only nation who gained her freedom out of a successful slave rebellion. Forget about pacts with the devil. This is a nation that has trail blazed independence through hard work. Haiti has gifted the world musicians and artists, authors and activists.

It’s also the poorest nation in Latin America, and it’s overwhelming to reflect on how it will come back from this Earthquake. We must all stand alongside her to rebuild heaven on earth.

Let me end with a call to action. Right now, Haiti resembles the Gates of Hades. The place that Peter had his conversion was Caesarea Philippi. This was a multi cultural center full of diverse beliefs and practices. This was the home of the Greek God Pan’s cave known as the entry to the underworld. It was called the Gates of Hades, where Pan would disappear every winter and the people would hope for his reappearance every spring. This was a world where children died often and average life expectancy was around 40. The fear of death was ever present. The fear that death was final and ultimate was paralyzing, but it was also disproved every Spring when the days lengthened and the sun brightened and the land became green.

The incredible synergy is that Caesarea Philippi was most likely flattened by an earthquake in the 3rd century. Today it is not inhabited, but you can visit the excavated sites to soak in the history and culture.

I can only imagine that for most people in Haiti today, it feels like the Gates of Hades, surrounded by death and fear. Will death be the final word in Haiti or will there be a reincarnation of the spirit of independence and courage that has marked the country’s history?

The answer to that question lies with the survivors of Haiti and with you and me. With your most passionate and caring actions, Haiti can rise to see the spring of a new era and believe again in life beyond death. As you follow your call to action, and allow your life to be the rock on which other people can rebuild their lives, you will discover in the most profound way the meaning of life after death.

The infinite spirit in me that endures the most devastating circumstances and cannot be broken, greets the infinite spirit in you. Namaste.

For Further Reflection (questions that can be used individually or in groups)-

Do you believe in reincarnation? Why or why not?

How important is to you to be able to explain what happens after death?

How do you intend to create heaven on earth?

What are you doing to support the rebuilding of Haiti?

Soul Plane- Jet Lag of the Unconscious

I’m just back from 2 wonderful weeks in Sydney with family. The 32 hour commute is so fresh that my cankles haven’t yet subsided from their puffy, Mrs. Doubtfire-esque glory. Under the circumstances, it seemed best to tackle a straightforward topic. So I chose as my theme “the immortality of the soul”. If that doesn’t conquer jet lag, I don’t know what would.

By the way, my favorite quote about jetlag comes from Barbara Kingsolver in Animal Dreams. She says, “When you go on a trip, in your dreams you will still be home. Then after you’ve come home you’ll dream of where you were. It’s a kind of jet lag of the unconscious.”

That is so true in life, isn’t it? The grass is always greener. In the midst of life, you imagine some better time to be. Thinking about the afterlife feels a little like jet lag of the unconscious, crossing space and time zones in search of elusive perfection. The challenge to staying present is that life is often very difficult. It sometimes feels easier to imagine a future time without challenge, like a holiday or a heaven, somewhere to escape in your mind and visualize peace and perfection. The rewards to staying present are out of this world, and well worth the effort.

Soulful Uncertainty

The first question to ask yourself is whether you expect life to be full of certainties, or whether you can get comfortable with uncertainty. If there was ever a reminder that the road to heavenly holidays is paved with uncertainty, it must surely be air travel. We flew out of the US on the same day that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab strapped explosives to his underwear and attempted to blow up a plane over Detroit airport. As a result, we passed through the tightest air travel security regimen that the world has ever seen. Countless hours and dollars are poured into patting down 7 year old girls wheeling Dora the Explorer backpacks full of Christmas toys and crayons. I never did trust Dora with her evil side-kick Boots and that cunning talking map. That crew has “terrorist” written all over it.

In all seriousness, I have no major problem with the tight security and it really wasn’t much of an inconvenience. With the deepest respect for those families who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks, the issue I have is the delusional human craving for security and the tendency to look for it in the wrong places.

Think of air travel in a larger perspective. In the past decade there have been three terrorist related incidents on US airplanes. Most of them failed or were foiled by other passengers. In the same period of time, according to the Bureau of Transport Statistics, there have been 99,320,309 commercial airline departures that either originated or landed within the United States. That means that there has been one terrorist incident for every 33 million departures. If you look at the total number of passengers on planes in the last decade, the odds of being on a flight with a terrorist incident is 1 in 10 million. By contrast, the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are 1 in 500,000. You are more likely to die from falling out of bed than as the victim of a terrorist on a plane.

Do you feel safer on a plane, knowing that there is a rigorous security regimen? Maybe. But at what cost? Are you prepared to sacrifice liberty for security, even though liberty may be your greatest security? And while so much focus is on air travel, what other security threats are being ignored? Now relate the same issue to the belief in the afterlife. To the extent that a belief in the afterlife offers security, it may just as easily rob you of the liberty to live without guilt and pretense, fully in the present.

You see, I fear that the craving for security can so easily delude us in a world that offers few certainties. As Glenn Close’s character says to a group of acting students in her recent film Heights, “For Christ’s sake, take a risk sometime this weekend.”

I think the big guy would approve. As he himself said (in my paraphrase), what does it profit you to gain a whole world of security and lose your soul? What’s the point of security if you are so paralyzed by fear that you can’t truly live? Seek a new year’s revolution this year. Resolve to evolve fearlessly. Make it your intention to really live as if your life makes a difference in the world. For Christ’s sake, take a risk this year, if for no other reason than to remind yourself that you are alive and your life’s script is not yet written. You get to write the book. You get to plot at least the outline of each chapter if not all the details. Take a risk to remind yourself that the beauty of life is that it offers no certainties. It is open and dynamic.

For Christ’s sake, live heaven here and now, as if your actions will make a difference beyond your knowledge and beyond your life span. That seems to be the point of Matthew’s vision of the afterlife (Matthew 25) where your life’s work is measured by your kindness to those most in need of care.

What is a Soul?

It’s good to stop and reflect on how far you have come. While I was in Sydney I was reminded of my religious origins. After 15 years away, I visited my first parish. Memories flooded back to me. I saw the public housing project where I first visited shut-ins and buried overdose victims. I recalled the church group that gathered with me for our inaugural “mission”. Some of the more traditionally religious folk felt that we should be trying to save their souls. I suggested we just try and be nice to them. In their minds, there was no point being nice now if the shut-ins would end up in hell for eternity. In my mind, the shut-ins knew more about hell than we ever would, and the best thing we could do was love the hell out of them.

It made me think about souls. What are souls? Is a soul a thing, or is it a metaphor? A few years back, a Kiwi guy tried selling his soul on the internet. The bidding reached $189. He claimed it was in good nick, apart from a rough patch when he first reached the legal drinking age. I think he may have been confusing spirit with soul in that case.

The idea of selling your soul is not a new one. The German legend, Faust, sold his soul to the devil in exchange for ultimate knowledge. He had forgotten that true knowledge lies in recognizing what you don’t know, and the ultimate truth is the wonder of living with open eyed curiosity.

Speaking of Faust, did you hear about the Wall Street financier who woke up one night with Satan at the end of his bed?

Satan smiled and offered the financier untold wealth, limitless power and countless women. The financier said, “What’s the catch?” Satan replied, “In exchange for all of that, I will take your soul.” Without blinking the financier said, “Again, what’s the catch?”

Untold wealth, limitless power, ultimate knowledge and impenetrable security are all delusions that can easily serve to distract you from the work of your soul. So is the soul a real thing or a metaphor and what is its work?

The ancient Greeks thought the soul was a thing, something separate from the body. They deduced that the one thing a dead body can’t do is move and think (I could suggest several other things a dead body can’t do). Therefore, they said, something must leave the body when it dies. That must be the soul. The soul must be that which moves the body or gives the body thought and will.

There are many different theories of the soul, including the belief in frisbeetarianism, which is the belief that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there. Unfortunately, much religious speculation about souls is about as scientific as frisbeetarianism. Many forms of Christianity suggest that souls are things that are separate from the body that get zapped into the body at birth and then leave the body at death.

The Hebrew notion of the soul is far more connected and wholistic than this. In Hebrew thought, the soul was the whole of a person, their life force. It wasn’t one thing isolated from the body, but the body itself in harmony with life. I imagine that’s where Jesus gathered many of his ideas about the soul. What does it profit you to gain the whole world, and yet lose your soul, the ground of your being, your life? It’s unfortunate that western Christianity has generally opted for the Greek dualism that pits soul against body rather than the Hebrew sense of soul as a connected whole.

The idea of a supernatural thing called a soul can be a dangerous notion. It can lead to a denial of this life and your humanity. On the plan ride home I took the opportunity to watch a quirky film called Cold Souls. It stars Paul Giamatti, who plays the nervous and awkward role of himself, Paul Giametti. Paul is an actor who gets lost in his own dark thoughts and thinks the problem is his soul. So he decides to remove his soul and put it in soul storage. He’s given the option of storing it on the premises where it is removed or if he wants to save on sales tax he can store it in New Jersey.

Paul is devastated to see that his soul is only the size of a macadamia nut and much smaller than other souls in storage. He feels hollow without it. The soul is implanted in a Russian woman in order to smuggle it overseas. Drama ensues as he chases his soul around the world. But that’s another story.

The point here is that without his soul Paul loses his zest for life. Confused and angst ridden as his life was, it was nevertheless his life. He becomes a terrible actor and can’t make love to his wife. He lost his groove, albeit a flimsy groove.

He discovered that the very thing that he thought was weighing him down, his questions and doubts, turned out to be the essence of what made him tick. It’s no accident that in most religions, dogmatic notions of an immortal soul and an afterlife emerge at a time of great suffering such as the Axial Age. People look for a neat way to make meaning out of suffering, a hell for their enemies (justice) and a heaven to put their feet up and watch their enemies suffer.

It’s easy to forget that the soul has no vengeance. It has no expectation of the future. It seeks to avoid nothing. It doesn’t need to be pandered to or protected. The work of the soul takes place in the midst of the present realities of life.

Living With Soul

Life is challenging. The soul understands that. Challenge to a soul is like cold water to burning metal; it strengthens, and intensifies but never destroys. The soul doesn’t need an escape from challenge. The soul takes an alternate perspective on challenge.

A soul turns an event into an experience, a circumstance into an opportunity for love and healing,
a group of words into poetry, a series of notes into music.

Maybe the problem is that you think the soul is made up of things you add to your life, when the soul may actually be the essence of life when you strip the unnecessary distractions away from your life.

A few years back, we had a funny moment while traveling as a family. At the end of a long and tiring flight, we were gathered at the baggage carousel. You know what its like; you watch every bag earnestly as if by staring hard enough it just might turn into your bag. The bags were going round and round until we saw a loose handle with baggage tags on it. We joined the whole group, laughing hysterically as the handle did 4 revolutions of the carousel, until everyone else had left and we realized it was all that was left of our bag. It didn’t seem so funny then. It had a tag on it that said, “Heavy”. It reminded me of a stand up comedy skit where a Welsh man described the same experience. He went to the baggage claim, held up his handle and the woman said, “What seems to be the problem?” Reading off a list of standard questions, she asked him if someone had tampered with his bag. “I think so”, he said.

Traveling through life lightly keeps you closer to soul. When you strip away all the baggage that deludes you into false security, you get a handle on what really matters and what lasts when all the people have left and all the bags are gone. Then you are close to soul. Hebrew culture understood this truth.

There is a story that captures the Jewish notion of the afterlife. A tourist stops at the home of the great Rabbi. Since the Rabbi has such a world renowned reputation the visitor expects to see a great home filled with valuable treasures. However, he is shocked when he sees a bare home with almost nothing in it. “Where are your possessions,” he asks in astonishment? The Rabbi responds, “Where are yours?” “What kind of question is that?” the tourist said. “I’m a visitor here.” “I am too,” the Rabbi replied.

The soul travels lightly and knows what lasts. So is there a soul? I don’t know. Is soul a metaphor? A beautiful metaphor. If I say to you, “so and so is an old soul” you know exactly what I mean. If I say that a piece of music is soulful, you know instantly what I mean. If I describe a person as a soul mate, you immediately understand. Now let me ask a more open question. Is a soul connection real? Absolutely. Is an experience of soulful music real? You bet your life it is.

Can you explain why you are soul mates with certain people and not others? Not fully. Can you locate this soul connection in your body? Not completely. Can you describe why you experience some music as more soulful than others? Not really. Soulfulness is both real and also shrouded in mystery and wonder.

Even if it isn’t a thing that can be located, soul is a metaphor for the self at one with itself and in union with the whole. Soul is at one with the moment, and needs no future perfection. Soul is God within offering treasures of inner peace and healing. Soul is your consciousness that you are part of a wondrous whole, and that your integrity and choices matter to that whole.

As Carl Jung said, “The soul is a personification of the unconscious, where lies the treasure.”

I end with a powerful poem written by a man on Death Row who claimed his innocence until his death. He knew a lot about uncertainty and yet writes soulful poetry.

We seek within this riot of notes
The gentle sounds that form a minor symphony
To heal our wounds
At first, perhaps, life is an opus
Of tragic wails
But then, if we attend to the theme,
A form prevails.
And from the mad cacophony
That wreck’d our soul
Emerges the sparse ecstatic song
That makes us whole.
- Charles Doss

Namaste. All that is soulful in me greets all that is soulful in you.

The Messiah in your Midst

My oldest son is currently learning to drive. This is a new experience for all of us. It’s an anxious time for a parent, a liberating time for a kid. It’s amazing how competent teenagers are, at least when it suits them.

I like the Ben Bergor quote, “It is amazing how quickly kids learn to drive a car, yet are unable to understand the lawnmower, snow-blower, or vacuum cleaner.”

There is a funny scene in the 90’s movie Clueless which stars Alicia Silverstone and Britney Murphy who died this past week. Cher, a precocious valley girl played by Silverstone, is taking a driving test. The whole time she is driving in between two lanes, she is thinking about her teen romance problems. She mindlessly runs bicyclists off the road, hits parked cars and causes general havoc on the streets.

The driving instructor demands that she pull over. She asks him, “So how did I do?”

“How did you do?” he says. “You can’t park, you can’t switch lanes, you can’t make right hand turns, you damaged private property and you almost killed someone. Offhand I’d say you failed.”

She protests, “Isn’t there someone else I can talk to? You can’t be the absolute and final word on driver’s licenses?”

Then the driving instructor gives one of the classic movie lines of all time. He says, “Girlie, as far as you’re concerned, I’m the Messiah of the DMV.”

And that brings us around to the true meaning of Christmas. Not the birth of Santa, as Bart Simpson said, but the birth of the Messiah in the most surprising form. Messiahs are like that. By definition, you wait for them and they surprise you. You can easily miss them if you aren’t paying attention.

You see, Cher was so lost in her own world, she didn’t realize the power of the one sitting next to her. Do you ever find yourself so distracted by the trappings of life and the holidays that you fail to see the Messiah who is sitting right next to you?

I hear you say, “Have you seen the person sitting next to me? More to the point, have you seen me? Because I’m sitting next to someone, that means I’m a Messiah for them. I mean I barely got my Christmas shopping done in time, I haven’t volunteered in years and I’m holding onto some deep grudges. I’m no Messiah.”

The Messiah is Ordinary

If the Christmas story is about the arrival of the Messiah, the Messiah arrives in the most human form. The gospel writers tell us that the blood line of this Messiah was a mixed bad of dubious pedigree. It included a prostitute, a product of incest, an adulteress and Ruth who got Boaz drunk then forced him to marry her. Mary and Joseph had an embarrassing situation of their own, and were being chased by a crazy tyrant. If this was the Messiah, he wasn’t exactly what you might have expected. Presumably as Jesus grew up he caused some mischief at times, like the time when he ran away from home to join the religious circus of his day. As a child I imagine Jesus would have said of himself, in the words of Monty Python, “I’m not the Messiah. I’m a very naughty boy.”

How do you expect the Messiah to look and act? Do you expect the Messiah to be otherworldly and perfect, or genuine and fallible?

Once there was a monastery with a long history of commerce and a thriving spiritual community. But as time wore on, fewer and fewer villagers visited the hallowed halls. Fewer people turned to the monastery for advice. Even the sale of their famous wines began to dwindle. The abbot began to despair for his community. “What should they do?” he wondered. They prayed daily for guidance, but the brothers only became more dispirited. The monastery itself reflected their mood, becoming shabby and untidy. At last the Abbot, hearing that a wise Jewish rabbi was visiting, swallowed his pride and went to visit the rabbi to ask his advice.

The abbot and the rabbi visited for a long time. They talked of their respective religions, and the fickleness of human nature. The abbot explained his problem to the rabbi and asked for advice, but the Jewish sage only shook his head and smiled. As the abbot sadly departed, the rabbi suddenly rose and shouted after him, “Ah, but take heart my friend for the Messiah lives amongst you!”

All the way home the abbot pondered the rabbi’s words, “The Messiah lives amongst you.” What could he mean? Did the Messiah live in the abbey?

The abbot knew all the brothers very well. Could one of them really be the Messiah? Surely he, the abbot, was not the Messiah… Was it possible?”

Upon reaching the monastery the abbot confided the rabbi’s words to another brother, who told another brother, who was overheard telling another brother. Soon the whole abbey had heard the news. “The Messiah lives amongst us!” “Who do you suppose he could be?”

As each brother speculated on who the Messiah could be, his view of his brothers began to change. Brother Louis no longer appeared simple, but rather innocent. Brother Jacques was no longer uncompromising, but rather striving for spiritual perfection. The brothers began to treat each other with greater respect and courtesy; after all, one never knew when he might be speaking to the Messiah. And, as each brother discovered that his own words were taken seriously, the thought that he might become the Messiah would cross his humble mind. He would square his shoulders and attend his work with greater care and start acting like a Messiah.

Soon the neighboring villages began to notice the change that had come over the monastery. The brothers seemed so happy. Villagers flocked to the monastery and were energized by the spirit of the Brothers. And so the spirit grew and the monastery flourished. As each new brother was welcomed, the question arose, “Could he be the Messiah?”
Apparently the monastery still prospers today and it is often whispered both within its walls and in the surrounding towns that the Messiah lives amongst them.

As you celebrate Christmas this year, remember that the Messiah lives among you.

If you are waiting for perfection, Christmas is going to be a lonely and frustrating time. If you are waiting for some future time, the wonders of this moment will pass you by. If you are expecting salvation outside yourself, you might miss your own wisdom. If you hold your loved ones to impossible standards you just might miss the Messiah who sits right next to you.

This idea that there is more than one Messiah is not a new idea. Many of the first century Rabbis believed that there is a messiah in every generation. The Talmud tells of a highly respected rabbi who found the Messiah at the gates of Rome, sitting among the poor, the sick and the lonely and asked him “When will you finally come?” He said, “Today.” The next day he returned, disappointed and puzzled, and asked, “You said messiah would come ‘today’ but he didn’t come! The Messiah replied, ‘Scripture says, “Today, if you will but hear His voice . . .”

Every person has a Messiah within them. The Messiah has already arrived. You have a Messiah within you, if you will just hear your inner voice telling you that everything you have ever been waiting for you already have. Salvation is at hand, if you stop chasing your impossible standards and accept what is. All the love and peace you ever wished for is yours this Christmas.

The Most Surprising Messiah

Messiahs turn up in the most surprising places, if you have eyes to see and ears to hear. Some say that the composer Handel was a manic depressive. He wrote the Messiah in under a month while in a manic state. Maybe he knew that the cracks are how the light gets in; accepting himself and allowing the raw edges of his humanity to create beauty in the world. Few would question the genius of the final product.

Your Christmas gift is the genius of your own life. Allow your inner Messiah to shine light and love on the world. Allow the raw edges of your humanity to create beauty in the world and this will create a happy Christmas.

The famous Jewish Rabbi Hillel once said, “I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing.” The Messiah is arriving in you this Christmas as you walk, fall, get up and dance in life, accepting yourself and others and letting your path unfold.

The Messiah is within and in your midst. Keep your eyes and ears open. Christmas love to all.

Giving Birth to New Meaning in The Christmas Story

A woman takes her 16-year-old daughter to the doctor. The doctor says, “Okay, Mrs. Jones, what’s the problem?” The mother says, “It’s my daughter. She keeps getting these cravings, she’s putting on weight and is sick most mornings.”

The doctor examines the girl, then turns to the mother and says, “Well, I don’t know how to tell you this but your daughter is pregnant. About 4 months would be my guess.”

The mother says, “Pregnant?! She can’t be, she has never ever been left alone with a man! Have you darling?”

The daughter says, “No mother! I’ve never even kissed a man!”

The doctor walks over to the window and just stares out it. Several minutes pass and finally the mother says, “Is there something wrong out there doctor?”

The doctor replies, “No, not really, it’s just that the last time anything like this happened, a star appeared in the east and three wise men came over the hill. There’s no way I’m going to miss it this time!”

The notion of the virgin birth divides the Christian world. On the one hand, some believe that without a virgin birth, Jesus would be less than divine, the story would be phony and God would be a liar. On the other hand, some find the whole idea of a virgin birth laughable.

During the week my former church in Auckland launched their new Christmas billboard. You may think we’ve caused a stir with some of our signs. Just stop and imagine this message out on M104. It’s a giant board with the image of Mary and Joseph lying half naked in bed. Mary is looking up longingly. Joseph is looking crestfallen and defeated. The caption above reads, “Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow.” The intent behind the board was to lampoon literalism. Not everyone found it funny. Within 24 hours it had been vandalized and cleaned up four times, attacked by a knife wielding woman and torn down. People all over the world are discussing the billboard, and are divided between those who feel liberated by poking a little fun at a belief that has been oppressive and those who are offended that their beliefs are being made fun of. What do you think?

Does it Matter?

Maybe you think that a belief in virgin birth is quaint but harmless. Live and let live and if people want to believe in such things, let them at it. Is it as simple as that?

It depends what you expect from the story. Is the Christmas story a quaint tale of a painless birth, surrounded by cuddly animals, winged angels and babies who don’t cry or the socio-political reality of a young couple, petrified, escaping danger? Most of us don’t live sugar-coated lives. The sickly sweet fairytale Christmas story offers little to the stark reality of our lives; teenage pregnancies, ethnic genocide, religious rivalry, family betrayals, gender inequality and personal anguish.

The Christmas Mary, instead of being the epitome of purity and otherworldly submission, should be revered as symbol of persistent courage in the face of oppression. The Christmas Mary is honored every time an abused wife, a displaced Sudanese woman or a frightened teenager is empowered to find liberation. The Christmas Mary is pro choice in the broadest sense of the word.

Relate this to a current day situation. The Nelson amendment to the health care bill would have restricted federal funding for legal abortion procedures. It was recently defeated in the Senate. Do you know on which day it was defeated? It was defeated on December 8, the day Catholics celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Perfect! I imagine that Mary would be pleased with that result even if the Catholic hierarchy was not pleased. The Christmas Mary empowers women to take charge of their own bodies and sexuality.

The Christmas Jesus, instead of being the bearer of salvation from the cares of this world, should be revered as the social radical who lived in the trenches of despair. The Christmas Jesus is honored every time you find new courage in the face of hardship, every time society bends down to give those who are struggling a hand up. The Christmas Jesus is a liberator in the broadest sense of the word.

Maybe the literal belief in a virgin birth is not harmless after all. It might lead to an other-worldly, impossible view of humanity and sexuality that leaves both Mary and Joseph unsatisfied. Mary is given an impossible standard of purity, carries all the responsibility, and Joseph is completely emasculated.

Never forget, especially at Christmas time, that your body is the home of God. Maybe that’s the point of Christmas. God is born in the roughest stable of human experience. God is manifest in all beautiful expressions of sexuality. The miracle is not an escape from the realities of life, but finding deep courage that endures in the midst of life’s struggles.

The Power of Myth

Joseph Campbell is one of the most influential scholars of religious mythology. He gifted the world with the beautiful idea that even though myths never happened, they always happen. To put that in relation to the Christmas story; it never was but always is. Christmas never happened the way we have inherited the story, but Christmas happens all the time.

This is what Campbell said in relation to myth and virgin birth-

“The beauty of myth lies in its power to induce life-changing inspiration in its audiences. We should not neglect the symbolism of the contemporary story; the shark’s virgin birth calls on us to be reborn in our compassion for other species and their environment, lest they fall along with our wisdom.” – Campbell, in PBS interview with Bill Moyers

Last year year, scientists confirmed that female hammer head sharks can reproduce without any male involvement. I believe there are a handful of species that are capable of virgin births but no mammals. It had me thinking that the whole Virgin Mary story is a little fishy. Virgin births are the domain of hammer head sharks and mythology. In Egypt, Horus was born to a virgin. In Phrygia, Attis was born to the virgin Nama. In Greece, Alexander the Great, was born to a virgin. In Tibet, Indra was born to a virgin. In India, the god Krishna was born to a virgin. In Siam, a wandering sunbeam caressed a girl in her teens, and Codom was born. Buddha was said to have been born out of his mother’s side. A nymph bathing in a river in China was touched by a lotus plant, and the divine Fohi was born. My personal favorite- Lao Tzu was conceived when his mother was impregnated by a falling star. She gave birth to him out of her left armpit while leaning against a plum tree. Now that’s a story. It’s far more imaginative than the modern day myth of the cabbage patch.

There is no reason to take the story of the virgin birth literally. Or as one of Mary’s high school classmates said, “Virgin? Yeah right! I went to school with her.”

The Hebrew word usually translated as “virgin” is more accurately read as “young girl”, recently married but not yet pregnant. It’s possible that the New Testament word “virgin” was a mistranslation of an innocent Hebrew word meaning “newlywed”. There is no reason to believe that Jesus was literally and physically born of a virgin. But the symbolism of the virgin birth is inspiring and empowering. Here are three ways of reinterpreting the virgin birth tradition. I’m sure there are many more.

1. Stories about the birth of heroes are often symbolized with virgin birth language. Campbell wasn’t the first to see the virgin birth in a non literal way. Some early Gnostic Christians believed a form of the modern saying “we are spiritual beings on a human journey.” They believed the soul exists before birth and after death, that all people had a spiritual origin that came before mother or father. All births are miracles that transcend gender and intercourse.

You have heard the phrase, “when you were a twinkle in your father’s eye.” The intent behind the phrase is that your life began when your father had the look of romance in his eye, about 9 months and let’s say 7 minutes before you were born. Or in other words at a time when you were just a thought. There’s a verse in Jeremiah that says “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” It’s a breathtaking idea that each of us was known before we were born; a twinkle in God’s eye. Your life has an essence that transcends your parents and any action on their part. As parents, remember that-

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and the daughters of life, longing for itself. They come through you but come not from you. Though they are with you, they belong not to you. You can house their bodies but not their souls. For their souls live in the beyond.” – Kahlil Gibran

All births are virgin births in the sense that you can strive be like your kids, but you cannot make them just like you. They remember more about the pure light of divine consciousness than you do, so tune in to their wisdom.

Matthew’s story of the virgin birth emphasizes that Mary was pregnant by the Holy Spirit, not by God. The Holy Spirit was a feminine word and concept in Greek language. Two distinct energies exist in each birth, both feminine energies but distinct. On the one hand, you are intimately connected to your baby, attached in an umbilical way. At the same time, you are just bringing more life into the world, and you can’t possess that life. The notion of the virgin birth reminds you of the part of your child’s life that you can’t control; you simply help it on its way.

2. Dominic Crossan offers a socio-political interpretation of the Christmas story including the virgin birth. Many of the terms we think of in relation to Jesus were first used for the emperors; divine, son of God, redeemer, savior. Before Jesus was even a twinkle in the gospel writer’s eyes, all these terms were used of Caesar Augustus. It was also widely claimed that Augustus was descended from the virgin goddess Aphrodite-Venus and the Trojan hero Anchises. Augustus’s Trojan ancestors were said to have been led from Troy to Italy by Venus’s western star.

Imagine how radical it was to craft a story around the birth of Jesus that made all the same claims as Augustus. They were taking the identity of a Roman Emperor and giving it to a Jewish peasant. This was high treason. It was as if to say, “one has been born who represents a new form of power through service rather than selfish gain.”

Here is the truly radical part of Crossan’s theory. Augustus wanted sole rights to this high status.

The gospel writers were suggesting that Jesus had divine authority that was higher than Rome’s authority.

So there is another possible reading of the Christmas story.

3. Carol Pearson offers yet another approach to the virgin archetype. “The term virgin meant a woman who was “one in herself”, who owned herself. She could be sexual and have children, but she could not be someone else’s property”.

Virgin may be an archetype, symbolizing openness and self responsibility. No one owns you, your body, your sexuality or your dreams. You are a child of God, a co-creator of life, and choice is your divine responsibility to live authentically and serve the greater good.

The virgin is willing to journey into the unknown, with wide eyed wonder. The divine child in each one of us can only be born from the virginal inner place, removed from any monkey mind of conditioned thinking or social control or patriarchy. The virgin has no limitations or scarcity.

Meister Eckhart captured the profound truth of a virgin birth: “A virgin, in other words, is a person who is free of irrelevant ideas, as free as he was before he existed.”

Maybe virgin birth is a metaphor for consciousness. You are born of a virgin if you approach every moment as a new possibility for wonder and service. As Mary Oliver said- “When it’s all over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement.”

The Birth of Hope

Maybe virgin birth is a metaphor for surprise. This community has surprised me many times in the past six years, and never more than in the last six weeks. Every time it seems like our options are running out, you respond with optimism. When we reintroduced the notion of membership in the community and hundreds of people said “yes” I saw a Christmas miracle. When people come to me and say “thank you for giving clear expectations for giving. Where can I sign up?” I see the birth of Christmas hope. When people come to me and say “what can I do to help?” I see a Christmas miracle.

Christmas miracles are all around you, if your mind and eyes are open and your heart is prepared for surprise. Life is evolving and never static. No one owns you, and no human quality fully defines you. You are so much more. You are the soul of life itself. You existed before time and you live on after death. Now you are a spiritual being with a few short years on this human journey. How are you going to make them count?

Namaste.

For Further Reflection (Questions that can be used privately or in groups)
1. In what ways do you think the literal version of the Christmas story is dangerous or oppressive?
2. What does the Virgin Birth story mean to you?
3. Where do you see Christmas miracles?
4. In what ways areas of your life are you hoping to see the birth of new hope?

Shining New Light on the Christmas Star

During the week a massive light show lit up the sky over Norway. It was a giant spiral of light with a blue tale. It could be seen all across Norway, suggesting that it was taking place high in the atmosphere. There are many theories about what it was, and it had the world wondering. Norwegians were standing on the sidewalk in awe, saying things like “this cant be Sirius!”

Some of the theories include a meteor, a rare Northern Lights display, Santa Claus test driving the sleigh, Tiger Wood’s Swedish in-laws letting off steam, Dick Cheney’s relatives from a planet far far away and Michael Jackson’s ascension to heaven. The light show happened one day before Barack Obama arrived to receive his Academy Award (I mean Nobel Peace Prize) and some have suggested that God was contracted by the US government to beam a massive halo on the Norwegian sky. It turned out to be anticlimactic when it was revealed that it was actually a test missile shot from a Russian submarine.

I imagine that when the Norwegian people saw the light, they had many different reactions. Some may have thought it was the end of the world, and panicked. Some may have thought it held some astrological significance and rushed to research its meaning. Some no doubt stood dumbfounded in a state of humble curiosity. Humble curiosity is an appropriate response in the face of nature’s grandeur. No matter how much you have seen, no matter how deeply you have seen, you have only just scratched the surface of mystery. There are worlds within worlds that lay undiscovered. In the face of an unexplained phenomenon, your own place in the scheme of the universe falls into perspective. As Ursula Goodenough said,

"The realization that I needn't have answers to the Big Questions has served as an epiphany. I lie on my back under the stars and the unseen galaxies and I let their enormity wash over me."

When life is overwhelming and you can’t see your way forward, remember that you don’t need to solve all the problems of the world. Just lie under the stars with humble curiosity and let their enormity wash over you. That will make all the difference. You don’t need to map out all the steps or plan your whole future. Just follow the star of your inner light to reveal the next step. That’s enough for now.

The Christmas Star

There was another famous light show that we remember at this time of year; the famous Star of Bethlehem. Matthew’s gospel, alone amongst the gospels, records the mysterious story of first century astrologers being led to the birth of Jesus by a star. There are many theories about this strange phenomenon. Some say it was Halley’s comet. Some say it was a bright supernova. In the 1600s, astronomer Johannes Kepler speculated that it was a rare conjunction of two planets Jupiter and Saturn.

Some have suggested that at the time in Jerusalem there was a rare sighting of the brightest star in the Southern Cross (Alpha Crucis). Bethlehem is higher than Jerusalem, so it’s possible the wise ones were in Bethlehem just to get the best possible view of the star. According to this theory, the star wasn’t leading them anywhere. They were chasing the star and stumbled on the birth of Jesus.

Then again, maybe there was no star of Bethlehem. It seems odd that Mark and Luke don’t mention any star. You would think they would include a massively interesting and surprising detail like a giant star pointing to Jesus. Only Matthew’s gospel mentions the star, and its details are a little clumsy. The story has the wise ones coming from the east and also following the star in the east. Unless they were walking backwards, something is fishy in this version of the story.

What was the cultural significance of the star to the author of Matthew? Why did he include that detail in the story, especially if it’s made up? Keep in mind that the author of Matthew was writing well after the death of Jesus and was probably not present at the birth of Jesus. In hindsight, he needed to make the birth story as spectacular as possible. It needed to be a story fit for a great leader. Many famous birth stories included myths about miraculous stars. Out of Hebrew culture, Isaac, Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, David, Micah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Elijah, Zechariah, Balaam, Balak, Malachi, Aaron, Elisheba, Miriam and Moses all had mysterious stars associated with them.

500 years before the birth of Jesus, Pythagoras’ birth was allegedly accompanied by a mysterious star. 14 hundred years before Jesus, Krishna was born under incredibly similar circumstances as Jesus. Born into a humble family, his parents were forewarned of the intentions of an evil tyrant and escaped in a story that sounds a lot like the Moses story. Krishna’s birth was also announced by a mysterious star. Maybe the author of Matthew fudged the star detail a little to make this a birth fit for a king.

When Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, his son Augustus buried him with royal honors and built a temple to honor him as a god. During the time when Julius Caesar was being publicly mourned, a mysterious comet was seen flashing across the sky, and this comet was of course taken as a sign from God. It was common thought at the time in Rome to read messages from God into stars and signs from the sky. Ironically, even though comets were generally seen as signs of war or impending disaster, in the case of Julius Caesar it was interpreted as a sign that his soul was leaving the earth to become one with God. Not long after, Julius Caesar was deified by the Senate.

By the end of the first decade after Jesus was born, Augustus was in his 70s. He put a ban on astrology. Some have suggested he did this to purge Rome of superstition as part of an emerging enlightenment. It’s more likely he did it because he feared an astrological prediction of his own demise that would have brought unrest to the empire. Interestingly, astrology thrived under his successor Tiberius.

So at the time of Jesus’ birth, and in the years that the gospels were written, stars were hugely significant. They were bearers of divine messages. What is the divine message?

Stars as Divine Message

Matthew seems to be using the star as a symbol of guidance. In this case the astrologers were seeking the grandest of nature’s objects and instead were led to the birth of a baby. The Christmas star didn’t lead them away from life, but deep into the heart of life. The star became a peep hole into the source of life.

They saw one star, one birth, but it was one star in one galaxy, one birth in one place. There are 100 billion galaxies and 100 billion stars in each one. One star above. One birth below. For each person born there are 1.5 trillion stars. The mind boggles. Which is more miraculous; a star or a birth? Are they even separate? As above, so below. Life goes on.

The wise ones came to the birth with humble curiosity. King Herod came with opportunity in one eye and fear in the other. The wise ones were lost in wonder. They had made the connection. They had remembered their connection to that which is greater than all and yet present in each. Herod sneered.

Abraham Heschel, 20th century Jewish theologian said, “We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn or scoff at the totality of being. Sublime grandeur evokes unhesitating, unflinching awe. Away from the immense, cloistered in our own concepts, we may scorn and revile everything. But standing between earth and sky, we are silenced by the sight…”

What are the stars saying to you? Your intuition can be trusted. It often points you beyond the life you have planned and on to the life that is waiting for you; a life of extraordinary goodness and beauty. If the wonder of your intuition eludes you, then gaze at the stars and know that you are as much star as you are flesh and blood.

Living the Christmas Story


Do you know how you can tell if your child is destined to be an astronomer? When she is asked to play the Star of Bethlehem in the Christmas pageant, she asks, "Am I a white dwarf or red giant?"

Every one of you is destined to play the Christmas star in one way or another.

Sue Monk Kidd writes in her book Where the Heart Waits: 

"When my daughter was small she got the dubious part of the Bethlehem star in a Christmas play. After her first rehearsal she burst through the door with her costume, a five-pointed star lined in shiny gold tinsel designed to drape over her like a sandwich board. 'What exactly will you be doing in the play?' I asked her. 

'I just stand there and shine,' she told me.

That’s all you have to do; just shine. There is no absolute meaning in the Christmas story. Its not clear exactly what took place or if it happened anything close to the way we remember it each year. This I know for sure; a star shines. Your star shines within. Now let it shine without. Then Christmas will be full of meaning.

What meaning will you give Christmas this year? Will you sneer like King Herod, and live with cynicism at every great achievement or will you live with humble curiosity?

You don’t have to believe unbelievable things, or leave your brain at the door. You don’t have to believe that Jesus was born to a virgin in a scene accompanied by supernatural miracles. You don’t have to imagine that Christmas is a celebration of the beginning of an exclusive religion where some people are saved and others damned. Just live with humble curiosity and open acceptance that divine light lives in each and every person.

The painter Van Gogh once said, “When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion.  Then I go out and paint the stars.”

This Christmas, when you have the need for new hope or encouragement, look to one of your 1.5 trillion stars and let its immensity wash over you.

Above you are the stars. Beneath you is the earth. Within you is the light of life. Like the stars may your love be constant. Like the earth, may your life be grounded. Like the light within, may your spirit shine.

I am star struck by the wonder of it all. Namaste.


For Further Reflection (Questions that can be used privately or in groups)

1. How important is it that the Christmas story is historically accurate and consistent?
2. What does the Christmas star mean to you?
3. In what areas of life are you jaded or cynical like King Herod?
4. In what ways are you being called to shine?

Breathing New Life into Stale Relationships

Do you want to survive life; or do you want to thrive? Do you want to go through the motions and fly under the radar; or do you want to become a better human being and inspire greatness in others? Do you want to get through life unscathed; or do you want to make a significant mark in the world? The holiday season is a great time to recommit to your highest aspirations and celebrate in grand style. Breathe new life into stale old traditions. Breathe new life into stale relationships. Breathe new life into all the stale parts of your life. Breathe new life. Breathe.

Most of us have mixed feelings about the holidays. It’s the best of times and the worst of times. You look forward to the holidays, but they inevitably fall short of your expectations. You have fond memories of the Christmas story, but at the same time it’s feeling stale. You feel disenchanted by its dogmatic versions, and want to breathe new life into the story. You look forward to the parties and functions. But you over commit to the point where the season becomes stale and you can’t wait for it to end. You’re excited to shop for gifts; but at the same time you don’t want your kids to get caught up in the “must have” mentality of the season. Consumerism is getting stale. You wish it could all be simpler.

Then there are families. Maybe all your relationships are picture perfect and you have no tension or baggage when you gather. For most of us, there is at least one stale relationship.

Maybe it’s completely dysfunctional. Or else maybe it’s just stale and stuck. Recommit this holiday season to breathing new life into at least one stale relationship. You don’t have to be soul mates by December 26 - just breathe some new life into the relationship and put yourself on the path to living more fully.

The Simpson Family sat down for Thanksgiving meal. Homer began with a prayer, “I give thanks for the occasional moments of peace and love our family has experienced . . . well, not today. You saw what happened. O, Lord, be honest! Are we the most pathetic family in the universe or what?”

At least he’s honest. Most families have days like that at some point. When holidays such as Thanksgiving put families together for a couple of hours or a couple of days, the result can be terrifying. It can be like a WWE cage match, fighting to the death.

You walk in to your parent’s home and your Mom says, “You’re wearing that!?!” Even though you’re 45, you instantly feel 15.

Conversation moves to the weather, which you think is safe enough until your Neo-Con uncle starts in about “crazy weather patterns” and “stupid liberals” and “global warming conspiracy theories.”

Your brother announces that he and his wife are “doing things differently this year” for Thanksgiving dinner: All locally grown, organic veggies. No meat. Your grandfather mutters, “Commies!”

Your ultra conservative in-law strikes up an argument about crosses in public places. “We were here first! This is a Christian nation. Why shouldn’t we put whatever symbols we want in our public places?”

Your sister-in-law gets into a nasty argument with your banker uncle. You overhear the phrases “TARP welfare,” “Goldman Sachs skimmers,” “socialist slackers,” and “Satan” all in the same sentence.

Holiday family get-togethers can easily turn into an apocalyptic nightmare. There will be blood . . . and tears . . . and maybe even broken bones.

Dry Bones

A man walks into a doctor’s office and tells the doctor he’s broken every single bone in his body. “That’s impossible!” says the doctor. He says, “No, it’s really true. Look!” He then touches his leg with his index finger and screams “Ouch!” Then he touches his arm and yells, “Eeeeoooow!” Finally, he touches his ribs and can barely maintain his composure as the tears start to roll down his face. He says, “See, I told you I broke every bone in my body.”

The doctor rubs his chin, and then conducts a thorough examination. “Well, sir,” he tells him, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is you haven’t broken every bone in your body. The bad news is you’ve broken your index finger.”

I turned to the Bible to see what inspiration it might offer this holiday season. I discovered that the Bible has good news and bad news. I chose Ezekiel’s well known vision of the valley of dry bones as a metaphor for family get-togethers. It’s a powerful story of death and rebirth. He gives the bad news first. He describes a trance-like vision he had while banished in Babylon. At a time when all the familiar traditions were taken from the Israelites, the image that came to Ezekiel was one of a valley of dry bones. They were so dry that all the life had left them; no sinews or flesh. Sound like any family function you’ve been to lately?

Then he gives them the good news. He says that even the driest old bones can still have new life breathed into them. How do you do it? With grounding, healing breath. In Hebrew language they used the same word for breath as they did for spirit. No accident, I suspect. For the Hebrews, spirit was no otherworldly piety. It was body, mind and spirit in harmony. The ancient Rabbis had a beautiful image of spirit. They saw spirit as being a house guest in the body. Therefore, you should care for the body and mind as if God is present. In your very breath, the divine dwells.

Introduce a breathing practice into your day and watch your energy increase, your mood pick up, your body strengthen, your mind sharpen and your spirit revive.

Four Agreements for Thriving With Family

1. Don’t make assumptions

Before you see family, take some cleansing breaths. Breathe out assumptions, and breathe in acceptance.

Albert Einstein said, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” The story that you carry with you about family is persistent and makes all the sense in the world to you. But what if most of it is fictional?

An old Buddhist tale tells of two monks traveling through a wood. They come upon a woman standing at the bank of a river. She needs to get across, but is unable to make it alone. The elder of the two monks picks her up and carries her through the rushing water. Once they’re all on the other side, the woman leaves the monks. The younger monk is stunned at these events. They’re not allowed to touch women so intimately, and he doesn’t know what to make of his friend’s behavior.

Finally, after stewing over the incident for several miles, he says to his traveling companion, “How could you touch that woman back at the river the way you did? Have you no respect for our vows?” The elder monk turns to his young friend and says gently, “Are you still carrying that woman? I put her down at the river bank over an hour ago.”

What stories about family are you carrying into this holiday season? So and so is quiet, therefore they must be angry with you. So and so is late, therefore they don’t care about you. There may even be some truth to the story, but it’s still a story. You choose whether you carry assumptions into the holidays or start afresh. Breathe new life into family by letting go of the stories and assumptions that drag you down.

2. Don’t take things personally

How much of the tension you feel around family are you making about yourself? It might not be about you at all. Take some cleansing breaths before seeing family. Breathe out drama. Breathe in acceptance.

An Irishman once came upon two people brawling in the street and asked, “Is this a private fight or can anyone get involved?”

Don’t you often do the same thing with family? When someone is pushing your buttons, most of the time they are involved in their own drama. Is there anything gained by getting involved? Just smile and breathe and move away.

If your progressive cousin is arguing with your conservative uncle and all you want is a relaxing time, then smile and breathe and leave them to it. It’s not about you.

You don’t need drama to feel alive and important. You are alive and important because you house God in your mind and body. Drama doesn’t help you to thrive. It distracts you from your essence as a vessel of peace in the world.

How do you differentiate between helpful feedback from family and unnecessary drama?

Picture yourself as a harp with all kinds of large and small debris swirling around you - words, feelings, innuendos, assumptions, drama. Some float toward you, passing right through the spaces between the strings, and glide on by. But others hit the strings, striking a chord that reverberates way back to your past, bringing up old hurts. It strikes a long, discordant note that jangles your nerves and throws you off balance. Ride out these encounters and try not to get so unnerved - try to settle and find your balance. First of all, notice what sticks and what passes you by. Notice what passes you by but don’t chase it. If something sticks, say to yourself, “Okay, what can I learn here to make beautiful music in the world?”

3. Speak the truth

Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Before you see family, breathe out pretense and breathe in authenticity. I believe that more good can come from working through even the harshest truth than concealing it behind a veil made up of spared feelings or saved face. Speak your mind, stand by your truth.

Know your own boundaries with family, be clear about them, and stick with them. Say to your nephew, “No you can’t smoke pot in our bathroom.” Say to your Neo-Con uncle, “No, I won’t stand for hatred in this house.”

There is a powerful scene in the movie The Family Stone. With all the Stone family home for the holidays, including a narrow minded and uptight new girlfriend (Sarah Jessica Parker), the dinner scene is explosive when the girl friend suggests that a gay couple should think twice about adopting a child in case the child becomes gay. She suggests that being gay is abnormal and is a challenge that people don’t need in life. Her opinion is like a red rag to a bull at this table. Various people around the table try to save the situation with humor, until Mr. Stone slams his fist on the table and says “Enough!” He won’t have this talk in his home.

Maybe there will come a time for you to say “enough!” this holiday season. Thrive in your own truth this season.

Vietnamese Zen Teacher Thich Nhat Hahn offers this reminder:

“Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech . . . I vow to cultivate loving speech. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering . . . I vow to learn to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy, and hope. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain, and not to criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or community to break.”

4. Do your best

We’re all human and we all make mistakes. You might even make some mistakes with family this holiday season. Others might make mistakes with you. How forgiving will you be - with yourself and with others? With some combinations of people conflict is almost inevitable.

Do your best; and maybe your best this year will be just a fraction better than last year. But that will be enough. You are making progress.

In the words of the Tao Te Ching, “’Do your best then step back. This is the only path to peace.”

Before you see family, breathe out impossible expectations and breathe in acceptance.

In another movie, As Good as It Gets, Jack Nicholson plays a man with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. His name is Melvin. There’s a scene where Melvin is leaving the psychiatrist’s office. He enters the waiting room full of depressed patients. He looks at them and says, “What if this is as good as it gets?”

I want to add two words to his question, “for now”. What if this is as good as it gets for now? In the future it could be a whole lot better than this. If you work at not making assumptions, not taking things personally, speaking authentically and not buying into drama, the future will be a whole lot better. But what if this is as good as it gets for now?

When you are with family, ask yourself the question - What if this is as good as it gets for now? Your life experience to date brings you to this point. Your accumulated wisdom and strength are the resources with which you face the moment.

Choose to thrive this Holiday season. Choose to breathe new life and spirit into the traditions and relationships that are important to you. Even if they appear dead and lifeless, that just means the only way is up. So take one step towards improving the relationship. There is always room for improvement for all of us. Take some steps towards acceptance and let go of drama. You don’t need it. It doesn’t help you to thrive. It’s a distraction from your essential purpose on earth, which is to live and love fully and liberate others to do the same.

I honor acceptance in you, and celebrate your best. Namaste.

For Further Reflection (Questions that can be used privately or in groups):

1. What are your hot button issues when you are around family?

2. What steps will you take this Holiday season to thrive in relationships?

3. What steps will you take to care for your own well being this Holiday season?