Love the Hell out of Each Other

An Illinois man left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and planned to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife an e-mail. Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it in from memory.

Unfortunately, he missed one letter, and his note was directed instead to an elderly woman whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the screen, let out a piercing scream, and fainted.

At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

Dearest Wife, just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.

PS. Sure is hot down here.

I found out this week that there is a town in Michigan called Hell. When it was founded back in the 1800s, people from nearby towns would visit Hell’s general store. What a great excuse to curse.

“I need some flour.” “Go to Hell.”

“Mom, I don’t know what to do.” “You can go to Hell for all I care.”

“Where’s your husband?” “Ah, he’s gone to Hell.”

In the summer, there’s no place hotter than Hell. In winter, Hell freezes over.

Many people thought it would be a cold day in hell before they would be caught dead in a church. Many thought hell would freeze over before they would become a member of a church, and actually enjoy participating.

Life has a way of surprising you doesn’t it? Here you are, participating in a world changing spiritual community. Your soul is not dangled over the hot coals of hell’s terrifying grill. Your spiritual life is not lived in the shadow of fear’s flames. You don’t burn your feet on the burning embers of hell’s pathways.

You walk your own true path; forging your own spirituality and choosing a path with heart. You storm the gates of hell with a love that melts all traces of fear. You turn the heat down on hell by choosing love over fear.

For a long time I thought it would be a cold day in hell before I would give a sermon on hell. Well, first frost has hit Hell and here I am giving a sermon on hell.

Do you want the good news or the bad news?

The good news - There is no reason to believe there is an actual place of eternal suffering after life called hell.

The bad news - There is a place within you where you torture yourself with judgment and fear. This is the hell that you put yourself in and through.

The good news - there is a way out of hell.

The bad news - the only way out of hell is to go through hell. You’ve already been to hell. You’ve survived it before and you know you can survive it again.

There is no literal hell or eternal punishment. There is no judgment other than the one you put yourself through. The carousel of perfectionism and fear of failure - that’s hell. Choose to end the madness. It isn’t serving you, and it ain’t serving the world.

The History of Hell

The main message of western Christianity? Scare the bejeesus out of people and then tell them there’s only one way out - be a good Christian. It’s a potent form of social control.

This is tragic when you consider that it was only in the fourth century after Jesus that hell became institutionalized in the church.

Origen was one of the most significant fathers of the early Christian church. In the 3rd century he was still speaking about hell as a place where sinners could be rehabilitated. The Council of Constantinople in 543 rejected Origen’s view. From that time forward, western Christianity was divided between two perspectives; the majority who believed in hell as eternal punishment, and the minority who believed in a one-time annihilation of sinners.

Even the teaching of Jesus is ambiguous when it comes to hell. Matthew 10:28 speaks of the body and soul being destroyed in hell. The word that is used for hell is Gehenna. Gehenna was a valley on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It was notorious as a place where some had practiced child sacrifice to Molech. It was also used as a place to dump the bodies of executed criminals. Because of this dark history, it became a garbage dump. At the time of Jesus there would have been continuous fires burning to consume the city’s garbage. Dogs lurked around the fires waiting for scraps of food. When the dogs fought over the food, they would have made the sound of gnashing of teeth.

It’s possible that Jesus was referring to this location when he spoke of hell. He wanted to describe the most tortured human experience; and the image of Gehenna captured something of the terror of the experience.

It’s tragic that so many people have been held in fearful captivity to a doctrine of such dubious origins. The doctrine of hell makes a mockery of Jesus’ message of love and forgiveness. Maybe as a way to break the tension, hell has provided low hanging comic fruit to television shows such as The Simpsons.

There’s a fun episode of The Simpsons where Homer sells his soul to Satan for a donut. Homer is sentenced to a night in hell where he is fed enormous quantities of donuts. They underestimated Homer and he eats every donut in hell. Homer is acquitted but Satan curses him with a giant donut head as a reminder of his gluttony. Not to be put off, Homer begins snacking on his own donut head.

What do people believe about hell today? While over 80% of Americans believe in a heaven where people live with God forever, only 63% of Americans believe in hell where people are punished eternally. But it gets more interesting. When the question becomes more pointed, “Do you think you will go to hell after death?” only 1% say they are going to hell. Nearly 2/3 of Americans believe in hell but virtually no one thinks they’re going there. Jean Paul Sartre was right; “Hell is other people.”

What is Hell Then?

Comedian Jim Carrey has a fun definition of hell. “Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to listen to your grandparents breathing through their noses when they’re eating sandwiches.”

If hell is not an actual place, what is this journey of inner torture?

Unlike the hell of western Christianity, inner hell is not a condition that other people put you in. Hell is a condition you put yourself in when you forget who you are, at your essence, and lose your path.

People and situations will come your way that will test your resolve. They will push you, maybe push you around. People will project all their greatest fears onto you, and make your life miserable for a time.

Don’t fear these people. They can’t ultimately harm you. They can throw stones at you, hurt your body, even break your heart but they can’t touch your soul, the part of you that is untouchable and unbreakable.

Let me illustrate with a simple story. A violent samurai warrior confronted a peaceful Zen monk. The samurai lunged at the master with a sword saying, “Don’t you know I’m a man who can run through you with this sword without blinking an eye?” The monk looked up at him and said, “Don’t you know that I’m a man who can be run through with a sword without blinking an eye?” The samurai immediately put his sword down.

Hell is not what other people put you through. Hell is allowing your life to be ruled by fear. Hell is losing your center and ending up in a world of judgment.

This is good news. Other people don’t put you in hell. You don’t have to wait for other people to get you out of hell. You can get out of hell even while the difficult circumstances continue.

Love the Hell out of Yourself and Others

How do you get out of hell? Homer, not Simpson, but the ancient Greek poet Homer, recorded the myth of Persephone the goddess of the underworld. Persephone’s mother Demeter was goddess of agriculture and fertility. One day Persephone was gathering flowers in the garden when the earth opened up and Hades, god of the underworld, abducted her. Demeter desperately searched for Persephone and in the process sparked a massive global famine. Eventually Hades relented and allowed Persephone to return to Demeter, unleashing earth’s fertility once again; the movement from winter to spring.

However because Persephone had eaten the forbidden Pomegranate fruit in the underworld she was sentenced to spend several months a year in the underworld. Each year, during her absence, Demeter wept the world into winter.

wintHow do you get out of hell? The same way you survive a Michigan winter. You go through it. You embrace the darkness and the damp cold and see what it has to teach you. Use your time in the underworld wisely. Draw every ounce of the courage, wisdom and insight that the underworld has to offer you. Rise out of hell with new strength.

This will be our sixth Michigan winter. The first winter was a novelty. The second winter was a revelation. The third winter was a drag. I never thought the fourth winter would ever end. Winter has its own beauty and challenge. As someone who grew up in a climate where the temperature never went below 40 degrees, a Michigan winter has an awesome mystique. Six years later, I respect winter but I don’t fear it.

It’s the same with so many of life’s challenges. Emerson once said, “When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.”

Hell is a religious myth intended to hold you captive to fear and the church’s teachings. Stand up to the myth and pull its beard. You will find that it comes off in your hand. You cannot be denied. You are an adventurer, storming the gates of hell and fear.

Like the persistent goddess Demeter you will find that love prevails eventually. Love the hell out of yourself and others.

I honor the gods and goddesses, heaven and hell, within you. I honor your incredible courage and strength to storm the gates of hell with love and conquer fear and judgment.

Namaste.

Readings

So have no fear of those who persecute you; for nothing is covered up that will
not be uncovered, and nothing secret will not become known. What I say to
you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the
housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather
fear one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold
for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by God. And
even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more
value than many sparrows. - Matthew 10; 26-31

Heaven and hell are within us, and all the gods are within us. This is the great realization of the Upanishads of India in the ninth century B.C. All the gods, all the heavens, all the worlds, are within us. They are magnified dreams, and dreams are manifestations in image form of the energies of the body in conflict with each other. That is what the myth is. Myth is a manifestation in symbolic images, in metaphorical images, of the energies of the organs of the body in conflict with each other. This organ wants this, that organ wants that. The brain is one of the organs. — Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we’re alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external defitions of who and what we are. - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

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

1. What are your beliefs about hell?

2. Why do you think western Christianity has persisted with a literal belief in hell?

3. In what ways have you been in, and survived, your own hell?

4. Do you think there is any merit to retaining some notion of hell (metaphoric or otherwise)?

You Get What You Give

There was once a very stingy man with a terminal illness. He was determined to prove wrong the old saying, “You can’t take it with you.” After much thought he finally figured out how to take at least some of his money with him when he died. He filled two pillowcases with money and left them in the attic of his home. When he passed away, he planned to reach out and grab the bags as he floated up to heaven.

Several weeks after the funeral, the deceased man’s wife was up in the attic cleaning when she saw the two pillowcases stuffed with cash. “Oh, that old fool,” she exclaimed. “I knew he should have put the money in the basement.”

The road to hell is paved with stinginess - not because there is some place that all stingy people get imprisoned in, like an eternal remand center for misers, but because if you live in a stingy way you end up in a stingy world. You create your own hell on earth.

We all have our moments of stinginess, don’t we? When I was a child, I had a stingy moment in my sleep. All my life I have done very imaginative things in my sleep; like waking up the night before my wedding with a chair beside me in the bed. On this particular occasion when I was young, I chased my sister around the house demanding a dollar. Apparently I am a very persistent sleep walking debt collector. Not one of my finest moments!

Whether it’s related to money or praise or a helping hand, stinginess is an outer manifestation of an inner fear. You are afraid you will lose something, so you play it safe and keep the cards of your generosity close to your chest.

What are your moments of miserly meanness? At what points does stinginess bring a sting into your life?

You withhold praise, afraid that you might lose your own status.

You withhold challenge, afraid that you might offend.

You withhold affection, afraid that you might be betrayed.

You withhold love, afraid that you might lose your power.

You withhold commitment, afraid that you might lose your independence.

You withhold wisdom, afraid you might lose your edge.

You withhold emotion, afraid you might lose your cool.

You withhold generosity, afraid you might lose your lifestyle.

You withhold an apology, afraid you might lose face

You withhold forgiveness, afraid you might lose the excuse to stay angry.

You withhold your best in the world, afraid that your best is not good enough.

Fear, fear and more fear. Stinginess is a way of playing small in the world, as if the qualities of the heart are in short supply and if you just keep your head down no one will notice or need you. But people do need you and people do notice you. Your stinginess neither serves the world nor does it serve you. In fact, it is the cause of so much pain in your life. Conquer stinginess by conquering fear, and remember that your thoughts, words and actions are an essential part of the fabric of life. Nothing is lost when you give with a big heart - and so much is gained. You drop a little piece of the false sense that you are defined by the things you hoard, and live with open hands and a full heart.

The 14th century Saint, Catherine of Sienna, was a vocal prophet for inclusion at a time when women had no voice. She encouraged everyone to be all that they could be in a world that is in such need of healing. “Hold nothing back,” she said. She summarized her theology with this statement, “You make the heart big, not stingy - so big it has room in its loving charity for everyone.”

Stinginess and Punishment

Sometimes we use stinginess as a form of punishment. There is a great example of stinginess and fear in the movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Have you seen it? Vicky and Christina are Americans spending the summer in Barcelona. Christina is a free spirit. She is stingy with commitment, fearing the loss of independence. Vicky is uptight. She is stingy with spontaneity, fearing the loss of control. They meet the artist Juan Antonio. Juan Antonio takes Vicky to meet his Dad, a brilliant poet who doesn’t publish his work.

My favorite piece of dialogue in the movie is between Juan Antonio and Vicky.

Vicky: “So, uh, tell me, why won’t your father publish his poems?”

Juan Antonio: Well, because he hates the world, and that’s his way of getting back at them — to create beautiful works and then . . . to deny them to the public.”

Vicky: “ My God. Well, what makes him so . . . angry toward the human race?”

Juan Antonio: “Mm, because after thousands of years of civilization . . . they still haven’t learned to love.”

I can understand his frustration, but I don’t believe that being stingy will bring love to the world. On the contrary, it will just spread more fear and mistrust. That’s the unending cycle of stinginess.

So what are you waiting for? The world doesn’t need to be punished. It needs to be healed; and that will happen when we surgically remove fear that grows like a cancer when left unchecked. When you give something, you haven’t lost it. You have created more of it. There is more than enough to go around. Dwell in abundance.

You Get What You Give

Jesus said, “If you give to others, you will receive a full amount (measure) in return.” In fact there will be so much that even if you pack it down and press it together you will have to use your toga as a bag to carry it around. It’s a nice image. It reminds me of one of those television game shows where they have a cash cage, with dollars blowing around, and you have 30 seconds to grab as much as you can. People get very creative and use their clothing to horde the money. Maybe that was part of the purpose of the oversized gowns in ancient cultures: extra storage.

I don’t believe that Jesus was talking only about money. This saying occurs in the context of the passage about not judging others and forgiving others. If you live in a world of judgment, you will drive yourself and others crazy with your impossible standards and stingy perfectionism.

What word is in the middle of the word “forgiveness”? Give! Don’t be stingy with forgiveness. Give mercy. Give the benefit of the doubt. Give second chances. Accept that others are doing the best they can, and the same river of acceptance will flow freely back to you.

What are you waiting for? If you store up your treasures in barns waiting for some tomorrow, you could miss your chance to enjoy them. There was a tragic story that came out of Israel earlier this year. A woman had inherited one million dollars. Because she didn’t trust banks, she hid the cash inside her mattress. She was leaving it there for some future time. One day while she was at work, her daughter wanted to surprise her with a new mattress. She came into her Mom’s home, removed the old mattress and replaced it with a new one. When the Mom came home, she was beside herself. She searched all the local garbage dumps but found nothing.

Apparently this is a true story. However it sounds awfully like an episode of Sponge Bob Square Pants to me,; where Mr. Krabbs goes into a cash coma when he loses a mattress with all his money in it.

Apply the principle to much larger things than money; like forgiveness or praise. If you store up kindness or mercy for some future time, you just might miss your chance to express them. Don’t delay. Express gratitude and praise while you have the opportunity.

Making the Most of Opportunities for Kindness

You don’t want to lose perspective with your generosity, as if you will begin being generous eventually. Now is the time to make a difference. A man asks God, “God, how long is a million years?”

God: “To me, it’s about a minute.”

The man: “God, how much is a million dollars?”

God: “To me it’s a penny.”

The man: “God, may I have a penny?”

God: “In a minute.”

The musical Rent makes this point so well. It’s the story of homelessness, drug use, AIDS and broken hearts. In the midst of so much heartache, it asks the question: “How do you measure life?” Is it in the numbers of minutes in a year? Is it the wealth you acquire? Or is it in the moments of love you share?

The way you measure life will be the way you measure other people’s value and the way you measure your own inner worth; love, love and more love.

What gets in the way of you accepting yourself and being kind to others? What fear stops you from living in abundance and being generous?

You Never Know When Love Will Return

The fact is that you never know when your acts of kindness will return to you.

A farmer in South Dakota lived in a remote area, and her old and frail father lived about 12 miles away. One day as the farmer was driving home she saw a car by the side of the road. She didn’t usually stop for strangers, but for some reason decided to stop and see if the man peering into his smoking engine was all right. She felt huge compassion for the man, and broke all her rules by deciding to help him. She drove to a neighboring farm, picked up some water and got the man’s car moving again. He was profusely thankful, and reached into his wallet to offer her money. She refused the money, and suggested that instead of paying her back, he could pay the kindness forward by helping the next person he saw broken down by the side of the road. The man agreed and they went their separate ways.


Two weeks later, the farmer’s father called with an interesting story. He had gone to an auction about 50 miles away and had a flat tire. His daughter was horrified. She knew that he had been on a deserted strip of road that very few people drive on; and she knew that her father wouldn’t have had the strength to change the tire himself.

The father said, “You wouldn’t believe it. A man stopped to help me. I offered to pay him after he changed my tire. He refused the money and said that two weeks ago a woman had stopped to help him when he broke down and he was repaying this woman by helping me.”

That’s the spirit of generosity. You never know when your gifts will come back to you. You get what you give. So give generously and enjoy the world you create.

I honor the abundance in you that lacks nothing and gives without fear of loss. Namaste.

Readings

Luke 6:37-38

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth p. 191

“Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world. You are withholding it because deep down you think you are small and that you have nothing to give. Try this for a couple of weeks and see how it changes your reality. Whatever you think people are withholding from you–praise, appreciation, assistance, loving care, and so on–give it to them . . . . Then, soon after you start giving, you will start receiving. You cannot receive what you don’t give. Outflow determines inflow. Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you already have, but unless you allow it to flow out, you won’t even know that you have it.”

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

1. In what areas of life do you find yourself being stingy?

2. What fears lie beneath your stingy moments?

3. What motivates you to live with abundance and generosity?

4. Have you had experiences where your generosity comes back to benefit you?

Praying for Glenn Beck

Johnny Lee Clary was the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan’s White Knights. After spending his twenties terrorizing black people in his home town in Oklahoma, he had a religious experience that led him to renounce his racist past and become an evangelist for tolerance and respect. This video shows him describing his relationship with black pastor Wade Watts - and what he learned about loving enemies.

“Dear Lord, please forgive Johnny for being stupid. He’s a good boy.” Wow! How was it that Wade Watts didn’t loathe everything about Johnny Lee Clary? You would imagine that the very sight of Clary would make his skin crawl.

Did Wade Watts know something about Johnny that we don’t know? Maybe he did. Maybe Wade knew that Johnny had a dysfunctional family life and, at age 10, watched his father kill himself. Maybe he knew that Johnny was moved from family member to family member and had no stable adult influence. Maybe he knew that Johnny ended up in the gang scene in East LA and joined the Ku Klux Klan by the time he was 14.

When you think of the hateful things he did and said as an adult; it’s hard to love Clary. When you think of a ten year old boy trying to come to terms with unspeakable tragedy; it’s hard not to love that boy. It’s hard not to love a 14 year old boy who has lost his way. Without excusing what he did in the name of racial hatred, Johnny Lee Clary is a reminder that people DO change, that ALL people are capable of goodness and that EVERYONE deserves a second chance.

Wade Watts was a wonderful example of the teaching of Jesus - to love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you. Pastor Wade’s love most certainly overcame the fear of Johnny Lee Clary. Maybe Clary came into Watt’s life to teach him something about love and patience and forgiveness.

Now bring this point closer to home. Glenn Beck epitomizes so much of what many people loathe in American media: fear, hatred and vitriol. Maybe the very thought of Glenn Beck makes your skin crawl. If you happen to agree with Beck’s views, then picture in your mind someone who makes your skin crawl. What will it take for you to love that person? What will it take for you to love Glenn Beck? Is it possible that Glenn Beck, or the person you loathe, has come into your life for a reason - maybe to teach you something about patience, understanding and forgiveness?

Did you know that like Johnny Lee Clary, Glenn Beck grew up in a dysfunctional family? His father abandoned the family, his mother committed suicide, his step brother committed suicide, Glenn is alcoholic and has ADHD. How can you not love the 15 year old boy trying to come to terms with his mother’s death? How can you not love the man trying to come to terms with his disease? That’s a start, at least, to grow into the type of mature love that Wade Watts manifested.

Maybe if you understand something of the fear Glenn grew up with, it puts his vitriol into a new perspective that makes it easier to love him even without agreeing with his views. More importantly, maybe there are times in your life when you have reacted with hostility and later realized that you were actually scared. You weren’t angry. You were scared. Can you face your own fears and allow yourself to heal? Can you forgive yourself? Can you make peace with all the parts of yourself that you have been at war with for years?

Halloween and Facing Fear

It was Halloween night in 1936. A group sat around a table holding hands, awaiting a message. They had gathered every Halloween night for 10 years waiting for the message. But the message didn’t come. Eventually, a woman stood up and made an announcement. “My last hope is gone. I do not believe that Houdini can come back to me or to anyone. The Houdini Candle has burned for 10 years. I now respectfully turn out the light. It is finished. Good night Harry.” The woman was Bess Houdini, wife of magician Harry Houdini.

ladderIt took her ten years, but Bess Houdini had finally come face to face with her fears and was able to let them go; let him go. Harry would not be coming back, but she would be okay without him. She was stronger than she thought. At Halloween, you come face to face with your fear of death, and your fear that you don’t have the strength to live without your dear departed. You face your fear and you survive it. You have looked fear in the face and survived. You know you can survive the next hard day or the next long night. You are a survivor. You are strong.

At Halloween we create a safe environment for kids to explore the dark; and dress up as their greatest fears. Hopefully they see that behind the grisly masks there are just other kids like them. Hopefully kids come to see that darkness has its own beauty; and hopefully they come to see themselves as powerful and courageous. What a joy if they come to see that behind the doors of neighbors there is kindness and love.

Best of all, kids get to confront fear on their own terms; around candy and make believe. Why not? An adult version of this is to write a list of all the things you have been afraid of in the past five years and all the things you have been told to be afraid of in the past five years. Put a line through all the fears that have never come to pass. Your world has not fallen apart. Muslims have not taken over the world. Barack Obama has not turned America into a totalitarian socialist state. When you finish and find yourself staring at a piece of paper with lines through it, smile at fear’s imagination and grab some candy. Laugh at the fanciful stories of fear and eat some candy. And in case you’re worried that the world will end, keep in mind that it’s already tomorrow in Australia and the world didn’t end.

The Illusion of Security

We need nights like Halloween. We live so much of life as if we have the power to cordon off danger behind a barricade of certainty. But there is no such thing as absolute certainty. To live is to risk loss. Life is an act of faith, and there are no certainties except change and death. The whole airport security trend is amusing to me. You know you used to have your razor confiscated while you were allowed to take your shaving cream on board. Now you can’t take shaving cream, but you can take a razor. You spend hours lining up to get on to airplanes while security goes through your luggage with a fine tooth comb. Then you sit on a seat and fly in the sky, putting your life in the hands of a couple of fallible human beings and a bunch of metal. Forget terrorists. Surely flying on an airplane is the ultimate reminder of the lack of absolute certainty in life. It is right to take precautions, but don’t let the illusion of security rob you of the joy of life’s adventures.

If there was ever a better reminder of the uncertainty of life it is the Swine Flu, the mobile fever that is taking the world by storm. The fear of the Swine Flu is real. It’s right to take precautions. But even with the most rigorous precautions, it could strike any or all of us at any time.

You think you can foil germs by furiously washing your hands. Washing your hands is fine but it also may create the illusion of security. You need germs to build your immune system. Comedian George Carlin points to the irony on death row in prisons: they swab alcohol on the arms of those who are about to be given lethal injections. Are they worried about infection? As Carlin says, “You wouldn’t want some guy to go to hell . . . and get sick.”

Here’s the point. We are all heading out of this world some time or other and in some way or other. Take your precautions, but don’t let the illusion of security ruin your enjoyment of the adventure of life. Overcome fear with a good balance of precaution and adventure.

Overcoming Fear With Love

There has been so much fear mongering in this country since 9/11. Orange security alerts have flashed off and on like a strobe disco light. We have been kept on a state of high alert, with a general wave of insecurity, but not with enough information to know what to do with the fear. Why?

As long as people fall for the illusion of security, preemptive attacks and eternal wars can always be justified. This is not new. Crush the enemy before they can crush you, even if we don’t know for sure who the enemy is or why we hate them. Crush Native Americans. Crush the Chinese. Crush the Russians. Crush black slaves. Crush Muslims. Get them before they get us. The paranoia drips like lost blood.

The illusion of security is preventing us from loving our enemies; because we are too busy crushing them. There was a tragic scene on Fox News recently when Movie maker Michael Moore was being interviewed by Glenn Beck’s running buddy Sean Hannity.

Michael Moore asked Sean Hannity what he thought of Jesus’ command to love your enemies, and how this related to Al Qaeda. Hannity replied, “I love them in the sense that I want to destroy them.”

Now I understand that there are many different meanings of the word “love” in the New Testament; but I don’t imagine that destroying people is one of them. We can do better than that. Maybe Hannity regrets saying it, and we can give the guy a second chance.

In the words of John 1: 4, “perfect love overcomes fear.” Another way to say perfect love is to say “greatest good” or in a personal context “doing your best.” If you know you are doing your best; taking all the precautions, forgiving yourself and others as much as you can for now, being mindful of dangers, then this effort will overcome fear. You will be free to live and take appropriate risks and dance in the adventure of your days.

As you do your best, and allow others the benefit of the doubt that they too are doing their best, you can stretch towards the end of fear. In the words of the Hindu scriptures, “The one who sees all beings in himself and himself in all beings loses all fear.”

Shaking Hands with the Enemy

When I had been in America for about six months, a man made an appointment to see me. I didn’t know this man and I didn’t know what he wanted to talk about. He arrived at my office and I met him in the foyer. I raised my hand to shake his, and he placed his hand behind his back. I thought to myself, “This is going to be an interesting meeting.” I set myself the intention of shaking this man’s hand before he left. When we sat down he told me that he had been told by a group of local pastors not to shake my hand when he met with me. They told him that it would defile him. When I questioned him further, it turned out that they thought my predecessor was still in the position. They didn’t even know that a new pastor had arrived. How petty and fearful! We chatted for a while and, while we never saw eye to eye on our beliefs, we did share a laugh or two. Yes, before he left, he shook my hand.

Glenn Beck is my brother. If I have the chance, I would like to shake his hand. I love him and pray for him even though I have yet to hear a word, that I agree with, come out of his mouth. He is a brother, and worthy of my compassion. He has a life story, and his own struggles, that I can’t begin to understand. Most important of all, I can transform my relationship with Glenn Beck. He no longer makes my skin crawl, as now I see that he has come into my life for a reason. He is holding up a mirror to my unforgiven parts. I see parts of myself in him. I see myself growing and still learning and know that I can give him what I crave most deeply in life; countless second chances.

Namaste. I honor a love so deep that there are no enemies; you are part of all, and all is part of you.

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

1. Who are the people that make your skin crawl; and what is it that you find so difficult?

2. What do these people teach you about yourself?

3. In what ways has perfect love overcome fear in your life?

4. How do you prevent yourself from falling for the illusion of security?

5. Do you think that America has acted with “perfect love” since 9/11?

The Golden Rule

Because the One I love lives inside of you, I lean as close to you as I can. Because God has pitched tent inside your humanity, I set up camp in your courage and hike on the trails of your wisdom. Because God goes with you, I stand in your shoes, feel the soul of your feet, and walk in your sacred footprint. I want to know you, really know you, in all your beautiful, messy, brilliant, fragile humanity. You are accepted just as you are.

Practice being human together. Treat others as if you are the others, as if they are holding up a mirror to divine beauty. I’m not talking just about the respectable or outwardly impressive parts. I’m talking about your fears and foibles too. Learn to appreciate the good days as well as the bad days.

There’s a beautiful story about Mother Theresa. She made friends with a man who was dying on the street. He had maggots eating at his open wounds. She brought him to the convent to clean him up.

The whole time, the man complained and cursed her. One of the younger nuns asked her how she could stand to clean him when he was being so nasty. Mother Theresa said, “Oh that was just Jesus having a bad day.”

Mother Theresa was the embodiment of the Golden Rule. A little likeHaley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense who saw dead people, Mother Theresa saw God…..everywhere……. in all people, especially in those who were having a bad day. She saw God and treated people with the sort of sacred respect that most of us reserve for royalty. If you think of The Golden Rule as being an exchange of kindness, she was only concerned about her part in the exchange. It was always her move and she didn’t worry too much about having her kindness returned.

Life would be so much more peaceful if we all learnt to accept each other’s bad days. How can we learn to appreciate each other’s imperfections? How can you follow the inspiration of Mother Theresa and make it your move even when you are trying to love someone who annoys or repulses you? Maybe you can start by accepting your own imperfection.

God Within

The Japanese Kimono gown is a beautiful symbol of God within. Some Kimonos have very plain outer designs but immaculate and exquisite decoration on the inside of the gown. Some of them are even intentionally imperfect on the outside. The purpose is to remind the person wearing the gown that beauty ultimately resides within. Those who see the imperfections of the outer gown are reminded to appreciate the variety of the outer and look to the magnificence that lies beneath the surface.

I like to think of myself as being fairly competent, but underneath this calm exterior there are some cracks. As a home handyman, for example, I make a great theologian. The very name “Ikea” makes me break out in a cold sweat. I don’t understand restaurants where you have to cook your own food and I don’t appreciate furniture stores where they send you out with a box full of wood, a wingnut and a prayer. Our home is full of reminders of my imperfection. We once bought an Ikea bed. It was called the BLAARKEN which is Swedish for “best of luck, you sucker”. After 6 hours trying to put together this Swedish puzzle, we gave up and decided to use it as a bookcase.

Another time, I was trying to assemble a cabinet and got trapped inside. I had to call technical support to help me get out. I tried to put together a bed side table for Meg. The drawers wouldn’t open; never did, never have. The coffee table in our living room has two big cracks in it where I failed to properly install the storage compartment. Every time we look at the cracks in our coffee table, we are reminded of my glorious imperfection.

You see, as Leonard Cohen said and I take great comfort, “There is no perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” The Bible describes this as treasures in clay jars. The outer form, the container, is fragile but what it holds…now that is incredible. Our frail humanity is a reminder to not get attached to the outer form and also of the treasures that lie beneath the surface.

Sacred wonder and beauty is so often experienced in the cracks of life, where the light gets in. Jack Kornfield tells the story of a Buddhist statue in his book The Wise Heart-

In a large temple in Thailand’s capital, Sukotai, there was an enormous clay Buddha. It had survived over five hundred years. At one point, however, the monks who tended the temple noticed that the statue had begun to crack and would soon be in need of repair and repainting. After a stretch of particularly hot, dry weather, one of the cracks became so wide that a curious monk took his flashlight and peered inside. What shone back at him was a flash of brilliant gold! Inside this plain old statue, the temple residents discovered one of the largest and most luminous gold images of Buddha ever created in Southeast Asia. The golden Buddha now draws masses of devoted pilgrims from all over Thailand. The monks believe that this shining work of art had been covered in plaster and clay to protect it during times of conflict and unrest.

God Between

If you learn to accept your bad days, you will be a lot more accepting of other people’s bad days. If you embrace your own quirks and foibles, you will be a lot more appreciative of the quirks of others. They may even teach you something about the divine nature of life.

Here’s the hardest part of the Golden Rule- Its your move! It’s always your move when it comes to the Golden Rule.

The Golden Rule at the most general level is a moral measurement, but its not black and white. How does it apply to increasing the numbers of troops in Afghanistan? How does it relate to health care reform? Whatever your perspective on these big issues, the Golden Rule frames the question. How can I treat others as if I am the others? You don’t have to start with the tough global issues. You can start just by smiling more often.

The Talmud teaches that it is better to show a person “the white of your teeth” than to give them a drink of milk (Ketubot, 111b). It adds that this applies even if the person has just come in after a long trek on a hot day. Your smile is of greater value, and does more good than a cold drink.

Smile at people for no particular reason. Smile at strangers. Smile at your enemies. It will drive them crazy. But don’t do it for that reason. Do it because loving for no apparent reason brings you nearer to heaven.

Toward the end of the church service, the minister asked,” How many of you have forgiven your enemies? One small elderly lady raises her hand.

“Mrs. Jones? How is that you have managed to forgive all your enemies?”

“I don’t have any.” She replied, smiling sweetly.

Mrs. Jones, that is very unusual. How old are you?”

“Ninety - eight,” she replied.

“Oh, Mrs. Jones, would you please come down in front and tell us all how a person can live 98 yrs and not have an enemy in the world?”

The sweet little lady tottered down the aisle, faced the congregation, and said: “I outlived the lot of them.”

That’s one way to do it. Another way is to learn to love your own imperfections and in so doing become more compassionate to others.

The Golden Rule is Universal

The Golden Rule is a universal moral code. It is present in some form in most of the world’s traditions. Douglas Adams gave the simplest form of Jesus teaching in his prologue to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where his narrator explains that the story begins “nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change”.

The Golden Rule was laid out clearly in Ancient thought as well as most world religions. Isocrates (436-338 BCE) said, “Do not do unto others what angers you if done to you by others.” Roman Pagan culture said: “The law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of society as themselves.” Chinese text The Art of War said, “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

Here is a sample of Golden Rules from various religions:

Christianity- Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6;31

Confucianism- Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state. Analects 12:2

Buddhism- Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Udana-Varga 5,1

Hinduism- This is the sum of duty; do nothing to others that you would not have them do to you. Mahabharata 5,1517

Islam- No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. Hadith of an-Nawawi 13

Judaism- What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. Talmud, Shabbat 3id

Taoism- Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss. Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien

Zoroastrianism- Whatever is disagreeable to yourself do not do unto others. Shayast-na-Shayast 13:29

Native American Spirituality also contains a form of the Golden Rule- “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” -Chief Seattle.

Evolutionary theory also seems to include a form of the Golden Rule. Natural selection prefers cooperation. If you know that someone may hold your fate in their hands at some future time, it’s wise to get on their good side while you can.

As people who understand that all of life is connected; all people, all actions, people with the earth etc, the challenge is to move beyond caring for survival, and expanding your compassion beyond your tribe and current perspective to include the stranger, the enemy, even those who haven’t yet lived. Spiritual evolution includes celebrating the bad days and the beauty of imperfection. You want the best for everyone in all situations, and you are creative and skilful enough to help others to achieve.

Because the One I love lives inside of you, I lean as close to you as I can. Because God has pitched tent inside your humanity, I set up camp in your courage and hike on the trails of your wisdom. Because God goes with you, I stand in your shoes, feel the soul of your feet, and walk in your sacred footprint. Namaste.

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

1. What are the personality traits you find hardest to love or accept in yourself?

2. In what ways are other people mirrors of divine beauty in your life?

3. How does the Golden Rule apply to the deploying of more troops in Afghanistan? How does it apply to health care reform?

4. Which formulation of the Golden Rule is most meaningful to you?

Jesus was SBNR / Membership at C3

Retired Calvin English professor Steve J. Van Der Weele feels that the spiritual-but-not-religious movement merits attention. That is an understatement. The church will ignore the mass exodus of people out of religion at its peril. The fact that so many people are claiming spirituality outside of religion is to be celebrated — and is far preferable to people leaving religion with nothing to put in its place.

The spiritual-but-not-religious movement is not in competition with religion. It is a clear alternative for those who are seeking new ways of relating to God and the world outside of mainstream religion. Steve Van Der Weele uses an interesting metaphor to suggest a pitfall of being spiritual but not religious. He says that water needs a container.

We can agree on this one thing

I resonate strongly with his metaphor, but for a different reason than the one he intends. Water does not need a container. Water is invisible in the atmosphere but essential as a life force. Water may be held in a container, but only for a brief time, and for a very limited purpose. The container can never define water, nor does it ultimately contain it.

Human beings often seek containers. We want our lives to be framed by something more significant than our daily routine. We want to make a lasting difference in the world. We desire a connection with something greater than ourselves. We belong to groups and movements that expand our circle of care and compassion. Once the container is limiting our growth and reach, it is a mark of human maturity to move beyond that container. Some will move beyond the religious container of their upbringing and explore other world religions. Others will explore the universal human connections that are beyond any one container.

After all, look at Jesus

Water is a wonderful metaphor for spirituality without religion. John, chapter 4, tells the story of Jesus breaking all the social traditions of his day and mixing with a Samaritan woman at a well. In the first century, many Jews would opt for a nine-day journey along the Jordan River to avoid the type of meeting that Jesus and the Samaritan woman enjoyed. For a Jewish man to drink from the cup of a Samaritan woman was unthinkable. Yet that’s exactly what Jesus did. He drank from a new container. He was more concerned with drawing people together than with upholding religious purity laws that divide people.

Jesus was spiritual but not religious in the sense that he was more interested in connecting with people beyond his own tribe than he was with maintaining religious purity. He worked against the separation and division of people. The poison of separation based on religious or ethnic exclusiveness is just as toxic as water pollution.

Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan which flows into the Sea of Galilee, a water world teeming with all manner of sea and plant life. The River Jordan also flows into the Dead Sea, where displaced fish die within minutes. An increasing number of people are finding religion to be a Dead Sea, lifeless and stagnant. This is the religious challenge: Evolve into something relevant and meaningful or else fade into oblivion.

Meanwhile, those who are spiritual but not religious are getting on with life that is lived fully and with depth. We are seeking an experience of love and acceptance that is oceanic. We look to water to be reminded that all are connected, that all things change and that we need to adapt to new circumstances. The ocean refuses no river, asks no questions of the river, and organically the ocean and the river merge into one.

Water that is boundless and free is a wonderful metaphor for the sort of spirituality that Jesus encouraged. To seek the depths of life is far more empowering than materialism. The good news is that materialism is not the only alternative to religion. Thank God for spirituality without religion. People who feel no connection to religion can live with depth and love the world with abandon, in an ever widening circle of kindness, until the day when love conquers all hatred and no one and no thing is excluded from love’s inclusive embrace.

Above you are the stars. Beneath you is the earth. Within and around you are the waters of life. Like the stars, may your love be constant. Like the earth, may your life be grounded. Like the waters of life, may you know that you are never alone and are flowing in a beautiful stream of divine becoming. Peace to all.

Membership at C3

Groucho Marx once sent a telegram to the exclusive Friar’s Club in Hollywood: “Please accept my resignation. I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.” How do you feel about membership in institutions like the church? My sermon on Sunday addressed this question.

This past Sunday was one of my all time favorite Sunday gatherings at C3. If you were present, you know what I’m talking about. Thank you for helping to make it so extraordinary. If you were not present, I want to give you a chance to catch the same energy.

Believe it or not, we had an altar call of sorts. We collectively agreed to reinstitute a clearer membership focus. Over 100 people on Sunday declared membership at C3 for the very first time, with many more reaffirming their membership. After the gathering, people were bursting at the seams with optimism and sharing stories of how they had been at C3 for many years but never taken this step or else they were more recent participants but had just been waiting for an opportunity like this.

So this is your opportunity to join the incredible C3 momentum. You can declare your membership right here and right now! Please fill out this form and hit 'Submit' now.

Membership at C3 is not about assenting to particular beliefs or creeds or gaining some exclusive sense of entitlement. You don’t have to be baptized or background checked or prove your worth in any way. Membership at C3 is a way to say “yes” to life alongside others who share your core values for a more peaceful, loving world.

It is a mark of mature freedom to pledge your commitment to this world changing community as you strive to be all you can in your life and help C3 to be all it can be in the world.

Here is what I am asking you to do right now. If you are a local person, please fill out this form and hit 'Submit' now. Mark on the form whether you are declaring your membership for the first time or reaffirming a previous commitment to C3.

If you are not local to C3, then we love being connected with you as well. Please continue to hold C3 with your best thoughts, love and support and we will continue to partner with you in pioneering an alternative to church as usual.

My sermon on Sunday touched on issues related to “Don’t ask Don’t tell”, both in the military, in the church and in your own private life. I invite you to read the sermon here and please feel free to leave your comments. The intention of this sermon is to empower you to fully manifest your highest self in the interests of a better world.

Born Again Or Just Growing Up?

When I was 17 I had a life changing experience. I was your typical 17 yr old boy; withdrawn and full of restless angst. The only thing I really got excited about was football. One night I was listening to a band when a mysterious force entered my body and ‘took possession of me’ for several minutes. I physically shook. I began to perspire. A flood of emotions accompanied the physical wave through my body. At one moment I felt shame, and at the next exhilaration. After a few moments, the feeling left my body and I couldn’t begin to describe the relief. I felt light, like a completely new person.

It all happened without anyone around me noticing. I didn’t even tell anyone about it. I didn’t know what to say. It didn’t even feel like it was a story that needed to be told. But then something equally amazing happened. The next morning I was eating breakfast with my sister. We were eating in silence.

Suddenly she looked at me and said, “You’ve changed.”

She had confirmed what I was feeling. I was a new person. I needed some language for this experience, so I turned to the only language I had. I decided that I had experienced a Christian conversion. I had been born again. Jesus had entered my heart. The Holy Spirit had washed over me, purged me of my sin and made me a new creation. I decided that day to become a pastor in a Christian church. I never played football seriously again. I even began (wait for it) evangelizing other people. I emptied lunch tables as my Jewish friends wondered what had come over me. Thankfully my evangelical stage lasted only a few weeks.

It took me many years to come to an important realization. Language is not an experience. Language describes an experience but does not contain an experience. More recently I would describe the same experience quite differently. There was no doubting that something profound took place. My whole personality changed over night. Apart from the annoying experiments in evangelism, I became a nicer person. I was more optimistic and connected to people around me. The changes were all good, but I no longer need the Christian language to explain the experience. In fact the Christian language put a period on the experience when what I needed was a comma. It was a lesson in openness.

The philosopher William James is one of the early SBNR leaders. He offered much insight into the nature of experience. He was an unlikely leader in the spiritual world. He came from a dysfunctional family. As one writer put it, “he was the weird son of an even weirder father.” The family was so wealthy that he had no need to work. He spent his time on spiritual quests. Eventually he became a physician, and pursued his two greatest passions; spiritual experience and science.

He was a champion of the view that certainty comes from within individuals and not from either scientific orthodoxy or religious belief. Rather than studying religious texts, he spent time studying the actual experiences of people. He concluded that “experience is everything.” Experience should be assessed not by the language placed on the experience, but by the fruits of the experience. Does it lead to greater happiness, and optimism? Does it solve existential anxieties? Does it get things done in the world?

James’ conclusion was that religion worked when it was seen as a set of experiences or as a way of life. He suggested that there are two features of religious experience

1. Uneasiness. The experience should lead to a sense that something needs to be changed, improved.
2. The solution to this uneasiness lies in making connection to higher powers.

He didn’t define what the higher powers are, or what they should be called. He simply suggested that the problem in life is feeling small or isolated or powerless, and the solution is finding yourself embraced by something larger than yourself or by some higher purpose. It expands your focus and perspective and often shifts you out of the rut you are in.

He says something about this larger purpose in the final chapter of The Varieties of Religious Experience, where he uses the language of “the more”:

“Apart from all religious considerations, there is actually and literally more life in our total soul than we are at any time aware of. . . . Let me then propose, as a hypothesis, that whatever it may be on its farther side, the “more” with which in religious experience we feel ourselves connected is on its hither side the subconscious continuation of our conscious life.”

This is another way of saying that there is always more; more to learn, more to experience, more to share. All your experiences are precious and valuable. Just don’t be too quick to label them with language or explanations. Instead, dwell in the wonder of your own place in divine becoming that is greater than all and yet present in each and every moment. Your subconscious connections are more powerful than you could even begin to imagine.

The Harmonic Resonance of Thriving Community

Couples learn a lot about each other on trips. Take for example the couple on a road trip that stopped at a diner for lunch. After finishing their meal, they left the restaurant and resumed their trip. When leaving, the woman unknowingly left her glasses on the table. She didn’t miss them until after they had been driving about twenty minutes. As they drove back to get them, the husband moaned and groaned under his breath about his wife’s forgetfulness. To her relief, they finally arrived at the restaurant. As the woman got out of the car and hurried inside to retrieve her glasses, the husband yelled to her . . . “While you’re in there, would you get my hat and credit card?”

Does that sound familiar? Men and women are so different, and it’s never more obvious than on road trips. The stereotype for men is generally true. We don’t like to ask for help. Why does it take millions of sperm to fertilize one egg? Because they refuse to stop and ask for directions.

Recently, Meg and I were driving from downtown Grand Rapids to Rivertown Mall and we didn’t have the GPS. We were on a tight timeframe, and it was taking a little longer than we expected. Meg said, “You’re lost. You have to stop and ask directions.” I replied, “We’re not lost. We’re just not there yet.” For a man there is no such thing as being lost. That’s why we don’t ask for directions. If there is still gas in the tank and hours in the day . . . , basically if you’re moving you’re not lost. Remember Moses! He wandered in the desert for 40 years without asking directions. That trip could have been so much quicker.

Seriously, why is it so hard for many of us to ask for help? Do we think we will lose face? Is it an ego issue? Have we fallen for the delusion of separateness?

Asking for directions is an essential spiritual practice in this time of massive change. So much is changing, whether it’s a new economic situation or a new spiritual paradigm. As someone said to me during the week, we are in uncharted territory. Many of the things that gave you a spiritual compass in the past no longer seem relevant. The Bible doesn’t have the same literal, inerrant authority. Your concept of God is changing and growing. Religion doesn’t provide the same certainty it used to offer.

While it’s true that you have incredible inner wisdom and resources, it’s also true that we need to encourage and challenge, sharpen and support each other. That’s why community is so important. We need each other for sustained spiritual growth. Spiritual community is a place where you can practice being human in an ever changing world, and create sweet harmony alongside kindred spirits.

Harmonic Resonance

What does harmony have to do with spiritual growth and life purpose?

A man was deep in meditation. He wondered to himself, “Is there a plan for my life? What is the plan?” He heard a voice say “It’s B flat”. He repeated it to himself, “The plan for my life is B flat!” He understood it immediately. He had a clarinet tuned to the key of B flat. His favorite pastime was to improvise with his B flat clarinet. The plan for his life was to improvise.

When you are in uncharted territory, you need to improvise. That’s quite different to what many of us have been taught in church. We have been taught to follow the rules, do what you’re told. God said it. Believe it. That settles it.

There is an awful church sign that says, “A free thinker is Satan’s slave.” The name of the church? Harmony Baptist Church! Harmony? The harmonic resonance in a community has nothing to do with group think. A community of free thinkers can experience profound harmony. There is something more subtle about harmony than group think or sharing a system of beliefs. Harmony is the song that we sing when we celebrate our diversity and the pitch we find is the sweet sound of unity in diversity.

Harmony is an experience that grows much like diversity. There is some pleasure in hearing the same note an octave apart. This was the ancient Greek notion of harmony. This is like the achievement of having Baptists and Presbyterians in the same room, or men and women singing the same note octaves apart. It is the most basic diversity. But there is a much deeper harmony. It was discovered in monasteries in the 9th century, the contemplative beauty of tones five notes apart. This is like the achievement of having Catholics and Protestants in the same room, or Republicans and Democrats finding common ground. There is a harmony even deeper still. The major third, by the twelfth century, sounded the tone of what we now think of as harmony. This is shalom. It is unity with depth, like people of all religions and no religion coming together and working on shared universal values.

Bach took harmony to new levels of subtlety. He said this about his music:

“In the architecture of my music I want to demonstrate to the world the architecture of a new and beautiful social commonwealth. The secret of my harmony? Each instrument in counterpoint, and as many contrapuntal parts as there are instruments. It is the enlightened self-discipline of the various parts, each voluntarily imposing on itself the limits of its individual freedom for the well-being of the community. That is my message. Not the autocracy of a single stubborn melody on the one hand, nor the anarchy of unchecked noise on the other. No, a delicate balance between the two; an enlightened freedom. The science of my art. The art of my science. The harmony of the stars in the heavens, the yearning for brotherhood in the heart of man. This is the secret of my music.” – Johann Sebastian Bach

As Radar from the TV show M*A*S*H would say when trying to impress a woman on a date, “Ah, Bach.” He has captured the essence of harmony in community. Ah Bach! Enlightened freedom. Mature freedom. The delicate balance of freedom and responsibility to the whole.

Nature herself offers the pattern of community membership in her delicate harmonic resonance. Do you know the sound that comes out of a black hole? B flat. 57 octaves below middle C; so, human ears can’t hear it. It is the same frequency that occurs when lightning strikes water. It is the sound of creativity.

In the beginning was the word, or to say that another way, in the beginning was sound. If anyone had been present to hear the Big Bang, would it have struck a chord? Yes. I believe it would have been a minor 6th in B Flat like the opening music for the classic film Love Story. Resonant harmony is all about relationships! Even the heavens declare the glory of God in harmonic tones, as the Psalmist said. Your life, all of nature, human community; they all have their own divine harmony.

Praise and gratitude are one expression of creation’s harmony. Listen to this amazing recording of crickets. Crickets have a short life span, so if you slow down the life span of a cricket to that of a human, the recording sounds like an incredible choral symphony. There is no instrumentation added to this recording.

All of creation makes the sound of praise and gratitude. Harmony also depends on some tension, or counter point. Life is full of syncopated rhythms, surprising you and filling you with wonder and awe at the constantly evolving serendipity and second chances that open up all around you.

Everything in the cosmos has its own sound, even if we can’t hear it. Our human hearing puts us in the middle. The sound coming from the planets is too low for us to hear. It is cosmic bass. The sound of the atom is too high for us to hear. It is cosmic treble. We are musically midway between the macro world of the universe as a whole, and the micro world of the atom.

Maybe this is part of an answer to asking for directions, seeking and being a help to others in community. We are part of a whole that is so much bigger than the parts, and yet life is experienced one atom at a time. Sweet harmony happens when one guides another to a resonant pitch.

A thriving community will share so many of the wondrous qualities of harmonic resonance:

1. Praise and gratitude

2. Improvisation

3. Surprise

4. Unity in diversity

Your Place in Sweet Harmony

All musical theory aside, here is the bottom line. You participate in human community to find your voice and to help others to do the same. In the words of Mary Oliver, “. . . there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world.”

The world needs you to sing your own note to create the sweet harmony of community. If you aren’t present and engaged in community, it’s like a note on a piano being ripped out or a string torn from a violin.

Maybe you feel, like me, that you don’t have much to offer the community musically. I’m not a hugely musical person. When I was a kid in church, I always thought that Agnus Dei was the name of the old choir director. When the bulletin said refrain, I thought that meant “don’t sing.”

For those in West Michigan, check out this amazing opportunity to sing in community on October 24.

We all bring our unique notes. What is your note? Let me end with a story about musical participation.

A simple, uneducated Jew with no great religious learning was invited to a Sabbath meal. The Rabbi presented a brilliant sermon on the Torah portion of the week. “I don’t understand,” exclaimed the guest, with a puzzled expression on his face. One of the elders then told a story, a wondrous miracle-story. “I still don’t understand,” whispered the guest, tears beginning to form in his eyes. After a while the group began to sing a tune of joy and of love, a song of shalom, a Sabbath harmony. Slowly, the visitor began to sing along, to move his fingers to the rhythm of the music, to join hands with his friends as they rose together to dance. With tears in his eyes and a heart wide opened, he said, “Now I understand.”

Music touches and connects us beyond word, beyond concept, and beyond religious belief. It is the sweet harmony that unites people across all manner of difference, to find the common heart that beats for peace. May you find your voice, grow and thrive, and help others to do the same.

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

1. Why do you think it’s so hard for some people to ask for help?

2. How does community enhance your spiritual life?

3. When do you experience harmony; both within and in relationship with others?

4. What does music teach you about spiritual growth?