SERMON: 'FROM THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE WORLD'...Matt 25: 31-40..edited ..Jan. 1, 2017

At age seven I lost a billfoldwith five dollars in it. I said to my concerned parents, ' Lets pretend I never had it, then we won't be so upset'. I realize we can't get through life denying losses and pains but the event does show that intentionally  changing our point of view, the lens through which we choose to view things ,  can result in  a very different emotional outlook. As an aging preacher I find myself more needing to look, I trust faithfully and  responsibly, at our sacred ancient texts through lens that may make them more relevant and transforming for the 21^st century. I do not expect all to agree with my lens but invite you to look over my shoulder while I attempt that kind of view in today's sermon.

What poetic and inspired words the ancient author of Matthew puts before us here. The nature of the gospels is not to promise the  actual words Jesus said but instead we are given  metaphorical  poetic  heart stirring images of the quality of life and love of one called Jesus of Nazareth. Such a life that it generated a new point of view in the hearts of a small group  which then spread throughout the world. We now experience only a small ripple effect of what those emotional images did near the beginning. A danger as we look at such a metaphorical passage is to take these spiritual teachings too literally,  as  being about the literal outer world and fail to grasp they are first meant to describe the dynamics of our personal inner world or what the gospels call the heart.  Let's seek an inner meaning of this passage, a meaning which is true to the central message the gospel seeks to bring to each of us personally. This passage can be seen as the crescendo of the story of Jesus's potential  influence on our common collective life, of hope for 'peace on earth and good will to all.' The emphasis here must be so important to life and love it is called the very 'foundations of the world.'  Surely worth our careful attention. 

Can this now describe a personal inner owning of Good and Evil, not future literal Judgment?

First, let us acknowledge that 'son of man' is an expression emphasizing that Jesus was fully human, son of man- not only son of God. That means the image is not just about Jesus bringing judgment but can be about us making some responsible inner decisions for ourselves. Instead of our jumping to an interpretation of a literal judgment scene, where Jesus is described as proclaiming some of God's children are saved and as many others damned eternally, as instead speaking to us of the importance of making some intentional personal  value  judgments. As describing, as it were, our taking the rightful place on our own inner throne and deciding(that is taking personal responsibility) for what we each judge as most important in our human life. In other words YOU are the 'son or daughter of man' here. Yes, we can “take our place on our heart's throne, with our own best angels , as we seek to own our truest and highest  potential as human beings.”

The images speak of ' knowing the difference between 'good and evil.' Remember the Genesis story that has so influenced all of Western Civilization, where the first human couple is pictured being told to not eat of the ' Tree of Knowledge Of Good And Evil' ... for it would result in them knowing the real difference between good and evil? Unfortunately we have been overwhelmingly persuaded  to think of the couple eating of that tree as something to grieve and to think, "Oh if only they hadn't  done that the world would be only be good."  No,  that ancient story was told  not to prevent evil but to give an understanding of why there must be presently good and evil for life to exist. And that we must be keenly aware of  the difference. And that it was necessary for humans to, as it were, eat of that tree so we could come to discern what is really good and really bad. Why I was taught in my youth that dancing, having a drink, playing cards, most anything sexual and being Catholic were among the greatest evils. You may laugh but does our culture yet get it  that good is that which promotes human beings to be more fully their fullest and finest selves, each one contributing to the well being of others? And evil is anything that questions human worth and dignity and treats humans and creation as only objects for self pleasure with little concern for the person or the planet? Now I see  that dancing, taking a drink, playing cards, being Catholic and certainly sexuality do not fit the criteria of being evil. But, for example, not caring that there are mentally ill people who our social structure has decided to put on the street and not take care of …. that is evil.  To allow, yes promote, in America the gathering of personal  wealth to the extent it makes poverty for others a necessary consequence is evil. To surgically drop bombs on those we call enemies with no strong misgiving that we will be killing completely innocent persons is wrong.

Psychologically, can't this be  a call for inner personal discernment of  Good and Evil?

What this passage's poetic images  can reveal  is that we humans are now  more capable of  knowing what true good is and what a better balance of life ordinary humans can potentially bring about in the world.  And that the world is in jeopardy to the extent  we don't. Notice the highest good we can aspire to is not about 'our church' and its traditions, dogmas and rites. It is surely not about living in luxury or about achieving notoriety, position or some measure of wealth. It is not about being right in our religious beliefs so we can judge how others are wrong. What good is , and that we as  'sons and daughters of man' are capable of proclaiming from our personal inner thrones, first  TO OURSELF, is intended to be crystal clear in this teaching.  A question is, 'Will we take this as our personal spiritual work?'  Surely this is where a safer world has to begin, individuals deciding what they really believe are the highest behaviors and attitudes for human living. By such inner work the text implies we contribute to strengthening  the very 'foundations of the World” right there in ones own space.  This is the inner human activity  that can hold the earth and all the cooperating elements of creation and humanity together. Without humans announcing this first and decisively to ourselves from our own inner throne;  life, love, hope and trust will vanish from the world, will become impossible. This due to  a sheer lack of humans not being more clearly conscious of and , 'knowing good and evil.'

We may be near such a critical need for this to happen in much measure in our present day. Have we ever seen as much degrading  human behavior and words on public display at highest levels as we did in the presidential process? No side is exempt. We and our forebears  are all implicated in it  coming to such times. Our nation's hands clearly are not lily white. We must see and own that.  It has become an important matter that we  pay close attention to the difference in good and evil as they show themselves in public discourse and in our public policies. Polices which  surely effect how citizens of our land treat each other.

(Read verses 34-36)Now Let's try to keep  our  thinking of this whole poetic image as something in our inner personal life, not a description of literal eternal judgment. Only when it is kept within and worked with can it eventually  become something commonly real in the outer world.  But be ready and expect to entertain an extremely counter intuitive paradox here. Unlike the most conventional interpretations, this passage is saying the greatest good is made possible by  first recognizing our own personal needs and fears. We are pushed to first look within, not our typical looking outside of ourselves for both problems and solutions.  Surely many of these are to be found within us? 

Surprisingly the images say we are the ones in great need. Most of us have not faced literal starvation from food and water as many others have. Yet we all can identify with having important  unresolved emotional hungers. The teaching taken as an inner discipline implies that only when we  take a caring interest  in our own sense of being a stranger and alone do we create the capacity to more fully respond to the stranger who is the other person or group of persons. And if you have ever felt barred or kept , in some way, from life and love- being in literal or psychological prison, then do what you can to release and to embrace yourself . Only then can one be most in tune to the many ways other humans are physically or socially imprisoned. If you have had the literal experience of being cold for lack of clothing or being embarrassed at not  having the latest materialistic fads, treat yourself with dignity. This way we might learn and respond more significantly to the many kinds of   nakedness that other humans experience.

Yes in all genuine spiritual teaching, compared to the preaching of rules and commands and oughts, there is an irrational paradox. The way there is not direct or   simply  calling us to 'just do it.' No, the good so needed today cannot happen in magnanimous and  efficient ways by simple willingness  and occasional 'gifts to the needy' or only community  projects of good will. For this teaching of Jesus to find fullest realization in the world, it must start with genuinely noting  and caring for ones self. Jesus consistently taught  one cannot  most effectively care for others until we  intentionally care  for ourselves. Until we experience exploring and tending to our own physical and emotional needs and stresses  are we most  preparing to do our best at effectively loving  others and loving the world.

Another paradox shown here is that those who do this inner work from their own inner thrones and strive to grasp the difference between collective good and evil are pictured as not being aware they are instruments of  generating good in the outer collective world. This may indicate it is possible for humans  to awaken to the process that such good,  should it ever fully  come into the world,  is a natural phenomenon  waiting to evolve, not a supernatural happening coming from the outside. Initiating the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven  must be the most natural of all healthy human instincts, to care for ones unique self. This awareness can potentially happen in the life of all persons. We would then no longer categorize ourselves as 'needy or blessed' or 'haves or have nots' but as one family that intentionally cares for its own. Then doing good can become no longer seen primarily as occasionally going out of ones way or a special occasion midst a world of materialistic self interest. But a  natural personal and collective response of noticing the very same needs in others as seen and seriously attended to  in one's own self. Here alone lies the gospel's paradoxical potential and power of  humans loving others as we  love ourselves, of being transformed into  lovers of the world.

A DREAM OF DONALD TRUMP... How dreams can help one have a healthier, more complete perspective...December 5, 2016

I'm going to share something very personal here, a recent dream. Ones who know me are aware I have placed  emphasis for three decades on the nightly dream being important  support  for good mental health,  more balanced points of view  and in navigating the winding path of a human life. This to me is not magic but  very natural and practical. Dreams offer something more, I think,  to our important judgments than our careful rational reasoning alone is able to. Dreams usually challenge our conscious, often unquestioned,  attitudes toward important and emotional aspects of life and  other persons. So  dreams are not always welcomed and, maybe by most Western people, are ignored partly for that reason.

Donald Trump, Melania  and their son Barron  pose at  home in NY City. 

Below is a dream regarding Donald Trump whom one knows from my FB is a person I am  quite concerned about being our next president. Let's see how the dream challenges me while not overriding my best efforts at a reasoned rational attitude toward his new presence in our  national lives. I think a dream  always says exactly what it 'intends'  the dreamer to contemplate. Though it can seem silly and preposterous the dream is not playing with us but challenging us like a true  honest friend.   Perhaps this share can illustrate how a nightly dream can serve a person well in matters s/he considers important, individually or collectively. 

Here is the dream , my initial work with it and some feedback from an experienced Jungian consultant. (This analysis  has to do only with the Trump image aspect of the dream. There is much more here for me to explore... the apartment, I am 'waking up.', my deceased wife present, the mention of our knives. .... etc )

Nov 29,2016  Dream: I was waking up from sleeping on a pull out couch in a modest but clean apartment. My deceased wife was in the background. Trump was sitting there in a chair. I got up and acknowledged him. He stood up and walked across the room to get  coffee. I noticed he was rather flabby and looked as if he had done no hard labor ever. But he was courteous, not at all pushy or egocentric acting. He looked very young with no wrinkles in his face. I commented to him how young he looked and asked his age. He said, ' Thanks. I'm 43.” It crossed my mind here was likely the most spoken of man in the world now but I was not intimidated and he seemed to expect no special treatment. He asked my wife , “ Did you hear Rush yesterday?”. ...... Finally Trump showed me his small stainless steel key ring knife. I started to show him my complicated knife piece which has scissors etc on it. But then I thought , 'I like his simple one better.' That's it.

Gold leaf room in Donald Trump's Mansion Apartment

THOUGHTS: This dream irritates me in that Trump is so different than what I see in him through my conscious ego from his words and actions via the news, and 'tweets.'  I'm pushed by the dream  to consider that in person I may find him even likable. This challenges me to consider withdrawing  the extreme negative perception I have at the conscious level which practically gives him god or devil status. The dream is suggesting I question, for my own sake, my  very dark assessment of him personally which , if  not intentionally checked,  I would retain as my 'Trump image'  at the conscious ego level. (Often times we never question our positive or negative image of another person. We assume we see the real person. We assume our projection is in fact what the other person is. Trump's persona is one which  people seem to either love or hate which is a red flag there is a lot of unconscious wishful thinking and  fear based projecting going on with respect to who he actually is.)

The dream strongly  stresses, to  my conscious ego, his  humanity.  Unconscious projections toward others  render  people, in our minds,  as more or less than human. This  unconscious psychological process dangerously and erroneously attributes to the human  archetypal powers of a savior-god or  'super'natural demon. The first creates inappropriate and blind idolizing and the other unwarranted horror.  Humans have  had this unconscious  process going on from ancient and into our  post modern times. But we can now, if we choose to, become somewhat conscious of it in ourselves.  Either extreme  of projection seriously compromises rational judgment about any situation/person and dangers can then set in.  As it's  been said, 'What could possibly go wrong?' (I'm using Jungian concepts here which I find  applicable and practical  for understanding these very real dynamics.)

These warnings  of over estimating the menace of  Mr Trump  come from the dream  yet I don't think I should naively take this dream image to  be the 'real'  man any more than my devil like negative conscious assessment. But it is how the dream advises me to consider him if I am interested in having a more balanced  and psychologically truthful and healthy point of view. This is a   constructive way for me to imagine him the dream source is saying. It is not so simple, that I should suddenly not be concerned with his likely being a severely flawed narcissistic human  about to be president. Dreams challenge ones conscious assessment of a situation, how to relate to it,  an appropriate attitude  but they do not suggest one  should ignore what she has objectively  seen and heard, to leave one's physical sense data at the door in favor of wishful or fearful thinking.   The emphasis is:  I should remember he is human, not a god or a devil personified. To think such of  him is  an example of  unconscious projection taking place. Not ever  a good  or healthy thing to be happening but happen it does for us all,  especially regarding persons with extreme double messaging persona's like Donald Trump.

We should always try to withdraw our projections  onto others as we become conscious of them ,otherwise we get lost in knee jerk emotional assessments and wishful or fearful thinking of the situation/person. Or we  take complete confidence that  our supposedly  best calm  reasoned assessment (which is good as far as it goes. But the dream, the Collective Unconscious,  takes us to  a more whole and complete level of  judgment. Bible admirers please recall the importance of dreams there before you judge me as off a deep end.) is an absolutely true assessment. 

The  psychological fact of my having this dream is noting that Trump's persona's  kind of influence and collective effect   is very much an ongoing worry of mine, for myself as well as for our  country. I am investing, the dream suggests,  too much energy into that worry by overestimating how much any human can harm the rest of us as long as we are alert and as conscious as possible. To those who have tried, it  is not easy to give up ones deepest worries or to intentionally discharge their fearful emotion  but the dream says that is my task  regarding my estimate of Donald Trump, for my own good.

President Elect Donald Trump

I have in recent days, even before this dream,  reminded myself that I do not know the real man Trump. And I  now refer instead  to the persona(the public mask) he projects to us , consciously and intentionally  or not. Maybe the dream is seeking to uphold that approach? That is, it is this persona I find so potentially dangerous , not necessarily the real man who I do not have direct knowledge of. His reference to another unhealthy figure to me-Rush(who presents a very similar persona on radio), is a clue  for me personally to not take the dream image to mean the man's  public influence is harmless. This dream may serve the primary purpose  of supporting  my  personal mental health regarding this troubling persona that  has walked onto the world stage. In its imagery the dream says to me, and maybe those who have a similar concern, 'Keep aware but also back off a little on the emotional worry. You will be healthier for it.'

Consultant feedback: "The dream is clearly a compensatory one, Jim, in that it offers an image of Trump that is normal and human and not archetypal. It may be that it's better to take Trump as a human being and not as a demonic demiurge, and  then to support whatever good he does and critique and oppose whatever bad he does.

I think the election was a protest against what many people apparently saw and felt as a wrong direction taken by Progressives. This is normal balancing in a democracy. Trump has entered politics and will discover that this is different from show biz and his business enterprises.

The dream brings Trump down to normal size. 43 is midlife. Maybe he will enter the second half of life one of these days.

Respectfully, ..."

DONALD TRUMP HAS BEEN ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES...... November 9, 2016

It is clear that half of voting Americans(with the majority of electoral votes) got their desire granted tonight that the man Donald Trump be promoted to President. I will not listen to words like, 'He is not my president' or, 'Lets keep him from having any success.'

Mr. Trump should be pleased to learn, contrary to his insistence that it is crooked,  that America's system of electing a president was not rigged after all. It seems to have been kept pure and not corrupt.

He campaigned hard and won the votes. I, and  hoping others who did not vote for him, give my heart felt support to him and those on the side of increased political power. That they will find their sincere ways to use it for the genuine good of America, for  all its people  including those who Mr. Trump terribly denigrated and disrespected in campaign speech. And  also wishing them well  in guiding America to fulfill its needed place in the world.

There is a great need and, I sense, desire of many for some kind of presently undefinable coming together, uniting and cooperating for the good of the country and world as well as for our personal well being .

I hope much of the anger that had built up in many middle American people  from their feeling of not being heard or represented will now begin to subside and be transformed into a positive view of what is presently good about our land. That we all more than ever will value its ideal of potentially governing for the 'common good' of all citizens  and for a clearer realization that we remain a new and ever changing  and imperfect experiment with democracy. One which can fail us all if we take it for granted or abuse its intended goals which is for the diverse collective good as well as for the personal.

IS DONALD TRUMP UP TO THE TASK OF BECOMING A RESPECTED EFFECTIVE PRESIDENT? ... November 10, 2016

My little analysis here is not to disparage Donald Trump. On the contrary it's to offer up the hope he has in him what history is demanding now. He is on the threshold of great power for good or bad.. All who care for the country should be wishing him insight and wisdom of a caliber that he has never been called on to bring forth. This tweet regarding the protests to me is discouraging . It reflects a near juvenile understanding of really big and important things. It implies a very personal egocentric take on the serious internal threats to the country and well being of all citizens. Here is what he says, "Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!"


No one can argue there is some  truth  here but it misses what is now being called on from him. It reflects an attitude of 'tit for tat', of blaming others, ' you hurt my feelings and I will hurt you back' . I'm  very concerned he also lives with the belief, which many others fall prey to, that strong enough 'law and order' is the way to unity and healing. That is the way of historical countries that America has always determined to not be like for they become authoritarian.   Harsher law and order is not and never has been the way to stronger democracy but to something we deplore. What is needed now by Donald Trump is truly a matter of heart and spirit and it cannot be learned or transmitted by 'overpowering' people but by understanding and seeking to affirm and  empower those who are the 'least among us.'

Not only is this blurted out tweet not presidential it sadly represents small mindedness. If he cannot rise, and very soon, above the personal ego and realize he now must find a higher more noble part of himself that does not focus on personal insults(He could on this take notes from his predecessor) he can never succeed in bringing any level of healing or unity to a very divided country. Obama as a noble and well liked person of character can no longer be counted on as a strong enough buffer against our many underlying hostilities and hurts. He enters a lame duck period.

Mr. Trump should be humbled that he did in fact lose the popular vote. He is being watched with a fine tooth comb now, not to catch his weaknesses but in hopes he can rise above some of his more dangerous ones. Now his job becomes to show that he has some grasp of the concerns and especially fears of many varied people in a very diversified democratic America. He is called now to find a way to promote all citizens to respect the presence and safety and contributions of each other , not blame and threaten or intimidate each other. Mr Trump does not have a good record of these skills. He is going to need to be a very quick learner. If there was ever a person we need to genuinely pray for the best and noblest in him to now come out it is Donald Trump.


He seemed to be somewhat humbled in his oval office orientation. But this tweet  that night does not reflect he has found his 'bigger self' that he must if he is to have a chance of being a president that brings greatness and true character to the surface of our citizens. I'd like to think the shock of sitting in that office, which will be his to run for good or ill in a few months, would serve like a 'bucket of ice over his head'. Wake him up to the actual responsibilities of being president. To face that every word he utters can either lead toward healing or set people into a further anxiety and  chaos. He can no longer use the style of walking back thoughtless blurts but must measure his words carefully in the first place.  He is likely has  quite limited experience with this kind of task. No doubt no president understands the enormity of the task until it is laid on him. But most if not all others have been more prepared in experience and temperament. But he can potentially rise to the challenge if he has it in him. We can only hope and pray. If not there could be wide spread suffering approaching.


To the 'Big Self' in him and us our present dangerous situation will not be blamed any longer on any one person or any one group or party. But we are rather here much by some  fate of a mindful evolution that we can believe is urging humans to a higher level of awareness and consciousness than has ever been before. That humanity's highest greatness is in the future not the past. Greater consciousness of our actual situation and times is the most needed virtue to bring harmony out of the threatening chaos, not just in America but the world. This is all much bigger than Donald Trump or any personal ego or ideology or one religious perspective.. But he is now a most major player that will set the tone toward healing or destruction.

There is little doubt  his campaign rhetoric  endorsing all kinds of negativity toward minorities  and  women,  heard even by our  children,  has nurtured the forces of old and deep unresolved wounds deep in our collective history to come to the surface. We and he  have no choice  but to own he gave verbal support to racism, sexism,  misogyny, xenophobia and Islamophobia.  He should be forgiven but it is not real unless he acknowledges it.  He has , as it were, promoted the eruption of a dangerous volcano. He will have to sincerely  walk back  that hate and  disrespectful talk toward all citizens he denigrated  or he will not win the moral  respect needed by a  president. His words will not be forgotten by us and the world until he speaks very differently consistently.  Now it is upon him  to help his fellows find a way to harness such unleashed forces for good, not evil. It may be too late already but he and we all must try.   He, along with caring citizens of all stripes, must find a way to compel  all citizens to respect the presence and contributions of each other , not blame and threaten each other. This is not what Mr. Trump was trying to do in the campaign.  He  does not have a good record of these skills. If there was ever a person we need to genuinely pray for the best in him to now come out it is Donald Trump. I am confident many desiring for him to come through, both ones who voted for him and who did not.


To his credit he later, perhaps after someone close to him urged him to reflect on what he had said in the first tweet,  attempted to step it back. Even though it seems like a 180 degree change from the first tweet I am afraid it still does not show any genuinie grasp of what is being called upon him to  provide the country that has elected him president. It may even be a sarcasm.  I hope not.  Read it for yourself. "Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!"  

THERE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN A COLLECTIVE VOLCANO ERUPTION...How mass mindedness can dehumanize us...Nov 9, 2016

In mass, people who by themselves would be civil and reasonable, can become the worst they can be and unfortunately it is very much unconscious. So when we are caught up in any emotionally strong group mentality we are in a real sense a victim of it and easily loose sense of our individuality, personal responsibility and ethical values. Some of the worst things I've done have been as part of a group large or small. This is how a 'lynch mob' , now a metaphor for any group activity against undefended victims, comes to be. History and life are full of examples at various levels of seriousness.

We can associate with a group in a healthy way without falling into identity with it but it is tempting to give ourselves to it somewhat totally for security and sense of connectedness. Only by being aware that this psychological dynamic can and does happen to all of us at times and ways can we best catch ourselves from identifying unconsciously with the group. A close bonded group is always the potential seed of a mob mentality. Only greater consciousness or awareness can best protect us from falling victim.

Try having a reasonable conversation of different view points when one or both are so connected emotionally to a group that also holds their views. Typical political and religious arguments are a common example. Persons in such a state of mind are not just speaking for themselves but what they feel is their whole group's support. This gives a false 'rightness' to ones attitude and actions and reduces genuine personal responsibility for ones words and behaviors. ( The world is made safer and more sane when anyone comes to realize that all his/her views are opinions and not more, not really. Hopefully personally derived thoughtful opinions based on sound sources and real experience and not primarily on our supporting group or news feed.)

Without this kind of unconscious group bonding Hitler would not have been possible. It was otherwise normal intelligent people overtaken by a mass mindedness which reinforces all kinds of denials of sober reality that made that and all ethnic cleansing activities possible. With the present emotional state of our nation and world it becomes very important that we consider how easily any of us can fall prey.

Such emotional and physical turning against undefended others can happen anywhere, especially where people do not think it can happen. A novel by Sinclair Lewis form 1935, before Hitler's assent, describes these very mass dynamics and political America is the setting. Appropriately the book's title is " It Can't Happen Here.' The U.S. constitution is amazingly well designed to help counter act such a happening in America but no system is a guarantee. Only increased consciousness by many of such unconscious dynamics can bring the strongest preventative.

The change of character brought about by the uprush of collective forces is amazing.
A gentle and reasonable being can be transformed into a maniac or a savage beast.
One is always inclined to lay the blame on external circumstances, but nothing could explode in us if it had not been there.
As a matter of fact, we are constantly living on the edge of a volcano, and there is, so far as we know, no way of protecting ourselves from a possible outburst that will destroy everybody within reach.
It is certainly a good thing to preach reason and common sense, but what if you have a lunatic asylum for an audience or a crowd in a collective frenzy?
There is not much difference between them because the madman and the mob are both moved by impersonal, overwhelming forces.

 Carl Jung... Psychology and Religion  (1938)  

CAN HUMANS AUTHENTICALLY CLAIM THAT 'GOD IS IN CONTROL' ? IF SO WHAT WOULD WE MEAN BY THAT TODAY? November 4, 2016

This question was posed by a Facebook friend about expressions that are sometimes heard in efforts to console a person's  moment of great human tragedy or  loss:  "God is in control..."Or "God is still in control".....Or "Everything happens for a reason"... What do these even mean,  in any practical way for our times?

Here is my effort to respond:  *The Western ego(what most consider 'me'), including the typical Christianized ego, does not know, believe let alone trust there is any true reality beyond what it apprehends with its physical senses. So to say to most anyone in midst of seeming tragedy any of these statements, which have become clichés to most persons, would be cruel and even correctly resented.

I suspect it is not typically till after mid life in our materialistic culture that a human becomes  very capable of consciously experiencing there is something 'other' that is part of themselves beyond the 'ego me'. This is what the instinctual  religious function  in us humans is about as it seeks to 'open our eyes' to what is more than only ego perception.   And  it is where the stories of revelation, hearing 'a voice of God'  and  the statements you quote  had their legitimately experienced origin. Until the entrance of depth psychology , the past 100 years, there had been no way to grasp, to have an Archimedean leverage point,  an awareness of the 'other' within us  through personal ego consciousness alone. Or to have anything close to an 'explanation' of such  an experience of the 'other'.  So such reports  in past millennia  usually degenerated to now being 'only  superstitions'  that many still cling to without significant or convincing  inner experience of it.

But ancient  or now, when such experience happens a person can find themselves legitimately living with a conscious awareness of both the ego perceived world(all there is with ego consciousness alone) and a reality that is beyond our ego and  of  which  the ego can normally  have barely a conscious and often fleeting comprehension of.  Yet a  person significantly aware of this 'more than the ego' part of themselves still feels the pain of all human suffering but from a view  just outside and broader than  the limited ego. This  state of awareness cannot come from being 'told' to believe it. It must be experienced to be real.  Moving toward this increased range of consciousness is a central goal  of  the processes of depth  psychology, initiated in modern  times   by Freud's scientific discovery of the personal unconscious and much expanded  by C.G. Jung as Analytical Psychological.

 The expressions you quote  have in times past and present been  found to be experienced in the struggles of  some more 'individuated' personalities.  This happening is  never anything to boast of for it is simply a matter of  psychological/spiritual development.  This development, though including what can only be described as what people  imagine as  'miracle and ecstasy' is also  clearly natural and not supernatural. This means it is a possible state of consciousness that can come to any human being in his/her development. And  hopefully it is becoming the experience of many more persons than ever before.  It does likely require  quiet and meditative type outer and  inner spaces to nurture such a  process of development, something that  the Western materialistic ego is  often not turned toward in interest or that people find easily  available.  The outer environment's noise, both physical and in  thoughts and  image,  that we seem to prefer crowds out what seeks to be noticed from within. Here we can learn from the East without trying to copy it.

Why this happens to only some and when will it be more typical are probably questions unanswerable but must be related to the evolution of our species' collective consciousness. Surely the word  GOD found in all cultures  is made most relevant by such a mind  development but, to be warned,  it's being experienced is also most likely something quite   different than any present collective notion of the idea of GOD. (It would not be expected to be a total  discontinuity from present collective religious views but a further development of them. For it all comes from the same Collective Unconscious source.)    God  is probably  best now  thought of as enfolded within us , and all of nature, collectively and individually, not as 'some thing or being' out there somewhere separate from our own natural, but barely becoming understood, natural  mind or psyche.

This more immanent view of  the 'God mind' , the imperfect and incomprehensible, guide of universal Evolution, being enfolded into all creation coupled with humanity's growing awareness of  our being more  than only our initial  ego impressions has encouraging implications: That in our present age, far more than ever before, God and human are in a cooperative dependent relationship with each other. Amazingly implied is that God 'needs'  this newly developing human consciousness for God's own development  as much as the human needs the guiding function of  the  ever  evolving and supporting 'Mind of God.'   It is encouraging to know that  persons from many quarters  now, far more than in the past,  are becoming conscious of  a movement within themselves that is  in harmony with the 'other' or  'God mind'   toward  a  higher valuing and respect  of all humans and all other elements of creation.  (One astonishing example is how the equality of female and male, so contrary to past millennia and American culture, is now grasped and claimed  by a majority of Western persons. This in the space of only a few decades and unimaginable  even  to the founders of America. That phenomenon I suggest is not the result of any human conscious political   conspiracy but a matter of evolution and  a strong leap in  human collective consciousness. A cooperation between human consciousness and the 'mind of evolution' or what can still be called God. There are many other just as amazing and 'used to be  unconscious'  developments happening.)

This positive hope for the future of humanity and the planet  still faces resistance of  the strong instincts of  our past survival traumas which created  our tendency toward tribalism  and looking after one's self and one's own rather than seeing the now more obvious need of striving for the good and health of the whole. This  while also  preserving the necessity and  uniqueness of each contributing part of creation. I think we are seeing , especially in politics and religion, very strong last minute convulsive like seizures  to, at all costs,  stave off this destined  evolutionary movement toward a much improved and healthier humanity and planet.

*As I write this I am aware that, in addition to Depth Psychiatrist  Carl Jung,  I am  influenced by the hopeful and empowering 'visions' of Jesuit priest and world renowned evolutionary paleontologist(how is that for a combination?)  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin along with some of the implications of Scientific  Physics Quantum Theory. And God only knows what or who else.

IS AMERICA ABOUT TO ABANDON ITS CENTRAL MORAL FIBER? November 2, 2016

1. White supremacist groups, including the largest KKK newspaper, are 'getting out the vote' for Donald Trump and strongly endorsing him. The kinds of organizations a candidate excites and openly emboldens their message clearly demonstrates something important about a candidate's core appeal. To deny the importance of this cozy connection, such as Trump's rhetoric and it's appeal to the KKK and white supremacist types, is to succumb to a state of strong psychological den...ial. Once grabbed by such a euphoric fear-based toxin of making ones self or group 'great again', persons abandon wholesome reason and become willing, if deemed necessary , to sacrifice the human rights of others, including one's fellow citizens. This is not a new dynamic of American society. We have had our share and variations of lynch mob excitement. But such a collective moral abandon, as reflected in the strong appeal of Donald Trump's communications, has possibly never been more broadly accepted against fellow citizens and immigrants as it threatens America now. America is strongly flirting with a greatest danger to its central moral fiber.
   
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   KKK group’s official newspaper supports Donald Trump for president

   The controversial publication ran a large photo of the Republican nominee on its…

   washingtonpost.com|By Peter Holley

   
   
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TRUMP SEX TALK, LEARNING FROM... October 12, 20166

Our national negative reactions to Donald Trump's statements about human sexuality can miss the most important point. It is not that he talked about human sexuality but that he discredited and disrespected it. He set a tone that, if accepted, would greatly reduce the chances of persons, male or female, discovering and experiencing the incomparable joy potential of healthy intimate sexuality and love.

If his words had simply been an honest confession that he is sometime passionately sexually excited and attracted by the presence of another respected person this could be an expression of appreciation and honor for the other, not an assault or objectifying them sexually for self interest. And thus possibly nothing to be ashamed of as long as it did not get outwardly expressed in ways that are aggressive or makes that other person uncomfortable. I emphasize this for only a few decades ago, among many 'religious' teachings and persons, what I have just described would receive a pronounced condemnation as being a 'sin of the heart' and the statement attributed to Jesus invoked about 'adultery in the heart.' But what I have discovered on my spiritual path is the reality of 'Eros'... attraction and longing to touch , to be physically close(Eros can be present in non sexual ways as well such as the desire to hug our children) …. is healthy and, when it finds correct channeling, may lead to some highest joys of life, even comparable to the long fantasized 'being ecstatically one with God.'

But for Eros to be healthy for a person and/or a beloved one it must be accompanied also by the other Greek descriptions of love: Phileo which means a 'friendship that cherishes the physical presence of the other' and Agape which is a ' A faithful unconditional care for the well being of the other'. When these are together experienced by a human it is my understanding that one is in the presence of what is no less than an avenue to the 'Love of God' itself. Such a state of love would do no harm to the other nor force any desire it felt to be the responsibility of the other to meet or to even have any interest in. A maturely conscious  person under the influence of such attracting Eros love would understand these limits and realize that the attraction felt may not at all be mutual. This can become a process of unprecedented spiritual growth for a person, to contain and work responsibly with such an inner conundrum, perhaps for years. Such an Eros inspired situation is the heart of the Academy Award winning movie and novel ' Dr Zhivago' . There are limitless other examples in the world's best literature and mythologies. I would say that such a high level of love, I have no way of knowing of how common it is  outwardly  experienced  yet among humans, can conceivably surpass the authority of  collective moral codes that are so important in building culture and providing general moral guidance to humans.

Yet, if this higher love description is what we had heard from Donald Trump there likely would still have been many persons , especially from fundamentalist religious and political perspectives ,  who would be offended for speaking at all of love not being defined along the lines of the collective religious or civic code. For example nothing I've said limits such a high level of love from being found in the life of LGBT persons. It remains a sad reality that we Christians still need to face that we cannot 'insist' that such high levels of love appear when two persons are legally married. Such a high love cannot be corralled , controlled or limited to its activation where we choose it to be by legal or dogma means. So in this way 'truest and most complete mutual and honest intimate human love' is personally dangerous in all present societies. Such love is not be toyed with but understood to be as theologian Paul Tillich said , ' Eros is a human/God power'. And I would say a power and factor that humanity has not yet experienced as a common conscious and natural part of life. I hope we are now on the verge of that beginning to happen more and more. The more we are aware of this nature of higher human love and sexuality the more likely it can become a common human experience.

It can help Christians to have a reasonably accurate understanding of the historical course of the Christian level of  valuing  Eros love. There is I think good reason to conclude that Jesus of Nazareth had a very appreciative wholesome value for human sexual love and commitment such as I have tried to superficially describe. This would mean he likely experienced such love. It seems unreasonable if such love is the goal of spiritual living, personally and collectively, that the one who came to be seen by many as God incarnate would have lived without that full experience. There are stories and settings in the gospels that, reading between the lines and  challenging our Western interpretations , can be better understood as teaching a high value of human love where Eros is an essential aspect. But that spiritual appreciation of Eros was soon lost even before the New Testament was completed. Then Augustine, the very influential Christian leader of the fourth century, left a very paradoxical record. He, perhaps more than any ancient historical figure, recorded candidly and honestly his most inner sexual experiences and thoughts. Unfortunately he concluded very negatively about Eros, ushering in 1500+ years of human sexuality being denigrated, being morally for human reproduction only, and the potential joys of human sexual love being considered sinful lust. Orthodox Christianity has more or less kept this negative cloud over human sexuality ever since, always trying to corral Eros  love within legal marriage. It has never worked. The Sexual revolution of the 1960's and the emergence of birth control together have forever changed our Western view, questions and hopes regarding human sexuality and love. But unfortunately I conclude  we have not yet, in any general collective way, discovered the full joy and responsibility of sexual human intimacy either in the religious or secular communities of the West. This creates a psychological and spiritual desert and has left us victims to the most rampant materialism and consumerism humans have ever constructed. Even our religion usually supports it.

But perhaps such strong focus on the dark side of sexuality that the Trump comments have placed upon us will serve as motivation, not to return to Victorian or Augustinian views of sexuality and human love but to move us in perhaps quantum leap ways to becoming more conscious of the love potential that rests within the human soul. And the instinctual search for that which connects the human to the Sacred in ways that are imagined in the New Testament phrase 'joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

But the 'sexual assault and misogynous' flippant work-place language of Donald Trump the nation has heard repeatedly is a complete disavowal and disrespect of the high level honest / mutual love that I have tried to quickly  describe above. I am wondering if all this emotional outburst from all sides about the topic of human sexuality is a moment in human evolution that will nearly force us to take a more sober and hopeful look at the meaning of love and sexuality than humans in a society have ever been pushed to do?

We can only hope that what the 'mind of evolution 'or the 'spirit of god'  has in mind for us to learn will become more conscious to us. For it just may mean a grand leap in human spiritual evolution and far higher levels of genuine conscious joy among humans than has yet to ever be  commonly experienced. Not only would such lovers experience regularly such soul enriching love, but I think persons so convinced by their experience of effectively giving and receiving intimate love would naturally 'love their neighbor as themselves'. And the promise of all religions of humans 'loving each other' may be realized in ways never before in human history.

By the way it is extremely important in talking about the hope of such personal love experience that it be realized as unreasonable to think every human can be expected to be related to another by such love throughout life. In fact it may be those who have loved like this may spend most of their lives celibate and separated from such love by factors of human limitations, illness, death and simply that such love does not happen. Obviously such love can't be concocted and demanded despite the date matching services' promise. Often there may need to be long periods of life that serve to prepare a person for such love or to contemplate the meaning of such an experience. This in no way indicates that any person is 'lacking' or 'missing' their true destiny and cooperation with love . What can be a reality is that every person could come to understand that such intimate love experience is of highest v social/spiritual value and would want it to be happening in the world by as many couples as possible at any given time. That is likely the unconscious hope we have when we celebrate a wedding but as we know another story often begins there, an important one but not necessarily that leads to this higher love.

Also, I think we have some sound historical record that some persons have experienced such a love connection with another as an inner life experience without it becoming physical at all. And that inner experience has had the 'same qualitative effect and transformation' on them as if it had been external. One of many such historical persons would be Dante who credits his whole creative life being inspired by an 'internal falling in love' he had in his early adulthood. But the actual physical person he loved never knew it. I say this to correct any let down that any person, most all of us, can have if such' honest, intimate love anchored in Eros, Agape, Phileo' is not experienced at any given time, if ever outwardly, in this mortal life.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN AMERICA? What Will It Take To Transcend The Hate, Violence And Chaos?

I'm compelled to try to say something, to speculate, about what is happening in America. I fear we could be nearly at a collective nervous/psychological breakdown unprecedented. It seems urgent we find a way to 'believe' there is a mindful reality beyond us that has some good intentions for the nation/world but that may not be strongly like what we have imaged God to be tradtionally. We urgently need to find such a 'trust' that is not in conflict with our reasoning intellect and scientific knowledge, but that we can accept as being more than these.

Flowers placed on the  car of murdered Dallas policeman

The conflicting irrational nature of the violence and lack of sufficient collective ethics in America has moved us toward what can be evolution's way of forcing us to a higher level of consciousness. No sooner have we attempted to absorb two more black men being questionably  killed on video by police than innocent policemen are murdered by a sniper in Dallas, this while helping protect a non violent demonstration against police brutality. Such continuing blasts of hate and violence push anyone trying to deal with the inner conflict it produces toward an unprecedented conflict of rationally irreconcilable opposites.

This kind of psychological conflict of reality is at the center of C.G. Jung's work last century as the great task and necessary threatening  passage of  post modern humans. We might best   imagine ourselves enfolded within a larger imperfect 'mind'(Not, as we tend to think of God traditionally,  predetermining as to how human maturity will be reached, so  best imagined as the impartial  ' mind of evolution.'). This mind  would be the ever evolving reality, present in but also much more than  our personal and collective conscious  ego, immemorially called the Sacred or God.

One dangerous , but seemingly necessary in evolution, reality this may be pushing us toward is that a higher collective ethic than 'law and order' is required to bring humanity through this period of  horrific chaos. There will have to be some critical mass of humans world wide that face the fact that no longer can 'law and order' be efficient alone to transcend the over reach of evil and chaos we are confronted with. Americans still hold on to national 'law and order' as the ultimate tool that will keep the society from completely self destructing with hate and violence. This worshipful dependence on law and order accounts for why the public has to keep excusing the most outrageous over reaches of police as they repeatedly kill with impunity black American citizens and openly considering  government monitoring of all Muslim Americans. The military is placed in a similar elevated role both at home and especially abroad.

But the raging images of killing and death that have been such a dark side of the collective unconscious for millennia are again treacherously pouring forth into the streets of outer realty in ways that potentially tear the human psyche and society apart. Outer reality images that have now emerged in such close proximity show how futile law and order is when enough fire power and long repressed hate is turned against  the final keepers of the law.(A parallel phenomenon is happening with the strength of global terrorism.) Police and military as such are not the enemy but our reliance on them as sufficient to keep a humane  public ethic intact in America(and the world) surely is. This ineffective sentimental   'religious like'  trust  that many  persons of every political persuasion and religion still have  for preserving a civil culture is being demonstrated as misplaced, not sufficient.  Something more connecting, more rightfully 'trusted' is needed to come into our conscious grasp. We must look to something deeper and inner that is able to contain the whole in ways that enforced 'law and order' cannot.

The situation calls for some kind of natural collective transformation that we cannot fathom ,by reason and intellect alone,  to take place within the  psyche of humanity. (Similar psychological phenomena have happened before, such as at the beginning of the Christian era and  beginnings of other major religions. We have lost sight of such origins in our Western  assumption that it was all  just literal historical events understood  and believed intellectually)This implies that 'other'... God, the Sacred... the 'imperfect mind of evolution' must be understood as a real and necessarily trusted part of the our collective consciousness.

We are pushed to become 'believers' in that which is truly impartial and  more than our personal and collective ego. There is little likelihood this 'present and beyond us' reality can be imagined as just like any traditional religion's icons or dogmas but it would likely be continuous with all major previous 'religious revelations.' It could be expected to come as some new symbolic system and story of love and justice appropriate for the times and that provides a transcendence of 'law and order' ethics alone. We could expect no 'religion' will be able to claim that its symbol system or mythical heroes are the savior from the present threatening self destruction. Such ethnocentrism will necessarily have to be appreciatively realized as no more sufficient at the religious level than law and order alone is at the secular level. It will need to be understood by some critical mass of humans there is a newly released power of the Sacred, which is not any copy of such revelations that have been before. Biblically such times of evolutionary psychological change in ethics and world view is called a 'new creation' , 'new Jerusalem', 'metanoia' , 'just the right time', 'the greatest of all is love',  'kingdom of God'  and ' omega' Other world religions have similar expressions.

It seems to me that our highest personal responsibility presently is to try to realize the irrational 'split' in consciousness  sensitive persons  are   painfully experiencing(at numerous personal and collective levels) and that time honored 'law and order' is not sufficient to address , or better to transcend, them. This is obviously not primarily  a race problem, political  or even an economic one at bottom. This is a collective 'religious' , in the psychological sense, problem. It is a human trust problem. This explains why post modern humanity is stuck in  a chaos of  anger, hate and violence in a way that twentieth century America never believed itself to be approaching. It always saw itself able to   'make progress'; but this hope is much more missing  now- until we 'see' something that humans have never quite seen before, a larger picture, a less 'me and mine' picture, a grand 'we and all that is'  picture.

It is a problem of imaginatively identifying that which enfolds us and all of nature,  and  ordinary citizens being able to then  'trust' consciously at a deeper level than humans ever have before. We can each resolve to stand within this split without being pulled to any of the tempting  one-sided extremes. And too realize the powerful negative energies we are collectively   up against,  yet  to also trust  that how we inwardly conceptualize them(what I am attempting to do in this essay) is a great determining factor in how this  peak in   evolutionary history goes...... very good or very bad for our species.   And to 'trust' that at deep and now surface levels something beyond human intellectual comprehension, which also has 'mind', is participating in all this. And to imagine that mind , God or the 'all in all' , as praying for  and needing  a higher level of human consciousness to  work in cooperation with this  'Universal mind's'   promptings so that together a door into a more caring, loving, appreciative and truly impartial  future is found.

This new anticipated perception and understanding of  where we are in the universe and what is being asked of us  can be thought of as creatively evolving out of our apparently necessary  suffering chaos. So indeed we are  not alone unless we, to our own psychological detriment,   choose that.

Sermon: HOW ABOUT YOUR GOOD NEIGHBORS ?... The Good Samaritan... Luke 10:25-37

When the average person is asked what  story best describes the way Jesus wants his followers to behave, this story from the rich creative mind of the Gospel of Luke's author is most likely cited. This story is potentially the most powerful presentation ever of the highest practical meaning of the Christian religion. What makes many scholars rightly wonder if Jesus actually told this story is that it is missing in the two gospels written before Luke. The thinking is that if it had been around in the older oral traditions Mark and Matthew would have included it as well. This does not lower the authority of the story as an expression of the kind of teaching Jesus did and the emphasis he surely made.  

Most  likely as the writer reflected on what he wanted people to understand most about Jesus this story was inspired. A tragedìy is the more often a story is repeated the more likely people begin to hear it with the attitude, “ O that again. I've heard it a thousand times. 'Been there done that.' Yet few are so bold to say they have even come near being the kind of neighbor this story holds up as a spiritual hero. The story has made many people say how different the world would be if the majority had the attitude toward other people that the Good Samaritan is described as having.

Amie Morot   1880

We can be confident that this story was not told to seduce people to despise either priests or Levites. But to note that humans tend to be so focused on their own plans that we often walk through the world as if with blinders, that keep us from noticing what is happening to people who are suffering more than us and in need of a good neighbor's helping hand. Yet it likely does  intentionally warn that it is  those who claim to be religious that are most at risk of this this blatant hypocrisy, putting one's religious exercises and meetings above the call of a suffering world.

After Jesus states that the 'greatest command' is  to, 'love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself', a listener asks, “ And who is my neighbor?” Usually we have then focused on who should I consider the person(s) to go out of my way to assist and support? We likely don't let this story challenge us well when we primarily think of our own kindnesses to others. Even the sourest of persons can give a long list of truly nice things they have done for others.

 Honestly, I no longer think of myself at all as like this good Samaritan or aspire to it. This example is just too over the top. I am often stopped and asked directions as I take my walks in our village. I feel good when I can help the person reorient themselves and be on their way. It is a good thing I've done. I find my chaplain work very rewarding. It involves 'helping' people who are sick to feel better and not worse about their ordeal.  I also get paid for the work.  I share the vegetables in my garden with others. Making such lists most of us can whisper to ourselves, “ Hey this is what that story is about. I'm a good Samaritan” And maybe to an extent  it is. If it at least gets us to want to be welcoming and  helpful to others it has done some good through us. 

But have I ever put a bleeding unknown person, of very different ethnicity and religion and at the point of death, in my car and taken them to the ER , and told the desk clerk , “ If this person does not have insurance, I will pay for their bill. Here is my contact number.”? Now unquestionably there are repeated times of unique need when persons have literally been the Good Samaritan to a stranger, maybe in times of war and other survival human situations. Maybe the Dallas policemen who shielded the citizens who were protesting, and died as a result. So does this mean we may be a good Samaritan only at some one heroic moment? Why Just one of these 'taking the homeless person to the hospital and paying the bill' would bankrupt most any of us. I think our practical question is how can ordinary persons best be motivated to be a good neighbor as a ongoing life style? How can we today in a realistic and consistent way carry the spirit of the Good Samaritan in a natural non heroic way?

Jesus asks , ' Who is the neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?” That answer is best answered not by us but by the man who had been assaulted. He may have never have learned who Samaritan the was. But we can well imagine he knew he had been royally treated as a neighbor in the highest meaning of that word. So we may do well if we would forget for awhile any neighbor we might have helped and ask ourselves , “ What about my neighbors, those who have been good neighbors to me?” What or who has helped and nurtured  my life for as far back as I can recall? Who has helped me when I could not help myself? What or who has opened doors for me that I could not have opened myself. Who or what has seemed like a part of a plan to help my life survive and unfold right up this present moment. ? It is so easy for us to forget who has neighbored us. And when we do forget we are at high risk of becoming unhappy, cynical , grudge holding, blaming, spiteful human beings. And the older I get the more I know I do not want to go out like that... complaining and angry about my one opportunity to live this life.

To use the story to ask this question can go a long way to keep me from being a reasonably cared for angry white man which there seem to be too many of these days. What a long list of good neighbors I must confess gratefully I've had. Neighbors who had enough going for themselves that they could also choose to assist me. (Don't forget the Samaritan had some financial  resources and clout.)  I had parents that loved and took care of me for a good many years. They gave me some religious teachings that I would finally at midlife have to explore and redo but that did not keep them from being excellent neighbors to me. My mother died when I was ten and that gave me something to work on most of my life . I had six older brothers who treated me so well, good neighbors. Then time and again I had needs I could not meet by myself alone. School teachers, Doctors, lawyers, public servants were there for me. Good neighbors. Local and national governments were wonderful neighbors to me. I could not had much of a life without them.

Everywhere I've lived there has been clean water, roads and sidewalks, sewers, first responders, farmers, manufacturers.. on and on...Good neighbors. The national Science Foundation granted me a fully paid opportunity to study at AZ State to receive a Masters degree which helped me be a better teacher and receive more income. My wife and my children have molded the meaning of my life.. being excellent neighbors. I've had a few most timely best friends who helped me find my way. Medicare and a Teachers' Pension make my life  economically comfortable now. I, like so many others, also found the church to be a good neighbor in supporting my spiritual life and in being a place of mutual friendships. On and on it goes , only by the presence and action of good neighbors have I been able to have a life at all.

 You can likely do this very same thing I've done. When we do it makes us old timers say again and again... neighbors have been good to me and I so want the younger ones coming up to have good neighbors also. It naturally leads one to want to give something back.. or to be in ones own natural personal way an unglamorized Good Samaritan. To be a good neighbor because you see so clearly and strongly you have been upheld and sustained yourself by good neighbors.

Civil Rights Legislation    1968

That is my sermon. But I feel I should make something very clear or we could stumble terribly in our desire to carry the spirit of the Good Samaritan. Life simply does not always bring good neighbors to people; or if any not enough with enough power to hold at bay horrendous unmerciful human suffering. So never should we count our good neighbors as I have done and forget that some truly can't do that for themselves or their loved ones. I realize some persons who could better remember the good neighbors they've had but just don't and so become tragically cynical and complaining . But some have lived their whole life in war , people trying to kill them and their families, and dealing with the wounds and results of war. Some have been in situations where they have been continuously abused , diminished and discounted.

Sometimes those without good neighbors are individuals and sometimes they are groups. Some ethnic groups have been victims of hate and abuse with no Good Samaritans coming to the rescue. This includes at times and places Jewish people, Islamic people, Black Americans. It included the Samaritans in Jesus day. Jesus own people considered them as unworthy dogs, less than human. It has been women without strong neighbors for most of the last three thousand years. It has been Gay and Lesbian people who , even in our land, have been singled out often for physical and social punishments. It has been poor or neglected children, single mothers, people who have become addicted to chemicals.

This list of human suffering and woundedness, not attended by a good neighbor, is real and present and goes on just as our list of good neighbors did. So to carry the spirit of  the Good Samaritan we need to be consciously aware of the physical and psychological suffering of fellow human travelers , much of it by the hands and systems of humans abusing their power, failing to be good neighbors.

There is only so much that any individual can do.  And it seems essential for us to see that we must act as communities and governments to defy this undue suffering. We must organize and work together to relieve hunger, poverty and discrimination. To vote in our land to have better health care for all our citizens, to vote for policies that are purposely planned to help all citizens have access to legal protections, and to receive a fair share of the earth's fruits of food, clothing and safe shelter. These are nature's gift to all persons. The good Samaritan can't be only a 'me' activity but in our day it must be a “we” if the effects of this story are to be realized in our world

So Jesus says 'go and do likewise' . He is saying to us , “ Always be recalling those persons and institutions that have been good neighbors to you  and  cultivate in yourself that desire, that longing, that all humans , even all creatures of the earth,  also have also good neighbors  so they can  thrive and fulfill the image of God that slumbers in each one.” From remembering our own neighbors and yearning for others to a have good neighbors it becomes possible that the story of the Good Samaritan can become the story of the nation and world.