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.

RESPONDING TO THE ORLANDO MASSACRE... June 12, 2016

The Orlando massacre is bringing many of the nation's burning issues together. It is easy to look for and present simple answers rather than workable and fair ones: LGBT community being under attack from fear born out of religious or social phobias, Discrediting the Muslim religion as a whole, Broad brushing immigrants negatively, including ones who are not yet full citizens. Cherishing the notion of easily available guns, including assault weapons. Also our need to find better, clearer ways to keep guns out of the hands of persons known to be at risk for using them in human violence.

Here is an important awareness I don’t hear stated often. All religions that originated in the middle east.. Judaism , Christianity and Islam have often emphasized human 'obedience' to higher authority. This as an inner  spiritual practice for the devout is a key to all world  religious . This principle, so practiced, can also provide important levels of  stability and safety to a surrounding society. But taken to inappropriate extremes as  outer commands,  'obedience'  has often caused persons  to accept horrendous attitudes and acts as 'God's Will'(whether killing, invading, denying rights of or marginalizing anyone seen as different); and then turn against their human neighbors with violence, demeaning words and conduct. These three religions in their healthier aspects encourage people to think soberly, to ask questions before acting or 'obeying' in ways that are obviously harmful to others or self.

So we are rightfully concerned and should notice anytime persons of any of these three religions in their various forms get too caught up in 'obedience' , taking their ancient texts too literally, and thus stop responsible thinking and discernment. All our religions have the capacity to bless humankind or to bring harm. And all have done both at various times and places. This is simply the complicated truth..(And it is sadly true that unspeakable approved violence is found in all the religious texts and easily becomes an excuse for violence to those caught up in unthinking 'obedience.')


Every well informed religious person remembers constantly that God equally loves and is active in all Humankind, not just our religion, our family, or our nation. We need to cultivate from our various religious heritages a view that 'God So Loves The World' and of "Peace on Earth, Good Will To All'. These central teachings of common care and responsible relationship are also central to all the world religions and we should hold each other to account, within and among our religions, in preserving them as our mode of life in America. For these have been foundational commitments to each other from our beginning.

SERMON: 'TOO DIFFICULT TO HEAR'...Reflections on Trinity.. May 22, 1916

                                                    John 16: 12-15, Prov. 8: 1-4, 27-31

I don't preach often and it seems  like a dream now that I preached most Sundays, usually twice, for 40 years. Preaching is a sober assignment for me yet also I try to not take it  too seriously. I know how long most sermons are remembered.*  I owe so  much to the United Church Of Christ for its encouragement of my formal ministry. I ask that you hear my sermon as 'thinking out loud' with you. This is Trinity Sunday. Aren't I lucky for this assignment? So I will reflect on that and attempt some application of today's two texts. There are exceptions but for most the idea of Trinity is hardly something at the center of faith though we sing every Sunday 'Praise Father, son and Holy Ghost.' (I hope you are not bored already. ) I'm thinking Trinity may be one of those teachings that once was felt strongly but has lapsed pretty much into irrelevance ? The idea of God being 'three in one' was not official in the church until the third century, after the Roman emperor made the previously persecuted Christians the Empire's religion. He needed the church to be a uniting factor in the Roman Empire so persuaded Church authorities to make clear that Christianity had one God , not many like the other religions. Some heard the Christians speak of three Gods- Father, Son and Holy Ghost. So the Emperor pushed strongly for the Trinity and got it. But there were I suspect also barely conscious spiritual and psychological factors present in people then that were behind the Trinity idea becoming a growing need for the Christian religion and Roman Empire.

Trinity  Mandala  Symbol

Humans then as now had a fear of disorder in human affairs. Like today whether church, government, or even athletic teams we know that order is preferred to chaos. But we also are uncomfortable with imposed rigidity for it stifles creativity and the human need for  freedom. So we are forever looking for balance between Chaos and tyranny.    And the idea that there may be chaos within the depths of the very foundations of reality, within God, is not comforting. If there are several gods there will be competition, instability and potential chaos in the outer world also. But if the primary factors that make up God are defined and experienced being united as One, not three competing ones, this would help calm the collective soul. So the idea of three aspects of God in one arose to clear consciousness in both Church and Empire. This, for good or ill, became the foundation of our Western Civilization. As a result we say we are Trinitarian this morning. I don't know how many persons still experience the Trinity as a genuine symbol of security today? To the extent a person does the Trinity is still a living symbol and not simply a stale relic.

Alchemy Trinity  Symbol

The Trinity symbol not being strongly experienced today is likely because it no longer carries any strong emotion. Symbols to live and support life must evoke emotion. Most of us Americans still have a wave of emotion when the American flag is presented. Well the Trinity symbol once surely must have generated a powerful emotion of harmony and well being in the soul. Trinity came to be understood not only as a religious symbol but as something that under-girded many natural situations. For example the German philosophy of Hegel in the 18^th century was trinitarian. He explained history as a serious tension of opposite competing pairs, he called thesis and anti thesis , which through much suffering struggle, eventually unite in a third called the synthesis. So the trinity idea is used to explain many things. Anytime we experience personally or collectively colliding opposite attitudes we experience anxiety and discomfort and a need for a third thing to help harmonize the warring two. The Christian example of this is the Father Son relationship which has forever in human experience been a highly charged relationship. It's not always smooth and sometimes filled with strong unpleasant tensions. This relationship by nature is competitive for it is not at first mutual at all. Father is superior. The Father- Son relationship is the very definition of patriarchy which, though apparently necessary for social evolution, has led males to disregard the value of both children and women for millennia. Famous Biblical fathers and sons are shown often in conflict. No relationship is genuinely harmonious as long as there is not some equal sharing of power and voice... whether it be the opposites of Father - Son or husband -wife or corporation-union. In recent decades we have seen an unprecedented revolution in the potential of man and woman, Husband and Wife finally moving in human history toward being a mutual relationship … but most all couples will confess 'we are still working on it.' The creative tension of it sometimes sadly becomes too much.

So if the factors within the Godhead are competing uncontrollably then all creation is not grounded in peace and harmony and we are threatened with chaos. The human question becomes, is there order in the very depths of reality?   Before the Trinity doctrine,  the Godhead was envisioned as a hot and fiery place of discord and strife. The  creator Yahweh god of the Old Testament is often angry, unpredictable and volatile. Where as Son is a symbol of obedience and reason. Yet both exist as parts of God. The God and Son relationship needed to be brought into harmony or union. So the Christian Trinity is a symbol of how a third factor , the Holy Spirit, works to calm and transcend the destructive potential in the Father -Son relationship. So you can see how for many persons in the third century the Trinity was experienced as a powerful healing symbol that brought order to an otherwise chaotic Godhead.

I'll try to illustrate the general kind of living emotion originally involved in the Trinity idea. I had an experience of the clash within a natural trinity situation last month. The trinity consisted of me, a large garter snake, and the natural environment of the pond in my yard. All was going well in this trinity until one part of that trinity decided to over use its power. That was me. I surprised the unsuspecting snake, usurping its role by holding it to the ground in an attempt to capture it. At that moment there was a chaotic hell so to speak. I had my stick on the snake . It was thrashing and trying to bite me sensing I wanted to kill it. There must have been gallons of adrenaline flowing in that little trinity. Chaos reigned. I'm sure I was just as scared as the snake and nature just waited to pick up the pieces and bring calm again. I managed to capture the snake , take it a quarter mile to the river and relocate it in another natural setting. Then all was calm again. Order restored. Those strong emotional dynamics which the participants, and any bystanders, experienced was a small but troubling chaos. Such a dynamic among god factors would represent cosmic chaos.

In our day of being so painfully aware of the powerful and threatening tensions in life and the world we may again sense a need for the Trinity symbol to calm ourselves. Maybe as you now hear John's gospel speaking of the Son and Father being one you are less likely to hear it as just the nice, sweet, sentimental way things are with God, but as speaking of the highest levels of creative tensions seeking reconciliation so that chaos does not take over the world. This is the psychological dynamic of the Trinity symbol. There are surely many real outer parallels to this in private, church , community life and in national/world politics. The Holy Spirit was once felt and trusted as creating a dance of harmony between the opposite dispositions of Father and Son, thus bringing quality life and order out of potential chaos.

Celtic Quaternity

Now turning to the passage in John. This was the last gospel written, some sixty years or three generations after Jesus' tragic death. This is long before the movement   became  the state religion but about the time that this new interpretation of the Hebrew religion had run into harsh conflict with the Jewish Father religion. For a few decades the Jewish community was able to accommodate these Jesus Jews, but after Rome destroyed their city and Temple  and sent many of them into captivity the Jews were in no attitude to argue about Jesus being the Messiah. So they threw the Jesus Jews(Christians) out of the worship places and an unrivaled hate was now blooming between the Father religion and in the totally off the track Jesus(Son) movement. John no longer refers to the religious leaders that supported the death of Jesus as accountable but he assigns this same treachery to 'the Jews' in general. So we are right back to more real life threats of chaos that , if the parties involved do not find tolerance,  all hell could  break loose. So here also we see an urgent anxious need for  healing of the Father-Son relationship being experienced among Christians and Jews, a need for a Third uniting factor , thus a Trinity.

If we read this gospel as mere history, which we are so inclined to do, we can get involved in someone else's story(Jesus and his friends) . The same as if we were reading about Alexander the Great. But if we believe these stories and symbols contain not just some possible historical reference but timeless patterns of human reality we can ask, ' what are the things in our family, schools, church or nation that are being 'hard' but that we must now try to hear?' When we do this we use the gospel not as history to read but as a tool to ponder our actual present situation. Then we potentially use the Sacred text to enter real paths of spiritual improvement? For example, it may be a hard truth that churches like ours can no longer expect persons out there to come here and do what we do. That what we say and do may seem irrelevant to them or they find other ways to meet their spiritual/psychological needs.  Perhaps our reason for being at present is not to attract others directly but to focus more on how we ourselves are being transformed as we take in those things that are hard to hear? That is hard to hear and leaves us wondering, but we trust that chaos will not overtake us. It may be that what scientists are telling us in growing detail about our earth's changing climate which we can and should take corrective action is very hard for us to hear. It could be hard to hear that having a President of color has shown us just how much our nation is not yet healed of the wounds from our forefathers institutionalizing slavery for very selfish interests. Yet we trust chaos will not overtake us. And so the list goes. All such things threaten us with  chaos winning over order and so remind us of the importance of Trinity. John's images taken as symbol imply there are still truths we, not just those first Christians, need to know and will be led to know by the Holy Spirit. Some important things we do not yet know because they are still unknowable or because we lose trust and decide we know enough and no longer need to be open minded  learners.

The Proverbs reading speaks clearly about something which many find very difficult to hear for it still runs counter to our traditional God images. So it tends to stir the fear of social Chaos in our present times. When people fear the threat of chaos they will fight violently against it. We witness this in daily news stories. Proverbs, contrary to our religious and social traditions, tells us of the eternal feminine aspect of God. The orthodox Trinity- Father , Son and Holy Spirit has left us with an outdated very masculine image of God, but is not the feminine principle just as necessary and needed , especially in our times? This ancient writing about God's nature involves a feminine principle at its center. Proverbs 8 speaks symbolically of a fully female component of God and she is given the ancient Greek name Sophia meaning wisdom. We are told that she was with God at creation, nothing was made without her, that she is God's daily delight and that she has the ear of the male principle of God in all things. This still surprising, and somewhat threatening at first, Goddess image of true wisdom found its way into the Hebrew Bible. Parallels to Sophia in secular cultures are seen in statues of Lady Justice, the official image of Justice Departments in Washington D.C., many states and foreign countries. Hopefully we find this an exciting spiritual awakening, whose time to be fully heard has come, and we can be grateful to integrate it into our view of God. This feminine image of deity is already molding our male- female relationships into genuinely more mutual and cooperative experiences. This bodes well for greater peace and harmony in the world. A close parallel of this in the New Testament is Mary the mother of Jesus. Our Catholic friends have for centuries felt there is something most special about the Mary symbol , even to the point that they mention her in prayers. It is quite astonishing that in 1957 the Catholic church pronounced that Mary be considered as assumed to heaven much like the NT pictures happening with Jesus. This seems to imply nothing less than a fourth person in the Godhead, like the Proverbs imagery says of Sophia.

Quaternity Mandala

So I'll end this reflection on the Trinity with the idea that we may have already entered an age when we are hearing things which before have been difficult and unimaginable, and are learning things we never expected to learn --- that a new symbol of God, far more able to guide and harmonize a new millennium against threatening chaos, is evolving. This symbol appears to be : Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Mother or simply woman. Three is becoming   four, the Trinity is transforming naturally into a Quaternity. Could such a single symbolic change in the collective God image be the natural path to increased peace and love in the world? We can hope so. And we can see that such a possibility is supported, even initiated,  right here in the Bible.

*This blog post edition  is a third longer
than the sermon actually given for the church service.

ON FINDING BETTER PATHS FOR EXPLORING UNIVERSAL TRUTH.... May 1, 2016

An article by Neil Degrasse Tyson, who has helped many find renewed practical interest in the physical sciences has spurred me to better articulate where my own interest in finding what is more true has led.  His work is important for  somehow our culture in recent decades has become  more scientifically  illiterate than when I was growing up. Then both secular and religious institutions, for the greater part, welcomed and valued  science and its proven capacity to discover more truth. Now even a large part of our  congress pays little attention to what science is able to inform us about  and seems quite ignorant even of how the scientific method works in exploring life and the  universe. This  anti- science attitude can be leading us to very avoidable planetary catastrophes.  I will post Tyson's essay URL and then follow it with some of  my own thoughts about  Science and belief in God.

http://bigthink.com/brandon-weber/constantly-claimed-by-atheists-neil-degrasse-tyson-responds-to-that-whole-concept-wonderfully


Neil Degrasse Tyson, speaking of whether he is atheist,  states that  his interest is in the 'natural world'. I would add that an interest in God can and should also  be based in our exploration of the 'natural world', both outer/material phenomena and also inner/psychological/spiritual phenomena. If the word 'God' has a meaning it surely must have to do with what are potentially natural experiences of humans which they would try , if asked, to describe. It would be primarily inner compared to outer, outer/physical being what most popular science focuses on. An idea of 'God' would surely need ,if  relevant, to be more than an arbitrary intellectual proposition but flow from shared actual inner psychological experience. It would create a discussion around something that is a natural phenomenon. Depth psychology(initiated for modern times by Freud and much more richly expanded by Carl Jung) makes that kind of conversation possible and can be seen as not in conflict with the science of the outer/material world.

Because I have found the statements ascribed to Jesus, and the images I carry within of him, to help better explain my, and others who have shared personally with me, natural life, especially the inner aspects of it; it seems appropriate that I do not shy calling myself Christian. But that is the 'way' that I am Christian and thus do not carry some of the traditional baggage that many persons do regarding 'being Christian.' To me the part I carry is natural , not 'super' natural. I find the natural world  quite mysterious and transformative  enough and not demanding a layer of 'super' to be imposed  over it.

Also I have found the work of C.G. Jung to be a resource that , more than  any one contemporary explorer for truth , also helps me  better understand the experiences of natural life; including my revised understanding of the nature of the Christ story and of the Bible. I agree with Tyson that any name to describe a person's point of view , including 'Christian or Jungian' fails in its effort to embrace what one actually is and becomes a source of interfering in clearer communications. I am more comfortable being called Christian than Jungian for that influence has been of a collective archetypal kind and was what first set me on a committed journey to follow, the best I can, what is 'true'. And I have never regretted being drawn to that inner religious mindset. It has not disappointed me, lied to me or deceived me as I now understand it. And it remains relevant to me. My experience of Jung, on a different level, has not been of an archetypal(religious like) nature simply because we can know much of the specific inner and outer human life of Carl Jung, and no one has access to such historical information about Jesus of Nazareth. This is not what the gospels even attempt to give. So Jesus of necessity remains mostly(and this in no way diminishes his importance and influence) either a projection of our personal and collective  unconscious or simply our  trusting of collective hearsay. My experience of the Christ archetype is a  very different kind of experience than my learning from Jung and depth psychology.

Jesus is imaged as saying ' the truth shall set you free.' That to me does not mean that 'the truth' or 'all truth' was known by anyone when Jesus would have said that, including himself. But that ' truth' is forever being discovered and perhaps created (and has taken giant steps into human consciousness in the past century, not comparable to any time in history.) This results in an increase in truth , both outer/physical truth (what Tyson's science effort is mostly about) and inner ( what today 's depth psychology; as an empirical science of psychological facts, is about.) Jesus, like other authentic spiritual teachers, pointed beyond himself, understanding that the universe is not static but changing, moving, evolving to new states of being. This also the clear  finding of  science.

The continual search for truth, in these two potentially non-contradictory arenas(outer material phenomena and inner psychological phenomena), is I suspect the most likely path of increased human freedom, responsibility and consciousness. One without the other of these arena's of exploration I think does not offer the best explanation of the fullness of human experience nor the best tool with which to find solutions to today's most urgent problems. And I agree with Tyson that one word descriptions or isms of such truth seeking are never adequate and should be avoided. That results in building straw men and in unnecessary dualistic rather than a unifying use of our human capacities to find and embrace truth.