SERMON: 'COUNT ME IN' Mark 10:35-45 Oct. 14, 2012

35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
39 “We can,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

1. When my parents and older brothers started getting out the camping equipment in mid summer. Just the smell of canvass meant we were headed to the cool fresh air and cold clear creeks of the Great Smoky Mountains- to camp out for a week. I may not have said it but no one had to ask me, 'Jimmy do you want to go?' My body language said a thousand ways... “ Count Me In.”  And I was equally eager to 'Jump into the cold mountain water' anytime I was invited.
   
   
2. I see the childlike eagerness of James and John in this gospel scene. Before we tear into them can we at least acknowledge they wanted to be players in the game of life and in their understanding of the Kingdom of God? At least they were saying with enthusiasm, “ Put me in coach, I'm ready to play.” Even if they were in fact not ready at all.
   
   3. My son does many things to improve the pleasantness of our living space. He recently made us a good size pond with fish and all. Imagine if I brought a fish to the pond in my hand. That fish would be flopping and jumping and if it could speak would say, 'For God's sake Put Me In. The water is my element. Where I belong. That is where I can do what fish are meant to do.'
   
   
   I. We see this very healthy and natural instinct being expressed by James and John. Obviously I can't do this sermon without pointing out their immaturity and lack of insight and wisdom and all that. But that is so easy to do. But you will see I am not taking delight in criticizing them this morning. Unless I also acknowledge they are being necessarily human, perhaps even acting out one aspect of the 'image of God' in them. For are not many descriptions of God showing God's self involvement , self interest and even desire for control of His space and seeking to be at the center? Look at Jehovah as portrayed in Job. Why he parades unendingly his great accomplishments and how he is the Greatest. So James and John, who must have had something going for Jesus to have been drawn to them and to see their potential, are presenting to each of us a picture of ourselves and how, at one level, we actually are. At least I hope we have their attitude of 'Count me In. I'm ready for life.' They just don't know that no one is really ready for life are we? You may be 15, 35 or 80 but do you take any assurance you are ready, actually prepared, for tomorrow and the challenge it will bring? Its good if you have a kind of confidence that, in spite of your imperfections and partial consciousness, you still chose to 'jump into tomorrow' and see what happens. So let's get clear that James and John are showing an attitude , however self interested, is necessary for living as a human being. It is not something to get rid of but one that  needs to be balanced by its opposite which Jesus describes as being a servant to others. Without the opposites of life being balanced either side becomes distasteful. Self-seeking can result in a person becoming a tyrant and aggrandized total servant-hood risks making Jack a very dull boy or a robot personality. Balance or as Jesus says 'wholeness' is always the goal of healthy person-hood. The healthiest relationships are invariably mutual relationships. 
   
   
   II. We Westerners, ever since the beginning of the Age of Reason began some 400 years ago, have become experts at separating things out from each other. This was a new psychological experience for humans to see so clearly and objectively with no fuzziness or gray areas the 'opposites'. 'this and that', 'here and there', 'hot and cold', 'up and down', 'good and bad', 'spirit and flesh.' So when we read a gospel story, or seek to understand most anything, we are quick to identify what we call 'good and bad' behaviors and attitudes . And then we try to identify ourselves with the good and to see ourselves as having none of the bad. So the lesson becomes simple for us... James and John are selfish and greedy but Jesus points this out and tells them they need to not be concerned about being first or greatest but to become only interested in being of service to others. So we conclude that we need to as a matter of will power also decide to not be interested in place or rank but only to set our mind on being the servant of others. The lesson is clear, clean and we feel we are done with that. And who can argue with it? This has become for us conventional and expected wisdom. Because we have said something we think we have somehow mastered it. Yet it seems that in the world and the church where such moralizing has been common is as self serving and position grabbing as ever. Why do such objective , obviously true lessons of 'right and wrong' not seem to get applied very often? They truly do not sink in. I think if it were a simple matter of will power than most of us would master the desired goals far more frequently. But its never that simple. My fear is that if we take such stories as simple contrasts of good and bad that it teaches us how to be better judges. Thus assuring we will contribute our full share of judgmental-ism to the world, a central thing that Jesus so strongly warns us about.
   
   
   III. We might find entering into gospel stories more stirring and challenging if we took them as 'one whole image' and determined that we truly see in ourselves both that which we call 'bad' and the parts that we desire to develop toward which we call the 'good.' If we totally disparage what we see in James and John we fail to see that some 'self interest' is absolutely necessary in our steps toward greater service to others. Without instinctual self interest the impetus for 'jumping into life' is totally lost. So we might give ourselves permission to see how necessary some of the James and John quality is. Do you really think that the others who were chastising James and John were all that less craving the top places or did they just more easily see that mote in the two instead of the beam within themselves?               
   
   
   IV. The story makes clear that James and John simply 'did not know', were not conscious of what they were getting into or the meaning of what they asked. They likely did embarrass themselves by being naively presumptuous. Did any of us have much of a clue when we were youngsters or even young adults what a life of 60 or 80 years would include? And even if we are now 80 do we really think we have 'seen and experienced it all?' I do not like the rather cocky expression 'been there done that.' No place or time or event is exactly like any other unless that is all we let ourselves see. When we said 'count me in' did we know what all we were saying yes to. … the disappointments, the hurts, illnesses, seeing loved ones- maybe even our children- die in ways that seem so unfair and unjust? Jesus says to that 'count me in' part of us all ' You will be baptized with such grief and tears if you live long enough.' This is all part of what it means to jump into the pond of life. It's humbling to be reminded that 'we just don't really know' but even so we are given permission and freedom to say. 'Count me in.' And that fish, when it enters the water we can expect it to be very much taking care of itself cant we?, establishing its own corner of the pond and seeking out food for itself and not likely sharing it with another fish. Or maybe fish and other animals do show a form of service to others occasionally?
   
   
   V. But surely Jesus must have believed and I suspect you and I do also, that it is possible , it is within the human made in the 'image of God' to make great strides and have times and moments of being very concerned about the whole pond and about all the fish and creatures seeking to live from it. That there are times that we can expect our often self serving aspects to be transcended by something that is a part of us and we find ourselves truly fulfilling why we wanted to 'jump in' in the first place. That we are motivated at a deeper level than just self interest to say, 'count me in.' That we find that part of ourself which actually does want to make a difference for good, not just for myself but for others as well.
   
   
   Yes, it is correct to engage our will in choosing desired behaviors but to also know that we can rely on something stronger than our will power to balance our ever present self interest. Occasionally one of us, makes no difference who, may find oneself mounting unexpected courageous action for the benefit of many- not just a few, even 'giving oneself as a ransom for many.' Such developments can even be world changing. But they will be something that 'comes' like God's Kingdom , not the product of clever plan or will power alone .

   

   When Is Anyone His Greatest?

   
   
   VI. My guess is we never lose the capacity and self interest of sitting at some kind of higher place but I think we can become more aware that that is not the very best part of us, not the part that brings us the greatest sense of life and living and of what is the higher meaning of being in the pond. And we can more naturally look for and carry a hope and a prayer that we will more and more experience that higher part of ourselves that might connect to some others as, " come on in, the water is fine. Maybe I can show you around and be of some support to you as you find you find your way around here.” Maybe we can sometimes see that it happens in us, first here then there ,that being first or being in competition with my fellows is not what I am about after all. That there is a grander reason for being in the pond and I can expect and trust it to make itself known and expressed. Cooperative service to others is also part of my natural made in 'the image of God' self.

Perhaps if we approach the story in this way, of seeing that the story is giving us a 'whole picture of ourselves', as we really are and as we can expect by God's grace to become, the story will have transforming power in us. Deciding that each of us is seen in the 'whole story', like it or not, can serve to create mutual humility and provide faith that we will be increasingly inclined to enjoy being the server and not so much the grasper. And that we can, by God's grace, help make the pond a better place for everyone. 


May God grant us a measure of the Spirit that thrives on being of service to others, each in his/her own very unique way. Amen

MY BROTHERS SAVED MY LIFE... OCTOBER 13, 2012. Edited Dec.15, 2023

This is an edited excerpt from a  much longer blog post. http://jhibbett.blogspot.com/2011/09/pilgrimagenovember-13-2005edited_04.html.  Some of the dreams and visions mentioned below are describe in another post:   http://jhibbett.blogspot.com/2011/10/god-man-woman-and-lovedecember-12-2010.html  Otherwise this tribute to my brothers fully stands alone.

 Let me begin this by considering the difference between the full blown bewilderment of a presently diagnosed Schizophrenia and what can become a significant, life enhancing/transforming, creative encounter with inner symbolic Sacred realities. They are very similar. On the surface they look the same. Both will be filled with religious images and language. Both receive very strong, dazzling, sometimes horrifying, sometimes sublime ecstatic experience. 

This is why my family and brothers were so rightly concerned about me in my first strong encounters with such inner images in 1985.  My brothers' concern for me saved my life. I was so wrestling alone with such strong inner archetypal energies/ideas in Houston in the Spring of '85 that I became nearly unable to fully distinguish 'inner from outer' reality. My truck was packed, my apartment was immaculate, I was physically fit. But I could not yet gain inner conscientious permission to leave Houston and go home.  

Thus I was on the verge of not functioning effectively enough in outer life to sufficiently keep taking care of myself. I was at a full blown breaking point of serious proportions and was aware of it. Four of my brothers, without my having any notice, drove to Houston, entered my apartment and insisted that I return to our AL hometown. I strongly resisted but thanks to their courageous insistence, and the help of a carefully injected sedative, over my preferred will I surrendered to them and my life was saved that day.

Rufus Hibbett And His Seven Sons @ 1975

Some context to this: The six months preceding I had worked for a reputable group selling life insurance in Houston. By means of unaccountable grace I had managed each month to make significantly more income than I had ever made in my life. Thus I had the relief of mind that my family was not suffering financially, but I knew the psychological tensions and hurts were growing. But my internal situation and motivation quickly changed leaving me unable to even consider making another sales call. The week before my brothers arrived I had sold everything of value I had to buy food. My utilities were cut off. I knew that same morning that the next experience I was going to have was to scavenge for food. I had already coached myself, 'Jim, you are not the first or the last person who has been so humbled by the brute forces of nature and life. You will do what you have to do.' Amidst this my brothers arrived.

After this major rescuing project of brotherly love, for the next five months my brothers consistently looked after me and my family who were still back in Illinois. One brother gave me a job and paid me more than I was worth at that time. My brothers took turns having me live with them during the next three months while I stayed in our AL hometown of Florence. At my request my brothers found a Jungian trained therapist in Birmingham and escorted me there to first meet him. For nearly three months I drove there to work with him twice a week. What makes all their support and concern even more admirable is they did all this without having any explanation or possible appreciation of 'why' their little brother(41 years old) had fallen into such totally unexpected straits and was expressing such revised beliefs. When such an archetypal scenario is playing out in real life it often offers no conventional explanation. And when humans have no clear explanations imaginations run wild. I experienced a good deal of that happening with regards to my life process as it unfolded. Except for Jungian thought I also had no explanation. 

Fortunately some people's imaginations are very kind and they look for the best, not the unseemly, sensational or worst. I am grateful that my brothers and my wife and children  actually helped protect me from the storm by offering up the most kind and encouraging explanations.

As months went by I became able to sort out the archetypes and their message to me so I could receive their revelatory meanings without being overwhelmed by them. I learned, with much effort and practice, and help from my  Jungian therapist, to distinguish clearly between 'inner and outer.' With the seriously mentally ill person the fragile ego (What and who we consciously consider ourselves to be.) is shattered and he takes the images coming in from the Collective Unconscious( from the spiritual realm or God) as his personal revelation and a description of his or her self identity. He fails to keep his 'personal ego' distinct from the images from the Collective Unconscious. This results in the seriously ill person making claims of 'being God' or some other important archetypal being or power.  The archetypal powers have at that point taken over or 'possessed' the fragile ego. This person is now fully 'split'(schizo) and retains no longer clearly who he was in his ego personality.  

Anyone who visited me in my worst times knows that was never my situation. If necessary I could usually consistently  make the other person believe I was experiencing nothing unusual by keeping the archetypal  material containeded within myself. But had I not had 'safe' places to let this inner life be expressed to understanding persons I would have been overtaken by it and become very seriously ill as a result.

This is what has always horrified humans when they see it has happened to a loved one. Ancient people called it a 'loss of soul' or 'demon possession'. Today we experience such a struggling person as fully and frighteningly mentally ill. Most anyone can see this  happening with a trip to the psychological ward of any Hospital. There is more religious language in that setting than most churches. This is because  all religions were begun by literally interpreting an upsurge of archetypal images. Jungian thought, and I know of no other more fully in our day, helps one to see what is happening and to realize the reality of the power of archetypal energies are for good or ill.  

In my situation in 1985 my ego it seems was consistently able to distinguish between the archetypal material of the Collective Unconscious(This is the image and a Jungian name given for the deep eternal source of all collective human experience that has ever been. This is what people of all times and cultures have called the Sacred or God.) and thus to not completely overwhelm my ego identity. 

Like my brothers' love and actions on my behalf I can only be grateful: that my ego had acquired, through my particular training and personal experiences, by that time in my life, age 41, just enough strength to withstand the onslaught of the Collective Unconscious and its living archetypal energies in both their positive and negative powers. I shudder at how horribly different things could have worked out rather than how they, by a measure of grace, have.

So when the individual's ego manages to stay intact, however weak and threatened with annihilation, the conclusions an individual eventually reaches about life and reality are significantly changed than what they were going in. Hopefully I am, with these dreams and especially with the 'visions' (No better word seems appropriate unless one prefers 'contained creative temporary hallucinations'.) I had beginning in August 1985, an example of this better outcome. That my ego (with the supporting help of some caring and informed others) did not fly apart and send me into a state of identity with the figures of the Collective Unconscious. I was able to keep recalling that I was 'the human Jim Hibbett, father of Sheri, Brent and Ryan and husband of Beverly. I was born and raised by caring parents at 637 N Cherry St.'

If a person were prone to psychological schizophrenia had the dreams and experiences above he would likely be telling his friends of it and insisting that he is Jesus or some other God figure. And he would be totally convinced of it. After 28 years (2012) of experiencing rather closely many archetypal images and powers I am in little danger of such a misinterpretation. Surely I was at serious risk of it before, like the mid-May day in 1985 when my brothers appeared at my Houston apartment.  But I am not aware of my small, struggling but essential ego even once deserting me completely to the force of the archetypes. My ego was always present and observing and frequently asking questions about what the hell was going on. 

I am here attempting to faithfully describe these things as I experienced them and as I later read Jung describe similar things. That is why his work was genuinely 'life-saving' to me. 

The way I had been sincerely taught to literally/physically interpret the Bible stories was of little help to me then. And with my present revised views of the nature of the Bible I am able to see how the Biblical stories and images inform us about such realities of the 'unseen' archetypal world. That in fact imo is what most religious text is symbolically, not primarily literally/historically, describing. It seems very important that modern persons grasp this difference. No doubt my rich Bible-story background was helping more than I realized at the time.  I was personally experiencing some of those same archetypal stories/energies which are part of all our common human Collective Unconscious. So their messages are richly more real to me than before this encounter with them.

I am very grateful that I was inadvertently, or in Jungian language synchronystically, exposed to some central Jungian thought before the archetypal energy broke through to me with such authoritative force. I often encouraged people to read Jung if they wished to better understand my story. But I know Jung seems very difficult at first. That is primarily because he is seeking to describe and explain views of life/self/others that are revised from what most Western cultured people have accepted or imagined. I am glad to know Jung is likely to be taken more seriously as the world faces the kinds of  personal and societal/mass problems we now have. 

Two places Jung can be rather smoothly read are his very late semi-autobiography "Dreams, Memories and Reflections" edited/composed by associate Anelia Jaffe and the book 'C.G. Jung Psychological Reflections  1905-1961"..edited by Jacobi and Hull.

Jim Hibbett, 2019
 

BEING GAY TODAY.... ONE MORE TIME..Hear popular Pastor Osteen..Sept. 30, 2012

For all  successful mega-preacher Joel Osteen's assuring Americans sermon after sermon they can anticipate lives of joy and peace, he now also honestly acknowledges, " I know I did  not choose to be straight. It just feels like who I am." Yet he mistakenly still tells all gay people that what they 'did not choose' makes them sinful and that they must not seek any joy and peace from that exact same kind of awareness.

When will such short sighted Bible preachers see their own inconsistency? To a gay person 'it feels like who they are' because it God-honestly ' is who they are.' That is just a fact of life no less than the color of one's eyes and skin.

And when will such inconsistent Bible preachers, lacking understanding( which he  also admits in this interview) because they deny the meaning of their own sexual experience, explain to all that: Godly and holy sexuality in this present real world  is not to be discovered by denying ones own or others' sexual orientation but through long-term committed, responsible love relationships. Relationships which potentially bring  longed for joy and peace to both gay and straight human beings? Is that not what all preachers(and all spiritually minded  persons) could want for all people?

And  the added sadness..... I doubt anyone can fully have such joy and peace while denying it to others, any more than one could be fully free while endorsing slavery.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/21/joel-osteen-says-being-straight-not-a-choice-being gay-is_n_1904958.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009&utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

In this interview Pastor Joel Osteen says three things which I think many  who oppose  gay love would in honesty say. I think in these statements, and their implications, the religious pronouncement that  gay love is always sinful  is seen as  spiritually and psychological indefensible.  And in the end may very well become cowardly for Christian teachers to cling to.

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1. Gay persons attempting to responsibly live out their sexual orientation are sinful.

2. "I know I have not chosen to be straight, I just feel like that’s who I am."

3." I like to stick to what I understand, not what I do not understand. I like to stay in my own lane."

DREAM: ORIENTAL AND CHURCH URINAL... April 12, 2011...edited Sept.27, 2012

Dream.. Oriental Scene

I was present and welcomed into the private life of an oriental extended family. I was aware I was a stranger to this situation and was careful to not offer opinion regarding the ritual-like behaviors they were participating in. I made an effort to be supportive to the patriarchal leader of the group. At the end of the dream a beautiful anima figure dressed in a fitted purple dress appeared and took a back seat in the area. She was softly smiling and seemed very pleased with how I was handling myself. That meant a lot to me.

Oriental Anima Figure

Dream..Church Group Urinal

I was a part of a church group on a bus trip. We stopped at a very nice store and restaurant. I went to the restroom. While standing at a urinal a female came in and I was somewhat startled. She said, " It's OK. This is a gender neutral restroom." Then she took a seat on a toilet behind a screen but very near me. I felt comfortable and glad that men and women could be so objective and practical to use the same facilities. Obviously neither of us was experiencing or choosing to allow this to be a 'sexually' stimulating event. It was the farthest thing from my mind. It struck me as a strong step in cultural sexual maturity and a much needed kind of respect between the sexes. Her(probably an anima figure) assuring me that it was 'OK' set me at ease and expressed a confidence she had in me about my capacity to be responsible and respectful, the opposite of voyeuristic. And I was especially pleased that the church people I was with were comfortable with this and sort of 'leading the way' in this reasonable social change.

REFLECTION: I do not think the second dream is predicting some great move for such shared restroom facilities or giving that as some essential ethical  goal. It is far deeper than that.  It reflects an attitude that is more  mature and  spiritually/psychologically advanced than many people are ready for or comfortable with. I see the dream more importantly  pointing toward a greater maturity between the sexes. The recent steps of making men and women, gays, straights, transgendered  and lesbians able to serve side by side in our armed forces reflect a real world present change of the type the dream is highlighting.  A recent survey says that over 50% of Illinoisans are supportive of  equality of marriage, up more than 10 % from  two years ago. Along with many other 'anima' dreams I've had, I think these dreams are pointing to a collective change for which our culture is overly pregnant and ready to give birth. I will attempt to explain below.

The female anima figure, so common in modern dreams including my own, is giving approval to what is going on in both dreams. This is very important to me and I think to our culture. The anima, according to Jung and also confirmed in my repeated  dream experience of 'her', is a connection of the human ego consciousness to the world of the Collective Unconscious. 'She' represents the voice of the world of the Spirit, of God. 'She' shows herself in many ways and with many faces.  She can never  be fully comprehended anymore than, with a little thought, we would positively  know an omniscient God remains always beyond the grasp of our human ego and intelligence. No mortal ever holds God in his hands. It is a great illusion to think if we have a word for something we must also have an understanding of it. 

In the first dream 'her' dress and shapeliness is a reminder of the the importance of sensory instinct and pleasure. 'She' would be quick to warn of getting caught up into sensuous pleasure at the cost of the responsibilities demanded of human living, but for humans to to deny or oppress any natural instinct( as we do continuously) is to cut off the source of life and passion, in short to cut off the path to fuller human spiritual/psychological development. In the second dream 'her' presence reminds that the conflicts and the misunderstandings between the masculine and feminine (also between East and West pictured in the first dream) principles of life is something that is still in the process of being resolved at both inner and outer levels of human life. Any philosophy or religion which thinks these opposites have ever been properly balanced in recorded human history fools themselves. There is a way the world can be that has not yet been reached but is now near at hand. The union of  feminine and masculine  life principles, yin and yang, has always been pointed to as a highest goal of conscious human life,  but never has the goal been reached and experienced by men or women in general, as a way of being in such harmony,  in any culture.

'One Flesh' Modern Sculpture

I think of how Genesis invokes the possibility of ' man and woman' potentially truly becoming 'one flesh' and the apostle's pronouncement that 'in Christ there is no male or female.' These were statements of light in very dark places. Such statements came from the pens and mouths of people who were living in cultures that did not well reflect such realities at all, whether the patriarchal Hebrew society or the male-dominated churches of the apostle Paul. But they came as revelations pointing to a new day and time when such goals could actually become the common human experience. We tread closely to that time now. And it is just in time before we humans self destruct in one of many possible ways too horrible to imagine.

Modern dreams such as this one are saying, with no less authority than the 'anima' , that humanity is on the threshold of a major leap toward a union of the 'male and female' as foundational life principles resulting in expressions and experiences in the actual mutual love life experience of real human men and women. This would be nothing less than a breakthrough in the quality of love in the world. The dreams predict that what will be saving humanity, in all its present polarizations animosities, is a rise in the level of the collective ego consciousness where such religious goals of humankind as genuinely 'loving each other' will be realized as never before possible.  

SERMON: IMAGES OF GOD... September 20, 2012

                         HE IS UNASHAMED TO CALL THEM BROTHERS AND SISTERS
                                                              September 20, 2012
Hebrews 2:5-12 ;Job 1:1,9:24,28-35, 10:7-9, 40:4-5 ; Genesis 1:27, 2:18, 22-24; Mark10:1-16

One of the most heavenly and yet most down to earth images of God in the Bible is the expression we read in Hebrews this morning...' He(Jesus) is not ashamed to call us humans his brothers and sisters.' This can rightly be at the heart of our  present day Christian image of God. That God actually sees us and seeks to relate to us as our Brother or Sister rather than a dominating master, judge or patriarch is a profound religious announcement of 'good news.' Unlike some of the Old Testament images of God this describes God not having a dominating demeanor or some kind of egoistic  power need which demands to constantly  receive praise and honor. But depicts God and God's Will as seeking a more mutual relationship, where God and Human are co-workers with each other and  mutually  need each another.

Unashamed Brothers And Sisters

To better appreciate this perhaps unexpected but inspiring way of viewing God, other readings this morning may seem somewhat foreboding compared to it. Many Bible admirers better understand the more negative images of God and God's ways by realizing these were the impressions of God which these ancient people had. And that they do not always well reflect what the actual ultimate God of all life is like. Biblical writings even can help us  see how the image of God and God's will changed for people over time, generally moving toward such a  view of God as  'not being ashamed to call us imperfect humans brothers and sisters.'

1. In the book of Job, probably written as a play to be performed, it seems rather clear the author is placing before the reader an image of God which Shows the faithful human creature being more dependable, consciously aware and ethical than the God the writer has Job trying to deal with. 10:7-8. And though Job consistently declares his innocence to a God who seems totally out of control, undependable, unjust and self-absorbed, Job is cautious enough and trusting enough to only 'put his hand over his mouth' in the presence of such a demanding, unappreciative and grotesquely powerful god figure 40:4-5. Notice the contrast between the God in Job and the God who gladly trusts the human and is not ashamed to call us brother and sister. How Job longed for such a God.

Jehovah Intimidating Righteous Job- Wm. Blake

2.  In the Genesis readings, there are two separate versions of the creation story in Chapters one and two which were eventually placed side by side. The finest Bible scholars discovered this many decades ago. The first creation story  depicts God as crowning his creation with 'man and woman'-- simply 'male and female' it says he 'created them' in God's own image. This implies the two sexes are fully equal with neither above the other in rank, power or importance.

Then how did both the Hebrew and Christian religions develop such seriously negative beliefs and practices that led to women being second class citizens? For more than 2500 years this disparity in the sexes was  fed by how the second creation story was interpreted. Because parts of that creation account imply that woman was created as a kind of afterthought to meet the male's needs. And that her identity was not to live mutually and equally with the man but as his subservient. The same creation story depicts woman as more easily led into errors in judgment and  sin than the man and woman is even somewhat pictured as the male's excuse for his own moral failures.


These images set the stage for centuries of destructive sexism both inside and outside the church. Such images were fully internalized in Western culture and in our churches, both Catholic and Protestant. We can be encouraged today to see this serious spiritual problem has finally begun to be corrected in  our collective thought. As many of our Western churches and secular cultures, especially the past fifty years, have been able to move to the higher picture in Genesis which shows man and woman created equally and intended to live in fully mutual relationships.


So how we read these stories and what aspects  of them we see as the ultimate image and will of God means everything to human living. Present-day believers are challenged to exercise  responsible and sincere discernment about the emphases we select from these stories. For what we take away from Bible stories is so much a part of us and guides, even at unconscious levels,  how we think and act regarding ourselves , God and other people.

3. The gospel reading today raises these same conflicting points of view, including  again the issues of the equality of male and female. Mark's author shows Jesus doing some of the difficult work of discerning and even reinterpreting for his hearers the Old Testament passages regarding men and women. Note the context in which Jesus addresses what was in his day, and still in ours, a very emotionally loaded subject, marriage and divorce. The subject starts by a question from the reigning male religious patriarchy(Pharisees). They raised this emotional issue attempting to trick Jesus and accuse him of  heresy or evil.

The rules in the Law of Moses were far more strict on women than men, especially those regarding sexual intimacy and  of  marriage and divorce. Adultery in the Old Testament  is presented as being wrong not because of hurting a spouse but because it violated another man's property rights, the husband's or father's owing of the woman. Most modern people ascribe a higher level of morality in these areas than the Law of Moses, considered then as God's ultimate law, did. And the traditions that developed from these male favored laws were even more harsh on women. A man could divorce his wife for most any reason.  A woman had nearly no religiously or culturally approved path to divorce her legal husband no matter how abusive the relationship. And a man could have as many wives as he could afford to have. Again wives  were defined as the property of the husband in Old Testament Law.

If Jesus said, 'yes, a man should be able to put away his wife with no consequences.' This would make him approve a harsh anti-woman view  of God and God's law. If he said ,'No', it would mean he is assigning both men and women to live by religious force in relationships that are not ones where love and mutual respect have been found. Jesus, as always, is not setting up some new law regarding marriage or intimate relationships. Such digressions using  gospel phrases are in opposition to the the overall body of Jesus' words and actions. Law can never solve the problems of love or the lack of its presence. Jesus is acknowledging the harsh reality and sadness of  lost love and divorce.

I hear him saying that when formal marriage fails to find its intended mutual intimate meaning usually two persons experience a harsh blow to their own sense of innocence and loveability. Anytime mutual love is lost in close human relationships whether friendship, family or love partners, it often crushes ones sense of personal innocence and loveliness.

Jesus Receiving The Children

Mark then intentionally and immediately injects the picture of Jesus insisting that the innocence of children is always accepted by God. It is as if Jesus is assuring us humans in the harshness and sadness of our ended relationships that we can, by Gods grace, discover again our own innocence and lovability. God makes such awareness of our innocence possible by seeing us as trusted and beloved 'brothers and sisters' to God. By that grace we can again view ourselves as acceptable, lovely and lovable.

Mark shows Jesus carefully and wisely saying something which not only  declares how wrong it was that men could legally mistreat women in many of the divorces of his day but he was also able to teach the crowds that the ideal of any intimate love relationship is like that described in parts of the Genesis creation stories which he selectively quotes. Mark has Jesus quote the parts that teach us that human intimate relationships hopefully always move toward the ideal of being equal and mutual.

Unashamed Brother and Sister

Conclusion: How encouraging to our human status and to our view of our self and others that the image of God which shines consistently in the Jesus of the gospels guides us to believe that all humans are intended to relate in relationships that are equal, mutual and cooperative rather than with dominance, condescension and superiority. In God declaring us humans as God's 'brothers and sisters' we are made co-workers and somehow co- creators with God. How amazing is that?  This awareness is the basis of our UCC advocating for equal and mutual human relationships and  for saying our ideal is ' no matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.' We certainly have found it much easier to say this than to consistently practice it. But it is truly a solid  Christ inspired way to want to relate to each other and to all others. It is a way of life which we understand can only be fulfilled in us mortals by the power of God's Spirit living within and among us. This expresses our desire as a people to put into practice that we serve a God who is not ashamed to call all of us humans God's own 'brothers and sisters.'

A POLITCAL POINT OF VIEW... August 30, 2012

I have no legal or envy  problem with Mitt Romney  being extremely wealthy and paying only 14 % income tax if that is the actual law and one can afford the accountants and lawyers to make it happen. I have a problem with him thinking that it is ethically  OK for the 2 % most wealthy Americans to have such a low tax rate  while most  average Americans have no such similar access and privilege. And that he wants to even  lower his own tax rate. I truly do not think he sees any  moral or ethical disparity in that at all. This is not the world of most Americans.

Governor Mitt Romney

Reflecting on two nights of  the Romney team  Presidential Convention and what has come before: I'll relate, the best I can discern, some political facts right now. I think it is safe to say that Romney has  gathered around him as his closest support , including especially Paul Ryan, those who are not just considering but are whole-heartedly devoted to making sure the most wealthy two percent of Americans are not asked to make any sacrifice. I think it is illusory  to imagine this team giving  up any of the so called Bush tax decreases but  to instead  push  their 'investment money',much of it in tax reduced overseas accounts, tax rates lower still. This is not primarily to be personally richer(one can only live so plush) but to be centralize political power to the neglect of the  infrastructure needs of the nation and  life quality/healthcare/education needs of  the typical  American  individual.  If we do not begin to invest in our land and  people we  will find ourselves even further behind the human progress curve in the world. This emphasis is what is so undervalued  as  part of the 'Ryan Budget Plan' which has already received approval by the House and by Mitt Romney.  None of these things are being mentioned in the convention speeches.

Representative Paul Ryan

I hear no indication that Romney nor his 2 % supporters have any intention of surrendering their personal possession of 50% of America's earned wealth, not their truly earned wealth from an ethical and moral perspective. They see no moral disparity in the way the 'law is' that allows for such an unprecedented stealing of America by the few. I'm not suggesting the other side would not have had the same moral failing if it had fallen their lot to be the country's 'legal' thief.  I suspect they would have  succumbed  to  the very same  unethical pressures from the extravagantly wealthy as this party has.

 As Americans we were inadvertently taught as youth to 'take all we can from the public pool as long as we  make it 'legal' and we give back a portion to our favorite charity.' And we were not warned of the moral trap this would one day cause. That day has arrived and is a fact. 98 % of us typical Americans have not had that moral temptation but the 2 percent have and many have not been equipped with the necessary ethical boundaries  to see it as a national moral dilemma which threatens us all. We deny this absolute definable historic financial reality to our own peril. It is a real and true situation which if not brought  clearer to American consciousness and addressed can be our true moral  national downfall.

A Rather Telling Image

 If  Romney's inner team wins (And it would clearly be their financial power, not the genuine appeal of the  real person  Mitt Romney and his very muddled message, that win.) this election it will prove that such financial power represents nearly total power in America, truly the power to take an election by financial force and deceit. We will have become a very different nation. And not the one that has blessed so many of us or that we, including those being influenced by much purposeful deceit from the Romney campaign, love and admire.


 I wish I could see something more positive than this at work in the Romney Campaign and I will gladly say so if I do in the coming days. I do not enjoy having to make myself more politically literate. It is not at all my basic interest but our country is at a very serious cross roads I think and a political consciousness of many more is greatly needed

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DREAM: BODY AND SOUL...A Fuller Discovery Of Human Identity...February 21, 2010

A man had a flap of skin that when lifted showed a cross section of his four chambered heart. He also was holding an erect phallus. The man showed his heart to one woman and she was not interested. He showed it to another and she wept.

Human Heart, Metaphorically The Home of  One's Soul And Love

REFLECTION: This for sure is one of those dreams where one says, “ I have never had such a thought or image in my conscious mind. It seems to be totally out of range even of my imagination." This strikes me as a deeply collective and timeless symbol of  the potential 'union of body and soul' of 'heart and head' , 'mind and spirit' of the human being. This dream is likely much more about our Western cultural situation than it has anything to say about me personally. This is a central unity that humans need and hopefully are moving toward in our age. We have just moved from the Age of Pisces(the fishes) which has marked the 2000 years of Christianity to the Age of Aquarius ( the water bearers).  The biological, instinctual and spiritual  seem to be being brought  together via extended Human and Sacred consciousness. The flap of skin that opened to the heart indicates the wounds humanity  has received in finally  arriving at such a new state of  potential consciousness. This is analogous to the wounds of 'heel and head' in the early Genesis story to account for the negatives of human existence. It is analogous to the groin  wound that Jacob received as a result of his wrestling with the Lord and demanding  a blessing. And to the inflicted wound of Jesus' side that brought forth the unity of 'blood and water.'


The man showing his wound to women is the idea that a man  longs to serve  the Soul, the eternal  feminine principle that can be discovered only  'within.'( This  is symbolized for modern man in the consciousness of the  presence of the psychological/spiritual 'anima' figure so common in men's dreams.  Jung conjectured that a human woman  likely has a corresponding male(s) inner image. I personally would not be surprised at that but also believe that human soul is likely more feminine by nature in us all?) The first woman did not yet share in the level of consciousness that the man experienced so rejected his gift. The second woman, most likely a reference to the anima, had already arrived there and so wept for joy when she saw that the  man had found what she had always guided him to discover.

The wounded and open heart and the erect phallus symbols taken together  beautifully and  more fully than most would have imagined  show  'body and soul' united. Christianity has the capacity to bring this image to consciousness but it has not yet in any general or consensus way. So much negativity, which seems may now about to be overcome, was placed on human sexuality in the most powerful arm of  the very early church. Augustine later, along with  the good  he brought, strongly  consigned human sexuality to the inferior and dark place it has has occupied throughout Western history, in both church and culture. This unconsciously was done by Christian teaching to assure that this very unity would not be achieved too early(and escape the necessary learning  curve of the past 2000 years. They did a good job.)

I’ve silently wondered from childhood, especially with the onset of puberty and sexual orgasm, 'Surely Jesus experienced this intentionally and consciously as well.?" But like others I repressed that idea as somehow being blasphemous instead of the obvious unbiased  natural conclusion. He just could not possibly be that much 'like me' most of us concluded and our Bible teachers agreed. Rarely was such a question ever asked. But it is asked by many today.  And  I was barely conscious that if I could not identify with Jesus at the most profound and ecstatic of human experience then most identification I managed to make was only intellectual, lacking the full sensations of both mind and heart. This dream symbol is making it clear that my childhood musings were truthful, important and have now become a center of awareness essential for human spiritual/psychological development in our era. 

The movie Man Of  La Mancha, based on the 16th century legend of  unlikely Spanish hero  Don Quixoto,  presents a supreme emotional  moment of spiritual insight. It is another way of symbolizing what the  dream  is emphasizing. On his death bed, where he had forgotten the 'things of his deepest heart' and with the help of   'the feminine',  he remembers more fully who he really  is. He is far more than  just body and brain. He is 'body and soul' and he actually experiences them both as a unity.  He is suddenly aware of both his flesh and his spirit, his body and soul. When he expresses or 'shows' this central and true insight  to the woman she is also moved to her deepest levels of  'heart and soul.'  Both have 'found' that they are more than what today we call our rational ego consciousness- our 'me.' They experience it and the viewer can't imagine  anyone needing to tell or teach them of such a knowledge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfHnzYEHAow . It is what has always been called, 'revelation' and something that  must 'come' of its own, perhaps after a very long and arduous spiritual journey.  The dream implies that  every human potentially can experience this.  This is the discovery of the 'Self' in Jungian terms or the owning of ones soul of which Jesus asks , 'Who  would be willing to exchange for anything else in the universe?' The emotional moment is expressed by both Don Quixote and His Lady  with welled up  tears of human joy. I think the dream expresses a similar new awareness of themselves  that men and women of today are far more prepared to arrive at consciously than ever before. This is an exciting discovery of a fuller understanding of who we humans really are and what our potential is for a more fully living and loving.  I do not wish to imply that such experience for any mortal can be total and complete in this life but it surely may potentially be a profound life  changing 'repentance' for individuals and the culture generally.

 

Yet how many Jesus admirers today are able to allow this centrally human reality and sensation to have  belonged to Jesus in a fully conscious, celebratory and spiritual way? I’m afraid very few but surely more than ever in the past. The symbolism of this dream would be rejected by most even now because of our uneasiness and negativity regarding our natural God -given sexual nature.  Many, even if deeply touched, would say regarding the movie scene , " Oh Well, it is only a movie.'  What is most important in our day is often referred to as 'an only' and thus is dismissed back to the unconscious from where it tried to reach our full conscious acceptance. 

The dream is asserting that the coming together, the uniting of 'body and soul' , 'head and heart', 'sexuality and spirituality'  is the present evolutionary leap that is essential for the spiritual and evolutionary 'salvation' of the species. This kind of   discovered Consciousness is the place where the strengthened bridge between God and Human, so needed in today’s world, is structured. This need has long been expressed in sacred text, novel, movie, song and even soap opera(common avenues that can reveal  contents of the Collective Unconscious.) But rarely is it brought forth in a religious setting, even though there is much Biblical scripture to support it. This symbol is also an indication of the unity of  the  Greek three aspects of love- Agape(unconditional value and support), Phileo(joyous friendship) and Eros ( visceral bodily desire.) Another cultural breakthrough that greatly encouraged Carl Jung is  the 'Assumption of the fleshly Mary to heaven' by the Catholic Church dogma of 1957. This, against all rational thinking or obvious  scripture support  is an indication of this union of Flesh and Spirit, Sexuality and Spirituality into the Godhead itself. And the recent stories- eg Jesus Christ Superstar , The Last Temptation and The Da Vinci Code- so popularized about Jesus loving a real woman intimately demonstrates the growing conscious need and acceptance of this image of a truly 'body and soul' Jesus. I'm reminded of an old Oak Ridge Boys song that says, " I would have liked him better if he were a little more like me."