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.

A WAY OF IMAGINING THE ORIGINS OF THE GOSPELS AND ITS IMPLICATIOINS.... April 11, 2016

I've just attended a lecture by the aging John Shelby Spong yesterday. Though always a controversial figure in his activism I find him to be an intricate  scholar and genuine lover of the Bible. I consider him a strong voice in seeking to respect the actual nature of the Bible  rather than forcing the Bible  to be what one may want it to be. He is much up to his lecture circuit and  kept 300 of us in a high state of attention. He has an uplifting sense of humor. The experience  got me to thinking  again about those amazing gospels. I'll share here a train of thought that has come to me regarding 'miracles' in the gospels and a way of thinking of the gospels'  origins.

If persons present with Jesus had seen literal physical 'super (more than) natural ' miracles surely some of them, with the ability and skills for it, would have gone home and written down what they saw. The gospel says for example that five thousand men saw him feed everyone with a few fish and loaves. That would be something to write about, right then, not forty years later. It would be the human reaction to describe and report  such events right then. Such physical materialistic miracles would have stirred up a fire storm of amazement and have been just as astonishing  then as it would be for us today... not to mention 'seeing' persons coming out of their graves and walk around.  Surely this would have been described on the spot.... not forty to ninety  years later, as with  the gospel's?

Caravaggio's  'Inspired Matthew' writing his gospel... 1602

But there are no such early eye witnesses of  nature defying happenings and I strongly suspect never were. Even though what was internally experienced  by such persons deserves the name 'miracle' for it was dazzling, numinous and  defied usual life happenings. Truly an 'experience of light and resurrection'  in the midst of their very dark world of oppression and fear. Something  truly life and consciousness changing was happening to them in those real undocumented historical moments.   But those who were there  were not consciously struck by it  enough in the moment to  try to document it.  If it had been an obvious defiance of natural law they would have.  What person  now even  tries to write out their experience the night after they fell in love?  The inner meaning of such experience seems to require  time to ferment. It is at the moment of happening  beyond words. One just lives it.  Fortunately the same kind of  consciousness raising 'miracle' can still naturally  happen in the world  and perhaps greatly needs to happen in our times.


These gospel stories were not creatively written out for three to five generations after the time of Jesus. That is why, I believe, they were then purposely written in the genre of imaginative symbolic story, not historical fact(even though most of us Westerners still hear them as literal physical facts). When we do we are as misguided as taking the Western fairy tells, which so richly  stir our inner lives, as if they were recorded materialistic eye witnessed history. We would be missing the richer psychological meaning and fail to really benefit from such treasures of mythical type literature.


I think the gospel origins was somewhat like is shown in every TV  episode of the 'Lone Ranger.' People are seen caught up in a life event and drama that is very out of the ordinary and involves danger and threats to well being. Involved also is  a person who seems to know more and have a deeper wisdom, (or we'd say today of a higher consciousness) and seems in the end to effect everything about the amazing outcome for good. Yet this most unusual real life drama still  remains solidly anchored as a part of the  real natural, not supernatural, world of those involved.

Who was that masked man ? 

BUT then, only 'after it is all over' do any involved stop to reflect and ask themselves, " Who was that masked man.... what really happened back there?" So the gospel writers , long after the fact of the experience including Resurrection, sit down and try to put down a narrative, using their Hebrew scriptures, to weave a story of how their forbears, some 40-90 years before,  surely must have experienced the long awaited Hebrew messiah. They were not writing history in any sense, but creatively seeking to makes sense of , to explain what materialistically seemed inexplicable regarding  events that had had a grand effect on many people and  was still enduring in their own hearts. This 'lone ranger' metaphor I think is quite applicable as to the origins of the gospels that could help us put them in proper perspective. ... get us out of reading them as history and the non relevance which that increasingly places on them in the scientific postmodern world.

Now for us, all that happened in those few years of Jesus' ministry and death can be well described as how a person with a more developed consciousness, at the right time and place in real history, can have had such a great impact on shaping culture. An impact that had the spiritual or psychological energy to create a whole new, far more conscious than before, civilization of Humanity. Which is what Christianity(as a historical whole, for good and ill ) has in fact done.

A burning question for us now is: Has that great wave  generated 2000 years ago, and captured for posterity by the gospels, of raised consciousness pretty much run its course, lost most of its effective life transforming energy? And is the world now  in groaning need for some kind of higher consciousness leap again? An urgent need for our religious and secular cultures to be pushed again to higher planes of consciousness, capable of meeting our human/planet  survival challenges? Challenges that the present consciousness of Christianity and other religions, in any of their present interpretations, are prepared to meet?

I suspect we are in such a time, Biblically a Karios,  and that such a change will not come again by a collective projection onto a single hero person such as Jesus, the  Buddha or Mohammad(though these will forever be honored)  but will come instead through many persons being similarly  and naturally affected by a kind of Collective Unconscious or 'mind of Deity.' Sincere and honest persons of all faiths and backgrounds throughout the world coming to a similar unexpected transcending collective consciousness which will spread naturally to the masses. I am hoping something like this is what is happening.

THE CENTRALITY OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE UNIVERSE........ April 5, 2016

A most amazing observation  is that without human consciousness nature and God necessarily remain unknown in the universe. It is the same as if they did not exist. In a sense it is human consciousness alone that brings all else into actual existence. This does not lessen the essentiality of an initial urge and need in divine creativity with a  dream of what might be,  but surely suggests that such an  initiation of creation could not be fully conscious of itself until the long awaited emergence of the  evolved apex of  human consciousness billions of years later. The first conscious observer of creation had finally  arrived. And like it or not that is our human place of glory and highest  responsibility.

As one reads the quote below it can be kept in mind that the scientific theories of relativity have proven that space, time and mass  are simply not  the absolutes that our Western materialistic mind set has  thought are the  fully tied down foundations of reality. They are more  like temporary estimates of reality that have evolved with  our specific body bound  situation. So our higher consciousness is  now  being challenged to realize that our 'common sense' notion  of reality is in fact quite temporal.

This adds to the amazing place that humans occupy for good or ill in the universe. It means the universe, even God, does not just love humans but greatly needs us, our delicately and so labor intensive evolved Collective Consciousness and to wherever it is now helping guide the processes of  evolution. Divinity and incarnating  Humanity are now finally co-creators of what lies ahead. No longer is any past moment in Sacred or Secular  history(always to be gratefully remembered) the highest point of creativity but now, each new moment, is that.

And it seems we humans need this level of grand mystery, a still hazy humbling awareness of what we simply do not know, to bring out the best in us for the challenge at hand. So much is lost when we humans allow our view of reality to degenerate to some mundane supposed fully known idea of reasoned 'common sense', such as a final certainty of the shape of time, space and matter we sometimes  blithely call  reality.


 And  wonderfully and  paradoxically just as  important,  Humans  also have the capacity to be to each other the most grounded, down to earth and practical thing in all of nature.


In Christianity Jesus and the Christ symbol evolving from   him is an image of just such a human,  compelled to  transcend the common  consciousness of his epoch changing  times. None of this is inconsistent with our Christ story when we approach the gospels as the most creative symbolic revelation from Unconscious sources  in our Western Civilization. The Christ symbol and story  is one of  anticipated  collective psychological wholeness and the union  of Divine and Human. This in a fully natural but nouminous and consciously unexpected  process of transcendence.








‎
“Where Space and time do not exist there is only oneness (monotes).
There is no differentiation; there is only pleroma.
Pleroma is always with us, under our feet and above our heads.
Man is the point that has become visible, stepping out from the pleroma, knowing what he is doing, and able to name the things about him.
Although the earth existed before there were any human beings, it could not be seen or known by anyone”. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 22.
[Image Courtesy of Craig Nelson]

ACTIVE IMAGINATION: AN IMAGE OF GOD FROM UNCONSCIOUS SOURCES.... March 10, 2016

INTRODUCTION: I had started to take a walk but realized it was drizzling.  Experiencing  an inertia of energy,  I suddenly felt a reluctant urge to enter into an 'active imagination' state of mind. After the experience, like most dreams, I felt it was foolishness and could barely make myself start putting it to words. But I urged myself to write it out as best I could remember.  (I insert images that have been inspired by previous dreams and seem relevant here.)

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As customary I went into and below the pond and immediately was in the domed area with its 12 side openings. The light was dim but a dark green. Suddenly brightest light filled the whole area. The ground space of this dome structure was circular with a hundred yard diameter. The top of the dome is maybe forty yards high. Now everything was gold with maroon trim, floor and boarders. The rest  looked as if  pure gold. In the center was a rough gold cube about 20 feet in all dimensions. I seemed all alone in this large brightly lit dazzling space. I asked aloud , “ Will I see God here?”


Suddenly all this disappears and the scene is a modest American home of the late fifties. I am invited in by a Caucasian couple welcoming me. The inside is modest with fifties decor including a TV in the living room. There is nothing extraordinary about the home or the couple. They sit together on a love seat and I am invited to sit on a couch facing them. We have refreshments and chat. The couple seem very pleased with each other and exhibit a relaxed harmony in their relationship. They are extremely welcoming to me. Nothing out of the ordinary is said. This scene suddenly ends and I'm back at the underground golden dome.

It is bright and golden as before. The gold cube has decreased in height to about two feet. I walk toward it across some thirty yards. When I get there a very strange figure is sitting in the center of the cube. There are two ten feet high gold candle holders with unlit candles on either side of the image. The figure has a human like body, and is dressed in a flowing purple robe. The head is very different. It has extended long silvery hair giving the shape of a triangle to its overall head.. Most disconcerting it has a single eye. I would guess it is twelve feet tall with  proportions of  an average human. I am standing on the ground at the edge of the cube looking straight at it. The eye never blinks. It is very still. I am mesmerized and struck with discomfort. I speak to it.

J. I have no idea how to behave or speak.

Now I hear and see  the figure  breathing very deeply and slowly, inhaling then exhaling. It does not speak.

J. I notice your breath. It is so slow, deep and loud. It reminds me of yoga.

The image just continues to breathe.

J. I am so uncomfortable with your strangeness. I feel it may be best if I leave.

Figure: It is best if you stay.

J. I am glad you speak in my language.

F. All languages and all things come through this breath.

J. I am at a total loss. This is just too strange for me to continue. I have no idea of what to expect     here.

( It always takes several breaths before it ever speaks, making all conversation extremely slow. This slowness and deep breathing was how the whole conversation went.)

F. You are very strange to me. (two more breaths) We are opposites that used to be one.

J. You seem so cold and abstract, nearly mechanical.

(The image always takes two breaths before any speech and between sentences. I found it very hard to be patient.)

F. You came from me and became yourself.

J. By 'you' you mean humanity?

F. I mean humanity.

(after four breaths)

F. I am objective about all that is and can be . You are emotional about everything. You become objective through me. I become emotional through you.

I notice its face seems extremely old, very wrinkled and somewhat greenish. It seems eternal.

J. May I ask? What is the significance of your single eye?

F. Mine is the eye of evolution. You see the many with two eyes. I see the one with the single eye. Together we may fully see.

J. Should I ask you questions that I and many humans carry?

F. yes

J. Should I ask personal questions regarding myself or about the larger picture?

F. They are the same I am hoping you know. What is most true is both personal and cosmic.

J. Will my species, will the planet survive the present crises?

F. We have the same question. My dream is yes. Yours?

J. Yes but I do not see how with our present level of awareness and the hostilities and splits carried at so many levels.

F. All is split asunder. It had to become this way. The greatest split is this one. You wanted to leave for my strangeness.

J. Yes, I did.

F. You are still strange to me.

J. If humans are strange to you and you represent from where we have come, how can we expect to ever have a sense that we are understood, that we, and our efforts at living,  are known for who we are?

F. I come to fully  know you by the same process you come to know the images of  your origins, such as your coming  to know me. All is moving toward a mutual intimacy where each part is known as it comes to  know its true  itself. This was the original  incomprehensible dream from which all that is or can be derives. All is now moving toward higher levels of consciousness. All is  inter-connected, both matter and spirit. There are no  ultimate dualities as it has appeared for so long to most humans.

    (This statement seemed to take forever with  deep breathing between each phrase.)

J. Do we have similar values?

F. My values are four: The planet, all its elements, the Cosmos, Union of all through human/sacred love. These are in you.

J. I think many humans have begun to have these values, at least abstractly and the numbers are growing. We at least have these ideas.

F. Thus this kind of encounter now. I and humans can have the same values.

J. What is the plan?

F. No one plan but essential mutually dependent cooperation within  me and humans.

J. There are at least three recent Western  voices  which seem to speak along these lines that I am aware of. They are Jung( Medical psychiatrist), de Chardin(Priest and paleontologist) and Tillich(Theologian). I'm sure there must be many more.

F. I'm counting on that.

The figure rose to its feet. It first walked gracefully to the candle on its left, looked at it and it lighted. There was something quite feminine and warmly Erotic it is movement. Then it went to the candle on its right and it lighted. It went back to the center and resumed a sitting position very yoga like. It looked at me with its single eye which blinked (or winked?) once.

J. Should I think of you as a God image?

F. Think of all this as a God image.

I surveyed the dazzling dome and the figure on the golden square. Then the grand gold dome vanished and only the figure and gold square remained. But now they were placed in a beautiful pristine nature scene containing mountains, streams, water falls, billowing clouds, a rhythmic sound of many animals, the sun and a night time starry sky with a crescent moon. The golden square darkened into green and then to natural earth colored rock. The figure of the being then changed into a timeless human male/female couple peacefully holding a serpent between them. I was still standing by the square beholding the couple image. What I noticed most was the glow of confident friendship in their expressions as they viewed each other past the serpent which seemed, though still very much a snake, quite contented to be harnessed and contained by the couple.

In a flash all this is gone. I am standing by the pond on a drizzly day and finally I am  again lying on my back in my bed.

NOTE: Reflecting on this I'm struck with the likelihood that no image of God we humans carry, and we have carried many, can effect any strong transformation in human consciousness if it has no element of 'horror' or disgust, of extreme otherness,  as part of it. Our Christian image of God in the Christ has come, after two millennia of  originally effective aliveness, to be viewed as without any such horror. Also, teachers and preachers speak  blandly of the Christian God image as if they are thoroughly familiar with only its total gentleness and light. It has little that is still a mystery or an extreme  'other'. There surely must have been a time when the Eucharist invitation, " Eat my flesh and drink my blood"  was the shock of God asking the believer to be a cannibal and a vampire. And that baptism was understood as a threat to life like that of terroristic water boarding. But now these have been sterilized and reduced to only beautiful non threatening  social event. Are they able to still be remembered as an encounter with God or simply social graces?  The 'god' image in this active imagination shows a god that you wonder if you will survive.  I'll not likely forget this 'eye and  deep breathing'. I may even remember some of what it said.  I'm not at all suggesting  this particular strange image of god  might forecast a  newly evolving , and so  much needed,  'new' collective image of the Sacred. But it seems to be saying that such an image will not be 'easy' or 'comfortable' or 'predictable' as it makes itself conscious to  humans. Once these darker  qualities of a god image are no  longer felt present one can likely begin to suspect that such a god is near death psychologically. This in itself  can produce a 'horror'  of fear in the hearts of previous 'believers'. For it  means humans are being invited to confront the true 'other' as well as what depth psychology would describe  as  a most living and central and transformative collective archetype. One seeking to become conscious in post modern human beings.

As a newly evolving image of God becomes collectively conscious we should expect some kind of continuity with any major God(s) of the recent past. In this active imagination it is significant to me that 'Human/Sacred love' is  the preservative of the planet and humanity is stated as one of the four values related to the newly forming god image. This can be seen as a carry over from the central tenet of the Christ story(and also consistent with other major world religions). And the symbol of the 'Adam and Eve' myth is retained from Judaism as well as the male/female union symbolism present in all of the ancient religions including Christianity and even Alchemy. The image also shows the clear feminine aspect of the newly evolving deity.

I notice how the dream  gently supports me with common assurances before presenting the, at first very troubling, figure of the cyclops androgynous god figure. It took me first to an  'Ozzie and Harriet'  type American setting. That was the typical American dream of white Americans in the fifties following the horror of two World Wars.  How shocking and challenging  the contrast in those values, though there is some good there, compared to the all  inclusive cosmic values  the god figure describes.

SERMON: "THIS SON OF YOURS" Luke 15: 1-5, 11b-32 February 27, 2016

From an unquestioned fundamentalist Christian environment I was pretty much handed a Bible and told, 'Read this and you will know what God is like.' Then about forty years later , supposedly as a preacher of the Bible, I realized that the Bible shows many different images for God, not one. And most troubling they are indeed often contradictory. But much Christian teaching still tells folks that God in the Bible, which  often ordered the murder of innocents and genocide,  is the same as the one seen in Jesus' depiction of God here as an emotionally moved compassionate father. Luke pictures a father God extravagantly and unconditionally embracing his wayward son asking no questions. I could not continue to hold such a split notion of God in my head. I think this remains a problem for many today.

The author of the gospel of Luke attempts to describe what he had come to believe was the idea of God which Jesus carried in his mind and heart. As ones encouraged by what we see as the nature and character of Jesus, we can responsibly choose the nature of the ultimate God to include what is described here. We might be convinced that such a view of God just might help keep humans from destroying themselves and the planet in this post modern impersonal age, whereas other images of god only lead us toward destruction. This very reading helps me in sorting out  the nature and the will of what humans have immemorially  referred to as God.

Luke begins here presenting Jesus as someone who became focused on the suffering plight of the most powerless and marginalized and morally discredited people in the country villages where he traveled as a poor teaching rabbi. He recognized these people were being horribly treated and despised by both their religious leaders and the Roman civil authorities. The poor were unable to establish a livelihood for their families. Life was unlivable. Luke simply says such persons were naturally drawn to Jesus and came to him for his words of encouragement. Luke implies that the religious leaders were annoyed at Jesus and saw him as a threat to their power over these ordinary folks. Luke says they grumbled accusingly to each other, “ This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Luke describes Jesus giving two quick metaphors about the nature of God: God's nature is like that of a shepherd who risks leaving the whole flock in order to find and bring back the one sheep that got lost. And God's nature is also like a woman who lost one of ten valuable coins and eagerly went to work sweeping the floor until she finds the one coin that was lost. I've noticed , as one prone to losing things, that nearly always 'endurance' is the key to finding anything lost. First my mother then my wife were always willing to help find my keys, billfold etc I had lost but for more than ten years I've been on my own. I'm now very aware that if I did not do the careful work of searching for such lost items then they are never found. So I hear Luke telling me something about how intent the ultimate nature of God is about finding a way to recover his creatures and whole creation when they get lost or disconnected.

Finally in more detail, as if to emphasize it, Luke speaks of a wealthy Father's two sons. The more adventuresome one , somewhat unappreciatively, asked for his full inheritance and headed out to see what he could make of life. Like many a person he pretty much made a mess of it. But he had in his youth at least noticed that his father likely had his best interest at heart. So with life wrenching humiliation Luke describes him returning home to beg a job from his father. But he never even got to make his apology or do any begging. To his amazement his father asked no questions, but instead ran out to meet his ragged child, embraced him and invited the whole extended family and workers to join him in a great party explaining that ' this son  got lost from me but is now found.' And so they began to celebrate.

Ironically Luke's theme does not focus on the young brother's story of 'getting lost' through his misguided, but maybe necessary, path of finding out for himself what in life is most valuable to him. But the emphasis here is on the seemingly irrationally extravagant acceptance by the Father of his son, without any need of apology or questions of where he had been or what he had done. No doubt most were expecting the father to drill his son and demand apology etc. But this at odds with Luke's description. The father was simply carried away with the fact that his son safe and home. He experienced an emotional high that demanded expression. That was all this Father needed in relationship with his sons. The younger son's process of development seems to be presented as a rather natural course of a human life finding itself. Life simply is not a perfect path by any means but one of much trial and error, success and failure.

An equally central concern of the whole teaching here is to examine the destructive disposition that frequently overtakes a human life and leaves it in an animal like state of complete self seeking. I'm speaking of that 'grumbling' elitist disposition of the leaders at the top of Luke's presentation. For he now returns to it. (Does anyone remember this 'grumbling state of mind' as displayed in Mr. Bluster on the Howdy Doody show? Well that is just another version of what Luke is addressing.)Only this time it is sadly occurring in the older brother. The attuned father listens when the older son takes him aside and demandingly asks, “What is all this making over 'this son of yours'.” The older brother is unable to really see his own returned brother but only now sees him as this despicable 'son of his father.' He then lets the resentment pour out. “ I've always been a good boy, never breaking the rules, always doing exactly the right thing but 'this son of yours' totally screws up , embarrasses you ; yet for him you throw this big party. We never do that here. Maybe I should not even try to be so good?” Luke has the father try to explain that his love for both sons is of equal quality but when either one has become dangerously forever lost , Well, “ We just have to celebrate his return. Please join us”, the father asks. Note the father makes no apology to the older son but makes clear that all are invited to celebrate. That is how it ends. This beautiful teaching about God and humans. This grumbling disposition is a life destroying trap that humans in all places and circumstances remain most vulnerable to.

Luke leaves his readers to reflect on this. To come up not only with how the story might continue but also to explore the implications of what his teaching about the nature of God and humans are in their personal lives. So I will not insult you reflecting intelligence by offering my take on what this story can mean today, no doubt many things. I do find myself contemplating these images frequently. You can use Luke's teaching to contemplate your own present life situation, with its complications of family, friends, work , play and even perceived enemies. Or how it might apply regarding your attitude to various misjudged, maligned and marginalized persons and groups in our communities , nation and world. And as you bring your own complicated life into contact with these images of an ultimate nature of God, Luke's images can still have a profound and living impact on how you sort things out. Perhaps we can consider we each have these elements within our most inner life. We are at times the younger son with all his youthful exuberance that always comes crashing down. We may also be at times the extravagantly compassionate father capable of embracing all that life brings, both joys and sadness, without making exacting demands on others and life. And perhaps still alive in us is that older grumbling brother, unable to open up to the explainable nature of how life happens and thus at times unable to either weep or laugh, but only to judge and grumble. We are not likely just one of these but all of them in the complicated packages we refer to as 'you, me and us.'