Just Thinking again

"Let not your hearts be troubled. In my Father's house there are many mansions..."

All the sermons on this text that I have heard have been in the context of the afterlife: each individual being accepted into the "heavenly lodge", as the Scots would say.

I have been perusing a wide variety of religious blogs, by definition dealing with a particular "ISM", and how one "ISM" is truer than another, and in the Catholic`s case,one time period (similar to Picasso's rose or blue periods?) the truer way and the the truth and the life.

Can't the scripture passage be addressed to those of us who get all wound up in knots over which path leads to you-know-where? Don't trouble yourself. In my father's house there are many churches and religions---though probably not alot of theologians!(As the old joke goes, just don't disturb the Catholics; they think they're the only ones up there.)

Addendum: At a funeral recently, the preacher said that when "Do not let your hearts be troubled" is translated from the Spanish it comes out, "Do not lose peace."

Lord
it is night.

The night is for stillness.
Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.
What has been done has been done;
what has not been done has not been done;
let it be.

The night is dark.
Let our fears of the darkness of the world
and of our own lives rest in you.
The night is quiet.
Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,
all dear to us,
and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.

Let us look expectantly to a new day,
new joys,
new possibilities.

In your Holy name we pray.
Amen.

[courtesy of The Rev. Devin McLachlan]

cummings

dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you
(trees are their roots
and wind is wind)

trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)

honour the past
and welcome the future
(and dance your death
away at this wedding)

never mind a world
with its villains or heroes
(for god likes girls
and tomorrow and the earth)

The Crosses of Melanie Twelves

"Come Unto Me"

"Willingness of God"

"The Dance of Salvation"

"Christmas Cross"

"Mission Cross"

"Rainbow Resurrection Cross"

Artist Statement Concerning Crosses
"The symbol of the Cross of Christ represents to me the point of both conversion and regeneration. Conversion to Christ through the perfect gift of His sacrificial Love and regeneration and rebirth as we take up our own cross by accepting that we are sinners. This acceptance empties us to receive forgiveness. When we know we are forgiven, we ourselves can forgive and in our willingness to forgive we give Love. In giving Love we are reborn.

All the images and titles on the crosses are gifts to me from God. He continually reminds me how to Love through the designs. I am blessed beyond knowing or understanding."



For more crosses and information on the artist, please click here and visit her beautiful site. (Maybe buy a cross for me, huh?)

After looking at all the portraits and icons and representations of "GOD" that all the different cultures and religions have put up to aid in understanding and worship, reading all the tales, fables, proverbs and scriptures attempting to read the creator's mind and convey that message to others, unless you are completely sold on one viewpoint (which I suppose is still possible, even with our expanding consciousness) you reach a point of choice: you can reject them all, intellectual smugness intact, or you can embrace them all and then some. You can say:"All this only begins to give meaning to my being alive and my consciousness of it." My image of the creator is a kind of omnipotent and omni-PRESENT chameleon. God can be all of these things, none of them, or something else entirely. God can be anything but limited. Put the creator in a temple, mosque, church, cave, or a nicely bound book, and that spirit will find a way out. This is why Buddhist tend to dismiss any discussion of a God or an afterlife as "not-edifying."



But this does not mean I have no spiritual life. Indeed, I think I have a closer, richer, and yes, even more personal involvement, the more I let go, and LET GOD DEFINE GOD in each moment. I can pick up a rosary, read the Qur'an, meditate and chant,-----all these can be fruitful paths. But the goal is not a definition of God but an understanding of this life, why I have been given the gift of awareness of this existence, and what am I to do with that gift.



In the process, I can look at God's creation and my movement through it without the trepidation and fear that organizers of "isms" would foist on followers


and instead
truly rejoice that I'm a part of something that, even though I don't understand it completely, moves me with meaning and divine love.

Peace

Be Still

Know

I AM HERE.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift
and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant
and has forgotten the gift.
(Albert Einstein)



Alas! The world is full of enormous lights and mysteries,
and man shuts them from himself with one small hand.
(The Baal Shem Tov)




I saw my Lord with the eye of the heart.
I said: "Who are you?"
He answered: "You."
(Mansur Al-Hallaj)

Where the Mind is Without Fear by Rabindanath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

"A River Runs Through It"--Epilogue: "I am Haunted by Waters"

A wonderful movie, and an exquisite novella by Norman McClaren (that's him fishing) who, after retiring from a career of teaching others creative writing, decided to take a crack at it himself.

"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
(Howard Thurman)

INSTRUCTIONS by Sheri Hostetler, from the anthology A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry

Give up the world; give up self; finally, give up God.
Find god in rhododendrons and rocks,
passers-by, your cat.
Pare your beliefs, your absolutes.
Make it simple; make it clean.
No carry-on luggage allowed.

Examine all you have
with a loving and critical eye, then
throw away some more.
Repeat. Repeat.
Keep this and only this:
what your heart beats loudly for
what feels heavy and full in your gut.

There will only be one or two
things you will keep,
and they will fit lightly
in your pocket.