Nicolas Berdyaev and More

I find myself fascinated by the thoughts of Nikolai Berdiaev (Russian spelling) in his book, "Freedom & the Spirit." It is an odd book, for the pages look blotty and copied rather than newly set. It is a bit challenging, but worth it. Nikolai lived from 1874 until 1948 - quite a span of history and its major changes from the end of our Civil War, to the 1917 revolution in Russia, to two world wars and the insanity of the warmongers to the drop of the first atomic bombs on people, etc. It was a vastly different world at the end of his life, scarcely recognizable from the one of 1874 I would say.

Here are a few excerpts (I'm sure more will come later as I'm only on page 52 of 369 pages):

Victory can indeed be won over the past, and Christianity teaches us that it can be redeemed and forgiven. Rebirth into a new life is possible, but into every new and transfigured life there will return those former experiences which cannot disappear into oblivion without leaving traces behind them. A period of suffering can overcome, joy and happiness can be born anew, but into every fresh joy and happiness there will enter again, in some mysterious way, that suffering which as already been endured. Joy and happiness will henceforth be different.... Suffering disappears, but the fact of having suffered is always with us.

He shares that the struggle to awaken to God, going through the darkness, makes a person different and more open to Spirit than those who never questioned and did not go upon the quest. Those who stay only with the rituals and traditions are not free, and finding Spirit/God is Freedom. Since Spirit is not static, frozen teachings are not about God but about control of people. He seems to think that for Christianity to survive it needs to let go of the political controls, superstitions, pagan elements, and go to Spirituality much as it did in the very beginning. He said:

Spirit is life, experience, destiny. A purely rational metaphysic of spirit is impossible Life is only disclosed in experience... Spiritual life is the most real kind of life.

I bring to mind the how of it all. I have known for a very long time that we the people of earth are in need of genuine spiritual awakening. All we need to do is look around to see the sorrowful life of so many of us. The how has not come to me. Let us all contemplate and seek how to seed spiritual awakening for ourselves and for all the people of earth.

Lord God, Spirit of all, open our hearts and minds and lives to You and to ways to seed an actual spiritual awakening on earth. I know there is a way or You would not have given me this idea. Show us the way.

Well-- is it a good thing or not?

It surely has been a maybe good, maybe not week. I lost a crown, a bad thing. There was decay under it, so actually it was a good thing. The dentist has a fancy digital camera and a milling machine that made a custom perfect cap for my tooth in less than half and hour, a good thing, an amazing new science thing. My tooth still hurts, a bad thing. Ibuprofen takes away the pain, a good thing.

Then there's Gilbert. He awakened me Thursday night bleeding from intestines. A bad thing. We went to the hospital, which is rated highly, a good thing. They did tests and admitted him. His blood count went down to 8 (should be 13.5-17.5), a bad thing. He kept on bleeding, a bad thing. They gave him meds to prep for a colonoscopy, eww awful stuff, it stopped the bleeding though, good thing! He had the scopings and found the problem, a good thing. His blood went up to 10.2, enough to release him from the hospital, and he's back now, a good thing. What a prayerful time the past 5 days have been, a good thing. So many wonderful people prayed.

We'v e had some strange, often bizarre challenges for a bit over 4 years. So much of our lives seemed to be our own personal ice age. We finally we were able and made an offer on a house that was new and lovely, a good thing. The deluge came in January and it had major water and mud problems - at first glance a bad thing. At second glance, it saved us from buying a problem house, a good thing. So we started looking again.

Two weeks ago we went to an open house after church. It was our dream house. The owners were no longer in this country and wanted to sell it with the contents, beautiful contents --- much of which fit well with our things that have now been in storage over 4 years. It was a miracle thing, Today we made an offer on it - hopefully they will accept and we will move in - a very, very. very good thing.

And today is the birthday of my beautiful, kind, and loving daughter - a good thing through and through.

Things that look bad, may turn out to be good - often depending on our responses. Life can be confusing for sure. I think though that if we can focus on the idea that all will turn out if we listen to our intuition and get the help we need. In the end, it can be good.

I know that we have Invisible Means of Support. As Julian of Norwich once said - all will be well. May it be well for us all and for this beautiful, gorgeous planet and all who live here.

Thinking about Paul

As you may recall, I've read a pile of books on Paul in the past year, and I'm reading 2 more right now. Why? It seems, according to theologians and historians, he may be the single most successful religious teacher in history! He crafted the birthing Jesus Movement, The Way, into Christianity that veered sharply from James and Peter - and his vision and version was THE one that won.

His was the only focus on the non-Jewish, non-God-fearer Gentiles.

In the beginning, The Way, was within the synagogue and spoken and later written in the order of the Jewish liturgical calendar. James stayed in Jerusalem and, as the brother of Jesus and because of his reputation for being righteous, he was the leader, the one that had to be spoken to in order to get his approval for most anything. He insisted that all men who wanted to be baptized had to have circumcision, keep kosher and formally become part of Israel. Peter went out to the diaspora, speaking to the Godfearers as well as the Jews. The Godfearers were Gentiles who preferred the ethics and teachings of Judaism over the Roman gods.

But Paul also spoke to those people who were pagan Gentiles, baptizing them and incorporating them into his various communities with no other requirements than they professed to follow Christ. He created huge problems because of this. He was beaten at least 3 times, stoned almost to death, imprisoned, and rushed out of more than one town.

There is such a mixed reaction to Paul. As I have mentioned, part of that is because only 7 of his letters incorporated into the New Testament/Second Covenant were his. At least 3 of the others are opposite of his teachings. (authentic = 1 Thessalonians written about 51, the earliest writing in the New Testament, Romans the last of his letters, I & II Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, and Philemon).

I feel compassion for this tormented man filled with such passion and dedication. I appreciate his original ideas such as: equality - neither Greek nor Jew, neither free nor slave, neither male nor female in Christ - all part of the body of Christ; the sharing so that if one had food, all had food; the coming of each to know God internally by following Jesus' kenosis/emptying; the recognition of The Kingdom here and now as all helped to usher it to the fore by their participation; etc.

His influence was primary for Augustine, Luther, Wesley and others. I urge us to look at Paul again with fresh eyes as we focus on his 7 authentic letters.

Paul etc

I've read a number of books on Paul in the past year and am currently reading a Bruce Chilton book on him. I am struck by how random it seems the currents were that shifted and moved into what became Christianity in its many forms and ways.

Paul was an extreme devotee of the Pharisaic ways, studying in Jerusalem to become a Pharisee for probably about 4 years. He was thoroughly a true believer. He was extremely one pointed, excluding all other possibilities. Then he had a vision and believed himself a new Moses who was to take the message of Christ to Gentile, non-Jews. This flew in the face of everyone involved in Judaism and The Way of Christ at the time, it was even abhorrent to them. They all had stayed within Judaism and stayed in the synagogues. Paul  had a strained relationship with James and Peter, and they sent him out of Jerusalem, as he was stirring up big controversy. He was in Nabatia for some time and made the ruler extremely angry. He wrote about his many internal conflicts and seemed to not consider himself a worthy being. He was beaten, chased, imprisoned, shunned and treated with utmost disrespect. It is thought that he was killed by Nero around 64 C.E.

Yet, in the end, Paul's view prevailed. It is said that Augustine was the most influential Christian theologian in the first thousand years of Christianity. Paul's words converted him. He based a lot of his theology on translations and mis-translations of Paul's authentic and non-authentic letters. Paul was simply writing to different groups in different cities, advising them on their situations. I'm sure he never thought his letters would become scriptures. I'm sure that after his death, his disciples never thought their letters written in his name would ever become scriptures either.

It was a messy, confusing, frightful time in the 1st century. A wide array of thought, of groups, of teachings whirled around. There was almost total illiteracy (estimated at least 95%).  There was extreme poverty. There was no science. There was a violent and brutal Rome in charge.

Emerging from this chaos, I think it is no wonder there are to this day so many ways to interpret what it means to be a Christian. I don't suppose there will ever be unity on this either. I do wish all those who endeavor to follow Christ would emphasize his teaching of Oneness, forgiveness, generosity, kindness, prayer and honoring the sacredness of all. Maybe the details are not so important. Maybe the big picture is actually bigger and more meaningful to our walk on earth.

Quo Vadis

This morning I finished reading "Quo Vadis." It was a fascinating semi-fictional/historical story set in the reign of Nero/the Beast, a truly crazy man. It explores the struggle between Nero and the birth of Christianity, including scenes with Peter and a few with Paul. It was a romance, a drama, a story of conversion and transformation, and it was crazy violence of Nero as he burned Rome and blamed the Christians. It was written in the late 1890's which made it more astounding to me that so long ago such a portrait of those times was possible.

But then my thoughts were drawn to other directions, expanded from the people of the first century portrayed in the book. I thought of all the billions of humans who have walked earth, their hopes and dreams and fears, their night sweats, their passions, their love and joy, their private moments -- all unknown to us except in very minor ways in a tiny group of those who wrote and whose writings survived.

In my life, so many moments gone by, most not even remembered  by me. Long gone fears have faded away. The angst of countless decisions mostly forgotten. Thousands of prayers evaporated into the unknown. Private joys, moments of this and that - seemingly gone.

I am led to wonder why we waste so much time agonizing over whatevers that will linger in no one's memory. Oh, the wasted time and energy put into meaningless things. We could fill those hours with love and joy and beauty, with creativity, with lifting and making a difference.

It seems to me that what stops us is ourselves. Are we addicted to minutia to the exclusion of the meaningful? History repeats itself over and over and over again. I must ask, it that necessary? Is it possible for humans to walk to a higher Light? I wonder.

Insert Spirituality

My current reading is Nikolai Berdyaev. I'm going to share some quotes to discuss:

The man whose life is not turned towards God cannot demand to be shown God or to have His reality demonstrated. The reality of God cannot be "inserted" or demonstrated from without.

Constraint and exterior limitations result from the rejection of life, as it were, from without, and the adoption of an "extrinsicist"  attitude toward the things of this world. For that is exactly what a thing is, namely, that which is outside ourselves and not within. Spirit, on the other hand, always remains in the inner depths, for it is itself depth, it is within, and its life can never owe its origin to the purely external, the superficial and the extrinsic, or it fact to anything which is lifeless and impenetrable. Depth is the symbol of spirit.

He discusses how religion got off track trying to make God a thing. The naturalist mindset has ruled other dimensions and ways out of consideration. One of the ways back, he says, and I agree, is to study those who actually found God, the mystics. While one cannot simply insert spirituality and the spiritual realm, we can consider the thoughts of those who did enter such a realm. They left a trail that can point us in the right direction.

God can be found in the depths. God is not found in idolatry of a book, a set of tenets, theology, rituals or any other external thing. God is found deep within and is experienced. That experience cannot accurately be communicated for it does not fit in words. Words can point, but are not It.

I'm playing with ideas around experiential evenings involving some combinations of lectio divina, journaling, meditations and guided meditations followed perhaps by some conversation rooted in these.

I feel deeply that we must have a spiritual awakening on this planet, for we are at a turning point which could be disastrous, but could be averted, if enough people wake up spiritually. We must move beyond the naive outer, external and perhaps pretend religious practices to deep and meaningful communion with Spirit.

Tragedy/Comedy

The "news" is rarely literal or actual. I have come to see it mostly as a play presented to us to keep us busy and often upset. I see it as a control and power thing. I see it as it was predicted in "1984" and "Brave New World."

Examples:

• Someone comes out of a meeting and says inflammatory things about what was said. Other people who were in the same meeting say they did not hear that. The press accuses those who say they did not hear the ugliness as being liars. The press goes into a frenzy over a possible comment but does not even notice the inflammatory speech of people on "their side."
• The President's doctor gives a detailed account of his physical and mental exam and answers questions for an hour. The press refuses to believe it and begins asking ridiculous questions and making up problems that don't exist - Are you keeping back some information? How can he be healthy and eat cheeseburgers? Are you sure he is mentally fit? Does he have addiction problems? Does he wear dentures? etc etc etc.
• We keep changing enemies - as in "stop think." We are to accept yesterday's enemies as friends and yesterday's friends as enemies. We are to try to improve relations with country X, but working on that makes one a traitor.
• We keep changing the most disastrous things - in the 60's global cooling, in the 90's global warming, in the new millennium climate change. Each time some subset of scientists are brought forth to "prove" the new disastrous situation. So when planetary experts say the climate shifts on earth fairly regularly with 120 years of cooling and 200+ of warming, they are not heard, as fact is not what counts. We people of earth must be kept off balance in order to control us and in order to keep those in power in power.

Well, I could go on for pages, but I just wanted to set the situation I want to discuss.

The majority of people seem to be quite naive and fairly easy to manipulate.

So while so many of us are kept busy being upset about what is "happening" or "not happening," or what is said to be "happening" or not "happening," we are not busy with our spiritual life. So instead of meditation, contemplation, spiritual study and conversation, there is a wave of drug addiction, alcoholism, violence, etc. -- or the opposite of spiritual awakening, People are often trapped in an illusion.

I ponder how we can get a wave of spiritual awakening going and extricate us from the imaginary comedy/tragedy presented to us not as a political play but as fact. The restless people trapped in the cycle of "news" really in the depth of their being want something more meaningful and real.

I think people actually yearn to know God. Therein lies my challenge, and hopefully yours, how can we move more people to not only know about God but to actually Know God? To Know God changes everything. How can we reignite the age-old understanding that all and everyone are sacred?  

Many ideas flow in mind. Let us pray together.

Oh, wondrous God, I know that I live all of my life in Your Presence, for You are always with me. I seek Your Guidance so that I may more fully Know You, and I ask for inspiration to find ways to bring a spiritual awakening to the people of earth. I listen....