Christian Imperfection - The Abuse of Power

"The spirituality of imperfection is, quite simply, the Gospel. However, in the fourth century, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. From that time on, the spirituality of imperfection--Jesus' liberating message--became a subtext, a minority position. Once you align with imperial thinking, spirituality quickly transmutes in many forms into a spirituality of supposed perfection--achievement, accomplishment, performance, attainment, and willpower--because that is how empires are built and maintained.

As the Church became aligned with power, many went off to the deserts in Syria and Egypt, seeking a lifestyle congruent with Jesus' teachings. But mainline Christianity has by and large continued the pattern of protecting and preserving itself through power. Without even realizing it, we have foundationally compromised the core good news. It has, in fact, become bad news because no one can honestly succeed all the time."

(Richard Rohr)

Too Nice Christian

“You taught me to be nice, so nice that now I am so full of niceness, I have no sense of right and wrong, no outrage, no passion.”

~ Garrison Keillor

Is Everything Important

"Let me ask you something. Is what I do back home important? Does it matter? I really don’t do much other than working and caring for my family and friends . . . “ Sarayu interrupted him. “Mack, if anything matters then everything matters."

(The Shack. William P. Young)

Is Everything Important

"Let me ask you something. Is what I do back home important? Does it matter? I really don’t do much other than working and caring for my family and friends . . . “ Sarayu interrupted him. “Mack, if anything matters then everything matters."

(The Shack. William P. Young)

Half Alive in America

"I didn't want to go back to the United States where for most of my life, it now seemed apparent, I had been only half-alive."

(Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey On Two Rivers)

I Can Go Home - Most Can't

"Now, after three years in the Peace Corps, my father's letter had illuminated my real position and Ecuador; I was engaged in the ultimate bourgeois gesture.  I had come to live for a time in a poor village....

When things got too rough: if I got sick or the food became unbearable or if the town for some reason or another should you erupt into drunken violence or if, even, the ambient of the town became too boring, I could simply jump in a canoe for Esmeraldas and catch a bus to Quito. I was the only one in town who could solve his problems by simply going to Quito."

(Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey On Two Rivers)

Actors

"... in some degree we are all actors and are playing the part that we feel best expresses our essence...."

(Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey On Two Rivers)

Eating As A Poor Man

"I was eating pretty much like a poor man eats, or trying to - forced to - and it had begun to affect my emotional stability."

( Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey On Two Rivers)

Jesus Was Never Upset With Sinners

"That is why Jesus criticizes hypocrisy more than anything else. Jesus is never upset with sinners, but only with people who pretend they are not sinners. Check this out for yourself. This is surprising and even shocking! Why is it that this clear pattern is seldom pointed out in sermons? It might have to do with the fact that low-level religion can't see its own shadow and projects it elsewhere. Thus the high degree of morally judgmental people among most religious groups, which allows them to remain untouched in their self-sufficiency, militarism, and materialism.

This is the classic example of dealing with the symptom instead of the cause. We cannot really get rid of the shadow; we can only expose its game--which is, in great part, to get rid of its effects."

Richard Rohr

Prostitutes and Drunkards Will Go In Before Religious Elders.

"This is why Jesus says that prostitutes, drunkards, and tax collectors are getting into the kingdom of God before the chief priests and religious elders (see Matthew 21:31). This is supposed to blow your socks off.

Our success-driven culture scorns all failure, powerlessness, and any form of poverty. Yet Jesus begins his Sermon on the Mount by praising "the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3)! Just that should tell us how thoroughly we have missed the point of the Gospel."

( Richard Rohr )

My Prayers Challenge the Institutions, The Church and The World.

Most religion is highly "legitimating religion." It is used for social control and public order both by the powers that be and by people who want to be in control. This limited use of religion has allowed much of Christian history to participate in a toxic and unjust environment--just as long as we have "a personal relationship with Jesus." .....

If Jesus is indeed "the Savior of the world" (John 4:42), we must not, we cannot, continue to think of salvation as merely a private matter. We are wasting our time trying to convert individuals without also challenging corporate sin and institutionalized evil.
Otherwise, we send momentarily changed people back into the world; now they think they are godly, but they are the opposite of godly, and the disguise is perfect....

Politicians normally prefer an unaware and superficial populace....

If we think we can say our private prayers and still genuflect before the self-perpetuating, unjust systems of this world, our conversion will not go very deep or last very long. There is no one more radical than a real person of prayer because they are not beholden to any ideology or economic system; their identity and motivation is found only in God, not in the pay-offs of "mammon." Both church and state are threatened by true mystics. Such enlightened people can't be bought off or manipulated, because their rewards are always elsewhere.

(Richard Rohr. Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer)

The New Testament Speaks Little About Leadership

"The most striking thing about the New Testament stance on church authority and leadership is how little it says about such issues. This is the opposite of what one would expect from the Bible, given that issues of authority and leadership dominate so many churches."

- Christian Smith

Preparing a People

“I have called you, not merely to prepare sermons, but to prepare people. There is a difference between preparing a message about God and preparing a people for God.” ~ Francis Frangipane

Big Boss Leadership.

It is my opinion—I believe it is more than an opinion, it is insight—that evangelical Christianity as we know it is almost as far from God as liberalism. Its nominal creed is biblical, but its orientation is worldly. The modern evangelicals, the Holiness people, the Pentecostal people, the Bible loving people—we who claim to be evangelical and traditional in our Christian faith—have an orientation toward the big businessman. You know, Jesus never got along with any of the businessmen in His day. But we use them as our model.

— A. W. Tozer … "Reclaiming Christianity"

I Sleep In Heaven.

" I go to sleep in a desert and wake up a few seconds later just as it is getting dark in another country that looks as though I have died and gone to heaven. In the blink of an eye hell has been replaced with paradise."

(Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey On Two Rivers)

Tears Clense The Soul

"At such moments, unexpected tears may appear -tears neither of happiness nor sadness. Do not be surprised at that. It is a gift. The tears are cleansing your soul. The master says: “If you must cry, cry like a child. You were once a child, and one of the first things you learned in life was to cry, because crying is a part of life. Never forget that you are free, and that to show your emotions is not shameful. Scream, sob loudly, make as much noise as you like. Because that is how children cry, and they know the fastest way to put their hearts at ease. “Have you ever noticed how children stop crying? They stop because something distracts them. Something calls them to the next adventure. Children stop crying very quickly. And that's how it will be for you. But only if you can cry as children do.”

( Paulo Coelho. Maktub)

Jesus, Leave Us Alone.

“My Jesus, we no longer have need of thee. We are now capable of making the aggressor pay for his offenses. We are now able to take vengeance into our own hands, and to deal with Good and Evil. Therefore, You can leave us on our own, and their will be no problem.”

~ Brother Sisois

(Maktub.  Paulo Coelho)

One afternoon at the monastery at Sceta, one of the monks offended another. The superior of the monastery, Brother Sisois, asked that the offended monk forgive his aggressor. “I cannot do that,” responded the monk. “It was he that did this, and it he who must pay.” At that very moment, Brother Sisois raised his arms to heaven and began to pray: “My Jesus, we no longer have need of thee. We are now capable of making the aggressor pay for his offenses. We are now able to take vengeance into our own hands, and to deal with Good and Evil. Therefore, You can leave us on our own, and their will be no problem.” Ashamed, the monk immediately pardoned his brother."

~ Brother Sisois

(Maktub.  Paulo Coelho)

Not The Same Me.

"The biggest challenge was reintroducing myself to my family and friends.  I was not the same person as when I left, not by a long shot, but I was treated the same. "

(Returning Peace Corps Volunteer)

I Wish I Saw The Angels

"She called me to her bedside just before I left and she pointed at the cumulus clouds that passed by on the bright summer’s day: “Look! Do you see the angels coming?” she asked me. I wish now I had said yes."

(Sophie. Swiss Lady in Djenne, Mali)

Are Your Wives Bored With You?

"The couple of days that he stayed with us were punctuated with amusing and interesting conversations: one I remember was about his four wives, or rather about polygamy. ‘Well’, said Malick (A Professional Malian Photographer) with just a hint of mischief in his eye ‘ Wouldn’t it be just a little boring to wake up next to the same woman your whole life?’ I agreed that it might be so but I asked him if he didn’t think that his wives might feel the same about always waking up next to him? This he thought was extremely funny..."

http://djennedjenno.blogspot.ca/2016/04/memories-of-malik.html

We Cant Always Find The Story We Wish To FInd.

The idea of the film director Lutz Gregor was that Kettly was the voice of the film: she was supposed to find out about these Malian manuscripts. To this end they had her visit the Marabout Alpha Issa Kanta in his home which is also a Koran school. He is the most important manuscript owner in Djenné who has given many hundreds of manuscripts into the safekeeping of the Djenné Manuscript Library. She was seen asking him to give her some manuscripts to read in order to understand the scope of the manuscripts.

Now, this is where it became slightly tricky. I had been asked to find out through Saadou, our new manuscript specialist at the library, if we had any texts to do with the equality of the sexes; anything to do with tolerance between religions or anything that would present  Islam in a favourable light in the opinion of the German television audience. The problem is that there are very few such texts in the Malian manuscripts. We have hardly any and  the case is the same with the manuscripts of Timbuktu, although UNESCO and various other bodies have wanted to present the Malian manuscripts as some sort of font of enlightenment that suits our Western sensibilities. There are plenty of fascinating things to find out from the manuscripts, but if one has already decided what one is supposed to find, it is not always possible...

http://djennedjenno.blogspot.ca/2016/03/the-sorceress-of-timbuktu.html

Spare A Thought For His Back Breaking Work

The Salt of the Earth:

Let's drink to the hard working people

Let's drink to the lowly of birth

Raise your glass to the good and the evil

Let's drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier

Spare a thought for his back breaking work

Say a prayer for his wife and his children

Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

(Beggars Banquet. Song by Keith Richards)

New Testament Preaching Is Not Modern Sermonising

It might help us in our thinking if we drew a distinction between preaching, which the New Testament talks about as a continuing activity in society at large, and sermonising, which we have made into a special activity in the church premises...
  
A great many people sermonising in our churches today would be better off and of greater service if they absolved themselves from the bondage and disciplines of the pulpit and came down among their congregations, teaching informally on sounder educational principles. After all, the vital matter in the ministry of the Word is not that a clergyman delivers himself of a discourse but that the people to whom he ministers end up being taught something.
  
The tragedy is that the professional clergy have been trained to sermonise and they seem overwhelmed with fears and a sense of insecurity when they contemplate other methods.
  
A further problem, of course, is that most of our churches contain a significant number of people who become emotionally disturbed at any departure from what they have always done in the past. To them, the sermon is part of their Christianity--even if it bores them stiff!
  
... Gavin Reid (b. 1934), The Gagging of God

Tears Are The Best Words The Heart Speaks

“Don’t ever discount the wonder of your tears. They can be healing waters and a stream of joy. Sometimes they are the best words the heart can speak.”

~ papa

(The Shack. William P. Young)

All Of God With Each Person

"An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others. "

—A. W. Tozer

Song and Show Christianity

"As long as we have a Christianity that is a song and show from the front.... as long as we have that kind of Christianity people will give a song and show back."

A.J. Swoboda.

Rules Are A Lack Of Trust And Control.

"Sarayu continued, “those who are afraid of freedom are those who cannot trust us to live in them. Trying to keep the law is actually a declaration of independence, a way of keeping control.”“Is that why we like the law so much—to give us some control?”asked Mack. “It is much worse than that,”resumed Sarayu. “It grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge."

( The Shack. William P. Young)

Right Answers Wrong Religion.

“Mackenzie, religion is about having the right answers, and some of their answers are right. But I am about the process that takes you to the living answer and once you get to him, he will change you from the inside. There are a lot of smart people who are able to say a lot of right things from their brain because they have been told what the right answers are, but they don’t know me at all. So really, how can their answers be right even if they are right, if you understand my drift?”

( The Shack. William P. Young)

You've Turned Me.....

"Dipping his hand in the water, he played, watching the patterns his movements made. “I’m realizing how few answers I have . . . to anything. You know, you’ve turned me upside down or inside out or something.”

(Mackenzie speaking - The Shack. William P. Young)

You've Turned Me.....

"Dipping his hand in the water, he played, watching the patterns his movements made. “I’m realizing how few answers I have . . . to anything. You know, you’ve turned me upside down or inside out or something.”

(Mackenzie speaking - The Shack. William P. Young)

I Trust Good Hearted Christians More Than Institutions

"I trust good-hearted people listening to Jesus more than I trust any hierarchy whose perspective is so easily skewed by the needs of their institution or the realities that let them hold on to power. The historic heresies have not arisen from simple people following Jesus, but from someone trying to gain a large following."

- Wayne Jacobsen

You Feel Different......

"Transformation begins with a new experience of a new Absolute, and, as a result, your social positioning gradually changes on almost all levels. Little by little you will allow your politics, economics, classism, sexism, racism, homophobia and all superiority games to lose their one-time rationale. You just "think" and "feel" differently about most things."
~ Richard Rohr

Why You Really Do Suck At Being a Christian- Even When You Don't Realize It.

Jesus' Teachings for the Second Half of Life Friday, June 24, 2016

Most of Jesus' teachings are completely incomprehensible from a first-half-of-life perspective. Just read a few, and you will get the point.   "Leave all things and follow me" You have to have it before you can give it away. You have to know yourself before you can move beyond yourself. Most people therefore just glaze over when they hear such impossible idealism.   "Take up your cross" By and large, young people are not yet ready to understand "the cross." It becomes a piece of jewelry instead of a real agenda for life. People in the first half of life are about growing up, not growing down. Most people are not psychologically capable of truly grasping the full need and importance of letting go until their fifties or sixties, and many not even then.   Messages about letting go, surrendering or giving up of control, repentance or metanoia (turning around) In the first half of life, you can't let go or turn around. You're rightly focused on creating a name for yourself, finding a spouse and job, accumulating money and possessions. But you must eventually let go so you can fall into your True Self that was always there, but that you were just not ready to meet.   "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." The first half of life uses the dualistic language of good guys and bad guys. The illusion is that some are all good and some are all bad, and the delusion is that we've got to kill all the bad ones. The first half of life is where we're taught to separate from evil (see Leviticus 16-25). Paul says "Jesus became sin" (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus became the problem; he became the broken, imperfect one. He entered into solidarity with the sin of the world rather than stand above or apart from it. Jesus absorbed evil. He didn't think for a moment he could kill it. He let it wreak its havoc on his body to transform it there, rather than perpetuate violence on others.   "Forgive those who've trespassed against you" I don't think you can do any such thing by mere willpower, by first-half-of-life morality. Your little self can't will the hurt away and truly forgive an offender. You have to move to the larger place of Spirit. Not willfulness but willingness, where another will, another grace, another Spirit does it through you, with you, in you, and as you. And then you find yourself forgiving largely in spite of yourself.   Teachings about not seeking power, prestige, or status symbols You have to have those to get started. I'm not surprised that a well-dressed, thirty-year-old man wants his titles and diplomas on the wall. I surely still carry some status symbols, but it doesn't mean much now. If you're my age and you still need external symbols of prestige to tell yourself and others that you're important, you are not far on the spiritual journey. Once you've met the Holy One who calls you beloved daughter or beloved son, you know you're foundationally chosen, special, and beloved, and you don't need outer symbols to prove it.   Do not seek or collect possessions or wealth The church historically hasn't been a good example of this. I don't know why we picked and chose among Jesus' teachings. But I think it reflects first-half-of-life morality. The church just wasn't ready to follow Jesus all the way with his second-half-of-life wisdom. Frankly, we needed things external to the soul because we had not yet found our soul.

Richard Rohr

Longing For The Open Sea

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I Am With You

“Have you been with me the entire time?” inquired Mack, a little ramped from the adrenaline rush.
“Of course. I am always with you.” (Sarayu)

“Then how come I didn’t know it?” asked Mack. “Lately I’ve been able to tell when you’re around.”“For you to know or not,” she explained, “has nothing at all to do with whether I am actually here or not. I am always with you; sometimes I want you to be aware in a special way..... "

(The Shack. William P. Young)

Emotions....l

“Emotions are the colors of the soul; they are spectacular and incredible. When you don’t feel, the world becomes dull and colorless. Just think how The Great Sadness reduced the range of color in your life down to monotones and flat grays and blacks.” ~ Sarayu

(William P. Young. The Shack)

Don't Devote Your Entire Life To It.

"Thus, the first part of the spiritual journey is about externals, formulas, superficial emotions, flags and badges, correct rituals, Bible quotes, and special clothing, all of which largely substitute for an actual spiritual journey (see Matthew 23:13-32). Yet they are all used and needed to create the container. Yes, it is largely style and sentiment instead of real substance, but even that is probably necessary. Just don't devote your entire life to it."

(Richard Rohr)

Shadowlands

"Human life only develops in the shadowlands" 

~ Richard Rohr

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Never Been Down It.

"We stopped at this gas station somewhere down in Nebraska there, and, a, there was this guy, this old guy, sittin on the porch of this house.

We said, 'How far is the next gas station down the road here?'

He said, 'This road goes all the way to California.' He said that. 'But I've never been down it.'

I remember that, things like that, 'never been down it.'"

(Tom Fugal. 22 days under the sky)

You Have Never Had Enough Christianity?

"In the modern world we are primarily confronted with the extraordinary spectacle of people turning to new ideals because they have not tried the old. Men have not got tired of Christianity; they have never found enough Christianity to get tired of."
  
... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), What's Wrong with
     the World

Leave People Alone....

"I was as safe as anybody in the lowlands, lying like a squirrel in a warm, fluffy nest, busied about my own affairs and wishing only to be let alone."

( John Muir. Steep Trails)

Survival Lies

“Honey, you’re a survivor. No shame in that. Your daddy hurt you something fierce. Life hurt you. Lies are one of the easiest places for survivors to run. It gives you a sense of safety, a place where you only have to depend on yourself. But it’s a dark place, isn’t it?”
“So dark,”Mack muttered with a shake of his head."
(William P. Young. The Shack)

Good Cop Bad Cop - God and Jesus

"He came to show people who I am and most folks only believe it about him. They still play us off like good cop/bad cop most of the time, especially the religious folk. When they want people to do what they think is right, they need a stern God. When they need forgiveness, they run to Jesus.”
(William P. Young. The Shack. God to Mack)

In The Church Institution... But Not Of It

“Mack, the world system is what it is. Institutions, systems, ideologies, and all the vain, futile efforts of humanity that go with them are everywhere, and interaction with all of it is unavoidable. But I can give you freedom to overcome any system of power in which you find yourself, be it religious, economic, social, or political. You will grow in the freedom to be inside or outside all kinds of systems and to move freely between and among them. Together, you and I can be in it and not of it.”

( William P. Young. The Shack)

Institutions Can't Create Security

"People are afraid of uncertainty, afraid of the future. These institutions, these structures and ideologies, are all a vain effort to create some sense of certainty and security where there isn’t any. It’s all false! Systems cannot provide you security, only I can.”

(William P. Young. The Shack. Jesus to Mack )

I Don't Create Institutions

“I really do want to understand. I mean, I find the way you are so different from all the well-intentioned religious stuff I’m familiar with.”“As well-intentioned as it might be, you know that religious machinery can chew up people!” Jesus said with a bite of his own. “An awful lot of what is done in my name has nothing to do with me and is often, even if unintentional, very contrary to my purposes.”“You’re not too fond of religion and institutions?” Mack said, not sure if he was asking a question or making an observation. “I don’t create institutions—never have, never will.”

( William P. Young. The Shack J. Conversation with Mack)

Cracks Make Us Ready For Seed

"Like little cracks in the wall, one at a time, but woven together they prepared you for today. You have to take the time to prepare the soil if you want it to embrace the seed.”

( William P. Young. The Shack. Jesus to Mack)

Profoundly Simple

“.... with her, everything is normal and elegantly simple. Because you are so lost and independent you bring to her many complications, and as a result you find even her simplicity profound.”

(The Shack. William P. Young)

Cracks To Put Your Love In?

“You don't need another human being
to make your life complete, but let's be
honest. Having your wounds kissed by
someone who doesn't see them as
disasters in your soul, but cracks to
put their love into, is the most calming
thing in this world."

— Emery Allen (via perrfectly)

Poverty - True Poverty

"Living Poor is like being sentenced to exist in a stormy sea in a battered canoe, requiring all your strength simply to keep afloat; there is never any question of reaching a destination. True poverty is a state of perpetual crisis, and one wave just a little bigger or coming from an unexpected direction can and usually does wreck things."

( Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure : A Journey On Two Rivers)