Spirit Gives Birth To Spirit

Much has been written and sung about love.   From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to Johnny Cash and Bob Dillan.  To modern poets, writers and musicians. But what about Platonic love?  What about love of neighbor.  Well, pretty much the entire New Testament, and many parts of the Old Testament are about this kind of love.  But it is summed up best in Jesus’ teachings and actions.  In Luke 6, Jesus sums up what this kind of love looks like, “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love thos...

                I attended the new membership class at our new church today.  It is a Methodist church that hired my wife to lead the worship team about 6 months ago. We went around the room for the first half of the class and people talked about their faith walk and how they had come to attend this church. Many people expressed that they felt welcome and how the members of this church were so warm and friendly to them. The new pastor touched on some of the core beliefs in the church.  Most important of these is to walk out Jesus’ love to the world in practical ways.  She mentioned the major Christian creeds and they are not required. I was especially relieved because I have some core issues with the Nicene and Apostolic Creeds which many churches require you to agree with, publicly, in order to become a member.  After the class I went up to talk with the new pastor. I started out, “I’ll jo...

This is one of my favorite Christian songs.  It is on my baby daughter's daddy-daughter mix. I've heard a thousand stories of what they think you're like But I've heard the tender whispers of love in the dead of night And you tell me that you're pleased And that I'm never alone You're a good good father It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are And I'm loved by you It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am I've seen many searching for answers far and wide But I know we're all searching For answers only you provide 'Cause you know just what we need Before we say a word You're a good good father It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are And I'm loved by you It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am Because you are perfect in all of your ways You are perfect in all of your ways You are perfect in all of your ways to us You are perfect in all o...

Thank you, God For the trees and grass The beauty of nature As a reminder of you Thank you, God For the stars and galaxies Swirling in the night That they inspire our reach Thank you, God For this life In all its goodness And all its sorrow Your whisper is heard Quiet on the breeze In the depths of our souls “Come be with me.” And for all the pain Of this depression It is a gift That grows my heart Love comes softly Like a butterfly on the wind And alights on our souls - A gift without bounds And so, from the bottom of my soul I reach up towards the sky And cast my grateful eyes To the glory of your heaven.

     I want to address what I believe is a terrible bit of theology.  It is the tried and true belief that is still so present in Christian circles: the sacrificial Atonement of Jesus Christ.  It says that to appease God's wrath against man, Jesus had to suffer and die on the cross.  You still hear it in so many songs we sing on Sunday mornings about the blood (Jesus's blood) covering our sins.  And so we are made clean - "white as snow" so the songs go.  But many pastors worth their salt, in my opinion, have distanced themselves from this theology.  Of the four pastors in my life, I know three don't hold this view.  The fourth I have simply not gotten to know yet.      The idea of the sacrificial atonement came out of the old Jewish system of sin and sacrifice.  Many, perhaps the majority, of Christians believe that Jesus was a sacrifice like the flawless lambs that were offered for a sin offering in the Jewish r...

   In all my years of living in the church - in the community of believers, I never would have realized that I was the closest to God when I was a boy hunting for frogs in the marshes by the pond near where I lived.  After all the Christology and the Seminary and the dogma, I have found that God is not in any one place.  He is not in a church building only, but he is there.  He is not in the street corner ministry only, but he is there.  He is not only in the eyes of the needy, but there too, he can be found.  I find him most often now in nature. And I find him in the times I spend soaking to the music on my God mix of secular music.  I find him in the words of Bruce Springsteen  and The Fray and The Killers. I feel I share something with the prophets of the Old Testament, and the desert fathers who retreated to the wilderness and desert to commune with God.  And anyone can do this.  Anyone can go outside, find a quiet and beaut...

     Many of the evils committed in the name of religion are a result of drawing lines according to belief.  Jesus came to the Jewish people who were so burdened by the lines drawn in their belief system from the teachers of the Law. The Pharisees and Sadducees helped develop a complex system of restitution for sin that designated people as either "right with God" or "sinners."  In order to keep from being a sinner, one had to offer certain sacrifices to God in the sight of other men. It was a line drawn between "us" and  "them" and excluded people from many parts of communal life until they did certain things.  There were also groups of people who were designated sinners by their profession, such as prostitutes or, conveniently, tax collectors for the Roman Empire like Zacchaeus.  And there were the "unclean" (which often equated with "sinner").  A group of people who were considered unclean were people with Leprosy because...