Universal Family

I've been on a quest to live--and write about--loving God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Yesterday I sent to my editor friend a revised section on strength. She discovered weaknesses in it. It didn't take long for me to realize (this is a pattern) that she had uncovered a fresh, hungry need for my growth. After sleeping on the problem, I woke up with a breakthrough. Of course it takes longer to form the habit and acquire the virtue. But here is an indication of what I've begun to form my habit around.

The faith of a little child not only enables us to join the kingdom family of God. It also continues to guide us as we progress. Jesus's teachings and interactions on this theme are each marked by a wonderful simplicity. And these teachings in their variety touch on several concepts that are part of the whole truth of faith.

A 21-year-old computer whiz liked the concept of the wonderfulness within but not the concept of the spirit of God within. He finds God through Edmund Husserl's phenomenological philosophy of religious experience. 

After acknowledging the failure of an experiment in the last class meeting (falling across the finish line), I summarize a five-week class, "The Journey from Easter to Pentecost." Then I distinguish garden-variety spiritual experience from the taste-and-see variety.

In this class, I check people's driver's licence to make sure that everyone is over 75. Jesus called Lazarus to LIFE: "Lazarus, come forth!" He's calling you to share his original message, "[Your name], come forth!"  

Here's a six-step process for cooperating with divine transformation in recycling that which is unbeautiful in us.

"Happy mourning" sounds like a paradox. Let's probe: mourning for past, present, future, for self and others, extreme affliction and daily sensitivity and responsiveness to human need.

Jesus is the model for leaders who make provision for their mission to continue after their death.

When Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the last time, he both communicated that he was on a mission of peace and was also militant in some of his words and deeds. How is one to make sense of this combination?

In response to a prayer request from a Ukrainian friend, I reflect on Jesus' willingness to lay down his life, his command that his followers be willing to do the same--and how we can ascend to that height. I include a couple of personal stories.

After skirmishes with some religious leaders, Jesus pre-empted an attack that was brewing in Capernaum.  From the crisis that broke open there come lessons for leaders and team-members today. 

John 6 tells the pivotal story of how the skirmishes between Jesus and his enemies became a full-blown crisis. 

As the movement that Jesus led became strong, some religious leaders became defensive and hostile. Before their opposition reached the level of a crisis, there were some early skirmishes. Here we look at three of them to observe more of Jesus' qualities as a leader.

Jesus' character was strong, well-balanced, and centered in God. How did this center shape the kind of balance that he developed?

God chose Abraham, called Moses and some of the prophets, and sent Jesus. This suggests that it might be interesting to ask in some human situations how God may already have made--or be making--provision for leadership? In what ways can we see that God does not monopolize power and is not domineering?

In "Loving Jesus More," Phil Ryken tells the story of a little girl who told her minister that she didn't love Jesus. He asked her to repeat as often as possible, "Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me." I invite you to follow the path that she took or to creatively adapt it to your own spiritual path.    

When an athlete or a team is doing poorly, it is common to say that they are struggling. But struggle is part of life on all levels. Here's how to do it beautifully.

This is a dialogue with Evan, the evangelist; Syd, the scientist; Sophia, the philosopher; mature Miguel; Nate, the nature-lover; Alicia, the artist; and Abe, the activist. 

Self-respect, or the lack of it, can be based on superficial things. But true self-respect can be hard for us who evolved from animals. But when we engage ideals that are divine, spiritual, and eternal, it brings a new kind of respect. And the golden rule leads us to have a profound respect for every person we meet.

This is a passionate proclamation of discovery. It comes in the form of comments on two teachings, one about the supreme desire for righteousness and the other about how in liaison with God, nothing is impossible. 

This list of rules deserves to go viral. Please help creatively. The text is in the blogpost on my website.  Fishing for souls means attracting people to join the universal family of God. 

Politicians and partners can do it. "Be merciful as you Father is merciful." The more we discover the mercy of God, the more we want to extend that by forgiving others. Thank you for forgiving me.

Those who would spread a message of light: Be lucid about our current plunge and preserve the torch of truth for the planetary teachable moment.  

Ethiopian philosopher Zera Yacob (1599-1692) was forced at age 27 to flee for his life from the king. He lived in a cave for two years until the death of the king; but during that time he began to piece together his philosophy. Here are excerpts and a bit of commentary. I find his thoughts very timely, and superior to what his Enlightenment contemporaries in Europe achieved. 

The commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength has enough complexity to it to call for love in its simplicity.

A hackathon is a problem-solving event involving teams that compete in a fast-paced, high-tech "marathon." This episode describes four manifestations of divinity in the process as I experienced it. 

Civilization is a wagon train, and Jesus is the master wheelwright. A wheelwright is a person who builds and repairs wooden wheels. This episode explains the analogy. 

How do we nourish ourselves on the bread of life?  This is a string of word pictures with a thread of meaning running through. 

After Jesus healed ten men with leprosy, they went forth joyously, but one man turned back, and came to Jesus to give thanks and worship.  This episode tells how we can break through the momentum of lazy appreciation and activate worship.

A reflection framed by prayer distinguishes the justice of God; the justice that we look forward to in our planetary destiny when the kingdom of God will have come in its fullness; justice that is already established here and there; and justice that is evolving.

A reflection on the contrasting media images of response to the murder of George Floyd. An invitation to keep pondering. 

70 diverse high school students are gathered for a three-day weekend at Camp Anytown (lots of details in the blogpost). After three days of organized interaction, they have confronted and exploded their prejudices and emerge as loving, mutually supportive, inspired leaders for positive social change. The last portion of the video presents comments/questions/criticisms that suggest paths of growth to add a layer of quality thinking to an already strong program.  

The two kinds of anxiety: physical discomfort or worse; and performance anxiety.  What cures would you prescribe?

A divine commandment expresses faith in what you can do and be, orients your life, alerts you to the fact that the rewards of following are better than the consequences of rejecting, and promises support every step of the way.

Does your life seem over medicalized?

An amoeba, a book on public speaking, and a question that has long awaited being raised. 

Lao Tzu: A noble man steeps himself in the Way, because he wishes to find himself in it. When he finds himself in it, he is at ease in it. When he is at ease in it, he can draw deeply upon it. When he draws deeply upon it, he finds its source wherever he turns. These phrases resonate with themes of Christian spirituality.  

If we believe some spiritual truth that we know is supremely important, but we're not getting the transformation, we're still on the level of ideas.  Here are some paths that lead from the idea-level of belief to the liberation level of faith.

The human personality system: body, mind, soul, spirit.  When they are integrated and unified, the benefits are health, sanity, and happiness. Sanity means mental efficiency--so that we can use knowledge and wisdom to treat others as we want others to treat us; overcome the tendency to be invaded by fear and anxiety; cooperate responsibly with public health professionals and government authorities.  This is a time when we have a golden opportunity to realize and practice the truths of the universal family--the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man (however you express it). 

Divine truth is like the light on a miner's helmet, illuminating the ever-changing scene, step by step. This is truth like a who. Those who know Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life will understand this, but the experience is not limited to Christians. The truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience are all contained in divine truth, and we can use these various levels of truth as stepping stones on our way to a peak experience.

What would have happened to Mary Magdalene after she met Jesus? How would her transformation affected her self-respect, her confidence in her capacities for intuition, and her soul?

A Woman Jesus Can Teach by Alice Mathews takes us powerfully into the episode when Mary and her sons and daughters try to bring Jesus back home when they have heard that he is out of his mind. Jesus says, "Who are my mother and my brothers and sisters? Those who do the will of God are my mother and my brother and my sister." This episode introduces you to the book and to this episode in the manner of sequenced activities for a retreat. 

Lots of us find ourselves being judgmental at times. How can Jesus and his teachings help? First of all, there seems to be an inconsistency between Jesus' teaching, "Judge not," and his instruction not to "cast pearls before swine." once we clarify that seeming tension, we are are operating with both spiritual idealism and factual realism. Then we are ready for the next teaching: "Ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you." That teaching opens the door to the transformation that comes from the Spirit of Truth, which enables us to live the golden rule in the highest sense: Love one another as I have loved you."

German theologian Adoph Harnack (1851-1930) broke through to the recognition of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man as the core of Jesus' gospel.  But he rejected the truth of Jesus' divine Sonship and John's gospel generally. So German theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968), criticized the concept of the brotherhood of man in favor of another side of Jesus' gospel--that we become children of God by faith. Then in the 1960s, as feminism was doing important work standing up for the equality of women with men, Mary Daly and other theologians made a very influential critique against the father concept of God as sexist. Now the followers of Jesus--Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant varieties, and none of the above--can break through to find Jesus in all these truths, leave one-sidedness behind, and learn to communicate the truth effectively to this person and that group, so that the emerging gospel of the universal family comes increasingly into fruition.

Here are stories of a student ethics project, a heroic flight attendant, and more.

I have recently realized that there is tremendous leverage for the spiritual renaissance in understanding the figure of the shepherd in the Bible and in the life and teachings of Jesus. In particular, this inquiry enables to answer an extremely important question: How did Jesus interpret the meaning of his death on the cross? And a further question arises: How can we use the image of the good shepherd as a searchlight to explore for truth in other interpretations? 

John Dominic Crossan's book, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, has been one of the most influential books on this widely discussed and controversial topic. This podcast episode introduces that book.

Confusion divides those who differ on how to respond to a teenager who wants to change to the other gender. If religious people can show how to love one another despite deep ethical disagreements, it could help the society a lot.  We need a philosophical distinction between (1) the spiritual affirmation of each person as an equally and infinitely loved child of God and (2) the ongoing scientific and ethical inquiry about treatments and responses for persons of different ages. To fail to make that distinction risks seeing an opponent as betraying fundamental spiritual truth.  

After reading articles by writers who described their anxiety, anger, depression, and grief over the country and the planet, I found myself wandering into anxiety, identified it frankly as ANXIETY . . . and then came a spiritual experience. I was just beginning to follow the steps of a method that I typically use when temptation arises . . . a method that is related here that is helpful during the normal times--the only justification for sharing an experience like this. 

The family of God is like a man who had horses and would train the each young one to carry a rider by taking it out on his large fields. Whenever the horse would be frightened by anything, he would stop, get off the horse, and lead it back to the place where it could calmly look at, and become comfortable with whatever had caused it to spook and jump away from its path. The law of God is like a friendly policeman who comes to the primary school to explain to the children some of the safety rules that they need to know. The love of God may be seen by reflecting on the previous two parables. In every case there is an unfolding, a learning process, in which we have the opportunity for us to explore, understand, and be comfortable with, the dimension of reality in question.  

Prophets often speak truth to those who refuse to hear. When they endure the consequences of their unrighteous personal lives and foolish conduct as nations, the resulting desolation gives occasion to grieve, to lament. But God is always waiting on the other side to bless and restore. What we could have realized so much earlier is: the faith of a little child.