Many of us are in isolation right now, some with our families and some by ourselves. Our physical separation from one another can be a real trauma, taking away a vital human need: touch. Did you know you can experience the touch of God, holding you in a loving embrace in this time of uncertainty and worry? It’s a great comfort. How might we experience that?
Read MoreIt is dusk in the information age. The sun has already set. Its time has passed. With the amount of information generated increasing to an unprecedented degree, it is not the end of information, but the flooding of its darkness. It’s become increasingly clearer and clearer that the answers to our problems do not come with more information. And yet we keep going, passing far beyond the point of information “overload” and into a reality of information enslavement.
Information is frequently referred to as the food of the brain. We believe that we need a continual influx of stimulation, often in the form of new facts and findings, ways to perform better or know more, as if these new learnings will give us the edge we need to succeed, or the sense we crave to make meaning of our lives, or simply to feel like a more productive or better person. We buy another book, listen to another podcast, read yet another article, excited about the prospect of learning something we didn’t know before.
The trouble is, the more we learn, the more we realize how much more we don’t know. And on further down the rabbit hole we go. Is it possible we are feeding the monster who holds us captive? The mind that always seeks to acquire more and more? Have we become addicted to the stimulation, without asking where it’s taking us?
Read MoreWe are living in a time of great disruption. This pandemic is shutting down the world, closing business as usual—for both individuals and the systems that we are used to operating in daily. Especially in the early days of disruption, there is a desire for a return to normalcy. When we can breathe normally again and go back to the way things were.
There is uncertainty and insecurity. The way of the future can diverge in many different pathways and directions. The old path is the one our minds gravitate toward because it is the most familiar. We remember that which we miss. The unknown is much more daunting.
Last week we looked at the Jesus path through the pandemic for dealing with fear, disease, and the eventuality of death. This week, I want to consider how we might accept the gifts of this present time and look at how we can begin to imagine a different way ahead. Business as usual won’t work anymore. It wasn’t working before. Our way of life is not only killing the planet but is also keeping us from moving into the consciousness necessary to save it and ourselves.
Read MoreDuring New Testament times, both in Jewish and other spiritual traditions, doves were very much associated with God and God’s Spirit. Early Christians began depicting Spirit almost exclusively as a dove. It is a beautiful symbol for those who are aware of this meaning. For others, not so much.
I was teaching a group of several hundred progressive Catholics who had gathered in Santa Barbara. Before my first talk, a man came up to me and said, “I hear you are going to talk about the Trinity. I hope you don’t tell us again that God is two men and a bird.” I smiled and said, “I hope I don’t either.” In this essay, I am suggesting we not only shoot the dove for those who don’t find it meaningful, but also update what we mean by “the Holy Spirit.”
Read MoreExcept for progressive and integral Christians, along with the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the dominant theory among Christians today of why Jesus died on the cross goes something like this: All people are separated from God because of both original sin and our own sin. Because of this, we are destined for eternal punishment. However, Jesus came to provide a way out of this destiny by taking our place and dying on the cross to satisfy God’s wrath for our sins. Jesus was punished in the place of us so God could forgive our sins. Those who accept Jesus as their Savior are no longer separated from God and are destined for heaven.
This is a serious and devastating misunderstanding of Jesus, God, and our relationship to God. It is based on four interpretations which reflect previous stages of spiritual evolutionary understanding.
Read More“This is the most dangerous prayer you can pray, you know?”
I remember the words but not the speaker. I remember because I was bold enough and perhaps naïve enough to think I was up to the task. My spiritual ego was still quite strong and my zealous traditional Christian upbringing had prepared me well for the moment. Yes, I was ready. I could do this. I knew enough to know that I didn’t know what the consequences would be, only that they would be beyond what I could imagine at the time.
I’m pretty sure I literally, physically got down on my knees. And I opened my mouth to pray:
Read More“Transpersonal cocreation refers to dynamic interaction between embodied human beings and the mystery in the bringing forth of spiritual insights, practices, states, and worlds.”
-Jorge Ferrer
Last week, Paul wrote about partnering with God in the work of evolution through co-creation. He wrote about how that work involves doing more than Jesus did (John 14:12), participating in the birth of new creation (Rom. 8: 19-23), cutting “Kosmic grooves” into the fabric of tomorrow’s reality (Ken Wilber), and realizing “ourselves as incarnate divine creativity” (Richard Rohr). I’ve got those on my to-do list, but I’m not sure if I’ll quite finish by the end of the week!
No, of course these are life-long works of no short order. But it is also highly empowering to recognize that we have the potential and ability to engagingly participate in the evolving work of God. Not only can we, but we are highly encouraged to do so!
So how do we do this? Where do we start?
Read MoreWriting of the work of God in continually creating an ever-evolving creation Meister Eckhart said: “St. Augustine says, ‘What does it avail me that this birth is always happening, if it does not happen in me? That it should happen in me is what matters.’ We shall therefore speak of this birth, of how it may take place in us. —Meister Eckhart (1260–1327)
Yes, let’s speak of this divine-human birthing that goes on in and through us. In the business world, co-creation is a strategy that brings different parties together (for instance, a company and a group of customers), in order to jointly produce a mutually valued outcome. It is a form of collaborative innovation where ideas are shared and improved together, rather than kept to oneself.
Add God to that definition and you have Spiritual Cocreation—partnering with God in the continuing creation of reality. Let’s see what Jesus, the Apostle Paul, Ken Wilber, and Richard Rohr have to say about this.
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