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Dawning of the Age

December 12, 2023

When the moon is in the Seventh House

And Jupiter aligns with Mars

Then peace will guide the planets

And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius

The Age of Aquarius

Aquarius! Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding

Sympathy and trust abounding

No more falsehoods or derisions

Golden living dreams of visions

Mystic crystal revelation

And the minds true liberation
5th Dimension

It is dark outside my office window in the early morning at this time of year. I thought perhaps I was staring at Mars in the western sky. It was probably an airplane. We are on a flight path to Chicago’s O’Hare airport.

Thinking of Mars reminded me of that 5^th Dimension song from the psychedelic 60s. Dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Fifty-five years later we don’t seem to have harmony and understanding and sympathy and trust abounding.

There were predictions (hopes?) like that, even greater in fact, 2026 years ago (give or take a few months). The coming of the Prince of Peace and Lord of Lords. Yes, those were the titles taken by Caesar Augustus and then co-opted and used to describe the Jewish Messiah called Jesus.

Those words—harmony, understanding, sympathy, trust, no falsehoods, no derisions—can also be used to describe the type of person who follows Jesus. Yet, oftentimes during this ensuing 2,000 years his followers have exhibited the opposite. Look around even today and see the actions of some people claiming to be followers. Of course, many do.

There is a Christian theology that Jesus must come back to finish the work he started. That’s not a theology that has impacted me all that much. I live in the present, not in the future. And I think that Jesus thought we should be living lives like he taught us beginning now and not waiting to live sometime in the future.

We can start (continue) to live those values right now. Don’t wait for a New Year’s Resolution. The best time is now.

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Lighting the Love Candle on the Advent Wreath

December 11, 2023

In our tradition, a candle in a wreath is lighted for each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas when the fifth candle is lighted. The first, second, and fourth candles are traditionally purple. They denote Hope, Love, and Peace. The third is traditionally pink denoting Joy, sort deriving from another ancient tradition of a Joy Sunday celebration. Leading up to the commemoration of Jesus birth the lights grow brighter as Jesus was the Light of the World.

This Sunday we contemplated Love. John, Jesus’s friend and author of the fourth gospel, used light and dark as the theme of his story. He also is famous for making love the core idea. God is love. Jesus is love.

Love not so much as an emotion. Love is a way of acting toward yourself and others. Can you pray for others? Can you perform acts large and small for others? Can you treat others and yourself with kindness and compassion?

During this week of Advent we could hardly do better than contemplate how we love. And how our love appeared yesterday. And how we will respond with love today.

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Why Is It So Confusing?

December 8, 2023

One of my wife’s friends recently talked about the genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew’s gospel. She was left with questions—something like where is Mary when other women are mentioned in the list and others.

I wrote back to her. The Messiah is supposed to be a descendent of David. So, beginning with David, Matthew traces through Solomon and Luke through Nathan. Interesting. Both go to David, but through different sons.

Then there is Joseph. Matthew and Luke ascribe Joseph to different fathers.

A very early church leader suggested that Matthew traces the genealogy through Joseph who was Jesus’ legal father. That seems to fit the overall tone of his story. Luke, on the other hand, traces through Mary, but he couldn’t actually say that due to cultural norms. Given Luke’s generally positive portrayal of women, that makes sense to me.

But…

The same leader thought some more—always a dangerous thing. He remembered the cultural norm about when a brother dies childless the next brother in line marries the wife to father children in the brother’s name. Remember the story when the Sadducee asked Jesus about such a case and who would be the husband in heaven. And Jesus told him he missed the point.

Anyway this early thinker supposed that perhaps Solomon fathered a child in Nathan’s name and that Heli or Jacob fathered Joseph in that same brother marries wife situation.

I like the Mary genealogy scenario because it is simpler and makes sense. There is a philosophical razor that suggests the simplest explanation that fits the facts is probably the best.

But, unfortunately, what was my wife’s friend to do? Why is it so confusing. Why didn’t they just come right out and say what they meant plainly and clearly?

I don’t know.

I do know that I’m happy that I changed my career to technology rather than being a philosophy professor. Professors spend their time on these idle speculations.

For me, Jesus was born, and he died, and he came back to life. And what he taught (I think he actually meant what he said) are words that we can live by. Anything else is mere froth on the latte.

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Advent Replicates Waiting

December 5, 2023

I have been much impacted by the Samuel Beckett play, Waiting for Godot. It is a two-act play where two people (often portrayed as tramps) meet while waiting for someone named Godot to show up. He never does. But the conversations are deep and meaningful.

Many people throughout humankind must have thought that they were waiting for someone who never shows up. Maybe a parent? Maybe a lover? Maybe God?

Hugh Laurie, English actor, comedian, writer, musician, noted, “It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.”

Here is another kind of waiting. It is the waiting to act before we feel ready. We are waiting to write the Great American Novel, but never get the pen or laptop out and begin writing. We will be a pastor or teacher or business leader—someday when we are ready. Some things we should not sit around waiting for the time to be right. I have seen people waiting for permission—from someone, anyone. We must seize the moment and do something.

Then there is waiting in anticipation. This I like the Jewish people waiting for The Anointed One, meaning King, Messiah in their language. Most of them pictured David returned to kick out the foreigners and re-establish the empire. Not being alive in the first century, I have no idea how prevalent this waiting, indeed longing, was among the Jewish people at large. Definitely it was among the more spiritually attuned. I have read histories that described that era as one of great spiritual longing. The success of Paul among the non-Jews shows that that longing was more widespread than just among the Jews.

I think of the stories in Luke about Anna and Simeon waiting at the Temple convinced that the baby who was the Anointed One would be brought to be dedicated. They were there not just years but decades. Waiting. And then Joseph and Mary brought little Joshua (Jesus in Greek and now English). And they knew. How? God obviously spoke to them. The waiting was over.

Advent as a season of the year to recreate that waiting, but instead of a political king a man who points us toward God with the invitation to enter God’s kingdom the kingdom of heaven. “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (around us),” he said at the beginning of his ministry. Turn your life around because you, too, can live with God in the Kingdom. Beginning now.

We wait now. Then, we go and do for the wait is over.

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Watching

December 4, 2023

I still remember the story I read as a child about the European/American pioneers trekking from the eastern USA to the western part that was being new developed thanks to gold and stories of plentiful farm land.

The trail went directly through territories inhabited by various tribes of native peoples. Those people weren’t thrilled with the invasion and were known to attack those “wagon trains” traveling through. At night the travelers would post guards to watch for attack. After a hard day of traveling, the guards would be tired. Falling asleep could be fatal for them all.

They solved a problem with a 2-legged stool. They could sit. If they dozed, the stool would tip over and awaken the guard.

The common lectionary for this year’s first Sunday of Advent included the thought of watching. It draws from an odd passage at the end of Mark. I thought of other watching, especially in Luke. There were shepherds watching their flocks. They, too, were observant for predators. But being awake, they could observe the angels and hear the message and take action. There was Simeon in the temple watching for the arrival of the Messiah. And there was Anna also at the temple watching for the arrival of the Messiah.

We are beginning Advent. Are you on guard, watching? What do you expect to see or hear? Who is coming? Where will you watch? Do you expect to see or hear Jesus? Where?

I watch. And wonder. And expect.

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Plugging In to the Spirit

December 1, 2023

The weekend following Thanksgiving Day finds my wife turning all that food into energy as she begins decorating the house for Christmas. It is her favorite time of the year. And in 50 years of marriage she has accumulated manger sets, ornaments for the tree, Santa figurines, candles, and God knows what else.

I am not the Grinch, but I don’t experience the season quite the same way. I do enjoy rising early and plugging in the Christmas trees (yes, plural). The distinctive light in the early morning dark brings a sense of the Advent season to the soul to begin the day.

I found an old note tucked away in my digital files from a book long out of print where the author Michael Ray talked of the Highest Goal. He concluded the highest goal for each of us lies in the experience of connection or truth, like that described by the contemplatives of the past 3,000 years or more. He says, “If you live for the highest goal, you are living a life of the spirit.”

That is a good definition we can live with. Its simplicity beats the thousands of words that Paul uses to also try to describe life in the spirit.

To return to our Christmas trees, I view this same thought as “plugging in” to the spirit of God. I often think of it as the “supreme creative force of the universe.” There are times I am plugged in and can feel the light surging through. Then there are the times when the plug has been vibrated loose. In those cases sort of like The Righteous Brothers sang, “I’ve lost that lovin’ feeling.”

In such cases I must return to the roots of simplicity. Thinking long term far beyond my current problems and concerns. I return to my path leaving the path someone else tries to divert me onto. It is time to refocus attention and look at others with compassion. Throwing off the yoke of preconceived ideas and prejudices, I can look at other humans as siblings—fellow children of God.

The simple act of plugging in a few Christmas trees during the season has the effect of reminding me to plug into the spirit of life.

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Jesus and Politics

December 27, 2022

Thinking on the stories surrounding the birth of Jesus, I was struck this year with just how political the birth was.

His birth is linked with Caesar Augustus (the census)
The magi were most likely politically tapped in their native countries
They saw the birth of a star linked to the king of the Jews
They talked with the incumbent king of the Jews (Herod the Great)
Visions surrounding Jesus talked of David’s throne (king of the Jews)
Herod had boys two and under killed in and around Bethlehem to stop any successor to his throne not his children
Jesus’ family fled to Egypt for a time, then settled in Nazareth to avoid Bethlehem
He was called Messiah / Christos / Anointed One — meaning King

Yet, in his ministry and teaching

He healed Jews and Romans and others alike
His only talk of Kingdom was the Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God
He told the Roman authority that his kingdom was not of this world
The label on his means of execution said King of the Jews

I studied politics at university (along with lots of other things); got a very high score on the politics GRE exam; studied politics at graduate school. I’ve even studied the politics of the Roman Catholic Church in European governments from about 600 to 1700 CE. You cannot avoid church and politics if you live in the United States. I also have to recommend a book I read some 50 years ago called The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder–a pacifist take on Jesus’ teachings.

The fact that nothing was said in these stories about starting a church. It was pretty much kingdom, God’s kingdom, instituted and led by a man filled with God completely.

Do I have answers? No. I do think on what Jesus would like for me to do to a) live in the kingdom of heaven and b) lead others to live in the kingdom. And does it matter how I vote? Or not? And how you vote? Or not?

Jesus would ask, what is the status of your heart?

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Be Like Jesus

December 23, 2022

As Advent comes to an end and we celebrate the birth of Jesus, I’ve been contemplating the stories and legends surrounding Bethlehem and the shepherds and magi and escape to Egypt and all that. And we can speculate (fruitlessly) on what virgin birth means.

Then I asked Why?

Despite Luke going around the area interviewing people and compiling, we are left with sketchy information about what those first 30 years were like.

The birth was important. His ministry was more important–those stories fill the gospels and other writings. His death and resurrection was most important–without the resurrection the world would not have been changed and we wouldn’t be writing much about it.

Because of the resurrection, Jesus became more than a prophet or teacher. It makes his teachings all the more important to infuse into our lives. So, I remembered this list I’ve written about before.

This year I want to be more like Jesus:

Hang out with sinners
Upset religious people
Tell stories that make people think
Choose unpopular friends
Be kind, loving, and merciful
Take naps on boats

Merry Christmas, everyone.

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Anticipation

December 22, 2022

Anticipation
Anticipation
Is making me late
Is keeping me waiting
Carly Simon

We have been told for at least a week that today a blizzard is coming. At 10:00 this morning the temperature will be 28 F; at dinner time it will be close to 0 F. When I get up tomorrow the temperature will be -11 F with 25 mph winds gusting to 50 mph. Forecasters initially predicted 10 inches of snow. Now it’s 3 inches. But it will be messy.

We have been living in anticipation of the blizzard for a week. I went to a store yesterday to purchase a present for a Christmas gift exchange. The place was packed. People stocking up on bread, milk, toilet paper, and the like.

Talk about layered anticipation. We are in the anticipation period of the Christian church calendar–Advent, the anticipation of God visiting Earth.

I wonder, which anticipation is more real?

If you don’t have small children with the anticipation of presents under the Christmas tree, can you still work up emotionally the sense of anticipation that was the atmosphere in the Mediterranean world 2,000 years ago? The sense of anticipation that the first couple of generations of Jesus-followers felt?

Or, maybe like Carly Simon sang, we are paralyzed into inaction in the anticipation not knowing which way things are going. (I could write a whole sermon on that topic, but I won’t. I’ll leave it to your own imagination.)

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We Are All God’s Children

December 16, 2022

During my meditation many years ago, I found myself walking past an old, empty house. I walked up the path through the overgrown weeds to the front door. It was unlocked. I entered. I had previously explored the house and entered the basement. (If you are Jungian, go for it.)

That day’s meditation took me down the steps into the basement with some fearfulness of what I would find.

Well, there was a huge party going on down there. I was shown people of every race and nationality and tribe. They were all partying together. There was no rancor. No small groups over in the corner peering suspiciously at the others. It was all one family of humanity. I was told we are all God’s children.

Either in business or on holiday I’ve interacted with people from most of the areas of the globe. I’ve shared meals and conversations. I’ve tried every day to live up to that vision treating everyone like I learned from that party experience (well, maybe except for the idiot that cut me off driving in traffic–no one is perfect!).

Today’s meditation returned me to that time. We are in Advent and also Christmas season. We hear a lot about “peace on earth and goodwill toward man”. Beyond hearing that, perhaps we need to practice it during our everyday lives.

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