Faith Venture

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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Can’t Sit Still?

December 7, 2023

Blaise Pascal, 17^th century French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer, said, “Many of our major problems derive from our inability to sit still in a room.”

Pioneering Swiss psychologist Carl Jung told of a patient who exhibited anxiety and restlessness. Jung prescribed for him to go home, go to his office, close the door, and sit for a few hours every day.

The patient returned for his next appointment stating that he didn’t feel any better. Jung asked about his day. He said, well, I sat in my chair. Then I got a book and went through a few pages. Then I got out my violin and played for a short while. Then I tried another book.

Jung reprimanded him, “I told you to sit quietly. Just be with yourself. Just sit.”

Modern psychology? Pascal prescribed that 300 years earlier.

If you cannot stand to be alone with yourself for even an hour or even a half-hour a day, is it any wonder that others cannot stand to be with you, either?

The story concerns an elementary schoolroom from many years ago, but it could be yesterday. The teacher noticed that while she was explaining something a little boy sat staring out of the window. “What are you doing, little boy?” asked the teacher. “Thinking,” replied the boy. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to think in class?” responded the teacher before realizing the irony.

The boy was on the right track. Finding time to sit and think is a good thing. Try it.

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Blessing for Work

December 6, 2023

I was greatly blessed at work. For most of the positions I held, I was the first person to hold the position. I had the opportunity to forge new paths and ways of doing things. Yes, I had several terrible bosses that cost my health for a bit. But many more were the bosses who taught and provided opportunities for growth. Most of the time I did not feel like a functionary simply filling in my time—like the protagonist in Franz Kafka’s eerie story of the man who turned into a cockroach over night.

Given an Irish and Welsh ancestry and vast eclectic reading habits, I don’t know how I missed John O’Donohue. Jerry Colonna introduced us in his book Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong.

O’Donohue seems (although I haven’t found the document to study) to be the closest to my interpretation to the German philosopher GWFHegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit. That enough was enough of an enticement. But it his capture of the Celtic spirit that captivated me.

In the fourth chapter of Anam Cara (soul friend), he discusses work. And how modern work can be soulless robbing us of imagination and creativity. (He also references an early essay of Karl Marx about the alienation of the worker in modern industrial work. One of my favorites.)

With that long introduction, I will leave you with O’Donohue’s blessing for work.

May the light of your soul guide you.

May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.

May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.

May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light, and renewal to those who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
John O’Donohue

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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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Perceived but False Problems

November 30, 2023

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that ain’t so.” — Josh Billings

Peter Diamandis, engineer, doctor, entrepreneur, calls this an example of “Category 3 Problems.” These are perceived, but false problems. Problems that are either based on false data, outdated trends, cognitive biases, or a scarcity mindset. Most importantly (and perniciously), they prevent us from recognizing all the progress we’ve made and blind us to the opportunities in front of us for innovation and creating a world of abundance.

Diamandis preaches “abundance” thinking as opposed to “scarcity” thinking. Some people only see the negatives. Even when things are objectively better (like right now) people probably driven by a media propagating constant negativity and bad news feel as if they are living in scarcity.

I hear echoes of Jesus calling us to live in the abundance of the Spirit within the Kingdom of Heaven. I hear the apostle Paul describing the Fruit of the Spirit or life beyond the Law.

We can grab that life and learn to dispel those things we know for sure that just ain’t so.

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Study Groups

November 29, 2023

Did you ever wonder why the Hebrew scriptures are appended to the stories about Jesus and the early church along with advice to the first followers?

Let’s take a look at a story from the Christian scriptures called the Road to Emmaus found in Luke’s history. Two of Jesus’s followers were walking to a village called Emmaus shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus. They were trying to get their minds around these sudden turns of events.

A man joined them along the way. He explained to them from the Hebrew scriptures the meaning of Jesus’s coming, ministry, death, and resurrection. They sort of went, “Wow, that makes sense.” They reached a house and had something to eat. The stranger took a loaf of bread, blessed it, and broke it. The two guys went something like, “Hey, wait a minute, you’re Jesus, aren’t you?” And the man disappeared.

The first Jesus-followers took that story to heart and searched through those ancient texts looking for every mention that could point to Jesus. And that is why the first council of bishops back in the 4^th Century appended the section we call the Old Testament to the Christian scriptures called the New Testament when then compiled the first Bible. (Yes, there was no Bible for 300 years.)

Now let me take you to a different time and place. I attended freshman chemistry with 699 of my closest friends. Well, actually, I probably knew 10. Grading was done on a strict normal curve. A small percentage received As, a larger group received Bs, a massive group got Cs, a group larger than the Bs got Ds, and a group larger than the As received Fs.

I was getting Cs. Then somehow I was invited to form a small chemistry study group. We went over the texts and notes before the tests (there were two tests that combined formed your grade). After being in the study group, my grade went to B.

Yes, I’m suggesting that small study groups form a tool that would be of great help in pursuing your spiritual discipline of study.

I suggest a few ground rules.

Agree that everyone is willing to learn new things
Keep an open mind
Don’t let someone with fixed opinions on everything to dominate the discussion—a good leader/moderator gets everyone involved
Keep discussion open and civil
Agree to disagree (agreement is nigh on to impossible at times)
Psychologist Adam Grant says that we all tend to either be prosecutors, preachers, or politicians meaning that we have the right answer and seek to impart it; rather be a scientist who puts forth a hypothesis and then invites disagreement in order to prove or disprove it.

Footnote: I have read a few Jewish Rabbis who have rebutted the claims of those early Christians about John as a prophet and Jesus as a Messiah. They “prove” from text and tradition that neither meet the criteria. That is the intellectual reason that in general Jews do not accept the entire Christian story.

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