- GREED for Joy (instead of Pleasure)
- Militant Global Brotherliness
- Heaven on Earth
- Service of the Almighty - Love, Truth, Joy
- Salvation of the Individual - from Joyless Selfishness and Divorce from Humanity
- Salvation of all Humanity
6.04.2007
SITE DEDICATION: GREED FOR JOY, MILITANT GLOBAL BROTHERLINESS
This site is dedicated to:
6.03.2007
"I LIVE BY FAITH ALONE," START LOVING
"I LIVE BY FAITH ALONE," START LOVING. This is an amazing realization for me this week. "I don't know who discovered water, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a fish." -- Marshall McLuhan. For all of my life the word "Faith" was meaningless and uninteresting to me due to its profound perversion (even if unintended) by the "church."
But as I have freed myself, "Saved" myself by surrendering to Jesus and the Almighty I find that Faith is the result, that I have for many months now Lived by Faith Alone! And for my entire adult life I've navigated ALMOST totally by Faith alone, thank God.
Better than I could ever hope to Dietrich Bonhoeffer captured what this Journey of total Faith, what this wonderful, exciting, amazing, Joyful voyage I am on feels like, and what Faith IS:
“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God – the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.”
All these are used to the fullest - Reason, Principles, Conscience, Freedom, Head / Mind, Knowledge.... But in Faith they are subordinated to the Almighty - Love / Life / Truth - HEART... for Joy.
But as I have freed myself, "Saved" myself by surrendering to Jesus and the Almighty I find that Faith is the result, that I have for many months now Lived by Faith Alone! And for my entire adult life I've navigated ALMOST totally by Faith alone, thank God.
Better than I could ever hope to Dietrich Bonhoeffer captured what this Journey of total Faith, what this wonderful, exciting, amazing, Joyful voyage I am on feels like, and what Faith IS:
“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God – the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.”
All these are used to the fullest - Reason, Principles, Conscience, Freedom, Head / Mind, Knowledge.... But in Faith they are subordinated to the Almighty - Love / Life / Truth - HEART... for Joy.
"Follow Jesus' word."
Teresa of Calcutta
Teresa of Calcutta Quotes
Online!!!! Free!!!
From the introduction:
From the introduction:
All she did, in her own words, was
"follow Jesus' word."
-
This is the first I've read her book in several years. The way she describes her journey is just like mine feels.
.
The Almighty, the Kingdom
is in your Heart.
Stop looking outside, in buildings, in preachers.
The Kingdom of God is within you.
Be like a child and find it.
Start Loving
.
LOVE
- "I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love."
HOLINESS
- Saint Thomas Aquinas assures us that holiness "is nothing else but a resolution made, the heroic act of a soul that surrenders to God." And he adds: "Spontaneously we love God, we run towards him, we run towards him, we get close to him, we possess him."
- Our willingness is important because it changes us into the image of God and likens us to him! The decision to be holy is a very dear one.
- Renunciation, temptations, struggles, persecutions, and all kind of sacrifices are what surround the soul that has opted for holiness.
- If we do the work for God and for his glory, we may be sanctified.
- We should go out to meet people. Meet the people who live afar and those who live very close by. Meet the materially poor or the spiritually poor.
- The fact of death should not sadden us. The only thing that should sadden us is to know that we are not saints.
- To sometimes experience disgust is something quite natural. The virtue, which at times is of heroic proportions, consists in being able to overcome disgust, for love of Jesus.
- This is the secret we discover in the lives of some saints: the ability to go beyond what is merely natural.
- This is what happened to Saint Francis of Assisi. Once, when he ran into a leper who was completely disfigured, he instinctively backed up. Right away he overcame the disgust he felt and kissed the face that was completely disfigured. What was the outcome of this? Francis felt himself filled with tremendous joy. He felt totally in control of himself. And the leper went on his way praising God.
- The saints are all the people who live according to the law God has given us.
PRAYER
- "Prayer makes your heart bigger, until it is capable of containing the gift of God himself."
- I believe that politicians spent too little time on their knees. I am convinced that they would be better politicians if they were to do so.
- There are some people who, in order not to pray, use as an excuse the fact that life is so hectic that it prevents them from praying.
This cannot be. - Prayer does not demand that we interrupt our work, but that we continue working as if it were a prayer.
- It is not necessary to always be meditating, nor to consciously experience the sensation that we are talking to God, No matter how nice this would be. What matters is being with him, living with him, in his will. To love with a pure heart, to love everybody, especially to love the poor, is a twenty-four-hours prayer.
- Prayer begets faith, faith begets love, and love begets service on behalf of the poor.
- The first requirement for prayer is silence. People of prayer are people of silence.
- My secret is a very simple one: I pray. To pray to Christ is to love him.
- The apostles did not know how to pray, and they asked Jesus to teach them. He, then, taught them the Our Father.
- I think that every time we say the Our Father, God looks at his hands, where we are etched. "See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands..."(Isaiah 49:16).
- What a beautiful description and also expressive of the personal love God feels for each one of us!
- Make us, Lord, worthy to serve our brothers and sisters who are scattered all over the world, who live and die alone and poor. Give them today, using our hands, their daily bread. And using our love, give them peace and happiness. Amen.
- Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to his voice in the depth of our hearts
- There is a player that the Missionaries of Charity pray every day.
Cardinal Newman wrote it:
Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance wherever I am.
Fill my heart with your spirit and your life.
Penetrate my being and take such hold of me that my life becomes a radiation of your own life.
Give your light through me and remain in me such a way that every soul I come in contact with can feel your presence in me.
Remain in me, so that I shine with your light, and may others be illuminated by my light.
All light will come from you, Oh Jesus.
Not even smallest ray of light will be mine. You will illuminate others through me. Place on my lips your greatest praise, illuminating others around me.
May I preach you with actions more than with words, with example of my actions, with the visible light of the love that comes from you to my heart. Amen. - I am asked what is one to do be sure that one is following the way of salvation. I answer: "Love God. And, above all, pray."
- Every day at communion time, I communicate two of my feelings to Jesus. One is gratefulness, because he has helped me to persevere until today. The other is a request: teach me to pray.
- Praying the Our Father and living it will lead us toward saintliness. The Our Father contains everything: God, ourselves, our neighbors...
Silence will teach us a lot. It will teach us to speak with Christ and speak joyfully to our brothers and sisters.
Click here for:
4. GENEROSITY
6. LOVE
7. HOME AND FAMILY
8. VIRTUES
9. MARY
10. LIFE AND DEATH
11. SMILES
12. MONEY
13. SUFFERING
14. LONELINESS
15. GOD AND CHRISTIANTY
16. OUR MISSION
Ultimate Success
- Everyone is healed by you
- Heaven comes to Earth and stays, largely due to how you are used as an instrument
- No one knows who you are, or the Salvation you brought.
AMMA: HER RELIGION IS "LOVE"
Mata Amritanandamayi's followers call her Amma or Ammachi. The diminutive 'saint' says she does not belong to any particular religion; 'the universal mother,' as her devotees have christened her, says her religion is love. She expresses that love through her hugs. Her followers say that, in the past 30 years, Amma has physically embraced more than 21 million people.
Quotations:
Quotations:
- The first step in spiritual life is to have compassion. A person who is kind and loving never needs to go searching for God. God rushes toward any heart that beats with compassion-it is God's favorite place.
- The Divine is present in everyone, in all beings, in everything. Like space it is everywhere, all pervading, all powerful, all knowing. The Divine is the principle of Life, the inner light of consciousness, and pure bliss-----. It is our very own Self.
- Serving the world with love and cooperation, you will find your own true Self. As you help those in need, selfishness will fall away, and without even noticing you will find your own fulfillment.
- In this universe it is love that binds everything together. Love is the very foundation, beauty and fulfillment of life.
- A revolution is required now. Not a worldly revolution, today the need is of a spiritual revolution.
- Only if each individual imbibes spirituality and adheres to his dharma (duties), will this spiritual revolution come about.
- When love overflows and is expressed through every word and deed, we call it compassion. That is the goal of religion.
- To know the Self, one should starve the ego.
- Abundance of wealth, abundance of machinery, changes in the mode of governance - none of these will solve our problems.
- There is no point in blaming God for evil and the problems in the world. God has shown us the right path to follow and is not responsible for the miseries we create by not following it.
- "Knowledge devoid of devotion is like chewing stones."
- Mother does not say you should believe in Mother or in a God in heaven. It is enough to believe in yourself. Everything is there in you.
- Because our minds are full of preconceived notions and expectations, we are unable to enjoy life.
- Meditation is one of the ways to remove the preconceived notions from our minds and to bring about proper awareness.
6.02.2007
NEGLECT (CANCER, MASS MURDER) IS CHURCH/STATE PROTECTED
The opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is indifference or appathy. Rollo May
NEGLECT (CANCER, MASS MURDER) IS
CHURCH / STATE PROTECTED:
NEGLECT (CANCER, MASS MURDER) IS
CHURCH / STATE PROTECTED:
THE CHURCH & STATE WILL PUNISH YOU IF
YOU SPEAK OUT OR ACT. AT MINIMUM THEY WILL LET YOU STARVE.
Well, this is a problem. Archibishop Camara and others of the great Militants for Family written of by Guinan speak of this, but virtually no one else.
The great Mass Murder is not recognized as a crime - Neglect:
- 18,000 children starve every day
- 24,000 of all ages starve every day
- Dafur is in its 5th year of genocide
- Millions are needlessly dying of AIDS
- Congo: 4 million have been murdered so our computers are cheap and no action to stop it.
- Etc.
- Etc.
This is a problem. What is the answer?
"Be the change you want to see in the world," Gandhi.
"Be evidence, be communication, be a shout about the problem of neglect," Start Loving.
"ANYWAY." Prayer of Teresa & Keith
Source
1. The version found written on the wall in Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta:
-this version is credited to Mother Teresa
2. The Original Version:
The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith
© 1968, 2001 Kent M. Keith
1. The version found written on the wall in Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta:
- People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
- If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
- If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
- If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
- What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
- If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
- The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
- Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
- In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
-this version is credited to Mother Teresa
2. The Original Version:
The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith
- People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.Love them anyway.
- If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.Do good anyway.
- If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.Succeed anyway.
- The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.Do good anyway.
- Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.Be honest and frank anyway.
- The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.Think big anyway.
- People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
- What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.Build anyway.
- People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.Help people anyway.
- Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.Give the world the best you have anyway.
© 1968, 2001 Kent M. Keith
Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
I WILL STAND WITH TRUTH AS IT COSTS MY LIFE
"I'm deeply impressed by that moment when Christ stands alone before the world figured in Pilate. The truth is left alone, his own followers have been afraid. Truth is fearfully daring, and only heroes can follow the truth. So much so that Peter, who has said he will die if need be, flees like a coward and Christ stands alone." Oscar Romero
Start Loving, A WITNESS TO THE POWER AND JOY OF THE ALMIGHTY:
Of course I will not really know how long I'll do this, until my time is up!
But I am so "alone." For years now I am blessed with some occasional, and loving, supporters.
BUT I AM IN THE TRENCH, I AM IN THE "FOXHOLE" ALONE, FOR MORE THAN A DECADE. AND I HAVE NO INCLINATION TO STOP, THAT I MIGHT FIND "COMPANY." I HAVE EVERY INCLINATION TO CONTINUE TO STAND WITH THE TRUTH, ALONE, FOR AS LONG AS I HAVE "BREATH." I FIND THIS AMAZING - A TESTIMONY TO THE POWER, JOY AND ABUNDANT "LIFE" OF THE "ALMIGHTY.'
Oh, I want company! For selfish reasons. For reasons of successful Militant Brotherliness, my religion.
BUT, TRUTH = LIFE. STANDING WITH "TRUTH" IS BEING ALIVE. Yes, it may well cost "PULSE," a small price to pay.
"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it," Gandhi
"There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e., the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being," Gandhi
Start Loving, A WITNESS TO THE POWER AND JOY OF THE ALMIGHTY:
Of course I will not really know how long I'll do this, until my time is up!
But I am so "alone." For years now I am blessed with some occasional, and loving, supporters.
BUT I AM IN THE TRENCH, I AM IN THE "FOXHOLE" ALONE, FOR MORE THAN A DECADE. AND I HAVE NO INCLINATION TO STOP, THAT I MIGHT FIND "COMPANY." I HAVE EVERY INCLINATION TO CONTINUE TO STAND WITH THE TRUTH, ALONE, FOR AS LONG AS I HAVE "BREATH." I FIND THIS AMAZING - A TESTIMONY TO THE POWER, JOY AND ABUNDANT "LIFE" OF THE "ALMIGHTY.'
Oh, I want company! For selfish reasons. For reasons of successful Militant Brotherliness, my religion.
BUT, TRUTH = LIFE. STANDING WITH "TRUTH" IS BEING ALIVE. Yes, it may well cost "PULSE," a small price to pay.
"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it," Gandhi
"There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e., the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being," Gandhi
6.01.2007
SOLDIERS HAVE LOWER LIFE / HEALTH EXPECTANCY
If this does not hold true for a Soldier of the Almighty, then s/he is not really a soldier of the Almighty, not on such a suffering planet as this one.
"If men are not willing to practice the way of non-violence [Militant Global Brotherliness] with the same kind of commitment and recklessness of cost or consequences as they practice the way of war and as Communists work for Communism, clearly non-violence will not work." A. J. Muste
"Soldiers in the horror of battle offer solemn testimony that life is not a hunt for pleasure, but an engagement for service; that there are things more valuable than life; that the world is not a vacuum. Either we make it an altar for God or it is invaded by demons. There can be no neutrality. Either we are ministers of the sacred or slaves of evil. Let the blasphemy of our time not become an eternal scandal. Let future generations not loathe us for having failed to preserve what prophets and saints, martyrs and scholars have created in thousands of years. The apostles of force have shown that they are great in evil. Let us reveal that we can be as great in goodness. We will survive if we shall be as fine and sacrificial in our homes and offices, in our Congress and clubs, as our soldiers are on the fields of battle." Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel
"If men are not willing to practice the way of non-violence [Militant Global Brotherliness] with the same kind of commitment and recklessness of cost or consequences as they practice the way of war and as Communists work for Communism, clearly non-violence will not work." A. J. Muste
"Soldiers in the horror of battle offer solemn testimony that life is not a hunt for pleasure, but an engagement for service; that there are things more valuable than life; that the world is not a vacuum. Either we make it an altar for God or it is invaded by demons. There can be no neutrality. Either we are ministers of the sacred or slaves of evil. Let the blasphemy of our time not become an eternal scandal. Let future generations not loathe us for having failed to preserve what prophets and saints, martyrs and scholars have created in thousands of years. The apostles of force have shown that they are great in evil. Let us reveal that we can be as great in goodness. We will survive if we shall be as fine and sacrificial in our homes and offices, in our Congress and clubs, as our soldiers are on the fields of battle." Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel
5.31.2007
"SAVED" BY THE "TOXIC WASTE REFLEX"
Please think of it. Start Loving is pretty high on this finding and walking the Path thing. Yes.
Start Loving just hours ago wrote this confessional: SERVING FROM MY HEAD, LOST HEAVEN. And I've been writing a lot on similar topics. You would think this would be really helpful!
Start Loving, just moments after writing this confessional, and all these hopeful posts, including one's exactly on "Toxic Waste," Start Loving greedily continued the Error, the Sinning - eating like a pig, while my Darfur Family needs me starving to skeleton level. Hmmm.
Part of the problem is that I am physically in a Temptation rich environment - the Peace Center. I pick up and deliver delicious food, and I sit in a house full of it. You should see the cookies. The chocolate and ginger cookies are the most delicious I've ever tasted! And, after 90+ days of sever calorie limits, I'M HUNGRY!
So, Start Loving has plenty of excuses. But I don't want excuses. I want the Path. I want to be with the Almighty. I want to feel Clean. I want to feel what Heaven feels like - Pure, Peaceful, Loving, Connected, Live. I WANT THE GENOCIDE TO STOP, I WANT TO BE SALVATION TO THE WORLD... But, I want more cookies.
Hmmm. Although I've just been "writing" about "Toxic Waste", I've not brought into mind the "Toxic Waste Reflex," that I think we can learn to invoke. Our bodies have a quick "idea" shut-off mechanism.The most success I've had in 47 years with stopping my nail and cheek biting habit is for the last 14 weeks. Two reasons:
- I've been in a Temptation-Poor environment; marching all waking hours consumes the energy and postures that are conducive to these habits;
- I've been successfully invoking a "Toxic Waste Reflex." I thought of doing this when my brother got out of the hospital, having almost died from his smoking habit. I could see that his next cigarette could be his last. I thought to myself, "what if your next bit, of cheek or finger nail was your last?" There has been 99.999999% cessation ever since. Hmmmm.
Once the "Temptation" has more than a second's consideration in the brain, you are probably done for. The way to avoid death by "Toxic Waste" is to not let it in in the first place!
Well, after about three days of complete failure, Error, Sin... for the last hour, treating "Mental Temptation" like Toxic Waste - Instant Death [which it is] I am invoking the "Toxic Waste Reflex."
Will deliberate invocation of the "Toxic Waste Reflex" be enough to "Save" me? Hmmm. For the last hour it has.
SERVING FROM MY HEAD, LOST HEAVEN
Start Loving, reporting in.
I am a sinner. What a relief. How hopeful. It is just slight, but even so, more than previously I am glimpsing the value in recognizing my "sinful" nature. Why? Forewarned is forearmed! If don't feel license or allowance from this recognition, and I want NONE! But it is helpful, and hopeful for me to be more acutely aware that "gravity" will always have the tendency to pull me down, for me to "fall." Only through constant vigilance and effort can I hope to achieve and retain the "heights" of Heaven.
For the last 5 days I have been largely away from the Sudan Embassy Vigil, covering for my sister Ellen while she is away. My primary use of time has been covering her food collection and distribution activities, and working on weeks worth of blogging backlog - Preaching the Almighty, Preaching the "Kingdom" on this site.
Pretty noble stuff, right? Heavenly, right? NOT FOR ME.
Not in this sense - I have fallen back out of Heaven!!!!
I am a sinner. What a relief. How hopeful. It is just slight, but even so, more than previously I am glimpsing the value in recognizing my "sinful" nature. Why? Forewarned is forearmed! If don't feel license or allowance from this recognition, and I want NONE! But it is helpful, and hopeful for me to be more acutely aware that "gravity" will always have the tendency to pull me down, for me to "fall." Only through constant vigilance and effort can I hope to achieve and retain the "heights" of Heaven.
For the last 5 days I have been largely away from the Sudan Embassy Vigil, covering for my sister Ellen while she is away. My primary use of time has been covering her food collection and distribution activities, and working on weeks worth of blogging backlog - Preaching the Almighty, Preaching the "Kingdom" on this site.
Pretty noble stuff, right? Heavenly, right? NOT FOR ME.
Not in this sense - I have fallen back out of Heaven!!!!
- I've allowed no time for Prayer,
- I've allotted massive time for "Head" work - the blogging,
- I'm in a safe, comfortable, resource rich environment - tons of comfort and food (I'm tasked by our Father with driving my weight to skeleton level.
I'VE BEEN EATING LIKE A PIG, DESPITE THAT DARFUR NEEDS ME ON A SEVERELY CALORIE REDUCED DIET! AND I'M HAPPY WITH MYSELF! AND I AM FEELING DIRTY, UNCLEAN, "FALLEN."
AM I EVIL? Hmmm. Maybe more than ever before I am finding some tiny sympathy with the prevailing "A Christian" notion that we are fallen and needy. In some sense I "AM" my body, more than I am my Spirit, the Almighty within us.
This, for me, points again to how enormously critical it is to manage our environments and to deliberately and carefully pay attention. "PAY ATTENTION" LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT. Guidance for my young friends, of every age.
5.29.2007
Misc. Quotes
- "Dissent without resistance is consent." Henry David Thoreau
- "When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint, but when I ask why people should be hungry, they call me a communist." Brazilian Archbishop Dom Helder Camara
- "It is not how much you give, but how much you have left over after giving that God counts" Godwin Penrhyn-Lowe
- States are not moral agents; people are, and they can impose moral standards on powerful institutions. If they do not, the fine words will remain weapons. - Noam Chomsky, Rogue State.
- Generosity is not measured by how much you give. It's measured by how much you have left. - Bishop Fulton Sheen
- All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can be refuted by science: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.
- Bertrand Russell - "What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life." - Henry Nouwen-In the Name of Jesus, 1989
- "The giving of love is an education in itself." Eleanor Roosevelt
- “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” Edmund Burke
- There is but one unconditional commandment, which is that we should seek incessantly, with fear and trembling, so to vote and to act as to bring about the very largest total of good which we can see.
-William James
The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life - "Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give." Eleanor Roosevelt
- "The mere sense of living is joy enough." Emily Dickinson
- "Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!" Friedrich Nietzsche
- "Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value." Albert Einstein
- "During [these] periods of relaxation after concentrated intellectual activity, the intuitive mind seems to take over and can produce the sudden clarifying insights which give so much joy and delight." Fritjof Capra, physicist
- "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy." George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Man and Superman, Epistle Dedicatory
- "The joy in life is to be used for a purpose. I want to be used up when I die." George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
- Be absolutely determined to enjoy what you do. Gerry Sikorski
- If your capacity to acquire has outstripped your capacity to enjoy, you are on the way to the scrap-heap. Glen Buck
- While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole. That is why I dance. Hans Bos
- We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)
- The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy. Henry Ward Beecher
- I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778)
- People who enjoy what they are doing invariably do it well. Joe Gibbs
A joy that's shared is a joy made double. John Ray - Sacred space and sacred time and something joyous to do is all we need. Almost anything then becomes a continuous and increasing joy. What you have to do, you do with play. I think a good way to conceive of sacred space is as a playground. If what you're doing seems like play, you are in it. But you can't play with my toys, you have to have your own. Your life should have yielded some. Older people play with life experiences and realizations or with thoughts they like to entertain. In my case, I have books I like to read that don't lead anywhere. Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion - Reflections on the Art of Living; selected and edited by Diane K. Osborn
- I've grown to realize the joy that comes from little victories is preferable to the fun that comes from ease and the pursuit of pleasure. Lawana Blackwell, The Courtship of the Vicar's Daughter, 1998
- Joy fills the body and expands beyond its bounds.The intellect is quieted by joy.The body bridges to the spirit via joy.It's good stuff is joy! Leah Klein
- When people ponder 'the big questions' like 'who am I?' and 'what's the meaning of life' the answer rarely seems to be about joy. I know love seems to be the usual answer but that gets interpreted, misinterpreted, reinterpreted endlessly whereas joy seems a less confused feeling - pure essence, laughter, lightness, richness, playful, expansive, encompassing, boundless. Leah Klein
- Such is human psychology that if we don't express our joy, we soon cease to feel it. Lin Yutang
- I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy! Louise Bogan
- It is essential to our well-being, and to our lives, that we play and enjoy life. Marcia Wieder
- Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
The first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) - May your walls know joy; May every room hold laughter and every window open to great possibility. Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey, 1995
- Enjoy the journey, enjoy ever moment, and quit worrying about winning and losing. Matt Biondi
The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it. Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592) - Never let anyone steal your joy. Mike Richards
Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997) - The joy of a spirit is the measure of its power. Ninon de Lenclos (1620 - 1705)
I define joy as a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace - a connection to what matters. Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine - There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness. Pearl Buck (1892 - 1973)
- Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing. Phil Jackson
- Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile. Pierre Coneille
- To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others. Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)
- The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof. Richard Bach
- Joy is not in things; it is in us. Richard Wagner
No joy can equal the joy of serving others. Sai Baba - Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy. Sarah Ban Breathnach
- My mind to me a kingdom is,Such present joys therein I find,That it excels all other bliss. Sir Edward Dyer
- Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile. Sir Wilfred Grenfell (1865 - 1940)
- There is no greater joy nor greater reward than to make a fundamental difference in someone's life. Sister Mary Rose McGeady
- When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground from beneath your feet. Stanislaw J. Lec (1909 - 1966), "Unkempt Thoughts"
- Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time. T. S. Elliot
- Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. Thich Nhat Hanh
- Cease, every joy, to glimmer on my mind,But leave---oh! leave the light of Hope behind. Thomas Campbell (1777 - 1844)
- Joy comes from using your potential. Will Schultz
- Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2
- I wish you all the joy that you can wish. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), (Merchant of Venice)
- You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. Ziggy, character in comic strip by Tom Wilson
- Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997)
- Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
- The world is extremely interesting to a joyful soul.” Alexandra Stoddard (American philosopher and designer)
- The joy that isn't shared dies young. Anne Sexton
I do it for the joy it brings, cause I'm a joyful girl. 'Cause the world owes us nothing, we owe each other the world. Ani Difranco (American Singer, Song Writer and Guitarist. b.1970) - I asked God for all things, that I might enjoy life. God gave life, that I might enjoy all things. Anonymous Author
- Unless each day can be looked back upon by an individual as one in which he has had some fun, some joy, some real satisfaction, that day is a loss. Anonymous Author
- It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live. Bertrand Russell
- The joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days. Bible: Ecclesiasticus. XXX. 22
- The only joy in the world is to begin. Cesare Pavese (1908 - 1950)
- Joy is but the sign that creative emotion is fulfilling its purpose. Charles Du Bos
- The enjoyment of life would be instantly gone if you removed the possibility of doing something. Chauncey Depew
- Do not judge men by mere appearances; for the light laughter that bubbles on the lip often mantles over the depths of sadness, and the serious look may be the sober veil that covers a divine peace and joy. E. H. Chapin
- When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. Cherokee Indian Saying
- One joy scatters a hundred griefs. Chinese Proverb
- Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. Earl Nightingale
- Give not over thy soul to sorrow; and afflict not thyself in thy own counsel. Gladness of heart is the life of man and the joyfulness of man is length of days. Ecclesiastes
- Live and work but do not forget to play, to have fun in life and really enjoy it. Eileen Caddy
A "CHRISTIAN" Presbyterian vision!!!
This is thrilling and exciting. Is it representitive of the real walk of these people? I pray that it is:
3/22/2007
No Pollyanna He: Following Jesus in a Time of Fear
Below is the sermon delivered by Rick Ufford-Chase following the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, given at New York Ave. Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C., on March 18th, 2007.
Isaiah 58: 6-9
Luke 6: 27-31
Everything I am going to share with you this morning is true, except for the part that hasn’t happened yet . . .
Once upon a time, not so very long ago,
The people of our churches across the United States were afraid. No one knew exactly where the fear had come from, for they knew that their churches had not always been held captive by their fear, but somehow they had grown more and more comfortable, and from comfort it had been a short jump to the sin of worshiping false gods - mostly the false gods of wealth and materialism and the capitulation to the seductions of over-consumption. As they grew increasingly attached to their belongings and to the illusion that they themselves had created their own good fortune, their comfort led them surely and inexorably down the slippery path to fear, for when we believe that our good fortune has been the result of our own efforts, when we slowly lose the certain knowledge that our help and our hope comes only in the Lord, the pressure to maintain our good fortune becomes almost unbearable, and we eventually dig ourselves into a pit of fear so deep that it is impossible to see God any longer.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that our people intentionally turned away from God. It’s more that the foundation of our faith changed in subtle and largely unnoticed ways. We still, many of us, anyway, went to church each week, but our services of worship in too many places became empty platitudes about our dependence on God that few of us actually believed.
As our worship and our preaching and our prayers became more and more disconnected from the growing reality that our lives were now dedicated to false gods and to the security offered by other gods, it became harder and harder to convince our children and our grandchildren that there was any need to go to church at all. “Of what use is a community of believers that lives in denial,” the next generations asked?
No one smells hypocrisy faster than a teenager or young adult, and in our most honest moments, most of us had to admit that our sanctuary had become havens of hypocrisy. Whatever the message about the foundations of our faith that we espoused from our pulpits, it had become clear that we were a people living far from the gospel values we espoused and that we had little intention of questioning our growing independence from God or challenging our obsession with securing our own safety.
Then, on September 11, 2001, the narcissism of our individual races to the illusion of security, and the empty promises of churches that no longer were filled with a people who needed God, were transformed into a national obsession with security for a people who lived in fear. Almost overnight, our fear as a people became our defining characteristic, and as it did so, we lost all sense of reason. Though our nation was, by any reasonable measure, the most powerful of power brokers in the world, our entire country fell captive to the most potent and frightening of combinations - we became a superpower that understood itself to be the victim.
Though I’m not trained as an historian, it does seem to me that such a combination has inevitably marked the beginning of the end for the great nations of the world throughout history. In the same way that a playground bully inevitably finds himself isolated, alone and spiraling into a life of self-destruction, a nation whose churches have lost the ability to correct the bullying characteristics of their own people also will eventually fall.
But then, one bitterly cold, rainy and snowy day in Washington, D.C. in the late winter of 2007, something happened that suggested to a few careful observers that things were beginning to change. It wasn’t a lone event, and those who had the good fortune to participate were not particularly special. It was more like a tipping point that U.S. Christians of future generations would look back on as a moment that marked a new day - a Boston Tea Party kind of moment whose very inevitableness gave it a special, maybe even an overblown kind of deeper meaning. Individual Christians had already been experiencing similar epiphanies for some time. What made this moment special was that it was such a powerful sign to the participants and to the world that this was a collective “gathering up” of the vision of the people of God.
That night - March 16th, 2007, in defiance of a valiant attempt by the weather to keep it from happening (some reflected that perhaps it was God’s way of trying to test the resolve of God’s people), almost four thousand Christians from across the United States gathered at the National Cathedral and New York Ave. Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. Simultaneously, thousands of others gathered at more than two hundred churches in communities across the country.
They heard the voice of a mother who had lost her son, a fallen soldier who was a member of the National Guard, and many wept as she expressed the anguish of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of mothers who have wept for the sons they have lost throughout the foolish course of the countless wars of human history.
Rev. Raphael Warnock rose that night to beg his church and his nation to give up their meaningless arguments about winning or losing the war on terror and instead to embrace the far more critical challenge of avoiding the loss of our nation’s soul.
Many other wonderful words were spoken that night as the National Cathedral was filled with candles and the congregation sang as if they genuinely believed that their song had the power to move the entire country to reclaim its foundational values.
I had the good fortune to be there that night. As I participated in that worship to reverse the Church’s obsession with fear - as I listened to the Rev. Jim Wallis shake the very walls of the Cathedral with his insistence that this worship would mark the beginning of the end of the war in Iraq - I had an overwhelming sense that we were reclaiming our very souls.
Later that night as the worship came to an end, three thousand people spilled out into the snow and the bitter wind to carry their candles - the light of the nonviolent Jesus - to the White House. And then, there was a small miracle - the sort of little miracle that has always appeared at critical moments to give hope to the people of God. Almost in a single instant, the wind ceased and the snow stopped falling and there was a dead calm. It reminded me of the story of the stormy sea crossing in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark.
Together, the three thousand people walked through the cold with their candles. They sang and they prayed and they held hands and the children ran on ahead and they lifted their candles high and they continued to reclaim their souls. When they arrived at the White House, they were met by more than six hundred sisters and brothers who had walked from New York Ave. Presbyterian Church and whose candles welcomed them to Lafeyette Park.
A short time later, most of those assembled carried their candles around the White House to encircle our President with light and to pray for a new kind of courage - the courage to stand against fear. Two hundred and twenty-two people crossed a police line that night and were arrested as they closed the circle of light around the White House, praying on the sidewalk in front of the White House until the last of them was arrested and taken away at about 2:30 in the morning on that bitterly cold night.
What took place that night as our people stood against our obsession with fear and reclaimed our souls reminded me of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., forty years and three weeks earlier, as he stood against the fear and the violence of war of his own time. Dr. King said that:
The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. How much longer must we play at deadly war games before we heed the plaintive pleas of the unnumbered dead and maimed of past wars? Why can’t we at long last grow up, and take off our blindfolds, chart new courses, put our hands to the rudder, and set sail for the distant destination, the port of peace?”
Dr. King went on to say:
We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say ‘we must not wage war.’ It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not only on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace.
My friends, what took place on that night was critically important as a collective sign that the participants made that things were beginning to change, but what mattered far, far more was what happened next . . .
As those Christians left that night and returned to their communities, they discovered many others like them who were on fire with the possibility of reclaiming their own biblical traditions and the words of the earliest prophets of the Old Testament, who called their people to account in similar moments of fear in their own time. They recalled the words of the prophet Isaiah, recorded in the 58th chapter of the book of Isaiah, in which he said:
Is not this the fast (the kind of sacrifice) I choose:
To loose the bonds of injustice,
To undo the thongs of the yoke,
To let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And bring the homeless poor into your house;
When you see the naked, to cover them,
And not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
And your healing shall spring up quickly;
Your vindicator shall go before you,
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call and the Lord will answer;
You shall cry for help, and God will say, Here I am.
Together, Christians across the United States began opening their eyes to Isaiah’s call for justice for the poorest among us, and little by little, their churches and their communities were transformed as they recognized the fundamental truth of Isaiah’s words - that all people - all over the world - are in fact our family, and that any attempt to hide from them, or to abuse that core conviction, is deeply displeasing to our God.
They began re-reading the stories and the words of Jesus, among them those we read from the 6th chapter of the book of Luke this morning:
But I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Together, in small groups at first - and then in larger and larger communities - they reclaimed the gospel and committed to stand against fear, to eschew the glittering illusions of security promised by the war on terror, to end the war in Iraq, and to stand firmly once again as communities of faith that functioned as resistance to the empty promises of the powers and the principalities of their time. Instead, they opted for the harder work - but surer bet - of safety that is built on community, on reaching out to those of whom we are most afraid, of following Jesus’ clear command to love our enemies and of building the real safety that is found only in the Isaiah notion of justice and in Jesus consistent insistence that our security is found only in right relationship.
You see, many in the church of that time still believed that Jesus was kind of a little bit Pollyanna - that he didn’t really mean what he said, or that his words were no longer really relevant. But let me share what took place because of that wonderful witness on a cold March night in Washington:
A reporter from Al Jazeera was present in the Cathedral that night, and the following day, a newspaper in Tehran picked up his story and ran a picture on the front page of the Tehran paper that showed Christians who were willing to risk arrest to stand against the war. A seed was planted among some Muslims in the Middle East who began to believe that there might be potential Christian partners with whom they could build relationships. Together, in the months that followed, Muslim and Christian moderates committed to stand together against the extremists in their own traditions who cloaked their violence in religious language. Their efforts eventually led to a global, interfaith movement to create a world of genuine security - a global community that would overcome the vagaries and abuses experienced by so many who were on the underside of the global economy.
A group of students had traveled by car from Whitworth College in Spokane, WA. When their car slid on the icy roads of the Pennsylvania turnpike and they collided with a tractor trailer and ended up unscathed but in a totaled car in the median, they left the car behind and hitchhiked the rest of the way to Washington to be at the Cathedral. Later that night they were arrested as they prayed and witnessed to their faith in front of the White House. Deeply moved by their experience, the students returned to their campus committed to creating a new definition of family - an “Isaiah 58″ notion of family. The students created alternative housing at Whitworth called an Isaiah 58 house in which the students committed to simple living and to specific peace and justice projects. When other students heard about it, they copied the model and the movement began to spread like wildfire to campuses all across the country. By March of 2012, there were tens of thousands of students on campuses across the United States and they were transforming the neighborhoods in which they lived. Few people realized that it had all started on that night in Washington with the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, but God knew.
There was a chaplain there that night who was deeply moved and inspired by Rev. Warnock’s call for a surge in God’s nonviolent army, and by the deep pastoral concern that the participants lifted up for U.S. soldiers and their families. On that night, he committed to work with groups like Christian Peacemaker Teams, Nonviolent Peaceforce, and the Presbyterian Church’s Colombia Accompaniment program to build what eventually became, by the year 2025, an international movement of more than 250,000 Christians deployed as nonviolent peacemakers in situations of conflict all over the world. Though it is clear in looking back that the movement took off as a direct result of that chaplain’s experience on the cold night, no one at that time would have guessed that God could make such a think happen.
In the months that followed the witness, a group of seminary students and faculty created a new religious order in an effort to hold themselves accountable to the transformation they experienced at that worship at the National Cathedral. They took vows to live lives of simplicity and to devote themselves in their ministry to the end of war, the creation of a just global community, and the deepest care for all of God’s creation. Eventually, that religious order, which crossed all denominational boundaries, grew to include more than 50,000 pastors, nuns, priests and lay people across the country and around the world, and it all started on March 16th, 2007.
The people of New York Ave. Presbyterian Church, having been inspired as they played host to thousands of Christians who came from across the country to witness to their faith, rededicated themselves to recovering their long history of being the voice for the voiceless, the strong prophetic voice calling for justice two blocks from the White House. Coming out of that weekend, a small group of members of the church dubbed themselves the “no more business as usual” committee and vowed that they would dedicate themselves to leading the way among historic, inner city churches were transformed to the work of peacemaking and justice across the country.
And what happened to the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and some thirty other partners who had come together to plan the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq during that amazing weekend in March of ‘07? They were transformed also, by the power of what had happened to them when they committed together to boldly and unapologetically proclaim the gospel of the Prince of Peace. They became the primary protagonists - the “outside agitators” - in a faith-based peace movement that swept across the country. Historians later looked back on that time as the next great awakening - a revival and renewal of faith that opened the path to genuine security that defined the global community by the end of the twenty-first century.
My friends, everything in this story is true, except for the part that hasn’t happened yet.
We have a choice. We can opt - on this morning - to continue to live into the bland and uninspiring work of institutional maintenance that characterizes so many of our churches today. We can choose to continue our commitment to place a theological veneer over a culture of emptiness, unfulfilled promises, and fear. We can choose, if we wish, to continue to create churches that bless our affluence and our power based on a corrupted reading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Or . . .
We can choose on this day to dedicate all of our lives to the creation of a new movement of followers of Jesus Christ who know that we are called to transform the world. Someday, this weekend could be understood to have been the tipping point. The choice is ours.
Amen.
I am indebted to peacemaker and storyteller John Paul Lederach for the central idea of the power of imagination in this sermon. All of the conjecture is entirely my own. I expect that God is capable of far more creative imagination than I am able to fathom.
Biblical references are from the New Revised Standard Version.
Dr. King’s words are taken from his speech against the War in Vietnam on February 25th, 1967. I encourage you to read the entire speech, which can easily be found by typing his name and the date into an internet search engine.
Rick Ufford-Chase
3/22/2007
No Pollyanna He: Following Jesus in a Time of Fear
Below is the sermon delivered by Rick Ufford-Chase following the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, given at New York Ave. Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C., on March 18th, 2007.
Isaiah 58: 6-9
Luke 6: 27-31
Everything I am going to share with you this morning is true, except for the part that hasn’t happened yet . . .
Once upon a time, not so very long ago,
The people of our churches across the United States were afraid. No one knew exactly where the fear had come from, for they knew that their churches had not always been held captive by their fear, but somehow they had grown more and more comfortable, and from comfort it had been a short jump to the sin of worshiping false gods - mostly the false gods of wealth and materialism and the capitulation to the seductions of over-consumption. As they grew increasingly attached to their belongings and to the illusion that they themselves had created their own good fortune, their comfort led them surely and inexorably down the slippery path to fear, for when we believe that our good fortune has been the result of our own efforts, when we slowly lose the certain knowledge that our help and our hope comes only in the Lord, the pressure to maintain our good fortune becomes almost unbearable, and we eventually dig ourselves into a pit of fear so deep that it is impossible to see God any longer.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that our people intentionally turned away from God. It’s more that the foundation of our faith changed in subtle and largely unnoticed ways. We still, many of us, anyway, went to church each week, but our services of worship in too many places became empty platitudes about our dependence on God that few of us actually believed.
As our worship and our preaching and our prayers became more and more disconnected from the growing reality that our lives were now dedicated to false gods and to the security offered by other gods, it became harder and harder to convince our children and our grandchildren that there was any need to go to church at all. “Of what use is a community of believers that lives in denial,” the next generations asked?
No one smells hypocrisy faster than a teenager or young adult, and in our most honest moments, most of us had to admit that our sanctuary had become havens of hypocrisy. Whatever the message about the foundations of our faith that we espoused from our pulpits, it had become clear that we were a people living far from the gospel values we espoused and that we had little intention of questioning our growing independence from God or challenging our obsession with securing our own safety.
Then, on September 11, 2001, the narcissism of our individual races to the illusion of security, and the empty promises of churches that no longer were filled with a people who needed God, were transformed into a national obsession with security for a people who lived in fear. Almost overnight, our fear as a people became our defining characteristic, and as it did so, we lost all sense of reason. Though our nation was, by any reasonable measure, the most powerful of power brokers in the world, our entire country fell captive to the most potent and frightening of combinations - we became a superpower that understood itself to be the victim.
Though I’m not trained as an historian, it does seem to me that such a combination has inevitably marked the beginning of the end for the great nations of the world throughout history. In the same way that a playground bully inevitably finds himself isolated, alone and spiraling into a life of self-destruction, a nation whose churches have lost the ability to correct the bullying characteristics of their own people also will eventually fall.
But then, one bitterly cold, rainy and snowy day in Washington, D.C. in the late winter of 2007, something happened that suggested to a few careful observers that things were beginning to change. It wasn’t a lone event, and those who had the good fortune to participate were not particularly special. It was more like a tipping point that U.S. Christians of future generations would look back on as a moment that marked a new day - a Boston Tea Party kind of moment whose very inevitableness gave it a special, maybe even an overblown kind of deeper meaning. Individual Christians had already been experiencing similar epiphanies for some time. What made this moment special was that it was such a powerful sign to the participants and to the world that this was a collective “gathering up” of the vision of the people of God.
That night - March 16th, 2007, in defiance of a valiant attempt by the weather to keep it from happening (some reflected that perhaps it was God’s way of trying to test the resolve of God’s people), almost four thousand Christians from across the United States gathered at the National Cathedral and New York Ave. Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. Simultaneously, thousands of others gathered at more than two hundred churches in communities across the country.
They heard the voice of a mother who had lost her son, a fallen soldier who was a member of the National Guard, and many wept as she expressed the anguish of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of mothers who have wept for the sons they have lost throughout the foolish course of the countless wars of human history.
Rev. Raphael Warnock rose that night to beg his church and his nation to give up their meaningless arguments about winning or losing the war on terror and instead to embrace the far more critical challenge of avoiding the loss of our nation’s soul.
Many other wonderful words were spoken that night as the National Cathedral was filled with candles and the congregation sang as if they genuinely believed that their song had the power to move the entire country to reclaim its foundational values.
I had the good fortune to be there that night. As I participated in that worship to reverse the Church’s obsession with fear - as I listened to the Rev. Jim Wallis shake the very walls of the Cathedral with his insistence that this worship would mark the beginning of the end of the war in Iraq - I had an overwhelming sense that we were reclaiming our very souls.
Later that night as the worship came to an end, three thousand people spilled out into the snow and the bitter wind to carry their candles - the light of the nonviolent Jesus - to the White House. And then, there was a small miracle - the sort of little miracle that has always appeared at critical moments to give hope to the people of God. Almost in a single instant, the wind ceased and the snow stopped falling and there was a dead calm. It reminded me of the story of the stormy sea crossing in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark.
Together, the three thousand people walked through the cold with their candles. They sang and they prayed and they held hands and the children ran on ahead and they lifted their candles high and they continued to reclaim their souls. When they arrived at the White House, they were met by more than six hundred sisters and brothers who had walked from New York Ave. Presbyterian Church and whose candles welcomed them to Lafeyette Park.
A short time later, most of those assembled carried their candles around the White House to encircle our President with light and to pray for a new kind of courage - the courage to stand against fear. Two hundred and twenty-two people crossed a police line that night and were arrested as they closed the circle of light around the White House, praying on the sidewalk in front of the White House until the last of them was arrested and taken away at about 2:30 in the morning on that bitterly cold night.
What took place that night as our people stood against our obsession with fear and reclaimed our souls reminded me of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., forty years and three weeks earlier, as he stood against the fear and the violence of war of his own time. Dr. King said that:
The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. How much longer must we play at deadly war games before we heed the plaintive pleas of the unnumbered dead and maimed of past wars? Why can’t we at long last grow up, and take off our blindfolds, chart new courses, put our hands to the rudder, and set sail for the distant destination, the port of peace?”
Dr. King went on to say:
We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say ‘we must not wage war.’ It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not only on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace.
My friends, what took place on that night was critically important as a collective sign that the participants made that things were beginning to change, but what mattered far, far more was what happened next . . .
As those Christians left that night and returned to their communities, they discovered many others like them who were on fire with the possibility of reclaiming their own biblical traditions and the words of the earliest prophets of the Old Testament, who called their people to account in similar moments of fear in their own time. They recalled the words of the prophet Isaiah, recorded in the 58th chapter of the book of Isaiah, in which he said:
Is not this the fast (the kind of sacrifice) I choose:
To loose the bonds of injustice,
To undo the thongs of the yoke,
To let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And bring the homeless poor into your house;
When you see the naked, to cover them,
And not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
And your healing shall spring up quickly;
Your vindicator shall go before you,
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call and the Lord will answer;
You shall cry for help, and God will say, Here I am.
Together, Christians across the United States began opening their eyes to Isaiah’s call for justice for the poorest among us, and little by little, their churches and their communities were transformed as they recognized the fundamental truth of Isaiah’s words - that all people - all over the world - are in fact our family, and that any attempt to hide from them, or to abuse that core conviction, is deeply displeasing to our God.
They began re-reading the stories and the words of Jesus, among them those we read from the 6th chapter of the book of Luke this morning:
But I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Together, in small groups at first - and then in larger and larger communities - they reclaimed the gospel and committed to stand against fear, to eschew the glittering illusions of security promised by the war on terror, to end the war in Iraq, and to stand firmly once again as communities of faith that functioned as resistance to the empty promises of the powers and the principalities of their time. Instead, they opted for the harder work - but surer bet - of safety that is built on community, on reaching out to those of whom we are most afraid, of following Jesus’ clear command to love our enemies and of building the real safety that is found only in the Isaiah notion of justice and in Jesus consistent insistence that our security is found only in right relationship.
You see, many in the church of that time still believed that Jesus was kind of a little bit Pollyanna - that he didn’t really mean what he said, or that his words were no longer really relevant. But let me share what took place because of that wonderful witness on a cold March night in Washington:
A reporter from Al Jazeera was present in the Cathedral that night, and the following day, a newspaper in Tehran picked up his story and ran a picture on the front page of the Tehran paper that showed Christians who were willing to risk arrest to stand against the war. A seed was planted among some Muslims in the Middle East who began to believe that there might be potential Christian partners with whom they could build relationships. Together, in the months that followed, Muslim and Christian moderates committed to stand together against the extremists in their own traditions who cloaked their violence in religious language. Their efforts eventually led to a global, interfaith movement to create a world of genuine security - a global community that would overcome the vagaries and abuses experienced by so many who were on the underside of the global economy.
A group of students had traveled by car from Whitworth College in Spokane, WA. When their car slid on the icy roads of the Pennsylvania turnpike and they collided with a tractor trailer and ended up unscathed but in a totaled car in the median, they left the car behind and hitchhiked the rest of the way to Washington to be at the Cathedral. Later that night they were arrested as they prayed and witnessed to their faith in front of the White House. Deeply moved by their experience, the students returned to their campus committed to creating a new definition of family - an “Isaiah 58″ notion of family. The students created alternative housing at Whitworth called an Isaiah 58 house in which the students committed to simple living and to specific peace and justice projects. When other students heard about it, they copied the model and the movement began to spread like wildfire to campuses all across the country. By March of 2012, there were tens of thousands of students on campuses across the United States and they were transforming the neighborhoods in which they lived. Few people realized that it had all started on that night in Washington with the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, but God knew.
There was a chaplain there that night who was deeply moved and inspired by Rev. Warnock’s call for a surge in God’s nonviolent army, and by the deep pastoral concern that the participants lifted up for U.S. soldiers and their families. On that night, he committed to work with groups like Christian Peacemaker Teams, Nonviolent Peaceforce, and the Presbyterian Church’s Colombia Accompaniment program to build what eventually became, by the year 2025, an international movement of more than 250,000 Christians deployed as nonviolent peacemakers in situations of conflict all over the world. Though it is clear in looking back that the movement took off as a direct result of that chaplain’s experience on the cold night, no one at that time would have guessed that God could make such a think happen.
In the months that followed the witness, a group of seminary students and faculty created a new religious order in an effort to hold themselves accountable to the transformation they experienced at that worship at the National Cathedral. They took vows to live lives of simplicity and to devote themselves in their ministry to the end of war, the creation of a just global community, and the deepest care for all of God’s creation. Eventually, that religious order, which crossed all denominational boundaries, grew to include more than 50,000 pastors, nuns, priests and lay people across the country and around the world, and it all started on March 16th, 2007.
The people of New York Ave. Presbyterian Church, having been inspired as they played host to thousands of Christians who came from across the country to witness to their faith, rededicated themselves to recovering their long history of being the voice for the voiceless, the strong prophetic voice calling for justice two blocks from the White House. Coming out of that weekend, a small group of members of the church dubbed themselves the “no more business as usual” committee and vowed that they would dedicate themselves to leading the way among historic, inner city churches were transformed to the work of peacemaking and justice across the country.
And what happened to the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and some thirty other partners who had come together to plan the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq during that amazing weekend in March of ‘07? They were transformed also, by the power of what had happened to them when they committed together to boldly and unapologetically proclaim the gospel of the Prince of Peace. They became the primary protagonists - the “outside agitators” - in a faith-based peace movement that swept across the country. Historians later looked back on that time as the next great awakening - a revival and renewal of faith that opened the path to genuine security that defined the global community by the end of the twenty-first century.
My friends, everything in this story is true, except for the part that hasn’t happened yet.
We have a choice. We can opt - on this morning - to continue to live into the bland and uninspiring work of institutional maintenance that characterizes so many of our churches today. We can choose to continue our commitment to place a theological veneer over a culture of emptiness, unfulfilled promises, and fear. We can choose, if we wish, to continue to create churches that bless our affluence and our power based on a corrupted reading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Or . . .
We can choose on this day to dedicate all of our lives to the creation of a new movement of followers of Jesus Christ who know that we are called to transform the world. Someday, this weekend could be understood to have been the tipping point. The choice is ours.
Amen.
I am indebted to peacemaker and storyteller John Paul Lederach for the central idea of the power of imagination in this sermon. All of the conjecture is entirely my own. I expect that God is capable of far more creative imagination than I am able to fathom.
Biblical references are from the New Revised Standard Version.
Dr. King’s words are taken from his speech against the War in Vietnam on February 25th, 1967. I encourage you to read the entire speech, which can easily be found by typing his name and the date into an internet search engine.
Rick Ufford-Chase
When is it OK to neglect an infant? LIFE IS SACRED
If we are to enter the Kingdom we must learn to remain attached to "the least of these my family."
When is it OK to neglect an infant? LIFE IS SACRED. This idea may help.
When is it OK to neglect an infant? LIFE IS SACRED. This idea may help.
Kingdom "FUNDING" pays massive dividends
See "Thy Kingom [IS FUNDED] as thy will is done..."
Kingdom "FUNDING" pays massive dividends. There is a huge multiplier. Jesus had just one life but it has been paying dividends for thousands of years. Think of an important kindness that was done to you when you were a young child. Has it affected you just once? It has affected, encouraged, enlightened... you many times, and will continue to do so, right? And therefore you will "fund" the Kingdom for others and yourself much more, and many more times than if this original kindness were not done to you, right?
So, take heart! Keep on!
Kingdom "FUNDING" pays massive dividends. There is a huge multiplier. Jesus had just one life but it has been paying dividends for thousands of years. Think of an important kindness that was done to you when you were a young child. Has it affected you just once? It has affected, encouraged, enlightened... you many times, and will continue to do so, right? And therefore you will "fund" the Kingdom for others and yourself much more, and many more times than if this original kindness were not done to you, right?
So, take heart! Keep on!
Never Again... ANY PERSONAL PRICE NOT PAID
The opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is indifference or appathy. Rollo May
"Thy Kingom [IS FUNDED] as thy will is done..."
The reality, the Truth is that the world is in extreme suffering and that our individual response needs to be extreme. "The question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice--or will we be extremists for the cause of justice," asked Dr. King.
However, by way of encouragement it was very helpful for me to realize the other day: "Thy Kingdom [IS FUNDED] as thy will is done..." Every Brotherliness is Brick in the Kingdom. Every time we do our Father's Will out of love we lay a Brick, we Fund the Kingdom for our Dearest, our Family, ourselves. Now, if the bridge must be completed for our Beloved to get to the hospital can we take much comfort in one brick? NO! But we can and should take come encouragement from that one brick.
However, by way of encouragement it was very helpful for me to realize the other day: "Thy Kingdom [IS FUNDED] as thy will is done..." Every Brotherliness is Brick in the Kingdom. Every time we do our Father's Will out of love we lay a Brick, we Fund the Kingdom for our Dearest, our Family, ourselves. Now, if the bridge must be completed for our Beloved to get to the hospital can we take much comfort in one brick? NO! But we can and should take come encouragement from that one brick.
ONE ACTION IS WORTH 1000 WORDS
"Preach the gospel at all time; when necessary, use words," St. Francis
"An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching." MK Gandhi
“One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons”. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching." MK Gandhi
“One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons”. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Nonprofits / NGO's = MERCENARIES?
... and the new crop of student "activists" that are told that activism is doing something for which you get "credit," a "grade." Oh my God. We are ripping the Heart entirely out of these High School and College children.
There is an insideous disease that is destroying our humanity. The disease is in the form of a notion that we can "pay" "mercinaries" to take care of our human Family.
"In answer to the question, “What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?" Lincoln replied: “It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, our army and our navy. These are not our reliance against tyranny. All of these may be turned against us without making us weaker for the struggle. . . . Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere,"
Gandhi said, "Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living ?"
There is an insideous disease that is destroying our humanity. The disease is in the form of a notion that we can "pay" "mercinaries" to take care of our human Family.
"In answer to the question, “What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?" Lincoln replied: “It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, our army and our navy. These are not our reliance against tyranny. All of these may be turned against us without making us weaker for the struggle. . . . Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere,"
Gandhi said, "Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living ?"
"PAYING THE PRICE" SETS THE PRICE / WORTH / VALUE
"PAYING THE PRICE" SETS THE PRICE / WORTH / VALUE.
Think about the importance of what you do, and do not do. Correctly, this principal underlies "free markets." The price, the value is what people pay! Everything else is illusory!
When we pay lip service - that sets the price.
When we "pay the price" with our lives like Beko, King, Gandhi, Teresa, Diane Wilson and others have done - THAT SETS THE PRICE.
OPINION LEADERS, PIONEERS SET THE PRICE THAT OTHERS THEN BEGIN TO PAY!
Think about the importance of what you do, and do not do. Correctly, this principal underlies "free markets." The price, the value is what people pay! Everything else is illusory!
When we pay lip service - that sets the price.
When we "pay the price" with our lives like Beko, King, Gandhi, Teresa, Diane Wilson and others have done - THAT SETS THE PRICE.
OPINION LEADERS, PIONEERS SET THE PRICE THAT OTHERS THEN BEGIN TO PAY!
BROTHERLINESS = PAYING "THE PRICE" FOR OTHERS
BROTHERLINESS = PAYING "THE PRICE" FOR THE NEEDS OF OTHERS OR FOR THE MODEST AND NECESSARY NEEDS OF OURSELVES.
This is a monumentally important discovery for me. Is there anything else that needs to be said?
This is a monumentally important discovery for me. Is there anything else that needs to be said?
VIOLENCE = EXTORTING "THE PRICE" FROM OTHERS
VIOLENCE = EXTORTING "THE PRICE" FOR WHAT WE WANT FROM OTHERS.
This is a monumentally important discovery for me. Is there anything else that needs to be said?
This is a monumentally important discovery for me. Is there anything else that needs to be said?
"GOD BLESS YOU" is the salutation Start receives now
There is little that I have done in many months that is not just "surrender" to the Almighty as best I am able. This includes the tattoo on my forehead. Divine Inspiration is how I experience it.
Almost always when I encounter people face to face, if they engage me, somewhere in the dialog is the saluation, "God bless you." 99% of the time. It seems genuine. It seems deep. It seems comfortable. It seems spontaneous.
Hmmm. It seems that more than before I bring a sacred sense of God, of the Almighty to their Spirit. Hmmm. That is the entirety of what I want to do!
Thanks Father.
Almost always when I encounter people face to face, if they engage me, somewhere in the dialog is the saluation, "God bless you." 99% of the time. It seems genuine. It seems deep. It seems comfortable. It seems spontaneous.
Hmmm. It seems that more than before I bring a sacred sense of God, of the Almighty to their Spirit. Hmmm. That is the entirety of what I want to do!
Thanks Father.
Quantum
Most of what Saves us is not just a little bit better. It is a quantum leap better, more pure, more of the Almighty:
- Gandhi
- Teresa
- Diane Wilson
- ML King
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Steve Beko
- Etc.
In the most sacred of essays, Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel gives us a hint to this phenomenon:
"God will return to us when we shall be willing to let Him in into our banks and factories, into our Congress and clubs, into our courts and investigating committees, into our homes and theaters. For God is everywhere or nowhere, the Father of all men or no man, concerned about everything or nothing."
Tolstoy's life of DIVERSIONS was his DEATH
By his early 50's Tolstoy had written all his Novels, made a fortune, and lost the will to live.
Then he did his own translation of the Gospel and found 40 more years of life in poverty serving "the least of these my family."
Then he did his own translation of the Gospel and found 40 more years of life in poverty serving "the least of these my family."
HUMANKIND'S GREATS ESCAPED ENCULTURATION
Hmmm. Did we get our Greats from enculturating them: Jesus, Gandhi, King, Diane Wilson, William Thomas, Davinci, St. Francis, Teresa of Calcutta, Motzart....
- In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards. Mark Twain
- School-days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense and common decency. It doesn't take a reasonably bright boy long to discover that most of what is rammed into him is nonsense, and that no one really cares very much whether he learns it or not. H. L. Mencken
- From my expereince of hundreds of children, I know that they have perhaps a finer sense of honour than you or I have. The greatest lessons in life, if we would but stoop and humble ourselves, we would learn not from grown-up learned men, but from the so-called ignorant children. MK Gandhi
- To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society. Theodore Roosevelt
- A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.
Theodore Roosevelt - Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russell
- I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. Mark Twain
- The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. Albert Einstein
- My education was interrupted only by my schooling. Winston Churchill
- "Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education." Bertrand Russell
- "We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought." Bertrand Russell
- Your learning is useless to you till you have lost your text-books, burnt your lecture notes, and forgotten the minutiae which you learnt by heart for the examination. Alfred North Whitehead
- Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school. William Shakespeare
- I think my deepest criticism of the educational system at that period [junior high and high school], and that also applies to other periods, is that it's all based upon a distrust of the student. Don't trust him to follow his own leads; guide him; tell him what to do; tell him what he should think; tell him what he should learn. Consequently at the very age when he should be developing adult characteristics of choice and decision making, when he should be trusted on some of those things, trusted to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes, he is, instead, regimented and shoved into a curriculum, whether it fits him or not. Carl Rogers
- He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on. Benjamin Franklin
- College isn't the place to go for ideas. Helen Keller
- If the colleges were better, if they really had it, you would need to get the police at the gates to keep order in the inrushing multitude. See in college how we thwart the natural love of learning by leaving the natural method of teaching what each wishes to learn, and insisting that you shall learn what you have no taste or capacity for. The college, which should be a place of delightful labour, is made odious and unhealthy, and the young men are tempted to frivolous amusements to rally their jaded spirits. I would have the studies elective. Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure interest in knowledge. The wise instructor accomplishes this by opening to his pupils precisely the attractions the study has for himself. The marking is a system for schools, not for the college; for boys, not for men; and it is an ungracious work to put on a professor. Ralf Waldo Emerson
- You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves. St. Francis
- A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. George Bernard Shaw
- It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. Albert Einstein
- It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. Albert Einstein
- The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. Alvin Toffler
- Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands. Anne Frank
- Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction. Annie Sullivan
- If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning. Carl Rogers
THE INFANT IS "CREATION" AND "CREATOR"
Why are we so overwhelmingly drawn to the infant? THE INFANT IS "CREATION" AND "CREATOR." The infant is the closest we will ever come to encountering entirely The Almighty, The Creator.
We are neotenous creatures, among the only such creatures on the planet. Neotenous: Retention of juvenile characteristics in the adults of a species.
We are to remain close approximations of the Creator. Jesus died to try to make this True for us.
We are neotenous creatures, among the only such creatures on the planet. Neotenous: Retention of juvenile characteristics in the adults of a species.
We are to remain close approximations of the Creator. Jesus died to try to make this True for us.
Life happens at the "GROWTH TIP"
Growth tip:
- Where it happens in plants
- An extremely small part of the "whole"
- Presumably "painful"
- "Alien" from the mass
- "Lonely"
- Essential to life
- "Leading"
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