Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Eve of All Saints; Eve of Samhain
The imperfect health [of soul], that is to say, the imperfect love,
of the dying brings with it, of necessity, great fear; and the smaller
the love, the greater is the fear. (14)
- The Fourteenth of the 95 Theses of Martin Luther,
published on this day and nailed to the door of
Wittenburg parish church, 1517
I read through all the 95 Theses today. First time I’ve done that. Principally of course, Luther inveighs against the selling of pardons (indulgences) by the Pope or the Church. Not very interesting - except that Luther rightly and boldly attacks the absurd idea that pardon can be bought from an “earthly” source. No wonder Erasmus (quoted in an earlier Reflection) sighed at how money/gain in his time could be squeezed out of anything either secular or religious.
It is good to be reminded that it is Love that conquers fear, including the fear of death. Isn’t it nice to think that the more energy we spend in loving, the more surprised we will be when the moment of death arrives?! It will sneak up on us, and all we will be able to say is “Oh” before we slide over. The idea is, of course, firmly anchored in Scripture. 1 John 4: “love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.”
And there’s another point. I suppose that many people fear death because they are afraid that they are going to be punished. To which I only have to say (and here I resonate with Luther, who might have felt at least a little twitch at contradicting the Pope) - God does not punish anyone. That is not in the nature of the God who is Love. If there is any “punishment” after death (and I’m not at all sure there is), it is self-imposed.
So let’s Love, and a pox on Death and all it’s minions!!
Brian+
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Banks of the Oise, 1877/1878
Alfred Sisley, French impressionist painter, born on this day, 1839
Alfred Sisley was born in Paris. I envy him! I first went to Paris when I was 58. It was cold as we birded in the Bois de Bologne - and I really don’t like the cold! The next time, it was warmer. I set off to spend a day by myself, waiting for friends to arrive. Rounding a corner on the Left Bank, I saw a charming little restaurant, free of people. I sat outside, looking over the Seine, read my novel, and ate ….. sweetbreads! Does Life get any better!
So, here is a Sisley painting. A critic said of Sisley that he “painted a world of tranquility”.
So, take a moment to gaze at the picture. Have a little tranquility before you take on the day!
Brian+
p.s. Apologies and regrets to those who can’t get emailed pictures!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 29, 2007
The ancient masters were profound and stable.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it; all we can describe is their appearance.
They were careful as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory. Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice. Shapable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley. Clear as a glass of water.
Do you have the patience to wait
until your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action rises by itself?
The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things.
- Loa-tzu, Chinese teacher
Well …………………… ah, No.
I’d like to be able to say Yes, I can “wait until the mud settles”. But, not as a conscious principle, alas. Not most of the time anyway. I most often want to act quickly, because I’m a terrible procrastinator, and I will feel even more guilty if I do nothing.
But! Procrastination has ironically helped me. While I fight within myself, time goes by. And you know what? 95% of the time, things just “go away”. And the 5% that doesn’t, I usually have to do something about - and by then I and it/they have “cooled down” somewhat and am more ready to work things out a little more cool-headedly.
It’s “your mud” (i.e., my) that has to settle. So the situation can be seen as clearly as possible, particularly the way in which I myself am muddying the waters and obscuring the clarity of a solution or response. This I hope that I can learn.
I’d better get off my procrastinating rear end and get at it!!
Brian+
The ancient masters were profound and stable.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it; all we can describe is their appearance.
They were careful as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory. Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice. Shapable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley. Clear as a glass of water.
Do you have the patience to wait
until your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action rises by itself?
The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things.
- Loa-tzu, Chinese teacher
Well …………………… ah, No.
I’d like to be able to say Yes, I can “wait until the mud settles”. But, not as a conscious principle, alas. Not most of the time anyway. I most often want to act quickly, because I’m a terrible procrastinator, and I will feel even more guilty if I do nothing.
But! Procrastination has ironically helped me. While I fight within myself, time goes by. And you know what? 95% of the time, things just “go away”. And the 5% that doesn’t, I usually have to do something about - and by then I and it/they have “cooled down” somewhat and am more ready to work things out a little more cool-headedly.
It’s “your mud” (i.e., my) that has to settle. So the situation can be seen as clearly as possible, particularly the way in which I myself am muddying the waters and obscuring the clarity of a solution or response. This I hope that I can learn.
I’d better get off my procrastinating rear end and get at it!!
Brian+
Friday, October 26, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, October 27, 2007
Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such
a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature,
whether sacred or profane, out of which profit
cannot be squeezed.
- Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch scholar, author,
and philosopher, born on this day, 1466
So, nothing new, right! Here we are, 600 years later. And what Erasmus observed of his time is uncannily descriptive of ours. I’m reading an interesting book called “Journey into Islam”, by Dr. Akbar Ahmed. Here is what he says about the effects of globalization: “Poverty kills thousands of people annually through the lack of health care and food; about one billion people earn less than a dollar a day; and, as if to mock these figures, 358 individuals own more financial wealth than half of the world’s population collectively. ….. Admittedly, societies have faced the … problems cited earlier …. Excessive interest in amassing material wealth (Ah, our Erasmus!) … (but) it is the scale and scope of globalization today that, without restraint or balance, places humankind at a dangerous point in its history.”
Have you heard about the Theology of Abundance (or “Blessing”)? It says that if you love God you will get rich (at some level). So, does that mean that all the radically poor - shall we say half of the world’s population – does not love God, and so God is punishing them?? You see (I hope!) the idiocy of such thinking. And could any so-called “theology” be more of an affront to a poor carpenter’s son, a naked saint, a Buddha with a hut for a home, a Sufi poet?
And yet they all thought themselves rich beyond imagining - and they were.
I consciously adopted a way of reminding me of where my riches lie. I give many things away. And when I move, I sell everything or give it to someone. I keep only a few treasurers of the heart and a few beautiful things. But in 40 years, my dear friends have gone with me in heart and spirit, and they constitute my riches - along with those who taught me how glorious the World can be, and how exquisitely beautiful, from a Laurentian lake to the Arizona desert.
Many seek profit out of the sacred and the profane. “Globalization” will churn its inevitable way, for I have little faith in Faith these days to teach balance and generosity.
But I’m going to try and follow the path over whose gate is written the words, “Store not up for yourselves treasures on earth”.
Brian+
Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such
a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature,
whether sacred or profane, out of which profit
cannot be squeezed.
- Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch scholar, author,
and philosopher, born on this day, 1466
So, nothing new, right! Here we are, 600 years later. And what Erasmus observed of his time is uncannily descriptive of ours. I’m reading an interesting book called “Journey into Islam”, by Dr. Akbar Ahmed. Here is what he says about the effects of globalization: “Poverty kills thousands of people annually through the lack of health care and food; about one billion people earn less than a dollar a day; and, as if to mock these figures, 358 individuals own more financial wealth than half of the world’s population collectively. ….. Admittedly, societies have faced the … problems cited earlier …. Excessive interest in amassing material wealth (Ah, our Erasmus!) … (but) it is the scale and scope of globalization today that, without restraint or balance, places humankind at a dangerous point in its history.”
Have you heard about the Theology of Abundance (or “Blessing”)? It says that if you love God you will get rich (at some level). So, does that mean that all the radically poor - shall we say half of the world’s population – does not love God, and so God is punishing them?? You see (I hope!) the idiocy of such thinking. And could any so-called “theology” be more of an affront to a poor carpenter’s son, a naked saint, a Buddha with a hut for a home, a Sufi poet?
And yet they all thought themselves rich beyond imagining - and they were.
I consciously adopted a way of reminding me of where my riches lie. I give many things away. And when I move, I sell everything or give it to someone. I keep only a few treasurers of the heart and a few beautiful things. But in 40 years, my dear friends have gone with me in heart and spirit, and they constitute my riches - along with those who taught me how glorious the World can be, and how exquisitely beautiful, from a Laurentian lake to the Arizona desert.
Many seek profit out of the sacred and the profane. “Globalization” will churn its inevitable way, for I have little faith in Faith these days to teach balance and generosity.
But I’m going to try and follow the path over whose gate is written the words, “Store not up for yourselves treasures on earth”.
Brian+
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, October 25, 2007
God can make you anything you want to be,
but you have to put everything in his hands.
When you sing gospel you have a feeling
there is a cure for what's wrong.
- Mahalia Jackson, Gospel singer,
born on this day, 1911
I think I had every record that Mahalia Jackson made when I was young. I remember one album cover (remember “albums”??) as if I still had it in front of me. A black & white photograph of her from the shoulders up, eyes characteristically closed - but they were never tight closed as I remember. They were closed in a way that looked as if they were going to flutter any minute, and open, and joy come pouring through! I have no recollection of how or why I “found” Mahalia. But obviously something of this African-American woman reached out to this Canadian kid. I think now that I saw authentic Belief in her face, and heard it in her beautiful, sometimes-dark-sometimes-soaring, moving voice. Long before I discovered Liturgy and Sacraments, she represented a deep relationship with a wonderful God. And that there’s a “cure for what’s wrong”.
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is not, I repeat not, an excuse for refusing to take responsibility for our own life - for failing to “work out our own salvation in fear and trembling”. Oh no. God gave us, at minimum, what the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion were in search of. They represent each of us in our Life’s journey. A Heart and a Brain and Courage - those are the basics we all need. “The Wizard of Oz” is a parable, of course. We are tempted to think that some mysterious being will give us those things. But we already have them - and that’s what the Wizard reveals. “God” won’t mind me comparing Her to the Wizard. God appears huge, scary, but when we look behind the curtain, there is a gentle soul saying “Look inside. What you seek is there.”
And Dorothy? Little Dorothy from Kansas? To me, she represents each of us saying bravely, “I am going to find that Wizard and find my way home, and get me and my friends what they need!”
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is the absolutely necessary Step One. It means saying, “To be human is to love. I will love, and let myself be loved, and believe in Love”.
And then we are off dancing down the Yellow Brick Road, determined to do what we must do to claim our Life, singing arm in arm as we go.
Brian+
God can make you anything you want to be,
but you have to put everything in his hands.
When you sing gospel you have a feeling
there is a cure for what's wrong.
- Mahalia Jackson, Gospel singer,
born on this day, 1911
I think I had every record that Mahalia Jackson made when I was young. I remember one album cover (remember “albums”??) as if I still had it in front of me. A black & white photograph of her from the shoulders up, eyes characteristically closed - but they were never tight closed as I remember. They were closed in a way that looked as if they were going to flutter any minute, and open, and joy come pouring through! I have no recollection of how or why I “found” Mahalia. But obviously something of this African-American woman reached out to this Canadian kid. I think now that I saw authentic Belief in her face, and heard it in her beautiful, sometimes-dark-sometimes-soaring, moving voice. Long before I discovered Liturgy and Sacraments, she represented a deep relationship with a wonderful God. And that there’s a “cure for what’s wrong”.
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is not, I repeat not, an excuse for refusing to take responsibility for our own life - for failing to “work out our own salvation in fear and trembling”. Oh no. God gave us, at minimum, what the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion were in search of. They represent each of us in our Life’s journey. A Heart and a Brain and Courage - those are the basics we all need. “The Wizard of Oz” is a parable, of course. We are tempted to think that some mysterious being will give us those things. But we already have them - and that’s what the Wizard reveals. “God” won’t mind me comparing Her to the Wizard. God appears huge, scary, but when we look behind the curtain, there is a gentle soul saying “Look inside. What you seek is there.”
And Dorothy? Little Dorothy from Kansas? To me, she represents each of us saying bravely, “I am going to find that Wizard and find my way home, and get me and my friends what they need!”
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is the absolutely necessary Step One. It means saying, “To be human is to love. I will love, and let myself be loved, and believe in Love”.
And then we are off dancing down the Yellow Brick Road, determined to do what we must do to claim our Life, singing arm in arm as we go.
Brian+
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, October 25, 2007
In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling
and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
- John Steinbeck, author, who won the Nobel
Prize in Literature on this day, 1962
Yes, we are, as a World community, at that stage. The “grapes of wrath” are growing in the hearts of people. In the hearts of many, if not most, peoples. Why? Because the very rich and powerful of the World, having gained dominance and control, now know that if they relinquish that control, they are vulnerable. And they know it.
That includes the “rich” nations keeping an economic and technological vice-grip on the “poor” nations . But a bunch of passionate Vietnamese patriots defeated the vast power of both the French and the Americans. Same for the Afghans and the Russians. And for the Shiites so long brutalized by Saadam Hussein. The “powerful” fear the “vintage” that is “growing heavy” in the resentful hearts of their former slaves. I heard an African diplomat say of China on NPR the other day, “We are being re-colonized by China”. They know what is going on.
World terrorism is the radical response of resentment, resentment being the soil and sunshine in which the “grapes of wrath” flourish. Most people are not terrorists. But they resonate - which is why it is difficult to get any Muslim, as an example of many, to condemn terrorism outright.
The “Great Commission” of the Gospel called “Matthew” - to go and “baptize all nations” - is a colonialist propagandist agenda, added to Matthew by an early Christian Church that was seeking to establish itself in a position of power. If the “Commission” is to be interpreted in any way consonant with Christ’s Message and Self-Giving, it can only mean that Christ’s followers must, must, Love Radically. That means, not recruit Christians, but recruit radical lovers for the Way of respect. Compassion, and justice for all human beings. This is what Jesus implied when He said that His Kingdom was “not of this World”.
The Grapes of Wrath are filling with a venomous vintage that may soon burst and drown the World in a poisonous hate - and death. If we take the Gospel seriously, let Christians be willing to die with their Saviour, for love of all of God’s children, in affirmation of the divinity of us all.
Only then can there be the “Peace that passes all understanding”. Or a World Community that honours the “dignity of every human being”.
Brian+
In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling
and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
- John Steinbeck, author, who won the Nobel
Prize in Literature on this day, 1962
Yes, we are, as a World community, at that stage. The “grapes of wrath” are growing in the hearts of people. In the hearts of many, if not most, peoples. Why? Because the very rich and powerful of the World, having gained dominance and control, now know that if they relinquish that control, they are vulnerable. And they know it.
That includes the “rich” nations keeping an economic and technological vice-grip on the “poor” nations . But a bunch of passionate Vietnamese patriots defeated the vast power of both the French and the Americans. Same for the Afghans and the Russians. And for the Shiites so long brutalized by Saadam Hussein. The “powerful” fear the “vintage” that is “growing heavy” in the resentful hearts of their former slaves. I heard an African diplomat say of China on NPR the other day, “We are being re-colonized by China”. They know what is going on.
World terrorism is the radical response of resentment, resentment being the soil and sunshine in which the “grapes of wrath” flourish. Most people are not terrorists. But they resonate - which is why it is difficult to get any Muslim, as an example of many, to condemn terrorism outright.
The “Great Commission” of the Gospel called “Matthew” - to go and “baptize all nations” - is a colonialist propagandist agenda, added to Matthew by an early Christian Church that was seeking to establish itself in a position of power. If the “Commission” is to be interpreted in any way consonant with Christ’s Message and Self-Giving, it can only mean that Christ’s followers must, must, Love Radically. That means, not recruit Christians, but recruit radical lovers for the Way of respect. Compassion, and justice for all human beings. This is what Jesus implied when He said that His Kingdom was “not of this World”.
The Grapes of Wrath are filling with a venomous vintage that may soon burst and drown the World in a poisonous hate - and death. If we take the Gospel seriously, let Christians be willing to die with their Saviour, for love of all of God’s children, in affirmation of the divinity of us all.
Only then can there be the “Peace that passes all understanding”. Or a World Community that honours the “dignity of every human being”.
Brian+
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 24, 2007
All the mistakes I ever made were when
I wanted to say 'No' and said 'Yes'.
- Moss Hart, dramatist, born
on this day, 1904
“Merrily We Roll Along”. “My Fair Lady”. “Camelot”. A postage stamp in his honour. Moss Hart certainly enriched the arts. He was a closeted Gay man, though succumbed to marriage to Kitty Carlisle. His death, it is opined, was hastened by deep depression, mood swings and emotional distress caused by the repression of his sexual orientation. Sad, very sad. Perhaps he was thinking about all this when he made the quoted words.
I’m a big “Yes” sayer, when I should say No. It’s a disease of many clergy. We seem to have a terrible desire to please people (though I have known a few clergy who worked from the exact opposite stance!) We simply “forget” that saying Yes to people when we should say No only prolongs a pile of negative and unhelpful results. Many people I know should have said No to getting married. The resulting horror was ….. well, horrible. There are several marriages I agree to officiate at and shouldn’t have. I’ll answer for that!
The Scripture wisely says, “If you mean Yes say Yes, if you mean No say No”. Anything more is of the devil.
Next time, think carefully. “No” can be a very loving response, gently, firmly, lovingly said.
Brian+
All the mistakes I ever made were when
I wanted to say 'No' and said 'Yes'.
- Moss Hart, dramatist, born
on this day, 1904
“Merrily We Roll Along”. “My Fair Lady”. “Camelot”. A postage stamp in his honour. Moss Hart certainly enriched the arts. He was a closeted Gay man, though succumbed to marriage to Kitty Carlisle. His death, it is opined, was hastened by deep depression, mood swings and emotional distress caused by the repression of his sexual orientation. Sad, very sad. Perhaps he was thinking about all this when he made the quoted words.
I’m a big “Yes” sayer, when I should say No. It’s a disease of many clergy. We seem to have a terrible desire to please people (though I have known a few clergy who worked from the exact opposite stance!) We simply “forget” that saying Yes to people when we should say No only prolongs a pile of negative and unhelpful results. Many people I know should have said No to getting married. The resulting horror was ….. well, horrible. There are several marriages I agree to officiate at and shouldn’t have. I’ll answer for that!
The Scripture wisely says, “If you mean Yes say Yes, if you mean No say No”. Anything more is of the devil.
Next time, think carefully. “No” can be a very loving response, gently, firmly, lovingly said.
Brian+
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