Gathering Leaders:  

   Set-up/Put-away: Dave Miller       

Greeter/Usher: Chuck Riley   

Reader/Communion Assistant: Beth Lanier   

Offering Invitation: open  

Community Hour:  Potluck Dinner--All are welcome!

                

    

Co-creating a Progressive Christian Spirituality 

        

Jesus was illiterate and he memorized the Psalms by listening to them. This identified him as Jew. He knew Psalms 103 and 104 and that "Kingdom" and "Creation" were synonymous. Creation is: 1) prim- ordial, 2) what is going on now and 3) what will come to be. It is by our act of blessing that we bring Creation to consciousness. In the following four ways we are bringing about the Kingdom with Jesus:

1.  Forgiveness:  In Aramaic it means "loose," "release" from mistakes, errors, sins. Sin actually means "missing the target," a term in archery.  Perpetrators of sin often suffer more than the victims of sin. Releasing sin, as Jesus did, brings healing. In the quote "The son of man has authority to forgive sin," "son of man" in Aramaic means "one like a person, someone like you or me." Jesus means himself as a model of humanity to which we belong. Jesus deals in direct (not mediated) forgiveness.  Sin has one purpose in the world: to be wiped out. What we are dealing with here is error.  Sin is something we all do.
There is something evil that goes beyond sin. Consider Jesus' last trip to Jerusalem. He regarded the Temple's sacred meal-sacrifice as a time of festivity. The meat on the altar was mostly fat, and the rest of the meat went for the people to eat. This was symbolic of something wider. The Temple was to be a house of prayer for all people. Zechariah says "There will be no merchant..." but Jesus saw merchants and much buying and selling in the Temple, merchants making a profit. Jesus confronted them!

2.  Confrontation, in order to remove wrong. Opposing injustice doesn't always mean you'll win, but it doesn't mean you won't succeed. Jesus was the one who was seen as opposed to the interests of the Roman Empire, and for this he was crucified. How to think God's thoughts with him is discernment.

3.  Discernment:  We need to ask ourselves, "Is this a sin I can forgive, or is it an injustice I can confront?" Jesus was an exorcist: read the Gadara story, the man with an unclean spirit. Unclean spirits claim power but they don't actually have power! The land was under the control of the Roman Empire. The man in Gadara live in isolation in a desert and was wounding himself. People who are not in control of their own life have compulsive behaviors, addictions. Burning oil and coal for fuel are also addictions! The unclean spirit is the culture of the Legion, not only of this man.  Many people have unclean spirits and communities can have unclean spirits. The Kingdom is present, it's now. The unclean spirits told Jesus, "Go away!" When we have the spirit of Jesus we are told the same thing.

4.  Celebrating/Gratitude/Eucharist (Thanksgiving):  Jesus and his followers "reclined in feasting"--they were lounging on a couch. This is widely recognized as a time of universal feasting in a meal of transformation. Be mindful of this when we experience fatigue. We have resources; we can go to our Source. We can breathe, clap, speak and sing. Be mindful of the breath and use it. Life is very fragile. To fill ourselves we have to first empty our- selves. Breath=soul=life. It is a source of strength when we see the fragility of our life. It is vulnerable and precious!

Spirit is a source. The Spirit-Wind of God hovered over the void. We have the capacity of decide to move in God's Spirit. It's a core muscular strength. We, too have Spirit. We have Kingdom inside us and we have heart inside us. We think and ponder in our heart. We decide in our mind: insight is a powerful motivator. We have a capacity to commitment, faithfulness, and steadfast love for a person. Our nature is that we are compassionate. (In Aramaic, "compassion" is "womb.") We also have glory, radiance. The meaning of glory is "weight, substance." We are beings who have substantial influence on those around us. Jesus' prayer to bring out these four elements (forgiving, confronting, discerning and celebrating) is "The Lord's Prayer." "Abba" means "source and father." The source of myself is not me: it is Abba-Source! Jesus enables us to identify our resources in The Source. These resources are activated in the four elements. 

Discerning asks "Who is this person before me?"  In my best discernment I know what he/she is called to be and I deal with him/her as that person. Forgiving is a response to a particular error. Judging is not our business--it belongs to God.

Meister Eckhart

Thank you from the Editor

AWE & WONDER:

          

    James         Rachel     Humberto

               Richard      Roshi     John      Tim

                    Daniel        chocolate      Sarah

                  Swan Lake       Lisa    Javier       

                  Adri    Kim      Christina

                                love