Love, crucified by righteousness

Our original sin is righteousness: the idea that our own notions of good and bad are more profound than God's unfaltering love. This week, we are reminded of the consequences: It was the righteous who crucified Jesus, not the sinners.

Nothing has changed: progressive or fundamentalist, liberal or conservative, we all continue to crucify one another on the Calvaries of our respective righteousness. Meanwhile, the sinners and the infirm continue to weep, longing for reprieve.

We need notions of good and bad to structure our daily life. But Jesus' challenge to Christians is to be aware of their limits. To constantly probe into what is beneath them.

Holy Week

As our Pastor aptly reminded us this morning, the great teaching of Holy Week is to walk into the Unknown, fully awake to our vulnerability and weakness. For our sake, Jesus gave up all power to show us who we really are: weak and frightened beings whose strength comes from loving alone--loving ourselves, loving one another, loving that which is beyond our willful grasp. Such love bears unpremeditated joy in its depths.

In giving up God, we find God
In giving up hope, we find hope
In giving up faith, we find faith
In living love, we find love.

Lord of all things beyond all things
May we meet you within all things.

Amen.

Present grace

Grace is the gift of touching the world, letting creation happen. 

Being created

We always try to create the moment, instead of being created by it.

Clarifying Stillness

In my previous post I wrote about stillness as a remedy for raging passions, political and otherwise. Just to clarify: Stillness is not about passions coming to a halt. It's the opening up of a space in which all passion can move and subside freely.