It is All Upside Down or How We Change

¹⁸Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

1 Corinthians 3:18, 19

Upside Down or Things are Not What They Seem

Don’t you love it how the best spiritual writing turns things on it head? You have Jesus’ “the first will be last, and the last will be first,” or his equally upside down, “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” And now Paul, “If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.” In this topsy turvy world things are not as they seem and what one might count on – having it all together – is no refuge at all. Even what you think is wise, is only a shell game, an illusion slapped over Reality. It is better to become as a fool, surprised by life’s turns. What is going on here? A simple faith based on what we know, in this light, is foolishness. Far better to lose our minds.

That’s it, all upside down: maybe it is a good thing to lose our minds, our maps of how the world is put together, our notions of reward and punishment, what is good and what is bad, our ordering and categorizing our environment in the illusion that if we understand it, we can control it. This is a common human tendency – try to make sense and control – but when we examine this tendency very closely we ask along with Dr. Phil, “Is that working out for you?”Remember the maps of the “ancient” mariners (at least those before 1492)? These antique maps stopped at what was known, assuming peril on the outskirts, “there be dragons” beyond the known world. We are reminded that maps are not the territory, our conceptions of the God, the world, our lives based on what we know will by necessity always fall short – we do not know what we do not know. Wisdom based on what we know is foolishness, foolishness that admits what we don’t know is wise and open for the unknown.. So Paul says it, straight out, “you should become fools so that you may become wise.”

This means, of course, you never know with God. In Second Corinthians Paul points out that our faith is not in what we see and comprehend, in what we know. Our faith is rather in that which we cannot see, for in the unseen and unknowable mystery (Christ, God, Life, Rebirth, Resurrection, Love, etc...).lies eternity – that in which we can place our trust and find hope. Once again, the teaching is upside down. Usually, we look at the visible – what can be seen, understood, manipulated and controlled. Here Paul says look at the invisible, the unknown and trust God to carry you.

Transformation

This brings us back to our lives, our growth in life and spirit. Usually we believe that change and transformation can come by adding things – knowledge, skills, etc…. A Christ-centered transformation comes rather in losing things – our ideas, our conceptions by which we hold on to the world, find our bearings. We lose our reliance on these things as we grow in trust of the unknown and eternal. When Jesus speaks of “the realm (kingdom) of God” he is pointing us in this direction. You may remember his saying about the “Lilies and the Birds.” Of the birds he says, “they neither sow nor reap, yet God takes care of them.” Of the Lilies he points out that they neither “toil nor spin” and God takes care of them. How might this be? God cares for them just as they are. Simply being what they are they are provided for. So, for us: our call is not to add anything, but to acknowledge ourselves as the Beloved – loved, honored and blessed by God. Figuring it out won’t help, saying the right words won’t help. Fixing what we imagine is wrong with us won’t help. It is in just being who we are that we find eternity. Before we learned anything, before we adopted the notion that we can plan our lives out and be happy, we were already loved, cared for, blessed. Jesus put it like this, “But if God so clothes the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, will God not much more clothe you – you of little faith?” Our place in this is to let go and trust in that which we cannot see, which ultimately cannot be known. Jesus put it like this, “seek first the Kingdom of God” and, now I paraphrase, you will be fine.

Transforming Community

The First Congregational United Church of Christ, like all churches, is a living inquiry, an experiment, if you will. In our life together as a community and as individuals our desire is for that which will open us to who we are: the Beloved. When we find the realm of God, God’s unfathomable love, at the center of our life together we are able to let go, trusting ourselves in God, one a part of the other As our individual hearts open to the grace of God we find ourselves, as the Shakers put it, “in the place just right,” finding ourselves in the ”land of Love and Delight.” In this we find the transformation of our lives as we begin to acknowledge our true nature as it is revealed to us in the eternal now.

Blessings,

David

From Here to Eternity: I’ve Been Had

⁷O Lord, you have enticed me,
and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
and you have prevailed.
⁹If I say, ‘I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name’,
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.

-Jeremiah 20:7,9

Jeremiah has noticed something about his walk with God. The hounds of heaven are fierce and they have prevailed, God has prevailed in his life. Jeremiah has noticed that once caught all he can do is surrender to God’s Way in life. And he has experimented – “I just won’t mention God anymore,” he says to himself. When he does this he notices that when he tries to be quiet about the Reality of God’s being in him, it is like he has shut a burning fire up in his bones. His very bones want to cry out. He is weary, tired and forlorn as he suppresses the sublime in his life. He no longer is content to lie about who he is (a beloved one of God) and who he belongs to (he has his being in God). He is called out of himself to live as God would have it.

Surrendering to the truth of God’s presence in our living and breathing we notice that we have been “had.” As a mother has her child, I have been “had’ and we are "being had" by God. Our whole lives are spent gradually waking to the reality of this: we live move and have our being in God. During Lent we seek to open ourselves to a more direct and intimate experience of the grace of God in life. We will open again to the Eternal that is offered to us in every moment, with every breath. We will mention the implications for this in our lives. And we will notice that even as our lives seem to be a movement from here to eternity, we never left home. In the Eternal Now we discover our true home in God is as close as our next breath. Please join me in church over Lent.

Love, David

Disillusion Me!

Jesus comes to some fisher people at the end of their working day -- it is morning after a long night of fishing. They have caught no fish and they are filled with ideas about their failure to catch fish, their inability to take care of themselves, their just plain dumb luck. They are caught up in it all: there are no fish to be had, we are failures as fishermen and there is no hope, our families will go hungry. In the course of the discussion Jesus tells their leader Peter to throw the nets into the deep water. By doing so, he will come up with a big catch. Peter caught up in his sense of failure and disappointment speaks his sense of failure and hopelessness to Jesus: We've been out all night and have caught nothing. Why bother now? Jesus responds, "Well, just do it." Peter and his companions pull so many fish on board that the boat nearly capsizes.

As we carry our disappointments with life into the present, we believe that they are predictive of what is to come. Peter thought that there were no fish to be had because he caught no fish last night. If we are sad, we tend to believe that we will carry that sadness wherever we go. Jesus shows Peter that these limiting thoughts are an illusion, a thought that pulls us into a fantasy world. Peter believes in the fantasy of no fish. Jesus shows him not so -- here and now, a record catch. Jesus seeks to rid him of his illusion inviting him to participate in his life. He "dis-illusions" Peter.
I have been thinking a lot about being dis-illusioned. Even though I may feel bad as my illusions about life, religion, relationships, etc...are "dissed," it is always a good thing. Yes, I said always. If illusions keep me from the realities that confront me from day to day, what good are they -- I'd rather have them shown for what they are and "pull in the catch," the abundance that life offers. We talk about these sorts of things in church. See you Sunday.

Blessings, David