Jedis and Disciples June 3

Series Title: JEDIS AND DISCIPLES: the hero’s journey
Anchor: JEDIS AND DISCIPLES: the hero’s journey
Thread: clips from Star Wars
June 3 -Wk#1 – introduction to myth; entertaining the inner life;

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

   and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Joseph Campbell, Star Wars, and Jesus Christ: this is the cast of players in our upcoming drama. Campbell’s deep sensitivity to the genre and function of myth comes as a deep challenge to traditional modes of operating. Interestingly enough, Campbell (who died in 1987) foretold much of the Great Emergence and transformation that Diana Butler Bass, Phyllis Tickle, and other are now proclaiming. Campbell said: “We live in a period of the terminal moraine of mythology… Mythologies that built civilization and are no longer working that way are in rubble all around us.” He also clarifies the Creation vs. Evolution” debate as succinctly as anyone I’ve come across:  “Myth has to deal with the cosmology of today and it’s no good when it is based on a cosmology that is out of date. Religion has to accept the science of the day and penetrate it to the mystery. The conflict is between the science of 2000 B.C. and the science of 2000 A.D.”

So our task is to discover and engage today’s mythology. And our particular task in the studio (and I think the great challenge of this series) is to move this past an intellectual exercise into something visceral and experiential. So maybe our underlying question for this series is, “How to we experience the transformative and sustaining power of myth?” Campbell again posits this in a compelling way: “God is the metaphor (myth) for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even the categories of being and non-being.” He goes on to say that the myth that is essential and functional is the one that puts you in touch with the mystery that is the ground of your being.

Human beings have been story-tellers likely from the time we developed language (maybe it was the desire to tell our stories that drove us to develop language?). I don’t know what those first stories were, but I suspect they were more than just an attempt to report on the latest hunt. Those stories might have been an attempt to express the gratitude of having meat to eat, or the escape from a predator, or the mysterious connection to some greater Spirit. The images so artfully drawn on the walls of ancient caves convey a desire engage those essential metaphors of life.

An insane twist has occurred in recent generations, though. Somehow we have lost the appreciation of myth and storytelling. To be direct, our society considers myths to be lies, untruths, flights of fancy. We instruct our imaginative children to stop telling ‘stories’, by which we mean lies.

We have forgotten that telling these stories, living in dynamic myths, is how we make sense of life and connect ourselves to the electric mystery that is life. The stories of the Exodus, the Exile, and Jesus’ death and resurrection are exactly these kind of stories. The challenge of our day is whether the story of the cross and the empty tomb still connect us to the Mystery, or if they need to be recast and retold, or if their cosmology is too outdated to speak essentially anymore.

The apostle Paul lived in the same kind of time, and he was telling a new story. Living in an age of rampant death, the ever-present Roman Empire, and an oddly cosmopolitan mixing of cultures he offers a symbol of agonizing death as a metaphor of vibrant life. At face value, this makes no sense at all. The cross was a tool of torture, intimidation and oppression. How could the cross be a metaphor of life? Yet that is exactly what Paul and other Christians experienced. He told a new story for a changing age.

In many ways (though not with the pervasive depth of the gospels), George Lucas told a story that captured the imagination of the late 20^th century. Star Wars has become part of our cultural vocabulary, even for those who might never have seen the films. The story speaks to our longing to battle the Empire of our lives (however we encounter that), to discover and claim our inner power, to find the community that welcomes us and upholds us.

Engaging myth is telling stories, but not just any stories. We are seeking stories that matter, stories that transform, stories that connect us with the Mystery and the energy of life. What are the great stories that arise from our own age and cosmology? Those will be the stories that will become the gospel of our times.

Pentecost Day – May 27

Pentecost Day – May 27

Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

She comes sailing on the wind,
her wings flashing in the sun,
 on a journey just begun, she flies on.
And in the passage of her flight,
her song rings out through the night,
full of laughter, full of light, she flies on.

This hymn by Gordon Light, though a lovely hymn, is typical of how we often approach Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is described as a dove, a breeze, a gentle presence. The Gospel of John reinforces this image when Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as a Comforter and an Advocate. I think we relegate the Spirit to the sidelines of our lives as a kind of ethereal presence more often than not glimpsed only in our peripheral vision.

But there is another aspect to the presence of the Holy Spirit. The first chapter of Mark says that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to face temptation. SCUCC has a sense of that kind of the Spirit’s presence when we say “May the Spirit of the Living God… push us into places that we wouldn’t necessarily go ourselves.”

The Celts have given us this persistent, strident Spirit in the image of the wild goose. Some wild animals are cute and cuddly. Geese are not. Geese are noisy, cantankerous, and sometimes downright mean. I can imagine a wild goose driving Jesus into the wilderness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdYwVrgdNJc   A gentle breeze might not knock me off course. A cooing dove probably would not make me change direction. A wild goose? Flapping and hissing and charging? Yes, I would move!

Pentecost is often called the birthday of the church, when the Spirit came upon the apostles and they spoke in a variety of languages. They were likely quite happy among themselves, locked in that upper room. But the Spirit changed the conversation and drove them into the streets of Jerusalem. You can almost see the goose at work.

Where are we when the Wild Goose confronts us? Where does the Wild Goose need to drive us, either as individuals or as a community? When does the presence of God interrupt our routines, our expectations, our comfortable positions? Maybe the sound of Pentecost voices is more like the cacophony of geese than the United Nations.

May 20 - Week 6 Finding Balance

May 20, 2012

Dare to Dance Week #6:  Finding Balance

Series Title: Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawings

Frame:  Finding Balance

Threads: Prayer beads, healing prayers, Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Image:  Clothed and walking with dignity, the figure strides into a new future

Colossians 3:9-15

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all! As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.

                It seems that there is a lot of synchronicity in that this week is also our graduation Sunday. As the graduates don their robes and stride across the stage they are walking into a wide open future. For the first time, the figure in our drawing has put on a robe; she has claimed her own dignity. Last week she was dancing with abandon. Now she walks with a measured pace. She has claimed a balance that will see her into the future.

                I am not a great fan of Paul’s letters, and much so for the pseudo-Pauline letters. That’s an esoteric way of say that most scholars think it very unlikely that Paul himself wrote the letter to the Colossians (because of writing styles, content, and historical references). But hidden in the midst of some pretty crappy theology are a few gems. This passage is one of those. The author uses the metaphor of robing for the spiritual life. We can don a new self, a Christ-self, like a new set of clothing or more appropriately for the day like a graduation robe. We can leave behind negative aspects of our lives, our wounds and scars, like so much dirty laundry. This letter tells us that the clothing that makes for a healthy and peaceful life are compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.  It sounds a lot like loving each other as we love ourselves, more like the way Christ loves us. And even if we think that those characteristics do not come naturally to us, we can wear them like stiff new blue jeans until they are soft, broken-in, and comfortable on our frames. I debated about including verse 15, the last one which encourages us to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. I finally decided to include it because I realized that it is in fact the heart of why we carry the name of Christ. It is good advice for anyone to be compassionate, kind, humble, etc. But we put on those clothes because it is what we are called to do as we follow Christ. Early Christians understood that for all their disagreements, it was the peace of Christ that bound them together, that gave them their balance.

                Finding that balance is one of the pieces of wisdom that makes life a joy. Somehow the dignity that our figure has found speaks of a balance that she has now attained. It can be exciting to swing from extreme to extreme, but it is also exhausting. And like a car out of control on the highway, swerving back and forth will eventually  make you skid off the road. Following Christ, taking on the peace of Christ, is one of the ways that we find our balance in life.

                We will need to find ways of recognizing our graduates, as well as the entire Christian Education program. Melani tells me that the Sunday Schoolers would like to reprise their song as well. We have also talked about bringing the prayer beads back, and offering them to worshippers to take with them (perhaps for a donation!). And maybe we can find some way of offering a metaphorical piece of clothing for people to put on as a symbol of putting on love and peace and Christ. This has been a great series, and we can celebrate the Spirit that has brought us from woundedness to forward moving balance!

Dare to Dance Week #5: Stepping Out/Freedom

May 13, 2012

Dare to Dance Week #5:  Stepping Out/Freedom

Series Title: Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawings

Frame:  Releasing/ Opening

Threads: Prayer beads, healing prayers, Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Image:  She has fully risen and is dancing with joy

2 Samuel 6:12-16

 It was told King David, ‘The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.’ So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

In one of our planning sessions I shared a story from the book, “Inheriting Our Mothers’ Gardens” in which one author (a Korean woman) tells of a time when she and her mother were walking to a village where some relatives lived. Her mother was a very traditional Korean woman: reserved, obedient, modest and subservient. On their walk they stop by a stream to wash in the cool water. But her mother does not just wash her hands or face. She begins to strip down. The author (relating her memory as a girl when this occurred) was horrified. But to make things worse, her mother begins to dance around in the deserted woods. It took years for the author to realize how bound and constricted her mother was by her traditional role in that society. That day by the stream was a rare moment when freedom overtook her, and in that freedom she had to dance. Just like her traditional clothing, she had shed (even for the briefest of times) the constraints of her life. She was naked, and she was free, and she danced.

I see that same joy in our figure for this week. Her nudity has nothing to do with shame or poverty. She is free and beautiful and perfect just as God made her. And now she dances, stretching free of the cramps that fear had imposed upon her. Her arms and legs reach out into the world. She vibrates with joy. Where in the first image she is isolated by her posture, here she is a part of the energy of life. At first she seemed a small child, vulnerable and defenseless. Here though we see all the strength and vitality of adulthood just attained. She is ready to make her own mark on the world.

David had made his mark on the world, too. He has gained the throne of Israel, and in this passage he is bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. David is bringing the very presence of God into the capital city, the heart of the people. And so he dances. His joy overflows and exceeds all expectations of decorum and reserve that a king show exhibit. Elsewhere in this passage, David joy is symbolized by the free feast he shares with all the people. The text says he is leaping and dancing before God. This is no socially acceptable waltz. This is gyrating joy, a primal celebration of life.

In an interesting twist, like the daughter in the first story who is appalled by her mother’s behavior, David’s wife Michal is appalled at his behavior. So much so that the text tells us “she despised him in her heart.” It is one of the curiosities of healing and the joy it may bring that others around us may not share those feelings. In fact, it can cause resentment or even anger. In addicted family systems, they have often learned how to cope with stress of the illness but not on the stress of recovery. When one family member begins to recover the old coping methods no longer function. Sad but true that too many times not everybody is happy when somebody heals.

The point here is not a warning against dancing in order to prevent offending somebody. No, it is vitally important to dance anyway. David bringing the Ark into the city was a sign that the wounds of their warfare were ending. God, the life-giver, was here. The Korean mother danced even amid her daughter’s crying because she sensed the presence of a liberating Spirit. Out figure dances without regard to the cost because she has risen from her pain and celebrates the gift of joy.

This Sunday is also mother’s day and we should thing about how our celebration may lift that up. I am reminded that one of the origins of Mother’s day is Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870. Following the devastation of the Civil War, she call for a day of peace and life (http://womenshistory.about.com/od/howejwriting/a/mothers_day.htm ) Here is a video of dramatic reading of that proclamation (a couple minutes in) http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/8/mothers_day_for_peace_a_dramatic

I will also try make contact with Don Titmus again and see if we can bring Conscious Dance back into the Studio. The energy and freedom of Conscious Dance would lend themselves well to the feel of the day.

So the question I face in thinking about our coming Sunday (one more to go!) is, How do we give ourselves the freedom to finally dance?