Lenten Journey 2019 based upon Luke 6:20-42

The Creed and Tao of God

When I read versions of the Nicene creed, I am drawn to memory of the way I recited the creed as a profession of faith in the Catholic Mass.  I am drawn also to the rosary and how we would use that as a variation of meditative prayer.  We say these things over and over in order to foster a sense of reverence, and I can still verbatim recite each prayer and the profession that we learned then.  That is a unique way to do meditation by reciting common phrases and prayers -- and a great way to learn them.  Since I do not fully subscribe to the Nicene or Apostles Creed these days, I look for other ways that might describe how I believe without being constrained to them. 

Today, I turn to the Tao Te Ching and ask which is so important that I would want to incorporate that into my meditation rather than as an empty mind or mindfulness meditation. 

Since the Nicene creed calls God into being through Jesus Christ and the holy Spirit, I am drawn to particular verses that talks about being born and into being. Let us meditate upon being.

40b

 “Returning to the root is the movement of the Tao.

Quietness is how it functions.

Ten thousand things are born of being.

Being is born of nonbeing. “

42a

“Nonbeing gives birth to the oneness,

The oneness gives birth to yin and yang.

Yin and yang give birth to heaven, earth, and beings.

Heaven, earth, and beings give birth to everything in existence.

Therefore, everything in existence carries within it both yin and yang,

and attains harmony by blending these…”

Meditating on this, I feel the different dimensions of God.  Perhaps, others also might feel and see the different dimensions of God working with us and around us as trinity, God and spirit or as spirit or as Jesus. 

The power of God perhaps can be described, but like the words of the Tao, words cannot contain God. From God, the onenness, "maker ...of all that is seen and unseen", we have the spirit, Jesus and beautiful beings in Heaven and Earth.

What this tells me in this meditative reflection is that whether Jesus was God incarnate, "God from God, true light from true light, begotten not made," a divine being created by God as an intercession to us, or a person with strong connection to God "by the power of the Holy Spirit", Jesus's work here on Earth, "for our sake... was crucified ...suffered, died..." is a powerful testament of Truth.

How do we live out our testament of Truth? That we all are born of and made of the work of God that binds us to the being of God and how we work with each other is important. When I meditate on these, I can feel how God is of the yin and yang as we are in this world that has been gifted to us. 

In fact, Jesus teaches a version of the yin and yang and to find contentment rather than to persist in expectations through the sermon on the plain that we read during  the weeks of lectionary in Luke.

51b.

Giving birth,

Nourishing life,

Shaping things without possessing them,

Serving without expectation of rewards,

Leading without dominating:

These are the profound virtues of nature,

And of nature’s best beings.

“Love your enemies, do good and lend, expecting nothing in return.  Your reward will be great and you will be the children of the Most High.” (Luke 6: 35)

Let us be one with the Spirit, "the giver of life", that surrounds us and binds us. Let us be profound virtues of nature and expect nothing in return while nourishing life and shaping the world we live with our love .

Amen.

*As translated by Brown Walker, B. (1995). The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu. First St. Martin’s Griffin Ed: New York.

Then, 

Reading the material around Dionysius, it is fitting we might read this on the week of Transfiguration Sunday with such a mystical stories of Jesus and Moses. I again sense Taoism and parts of the Tao Te Ching, but this time, I would like to meditate on the principles of the duality very present in Dionysius work: the opposites as they all form as part of the one. 

Let our spirit rise and fall with this meditation.

From the Book of Chuang Tzu (translated by Martin Palmer p 188)

“Life Follows death and death is the forerunner of life.

Who can know their ways?...

As death and life are together in all this, which can be termed bad? All the forms of life are one…, yet we regard some as beautiful …others as ugly… but even the diseased and rotting can become the spiritual and wonderful, and the spiritual and wonderful can become the diseased and rotting. “

The mysticism of this weaves with the Dionysius line into this discussion: “outshining all brilliance with the intensity of their Darkness” and then, “yet in a ..sense, it does not possess them since it transcends them all;”

Thus, we witness transcendence from left to right and light to dark.

We see transcendence from right to left and dark to light;

From death to life and life to death.

Out of darkness came light and from light we go to darkness.

All are one with the presence of the Holy One, the Divine Wisdom.

And suddenly transfiguration is a transcendence that we can witness in our own lives.

With the “One who is beyond all”, we cannot literally comprehend that infinite image who embodies both the divine light and the Darkness to reveal the naked Truth: that we cannot speak it because we cannot describe it, but we can know it.

How do we allow the light and darkness to transcend within us and in our being? How do we reject the perfect light and darkness by our feeble attempt to define its trueness, its being?

Spirit of the living God fall upon us and be with us in all of your splendor and murky ways.

Spirit of the One who gives us life and death, be nearer to our understanding and our denials.

Reveal to us so we might be able to truly embrace what we cannot describe and allow that to be the naked Truth in our lives.

Spirit of the light and the Dark, be far from us so that we might be comforted in your presence.

That we may continue yours in no-words language, actionless-action and thinkingless-thought,

And through your holy Spirit, open our questions and hearts to your True presence.

I See You - Luke 5

I See You

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Reflection based upon Luke 5:1-11

Let us pray from Psalm 19, that words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable.

First, I want to thank you for spending this time with me today.  I have had an intense week of work, and to be honest, being with you is somehow a reprieve from all of that.  Thank you for your time and attendance today. 

How many of you have heard about Perpetua and Justin Martyr?

Yes this is part of how get the word martyr.

I have been reading a lot about the early Christian church (this in addition to my work),

And caused me to ask what do perspectives of martyrdom teach us today. 

I will share with one common thing that I found from these is that despite an excruciating execution,

they share a understanding of faith that propelled and guided them. 

They shared an implicit embrace of the spirit of Jesus in the midst of certain death.

My own toils and trials fall pale in comparison to these early Christians -- as I am not sure what I would have done in those circumstances (being persecuted and executed for my beliefs).

For us here in our own trials and life issues, maybe that spirit of Jesus can inspire and empower us to have courage and strength, like those martyrs before us.

As I was thinking about the Gospel, I wanted to talk about being a fisher of people,

but I don’t really know much about fishing as much as I have tried.

I even bought a whole array of equipment one time and went out to the catch fish at the lake. 

I suppose it could be fun,

but I was kind of hoping to will the fish into my cooler rather than wait for them. 

So I guess I am not a fisherman -- yet. 

Every time I say something like that, I have learned God has a sense of humor about it. Someday, I may yet find myself in a boat (or otherwise) fishing with actual results.

There is also this curious thing about Jesus climbing into a boat with Simon-Peter. 

Why does he do this?

Maybe, it is the crowd.

What does Simon-Peter think about this? 

We don’t have much context of how or if these two have met prior to this.

 It is not every day that a random guy with a crowd following him decides to just jump into your boat.

Think about it:

What would you do if a random guy or gal walked up to you and just got into your car at the grocery store? 

You might ask some questions and you might want to learn more about this person.

These guys do not reject Jesus, but they get into the boats with Jesus and they listen.

There is something here – not random. 

They realize something about Jesus.

The next part of the lesson tells us what they realize.

Let us dive into the verse here.

Simon-Peter exclaims, “Go away from me because I am a sinner”

This line definitely resonates with me, and I am sure with the many of us.

Simon-Peter knows he is broken and feels unworthy of Jesus.

Where are you in this story? How many times have we thought of ourselves as not being worthy because “I am a sinner?”

Jesus persists and calls upon Simon-Peter and also calls upon you and I.  Why?

Traci Blackmon, UCC Executive Minister, talked to a group of us last spring.

She came in the room and stood there looking at us intentionally and decisively. 

Then, she said, “I see you!” 

She wanted us to know that God sees us where we are today

--with everything we are and everything we can be.

That is not always an easy thing to consider. 

We might go our whole lives wandering in the shadows with no one paying attention.  You might think that about where you are currently.

What happens when someone does pay attention?

That is happening now.

You may ask God sees me??

Today?

God wants this? Why?

Yet Jesus saw Simon-Peter. Why?

Maybe, Jesus has more faith in Simon-Peter does in himself. 

In the same way, God sees you.

Jesus wants us to be the best we can be with the gifts we have.

Jesus will be there with us always and gives us even more. 

Jesus inspires the best in us to shine through us – when you be what God calls you to be.

When you let your heart shine, you are what God calls.

We like to think the reverse –

that religion is about telling us what we cannot do

and things we must do to earn our way to life with God. 

There are valid arguments with this because our thoughts can lead us astray. 

Our actions can put us onto a path that separates us from the holy.

Yet, I submit that we are exactly what God made us since we are made in the image of God.

It took a while for me to understand my wrongs and brokenness;

they don’t have to define me. 

If we do let wrongs and brokenness define us,

we just might be separating ourselves from what we could be -- from God.

We might not even get into the boat with God

We don’t have to continue “stinkin’ thinking” (Zig Ziglar). 

These bits of brokenness, however, can inform us as lessons but they do not have to define us. 

 God is there for us always and regardless of our brokenness.

 God sees you and wants you! 

What happens here is that Jesus rejects Simon-Peter’s self-effacing

and instead says “I see you.”

I see  who you are and who you could be. I see you. (look around)

God is ready to inspire you too, here and now.

So maybe like Simon-Peter’s words, we might feel unworthy, but God calls us to be worthy.

It was not easy, but these new disciples let God be their guide.

We may not be martyrs destined for painful execution because of our beliefs,

but the spirit and grace can be powerful in its own right -- for us here and now. 

The spirit is all around and God sees you. I see you.

We may not be good fishermen,

but we might realize and take solace in that God calls to be who we are.

It is up to us to recognize that grace and let us be us – let God be – let God guide us.

In fact, I submit that grace is right here, and we will see it when we take time to see it.

Our purpose, gifts, and our brokenness are exactly why God chooses us.

Thanks be to God!