First is a relationship with the people of Beaverton UMC. Being a retired pastor fills my life with fulfillment. Second is my relationship with my dog, Pax, which fills my heart will contentment and love. Lastly is my relationship with God which fills me will spiritual fulfillment. These three relationships help to form the nexus of my theology which is based on Creation Centered Spirituality. For now I want to simply speak of some of the things I talked about in the post under this one.
Today I want to speak to you of invitation. Invitation into the world of Creation Spirituality and into the world which God has created for us, a world of conflict and despair and a world which offers harmony and hope. A world of fear and doubt and a world which offers courage and faith. A world of war and hate and a world which offers peace and love. And finally a world in which God is supposedly dead and yet a world in which God works the miracles which only God may bring to God’s Children.
When the time comes and all is revealed, Jesus announces in the biblical text this message is based upon, we disciples are to shout from the rooftops that which Jesus has revealed to us in secret.
What did Jesus make known to his first disciples? He was the Son of God. What has Jesus shared with his first disciples? The Good News of the gospel. What has Jesus revealed to his disciples? The miracle of his resurrection. No wonder Jesus called for this kind of good news to be hollered out for all to hear.
It is on this day we must open our hearts and invite God back into our lives. On that day the fear, war, conflict, doubt, despair and hate will fall away and we will once again have the courage, peace, harmony, faith, hope and especially love that we will need in the new age of God’s New Creation. For make no mistake, God will re-create the world in the way which God has hoped it would be from the times of Adam and Eve. I don’t mean God will destroy what we have, but we will finally realize what God offers is much better than any other choice we have. If only we have the courage to recognize God’s offering.
I once enrolled my dog Pax into Puppy School and I was amazed by the similarities around training Pax and opening up my heart to God and God’s invitation to each of us. Pax gets lots of praise and treats when he is good and does what he is supposed to do. He gets no criticism for not doing what he should, he receives only praise for when he does well and it is surprising how fast he learns to do what I would like him to do. Yes some times he fails, in fact he fails a lot of times, but his successes are more abundant than his failures and he is getting better at doing what he needs to do to survive in the world of humans, dogs, cats and cars. Yes some times we fail, in fact we fail a lot of times, but our successes are measured a bit more highly than a dog’s success and we need to do more in order to survive in this world.
Sometimes I wonder just why God sent Jesus to visit us and to try to help us? Was it only to absolve of us of our sins and if so why are we, God’s children, still sinning today, almost 2000 years after Jesus died for us on the cross? Why did God send us the Christ in human form?
When Pax watches the other dogs at the Dog Park, I get the feeling he is learning from them as they go about their paces. Perhaps, it isn’t too big a stretch to see Jesus as our role model, to understand that God sent Jesus to us, that God came to us in the form of a human being, so that we might have a model by which to learn how God would have us learn and do. Pax has certain favorite things he likes to do. Certain favorites snacks he likes as treats for good behavior and certain treats he likes to just get because he is Pax. Sometimes it is easy for him to fixate on one treat, one toy, one behavior that he feels he wants at that time.
Sometimes in the church, it becomes just as easy to fixate on the organization instead of the organism. As good institutional managers, conscientious churchgoing Christians spend hours making check-lists about what the church itself needs -- supplies, repairs, donations, facilities, fewer expenses. We also expend enormous energy trying to improve our churches by focusing on perpetual trouble spots: institutional insensitivities, personality conflicts, theological disagreements, liturgical preferences, and what she did or he did that we don’t like.
This is why we need deliberately and decisively to take a moment to think intentionally about all our "favorite things. Personal and Church" Too many of us have forgotten to think about, talk about, much less shout about why we are here in the first place. In fact, for many of us it has been so long since we considered some "favorite things" about our faith it might be a good idea to remember just why we are here.
What are some of your favorites things. Any favorite thing -- a food, a place, a feeling, a person. What are the little things which make your lives worthwhile? When I have asked this question this before, certain things keep cropping up: sunsets, sunrises, clean sheets, naps, the smell of a campfire, the Sunday paper, snowcapped mountains, falling in love, surprise phone calls from old friends.
A columnist named Jim Shahin received some fascinating answers when he asked this question in a column once. One person from Albuquerque, New Mexico, wrote back; "Old cement sidewalks buckled with tree roots." Some others included -- "reading garden catalogs with a highlighter"; "robins singing early in the morning when you're still half-asleep"; "a first kiss"; "dipping sourdough bread in balsamic vinegar"; "my children saying, 'You know, Dad, you were right after all!'"; "the smell of bacon frying, fresh-cut grass, coffee being ground," ; "lemon meringue pie"; "barbecued ribs"; "having it snow on Christmas day"; "an invitation to God."
An invitation to God? How can we send an invitation to God and more importantly what would we do if God accepted? How would that effect our relationship with God? Whenever we have a meeting in church we invite God to join us and to help us in making plans which will benefit the church. At the spiritual level, planning means taking the initiative. It's not about sitting around until we are absolutely certain God is calling us to a particular task, direction, or ministry. Nor is it waiting for the doors to open so we can go there easily. Planning is an act of faith.
Jesus never told his disciples to wait for an invitation. He told them to go. Well God invites us in the same way. God tells us to go. God says, make your mistakes, say the wrong things, do the wrong things, but eventually you will get it right. You won’t get it right, however, if we just sit and wait for God to do it for us.
Each time a visitor enters a church, they should be greeted as if they are God and shown love we would all show God if God were to come to church here one Sunday morning. It's like the story about the young man in Berkeley when I was a seminary student there.
His name is Bill. He has wild hair, and wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is brilliant. Kind of eccentric and very, very bright. He became a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church where I was a student associate pastor. This church wants to develop a ministry to students, but are not sure how.
One day Bill decides to come to church. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started and so Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church is completely packed and he can't find a seat. By now people are really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything.
Bill gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit and, when he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet. (This had never happened in this church before!) By now the people are really uptight, and the tension is thick. About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, an usher is slowly making his way toward Bill.
Now the usher is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified. He walks with a cane and you can't blame him for what he's going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor? It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man's cane. All eyes are focused on him. You can't even hear anyone breathing.
The pastor can't even preach until the usher does what he has to do. And now this elderly man drops his cane on the floor. With great difficulty he lowers himself and sits down next to Bill and worships with him so he won't be alone. Everyone chokes up with emotion. When the pastor gains control, he says, "What I'm about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget."
We must continually invite all persons to join us in worship and in mission and that includes those who are new to the church. We have no ownership of our church, it belongs to God and God would, as the owner, have us be pleasant in all of our dealings with each other. God invites us to serve the world as Jesus did, with faith, hope and especially with love.
So we need to invite God to be with us always, to share in our love of each other, to help direct us to missions which need our assistance, to watch over the church and help us to lead others to the this wonderful place we call Beaverton United Methodist Church. I invite God to take us by the hand and to be with us in all times, as we need God’s love and assistance so very much in times like those in which we live. We need a continuing and ongoing relationship with the God in order to be able to accept God’s invitation.
Help us, O God to know what we are to do or better yet to see what we already know. Theologian Albert Outler, well known Wesley scholar, was asked near the end of his life what he had learned over time. He responded, "Early in my life, I would tell people 'You've got to love. You've got to love.' Now I have grown to realize that 'You get to love. You get to love.'" And this is the core of my belief in Creation Centered Spirituality. Amen.
Creation Spirituality and Fall Redemption Theology
The first in a Series on Creation Spirituality from my point of viewby Rev. Michael Heart
Ask who knows what Fall/Redemption means. If and when they answer, ask them what Creation Centered Spirituality means.
As my Christianity grew in the United Methodist Church I came to know the Theology of Fall/Redemption. I later found myself learning another theology, the theology of Creation Centered Spirituality. With that learning came a release and a strength of theology I didn’t have before. But the question was, which would I choose, Fall/Redemption Theology or Creation Centered Spirituality? The question is, given a choice, which will you choose? There is no correct answer.
If you have never heard of Creation Centered Spirituality then the choice would be like asking if you want ice Cream or Gorp. I know you love ice cream, but I also believe, once you were introduced to it, you’d love Gorp also. Gorp, for those who don’t know is a mixture of nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, etc., eaten as a high-energy snack.
When I found out I would be able to preach from time to time here at Beaverton First I knew I had to introduce you to Creation Centered Spirituality and to Father Matthew Fox at some point in time. Fox reintroduced Creation Centered Spirituality in September 1984 in a Book titled "Original Blessing." With the advent of our new website I came to realize I don’t have to wait to preach again to introduce you to Creation Centered Spirituality.
Creation Centered Spirituality honors all of creation as the original blessing of God. It integrates the wisdom of Western spirituality and global indigenous cultures with an emerging understanding of the universe which reveals the inter-relatedness of all beings, especially the interrelatedness of God and all that God has created, including you and me.
Creation Spirituality isn’t a new idea. The basic beliefs, tenets and theology have been supported by proponents such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. John of the Cross, and, especially by 12th century theologian Hildegard of Bingen and 13th century Dominican Priest and Theologian Meister Eckhart. These are not names you may know now, but as we continue on our journey to find a Gospel of Spirituality, they will become names with which you will become familiar.
Fall/Redemption theology is a basic tenet of most Christian Faiths. It says since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, fell before God’s eyes and they were doomed to seek God’s forgiveness forever, to seek redemption. It is what Fall/Redemption Theologians call original sin. Adam and Eve sinned and we are forced to have to ask for forgiveness forever to be redeemed in the eyes of God. We must constantly be in a state for confession for the original sin.
Methodists on the other hand don’t spend a great deal of time worrying about Fall/Redemption and yet it is a part of our Theology. It is a way to be in relationship with God. This is why so many of our churches have weekly prayers of confession.
What is the difference between "fall/redemption" and "creation-centered" spirituality? In practical terms, almost everything! Fall/Redemption is dualistic (interpreting things to be either good or evil), ascetic (one must be rigorously abstinent and austere). Fall/Redemption Theology is also obsessed with sin and guilt, and disdainful of the needs of our earth.
Creation Centered Spirituality on the other hand is dialectical, (meaning more concern with nature) , aesthetic (more concerned with natural beauty and the form’s of nature), tied to the earth and the universe, and rejoicing in the gift of our humanity.
Even the counterpoint title of Fox's book, "Original Blessing", is meant to be a rebuttal and antidote to the notion of "original sin". In short, all the things that Fox claims for "creation-centered" theology are the very same things that modern Pagans have come to regard as beliefs that are quintessentially Pagan.
Now before you get uncomfortable with the word Pagan, let us define just what a pagan believes. Simply put, a pagan is one who isn’t Christian, Jewish or Muslim and who believes in the dualistic nature of God as creator and nurturing parent such as Gaia or Mother Earth.
Creation Spirituality is a positive way of looking at our relationship with God. Those of us who accept that God loves us and who love God in return, would, most likely, prefer a more positive way of relating to God. Being in relationship to God in a positive sense means you can pick up a blade of grass and experience its color, shape and form, you can capture it’s divinity in the experience. Anything that has "being" is holy. God dwells there.
Creation Spirituality is about kindness but it is also about compassion for our fellow beings. In Matthew 13 we are told when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus was about to become their shepherd. It is in this spirit that Jesus gathers his disciples together and tells them "go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons." And then Jesus tells the disciples something that he also tells us. Take nothing in return for the good doing. This is a foundation for Creation Spirituality. To do for the good of doing and not for the return it might bring.
The principles behind the theology of Creation Spirituality are a list that could fuel an Adult Study that would last for many months. However, it is important if we are to understand the theological concepts of Creation Spirituality that we touch base with these principles.
1. The universe is basically a blessing, that is, something we experience as good.
2. We can and do relate to the universe as a whole since we are a little part of that larger whole.
3. Everyone is a mystic (i.e., born full of wonder and capable of recovering it at any age; of not taking the awe and wonder of existence for granted.)
4. Everyone is a prophet, who is called to "interfere" with what interrupts authentic life.
5. Humans have to dig and work at finding their deep self, their true self, their spirit self; thus the role of spiritual application of knowledge and meditation and a meeting of our community face to face. If we do not undergo such application of knowledge we live superficially out of fear or greed or addiction or someone else's expectations of us. The belief is that salvation is best understood as "preserving the good." 6. The journey that marks that learning and digging can be named as a four-fold journey. Matthew Fox, being a Catholic uses the Latin terms of Jesus time:
First, Via Positiva: a journey of delight, awe, wonder, revelry.
Second, Via Negativa: a journey into darkness, silence, suffering, letting go
Third, Via Creativa: a journey of birthing and creativity
And last, Via Transformativa: a journey of compassion, justice, healing, and celebration.
Keep these four paths close to the center of your existence for they are the formation and ground for Creation Spirituality and they are paths which are easy to traverse and to understand. In several weeks I will talk more about these paths and how they can lead us into a world of joy, compassion, completion and connection to God.
Fall Redemption would tell us that we have sinned and we have to spend our lives grieving that sin and begging for forgiveness of that sin. Creation Spirituality tells us that we are already forgiven of our transgressions when we realize the mistakes which we have made. Healing our relationships with God should take precedence over the self flagellating abuse we can heap on ourselves.
This is the root of enduring, inspiring action for the healing of our relationship with God - naming and grieving the wounds that we and God have suffered, and celebrating our togetherness.
Finally, for today at least, the most important part of any theology is does it work to make me a more spiritual person. If so, then it is a theology we can embrace and allow to nurture us to a place of Awakening to the Gospel of just what Spirituality may and does mean for each of us. Amen.
