Theism Isn't the Only Way to Explore the Sacred

 The God of my understanding and experience is a presence and a power, not a person, not a potentate.  

Love at its most perfect; that’s God.

The field of unlimited possibilities; that’s God. 

What’s really real; that’s God.

 

Light and air, water and star dust, and echoes of the big bang all coming together as you and as me; that’s God.

 

The Substance and Fabric and Vitality of life; that’s God.

 

The indescribable More; that’s God.

All-in-all; that’s God.

 

Or rather, those are the ways that I experience, understand, and try to discuss the 

unnamable Something that must be pondered but can’t be dissected, 

 

That can be experienced intimately but never known completely, 

 

That requires awe but not submission, 

 

That inspires love and never cruelty, 

 

That is part of everything but cannot be limited by anything. 

 

And I call that, for lack of a better word, God...

 

We’ve been to the moon. The internet connects us instantly to people across geography and time zones. We transplant organs. We have nano robots that do medical procedures from inside bodies. We cloned a sheep. We fly in the air. Every day.

 

We can live underwater for big stretches of time. 

We synthesized insulin. We can help a lot of people live past 100.

 

There are over 700,000 humans alive right now who are more than 100 years old. There are more centenarians on the planet than there are people living in Denver.

 

We know that homo sapiens (that’s us) have been around for 200,000 years with hominin ancestors going back 5 million years or more (maybe 10).  

 

We live on a small planet in a modest solar system that is one of 400 billion solar systems in a galaxy that is one of 2 trillion galaxies in a vast and expanding universe that is at least 13.8 billion years old and might actually be eternal (always is but never began).

 

The old guy on a cloud passing judgement, pulling puppet strings, deciding when people die, granting favors to the deserving few – 

 

is a mental image we inherited from a world that thought earth was flat and at the center of the universe. 

 

For God to be relevant and real to us, we MUST liberate Her from the middle ages and recognize the divine as part of the fabric of the universe that we actually inhabit. 

 

So, if God isn’t a superhero, but is the air we breathe and the light we see by and the electricity in the room and the love we feel more deeply than we can describe…

 

then we can pray to that God because that God is always with us, exactly where we are; 

we are part of its vastness; it individuates as us. The universe explores and knows itself as us.

 

So, yes we pray. We turn within, because God is there; or we turn outward, because God is there, or we turn to the Great Teachers (like Jesus), because God is there, or we turn to the traditions, because God is there, 

 

or we turn to one another, because God is there. That’s how and why we pray, because there’s not a spot where God is not. 

 

We aren’t calling out across a great canyon, we’re tapping Love itself on the shoulder and saying, “Hey, can I have a hug?” 

The answer is always yes.

(excerpts from Nov. 17, 2024 homily at Sunshine Cathedral)

 - dw

Remembering Mother Emanuel

God of many names,

We recall the events of 6 years ago at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

During a time of bible study and prayer, eight parishioners and the pastor were slain by one they welcomed.

People who gathered to seek and serve the God of their understanding were viciously murdered in the place they held sacred.

We know, YHWH Shammah, God who was and is there, that the first voice to cry out in horror, pain, and sorrow, must have been yours.

We know, El Roi, God who sees, that you witness our violence, racism, injustices, and our failure to demand, defend, and demonstrate “liberty and justice for all.”

We know, YHWH Rapha, God who heals, that there is much pain that leads to and results from on-going violence in our world.

YHWH Shalom, you are our peace.

Give us the grace to repent of our violence and to become blessed peace-makers.

Give us hope that justice will yet “roll out like waters.”

Give us the will and show us the way to “do justice, love mercy, and live humbly.”

Give us the courage to resist racism in our society and in our hearts, and to do the work of anti-racism. 

Help us be better. 

Help us do better.

Help us rise to the level of love, compassion, and justice that you desire, El Elyon, God Most High.

On this sad anniversary, we remember, and we bless the Mother Emanuel community of faith. 

Amen.

 

--Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Senior Minister

Sunshine Cathedral

 

GOD LOVES YOU, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

GOD LOVES YOU, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

A Durrell Discourse

I’m seeing a lot of “God loves you” talk in these early days of Pride Month. Good! But I am aware that such sentiments may be a bit hollow for those who doubt or who have rejected “God.” Of course, divinity need not be limited to an Olympian humanoid figure...God may be a power rather than a person, a presence, the source of all energy which makes up all that is, even a symbol to represent all that is good and beautiful.

I’m in the God business and have dedicated my life to the God-experience, and yet, the God of my understanding is not a person in a great beyond, but rather, the very life that I know as my life, the heartbeat of the world I see, the substance of worlds that I can scarcely imagine. God isn’t something apart from me, but Something I am a part of...forever.

Ultimate Reality is too big (even “big” is too small a way to describe It) for us in our physical state to comprehend, so we are left with the god of our understanding (our various understandings). In a sermon once, Rev. Shelley Hamilton said, “God is the search for God.” I can’t know exactly what she meant, but that phrase has stuck with me for almost 30 years, and how I understand it is that we experience God according to our consciousness (awareness, understanding, life-view). God (Life, Eternity, Reality, Existence) is bigger than anything I imagine, but I experience It as I imagine It.

Rev. David Alexander once said it this way on a podcast, “God is our relationship to the ‘Thing Itself.’” Again, Ultimate Reality, the “Ground of Being” (#Tillich) is known as we experience It, and our experience will be shaped by what we believe about It (and a belief is just a well rehearsed opinion, a crystallized thought). I believe it was Ernest Holmes who said God is personal to the degree that we personalize God...another way of saying, “god is the search for god” or “god is our relationship to the thing itself.”

My non-theistic theology (or more accurately, my monistic theology, or perhaps, Panentheistic theology) means that, for me, God is not loving but is Love itself, not good, but Goodness (All that is good is an expression of God), not powerful, but all Power, not a being, but the Source of being.

If God for you is a loving parent figure on a high mountain - then, let me join with the others who are saying, “God loves you!”

But if God (life, hope, joy, meaning, beauty, the animating spark of existence) is an experience that can’t be fully explained, a presence rather than a person, a Wholeness that includes you or high Ideal that you hold, then let me say it this way: God is Love and it exists in and is expressed through the love you share.

Don’t let religious vocabularies which are limited at best keep you from the euphoria of feeling good enough, empowered, joyful, and vibrant.

God loves you, OR, God is love and dwells richly in and shows up as your love. Either way...Happy Pride!

—Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Sunshine Cathedral

God is here

When I don’t know “what” to pray but feel the NEED to pray, I simply whisper, “God is here.” When “God” seems like an almost arrogant or silly assumption that I know what can’t be known or understand what I in my finite human experience could not possibly understand, I replace “god” with “Hope” or “Compassion” or “Wisdom” or “Peace” or “Strength.” The Mystery beyond our naming is HERE. Somehow, that simple affirmation always comforts me. God, even God beyond God, is here. And, if God is here, God is also “there” because the infinite includes everything. So, if you are facing a struggle today, I am knowing that God (that great field of unlimited possibility to which the word “god” points) is there, with you. And so it is.

Is the Bible Just a Bunch of Fairy Tales?

I am often asked if the bible is "just" a bunch of fairy tales or "just" some old stories. For a lover of stories, "just" seems misplaced. 

Religion is mythological. Myths are meant to help us get at truth, not facts. 

Bible stories, for me anyway, are allegories for life. I honestly couldn’t care less if not one thing in the Bible ever literally, factually happened...because in my experience, what the stories are trying to communicate are true and timeless and relevant for my life. I’m Joseph. I’m Jacob. I’m Mary. I’m Elizabeth. I’m Miriam. I’m Aaron. I’m Elijah. I’m Amos. I’m the serpent. I’m Eve. I’m Noah. I’m Peter. I’m Paul. I’m Stephen. Each story shows me who I am, or who I have been, or who I can be. Each story shows mistakes I’ve made or are likely to make. Each story shows me that redemption is possible, that I am more than what I currently know and more than what I’ve done so far. So, they are true for me, even if they are not factual (and, honestly, I doubt if many of them are entirely factual).

Remember the famous editorial in the 1897 Sun answering the question “Is there a Santa Claus?” When “Virginia” asks if Santa is real, the writer explains that what Santa represents (hope, generosity, kindness, goodwill, etc.) is very real and very much needed. “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” is the most remembered line from that piece. There isn’t a man living at the North Pole, flying with magic reindeer tossing presents under trees, but there is a human urge and need to care for others, to express love, to be generous...we need, and in our best moments believe in everything Santa is supposed to be. So, Santa is true, while not being factual. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Marcus Borg said there are three phases to faith development:

1. Precritical.
They sold it, we bought it. We accept the stories as they are, taking them as literal facts with no need to question them. This is how we start out.

2. Critical.

Things don’t make sense and we have a lot of questions. We start to not believe some of the stories. Walking on water? Lazarus coming to life after 4 days of decomposition? Abraham willing to slaughter his son? People in the desert being cured of snake venom by looking at a serpentine tchotchke? At the critical level, we start to call “bullshit.” [Of course Borg didn't say "B/S". The categories are his; the explanations of them in this piece are mine]

Most people get stuck at the first or second level. But Borg says there’s an important third. We have to go through 1 and 2 to get to #3, but 3 is the goal.

3. Post-critical.
That’s where we reclaim the stories and find new meaning and relevance in them. We don’t take them literally, but we no longer need to toss them out entirely. We read them and breathe new life into them and let them be free of the bondage of literalism and they become alive for us and fresh and exciting.


Sometimes people fear that expanding their understanding of and relationship to the bible is akin to giving up on God. One - don't worry about that. Two - we all give up old notions of God as we grow. We've all cast upon the garbage heap of life old gods (or understandings of the divine) that no longer serve us. Meister Eckhart wrote, “I pray God to make me free of God.” When God is presence and power and goodness and possibility rather than a person (with personality quirks), that may not be abandoning God as much as simply letting God be bigger for us...beyond description and images. Graven images of God are too limiting, that’s why the Decalogue discourages us from having them.

And what of the biblical Jesus? Was he a prophet? A teacher? Philosopher? Rebel? Social activist? Healer? Miracle worker? Revolutionary? Messiah? Divine being? Someone who lived so authentically into his humanity that people thought he must something more?

Jesus himself (in the story anyway) asks the important question: “Who do YOU say that I am?” Following Jesus, in my view, will include seeing Jesus differently over time. Relationships grow and evolve. If Jesus is going to have a primary place in my consciousness, then my understanding of him will probably change over time.  I don’t think we can get it wrong really, unless we stop trying. 

No wonder one is to work out one’s own salvation “with fear and trembling” (h/t the Apostle Paul)! It is a lot of work, and every question leads to more questions, and every answer must eventually be discarded or replaced or upgraded. But that’s the journey. That’s the faith walk. Doubting and questioning and wrestling and wondering...that’s the gig! And that’s what we see in scripture...people working out their stuff and sharing their journey in literary, symbolic, allegorical, metaphorical, mystical, mythical, tragic, comedic, political, ritualistic, poetic, clumsy, smooth, and courageous ways. 

Even if the characters aren’t real (and honestly, some aren't), the writers certainly were real, and the writers are using their characters to tell their stories and when we read and question them, we are adding our own. That’s the magic of scripture. Again, I don’t need one character to be historical in order for their stories to be relevant and powerful and life changing for me. 

Those of us who free ourselves of literalism find the Bible to be new and refreshing...offering something powerful with each new reading. It’s a conversation rather than a crystal ball, a builder’s tool rather than an anchor, an open door rather than a locked one.  So, maybe there was no Abraham. Almost certainly there was no global flood (there may have been a regional disaster). Of course Jonah didn’t live three days in a fish. Snakes and donkeys do not talk and never have. Virgins and 90 year old women don’t have babies. And the resurrection may be more about resurrecting hope and purpose and courage than about one body that was reanimated for a few weeks. AND...none of those “facts” change the truth that I find in each of those stories - truth that is applicable to my life, my journey, my faith. 

How I Came to Believe in God

A question was asked on Facebook: "To my friends who claim a faith, how did you come to believe in a deity?"

Of course, many people answered, and as you would expect, the answers varied greatly. Here was my reply:
"Raised in a religious home and culture, a supreme being seemed an a priori fact. That same religion condemned me for my same-gender loving orientation and it's god which condemned me for being gay was apparently unable or unwilling to zap me straight. That led to deep questioning and searching...so for me, it wasn't about coming to believe that there was a deity, but trying to summon the courage to decide if possibly there wasn't one. In my search I came to believe that God is the search for God...the search for meaning, the ways we try to mine the depths of ultimate reality, is what we mean by 'god.' It may or may not be self-aware, but the questions are energizing even if they can't be answered. And anyway, it's become easy for me to accept that all that is makes up a whole, and the whole must be greater than the sum of its parts. To call it 'god' and explore ways to be nurtured and empowered by it is the religious quest, and so, I remain a religious person with more questions than answers but a 'faith' (trust) that we don't need the answers to be alright. We're all on a path and we will all reach whatever there is to reach." (dw)

Don't You Hate It When God Tells You To Do Something That Makes It All Worse?!

In the beginning was the Logos...the Reason. Sometimes, preachers or denominational councils will say that God told them to do a thing, or that the Spirit revealed a thing, and that is meant to silence any questions or debate (e.g., the top LDS leader recently said that God told him to exclude children of gay couples from the rite of baptism). But if the thing that God supposedly told one person or one small group causes outcry, pain, distrust, mass anxiety, and if Reason isn't part of the process (but rather a divine dictate that can't be proven is the final authority ...how convenient for the one/s God directed), then a healthy hermeneutic of suspicion is in order. We don't have to agree with him, of course, but the Apostle Paul thought that "God is not the author of confusion..." Something to think about when autocratic decisions are trying to be forced in the name of God and the result is utter chaos.

What if "God" were something other than what we were taught to imagine?

As a clergy person, I get two particular questions a lot (and they are variations of the same concern):
1. Why must we pray for good things; doesn't God know what we need and can't God just provide for those needs without being asked?
2. Why are some prayers answered and others aren't?

Both questions suggest an ancient, theistic understanding of divinity. The questions imply that there are gods on a far away mountain or in a sky realm hidden by clouds and they favor some mortals over others, or they are largely indifferent but can be cajoled into offering assistance. And if that is our understanding of divinity, then of course we become frustrated, even angry. Why should the gods grant me a convenient parking place but not protect my car from a runaway shopping cart? Why should the deities bring good fortune into my life only later to let it slip away?Why should the fates add a blessing to one person's medical treatment and not another's? The god in the sky or on the mountain top is notoriously unreliable and often quite unfair.

But here is the good news...there are other ways of understanding "God." God is the word we have inherited for Ultimate Reality, Eternity, the Infinite, the Field of All Possibilities, the Life-force within us. Some prefer to call this "Something" a Higher Power, others see life as being filled with so many seemingly random occurrences that belief in God is problematic. Still others see God as the spirit of life, an omnipresent Reality, an indwelling and all-embracing energy, a web of existence connecting all life. We are not limited to the super-human personalities of Asgard or Olympus any longer. Even Jesus said, "God is spirit..." which we could understand as energy, the breath of life, a ubiquitous gestalt. With that understanding of God, we can say as Jesus did, "the divine and I are one!"

If we say "God" but think of a Zeus or Odin type of character with human personality, then like all other human personalities, that God will eventually disappoint us. But, if God (to borrow from the poet Epimenides and the "Acts of the Apostles") is that in which "we live and move and have our being," then God isn't separate from us, granting some wishes and ignoring others; rather, God is a power within and all around us that we can tap into to help us make the most of the opportunities and possibilities in life.

Apparent delays and denials may not be the action (or annoying inaction) of Apollo, Isis, or Lakshmi; they may simply suggest that we have not yet learned how to do better, or we have not yet healed mental blocks that are in the way of some achievement, or that our desired good is in the works and just hasn't shown up for us yet.

Some of the great spiritual teachers have reminded us that what God does for us, God must do through us. That makes God a partner, something with which we can cooperate (like gravity or electricity), something we can explore and express more of as our journey unfolds. Perhaps the "why hasn't God fixed it yet" questions suggest a need for a new understanding of God, and empowered by a new understanding, we may yet find more peace, hope, and even achievement going forward.

My response to someone who insisted that his fundamentalist views were biblical and being biblical made them right...he further said his views were unquestionable b/c the bible "teaches its readers to believe it in its entirety."

The bible does not teach the reader to believe it in its entirety because the bible isn't the bible in the bible. the canon of scripture wasn't closed until LONG after the life of Jesus. the bible the people in the NT knew was the Septuagint (Hebrew Scriptures in Greek including the books that Protestants now call the Apocrypha which are part of Catholic bibles)...there is no New TEstament in the New Testament. Anyway, that bible "in its entirety" tells slaves to obey their masters, forbids tattoos, demands a kosher diet and a 7th day (Friday night to Saturday night) Sabbath and assumes the world is flat (with literal corners) and doesn't seem troubled by two contradictory creation accounts (and other contradictions). So, "biblolatry" isn't being more faithful or more devout, just less thoughtful. The doctrine of the Trinity wasn't hammered out until the 4th century (again, long after Jesus) and even if the bible did fall out of the sky fully written, it is beyond weak to say "the bible is true because it says it is."

God must be so much bigger than what ancients said about God (or what anyone says about God). God, "the ground of being" isn't a person, isn't a member of a human religion, and surely wouldn't reject anyone for any reason. Fundamentalism has made religion a weapon of oppression which has done far more damage than good.

Spiritually Unlimited

Sharing the Light: Spiritually Unlimited
with Rev Dr Durrell Watkins & Rev Cindy Lippert
14 minute video

Saved? No thank you...

I often say, if the fundies are right, i (and most of us) are HOSED; but if I'm right, then their is no penalty for them being wrong (other than maybe the day comes that they regret having made so many others miserable). I'd rather be wrong than spend 5 minutes (never mind eternity) with the god they present, and I'd rather live with the peace and hope that universalist, spiritual humanism offers than with the fear of an angry god (or the sadness that must accompany knowing that even if that god doesn't flick me like a booger into the fires of hell, the divine sadist is doing that to many good, kind, gentle, loving people simply for having one opinion rather than another). Not only could I never accept (or promote) the saved vs. damned brand of religion, i still don't understand how it appeals to those who do embrace it. but that's me...

Blessed are those who mourn...

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Jesus (Sermon on the Mount)

In Good Times & Bad, Keep Praying... by Rev Dr Durrell Watkins, Senior Minister Many people have been in my thoughts and prayers lately. There are those who are on our prayer list (where they stay for four weeks at a time) as well as those in our congregation whose circumstances are known to me. I've been very mindful of some who are looking for work. I've been thinking of some who have been recovering from (or preparing to have) medical procedures. There have been injuries. There has been grief over the death of cherished loved ones (friends, relatives, even pets). Over and over my thoughts are filled with the words, "God bless him" or "May she soon discover joy again" or "I affirm blessings for them, trusting that divine Love holds them and will not let them go." Sometimes the prayers seem to contribute to miracles. Sometimes, the prayers seem to offer comfort. And sometimes the prayers seem to do little other than to help the one praying feel as if loving concern prayerfully expressed might somehow make a bit of difference that cannot yet be felt or seen. Still, in prayer I remember that "there's not a spot where God is not." When we remember our unity with God, we are much more likely to experience hope, joy, and fulfillment; and even when outcomes disappoint, there remains the divine gift of inner peace and self-worth which were not given to us by life's circumstances nor can they be taken away by life's circumstances. As the Apostle Paul said, "If we live we live for the Lord; if we die we die with the Lord. So, whether we live or die we are the Lord's!" In more contemporary verbiage we might say, "I am never separate from divine Life. No matter what happens in life, I am Eternity expressing in time; I am an individuation of perfect, universal Wholeness." Today I have been praying for one of our deacons and his life-partner. I heard this morning that John was suddenly very ill. Updates throughout the day were consistently discouraging. Finally, this evening, I received a call saying that John made his transition from this experience of life to the next. His partner, Deacon Ed, is one of our faithful diaconal care-givers who provide pastoral care and comfort to congregants when they are in need. Today, my heart is heavy for Deacon Ed and I continue to pray for his comfort, for his strength, for his pain to soften over time into beautiful memories, for his grief to become a healing process that leads him gently back to abundant joy. Perhaps you have been blessed by Ed reading the gospel or praying for our various intentions in worship. Perhaps you have been encouraged by him or have known about his ministry to seniors. So, I am asking you to hold Deacon Ed in your heart in the days ahead, and bless him with your love.

Dear God, the light that we knew as  John shines throughout eternity, forever blessed by the Love that you are. And so we give thanks even as we ask you to hold  Deacon Ed in your tender care and keeping and offer him the comfort he needs in the days to come. Amen.

Progressive Spirituality Discussions

WHAT'S A MIRACLE?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X66rV0X6jvk&list=UUi1vfps751gSRdDZIIzhkvw&feature=c4-overview

 

REASONABLE, RELEVANT RELIGION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGQo220K_-8&list=UUi1vfps751gSRdDZIIzhkvw

 

SAVED FROM WHAT?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfi5ZMjeOnk&feature=player_detailpage

RESPONSIBILITY WITHOUT BLAME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0J7AyBD0Hg

IS THERE A SCIENCE TO PRAYER?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGsWYAE10JI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DEGsWYAE10JI&app=desktop

OMNIPRESENCE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqEIejhV9Rk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUi1vfps751gSRdDZIIzhkvw

We Remember, Give Thanks, & Hope

World AIDS Day Prayer (2013)
Rev Dr Durrell Watkins

Spirit of Life,
On this World AIDS Day we remember those who died too soon from complications of a virus that has taken too many.
On this World AIDS Day we remember those who lost loved ones to the epidemic.
On this World AIDS Day we remember those who dedicated their lives to raising awareness and improving access to treatment.
On this World AIDS Day we remember those who never gave up hope.
On this World AIDS Day we remember those who had to face not only the pain of dis-ease and the terror of the unknown, but also marginalization and demonization from those who chose to "blame the victim."

On this World AIDS Day we give thanks for those who survived the most frightening days.
On this World AIDS Day we give thanks that life-saving medications were discovered and that treatment options get better all the time.
On this World AIDS Day we give thanks for complementary therapies.
On this World AIDS Day we give thanks that miracles have happened among us.

On this World AIDS Day we continue to hope for a cure.
On this World AIDS Day we wish for those who are not infected to remain uninfected and for those who are infected to remain optimistic and to live abundantly, joyously, and in good health.

Omnipresent, all-inclusive, eternal Love,
Receive our prayers today and rekindle within us a desire to live, to love, to share, and to make our world a better place.
Amen.

Become aware of the power

Sunshine Cathedral Daily Spirit & Truth Reflection

Tuesday, November 12

Become aware of the power Rev. Dr Durrell Watkins

"We are aware of a great Intelligence within ourselves that helps us climb the hills of life..." Carrie Munz

A woman from Boston was visiting New York for a conference. When it was time to leave the conference, she had the most difficult time hailing a cab. She wasn’t accustomed to the New York vibe and while she stood meekly, barely raising her hand as cabs drove by, no taxi driver noticed her. Any driver would have been happy to take her to the airport, but they just didn’t notice her. Finally, a driver did see and stop for her.
We can’t take advantage of what we don’t notice. As we become increasingly aware of the divine Power within us, we can trust that power more and allow It more fully to meet our every need.

Prayer Treatment: There is unlimited Energy within me; as I take notice of It, I can direct It to bless my life. I have the power; I choose to acknowledge It now. And so it is!

 

Never Assume...

Today is the Feast Day of the Assumption of the Blessed Lady Mary, Mother of Jesus, if your personal piety or religious tradition observes it. Those who observe it call it the most important of the Marian feasts.

Jesus' ascension is modeled after the story of Elijah being taken into the heavens/eternity (without dying) by a whirlwind (althought Jesus was executed and it was his resurrected presence that was said to ascend).

The Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox traditions have continued the story telling tradition Ascension by applying the same phenomenon to Mary. The Eastern church doesn't have a dogma about Mary not dying first, but in 1950, Pope Pius (speaking ex cathedra, and thus relying on papal infallibility, a doctrine only from the 19th century) dogmatically defined the Assumption of Mary declaring her to have been taken into heaven (bodily) without dying.

There isn't much about Mary in the bible (there is actually more about her in the Qu'ran).

Some value Mary as a co-Redemptrix, Queen of Heaven (a title held by the Egyptian goddess Isis as well), spiritual mother of all people (based on the story of Jesus telling his beloved friend that Mary would now be his mother). For those who have a "high" Mariology (a devotion to and detailed mythology about Mary), she shares in the work of Redemption, and may even represent the divine Feminine.

For others, Mary was a European looking figure stitched on banners of armies coming to conquer peoples of the Americas. For them, Mary is not so much divine figure as a symbol of colonialism, European imperialism, and the decimation of native cultures.

For some feminists, Mary (as presented by the male dominated hierachy of the Christian Ecclessiastical institutions) represents the silencing and control of women. An instituion that will not ordain women or allow them control over their own bodies or sexuality elevate a woman to almost divine status...a women, just one; and that one woman is a perpetual virgin who said "yes" to her impregnation that had already happened without her consent. The one woman worthy of adoration in the misogynistic church tradition is a woman who does as she is told and never has sexual urges, feelings, or needs. That, they argue, is not a realistic picture of flesh and blood women nor is it an empowering image for women.

For most Protestants, Mary is simply a rural peasant girl who had a baby who grew up to be a remarkable person, a teacher and healer, and lasting figure on the human imagination for millennia. Even if they have a high Christology (belief in Jesus as a redeemer of the world and somehow uniquely God-filled), they usually do not have a similarly high Mariology.

But then Dr Doreen Virtue puts a New Age spin on the "Beloved Mother." She suggests that Mary might have taken baby Jesus to live among the Essenes for a while where they both learned mysticism. She sees Mary as a nurturing, protecting figure for children. She believes those who claim to have vision sof Mary are experiencing something truly supernatural reminding us that miracles are possible. And she says that she personally asks the Blessed Lady for help from time to time.

Whatever we believe about Mary, it might be useful to look at the various ideas about her and let those ideas fire up our imaginations and help seek a more mature, life-giving faith, regardless of what part Mary may play in that.

On this feast of the Assumption, let's not make the assumption that there aren't new ways to look at it :-)

HAPPY FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION.

Understanding Unity with the Divine

I posted on Facebook this wonderful quote from Paramahansa Yogananda: "Realize that you and [God] are one."

A friend commented that while she was open to this Truth, it was sometimes difficult for her grasp.

This was my response:

 

Ultimate Reality (aka "god") is what is really real, the "stuff" from which life is made. My reality must be THE Reality. We are each an individuation of the Whole, an expression of the Infinite, Eternity experiencing Itself in/as time.

 

Our physical bodies and ego attachments seem so small compared to the vastness of the All, we sometimes can't imagine that we are part of It, but we are.

A kidney may seem small compared to the rest of the body, but it is all the same an integral part of the body, part of the unified whole. The kidney is "one with" the rest of the body, even though in function and experience it seems separate from the lungs, heart, liver, eyes, toes, tonsils, etc.

"One with" doesn't mean that there isn't more than our current experience, but it does mean that we are part of the All, and the All is expressed, at least in part, in, through, and as us.

 

We think of God as in 'heaven" but Jesus said the kingdom of heaven was within us. Where is God? In heaven. Where is heaven? In us. So God is in, that is, a part of, us! God is the All in all, so we are one with our Source even though there is more to the Source than we can experience in a single moment of illusory time.

 

More Than One Way to be Religious

More Than One Way to be Religious

WRITTEN BY REV. DR. DURRELL WATKINS

“Prophet” Cindy Jacobs recently declared that weather hazards and ecological problems are the result of divine wrath in response to presidential decisions. And without offering specifics, she prognosticated that more calamities are on the way. Of course, it’s a safe bet that something unhappy will happen somewhere. It doesn’t take a great psychic gift to make that guess!

Before this embarrassing statement suggesting that weather is caused by the gods and “bad” weather is the result of divine displeasure I had never heard of Ms. Jacobs, but I’ve heard her kind of blame, shame, and scare theology all too often.

I spend my life building religious community. I offer a message of hope and healing to help people navigate the chances and challenges of life. I try to affirm the sacred value of all people. I work to get people to stand up and speak out for peace, diversity, equality, and justice. That is, in my view, is religion's high purpose.

Religion gives us language and space to celebrate joys, face difficulties, and form human bonds that prove to be the cure for loneliness. Religion is not meant to increase our fears, strengthen our prejudices, or give us enemies to blame for the uncertainties of life.

Hurricanes, earthquakes, heat-waves, blizzards, and even terrorist attacks have all been blamed on liberals, pro-choice politicians, same-gender loving people, and whoever else rightwing extremists might name as the reason for misfortune that they insist is Heaven sent.

I remember at the beginning of the AIDS crisis some preachers claiming that the disease was God’s punishment against people who Christian fundamentalists found to be unworthy of respect or even tolerance. Almost as reprehensibly, many other clergy remained silent as people continued to suffer and die from the then little understood but clearly devastating disease.

I don’t know why anyone would choose to embrace an understanding of spirituality that suggests a deity will send disease or any disaster. Such petty instance that everything unpleasant is proof that a supreme being hates all the people they hate makes religion seem irrelevant and oppressive; it also makes representatives of religion seem more committed to hatred and bigotry than to enlightenment and progress.

As a representative of religion (progressive religion, but religion nevertheless), I very much resent that religion is so often misused and I wish to offer a better, kinder, more reasonable, and more useful understanding of faith.

It is the worst sort of opportunism to use tragedies as a means of promoting hatred and intolerance. The appropriate response to tragedy is compassion, not blame. The best use of religion in times of trouble is to offer comfort, not condemnation. And if we listen to the “better angels of our nature” we will affirm human dignity in the face of chaos rather than using chaos as a weapon to further dehumanize those we may not understand or like.

We are each entitled to our own understanding of the Sacred, of course. But I, as a religious person, will have no deity that would not bless same-gender love, that would send storms to punish many just to torment a few, or that would send rather than heal disease.

But thankfully, there are other understandings of the ultimate reality that many of us call “God.” Some of us believe, teach, and experience the divine as a comforting presence, an urge to do good, the capacity to love, forgive, and share, and a deep desire to bring peace, hope, and healing to all people.

We are each entitled to our own understandings, but I for one will always choose those that build up rather than tear down, that heal rather than hurt, and that affirm diversity rather than demand division. I just wanted another religious voice to be heard today.

Durrell Watkins holds sociology and theatre degrees from Henderson State University and Goddard College, respectively, as well as a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Episcopal Divinity School. He is the author of Wrestling with God without Getting Pinned: Old Stories, New Thoughts, & Progressive Spirituality (Outskirts Press, available at Amazon.com), and is the Senior Pastor of the Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale (www.sunshinecathedral.org).