I wanted to share a few of the places I go to online for spiritual sustenance. When you have time, you might enjoy exploring some of these.
Byron Katie--a woman who teaches a useful, practical, non-religious method of getting to "truth," there are some great demonstrations in video form on the website.
Bishop Shelby Spong--retired Episcopal Priest who is a leader in re-inventing a Christianity that is liberal, alive and meaningful.
Christian Science Lectures--and the Daily Lifts--set aside your assumptions about Christian Science and enjoy some of these lectures. For whatever its faults, Christian Science is one of the few places you will find Agape or Love as the absolute substance, message, core, and doctrine taught.
Unity--a wonderful continuation of work begun more than a hundred years ago, progressive Christianity that serves people of all faiths.
Joyce Meyer--if you can bear her awful politics and get past some of the language, she is an incredible preacher with a gift for practical teaching that people even outside of mainstream Christianity find inspirational.
Charter for Compassion--the work of Karen Armstrong, when you visit the website read the actual Charter. It is a moving, impressive, truly interfaith document.
I'd love to be led to teachers and sites that support your spiritual walk--so send a comment if you have ideas!
blessings and love,
Rev. Sam Wilde
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Make Sense?
Driving the other day, I passed a car with this bumper sticker: Make love, not sense.
Of course, I instantly loved it, though I have no idea what it was meant to mean, it spoke to me. In fact, it set me off on an interesting meditation about love and sense.
I think most every great religion and spiritual tradition, with the possible exception of Buddhism, makes love without making much sense. My husband and I have been discussing how interesting it is to have a Mormon running for the US presidency, when the story and the scripture of the Church of Latter Day Saints is really a quite unbelievable sort. Many of us think the the whole Christian story is a bit senseless, far out, and slightly irrational.
I can certainly remember sitting in church as a girl and looking at some of my mother's close friends who sang in the choir. These were professional, composed, established, intelligent, educated, and achieving women. I used to wonder: they don't really believe Jesus was born of a Virgin, do they?
Most religions tell some tall tales. There's the wonderful story in the Torah about the three men who are thrown into a fiery furnace, and not one is harmed in anyway. And let's not forget Jonah in the belly of the wall, or the parting of the red seas.
Do these make sense?
Not at all. Do they make love?
Spiritual belief, or faith as some call it, does require a child's willing, creative, imaginative mind. When we believe in what we cannot see--that God is good when our life is hard, that healing is possible when someone appears ill, that the world is filled with Divinity when all we hear on the radio is war, hate, and death--we delve into the heart of the mystery, into the gift of this koan (if it can be called that): make love, not sense.
However, I do think, with study and time, meditation and prayer, conversation and reflection, the laws of God's world and ways of working show a more profound and transformative sense--and then we begin to look at the world that does not operate out of love, and think: how senseless!
Sometimes, we must be willing to lay aside our thinking head and use our thinking heart, open the eyes and ears of our heart where the indwelling divine resides and see the world a little bit more like Spirit sees it. Will we always make sense by the standards of the world? Probably not--but then is that what we want? To fit in with a culture that adores speed, gets rich on violence, and diminishes love to a Hallmark card on Valentine's day?
I don't. Which is why I laughed to myself with delight when I saw that message. What a good reminder! Let's all go make love and not worry so much about the sense!
Rev. Sam Wilde
Of course, I instantly loved it, though I have no idea what it was meant to mean, it spoke to me. In fact, it set me off on an interesting meditation about love and sense.
I think most every great religion and spiritual tradition, with the possible exception of Buddhism, makes love without making much sense. My husband and I have been discussing how interesting it is to have a Mormon running for the US presidency, when the story and the scripture of the Church of Latter Day Saints is really a quite unbelievable sort. Many of us think the the whole Christian story is a bit senseless, far out, and slightly irrational.
I can certainly remember sitting in church as a girl and looking at some of my mother's close friends who sang in the choir. These were professional, composed, established, intelligent, educated, and achieving women. I used to wonder: they don't really believe Jesus was born of a Virgin, do they?
Most religions tell some tall tales. There's the wonderful story in the Torah about the three men who are thrown into a fiery furnace, and not one is harmed in anyway. And let's not forget Jonah in the belly of the wall, or the parting of the red seas.
Do these make sense?
Not at all. Do they make love?
Spiritual belief, or faith as some call it, does require a child's willing, creative, imaginative mind. When we believe in what we cannot see--that God is good when our life is hard, that healing is possible when someone appears ill, that the world is filled with Divinity when all we hear on the radio is war, hate, and death--we delve into the heart of the mystery, into the gift of this koan (if it can be called that): make love, not sense.
However, I do think, with study and time, meditation and prayer, conversation and reflection, the laws of God's world and ways of working show a more profound and transformative sense--and then we begin to look at the world that does not operate out of love, and think: how senseless!
Sometimes, we must be willing to lay aside our thinking head and use our thinking heart, open the eyes and ears of our heart where the indwelling divine resides and see the world a little bit more like Spirit sees it. Will we always make sense by the standards of the world? Probably not--but then is that what we want? To fit in with a culture that adores speed, gets rich on violence, and diminishes love to a Hallmark card on Valentine's day?
I don't. Which is why I laughed to myself with delight when I saw that message. What a good reminder! Let's all go make love and not worry so much about the sense!
Rev. Sam Wilde
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