When Called Upon.

At a meeting of the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria after the speaker had spoken about God intervening in her life Lorraine Parkinson questioned her about this and said that some help had come from God "when called upon".

This was significant.
It was consistent with my adult experience that nothing happened until I called upon God in my distress.
Then there was an answer.

This, however, does not apply to my childhood experience of seeing God in a vision.  My three year old self had not called upon God.
But this is consistent with the idea that it is God who instigates contact.
"We love because he first loved us."  1 John 4:19 (NRSV)

People who experience a hint or nudge in a particular direction, perhaps a warning, may already be in relationship with God and this could explain why some are warned and others are not.

It seems to me that this happens in order for it to be clear that it is God who is responding to their call for help, and this in order for them to come into relationship with God.

This is my experience.


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

Prejudice.

What we think of ourselves is partially created by the perceptions of others.

"'The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.'"  John 3:8a (NRSV)

Prejudice and stereotypes in the collective unconscious affect us by projecting negative images upon us.  These negative images can produce negative behavior in line with the prejudice or stereotype.  It is not necessary for these projections to be conscious or objectively manifest.

So what we think about people matters.

If we think negatively about them this may cause them to behave in a negative fashion.

Of course this is only the case where our negative thinking is untrue or false.
If what we are thinking is true then it will have a lesser effect.

But people who are prejudiced think that what they are thinking is true.

So it is better to think positively about people and see the good in them.

This is not to delude ourselves or to pretend that bad is good.
Only to excuse and offer forgiveness.

Then we can accentuate the good in everyone.


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

Spirituality.

What do people mean when they say, "I'm not religious but I'm spiritual"?

I believe they are stating, like the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s, that they do not subscribe to the moralistic, sex-phobic, hypocritical Christology of the Churches.
The fear/guilt manipulation of the conservative establishment.

But they do believe in God and they do agree with most of Jesus' teachings of forgiveness and compassion.

Their image of God, and indeed Jesus, is quite different from the traditional orthodox images: the angry, harsh, judgmental God and the Lamb Without Spot who becomes a human blood sacrifice to take away the sins of the world, which were inherited from Adam and Eve at the Fall.

They don't believe we are fallen and in need of redemption.
To them that is pure Machiavellian manipulation.

So what do they mean when they say they are spiritual?

I believe they mean that they are idealistic.
These are the non-materialistic ideals of the hippies: equality, non-violence, socialism, a positive attitude towards the body and sex, and the redistribution of wealth.....

This is combined with green values of preservation and protection of the environment.
The great Cathedral of Nature.

This vaguely connects with God as a benevolent creative force.
And Jesus as a spiritual teacher rather than a dying deity.

So this fits perfectly with Progressive Christianity: Original Blessing, a benevolent God, the historical Jesus, social justice, and ecology.

But Church?

Karma.

The law of karma obeys our notion of justice - rewards for good behavior, punishments for bad behavior.

When this does not happen in this life we project it into future lives, thus giving rise to the idea of reincarnation.

The notion of natural justice does not seem to apply in life.

Job says, "'Why do the wicked live on......and no rod of God is against them.'"  Job 21:7a,9b (NRSV)

So natural justice is projected into the afterlife as judgment.

Perhaps these ideas are not universal laws at all.

Perhaps we have free will to obey or break the rules depending on the circumstances.

Paul says to waive judgment according to understanding.

But life is not chaos.

There are constants - day and night, summer and winter, hot and cold.....

Newton's laws apply.

But even Newton's laws break down with the very small (atoms) and the very large (galaxies).

So where does that leave us?

We have free will to  make choices but even our free will is conditioned by our experiences.

We make mistakes.

In human experience the chances are that if we treat people badly they will treat us badly in return.
But this is not a law.
People may choose of their own free will to return sympathy or even good for our bad behavior.

So the patterns and the rules are not what govern our lives.
They are merely guidelines for our corporate well-being.

The cause and the purpose of life is Love.


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

Laws.

It is the nature of the human mind to seek to find patterns in things.

These patterns are often condensed into rules which are then said to be universal.

When rewards and punishments are attached to obeying or breaking these rules we have laws.

How many books have been written which claim to outline the laws of human experience?

They would even legislate love!

Laws make us feel secure.
They are certain and unchanging.
We are in control.

This is the nature of legalistic religions like the Pharisees.

This is also the nature of fundamentalism in religion.

It makes us feel secure.

But these rules, these laws can be demonstrated to break down in certain situations.

Jesus broke the law of the Jews on many occasions and said that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
By which he meant that human's well-being and happiness were more important than the rules.
Or perhaps even the purpose of the rules.

Jesus indicated that the Pharisees thought that the rules were more important than human beings themselves.

So do not get hung up on the rules and the laws, they may not be as important as we think.

Making rules is one of the ways that we make sense out of life.

But God does not obey our rules.
God is unpredictable.
We cannot control God.

The Ten Commandments are not laws to be rewarded or punished they are guidelines for living.

The laws were made for man, not man for the laws.

Satan.

When I say that rock music and popular entertainment, including sports, are rife with Satanism and black magic I can hear you say, "But there is no Satan!"

Modern secular thinking rightly rejects the idea of a supernatural devil.

But because there is no Satan does not mean there are no Satanists.

There are people who believe in Satan and sell their souls with the objective of achieving fame and fortune.
Mostly rock stars.  But there are others in the entertainment industries and sports.

What they do is tempt us, lead us astray, and damn us.

Have you noticed that everything is going up in flames?

Their songs have double meanings.
Their music is the music of death.

Death, in theological terms, means separation from God and leads to damnation.

This is their objective.

They deceive us and betray us.

But in the end there is no Satan only God's love.

The Golden Rule of Chiron.

(The Wounded Healer.)

Make sure you don't do to others what others have done to you.