Epistle for Holy Cross Sunday 6 September 2020

 Philippians 2:5-11

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Reflection       Jesus’ decision to enter Jerusalem, host a farewell supper with his closest friends, and allow one of them to betray his whereabouts to his persecutors is not a personal decision. He does not act to insure his security, safety, esteem, power or control. Jesus’ action is not personal. It is transpersonal.

An individual who operates with a transpersonal mindset is one "in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind…..”*  The transpersonal perspective is integral and undivided, it recognizes and honors all of humankind as interconnected and interdependent.

Jesus is operating from a transpersonal perspective. Standing surely in this inclusive view Jesus is faithful to truth as he knows it. He claims his nondual birthright as the son of humanity and the son of God. Political and religious officials call this treason and blasphemy. Jesus calls it truth. He is willing to  give up his life rather than give up his truth. 

Right about now you may be thinking, “That is great for Jesus but what does it have to do with me? Jesus’ capacity to seek justice and love unconditionally is unparalleled. I cannot compare to that.”

Wait a minute. Can you hear Jesus’ words to the disciples challenging our smallness? “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these…” (John 14.12) 

I believe we humans have set the bar too low. As it is with every generation, we are meant to exceed the good done by those who have gone before us. “How,” you ask? Fortunately St. Paul has a succinct instruction for the Philippians and us, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” 

What is the mind of Christ? It is the transpersonal point of view that sees every person and all of creation as sacred, interconnected  and interdependent. Furthermore, the mind of Christ compels action aimed at what is right.

When Paul counsels us to put on the mind of Christ, he is imploring us to grow beyond our small self’s demands that we strive to insure our personal needs for security, safety, attention, affection, power and control. He is admonishing us to live as Christ lived; engaging life from a transpersonal perspective, patiently and practically taking care of other peoples’ needs, even to the point of sacrifice. 

Which brings us to a perplexing paradox. When we sacrifice for the good of others, we lose nothing. We are not debased or shamed. Rather, we are stretched beyond the ordinary bounds of human understanding, we are raised into the transpersonal experience of glory, honor and triumph. 

This is the mystifying paradox of the cross. When Jesus allows himself to be bound, nailed and raised up on the cross he is not raised to shame and humiliation. He is raised to glory, honor and triumph; he ascends to victory and proceeds to breed hope in our hearts.

We have set the bar too low, made ourselves too small. What if we stood in our place with Jesus and claimed our birthright as children of humanity and children of God? What if we raised our sights to transpersonal heights and  doubled down on our commitment to action aimed at what is right, even when it means personal sacrifice? What might our world look like then?

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¹ Walsh, R. and F. Vaughan. "On transpersonal definitions". Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. Vol. 25, No2, pp. 199-207, 1993.

Gospel text for Sunday 23 September 2018

Mark 9:30-37        Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Reflection       Last Tuesday evening I attended the Yom Kippur service with Rabbi Helen Cohn’s congregation. Yom Kippur, the highest and holiest day of the year, marks the end of the Jewish people’s ten days of penitence in preparation for their New Year. During her rabbinic reflection Rabbi Helen spoke about “sacred uncertainty,”  explicating an attitude of humility we are meant to bring to our relationships with God and one another. She counseled, “Do not to look at other people as incompetent versions of yourselves.” Hidden in the rabbi’s wisdom I heard Paul’s instruction to the Philippians,  “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” (Phil 2.5)

What if we took this counsel to heart and began to frame our questions from a humble  non-dualistic perspective? What if rather than regarding ourselves as equal with God, judging people and putting them in pigeonholes, good, bad, right, wrong, what if we adopted an attitude of “sacred uncertainty?”   What if we began to think with the Mind of Christ, as servants of humanity looking for connections rather than distinctions? 

Several months ago I encountered a person in a leadership role whom I was not able to  assign to a particular gender identity. At first I found this disconcerting. As I struggled to put this person in one box or another it occurred to me that I was asking the wrong question. The question is not, “Was this person born a biological male or female?” Nor is it, “In what gender role am I supposed to identify them?” The question is, “How am I connected with this person? What does this person have to say to me?” Which catapulted me out of the tension between this or that, male or female. When I let go of my dualistic way of looking at this person, I was able to experience them in relationship with me. 

“How am I connected with them?” In the deepest desires of our hearts; to be treated with respect,  to have access to decent lives and thereby experience meaning and value. I am connected with this person in our shared humanity and divinity and we both chose to be in this place this day.

Jesus, the Son of Humanity, the Son of God, is praised as King yet arrives in Jerusalem riding on an ass, presides at the Passover banquet then washes his guests feet. Jesus is haled as king of the chosen and executed as a criminal. Jesus is the embodiment of both-and, non-dual consciousness. This is the picture painted for us by Mark’s narrative and it raises some important questions.

What kind of mind set is this gospel inviting us to adopt? What might it look like if individually and as One Body we break out of our pigeon-holing boxes, stop asking questions that demand unproductive dualistic responses?  What if we fervently prayed to embody a both-and life of “sacred uncertainty/“ What if we put on the humble, nonpartisan Mind of Christ?

* Please listen to James Finley’s reflection on Thomas Merton’s teachings about the realization of uncertainty by clicking on image at the upper right of this post.

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Christian Testament for 22 January 2017

1 Corinthians 1:10-18         Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.  For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Reflection       …for it has been reported to me… that there are quarrels among you; fathers and daughters, friends, neighbors, life partners, business partners.  What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Trump,” or “I belong to anti-Trump,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? … In whose name were you baptized? To what family do you truly belong? “

Yes, I have taken a few liberties with Paul’s words to the Corinthians. But today we are confronted with a similar situation to that which Paul faced in the early church. We, the People of God, are forgetting who and whose we are. We are girding up our loins and gerrymandering our lines, we are defining who is in and who is out and all the while we are afraid. 

We are afraid because we have forgotten who and whose we are. We are afraid because we have forgotten we are sisters and brothers in one family, the family of God.

Today we are faced with divided families, divided friendships, divided communities, a divided nation and divided hearts. In every region of our lives and our world Paul’s words ring true, “There are quarrels among us.” Still, we are good people. We are people of God. Yes we do have different ways of expressing our goodness. Yes we do imagine different ways of extending goodness to all people. But as Paul unequivocally proclaims, we should all be in agreement. There should be no divisions among us because we are “united in the same mind and the same purpose.”

What is this mind in which we are united? It is the Mind of Christ, the mind of inclusivity, compassion and nonviolence. What is the purpose that we share? It is continuing Jesus’ message that began in Galilee, proclaiming the good news to all people on earth. Now we arrive at the difficult part. Like Jesus we must put flesh on the bones of our words (instead of fighting over concepts or ideologies). We cannot only say with our mouths, “We are all sisters and brothers in Christ. We are one in the family of God.” As Jesus did, so must we make our proclamation real by our actions. It is up to each of us to directly touch the lives of the least the lost and the lonely as Jesus touched and healed the leper. It is up to each of us to discover the humanity of our enemy as did Jesus with the Roman soldier pleading with Jesus to cure his slave. It is up to each of us to apply the wisdom of all the law and the prophets and do to others as we would have them do to us. 

It is time for us to stop quarreling about concepts and ideologies and do to others as we would have them do to us. 

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Epistle Holy Cross Day, 14 September, 2014

Philippians 2:5-11

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death--

even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Reflection        When Jesus entered Jerusalem he knew he was headed for death. Not just death, tortuous death; excruciating, humiliating death nailed to a cross and lifted high so all could watch him gasp for breath. Jesus knew what was waiting for him and he chose not to wipe Jerusalem’s dust from his heels and walk north to Samaria or Cana. He could have headed for the proverbial hills, gone underground and out of sight and saved himself. Who would blame him?

But Jesus was not listening to the voice of fear shouting, “By all and any means, save yourself. The most important thing is to be safe and secure, to surround yourself with people who care for and esteem you. Be sure to maintain a modicum of power and control.” That was not the voice that he was listening to. Jesus was listening to the deeply interior voice of his Father God.

Jesus’ decision to walk into Jerusalem, to host a farewell supper with his closest friends, and to allow one of them to betray his whereabouts to his persecutors was not a personal decision. Jesus’ decision to allow himself to be handed over to suffer and die on a cross went beyond his desire to take care of his basic needs for safety and security,  affection, attention and esteem. It bypassed his personal need for power and control. Jesus’ decision and action was not personal, it was transpersonal.

Transpersonal experiences have been defined as experiences "in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind.....”  Jesus was operating from a transpersonal perspective.  And so he chose to stay the course, to remain faithful to truth as he knew it. Jesus chose to stand in his place and claim his birthright as the Son of Man and the Son of God. The officials called this treason. Jesus called it truth. He was willing to  give up his life rather than give up his Truth. 

What does this have to do with us, mere humans, not Jesus? Everything. We are made in the image of God which means “we are free to make choices : to love, to create, to reason, and to live in harmony with creation and with God.” (BCP 845) In other words, we participate with God in bringing about good in creation. That is why we are here.  Remember Jesus words to the disciples“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these…?” (John 14.12) 

I believe we have set our sights too low. Rather than claim our birthright as daughters and sons in the family of God we have let ourselves off the hook by claiming we are mere humans. What if we stood in our place and claimed our birthright as children of humanity and children of God, would we be moved to give ourselves away to care for and dignify all people? 

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