Connecting to Ordinary Holiness: A Sabbatical Journey

June 1 - September 1 I will be on sabbatical. If you would like to read my reflections and follow my

                                                      sabbatical journey 

                                           "Ordinary Holiness" 

                                    please visit https://dasis.medium.com

                                 Thank you for blessing me by your presence.

Hebrew Testament text for Trinity Sunday 30 May 2021

 Isaiah 6:1-8      In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; 

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

Reflection        There is something about Trinity Sunday that confounds our intellect. One God, Three Persons, undivided and distinct, trinity and unity. What are we to think?

Where intellect fails experience prevails. As we rise to witness the broad sweep of the history of God’s people, we are dazzled with a multiplicity of visions, visions of Divine and human encounters punctuate our story.  One of those visions appears in the Hebrew Testament account of the prophet First Isaiah’s experience.Trinity 

Isaiah avers, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings…” Great drama. Then with the earth shaking and the Temple filled with smoke Isaiah hears, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Quite an experience.

The religious life of the ancient Jewish nation is centered in the Temple in Jerusalem. When the future of his country looks especially bleak, it is the Temple to which Isaiah turns seeking wisdom to guide him.  Isaiah was born during the immoral reign of King Uzziah. Even though Isaiah has a keen knowledge of political affairs and mastery of poetic language, he turns to God in his time of trouble. Putting his faith in God rather than himself, Isaiah has a vision, a vision that assures him that despite his nation’s dismal state, God remains present and active in history.

Face to face with the vision of God’s glory, Isaiah is quite shaken.  His stomach must have leapt to his throat and he protests, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips…” Whereupon a seraph, a Spirit of God,”holds a live coal that had been taken from the altar” to Isaiah’s lips, a ritual act to illustrate the inner cleansing of Isaiah’s protesting heart and mind. 

Isaiah realizes that in spite of being less than holy and living in a nation erupting with corruption, he is redeemed so when he hears God’s invitation, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” he responds, “Here am I; send me!” As it is said, the rest is history. The course of Isaiah’s life is set as he dares to preach and counsel three kings before dying a martyr.

I believe Jesus’ story parallels that of Isaiah. At his baptism the vision of the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling upon him sets the course of his life and ministry, compels him to preach, teach and heal the lives of many, putting himself crosswise with religious and political officials before dying a martyr.

Isaiah and Jesus put their faith in the experience of Divine Presence that invites their incarnate response, “Here am I.” “Not my will, your will be done.”  Benevolent Father calls to faithful Son through the effectual action of the Spirit.  The fullness of God is made known in the interdependent relationship of the transcendent, incarnate and demonstrative. One God in Trinity. 

With clouds of smoke and quaking ground, not to mention a global pandemic, Transcendent God confirms the interconnected interdependence of all creation.

With care for the least, the lost and the lonely, Immanent God reveals Divine Presence and Action in flesh and bones every day.

With blooming breath the Spirit of God breathes life and liberty through all of humanity. Everyone and everything is included in Trinity.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Creator, Redeemer, Source of All Being.

One, Holy and Living God. 

As it was for Isaiah and Jesus, so too is the state of our nation, shamefully corrupt. The elite are built up and protected while the poor are oppressed and rejected.  If we keep doing the same thing, nothing is going to change. And so it is time for us to pray that God’s seraphs touch our lips with the live coal from the altar, redeeming our lives and  compelling us to claim our place with the Trinity praying, “Here am I. Send me” to care for all your people and creation. 

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Gospel text for the Feast of Pentecost, 23 May 2021

 John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15        Jesus said to his disciples, ”When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Reflection        A grain of wheat falls to the ground, is broken and must 'go away' before it rises a new harvest. A temple is destroyed. A season passes before a new temple is raised up. Both agriculture and religious wisdom find their roots in the truth of maturation over time. 

In the Jewish narrative a forty-nine day “growing” season begins with the Waving of a Sheaf of ripe grain and a sacrifice that culminates when the Jews receive Torah at Sinai.  The season is called Counting the Omer. Beginning on the second day of Passover Jews count each of the forty nine days leading to the First Fruits Festival, also known as Shauvot or Pentecost. Each of the forty nine days in the Jewish mystical tradition Kabbalah counts as an opportunity to reflect on and develop positive qualities; loving kindness, might, beauty, victory, acknowledgment, foundation and kingdom. Thus do Jews cultivate their minds, maturing spiritually to receive Torah, divine revelation and guidance given by God.*

Likewise in the Christian narrative a forty-nine day “growing” season begins with the waving of palms beckoning Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem and his sacrifice that culminates with humanity receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This is called the Season of Easter which involves more than a forty-nine day celebration following Resurrection Sunday. Much as forty days of Lent prepare Christians new and old to make or renew their baptismal vows, the forty-nine day Season of Easter invites us to mature spiritually, to prepare our minds to receive divine revelation and guidance given by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  

Are you noticing parallels here? Both Jewish and Christian traditions realize the essential importance of the passage of time for the maturation of human beings. It takes time and deliberate care for us to prepare our minds to receive the transmission of wisdom. We must be spiritually mature to receive the Spirit of Truth, whether through Torah or the Holy Spirit, and this takes effort over time.

The Spirit of Truth is given to all people to transform their consciousness and thereby their lives  regardless of ethnicity, language or religious tradition. The Spirit of Truth comes to guide us into all truth. “Us” is not referring to a particular tribe or group. Us is all people. All people tell stories about who and how we are in the world. All of our stories are dressed in the particularities of time and place.  At the same time all of our stories are rooted in ubiquitous truths such as that of the grain that must be broken and mature before it can be harvested. Therefore, that which is true undergirds and overarches all that is experienced and expressed in the infinite variety of human culture and creativity. 

Recalling Jesus’ words, “Peace I leave with you; my Peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” (John 14:27-28) The First Temple goes away.  Jesus goes away. A grain of wheat falls to the ground, is broken, 'goes away' and matures before it rises as a new harvest. Life is a matter of becoming spiritually mature by consenting to the fertile dirt of time and the windy breath of God. And so we count our days on earth, a means of becoming wise. 

*https://www.aish.com/h/o/t/48969151.html

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Gospel text for Sunday 16 May 2021

John 17:6-19        Jesus prayed for his disciples, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Reflection       “Trauma that is not transformed is transmitted.” I cannot count the number of times I have heard this statement since the first time it grabbed my attention. Years ago speaking at a conference on Recovery Ministries the Franciscan priest Richard Rohr averred, “I am not sure who first said this, but it is true. “Trauma that is not transformed is transmitted.”" 

In one of my several previous vocations I designed and oversaw treatment programs for adjudicated adolescent sex offenders. This is what I discovered. One hundred percent of the boys between the ages of fourteen and twenty-two who were convicted of a sexual offense had been victims of repeated sexual abuse from as early as age three.  “Trauma that is not transformed is transmitted.” This is true.

On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization declared we were living in the throes of a global pandemic. By the middle of April cases were reported in all North American territories. One month later more than 161 million cases were confirmed and 3.35 million deaths were attributed to the coronavirus. Like deer caught in a car’s headlights, we were frozen in our tracks as we learned that the air we breathed and every surface we touched could be deadly. In a flash family, friends and neighbors were recast in the role of masked grim reapers. The routine work, school and pleasures of life were stripped away as we were locked down and locked out of relationships. Trauma; individual, community and global trauma. And what we know is this. “Trauma that is not transformed is transmitted.”

What are we to do when an invisible enemy lurks in the air and all of our programs for happiness have been over turned? What are we to do to transform and not transmit  trauma?

This is the question that wakes me in the middle of the night and pokes my groin every time a new bit of breaking news tells me to put on a mask (or two), take them off or beware of a virulent South African variant. What are we to do when what we are told to do changes every breaking hour? What are we to do to transform and not transmit the trauma? 

I believe a clue is tied to the tangle of perplexing words we hear Jesus praying for the disciples and us.  “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them…  Protect them so that they may be one, as we are one. “ Jesus’ desire for the disciples and us it that we find our security, safety, esteem, power and control in our intimate relationship with God. This is what being at one means;  being in relationship with God rather than being at the mercy of the stormy sea changes of worldly circumstance. 

Unlike the dramatic parables, epic exorcisms and fervent calls to repentance found in the three synoptic gospels, the Johanine Jesus gives us lengthy discourses and prayers, lots of words intended to articulate his relationship with God characterized by the intimacy of Father and Son. Listening to Jesus’ words we witness a relationship that fosters his well-being even in the midst of harrowing circumstance. And Jesus desires the same for us, a trustworthy relationship that enables us to endure excruciating events without losing our peace or perspective, without transmitting trauma. 

Jesus prays for us to participate in the profoundly intimate and life sustaining relationship he has with the Father so that our trauma will be transformed. In other words, Jesus is praying for us to be allied and unified by putting our faith and finding our peace in our intimate relationship with God.  Which of course means we turn toward God rather than the world to find security, safety, esteem, power and control. And, this does not mean we reject the world nor look for a way out of it. 

Jesus continues praying, “I am not asking you to take them (the disciples and us) out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.” Jesus understands the grave consequence of living a God centric life. He lived and died as a result of upsetting the status quo, acting deliberately to overturn systems that keep people marginalized, offering healing and inclusion rather than judgment and exclusion, daring to forgive rather than retaliate. Yes, Jesus comprehends the piercing consequence of transforming rather than transmitting trauma. 

As followers of the Way of Jesus we are meant to rise to the God’s eye perspective and allow our trauma to be transformed which means we cannot deny, hide or run away from the trauma. With our brother Jesus we must turn our faces toward Jerusalem, step into the fray,  speak truth to power,  act deliberately to dignify all people, extend mercy and demand justice for the marginalized, provide comfort and care for the vulnerable and forgive the wrong doers. And if you protest, "This is dangerous business, it too hard," be assured. It was too hard for Jesus which is why he prayed and prayed and put his faith and found his peace being at one in God. 

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Gospel text for Mother's Day, Sunday 9 May 2021

John 15:9-17        Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

Reflection        This weekend is Mother’s day so let’s talk about mothers. The thing about mothers is we need them, not only to give us birth but also to give us value, showing us by the way they interact with us that we are valuable.  But, not all of us had mothers who were capable of doing that. Does that mean we are doomed to a life of self-loathing, incarceration or endless psychotherapy? I do not think so because mothers are not the only people capable of mothering.  Which is to say, the mother who gives us birth may or may not be the one who gives us value. And that is where the rest of us come in. 

Each and every one of us is needed by someone to do competent mothering, to let them know that they are valuable.  Unless another human being treats us as a treasure we will not experience the deep truth of ourselves that we are valuable. I believe this is why Jesus’ cardinal instruction to the disciples and us is, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Everyone, without exception, needs to be unconditionally loved in order to know they giving valieare valuable. 

A question before us today is not, “Who is my biological mother?” It is, “ Who is the person that showed me I am a valuable treasure?” For me the answer is, Aunt Frances. My parents were of the belief, “Spare the rod, spoil the child” and “Children should be seen and not heard.” By contrast, Aunt Frances was infinitely patient, kind, listened to my laments,  spent endless hours telling me stories, taking me to special places and letting me know that I was a treasure. 

Everyone needs an Aunt Frances; someone who loves us the way Jesus loves, someone who gives us value.  Not only do we thrive when we receive unconditional love, our life is enhanced exponentially when we allow it to flow through us because unconditional love heals old wounds, transforms trauma, reconciles relationships , diminishes pain and  restores wellness. Which is why every one of us not only needs an Aunt Frances, we also need to be an Aunt Frances fostering the healing, transformation and wellness of our families, neighbors and the world.  

The Jesuit priest  Fr. John Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles is another Aunt Frances. Homeboy Industries is committed to affirming the value of  former gang members by loving and employing them. Boyle shares a snippet of a conversation he had at a public event with a former gang member, Louie.  “Louie, I am proud to know you and my life was richer when you came into it. Since you were born the world became a better place, even though at times you can be a pain in the ass.” Louie smiles at Boyle and replies, “The feeling is mutual.” 

And there we have it.  A mutuality of love that does not demand perfection. Unconditional love.  Competent mothering.

For the first three centuries a mutuality of love is what characterized the Christian Church. Before the Church was institutionalized around statements of belief, affirming the value of every person was its driving force. For the vast majority of people in the Greco-Roman world life was chaotic, brutal, drenched in fear. As Rodney Stark, a sociologist and professor of comparative religion writes, ". . . Christianity served as a revitalization movement in the urban Greco-Roman world. . . .  To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachment. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fire, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services.” (The Rise of Christianity, Princeton University Press, 1996, p 161).

Two thousand years later life seems not to have changed very much; poverty and homelessness, widows and orphans, newcomers and strangers, epidemics and ethnic violence, not to mention wild fires and earthquakes. Life is brutal, full of fear and misery for countless people. What the world needs today has not changed either, competent mothering. 

It is time to admit we have been telling our selves the wrong story. Christianity is not about paternalistic, top down ordering of belief for the protection of the people. Christianity is about competent mothering that fulfills Jesus instruction that we love one another as we are loved by God. Christianity is about demonstrating by our actions that we are proud to know one another and that our lives are richer because of the other person’s presence, even if from time to time they are a bit of a pain (like us). Christianity is about  reclaiming  our roots as an  all inclusive community that makes a difference in people's lives by giving them value, unconditionally. 

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Gospel text for Sunday 2 May 2021

 

 

John 15 1-8          Jesus said to his disciples, ”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Reflection        When I searched my memory for an example of what abiding might look like, I recalled a sequence of unfortunate events that occurred while I lived in Nambé, New Mexico. While enjoying dinner with several of my neighbors in the home of the one who was a gourmet chef attention turned to me when someone commented, “For a person who is so healthy, you sure are sick a lot.” The words paralyzed me but I could not deny them. When I looked around the table I realized, “We all are constantly upping the ante of home remedies and doctor visits, unexplained allergies, itches and coughs.” The only other thing I recall about that meal is asking myself, “What do we have in common?” The next morning I awoke with an answer, “Water. Everyone at that table drinks from a common well.”

So I filled a quart jar with water and drove to a local lab. When the technician asked me which tests on the list of hundreds I wanted I was utterly perplexed and returned the question, “If you noticed that everyone who is drinking water from your well has escalating allergies and recurring medical issues, what would you test for?” Without hesitation he replied, “Heavy metals.”

Five days later I picked up the results and discovered the level of uranium-238  in our drinking water was one hundred times the maximum contaminant level allowed by the FDA. With a bit of research I discovered it takes fifteen days for the body to dispel low levels of uranium, which  of course does not happen when you ingest the contaminated water every day. To confirm this finding a scientist friend brought a geiger counter to my home. When we held it near running hot water at the kitchen sink and in the shower the needle jumped off the gadget. Calling the University of New Mexico pathology lab I discovered twenty years earlier a study had been done of the drinking water in Nambé and neighboring communities. It was determined that several of the wells had high levels of naturally occurring uranium-238, including a school, a church and multiple private wells. The information was not made public.

Immediately I warned my neighbors and was stunned by their response. “Why are you causing trouble for us?”  So I wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper which poured fuel on the fury of neighbors who, though clandestinely installing reverse osmosis systems, refused to acknowledge the problem - after all what would this news do to the value of their expensive real estate? How naive was I? My daughter and I moved away.

Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” Or you might say, when we are cut off from the flow of the life giving love of God and humanity we suffer the effects of chronic, insidious poisoning. The people of Flint Michigan know this. The people succumbing to coronavirus in India and all those suffering from every kind of food and finance insufficiency know this. 

And, even when we allow the love of God and humanity to flow through us, we do not escape the pruning shears. Jesus speaks this plainly, “Every branch that bears fruit (the Vinegrower) prunes to make it bear more fruit.”  Not only were my daughter and I essentially pruned by the neighbors who rejected my disturbing news, we also had to prune ourselves and move away in order to restore our health and bear more fruit. 

In the midst of Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse” given to his eleven disciples following their final Passover meal in Jerusalem he maintains, “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.” This of course begs the question, “How do we know if the fruit we bear is good?” I believe the answer is simple.  When the fruit is good it is not toxic, it does not shatter peace nor incite violence, it does not tarnish, trample or traumatize. Good fruit is harmless, healthy and helpful. It is life giving and sustaining because good fruit corresponds to the nature of the vine in which it abides and we abide in the Vine that vitalizes by love.  

As countless branches of the Divine Vine our flesh and blood and breath depend upon our harmless, healthy and helpful alliance with all of the other branches and the Vine.  Of course this means we must wield the pruning shears, “removing every branch that bears no fruit,”  unsnarling the snags that slow the flow of life sustaining love through us. Much as a vinegrower skillfully prunes the grapevines to guide them in certain directions and produce good wine, sometimes we must prune our own branches to insure we are untangled and free to receive and transmit the vital life force that we call love.

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Gospel text for Sunday 25 April 2021

 

John 10:11-18        Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

Reflection       How are we to respond to Jesus’ willingness to lay down his life so that we all may be one? How are we to respond to a leader who does not run away or toss us under the bus when all hell breaks loose and life erupts out of control? I believe the answer is simple (not easy). We must do everything we possibly can to affirm our unity with all people.

Doing everything we possibly can begins with remembering who and whose we are. We understand that all people “are made in the image of God,”  and that “we are free to make choices: to love, to create, to reason, and to live in harmony with creation and with God.” (BCP 845)  Like the Good Shepherd we “have the power to lay our lives down… by our own accord.” In other words, we are free to care for one another. 

Doing everything we possibly can means we respond to Jesus’ call “that we all may be one” by respecting the dignity of every human being and loving our neighbor as ourself. It means we erase the redlines and remove the fences that falsely separate us.  It means doing whatever it takes to insure the assumptions and actions that deny the shared humanity of George Floyd and Dereck Chauvin are dismantled. 

Here I must confess I did not celebrate when I heard the news of Mr. Chauvin’s conviction because one man is dead and another man’s life is destroyed, two families are devastated and our country is divided over who is the trespasser and who the trespassed. 

Yes. Holding a man to account for his actions is imperative and it is not enough to allay the fear of fathers giving their black sons ‘the talk’ about how to protect themselves when confronted by white authority. It is not enough to  quiet the fear of mothers teaching their white daughters how to walk through parking lots and certain places and not be seen as vulnerable. Holding a man to account for his behavior is necessary and not sufficient to transform the consciousness of people who experience one another as threats. 

Secular law holds us accountable for wrongful social behavior.  It judges our up close, personal, blow by blow actions and their consequence. Secular law responds with equivalent retaliation, tit for tat, an eye for an eye.  By contrast, God’s law assumes a hundred thousand feet above the ground perspective. It disarms every appearance of division to declare our shared humanity. In the words of the parable of the Good Shepherd, “so there will be one flock, one shepherd.” 

God’s law demands a reckoning for Mr. Floyd’s killing and Mr. Chauvin’s conviction.  This has nothing to do with counting coup or political advantage. God’s law requires nothing less than the transformation of our individual and collective consciousness.

When we set aside our pride, politics and opinions we are free to rise to the God’s eye point of view.  From the hundred thousand feet above the ground perspective we see that we are “one flock, one shepherd.” With our minds risen to the heights of our hearts we naturally choose to use our freedom to love and live in harmony.  This is the transformation of consciousness God’s law demands as a reckoning for Mr. Floyd’s killing and Mr. Chauvin’s conviction. We must do everything we possibly can to affirm our unity with all people.

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