In my reflections, if a bona fide member of the academy comments that my reflection contains either an original thought or argument, I will note it in that reflection. Also, if it is brought to my attention that what I have said is also mentioned in another source, I will also note it. My intention in these reflections is to stimulate inquiry, imagination, and broadening of horizons.- JP

Note: The most recent reflection is at the top and my first is at the bottom. You can either start at the bottom of the well and swim up or start at the top and dive in, your choice. – JP

13 Hours           

No Judgment Santa 12/22/2012

I actually started working on this reflection in the Fall. I did not wait until today just to prove that the Myan calendar WAS really about a change of ages and not the end of existence. And as the miracle of procrastination would have it, a way appeared to get across the point that we are all connected and not separate from God and that we create our own anxiety and paranoia from childhood.

I love Christmas carols and songs. The tunes range from catchy to exotic and are for the most part memorable if not infuriating ear worms. One tune that always gets into my head is Santa Claus is Coming to Town. When I was humming it yesterday, it hit me! This is the root of my angst with the religion I was being brought up in. I need to be scared of Santa so I will be rewarded which was the same attitude I needed to have about God or I was in trouble. Note to those who think they can ultimately control people to be fearful of a loving God: Really?

I am the first to admit I am not a lyricist by nature, so my attempt to write a modified lyric to the song may not become a best seller, but is a sincere effort to raise awareness about how easy and innocuous it is to warp ourselves from our earliest days. So here is my lyric.

Oh, when you look out
Joy is about
There’s no need to cry
I’m telling you why

Santa Claus is comin’ to town

He’s making a list
He’s checking it twice
He’s gonna find out
Where your house is tonight

Santa Claus is comin’ to town

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows when you’ve been sad and good
So smile for goodness’ sake

So when you look out
Joy’s still about
No need to cry
I’m telling you why

Santa Claus is comin’ to town

The kids in girl and boy land
Will have a jubilee
They’re gonna build a toy land town
All around the Christmas tree

So when you look out
Your joy’s still about
No need to cry
I’m telling you why

Santa Claus is comin’ to town

Along with doing the Twelve Days of Christmas instead of the 0800 Christmas morning present orgy, I am more keenly aware of how proactive we can be in presenting the uplifting music of this season and counter the confusing carrot and stick theology that pervades many of the lyrics. Christmas IS about joy and unconditional love.

And by the way, in The Next Best Thing segment of TRMS last night, we learned that one strain of reindeer actually do get red noses when they run (or fly). I can sleep well knowing that Gene Autry was right.

It’s the tires, stupid! 06/30/2012

With apologies to James Carville; I am going to get most of the tire clichés out of the way; what goes around comes around; low pressure equals low mileage; where the rubber meets the road; and the most applicable for this reflection, GET A GRIP!

Why tires for this reflection? I watch Formula 1 every chance I get. I have been a fan of car racing as early as I can remember and with the first minute of Grand Prix, I was hooked. The current season is building on using the tire they used last year and tire use strategy has come to the fore. The drivers always comment that the tires are the one factor that keeps them and the engineers up at night.

When the current tires “go off” they don’t go slowly, they “fall off the cliff.” They also lose their grip quickly, which obviously makes holding your line difficult if not impossible. So what has this got to do with a spiritual reflection?

Several of my colleagues are dealing with declining membership and issues that are seemingly sending congregations spinning off the track. Now Paul had a great analogy when he used body parts to get his point across, but I feel an updated example is needed and a Formula 1 car fits the bill. All the components of the car have to work together if there is going to be any chance of finishing the race.

The aero package has to work, the engine, obviously, the innovations such as the KERS, kinetic energy recovery system, the gear train, the fuel and electrical. None of them mean anything, however, if the tires don’t function properly. And it’s not just one or two sets of tires. You need tires for testing, practice, qualifying and racing and that’s a lot of tires! And then there are the people who make up the team. If any one of them does not perform as necessary, it doesn’t work. So where are we going with this analogy?

Current Christian institutions can be likened to a Formula 1 car. They have an engine that works, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and aero systems that are reliable, a team that is well drilled, so what’s the problem? They are driving on 1300 year old tires! IT’S TIME FOR A PIT STOP and tires that will race. Please note I did not call for something to replace tires, only a new set of tires that have a grip.

I hear all the time that church attendance is down because people, especially young people, don’t believe in God or have any faith for (you name the reason). Well race fans, I respectfully and in my best non-judgmental effort have to say that attitude is crap. In fact, the latest Pew research results show the vast majority of people are spiritual, just not aligned with a religious institution because they don’t want to race in a car whose tires have no grip. So what kind of tires should the team put on?

Well, first, size does matter. Formula 1 tires won’t work at La Mans which won’t work on Rolex GT which won’t on NASCAR, which won’t work on Indy Cars which won’t work on your car. However, if the tires are made of a compound, which has, the components of do to others as you want them to do to you, love your neighbor as yourself, trust God with all your being and unity of all as the standard; then your car will race.

The only questions remainingi are you going to listen to the people who say racing isn’t worth it or are you going to get in your car and drive?

And remember, it’s not the stupid tires, it’s the tires, stupid!

WARNING Will Robinson, Danger Danger, BIBLE ALERT, BIBLE ALERT 05/28/12

So for those of you who watched Lost in Space when it was first on TV and are now having a flashback, I sort of apologize. And for those of you who are still watching it on TV Land Channel, I am working on a reflection on how you can get a grip. For now, however, I opened this way to take you back to that time when you were first told stories from the Bible and how they would make a difference in your life. I am not going to talk about whether the stories are factual or not, but about a new movement that, if you participate in it, will definitely affect how you view those stories now.

This “new” movement is a, well, I don’t really know what word I could use to describe it, but its goal is for you to read the Bible,cover to cover, in a year. Now reading the Bible is not a good or bad thing to do. But if you are going to read it completely, I have some thoughts for you to consider.

First, do not do this alone. Have someone to talk to at least once a week who you can share with about what you read and what you think and feel about it.

Second, get a good commentary. I recommend the 12 volume, New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary. OK, it’s a little over twelve thousand pages total, but trust me, you’ll be glad you read it.

Third, wear a crash helmet.

Why the recommendations? Let’s go over a few of the things you will encounter in your journey through the Bible. Two stories of creation (one wasn’t enough?), a creator who says, “let us…” (more than one creator or the one couldn’t do it alone?), a murdering son, who is banished from the original four people on earth to, wait for it, a city where he meets his wife! (you figure it out), a guy who gets swallowed by a whale (and we know for a fact that whales don’t ingest anything larger than shrimp, just ALOT of them at one time), talking pillars of dust and fire, a guy who can dry up a sea to say nothing of talking to a burning bush, groups of people who annihilate whole cities down to the last adult and child in the name of their god, a talking donkey, people who summon and talk to dead people, a lady who has sex with a guy and then pounds a nail through his head, poisonous snakes who bite people who are then cured by looking at two poisonous snakes on a pole, not to mention the basis for 691 laws that you need to follow every day, and we’re not even finished reading the Hebrew Scripture!

And the best one in the Hebrew Scripture, Angels that can have intercourse with mortal women and have children! And you thought Marvel Comics is the only place you can find super heroes. And I would be remiss if I did not tell you that the angels who have six wings do not use the last two to cover their feet. Now on to the Christian Scripture.

A woman who bears a child with out intercourse, astrologers who find the child, a father who listens to voices and relocates his family, an uneducated child who knows the sacred texts better than the most educated teachers, mortals who are taught how to cure illness, cast out demons (did I mention that there are spirits who do not have bodies that can think and talk to the living?), resuscitate the dead, walk on water, love everybody (including themselves), and oh yea, hear angels tell them to not be afraid of anything.

I am not telling you not to read the complete Bible, in fact I think everyone should, but which one? The New King James Version (watch out for the words in italics, theywere added by the translators and are not in the Hebrew or Greek texts, but you wouldn’t know this if you don’t have a commentary), the New Revised Standard Version, the Peshita (translated from Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke), a version without the Apocrypha, The Good News Bible, or any one of at least ten more versions, and why all the versions? Isn’t there just one Bible?

I am sure that if you embark on this effort your life will change. I am also sure that if you read it alone and/or without a commentary, chances are you will be really screwed up when you finish.

I am not worried about which choice you make because as the angels always say first when they speak to people, Fear Not!

From Lent to Easter to Pentecost 04/09/12

I have always had trouble with “Commandments”. Not because I don’t believe in rules, but because it never felt right that God loves you and will turn you into toastwhen he doesn’t and that you can’t earn God’s love but if you don’t do it right, AAHHGGGG!

When I read an article written by several Rabbis on the Ten Commandments, the world opened up and the AAHHGGG became an ahg. The article’s purpose was to provide a look at the 10 not as commandments but as consequences of action. It goes like this.

If you choose to love me then you won’t want to have any other gods. If your choice is to trust me in all things then you will set time aside to not be busy and be with me. If you love what you see then you will not only honor your family, you won’t want to willingly end the life of anyone in your family or any other family. If you feel my unconditional love you will not want to take your neighbor’s goods, family members or their good name from them.

If you choose not to love then your life will follow adifferent path, and even though I will be saddened by your choice, I will honor your choice.

What could follow here is a 1500 page theological treatise, but I will attempt to put it into a much shorter version.

God does not want us to separate our self from any one or any thing. And God makes it clear that when we want to go it alone, we do not encounter the joy of being in community. The irony being, that we can not not be in community. So Jesus took us off the 10 hook and put us on the 2 hook. Love God with all your heart, strength, being and love your neighbor as yourself, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Commandments or actions that have consequences? I’m going with actions that have consequences and the consequences come with degrees of joy, some very joyful and some not so much.

So, we’ve been through Lent when we beat ourselves up for being bad, into Easter where we say we are saved from the bad, into Pentecost where we will be inspired to live in joy, until next Lent where we will give up on the joy and beat ourselves up. Does this seem a bit conflicted to you? It does to me, and in my working through this, I am now of the position that to hold on to any idea or feeling that I am in any way, no matter how minute, separate from God, is the root of any problem I have. Oh!, wait a minute, Jesus said in his high priestly prayer that he is in God as God is in him as he is in us as we are in him so we can’t be separate from God, or Jesus, or Holy Spirit, or each other.

I’m convinced that God speaks loud and clear about unity, balance and unconditional love as the pillars of how it all fits together and that any form of coercion or exclusion is not of God.

So now during Lent, I reflect on those times when I have accepted separateness as a reality, even if I was unaware at the time of the acceptance, to Easter when Jesus does his Henny Youngman, “Did it hurt when you made separate real? Why, yes it did. “Then don’t do that!”, to Pentecost where Holy Spirit says, “Here’s your towel.” (If you have not seen The Hitch hikers Guide to the Galaxy, do so before next Lent)

Happy Easter and Dark Chocolate forever!

It’s Been A While – 02/01/2012

My Web Master keeps sending me emails asking “Are you still there”? I am, and I have been reading a lot. That is not a good reason to not keep up on the reflections, but I also am not into writing just for the sake of writing. Having said that, I don’t want to inflict on you, the gentle reader, a stream of consciousness essay that may end sometime tomorrow. Sooooo … , what comes to mind is a thought from the daily devotions Barb has been reading, Idle or Idol?

To paraphrase the thought, “You can not not do something, even not taking action is a decision, an action, to not do something”. This seemingly arcane or ridiculous statement, depending on your view, does get to the heart of the matter as you tease out all the possibilities. Even if you are a person who believes that no matter what you do, itdoesn’t make a difference, your seeming indifference allows things to happen that my not have happened if you had taken some action.

All this brings me to the point that when your position is to remain in “Idle”, you have made an “Idol” of changing nothing and keeping everything the same. It is my contention that this position is an exercise in futility. The moment that is “now” is not exactly the same as it was a moment ago and is not going to be exactly the same in the moment that does not yet exist. So even when you stay in idle, there are people surrounding you who are not idle and what they dochanges your situation which means that what you think has not changed really has changed, Bummer!! And the point of me telling you this is?

The point is, don’t waste your abilities. Everyone has the ability to do something. The only difference between people is the degree of their abilities. Because you have read this far, here comes the cheerleading. Say out loud to yourself, “My passion is to …. No matter what the obstacles, and if I even think I can not do it alone, I will find someone to help me”.

Now you have your action plan and know that there is no “idle”.