hate your father and mother?

That statement from Jesus has always been really frustrating to me. Even the explanations which always involved original languages, and lots of “well…” never did it. 

One day I was with a girl who was raised in a very conservative family. She was starting to question much of what she had been raised with. She was finding some freedom, getting the sense that she could unload quite a bit of religious baggage and start running in the fields. 

But her parents. Man, they kept warning her and telling her she was bordering on heresy and bringing all of their own fears into their life. 

And as the conversation went on, they were holding this poor girl back. They were keeping her in the cage. 

And I said, you know there is that verse… which was the first time I’d ever used that verse in a way that didn’t annoy me. 

Hate in the Hebrew world implied separation. 
Love implied clinging or moving toward. 

Hate fear. Always. Sometimes, parents are the greatest fear-mongers on the planet. If they are. When they are. Move away from that part of them and move toward God.

too much fear.

It’s everywhere, soaking everything and everyone in its ugly, toxic, noxious gas. It’s probably the most prevalent thing I see in my own life and in the life of most everyone else. If we are those fish in that cave in Mexico, the poisonous plant is definitely fear. 

People are afraid of church, afraid of God, afraid of Hell, afraid of standing out, afraid of not standing out, afraid of old ideas and new ideas, afraid of bad theology, or any theology, afraid of large groups of people they have never met, afraid of people they have met who are not like themselves, afraid of failure and thus risk, afraid of not being enough, of not doing enough, of not measuring up, afraid of not knowing enough, or knowing the right things, afraid of new paths, new direction, new thoughts, new people, new wineskins, and afraid of not being afraid. We are afraid of freedom, mystery, and of wide open expanses of awe and wonder. 

It all reminds me of my favorite Pixar short “Day and Night” which quotes Wayne Dyer and is maybe, during this time in our country, should be read daily.

Fear of the unknown. 
They are afraid of new ideas. 

They are loaded with prejudices, not based upon anything in reality, but based on… if something is new, I reject it immediately because it’s frightening to me. What they do instead is just stay with the familiar. 

You know, to me, the most beautiful things in all the universe, are the most mysterious. 

We’re actually afraid of change, which to go back those fish, is the only way we can survive. 

Is there anything more evil than that? 

There is a great little parable, from Anthony DeMello, we had on our church wall for a while. It should be on everyone’s wall. 

What is love?

The absence of fear.

What is it that people fear?

Love.

We’re even afraid of not being afraid. How messed up is that? Maybe even more evil than being afraid to change to survive and not be afraid... 

Sometimes I think this whole spiritual life is only about one thing: stop being afraid. Jesus repeated this pretty often. As did angels. As did God. 

Elizabeth Gilbert, among many, talk about putting fear in its place. Not being afraid doesn’t mean we never have fear, it just means we know what to do with it and we don’t let it drag us around the world by its leash. 

And we do that by not being afraid of real, unconditional, love. And knowing we’re enough and worthy and loved. 

alleys.

No matter how great a city looks, you can always find an alley. The dark, lonely, dirty places that people are afraid of and where all the trash gets sent. The places where we are told not to walk and yet, where most of the work gets done. I always try to look down them. 

People are like cities. 
Businesses are like cities. 
Churches are like cities. 
Countries are like cities. 
Systems are like cities. 

Some call these “sacrifice zones” but no matter the term you want to use, there is a place where the hard parts of life must reside. 

In the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Hitler, and the rest of Germany, sought to hide their alleys. They wanted to put on a good presentation. 

Jesus talked to religious leaders and told them they looked great on the outside but on the inside they were dead, much like 1936 Berlin. 

I’m still afraid of alleys. I’m trying not to be. It seems like the only way we can change anything is to, first, acknowledge them and to, second, enter them. 

lent in june.

Lent is the 40 days before Easter when human beings are supposed to spend some time in darkness. In doubt, frustrations, and raised fists. And uncertainty. It’s a time when we don’t have to know everything. That alone can be the most liberating feeling on the planet. 

I’ve always been a person who leans into the dark side of life… a little. Depeche Mode was my band growing up. That foreboding, grungy feel just sat right with me and not because I was depressed but, looking back, because it felt more honest. 

Lent is a chance to be honest. 

One of the more powerful things I’ve ever been involved in at our church was a Lent service in which there were four black boards put in the middle of the room and all the chairs were removed. 

We invited people to write their gripes, their complaints, their pain, their doubt, their anger on those walls in silver paint. We promised no answers, no solutions and no comfort… just the exhale of pain. 

Reading those walls was stunning. To everyone. 

Churches come off so clean and sparkly sometimes and this was nothing but dirty and messy honest reflections of sexual assault, addiction, anger at God (if God exists) and overall beautiful honesty of the hard things in life. 

It’s in the darkness where we learn that there is still good. It’s in the darkness where we learn that life only comes from death. 

It’s in the darkness that we are honest and free to admit what life is actually like and to be okay with not knowing all the answers. 

As I type this, yesterday we, again did something similar at our church. The microphone was added to those who wanted to express pain and uncertainty amidst the pain. 

I found myself crying at the end of the service in front of the entire church - not something I usually do - but because it was so moving and powerful to be a part of. 

I don’t think it’s the darkness we are afraid of. The fear of a cave is very different than the fear of the night sky. It might not be the dark but the lack of freedom we often perceive there to be within it. 

I think we miss a lot by trying to disinfect our lives from anything close to darkness, but when we do that we miss the chance to sit under the dark night sky and be overwhelmed by its majesty, mystery, and endless expansion and freedom. 

I suppose giving up chocolate can be good, but spending time reflecting on and being honest about the pain, death, and suffering that surround us all the time, is even better.

Even in June. 

a certain beauty finds itself in the darkness.

Brené Brown wrote this and her words were a theme for our season of Lent one year. 

Every minute 300 million cells will die in our body. Every 7 years we will have a new body. 

In order for there to be something new, there must be space, In order for there to be space, something must die. It’s happening constantly.

From Cynthia Borgeault. For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.

I have met a person who was told by her father that the world would be better off without her. Repeatedly. Over and over. 

And she is one of the strongest people I know. 

I have met a person who is dealing with cancer, again, and just watched two of her siblings die including a brother while choking on a piece of food after a successful surgery. She told me she is “broken”. 

And yet, she is not. 

I have met a person who lost her mom within 3 months and is now getting ready to get married without her. 

We cried together after having met. She inspired me. 

I have met a person who is one of only 80 people in the world with a certain genetic disorder. 

She is one of the most brilliant, beautiful, and amazing humans on the planet. Changing lives.

I have a met a person who asked me if I did funerals because she believes her 21 year-old son will not be around much longer… he’s had two overdoses this summer.

She said she won’t stop loving her son. 

I have met a person whose father has ALS. 

He doesn’t like to talk about, because there are lots of people with lots of problems. 

I have met a person who was repeatedly sexually abused by her step-father until the age of 12, lost her sister to suicide, and was addicted to pain-killers.  

She shared her story at our church and her strength was breath-taking and more moving than any sermon.

I have met a person whose parents told her to not bother coming home for Thanksgiving, because she was gay. 

She has returned home. 

I have met a person who recently lost her husband to MS, after taking care of him for years. She still says “at some point I’m just going to start crying and not be able to stop”. 

She is one of the most beautiful and strong people you will ever come across. At her daughter’s wedding, recently, all the of the men in her daughter’s life, brothers, brother-in-laws, father-in-law, friends, and, finally her daughter’s new husband, danced with her on her first dance. 

I have met a person who was sexually and physically abused as a child. 

He has a wife and child of his own now. He smiles and laughs and feeds his son a bottle. 

I have met a person who was sexually and physically abused as a child by her parents who were on the elder board. 

She is finding a new god, who doesn’t live in the land of fear. 

I have met a person whose wife took a nap one morning and never woke up.

He wailed over her casket and said that she was an angel and he was a devil. I think he will learn that is not the case. 

I have met someone who has tried to hang himself, shoot himself, and take an overdose, and said, I couldn’t even kill myself the right way. 

I told him it was an honor to meet him. I was moved in my soul to just shake his hand. 

We are very afraid of the darkness, the pain, the suffering, and we do everything we can to avoid it… and yet, try as we may, we cannot deny it is built into the fabric of growth in our universe and there is something beautiful inside of it.

Indeed, the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt.

The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers the most: and his suffering comes to him from things so little and so trivial that one can say that it is no longer objective at all. It is his own existence, his own being, that is at once the subject and the= source of his pain, and his very existence and consciousness is his greatest torture… – Thomas Merton

Eat, drink, and be merry.

the pain is real.

I have met a person who was told by her father that the world would be better off without her. Repeatedly. Over and over. 

I have met a person who is dealing with cancer, again, and just watched two of her siblings die including a brother while choking on a piece of food after a successful surgery. She told me she is “broken”. 

I have met a person who lost her mom within 3 months of a diagnosis and is now getting ready to get married without her there to help her. 

I have met a person who is one of only 80 people in the world with a certain genetic disorder. 

I have a met a person who asked me if I did funerals because she believes her 21 year-old son will not be around much longer… he’s had two overdoses this summer. 

I have met a person whose father has ALS.

I have met a person who was repeatedly sexually abused by her step-father until the age of 12, lost her sister to suicide, and was addicted to pain-killers.  

I have met a person whose parents told her to not bother coming home for Thanksgiving, because she was gay. 

I have met a person who recently lost her husband to MS, after taking care of him for years. She still says “at some point I’m just going to start crying and not be able to stop”. 

I have met a person who was sexually and physically abused as a child. 

I have met a person who was sexually and physically abused as a child by her parents who were on the elder board. 

I have met a person whose wife took a nap one morning and never woke up because she took too many pills. 

I have met someone who has tried to hang himself, shoot himself, and take an overdose, and said, I couldn’t even kill myself the right way. 

Writing these sentences, recalling these beautiful people, is causing me to cry as I type this at this very moment. 

I haven’t even mentioned miscarriages, addictions, teen moms, hundreds of illnesses, loneliness, eating disorders, broken relationships, doubt, frustration, or our 7 year-old neighbor who was hit by a car a couple of weeks ago and will never live anything close to a normal life again… and the list goes on and on. 

The pain is real. It’s hard. It’s staggering. And there are no easy answers. 

Sometimes it’s just good to cry in it.

you.

I’ve had lots of words typed in this space. Sometimes you just let Richard Rohr talk, because when he does, he makes whatever you have typed or written sound stupid. 

So... 

In the spiritual life, there aren’t too many absolutes I can make, but this is certainly one. On the spiritual journey, the message is always to you. The message s always telling you to change. Now, what most people do is they use religion to try to change other people. It’s always someone else that needs changing. No. Stop it. Once and for all. Whatever happens to you in your life is a message to you. Oh the ego wants to avoid that. So we look for something out there to change–somebody not like me is always the problem.

anything you can do I can do better.

My older brother used to taunt me with this line and it would drive me crazy. It still does. But I’ll admit that I have used it on people who want to play the do it better game, which many religious people do.

If you want to call me a heretic, I can call you a heretic and do it better.

If you want to say I don’t respect the Bible, I can say you don’t respect the Bible, and do it better. 

If you want to say I don’t follow the true God, I can say you don’t follow the true God and do it better. 

If you want to say I don’t believe in Jesus, I can say you don’t believe in Jesus and do it better. 

If you want to say I’m a wolf in sheep’s clothing, I can say you are and do it better. 

You see, it’s just not a game that’s good for anyone. What’s the point, besides making the ego feel momentarily better? 

It doesn’t get us anywhere. So let’s play a different game. 

Where do you see God? Where do you experience God? How have you evolved in the last few years? How are you changing? What do you think needs to change? Why? 

criticisms and compliments.

My friend Jack told me a story of John Wesley apparently saying to his fellow-Christian and friend, George Whitefield, “Your God is my devil.” 

It’s a clever little line. As I really thought about it, it started to blow my little mind. 

Is it possible that someone would view the devil as God and/or view God as the devil? 

Jesus told the Pharisees, who believed they were going to great lengths to convert people to God, that they were doing the complete opposite and, actually, converting people to Hell. 

This would seem to imply that there are still a good many people who believe they are following the ultimate source of good in the universe who are actually following the ultimate sources of evil in the universe. 

To be a little less dramatic, there are lots of people who believe they are feeding and living for something bigger than themselves, who are actually feeding and living for their own ego (which sometimes likes to act bigger than ourselves). 

To put this all a different way, it would seem that what some people frame as a criticism, is actually a compliment. For instance, I was at an event where there were protesters and they were chanting that the person I was there to hear actually believes that Hitler is in Heaven along with child pedophiles. 

That only made me want to hear more from that person. I view that as a tremendous compliment. If someone said that about me, I would glow. 

I’ve heard through the rumor mill/grape vine that our church doesn’t talk about sin enough.

Interestingly enough, 1 John says that anyone born of God does not continue to sin. Jesus said to be perfect. Thomas Merton says the perfect have no need to reflect on the details of their actions. 

Their criticism could actually be taken as a tremendous compliment. 

There are many more examples. 

(I suppose it’s important to add my definition of “a critic” here: the point of a critic is only to point out faults to make themselves feel better.)

With all of this I’ve learned to take the critics with a grain of salt. Not because they are wrong, but simply because they are critics. Criticism is subjective. It’s an opinion. It’s often the opinion of someone who I find to be more devil than God… by nature of it being critical in the first place. 

I’ve learned to be less critical. What if my God is my ego? What if my criticism is a compliment to them and will only encourage them in whatever they are doing so that I will only become more critical? 

Be humble. Be complimentary. If the person wants to take it critically, that will be on them, and it will be of much more power anyway.

love to argue vs. argue to love.

I would imagine that humans have always enjoyed a good argument and I’m not one to say that we suddenly love it more. I do think we have more information than we ever have and so we have more ammunition to fire in our wars of words and opinions.  

We also have more abilities to express our opinions without the fear of getting punched in the face because there is a technological wall between us and so... we probably argue a little more.

I grew up with three brothers who all have a wide spectrum of opinions on... everything. I always enjoy a good argument. 

I do think we love to argue for one really good reason: it’s hard to love when we are arguing and we really like any situation that is hard to love, because than we have excuses to not do it. 

Too many people are really set on coming up with great reasons to not love someone, or at least not give there all to someone. Or, at least, not give a quarter to them if they are on the street.

We even find arguments on what love is so that we don’t have to do it. 

If we want to argue, can we argue about reasons to love someone rather than argue about reasons not to?

love.

In the late 1960’s the New York Subway system had a terrible problem. People were walking around confused as to where to go because the signs were so bad. 

The Transit Authority hired Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda to solve their problems. And they did. They created the, now famous, New York City Transit Authority Graphic Standards Manual in 1970. 

The standard nailed down colors, text, fonts, where to place fonts, and names and subway lines and it’s been in use for almost fifty years now. 

Lots of people are walking around confused in religion, specifically Christianity, today. They are wandering toward bad signs and trying to figure out God, themselves, others, the Bible, and a host of other things. I’m the first one to raise my hand and say - yep, that’s me! 

But it seems the signs have been terrible. Or maybe we just ignored the standard that was created: love. 

As much as we want to make something more to it, there isn’t. It’s just love. Period. 

We really really really want to add a but to love. 

Love, but

they are pedophiles
they are terrorists
they are evil
they need to be corrected
God is just too
God is wrathful
the Bible also says

It’s just love. 

And frankly, some of the most offensive passages in the Bible are all about love. I’ve learned that love, actually, is very offensive. Maybe the most offensive thing. 

It’s very offensive to say that God loves Hitler as much as Billy Graham. It’s very offensive to say that the God loves ISIL as much as those who recently died in Orlando. 

It’s very offensive to say that love never fails and always trusts and is patient… and everything else in the list from 1 Corinthians because none of those words could be used to describe Hell. 

And, for some unknown reason, it’s very offensive to say that God will not torture people forever because that is, in no way, love. 

It’s very offensive to be told that we are just supposed to love. 

And yet, it’s one of the most freeing, simplifying, beautiful things on the planet. 

Difficult? Yes. Inspiring? Yes. Evil? Not in any way. 

Here are some verses that are in the actual Bible. If someone made these up and gave a sermon on them, they would be called the devil by many Christian groups. 

If you do not love, you do not know God.

When Jesus talked about knowing God, he was talking to a bunch of people who said that they prayed, prophesied, performed miracles and all that good stuff. He says get out of here, you never knew me. 

Saying a prayer is not knowing God. 

Loving is. 

Jesus also said that everyone loves their friends. That’s not what we’re talking about here. 

A bigger, wider, all inclusive love. 

If we love one another, God lives in us.

I assume there is where the idea of inviting God into our hearts came from. But the thing is, we don’t invite God into our hearts with words. We love and God fills our being. Or, better, we love and become aware and acknowledge and start to know the God in us.  

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

A pretty amazing blend of the human and the divine seems to happen best, when we love. 

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Hell is all about fear and punishment. Using Hell to convince anyone of God actually has nothing to do with God. In any way. 

Going around the world being the fear and punishment police for society and individuals is not love. 

Whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

Loving God is generally considered the thing. The end-all-be-all for many spiritual people. If you can not love ISIS, you can not love God. If you can not love homosexuals, you can not love God. If you can not love, Westboro Baptist, you can not love God. If you can not love evangelicals, you can not love God. If you can not love Donald Trump and Republicans, you can not love God. If you can not love Hillary Clinton and Democrats, you can not love God. 

I think we get it. Plus, you know, I don’t want to convict myself too much. 

There are no groups, justified or not, we are not to love.

And, a reminder, love is patient, love always trusts, love keeps no record of wrongs. 

Now, an important addition I’ve learned recently. Love does not mean we ignore our allergies. 

I have a good friend who is allergic to sugar, brewer’s yeast, and gluten. She can’t have alcohol, candy, or bread. And she doesn’t. 

Some of us have allergies to certain people. They are bad for us. They damage our soul when we ingest them and, therefore, we are not to ingest them. 

However, my good friend is thrilled when I enjoy a beer with her and her husband. She is happy that some people can eat handfuls of peanut M & M’s while she can not. And she smiles at warm bread out of the oven and the smell of it. 

She loves sugar, and hopes that people enjoy it for all it was meant to be. She, however, does not eat it. 

He destroyed your heart. You can hope to love him and you can hope that someone can enjoy him for the man that he is, if he can find that self, but that does not mean you continue to date him. 

She does nothing but heap shame on you. You’re never a good enough parent, never a good enough boss, never a good enough wife. You can hope to love her, and you can hope that someone can enjoy her for the woman that she is, if she can find that true self, but that does not mean you continue to have morning coffee with her. 

Allergies exist. They are real. They are toxic. They rob you of life and you have to create a life that avoids them while still hoping for love to win someday somehow. 

And believing it already does with God. 

So, love. 

To love ourself is the most difficult thing to do on the planet. 

To love others is easily the second most difficult. 

And if you are able to do either of those even somewhat successfully, someone will hate you, and then loving that person will become very difficult.

heroic?

Why is it generally considered more, courageous, valiant, and heroic to die while trying to kill an enemy than it is to die while trying to love an enemy?

Also, if dying while trying to kill an enemy is heroic, we better be sure we know why ISIS is not heroic.

violent love.

Violence is around a lot of conversations and for good reason. The world is filled with it. The Bible is filled with it and we’re always trying to reconcile our views of grace with justice, of mercy with order, of peace with violence. 

Here are some way too simple thoughts. 

Love is the absence of fear. 

We fear love.

Violence and fear are always related. 

Violence can be useful to destroy boxes and cages. 

Violence is an excuse for the ego to have full control and that’s always dangerous. But, in a sense, love is violent, or can be, but not in the common understanding of violent. But those paradoxes of revolutionary love, rebellious love.. violent love are valid.

If violence is done out of fear… than it’s always destructive and harmful.

If there is no fear, then it’s love, and actions done without fear can still be tearing, gashing, and almost violent.. but always healing. 

Bravery… protecting love… great. 
Bravery… protecting fear… not great. 

And sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. 

Sometimes what some call love others calls violence and what some call violence others call love.

One more thought. 

If you’re going to justify your own violence as righteous, you have to allow God to be violent as well.  

love is the hardest thing.

I have heard way too many times, people, especially religious people, speak very derogatory language about love, as though it’s so simple and easy and so much more is required of us. They will talk as though people who just try to love are missing the boat and not wanting to get into the “challenging/difficult/real/deep stuff”. 

People often use this kind of language in trying to be critical of another church (a good sign of not loving in itself). They will say “Yeah they’re just a little too love-y for me.” 

Can we please stop this nonsense? 

There is nothing on this planet harder than loving everyone on it and treating them with patience, kindness, and that whole list of things that you want to be treated with and that is read at weddings to define love. Equally hard is allowing yourself to believe that you are enough, you are worthy, you are just as great without the new clothes, car, partner, book, or whatever else, as you are with it and that God (or the universe or a power greater than you) actually loves you, independent of how cool you are, how great your theology is, or whether or not you have it all figured out. 

Love is the most difficult thing.  

Which is probably why Jesus knew that he didn’t really need to say or do much else. 

And they still killed him. 

Note: Love also gets people killed fairly often, which means powerful people are deathly afraid of it. 

heaven and hell are not different places.

Imagine a room. It’s filled with color, with people, with love and with God. It’s everything you could hope for. As long as you can see it and experience it and as long as your eyes aren’t closed. 

The same room, with your eyes closed, or the lights off, is dark, empty, alone and frightening. 

I think we need to stop trying to get some place or do something other than open our eyes to what is here. That’s what we’re supposed to be learning: How to see the world, the trees, the animals, the air, the food, how to see the people in it, those we love and those we hate, and how to see ourselves… with all the color, love and God that is there. 

When we learn that, it doesn’t matter where we are… it’s Heaven. 

And, on the flip side, if you’re in Heaven with your eyes closed, it will be Hell. 

Sadly, many of the people waiting the most for Heaven are only learning how to be unaware of it, when they are there. And thus, they will find themselves in Hell, saying, I thought it would be better than this when I died and everything finally took care of itself.

I can imagine God coming along and saying... oh you’re in Heaven alright, but you’ve got to open your eyes. And they will say, but how? 

And God could say... well, that was how you were created but you just spent 70 years learning how to close them to everything. 

That might be why Jesus was so tricky when he talked about the people who would be there (and are there now) and the people who wouldn’t (and aren’t there now). 

It had very little to do with “performing miracles”, “casting out demons”, and “prophesying” and everything to do with seeing the world, the people in it, and ourselves in a certain… light. 

It also had a lot to do with love.

heaven as a perspective.

Pierre Teilhard deChardin's theme is evolution. He argues, in his amazing book “Christianity and Evolution” that it’s our job to evolve. It’s the job of the universe to evolve, and it is the job of Christians to push evolution. It’s our main mission, he argues. 

Pain pushes evolution. It’s how we move. deChardin even argues that we should all celebrate pain because it’s then that we are growing. We need pain. Of course, God created pain - it’s necessary to evolve and God is all about evolution and growth. 

It’s all about perspective. Our perspective on failure, perspective on mistakes, perspective on pain. 

What if heaven is just a different perspective on pain? What if heaven is not the absence of pain? What if there are no more tears because we realize there is nothing to cry about? What if there is no more sadness because we see sadness for what it actually is? 

There is still learning and growing in heaven and there is a reason we can’t all just get to Heaven right now - we have to evolve in our understanding of pain a little more. 

who loves more?

Three days after the shooting in Charleston, North Carolina, families of the victims were asking for God to show mercy to the shooter. 

Three days after people lost a close family member because someone generally didn’t like any people of their family members’ color and attended a Bible Study with those people in order to be warmly accepted by them and then shoot them… the family members offered them forgiveness and grace. 

And many would say that God is sending that shooter to Hell, unable to offer the same grace. 

Are people more loving than God? 

If that is true, than it seems like we have a major problem with God. It can’t be possible that the created beings love more than the Creator, right? 

If that isn’t true, than I think we have a major problem with Hell.

I do tend to side with the second.  

Mark Twain once asked “Who prays for Satan… the one sinner that needed it most…”. 

Crazy enough, I learned the answer to that: the Athonite monks of Cyprus. They actually pray for the demons and the devil on a regular basis - to find salvation and God. 

Once again, if there are human beings praying for the devil to be saved… I wonder if God feels the same way? 

I know we have a major problem with Hell. 

For those that do insist on a Hell and do want people there, I wonder if they are already there. It’s a tough life to feel like everyone around you needs to be punished a little bit more than they already are. That can make you really angry. 

And, you have to wonder. If someone can not fathom the idea of Hitler being in Heaven, what kind of Heaven would it be for that person if Hitler is there? 

It could be pretty hellish.

Or one could say, that God, in God’s mercy and justice, develops a place to live for people who can’t stand Hitler being in Heaven, and calls it Hell, because God definitely loves humans more than we are capable of. 

the devil gets all the good ones?

About a year ago, I had the privilege of hearing the story of Amanda Lindhout. To make a long (amazing) story short, Amanda traveled to Somalia “the most dangerous place on earth,” to photograph and learn more about those affected by wars, famine, and drought. 

She was kidnapped after a short time and spent 460 days in captivity. 

While in captivity she was abused in every way imaginable and somehow found a way to forgive her captives while they abused her, to find empathy for their story, while their story affected her own in traumatic and devastating ways. Mind-blowing forgiveness. There is not a person I tell the story to who doesn’t sit in awe for a moment. As I heard her speak, I was in awe myself. 

She also told her story of an attempted escape. Her and her fellow captive managed to get to a mosque. Unfortunately, her captors eventually found her as well but she tells the story of an older woman who literally laid down on her body in order to try and prevent her captives from re-taking her. The woman screamed and yelled and did everything she could for this white stranger, risking her own life. The last image Amanda saw of this mystery woman she was lying on the floor of the mosque, with tears, reaching out her own hands to try to reach her.

The story was maybe the most powerful I’ve ever heard. Gorgeous. Inspiring and humbling. 

Amanda has since returned to Somalia numerous times to continue to try and help the people there and continue her own path of replacing anger with grace. 

At the end of the story, I remember a friend of mine looking at me and saying, “Amazing story. Too bad that Muslim woman and Amanda are going to Hell” because they aren’t Christians. 

She was being sarcastic. (I’m really trying to be less sarcastic but man, I joined in on that one.) 

Another friend added, “Isn’t it too bad the devil gets all the good ones?” 

I mean, honestly, doesn’t it seem that way sometimes with certain religious world views? 

There are, apparently, so many good people, saving the world, laying down their life for others, who haven’t said a prayer, and so many people who have said a prayer, waiting on their couch for the world to end in doom and destruction and the second group keep saying it’s not about “being good”. 

If I was being sarcastic I might say... well that’s great that you have a nice little saying to make you feel better while you sit on that couch.

Jesus talked about feeding people, visiting them in jail, and, not to put words in his mouth, but laying down your life for strangers in a mosque and forgiving someone as they are physically assaulting you. 

And it wasn’t about action. That just gets us back to doing more. It was about a perspective and attitude and awareness that enables us to do those things for our fellow humans and for the divine because we are drawn to both of them all around us.

When you have that, at least in the story of the sheep and goats, God says come on in to a world that is much better than you anticipate. When you don’t, God says away from me. I, the divine, don’t live in the world where you refuse to recognize it in everyone.

the other side.

Jesus returns from the dead and starts making breakfast on a beach. The disciples are out fishing and aren’t aware that Jesus is around yet. (Is there a better illustration of resurrection ever?)

These disciples are having bad luck catching anything and Jesus tells them to try the other side of the boat. 

Interesting. Had they not thought of that, already? Did they always fish on one side? Was that the lucky side? The easy side? The good side? Are different sides of boats really that different? 

They suddenly catch a ton of fish. It’s a miracle! 

And they know it’s Jesus. 

I’m not sure this really has anything to do with fishing. I think it has to do with ruts. It’s easy to get stuck in them. It’s easy to think it’s not working but we just need to keep trying harder and more and doing the same thing over and over. 

Then someone come along and says try the other side of the boat. Try something new. Different. Get out of the rut. 

God doesn’t like ruts. There are no fish there. Or miracles. 

Again, it’s time to try the new.

you can't go home.

Everything about this universe is expanding. And those who know, I trust, now tell us that it’s increasing in its expansion. And those who know, I trust, now tell us that the expansion is increasing faster than we thought!

I could go into all the details - and others have at various times - but here’s the gist as I understand it: The place we live, the things we’re made of, surrounded by, sustained by, the cycles, the systems, the, everything, is getting bigger. 

Because, if you read the story of the Bible as a big story, which we sometimes forget it is, it’s a story of people getting bigger. Of growing in their understanding of God, their tribe, of each other, of themselves, of the universe… 

If you look at Jesus, Jesus came to keep the momentum, and more than likely, increase it towardbigger. Yeah you thought you shouldn’t include them, I do. You thought you shouldn’t believe that, I do. You thought God was in that box, no. You thought you had it all figured out, you don’t. 

This is, and always has been, about getting bigger. Expanding our views, our experiences, our hearts, our souls, our love. 

There is bigger and there is home. And, as much as home sounds great - I mean it is safe and known and certain - if you’ve ever moved, like I have, you find something really interesting about home. And this has become a cliché because so many have experienced it.  

It’s so small. You go back and visit the camp, the house, the backyard, the pool, the amusement park that seemed so overwhelmingly large, and, after you’ve grown, it seems so small and, tiny, and almost claustrophobic. 

The goal is childlike - as grown adults. Children are constantly changing... learning, asking, seeking, adapting. 

But you can’t go back to the places you once lived. Home was great and got you to this point. But you’re grown up now. Paul said something similar when he talked about the fact that we aren’t children anymore and therefore should be happy with what that means - we do live a little differently. The walls and boxes and rules that once offered safety, now offer stagnation and incarceration. 

There is a common thread among fundamentalists of every kind: they want to go home. Home was safe, home was comfortable, home was where it was good. 

Besides things like hindsight bias, which make us always remember the past as better than it was - because we’ve now lived through it and seen that we make it - there is something else about the past…

It doesn’t exist. 

It’s no longer that home. That place. That sidewalk and tree and you. Those who insist on going back and taking the world with them will find it very frustrating. Fundamentalism is always frustrating. 

It’s not the movement of the universe.