As Deep as Time, As Broad as the Earth

Click to visit Monarch Watch

[This is the time of the year monarchs flock and begin a monumental trek to Mexico mountains to winter.  Here's my dedication for UCH's Monarch Way Station: September 2007.]

This small parcel of land

      set aside by intention and action,

Has already been blessed

      by the natural graces

      and ordinary miracles

Of Nature

                    Where all Life

Is embraced by myriad bonds

      of mutuality.

Today we affirm Relationships

      as deep as time

     and as broad as the Earth —

An Interdependent Web Of Life

In which Butterfly and Human Being

      alike has an ordained place.

Isn't this Web of Life

Amazing?

Isn't this Web of Life

Wonderful?

Isn't this Web of Life

Sacred?

Here we  gather  and care for

      plants of the Prairie

      to feed Caterpillars

And to provide a Way‒Station

      for Monarchs

Wending their way in Autumn

      to a Winter Sanctuary

      a thousand  miles distant

And returning like clockwork

  In the Spring.

This is our pledge and our prayer:

May we be Agents of Life

Finding the ways and implementing the means

      to sustain and enhance life

      in all of its forms

On this Blessed  Earth.

Here and now,

Everywhere,

Forevermore.

Animal Blessing Ceremony

May the animals in our lives

– indeed, in our world –

reveal to us deeper relationships,

life answering to life;

causing us to revere Life's Spirit

in all manifestations:

in the intricate and beautiful

Web Of Existence, yes,

but even more

through myriad fellow creatures –

especially those companion animals –

whose presence bless us daily.


[The animals and their friends paraded down and around the aisles, then together stopped.]

With intention, compassion, and abiding affection,

we pause to hear the murmur of life

in this hallowed room

as we contemplate

the meaning and presence of our fellow creatures

in sacred silence.

[after the silence]

Say aloud the names
you have given your companion animals.

Now everyone say with me:

“We are all in this together.”

Simple Prayers Wherever You Go

Kindle ebook

It has stayed with me for more than a quarter of a century, James Madison Barr's "I don't pray, but if I did, this is what I would say..."  (Barr, now decased, was longtime humanist Unitarian minister in Memphis.)


Prayer isn't among my personal spiritual disciplines, at least formally.  But when my adult daughter, a member of the Anaheim, CA UU society alluded to her prayer life, I put together a little book for her as a Holiday gift.  I called it Simple Prayers.


In the brief introduction to my ten simple prayers, I spoke of prayer as a matter of self-transcendence.  I explained I sought to strip prayer to its essence with the hope that those who use my offerings will be able to use a particular prayer throughout the day.


Here's one of the ten simple prayers:

9

Mercy and Forgiveness,

Scour my mind and rectify my heart.

I think the resulting book, published on Create Space and available on Amazon, is handsome.  It includes blank pages for journaling--keeping a record of one's prayer life..  It's the sort of book one might keep on the home desk or on a bedside table.

Recently I turned it into a Kindle ebook.  This is the sort of resource to keep with one during the day, easily accessible for immediate inspiration/succor.  Hence, I gave this edition the subtitle Wherever You Go, fulfilling the longstanding UU admonition to make one's life a "prayer without ceasing." 

The Kindle edition has the additional  advantage of making my little book more private for public reading/reference. 

Jesus's Portrait

I've been to quite a few wedding receptions.  I could compile a nonfiction book on the people I've met and the stories I've been told around and across banquet tables.

Occasionally, I feel trapped by the conversation, especially if the subject is about religion or politics, and I disagree with something said.  I don't want to be contentious at such a celebratory event.

At a reception recently, the conversation turned to the book, #1 NY Times besteller, Heaven Is Real.  You probably know about it:  A four old boy, his father a Wesleyan minister in Nebraska, nearly dies from a burst appendix. Over subsequent weeks and months, the little boy reveals aspects of a brief but detailed visit to heaven, including an encounter with Jesus, wearing a crown, purple sash, and white robes.

The parents present the young boy with portrait after portrait of Jesus.  None resemble the Jesus he met until he's presented with a painting by another child prodigy, Akiane Kramarik of Mt. Morris, Illinois, who paints largely from her imagination.  For believers, including the boy's parents, this conjunction of child prodigies has  special authority.

I've posted a photo of the charming prodigy and her Jesus-portrait.  What strikes me about  the painting is the styled hair of Jesus.  It reminds me of what's called a tell in poker--a gesture that gives away the player's hand.  This hairstyle screams of the early years of the twenty-first century when she painted it.  (I'm reminded of movie epics that can be dated by the hairstyles, no matter how period-authentic the costumes are.)

The book Heaven Is Real appears to be full of its own sort of theological tell, doctrine that is concordant with unique Weslyean doctrine.

Some years ago, anthropoligsts devised an image of what Jesus might really have looked like, given his time, social status, and genetic background.  It caused a bit of a stir.  I always thought that this face would have fit nicely into a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western  (music of course by Ennio Morricone.)

Such renditions beg the questions of cultural-centrism,  of idolatry, and even of the notion of cult--religion looking to one figure in particular.

Regarding the historical Jesus, I lean to the outlook of the relatively recent Jesus Seminar, particularly John Dominic Crossan.  Jesus was a social radical who doesn't resemble the popular portrait that most folks carry in their imagination.

Whenever I get distressed about such things, I turn to Theodore Parker's "Transient and Permanent in Christianity (1841)," and find my distress much relieved.

Follow Up: Goshen College and the National Anthem

Goshen students show their support of "The Star Spangled Banner" 

Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana has Mennonite roots.  

Through March of 2010, true to its peace-church heritage, it did not play the national anthem at its sporting events.  I blogged about a change, the playing of the national anthem before a baseball game:  In My Estimation, March 25, 2010.

An article in today's NY Times reports on a reversal of playing the national anthem, using instead, "America the Beautiful."

According to the article, the issue of anthem/no anthem has theological implications.  Obviously, the overarching issue is peace/war.  A second theological issue is hospitality.

In 2009 the college began a campaign emphasizing its pacifism called "Peace by Peace."  Apparently there was some push back from non-Mennonites, particularly recruited athletes.  Perhaps the anthem controversy reflected this push back.  The playing of the anthem, theoretically, made the college more hospitable to non-Mennonites.

The NY Times article reported remarks by a college official:  "There is a theological question, 'which was that if we talk so much about peace, that will make it hard to attract non-Mennonite students.'

"'And if we can’t attract non-Mennonite students, are we being hospitable?' Dr. Berry said.

"Hospitality is, like pacifism, a core Christian virtue, and some Mennonites believed that playing the anthem was justified to help students from other backgrounds feel welcome."

This controversy, in a tiny college ensconced in conservative Middle America,  fascinates me.

I admire Goshen's faith tradition, particularly Mennonite practices, including pacifism.  I suspect the implicit issue is the school's long term survival.  It needs a steady supply of students beyond the Mennonite culture.  The theological concern over hospitality seems to me to be a subterfuge that skirts the ultimate issue of mere survival.  Yet I don't doubt that those engaging in talking about anthem/no anthem were sincere in wanting to be a hospitable place without violating Mennonite pacifism.

The compromise playing of "America the Beautiful," settles the issue for now.  Each side saves some face.  The college will survive.

I invite you to read my 2010 blog for background regarding the playing of the national anthem at sporting events, a curious custom now deeply embedded  in the American culture of sports--a practice that has theological undertones.

In Tribute and Hope

[I wrote this meditation for the observance of 9/11]

It is good,

  right, and fitting,

For so many reasons,

That we remember,  

  especially remember,

Those who died

  and the families who suffered

  and suffer still;

To say aloud the names,

To tell the stories,

To speak our grief,

And then to be silent

  in respect and in reflection;

Feeling varied emotions

And seeking meanings

  alone and together.

And when we have remembered–

  paid our respects –

Promising not to forget,

We return to embrace

All that is excellent

 – true, beautiful good –

That we might live,

Not just once again,

But more fully

– in wisdom, courage, and compassion –

Vowing that we shall make our world

  a better place

In Tribute and in Hope.

We're Not Done Yet

10 years ago, when  Jeff Briere was intern minister at UCH, we collaborated on a description of Unitarian Universalistm: 101 Reasons I'm a Unitarian Universalist.  (Jeff is now minister in Chattanooga.)  

Jeff and I each wrote 50, one-paragraph reasons, interesting and informative tidbits of UU practice, history, and lore. Originally produced on a photocopy machine, a few years ago, I turned it into a paperback book and self-published it on Lulu. This summer Lulu formatted it as an e-book and submitted it to Apple’s ibookstore. (It had languished as a paperback book, but as an e-book‒an iTune‒it immediately sold a dozen iPad downloads.) It's now available on Kindle, Amazon's e-bookstore.

A decade after its creation, I find 101 Reasons to be a cunning and effective portrayal of Unitarian Universalism, as good a brief introduction as there is, relative to being consumable and entertaining.  

At the time, Jeff and I compared our design to a pointillist painting. We wrote this introduction:

Dear Reader,

To explain how so many different people

could practice one religion

in so many different ways

is daunting.

Perhaps the difficulty lies

in attempting a verbal explanation,

when painting a picture

would better communicate

the nuances of Unitarian Universalism..

Think of this collection

as a pointillist canvas

upon which are 101 spots of color.

In turning the pages,

you can see each little dot.

Stand a few feet back

and the dots blend in monumental images.

Then you can begin to see

larger shapes and forms

that create the tableau

of the living tradition of

Unitarian Universalism.

Wishing you meaning and purpose.

Jeff wrote the conclusion, the one hundred, first reason and arguably the most compelling reason for being a UU:

101

We aren’t done yet. That’s a phrase you hear now and again. We aren’t done yet. But when have you heard that in reference to religion? Unitarian Universalism isn’t done yet. We talk about a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. A search. An on-going organized plan to find something true and meaningful. And when we find that true and meaningful something, there will be another search, because there isn’t only one true and meaningful thing out there to find. We aren’t done yet. [JB]

As I think of Unitarian Universalism at age 50, remembering the hopes voiced in 1961 for a new and improved liberal religion, Jeff's conclusion resonates for me, "We aren't done yet." 

An Emergent Animal Ministry

A few years ago I edited a collection of poetry and prose, In Praise of Animals under the Skinner House imprint.    While the collection was proposed by my editor at SH, I'd long been interested in Animal Rights.  For a couple of decades I'd been calling Animal Rights "an ethical frontier," the next step in a progressing ethic of respect and reverence.

Within Unitarian Universalism Animal Rights has become a more sophisticated movement as ethical treatment thinking has transformed to an animal ministry perspective.  I think this represents, in part, a distancing from a secular animal rights activism.  The emergent Animal Ministry movement looks more to moral suasion  than to confrontational coercion.

I've prepared a Reader's Guide to my In Praise of Animals collection.  I think it is an apt means for the uninitiated to begin to explore what is now being called "multi-species" relationships--our appropriate relationship with our animal kindred as well as the web of life that embraces us all.  My guide is a resource for individual reflection.  But it would also work well in a readers or book discussion group.

Animal Rights is no longer a frontier.  It is a realm of ethical being that is rich and fulfilling.  It is, in my estimation, a coming home for the human species.

If Only for the Season: A Holiday Anthology

This summer, I've been working on a collection of my Holiday writings. I ended up with forty-six selections.  I chose the title If Only for the Season after a popular meditation I wrote more than twenty years ago.  I had several intentions: to capture the breadth of Mid-Winter observances and moods; to express universal, deep meanings; and to provide a resource for all who come to the season with a liberal spirit, especially fellow Unitarian Universalists.

I'd been aiming for the book's September 1 release. I made it, thanks to the layout and design skills of Ellie, my spouse.  Ellie offers her considerable expertise to those who want to use the wonderful services of on-demand publishing.  [Visit her Publishista site.]  The finished product is a handsome book,  8.25 inches square.


This is a collection for personal use, as well as for fashioning services and celebrations during the Holiday Season. It makes a thoughtful and meaningful gift.  (It makes an implicit statement regarding the Holidays versus Christmas annual controversy.  And it is respectful and enlightening about Christmas.) 


You can see the book's preview on Amazon.  You can buy it at Amazon or CreateSpace's online store.  I recommend the latter.