Oxford Movement

I'm reading, "For Sinners Only", A.J. Russel, the Book of the Oxford Groups.  The Oxford Movement did have a beginning of sorts in Oxford University.  Later the university would back away from the notoriety of the Oxford Group but at first those at the university attended in Oxford and several Oxford dons wrote letters of support.  It was 'procedurally' criticized not unlike the modern day Vineyard movement.  It lacked ritual and organization.
However it was based on 4 standards of conduct that appealed to the orthodox.  It claimed to judge conduct against
1) Absolute Love to all
2) Absolute purity
3) Absolute unselfishness
4) Absolute honesty.
Later 12 step groups would pull away from the Oxford Groups, citing the difficulty with these 'absolutes".  Indeed the AA programs states frankly, "we are not saints'.  I'm not sure that is a clear understanding of the message of 'sin' that also was central to the Oxford groups.
As for 1) Absolute love to all, the definitive writing on Love from a Christian and philosophical basis had been C.S.Lewis's book "Four Loves".  These were Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity.  Lewis felt that the likes and loves known to humans were entertained but at the best when they were linked to love of God.  God's love, the highest love, was charity. Interestingly, the word 'charity' to me ties it to 'grace' and 'generosity' or 'abundance'.  Godly love is not niggardly.  (Is niggardly still an acceptable word, or politically incorrect, does it's roots precede or follow from the same root as nigger?  Writing I can so easily be distracted into the search of meaning of something so simple as this, but if  i do then I'll not write what I set out to write, something about the Oxford Groups, not about the opposite of absolute love - the miserly and measured 'political correctness'. )
Jesus said "Love your enemies" because clearly that was human as even animals loved their family and tribe.  The book, "Evolution of God", strongly suggested that the initial Biblical interpretations, especially the old testament, were 'tribal'.  As a Jew I only had to love Jews.  As a Communist I only had to love Communists.  As a Smith I only had to love Smiths.  It was in the New Testament that the debate over circumcision and genital mutilation of men occurred. It's the same debate ironically raging now, like a soap opera,  about genital mutilation of women.  Greeks being rational didn't want to circumcise themselves to join a new religion so the 'brand' wasn't making much progress outside of Israel when Paul said to the Jewish purist faction, that it's one thing for you old Jews to say circumcision is necessary since you were violated and abused by your parents when you were too young to remember. All that is left is Freuds fear of death and fixation on his mother with all manner of unconscious trauma issues culminating in Woody Allen's sex life, all because your mothers and fathers cut up your peniss as babies. We can't expect adult men to subject themselves to such insanity and brutality for 'love of God'.  It's barbaric.
What followed was a major rift in the church.  Judaism has always remained a 'minority' religion with focus on the methodology of the politics of minority factions.  By contrast the two other Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Islamic, could go onto 'universality'.
I feel sorry for those who are ignorant and don't read the Bible or the Koran or the Bhagadvagita.  Recently at a Buddhist shrine I was enjoying the presence of the monkeys fornicating and crapping all around it because 'monkey gods' were sacred to the people of the Buddha.  Reincarnation themes prevail in all aspects of that religion and the relationship to others is tied to the idea that the ant or the monkey might well be your grandmother or your grandchild.  It permeates the thinking and being of all aspects of the society.  We take so much for granted not knowing the differences that derive historically from the very fabric of the culture. The dualism of western mind, deriving from Aristotle, is not clear in the east where politically the 'god-king' remained theoretically long past the developmental phase of Britains 12th and 13th century Magna Carta movements.  Superstitiousness, i.e. 'luck' and 'fortune' run rampant through the east while they're present in the west but more like 'rabbit foots'.  They exist but are more extraneous.
Love of the other and love of self are intrinsically tied to an understanding of God and reality.  We are 'forced' to accept a 'division', self and thing, matter and mind, a 'dualism' which is 'useful' and 'functional' especially scientifically but may not have any true 'validity'.
All of this was considered in the 30's when the Oxford Movement began and the subsequent AA and 12 step programs were developing.  Spiritualism was at it's height.  Madame Blavatsky was all the rage. Marx and Lenin were "revolutionary' ideas.  Stalin hadn't killed 80 million and Mao Tse Tung hadn't killed 120 million.  The War to End all Wars had failed.  Television hadn't come along to 'dumb' down the world and fairlytales were something children read, not adults. Propaganda was just beginning with Goebbells genius as yet not fully developed to the CNN/Internet standards of today.  The people of the 30's who were involved religiously in community were highly intellectual.
Reading For Sinners Only, one sees the intellectual capability, of that brilliant generation that gave rise to the Oxford Movement and the 12 step movements.  This wasn't dumb functionalism, technician based thinking, this was the kind of philosophical genius that gave rise to the Age of Enlightenment and essentially the Revivalism movements through time.
What is love?  Are you being absolutely loving when you pay your taxes?  Is it loving to refuse sex with your wife or husband?  Is it absolute love to hunt and fish?  Is day care 'absolute love'?  Is lying loving? There's all manner of questions, all politically incorrect, mind you, but all philosophically and theologically valid, which derive from consideration of 'absolutes' and 'love'.
The very question of 'absolute' is itself a consideration since it's a 'scientific' word to my mind. The 'absolutes'  I know are those of chemistry, such as 'absolute temperature'.  In the arts they refer to something considered 'independent and unrelated to anything else", the ultimate basis", "perfect' and 'complete'.
Note that Absolute is thoroughly 'alien' to the moral relativism of our day.  Everything, especially to those who smoke marijuania, is 'sort of okay'.  It's been said the 'devil is in the detail' because  as long as everyone is being 'agreeable' we actually don't have to 'agree' on anything. That's the basis of the propaganda of 'political correctness' and the history of the lesson of 'give them cake'.   So long as we're zombies we aren't thinking and we can be manipulated, conned, but more importantly we can con ourselves.
So it's not surprising that the words 'absolute' and 'love' are tied together by these deep thinking men and women of the 30's who'd just witnessed WWI, the most brutal slaughter of horses and men by machines known.  The annihilation of the finest and brightest of the world's greatest nations with the utter stupidity and callous brutality of the leading lizard brains of the day caused everyone to rethink reality.  It's the same kind of process that so affected Jewish thinking after the Holocaust of WWII.  While the rest of society looked at having 'won' against the dastardly Germans and Japanese, the individual jew, had to consider the 'victory' had cost them near genocide.  The genius of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, Martin Buber and others isn't independent of the times, any more than the Oxford Movement was or the 12 step movement.  Bill Wilson, co founder of AA had been a soldier and witnessed war. His alcoholism so understood by the eugenics thinking of the day which ultimately gave rise to 'genetics', was as much a product of the post traumatic stress disorder that permeated the soldiers of the day.
But absolute love to CS Lewis was 'charity'.  Charity refers to giving freely. This is at the human level.  Grace is the word we use for God's charity.  All we have and know in our relation with a higher power is 'grace'.  The 'covenant' of Judaism is the 'relationship' between God and Man.  The prophets of the Old Testament of the Bible refer to Israel as a nation deviating from God's will.  In the day, "individualism' didn't exit.  Alienation and Isolation were not the problems of our forefathers. These are 'modern' considerations post Camus, post Kaffka, post existentialism.  "Every man for himself" is a modern day phrase.  The nuclear bomb and the one button are today's issues. In the past , no man was alone.  Erick was even to the Vikings 'Erickson'.  Everyone was related, as the Natives of North America are rediscovering their tribal roots in the phrase 'all my relations'.
Jared Diamond, the brilliant anthropologist, has described well the nature of 'tribal' society as part of the 'nation' state and subsequent 'empires'.  We're at the evolutionary end and beginning of a old new age in the individualism which the word 'agape' or 'absolute love', charity and grace challenge.
Descartes studied the idea of self as did Carl Jung later.  Cogito Ergo Sum, "I think therefore I am" was the realization of Descartes who is considered to many the modern father of 'dualism'.  Thanks to his realization of the god like capacity of our 'thinking' we could today be considered as 'gods that shit'.  We may have all manner of great ideas but we are still attached to an animal like body.
Mario de Beauregaard, the brilliant neuroscientist, has written the book "Spritual Brain'.  In dualism , matter and spirit, there has been a functional reductionism for medicine to be an off shoot of veterinarianism.  Man is considered a monkey and doctors are merely one species vets.  The following is that the brain is not a mind. Mario Beauregaard with modern Pet Scans, ironically has shown that nothing could be so stupid.  Even the idea of the brain as merely a 'super computer', 'man as machine' is limited.
The question becomes then are we mirror or is the mirror us.
This kind of thinking isn't farcical but central to the failure of the present day legal system and the errors of the politics of the day distracted by the idea of Gaia, or earth god worship and the 'shit' of creation.  As C. S. Lewis would say, why look in the wall for the architect.
Today we create 'modern' 'myths' but myths are still myths.
Absolute love isn't Jerry Springer or even Oprah. It's a terrible idea that started a world wide movement that continues today .  It was a nuclear explosion of an idea generated solely by the combination of two words, "absolute' and 'love'.  Frank Buchman and the Oxford Groups, later Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob, thought about 'absolute love'.  It's hard to think about absolute anything when you're drunk or hung over.  It's hard to think about 'absolutes' today(period), because the propaganda is anything but the 'pale blue dot' of reality.  Our earth is not the centre of the universe.  So even considering relativism, if I am not the centre of the universe what is. What is the multiverse?
Over and over again we come back to "Grace" and "Charity" and "Pride" and "Humility".
2)  Absolute Unselfishness -  This is clearly the opposite of Neitze's master race. The Oxford Movement had it's first advocates on Fleet Street. It was a movement that appealed to the Wall Street of the day. It's no surprise that Oprah has with all her wealth and success developed a tribal school for black girls in Africa modelled on Oxford ideas.  Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are promoting "altruism'. The greatest American businessman of all times was  Carnegy who gave his wealth to charity.  So here I am trying to make it rich only to find that those who have become ultimately rich say the greatest joy is not in 'keeping' wealth but in 'giving it away'.  The great Canadian story of Duddy Kravitz was the sad tragedy of the man who walked over everyone to become wealthy only to find himself alone with his wealth.  Alone and wealthy is a far more horrible state perhaps than poor and alone because it's like a man who cried 'my kingdom for a horse'.  All the wealth in the world can't 'buy' happiness.  All the wealth in the world 'can't' 'buy' love' What money 'buys' is not 'absolute love'.  The message of television is 'facsimile'.  There is nothing 'absolute' about the 'mirror'.
The orabunga is a circle, a snake eating it's tail and one of the oldest representations of 'God'. The myth is that God alone and lonely divided self into known and unknown so today we really only have to ask am I the eater or the eaten.  The central law of all religions is the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Love your neighbour as yourself.  Ultimately if we are one and only divided into two theoretically, at the level of reality, then I'm stuck not really knowing whether I'm the fucked or the fucker.  Emerson , the great American philosopher, wrote "if the reds layer thinks he slays or the slain thinks he is slain , they know not well the ways I keep and turn and toss again".  Death is an idea 'individually'. I can't know my own death by witnessing the death of another. I assume my mortality but it's an inference not an 'absolute truth'.  I go to sleep similarly but don't 'know' I'll wake up.  There is so much about reality that I infer or deduce.
3) Absolute honesty - now there's the rub - as an animal I'm successful by deceit.  A hunter gatherer is not going to tell a bear that he's wanting to eat him. The hunter would best sneak up on either enemy or prey to kill or eat it.  But what of enlightenment. The world we know, the market world of wall street, the ridiculous laughable, materialist white collar gambling machine of wall street and the blue collar gambling machine of Vegas are both superstitious 'luck' based ideologies that live on 'dishonesty'.  Myths and hollywood and adult fairytales predominate.  The religion of love is a mirror to the war of fear.  Lovers versus terrorists. The hippies versus the police. The flower children versus the hard knocks.  Temperance movement versus the drunks. The prohibitionists versus the addicts.  It's all dichotomies and in dichotomy there is no 'absolute'.  Hegelian philosophy argued for the trinity of 'thesis, antithesis' and synthesis'.  Synthesis is beyond dichotomy and scienficially the 'synthesis' is the prevailing 'hypothesis' that becomes the starting point for the new thesis.
The key then is that 'absolute honesty' may be something that is highly dangerous to even consider in a society of hypocrisy where deceit is the norm, especially in a world of fashion, superficiality and political correctness. But what about 'absolute honesty' with oneself.  If I am a God that shits would it be wise to deny the shit or the God part?  This whole question of 'absolute honesty' was central to the failure of alcoholics to become and remain sober.  Those who failed were considered unable to be honest with themselves.  This issue of 'honesty with oneself' is central to the idea of the 'psychopath' who lacks a 'conscience' i.e. is incapable of self reflection or honesty'.
It's easy to parrot the words but the words are just keys to a plethora of welcome or unwelcome ideas.  Am I honest with my taxes? Am I absolutely honest with the boss ?  Am I honest with the children?
4) Absolute Purity - this is my personal bug bear.  I'm going to stop here because I have to go to work and frankly 'purity' is difficult for me. I am a sinner .  Sin is the word for human or 'imperfect'. It's been much abused by Hollywood and lost on the stupid. It's a powerfully important word that simply means that what I intend doesn't always happen as i intend it.  This is why we have 'outcome measures' and 'quality control' and 'target practice'.  If there was no sin in the world, I would think something and it would be as I thought it. I'd be God who doesn't shit or God who shits and thoroughly enjoys the shit and cleans up the shit or has a shit cleaner upper encoded into the shit.  There would be no shit possibly.  As a friend says, 'sin' is the second law of physics.  (period).  Entropy is sin at the cosmic level. Personally 'sin' is for me 'fat'.  If there was no 'sin' I'd be able to eat chocolate without getting diabetes or fat.  Sin is a sinfully good word that is unfortunately much maligned.   But at the level of 'sin' I've a problem with purity.
I feel 'impure'.  And that's where I'll pick up from at some point , that feeling of 'oldness' and 'wrongness' and 'jadedness' and 'bitterness' and 'soiled' and 'usedness'.  That's the issue of 'purity' and 'purification' was a whole process of the old religions. Coming back from Angkor Wat temple complex is saw the process of 'purification' ,the taking off of shoes, washing of feet, lots of water used in 'purification'.  The whole process of 'purification' How can I get that Madonna feeling of being 'just like a virgin' again. How can I make my boat 'new' and 'shiny'. How can I be 'fresh' like a douche advertisement or a mouthwash ad. What is this purification thing anyway. Isn't there something bodily and shit like inherent in this idea of purification.  Cleansing and renewing and such.
It's something to consider.
But those were the 4 absolutes - Absolute Love, Absolute Unselfishness, Absolute Honesty, Absolute Purity. Those were what I was to consider my conduct as a Christian against.  How do I measure up?  Am I being human or beast? Am I being a human or a machine?  Am I loving or politically correct?

The Lord Liveth

"The Lord liveth, and blessed be my strong helper, and praised be the God of my salvation; Even the God that seeth that I be avenged, and subdueth the peoples under me. It is thou that delivereth me from my cruel enemies, and settest me up above mine adversaries; thou does rid me from the wicked man. For this cause will I give thanks unto the, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises unto thy Name." Psalm 18

When I studied spirituality at Regent College we were encouraged to read the psalms. It was given as an exercise to read them through, a psalm a day. Jesus read and quoted from the psalms which is why they are commonly included in the small books of the New Testament that one can obtain for a pittance to carry in one's breast pocket over the heart. It is just such small booklets of holy word that have on occasion stopped bullets and saved the lives of those who had only intended to save their soul, not their bodies as well, with scripture. The psalms are also found in the Anglican Church Book of Common Prayer.

In the duality of light and darkness there is a spiritual war between good and evil with these forces personified as God and Satan. Individually we are given a choice to do 'god's will' or be 'satan's spawn'. Ultimately we end in heaven or hell depending on our choice. Heaven is forward and progressive with peace and joy and righteousness whereas hell is backward, a place of depression, anxiety and gnashing of teeth.
One imagines that I could become rich with cheating my family, friends and neighbours,stealing from them and indeed killing anyone who stands in my way. However while I would perhaps end my life with the most 'toys', I'd not have 'peace of mind'. The ancients emphasized such intangibles. They were well aware that a man could 'rape' a woman but that she would not 'love' him for this so that while he might have her 'body' he'd never know her 'heart' or 'soul'.
In our superficial consumer society there is a glorious lie that if we have the 'toys' we have it all. The psychopaths and sociopaths being primitive immature half formed humans only capable of that which the chameleon lizard does don't themselves know the 'cost' of theft and 'crimes' against humanity" or the ill they do themselves when they intentionally harm others. The 'still small voice' of conscience is a gps for the 'spiritual journey' and the 'wicked man' deafened by his own ego cannot discern his way.

I turn to the psalms to know God's will and feel comforted by the words. I can trust in The Lord and know that The Lord liveth!


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Up Lord

Up Lord is an expression used in the Psalms. It speaks to the spark within us and calls upon God to join in the battle. I imagine a commander calling to his troops, "UP". I think of a falcon whose blindfold is removed as the bird is called upon to hunt.

"Up, Lord, confront him, and cast him down; deliver my soul from the ungodly by thy sword;" - psalm 17

The relationship here is one of companion warriors, a commander speaking to another commander, a commander to a sgte, a sgte to his captain, two infantry men about to go over the wall of the trench they have taken shelter in.

I cannot imagine commanding God but I recall commanding my parents as a wee child. The relationship that the psalmist has with God is so diverse and fertile it literally boggles my mind.

I call up on God in trials. I am to pray unceasingly. I sing praise and rejoice, count my blessings and express gratitude when life goes well just as I turn to God when I am fearful, frustrated, tired, or angry at the godless and stupid resistances of this world.

That is the message of the Bible. Turn first to God, be not afraid. Do not wallow in self pity or fear or rage. Avoid most complacency. Smugness is to be abhorred. I seek The Lord daily. I want to know the miraculous and live in a life of the sacred. I would practice the presence of The Lord hourly.

So often I forget and I find I've lost my faith or been made weary by the trials of this world. Then I pray and turn my face to The Lord and sooner than later there is Jesus at my side. I am sheltered by the wings of eagles.

Today I say, "Up, Lord!" Together, let us continue on this journey.


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The Apparent Prosperity of Evil

Psalm 73 speaks to the apparent prosperity of Evil.  If God is good and just, then there should be no favouritism. Yet we look about and it seems clearly that there are those who prosper yet do 'evil' things.  Rather than loving their 'neighbour', they are cruel.  They hoard while others go without.  They kill for profit and without consideration of spiritual laws.
Then there are those who are so righteous and loving and caring of others but are poor and unhealthy.  The "health and wealth' spiritual movement would have us believe that the outward manifestation of wealth and health speak to the inner well being. Health and wealth can coexist with spiritual advancement  but obviously tyrants and criminals can have apparent health and wealth without any spiritual advancement whatsoever.
If a person "believes" he too can have wealth and health, this pretty pleasant shallow promise claims without consideration of Jesus's death on the cross and the high cost paid by the early disciples for the depth of their belief.  Apparently no one gets to heaven without scars, because  come from believing in something and standing up for it. When one stands up for good, one makes themselves a target.
There are those with wealth and health who do not believe in God and do not hold God as central in their lives. Instead they're actually against God and have ungodly lives.  Some in organized crime as depicted in the media come to mind.  Some corrupt politicians and beaurocrats also come to mind.  Certainly CEO's and Boards of Directors of companies that have dumped dangerous drugs in third world countries or covered up the dangers of products for profits are at the top of the list.  Those whose sins are 'sins of commission' like Hitler are no different from those whose sins are 'sins of omission" like Eva Braun.  Cigarette producers and their families, and the lawyers and judges who work for them, come to mind.   Abortionists for hire and profit are also in the list.  They put 'money' and the God of Mammon before the God of Love.  They seem at times to have greater wealth.  Also the rich by any means can buy heart transplants, kidney transplants and medications that the poor cannot afford thereby having a standard of health that surpasses others.  Gordon Lightfoot's song Don Quixote does a good job of pointing the finger at those who that great Spanish knight would find unworthy of the company of his Dulcinea.
The psalmist is equally and more eloquently angered.  He cries, "For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."
But then he says that he saw also that in time those who do evil get their own according to the law of 'karma' and retribution.  Almost all religions teach 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'  Clearly, murderers are missing the mark on this one and thieves profit only in the short run by their trade.  The idea of 'hell' and 'afterlife' has served to address this apparent 'disparity'.  But Marx said "religion was the opiate of the masses' because as a Jewish aetheist he rejected the God of Abraham and Jacob.  The communist product of his philosophy is apparent today with massive failures of those systems founded on the reactionary division of the world into beaugeosie and proletariat only to be followed by the revolutionary 'necessity' of 'dictatorship of the proletariat.'
Yet this is not the only argument that the psalmist puts forward.  Indeed, he goes on to say "How suddenly they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors."  Faith and trust in God and seeking the Holy brings immediately benefit in this life, peace of mind.  My own experience with the powerful, rich, arrogant criminals is at variance with my experience of the powerful, rich, and humble servants of God.  One is snake like in their behaviour, eyes darting, rapacious while the other has 'peace of mind'.
The key is love and fear.  The more I love God the more I am at one with Love.  Jesus spoke of God the Father, as Abba, papa, daddy.  The more of a musician I am the more music I can appreciate. The better a marksmen the better I can appreciate shooting.  In all cultures there is an appreciation of the refinements of skills yet to what end is that skill used is the issue of morality.  Nuclear energy can be used to light the world or destroy it.  The same truth is heard in the statement,  'guns don't kill people, people kill people'.  The problem isn't in the 'tools', but rather how they are used.
Evil isn't intrinsic but a product of choices we make. I am a child of God, hence I have the capacity to make Godly choices, however if I choose wrongly and selfishly then I increase my distance from God and my eventual alienation.  There are spiritual laws of right and wrong.  Those laws go to the essence of Love God and Love your neighbour as yourself.  The 'relationships' one has with self and others and this world are either loving or fearful.  Fear is the basis of hate.  Alienation is the sense of being alone and persecuted. From that place comes the idea that "offence is the best defence".  It's the 'separation' from others, the tribalism of the soul. It is a really sad and lonely state of darkness.
Movement towards God is movement towards love and peace and laughter.  The psalmist writes "When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered I was senseless, and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you".
The psalmist recognises that the state of Godliness is a distinctively different state than that of the devolved brute.  Darwin is entertaining in some aspects but the worship of Darwin leads to the appreciation of what the psalmist is saying, the monkey can be dressed in fine clothes, live in a fine house and eat fine food but he will just be a monkey. He will be a dressed up pig, a 'rude beast'.
The psychopath is likened to a 'lizard' having the capacity to acquire (consume),  protect (fear), reproduce (like a pac man).  The CEO's of tobacco companies are such simple programs as are those who profit from drug pushing, selling war, and slavery.
The quality of a psychopath and lizard is that they can 'chameleon'. They can 'act' like they 'appreciate art' . They can 'fit in' . They are Phillistines. They are able to be toilet trained and to actually present to their own children their husbands and wives as 'people'.  Yet in the delightful movie 'Little Big Man', these are not 'people' because they waste and are infantile in their seeking of their own desires at whatever cost to others.  They lack kindness.
The psalmist concludes "Whom have I in heaven but you, and earth has nothing I desire besides you."  The realization of God and the coming into the possibility of kindness and humanity, the reaching for the true humanity of 'loving my enemy', 'doing unto all others as I would have them do until me', having trust and faith in the rightness of God, all of this comes with greater appreciation and insight and understanding. It's likened sensually to gaining 'sight' when before I was blind.  "I was blind, but now I see," the famous hymn is sung.  All the senses of the angry, fearful, covetous, ard murderous are muted senses. Indeed the psalmist describes them as 'senseless'.  They don't have 'colours' in their black and white world and indeed like the drug addicted or alcoholic live in their own fantasies rather than reality.  They can't appreciate a sunset because they're looking over their backs at who of their friends will 'do unto them as they have done unto others'.  When you 'steal' you enter a world of thieves and what you have is no longer 'safe' even with your friends. Murderers fear murder daily.
Hell isn't then a place we go to but a place here and now we can be in.  This is the experience of psychiatrists who treat  psychopaths and sociopaths.  Psychopaths and sociopaths can lack empathy and compassion and all that is so much more.  Scott Peck has written of this "evil" in his remarkable book, People of the Lie.  Robert Hare has written about the same in his book, "Snakes in Suits".
In the end the psalmist writes, "as for me, it is good to be near God".

God's Book

The Threefold Way of Christianity referred to the three stages of the Christian Journey. In this Physike referred in spiritual theology to the entire created universe of nature, human beings and the invisible spiritual beings. In the second stage of the Threefold way - physike - we focus on the indirect contemplation of God. Through regular contemplation of the world about us we are increasingly able "to experience all creation (including our own life) as a gift, and to discern God's presence in the entire created universe".

Diogenes Allen in Spiritual Theology quotes Kallistos Ware, a bishop of the Greek orthodox church, referring to Nature as "God's Book". We are to see all things in God and God in all things.

I had not thought this to be so true of Roman Catholicism or Protestant Christianity as a whole and in fact thought it the special domain of the Celtic Christianity I embraced. Such is a little knowledge.

I'm thankful to Diogenes Allen for enlightening me, a physician, that a special appeal of Celtic Christianity, indeed had it's roots in all Christianity. Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants share this spiritual theology that once was called mysticism.




I like that Nature is called "God's Book". Now if only I could be less illiterate.










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Early Church

My earliest memory of church is being dressed up. I'm under 5 for sure and wearing a bow tie, probably red and a blue blazer. I remember the adults above bustling about in that getting ready for church way. That bustling cheerfulness was something I'd encounter over and over again on Sunday mornings. People washing. Women putting on best clothes and hats. The hats came out on Sunday. My father and us boys would be kind of dragged along. Mom would be the driving force. When my aunt and their mother were around it was truly a force to contend with. Dad would be in charge of getting everyone in the car. He had on a suit and tie and polished shoes. Mom would mess with his hair like she messed with ours. My brother and I were wishing we were elsewhere.
The car was pulled round the front and we all went out the front together. It wasn't something to hide from the neighbors. Some of the neighbors didn't go to church. I wouldn't put it past my Mom, her mother and sister for wanting to show them what they were 'supposed' to be doing on Sunday morning. Any other occasion we'd have all gone out the back but not for church. It was a front street affair.
Dad would go around the car and make sure the "ladies" were attended to. He didn't do that on shopping trips. My brother, mostly sullen, and myself would 'pile' in the back.

The front of the church was what it was all about. Parking was Dad's job. Letting us off in front of the church occurred if parking was further away. Sometimes we all walked from the car.
The ride wasn't too exciting. Kids and parents in a car with parents talking and asking questions. My brother and I might poke each other and get in trouble on the way. I was usually catching heck as the youngest.

A lot of smiling going around the church. Lots of hugs and kisses on the cheek and sweet waves. I remember adults mussing my hair alot. The Ladies sure liked church especially when they got to wear their hats. Easter hats. Odd because Jesus was dying on the cross and here the whole congregation was all for his being risen. I didn't know any theology back then.

Kids went downstairs and were thankful for it. Ministers were likely to drone on and never had anything relevant to say. Not to a kid's mind. My parents liked listening.
As an adult I've enjoyed the sermons like discussions and lectures so appreciate now that ministers to my parents were like a local professor. There was lots of singing too. The choir had burgundy gowns and black trim. They sat together and the congregation joined in the singing.
I loved best "Onward Christian Soldiers". As a kid I was all for martial activities. Dad had been in the Royal Canadian Air Force in WWII. The television had replays of all the famous war movies. The Cold War was on and any day the dirty commies could be coming over the North Pole just begging to be whipped by us kids and our families. So "Onward Christian Soldiers" was my favorite hymn. I didn't really listen to the words of songs back then either.

Sunday school was where we played games and were told stories in the basement. We even had Sunday School comic books. That how I learned about the Apostles, St. Paul, Peter and Mary and such.

Later we'd all traipse back up stairs and join our parents for the end of the service. They actually all looked happy to see us and we felt all that warm all over reunited experience there in the church.
If someone was going to be dunked and drowned in what they called a baptism we got to stay. It was pretty gruesome and frightening but pretty exciting too.

I remember the parents waists were above my head when I first went to church. It was like trying to move through a bunch of close together trees when they began to file out of the church and we tried to catch up with either Dad or Mom. They'd start talking to someone and get separated.

After church if we didn't go home for sandwiches and tea we'd go out to a restaurant or for a drive around the park. My grandmother was pretty old then and she liked the drive around the park.

There were a whole lot of Sunday morning church services when I was growing up. There must have been some bad times. I can't remember them now. When I got to adolescence things looked awry in a lot of directions. Pretty much the whole adult world looked askance to me. I didn't want to do anything adults did. Before that though church was okay.




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Sunday in the city

It's kind of a lazy day for a Sunday afternoon in the city. Gilbert woke me at 5 am this morning. Licking my ear. Puppy kisses. I am forever ruined by hospital call and ship watch. I wake in instant work mode, threat scan charging while already moving to the door. He used to have to really go and I had to really move to get to the door before he peed. Now i'm still in that mode but he's very leisurely.

A Ray of sunshine or a birdsong has woken him so he figures he may as well wake me. No doubt I'll want to enjoy the predawn experience. I used to try to meditate, awake. 5 am. Gilbert sniffing about the backyard chewing on whatever the squirrels had dropped in the night. Gilbert thought this cross leggeged closed eyes meditation thing I was doing a marvelous game of squirm on lap and lick neck. Often I've gone for walks but Gilbert isn't that keen on walking that early. He's even less fond of jogging.
So I've taken to going back to bed and Gilbert thinks this is just fine. He's up on the bed and very busy, very busy indeed. He usually brings a toy to squeak with too before the inevitable fight games with Angel the cat. Peace is not something of a priority on a puppy's schedule.

So this morning I wrote. All the while Gilbert played whirling dervish. Laura slept amazingly through this. Years of childrearing has equippedher for ignoring little ones at play. He did begin to chew on something unusual, a slight change in sound ,and she shot out of bed, wrestled a frog ornament out of his mouth, leaving him with cocked head bewilderment, while she was back under the sheets asleep in a flash.

I made coffee and decided that walking and jogging might use up some of his energy before church. We did the neighborhood. I walked
by the Jim Patterson Pavillion and thought what a fine man he was to contribute this wing to Vancouver General Hospital. The Diamonds contributed to the pavillion across from that. All fine philanthropists.

For the first time I studied the amazing sculpture "When Humans Bleed" dedicated to the nurses and located out front of the VGH Emergency. At first it looked like an odd shaped lump of white rock but then it became a masterpiece before my eyes.

Laura and I and Gilbert walked to St. George's Anglican Church. It's such a friendly church. Peter is the greeter. John Lamble and his wifeBetty take part in the service and are always so welcoming. The minister, John Marsh,gave a very fine sermon referring to the small numbers that Paul spoke to in the early years of the church. In an amusing way he likened the sizes of the early groups to the "18 here plus a dog". He spoke seriously about the Galatians understanding that the message of the cross in that day was that of the Roman cross and crucifixion for anyone who challenged the hierarchal authority of the worldly rule of violence. Yet her were small groups of Christians gathering in those early days as we do today to bow to the new spiritual rule of Jesus Christ. John brought home just how radical that message is still today. In light of world events it was a most timely sermon.
Communion and the sharing of the peace are a good time. A time of reflection alone and in community. Gilbert was quiet throughout.

After we sat in the courtyard with Vivian listening to the chickadees as she told stories of the birds of her Native people.

Then we were walking away headed for Maxx's. There's outdoor tables and chairs for Gilbert and the best lox and cream cheese bagels with lattes imaginable. Laura and l like people watching and Gilbert likes dog watching.

We did our grocery shopping next door and carried bags down the street with Gilbert picking up pine cones. Pine cones are so exciting.

I lay down to read Churchill's Finest Hour while Laura sat outside reading Janet Evanovitch's latest, Fingerlickin Fifteen. Every once in a while she laughs right out loud but mostly she just chuckles to herself. Gilbert fell asleep in the yard. I fell asleep inside. We both had LaZy Sunday afternoon naps.

Now I'm looking forward to a barbecue tonight. A friend emailed that the planned demolition of his house starts tomorrow. That's exciting. Another very beautiful friend is getting married this summer and Laura and I are invited to the wedding. It's supposed to be hot and sunny next weekend so that may mean we will go camping.

I'mq going to go back to reading. Sitting up there's less likelihood of napping now.Gilbert is chewing hard on a chicken squeaky toy. Laura's reading more and chuckling. It's an overcast day, long pants and t shirt weather.

It's a good lazy sunday in the city.

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Karl Barth (1886 to 1968)

Karl Barth, a Swiss Reformed Theologian, though Protestant was described by Pope Pius XII as the most important theologian since Thomas Acquinas. As a country pastor during WWI he found that the 'liberal' theology of the day made little sense in the bombs and suffering that was occurring around him. This lead to a new theological path sometimes called 'dialectical theology" because it stressed the paradoxical nature of divine truth – eg God is both Grace and Judgement.

He has also been associated with the "theology of crisis". The 'judgement' of Jesus on the cross is without understanding in human terms, to come to terms with it, one must have a 'leap of faith' and literally 'surrender' to God's divinity in acceptance. To quote Barth, "Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He himself is." It is when one truly surrenders and turns to the grace of God in all human endeavours on a daily basis, seeing the cross in all our personal struggles that resurrection becomes possible. This is living in the presence and ever experiencing the sacred.

I find this most interesting as it's the thread that had been picked up so strongly by early AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) thinkers who insisted that only through great suffering by loss, illness or addiction could one find the humility to truly say, "thy will, not my will, be done.'

Barth insisted that the Church rely fully on the divine and criticized the formulations that make God and theology appealing to the 'cultured' and 'refined'. Liberal theology appealed to the sensuality of man and was sanitized. Equally though, Barth considered Jesus' death on the cross as central and was called 'neo-orthodox' by his conservatives critics who objected to his arguing that those insisting on the 'inerrancy' of the Bible were putting forward another lord. This was a kind of 'book idolatry'. For Barth, Jesus Christ was the sole Lord of Christianity.

Barth who was associated with the Christian socialism movement said, "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of the uprising against the disorder of the world." Barth was the principal author of the Barmen Declaration which rejected the influence of Nazism on German Christianity and himself refused to sign allegiance to Hitler. He argued that the church's allegiance to the God of Jesus Christ should give it the power to resist allegiance to other lords such as the Fuhrer. This lead to the founding of the Confessing Church which saved countless Jews during WWII. Christians sacrificed their lives daily by hiding Jews and when the collection basket was passed around putting in their identity cards so these could be used to forge ones for Jews. Bonhoffer, Barth's contemporary in the Confessing Church, was just one of the untold thousands of Christians who died to save the Jews from Nazism.

Barth strongly believed in Christian political action and felt pacifism, unchristian, in face of the horrors of Nazism, arguing that Christians who did not take action at this time, 'were not only sleeping on their Bibles but on their newspapers as well". He would later be associated with 'christian socialism' though argued against the forces that called themselves 'Communist' and those who called themselves 'anticommunist' considering both of those forces during the Cold War as intrinsically evil.

His watershed work was "Epistles to the Romans' and later his unfinished life time work "Dogmatics" continues to provide new insights for theologians and students alike.

In my own life I first heard of Karl Barth from Dr. Karl Ridd, my first theological teacher at University of Winnipeg, whose life and thought so touched my soul. He made me want to be a better man. I would later reflect that my Christian teachers like Dr. John White, Dr. Phillip Ney and Dr. Willie Gutowski would have this effect on me. Not only would I want to be a better student but I'd want to be a better man. The surgeon Dr. Ross whose teaching I was most thankful for and who I so admired would say 'it's in the way you hold the flesh that affects the healing' and I knew he was speaking not in technical terms but in the most human way where the sacred and secular connect.

At the time I followed my calling into medicine I'd been reading Albert Schweister, the Christian missionary doctor to African. I had also been studying the 8 fold path of Buddhism reflecting on it's insistence that individuals chose 'right action' in terms of career. I'd been a bar tender and thanks to my study of Buddhism at the time felt that this was not 'right action'. As Jesus was a healer being a doctor was a safer bet.

Later Dr. James Houston would discuss Barth with us in his Christian Spirituality courses at Regent College. Jim would agree and disagree with Barth but always admire the way Barth shone the light on some aspect of thought that brought us closer in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Barth is certainly the theologian to be considered around the time of Easter, this cross roads of history and calendar.

Palm Sunday

Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Palm Sunday Service. Laura and I arrived on the Harley late. That way we miss the children's part of the service at the opening but then we're seated in the late section beside the family section. For 12 years I've watched infants become toddlers and then children who go onto to be rather pleasant young people. The kids in church aren't on drugs or stabbing adults so it's a nice change from the media presentation of children. I can see why the parents keep these.
The choir is on best behaviour for Holy Week. Their voices are so divine it's almost like Rupert Lang has invited some angelic intervention. I loved the brass. There's always brass for the C&E crowds. Us regulars don't get enough of it the rest of the year. Makes us almost tolerant of those droves of Christians that get in just this side of rapture and receive an Easter blessing so they can mess up the rest of their year. Anglicans.
The Catholics are better sinners and take communion almost desperately and daily. The Baptists are more stoic and go months without bread or wine at times just to show how long their purity will keep. The United Church, however, is still testing the shelf life on grace.
That said I arrived cynical and left almost peaceful and jubilant. It gets to me how that happens in church. It's not like I want to give up my cudgemudgeon. I look about and there's as many people with that before communion look which has a spiritual equivalent to the before coffee look one sees on the subway.
Volunteers from the parish did a dramatic reader's digest synopsis of the events leading to the crucifixion and resurrection. I was impressed. It still gets me that people just like me preferred a murderer and rebel to a rabbi. And these were jews. Moslems or Catholics weren't even in the bidding at that stage. But Barabass lived and Jesus died.
Briefly, the story goes, that Jesus was this man who did miraculous things and taught peace and was thought by himself and his disciples to be divinely connected. He was jewish so that's no surprise as that arrogant lot has been calling themselves the chosen people for a dog's age and they're not even from Ireland or Scotland. Jesus came into Jerusalem and was tried by the authorities who killed him on the cross. Three days later he resurrected and asscended into heaven after being seen by hundreds.
I don't doubt this divine man existed. Some say he was a rabbi and others say his teachings were the "Q" texts of history. It's pretty clear that he wasn't in favour of war or weapons or accumulation of wealth on earth. He was definitely spiritual. The secular and religious authorities of the day considered him a threat to their personal power and killed him.
Only a hundred years ago Anglicans were locked up for dressing in the wrong robes. Recently it was suggested I cut my hair and wear a three peice suit to be better doctor. Galileo and so many others were almost axed by the authorities. Women who wouldn't sleep with authorites were called witches and burnt. People in power commonly abuse that power. The government today almost killed everyone with nuclear weapons. So this government would likely kill Jesus if he were here today.
And frankly, I'm not sure I'd do anything about it. If he hung out with me and was a friend, faced with torture by the RCMP or FBI or KGB or even the mafia or maybe even Revenue Canada or the IRS, I'd say I didn't know the guy. If someone from Visa or the bank called and asked if I knew an outlaw by the name of Jesus, I'd say "I don't know any Mexicans."
That's what his disciples did. He died alone but said "forgive them because they know not what they do." I'm not particularly forgiving so I don't think I'd be saying such a thing if I was being beat up by my enemies. I've tended to think of the most hienous ways my enemies could die instead. I'd certainly take the opportunity to tell them what I'd do with them and their genetic strain and forgiving would not slip off my tongue if I was in pain.
Jesus's most controversial message though was "love your enemies". He said "Love God" but that wasn't new and he also said "Love your neighbour as yourself" and that Golden Rule is found in almost every religion. Not that anybody pays attention to it. But it's not original and when Jesus said that, that was the essence of the Bible of his day. But they didn't have today's Palestinians at that time.
"Love your enemy" is however pure Jesus. My best Jewish friend says 'revenge' or 'avoid' but don't 'love your enemy'. He says "forgive' is fairly Judaic but 'love your enemy' he thinks is insane. Given the recent holocaust I don't judge him. I'm not a loving sort myself. He's far more loving than I am. Father, kids, grandkids, a real mensch. But don't cross him. He's not into loving his enemy.
I pray for my enemies everyday. It keeps the list fresh in case God changes his mind and says loving is out this week and you can revenge all you want. I'd be the first off the blocks hacking and butchering with glee. I'm always worried that the minute I become loving too, others will take advantage. It's also tough too to be loving because it increases the risk I'll get killed some government. The Dalai Lama wasn't a bad sort but even as a kid the Chinese were set on machine gunning him to death for his loving nature.
The last thing the authorities want is for love to spread.
Meanwhile I do think 'love your enemy' is the basis of the idea that Jesus was a 'homo spiritualis' the next stage of human evolution. We'd better get beyond tribalism or all we will have is the 'other world'. I'm happy with the 'other world'. I'm 'otherworldly' but this world is already here. We'd better learn how to not kill each other and everything on the planet soon or even Aliens won't ever visit us. I suspect the aliens are out there waiting for us to be toilet trained before risking a visit. They see what we did to a man who was probably God.
Rev. Patrick Blaney lit up the service with his account of the significance of holy week with the stations of the cross. He then told of his becoming a Christian. He sat outside church unable to bring himself into enter into congregation and communion. He was afraid someone would see him. He described the fear he had at making this first step into a church. He felt someone would shout."What are you doing there Patrick. You're not a Christian." He was seriously worried that entering a church would change his life. He said it was like "worrying about the pharmacists coming on the overhead anouncement calling your name to pick up some personal product." Rev. Blaney appears to have stuck with that unwholesome personal product called a relationship with Jesus.
I remember myself being embarrassed to be a Christian as an adolescent then marrying a non Christian and getting caught up in the yuppie world of secular glitter and mirrors. I never stopped being a Christian. I just stopped talking about it in general. I became a doctor because Jesus was a healer and I wanted to be like Jesus. If he'd been a GI Joe maybe I'd have ended up with M2 rifle. I had lots of such secular alternatives. I watched Perry Mason and might have been a lawyer. Perry Mason wasn't on MASH and didn't have Hotlips though. Jesus was my kind of Buddha, Gandhi, Einstein, Shakespeare, all rolled in one, the greatest story teller, teacher, and miraculous healer. I wasn't sure about the 'redeeming my sins' part. I just knew that the guys making nuclear weapons weren't my kind of hero. I did like the NASA crew and still hope they're get off the ground and find some adult supervision for the guys messing with the world, causing poverty and killing anyone they can.
All that my Mom and Aunt taught me about Jesus was that he wasn't a bully but a friend. The minister came across as a bully and I didn't consider him a friend. But my Sunday School teachers were kindly and later when I studied theology all of those teachers were Christ like in their own way.
I found I could call on Jesus and when I called his name or even called on God when I was frightened and alone I'd feel better and things just seemed to get better. I studied the Bible too and for a dirty book it was pretty good reading.
I also studied medicine with the most religious of men, not just Christians, but Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, Hindis, and come to think of it all my very best teachers were theists. There was an occasional aetheist but they didn't stand out. Maybe they were in administration. But they say there aren't any aetheists in foxholes and I didn't find many in the trenches of the bedside either.
It was the missionary zeal and self sacrificing natures of my favourite medical teachers and mentors who most touched me and caused me to strive to be my best.
Were it not for them I'd not have worked in the most dangerous and least serviced areas, the north, the country, the university and the inner city. I 'served' and saw my work as a 'calling' and the people I most admired in my field saw it similiarly.
Being in church listening to the sermon, then listening to the choir, singing along, remembering times I've sat with the priests here, talking about life and spirituality, the spiritual direction, afternoon meetings, communion, community, it all felt good.
There was this little boy who was with his parents and I thought he's going to grow up one day and probably become like Jesus too. His parents were that sort of caring.
What is strange to me is that the Roman army became Christians and forced Constantine to accept Christianity as the 'state' church or else. What is it about Christianity that causes the likes of St. Ignatius to lay down his sword. The church has it's share of cowards but it's not a religion for the cowardly. All over the world Christians are persecuted. I've been persecuted just for being a Christian. Being an ecumenical Christian I've always been tolerant of other religious groups but that's not been reciprocal.
I understand Peter denying his relationship with Jesus. It's in Holy Week we ask ourselves if we want to be like Issaac Newton, Einstein, Carl Jung, and St. Theresa and believe in God and the spiritual. Just what do we think of community, morality, and things like the 10 commandments of Moses or the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus. Should the 'meek' inherit the earth or should it be 'survival of the fittest' , the most fit having the most toys and guns? Is Christianity a religion for losers run by priests who tow the line so they don't offend the secular powers? It's been a long time since a Pope or Iman or Canterbury Bishop got crucified. They seem to be thick with the G8 crowd wanting land and buildings and not questioning authorities. Were it not for the likes of Bonhoffer German Christians would have collectively looked bad in Nazi Germany. How can one be a Canadian Citizen and still be a Christian is the kind of question Holy Week insists we ask ourselves. Right now my vote is with Barabass and like Patrick Blaney I'm a little afraid to be going to church this week since for all I know I might end up in jail if I really take Christianity seriously. Thankfully crucifixion is politically incorrect in Canada.
Now I figure I've got to see Mel Gibson's movie. I'd rather watch a story of vengeance, all the cop shows, all the war shows, all the good girl gets even with the bad girls, all the loser wins in the end movies that I really enjoy watching. Right now I'm reading Churchill's River Wars about Christians bashing Arabs. That's what I like to read but Mel Gibson's ,The Passion doesn't have Jesus riding triumphant home to the girls who didn't write dear john letters to boys in Afghanistan.
In this story the hero gets it in the neck. Then he disappears in the air. Later everyone in the civilized western world believes in him and civilization occurs in the west lead by his words. C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity reading on the BBC radio during the Battle of Britain helps change history. The inspiration of the Bible is the best of the justice code. All the 'hotel d' dieux' hospitals in the world care for the sick and suffering. The monks and monasteries and the nuns and Christian teachers laid the basis for education in the west for nearly 2000 years. We've only been on a get rid of the Bible and outlaw God experiment for maybe 20 years. It's too short a time to tell but so far I've personally not seen a whole lot. Sure, the preists were the 'winning the hearts and minds' message of the Spanish Conquistadores but no religion has any better record than Christianity. Man has been killing each other in the name of God in every language and religion in the world. It's not surprising that God might get his own back with the occasional tsunami or hurricane. I personally believe that God is loving and that this is just part of life. Life isn't safe. No one gets out a live.
What does God want me personally to make of this story. Is it really just a way to frighten me and make me follow Gordon Campbell, Harper and Obama? It's the most frightening story that would keep the most timid in line. Or is it really true that there's an "otherworld", maybe the laws of which are as spiritually true as the scientific laws we know.
Should I work on 'loving my enemy' or get a cruise missile and a glock pistol like my government and my tv cop show heros? Holy Week is a kind of time of reconsidering all one's life choices and asking if what I'm doing today is Christian. Am I being the best person I can be? Should I put material wealth before integrity? Can I have my cake and eat it?
It was all so clear to me when I was in Jerusalem. Walking on the Via Doloroso I walked with Jesus. At Bethlehem I was touched as so many times in my life I've had that moment when the divine seemed to be present. Then there's been the dessert times and the lonely times.
Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. It's that time to get close, real close and watch out, you just might hear your name called. Christianity is a personal product.