Tag Archives: Christ

Beautiful words from Joanna Macy and Matthew Fox

Posted on February 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

“The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe…. All is registered in the “boundless heart” of the bodhisattva. Through our deepest and innermost responses to our world – to hunger and torture and the threat of annihilation – we touch that boundless heart…

Experience the pain. Let us not fear its impact on ourselves or others. We will not shatter, for we are not objects that can break. Nor will we get stuck in this pain for it is dynamic, it flows through us. Drop our defenses, let us stay present to its flow, express it – in words, movements and sounds.” (Joanna Macy)

The Cosmic Christ is present wherever there is pain. The Cosmic Christ unites all this pain in the one divine heart, in the one divine – but wounded – body of the Christ which is the body of the universe. The Cosmic Christ is the crucified and suffering one in every creature, just as much as the Cosmic Christ is the radiant one, the divine mirror glistening and glittering in every creature. Divinity is not spared suffering – that is the lesson of the Cosmic Christ who suffers. (Matthew Fox)

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The earth shall teach us

Posted on January 7, 2012 | 2 Comments

The earth herself and the created order most purely reveal the truth of the divine. It is as things were created to be that we find the absence of the influence of human will, which so often leads to disorder, control, and abuse as much as it leads to love and unity. Without the human will, we find wildness, and where we find wildness, we find truth, wholeness, and perfection.

Could the soaring eagle be more perfect?
Could the howling wolf be more perfect?
Could the blossoming cherry tree or the emerging daffodil be more perfect?
What about the new-fallen snow, the song of the robin, the rising sun, the flowing creek, or the lush undergrowth in the forest?

Could any of these things be better or more right than they are in their wildness and freedom? We do well to learn our lesson from our mother, the earth, and our brothers and sisters that rest upon and walk along her belly. She will teach us how to be ourselves, as we were created to be. She is in the Christ as the Christ is in her.

In Christ were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and invisible… Before anything was created, Christ existed, and Christ holds all things in unity. (Colossians 1:15-17)

Whatever name we give, whatever image works best, there is a unity and a creating at work for all time. It is love and it is beauty and it is rightness. It is wild and free.

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One year ago… Unanswered prayer… a response and a theology

Posted on June 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

As I am sitting here at George Fox Sem, I am reminded of these posts from last year. Enjoy!

Folks, I want what I do to be for the village… the community… the place where the spiritual unites with the physical.

So, for me, taking classes at George Fox Seminary to get my certificate in spiritual formation is about more than just me. I am doing it because it is what I must do… for the community and for God.

I recently finished my semester paper for my class on prayer and as I wrote it with the community in mind it is important for me to share it here. I will be posting it up in sections over the next week or so. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

To read part 1, Starting with Prayer,  GO HERE… To read part 2, Prayer and it’s place in the Spiritual Life (pt 2), GO HERE… To read part 3, The difficulty of sustaining our prayer life, GO HERE…

Unanswered prayer… a response and a theology

Perhaps the one of the most difficult reasons for maintaining a sustainable prayer practice and perhaps one of the most painful parts of being in relationship with a God who is so much greater than any of us. How do I respond to someone who prays for healing of a loved one and does not receive it? How do I respond to someone who prays in his infertility that God would give him children and yet still remains childless? So much pain and so many unknowns…

I do believe that God calls us to compassion and presence, but not necessarily answers. Compassion is entering into the suffering of another, as Jesus entered into our suffering. This is being the presence of Christ to my community. Compassion may very well be just sharing the tears and the burdens while so deeply dwelling in the terrible, “I do not know…” So someone who’s prayers are not answered? It is the spiritual leader’s responsibility to provide compassionate presence… whether it be from myself, or from the community. Again, there are no good answers as to why or how or when or what… It is so much easier to go into this as a leader, even slightly. How much more difficult it is to allow someone to be in their pain, their anger, and their blame! Walter Wangerin, in his beautiful book, Mourning into Dancing, says that we MUST let the griever blame God. Better God blamed than others because God is the only one that can so lovingly take on this blame. This is hard for the spiritual leader trying to give the “right” kind of help.

Unanswered prayer part 2 can be found here.

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Posted in Community, spiritual formation

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Finding my voice

Posted on May 11, 2011 | 3 Comments
I am beginning a course at George Fox Seminary called The History of Christian Spirituality and Renewal. I am eating it up… loving the opportunity to explore the depths of the tradition I call my own. At the same time, I am learning so much of my own ancestral lineage (at www.myheritage.com) and how my heritage fits into the story of England, the United States, and Christianity. Fascinating!
I have known at a very early age that my life is to be about guiding people on the spiritual path. And yet, for so long, I really didn’t understand what benefit Christianity offered to the world other than security in the afterlife. It is only after being in Bend, OR, where so many of my community really don’t want to have anything to do with Christianity or the church that I am learning what I have to offer. It is an interesting journey to learn the joy of my spiritual tradition from engaging in community with those who don’t practice it.
And yet, I still haven’t found my voice. I know the “what” but I don’t understand the “how” yet. My heart is overflowing these days as I study, research, write, and contemplate the depth at which I desire to engage the world around me. Here I am, resonating so deeply with Celtic spirituality, Christian mysticism, creation spirituality, indigenous and wisdom-based cultures, elements of Shamanism and Native American spirituality, masculine / feminine spirituality, psychology… and at the same time so very committed to the reality that is Christ in the world.
The clarity of my offering is within me somewhere. These times at present are so focused on living it, experimenting, and experiencing. My writing is not always clear. My speaking is often incomplete and jumbled… a heartfelt, and often spirit-led “BLEGH” of thoughts that come to me in the moment. I know… I feel… and yet I am so often still a baby trying to get my legs under me.
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A simple story for 2011

Posted on January 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

Yesterday, I had a truly wonderful 2-hour conversation with my father. We covered God, Christ, creation, the cosmos, scripture, life, questions, faith, and more. I realized that while my ideas of God and our connection with life are indeed complicated and thought-through, it really is practiced in a simple way for me.

In closing, as I told him that our understanding of how we are united with God has to inform and feed our sense of unity with all of the earth, he asked me, “Nate, if people were to look at all that you are writing and sharing, what percentage would they find related to connection with the earth and with life… and what percentage would they find related to faith, belief, and relationship with God or Christ.”

“100 percent and 100 percent,” I said. “They cannot be separated.”

So with that, I have been reflecting on a story for weeks now… again from Anthony de Mello, from his book The Song of the Bird.

A tale from Attar of Nishapur:

The lover knocked at the door of his beloved. “Who knocks?” said the beloved from within. “It is I,” said the lover. “Go away. This house will not hold you and me.”

The rejected lover went away into the desert. There he meditated for months on end, pondering the words of the beloved. Finally he returned and knocked at the door again.

“Who knocks?”
.”It is you.”

The door was immediately opened.

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