The “Bucket List” is both a movie and a philosophy of life. The main characters in the movie decide to experience every unfulfilled wish or hope in their last few days on this earth. Their journey says to us that the meaning of life is somehow out there beyond our own person. Is life all about crossing off items on a list, can the meaning of life be that simple? How is that possible when the vast majority of humanity is fighting every day for enough food and safety to survive the vicissitudes of this world? The bucket list philosophy is only about the compacting of life experiences, places and relationships assuming that this will bring meaning to our lives. We all should ask, will it?
This philosophy is targeted to the few and says nothing about the only meaningful life opportunity open to every person, regardless of their circumstances. Some assert that the meaning of life can only be experienced in the psyche of the individual also defined as the totality of who we are without the illusive trappings of body parts. This journey is the exploration of inner space and our bucket list must accordingly shift into reverse. Knowing one’s self was the goal and the teaching of the ancient philosophers and we never get modern enough to find completion on any other journey. The bucket list is the latest modern philosophy that will deflect us away from the inward journey.
All of us avoid this inward journey, we are hard wired as humans to prefer the external fluff of life, content and complicit with our satisfaction with the externals. We pretend that the inward journey is not even necessary while choosing to focus on what we assume are the really important things in life. The list of important things is long, anything and everything can distract or deflect us, the destructive behaviors and the positive behaviors are equally guilty. A life addicted to drugs will deflect the addicted from the inward journey but so may an education, a career path, positive relationships and even religion. Wait a minute, you say, religion is all about the inward journey!
Is it?
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
The Voice
There is a yearning in the heart of every human being who has confronted mortality, a yearning to somehow touch a reality that is bigger than the mundane survival existence that consumes our days. For most of us that reality has a name, God. For those who are aware of their yearning for such a realty, we have neither the time nor the space to argue the plausibility of God, He just is. The disbeliever is a mere annoying blimp on God’s radar who is destined for eventually surrender. Our yearning is matched in biblical history as well as in human history by those sparse moments when the voice of God somehow touches a human heart.
Every religion in the world, without exception, began with one man hearing the voice of God. Also, in every case, without exception, that man or his succeeding generations turned the voice of God into a human religion in an attempt to explain, interpret and thereby control the people. The religions of the world are as different as the men who first heard the voice and as different as the environment in which God spoke. Since my exposure to the religions of the world is limited, this word is about the Bible and the Judeo Christian religion both of whom have been entangled in four thousand years of human history.
Entangled is the appropriate word because at this hour we have hundreds of Judeo Christian religions, all of whom demand their uniqueness from the Bible. The splintering of the Christian religion is rooted in the prevailing opinion and biblical methodology that uses the Bible as a God given religious textbook. This purview is so fundamental that it is accepted by almost all adherents of the faith, no red flags go up and no questions are asked. The Bible is presented every Sunday as the authority behind the words of the sermon and justification for every unique dogmatism. The question that is not asked but should be asked is whether God preserved and protected these words for a religious purpose? Is God really about religion, any religion?
A religion is always a top down experience with the greatest authority lodged at the very top. The splintering of the Christian churches, particularly in the last 500 years does not change this top down dynamic. The splintered group only changes the top and again assumes all the biblical authority of the group from which it sprang. Every Christian religious structure operates day to day in this manner and they all claim that Jesus is the model. This is a fraudulent assumption because Jesus was not a founder of a religion but one who shared in an atmosphere of total freedom the voice of God. Jesus did not rule as the church rules, he treated others as God treats each one of us for he assumed all others to be a more worthy receptacle than himself to hear the voice. Jesus was so unwilling to bend to religion that he was willing to be judged by it and killed by it.
Satan did not do the deed, the Romans did not do the deed, the Jews did not do the deed, the religion of the Jews did the deed with the same kind of top down authority that rules every group of the splintered Christian Church. If we can place our heads and hearts into the life of Jesus, walk as he walked, think as he thought, we would know that this man was not a top down religion builder but one who wished to share and introduce the God of the galaxies to whomever would listen. Whether on a Judean hillside or by a Samaritan well, there were those who were eager to listen. There were and now are no qualifications only a willingness to listen for the voice, it may be today or it may be tomorrow but the Voice will sound.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Every religion in the world, without exception, began with one man hearing the voice of God. Also, in every case, without exception, that man or his succeeding generations turned the voice of God into a human religion in an attempt to explain, interpret and thereby control the people. The religions of the world are as different as the men who first heard the voice and as different as the environment in which God spoke. Since my exposure to the religions of the world is limited, this word is about the Bible and the Judeo Christian religion both of whom have been entangled in four thousand years of human history.
Entangled is the appropriate word because at this hour we have hundreds of Judeo Christian religions, all of whom demand their uniqueness from the Bible. The splintering of the Christian religion is rooted in the prevailing opinion and biblical methodology that uses the Bible as a God given religious textbook. This purview is so fundamental that it is accepted by almost all adherents of the faith, no red flags go up and no questions are asked. The Bible is presented every Sunday as the authority behind the words of the sermon and justification for every unique dogmatism. The question that is not asked but should be asked is whether God preserved and protected these words for a religious purpose? Is God really about religion, any religion?
A religion is always a top down experience with the greatest authority lodged at the very top. The splintering of the Christian churches, particularly in the last 500 years does not change this top down dynamic. The splintered group only changes the top and again assumes all the biblical authority of the group from which it sprang. Every Christian religious structure operates day to day in this manner and they all claim that Jesus is the model. This is a fraudulent assumption because Jesus was not a founder of a religion but one who shared in an atmosphere of total freedom the voice of God. Jesus did not rule as the church rules, he treated others as God treats each one of us for he assumed all others to be a more worthy receptacle than himself to hear the voice. Jesus was so unwilling to bend to religion that he was willing to be judged by it and killed by it.
Satan did not do the deed, the Romans did not do the deed, the Jews did not do the deed, the religion of the Jews did the deed with the same kind of top down authority that rules every group of the splintered Christian Church. If we can place our heads and hearts into the life of Jesus, walk as he walked, think as he thought, we would know that this man was not a top down religion builder but one who wished to share and introduce the God of the galaxies to whomever would listen. Whether on a Judean hillside or by a Samaritan well, there were those who were eager to listen. There were and now are no qualifications only a willingness to listen for the voice, it may be today or it may be tomorrow but the Voice will sound.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Sin
There is a moral argument for the existence of God. Evil will be punished and goodness will be rewarded in this life and probably the next. Why can’t we just accept the truth of his argument? It would seem that this is a truth that we humans were created to test as if we were lab rats. Why do we have to prove it over and over again? If we are honest, each of us can recognize the moral argument in our own lives for it is what we try to teach our kids, when you choose the good it will come back to you. We humans universally know that it works and we universally, to one degree or another, put this truth to the test daily. In effect, we are advertising the God of the galaxies by our rebellion. God can take the credit when we do not sin and God can reap the advertising when we do, sounds like a win, win …….. for God!
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Saturday, April 5, 2014
The Capsule Bible
Matthew 23: 37, 38, 39.
Luke 13: 34 & 35.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
The immediate reaction of the religion politic is to say that the word universalism is not in the Bible. The second reaction is to say that anyone who claims that universalism is in the Bible must be ignorant. If the religion politic were correct, the issue would have dissolved centuries ago but it just keeps hanging around. It would seem that both sides should open their ears and really listen. The religion politic, however, would rather use the Bible to proof text their particular theology. The theological box created levies disrespect upon the Bible.
The most familiar verse in the Bible, John 3: 16, is a case in point, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”(NIV). Belief is not a new spiritual agenda but what is new is that Jesus is now the focus of said belief in God. The Greek word translated perish is preferred by the religious politic for it’s finalistic flavor. The same Greek word should be translated, according to Young’s Concordance, “to loose, loose away or destroy”. In Matthew 5 the disciples use this Greek word to describe their seemingly near death from the ravages of the storm but in chapter nine the same Greek word is used by Jesus to warn against the loss or loosing of all the wine if one puts new wine into old wine skin bags.
The Bible reader and amateur theologian, as we all are, have great latitude in translating this verse. For example, “ For God so loved (gathered) this world (all mankind) that He sent his only begotten Son (Shepherd), that whoever believes in Him will not perish (be scattered or loosed) but will have everlasting life (will find a safe shelter forever).” Again, the history of the religious politic prefers the finalistic flavor and drama of the death scenario. In John chapter 10, Jesus defines himself and his mission as that of the Good Shepherd who gathers his sheep at all costs, his sheep recognize his voice and they follow the Good Shepherd anywhere. We amateurs’ have a choice as to the best translation of this verse.
Look at Matthew chapter 15, verse 24, Jesus again summarizes his mission, “I was only sent to the lost (or scattered) sheep of Israel or (the Jewish religion).” The Jesus moment was all about changing the course of the faith of Israel, that was the first focus of his gathering. The Canaanite woman, however, begged like a dog for protection from the demon possession that had invaded her daughter. Because of her persistence and faith, Jesus relents and gathers this woman and frees her daughter. The religious politic of that time considered their historical enemies, the Canaanites, unworthy of God’s care. They were again wrong for to loose any of mankind is not in the heart of God. The mission of Jesus, however, was first to target the scattered ones of the religious politic.
The religious politic did not end with the resurrection of Jesus. They were quickly reconstituted to form the Christian religious politic who had an influence upon the spiritual writings about Jesus and which of these writings were accepted as legit. Their decisions, more or less influenced by the Spirit of God, would gather the chosen writings together to form the Bible of today. We can not nor should we give equal weight of understanding to all of the Bible, the question must be asked, is this about religion or God? Just as Jesus was an adversary to the power of religion, we must filter all of scripture.
May I suggest the above verses in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, these are the words of Jesus. This passage is a capsule Bible in a few short verses that can and should filter all other scripture. It is as if he is speaking from the lofty perch of his God given Messianic authority. These few verses call out the religious politic for who they really are, “the unwilling ones”. They have to much pride to be gathered and as the leaders of Israel, they cause others to stumble and delay their gathering. Jesus saw himself in that long historical line of prophets sent by God to opposed the religious politic, only to have their message snuffed out.
So they say, “where is the universalism in these verses? Is not the answer obvious? Jesus does not say, you, the religious politic who have so displeased God, the religious politic who have been judged and whose “house has been left desolate”, you will not see me again. No, Jesus gave them a promise, "you will see me again" so that you have another opportunity to say, “Blessed is he (Jesus) who comes in the name of the Lord”. The stumbling block crowd who oppose the gathering of God will be given another opportunity beyond death to praise the God of the galaxies and His sent One. Amen!
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Luke 13: 34 & 35.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
The immediate reaction of the religion politic is to say that the word universalism is not in the Bible. The second reaction is to say that anyone who claims that universalism is in the Bible must be ignorant. If the religion politic were correct, the issue would have dissolved centuries ago but it just keeps hanging around. It would seem that both sides should open their ears and really listen. The religion politic, however, would rather use the Bible to proof text their particular theology. The theological box created levies disrespect upon the Bible.
The most familiar verse in the Bible, John 3: 16, is a case in point, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”(NIV). Belief is not a new spiritual agenda but what is new is that Jesus is now the focus of said belief in God. The Greek word translated perish is preferred by the religious politic for it’s finalistic flavor. The same Greek word should be translated, according to Young’s Concordance, “to loose, loose away or destroy”. In Matthew 5 the disciples use this Greek word to describe their seemingly near death from the ravages of the storm but in chapter nine the same Greek word is used by Jesus to warn against the loss or loosing of all the wine if one puts new wine into old wine skin bags.
The Bible reader and amateur theologian, as we all are, have great latitude in translating this verse. For example, “ For God so loved (gathered) this world (all mankind) that He sent his only begotten Son (Shepherd), that whoever believes in Him will not perish (be scattered or loosed) but will have everlasting life (will find a safe shelter forever).” Again, the history of the religious politic prefers the finalistic flavor and drama of the death scenario. In John chapter 10, Jesus defines himself and his mission as that of the Good Shepherd who gathers his sheep at all costs, his sheep recognize his voice and they follow the Good Shepherd anywhere. We amateurs’ have a choice as to the best translation of this verse.
Look at Matthew chapter 15, verse 24, Jesus again summarizes his mission, “I was only sent to the lost (or scattered) sheep of Israel or (the Jewish religion).” The Jesus moment was all about changing the course of the faith of Israel, that was the first focus of his gathering. The Canaanite woman, however, begged like a dog for protection from the demon possession that had invaded her daughter. Because of her persistence and faith, Jesus relents and gathers this woman and frees her daughter. The religious politic of that time considered their historical enemies, the Canaanites, unworthy of God’s care. They were again wrong for to loose any of mankind is not in the heart of God. The mission of Jesus, however, was first to target the scattered ones of the religious politic.
The religious politic did not end with the resurrection of Jesus. They were quickly reconstituted to form the Christian religious politic who had an influence upon the spiritual writings about Jesus and which of these writings were accepted as legit. Their decisions, more or less influenced by the Spirit of God, would gather the chosen writings together to form the Bible of today. We can not nor should we give equal weight of understanding to all of the Bible, the question must be asked, is this about religion or God? Just as Jesus was an adversary to the power of religion, we must filter all of scripture.
May I suggest the above verses in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, these are the words of Jesus. This passage is a capsule Bible in a few short verses that can and should filter all other scripture. It is as if he is speaking from the lofty perch of his God given Messianic authority. These few verses call out the religious politic for who they really are, “the unwilling ones”. They have to much pride to be gathered and as the leaders of Israel, they cause others to stumble and delay their gathering. Jesus saw himself in that long historical line of prophets sent by God to opposed the religious politic, only to have their message snuffed out.
So they say, “where is the universalism in these verses? Is not the answer obvious? Jesus does not say, you, the religious politic who have so displeased God, the religious politic who have been judged and whose “house has been left desolate”, you will not see me again. No, Jesus gave them a promise, "you will see me again" so that you have another opportunity to say, “Blessed is he (Jesus) who comes in the name of the Lord”. The stumbling block crowd who oppose the gathering of God will be given another opportunity beyond death to praise the God of the galaxies and His sent One. Amen!
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Sunday, March 30, 2014
The Capsule Theology
First Published January, 25, 2013
There is a God of the galaxies who is in control of all things.
1. This God gives free will to all of mankind.
(Mythological Tree of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden)
2. This God gives “temporary” spiritual hardening to some of mankind, individuals or peoples.
(the ancients, Cain, Pharaoh, Jews, N.T. predestination, secularism, etc.)
3. This God gives unqualified eternal grace, destiny and unification with God to “all” mankind.
(the past, present and future Kingdom of God)
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
There is a God of the galaxies who is in control of all things.
1. This God gives free will to all of mankind.
(Mythological Tree of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden)
2. This God gives “temporary” spiritual hardening to some of mankind, individuals or peoples.
(the ancients, Cain, Pharaoh, Jews, N.T. predestination, secularism, etc.)
3. This God gives unqualified eternal grace, destiny and unification with God to “all” mankind.
(the past, present and future Kingdom of God)
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Gates
There have been those moments in human history when the God of the galaxies has made contact with our earthly situation. Each was akin to dropping a bomb of divine understanding into the pig pen. It is as if God, in Star Trekking fashion, opens the gate of divine illumination and then steps back to observe the human response. God being the God who knows in advance what our response will be, allows time for us to interpret and adjust but patiently has the another bomb awaiting the next precise efficacious moment. The point being that God is a our leader not our dictator.
Some of us would prefer a dictator God but let us begin at the beginning. The God of the galaxies has gathered the sticks, twigs and grasses of his universe to construct a nest to incubate his human creation. We share common attributes with all other life but we possess one attribute that is most unique. The web site live science .com claims ten unique attributes for the human family. No one can argue with the uniqueness of these attributes but they are earth bound, small ball and pale in comparison to the one truly unique human attribute that is not mentioned. This is it...we have been endowed by our creator leader God with the capabilities and inevitability to be joined with the divine reality.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
Some of us would prefer a dictator God but let us begin at the beginning. The God of the galaxies has gathered the sticks, twigs and grasses of his universe to construct a nest to incubate his human creation. We share common attributes with all other life but we possess one attribute that is most unique. The web site live science .com claims ten unique attributes for the human family. No one can argue with the uniqueness of these attributes but they are earth bound, small ball and pale in comparison to the one truly unique human attribute that is not mentioned. This is it...we have been endowed by our creator leader God with the capabilities and inevitability to be joined with the divine reality.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Gathering
God is about gathering. Any definition of God that fits our circumstances in this world, past, present and future, has this bottom line, He gathers. Everything else that can be said about the God of the galaxies is secondary and derivative. The word gather and it’s cousins appear 353 times in the Old Testament and 69 times in the New Testament, so we are not in uncharted biblical territory. Granted a large percentage of these references are not directly God related but to discard them quickly is to reject their obvious foundational character in all things.
God has used his gathering process to form our world, our galaxy and the millions of similar galaxies that make up the endless expanse of space and time. Can we comprehend it all? Our small minds are trying to humanize the things of God by insisting on a short time frame for the age of the universe while the scientific time frame of an unknown billions of years is a credit and compliment to the God of the galaxies. Did it all begin with a big bang or some other grand spectacle, is God a magician or an all powerful gathering creative force? No matter, the how is not as important as the action of our God who by gathering put it all together and no amount of science can or will discredit this open cosmic gathering definition.
It works or explains the macrocosm and the microcosm of all things. God has gathered together all life forms on this earth. It may have taken six, seven or eight billion years but the gathering God is in control and has proven Himself by the wonders of His creation. Our world has been precisely placed by His gathering process into this Milky Way galaxy, into this solar system and at a precise orbit around our sun that makes life possible. Are there other planets so wondrously placed in other solar systems of the other billions of galaxies? Sure there are, but does that make God any less interested in our earth, after all, is He not God? Is not our reality His reality?
We must choose, is all this wonder an accidental freak of some naturalistic pointless process? A believer answers that before all else there was God. The possibility of change plus time equals a gathering which finally resulted in humanity, a humanity that carries the very image of that God. A reflection of God is in our DNA and our journey toward civilization has always been as hunter gatherers. About 12,000 years ago our ancestors expanded their reality to include the beginnings of socialization as we gathered as like people, domesticated animals and provided for this gathering of peoples with an agrarian economy. And here we are today, not far removed from the gathering of our ancestors.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
God has used his gathering process to form our world, our galaxy and the millions of similar galaxies that make up the endless expanse of space and time. Can we comprehend it all? Our small minds are trying to humanize the things of God by insisting on a short time frame for the age of the universe while the scientific time frame of an unknown billions of years is a credit and compliment to the God of the galaxies. Did it all begin with a big bang or some other grand spectacle, is God a magician or an all powerful gathering creative force? No matter, the how is not as important as the action of our God who by gathering put it all together and no amount of science can or will discredit this open cosmic gathering definition.
It works or explains the macrocosm and the microcosm of all things. God has gathered together all life forms on this earth. It may have taken six, seven or eight billion years but the gathering God is in control and has proven Himself by the wonders of His creation. Our world has been precisely placed by His gathering process into this Milky Way galaxy, into this solar system and at a precise orbit around our sun that makes life possible. Are there other planets so wondrously placed in other solar systems of the other billions of galaxies? Sure there are, but does that make God any less interested in our earth, after all, is He not God? Is not our reality His reality?
We must choose, is all this wonder an accidental freak of some naturalistic pointless process? A believer answers that before all else there was God. The possibility of change plus time equals a gathering which finally resulted in humanity, a humanity that carries the very image of that God. A reflection of God is in our DNA and our journey toward civilization has always been as hunter gatherers. About 12,000 years ago our ancestors expanded their reality to include the beginnings of socialization as we gathered as like people, domesticated animals and provided for this gathering of peoples with an agrarian economy. And here we are today, not far removed from the gathering of our ancestors.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
A Simple Biblical theology
God is in Christ granting grace to gather everyone throughout all times around God.
G.Goslaw
Landers, ca.
G.Goslaw
Landers, ca.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
The Gathering God of the Galaxies
Matthew 23: 37 (The Father God speaking from a shared heart with Jesus … repeated in Luke 13: 34)
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
The above words were spoken by Jesus and recorded by both Matthew and Luke. The verses are identical, unique and extremely under appreciated. The reader easily gets caught up in the next few verses that prophesy the destruction of the temple and the pillage of Jerusalem where over a million of its citizens were killed in 70 AD. Such fulfillment of prophesy is engaging but let us focus on verse 37, as it gives to us the clearest, short summary description of the God of the galaxies.
Jesus has started his journey to Jerusalem and in a few days he would arrive in the power center of the religious leadership of historical Israel. For all of his preaching time, Jesus has badmouthed the religion of his birth because that religion had left most of the people behind without hope. The miracles of healing, the natural miracles, the parables, the teaching and preaching were all directed to restore hope in a God that cared for all the people. This God is blind to ethnic origins, nationality, education, disease, economic success in life or social acceptability. Jesus described that hope as the kingdom of God.
The justified disrespect of Jesus toward these religionists of Israel would be thrown right back at him. How can the center of religion in Jerusalem respect an itinerant and uneducated carpenter’s son with questionable birth circumstances? He has no official connection to our religious leadership and is said to perform miracles without permission. Most of all, Jesus is a troublemaker! The conflict would conclude in Jerusalem where Jesus will be crucified Roman style, the event being manufactured by the schemes of these same religious authorities.
Knowing the severity of the conflict that lay ahead of him, “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”(Luke 9:51) He knew that these folk would kill anyone who challenged their authority. Their hearts and intentions were exposed by their own history, “you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you”. For 1500 years the religionists fought and killed the voices of change that God had sent into their midst. The Old Testament Scriptures, themselves, reflect the double mindedness of the religious lords of Israel. The task of the reader should be to separate the good stuff from the earthly manipulations of men. One need not throw out the less valuable scriptures, only consider the source.
God gathers while humankind scatters. Religion scatters or fragments or divides peoples and relationships while God gathers peoples and relationships together. Jesus saw himself as the shepherd of the sheep, his task on earth was to gather together the children of the Father. Is there anyone in the sea of humanity that can not qualify on that score? Verse 37 notes, “how often I have longed to gather”, that longing for unity is God. What follows is that beautiful word picture, “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings”, there, under the wings of God is safety and a destiny to be realized. Do we not long for the gathering God as preached to us by Jesus?
We must confess that too many of our days are wasted running from God. As Jesus said, you will not because “you are not willing”. We must choose to stop running and allow the gathering. There are a few moments in every life when the clutter recedes enough to allow a change of direction. All things above are expanding, all matter, all universes are constantly running away from each other. Then there are the recently discovered black holes, capturing and compacting all things in their wake. Is this not a picture of our spiritual journey, the reprocessing of the galaxies, God capturing the lost sheep?
The verse ends on a sad but true note, the heart and will of mankind has been turned to go it’s own way. We all are our own worst enemies, we all avoid the truth that we were made to be gathered. If God is God, and if the very center of that reality is a longing to gather his children, ultimately, in this world or the next, we all shall be gathered to the Father.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
The above words were spoken by Jesus and recorded by both Matthew and Luke. The verses are identical, unique and extremely under appreciated. The reader easily gets caught up in the next few verses that prophesy the destruction of the temple and the pillage of Jerusalem where over a million of its citizens were killed in 70 AD. Such fulfillment of prophesy is engaging but let us focus on verse 37, as it gives to us the clearest, short summary description of the God of the galaxies.
Jesus has started his journey to Jerusalem and in a few days he would arrive in the power center of the religious leadership of historical Israel. For all of his preaching time, Jesus has badmouthed the religion of his birth because that religion had left most of the people behind without hope. The miracles of healing, the natural miracles, the parables, the teaching and preaching were all directed to restore hope in a God that cared for all the people. This God is blind to ethnic origins, nationality, education, disease, economic success in life or social acceptability. Jesus described that hope as the kingdom of God.
The justified disrespect of Jesus toward these religionists of Israel would be thrown right back at him. How can the center of religion in Jerusalem respect an itinerant and uneducated carpenter’s son with questionable birth circumstances? He has no official connection to our religious leadership and is said to perform miracles without permission. Most of all, Jesus is a troublemaker! The conflict would conclude in Jerusalem where Jesus will be crucified Roman style, the event being manufactured by the schemes of these same religious authorities.
Knowing the severity of the conflict that lay ahead of him, “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”(Luke 9:51) He knew that these folk would kill anyone who challenged their authority. Their hearts and intentions were exposed by their own history, “you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you”. For 1500 years the religionists fought and killed the voices of change that God had sent into their midst. The Old Testament Scriptures, themselves, reflect the double mindedness of the religious lords of Israel. The task of the reader should be to separate the good stuff from the earthly manipulations of men. One need not throw out the less valuable scriptures, only consider the source.
God gathers while humankind scatters. Religion scatters or fragments or divides peoples and relationships while God gathers peoples and relationships together. Jesus saw himself as the shepherd of the sheep, his task on earth was to gather together the children of the Father. Is there anyone in the sea of humanity that can not qualify on that score? Verse 37 notes, “how often I have longed to gather”, that longing for unity is God. What follows is that beautiful word picture, “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings”, there, under the wings of God is safety and a destiny to be realized. Do we not long for the gathering God as preached to us by Jesus?
We must confess that too many of our days are wasted running from God. As Jesus said, you will not because “you are not willing”. We must choose to stop running and allow the gathering. There are a few moments in every life when the clutter recedes enough to allow a change of direction. All things above are expanding, all matter, all universes are constantly running away from each other. Then there are the recently discovered black holes, capturing and compacting all things in their wake. Is this not a picture of our spiritual journey, the reprocessing of the galaxies, God capturing the lost sheep?
The verse ends on a sad but true note, the heart and will of mankind has been turned to go it’s own way. We all are our own worst enemies, we all avoid the truth that we were made to be gathered. If God is God, and if the very center of that reality is a longing to gather his children, ultimately, in this world or the next, we all shall be gathered to the Father.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Monday, November 25, 2013
Fly on the Wall
In 2009 Miley Cyrus recorded a narcissistic diddle, “Fly on the Wall”. She would like us to think that the listening public under eighteen is desperate to know her more intimately. No comment, however, we shall make better use of the expression. Where or when in the Bible would you like to have been “a fly on the wall”? We could observe and listen for the subtlety of scripture. Would you like to have been present when Jesus fed the five thousand or to be in that small, storm tossed boat with Jesus and the disciples on the Sea of Galilee? Would you like to have witnessed the resurrection of Jesus or be among the snarling crowd as he is judged by Pilate, the Roman governor?
Every one of us would like to have been present at these exciting moments of biblical history. What a book that would make! One event in the life of Jesus is most intriguing but easily glossed over as we first look for the action scenes. When Jesus was 12, he was misplaced for three days on a trip to Jerusalem at festival time. Thinking he was with friends and relatives for the trip home, Mary and Joseph walked a full day from the city before they missed him. Upon returning they searched a full day before finding him in the synagogue, the center of worship for the Jewish religion. There in the midst of the worshipers was their son sharing and questioning the priests and teachers about the Jewish spiritual way.
St. Luke shared the buzz in Chapter 2, verse 47, “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers”. This twelve year old entering manhood in the Jewish way could more than hold his own in a religious discussion with all the gray haired priests and teachers. If you or I were a fly on the wall of that synagogue, that day, two thousand years ago, what would we have heard? Would we hear a recital of the two thousand year history of Israel? Would we hear a theology to support the many rituals of the faith? How would the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob factor into the daily lives of the people? This scripture is silent about the words of Jesus, we can only guess.
Is a wild guess our only alternative? Might not the rest of scripture beyond the silence of the immediate context give us clues as to the mind and heart of Jesus in the synagogue? In verse 52 St. Luke tells us, “And as Jesus grew up, he increased in wisdom and in favor with God and the people”. Luke does not tell us that the thinking of Jesus changed, only that it increased from where it was at age twelve. This conclusion may be more than what is warranted by the text but it seems to fit. In the rest of the New Testament, Jesus is the peoples prophet for the religion of Israel had long placed the blessings of God beyond the reach of most of the people.
This exclusivity of the grace of God is what Jesus reacted against at 12, it was the foundation of his ministry and ultimately would bring his death on the cross at the age of 33. This point is not up for debate, no other conclusion can be reached by a sane thinking person. Unless of course, you are a religionist. Every time and age is filled with these folk. Whether it is a religion about something or a religion about nothing, we humans do love and treasure our religions.
The Pharisees said one has to live well enough to deserve the love of God. The Sadducees said that money and social status makes one worthy of the love of God. Almost everyone said that you must be in the line of David, a practicing Jew to be worthy of the love of God. They all were ready to quote scripture to justify their opinions and Jesus was ready to quote scripture right back at them. Every parable that Jesus told was about the open access policy, the open door to God that is and was extended to all the people. The Messiah was not about politics or income redistribution, he was about equal opportunity access to the God of the galaxies. Religion had to stop that message!
One might ask, did Jesus successfully derail the exclusivity of the religionists? No way, they keep reappearing in one form or another through the centuries,just as the Spirit of the risen Jesus is on the earth broadcasting an open invitation to all peoples to immediately experience the love of God. All of humanity should be thankful for this opportunity to experience God on this Thanksgiving day and every day of the year. The scriptures for this day are in Romans and Mathew‘s gospel.
Paul encourages his folk in Rome to accept all, to include Gentile and Jew as brothers in the faith. St. Mathew records the ministry of John the Baptist, who preached the best of the old way but pointed to a coming One who would bring spiritual fire to the earth. The religionists twist the fire reference to mean that a special purification makes one worthy of the love of God. Why can’t we believe the obvious? Fire burns wherever there is fuel and oxygen, fire does not discriminate and that was and is the love of God.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
Every one of us would like to have been present at these exciting moments of biblical history. What a book that would make! One event in the life of Jesus is most intriguing but easily glossed over as we first look for the action scenes. When Jesus was 12, he was misplaced for three days on a trip to Jerusalem at festival time. Thinking he was with friends and relatives for the trip home, Mary and Joseph walked a full day from the city before they missed him. Upon returning they searched a full day before finding him in the synagogue, the center of worship for the Jewish religion. There in the midst of the worshipers was their son sharing and questioning the priests and teachers about the Jewish spiritual way.
St. Luke shared the buzz in Chapter 2, verse 47, “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers”. This twelve year old entering manhood in the Jewish way could more than hold his own in a religious discussion with all the gray haired priests and teachers. If you or I were a fly on the wall of that synagogue, that day, two thousand years ago, what would we have heard? Would we hear a recital of the two thousand year history of Israel? Would we hear a theology to support the many rituals of the faith? How would the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob factor into the daily lives of the people? This scripture is silent about the words of Jesus, we can only guess.
Is a wild guess our only alternative? Might not the rest of scripture beyond the silence of the immediate context give us clues as to the mind and heart of Jesus in the synagogue? In verse 52 St. Luke tells us, “And as Jesus grew up, he increased in wisdom and in favor with God and the people”. Luke does not tell us that the thinking of Jesus changed, only that it increased from where it was at age twelve. This conclusion may be more than what is warranted by the text but it seems to fit. In the rest of the New Testament, Jesus is the peoples prophet for the religion of Israel had long placed the blessings of God beyond the reach of most of the people.
This exclusivity of the grace of God is what Jesus reacted against at 12, it was the foundation of his ministry and ultimately would bring his death on the cross at the age of 33. This point is not up for debate, no other conclusion can be reached by a sane thinking person. Unless of course, you are a religionist. Every time and age is filled with these folk. Whether it is a religion about something or a religion about nothing, we humans do love and treasure our religions.
The Pharisees said one has to live well enough to deserve the love of God. The Sadducees said that money and social status makes one worthy of the love of God. Almost everyone said that you must be in the line of David, a practicing Jew to be worthy of the love of God. They all were ready to quote scripture to justify their opinions and Jesus was ready to quote scripture right back at them. Every parable that Jesus told was about the open access policy, the open door to God that is and was extended to all the people. The Messiah was not about politics or income redistribution, he was about equal opportunity access to the God of the galaxies. Religion had to stop that message!
One might ask, did Jesus successfully derail the exclusivity of the religionists? No way, they keep reappearing in one form or another through the centuries,just as the Spirit of the risen Jesus is on the earth broadcasting an open invitation to all peoples to immediately experience the love of God. All of humanity should be thankful for this opportunity to experience God on this Thanksgiving day and every day of the year. The scriptures for this day are in Romans and Mathew‘s gospel.
Paul encourages his folk in Rome to accept all, to include Gentile and Jew as brothers in the faith. St. Mathew records the ministry of John the Baptist, who preached the best of the old way but pointed to a coming One who would bring spiritual fire to the earth. The religionists twist the fire reference to mean that a special purification makes one worthy of the love of God. Why can’t we believe the obvious? Fire burns wherever there is fuel and oxygen, fire does not discriminate and that was and is the love of God.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
God think
Sunday, November 10, 2013
The God of the galaxies knows every hair on the head of every human that has ever lived. Now that is God think! It is one definition of God that is consistent with any description of an all powerful, all knowing supreme being. Modern believers would rather have a buddy to smooth out the storms of life and this humanization of God has unintended consequences. The other extreme is to assume that God is a remote uncaring celestial ghost who set all things in motion and we must look out for ourselves.
In both cases we tend to lose our focus on how supreme is our God. Can we face death with a buddy God placebo? Everyone who will ever live, will die. Are we so arrogant that our own death can somehow matter in the scheme of things? Is anything left after the ashes blow in the wind? The very best of us, those of us who have lived the most impactful lives, will be a footnote in an ancient library volume, a mere blip on the radar screen of life a 1000 years hence.
The Sadducees in the time of Jesus believed that being a functioning part of their religion, would give them intrinsic worth and their existence would count for something beyond the moment. For this reason these folk did not believe in an eternal personal destiny beyond this life. In addition, they considered the competing God think of the Pharisees more than a bit embarrassing, maintaining that the personal resurrection of the righteous is foolishness. This is the Jewish religious world of the times that brought the Sadducees to Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 20 verses 27-40.
Taking sides on opposing views is the standard operating procedure whether it is politics or religion. Were the Sadducees asking for spiritual enlightenment or were they seeking an ally to stand against the supposed fantasies of the Pharisees? Were they seeking to embarrass or disparage Jesus? It is difficult to assign a positive motive to their inquiry because of the outlandish nature of their question. The question involved seven brothers and the custom of the next surviving brother taking to wife, the wife of the previously deceased. Then comes the zinger in verse 33, “Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
The Sadducees could have just asked a straightforward question, teacher, what if anything is beyond death? Instead, Jesus had to navigate the misconceptions and biases of his time. Our modern understanding of the age to come is as conflicted as those folk listening to Jesus. Similar to the Pharisee, Christianity preaches a personal resurrection of the righteous with an earthly familiarity that is as stupid as the question about marriage. We want or expect “a face book heaven” with family and friends gathered around. Jesus says no, that is not the age to come.
The second misunderstanding is that there are those who say that only our positive, religiously centered actions can live beyond our death. As our lives are remembered as religiously acceptable, our lives will live on because they are respected by men and forever by God. The reference Jesus made to Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob clearly is compatible with this understanding of a religious eternity that the Sadducees advanced. Most of our present day God think is along this line, if we are religiously connected, then we will be eternally connected to the age to come. Really?
Jesus expended much of his ministry, his teaching and preaching confronting religion and made no such connection, anywhere at anytime. Both the Sadducees and the Pharisees were definitely not friends of the age to come that Jesus was teaching about to the people. Let’s move past the misconceptions, what did Jesus say positively about the age to come? In the age to come humanity will participate in the very nature of God. Life will no longer die for those of the resurrection will be counted as the children of God. We would like Jesus to give more detail of the age to come but he is silent.
One detail remains, in verse 35, Jesus says that the age to come is designed for the worthy. Why did he do that, it muddies the water! What did he mean, worthy? How does the God of the galaxies compute worthiness? Jesus consistently ridiculed religion and racial biases which are not worthy of the age to come. Who then is worthy? Some would say it is based upon a faith in Jesus that is above or beyond religion, they build a doctrine of heaven and hell as if that is who God is. Jesus does not go there, how does he describe God? Verse 38 summarizes, “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Where their is life there is a future with God, the giver of life.
You are free to choose your own kind of God think.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
The God of the galaxies knows every hair on the head of every human that has ever lived. Now that is God think! It is one definition of God that is consistent with any description of an all powerful, all knowing supreme being. Modern believers would rather have a buddy to smooth out the storms of life and this humanization of God has unintended consequences. The other extreme is to assume that God is a remote uncaring celestial ghost who set all things in motion and we must look out for ourselves.
In both cases we tend to lose our focus on how supreme is our God. Can we face death with a buddy God placebo? Everyone who will ever live, will die. Are we so arrogant that our own death can somehow matter in the scheme of things? Is anything left after the ashes blow in the wind? The very best of us, those of us who have lived the most impactful lives, will be a footnote in an ancient library volume, a mere blip on the radar screen of life a 1000 years hence.
The Sadducees in the time of Jesus believed that being a functioning part of their religion, would give them intrinsic worth and their existence would count for something beyond the moment. For this reason these folk did not believe in an eternal personal destiny beyond this life. In addition, they considered the competing God think of the Pharisees more than a bit embarrassing, maintaining that the personal resurrection of the righteous is foolishness. This is the Jewish religious world of the times that brought the Sadducees to Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 20 verses 27-40.
Taking sides on opposing views is the standard operating procedure whether it is politics or religion. Were the Sadducees asking for spiritual enlightenment or were they seeking an ally to stand against the supposed fantasies of the Pharisees? Were they seeking to embarrass or disparage Jesus? It is difficult to assign a positive motive to their inquiry because of the outlandish nature of their question. The question involved seven brothers and the custom of the next surviving brother taking to wife, the wife of the previously deceased. Then comes the zinger in verse 33, “Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
The Sadducees could have just asked a straightforward question, teacher, what if anything is beyond death? Instead, Jesus had to navigate the misconceptions and biases of his time. Our modern understanding of the age to come is as conflicted as those folk listening to Jesus. Similar to the Pharisee, Christianity preaches a personal resurrection of the righteous with an earthly familiarity that is as stupid as the question about marriage. We want or expect “a face book heaven” with family and friends gathered around. Jesus says no, that is not the age to come.
The second misunderstanding is that there are those who say that only our positive, religiously centered actions can live beyond our death. As our lives are remembered as religiously acceptable, our lives will live on because they are respected by men and forever by God. The reference Jesus made to Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob clearly is compatible with this understanding of a religious eternity that the Sadducees advanced. Most of our present day God think is along this line, if we are religiously connected, then we will be eternally connected to the age to come. Really?
Jesus expended much of his ministry, his teaching and preaching confronting religion and made no such connection, anywhere at anytime. Both the Sadducees and the Pharisees were definitely not friends of the age to come that Jesus was teaching about to the people. Let’s move past the misconceptions, what did Jesus say positively about the age to come? In the age to come humanity will participate in the very nature of God. Life will no longer die for those of the resurrection will be counted as the children of God. We would like Jesus to give more detail of the age to come but he is silent.
One detail remains, in verse 35, Jesus says that the age to come is designed for the worthy. Why did he do that, it muddies the water! What did he mean, worthy? How does the God of the galaxies compute worthiness? Jesus consistently ridiculed religion and racial biases which are not worthy of the age to come. Who then is worthy? Some would say it is based upon a faith in Jesus that is above or beyond religion, they build a doctrine of heaven and hell as if that is who God is. Jesus does not go there, how does he describe God? Verse 38 summarizes, “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Where their is life there is a future with God, the giver of life.
You are free to choose your own kind of God think.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Good Morning
Friday, November 1, 2013
The Apostle Paul is a literary gymnast. The road traveled to make a theological point is not a line from A to B as we would express it but a winding road that seems to meander. We are tempted to be turned off by the seeming confusion but if we persist the meandering adds depth and perspective to his central point. This Sunday’s scripture is from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1 : 1- 23. Let us begin our Pauline tour at verse 8.
The little phrase that is the key to this passage is “ the mystery of his will”. What is the will of God for his creation? The exclusionists' would like you to believe that the promised inheritance or cosmic plan is only for the redeemed in Christ. The "us" of whom Paul speaks (3-7) , according to these folk, can only means those persons who profess faith in the Christ. Unless you are one of us you are not in God's will for the future. Did Paul put the Christ in such a small box?
Paul was writing to the faithful in Ephesus so that the "us" were those who had experienced the truth and wonder of personal salvation. They were the believers to whom he was writing, "who were the first to put their hope in Christ”, those who “heard the word of truth” and “the gospel of your salvation” (13). Paul goes on, “ When you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance”(13,14). The new believer is adopted into the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and is an heir to an eternal future(14). This is a wondrous reality that can happen in this life as it did for Paul on the Damascus road. This news, the broadcasting abroad of this news was Paul’s reason for living, but Paul knew this to be only a part of the divine plan.
The whole plan of salvation was and is much more expansive and is a cosmic mirrored image of the love of the Christ himself. Please return to verses 8 and 9, "With all wisdom and pleasure, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ". It pleases God to share himself with his creation as it pleases a parent to share with their children. Our children will at times make lousy decisions but because we love or take pleasure in our kids, we will never quit on them. This is the heart of the God of the galaxies, the God to whom Paul knew. Would this God put eternal boundaries around his compassion for his creation?
Paul answers that question as we continue in verse 9, "to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment-- to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ". Paul knew that the mystery of God's plan is time sensitive,"when the times reach", and somehow was to include "all things", that it would bring unity where there was competition, with no boundaries, on earth and in heaven. The salvation to which God is working through the Christ is the biggest and widest possible expanse. This God of the galaxies could not give a heavenly pass to some and shut others out, all things means all things.
It would seem that the God of the few is no God at all. Somehow the God of the galaxies will work it all out and this passage is very appropriate for "All Saints Day".
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
The Apostle Paul is a literary gymnast. The road traveled to make a theological point is not a line from A to B as we would express it but a winding road that seems to meander. We are tempted to be turned off by the seeming confusion but if we persist the meandering adds depth and perspective to his central point. This Sunday’s scripture is from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1 : 1- 23. Let us begin our Pauline tour at verse 8.
The little phrase that is the key to this passage is “ the mystery of his will”. What is the will of God for his creation? The exclusionists' would like you to believe that the promised inheritance or cosmic plan is only for the redeemed in Christ. The "us" of whom Paul speaks (3-7) , according to these folk, can only means those persons who profess faith in the Christ. Unless you are one of us you are not in God's will for the future. Did Paul put the Christ in such a small box?
Paul was writing to the faithful in Ephesus so that the "us" were those who had experienced the truth and wonder of personal salvation. They were the believers to whom he was writing, "who were the first to put their hope in Christ”, those who “heard the word of truth” and “the gospel of your salvation” (13). Paul goes on, “ When you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance”(13,14). The new believer is adopted into the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and is an heir to an eternal future(14). This is a wondrous reality that can happen in this life as it did for Paul on the Damascus road. This news, the broadcasting abroad of this news was Paul’s reason for living, but Paul knew this to be only a part of the divine plan.
The whole plan of salvation was and is much more expansive and is a cosmic mirrored image of the love of the Christ himself. Please return to verses 8 and 9, "With all wisdom and pleasure, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ". It pleases God to share himself with his creation as it pleases a parent to share with their children. Our children will at times make lousy decisions but because we love or take pleasure in our kids, we will never quit on them. This is the heart of the God of the galaxies, the God to whom Paul knew. Would this God put eternal boundaries around his compassion for his creation?
Paul answers that question as we continue in verse 9, "to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment-- to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ". Paul knew that the mystery of God's plan is time sensitive,"when the times reach", and somehow was to include "all things", that it would bring unity where there was competition, with no boundaries, on earth and in heaven. The salvation to which God is working through the Christ is the biggest and widest possible expanse. This God of the galaxies could not give a heavenly pass to some and shut others out, all things means all things.
It would seem that the God of the few is no God at all. Somehow the God of the galaxies will work it all out and this passage is very appropriate for "All Saints Day".
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Good Morning
Sunday, October 27, 2013.
The Common Liturgy calls all of the world to consider for this Sunday, Luke 18: 9-14. In my Bible the paragraph is entitled, “The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector”.
There are those religionists' who recoil at the mere mention of the possibility of Christian Phariseeism. They recoil because it is so easy to live really close to the definition that Jesus found appalling. The Pharisee in the time of Jesus and today is one who holds himself to be separate, set aside as the best of what spirituality should look like. In verse 11 we are told that “The Pharisee stood by himself to pray”, it would seem that the shoe fits. The Pharisee took pride in doing little else than a meticulous worship of the Jewish religion, to include praying, fasting and tithing. All was accomplished from a desire to appear super spiritual, above and beyond the common crowd. Incredibly, this self centered lifestyle did not impress Jesus.
Instead, Jesus pointed to the tax collector. These folk were doing the dirty deeds of the Roman occupiers, they were despised and rejected by all of society who were largely Jewish. The tax collector worshiped in the back corner of the synagogue and Jesus notes in verse 13, this tax collector would not look heavenward but “beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner’.” Jesus declared that this heart felt utterance pleased God more than all the fancy public prayers of the Pharisee. Verse 14 ends with these words of Jesus,“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those that humble themselves will be exalted.” Some of us insist that these words from Jesus are about heaven and hell but that is incorrect, so say I!
The God of the galaxies is all about mercy, is not that what Jesus is saying? The Pharisee is about condemnation and hell, at least for the other guy! The truth is that we all need the mercy of God, we all are on a spiritual journey toward God whether we seek it or whether we claim our supposed independence. We all can be derailed or apathetic. Yet we all will eventually experience the mercy and love of God in this world or the next, while in this world we can make progress toward a heavenly certainty. Could it be that in heaven there will be those of us who are exalted and those of us who are humbled? It makes sense to this dummy, heaven will be an interesting place.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
The Common Liturgy calls all of the world to consider for this Sunday, Luke 18: 9-14. In my Bible the paragraph is entitled, “The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector”.
There are those religionists' who recoil at the mere mention of the possibility of Christian Phariseeism. They recoil because it is so easy to live really close to the definition that Jesus found appalling. The Pharisee in the time of Jesus and today is one who holds himself to be separate, set aside as the best of what spirituality should look like. In verse 11 we are told that “The Pharisee stood by himself to pray”, it would seem that the shoe fits. The Pharisee took pride in doing little else than a meticulous worship of the Jewish religion, to include praying, fasting and tithing. All was accomplished from a desire to appear super spiritual, above and beyond the common crowd. Incredibly, this self centered lifestyle did not impress Jesus.
Instead, Jesus pointed to the tax collector. These folk were doing the dirty deeds of the Roman occupiers, they were despised and rejected by all of society who were largely Jewish. The tax collector worshiped in the back corner of the synagogue and Jesus notes in verse 13, this tax collector would not look heavenward but “beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner’.” Jesus declared that this heart felt utterance pleased God more than all the fancy public prayers of the Pharisee. Verse 14 ends with these words of Jesus,“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those that humble themselves will be exalted.” Some of us insist that these words from Jesus are about heaven and hell but that is incorrect, so say I!
The God of the galaxies is all about mercy, is not that what Jesus is saying? The Pharisee is about condemnation and hell, at least for the other guy! The truth is that we all need the mercy of God, we all are on a spiritual journey toward God whether we seek it or whether we claim our supposed independence. We all can be derailed or apathetic. Yet we all will eventually experience the mercy and love of God in this world or the next, while in this world we can make progress toward a heavenly certainty. Could it be that in heaven there will be those of us who are exalted and those of us who are humbled? It makes sense to this dummy, heaven will be an interesting place.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Monday, September 16, 2013
The Plan
Listening to radio preachers makes me angry. They will tell you that my anger is a result of offending the will of God in this world. This is probably the case but would you let me attempt to explain a large part of my anger? The radio preachers pervert the scriptures and they kidnap the message of Jesus so that it can to be used for religious purposes. These religious purposes include, enhancing their supposed spiritual authority, legitimizing their dogma and sending any voices of descent to a supposed fireball called hell. Shall we not mention the close proximity of money to their message?
This criticism, regrettably, is the norm in almost all Christian congregations, this kind of preaching and biblical exegesis is “how it’s done”! It is kind of like politics, there are extremes within the believers but even the best are polluted by these religious expectations. I am an old fogy, in my younger years I believed and sought confirmation in this life for those things that are espoused by radio preachers. Now it seems that my anger is giving way to sympathy and a pathos for their circumstance and the human limitations that religion puts upon the kingdom of God.
O.K., lets talk about the case in point. The radio preacher in question was expounding from the passage in St. John where Jesus teachers about the need to be “born again or born anew or born from above”. What do you know, he is sending this message to Nicodemus, a very religious Pharisee. Nicodemus was not the typical “sinner” within the context of Jerusalem, he had the respect of all because of his religious status. It would seem that this supposed respect and religiously ordered life means nothing to God or Jesus, it may be likened to a blind life ally. Jesus is contrasting the flesh, this earthly life against the life in the Spirit of God that has it’s own birth, they are different. Jesus is pitting religion against the Spirit!
The question we all have to answer is whether Jesus was teaching about freedom from religion or the proper combination of religion and the Spirit from above. What comes over the airways from those radio preachers is freedom from all religion except their true Christian religion. They claim that there is a divine, blessed recipe for the proper combination of Christian religious credibility and the blessings of the Spirit of God. They do not have the courage for a 100% break with religion for combining flesh and spirit is an unspoken assumption. Is this what Jesus was teaching?
The extreme disparity in methods to spread the news about the spirit of God on earth is the best clue to a scriptural answer this question. Did Jesus direct his disciples to point out the “sinners”? Did Jesus take up offerings to finance the mission? Did Jesus start a building program in every town he was to pass? Did Jesus erect monuments to every miracle to help the people? Did Jesus ensure that he and his disciples had adequate housing, a sure reservation in the next town? Did Jesus spit back in the face of rejection? Did Jesus use these and any other sensible and very human methods?
Nooooo! Jesus ordered his disciples, go and tell about the spirit of God on the earth and ask for nothing in return. Leave your families, leave your homes, leave your jobs, take no money, have no plan, just go and tell of the spirit of God on earth. Do we expect the spirit of God on earth to be influential enough to make this work, or don't we? Our insecure response, over the centuries, we sinners have thought to have devised a few prudent but seemingly necessary additives to this plan. The result has been two thousand years of just another religion.
What would this world be like if believers had been and are now telling it like it is? Just imagine all the wars and killing that would never have happened. Why then, are we so protective of our religions? You know why.
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA
This criticism, regrettably, is the norm in almost all Christian congregations, this kind of preaching and biblical exegesis is “how it’s done”! It is kind of like politics, there are extremes within the believers but even the best are polluted by these religious expectations. I am an old fogy, in my younger years I believed and sought confirmation in this life for those things that are espoused by radio preachers. Now it seems that my anger is giving way to sympathy and a pathos for their circumstance and the human limitations that religion puts upon the kingdom of God.
O.K., lets talk about the case in point. The radio preacher in question was expounding from the passage in St. John where Jesus teachers about the need to be “born again or born anew or born from above”. What do you know, he is sending this message to Nicodemus, a very religious Pharisee. Nicodemus was not the typical “sinner” within the context of Jerusalem, he had the respect of all because of his religious status. It would seem that this supposed respect and religiously ordered life means nothing to God or Jesus, it may be likened to a blind life ally. Jesus is contrasting the flesh, this earthly life against the life in the Spirit of God that has it’s own birth, they are different. Jesus is pitting religion against the Spirit!
The question we all have to answer is whether Jesus was teaching about freedom from religion or the proper combination of religion and the Spirit from above. What comes over the airways from those radio preachers is freedom from all religion except their true Christian religion. They claim that there is a divine, blessed recipe for the proper combination of Christian religious credibility and the blessings of the Spirit of God. They do not have the courage for a 100% break with religion for combining flesh and spirit is an unspoken assumption. Is this what Jesus was teaching?
The extreme disparity in methods to spread the news about the spirit of God on earth is the best clue to a scriptural answer this question. Did Jesus direct his disciples to point out the “sinners”? Did Jesus take up offerings to finance the mission? Did Jesus start a building program in every town he was to pass? Did Jesus erect monuments to every miracle to help the people? Did Jesus ensure that he and his disciples had adequate housing, a sure reservation in the next town? Did Jesus spit back in the face of rejection? Did Jesus use these and any other sensible and very human methods?
Nooooo! Jesus ordered his disciples, go and tell about the spirit of God on the earth and ask for nothing in return. Leave your families, leave your homes, leave your jobs, take no money, have no plan, just go and tell of the spirit of God on earth. Do we expect the spirit of God on earth to be influential enough to make this work, or don't we? Our insecure response, over the centuries, we sinners have thought to have devised a few prudent but seemingly necessary additives to this plan. The result has been two thousand years of just another religion.
What would this world be like if believers had been and are now telling it like it is? Just imagine all the wars and killing that would never have happened. Why then, are we so protective of our religions? You know why.
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA
Monday, September 9, 2013
Termits
The termites are coming out of the woodwork. Our president’s political campaign to punish Syria for the use of chemical weapons is exposing evil intentions around the world and the termites are also in southern California. Yesterday, Sunday, September 8, in Los Angeles, a few hundred vocal protesters carried signs and shouted support for the murderous, genocidal regime of Syria’s ruling ethnic minority. A minority that has ruled Syria by employing the brutal tactics of the Assad family for over 40 years.
When will humanity grow up? When will we humans consider and value all human life as the singular divine priority, greater than politics, racial identity and religious expressions? When will our pride in claiming human progress be worthy of our God?
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
When will humanity grow up? When will we humans consider and value all human life as the singular divine priority, greater than politics, racial identity and religious expressions? When will our pride in claiming human progress be worthy of our God?
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Friday, July 19, 2013
Mercy
Jesus told a story in the religious language of the times in order to make a non-religious point. Is that so nonsensical? Lazarus and the poor man arrive at the same time in the afterlife, one finds fellowship with the God of the galaxies while Lazarus is separated and isolated in great pain. The conversation between God and Lazarus reveals to us the heart of our God. Lazarus is chastened for living a life oblivious to the needs of others, i.e. the blind beggar. Again, the God of the galaxies is about mercy, the mercy each of us needs.
The story should not be used as a justification for a theology of hell, that somehow we choose and earn our eternal destiny by the decisions we make in this life. According to this theology God condemns the unworthy to the eternal fires of hell. Volumes of human discourse have been written about who is and who is not worthy. God becomes the great manipulator in the sky! This lame theology is preached in most all church’s to this day. The hell believers of 2000 years ago were the Pharisees, there was not a day in the ministry of Jesus that he could avoid the schemes of the self righteous Pharisees.
The disciples of Jesus, the nonreligious believers were encouraged to be God’s agents of mercy to the people.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
The story should not be used as a justification for a theology of hell, that somehow we choose and earn our eternal destiny by the decisions we make in this life. According to this theology God condemns the unworthy to the eternal fires of hell. Volumes of human discourse have been written about who is and who is not worthy. God becomes the great manipulator in the sky! This lame theology is preached in most all church’s to this day. The hell believers of 2000 years ago were the Pharisees, there was not a day in the ministry of Jesus that he could avoid the schemes of the self righteous Pharisees.
The disciples of Jesus, the nonreligious believers were encouraged to be God’s agents of mercy to the people.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Message
This is the message I would like to hear on Sunday, July 14, 2013. We all have heard a hundred sermons on the Good Samaritan through the years (Luke 10: 25-37). The relgionist’s want us to believe that being good, money, prayer, worship and a hundred of other do’s, will proved us to be acceptable to God. Will the very best character of religion win us any points with the God of the galaxies? Not according to Luke, God does not expect obedience, he knows us to well.
The God of the galaxies is about mercy, dispersing mercy and he or she would like us to do mercy toward one another. Who will be acceptable to God? No one, for we all stand and die needful of divine mercy! Let us, including all of life, rejoice in the promise of the soon coming merciful arms of the Almighty. Even those of us who find it difficult to embrace them in this life should be rejoicing.
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA
The God of the galaxies is about mercy, dispersing mercy and he or she would like us to do mercy toward one another. Who will be acceptable to God? No one, for we all stand and die needful of divine mercy! Let us, including all of life, rejoice in the promise of the soon coming merciful arms of the Almighty. Even those of us who find it difficult to embrace them in this life should be rejoicing.
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Death
A definition…..killing is a human act that separates life for selfish reasons. Death is not killing, natural death is but a normal and inevitable unselfish process that only apparently separates life. This death is a change agent. In the natural realm, of which we humans are a part, natural death enables the survival of the group and therefore, the totality of life. Killing interrupts this natural process by forcing a blind life change upon another or a group. The motivation is centered in the individual and a negative in the order of life. All killing inhibits life and is destructive to the order of humanity living in this moral universe. Natural death is a positive force.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
Thursday, May 2, 2013
The Way
Religion kills, all religions kill but the God of the galaxies gives life.
Godless liberal progressive secularism is as much a religion as any other religion that claims to have the ear of their God. These folk kill in the name of their humanistic philosophy instead of at the direction of God. One could ask, is either killing righteous?
Godless liberal progressive secularism is as much a religion as any other religion that claims to have the ear of their God. These folk kill in the name of their humanistic philosophy instead of at the direction of God. One could ask, is either killing righteous?
Jesus was and is the only life form to have totally lived the way to spiritual wholeness and full humanity. He lived 100% religionless. He gave his earthly life to the grave at the behest of religion and rose again to this world to show all of us the way.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Capsule Theology
There is a God of the galaxies who is in control of all things.
1. This God gives free will to all of mankind.
(Mythological Tree of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden)
2. This God gives “temporary” spiritual hardening to some of mankind, individuals or peoples.
(the ancients, Cain, Pharaoh, Jews, N.T. predestination, secularism, etc.)
3. This God gives unqualified eternal grace, destiny and unification with God to “all” mankind.
(the past, present and future Kingdom of God)
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
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