Just Breathe

Today's question is: Which of the two creation stories are you most drawn to? Why?

A few years ago, I started focusing on my breathing as a prayer practice. I began breathing more deeply and intentionally. While exhaling, I would pray prayers of confession. While inhaling, I would pray prayers of presence, inviting God to be close to me. If you keep breathing out the bad stuff and keep breathing in the God stuff, eventually, you'll be inhaling AND exhaling God out into the world. This became a very powerful prayer practice for me.

That's one reason why I connected so deeply with the second Creation story. In this story, God breathes into the human being fashioned from mud and gives them life. If we want to connect to the new life God offers, all we have to do is breathe.

Taking the Red Pill

Today's question is this: Borg concludes with three metaphors for seeing the bible (Finger Pointing the Moon, Lens, Sacrament). What metaphor would you use to describe the Bible? Complete the sentence: To me, the Bible is like...

To me, reading the Bible is like taking the red pill in "The Matrix". Now, if you haven't seen this movie, stick with me...and if you have, hear me out - the metaphor works, I promise.

In the movie "The Matrix", taking the red pill frees a person from the Matrix, a computer-generated world within which people, unknowingly, live their entire lives. If you take a red pill, you'll be awakened from the Matrix to the truth of reality. If you take the blue pill, you'll still be connected to the Matrix and remain blissfully ignorant in the midst of the grand illusion.

Reading the Bible, for me, is like taking the red pill: it enables us to see the world form God's point of view -- from the viewpoint of God's greater justice and mercy. We get to see the world from Jesus' point of view -- from the viewpoint of one who insisted upon loving our neighbors and our enemies. Most importantly, instead of seeing the world from the viewpoint of consumerism, which has become the overriding qualifier of what it means to be American in 21st century life, we see the world from the viewpoint of God's preferential love for the poor. If God cares for the poor, then we, as lovers of God, must figure out how we will care for the poor of the world. When we figure out that this is one of the biggest responsibilities of the faithful, the whole world changes.

So, which pill will you be swallowing?

With a Capital "W"

Today's question is: What does it mean for you to call the Bible “the Word of God?” What doesn’t it mean for you?

Flipping through an art history book long ago, I came across a painting of Saint so-and-so writing the Bible. In this depiction, an ethereal hand reaches down out of the heavens. It grasps the saint's hand and the quill pen therein. The painting was commissioned as a teaching tool - to let the common folk know that this book contained The Word of God as written by God himself.

This is not what I think of when I think of the Bible being The Word of God with a capital "W".

When I think of the Bible being the Word of God, I think of the millions of faithful people who, for millenia, have looked to the words of the Bible to reveal something about the "character and will of God" as Marcus Borg puts it. In those stories, letters and poems, there are profound glimpses of who God is, how God works, what we can expect from God, and what God expects of us.

The Holy in the Everyday

Today's question is: Where do you experience the presence of God in your life? Are there sacred spaces, objects, rituals, relationships, activities that are ‘mediators of the sacred’ - vehicles by which God becomes present to you?

What is sacred to me? Since writing is one of those sacred activities, I thought I would offer this poem about what is sacred to me....

Birthing, breathing, creating. Cooking, conversing,
love-making. Soul-tending, gardening,
greeting the day.
Smiling,
engaging,
embracing. Justice-making.
God-bearing.
Believing.