The first words of the first book of the Bible are, “In the beginning, God created…” God’s first act was to create. He created many wonders: heaven, earth, light, night, and all creatures that roam earth and sky ~ but that wasn’t enough creating ~ so God created humankind. And the first thing that God said after creating humankind was, “Be fruitful and multiply.” So God wanted those that he created to go and create! Ours is a creative God, and we are a very creative people.

But we need to be vigilant to stay in touch with our creative selves. I told one of my children that we were going to an art museum and he innocently asked, “Why should I go to an art museum when I can watch television?” I replied, “You need to go to an art museum to learn the difference between art and entertainment. Art feeds, elevates, inspires, transforms, and brings you closer to your own soul. Entertainment distracts, numbs, and drains you. Its like sugar that gives you a temporary feeling of fullness by making you think that you have ingested something substantial.”

You can see what happens to people who lose touch with their creativity. They are blank-faced people. Have you ever looked at someone’s face while they are watching television, bathed in blue light? Their stare is blank and expressionless. On the other hand, have you ever noticed the face of someone watching live theater, a concert or studying at a painting? Entertainment leads us to distraction, art leads us to God.

Creativity is not an option. We were created by our creator to be a creative. Some of us exclaim, “I’m not very creative.” I beg to differ. We are all creative. The way you arrange flowers; the way you cook; the way you nurture a long neglected talent or dream ~ all of these and more can be creative expressions of your inner self and your relationship to life and your creator.

Worship is art. Creative expressions in worship deliver us up to the place where the Holy Spirit can touch us at a very deep level, a place where worship becomes creative and spontaneous. Love is art. The giving and receiving of love is the ultimate expression of our creative selves. The music we make, the dances we dance, the gardens we tend, the paintings we paint (even during worship), the meals we cook for those we care about, the visits we make to those who are home-bound, the support we offer to the ministries in which we believe ~ the list of our creativity is endless. Each day of our life is an opportunity for spiritual growth through creative expression. As we create, we grow along spiritual lines an move ever-closer to the creator, whose most creative act of all was the creation of you.

Today is tax day and the IRS wants our money. Many of us would “give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s” (Luke 20:25) if we only had it to give. Maybe we can spin straw into gold like what happens in the tale of Rumplestiltskin. Do you remember? The king shuts a young woman in a tower with a pile of straw and demands she transform it into gold, which she does with the help of a creepy creature named Rumpelstilskin.

A similar thing happens with alchemy. Practitioners of the ancient art of alchemy believed it was possible to transform base metals like lead into gold. Maybe we could try that too. Call the IRS and tell them they will get paid as soon as you spin straw into gold.

Many early alchemy practitioners believed in the chemical transformation of lead into gold because they saw similar things happen in the human spirit. Martin Luther applauded alchemy for its consistency with Christian teachings. And in 1935, the psychiatrist, Carl Jung, first presented his work on psychological alchemy.

Spiritual Alchemy is when base elements ~ the “lead” within us ~ are transformed into “gold”.  Spiritual alchemy is proved when dead parts in us come back to life; when spiritual blindness is transformed into sight; addiction is transformed into recovery; abuse into respect; disease into wellness; ignorance into enlightenment; fear into faith; and despair into hope.

Spiritual alchemy is not rooted in magic creatures, fairy tales, chemistry, finance or doctrine. Spiritual alchemy is a transformation that is rooted in God. As you place your soul on the loom of Christ to be spun into gold by God, you may not become rich enough to pay your taxes, but you may be transformed into something more precious. Give to God what belongs to God, and let Caesar keep the change.

This has been published by PATHEOS at  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithforward/2016/04/tax-day-spirituality/

No posters, no speeches, no sermons. A United Church of Christ minister is hosting a service of silence and serenity on Thursday, April 14, on Long Island, just three blocks from an appearance by Donald Trump.

“We are creating what we believe is a sacred and safe space for all people,” said the Rev. Dwight Wolter, pastor of the Congregational Church of Patchogue, in New York, of the scheduled 15-minute service, for which he plans a little music, some candle lighting, a benediction, and a lot of silence. “Silence is an effective and powerful weapon for which you do not need a license to conceal or reveal.”

Wolter, who said he is wary of “the fundamentalism of the left and the right,” wants to create a “safe zone –– sacred ground open to all people” to ensure folks make “rational choices about the safety of the community,” during the candidate’s appearance.

He’s concerned about safety because in 2008, in his village of 12,000 people about an hour east of Manhattan, a man named Marcelo Lucero lost his life — a hate-crime murder of an undocumented Ecuadorian immigrant by high school students.

The pastor of the UCC church on Long Island had asked the Suffolk County Republican Committee to move the fundraiser, without success. He is hoping to gather a crowd in his 500-seat sanctuary, noting that he would like “to embolden them to be a presence of the church. People can leave the service and go wherever their conscience and hearts guide them.”

“My church and I truly struggle to welcome persons of all political, social and personal convictions and persuasions, even if we strongly disagree with them,” said Wolter. “I do so, to the best of my ability, with strength provided by a benevolent and sometimes judgmental God who, I believe, scoffs at the idea that something with political implications is therefore overtly political and to be avoided. I was taught in the UCC to encourage people to think, behave and vote as their conscience directs them. Therefore, I shall not fear those who seemingly cannot fathom a church that vows to meet us wherever we are at on our spiritual journey.”

We currently live in a world where countless books have been written and read by countless believers about “declared dead on the operating table” or similar experiences with predictable tales of a white light at the end of a tunnel and angels telling the newly dead, “It is not your time yet… Go back! Go back!” But there are far fewer books by women standing at an empty tomb saying, “He’s back! He’s back!”

We currently live in a world where people find it far easier to believe in a crucifixion than in a resurrection. Crucifixions, many say, are a daily reality whereas resurrections are the stuff of fairy tales. Ok. Fair point. Don’t want to argue.

But be careful what you choose to… and refuse to… believe. People believe in many strange things, often without even knowing it. But believing in the wrong messenger with the wrong message may cast you into despair and, perhaps, much worse.

Many people, for example, place their faith in doubt. They become complacent and comfortable in suspicion, cynicism and disbelief. Being dismissive of people, places and things can offer a sense of solace and strength. But doubt can also muster its own army of disbelief that can mutiny against you.

Many people, similarly, are faithful to fear. They experience fear at a primal level. It is, after all, human instinct to turn in the direction of an explosion. Blood falls to your legs to enable you to run much faster than usual (fight or flight). Adrenalin quickens your pulse and causes the veins in your neck to bulge, carrying blood to your hyper-awakened brain.

No wonder so many people believe in fear and allow it to be their leader. Many people actually become devout Disciples of Fear, perhaps even without knowing it. But fear can blind you to faith, and ultimately make you feel vulnerable and helpless.

Don’t believe me? Using fear as a weapon, look what ISIS has been able to accomplish without owning a single airplane or setting foot on American soil. Look at the role that fear is playing in the presidential primary on both sides. You don’t need specific examples from me about fear being used as a weapon. Just turn on the TV, radio, or internet. Yes, fear is real. But be careful: Fear is a merciless task master.

How does post-Easter, resurrection life help us with this morass of fear?

In accepting crucifixion, Jesus was saying ~ to the Romans then and to us now ~ you can crucify my body, but you cannot crucify my soul. You can invade and occupy my country, but you cannot invade and occupy my mind or my spirit because my spirit belongs to God and my God-given spirit cannot be created, negated or destroyed by the likes of you or anyone else.

Post- Easter faith for Christians does not mean that we can put on rose-colored glasses because nothing bad will happen to you if last Sunday you put on an Easter bonnet and listened to an impassioned and upbeat sermon. Evil, tragedy, injustice and stupidity remain a presence in the world despite our faith. I know this from personal experience and I bet you do too.

Fear and doubt come and go ~ but it is hope that springs eternal. What our senses and experience has declared to be dead, buried, defeated and impossible can rise and live again. Unfortunately, every resurrection is preceded by a crucifixion. Bummer. But there is always reason for hope because God is here to guide us and to help us cope with whatever difficulties we may go through. It is our hope and faith, not our fear and doubt that resurrects and sustains us, time and time again. Christ is a real and present help in times of trouble therefore we need not succumb to the manipulative power of fear, doubt and despair. Faith is perfectly built to help us cope with crazy times like these. Stop leaping into the lap of fear and you will witness to despair being transformed into hope. Guess what? Love is stronger than hate. And faith is stronger than fear.

I have seen many lives, many relationships, communities and countries crawl out of countless caves of doubt, despair, hate and fear. And they have been restored, renewed, transformed, resurrected, and given another chance to dream, to build, to share, to hope, to love and to grow into that which God intends. Imagine that!

THE PRODIGAL SON OR DAUGHTER is treated like a hero simply because he stopped doing what he or she should never have been doing in the first place. The sibling who wasn’t a screw-up needs to be able to tell their tale of woe about how the slackers seem to get all the breaks, while hard-working stiffs get all the work and taxes. Everyone and their story deserves a seat at the table.

I love watching Donald Trump bring scores of people “into” the Republican tent as the Republican Party flies into a full-fledged panic and attempts to preclude him from doing so. I also love watching the pile-on of Trump enemies and detractors who heap scorn, hatred, contempt, fear and, of course, countless photos of his hair in disarray (photo-shopped or otherwise) on him.

But I hope we do not fail to learn from him as well.

Trump is bringing many people, like it or not, into the political arena and is bolstering political interest and involvement beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. He is not only responsible for people getting involved in the Republican party; he is also getting Democrats and Independents to cross-over their vote (when possible) in an effort to either stop him or nominate him so that he can ultimately be defeated by his opponent in the presidential election. I love it that Trump has also been responsible for Cruz, Rubio, Romney and (don’t forget) Christie to channel their own, inner Rageaholic and project all illness and evil upon “the enemy” while they neglect to mention their own “outsourcing” of love to distant lands because we can’t afford to manufacture it domestically.

Meanwhile, there is a lot to learn from the much-maligned Mr. Trump ~ and I love having the opportunity to learn it by being a non-anxious witness to the phenomena he has created or triggered (your choice).

We don’t always get to choose our teachers. Two of my teachers have been Donald Trump and my father. I thank my violent, alcoholic, racist, career military officer father, who I deeply loved, for so many valuable lessons he inadvertently bestowed upon me. Unfortunately, I learned very little about how to BE from him; but I learned a great deal from him about how NOT to be. Yeah, to be or not to be: That was the question. My father rubbed my nose in cruelty and injustice and it was from that wicked womb that my dedication to compassion and justice was born.

Similarly, I watch with great interest how all birds eventually come home to roost. I see, for example, moving from a family to a political arena ~ how those who gerrymander a congressional district can strive to make it so airtight that only their family gets to vote for them in an election (slight exaggeration). And then they feel smug and safe. But it now seems that they still aren’t so smug and safe because an entire country is disgusted with the tyranny of self-interest being inaugurated into public office by cynical, so-called servants of the people. I love watching how things like this turn out. Please pass the popcorn.

And so I say to Donald Trump: Love Ya, Man! Really do! Thumbs up! Keep on keepin’on! Etc. I love you for being a great teacher of mine, although, most likely, not in the ways you intended. Thanks to you, if we so choose ~ our eyes will be opened; our hands will be made steady; our purpose will be solidified; our hearts will be fortified; our compassion will be justified; our pain will be sufficient; our love will be strengthened; and our lessons will be well-learned. And then even more will be revealed.

This piece was originally published in PATHEOS

Kevin, our custodian, was expected to be at our Ash Wednesday evening church service. An hour before it was to start, I learned of his death and did not mention it to those in attendance because it had not yet been confirmed and I did not want to spread unfounded, sordid rumors. Kevin’s death lay heavy upon me, especially as we read the words, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Three days later, I attended the funeral service at his childhood church and stood before an urn of ashes, his only earthly remain.

His death occurred in the season of Lent that comes between Ash Wednesday and Easter; a time when we are summoned to soul-searching, truth-telling, and making an assessment of our personal role in the situations in which we find ourselves; a time to get honest about ourselves and the way we act in relation to others.

In his homily, the priest said that Kevin was a sweet, loving man who was also “radically self-destructive.” The priest gave voice to what everyone probably already knew, but were too polite or afraid to mention. He said that both parts of Kevin were equally true: he was incredibly sweet and incredibly self-destructive. The priest made no attempt to act like the “unsavory” part of Kevin didn’t exist when, in fact, it was that unsavory part that killed him.

Kevin died of an overdose.

Kevin’s mother spoke lovingly of her son in a short, sweet, and painful eulogy. She spoke about the day of his birth and what a wonderful child he was. And she also openly admitted that he had struggled with addiction for 25 of his 39 year life. She spoke of how so many people had tried so hard to help him but that no one could save him. And she spoke of how she hoped that he had found the peace in death that he never found in life.

As we filed out of the church, I paused to speak with the priest. I thanked him for the honesty in his homily. He said that he had spoken earlier with the parents and had encouraged them to be open and honest about all parts of Kevin’s life and death. In so doing, the priest had taken the shame, dishonesty and hiding out of this tragic story and thus allowed other people suffering in a similar fashion to come forward and to make their peace with themselves, with God, and with each other.

In the Bible, Peter rebuked Jesus because Jesus spoke the truth about what was coming down (Jesus’ death), and Peter didn’t want to hear it; didn’t want to believe it; and didn’t want others to know it. Truth is often not good for the charade, the persona, the illusions and delusions we often prefer to reality. But sometimes things work out poorly and we die an ugly death. Jesus was not going to be “shushed.” Jesus rebuked Peter as Peter had rebuked him, saying, “You set your mind not on divine things, but on human things…”

After being spoken to like that by Peter ~ Jesus called for the crowd to come and join the disciples. Jesus wanted it out in the open. Jesus wanted everybody to hear what he had to say. Jesus told them that if anyone wanted follow him, they must deny themselves and take up “their’ cross. They need to pick up the cross they bear and stop the lying, the illusions and the pretenses and then follow Jesus to the site of the crucifixion of truth and goodness.

But we want to do the opposite ~ we want to deny the reality of the crucifixions in life and take up denial of what is really happening. We want to act like fear and indifference are perfectly fine and normal ~ even at a church funeral where we deny that an urn of ashes is yet further evidence of a raging epidemic of heroin addiction in our country. We want to skip over the suffering and torture of the Good Fridays of life and skip over to Easter Fun Day with chocolate eggs and happy children. Some of us do this until we too are reduced to a pile of ashes in a pretty urn, surrounded by people dressed in black, saying goodbye.

Between now and the day when we too are returned to the ash from which we came ~ all the things we say and do in this life to bolster our ego and deny what we are really like will ultimately fail us. Trying to find meaning by saving money, saving face, and holding on to what we’ve got can only take us so far until Jesus pulls us aside and asks,   “What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and lose your soul?”

Lent reminds us that our very soul is at stake. You want to save your life? Then let go of it. Have you ever done that faith exercise when you close your eyes and fall backward, trusting that someone is there and will catch you as you fall? That is what God does for those who trust. Jesus said that whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for him and the gospel will save it. Lose fear. Find faith.

As we approach the cross on which love was crucified but did not perish ~ let us freely admit to all that lies within and between us. Let us identify and accept the reality of the parts of ourselves and others that we do not like. Let us take a spiritual inventory of ourselves, lay our burdens down, and let God do for us what we could never do for ourselves.

Kevin is dead. He could not save himself. Drugs could not save him either. But his life, his lesson and his spirit live on in me and now in you. All the snares, flares and affairs of the world will not save me either. But thanks to the supposedly disgraced and deceased ones like Jesus and Kevin ~ I have caught a glimpse of what is eternal. And that is what I now choose to turn and face.

We are all like sweet-and-sour soup. We can be so incredibly loving and yet so cruel and nasty. We pray collectively for peace and then infect the world with vicious rumors and not think anything of it. We think we are sweet, and it is the person over there who is the sour one. We blame others for what we have done to ourselves; or blame ourselves for what was done to us. We magnify the imperfections of others and deny our own; or magnify our own imperfections and conceal or deny the imperfections of others.

But we can’t get away with that during the season of Lent; the forty days, not including Sundays, that come between Ash Wednesday and Easter. During Lent, we are summoned to a time of introspection, soul-searching, and truth-telling; a time of making an assessment of our personal role in the situations in which we find ourselves; a time to get honest (but not brutal) with ourselves about ourselves and the way we act in relation to each other.

Sweet and sour soup is not called sweet or sour soup. If it were only sour it would be unpalatable; if it were only sweet it would be dessert. It is not necessarily by eliminating the sweet or the sour; it is by balancing the sweet and the sour in the right ratio that makes it an inviting and delicious concoction. The same is true with us.

Have you ever done that faith exercise when you close your eyes and fall backward, trusting that someone is there and will catch you as you fall? That is what Christ does for those who trust in him. As Jesus says, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Lent is a question of balance between what you keep, and what you allow to fall away.

This season of Lent, as we approach the cross on which love was crucified but did not perish ~ let us freely admit to the sweet and sour within us and between us. In our weakness, there is strength. In our strength, there is weakness. Let us accept ourselves as we are ~ even the parts of ourselves that we do not like. Let us take a spiritual inventory of ourselves and take our whole selves to the cross, lay our burdens down, and let God do for us what we could never do for ourselves. Welcome to the sweet & sour, soulful soup of Lent.

I have tried very hard to lengthen this writing, but have failed utterly.

1 Cor. 13 states,: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” And 1 John 4:8 states, “…God is love.”

If God is love; then love is God. If you want to find God, look for love. If you want to find love, look for God.

It doesn’t get any simpler than this. For those who are led around by their mind, this simplicity may seem complicated. But it is not.

John Lennon, a “spiritual, but not religious” person from whom I continue to seek guidance and wisdom, once stated, “All you need is love. Love is all you need.”

Two authors named John, same message.

Two people named Paul, one an Apostle and one a Beatle, different times, different notes, same music.

All you need is love.

Love is all you need.

The baskets will now be passed, into which we invite you to place your generous offerings of thoughts, prayers, good vibrations, and loving deeds.

If you invited someone to your house and shortly after they arrived you felt like throwing them off a cliff; I would want to know what happened. A similar thing happened to Jesus when everyone was “speaking well of him” and a short time later they were trying to throw him off a cliff. I thought they would have been happy. He had told them that the prediction of the coming of the messiah was fulfilled. The waiting was over. Hope had finally been realized! There was good news for the poor, freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind, and forgiveness of crippling debt. For that they wanted to throw him off a cliff.

But, truth be told, he did claim that God sent him to do these things. They wanted him to do some magic tricks, like he supposedly did in another town. Otherwise, they figured he was just a small town carpenter’s kid with delusional fantasies. But Jesus resisted, saying that there were others long before him who were accepted pillars of Hebrew prophecy ~ and they didn’t run around healing everybody in sight. Why should he?

The congregation was focusing on what he should do, rather than on what they could do. They preferred to hear about dead prophets in the Bible, rather than living prophets in their midst. They had mixed feelings about good news for the poor; freedom for prisoners; the restoration of sight to the blind; people getting out from under the yoke of oppression and relief from crushing debt. And for that, they want to throw Jesus off a cliff. Maybe change ~ even change for the better ~ was somehow threatening.

But let’s give the congregation a break. They had heard a startling sermon. Imagine if your pastor stepped into the pulpit and told you that the soup kitchen was going to be moved into the sanctuary, and the sanctuary was going to be moved to where the soup kitchen is. Imagine if your pastor wanted all of you to march to the county jail, unlock all the cell doors, and set the prisoners free. Not an easy sermon to hear!

So the congregation turned on Jesus. In a way, I find comfort in that. Clearly, you and I are not the only ones who encounter people who do not like what we have to say. We too say things that walk us right on the edge of a cliff. We speak up and are put down. We speak truth to power and are fired or demoted. We know about “shoot the messenger” and we carry the message and risk the consequences anyway, simply because it is the right thing to do.

How many cliffs have you been led to because you said something someone didn’t want to hear? The family is in denial about a problem and they try to throw you off a cliff for bringing it up. You tell your partner, “we can’t keep spending money we don’t have” and for that your partner won’t talk to you for two days. You offer sound, but admittedly unsolicited advice to your children and it gets ugly as they try to throw you off a cliff for trying to help.

I wish the congregation would have listened to Jesus instead of reacting so quickly to this message. All Jesus told them was that he wouldn’t be their eternal miracle worker. He was not ministering only to the poor; knowing that some of us are poor in pocket and others are poor in spirit, and thus we are all “the poor”. Jesus proclaimed freedom for prisoners, knowing that most of us have not been in a walls and bars prison ~ but have been locked in a prison of addiction, loneliness, fear or regret. Jesus provided sight to the blind, knowing that most of us have eyes, but are often blind to what is really going on.  Jesus set the oppressed free, knowing that many of us are oppressed by outside forces, but also by the oppressor in our own head telling us “you can’t do that” because you’re too old; too late, too weak, too poor, too shy or have too little self-esteem. Jesus proclaimed relief from debt, knowing there are many kinds of indebtedness other than financial, such as the crippling debt of shame, remorse, grief or bitterness over the way that things could have been. And for that the people wanted to throw him off a cliff.

Do you remember how Jesus was saved from being thrown off a cliff? Teetering on the edge, but rooted in God and speaking truth with love, “He walked right through the crowd and went on his way.” That may be the biggest miracle Jesus ever performed.  Pushed to the brink, he turned and walked right through the anger and the opposition. I wonder how many people followed him? I wonder how many of us still do?