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12/21/2022 To Be ~ Fully Human & Fully DivineTo Be ~ Fully Human & Fully Divine If you grew up celebrating Christmas, as I did, one of the questions you may have asked yourself as you grew older is who is Jesus to you now? And even if you were not raised as a Christian and practice another faith or follow another spiritual tradition, this is still a good question to ask. I believe it needs to be a more profound question and answer than what you may have been taught as a small child in Sunday school. And it begins with the story of the Nativity, with the Christ child born in a manger and watched over by an ox and ass. There is a beautiful aspect to Jesus we so often forget and don’t focus on, as much as we ought, the humanity of Jesus. The story of Christmas is only the beginning. The story begins with Jesus, as the Incarnate Word and First Born of Creation, who emptied himself, being born in human likeness and form, and all this means. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, God with Us.  Trinity Episcopal Church Midtown Houston To be human is to be vulnerable. To be human is to endure pain and suffering. To be human is to discover love. To be human is to learn forgiveness. To be human is to live for others as much as for ourselves. To be human is the gift of life. To be human is to live our lives, and to live them fully. When we see Jesus as fully human and divine, it is “meet and right” to stress his humanity as much as his divinity. As found in the words of the Sursum Corda, Latin for “Lift up your hearts" or to have our "Hearts lifted" in the opening dialogue to the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer. Eucharistic Prayer The Lord be with you. People And with thy spirit. Celebrant Lift up your hearts. People We lift them up unto the Lord. Celebrant Let us give thanks unto our Lord God. People It is meet and right so to do. And come to understand that the gift of Christmas is transformational because ultimately, this gift opens up to the People of God an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. However, you may see the Spirit at work in your own life. As fully human as we are, it opens us up to an indwelling of "God the Father" as Divine Mystery, an indwelling of Christ and the Spirit, and it awakens our fullest human potential to love. The literature of scripture and liturgy, the poetry, psalms, parables, images, and symbols of all our sacred stories and liturgies are pointing us towards a way of understanding the Divine Mystery that cannot easily be named or wholly described. These stories are intended to be internalized, to stretch our imaginations, to help suspend our sense of disbelief, to believe in something beyond ourselves, to teach and reveal the truth, to see beyond the story into a deeper and richer mystery that is true, which is real at the inmost levels of the self and soul. To see beyond our earthly sight, to see with insight the invisible and unseen power of God at work within the world. The Holy Spirit at work within the world. To see God’s love actively at work in our lives and the lives of others, transforming creation. God as a Verb; God as Spirit; God as Truth; God as Divine Mystery; God as Love; God as an Indwelling of the Spirit within each and every one of us in this world. God as InterBeing (Thich Nhat Hanh), and God as the "Connecting Spirit" to paraphrase theologian Paul F. Knitter, as an interconnection that flows in and with and through all creation, bringing us into a relationship with one another.  Trinity Episcopal Church Midtown Houston ~ Christmas Eve Kenosis Hymn from Philippians 2:5-11 (NRSVA) 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Trinity Episcopal Church Midtown Houston In Buddhist and Christian traditions, we are taught to be mindful and mind our thoughts. Christmastide offers us an opportunity to be mindful from Christmas Eve through Epiphany and beyond. We are what we think and how we view the world. We are shaped by the people we love and by loving them in return. Practicing (praxis) wakefulness allows us to see how valued we are by God.
The Dhammapada - Translated by Thomas Byrom 1. Choices "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind And trouble will follow you As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind And happiness will follow you As your shadow, unshakable." 2. Wakefulness "Wakefulness is the way to life. The fool sleeps As if he were already dead, But the master is awake And he lives forever. He watches. He is clear. How happy he is! For he sees that wakefulness is life. How happy he is, Following the path of the awakened." Ron Starbuck Saint Julian Press  "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” - John 17:21 The concept of our Unity, of Non-Duality, can be found in all the great core religions and wisdom traditions found in human history, in myth and metaphor, in storytelling, and most especially in poetry. All sacred scripture is poetry. Poetry, especially Spiritual Poetry, is like a software program you are using to reprogram the mind; the SPIRIT-SOUL’S operating system, the Divine Core Language of Creation (DCLC) perhaps, with many variations or versions. Sacramental spiritual practices (praxis), like ritual, prayer, and meditation are an extension of this as well. Such practices and participation in a sacred community are helping you to grow spiritually, reprograming your mind. The Word or Words (Logos) you are taking into your being now are what you are becoming in your future self. Except there is no time, time is an abstraction. That future self already is, it exists now and is reaching within you to lead you forward, to discover your own fullness. The Holy Spirt dwells within you and is an intimate part of your whole being within and across creation. It is a Mystery. You know this already, it is written, it is part of God’s core operating system. And the close connection your Spirit-Soul has already, an eternal one, to the Ultimate Divine Mystery of God, knows this at the deepest levels of the self-mind. In a subtle memory that flows and moves throughout your whole being. In Christian theology they speak of Christ being both fully human and fully divine. Christianity has celebrated this divine aspect for over two thousand years. What has not been understood or celebrated as clearly is the human side of this equation, this dance, this Perichoresis. Your presence on this earth, in this reality, is no accident; it is a gift. You are here to learn and in many cases to teach or help one another, to heal the world, to create heaven on earth. Take time to develop a spiritual practice and to join a sacred community that helps you to discover where you belong, that you belong here, and that you are being called into new relationships every day of your life. Take time to pay attention, to see how God, the Divine Ultimate Mystery is calling you into relationship with one another. In his book, Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, in writing about Thich Nhat Hanh’s idea of “interbeing,” Paul F. Knitter tells us that understanding God through relationships is critical and that the source and power of our relationships is driven by the presence of the "Holy Spirit.” The importance of this concept is summarized by this: "behind and within all the different images and symbols, Christians use for God – Creator, Father (Abba), Redeemer, Word, Spirit, - the most fundamental, the deepest truth Christians can speak of God is that God is the source and power of relationships.” Another way to view this, as Paul Knitter explained to me once in a conversation, is that in meditation Buddhism asks us “to let go of all concepts, and to let go and open ourselves radically and utterly to the present moment, and in the trust that this present moment contains all that I need. This setting aside of words and imagery and opening oneself to what St. Paul calls God as Spirit, letting that Spirit make itself (or herself or himself) felt within us, grow within us, to lead us.” We find this idea beautifully expressed in these two scriptures. The Gospel of John, and in the book of Romans. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” - John 14:26-27 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” - Romans 8:26-27   Interfaith Openness and The Biocentric Universe Theory: Life Creates Time, Space, and the Cosmos Itself –
In the link to this article – “Stem-cell guru Robert Lanza presents a radical new view of the universe and everything in it." "The only thing we can perceive are our perceptions. In other words, consciousness is the matrix upon which the cosmos is apprehended. Color, sound, temperature, and the like exist only as perceptions in our head, not as absolute essences. In the broadest sense, we cannot be sure of an outside universe at all.” How may we see this in the context of a spiritual practice? How can we reconcile faith with science and find a connection between the two? Spend just a bit of time in deep prayer and meditation and you may come to understand what this means; that the emptiness of creation is a space waiting to be filled with infinite possibilities of thought and mind - a cosmic consciousness. God even, if you wish to perceive the nature of reality in theistic terms, or Śūnyatā-Nirvana in non-theistic and non-dualistic terms. The point is that we help shape the reality in which we live at many levels of our own consciousness or soul, our spirit, just as we shape the relationships in which we dwell and the consciousness that dwells within us. One may call this the Spirit of God, if one wishes. I like to do just that, it aligns to my own faith, but it also helps me to delve deeper into the mystery of all creation. It is for me a deep mystery. All the great literature, art, and sacred spiritual liturgy and scripture written and created by humankind across the ages speaks to this mystery, we dwell within it and it dwells within us. We have internalized the Presence of this Mystery, the Divine Ultimate Mystery. God is real. I believe that there is an eternal Holy Spirit, a divine presence that dwells within us and shapes the universe in ways we can hardly imagine, seen and unseen, visible and invisible. If thought can be prayer, is indeed a prayer, and prayer thought. Then we are praying all the time, and what we think and pray comes into being in some form or fashion, shaped by our desires. It becomes real for us; we come to dwell within it, within this mystery. And it brings new meaning to all the scriptures of humanity when we begin to see how it is all connected and interconnected. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” It is all one big open mystery in which we dwell and that dwells within us. And the literature and liturgy of our faith helps us to internalize this within our own spirit-soul-self-consciousness. It helps us to know and be known by God. 1 Corinthians 13:12(NRSV) –– “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Shantideva: “May the pain of every living creature Be completely cleared away. May I be the doctor and the medicine And may I be the nurse For all sick beings in the world Until everyone is healed.” – Shantideva “May I be protector for those without one, A guide for all travellers on the way; May I be a bridge, a boat and a ship For all who wish to cross (the water).” –– Shantideva From: The Buddha – Dhammapada: Translated by Thomas Byrom (Shambhala Press, 1976) “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind And trouble will follow you As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind And happiness will follow you As your shadow, unshakable. " There is a great conceptual image from ancient Christianity that may serve here, Perichoresis. Perichoresis can be described as the "Divine Dance", it is an indwelling between the Holy Trinity, between God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This indwelling happens within us too, at a deeply felt spiritual level, within our own spirit and consciousness. Perhaps this image, this indwelling can also serve as a metaphor for Biocentrism. Where we begin to understand more clearly how interconnected we are to one another and creation itself, and how the reality we experience every day of our lives arises from these relationships. And how God dwells within us – God in whom we live and move and have our being. Ushering in a great thanksgiving of the Spirit who prays in and with and through us, even when we do not know how to pray ourselves. The Holy Eucharist: Rite One Episcopal BCP And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him. Many Blessings, Ron Starbuck Saint Julian Press  There is Something About Being an Episcopalian (Anglican) If you haven’t seen this new video on YouTube, I would like to encourage you take a moment to watch and share it if you wish. It is a witness and a testament on being an Episcopalian within the Anglican Communion, and a Sacramental Christian within the Church Universal. As a contemplative tradition and prayerful path, as a way towards a knowledge and understanding of God, by whom we are fully known in and with and through an indwelling of the Spirit. And how God as the “Connecting Spirit" calls us into relationship with one another and all of creation. Corinthians 13 (NRSV) ~ 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. It is no secret that I love what the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion have to offer as an open inclusive boundless community of loving-kindness, and as a transforming faith and spiritual practice within the world. In our beautiful liturgy, the work of the people, and as sacred art, literature, and poetry that is transforming, an invocation of the Holy Spirit. As I love how the Holy Spirit is actively at work within the world, as a divine presence and mystery, formless ~ without form, unseen and invisible, unbound, eternally open, indwelling, and transforming; God as a verb, acting to transform creation, in a world without end. Romans 8 (NRSV) ~ 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Transforming our lives and creation if we will only open ourselves up to the peace, power, and joy we find in a relationship with and in and through Christ. And the hope Christ offers to a weary world through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Even as the Holy Spirit prays within us when we do not know how to truly pray ourselves to God, with God, invisible and unseen, indwelling and always present. John14 (NRSV) ~ 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. To be reminded is to remember, in Eucharistic remembrance. In remembrance of Christ. To remember whom we are as Children of God, as a People of God, living in community with one another and helping to heal and repair the world. Tikkun Olam. Allow me to end this note please, with this beautiful and ancient liturgical poem and invocation of the Holy Spirit written by the Eastern Christian Orthodox monk, Symeon the New Theologian, over a thousand years ago. Within these words, I find a connection to many other contemplative traditions and faiths, in an interfaith dialogue, that touches on the mystery and formlessness of the divine. Symeon uses a Christian vocabulary, but his words are timeless and eternal. Words that may take us beyond all our images and symbols of God, the Divine Ultimate Mystery. Seeing God as the “Connecting Spirit” as my friend and theologian Paul F. Knitter has written and spoken of in his books and teaching. Symeon the New Theologian's Invocation to the God, the Holy Spirit Come, true light. Come, life eternal. Come, hidden mystery. Come, treasure without name. Come, reality beyond all words. Come, person beyond all understanding. Come, rejoicing without end. Come, light that knows no evening. Come, unfailing expectation of the saved. Come, raising of the fallen. Come, resurrection of the dead. Come, all-powerful, for unceasingly you create, refashion and change all things by your will alone. Come, invisible whom none may touch and handle. Come, for you continue always unmoved, yet at every instant you are wholly in movement; you draw near to us who lie in hell, yet you remain higher than the heavens. Come, for your name fills our hearts with longing and is ever on our lips; yet who you are and what your nature is, we cannot say or know. Come, Alone to the alone. Come, for you are yourself the desire that is within me. Come, my breath and my life. Come, the consolation of my humble soul. Come, my joy, my glory, my endless delight. Many Blessings, Ron Starbuck Saint Julian Press ~ The Poem: http://www.saintjulianpress.com/there-is-something-about-being-an-episcopalian.html God the Connecting Spirit ~ Third Recording with Paul F. Knitter http://www.saintjulianpress.com/paul-f-knitter---interview.html |
Publisher's BlogRON STARBUCK is the Publisher/CEO/Executive Editor of Saint Julian Press, Inc., in Houston, Texas; a poet and writer, an Episcopalian, and author of There Is Something About Being An Episcopalian, When Angels Are Born, Wheels Turning Inward, and most recently A Pilgrimage of Churches, four rich collections of poetry, following a poet’s mythic and spiritual journey that crosses easily onto the paths of many contemplative traditions. Archives
August 2024
CategoriesAll Anglican Anglican Communion Books Buddhism Christianity Christmas Easter Episcopalian Ghost Story Interbeing Interconnections Interfaith Dialogue Jesus John Cobb Literature Mystery Nativity Paul F. Knitter Paul Knitter Poems Poetry Theology Thich Nhat Hanh Vietnam War |
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This arrangement does help to sustain the press and allow us to publish more books by more authors.