Yeast

I enjoy making bread. Yeah, the yeast kind where I must knead the dough. I must give most of it away because of my diet and the carbohydrate thing. What I like most about making bread is watching and waiting for the yeast to work. The yeast gets stirred and kneaded into the dough where I cannot even see it. Yet, when placed in a bowl and in a warm place, the yeast begins to do its work. The bread rises almost as if it is magic. Jesus talked about our spiritual life being like yeast. Yeast does not bring attention to itself. Yeast works in the background. God’s Spirit is like yeast, it goes to work if I will make room in my life for the Spirit and then, get out of the way and give it time to work. I wonder if too many of us are in such a hurry that we do not give God’s Spirit time to work. Yeast bread is not instant bread. I must mix, knead, and wait. That is a pretty good recipe for the Spiritual life: mix and knead well, then wait.

The Moon

This morning as I sat in the pre-dawn, I was able to see the moon. It was a bright moon and yet the moon has no source of light within itself. It reflects the Sun. I have seen pictures of the moon’s surface from the astronauts’ visits. The moon’s surface is not like a mirror or the surface of a lake that would easily and naturally reflect the Sun. No, the moon’s surface is full of craters, rocks, dirt, and other stuff. I suppose it looks like our planet before anyone arrived. I thought how this is a picture of our lives. We are to reflect the light of the World or the divine I Am. To consider someone’s life, someone like me, it does not appear that I would be a good reflector. My life is full of darkness, confusion, attitudes, behaviors, etc. that surely do not or cannot reflect the divine I Am. Nevertheless, there is the moon. It reflects the sun not because it is such a perfect or natural reflector but because of the sun and the moon’s position in the universe. Perhaps the lesson of the moon is to position my life, attitudes, behaviors, etc. so that the divine I Am can be a reflection in my life.

Making Bread

We made bread a few days ago. When I write “we,” I mean Betty Crocker’s cookbook and me. When I write “made,” I mean bread with flour, yeast, kneading and waiting for the dough to rise. I made bread, not just baked, although we also baked the loaves. When the two loaves came out of the oven, we put the butter on the hot bread and ate several slices. When I write “we,” I mean Judy and myself. Bread is a wholesome task which gives wonderful rewards. The reward of hot homemade, yeasty, bread and butter. The reward of an effort with tasty and observable results. The reward of exercise comes from stirring and kneading. The reward of remembering my grandmothers and their bread. Making bread is a wonderful and delicious spiritual discipline.

Respecting Other Faiths

I am learning to value and respect other faiths, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Judaism, etc. They have much value and a great deal from which I can learn. I am, however, a Christian by birth, language, culture, training, etc. By Christian I mean more than Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc. By Christian I mean a Jesus follower especially Jesus’ “Sermon of the Mount” and specifically the Beatitudes. I also mean Jesus’ sense of judgement as revealed in Matthew 25’s judgement of the sheep and goats. A Jesus follower is dying to self or ego which I interpret to mean becoming unattached or clinging to self or ego. Being a Baptist, Methodist or Catholic does not make one a Christian and claiming the label of Christian does not make one a Jesus follower. I have friends of other faiths who seem more like a Jesus follower than some of the Baptists, Methodist or Catholics, etc. whom I know. It is easy as well as culturally appropriate to remake Jesus into the image or person I want him to be, so I end up following my image of Jesus. In other words, I remake Jesus to be like me and reflect my values. This is not following the Jesus of the Scriptures. Jesus said to sell everything, give it to the poor and then, follow Him. Yeah, I’m not quite ready to do that either. I think it is best to leave any sense of judging who is right or who is wrong up to God, or the I Am. I have sufficient worry and work about myself, let alone any others.

Clarifying Language

Clarifying language is important, especially among religious folks. These are a few of my working definitions—at least currently. Faith is my lived experience in relationship with/by God/Divinity or the “I Am.” I prefer to use “I Am” as a name of God/Divinity since the I Am gave us this name (Exodus 3:13-14, 15b). In that 15b verse we find “This is my name forever and this is my title for all generations.” I prefer calling God/Divinity the name or title the I Am told us to use. Jesus often used this name/title even though we usually think he used it to refers only to himself. I suspect he also meant it to refer to the I Am or God/Divinity. I like to use the gerund of faith or faithing as it is a process. Faithing is a life-long journey. Faithing is never complete; it is evolving, growing, maturing, etc. I often use the phrase “The journey (faithing) is our destination.” Beliefs are my concepts or thoughts of my lived experience with the I Am. Beliefs may be changing as I learn new insights and/or receive new revelations. Therefore, my beliefs are evolving, “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.” (I Corinthians 13: 12, NRSV). I am uncomfortable around individuals who have their beliefs all work out and there is little chance of their beliefs changing. By religion I mean the generational accumulation of doctrines, dogmas, beliefs, institutions, etc. that are purposed to assist individuals in the worship (faithing) of I Am. By spirituality I mean the “desire to please” (“Thanks,” Merton). Pleasing I Am as I choose to adapt and adjust to the experience and the following of I Am. I think of salvation or redemption as transformation. Transformation is something that I cannot do for myself; it is formation from a divine source, hence the prefix of “trans.” I also believe that transformation is an individual process rather than a one-method-fits-all for everyone. The I Am deals with us individually. I hear many folks talk about judgement, but I think of judgement in terms of Matthew 25, especially the sheep and goats (verse 31-46). This judgement does not have much to do with doctrine, church, denomination, religion, beliefs, etc. I suspect we judge ourselves by our lives or behaviors and actions. Judgement, or judging others, is not my business anyway. “Thanks,” I Am, judging others is one less thing I need to be concerned about.

Numb to Violence

I was born in 1941, so I have lived my life with the threat of nuclear war and the destruction of earth. I can recall the exercises we had in school during which a siren would go off and we would hide under our desks to save ourselves from a nuclear blast and fallout. Oh, how innocent we were! Today, children are hiding under desks to save themselves from gun violence, even though the threat of nuclear weapons is still a reality. I wonder if our accommodating to military style weapons in the hands of citizens, who do not seem to be interested in joining the military or the police, is not a foretaste of violence gone amuck. Have you read the Second Amendment? “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” “A well-regulated militia” sounds to me like the military and/or police. If someone wants military type guns then, join the Army, Police or National Guard. If we are accommodating to the violence of military style weapons, why do we think that someone, somewhere, sometime will not launch nuclear weapons? I fear that we are getting numb to violence. Let us stop this madness while we still have the option!