Stretching the Heart toward Hospitality

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~ Rumi ~

~ Rumi ~

(The Essential Rumi, versions by Coleman Barks)

What is God Like?

As usual, Bill Loader combines good scholarship, compassion, wisdom and brevity. Here's an excerpt:

Jesus spent much of his ministry, it seems, in a struggle to portray a different way of imagining God which more matched the reality. God is not to be modelled on the aloof king and powerful father, but on the mother looking for a lost coin and the dad running down the road to meet a lost son. The facades of dignity are dropped in favour of affection and caring. It is a very different model of God and produces a very different way of handling human life and biblical tradition.

Both models represented in the story reflect deep devotion. Both in different ways protect some things that are valuable. Both are based on scripture. One is healing. So is the other, but healing is subordinate to other concerns.

We are left guessing about the healing process and the pathology. The story, however, aptly reflects a different kind of paralysis which is chronic in religious communities. This story and its exposition in community offers an opportunity for healing

For more, go to his site.

Cloud of Witnesses

I'm just back from vacation and haven't yet got my brain in gear to do much thinking about Sunday. But...I find the Hebrew's passage about faith especially interesting. I tend to want to argue with it, at least find ways to talk about faith differently. Especially in terms more in keeping with trust than with faithfulness to doctrine.

I also like what Richard Rohr has to say: "True religion is not a denial of doubt but a transformation of it. and often, to be honest, a temporary deepening of our doubt and darkness to get us there."

So...a start