I found this gem as I was preparing to write a different post.  But it seemed to me to still be relevant 7 months later, especially as St Paul's prepares to Pray Our Democracy -- praying for its return to health.  Enjoy

Captain America:  Winter Soldier:

Maria Hill, who works for Fury, saves them from the transport van and takes them to a hide-out where they learn that Fury has not died.  They create a plan to destroy Project Insight:

Maria Hill and Fury explain the plan.  They need to breech the three carriers and replace their targeting blade with our own.  All three carriers need to be linked for their plan to work.

Fury:  We have to assume that everyone on those carriers is Hydra.  If we can breech those carriers then maybe we can salvage…

Cap cuts Fury off:  We are not salvaging anything.  We are not just taking down those carriers, Nick, we are taking down SHIELD.

Fury:  SHIELD had nothing to do with it.

Cap:  You gave me this mission Nick.  This is how it ends.  SHIELD has been compromised.  You said so yourself.  Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed.

Fury:  Why do you think we are meeting in this cave?  I noticed.

Cap:  How many paid the price before you did.

Fury:  I didn’t know about Barnes (Bucky)

Cap:  Even if you had, would you have told me?  Or would you have compartmentalized that too?  SHIELD, Hydra they all go.

Maria Hill:  He’s right.

Fury looks around for an ally.  No one agrees with Fury.

Fury:  Well, it looks like you are giving the orders now Captain.

The Current State of our Country:

I’ve been reading the news, paying attention to what is happening, and watching Stephen Colbert (because honestly that is the only way I can ‘watch’ news, through humor).  The current state of our country is not good.  It feels like Hydra has overtly (not sneakily) invaded our government and taken over.

Rally after rally, Trump spews hatred.  He insights chaos in those who attend.  He laughs or ignores hatred filled chants that arise in the midst of his speeches.  He stops talking to allow them to chant.  This is evil at work.

Where and when will it all stop?

Many of us are putting our hopes in the 2020 election.  We must elect someone else President.  As if the election of a Democratic President will end this hatred that has arisen, this culture of violence that Trump has ignited.  It will not.  It would, hopefully, begin to shift the narrative because the President of the United States has a tremendous platform to do that from.
But it is not THE answer.  It is one aspect of a shift we are all seeking.

We are not salvaging anything

The NRA must go.  They must go in order for us to move forward and create reasonable gun-control bills like other countries around the world.

White supremacy groups must go, along with those organizations and politicians that support them.  There is no place in this country for hatred!  No place!!

This may not be a popular thing for me to write (being a Pastor and all), but some Christian institutions must go.  Those institutions that support homophobia, racism — they must go.  They are not Christ-like in any way.  

If they followed the Way of Jesus, they would be out protesting for asylum seekers to be welcomed in this country, not working to shut down the borders.  If they followed the Way of Jesus, they would be seeking government aid to end the epidemics of homelessness, hunger, mental illness, drug-addiction in this country, not seeking to cut those programs.

As Jesus told this parable he said “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me….‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25: 35-36, 40)

It must all go! 

There is no salvaging institutions that are steeped in corruption, greed and evil, that have lost their way.  They must go to make way for Good.

Because when a vacuum is created, something new can be planted.  To plant Good at the scale we need to, we must dismantle the institutions that feed and protect this insidious hatred that has invaded our culture.

Then and only then can we rebuild the Moral Center of our culture and country — a Moral Center aligned with Love, Compassion, Justice, Peace and Harmony, no matter your spiritual path.

The Sacred calls us to be the Voice, and ones to lead the charge!

Will you join in this important work?​

Will you step into leadership as Captain America does?

Join St Paul's UCC as we Pray Our Democracy each Sunday during Lent.  We will gather in our chapel from 12:45p to 1:15 p MT to imagine a healthy, healed, whole, balanced democracy, and to hold that image of health, of justice, of compassion and peace, that image of God's Economy in prayer.

I have always struggled with the practice of giving something up for Lent.  Having grown up Baptist, we did not really celebrate Lent.  We celebrated Holy Week and Easter.  

So when I entered adulthood and began to seek ways to deepen my connection to the Sacred, my spirituality, I began to contemplate this practice.  I remember the first time I decided to really practice giving something up for Lent.  I went BIG!  I gave up sugar, including chocolate.  It was not a pleasant experience for those who lived in my household.  It turns out that sugar was how I comforted myself, how I pushed down all those feelings and things I did not want to deal with.  When I gave it up, I had no way to cope!  My partner at the time, begged me to "take my mini-Easters on Sundays."  We laughed about it over the years, but I had not prepared myself for the spiritual and emotional turmoil that happened when I stopped using my 'drug' (yes sugar is an addictive food) of choice.

But after Lent, I fell right back into it.  No change.  No transformation.  Just a really rough 6 weeks.

As an energy and Light worker, I have learned that nature abhors a vacuum.  If you take something out, you need to put something in its place.  So if I am doing a healing and I remove a block, I need to put Light in its place so (1) the block does not return and (2) something else unhealthy does not take its place.

I did not do that.  I did not reflect upon what I wanted as an outcome for 'giving something up.'  If I had, it would have been more like my 2019 year-long experience.  I decided that 2019 was the year to take back my body from Lyme disease, bring myself back to myself: lose the Lyme disease weight, stop my sugar addiction eating, exercise more, maybe lift weights.  I accomplished the first three and have shifted the last one into this year 2020 -- the year to strengthen my Core, my Center.

As I did the physical work for my body, I also did the emotional and spiritual work of my soul.  When I gave up sugar, I asked myself what it's benefit was for my Soul.  I sat in conversation with my Soul listening and healing the wounds that sugar covered over.  Each time I released a wound, a limiting belief, a block/obstruction of energy and love in my life, I replaced it with prayer, with walking in nature, with Light, with peace.

For me, the invitation of Lent is not "what are you giving up for Lent?" but also "what am I replacing that habit/thing/release with?"  

What am I giving up this Lenten season?  I am working at releasing my sometimes anxious presence, and falling deeper into a non-anxious presence, a witness-observer, a compassionate companion.   To do this, I will dive deep into my own fears, what causes them, what my Soul needs to release them, and do that tender Soul work.  

Why?  I met the most beautiful being yesterday -- Goldie, whom I feel like really wants to be called Pippa.  She is an amazing girl, a cross between a labrador retriever and a beagle.  We fell in love.  I wasn't sure at first, but as she hung out with me, she warmed up and clearly asked me to be her human.  I said yes.

Then I learned that she is reactive to other dogs and sometimes humans.  She needs a non-anxious compassionate presence in her life.  She needs someone who can calmly give her stability and grounding.  She chose me.  I don't always feel  those qualities in myself.  She sees them.  She knows they are there.

By bringing Pippa (Goldie) into my family, we will find that door in my heart, open it and heal together; replacing all that fear and anxiety with Love and Peace.

I knew Spirit would bring the right dog companion into my life.  I did not realize what that meant.  I look forward to being taught by Pippa how to companion her healing and growth.

What are you giving up this Lenten season?
What are you replacing that with?  How are you 'filling the void' so that the unwanted behavior/habit/belief does not reclaim its spot in your life?

On Ash Wednesday, we begin the 40 day Lenten journey to Holy Week and Easter.  It is a time of deep reflection and prayer, inviting us to enter deep into our hearts, into God's temple within each of us.

As your clergy person prepares the ash, she/he/they mix olive oil with ash; mixing the symbol of healing with the symbol of letting go/death.

As you approach your clergy person and they place ash on your forehead or hand, they speak to you, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

This statement is an invitation to remember that God created us from the earth, from dust.  That our bodies hold all the elements of God's creation.  That when we pass from this life, we return to the earth, fertilizing it for new growth, new life to come forth.

As the ash is spread across your forehead or hand, you are invited to take this spiritually into your heart.  

What needs to be released, let go, die in your life for new life, new beginnings, hope to arrive on Easter?
What is holding you back, obstructing your connection with the Sacred?  How can you allow that to pass from your life so you can reconnect with the One who created you?

The oil in the ash reminds you that you are on a healing journey; that as you release limiting beliefs, blocks, negative habits, whatever is holding you back, there is a healing Presence that soothes your soul, that companions you.  The olive oil reminds you that that healing presence is Christ Jesus.  He knows the path you are invited to walk as you let go.  He knows the fears and anxieties that arise as we work to transform our lives to be more in alignment with the Sacred, with our Soul.  He knows how to hold you in your grief, how to encourage you in your despair, your to embolden you in your fear.  He is ever present!

This ancient beautiful ritual offers us the opportunity to join millions of others and declare that we too are on a path of healing; that we too seek to be better humans, that we too desire God's Economy to be present in our world.

Join me today.  What is the Sacred inviting you to let go of this Lenten season?  What is keeping you from deepening your relationship with the Holy One?  What practice do would help you step more fully into the person you desire to be, the person the Sacred is calling you to be?

​Blessed Be.

Avengers

You will remember from the previous post that at this moment in the film, Avengers, Captain America has arrived to face and fight Loki.  He has landed with his shield, protecting a man who courageously stood before Loki, speaking truth to power.  Loki had aimed his scepter at the man moments before.  After shooting his scepter and being blocked by Captain America….

Captain America:  You know the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.

Loki: “the soldier… the man out of time”

The liminality of Time...

Captain America is, literally, a man out of time — the linear time line.  At the end of Captain America: The First Avenger, we watch as Steve Rogers forces Red Skull’s plane down into the ice cold waters.  Cap freezes.

Captain America is found decades later by SHIELD and thawed.  He is a man out of time.  Steve Rogers has no references for this current time, this current culture.  He holds values and moral center from WW2 era.  He looks 30 or so but is 100 years old.

Have you ever had that experience, where time goes away, where you feel like you are not connected to time — literally “out of time”?

What do I mean?

Stepping into Kairos time...

When I was beginning to create High Desert Essences in Taos, NM, I felt the invitation to create Chive essence.  I followed the way I was taught:  put a glass bowl of spring water in the Sun with one or two flower dropped in it.  Leave it for 3-4 hours on a full Sun day.  I did just that.

When I went to pick up the essence something did not feel quite right.  I tasted it.  It tasted like Chives.  So I decided that was not going to work for High Desert Essences.  This is the moment where I learned my method of co-creating flower essences — Chives taught me.

I did not want to waste the essence, that would not honor the gift of Chives.  Without thinking, I downed the entire bowl of pure potent Mother essence.  That was on a Monday.

Next thing I know, I’m getting a text from a one of the women I painted with regularly.  Because I was currently in NM, I video called in.  The text read, “Are you joining us today?”  We painted on Thursdays, so I replied, “Yes, on Thursday.”  An answer came back, “Well that is now!”

Somehow I had lost Tuesday and Wednesday.  I had no idea where they went.  It felt like only 3-4 hours had passed since I took that Mother Essence.  How could 3 days have passed?

It took me about a month to ground myself back into the human linear timeline that is seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years.  Somehow Chives had aligned me with a very different timeline — Kairos, Sacred, Universe.  This timeline is not linear.  Rather it felt more like the timeline of the Heptapods from the movie Arrival.

When I was able to reconnect with this linear timeline, I became aware that Chives had restructured my energetic and physical body to be in greater alignment with my Soul’s purpose and Soul-volution.

It was a powerful experience.  I am forever transformed by each experience where the Sacred pulls me out of linear human time into Kairos time.

Kairos time

It takes adjustment when you return, like it took adjustment for Steve Rogers.  Depending upon what happens when I am out of time, the adjustment back varies.  Sometimes I can step back into time and move forward without delay.  Sometimes it feels like I have lost 70 years or more, like the world I have come back into is completely different than the one I was in.  When that happens, I am aware that I am so very different than I was before.

I would not recommend downing an entire bowl of pure Mother Essence to experience what it is like to step out of time.

Meditation, prayer, silent retreats, dosage level energy essences, and other healing and spiritual experiences open you to those moments, to those experiences.

It is vital that when you intentionally ask to step out of time for healing, transformation, restructuring, soul-volution, you do so with an inner knowing of what you are seeking. Conscious awareness, consciously co-creating the out of time moment will enhance and potentize the transformative work that you are seeking, doing, manifesting.

When you come back, allow yourself the linear time you need to integrate the healing, the evolution, the experience before stepping fully back into society, into the hum of linear life.

Enjoy the experience.
The veil is always thin….
always awaiting your request
to offer you 
a Kairos experience.

.Captain America: The First Avenger

Steve Rogers continues his quest to join the army, giving it another try.

This time, someone notices…

As he is preparing for his exam, the office asks him to wait.  Then a MP shows up to make sure he does not leave.  Then someone walks into the room, looks at Steve’s folder and says, “so you want to go over seas and kill some Nazis?”

Steve is confused.  He asks, “Excuse me?”

The person who entered the room introduces himself and explains that he works with the Strategic Scientific Reserve.  They have conversation.  the Dr is sizing Steve Rogers up, discerning whether or not he would be good for the experiment he is working on.

In the midst of the conversation the Dr says, “You didn’t answer my question.  Do you want to kill Nazis?”

Steve is silent for a few seconds and asks, “Is this a test?”

Dr replies: “Yes.”

Steve answers from his heart, “I don’t want to kill anyone.  I don’t like bullies.  I don’t care where they are from.”

Dr replies, “Well there are already so many big men fighting this war, maybe what we need now is the little guy….I can offer you a chance.”

This is before Steve Rogers becomes Captain America.  This is the moment the Dr begins to think Steve is the one.  It is his answer, “I don’t want to kill anyone.”

He stays true to this statement after he becomes Captain America.  Unless he has to, he does not kill.  He values life.

He recognizes that bullies don’t value life.  Bullies values themselves, their desires, their power, their wealth over anyone else.  Bullies don’t share.  They don’t feel compassion and mercy.  They work for their benefit, their greed, their corrupted view of their world.

Present Day Bully

We are currently living in a time where a bully is the President of our country.  He bullies everyone around him, all who work for him, the leaders of other countries, his opponents.  He upholds the values of dictators and white supremacists.  

This President says he values life, but he does not.  He gives orders to create refugee camps that have no dignity, that tear apart the lives of those seeking helps and safety.  Death after death in those refugee camps on our southern border have brought no sympathy from the President, no change in policy.

This President says he values life, but he does not.  He celebrates homophobia and sexism.  He encourages bad behavior at his rallies.  Then he abdicates responsibility when someone at his rally acts on the hatred he is spewing.

He does not value life.  He is a bully. 

Steve Rogers values life.  He is a small guy, always overlooked.  His life journey has taught him compassion for all around him.  He has an inner strength that has developed as he has worked to overcome the challenges and obstacles in his life.  

This scene asks us a question:  Who do we uphold as our heroes?

The Dr., without saying it, is suggesting that it is not the big guys that are our heroes.  No, it is the little ones, the ones that understand compassion and mercy, that value life.

Who do we uphold as a hero?

Who do I uphold as heroes?

Martin Luther King, Jr, a man who valued life, equality, justice.  A Pastor who gave his life in a movement that called us as a country to be better, to be compassionate, to create the Economy of God in our midst.

Saint Mother Theresa:  a Sister whose life work was to care for those untouched, those left to die, those ignored by society — to bring dignity, care and respect to a population that has never experienced dignity, respect and care.  A Sister who valued all life, who believed that no life was unworthy.

Saint Monsenor Oscar Romero: an Archbishop who spoke truth to power; who put his life on the line to minister to the disappeared and disappearing in El Salvador — who reminded those without political power that they have tremendous spiritual power, that they are the “hands and the feel of Jesus,” bringing hope in the place of despair.

Rev David Lawrence: my youth pastor who lost his life helping an abused woman leave her abuser.

The women of Standing Rock Tribe:  these powerful women stood in the face of injustice, prayed for the rights of their people, their Land, their health.  Even as the governments ignored their plight, they stood their ground, praying for life: Water is Life.

These are just a few.  Each of my heroes value life!  They offer respect, dignity, compassion, mercy; seek to create justice; and truly desire to be “the hands and the feet of Jesus” in this world.

Who are your heroes?
How are you being a hero in this world?​