Everyday Joe's Service
Everyday Joe's is located near Old Town in Ft. Collins and housed inside a large coffee shop with a lot of character. I enjoyed the music performed at the start of the service by the church's very own rock band. Some of the lyrics were interesting and I recorded some of them to analyze. One of the songs went something like this:
At the beginning of the song, they seem to refer to the resurrection many Christians believe will bring them into eternal life. The Western perspective has held the ancient idea that the material body is important to preserve, so the bones will be assembled on the judgement day and you can be reborn inside the body you depart with upon death. It is this form you will experience for eternity in heaven.
I remember around the summer of 2000, I had a plane flight next a Muslim man from the Middle East and we had a very interesting conversation on the flight back East. He continually drilled me throughout the trip, trying to figure out what I was. At first he wanted to know if I was Jewish. When I said no, he wanted to know if I was Christian. He obviously didn't think I was Muslim. After telling him about my attraction to Buddhism and spirituality, he had it out with me expressing his disdain for Eastern thought.
At one point he told me the reason Buddhists cremate their bodies after death, is because they fear the judgement of God and want to try and make it impossible for him to reassemble their bodies for the resurrection. As bizarre as this idea was to me, what I was hearing from the Muslim was an expression of the dual perspectives dividing East and West. One side is very material oriented, thinking that this form is what defines who we are. The other side sees this form as impermanent; the body as inconsequential as an outfit of clothing, something to burn at death after it has been worn out and outlived its usefulness, because it's not who we really are.
The idea of resurrection is not entirely out of the question as far as what is possible in the future, but it seems much more likely to me that if we will be resurrected, it will be at the hands of a being who has evolved in the universe like us, to a level of consciousness many today would recognize as God-like. I think Richard Dawkins describes the thought behind this idea that makes much more sense:
The next part of the band's song describes the born again transformation they believe takes place when opening one's heart to invite Christ inside:
In another song, the lyrics describe the good side of Christianity, the part I look at and feel no aversion to by describing the highest form of God consciousness as someone sent to love, heal and forgive.
The lyrics continue to describe what I view as the evolution of the cosmos towards a more Godlike consciousness. It is this evolved state beings move towards, that holds the future with a different paradigm than our own, where most of nature is still dominated by cruelty and survival of the fittest.
"Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he loves, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future. That life is worth the living just because he lives. And then one day, I'll cross that river. I'll fight life's fight, no more with pain. And then this doubt, gives way to victory, I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know he lives."
The very end of these lyrics describe the universal journey into death, and finding not darkness but "lights of glory." This is the near death experience many people have come back to describe, where they enter a dark tunnel to find a bright light shining at the end. What is interesting is that this experience is universally expressed even in cultures that are not Christian.
After the rock bands finished, Pastor Darren Fred gave the sermon on Psalm 139. Fred began speaking about prayer.
"When we pray, we pray to God. But have you ever thought that sometimes my prayers aren't just for God, but they're for me? Like I need to hear some of these things with my own ears so we say them and direct them for God. But they're also for us."
This is something interesting I've observed in many Christian churches. I view their prayers as a means of communication opening up between them. If somebody prays in a church about the job they lost and how they need God to give them another job, another congregant who just lost an employee will see an answer to their problem and all while becoming an answer to a prayer for someone else.
Pastor Fred continues; "You have searched me lord and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you Lord know it completely. You hem me in from behind and before. You lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain."
After hearing this, I immediately interpreted it from an Eastern perspective; God as the eternal emptiness holding all reality in place. On one level, I can see where Pastor Fred is coming from in describing God as knowing everything about reality, simply because all reality is sustained by a God-like emptiness. But knowledge about the entirety of this reality is withheld from us, because our perspective is just a fraction of the whole, not plugged into the near infinite data describing every state of all phenomena, coming into being at every particular moment across the stretches of near infinite space and time. And only when more and more perspectives are combined, recorded and analyzed by intelligent beings, can we approach a unifying whole nearing a more "God-like" perspective. But at this stage of our evolution, this will always be incomplete.
Pastor Fred continues; "What I know about you blows my mind, but I just have the tip of the iceberg, there is so much more and it humbles me."
What Pastor Fred describes here is a reality many scientists describe when talking about their study of the universe. The more they know, the more they realize they don't know and the appropriate response to the vastness of reality are feelings of awe and humility.
"I can go anywhere and you are there. What if I went to the darkest, darkest place. For you created my innermost being. you knit me together in my mother's womb. My frame was not hidden from you. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth."
Here, Pastor Fred describes again how small and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. At this stage, we literally have almost zero control over the movement of the cosmos. We are just simply observers going along for the ride set up by an intelligence incomprehensibly more vast than our own.
In the next part of his sermon, Pastor Fred begins describing one of the major problems with human beings; the arrogance of casting God in our image. Coming from a place of awe and humility, the problems arise when these are discarded for the conviction that one can commune with the great consciousness and find its image or will within our own before we have an evolved consciousness. The great emptiness sustaining and holding all beings in perfect patience and compassion, now becomes a projection of our own limited judgement and perspectives; "If only you God would slay the wicked." "They speak of you with evil intent, your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you. I will defend you and hate those who you hate. The Psalmwriter is giving himself credit because he is on God's side."
But could it be the Psalmist is only describing the natural aversion of those who deal with human beings who pass themselves off as being in communion with and knowing the mind of God. "You kill them, but if you take too long, I might have to kill them." "Why don't we kill more people? "If you see it and you know it." And if God sees everything and knows everything, how can this be reconciled to all the horrendous things happing in the world. This is the frustration expressed by the Psalmist who describes God as being so great and good. And because he believes this, he can't understand what is going on. Pastor Fred describes this as "theodicy"; a problem with God. And this is why I think the Eastern perspective could enhance the Western.
The Western view of God tries to reconcile the impersonality of the universe with the all knowing benevolence of God running the show. But in the East, God isn't a personal omniscient being, but more of an impersonal emptiness; the vast space holding everything in place. From this perspective, personality only emerges in the particular beings within this vast emptiness that awaken to consciousness. When Jesus stated, "there is not a sparrow that falls that God doesn't see." perhaps he was speaking figuratively about the future, and the God-like beings who will evolve to greater and greater awareness, until they literally are connected to all the data passing through reality, recording and becoming aware of everything. The impersonality and unconscious emptiness knows how many hairs are on your head only when it awakens through its beings who arise in the future and attain a God-like consciousness, where curiosity to know itself as a plugged in component reality, processing the vast amounts of data available. Perhaps after evolving for trillions of years, can it gain the knowledge and power to rewind history in search of the meaning of it all.
But when you don't find reconciliation between the two sides, East and West, you are left with the God problem that can lead to violent resistance to the impersonal emptiness thought to have personality, causing men to project their own image of God towards that which has yet to evolve. And perhaps the subconscious awareness of this is described in Pastor Fred's longing for something transcendent of the horror in life; "love never fails." Is this what "holds the future" that the church rock band sang so passionately about at the beginning of the service?
"No matter what happens, if you love, you have won." This sounds like the same idea from the movie, Tree of Life, "Those who love by the way of grace, never come to a bad end." This is a topic I plan on blogging about extensively after I put together my notes I've taken on the first twenty minutes of the movie.
Wow! After hearing this commentary on the Psalmist, I could connect it perfectly to an Eastern perspective. The vast impersonal emptiness holding all reality in place, has omniscient data constantly flowing through it, but it has yet to be collected and recorded by conscious beings until they evolve into greater awareness.
"And I thought about that. And then it hit me, you know but I don't. Is the Psalmist saying you know me, you've searched me but I don't, I don't get myself. You think you know yourself, but you don't. Not so much as we think we do."
And perhaps the Psalmist metaphorically represents the evolution of conscious beings coming into existence, so that they may know themselves. All the omniscient data is already there, but we aren't aware of it until we observe and make sense of it.
"And it's like the Psalmist is saying, you have been there, before my soul awoke. you know everything about me. you've been there. Now take me there." And perhaps this is the journey of the universe. Taking us into the knowledge that is already held in place by the great emptiness.
"And the question, what will God find when he searches the Psalm writer's heart. Then the question, what will God find if we go with him on a trip to our own heart." Wow. Is this the course the cosmos? It is taking us on a trip to our own heart. And this journey follows primitive beings evolving into more God-like consciousness, eventually to become so advanced, we would see them today as Gods. Perhaps they will begin extracting the omniscient data embedded into the fabric of reality, as they rewind space and time on a journey to our own heart.
Now Pastor Fred describes this journey in greater detail, as it relates to uncovering one's shadow; " Have you ever had to drive through ugliness to get somewhere nice?" Pastor Fred uses the metaphor of Nebraska as the shadow side that must be traversed to get to his favorite town in Iowa where his beloved family lived. It was a "terrible trip, but worth it." And this is like the journey into our hearts. "Search my heart God, would you show me. Yeah. It could get long, and hot and ugly. There are going to be some times on the way to your heart you'd want to turn around."
And this is a perfect metaphor for the journey of humankind at this momentous time in our history. We are at a crossroads where we must take the journey to our own heart. At this point in Pastor Fred's sermon, I was again reminded of the shadow side within Christianity. And confronting this shadow is the terrible trip humans in the West must take into the heart of what is more real; our true salvation transcending religious dogma through spirit; where we can finally be united together with all humanity. The Christians who have already taken this trip through their shadow, will speak about the true freedom and power found in spirit. And in this spirit, "love never fails."
It is this transcendent and universal reality attained through overcoming the shadow which will stand as a striking contrast to dogmatic pronouncements, trying to restrict and deny access to the freedom of spirit. "Have you been saved? Have you thought about where you will spend eternity?" It is their dogmatic blindness that keeps them from seeing we are already saved and are already experiencing our being within eternity. There is an intuitive side of ourselves that transcends dogma, to realize that "love never fails." And the expression of this love will transcend our limited lives to evolve towards God-like beings, who "shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars.” -- HG Wells
Pastor Fred continued: "Have you let your creator search your soul? Would you dare? I have come to find what was lost, things taken, things forfeited by ourselves. We love, we hate, we lust we crave, we fear, we tremble and we don't know why. Search our heart oh God, to know us and to help us know ourselves. Take us to a beautiful place. I just pray we will be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves."
This I thought was cool at the end. Pastor Fred speaks of the unifying polarity of two sides coming together for a more perfect union. Only when the Satanic symbol of the serpent, is reunited with the innocent symbolism of the dove, can the great war be stopped so that peace may reign. And within humanity, this is also true about East and West, the atheist and theist, the liberal and conservative, the communist and capitalist, the Democrat and Republican, the lion and the lamb, the left with the right, the rich and the poor.
And Pastor Fred ends his sermon connecting with what I see happening on our Earth in the coming century, as humanity takes the journey through their shadow side, in search of the heart. "Do you really want your soul searched and riding shotgun on that search, because it's going to get ugly. but worth it because love never fails."
And this love finds expression in a new storyline, challenging the shadow side of Christianity as well as Western religion. It is a storyline where the East can be reconciled with the West; Christ with Buddha.
It is through intuition, where we can find a much more beautiful story than that which has already been told, and finds its limits in materialistic dogma, trying to restrict freedom of access to the power of spirit.
And what if this power gives us the freedom to avoid the nightmare, for a dream reborn; one in which we avoid the hate of our self destruction to find the promise in a love that never fails; the completion of our potential as a united species on Earth, living at last in the peace and prosperity of a global country.
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