Tag: Spirituality

Posted in Different Scriptures, Uncategorized

reformation not reset.

Posted on by Wick

Reformation Day is October 31st. On it, we remember Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church door. It was not done in anger or division. It was done in Love, inviting others to come and have dialogue about these particular topics. The goal was to hold all other things loosely, as we held onto Jesus firmly. To seek a living and faithful vision of being the body of Christ.

I still remember the words of an older woman at a previous church. We were having a discussion about the grace of God, and being thankful. I believe her intention was to illustrate just how gracious she believed our God was. But the statement she made caught me off guard: “I believe there will even be Catholics in heaven.” I stumbled through a knee-jerk response about yes of course, because Jesus and all that.

Discussions about Heaven vs. New Creation aside for now, I remember trying to control the contortions of my eyes in that moment. I wanted to affirm the graciousness of God, and also knew this was not the place to point out the oddness of her statement. But it has stuck with me. In over 2 decades of ministry now, I can verify – she’s not alone in her view, unfortunately. She’s probably not even to blame for some of the residual anti-Catholicism (Catholiphobia?) woven into the fabric of her faith. I’ve read at least one account of Christian missionaries from the late 1800’s heading overseas to minister in areas overrun with “Muslims and Catholics”. We have had some unfortunate missed opportunities to work together for the Loving purposes of Jesus. But we’re all responsible for what we’re actively weaving today, and so it seems worth this reminder.

A reminder that seems obvious: What we now call “The Catholic Church” was the primary/largest body of Christ-followers for at least the first 1,500 years. (There have continued to be great contributions to our shared inheritance in Christ after that as well – but that’s for another blog post.) That means there are treasure troves of writing, worship, art, theology, and testimonies from faithful women and men who were pursuing life by the Holy Spirit of God sent by the resurrected Jesus Christ. To assume the Protestant Reformation started the “one true Church”, is to turn our backs on incredibly rich history, gifts of wisdom, and beautiful words of devotion by those who wrestled with and enjoyed their faith in Jesus. The historic Church gave us gifts like The Didache, The Patristic texts/Desert Fathers, Apostle’s Creed & Nicene Creed. We have artistic expressions like ancient Icons, Beowulf, the Book of Kells, and illustrated manuscripts. We have practices like Breath Prayers, Fasting, the Eucharist, Confession (to one another), Lectio Divina, Annoining with Oil, Prayer Labyrinths, Visio Divina, Ora et Labora, and plenty of others to draw from – like different shaped buckets all uniquely great at dipping into the refreshing (& transformational) Living Well our Father has revealed in Jesus and made available by His Holy Spirit.

This week invites us to step, even if cautiously and experimentally, into those deep waters as we recognize “All Saints’ Day” (November 1st). While all around us we have silly costumes, candy, and celebrations of harvesttime – we followers of Jesus have a unique ability to embrace these moments for something greater. How often can you so easily approach any of your neighbors to say hello, learn more about each other, and express gratitude for their presence? If you’ve already spent time building relationships, what a great opportunity for us to be purposeful in mentioning, “My faith tradition has a celebration this week of the ‘saints’ – people who lived in ways that exemplified the Love revealed in Jesus. Who is someone you’re thankful for – as a person who revealed Love to you?” Take a moment to listen to their heart. Share your own memories of someone who shared the Love of Jesus in your own life. Talk about how such Love brings healing, and offer to pray for any areas of their life in need of healing.

In Mark 9, John approaches Jesus and says, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.” (Mark 9:38-41)

There are so many more words we could say. There is much wisdom in we Protestant brothers and sisters re-cognizing (to “know again”) the importance of “Confession” in our spiritual practices. The amount of healing God has wired such moments for in our brains, especially as these things occur in the power of His presence….Lord, help us to remember. If you want to rediscover “Confession” without going to a “Confessional”, check out www.discipleshipbands.com. It’s an incredibly valuable practice for our spiritual, emotional, mental, and relational health.

All of this to say – let’s share more fully in the rich inheritance of Jesus, all of His followers, and His Kingdom together.

We fam. 🙂

Posted in Different Learning, Different Scriptures, Uncategorized

do you mind?

Posted on by Wick

What did you choose to wear today, or eat for lunch? Who did/will you choose to marry, or what did/will you choose as an occupation? Did you actually choose these things, or were you simply following a pattern pre-determined by the multifaceted details about the body/brain/family/time you were born and live within? You may or may not know – some neurologists have tried to make a case against “Free Will”. As a firm believer in the healing importance of confessing our agency, I want to offer a few thoughts on the conversation.

In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, we read “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” We are given a choice. Similarly, in Galatians 5:16-17, “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.” Even living as a follower of Jesus is not something we assume happens “automatically” when we believe, taking away our sense of agency. Paul writes imperatively, “live by the Spirit”, because there is the option to do otherwise.

So where does the questioning of “Free Will” come from? As highlighted well in the enjoyable book “The Unthinkable Truth“, the newest fMRI brainscan technology has pinpointed areas of our thought processes in ways we’ve never before had access to. Based on recent research, scientists can identify by a brain imaging what decision a person will make up to 10 seconds before a person is aware of their own decision being made. Which is interpreted as “The choice is made before the person consciously makes the choice.” As Bouskila writes in his fictional story around genuine research, “..the bottom line of all these studies is that between the two options – you control your brain or your brain controls you – the latter is correct.” Many believe these newest studies affirm what Benjamin Libet implied in his 1980’s experiments on the conscious free will. Our brains make decisions for us, before we are even aware of a choice being made.

Thankfully, even among those who are interpreting these things to mean we have less agency than once imagined, there is an openness to unpredictability. Recently, neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky has written, “Will we ever get to the point where our behavior is entirely predictable, given the deterministic gears grinding underneath? Never—that’s one of the points of chaoticism. But the rate at which we are accruing new insights into those gears is boggling—nearly every fact in this book was discovered in the last fifty years, probably half in the last five.”

In the midst of all these things, our world is also watching the rise of artificial intelligence, and many are questioning the difference between a computer, and the human mind. Can consciousness be fabricated? If not fabricated, can it at least be transferred? Philosopher Christof Koch writes, “Computational functionalism is a widespread article of faith in Silicon Valley and the tech industry. From this point of view, the whole-brain simulation of your brain will possess your mind, or at least a fair approximation of it, and will be conscious. The integrated information theory of consciousness takes a starkly different approach. It argues that consciousness is not a type of computation but is fully and completely specified by the unfolded causal powers of the system upon itself, whether a brain or a computer.“

Echoing Koch, neuroscientist Peter Ulric Tse reminds us our brains are not simply machines meant to do supercomputing. They are unique and non-reproducible, no matter how improved our “artificial intelligence” (which are mostly just Generative LLMs anyways) may become. As helpful as technology might be (ethics of regenerating using unique creative content aside), we have capacity as human beings that no machine will ever be capable of. This capacity is retained even with current debates of our “free will”. Tse writes, “..my journey into issues concerning the maximization of human liberty began with my efforts to escape the faulty metaphor of the brain as a computer, and place meaning rather than information at the center of what brains, minds, and consciousness are for.” Tse sees current research into calculating when a particular decision was made, and maintains that no matter when or how a decision is made, a foundation of our humanity is our creative freedom and imagination. He writes, “We can strive to become a self that we imagine, thereby choosing to become a new kind of chooser operating in a new kind of world of our own choosing.“

All of this echoes recent writing by Jim Wilder in his book “Renovated”, where he takes some familiar content by Dallas Willard and makes new contributions toward the healing transformation God desires through attachment. Many people find it difficult to “become a Christian” by simply adopting new beliefs or assenting to a particular new Truth. I believe this is why God has invited us to experience healing (often called “salvation”, in the eternal sense) in an intentional community (Church) of loving relationships, and in loving relationship with our Triune God. Wilder writes, “The ability to choose (will) is a very flimsy cortical function located on the outside of our brain…attachments (relational identity), at a brain level (beginning in the brain stem) create an identity that operates faster than conscious thought.” To put it simply, as others have written, “We are transformed more by what we love, than what we think.”

All of this is to say, as new research might emerge about when our brains decide something, or what computers might be capable of – remember that you are uniquely able to exist as you today. You are capable not only of sensing, but of discovering the meaning behind what you sense, and the mutual accountability of discovering that meaning with others. You are capable not only of deciding based on what you see, but based on the future realities you’re able to imagine prayerfully together with the Holy Spirit. You’re invited to confess the choices you had agency in making (James 5:16), repent (turning away & having a changed mind), being set free from past narratives by the authority of Jesus, so that together in a community of beloved others, we can collectively experience healing restoration and transformation toward a New Creation God has already begun in the resurrected Jesus Christ.

This is literally the super-natural becoming our new natural. I am thankful for the healing that has come already, and looking forward to how His healing continues to arrive personally, communally, and universally.

Posted in Spoken Word

Pentecost (a poem)

Posted on by Wick

Dry.

Coughing as I breathe in, chest wheezing, this dusty cloud kicks up when I walk.

When I talk, words fall to the ground without sound.

Cracks invading the pavement, waiting for someone tall to step wrong and fall. Someone saw rain in the distance, just one instance, but that was years ago.

For now, nothing grows. And so, nothing sows. The last leaves turned to ash.  Out of resource, out of cash.  It happened so fast, before we realized we were empty.  The wind blows over another dried up, used to be, has been but isn’t now.

For a split second, seems to bow on purpose, then falls.

Smashing into a million pieces in these parched halls.  The air so dry it’s impossible to sweat – impossible to shed a tear, for fear of losing the last drops of moisture we assume are somewhere deep inside.  We’ve tried to hide.  We’ve lied to hide.  Cause when it’s gone, it’s gone.

Or so we’ve heard.  Not another word.  After all, we’ll get by.  We just need to try.  Try harder.  To really mean it this time.

Sunlight breaks, the cushion shakes and reveals the dust we’ve been breathing.  Our lungs as thirsty as our throats, debris forming coats.  A trembling unsettles our dust.  Frightened, but we must, respond.

The room is shaking, the ground quaking, the clouds fill the sky and darken brightly.

Not a drip.   Not a trickle or a stream. But all in one moment it happens.

Dams break, waves overtake, water makes and snakes its’ way, soaking the day, washing away any traces of ash and dust.  Respond we must, gasping for air and at the same time sinking without a care.

The pipes have burst, rushing like floods from somewhere unseen.  More like a geyser, like the spring from which all springs are sprung – filling our lungs and drowning out all remnants of thirst.

To a land that was cursed – healing and life, New Life. A Spirit poured out, and all creation shouts “Great is the Lamb that was slain!”  “Great is His Name!” The Spirit that came, as God promised it would.

See His blood on the wood…

We receive and are never the same.

Isaiah 44:3