Some Recorded Musings on our Sacred Safari

Click Play to hear the audio the mp3 file of the homily described on the right. It can also be saved to your computer and mp3 player.

Play June 17, 2007: A story about entering the Bible for the Emmy’s leads to three main points:  (click to read more below.)
324 downloads to date
Play June 24, 2007: Starts with the story of Bonfire Night in Ireland of the 1950’s and goes on to make four main points:  (click to read more) 216  downloads to date
Play July 1, 2007: Starts with the story of the guru who almost drowns his wannabe disciple.  It goes on to make four main points: (click to read more)
199  downloads to date
Play July 15, 2007: Starting with a funny explanation for why Jesus’ disciples did not recognize him after the resurrection, it goes on to make five main points   (more) 187   downloads to date
Play July 22, 2007: It begins with a story about the origins of Celtic Christianity – was it from Rome, via St. Patrick or from Egypt via the Desert Fathers?  It then goes on to make four main points: (click to read more) 195  downloads to date
Play July 29, 2007: This begins with a story about setting up an irrigation system and then uses that image to speak of Prayer of Petition.  It makes three main points:  (more) 191  downloads to date
These and other homilies can also be purchased in CD, cassette tape, and/or book format after the 9:30 A.M. Sunday service at the
Seventh Day Adventist Church (which we rent) at the Intersection of Channing and Guinda, Palo Alto, CA. Directions can be found here.
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Summaries 



June 17, 2007:  A story about entering the Bible for the Emmy’s leads to three main points: 

1.  Mary Magdalene and the Mighty Mix-up
Speaks of the historical conflation of three women and of several stories; and the deliberate or accidental agenda around sex and sexism in the development of Christianity.

2.  The Evolution of the Notion of Sin
Speaks of the development of the idea of sin from taboo-breaking to covenant-breaking to law-breaking to being asleep.

3.  The Evolution of the Notion of Forgiveness
Speaks the development of the idea of forgiveness from tribal reintegration to rededication to covenant to priest-mediated reconciliation to Self-realization.

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June 24, 2007:  Starts with the story of Bonfire Night in Ireland of the 1950’s and goes on to make four main points: 

1.  When Was John the Baptist Born?
Speaks of how Christianity pruned and grafted older religious feasts and holy sites to optimize its own growth.  This determined when John the Baptist was born!

2.  John and Jesus
Speaks of their relationship – Cousins? Disciple/guru? Fellow Essenes? Precursor/Messiah?

3.  A Curious Enquiry Gets an Enigmatic Response
Speaks of Jesus’ enigmatic description of John as both “the greatest man born of woman” and yet “the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than John.”

4.  John, Jesus and the Buddha
Speaks of the three distinct parts of the Buddha’s life and how John recapitulated the first two, while Jesus recapitulated the third one.  It ends with a short essay about John written in April 2006.
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July 1, 2007:  Starts with the story of the guru who almost drowns his wannabe disciple.  It goes on to make four main points:

1.  They Ain’t Making Gurus Like They Used To – Thank God!
Speaks about the prophets Elijah and Elisha as well as Christian leaders, as men of their time using violence as a way to “defend” God.

2.  Leaving Home, Returning Home
Speaks of the Evolution-Devolution process from ineffable source through love, light and life and back through physical body, mind, soul and spirit.

3.  What You Get Is What You See
Speaks of how the observing consciousness determines what nature is free to reveal of itself; and this is true whether the observer is an individual or a culture.

4.  The Law of Gravity and the Law of Attraction
Speaks of the force that pulls two heavenly bodies together and uses that as a metaphor for how an ego or a soul can attract a small dream or a big dream, a nightmare or a shift in human consciousness.

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July 15, 2007:  Starting with a funny explanation for why Jesus’ disciples did not recognize him after the resurrection, it goes on to make five main points: 

1.  The Background
Speaks of the efforts of the Companions on the Journey community to bring their liturgy into alignment with their theology.

2.  The Task
Speaks of the job of pruning away bad psychology and bad theology as well as sexist language; the recovery of lost treasures; grafting on of new ideas; and creating a seamless, elegant, poetic flow to new liturgy.

3.  Salvation History – An Evolving Tradition of Liturgy
Speaks of the traditional Jewish liturgy; liturgy at the time of Jesus; liturgy in the history of Roman Catholicism; and the meaning of “the words of consecration.”

4.  The Surprise
Speaks of how the new Eucharistic Prayer of the Cosmos was channeled.

5.  The Eucharistic Prayer of the Cosmos
Analyses the parts of this new prayer with its metaphors and its major focus on awakening.

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July 22, 2007:  It begins with a story about the origins of Celtic Christianity – was it from Rome, via St. Patrick or from Egypt via the Desert Fathers?  It then goes on to make four main points:  

1.  Lila – The Tree of Life
Speaks of the 13.5 billion years of evolution, which did not simply set out to produce humans, making errors and getting stuck in cul-de-sacs in the process.  Each species is an end-point in evolution, but an end-point that continues to evolve.

2.  Science – The Story of Life
Speaks of science’s magnificent job of discovering this 13.5-billion-year odyssey, but of scientism’s God-shaped hole in this story; a God-shaped hole into which the caricature of God created by fundamentalist religion fits exactly.

3.  Akashic Records – The Book of Life
Speaks of the Book of Life not as the Bible (or any sacred scripture), nor as a heavenly record of the names of the “saved” but rather as the cosmic archives of everything that has ever happened in our universe – the album of a doting parent!

4.  Liturgy – The Dance of Life
Speaks of liturgy as the equivalent of the Biblia Pauporum (the Bible of the Poor) and the urgent need to leave sectarian rituals and embrace liturgies that have a cosmic sweep to them.
       
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July 29, 2007: This begins with a story about setting up an irrigation system and then uses that image to speak of Prayer of Petition.  It makes three main points:  

1.  Manipulating the Cosmic Bureaucracy
Is God a middle-Eastern potentate who can be bargained with? A know-it-all who has factored in all possible aspects and so is immune to your requests? A satellite dish in the sky who redirects your pleas to the target? Or somebody who is fooled by shortcuts and tricks?  My thesis is that the best metaphor for prayer of petition is that of a sprinkler system under a lawn – with God as the central faucet, the water as Love and the emitters and sprinkler heads as us.

2.  We Are Not Alone
Speaks of the Catholic notion of The Communion of Saints, the Hindu notion of Atma and Jiva; of saints who “specialize” and of heavenly mentors who act as Big Brother/Big Sister.

3.  The Our Father -  A Model for Prayer
Speaks of the two versions found in Matthew and Luke; one has a focus on forgiveness, the other a focus on persistence; it ends with a mathematical metaphor from Vector Analysis and the power of laserized intentionality.

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