In Search of the Cosmic Christ

The cosmic Christ language is not just what Christ does for humanity but for the whole of creation (the universe and cosmos).  In a very real sense , the historical Jesus is for us the cosmic Christ.  An incredible book with so many possibilities to explore is J. A. Lyons The Cosmic Christ in Origen and Teilhard de Chardin (Oxford Press, 1982).  He says that both of these creative thinkers followed St. Paul's doctrine of the world to come.  "The world to come is neither a complete break with, nor simply a restoration of this present world but rather its unimaginable transformation" (p.76).

For Origen, Christ is present everywhere throughout the whole universe.  Christ's presence is penetrating the whole of creation.  Like Origen, Teilhard believes that redemption has a greater significance that is much wider than personal or individual salvation of people.  God is rescuing the entire universe in Christ.  There is a connection between relational, universal, and the consummation in these two Christian mystical writers to Paul's three great writings on Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians. 

Teilhard sees the world not moving in endless cycles but towards a higher reality, towards higher states of consciousness.  Creation, incarnation, and redemption fulfill one movement he calls "pleromization" which is a movement towards fullness of being where God and the world are united together.  Jack Hayford many years ago said provocatively that Christians would be better calling themselves pleromatics rather than charismatics where we walk in the fullness of the Spirit.

Teilhard goes beyond some of the fathers and Origen by stressing the body of Christ is not just the church but the world, the whole cosmos.  This is neither materialism spiritualized nor is it some kind of dualism of the spiritual added into the material world.  Rather it is a transformation of the material into going beyond itself, into the super-material.

Origen speculated about universal salvation and some of Teilhard's critics suggest he also embraced universalism.  But these attempts to undermine either of these Christian thinkers and writers is based upon a selective handling of the evidence and a misappropriation of history.  Just to read there biographies would  reveal there orthodox beliefs and there faithfulness to God and church.  There are paradoxes and tensions within both Origen and Teilhard's writings which need to stand as they are. Readers should not try to make them say something more than they said or package them in a certain way to reach certain conclusions eliminating the tension that exist in their writings and reducing truth to one dimension.

Thinking Outside the Box or Having the Mind of the Fathers

I have been reading the early church fathers and I'm amazed in the creative and life-giving ways they lived their lives for God.  So as I have been praying and thinking about the church lately, here are four areas I believe the church needs to make a change, an evolutionary leap, a transformation if its going to advance forward rather than surrender or retreat to the culture at large.

1.  A shift in thinking dichotomously (dualistically) to synthetically (heaven/earth, matter/spirit, mind/heart; etc.)

2.  A shift in thinking linearly to laterally.  We quit looking only at the moment but all of time (saints throughout all of history are alive with us).  We examine things not just one way (linear) but look at many sides of the truth of the matter (laterally).

3.  A shift from thinking marginally to liminality.  The church stops marginalizing its own or outsiders as the enemy and looks at creating space for all people (liminality).

4.  A shift in thinking binary (either/or) to holistically (both/and).  The church recognizes that both heaven and earth matter and it strives as Christ's bride for the unity of all things in all things.

Becoming like the child Jesus

Our core being
   Circumference
      Continuum
         Streams   
           Energies
             Currents       
           Living Communion
         Lucidity
       Liminality
     Love unbounded
   Life abundant
Little child once again

Wide Awake

The whole of creation woven with the thread of God's light
Tangible, visible and alive, boundless matrix of radiance bright
Heat, fire and mysterious love flow through creation
Communion of love overflowing into joyful elation

Wide awake to the larger life behind life
Excavating the outer and inner life and cutting through life's strife
Vibrations exploding to the inner core
Radically alive and seeing truth as an open door

Suddenly the earth trembles and all is at rest
All distractions vanish in a flash with a sense of being blessed
Walking between two worlds on the outer edges of time
An ocean of love fills the spaces within this mystic climb

Boundaries have exploded and a presence shakes my body
The Spirit bursts forth in flame in this jar of clay embody
Energy flows and permeates all reality
The boundaries of space and time dissolve in this beautiful totality

Bondage to the world is finally broken
Surrounded by love in silence unbroken
The current of the Spirit's energy dances through time
The presence of God nourished the soul and filled it with rhythmic sublime

A New Vision of a New Creation

Where the Spirit is there is change
God takes the old and makes new in the Spirit's great exchange
God's creative action crowns the world with eternal significance
God's transforming powerful love transforms everything by spiritual influence

The whole created world is a sacrament of God
Christ is the healer of wounded humanity that stands awed
God makes real what would remain hidden and concealed
God's hidden love in Christ is now revealed

Divinization of the humanity is the goal of this evolutionary universe
Knowledge may lead us to the doorstep of God
Contemplation of Christ leads us through the door of love
It is here we come face to face with God and our self
The fullness of revelation in the crucified Christ one finally knows thyself

A heart centered on God sees the depths of things as they truly are
Mystical death brings us to union of love where we can finally see the bright morning star
This love of God flows through us into the heart of creation
The divine mystery and fullness of love meet in its final destination

The Universe Transformed

I have been reading N. T. Wright's magisterial work, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Fortress Press, 2013).  N. T. Wright brilliantly and meticulously goes into the second temple Judaism of Jesus day to show that the world-earth-space and time universe was not to be abolished but transformed.  In Jewish literature whether the Scriptures or other second temple Jewish literature, God's people are sharing with the angels on earth.  Eternal life is not otherworldly "go to heaven after you die" theology but joining in God's new age on earth as it is in heaven in the now and present.  The whole Jewish mindset was establishing God's rule and reign on earth and restorative justice for the whole of creation.

Western Greek Platonism has coopted so many biblical images that heaven and earth are viewed in a highly dualistic fashion where the two are separated by a great gulf. When the Bible says Jesus has gone into heaven, Plato would never have thought that as a fully human being.  Heaven and earth interconnected and were interlocked in many ways and the temple itself was heaven on earth.  We need a new perspective of God's time intersecting with our time and God's space with our space in time and history.  This leads to a whole new way of living in the crucified Messiah as we die to our self daily and live as a new creation in this new rhythm of life.  We move into this Messianic reality where present age and age to come overlap and interconnect and heaven is united with earth.

Poet of the Universe

Reason, Science, and knowledge is not enough
There is more to life than what we can see or touch
Feeling God's pleasure and living in His presence
Holy Spirit fire animating everything in life's divine romance
Deep roots of the Spirit and heavenly union
All things cemented together by God's love and grand reunion

Shadows and Images of Reality

Are physics and mysticism twins or rivals?
Neither can prove or disprove the Spirit
Can subject and object become one in knowing?
The mystic sees beyond words and images
The scientist sees because of mathematical symbols of reality
Both are different ways of understanding reality
Both speak in patterns like poets of the universe

One is material and the other is focused on the spiritual
Both distinct but connected together in time and space
One on the temporal and the other on the eternal
But together they already are and not yet are becoming

Physics deal with the world of shadow and symbols
Mysticism deals with the world of the eternal and beyond physics
One deals with shadows and the other light
Can one see beyond the shadows into the light
Can the other see beyond the light into the shadows
Can it be that shadow and light are cosmically linked

The outstanding achievement of physics and science
is not the theory of relativity welding together space and time
Nor is it quantum mechanics negating the laws of causation
Nor is it the dissection of the atom or the splitting of the DNA

What it is discovered is there is more to the universe than shadows and matter
There is more to the universe than its reductions, limitations, and a thin worldview
There is a mystical wideness to the universe that is more than the sum of its parts
There are images beyond our human symbols and a love so personal that our
minds are captivated and our hearts captured by a love beyond oneself
The mystic miscalculates the two are the same
The scientist misunderstands that the two shall never meet
Neither will meet on their own but all are becoming one in Christ

Mystic Love

Can we go beyond division and strife
Beyond separateness to find the connections and stillness of life
Endless competitions and vain pursuits
Upheavals of life that effect the core for following life's routes

Driven by instinct but awakening to mystery
Coming to the end of myself to find a new pathway and history
Primal feelings and ancestral awakenings
Consumed by fire and love and my spirit quickening

We've gone to the moon and drilled the earth's crust
Flown into outer space to save the human race
But have we found the inner compass that reveals our true face
Perplexed we know something is missing
There's more to life than simply existing

The soul listens to the primal call
The heart's cry and the Spirit's chant
The body's silent chant stirs our thoughts
The mystery of love and the poet's dance

Is it a song or a dream or something else
Rhythms and vibrations of a secret place
Tangible love made manifest in the flesh
Love from heaven descending and giving us rest

The number 81

I received a phone call this morning from a family being terrorized by hidden dark forces.  I was asked the question "Can the demonic realm manifest itself in the physical?"  My answer to them is a definite yes.  Then I received Teilhard de Chardin's book, "Hymn of the Universe" in the mail today.  It has 81 chapters to his view of matter and spirit working together and being fused together. 

I wonder what is the spiritual meaning and significance of the number 81.  What I found was the number 81 represents the convergence or outworking of the spiritual manifesting itself in the natural realm.  So this just confirms what God is already speaking to me in helping this family overcome evil with good and the cleansing blood of Jesus erasing the past and obliterating the dark forces of this world attacking the truth of God's Word in this family that resides Medora Indiana.

The cross of Christ  is more powerful and more potent than all the armies of hell on earth.  So I listen, I pray, and I stand fast in the Lord Jesus Christ.  I gather together God's saints to do warfare in the heavenly places.  Where two or three are gathered in Jesus name, His mighty presence resides greatly with us.  Amen.

The Sacred Mirror

Can science and theology be poetry
Contemplative prayer opens the door to mystery
Stunned by inner silence and the Spirit's flow
Evolving nature within and around and below

The world moving so fast but inwardly still
Always yearning for the hidden the emptiness to fill
Communion erupts eternally in God's being
The fragmented universe explodes with grace that's freeing

Scientific imagination, poetic intuition, and mystical participation
Poets, scientists, and mystics all coming together in divine imitation
The whole world becoming not with God in things pantheism
But a union of all things in God which is panentheism

Looking in the mirror of creation reveals all
Beginning and end to see over life's wall
Everything I have and am to God belongs
Clothed for a wedding filled with heaven's songs

Echoes of the Universe

Listening
Listening to the earth
Unbounded awareness
Divine speech and numbers
Cosmic wedding where lovers unite
Mystic ascent and divine contemplation

God in unified oneness
The vast pool to the outer edge of the universe
All worlds become one in Christ
God's presence fills the entire universe
Everything hidden will be revealed
Everything evolving and ascending
Evolution leading to perfection

Demystifiying Mysticism

For some people, mysticism has a bad rap.  It is an "ism" and an extreme form of subjective faith with no substance or with little value.  Unless someone has been touched by the ineffable and experienced a mystical encounter of the holy, of God, they simply can not understand what they do not know.  Misunderstandings are bound to happen.

Some might want to say what I am promoting is Christian mysticism but even that does not take into account the cosmic significance of what God is doing in the world.  We think of the many forms of mysticism like consumer shopping where people pick and choose their favorite type or brand.  Some forms of mysticism do lack substance and others are captured and frozen within the confines of a religious tradition that keep them weak and impotent.  True mysticism has no boundaries.  It can not be domesticated or tamed.  It can not be contained in one system of thought since God is one and God is boundless.

What I have been striving after is a Jewish-Christian mysticism where east and west come together as well as dualism and non-dualism meet.  It will only be when truth, all God's truth join hands together in the cosmic dance of the universe.  God is mending "all worlds" that leads to Tikkun Olam ("to do the works of love to repair the world").  Until all people across every divide and barrier find unity and union with the Creator of the universe, the hard work of reconciliation and restoration of God's good earth is yet ahead of all of us.

The Cross Still Speaks

The bush burns but is not consumed
The bush gives light but no heat
The bush my body on fire by God
The bush the world, God become flesh

Breath and voice all flow as divine speech
Sin and flesh weighed down in rebellion
The prophet's voice utters a word
The whole creation is filled with its sound

The cross still speaks in a world of pain
The cross stills speaks as we hide our shame
The cross still speaks for there is no where else to go
The cross still speaks for all creation dances at its feet

The Interruption of Silence

Silence conceals and disguises
Silence echoes and hopes unexpected
Silence can feel like complete abandonment
Silence can renew like taking a deep breath

Silence waits while it listens
Silence breaks the noise of pollution
Silence listens to the cosmic dimension
Silence feels the passion of Jesus

Silence rests in the Father's love
Silence aches just to be hold
Silence breaks up the world monotony
Silence orders the rhythms of the universe

In the beginning before the spoken word, silence
In the end when judgment falls, silence
Before time started there was silence
Long after time ends, listen in the silence

The Kingdom of God is in You

My human failings are ever before me
An all-embracing vision of Christ is now all I see
The world full of holy action
Grace flows from Triune love into contemplation

The breath of paradise hovers around
Crucifixion is the painful sound
Small beginnings into mystery and ascent
Oneness and unity from death and descent

The word made flesh is incomprehensible
Christ poured out like water is inexpressible
Channels of grace and rivers of God's Spirit
No longer empty or barren but now filled with celestial lyric

The womb of creation rejoices in wonder
All mortal flesh is silent before God's voice that thunders
God's love reaches my innermost part
God floods my soul and overcomes my heart

Beauty of paradise belongs to everyone
Heaven on earth renewing in every direction
Sanctified atmosphere, Incarnate Word
God's kingdom within us and God's divine command undeterred

Christ making distant things near and things to come as already here
Having nothing but possessing all as pride and ego disappear
Mystical unity concealed in God's creation
Everything joining together for our deification

What was once strange now seems familiar
Transfigured by light as God changes the interior
Tormented by cowardice I surrender
Naked and exposed into purifying fire whose love is tender

Hymn of Christ

Christ in sleeping, Christ in waking
Christ in stillness, Christ in watchfulness
Christ in releasing, Christ in embracing
Christ in leaving, Christ in entering
Christ in emptying yourself, Christ in giving yourself
Chris in listening, Christ in speaking
Christ in dying, Christ in living
Christ in oneness, Christ everywhere


(inspired by Celtic prayer of St. Patrick)

A Cosmic Vision of Christ

There are various Christians who have had cosmic visions of Christ where Jesus rules all creation and the whole universe.  Paul's vision in Ephesians and Colossians is cosmic in scope concerning Christ.  The early Christian apologist Origen had a cosmic vision of Christ and then there were Julian of Norwich's visions among many other Christian mystics.  In the last century, Eastern Orthodox Pavel Forensky had a mystical vision of Christ as well as Teilhard de Chardin.  The person many may not be familiar with is the cosmic vision of Christ in Maximus the Confessor's writings.

Maximus says all of reality is an interlocking of realities from heaven and earth, soul and body, and physical (visible) and spiritual (invisible) realms.    There was a cosmic disaster of the fall and the cosmic restoration of everything through the cross of Christ.  The whole cosmos for Maxixus is the environment of God's loving care.  Creation is progressively being clothed in the glory of Christ.  Everything is moving in a circular spiral movement towards its final rest.  The liturgy is a kind of bridge between heaven and earth as everything will reach its apex in the self emptying love of Christ and human deification.

The Unity of the Universe

The universe is weeping within me
Pain rises to the Creator who made eyes to see
Shadows moving in the light
The universe alive in this cosmic fight

The vision of Christ fills my soul
Decay, death, and emptiness takes it toll
Matter and spirit come together
Desire for communion the whole universe surrender

There is this hunger deep down inside I can not name
A mystical hunger that soothes the pain
All the world is an altar
Consecrated matter by the blood of Christ,
our rock of Gibraltar

The voices of earth cry out for unity
God touches our hearts and brings us into community
God's flame of love has lit the whole world from within
The divine mystery long hidden has now been made flesh and skin

Jesus buried in the earth raised up to new life
Dying to self and awakening to this cosmic strife
Purified from within and seeing the universe as one
No longer a slave in the universe but now fully a son

The Divine Liturgy

Make your resurrection visible for all to see
Melt away all that would hinder prayer in me
The starts rise again as I fix my gaze
The darkness of life is like walking through a maze

Your very presence holds all existence together
Wandering I discover your love is forever
The radiance of your heart descends like a cloud
The flames of your spirit light the world aloud

Terrifying is separation from all created reality
Advancing and discovering this world's finality
Beholding and seeing a vision of the end
The mystery of flesh in God's son he did send

Everything melts in the Spirit's fire to be born anew
The true nature of things is revealed and all creation is renewed
What is man that God should be mindful of him
Only a little lower than the angels and then all creation sings
together the divine liturgy and hymn

Cross Training

You are the Father's Beloved
The Father's blessing is within your reach
God wants every generation to guard the sacred treasure
The holy dwelling place within our hearts

We have trashed Eden and sacrificed integrity
Exile and loneliness is all around us
Purification must come for consecration
Our adversary the Devil mocks us at every turn

As we discard the rubble of our life
The chief cornerstone builds a cruciform cathedral
The shape of the cross now fills the earth
My body a holy temple for worship

Holy Communion

Restless, confused, immensity terrifies us
Troubled hearts in an ocean of humanity
The foolishness of the world increases
I come into your presence to decrease

Receive me and take me up your holy mountain
The magnetism of the whole earth draws us in
The bread of brokenness is laid before like an open wound
The wine of our thirst is dissolved as we cry, "Lord, make us one."

I am overwhelmed but not struck down
Earth and matter collide with heavenly wind and fire
Sons of earth join mother earth in celestial praise
The flames of your Spirit grow brighter and more radiant
The Word energizes the darkness and coldness with light

The womb of the world is no longer expecting
Your abiding presence is here and that is enough
Blazing Spirit and creative fire consumes everything
All nature and heaven join ands in a great mystery
The silence is broken with these words,
This is my body
This is my blood
All is finally at rest

Holy Fire

In the beginning was a community on fire
Glimpses of the Trinity, my heart's desire
The fullness of Truth and incarnate love
Unfathomable radiance like a descending dove

Broken, ruined, corrupted are we
Cut off from paradise and the cross God's living tree
Everyone going a different direction for what am I to believe?
Looking for sanity in a world of make-believe

Community and comfort we want on our terms
Filling in empty spaces for paradise our heart still yearns
Purpose and meaning just out of reach
Does anything satisfy is there no one to show the way and teach?

When masks are exposed and the veil is removed
Glorious light fills the room, the whole earth shakes but my faith is unmoved
Where are we to find rest on this celestial ball
The Spirit fills this body and into God's love I fall

The World is My Altar

The world is my altar for I enter into the sufferings of the world
Over the horizon the sun fills the sky
The sun's fire makes the earth tremble as a Mother giving birth in travail
My soul is wide open for all to see for mystic presence awakens the day
My heart set free and the day is one for this peace I pray
Earthly pursuits begin to fade
A vision of heaven on earth reveals why I am made

Catching Fire

My proposal is simply this
A vision of heaven's kiss
Not to argue, justify, or defend
Not to confuse, subsume, or pretend

To see beyond science and religion as poetry
Waking up to communion with the universe is the key
While science continues its cosmic quest
I'm lost in wonder and awe of mystic rest

Man searching the universe for its many answers
Catching a glimpse of the face of God for all creation is yours
The depths of the earth filled with fire and heat
Consumed by the inner fire of the Spirit is the place
where science and mysticism meet

The Eclipse of God

We have dehumanized man to a beast roaming the land
We have de-sanctified nature where there's no place left to stand
Mystery has disappeared and God can not be found
Man is alone and heaven makes no sound
Faith and repentance are no longer required
We have grown up and God has retired

The Incarnate Word

One single circle embraces all spirit, and imprisons nothing . . . We can hardly perceive this higher and uncircumscribed unity of the universe  -  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The power of God's incarnate word penetrates matter itself.  The very heart of God unites all creation in the creative energies of Christ's incarnation.  The tide of God's presence showers the whole world.  We progress in the divine life through prayer, detachment, liturgy, and contemplation.  Each is like a movement of the Spirit on the creature to experience the all embracing work of incarnation.

Poverty of spirit and trembling love fill the atmosphere.  Mystical annihilation of pride and ego give way and bow before the divine center.  This transformation is interior or inward.  As the self is transformed, everything surrounding our being begins to be transfigured.  The wounds of the earth are healed by new sights and sounds of the rhythm of God's Spirit.

We witness our own funeral of fleshly decay to be raised up in the eternal light of the cross of Christ.  Everywhere we turn we behold heavenly fire that submerges everything into Jesus death reforming them into holy communion.  The hidden mystery of the suffering incarnation breaths abundant energies into the dark places of our little corner of the universe.  At this point one is immersed and changed all at the same time.  The selfishness that tries to drag us down into the abyss has lost its grip.  Now our life is aided by the work of the Holy Spirit in the grip of grace.

Like Moses on the mountain, we hide our face for fear of dying in the all consuming presence of God.  The chemistry of life and the physics of the universe now declare the glory of God.  The whole world is one in worship as doxology fills the air.  Death turns to resurrection and our destructive tendencies now look forward with upward gaze at the divine.  The ultimate point where all reality converges is God revealing himself everywhere.  God is both near and everywhere as the whole universe dances to the celestial song.

Where matter is the most dense and the soul the most deep is where these two meet and flow together in one great ocean of life.  In the end we discover the beginning and we arrive before the cosmic liturgy like little children.  Wonder fills our imagination and child-like humility burns deep within our hearts.  Suddenly the mystical Christ is everywhere and the whole universe radiates and is bathed in heavenly light.  The dazzling expansion and galaxies in the universe are a dim reflection to the hidden beauty reality of Christ.

Divine actions and energies are hidden deep within evolution and the human body which slowly shape and transform us from within and from around us.  The oscillating universe creates and preserves as it mysteriously moving everything forward and away from itself.  Everything is constantly moving towards the center in spiral motion and its center is the incarnate Christ.  The incarnation of Christ is concealed within us and flows with mighty cross currents throughout the whole universe.  Nothing can measure its vastness or witness its smallness as it touches everything in one universal embrace.  All of life suddenly becomes holy communion.

Energies and matter and rhythms of the Spirit flow together inside and outside of time and space. 

       *The greatness of God is unfathomable.
       *The love of God is inexhaustible.
       *The purity of God is incorruptible.
       *The immensity of God is incredible.

The kingdom of God is within us and the whole cosmic universe is clothed in Christ's glory.  The pathway of the Spirit is unknowable as it takes us through the cross of extravagant love and suffering and penetrates the marrow of our soul.  The richness and depths of this has no bounds since all of life and creation is a sacred gift.  A holy sacrament of the moment where the universe bows in worship to its mysterious host.  One is fully awake and fully alive to the welcoming presence who engulfs us in waves of divine power and energy and opens our eyes to this great cosmic liturgy.  One is ushered into silence and left utterly speechless.

Teilhard's Creed

The day will come when, after mastering space, the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love.  And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire -  Teilhard de Chardin

I believe that the universe is an evolution.
I believe that evolution proceeds towards spirit.
I believe that spirit is fully realized in a form of personality.
I believe that the supremely personal is the universal Christ.

St. Theresa's Creed

Let nothing disturb or frighten you
All things pass
God does not change
Patience achieves everything
Whoever has God lacks nothing
God alone suffices

Seeing the Inner Face of Evolution

Life will make a way - quote from Jurassic Park movie

The story of Jacob wrestling with an angel is a powerful image of the wrestling match between science and religion.  Scientist and mystic both wrestle with matter and the universe until it yields the divine.  Evolution is a revelation of God continually involved in creation which is far reaching and ongoing.  Like the story of the prodigal son, God is always waiting, longing, pursuing creation.  Even creation itself is waiting for the children of God to act and bring healing to the earth.

Ascetic spiritual disciplines and the community of believers look for many ways to heal and bring restoration to God's world through the gifts of science and gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The world reveals the Spirit and the Spirit reveals the world.  The repeating cycles and patterns of the world flows out of the repeating cycles and patterns of God's Spirit.  Incarnation is the outcome of the Triune God who takes matter and spirit and breathes life and energy into the whole universe.

When one is mystically touched by the indescribable, one discovers the secret of the invincible power of God's love.  We only hurt each other when we do not love one another.  God's mysterious light and purifying fire engulfs one's total being.  Everything is exposed and there is nothing hidden.  All becomes translucent and transparent in the glorious colors and radiating rays of God's perfect love.  The whole universe becomes alive reaching upward in spiritual evolution to the fullness and unity of God.

Humility and interior peace fill the soul like a flood of heaven whose gates are open wide.  This cosmic vision of Christ's face hidden in the universe of matter and spirit all intersect at the foot of the cross.  Matter and spirit are not two separate substances but two distinct aspects of one creative action of the cosmos.  No longer should one abandon the world but fully participate and build it up.  No longer is one tossed back and forth by the dark forces and demonic elements of the world for they have lost their hold on us.  All creation is therefore knit together with Christ at its fiery center. 

Until we posses this new vision of the universe, the alien forces of this world will tempt us with many false illusions and deceptions.  If we are tempted that we posses the florescent light of God then spiritual pride and hypocrisy stands at the door.  It is only by complete surrender into the loving arms of God's grace that takes possession of us and not the other way around.  We begin to see God's dazzlingly light everywhere that draws and pulls like an invisible force everything to the center.

God's presence both disturbs and brings to light our imperfections while it comforts and gives peace and rest to the tired soul.  The divine presence is continually pressing in and seeks to enter into our lives.  Scientist and mystic can learn the art of detachment that cleanses and nourishes our hungry souls.  God's presence and energies strengthen and purify till that moment when we experience union with God.  Suddenly our massive confusions and fleshly inner forces within are stilled by the immensity of God and the powerful inter-connections of the universe.

The Circle of Prayer

I pray among the voices and silence rises within me
The world shouts but your Spirit whispers
You melt me in the presence of your love
You circle me with pure light

You place a song in my heart like a fire
You simplify the complex things of life
I know I am but dust so breathe on me
I know I am weak so pout out your power

I surrender myself and everything to you in sweet communion
You alone remove my sin and give me new life
Your presence is at work in the very depths of my being
My heart if full of your unsurpassable presence

When I lose my footing you are there
When I fall between the cracks, you touch and raise me up
You quicken my spirit with creative worship and joy
Grace is everywhere as I circle all creation in prayer

As I lay hold of the earth, you lay hold of me
Knowledge of You is too wonderful to know
Grace is everywhere as you change me from within
I feel your presence, even when its dark

Your divine presence animates everything
You nourish my soul and my cup runs over
Radiant goodness fills the room for I am a man of unclean lips
I enter the divine liturgy on earth as the whole world is your temple
Amen

Hymn of the Universe

The world is an endless cycle of cause and effects
Everything stands before God even in its defects
Our bodies are part of the cosmos that fills the spaces
God holding all things together in holy embraces

The whole universe is fine-tuned to the smallest detail
God's presence penetrating through all objects without fail
Pain and suffering surround us with death and evolution
Our wounds God heals for our spiritual transformation

The laws of nature everywhere are dependable
God in His grace share His love that is indescribable
The changing seasons and cycles refresh the earth
The signs of God's fingerprints are marked from birth

The whole cosmos is filled with many dimensions
One great body of Christ Lord over all dominions
Changing, evolving, gazing at the cosmos
Christ rose from the dead and Hell was opened and suffered loss
This small planet spinning in space
God in eternity gives His grace

The Hidden Face of Christ in the Universe

To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, all in one  -  John Ruskin

There is a silent vastness to the universe.  Can we look  behind the veil to see how matter and spirit, science and mysticism are intertwined together?  We observe, investigate, study, and test to find that we have fallen asleep.  Like Jacob waking from a dream, we discover in science that God is here and we did not know it.  The whole cosmos whispers and points us in a direction but are we listening?

Is the world something we exploit or use for our own ego or is it a gift to be treasured and protected?  All creation is interconnected and moving towards a future point which is Christ.  When the best of science and our inner mystical intuitions join, we suddenly discover the world and life is sacred and our spirit is fully alive in Christ.  There is a harmony and symmetry to the universe just like there is entropy, death, and chaos.  The empty spaces, the nothingness between the matter, and even the chaos point to something beyond themselves.

The divine math can even use these counter currents of chances, probability, and coincidence to become acts of providence under the cross currents of the cross of Christ and His resurrection.  Descending leads to ascension and while the imperfect is being made perfect.  Catastrophes, tragedy, and natural disasters can point to the significance of life and promise can emerge from disorder.  The smallest atom and molecule gives way to countless connections towards higher life and spiritual evolution.

Science can herald and witness the innumerable ways God works within creation.  What appears as random events may emerge through many eons as the incarnation of God's son.  Just like various chemicals attract and repel and bond together, so God is bonding the whole cosmos to His son.  Grace is the invisible stuff that holds the universe together.  It is the impermeable glue that connects everyone and everything to God. 

What scientist and mystic can both appreciate are the little things in life that most people either ignore or just don't take the time to notice.  Matter and Spirit are part of the same evolutionary movement that all lead back to Christ.  As Spirit and matter penetrate in deeper union, love unfolds and blossoms.  Natural evolution points to spiritual evolution and they are like an arrow pointing the way towards cleansing, healing, and union of everything.  Like a magnificent crescendo of an orchestra, all creation arrives and converges with its Creator.

Atoms everywhere moving beyond their present state
all creation waiting for hope
Spirit and matter working together as one
We participate in the whole cosmic flow

Everything pointing forward to the multiplicity of the world
and the creative simplicity of God
New awareness, cosmic emergence
The substance of matter and spirit turn
and spiral into a holy convergence.

Sin and death are written in our very genes
Eruptions and devastations and countless resurrections
The cosmos is more than the sum of its parts
The Lord Jesus Christ comes to rule our hearts
In the cross currents of time
To the depths of the center
is Christ our paradigm

The Maze

I saw the movie The Maze Runner with people trapped like in a cage
The maze is so high that no one could gauge
The walls are wide I must confide
What is on the other side?

The maze so long, what does it mean?
Is there something out there to believe
that can release us and redeem?

Have we discovered something lost
or is it something we recover with great cost?
Will my last question be, "what lies beyond the maze?"
Will I ever be free and touch the eternal with eyes to gaze?

Is the Universe One?

Is nature but a mirror of the Creator?
Does the divine face fill the landscape?
Is every second of life a gift?
Can science be a revelation of God's hidden face?

Is the secret of life that everything is connected?
Can the messiness of life lead to a divine destination?
What if the whole universe is a cosmic divine fire?
Can I hear the whispers of the universe and finally rest in God's presence?

In Praise of Mysticism

The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical.  It is the sower of all true science.  He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead . . . . That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible Universe forms my idea of God - Albert Einstein

(from Phillip Frank Einstein: His Life and Times (1947) Ch.12, sec.5)

I wonder if anyone has developed the ties between mysticism and Einstein's theories and thoughts?  Einstein has also said, "Mysticism is in fact the only criticism people cannot level against my theory."  And my favorite quote is this one: "The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one."

It seems that even Albert Einstein was on the mystical track.  Isn't it time we have a conversation and look to a new vision on the relationship between science and mysticism?

A Litany to Death

Without the death of stars, there would be no planets and no life.
Without the death of creatures, there would be no evolution.
Without the death of cells in woody plants, there would be no trees.
Without the death of plants and animals, there would be no food.
Without the death of the old ways of thinking, there would be
no room for the new.

What, then, are the gifts of death?
The gifts of death are Mars, Mercury, Saturn, and Earth.
The gifts of death are the atoms of stardust in our bodies.
The gifts of death are woodlands and soils, ponds, and lakes.
The gifts of death are food: the sustenance of life.
The gifts of death are wisdom, creativity, and the flow of change.

(Written by Michael Dowd Thank God for Evolution, p.98-99)

I would add:

The gift of death is spiritual evolution: through dying one discovers rising.
The gift of death is dying to the old self to live as a new creation.
The gift of death is to end the endless cycles of doing things always the same.
The gift of death is breaking free from the dark powers and chains of this world.
The gift of death is to end suffering and pain.
The gift of death is to make way for new life.
The gift of death is Christ's blood and love covers a multitude of sins.

Life Questions

Who are we? - the question of identity
Where are we from? - the question of origin
Where are we going? - the question of destiny
Why are we here? - the question of purpose
What ultimately matters? - the question of meaning
How are we to live? - the question of morality and right action
What happens when we die? - the question of finality and continuity

How do you answer these questions?
These are life's questions . . .

God's Boiler Room

God sneezed and something went viral
The day God forged my life into a prayer crucible
Blood, sweat, tears I wept
Lord help me to walk in your Spirit, your promises I kept
In your presence, you quiet my soul
In your service, loving others is the goal

Lord, I pray today not to fix the world but to fix me
You are teaching me that a life of prayer is the key
At the end of the day in everything I do
Lead me into your presence to continually rest in you
Prayer is a mystery, a sweet smelling incense
Prayer is simply sitting in Abba's thrilling presence

Nature Whispers

Are you listening, can you hear?
A world filled with energy so near
Earth, wind, fire, and air
World of matter and spirit to gaze and stare

Art and beauty fill creation
Fluidity and motion flows the whole duration
The curve of space all working together
Sun and rainbow and rain and weather
All working together like sweet poetry
The whole cosmic orchestra working its way free

The vibrations of the earth echo underneath my feet
New dimensions of sight and sound trying to meet
Universal forces breathing in and out
Life and death wrestling match, is that what's it about?

The whole cosmos is set before our eyes
Do we wonder, do we care that everything dies?
The milky way with spiral arms
Supernovas and constellations have such great charm

The speed of light, the outer edge
The Spirit moves us to get off the ledge
Images and signals, past and present
God comes to us, our skin His resident
Endless mystery, far reaching wonder
God's end and beginning, for us to ponder

Kingdom Prayer

Dear Jesus
Save me from myself
I am my own worst enemy
I am totally lost without you

Open my eyes that I may see
Open my ears that I may hear
Open my mouth in perpetual praise of You
You are my righteousness
build Your kingdom in me

Prayer is the keys to Your kingdom
Teach me to pray like Daniel in the Lion's den
Teach me to have a repentant heart like Jonah in the belly of a great fish
Teach me to persevere like Elijah praying in the desert
Teach me to live like your son who prayed on the cross
Amen

The Exile of Teilhard de Chardin

At the end we will have a true liturgy, where the cosmos becomes a living host
- Teilhard de Chardin

Some of the church's faithful has been hounded and misunderstood throughout church history.  In 1924, Teilhard was summoned to France to a meeting that led to his exile, censured of his books, and silence as a teacher in the church and even as a scientist.  The church at that time could not understand some of his writings and his views challenging Augustine's original sin doctrine as well as supporting evolution as the way God made the heavens and the earth challenged the church's interpretations of scripture and it seemed to make God the author of evil.

Despite the suspicion, accusations, restrictions, rejections, and prohibitions, Teilhard remained a loyal child of the church and kept a vow of obedience to be silenced and he could not publish his books.  Many of Teilhard's books did not get published until several years after his death in 1955.  Teilhard was a man way ahead of his time so he was an embarrassment to the church at large at that time in history.  John Paul the II gave an encyclical saying there is no contradiction between science and the Christian faith, between evolution and the Roman Catholic Church doctrines of faith.

Although the Roman Catholic Church has never officially exonerated Teilhard, an archbishop on behalf of John Paul II said he was a man possessed by Christ who tried to honor both faith and reason.  Teilhard prayed a week earlier that if he hasn't been wrong, he begged God to allow him to die on Easter Sunday.  He died on Easter Sunday, April 10, 1955, at six o'clock in the evening.

Prayer Walking

I keep walking in prayer, one step at a time
To stand at the threshold is worth the climb
In the present moment is joy hidden
In-between the cracks of time we struggle to win

Failure and rejection stand before and behind me
Forsaken and lost I trust God on bended knee
Exhausted by choices and feelings of despair
I deeply surrender to God my soul to repair

Let go without a cause I sigh
My mind is swimming with questions of why
Why me, why now, why here in this place
By prayer God begins healing this empty space

Even in my brokenness God gives me strength
Even in suffering I find Jesus goes with me the whole length
I'm feeling the world's pain in this rhyme
I keep walking in prayer, one step at a time

The World Is My Garden

I good friend of mine, Don Lokey died and I did his funeral.  Sometimes when you are close to someone, is easier to give the message.  All I knew is I wanted to give God's message so I prayed and waited and prayed some more.  The day before the funeral, early in the morning, the message came flooding in like a wave.  I heard in my spirit these words, "The world is my garden."  As quickly as I heard these words then a scripture came to mind, the last half of Psalm 65 which speaks of God's care and renewal of garden earth.

The last day of Don's life he spent in his garden.  I was considering looking for a poem on this image of garden but it was so late and I went to the funeral visitation.  The front of every bulletin has the twenty third Psalm.  This is the first time in almost two decades that the front had a poem called "God's Garden."  I was also handed that day three letters from Don's daughters to read and the last one ended with words about seeing Don some day in his heavenly garden.  Are you starting to see a pattern yet?  I also discovered that there was an assortment of special music and the last song chosen was the song "In the Garden."

I was amazed at the unity and beauty of the whole service which like a masterpiece of art all flowed together.  Now I am working through a sermon series through the book of Daniel and I am studying the ninth chapter of Daniel.  As I am working and praying my way through this chapter and book, there are two thoughts that press in on my mind on how God builds faith and trust.  God does it through extravagant love and extravagant suffering.  I got a last minute phone call to help at the local food pantry and I got to put into action some of this by helping others in their suffering.

There is a little book I picked up earlier this year called "Living with Mystery."  I started the book, set it down and never picked it up again.  It caught my attention today so I picked it up and it was marked on a chapter about the cross of Christ and suffering.  As I was reading, I thought about the funeral I did today and Don's life how his life ended abruptly from cancer, I ran right into these words:

I have entered the garden gate.  But this is not a garden of fragrant roses, singing birds, and sunlight and dew-covered grass.  This is the garden of darkness, a garden of finitude, a garden of turmoil---the garden that Jesus entered.  It is the garden of humanness, of abandonment, and tears.  No rays of sunlight shimmer through the trees.  No blossoms open their faces to the sun.  No birds serenade Him.  Rather, in this garden, only the way of the cross beckons Him.  And in this dark garden, He waits for me (p.93).

The enemy of our soul tempts us to believe that suffering is bad or evil and should be avoided at all costs.  But its suffering like Jesus in Gethsemane that releases us into perfection with Christ in the garden of paradise.  When we have the marks of Christ's suffering, then we are like the man who trusts in the Lord that the prophet Jeremiah describes:

Blesses is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord.  For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes.  But its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit (17:7-8).

Cosmic Communion

I look forward to the day on the other side
Fully unified and present with all on this cosmic ride
I look forward to seeing friends and strangers who are now friends
I look forward to having communion with Adam and Eve,
Moses and Rahab, Daniel and Ezekiel, Joseph and Mary,
Peter and Paul, Origen and Iranaeus, Augustine and Cassian,
St. John and St. Theresa, Karl Barth and Henri Nouwen,
St. Silouan and Thomas Merton, Teilhard de Chardin and
Lesslie Newbigin and all the saints from past to present to
future.  I hold the future as I hold onto Christ or better, the future
holds me in the cup of its hands.

The Ghost of 911

The ghost of 911 is hanging in the air
The ghost of 911 do we even care?
The ghost of 911 haunts us still
The ghost of 911 do we even have the will?
The ghost of 911 is that our future?
The ghost of 911 are we lost with no cure?
The ghost of 911 is taking us where?
The ghost of 911 is a reminder if we dare

Save Me From Religion

The church is missing a theology of suffering and the cross
Religious people can no longer feel the earth beneath their feet
The can not see heaven descending like a cloud upon the earth
We can no longer feel the light of creation's glory shining on our faces

We can no longer dance the faith or keep up or in step with the Spirit
Can we taste the goodness of God on our lips?
Is the garden of paradise on our minds?
We have lost and forgotten the mystical, beauty, mystery, and the sacramental
Not only have we lost them but many a religious person stands against them
Please God, save us from religion

A Litany by Teilhard de Chardin

The world-zest
The essence of all energy
The cosmic curve
The heart of God
The issue of cosmogenesis
The tide of cosmic convergence
The God of evolution
The universal Jesus
Focus of ultimate and universal energy
Center of the cosmic sphere of cosmogenesis
Heart of Jesus
Heart of evolution
Unite me to Yourself

In Your Presence (Prayer)

Lord,
I want to live permanently in your presence everyday. 
Teach me to be fully present to your Spirit and to those around me. 
Teach me to be fully present to my wife.  To pray with her when she
goes to work and to give her my full attention when she arrives home. 
Teach me to love my children without reserve so that I can be fully
attentive and present to them.  Help me to model Christ to each one of them.
Teach me to be present to the world around me.  To enjoy nature and all
its beauty and precious designs. 
Teach me to enjoy people to the fullest as loving you is to love them. 
Empower me by your Spirit to be fully present to myself, where I abandon
my will completely to your will and enjoy the gifts of work and play,
study and prayer, solitude and ministry, rest and renewal in your presence.
Amen.

The Strange Bedfellows of Science and Religion

The history of science and religion, particularly Christianity, has been a strange relationship of convergences and divergences.  The birth of science came from the seeds of Christianity's curiosity of the mind, free exploration of ideas, scientific study, and the pursuit of truth.  Many early famous scientists were both Christians and scientists.  Even Darwin started off as a Christian even if his faith wavered or was lost in the end.  Now the strong majority of scientists are atheists.  What happened?

Naturalism and Darwinism have ruled science for some time now and this has made an uneasy alliance or strange bedfellows between science and Christianity.  What we have today is an assortment of strange looking creatures and monsters which have been produced by this uneasy alliance between science and religion.

1.  The first strange looking creature is the ostrich.  The ostrich is not an attractive bird and many would say its quite ugly with its big eyes, long neck, and disproportional body.  The ostrich hides its head in the sand when faced with fear or danger.  This ostrich approach has become possibly the majority one among Christians and people of religious faith.  Science is either ignored or denied as an ungodly discipline and too worldly for the more spiritual church.  Rather than all truth is God's truth and we can learn from both the revelation of the world and the revelation of scripture, the only acceptable interpretation of the world comes from a particular reading of scripture while all other readings are compromised or wrong.

2.  The second strange creature or monster is the Minotaur.  The minotaur is a very aggressive creature that is fighting a culture war against science and is losing.  This is the YEC view (Young Earth Creationists) that interpret the Bible literally and view evolution as the great enemy or great evil that needs to be vanquished.

3.  The third strange looking creature is the chameleon.  The Chameleon simply fits into its environment or society by looking and resembling it.  Here science rules biblical interpretation and no matter what science is being employed, it is simply read back into scripture as if the pre-scientific writers of the Bible actually intended to speak authoritatively on matters of science and even modern ideas today.

There are many more hybrids, crossbreds, and hideous looking transformations to numerous to count.  What I want to do is present a new model of understanding science by mysticism.  Christian mysticism has a Trinitarian structure of both unity and diversity as well as an incarnational core that can look like a monster to those operating in one of these other strange creature worlds of existence.  To them mysticism is not rational or logical enough.  Mysticism is too subjective and too interior focused for those who want a more factual and objective approach.  It seems neither the scientific community nor the Christian academy opts for this alternative approach.

Science and the church have both forgotten or abandoned their historical mystical roots.  Both originated from mystical encounters with the Creator interacting with His creation.  Both were raised up from the dust to shine like stars in the heavens.  Both were to ascend to heaven and the angelic realm.  But science and church theologians too often have reduced man to either simply being an intelligent animal or an animal with a spiritual soul living in a world to conquer and divide, kill or be killed, and bite when provoked.

If science and Christianity are to advance and evolve then both must surrender themselves to the mystical intuitions and cosmic Christ of the universe who interconnects all reality as all reality is joined to its Creator.  Can we see with new eyes the wonder, beauty, mystery, symmetry, and grandeur of the created universe?  Can scientist and mystic hold hands in appreciating that the universe is greater and beyond what we can ever think and imagine.  The future is waiting for a holistic model that joins science and religion together where neither one loses its individuality or uniqueness while they both converge into greater unity and oneness with the one who made them both.