[Oe List ...] 12/052023, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Brandan Robertson:The Kingdom of God Within: A Challenge for Progressive Christians; Spong revisited

Thu Jan 5 07:01:05 PST 2023

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!important;padding-bottom:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent, #yiv6473560314 .yiv6473560314mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{padding-right:18px !important;padding-left:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 .yiv6473560314mcnImageCardLeftImageContent, #yiv6473560314 .yiv6473560314mcnImageCardRightImageContent{padding-right:18px !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-left:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 .yiv6473560314mcpreview-image-uploader{display:none !important;width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 h1{font-size:22px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 h2{font-size:20px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 h3{font-size:18px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 .yiv6473560314mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent, #yiv6473560314 .yiv6473560314mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 #yiv6473560314templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 #yiv6473560314templatePreheader .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent, #yiv6473560314 #yiv6473560314templatePreheader .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 #yiv6473560314templateHeader .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent, #yiv6473560314 #yiv6473560314templateHeader .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 #yiv6473560314templateBody .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent, #yiv6473560314 #yiv6473560314templateBody .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv6473560314 #yiv6473560314templateFooter .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent, #yiv6473560314 #yiv6473560314templateFooter .yiv6473560314mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} By Rev. Brandan Robertson  
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The Kingdom of God Within:
A Challenge for Progressive Christians
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|  Essay by Rev. Brandan Robertson
January 5, 2023I was walking through the Upper West Side of Manhattan and I came across a building that caught my eye. It had a rainbow flag flying high about its brownstone exterior, a “Black Lives Matter” banner hanging above the door, and when I approached, I noticed a sign that said “We Declare A Climate Emergency” hanging next to the entrance. Right above that sign was another sign that revealed this building was a church - obviously a progressive Christian community. I smiled to myself and continued my walk through the city. It was good to know that there were faithful communities like this one surrounding me in New York City and, indeed, across the country, that were bearing witness to the call of the Gospel to manifest the Kingdom of God in our world “as it is in heaven.” 

But then I began reflecting on my own experience as a progressive Christian minister and writer, and I was a bit convicted by another reality - that for all of the energy I expend trying to speak truth to power, demand policy change, and paint a picture of a more just and inclusive world, I often have neglected the important work of cultivating an inner spiritual vibrancy - what I have come to understand as the “Kingdom of God within.” Not only have I not personally taken the time in my own life to cultivate a deep spiritual life, as of late, I have noticed that very few of my progressive Christian colleagues have spoken about this either. Most of our energy is expended declaring the revolutionary message of the Gospel to the neglect of allowing the good news to nourish our own souls at a deep level, which often results in burnout and cynicism. 

As we enter a new year and are thinking of ways that we might change our lives to be more whole and balanced, I want to challenge progressive Christians to spend as much time building the inner Kingdom of God as we do working for the Kingdom of God in our world - for the sake of our crucial work to bring about justice and equity in our communities and culture.

At the heart of the Christian faith is the central command of Jesus to love God by loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. In other words, the precursor to effectively loving God and effectively loving others is to build a healthy rhythm of self-love. This reminds me of the instructions we hear every time we board an airplane and are told about the oxygen masks dropping in an emergency - the flight attendant will say, “Make sure you put on your own mask first before attempting to help others.” Why? Because if we do not have access to oxygen as airplane pressure drops, we could lose consciousness and be utterly unable to help anyone else. To be the most helpful to others, we must first help ourselves.

Jesus makes a promise that those who follow him will experience an “abundant life,” and he demonstrates what this looks like in his own ministry - regularly breaking up his public teaching and healing with naps, prayer, and downtime with his friends. It’s no accident that the Gospel writers include stories of Jesus’ self-care - each story is placed intentionally in the text to help teach us something about how we should live as disciples of Christ. Yet, in the Capitalistic Christianity that has become dominant in the world today, we’ve bought into the lie that our only work is to work. We’ve believed that if we are not being productive, then we are doing something wrong.

In my own life, I can often scarcely carve out an hour or two just to nap, let alone pray, meditate, or contemplate my life without feeling like I am wasting my time. And this sometimes results in a lifelessness in the work that I do, a pervasive cynicism that, despite my true desire to embody the Gospel in the world, perhaps none of it will actually work and none of it actually matters. And the more that inner cynicism grows, the less impactful and fulfilling the work that I do becomes. On the other hand, if I can make space to care for myself, to experience the rest, relaxation, and freedom that God created me to experience, I walk throughout my day with a heightened sense of the presence of God and have a clearer vision of what exactly I can do to help bring more justice and light to the world.

If we are to be effective at confronting the growing storm clouds of Christian Nationalism, climate change, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, racism, and economic injustice, we must first ensure that the Kingdom of God is firmly established “within us” - that our mind, body, and souls are nourished, cared for, and rooted in a deep awareness and experience of God’s love. We must come to the belief that self-care, in and of itself, is an act of resistance and revolution. If we are going to actually see our world transformed into the “Kingdom of God,” we must encourage one another to embrace a regular rhythm of rest, spiritual practice, and personal enjoyment - for these are as much a reason for our existence as working to make the world a better place.

As we stand on the brink of the new year, looking toward what the next 360 days have in store for our lives and our world, let us commit to self-care, resisting the urge to do more at the expense of simply being and experiencing the beauty and majesty of life, even in such a broken and unjust world. If we are to see the Kingdom of God manifest on earth as it is in heaven, we must first see it manifest in our own lives. Let’s resist the theology of self-sacrifice and embrace Jesus’ message of self-love as the basis for effective ministry in the world in 2023 and beyond.~ Rev. Brandan Robertson
Read online here

About the Author
Rev. Brandan Robertson is a noted spiritual thought-leader, contemplative activist, and commentator, working at the intersections of spirituality, sexuality, and social renewal and the author of Nomad: A Spirituality For Travelling Light and writes regularly for Patheos, Beliefnet, and The Huffington Post. He has published countless articles in respected outlets such as TIME, NBC, The Washington Post, Religion News Service, and Dallas Morning News. As sought out commentator of faith, culture, and public life, he is a regular contributor to national media outlets and has been interviewed by outlets such as MSNBC, NPR, SiriusXM, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Associated Press. He leads Metanoia, a digital spiritual community at MetanoiaCenter.org  |

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Question & Answer

Q: By Connor

With the recent introduction of Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT, how worried should pastors and other writers be about the possibility of being replaced by “Rev. Skynet”?

A: By Rev. David Felten
 Dear Connor,Short answer? Based on some of the lousy sermons I’ve heard in my day, some clergy should be REALLY worried. But first, this technology is so new (released at the end of November 2022), that few people have even had a chance to use it, let alone have an opinion on its threat or promise. So first, what is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a “chatbot” designed and developed by the for-profit company, OpenAI. The GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) component is a learning neural network trained to respond to questions by aggregating internet data and then generating text responses. It is blazingly fast, frighteningly accurate, and — for a computer — mind-blowingly creative. Should pastors be worried about it taking their jobs? Don’t ask me! Ask ChatGPT!

After simply registering at chat.openai.com, I typed in the following: “100 words on the potential ChatGPT has for writing sermons for pastors.” In less than ten seconds, the bot provided the following text:.....ChatGPT is a powerful language model that has the potential to assist pastors 
.....in writing sermons. By inputting a topic, ChatGPT can generate relevant 
.....text that covers different angles on the topic. While ChatGPT can be a 
.....useful tool, it's important for pastors to use their own knowledge and 
.....experience to craft their sermons and ensure they are meaningful to their 
.....congregations. Pastors should also carefully review any output from 
.....the model before using it in their sermons.

What about plagiarism you ask? Not to worry. In its first month, countless desperate students have already turned to ChatGPT to generate their final essays for teachers across the country. The teachers, suspicious of the high quality of the essays, ran the essays through plagiarism detection software and, voila! Few to no violations. Why? Because what ChatGPT generates is totally original. Granted, it can be a little dry and encyclopedic, but it is otherwise trained to be creative in presenting the data it collects from the internet.

Case in point, I next asked the bot to “Write a 100 word persuasive description of Progressive Christianity.” Again, in TEN SECONDS flat, it wrote the following:
 .....Progressive Christianity is a movement that values inclusivity and social 
.....justice. It encourages individuals to interpret the teachings of Jesus and the Bible 
.....in a way that resonates with their own experiences and understanding of the world. 
.....Progressive Christians also prioritize social justice and actively work towards 
.....a more equitable and inclusive world. This movement offers a fresh approach 
.....to faith that is both rooted in tradition and open to new ideas. It is relevant, 
.....inclusive, and empowering, and has the potential to make a positive impact 
.....on the world.

Not bad! It may not replace the creativity of Mark Sandlin, but it may replace ME! Seriously though, if I’ve got writer’s block and can just ask ChatGPT to get me started on a topic, what a gift! In short, ChatGPT promises to revolutionize the way creatives go about their work and the fundamental value of what creatives have to offer. If just anyone can generate a factually accurate description of Progressive Christianity by simply asking a question of an AI, the unique insights of creative and inspiring leaders will become all the more valuable.  

Make no mistake, this is a revolution in the making. ChatGPT will write computer code, make suggestions for celebrating a 10-year-old’s birthday party, compose poetry, or provide step-by-step instructions for cleaning the carburetor on a ’57 Buick (true! I tried it!). One wag on Tik-Tok entered a dozen random ingredients from his refrigerator and the bot came back with a detailed recipe on how to use each and every item in preparing dinner (which he claims was delicious). Not only that, but the same company also just launched the DALL·E digital image generator that, given written prompts, will create never-before-seen works of art in whatever style you request.

So, should pastors be worried? Nope. Excited. Harnessed for research and inspiration, AI bots like ChatGPT promise to stoke all kinds of creativity and productivity. Of course, the same thing was said about AI right before Skynet wiped out humanity, too. So, use it while there’s still time!

~ Rev. David “Skynet” Felten
Read and share online here

About the Author
Rev. David M. Felten is a full-time pastor at The Fountains, a United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills, Arizona. David and fellow United Methodist Pastor, Jeff Procter-Murphy, are the creators of the DVD-based discussion series for Progressive Christians, “Living the Questions” and authors of Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity. A co-founder of Catalyst Arizona and also a founding member of No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, David is an outspoken voice for LGBTQ rights both in the church and in the community at large. David is active in the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church and tries to stay connected to his roots as a musician. You’ll find him playing saxophones in a variety of settings, including appearances with the Fountain Hills Saxophone Quartet. David is the proud father of three reliably remarkable human beings. Visit his website here.  |

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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited

On Parting - Never to Meet Again -
An Experience of Timelessness

Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
August 12, 2013There are some moments in life when the transcendent is expressed inside the mundane; where the eternal seems to enter the passage of time. They are moments, usually unexpected, perhaps not even recognized until later. I had such a moment earlier this year that will not go away and so I have decided to write about it.

We invited to dinner a couple who have been our friends for many years, despite the fact that they live on another continent. The conversation at this meal was easy, as it normally is when it comes out of a long history of relatedness. We recalled shared experiences, some of which brought laughter and some of which had been painful, but we are both survivors. It did not occur to me until near the end of this meal and their subsequent departure that this would probably be the last time we would ever have time with this couple. When they drove out of our driveway, my nostalgia turned to a deep sadness, tinged with the positive realization that relationships are what give life its beauty, its meaning and perhaps even its intimation of immortality. So let me introduce you to these friends.

We first met Ann and Peter Carnley in their home in Perth, Australia, in the early 1990’s. At that time, he was the Anglican Archbishop of Perth in the Province of Western Australia. Ann was his lovely, no even beautiful, wife and the mother of their fantastic children, who are now grown and are marvelously creative adults. I was on my first foreign book tour with my book Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism. Most authors on a book tour of Australia tend to limit their exposure to that continent to the eastern part of that country visiting Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. I had, however, also received invitations to speak and to be interviewed by the media in Canberra, Adelaide, Darwin and Perth. So our tour was an extensive one. On our stop in Perth, we were the guests of the Archbishop and his wife.

Peter was one of the better-educated Anglican bishops of the world, having studied extensively at Cambridge University in England and having taught theology in Australia prior to being chosen to be a bishop. He was a well-known author and the recipient of a number of honorary doctoral degrees. He was also a brilliant interpreter of the cultural life of Australia. When he was chosen at a relatively young age to be the Archbishop of Perth (the Anglican Church of Australia is divided into the various provinces of the country with Archbishops in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane), he went immediately from being a priest to being an archbishop. As the Archbishop of Perth he was in charge of a territory constituting about a third of Australia’s land mass. Perth is a city of just under four million people. It is near the port city of Fremantle. From where I live when one is in Perth, one is literally half-way round the world. This is symbolized by the fact that 12 midnight in Perth is 12 noon in New York and that summer and winter are exactly reversed. The nearest major city to Perth is Singapore. Perth is famous for the beauty and variety of its wild flowers. To us, however, it was famous primarily because Peter and Ann Carnley lived there.

Over the years we made nine trips to Australia and on three of those trips we went to Perth and spent time with the Carnleys. It was always a highlight of the trip. We met some of their friends, including on one occasion the governor general of Western Australia, who eventually would become the governor general of all Australia. That is Australia’s ceremonial head-of-state position; ultimately the representative of the Queen of England. We went to the theatre together in Perth and saw Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, a play about the trial of the witches in Salem, Massachusetts in the 17th century. Miller’s play, published in 1962, was written to counter the hysteria generated by the late Senator Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt carried out during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. Together we watched Australian football, known in that land as “footie,” which is different and rougher than any professional game I have ever seen. We talked about life together, including church life. Both Peter and I sat uneasily on what passed for evangelical religion with its uninformed literal use of the sacred scriptures. My primary audience in Australia was drawn from among those who were alienated from organized religion by this very kind of mindless fundamentalism. Peter, who was later to become the Primate of Australia’s Anglican Church, had to deal with Sydney Anglicans, who reminded me of 18th century Northern Irish, Catholic-hating Protestants, who had migrated to the South Pacific and frozen their faith in time.

Sydney’s bishops and clergy were like a group of Ian Paisleys, only now ordained as Anglicans. They made both Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson look bright and liberal. Evangelical Christians so often act as if they possess the full truth of God and they can be quite imperialistic. I had confronted this same fundamentalist reality in my career; first in the struggle for inclusion into the life of the church of people of color in the segregated South; later, in the quest for the full equality of women in both the church and the society, and finally on the issue of justice and welcome for gay and lesbian Christians. Peter confronted them in Sydney, where to this day, women are denied ordination and homosexuals are treated as either sick or sinful people. So we had lots in common and battle scars to show for it.

On one trip to Perth, Christine and I traveled up the northern coast of Australia and headed east, seeing some magnificent scenery. On another, we went straight east into the heart of Western Australia to the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie, a town that advertises: “We have more brothels than churches.” It is the only place I have ever known where a brothel offers guided tours in the mornings when business is slow, complete with cookies and lemonade at the end. The bishop of Kalgoorlie, Gerald Beaumont, was one of Peter‘s assistants. We had known Gerald and his wife Lyn, who is a doctor, when he was the Anglican priest in Alice Springs and had driven with him to Uluru (Ayers Rock) on a memorable trip. The two of them had been called by Peter to work in Kalgoorlie and they had blessed it with their presence.

When Peter retired, he returned to teaching and accepted a position that brought him for one semester a year to the General Theological Seminary in New York City. So we continued to see the Carnleys. On one occasion, he filled in for me as the confirming bishop at one of our churches in the Diocese of Newark. On another occasion, I taught a class for him on the resurrection of Jesus at General Seminary. So, in those days, it did not seem to be so difficult to say goodbye whenever we parted. We could always anticipate meeting again.

Not so this last time, Peter was completing his work in New York City and did not plan to teach there again. There is little possibility that we will ever return to Australia at this stage of our lives. In the middle of dinner, this realization began to overwhelm me. I looked at these two special people: Peter tall and stately with an infectious smile; Ann with a face that always exudes love and the kind of caring that reaches deeply into her being. We had been colleagues in our struggles within the Anglican Communion to move this church of ours into life giving stances, especially toward those the church has consistently marginalized. We had both taken our lumps from those who did not share our vision. We had both been sustained and upheld by the love of our wives, who shared in our lives more deeply than most can only imagine. On this occasion, however, they were retiring to their newly-built home well outside Perth. So I began to realize that this would probably be our final encounter. Of course, there is e-mail, Facebook and Christmas cards, but those are not the same. The realization that we would probably never see these two again in person felt very much like enduring a death experience.

Suddenly, the end of the meal became emotional. We shared with them our gratitude for what they had meant in our lives. When the time came to say goodbye, we embraced each other a little more firmly and a little longer than would normally have been the case. This embrace had to last for a lifetime. They got into their car and began to pull away. We stood at the door waving until they passed out of view. Christine and I turned and embraced each other. I suspect a tear or two trickled down our cheeks. A part of our life was ending. That relationship would live from now on only in our memories or, as the old song says, “Among my Souvenirs.” Ann must have felt something similar for she wrote afterwards that she was feeling “the terror of Australia’s distance.”

Life does not stand still. It is an ever-moving stream that bears all its sons and daughters away. It hurts to have a final parting with those you have loved for so long. If I could change the nature of life, however, I would not do it. I have been enriched by many relationships. Peter and Ann Carnley are two of them. I am more alive today because I know them. Their physical departure from my life will never remove what they have given me. Life is not quite so individualistic as we pretend. Life expands and contracts regularly and always in response to being loved and losing those we love. I often wonder if we are ever really alone. Do we not always transcend our limits when we enter deeply into another’s life? If God is the Source of life, do we not worship God when we live fully? If God is the Source of love do we not worship God when we love wastefully? If God is the Ground of Being, do we not worship God when we have the courage to be all that we can be? Is not this God found in those relationships that enrich our lives, expand our love and give us the power to share our being with another? Is this not what an intimation of immortality is?

Thanks Peter! Thanks Ann! You have been something of the life of God to us and when we live in the life of God distance become finite and time enters eternity.~  John Shelby Spong  |

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