Intersect

Richard Rohr talks about God as the “unified field.” This unified field is what connects everything physical and metaphysical (and here the metaphysical is not supernatural, it’s simply “meta” in its truest sense—that which underlies everything else). For Rohr and other people of faith, especially those of us with a mystical bent, the unified field is God.   Einstein spent much of the latter half of his life looking for the scientific equivalent of this unified field—the force that connects electricity, magnetism, gravity, time and space. In his day, quantum physics was just becoming a discipline, and some of its important theories seemed astonishing to Einstein. You see, when Einstein published his theory of relativity, it created a bit of a schism in the scientific world. For centuries, physicists operated under the notion that Newton’s laws described everything in the universe. We all remember some Newtonian physics from elementary school: levers, action and reaction, gravity...

For January 12, 2016 Free   = Liberated from social, historical, and psychological constraints Jazz   = Improvised music for heart, body, mind, and soul.   The Avant-Garde Church There’s a jazz movement that’s often referred to as “Free Jazz” or “Avant-Garde Jazz.” Pioneered by the likes of  Ornette Coleman ,  Paul Bley , and  Keith Jarrett  (a pianist who is one of my greatest influences), it emphasizes improvisation of both form and function. The jazz most people know is based on “standards,” songs from the 1930s and 1940s such as “Night and Day” or “Autumn Leaves.” These are terrific songs, and they make for great improv. But the songs are pre-formed. They have a verse, chorus, and bridge, and no matter how clever the improviser, for the most part, we still recognize “Autumn Leaves” as “Autumn Leaves” when we hear it. One of the great innovations of the free jazz movement was the idea that even the form of the song would develop organically—...

Good and loving God, we give thanks for this time to reunite with you, the ground of our being. May we continue to grow in our relationship with you and our understanding of you as the energy of love that flows around, and through, all creation, in this and every reality. We give thanks for the scientific discoveries, which continue to unravel the mysterious engines of creation, helping us discover your fingerprints in every leaf and flower, in the dust of the stars, and in the very DNA that forms all things.   This new knowledge helps us understand you in new an ever more profound way: as our life partner. You work  with  us by working  through  us, because we have learned that your very consciousness creates our physical being; and that your consciousness exploded into the material world billions of years ago in a big bang of creativity; then again thousands of years ago as Jesus the Christ, and that you continue to burst into and disrupt this world ever...

The  Star Wars  sagas are rich with spiritual metaphor. In the original film, Obi-Wan is a Christ figure, and Luke his disciple (it’s no accident the main character of Episode IV is named Luke). When Obi-Wan dies and tells Luke “Remember, the Force will be with you always,” he’s echoing Jesus’ statement in Matthew 28:20, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”   I could spend a year picking out all the spiritual analogies in  Star Wars , but today I just want us to think about one of its main plot devices, The Force, and how characters who are tuned into The Force—both light and dark, are so similar to characters we read about in the Bible.   In particular, I’d like us to think about The Force and the Jedi as an excellent way to reframe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Interestingly, and somewhat paradoxically,  Star Wars  gives us new language to use about Jesus that enables us to relate to him in a more authentic, First Century, CE, way. ...

Holy, unifying Love of the Universe. Glorious God! Hear our prayers. Feel  our prayers. We pray for nothing more then an actual experience of your love. We also pray for nothing less. [pause to hear God’s still small voice] Our faith in you gives us the confidence to have faith in humanity. Through prayer, we know you and we also come to know each other. When your loving, compassionate energy is flowing palpably through us, we can let go. We can relax. We can  experience  you, and be filled with the confidence of an unwavering, universal, unconditional love— a love we are then called to share with others— unconditionally. [pause to hear God’s still small voice] We place our trust in you, our faithful lover. We don't pray for specifics, knowing you don't need to be micromanaged. You, the infinite expanse of the universe; you, the dew on every blade of grass; you, the majesty of a mountain range, you the invisible molecules of all creation. You already know everything the ...