Kirkepiscatoid

Today’s readings center on a quote by Gandhi: “I have only three enemies. My favorite enemy, the one most easily influenced for the better, is the British Empire. My second enemy, the Indian people, is far more difficult. But my most formidable opponent is a man named Mohandas K. Gandhi. With him I seem to have very little influence.”

Reflection questions:

1. Who is your “favorite enemy,” your “most formidable opponent”? How do you confront this enemy?

I have to confess my “favorite enemies” are the small minded evangelical Christian mindset “family values” types. They really rile up the “how dare they” part of me. How dare they tell me that I should feel bad about not being married and having kids. How dare they tell me how to worship my God. How dare they tell me the way I was reared, as messed up and imperfect as it was, is “ungodly” compared to their ideal of rearing children, that I find in a lot of ways equally ungodly. How dare they tell me that who I vote for is ungodly. How dare they tell me that I am WORSE than “IM-moral”, that I am “A-moral.” AAAAAAARRRGGGGHHHH!

I generally confront this enemy by being unabashedly, unashamedly, unrepentantly me. Me at the edges. Me at the fringes. Me that loves “shock value.” When they try to stare me down spiritually, I love to logic them to death. I can make them run off foaming at the mouth muttering they will pray for me (and all my ‘transgressions’ )

My most formidable opponent, though, I have to admit, I’m with Gandhi on this one. My most formidable opponent is ME. That is because my most formidable opponent can be incredibly stubborn, unyielding, and unflinching. Frustrating too! There’s not much point in me confronting this enemy, because I cannot win against my most formidable opponent. Only God can, and he has to wrestle with this person for quite a while sometimes. The only way my most formidable opponent will change is if this person sits and “marinates in God” for a spell—sometimes days to weeks—so the meat will soften up and be flavored!

2. Make a list of “spiritual leaders” (living or dead) whom you admire. What are their attributes and activities that you would like to integrate into your own spiritual life? How would you begin doing it?

This is kind of a “truth or dare” question but ok, fine.

Ok, obviously, I admire Jesus. I would like to incorporate his willingness to “do what’s right even though I may be physically hurt by it” attitude. I have a pretty strong dose of self-protection that stops me from this.

I admire Moses. He did what God asked of him, even though he had a speech impediment, and yet he was not allowed to walk in where he led his people, but he was ok with that too. I would like to have more of his perseverance.

I admire Bishop Gene Robinson. How he handles what he has handled in the past few years without wanting to beat the shit out of everyone is a mystery to me. I wish I could have his calm demeanor.

I admire Black Elk of the Ogala Sioux. He seemed very at peace with incorporating Sioux spirituality with Christianity, and I share a lot of his views of how nature and God fit together.

I admire Katharine Jefferts Schori the Presiding Bishop for the Episcopal Church. Partly because of how she has handled the schismatics in the church with quiet confidence that the church is bigger than all of us, but mostly because she is a biologist and I see how she fits together her scientific knowledge and her spiritual knowledge to work for her. Most clergy types I know are not scientists, so it is hard for us to have common language sometimes, as much as I like them!

Mostly, I try to be aware of these things I admire in these people and let God work them into me somehow. I realize I can’t “force feed” them. This might sound like a “lazy way out” but simply being aware of things can be heavy soul work!



2. Have you ever practiced meditation and fasting as spiritual disciplines? If so, write about the experience and its impact on your spiritual life. If not, can you imagine learning and practicing these disciplines?

Yes, but not exactly at the same time. I imagine a lot of my “sitting in my sacred space in the yard” is a form of meditation, although I might, at times, want to claim it’s not b/c I’m not using any sort of “official rules” for meditation as outlined in methods such as “centering prayer”, etc. It might be a facet of my personality that I like being a “maverick” and some of that includes pretending to be a bit of a maverick when I’m really not.

I fasted for the first time in my life on Sept. 25 as part of support for the Millennium Development Goals, from sundown Sept. 24 to sundown Sept. 25. I didn’t tell anyone I was doing it until I was almost finished b/c I did not want to talk big talk and then fail. That is something else that is my style. I don’t like to talk big talk beforehand. I just like to go and do, and talk afterwards.

I think the “sacred space in the yard” activity (see, I’m not going to call it “meditation” ) has been an area where I feel some change occurring inside of me, but it is very subtle and I cannot put my finger on exactly what that change is. I am reticent to discuss its “impact” because right now, I don’t know what that is . I don’t like to explain things I can’t yet explain!

I am not sure what to say about the fasting activity yet, because it’s the first time I ever did it. What I can say is since it occurred on a normal work day, I did not find myself being too overly hungry b/c work distracted me. I don’t know if I devoted a day to only fasting and meditation if that would be applicable. I might seem hungrier! I did have a couple times where I felt my body feeling a little “deprived” and had to deal with a sense that my blood sugar levels were accomodating to a “fast”...had a couple moments of real sleepiness in the day. But again, I would have to do this more to say more!