THE REAL THING – RELATIONSHIP, NOT PERFORMANCE

A NEW LEARNING
The novel by William Paul Young called ‘The Shack’ is old news now but I am dusting the cover again because since it was self published in 2007 it has sold a bazillion copies, been translated into thirty languages, is available on the iPhone and as an audio book and has ridden the New York Times Best Seller List’s number one spot for about one year. It’s presently in the number two spot.

But what I want you to hear today is an interview with the author. CBC has a savvy journalist/interviewer in George Stromboulopoulous. His nightly show is an engaging 60 minutes because he is well informed, brings well crafted questions, is sharp witted and his show invites guests worth interviewing. In May 2009 George interviewed William P. Young. It is a superb exchange.

When you listen to these few minutes of the video clipped interview, listen for the reasons Young wrote the story which is subtitled, “where tragedy confronts eternity.” Hear how it was born out of his personal pain and the transforming realization of God’s unshakable love. Listen for reasons he chose to describe the Trinity with characters that have incensed some conservative Christian leaders and pastors. He is not teaching theology but employing an imaginative metaphor to inform readers about God so he chose to portray God the Father as an African American woman named Papa, Jesus Christ as a Mideastern carpenter and the Holy Spirit as an Asian woman named Sarayu. It’s not heresy. It’s fiction.

First and foremost for my purpose today I want you to hear Young’s description of the struggle that many people have within religious communities of the world, to be preoccupied with performance rather than a real relationship with the living God who loves us. And if you are one of those people who have felt trapped and censured by the expectations of religious people, know this. There is life and freedom and healing, and joy in knowing the love of God through a personal relationship of trust exclusively in Jesus Christ whose Holy Spirit will transform your life. There is more to say but I will get preachy.

Hit the bold underlined sentence to get to the interview link.)

PROUD OF ALEX COLVILLE

A NEW LEARNING
Alex Colville does not expect anything beyond this life. In the end we are all dead would summarize his view. Perhaps he might say that he has received honours and tributes enough to compensate for an afterlife. Do I wish that Colville embraced a biblical view of heaven. Of course I do. Colville is 89 years of age, has struggled with prostate cancer and bowel cancer and has a valve replacement in his heart.

He has said that his lifework is his effort to ask one question: What is life like? As Colville puts it, "You spend your whole life telling people what it's like to be alive." In order to affect this Colville has examined his surroundings of the Annapolis Valley, the shores of the Minas Basin, his home and his family. His children have been some of his models and Rhoda, his wife of 60 years has been the subject of many paintings.

He is very much aware of his age, the imminence of death, the legacy he lives and the manner in which his mortality inspires his paintings. He understands that his work has stirred interpretation and sometimes controversy, telling the CBC's Life and Times "what troubles people about my work, in which they find mystery and intrigue, may well be the idea that ordinary things are important."
CBC has done an impressive interview with Mr. Colville recently and I felt privileged to watch it on my television. Canada is proud of this artist of provocative pieces which are recognizable around the world.

Tom Harpur's Cosmic Spirituality

A NEW LEARNING
Tom Harpur’s book entitled The Pagan Christ was published in 2004. I wouldn’t be commenting about it now if not for CBC’s November 30, 2008 airing of the documentary The Pagan Christ which was shown first on December 6, 2007 and this past April 19, 2008 won the Platinium Award at the 41st Annual WorldFest Remi Awards gala in Houston, Texas. Why readers have found Harpur’s opinions fascinating and appealing is because of his personal spiritual excursion. His curriculum vitae displays scholarships at U of T, a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University and theological studies at Wycliffe College. After several years as an Anglican priest he became a professor at the Toronto School of Theology (University of Toronto). He was an Anglican minister for 17 years. Over the past 30 years he's been a radio open-line host, a TV broadcaster, an author and an award-winning newspaper reporter and columnist. He has written many books, ten of which were Canadian best sellers. While he still calls himself a Christian, he could call himself a devotee of any other faith for his thesis postulates a commonality which demands unqualified inclusivity.
Harpur believes that there was no true historical Jesus but that the real Christ is a universal, archetypal, pre-existent myth, known essentially by all humanity. He believes that there was one original primal and central myth which emerged in Egypt. All other ancient sacred stories flow from there. Christianity launched a unfriendly conquest of the ancient salvation myths. Then many early church fathers, in an attempt to declare exclusive rights to this mythological Jesus, made him an historical biblical person. Then they embarked upon a grand coverup of the scavenged mythological roots of Christianity.

If you wonder where this faithless trip has brought Harpur himself spiritually, look at the seven principles of his comic, did I say that? Cosmic spirituality. Here are his Seven Principles of Cosmic Spirituality:
1. The entire cosmos is the manifestation of Divine Mind-every molecule, every cell, every creature, every rock, tree, mountain, planet, blazing star, whirling galaxy and universe of galaxies.
2. We are all an integral, interconnected part of the whole cosmos and our own inner world is a holograph of the cosmos within us.
3. One basic datum underlies every religion under the sun, the principle of Incarnation. The Word or Logos, God's self-expression made manifest, has given the light of its divine spark to every mind/soul coming into the world. Christians call this the Christ or "Christ in us." Other faiths have different names or modes of expression for this same inner reality.
4. Every religion whose ethical core is summed up by the word "compassion" or "loving-kindness" to all other creatures without exception has a vision of the truth and is a valid "way" to Transcendence.
5. No one faith or religion-whatever its claims may be, alone has The Truth.
6. True cosmic spirituality is steeped in, flows from, and derives its most powerful analogies and metaphors from the natural world -- from the tiniest bit of dust to the spiraling stars above.
7. The core aim of cosmic spirituality is radical transformation, both personal and societal.

As Ward Gasque’s critique finished, “Harpur's book tells us more about himself than it does about the origins of Christianity (or Judaism).”

Tom Harpur's website
A tiring one hour audio interview with Tom Harpur