"We are all, by nature, clearly oriented toward the basic human values of love and compassion. We all prefer the love of others to their hatred. We all prefer others’ generosity to meanness. And who is there among us who does not prefer tolerance, respect and forgiveness of our failings to bigotry, disrespect, and resentment?"

 Have you ever felt that comforting tingly feeling that spreads around your body at just the right moment?

How about gathering with friends in a dark church surrounded by candles?

Join us for our X-Mas eve prayer service at St Matts at 10:00 PM on Dec 24th.

 

Sunday Gathering: Discussion on Failure

At Spirit of Truth's Sunday Gathering today, Grant introduced the discussion topic after referring to this video:



For those of you who don't have the time to watch, the argument is simple:

Failure happens.  We can either admit it and continue working towards our goal with a fresh perspective on what went wrong, repair mistakes, adjust our viewpoints and actually accomplish something...
or
we can pretend it didn't happen, or try to make excuses -which could lead to us making the same mistakes again, or cause us to limit the scope of our ambition unnecessarily.

There are some thought provoking stories within that video, but the last line really strikes me
"Has _________ failed? For me YES, but only because it hasn't failed enough."

During our One to One discussions we talked about our own failures without making excuses, without trying to redeem them by saying "but I learned ___"  just to admit failure, to be comfortable with it.
To recognize that we are loved, good, capable people without having to make up for every failure.

An exercise in liberation. Liberation from our own self doubt, and from believing that the world (and God) actually holds a grudge against us, actually believes we are worthless because of our failures...
its just not true.

Grant spoke about the ancestors and their liberation from Egypt, whereupon they spent 40 years wandering in the desert. 40 years to make a journey that should take a week or two.

Over my years hearing this story I have heard all types of explanations for the 40 years:

-punishment by God
-simply being lost
-poor leadership
-apathy
-preparation for war
-preparation by God (of the land)

or the one Grant offered

-preparation of the people, of the community to be worthy of the land


It took the Hebrews a lifetime of wandering, of failing repeatedly, admitting failures and staying focused on the vision ahead to make it.

Will we spend our lives hiding our failures and continually lowering the bar till we can make it
Or
Keep our eyes on a bigger prize, recognize what hasn't worked and try again?

The Religious Left?

This summer I was cleaning out old files in a file cabinet at the school in which I work. Teachers throughout the years had conveniently left us "contributions" so that future teachers and students could learn from the wisdom of the past. My school is full of this stuff which more often than not does not make sense in the random context in which it is found, and once again more often than not is thrown away when we need space. 

I was making space.

Along with photo copied packets that had been written originally on a type writer, and scrawled notes in cursive in 3 or 4 different people's penmanship the particular drawer I was cleaning out held a series of old audio and video tapes (that we no longer know how to play). I was lucky to find a couple of audio tapes that I could play in my car. One was a history of the blues from gospel and chain gang songs to modern styles.  The other was a collection of labor songs from the 1800s that  Bucky Halker had recorded.

This collection blew my mind for two reasons.

A) It was just great folk labor/protest music.

B) The references to God and heaven and socialist utopias.

Even as a history teacher this era is mysterious. I must admit I have studied more about world history than our own in the United States, but I was amazed to hear these songs of Jesus' intentions for a socialist utopia from the workers of the late 1800s. To me it was clear these people felt there was no distinction between being a progressive socialist and being a christian. 

I wondered how we strayed so far, for today it seems like all of my politically progressive minded friends shun religion with a passion. Even those religiously inclined will more likely say they are "spiritual" rather than religious, and more often than not will not claim to be Christian because of the stigma that surrounds the word in left leaning crowds. 

But there was a time when religious (even christian) did not mean exclusive of a desire for freedom, economic and social equality and justice for all. 

This is what we mean by "living into the narrative of love and justice," it has been around a long time, and will continue to exist... we are the inheritors of a great and wonderful tradition of working towards justice, and we are needed.

-Mike

The following excerpt was written by Rabbi Michael Learner
The whole text can be found here:

Imagine if John Kerry had been able to counter George Bush by insisting that a serious religious person would never turn his back on the suffering of the poor, that the Bible's injunction to love one's neighbor required us to provide health care for all, and that the New Testament's command to "turn the other cheek" should give us a predisposition against responding to violence with violence. 

Imagine a Democratic Party that could talk about the strength that comes from love and generosity and applied that to foreign policy and homeland security.

Imagine a Democratic Party that could talk of a New Bottom Line, so that American institutions get judged efficient, rational and productive not only to the extent that they maximize money and power, but also to the extent that they maximize people's capacities to be loving and caring, ethically and ecologically sensitive, and capable of responding to the universe with awe and wonder. 

Imagine a Democratic Party that could call for schools to teach gratitude, generosity, caring for others, and celebration of the wonders that daily surround us! Such a Democratic Party, continuing to embrace its agenda for economic fairness and multi-cultural inclusiveness, would have won in 2004 and can win in the future.

What are your thoughts?

December Update

It has been quite a while since anyone has posted. This blog has lost its way, 

but Spirit of Truth  is alive and thriving!

Yes we have been acting for justice in a variety of forms. This fall a series of actions were co-created in a large forum while we launched our Love Your Neighbor Campaign

The actions took the form of traditional religious stories or events that could be tweaked to fit a new narrative.

Read about it here. 

_____________________________________________________

What are some other cool things that have been happening around Spirit of Truth this fall?

-thanks for asking (makes it really easy to say this)

 

1. We have started having a monthly potluck gathering the first Sunday of each month. You should join us and bring some grub!
2. We have started reaching out to other community partners, working with Minnesotans for a Fair Economy and the OccupyMN movement. We even had a Sunday Gathering down at Occupy!
3. We started working on the next wave of our strategic plan. A new campaign for Love and Justice and Marriage Equality in the state of MN. 
4. In order to make sure that all of the goals of SoT are accomplished we started a leadership council.  The responsibilities of the council are being worked out slowly but we are eager to create a stronger and more sustainable SoT community. 

Finally if you are new to Spirit of Truth, or you are just looking to periodically remind yourself what we are about here are some inspiring words from a speech that Spirit of Truth organizer Pete Marincel gave this fall.

Hello everyone. My name is Peter Marincel. I’m the organizer for Spirit of Truth. This skit you just saw- we created it because we wanted to be reminded of what’s going on in the world, and what religion has to do with it.  This is going on here every day. Every day.  One million people, good, decent people, being detained and deported, families destroyed.  Fifty million with out healthcare. But what does that have to do with us? With a faith community? 

            That’s what we’re here to answer today. I’m going to propose the beginning of that answer right now.  The faith story - the story of who God is, of who we are, of who is good, who is bad, what is right, and what is wrong - that story has been highjacked.  Taken by people - powers and principalities, some might say, and has been twisted around, and used to justify horrible, oppressive, loveless things. Like deportation, like obscene wealth hording, like exploitation of working people. What does it have to do with us? It’s our responsibility, as people of faith, to take that story back, to take back our faith, and make abundantly clear, that the kind of world you saw in that skit - is not God’s world, it’s not our world. It’s not ok.  

            But first, I need to tell you what I think I’m talking about when I say “faith.” Right? Half of you are probably like: What does that mean? And the other half are probably like: I know what that means - while rolling your eyes. 

            I have to start with my story.  Two years ago, Rev Grant Stevensen - a pastor here in the Twin Cities - came and found me and asked me to help him create a faith community. At the time, I was working for SEIU Local 26, working with Security officers in the Twin Cities to win decent wages and health care from their employers. So I didn’t know Grant very well yet, and I didn’t really think he knew me very well - obviously, considering his request.  I said "Maybe you should find someone else.  Like from a campus ministry or something."  He said to me:

“I know you’re a person of faith.  You know how I know?”

“How?” I said.

“Because it takes great faith to do what you’re doing.  It takes great faith to believe that workers can stand up to their employers.  It takes great faith to think something can change.  In this world, with everything going on, it takes great faith to believe in Goodness.”

So I said yes.  In the last two years, I’ve gotten much clearer about my faith, and what Spirit of Truth is about. My faith is in love. I think it’s the center of creation.  What I mean by that is that I think it’s what should drive our world, our actions, and our lives.  I don’t just mean love as in basic kindness and decency - although that’s part of it - I mean love as a commitment.  I mean the commitment to care for each other, a society that doesn’t let people fall through the cracks, an economy that serves the good of all, and a politics of everyone in, nobody out. That’s the love I mean. So, love is my faith.  To be clear, Christianity is my lens, like some of you.  I was raised in a country where Christianity is the central story, in a family that used that central story to teach me about love. But Christianity is not my faith.  Love is my faith.  Christianity is my lens.  I look with the lens of the Christian tradition, and see love.  We all have different lenses.  You each have a lens, different from mine.  But I’m willing to bet that the reason you are here - is because you see the same thing as I - that Love is the center.

            So back to why we’re here.  We’re here because there is a faith story out there right now that’s not about love.  Not about real love, the love that is commitment to each other and to the world.  We’re here to take that back. What does that love mean?  It isn’t just vague statements.

            Love looks like taxing the rich, and using it to take care of those who need resources.  Not because rich people are bad, but because concentrated wealth is bad, and because concentrated poverty is worse.  And because a society that allows people to be poor because of their education level, the place they grew up, or the color of their skin, has lost it’s soul.  Love looks like an immigration system designed to welcome people who wish to become our new neighbors and community members, without condition, and with gratefulness for the blessing that new neighbors bring.  Love looks like organized workers - so that each working person can benefit from the wealth and abundance they help create.  Love looks like an unconditional health care system, that is about keeping every person healthy, and treating every sick person, not a health care system that makes money off of people’s sickness.  Love looks like an economy that serves people, not the other way around.  Love looks like an economy that provides freedom for each person to discover the gifts God has given them, and to live a life free from economic captivity, and fear.

            This is the purpose of Spirit of Truth.  To be a home for people who have faith in love, and to be a voice of Truth, for what love looks like in the world here and today.  We didn’t start this movement.  There have been people working for love for thousands of years, from every corner of the earth, from ever walk of life. We are next. And you are all working for this love already, in different ways, in different places.  I know it. And that means you all have faith, too. I ask all of you to join us, in taking back the story of our faith in love.  Love can win.  Love will win.  But because of you, and all of us together.  Thank you.