Tag Archives: hope

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March 8, 2020

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spirituality

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JOY AND LEW HOMILY

I promised one of my grandsons that I would send him this Bernie Siegel quotation so that he would know more about his grandfather who died one month he was born.

From Bernie Siegel, MD in Peace, Love and Healing:

I believe that in our earthly lives we exist as physical manifestations of the Loving, Intelligent Energy that we call God. 

Self-love is an acknowledgement of the spark of the Divine that is in each of us, no matter what our imperfections, and out of self-love comes the ability to reach out and Love others.

Your Grandfather Lew adopted this definition of God in the last years of his life because it embraces his broad and embracing faith that did not exclude others.

Once when he was officiating at a funeral at St David’s for an Episcopal woman. Her husband was well-known and Jewish. When Lew issued the invitation to come forward for bread and wine, he was intentionally and broadly inclusive. The huge chapel was packed including with this man’s Jewish friends; most of them came forward to receive the bread and wine. 

This loving inclusiveness was the essence of Lew Mills’ theology: Jesus, who was Jewish, came to share that love with all people without exception. God is a loving God whose loving, intelligent Energy embraces each of us right now just as we are.

Lew was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination; he knew his imperfections; he did not love perfectly either. However, he also knew that he and all people thrive when they are loved; therefore, God has to be a loving, not a punishing, God. And he was determined to share that love as far and wide as he could.

One morning after the 8 am service in St David’s Old Church, he hugged “a little old blue-haired lady” as he would describe her generation. (Now I am one of them although my gray hair is not tinted with blue rinse. And as I always told Lew. I am a woman, not a lady.) The next elderly woman in line asked, “How do I get one of those?” He immediately embraced her with his unique and encompassing bear hug. In her instructions for her funeral, she requested that Lew officiate.

At the end of his life Lew realized that when he was preaching about this Loving Intelligent Energy “we sometimes call God,” he was most authentic. Becoming more of who he was created to be was his goal in life. He taught me much about becoming more authentic as he Loved me with a capital L, with all my imperfections, so that I can reach out and Love others. 

You are welcome to share this “Joy and Lew homily” as you care to, with love and blessings, Grandmother Joy.

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September 29, 2015

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POPE FRANCIS: Moving the conversation and questions forward

During his visit to the United States, Pope Francis’ gentle and compassionate presence was authoritative without a punishing edge; he called us to take responsibility for the problems facing us as human beings. Specifically Francis challenged people to intentionally address our responsibility for climate change, for the oppressed living in poverty, and for displaced refugees.

My response to his call is to push the conversation forward by raising underlying questions about the foundational images of the world’s major religions which stand in the way of each of these challenges being addressed fully. Considering these questions might deepen our responses to the Pope’s challenges.

How does naming God almost exclusively as male, and imaging “Him” as omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful/almighty), and omnipresent (always present) contribute to the problems of climate change, poverty, refugees and religious fundamentalism? How is man’s (literally) treatment of the earth–often called Mother Earth and associated with the fecundity of the female–interwoven with the treatment of women as secondary citizens in most of the world? How does Christianity along with other faith expressions perpetuate this treatment of the Earth and of the oppressed peoples of the Earth by focusing on achieving eternal life in Heaven rather than on the quality of life on Earth? How has the image of a punishing Father God led to the subjugation of some people, particularly of women and their children, by men whose power over others has been sanctioned by male-dominated faith communities?

These are complex questions which lead on to further questions. My desire is to explore these questions and raise new ones in conversation with your responses.

I invite you to begin by pondering Mary Daly’s 1973 proclamation, “If God is male, then male is God.” As you consider her statement, I would like to slow down the discussion by inviting you to read my understanding of several Biblical stories of women in an eight-part occasional series “Biblical Stories of Women: Death dealing or Life Giving?” The original article upon which this series will expand appears under the tab DARING Faith.