A Letter to Luther!

Dear Luther!

It is a joy to be your grandfather. I look forward to sharing your growing up years with you. The world you are now born into is a marvelous and challenging place. Your generation has great opportunities ahead. I pray to be a substantial help in your growth toward your potential. I'm trying to create this letter to you but also to the other new Pilgrims on a spiritual path in this world. Our spiritual path is so much more important than a particular religious path. Before diving into this important and simple but complexified(by us) subject I've just got to draw a comparison between the two pictures above. You have beautiful eyes and they are very busy right now taking in so much new information. No wonder there is such a pondering look on your young lips in that picture. On the other hand the picture on the right shows a very satisfied and restful soul. I just wonder what, if any, thought is going through your young mind in that countenance. I believe that you are reflecting on the mind of God where you have come from to share with us all. On the other hand that look could be tied to a basic male fixation with the breast :o) Maybe both :o)

So this is a letter to an inquiring or questioning mind. Such questions as "Where is my lever, and where do I stand?" "Where is the fulcrum for that lever?" "Am I a Christian?" More about these and others later. First a word, or several, about your name.

I did not know well your namesake, Luther Ray Truelove. I honored him and saw him as a strong silent type of man. I know he loved his kids and grandkids. These are very good things. Another "Luther" to consider is Martin Luther. He was a Spiritual man in the 1500's in the middle of a troubling religious system during the birth pangs of the reformation. I see us at a similar time in our spiritual history. We are again reforming but this time I pray with Gods help you will instead of throwing out the old you will just do it better. Honoring our past and transcending upward to a world of Peace and Love. As Bob Roskind says..."when the love of Power is replaced by the power of Love".

Another strong Luther is from a more recent period of history. Martin Luther King Jr did it better in some ways than even Abraham Lincoln. His social justice mission and non violent approach brought down racial barriers which had still been in place even after the legal abolition of slavery. I'm sure when you go to school you will hear his "I have a dream" speech. Listen well little grasshopper. Saying something is wrong is only truly valuable when it takes firm root in the soul of mankind. I see your generation as being one to carry forward this period of transcendence to its fruition.

I had questions about your name and at the outset would have preferred the shorter version of "Luke". I liked "Cool Hand Luke" and "Luke Skywalker" to "Lex Luther" :o) In reality Luther is a fine namesake as I've just related. Luke in the Christian bible is also a fine name. As I understand it the Luke of the Bible was a doctor and we sure could use a healer in this world of ours. And of course your middle name means "the Strong right arm of God"; Michael the Archangel. So you've got a whole lot going for you in your name. A strong arm (I choose "strong Loving arm") of God, a doctor, a reformer, and a social justice and peace activist. You Go Boy!!

So I hope to share most of these blog entries with you as you are older. If that doesn't happen for whatever reason then I pray you will glean some semblance of Truth, Love, Joy and Peace from their pages. In a nutshell here is what I have come to believe in the past 67 years.

The path which I've walked upon the past few years is well stated in this blog and especially the resource list posted a few entries ago. But it does take a while to get through and the the big question is what does it all mean in my heart and soul. In a word the answer is "Love"! Such a simple word has been so misused and misapplied in our history. But that fact doesn't detract from it's validity. Other tenets of my belief foundation would be briefly as follows. There is an afterlife or dimension. There is God and All is in God. God is mysterious and wondrous. God is more of a verb than a noun. Jesus is my Brother and my God in Christ (in Christo as Paul puts it). Christ is not Jesus' last name but His (and our) Beingness.

How does this translate to me and my life? If you Love All Creation (including your enemies) You are of God. We are just here to learn to Love Him (and all creation). In doing this we must stand up for the rights of All (together), But do No Harm. ??? This last statement is a big question and is one our world needs to answer real soon to avoid global meltdown. We (You) can do that if we can transcend above our selfish individual and societal egos. Good Luck and God Speed with that. I don't know about luck But God is able to do this. I Love You! Grampa Bob

The Journey of Man

To understand Jesus in a whole new way, you must first know that Christ is not his last name, but the pre-existent Christ Consciousness that existed from all eternity (Colossians 1:15-20) and his omnipresent identity after the Resurrection—which now includes humanity and all of creation along with it (Ephesians 1:9-11). Jesus became the Christ (Acts 2:36), by his own process of transformation, and now wonderfully includes us in this sweeping, historical, and victorious identity!That’s why Paul will then create a new shocking term “the body of Christ,” which clearly now includes all of us (1 Corinthians 12:12-30) and all of creation too (Romans 8:18-21). What hope this offers everything!So think of the good Jesus, who has to die to what seems like him—so that he can rise as the larger Christ. It is not a “bad” man who must die on the cross, but a good man (“false self”)—so that he can be a much larger man (“True Self”) or Christ. Jesus dies, Christ rises. The false self is not a bad self; it is just not the true self. It is inadequate and small, symbolized by Jesus’ human body, which he readily lets go of. Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p. 191

The past week and next week a group of volunteers are in Bascobel, Jamaica on a "literacy" mission. Most of the people here are very service and stewardship orientated which in a very real way is living out what Richard talks of regarding letting go of our past structure and moving forward in service to others, especially the poor, and Christ. In these schools we are serving they do have a "Christian" focus and devotion as part of the program. Very comforting to me and thought that I'd include one of Richard's reflections of the day I found fraught with quotations from the Bible. I am finding a melding in this country of the "natural" basis of society here, One Love, and the "Christian" structure of our colonial and more recent past. This "melding" is not so obvious at all times. There is very much a part of the culture who stand firmly on the "Christian" past and can have a tendency to be just as fundamental and judgemental as any other persuasion in any other part of the world. The same could be said for those who take the "Natural" position of a minimalist existence very much judging all they perceive as "Babylon". Those who have found a way to hold both concepts in balance are blessed indeed. Having taken a fair amount of time to study Jamaica prior to this visit I believe there are many blessed people on this island. One of the most well known would be Bob Marley. Although he did have a fair amount of human weakness when one listens to his work, compiled in a very short period of years, you feel you are not just listening to a talented musician but also a philosopher, peace and social justice activist, and an advocate for Love among All Gods creation. The movement which came out of Jamaica and spread throughout the world had a very interesting background and an even more interesting destination. The 1930's and as a reaction to a post colonial tension the world saw the birth of essentially a "Black Power" movement in Jamaica with links to Africa and specifically Ethiopia. Bob Roskind's "Rasta Heart" is worth the read to get a good overview of this movement. The ability of people like Robert Marley to morph this movement into a forgiving and loving "One Love" global concept is a testament to the power of positive change. Arguably Jamaica has been one of the most abused and exploited countries in the world. IF they can find a way to rise above bitterness and hate to truly become One Love that is quite an ideal. There national motto is "Out of many, One people". Probably a pretty good motto for the rest of us as well. Of course if you look at this motto in Latin then you have ours as well, "E Pluribus Unim". It seems to be easier to write a motto than to live one. Thanksgiving Blessings to all! Pax Christi! RV