As I'm writing this post, there are many news reports out describing many, many Muslim groups engaging in protests against the United States.  This all is in response to a video circulating on the internet entitled "Innocence of Muslims" which, among other things, mocks the founder of Islam, the Prophet Mohammed. My initial reaction to stories such as these is shock and horror over the violence.  There are some people in the world who feel that insult can only be appeased by a greater insult, violence with violence, and that no attack, no matter how small, can go unchallenged.  Personally I find such an attitude barbaric and nonsensical.  If one were to take it to its logical conclusion, the entire world would not stop fighting.  This is why in the Old Testament cities of refuge were to be set up in Israel so that a person could flee there and escape the cycle of violence (Numbers 35). At the same time, the video that sparked all of these riots is one o...

Because of several pastoral emergencies and other duties I have fallen behind in my posts.  I didn't want to skip  3 Epiphany since it has played a pivotal role in how I understand Jesus Christ as someone who was quite steeped in the mystical tradition.  The reading describes Jesus as he begins his public ministry -"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news (Mark 1:15 NRSV)."  Something worth noting is that neither the phrase "Kingdom of God" or "Kingdom of Heaven" appears anywhere in the Old Testament.  If you refer back to my post on Levels of Interpretation , you'll see that the Kingdom of God can neither be understood from the simple or the allusion level.  To understand it we need to look deeper into the Midrash or Kabbalah.  According to the Midrash, Kingdom could refer to the Messianic Age, when the world would be set right and the righteous would have the opportunity to study Tor...

Growing up I heard a variety of stories about the Roman Catholic Church.  My entire family is Roman Catholic, yet my parents never took me very much, and hardly attended themselves.  As a result, most of my perceptions were from other's stories.  I had an uncle who would tell me about attending parochial school, how he was taught by the nuns, and whenever they would get out of line one of the sisters would throw a piece of chalk at them.  Laughing, he described how this nun could hit you between the eyes with a piece of chalk from across the room.  Years later I had a co-worker who shared stories about being an altar boy.  He and his friends would fight with each other over who would ring the bells when the priest was saying mass.  These fights often took place during the service, and this priest had a technique of kneeling down reverently so he could kick them without being seen.  He didn't kick them hard, but enough to get their attention so the...

This week we hear the story of Jesus' baptism.  According to the text, some curious things happened which deserve our attention. 1 - The heavens opened up (Mark 1:10) 2 - The Spirit descended on Jesus in a form that looked like a dove (Mark 1:10) 3 - A voice from Heaven said to Jesus, "You are my Son, with you I am well pleased (Mark 1:11)" What we see in this story is the coming together of Heaven and Earth - the Spiritual and the Material fuse as one.  Classical Christianity has always, since the time of the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., stated that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human.  In Him we see this perfect fusion of Spirit and Matter.  Sometimes it may seem like that's easy for Him, since He is God incarnate, but what if that was the goal of spirituality for everyone - joining and integrating the spiritual and the material.  Or even more challenging, what if the purpose of human beings is to be like Christ in this regard, integrating the mate...

There are always two options for readings on Christmas - The Nativity Story from Luke , and the more esoteric poetry from John .  Each tells the story from a different perspective, and both work together to help us understand the significance of Christ's birth. The main message that both Jesus, and John the Baptist preached was that the Kingdom of God had come near.  The Hebrew word translated as Kingdom is Malchut, which is also the name of the tenth sefirot in Kabbalah.  The significance of Malchut is that it is the receptical of all the other aspects.  Will, Wisdom, Understanding, Justice, Mercy, Compassion, Endurance, Splendor, and Foundation are all poured into Malchut.  On it's very surface, Malchut is about sovereignty, kingship, or on a very basic level - dignity.  The Gospel story is good news because it raises up ordinary people to the level of dignity that a king would have. In the story from  Luke  angels appeared to shepherds...

Advent 4 In a previous post  I wrote about a Kabbalahistic look at Jesus being the Son of God and how his birth was a direct emanation from the Infinite.  This week we read the story of when the angel Gabriel revealed to the Virgin Mary that she was to bear this Son of God.  As you learn more about Kabbalah you'll see that there are illusions to it throughout the New Testament.  This passage is no exception. Gabriel is mentioned four times in the Bible.  Twice in the Book of Daniel, Chapters 8 and 9, and twice in the Gospel of Luke, both in Chapter 1.  Each time he is bringing a message from God, or helping someone interpret a vision.  In every case, the message from God is both good and bad news - it contains both love and judgement. Gabriel's name has the same root as the Sefirah Gevurah.  Gevurah is the sefirah of judgement or discipline.  In the Tree of Life it is portrayed as being opposite of Chesed or love.  When they work t...

I initially thought this would be part two of Advent 2, but looking at the Gospel for Advent 3 I find that they're very similar.  One tells the story from the point of view of Mark, the other from John. The story from John begins by talking about John the Baptist, being a witness to the light - he himself wasn't the light, but he witnessed to it (John 1:6).  If we back up a few verses, we read that the light is life (1:4) and that it shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not recognize it (1:5). In the Kabbalah, light was often used as a metaphor for God's very essence.  We also learn that God created the Heavens and the Earth through a process of concealment, or in Hebrew, Tzimzum.  According to Rabbi Isaac Luria, the infinite, all powerful God withdrew himself in order to create a space where finite creation can exist - otherwise creation would be overwhelmed by the intensity of God's existence.  The light would have been too intense, so to speak. ...