David Brisbin Podcast

Dave Brisbin | 2.24.19 Talking about the mental gymnastics involved in moving from dualistic thinking to unitive thinking, once again, it’s not about become wholly one or the other, but a realization of the need for the balance of middle ground. Ultimately all our brains do—our left brains at least—is to differentiate: compare and contrast, find the edges of things to define and distinguish them from the background and the next thing, to place them in categories, divide light from dark, past from future, us from them. Without this ability, we don’t survive. All the tasks along our journey of life are dependent on the ability to think dualistically, and we need to take the tasks of life seriously. If we don’t, we’ll never find our purpose, meaning, and identity as humans. But at the same time, if we take the tasks of life too seriously, if we never stop differentiating and judging, if we become defined and identified with our tasks and accomplishments, then we never find meaning, purpose, identity either. We’r

Frank Billman | 2.17.19 In talking about contemplative spirituality, the term dualism or dualistic thinking comes up quite a bit. What does that exactly mean? And more importantly, if the goal in contemplative life is to lose our natural dualistic tendencies, to become more unitive in our consciousness, what does that look like in everyday life? What are the mental gymnastics that need to be embraced before we could ever put such non-dualistic experience into play? Pastor Frank explores this with real world examples and some of the intellectual paradoxes that need to be faced in order to pursue the kind of spirituality that Jesus, in an ancient Hebrew context, found so natural.

Dave Brisbin | 2.10.19 When I was in pastoral training, a pastor told me that no one should preach the parables until they’ve been in ministry for 30 years. Now I violated that right away, but approaching 20 years in ministry, I do see what he was driving at. There is a perspective that comes just from sheer years of having seen the panorama, the parade of years go by that creates a different way of looking at life—and parables need to be looked at the way we look at life--not text. For two thousand years, scholars and clergy have debated the meaning of Jesus’ parables, breaking them down into the smallest bits, trying to crack the code. But some parables absolutely resist such fine grained interpretation. As in the difficult parables of the unjust steward and judge, Jesus seems to be violating everything we know of our morality and ethics as well as his own. But parables aren’t meant to be understood through the lens of what we already think we know, they are meant to explode what we already think we know. T

Dave Brisbin | 2.3.19 Situated on the liturgical calendar between Christmas and Easter, between Jesus’ birth and death, is a perfect time to look at Jesus’ life—to look at balancing what he lived and how he loved with the more theologically significant events of his birth, death, and resurrection. It’s a perfect time to consider how living as he lived would give theological significance to our own birth and death. But our western church roots go deep, and making that balancing shift can be difficult unless as Jesus says: we grow new ears to hear. Using parables to break through what we think we already know and how we already hear, Jesus gives us the story of the Sower, which is really more about the Four Soils. But as he speaks of seed falling on the beaten path, rocks, and thorns as well as on good soil, church ears have heard him speaking of four different types of people who break down to two basic groups: believers and non-believers, those who accept Jesus theologically and those who don’t, us and them.

Dave Brisbin | 1.27.19 Nearing the end of the liturgical season of Christmas that spans 40 days from Christmas Day until the feast of the Presentation on February 2, we are now living between Christmas and Easter, between Jesus’ birth and death. People have commented on the fact that a tombstone lists dates of birth and death with only a mere dash signifying the entirety of a person’s life. But Jesus didn’t even get a dash; he only got a comma. In the earliest creed of the church, the Apostle’s creed, Jesus’ birth and death are listed in a series of beliefs only separated by commas. Everything that Jesus lived and breathed and taught and loved is not mentioned in a list of events the church understood as theologically significant. But how can we understand the theological significance of an event in Jesus’ life without knowing the life of which those events are a part—the context for any event in his life? Early in its history, the church shifted from a focus on Jesus’ life and Way of living it, to a focus on

Doug Fanney | 1.20.19 Although the words mystic and contemplative have developed bad connotations in conservative Christian circles, there is a rich Christian mystical tradition from the earliest generations of Jesus followers. And though today contemplation and mysticism are often equated with occult practices, Christians have used the terms to mean the practice of experiencing God non-verbally and non-rationally, to be completely in God’s presence and present to God as opposed to thinking about God intellectually. Under this definition, from New Testament evidence, Jesus and Paul, among others, show both contemplative practice and mystical experiences. Of course the goal of Christian mystics was to forge a balance between the experiential and intellectual, and that is what we are after in a contemplative setting. To better understand the contemplative practices of the mystics we are continuing our ongoing series of presenting outstanding Christian mystics, and here Doug Fanney presents Meister Eckhart, a 14

Dave Brisbin | 1.13.19 The passing of Shirley Boone, Pat Boone’s wife of 65 years has had a big impact on many of us. A close personal friend and staunch supporter and member of our community for the past five years, she will be hugely missed here and of course worldwide. But watching Pat moving through the final months of her life and through the week following her death has been a great lesson for me. Pat prayed for healing ceaselessly, but prayed in such way that his faith and characteristically cheerful attitude toward life and God’s presence continues now unabated. He described his wife’s passing as a simple change of address, a moving to a place he will visit soon. He described his prayers in the last few weeks as a search for God’s intention in whatever direction that moved—as finding a direction he could cooperate with. When we are faced with impending loss, as we desperately desire a specific outcome, how then shall we pray? Looking at Jesus’ modeling and teaching of prayer, we see the instruction to

Dave Brisbin | 1.6.19 January 6th has lost its significance in our non-liturgical, Western churches. Known as the feast of the Epiphany since ancient times, it celebrates the appearance of God to Magi and the rest of the world and sits in the transition between the 12 days of Christmastide and the 28 days of Epiphanytide—the 40 days of the full Christmas season. It is a season full of other feast days and colorful, even superstitious, activities and rituals of the ancient and medieval church. But though we see these now as curious and quaint, they held the people together in common cause and experience in ways our culture has lost. Rituals and practice repeated at the same time in the same order for lifetimes and centuries of lifetimes defines a people—not the outcomes of those actions, however spectacular. We judge our effectiveness by our accomplishments, but the spiritual life centers on what we do over and over each day, regardless of outcomes that remain outside our control. Jesus shows us how this is d

Dave Brisbin | 12.30.18 The run up to Christmas was full of personal setbacks and a difficult week, but the Christmas service itself seemed to simply erase all that angst in one stroke as I allowed myself to immerse in the images, music, and sense of connection to the people in the room. We think of our spiritual journey as one solid path that we’re either on or off, and once on, should stay on if we only have enough faith. But life and scripture tell a different story: that the spiritual journey is not one path, but one moment—a moment we either choose to be connected or choose not. That being on the spiritual Way of Jesus is stringing enough of those kingdom moments together to form a kingdom necklace, and that our progress along the Way is always marked by two steps forward and a step back. Consider Peter’s journey in the Gospels: from the moment Jesus called him at the shore of the lake to his stepping out of the boat to walk on the water then sinking, to his refusal to let Jesus wash his feet to his dec

Dave Brisbin | 12.16.18 We all tend to look for anything where we expect it to be. Makes perfect sense. Works for car keys and laundry detergent, but not so much when you’re looking for truth. Truth has a way of showing up in the most unexpected places, and if you’re only willing to look where you already believe it to be, you’ll miss it every time. How in the world would anyone think to look for or see in the face of a dirt-poor infant the truth of all that Jesus was? And yet the Magi did—advisors to their king, co-regents, scientists, religious leaders. And Galilean shepherds did—the uneducated poorest of the poor. And twelve hundred years later, Francis of Assisi did—a rich man’s son voluntarily living a pauper’s life. What do all these varied people have in common? What allowed each of them to see beyond and beneath the surface of things to a timeless truth? We need to know, because what they have to tell and teach is critical if we’re to also enter into the real meaning of Christmas, a meaning that Jesu

Dave Brisbin | 12.9.18 It’s hard enough to communicate spiritual experiences and truth when we’re honestly trying. But what about when we’re not? When consciously or unconsciously, we’re hiding behind spiritual platitudes and practices to justify our actions or inactions, to gain some advantage or outcome…? It can be tricky because it’s easy to convince ourselves that the language we speak and religion we practice and believe is “right” and spiritual in itself, but once again, Jesus is telling us something different. When at the last supper he told his friends he was giving them a new commandment—to love each other as he had loved them; that everyone would know they were his followers by their love. How literally are we to take Jesus’ actual definition of followership? How literally did his first followers take his new commandment and definition? When we look at the historical record, extremely literally. Several ancient sources define early Christians by their love with Tertullian in the second century writ

Dave Brisbin | 12.2.18 When we say to each other, just give it to the Lord, surrender your life to Jesus, or let go and let God... When we say, ask Jesus into your heart, pray about it, or you need to find God’s plan for your life…do we really know what we mean? And even if we do, does the person we’re speaking to have a chance at the same understanding? And even if they do, do they have any idea how to accomplish them? We can call them platitudes, but that makes them too easy to dismiss. They all carry truth—at least they were true when experienced by the person who coined them, but afterward, when put into words, they became pointers that will only be true again when re-experienced by the hearer. If we’re going to be honest about our spiritual communication, we have to admit that words have limits, and dig deep to make sure we’re getting past mere mental concepts to the concrete experiential steps that are the only way to the truth we seek. If we know how to look, Scripture helps show us the process that ea

Dave Brisbin | 11.25.18 When it comes right down to it, the main effects of an authentic spiritual journey are gratitude and humility. From these two attributes flow every other attribute we may associate with our spiritual progress. Why? If humility is defined as an undistorted view of ourselves and our relationships with God and each other; if gratitude is defined as an undistorted view of the moment we’re in, that it contains everything we need in the moment and is enough, then these two attributes are the reflection of the experience joy and contentment of pure presence. So, how do we get there? Here, a character who doesn’t normally get a lot of attention can come to our rescue…John the Baptist. John tells his followers that he must decrease as Jesus increases, and in his relationship as forerunner and the closeness to Jesus it affords, his joy is complete. John has a breakthrough moment standing in the waters of the Jordan that brings his humility and gratitude to a focus, but later in prison, he questi

Nina Dreyer | 11.11.18 Through the study of the mystics and contemplatives we’ve been conducting both on Sundays and midweek, we’ve covered several historical personalities. Several of them have been studied by staff and members of our community, and several of those chose to present in first person, even dressed for the part to bring home the fact that these storied saints of the church were simply flesh and blood people who answered life’s circumstances with a fierce desire to know God completely. Here, Nina Dreyer, one of our staff and licensed social worker and psychotherapist, takes on the persona of Julian of Norwich, the 14th century English anchoress, mystic, counselor, and the first woman to write a book in the English language. Her story, though extreme, contains the same shape of the journey that can be applied to our own stories here and now.

Dave Brisbin | 11.18.18 Most of the questions we ask about religion and scripture and theology are really the same question over and over, because all of our questions and difficulties center on the one question of unconditional love and acceptance. In other words, we want to know if God is keeping a light on for us… But the answer we crave, the one that will really set our anxieties down, can’t be found in anything made of words. Even our scripture can only point to the truth, a truth that has to be lived to be believed at a level that transforms. Jesus knows this, of course, and so gives us a model prayer that when understood from the Aramaic context in which it was delivered, becomes a prayer not to be recited in words, but a sequence of actions to be lived out. To understand the Lord’s Prayer as a roadmap for living Kingdom life is to bring it back as a mirror of Jesus’ own lifestyle. To decode the Lord’s Prayer and start living its five steps as a daily way of life will show us the “answer” we’ve been w

Dave Brisbin | 11.4.18 When Jesus speaks of Kingdom, he’s not speaking of a place or a territory. He’s talking about us, all of us living a particular quality of being that translates into a particular quality of life—a habit of being. Some sociologists call any habitual way of being a habitus. But Jesus’ habit of being has a quality defined by presence, connection, the ability to see both the seen and unseen components of life—to see the overarching connection of everyone to everything and each other that is not apparent without this quality. It is a complete change of our way of perceiving the world and life and how we react to it. It’s a new way of living life that includes and transforms all our ingrained habits, skills, and attitudes—a new theory of everything that changes everything we experience. Jesus spends most of his teaching time describing this Kingdom habitus in terms of its effect on the quality of life it creates. It’s the only way it can be described at all. When we read the Beatitudes, the k

Dave Brisbin | 10.28.18 A friend tells me he wants to take his motorhome up to Canada and stay for at least three months or more because he can’t stand being a part of the U.S. anymore. I figure it’s because of his politics, but as we talk, what comes out is a real grieving over the state of all relations in our country: race, political, religious, social, cultural, generational…he’s ashamed to be a part. Though we do talk about how many hours a day he spends watching cable news, he has a point. What’s happening in our country? The short answer is fear. People are afraid of not maintaining their quality of life or that of their children. And scared people build walls. Real ones and mental ones. Emotional ones. Religious, political, social, and cultural ones. And as soon as we build a wall, we create enemies of those on the other side. Even if we don’t mean to, it’s the nature of walls. Jesus tells us to love our enemies, not to judge those on the other side. If we are to love as Jesus loves, as the Father lov

Dave Brisbin | 10.21.18 In one of our studies last week, someone asks the age old question—maybe first question we humans have asked about ourselves and life: how can I believe or trust there’s a God or any higher power that cares about me and my well being when there is so much evil all around? The oldest book in the Bible is focused on this question. An entire branch of philosophy focuses on this question. Polytheism and atheism are answers to this question because if you have many gods, some good and some bad or no god, problem solved. But for those who believe in one God, all good and all powerful, and yet evil exists—pick any two but you can’t logically have all three. Even Satan doesn’t get God off the hook. If God can’t stop Satan, he’s not all powerful, and if he won’t, not all good. Is there a way to understand God that maintains what theists believe about one God and yet never shrinks from the realities of daily life? If there was such a rational answer, we would have had it long ago, so any “answer

Dave Brisbin | 10.30.11 Driving home from northern California through the endless San Joaquin Valley, radio stations fade in and out as we drive through their broadcast ranges. Scanning for the next signal, I hit on a clear channel just as a song I haven't heard in years is starting...turn down the lights, turn down the bed, turn down these voices inside my head... Her voice brings long dormant memories flooding back with the music, and by the time she gets to the chorus: I can't make you love me if you don't; I can't make your heart feel something it won't--I'm fully involved. The uncanny thought strikes that this song, passionately about unrequited romantic love, could so easily be sung by God to each one of us. Our relationship with God, though obviously not sexual, has always been portrayed in intimately human terms. There's the prophet Hosea, told to take an unfaithful woman for a bride as extended metaphor for the tenuous relationship between God and Israel--God and us. Did God personally risk anything

Dave Brisbin | 10.14.18 Last Thursday was a tale of two hospitals. First a trip to a prominent children’s hospital to speak to the director and manager of spiritual care about new programs they are initiating for patients, families, and clinical caregivers. I am struck by the unhurried presence of the two I meet. Unhurried, gracious, taking their time with me, as if I were the only person in their world until the moment they have to move on to their next meetings. From there, I drive forty miles to visit an elderly friend in critical care in a massive hospital downtown. Darker, more serious, not for kids. I walk into the darkened room and she asks what brought me all the way downtown. I say, only you, dear. I’m here just for you. She says, oh isn’t that wonderful? And we talk and hold hands and seven minutes later, she asks what brought me all the way downtown, and I realize her memory has reset itself. Still carrying the unhurried presence of the last hospital, I choose to enter her world and simply say, onl