Weekly Messages
Abuse of Power 7: The Power of Naming
We conclude our lesson on Jesus' teaching about power and its misuse by looking at the power of naming. People are made in the image of God, our Story tells us. Consequently, the transcendent, ineffable, Divine image is the deepest and truest parts of us. When we...
Abuse of Power 6: The Limits of Common Sense
Theoretical physicists are imagining all kinds of wild mathematical formulations to explain the most fundamental nature of reality. When they do, they turn around and test their equations with super-colliders, and it turns out... they're right! How wild is that?...
Abuse of Power 5: The Power of Moral Imagination
We continue talking about why it's so difficult for us to hear and heed the teaching of Jesus on power dynamics. Our instincts run so counter to his teaching! Today we do a thought experiment together, and see how our ability to use our imagination is profoundly...
Abuse of Power 4: We’re On The Same Side, For Goodness Sake!
The idea of seeing ourselves as part of a whole rather than separate individuals has many implications if we would follow Jesus' teaching about loving our neighbors and our enemies. If we Westerners would love our enemies, the Muslim states come to mind. If we see...
Abuse of Power 3: Abused and Not Even Knowing It
We ignore the teachings of Jesus, Paul, and saints and sages from several religious traditions. Consequently, we are rooted in a worldview of separateness. We do not see ourselves as one with God, or one with other human beings. Our instincts and experience insist...
Abuse of Power 2: Oneness vs. Two-ness
As we begin to think about why power is so abused among us, a starting point is our very view of reality. We tend to think of ourselves as separate from one another, separate beings, separate entities, organized into separate categories. We feel this in our guts, so...
Abuse of Power 1: Not Just for Petty Dictators
In this introductory I tell a story about speaking to our teens about sexual power. In the Bible belt, sex curriculum is limited to "abstinence only," and teachers who wouldn't all choose to teach this way are forced to. Consequently our best efforts don't always go...
Life is Like Freecell – Robin Camu
In this message, Robin Camu shares with us some insights she has had recently on how living life and growing to personal and spiritual maturity are similar to the game of Freecell.
Are you feeling oppressed? – Will Graebe
Based on Exodus 1:8-14, Will (a member of NRCC) shares with us a message on what we can remember or do in times of personal oppression.
Easter 2011
Happy Easter. Doug
Who Comes to NRCC: The Wilderness Wanderer
This is lesson in between lessons. It is more for people who are part of NRCC than those of you who listen online (though you're welcome to listen). Also, it won't be a proper lesson. It won't paraphrase and comment on a particular scripture or scriptural principle....
Who Comes to NRCC: The Disillusioned Church Veteran
This is lesson in between lessons. It is more for people who are part of NRCC than those of you who listen online (though you're welcome to listen). Also, it won't be a proper lesson. It won't paraphrase and comment on a particular scripture or scriptural principle....
Who Comes to NRCC: The Religious Deconstructionist
This is lesson in between lessons. It is more for people who are part of NRCC than those of you who listen online (though you're welcome to listen). Also, it won't be a proper lesson. It won't paraphrase and comment on a particular scripture or scriptural principle....
Who Comes to NRCC: The Community Seeker
This is lesson in between lessons. It is more for people who are part of NRCC than those of you who listen online (though you're welcome to listen). Also, it won't be a proper lesson. It won't paraphrase and comment on a particular scripture or scriptural principle....
False Negatives – Robin Camu
Message by Robin Camu "Grace seems to create the very emptiness that grace alone can fill." - Richard Rohr We all begin our spiritual life as either a false positive or a false negative, but we don't have to remain there. Are you still a false negative of worthiness?...
The Clutch of Death (Epilogue)
Today, we conclude our lesson on "The Clutch of Death" with these remarks on how the beliefs, sensibilities, and expectations of our families-of-origin can act as the greatest block to our soul's freedom. In Luke 14, several paragraphs after Jesus introduced the idea...
The Clutch of Death (part 6)
One of the ancient spiritual paths goes by an old name... "mortification." It means to put to death. Once we see that our false narratives, our faulty Life-Stories are strangling the life out of us, we want to turn the tables and put that clutching instinct to death...
The Clutch of Death (part 5)
Look at the ravens, Jesus said. They're free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description. They're care-free in the care of God... And you! You count far more. As we're considering how to experience the freedom and connection to Divine Life Jesus taught was...
The Clutch of Death (part 4)
As we continue our lesson on the Clutch of Death, we come to where we've been heading from the beginning... one of Jesus' lessons from Luke 12. It's a section in which Jesus teaches how easily our interior narratives derail us into chasing after things which in the...
The Clutch of Death (part 3)
Today we continue our lesson "The Clutch of Death." We've seen how we tend to clutch at people, things, and circumstances at the expense of our freedom and connecting to our truest, Divine selves. We do this because our "Life-Stories," the narratives that drive our...
The Clutch of Death (part 2)
How does one begin the journey from a Life-Story that breeds stress, anxiety, pressure, and "the clutch of death," to a Life-Story that breeds peace, freedom, Life and Light? The ancients designed a practice just for that. It's called "detachment." It's the practice...
The Clutch of Death (part 1)
The deep quest of the human heart is for freedom and Divine Life. The problem is that we get so easily distracted from this quest by impulses and instincts that bubble up from inside us. We all carry around Life-Stories, or framing narratives that dictate our...
Relax! Your Journey is in Good Hands
Next week I'm going to begin a lesson "The Clutch of Death." I'll talk about how when we try and hang on to happiness, try to clutch the things we desire, while we may attain fleeting moments of pleasure, true and abiding happiness will elude us. As preamble to that...
God is a noun, right? Not a verb, right?
I am sharing some insights about the nature of God from my thoughts and meetings over the last several weeks. Doug