Start with the Heart (feat. Jacqui Lewis)

Learning How to See with Brian McLaren

Center for Action and Contemplation

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 748 Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do we remind ourselves that Love is the center of our lives? As we continue this season, Brian and the guests offer guideposts for negotiating a new relationship to Christianity when we are ready to leave limiting beliefs behind. On this episode, Rev. Jacqui Lewis explains that living from a space of love is an active calling: “Love that comes from the heart demands justice. It insists on wellbeing. It insists on caring for the vulnerable. And that’s fierce.” Resources: The transcript for this episode can be found here. Throughout this season, as questions or thoughts arise, we'd love to hear from you. You can contact us by leaving a voicemail or emailing us at podcasts@cac.org

Transcript

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0:00.0	Over recent centuries, modern civilization generally started with personal desires.
0:08.0	Then, as a luxury add-on, may have included social desire, hardly ever considering a desire for a thriving planet.
0:19.0	Going forward, we will recognize a basic insight of systems theory.
0:24.7	The well-being of any subsystem depends on the well-being of the larger systems of which it is
0:30.9	part. So we start big with a healthy planetary system and then desire healthy human systems that thrive within
0:40.8	it, and then we desire our own individual well-being within those larger human and planetary
0:48.9	systems.
0:51.1	Where you might ask, does the love of God or spirit fit in?
0:56.7	It doesn't.
0:58.7	Love for the transcendent doesn't fit in with the others as one item in the list.
1:03.7	Instead, it is inherent in the desire that we experience in the other three desires.
1:12.1	Divine love is the nest in which the other desires are nurtured,
1:17.8	and it is inherent in all other loves.
1:21.8	What I'm suggesting recalls the words in 1st John 4,
1:25.7	that God is love. When we desire the good of the planet, the good of all people,
1:34.5	and our own good, we are participating in a love that is bigger than us. As a Christian, I would say, we are joining God in God's loving desire for the
1:48.8	well-being of the beloved. To love the love that loves the parts is to love the whole.
1:59.7	To unify our desires in love is, I think,
2:02.6	what Jesus must have meant by purity of heart.
2:06.6	When we feel in our bones and breath,
2:09.6	how the first three desires are woven together,
2:13.6	how they constitute a permeating holy desire
	...

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