Posted on by Wallis Landrum (Wally) · 2 Comments

Spiritual Convergence 

I was taught that the deep wisdom of all great spiritualities converge. Before you push back, I invite you to let it sit for a while. Does the teaching mean all spiritualities are exactly the same? Why use the word “wisdom”? What changes if we substitute “religions” for spiritualities? Apparently I’m trying questions before reflections today.

Brian McLaren’s podcast from May 15th’s “Leaning How to See: Seeing the Humanity in Everyone (no exceptions)” points out:

Jesus teaches: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. For this is the Torah and the Prophets.”

Jewish law in Leviticus reads: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In the Hadith sayings of Islam, the prophet Muhammad speaks: “as you would have people do to you, do to them. And what you dislike to be done to you, don’t do to them. None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”

From Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

From Hinduism: “Do nothing to others which, if it were done to you, would cause you pain.”

From Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.”

From Sikhism: “Love for people what you love for yourself, and you will be a believer.”

From the Baha’i Faith: “And if thine eyes be turned toward justice, choose thou for thy neighbor that which thou choosest for thyself.”

How might this deep wisdom affect a system that marginalizes, misunderstands, uses, and overlooks people? How might our eyes be opened to see the humanity in everyone? Why is this teaching often called “The Golden Rule”?

Posted on by Wallis Landrum (Wally)

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On a church sign in Scotland, below the minister’s name, I read Church Beagle: {name}. Church Beagle? Did the church have a mascot? Had they gone to the dogs? Was the alpha-dog bully publicly named on the sign? (In our system it might read TLG – That Little Group). It was a misread, not a misprint. The sign actually and accurately read: Church Beadle. 

For Charles Dickens’ novel “Oliver Twist”, Mr. Bumble was a Beadle who ran the orphanage workhouse outside London — “tears were not the things to find their way to Mr. Bumble’s soul; his heart was waterproof.” Wow. I cry with tears, bad beadle, bad beadle, sit, stay.

During the Scottish Reformation of the 16th century, the Beadle was “the minister’s man.” He would open the church, take care of the grounds, ring the bell, etc. As Sunday worship began, the Beadle would process in with the Bible and the Psalter, escort the preacher up to the pulpit, lock the door of the pulpit steps, and sit by the door with a mace. His actions said the preacher was called to interpret the Bible whether you liked it or not. He made sure the word was proclaimed, unhindered. (He might also waken those who had fallen asleep during a long sermon.)

I wonder if the Beadle is shown below John Knox preaching at St. Giles Cathedral. Maybe he was protecting Knox’s freedom of preach as he questioned the autocratic actions of Mary Queen of Scots who ruled from Edinburgh Castle halfway up the royal mile.

In line with the Beadle, as a Presbyterian Preacher, I can’t be silenced by “That Little Group” for what I say in a sermon. It takes a vote of the congregation AND a vote of elders and pastors from a majority of congregations in the presbytery. With wisdom from a wider witness, they might act to get me the help I need, correct my errors, or protect me as I faithfully speak truth to power — especially when it’s unpopular and thus Biblically prophetic. 

Who has been a Beadle in your life? Where might you see a need for Beadles today? What protections do you have to speak your truth to those who greedily abuse power?

Posted on by Wallis Landrum (Wally) · 4 Comments

What If? 09-15-2025

During 40 years of pastoral counseling and hospice chaplaincy I’ve walked with many youth and adults who were asking, “What if?” Most questions of “What if” involve life & death — what if the.…  gun, car, disease, decision, protection, other person….  Eventually an answer to the question lies in discovering there is none. After all, “control is an illusion fueled by emotion.”

Last night I returned from my 1st & 50th high school reunion in Louisville. In 7th grade I entered the competitive college-prep arena. Our all-boys school merged with an all-girls school my sophomore year which proved to be excellent timing. We mourned 4 of the 66 in my class who had died. 

I was filled with all the curiosity, emotions, baggage, and appreciation I anticipated. I was surprised that my sense of being overlooked in high school was dispelled by warm welcomes, fond memories, and new discoveries. I was grateful my quest of “do no harm” led to not needing to dodge anyone.

I found myself asking, “What if?” What if I’d dated or kept dating someone? What if I’d come home to my father’s business? What if I didn’t focus on my present and kept in touch with my past? What if I lived the life others lived? 

Driving home we listened to Sirius 7 — Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40” from 9/72 (the month the ladies arrived). I honored my wife with Garth Brook’s 1990 song, “Unanswered Prayers.” It occurred to me that “What Is!” is more important than “What if?” I can fantasize, bemoan, envy, all the ifs. I can live into, relish, be grateful for, and respond to my one life that is. Relishing the full abundant loving life that is mine to live unlocks my gratitude and service.

When have you asked “What if?” What were the circumstances? When have you been present to and aware of “What is!”? How has appreciating “what is” affected your outlook on life? 

Posted on by Wallis Landrum (Wally)

Building Bigger Barns 04072025

On his walk to Jerusalem to celebrate the last Passover of his life, the rabbi Jesus told this story found in Luke chapter 12.

Someone from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus said to him, “Man, who appointed me as judge or referee between you and your brother?” Then Jesus said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed. After all, one’s life isn’t determined by one’s possessions, even when someone is very wealthy.”

As a pastor and hospice chaplain, I’m grateful for the example of Jesus not to get embroiled in a family inheritance battle. No one comes out unscathed. “Life is not determined by one’s possessions” is often ignored by religious conmen (except for relieving you of the burden of your possessions). THEN Jesus tells a parable. A parable is a story that never happened but is always true. You might notice how many times “I”,  “my”, and “self” occur after the land (not the man) produced a bountiful crop.

“A certain rich man’s land produced a bountiful crop. He said to himself, What will I do? I have no place to store my harvest! Then he thought, Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. That’s where I’ll store all my grain and goods.  I’ll say to myself, You have stored up plenty of goods, enough for several years. Take it easy! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. But God said to him, ‘Fool, tonight you will die. Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?”

What is the lasting truth from this ancient story? Where is the joy of love, inclusion, peace, and community for a fool who dies alone — save for his selfish possessions? If life isn’t about possessions what might life be about?

Posted on by Wallis Landrum (Wally) · 3 Comments

Moby Dick 03122025

I don’t recall reading every word of Moby Dick after “Call me Ishmael”, but I do remember my high school classmates calling the book “The Biggest Dick”. Maybe it was the size of the tome or a synopsis of Captain Ahab. Melville scholars say the original title was “Mocha Dick — the White Whale.” Today a small cell phone is a “Moby” and a “Trenta” is the biggest Iced Mocha at Starbucks.

Speaking of Starbucks…. my favorite character in the 1851 novel is the first mate “Starbuck”. He repeatedly warns Ahab that his egotistical maniacal quest is suicidal for the ship’s crew, immoral for humanity, and against the laws of nature. Seeing the captain has no well-reasoned pragmatic plan, no boundaries on his narcissism, no sense of morality, no limit to his prideful retaliatory vengeance, no compassion for the crew, Starbuck contemplates ever more drastic actions to stop him before it’s too late.

Even though he’s their first mate, the crew chooses to remain loyal to Ahab’s powerful personality. Over against the crew’s increasing unease and fear throughout their erratic voyage, the captain’s charisma and his promise of a fleeting future financial reward keep them cowardly conspiring to sail the ship to its destruction. 

Like the captain and crew, Starbuck suffers the consequences he tried to prevent. The sole survivor is Ishmael, rescued by another ship while floating on the coffin of his best friend, Queequeg, a skilled harpooner from a different race and culture.

Fourscore minus seven years ago, and a century after the novel, the film starring Gregory Peck, and directed by John Houston was released. If you watch it or read it, what are your reactions to this work of fiction?

Posted on by Wallis Landrum (Wally)

Martin Niemöller 02182025

The Stuttgart declaration of guilt was signed by leaders of the Protestant Church in Germany in October 1945. It confesses in part: “That which we often testified to in our communities, we express now in the name of the whole church: We did fight for long years in the name of Jesus Christ against the mentality that found its awful expression in the National Socialist regime of violence; but we accuse ourselves for not standing to our beliefs more courageously, for not praying more faithfully, for not believing more joyously, and for not loving more ardently.” It’s not too late to admit you’re mistakes.

An instigator and signer of that declaration was Martin Niemöller who had initially supported Adolph Hitler as an anti-semite. When Hitler ordered protestant churches to preach Nazi doctrine, Martin became one of the founders of the Confessing Church that said we will follow Jesus’ rather than the state. He spent 8 years in concentration camps where his views changed. When he barely survived, he became a famous speaker for protecting human rights. It’s not too late to change your mind.

As a teenager one of the posters on my bedroom was this quote from Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.” Sometimes it’s too late.

You can’t see the poster on my bedroom wall anymore, but you’ll find the quote at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. 

What is yours to do?

Posted on by Wallis Landrum (Wally) · 1 Comment

What’d I Miss? 02052025

Washington Irving’s character “Rip Van Winkle” slept through 20 years and returned to a changed village. I’ve only been out of it for 2 weeks. We’ve been in France (the French side of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin) since Jan. 19. That was the day before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday (a day of equality, mercy, inclusion, and service to others) and the day of beginning of the end (grabbing all the money and power you can by those lusting for more). 

The historian Dom Crossan taught me this truth: “The history of civilization reveals that you can have a Republic and you can have an Empire; but you can’t have both for long.”

In Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton” the second act opens with the beginning of the American Republic and Thomas Jefferson returning from France. Red-faced James Madison greets his return with these words: “Thomas, we are engaged in a battle for our nation’s very soul. Can you get us out of the mess we’re in? Hamilton’s new financial plan is nothing less than government control. I’ve been fighting for the South alone. Where have you been?”

Thus begins Jefferson’s song “What’d I Miss?”…. “What’d I miss? I’ve come home to this! Headfirst into a political abyss! What’d I Miss?” 

Being unplugged for two weeks, I too wonder what’d I miss? You can speak it, write it, rap it, or think it but I’m curious what your answer would be to my question: “What’d I miss?”

Posted on by Wallis Landrum (Wally)

Questioning Writings 013125

On my 21st birthday, during my cousin’s funeral, I learned it was good to disagree with those who seek to represent God. As we sang the comforting hymn “our God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come…” my aunt said, “I hate that idea; it’s not true for me or helpful at all.”

The battle-line was “time like an ever-rolling stream bears every child away; they fly forgotten as a dream dies at the opening day.” Before the closing “Amen” my aunt leaned over to say, “My daughter is not and never will be forgotten!!!!” Grieving mothers, like all God’s creatures, need to speak their truth in love.

Soon, in addition to evaluating poems, God gave me the freedom to evaluate human ideas expressed in Biblical passages. Among the many views over the millennia of expressions I would question what was true in my experience, what was helpful and life-giving, what inspired beauty, compassion, equality, love, and what best expressed God’s vision for an abundant life for this planet. Sometimes a Biblical writer’s expression of God was “not true for me or helpful at all” but most of their insights transformed my life.

As Rainer Rilke taught me: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a foreign tongue. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” Living the questions has been helpful and true for me.

What questions do you live into without simple answers? How have you found God encouraging you to seek what is true and helpful from the writings of others? How do tyrants who don’t allow questions without retribution seem anti-Christlike to you?

Posted on by Wallis Landrum (Wally) · 6 Comments

Omnipotence 012525

I returned home from college for my 21st birthday. Our family spent the day burying my cousin who was senselessly killed at 24 when a speeding car ran a stop sign. That was the day I began to let go of God being omnipotent (omni=all, complete, total + potent=power, influence, effect).

How could an all-powerful and all-loving God allow my cousin to be killed? She was a devoted Christian on her way to teach aphasia stroke patients how to speak again; she had a lot to live for and a lot of empathy, compassion, joy, and love to share.

If God is an uncaring, greedy, manipulative, vindictive, authoritative tyrant then we need no further explanations. But if God is love, compassion, seeking beauty, joy and abundance for the whole creation, then something is wrong.  I knew in the depths of my being that God was loving; maybe I miscalculated the all-powerful part. It was what I’d been told, but was it true? Did it fit the God of the Bible and experience?

The funeral home death march was when I first heard the 20 horrible things people say about God — rehearsed lines in funeral lines (trying to protect God’s reputation or be helpful to you, but failing at both). “God wanted her with him” (so did we); “she’s in a better place” (being here with us was good enough); “God only takes the best” (wish she’d been a little worse); “God has a plan” (well this plan sucks); “God is teaching you a lesson” (the lesson will never be worth the cost because the teacher needs a better lesson plan)……. 

Nobody was being cruel — just thoughtless — mindlessly repeating what they’d heard even when it hadn’t helped them. Maybe there’s a better way; maybe we can find it together. One teaser from my friends I share with you — what if we replace omnipotence with amipotence — the power of love (Huey Lewis more than Celine Dion). Come and see.

What life experiences impacted your views about God? What answers do you seek for bad things happening to good people and good things happening to bad people? Where is one example of real love ever being controlling?

Posted on by Wallis Landrum (Wally)

Wo Bist Du?  Dec. 14, 2024

Last Sunday we worshipped in the New Cathedral — new being 1860 — in Linz, Austria. It’s the largest cathedral in Austria but it’s spire was forced 6 meters below the spire of St. Stephen’s in Vienna. The Habsburg family had the empire’s home field advantage after all.

The church is named “Mariä-Empfängnis-Dom” which translates “the church of the Immaculate Conception of Mary”. The English translation didn’t help my incomprehension of immaculate conceptions. That Sunday in the Roman Catholic Church calendar just happened to be Immaculate Conception Day – Dec. 8. If I was supposed to be enlightened by this confluence, it was lost in translation; I could barely hear the German echoing off the high stone walls.

I was moved by the organ, the choir, the “smells and bells”. We were warmly welcomed in a cold room where we watched our breath. During the scripture I tried to sense what I was hearing. The first clue was garten (garden), then der mensch (the man), but I knew it was Genesis 3, when I heard “Wo bist du?” (God asking the man “Where are you?”). 

German has a proper form of you — sie — for strangers, formality, etc. The intimate, friendly, familial form of you is du — where are you my friend is what God asks. While I didn’t understand a lot that day, I heard the first question in the Bible — God asking human beings “Where are you?” 

The second most important question happens a few verses later. Cain has just murdered his brother Abel, and God asks him, “Where is your brother?” Where are you in relation to God and where are you in relation to all your brothers and sisters? Jesus completes these two initial questions by teaching the whole Bible is summed up with the command to love God with all that you are, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

What are some teachings of some churches you can’t translate or comprehend? When you are hiding, how do you sense God asking, “Where are you my beloved?” When you are estranged, what steps do you take to seek reconciliation with your brother/sister/neighbor/human?