Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 107
I have been thinking about and living into the “Sound of Silence” song, thinking about when it was written, the poetry of it, the power of it and, in this last verse, the foresight of Paul Simon in realizing the “neon god” that “the people bowed and prayed to”. While I wrote about this on Friday, I am still thinking about it today. Given the news, the lies, the grift, the destruction of our democracy in favor of a ‘more powerful executive’ branch that no longer needs Congress’ approval to spend, to make or break treaties, to decide whom our allies will be, etc, the “neon god” of Trump is getting larger and larger in some circles, and I am at a loss as to the reason for this.
We the People are well aware of the consequences of being one who “bowed and prayed to the neon god they made”, it is resplendent throughout history, the United States of America came into being because King George thought the Colonies should bow down and pray to him! Now, 250 years later, the Republicans, the ‘christian’ Nationalists, the White Supremacists, the Orthodox Jews, the seekers of money, power, and prestige, all have come together and are hellbent on taking away the Freedoms found in the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers found in the Constitution, the safeguards against a ‘king’ ruling our country found in the Constitution, the Rule of Law found in our Constitution, and, of course, the basic moral, ethical spiritual commandments of God found in the Bible, in the New Testament.
Psalm 121, verses 1&2 call out to me at this moment: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains, from where will my help come” My help comes from Adonai, maker of heaven and earth”. I am calling out my colleagues in the Clergy to make this Psalm COME ALIVE in your hearts, in your minds, in your souls and spread THIS message to your disparate flocks, not the message of MAGA, not the message of BIBI, not the message of JEW/ISRAEL HATRED, not the message of ISLAMAPHOBIA, not the message of HATE THE STRANGER, not the message of TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ANYONE YOU CAN, ESPECIALLY THE POOR, etc.
Yes I am pissed! I cannot “stand idly by the blood of my neighbors” because God is calling me and you, all of God’s People to care for one another, to lift up the poor and the needy, to love and welcome the stranger, to see the Image of God in each and every one we meet. We the People, in this month of Elul, are called to remember that just as the writer of Song of Songs tells us “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine”. We the People are God’s beloved and, We the People are being called by Paul Simon, by the prophets, by the Psalmist, by the authors of the Bible, by the words of Christ to RETURN TO MAKING GOD OUR BELOVED! We can only do this when we REJECT “the neon god they made” and REJECT bowing down to and praying to the ORANGE IDOL in the White House, to the Puppet Masters behind the Orange Idol, to the fascists on both the right and the left!
It is so simple to return to our basic goodness of being, to return to bowing and praying to Adonai, to God, to return to the authentic self we are born to be. NOT EASY, just simple. It takes engaging in this month of Elul with great excitement, great seriousness, great anticipation, great trembling awe, and a great commitment to RETURN AGAIN TO THE LAND OF YOUR SOUL, as Reb Shlomo Carlebach teaches us in his song “Return Again”. We the People are given this gift of taking 40 days, the same number that it took to get the slave out of the People who left Egypt in the desert, to review, repent, rejoice, make our amends and our changes so we can reconnect, renew, resign our Covenant with God. This gift of Elul, of the 10 days of T’Shuvah, is also a mirror into our beingness, into our core, and it allows us to change from the selfish, unwilling, unwitting, witting ways we have fallen away from our authentic self, from God’s call, from our neighbors and from our Beloved.
Having engaged in this process for 39 years earnestly and in-depth, I can testify to the both the simplicity of the process and the difficulty of it. Looking back over my past each year, because I review the ways I have acted in the past to see if they need repairing based on new insights, is painful and exhilarating, embarrassing and exalting, enlightening because I keep taking new skins of the blinders I have worn and “Lift up my eyes and SEE” the beauty of living well, the horror of my errors upon another and my soul, the joy of repentance and learning new paths to living well, and the love of reconnection to people, to God because of making a T’Shuvah and accepting a T’Shuvah. What a journey this life is/can be.
ACTION STEP
Look at the Subtle ways you are still worshiping “the neon god you made”
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark