A few weeks ago I noticed how every year the changing of the hour does something weird to all of us; because we see reality slip just slightly, we see that the time is constructed by all of us and when we change it we all have to agree to a reality shift.
I once visited Bogota in the time of a civil war, going anywhere outside your comfort zone jolts you out of your familiar patterns, and the culture shock of this war torn town in the Andes was almost too much for me. I read graffiti that said: ‘tu esqueleto esta vivo’ your skeleton is alive. And I wondered why I ‘d never thought of this before your skeleton is alive after all it is not so shocking when you consider it.

And your ghost is living too.

but its interesting isn’t it that we prefer our ghosts and our skeletons, to be spooks and ghouls, than to be our own selves; our living, essential selves.

in the same way our culture has resolutely given up on belief in the divine, and disavowed faith in the ‘sum of all good’, which we‘ve called by the name ‘God’ for millennia, despite all the difficulties and contradictions inherent in the name, we’ve given up faith in God – or ‘whatever means the good‘ – while clinging steadfastly to a belief in ‘evil’, which we seem to see everywhere; describing everyone from hit and run drivers, to slum landlords, drug traffickers, terrorists and sex offenders.

Why should this be so? Why is our only connection to the spiritual realm one driven by fear and self doubt? A belief in the traditional invention of hell but not in the scriptural affirmation of heaven?

In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus said, “If they say, ‘See, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will get there first. But the kingdom is inside you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the children of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.” I loved hearing the Sweet Honey in the Rock song Good news las week and the line: I’ ve got shoes in the kingdom, but I go a step further if I know that I ‘m wearing those shoes.

If I know that I am spiritual I affirm something about myself that goes beyond the tangible data of physics and biology but which I know by other means. Like those ‘great intangibles’ of David Whyte’s poem; intangibles that bear us up.

If I know that I am spiritual I can welcome home my own ghost.

To acknowledge that I am spiritual is to commit to (or at least try to) embody that ghost, that essential self that exists beyond right and wrong, that essential self which I am. to value the essential over the momentary; to acknowledge that some things are just that: things, things that we have, like emotions, opinions, possessions, and that beyond them is what we are; our own essence. and if this is so, I will often, not always but often, develop practices which affirm that essential self, which call the spirit into a living relationship within time, practices which we could call religious. To be spiritual is to say that I have a ghost a living ghost.

By this same token people who are ‘spiritual but not religious’ are like people who say: “I know I have a ghost but I’m not going to do anything to let it flourish, or allow it to be an integrated part of my life I’m just going to let it wander off and please itself.”

These ideas are of course reflected in something very present and clear for us in this gathering: we are not here. (this service was delivered in lockdown via ‘Zoom’). The thing which we do, and which we now miss, is present but intangible.
When we are present it is not at all clear what our presence means or does, but I am absolutely aware of the difference that our absence makes. I ve spoken of a kinetic or bodily energy of presence, but quite simply nobody knows what that means. A presence that exists between us that is noticeable in its absence, but not even tangible when it is present. This is a symbolic reminder of the presence and vital importance of your own ghost, your holy ghost. So call in your ghost, and let your spirit be a real presence to you.