Ep. 50: The Making of a Mystic with Kevin Sweeney

Show Notes

Episode Summary

In the 1960's, Jesuit priest Karl Rahner made a bold claim about the future of faith. "The Christian of the future will either be a mystic, or nothing at all." Who could have guessed that sixty years later the deconstruction community would turn his statement into reality through the modern pursuit of mysticism. 

Apologetic, rational, belief-based Christianity can only get you so far. In fact, in many ways it's gotten us into the mess we are in today. It could very well be true that the most necessary step you make during your deconstruction journey is to move from thinking the 'right' things about God to knowing God through intimate experiences. Modern mystic Thomas Keating describes this process as going inside yourself to find what is true. It is a way of knowing that begins with unknowing, a way of understanding that involves not just your mind, but your whole self. 

In this, our 50th episode, we talk with author and mystic Kevin Sweeney about his path out of rational, apologetic faith and into the ancient tradition of Christian mysticism. Through formative practices like meditation, mindfulness, and centering prayer, Kevin charts a path for many of us to follow as we take the necessary step out of evangelicalism into a more freer, experiential faith. 

Father Richard Rohr describes a mystic as someone who has moved from mere belief to actual inner experience with God.  This introductory conversation about Christian mysticism invites all of us into a deeper stream of spirituality. Plus, we discuss the formative practices you will need to facilitate inner transformation, a transformation from someone who thinks about God to someone who finds their entire being already in God.  

Bio

Mystics are not just a thing of the past. We all can embrace the mystery of God and the way of Christ in the world today. Kevin Sweeney, a pastor in Honolulu with his wife Christine, is here to share his journey within mysticism. He shares his journey of releasing ego, surrendering into God’s love, and embracing the wild journey life truly is. Kevin also shares about his new, forthcoming book, “The Making of a Mystic: My Journey with Mushrooms, My Life as a Pastor, and Why It’s Okay For Everyone to Relax,” which comes out on May 31st.

Kevin Sweeney is co-founder and lead pastor of Imagine Church—an urban church in Honolulu that is welcoming of all people, sees imagination as the key to the future, chooses authenticity over performance, substance over hype, and quality over quantity. He is the host of podcast “The Church Needs Therapy” and is the author of the forthcoming books, “The Making of a Mystic: My Journey with Mushrooms, My Life as a Pastor, and Why It’s Okay For Everyone to Relax,” out on May 31st, and “The Joy of Letting Go” which will be out in January 2023. Both on Quoir Publishing. He lives In Honolulu with his wife and co-founder of Imagine, Christine, and their two kids, True and Mikayla.

Quotables

• “There is a difference between spiritual intelligence and spiritual experience.”

• “Spiritual intelligence is what you believe about God, but spiritual experience is direct, first-person experience of God.”

• “Spiritual experience is the connection and the union with God.”

• “Spiritual experience is about waking up…For me a transformative faith is not primarily about believing what is right it is about tasting what is good.”

• “You can be less certain and more free.”

• “My authority was the authorizing presence of the Spirit within me.”

• “The internal knowing and trusting of your own voice was the only compass I had.”

• “How many times do you have to taste something to know it isn’t good and how many times do you have to experience something to know it isn’t real?”

• “The Spirit is always inviting us forward.”

• “You have to know the rules to know how to break them creatively.”

• “Any practice that aligns your mind, body, and heart in oneness and grounds you in love. You need to do that and it needs to become a consistent practice you return to.”

• “The River is the unified field, that open space to experience grace and love.”

• “Walking meditation is helpful especially for people who when they go in silence their monkey mind is really strong.”

• “I used to do my practice of breathe and listen to gregorian chants. I don’t do that anymore but the point is, what is giving you access to the ‘River’.”

• “If you commit to silence for five years, you will start to get it.”

• “Mystic silence is like sitting with a friend you can’t see.”

• “Prayer is listening to God say good things about you.”

• “How do I actually recoil and relax?”

• “Beliefs are not transformative. You can believe all the right things and still be in bondage.”

• “After the ecstacy, the laundry.”

• “The first half of life is about the beliefs of your self. The second half of life is about the death of the very self who is doing the believing and the clinging.”

• “You can’t try your way out of trauma.”

• “You have to be somebody before you can be nobody.”

• “The very spaces that have the most potential for our transformation, we spend out entire lives trying to avoid.”

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Credits

This episode was produced by The Sophia Society and written by Gary Alan Taylor and Kelly Lamb. Music is by Faith in Foxholes.