Marcus Borg--Reflections on His Passing

Dr. Marcus Borg died yesterday.

That may mean something to you or not.  I have been blessed with many mentors, some of whom I've known personally; I have learned from others only through workshops they have led or books that have greatly influenced me. What distinguishes them as mentors is that they did not point me in a direction with their instruction, but rather lit my path so that I could make more enlightened choices for myself.  Borg was one of these mentors, mostly through books, though also a few personal workshop encounters.
 
Marcus Borg wrote a spiritual blockbuster in 1995, "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time." In a day when my spiritual path was diverging from the common doctrinal statements of the church, when my spirit was thirsting for a better understanding of my heart, the Jesus that Borg opened up for me was like a signpost at a fork in a long trail. The path to the right had become a dead-end, but Borg's sign showed me a better path to the left.

This was not, of course, Borg's first book: "Jesus: A New Vision" was his first major published work. And since then he has written many. But it was the first I read.

As I reflect on Marcus Borg, I am struck how he has contributed to my vision that there are two paths in authentic spirituality. One path is inward as we strive to understand the yearning in our connection with our own truest self, including that of the "More" which resides in us. The word that came to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you," was one ancient Hebrew way of expressing this. The other is outward and is our connection with all else that is. This is expressed beautifully by Thich Nhat Hanh in the coined word "Interbeing", but it is also in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, "In the beginning was the Logos. . .All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being."

Borg is not my only mentor; Thich Nhat Hanh, John Shelby Spong, and many others. I think of a man who encountered me, a new convert, at a program for US service people at Johnson Air Base in Japan. It was Don who helped me think through my life focus and encouraged my quest for my truest self.  Don became a life-long friend. There was Sunao Yokobiki who introduced me to a deep sense of Japan and helped me learn the pieces of Japanese spirituality which filled in so many gaps.  And Bill F, who was my mentor in my doctoral program, but also became a friend. There are so many more.

Marcus Borg's death (And Thich Nhat Hanh's cerebral hemorraige) also remind me that most of my mentors are older than I, many in their mid to late 80's and even 90's. It reminds me to redouble my effort to be a light on the path for others; not an arrow pointing the way, but a light to help them make decisions about their purpose and path.

Just some musings as I consider Borg's death and our human frailty, even of the mighty. Because you are a special friend, I wanted to share my musings with you.