My Morphing Perspective of Jesus ... and Thus of Us!

Sooooo ... what have I come to believe about Jesus? I'll share it with you, even as it's morphing, emerging, developing ... and this is what I see for today, for now -- awaiting further revelation...!

Many folks already know that I believe that all are saved. Puts me on the spiritual hit-list with some. Put me on the prayer list (as in "pray for her deceived and dangerous soul!") with others.

But I've come to see something way-beyond that ... I believe that we never had anything to be saved *from* in the first place. I no longer believe that we are separated from God, or ever were. In fact, it now strikes me as absurd! How the heck did we think we could manage to get separated from Omnipresence in the first place...? God permeates all that is -- in Him we live and move and have our being ... we are only alive because He enlivens us.

I don't believe in original sin, either. Much of the historical Christian church never swallowed that theory. Eastern Orthodoxy doesn't uphold it. I see "original blessing" instead. I see that the Garden of Eden is a parable of us, in the "womb" ... and we had to be born, to experience the sense of "separation" (even as each infant must), in order to experience the perception of being apart from God ... in order to return to God. We come from God, we return to God. (The parable of the prodigal son is a lovely story that expounds on this -- taught by Jesus, who wanted us to see something deeper than the words He conveyed.) Nor do I any longer entertain the notion that "God cannot be near sin."

I'll expound on that a bit ...

~ I see the "fall" as the acquiring of an intensified sense of ego/duality in mankind (there is historic/archaeological/geological evidence to show that a sudden and massive "shift" occurred in mankind, 6,000 years ago -- prior to that violence was merely accidental).

~ I see the story of Adam and Eve as just that -- a story. A parable. Jesus only taught in parables, and He says He did what He saw the Father doing ... I see the Father inspiring folks to write parables in the Hebrew scriptures as well. "Adam" and "Eve" are not first names -- they're never again used in scripture. Instead, they mean, "mankind" and "mother of life", respectively. I see them as symbolic of human-kind, at some point in history -- showing us what happened when humanity experienced a significant shift in ego-focus.

~ If God cannot be near sin, then why does He go to them, after they "fell" and sinned? THEY hide, but He goes a-looking. They have shame, but He has compassion. He talks with them, takes care of them, helps them to face what they've done (though they blame-shift!), and He provides for them. He also warns them of the consequences of their choice to "eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (i.e., to see from an egoic perspective of judging everything as good or evil - or duality). [As a sidebar, God warns Eve (woman) that Adam (man) will seek to rule over her as his ego-reaction. If it had been a command, God would've addressed Adam. And, God warns Eve (woman) that her ego-reaction will be to seek to find her sense of identity/security in him (man).]

~ Regarding the belief that we are separated from God: David says, "where can I go where you are not - if I go to the abode of the dead, You are there." Even in the most "God-forsaken" place, God is THERE.

~ Paul says, "nothing created [which includes you, and me, and every human, AND our wills] can separate us from the love of God." And God IS love. Love and God are synonymous.

~ Then there's the prayer of Jesus, on the night before He let Himself be killed (He laid down His life for a purpose..!). The most fervent thing on His mind, was that we would know that we are One ... with each other, and with Jesus, and with God. That we would be one AS Jesus and the Father are One. I notice that the Prodigal-Father's answer to the son (who lacked awareness of his connection to the Father) was, "My son, you are always with Me. Everything I have is yours." I believe He says that to each and every one of us..!

~ And further, when Jesus was supposedly "full of our sin", and Jesus supposedly felt the separation as God supposedly turned His back on Jesus -- the *reality* is that "God was IN Christ, reconciling the world to Himself." AT that moment. FURTHER, the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world..! WE just had to have it play out in history, before our eyes, so we could *get* it...! (& we still don't!) [Regarding Jesus crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ... He was calling out the first line of Psalm 22. They didn't number or title their psalms. They used the first line ... and all Jewish men memorized all the psalms ... as Jesus cried the first line out, they all knew what the rest of the psalm said ... go read it for yourself, particularly v. 27 on, so you can see precisely what He was wanting to convey to them, as His dying breaths prevented Him from saying much more than that.]

So, what if...?

~ What if Jesus doesn't want to be worshipped, any more than He wanted worship then?

~ What if WE took His life and teaching, and made Him into a tangible image of God -- which is something the Israelites were forbidden to do...?

~ What if the "anti-Christ" is to put the historical Jesus in the place of Christ? (anti doesn't mean "against" so much as "instead of")

~ What if we've focused on Jesus, instead of The Christ?

~ What if the Christ is OUR identity? We are "in Christ". Jesus is our elder brother, but there is only one Son of God -- all of humanity as One.

Next -- what I'm seeing that Jesus demonstrated/demonstrates to us...

Shalom, Dena

The Message of the Prodigal ...

I notice that pride, particularly religious pride (the sort that was focused on sidelining and excluding others) was the only issue that Jesus railed against. He met the "sinners" where they were ... was known (derisively) as "friend of sinners" and was accused of being a drunkard (oh, and in cahoots with the devil, too).

Makes me wonder if those of us who "keep sinning," and those of us who "keep pointing fingers at those who keep sinning" haven't both missed the point ... wondering if it's all a matter of not yet encountering the living Presence of Christ, who alone can touch hearts and transform lives, from the inside-out ...?

Wondering, too, if we haven't gotten the nature of God "all wrong"...?

I can't help but recall Jesus' story of the prodigal (which is really a story about the heart & nature of the Father) ... in this story the father is in every way the total opposite of the expected male patriarch. He allows the son to make choices against him, and even empowers him to do so by giving him the inheritance. Later, when the son has come to his senses (after coming to learn from the consequences of his choices -- the only way we seem to learn), the Father refuses to exercise his right to restore order, or impose a punishment. Both the son's leaving and the son's returning are seen as both necessary and painful -- a gift of adult freedom. The God I experience from this story is a Father who refuses to "own" us, refuses to demand our submission, refuses to punish our rebellion. This God respects our freedom, mourns for our perceived alienation, waits patiently (& expectantly) for our return, and accepts our (mixed-motived) love as a gift. When the Father speaks to the disgruntled older brother, I see a God who teaches us to not prefer the security of law over the adventure of grace.

And most shocking of all, I see this: The power God refuses to assume over us is surely *not* given by God to any human over another...!

I see that we get this penchant to rule over others, to correct others, to control others' thoughts and actions, *not* from Jesus, but from the Pharisees Jesus rebuked.

Shalom, Dena

Narratives of the Bible: The Story of Exile and Return

Exile ... like the exodus-from-bondage story, the exile story is one rooted in our individual and collective consciousness. Whether it be as "simple" as being sent into the exile of a disciplinary "time-out", or whether it be the all-too-common trauma of being cast out of the "popular crowd in school, or whether it be as insidious as being out-cast from a spiritual fellowship ... exile is part of the human experience.

Let's hear what Marcus Borg unpacks - my comments will follow:

- Like the exodus story, the story of exile and return is grounded in a historical experience. The exile began in 587 BC, when, after Jerusalem and its temple were conquered and destroyed by Babylon, some of the Jewish survivors were marched into exile in Babylon some eight hundred miles away. There they lived as refugees, separated from their homeland and under conditions of oppression. Next to the exodus, this experience of exile and return was the most important historical event shaping the life and religious imagination of the Jewish people. It seared itself into their consciousness and became for them a metaphor for their relationship with God.

- It is an experience of separation from all that is familiar and dear. It usually involves powerless and marginality, often oppression and victimization. As a life of being separated from that to which one belongs, exile is often marked by grief. This feeling of being separated from home and longing for home runs deeply within us.

(I can attest to the power of this experience ... while I was never marched for hundreds of miles, I experienced the pain of moving many times, as an "army brat" ... I moved 25 times in my life, most of them in my growing-up years ... 3 high schools ... numerous times of having to leave those I loved, back in the days when the hand-written letter was the only affordable means of communication. Even worse, however, is when a religious community moves from being a 'safe haven' to the ones who oppress and cast out a member ... shunning is alive and well within a great number of Christian churches and fellowships/ministries ... if one cannot sign a "statement of beliefs", or if one's perspective changes, or if one points out a problem, one *becomes* the problem ... the system, seeing the system as more important than those within it, will self-protect ... humans become disposable elements, so that the system can continue ... and yet, this very experience can be a blessing-in-disguise, as it shockingly reveals what is *not* "home" ... we cannot know and experience the truth, while enslaved to a counterfeit ... there are times when we turn to God while being shaken, only to discover that it is GOD who is doing the shaking! But ... I'm getting ahead of myself!)

- In our own lives, the experience of exile as estrangement or alienation can be felt as a flatness, a loss of connection with a center of vitality and meaning, when, one day become very much like another and nothing has much zest. We yearn for something that we perhaps only vaguely remember. Life in exile thus has a profound existential meaning. It is living away from Zion, the place where God is present. Indeed, exile is central in the symbolism of the Garden of Eden story in the book of Genesis. The garden - paradise - is the place of God's presence, but we live outside of the garden, east of Eden. If the problem is exile, what is the solution? The solution is, of course, a journey of return. Thus, like the exodus story, the story of exile and return is a journey story. It images the spiritual life as a journey to the place where God is present, a homecoming, a journey of return.

(So many things come to mind here ... I think of the prodigal's story ... his exile was self-imposed ... in chasing after what he *thought* would make him happy, he found himself in a place of ruination and exile. He was not led to the pig-sty by an external captor, but by an internal one ... his own ego told him how to find happiness, and he believed that small voice, rather than the Voice of truth. He had lived with the Voice of Truth - symbolized by his won father - for all of his life ... it had always been there for him. But he didn't recognize this truth until he had traveled far from it. This journey, then, this exile, was required -- he had to get far enough away, and to "lose" that which he'd not known he'd had, in order to wake up, come to his own senses, and finally *begin* to SEE what he'd always had. It took what it took - and the wise father let him go ... knowing the value of the experience was well-worth the monetary "loss" of his inheritance. It was worth forfeiting his fortune, in order to discover that which is priceless: his true identity as a Son. He returns from this self-imposed exile while still in the midst of confusion ... still rehearsing his speech, still very filled with mixed-motives. He is not yet clear, in his mind, of his identity ... he is willing to settle for less. However, his heart knows the way home, and so he goes ... even as his mind is yammering about how to justify this offense. I love how the father - who personifies God - brushes aside the rehearsed speech, and simply embraces and celebrates -- the son has returned! The father's heart has never left the son ... the Father never forgets who we really are, even while we are deluded ... the Father knows that there is no separation, that the separation is only in the mind of the one who has listened to his own fear- and shame-based egoic thinking. It is the *ego*, and only the *ego* that imagines, and thus experiences, the separation. The Father sees the Truth, from the Higher/Deeper perspective. The Father continues to watch and to love -- waiting for us to come to our senses, to awaken to His reality, to re-turn home to Him, and to who we really are. So too, does God deal with the "obedient" one who always held to the law, and never rebelled, and YET, never appreciated, nor experienced, what he always had ... whether we come to the end of ourselves through rebelling, or complying, the awakening, and the embrace of the Father is the same.

Re-turn implies that we were there to start with ... that we go back to where we began. So too with reconcile - to be reconciled is to imply a previous conciliation. I see our exile, in whatever form, is just as illusional and self-imposed as that of the prodigal -- indeed, I believe that that's one of the messages of the parable, if we only have eyes with which to see at that higher/deeper level.

So, too, with the narrative of the Garden ... I notice that when the humans chose to disobey, that though *they* hid, God came looking for them ... though our tradition tells us that they fell from grace, that relationship with God was severed, the text does not say so, nor does it imply so. God came to find them, to talk with them, to explain to them the consequences (not punishment!) for their choices, and then to provide for them. God knows, as a good Father, that His children had to strike out on their own, with their egoic-inheritance of shame and fear, to live it up and spend that inheritance, until they, too, would come to the end of all they had, wake up in whichever pig sty they'd find themselves in, come to their senses, remember who they really are, and return Home, to God.

It takes what it takes ... both individually and collectively. But people, and even cultures, do indeed awaken. It's happening, on both a micro and macro scale.

We, too, can realize that Home was always available, that God was always present, that we were always loved, always spoken to, always provided for. That only our own delusional/egoic perspective stood in the way of us *seeing* what there was to see.

We, too, can wake up, remember who we really are, and return Home.)

Tomorrow ~ Narratives of the Bible: The Priestly Story

Shalom, Dena