It's taken me 40 years to get comfortable in my own skin. It's been a long process full of bad choices, dead ends, and stupid mistakes. Although there are some things I may regret, I 'm not sure I would change a thing.
When I first became a Christian I thought the spiritual life was additive. I needed to do more. More service. More church. More Bible. More worship. More knowledge. More thought. More tithing. More... Because these things, of course would make me a "better" person.
Looking back, I'm not sure what the "more" was fueled by. Perhaps illusions of perfection? Judging my insides by the outsides of others? Institutional standards and social expectations? Probably a combination of these and some issues to which I'm still blind. Nevertheless, while the intentions were good, the results were not. Underneath I maintaned a fairly constant low level of anxiety as I tried to be someone who I was not.
My take on spirituality is different these days. I see it and experience it as a subtractive process. Less trying and striving. Less organization. Fewer preconceived notions. Less social pressure. Less judgment. Less outside influence. As the minus signs multiply I find myself left with someone who is more authentically "me". Free to risk life, trusting God to work in all of my imperfections until, as Thomas Moore puts it, "they reveal the secret of my nature."
I'll finish with a couple quotes.
"He who would lead a Christlike life is he who is perfectly and absolutely himself." -Oscar Wilde
"A perfect person would be someone without blemish, but the perfected person is someone who has really lived. You can usually tell if a person has lived life fully, just as you can glimpse the hollowness in someone trying to be perfect. -Thomas Moore
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Jesus as god and man
I've thought about writing out a "Christology" but it's just tedious and boring. Like we need more theological BS divorced from everyday experience, right? To be honest, I am resistant to solidify any of my beliefs. I've seen my belief systems change so much that I hold everything pretty loosely at this point. Additionally, I just can't find a way, or a reason, to attempt to reason away the mystery. So, instead I'll start throwing some thoughts out there and see what sticks to the wall.
According to the creeds and traditions Jesus is fully man and fully God. IMO misunderstanding these two beliefs causes a lot of unnecessary grief. In practice, as a fundamentalist Christian, I really couldn't grasp either one, and judging from most Christians that I know, neither do they. Let me see if I can explain my point, as convoluted and incomplete as it might be.
I don't think most people have a problem with Jesus being an actual historical figure. Although there are some people who would argue the point,
I'll take it as fact. So if Jesus was "fully man" he would be experiencing life as "fully" as any man has, or ever will. He would be experiencing and seeing life from a "God perspective".
I think Jesus was serious when he implied his "Godhood". I probably interpret it different than most. A man doesn't go out to the desert with no food or water for 30 days for jollies. He was on a mission, searching...just as other ascetics and mystics had done before him (John the Baptist perhaps being his contemporary example.) It appears that what he experienced in the desert changed his life in a deep, meaningful and drastic way.
It is clear that Jesus thought he was one with God. I think its possible that Jesus was borrowing language from the Hebrew scriptures to describe the state of consciousness that he experienced in the desert, and continued to experience throughout the rest of his life. The Gospel of John is fairly straight forward about this. Joh 10:30 I and the Father are one! In Western culture you aren't supposed to say this kind of thing. They call you a heretic, throw you in the nut-house, run you out of town, or crucify you.
But, here is what is interesting in this discussion. Humans have been experiencing different states of consciousness for as long as we know. It's been called cosmic consciousness, God consciousness, satori, awakening, Self-realization, born again, etc. Jesus was not first, nor the last to claim "I am-ness". Is it at least possible that this is what was happening to Jesus? Is it at least possible that Jesus was trying to interpret his experience using the culture, language and religion he was familiar with?
Most Christians think that Jesus was fully God and therefore in the back of our mind we know we can never do or experience what Jesus did. Alan Watts says that we put Jesus on a pedestal and throw him "upstairs", because he is "fully God" and we are not. Once we do that he can never be an example of transformation simply because he is not like us. Instead he is elevated to the role of a cosmic Christ that destroys the power of sin that hovers over the universe. Perhaps we imagine that he had special knowledge and revelation. As a result, transformation is either given lip-service, ignored, or reduced to external morality. Apparently Jesus had other ideas.
I think Jesus was serious when he claimed that he was God. However, I don't think there is a good reason to think that he limited Godhood to himself. Jesus knew that his experience of "oneness" was something we could all experience. In fact, it seems Jesus confirms he is not the only "god". Please notice that italicized "the" is not in the original Greek.
Joh 10:33 The Jews answered him, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Joh 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods?
Joh 10:35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken),
Joh 10:36 say ye of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
I don't think this view strips Jesus of his Godhood either. I think it confirms it. But it does not restrict Godhood to Jesus. He invites us into his view, experience of life, and oneness with the Father.
Joh 17:21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
Jesus was sent into the world to preach a gospel of radical transformation. This transformation takes place when we "open our eyes", when we are "born again", when we experience the "kingdom of heaven". Jesus experienced a different worldview, state of consciousness, whatever you want to call it, and pointed the way to a new way of living to which he invited all people. A worldview where we see our brother as our self. Where we experience the power of God moving threw us that we can neither direct or fully understand. Fully engaged in this world while seeing it from a completely different perspective. Aware of the eternal in everything we see and do. Seeing the secular and spiritual as one. Intellect and senses working in harmony. Where the natural is a mystery and mystery is natural. Our feet firmly rooted in the earth and our hands lifted toward heaven. Fully embracing who we are and what life asks of us. To experience all of life and reality as one. Perhaps we are all capable of being sons of God.
According to the creeds and traditions Jesus is fully man and fully God. IMO misunderstanding these two beliefs causes a lot of unnecessary grief. In practice, as a fundamentalist Christian, I really couldn't grasp either one, and judging from most Christians that I know, neither do they. Let me see if I can explain my point, as convoluted and incomplete as it might be.
I don't think most people have a problem with Jesus being an actual historical figure. Although there are some people who would argue the point,
I'll take it as fact. So if Jesus was "fully man" he would be experiencing life as "fully" as any man has, or ever will. He would be experiencing and seeing life from a "God perspective".
I think Jesus was serious when he implied his "Godhood". I probably interpret it different than most. A man doesn't go out to the desert with no food or water for 30 days for jollies. He was on a mission, searching...just as other ascetics and mystics had done before him (John the Baptist perhaps being his contemporary example.) It appears that what he experienced in the desert changed his life in a deep, meaningful and drastic way.
It is clear that Jesus thought he was one with God. I think its possible that Jesus was borrowing language from the Hebrew scriptures to describe the state of consciousness that he experienced in the desert, and continued to experience throughout the rest of his life. The Gospel of John is fairly straight forward about this. Joh 10:30 I and the Father are one! In Western culture you aren't supposed to say this kind of thing. They call you a heretic, throw you in the nut-house, run you out of town, or crucify you.
But, here is what is interesting in this discussion. Humans have been experiencing different states of consciousness for as long as we know. It's been called cosmic consciousness, God consciousness, satori, awakening, Self-realization, born again, etc. Jesus was not first, nor the last to claim "I am-ness". Is it at least possible that this is what was happening to Jesus? Is it at least possible that Jesus was trying to interpret his experience using the culture, language and religion he was familiar with?
Most Christians think that Jesus was fully God and therefore in the back of our mind we know we can never do or experience what Jesus did. Alan Watts says that we put Jesus on a pedestal and throw him "upstairs", because he is "fully God" and we are not. Once we do that he can never be an example of transformation simply because he is not like us. Instead he is elevated to the role of a cosmic Christ that destroys the power of sin that hovers over the universe. Perhaps we imagine that he had special knowledge and revelation. As a result, transformation is either given lip-service, ignored, or reduced to external morality. Apparently Jesus had other ideas.
I think Jesus was serious when he claimed that he was God. However, I don't think there is a good reason to think that he limited Godhood to himself. Jesus knew that his experience of "oneness" was something we could all experience. In fact, it seems Jesus confirms he is not the only "god". Please notice that italicized "the" is not in the original Greek.
Joh 10:33 The Jews answered him, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Joh 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods?
Joh 10:35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken),
Joh 10:36 say ye of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
I don't think this view strips Jesus of his Godhood either. I think it confirms it. But it does not restrict Godhood to Jesus. He invites us into his view, experience of life, and oneness with the Father.
Joh 17:21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
Jesus was sent into the world to preach a gospel of radical transformation. This transformation takes place when we "open our eyes", when we are "born again", when we experience the "kingdom of heaven". Jesus experienced a different worldview, state of consciousness, whatever you want to call it, and pointed the way to a new way of living to which he invited all people. A worldview where we see our brother as our self. Where we experience the power of God moving threw us that we can neither direct or fully understand. Fully engaged in this world while seeing it from a completely different perspective. Aware of the eternal in everything we see and do. Seeing the secular and spiritual as one. Intellect and senses working in harmony. Where the natural is a mystery and mystery is natural. Our feet firmly rooted in the earth and our hands lifted toward heaven. Fully embracing who we are and what life asks of us. To experience all of life and reality as one. Perhaps we are all capable of being sons of God.
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