11. Jesus - Who?

I have already mentioned in an earlier blog, one of my past times is rummaging around the bookshelves in our local Charity Shops, especially the Spirituality books. On my last visit, I picked up a copy of Lee Strobel's 'Finding the Real Jesus – A Guide for Curious Christians and Skeptical Seekers'. I was attracted by the words 'Curious' and 'Skeptical Seeker' but should have been warned off by the words 'Real Jesus' because the author was more interested in convincing people that his view of Jesus was correct than any unbiased discussion of the wealth of academic research on the diversity of early Christianity.

During the first 300 years following the death of Jesus, there was great diversity amongst the Christian communities regarding Jesus and his life and teaching. Strobel mentioned gnostic Christianity, and we know from the library uncovered in at Nag Hammadi between the1940's-1970's, that several pictures of Jesus existed in early Christianity, compared to the Pauline Jesus we are familiar with in our New Testament.

I say Pauline because the four Gospels we have in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were written after St Paul's death and were influenced by Paul's writing and theology. During the great Christian controversies of the early centuries, these four Gospels were selected out of 30 Gospels in circulation. St Irenaeus (130-c202), a missionary bishop from Lyons is said to have commented, Since there were four corners of the earth and four winds of heaven, there had to be only four authorized Gospels'. However, in the third century, there were even attempts to reduce these four gospels into one story. Fortunately, we now have ready access to other Gospels in R.J. Miller's edition of 'The Complete Gospels' (Polebridge Press; Fourth edition, 2010).

What fuels my intrigue in all of this – and no doubt initially attracted me to the title of Strobel's book – is why do people try and 'stuff' God, and Jesus, into a theological box? God's love is bigger than that and like the air that surrounds us, God cannot be boxed in or contained by our definitions or limitations (See 1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles 6:18; Acts 17:24). I like the analogy of wind or breath. God breathed life into humankind and Jesus breathed new life into his disciples. 'Prayer is God breathing in us' suggests Henri Nouwen and Sri Chinmoy continues this lovely thought:

Divine Grace is constantly descending upon us
with infinite qualities of Peace, Light and Bliss,
offering us the very Life-Breath of God.
We have only to allow the flow of Grace
to carry us into the Source,
which is God.

God is everywhere and everything is an incarnation of God. That includes Jesus – and you and me. We are all invited to encounter the deep indwelling mystery of the Divine Presence. It is us who limit God (and Jesus) to our words, our definitions, and our understandings.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

_____________________

Sri Chinmoy, God Is: Selected Writings of Sri Chinmoy, Aum Publications, 2012.

Dyer, Phil, Be Still & Know... Tawera Press. 2020 .p72

See also Scholarly articles for The Diversity of Early Christianity

10. Is God Racist?

'Is God Racist?' is an interesting question that may sound a bit scandalous! Yet most theistic religions arose from and were influenced by, a particular cultural and ethnic setting (eg Judaism, Islam, Christianity etc). This, in turn, influenced people's beliefs, values and behaviour, as illustrated, for example, by  the following legend:

Once upon a time, as all good stories begin, God walked the earth, and one could talk to the Divine, face to face, as one would with a familiar friend.

Times changed – as they always do – and God became a distant memory. However, if anyone wished to see the face of God, and share their deepest fears and longings, there was a special mirror into one could look deeply and see again the face of the Divine, and remember instinctively the inner wisdom they carried.

Unfortunately, some tried to claim the mirror as their own, which led to disagreement – and disagreement turned to war – and in the process, the mirror was dropped and broke into a million shards of glass that spread across the face of the earth.

However, each shard still carried the capacity to see a partial reflection of the face of God – each unique to the land in which they lived – so each person thought, when they looked into the shard of mirror, they saw the truth. This, in turn, led to more conflict until a fool one day, tired of the bickering, suggested everyone should return their shard of mirror and lay it together piece by piece.

When the last piece of the mirror was inserted, it suddenly became whole once more – and when each person looked into the mirror they beheld within their own reflection, the face of God.

The truth was a mirror in the hands of God.
It fell and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it,
and they looked at it and thought they had the truth. -      Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

        To love another person is to see the face of God. - Victor Hugo

The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in them - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free. - Swami Vivekananda

I see God in every human being. - St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

9. Seeing the Face of God

If we are to be the hand, feet and face of God in our world, as mentioned at the end of my last blog – how does that affect the way we live?

I have discovered it first affects the way I see myself. Then it affects the way I see and treat others. It also affects the way I relate to the mystery we name as God.

This is not new theology – it dates back to the Christian Desert Mystics of the 3rd Century AD, and is also reflected in a familiar 19th-century Russian book, The Way of A Pilgrim, and its sequel, The Pilgrim Continues his Way, which taught a way of prayer that both supports our spiritual growth, and enables us to see the sacred presence shining through everything with the eyes of our soul.

Others have also referred to learning to see with the eyes of our soul. William Blake, for example, encouraged us: 'To see a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower. Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand and Eternity in an hour'.

I am sure we all have had moments, which the Canadian depth psychologist, Dr David Benner, referred to as 'the thin places in which we live...through which we (can) pass to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, the secular into the sacred'. Perhaps this is why opening the eyes of the blind and helping the deaf to hear was such an important part of Jesus' mission. They were symbolic signs of hope, given in Isaiah 61:1-2. If so, how do we learn to 'open our eyes' to see the world, others and ourselves, in this way?

One way I am finding helpful is Sri Chinmoy's suggestion I made in my first blog. To make a deliberate decision not only to use 'eyes of my mind' to contemplate God's presence within me – but to learn to open the 'eyes of my senses' to experience the presence of God within me and in all people and all creation. I find that takes more concentrated effort! However, Chinmoy encourages us to take one further step and to open the eyes of my soul to discover that in every moment, God is taking birth within me and around me. Perhaps this is what Gerald Manley Hopkins meant when he exclaimed: the 'World is charged with the grandeur of God'.

How do I foster this way of experiencing God's presence? Chinmoy again offers some helpful advice: First, by developing a regular practice of prayer and meditation which tunes our heart and mind towards God. Then begin to look with the eyes of Blake and Hopkins, and seek with an inner intuitive awareness – is the best way I can describe it – the 'soul' or 'presence' within the person or part of creation before me and intuitively stretch out to engage with this 'face of the Divine'.

I gain comfort in knowing I am not going loopy in practising this – and take comfort in the Jewish mystic, Arthur Green's encouraging words:

God is manifest in the human mind and spirit
as well as in birds, trees, and human love.
God is there in the human longing to comprehend and unite with divinity.
This stretching forth of mind and soul to that which is most deeply within us
as an essential part of religion's value.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga 

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

_____________________   

Benner, D. G, Presence and Encounter:The Sacramental Possibilities of Everyday Life, Brazos Press, 2014.

Green, Dr. Arthur. Seek My Face Turner Publishing Company. 2003.

Sri Chinmoy, God Is: Selected Writings of Sri Chinmoy, Aum Publications, 2012.

8. Is God Compassionate?

One of the things I have noticed over the last few years is the growing frequency of referring to oneself first before others. For example, if you Google the phrase “Me and my friends went to town”, you will see what I mean, and I wonder whether this reflects a growing trend of seeing and believing one's own needs and wants should come first?

While this a normal stage of early child development, others have also noticed an increased focus on personal perception and opinion; a lack of empathy and inability to recognize needs of others; a growing concern on how others might view them, and decision-making centred mainly upon one's own needs. Parent's may recognize these qualities in their children – and that is all part of learning to become a more altruistic and 'mature 'adult.

In this blog site, though, I am more interested in whether this egocentric attitude has become more acceptable in adults and the implication on spiritual growth. Also, whether there is a relationship between this growing trend (if there is one) and the research which shows only 33 per cent of the population affiliate now with Christianity in New Zealand, with only 9 per cent of the population attending church most weeks (Chris Reed. NZ Herald, 2018).

Dr Paul Heintzman, associate professor of leisure studies at the University of Ottawa, has written several books on leisure and spirituality. He comments that the spiritual health of a population impacts upon the quality of life within that community. Some of these benefits include a strong sense of social justice and a commitment to love and action; a belief we are our neighbours' keeper and that we are part of a common humanity; an altruistic concern, compassion and service to others; an interest and satisfaction in contributing to the greater good of others, and to the planet and to the cosmos.

Another thing that concerns me, with this seeming decline in spirituality within our communities, is the growing influence of a conservative expression of Christianity where the focus appears to be centred on 'my needs' and on 'my salvation'. A theology that is cross centred – with Jesus dying for my sins – as compared to Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish Rabbi, who echoed the voices of his Nation's prophets, challenging his community to be a people of social and personal justice and compassion, as the prophet Micah has reminded us:"He has shown you, what is good; And what the Lord requires of you: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8). Similar sentiments are also echoed by the contemporary Jewish Rabbi, Arthur Green:

It is as bearers of compassion that we become the partners of (God) in Creation.

The divine energy flows outward from the Source,

through the complex and multi pronged evolutionary process,

and into us, giving us an extra sense of charge and dynamic movement forward.

We, by adding to it the insight and act of compassion, send it streaming back to the One,

our gift in gratitude for the gift of existence itself.

Put simply: we are to be the hand, feet and face of God in our world.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

Green, Dr. Arthur. Seek My Face Turner Publishing Company. (p93)

Heintzman, P., Retreat Tourism as a form of Transitional Tourism. Reproduced in Reisinger, Y,(ed) Transformational Tourism: Tourist Perspectives.CABI, 2013,pp 79-80.

7. Growing into God

This morning I went to Daily Mass at our local Church. It was the first time I have been to Church since the COVID-19 virus caused churches to close their doors three months ago. As I sat in the near-empty Church, wondering how many people might come back after almost 3 months, I let the sacredness of the space slowly seep once more into my inner being. 

Then, one by one the familiar faces slowly drift in and took their scattered places. Eighteen people, enveloped by stillness, as the air breathed familiar words. 

People gathered. Bread is broken and shared. The Eternal Word offered and received.

I found myself reflecting on Teilhard de Chardin's 'Mass on the World' where he allows his theology to become his experience. Teilhard, a brilliant Natural scientist, palaeontologist and theologian, censored and 'banished' to China in the 1920s by his own Jesuit family due to his evolutionary view of Christianity; a priest without bread, wine, or altar, takes the whole of creation as his altar and on it offered all the work and sufferings of the world as his bread and wine as he gathered into his arms:

'All the things in the world to which this day will bring increase;
all those that will diminish; and all those too that will die:

all of them I try to gather into my arms,

to hold them out to you (God) in offering'.

For me, Eucharist is just that – a dramatic reminder and engagement with God who is in all things – holding all things together, both in time and in eternity. It is a 'thin place' of energy. A place where the veil between this world and the eternal, parts, and where I am invited 'to see, feel, and grow into God', as Sri Chimoy encouraged us in my first blog, as we learn 'to look for and seek God in everything':

Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face;
Here faith can touch and handle things unseen;
Here would I grasp with firmer hand Thy grace,
And all my weariness upon Thee lean.

Horatius Bonar (1855)

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and good will on your journey.

Phil

________________

The Mass On The World – Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, S.J ...

d2y1pz2y630308.cloudfront.net › documents › 2016/10

6. Living What We Believe & Believing What We Live

In my last blog, I mentioned Mahatma Gandhi's response to the 'Sermon on the Mount' and his encouragement for Christians to 'become worthy of the message that is embedded' within its sayings. His encouragement is not surprising, because there are many similarities between some of the Gospel sayings of Jesus and those found in other Religious Traditions.

Gandhi, for example, saw similarities between the the Hindu scriptures of the 'Bhagavad Gita' and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7). There are also many similarities between the Buddhist's scriptures called The Dhammapada (that date back to 477BCE) and the sayings of Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount.

Both The Dhammapada and The Sermon on the Mount, provide a summary of their leader's teaching. Both speak of a new way of seeing and living, of believing and being. Both summarize a new attitude that was counter-cultural; a subversive wisdom that challenged the orthodox views of their day, bypassing the Temple and priest and gave hope to the outsider; profound wisdom to the educated; and offered a practical path to a way of life which demanded everything one could give and more. And both summarize their wisdom in short succinct and pithy sayings that included the value of good ethical conduct, guarding one's thoughts because they often govern our actions; the importance of a spiritual practice; and sharing our faith journey with like-minded people. Both begin by looking at choices we make; choices that will affect the course of our life.

For example, “You are the result of all you think. Your thoughts determine your mind and actions...” says the Buddha in verse 1-2 of The Dhammapada. The Sermon on the Mount also tells us we have choices that determine our future. For example: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and many go that way. But the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Mat. 7:13-14).

The consequence of entering the 'narrow gate' is outlined in the opening eleven verses of The Sermon on the Mount called The Beatitudes, and invites us into a living spiritual relationship. However, even here Buddhism and Christianity remain close neighbours. For example, the Benedictine monk and Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation, Fr Laurence Freeman, once asked the Dalai Lama, “Where is Buddha now?” The Dalai Lama acknowledged there was no simple answer due to the range of views reflected by the various schools of Buddhist thought. However, for him: “Buddha is not limited just to the physicality. Buddha is still alive. Buddha's mind is still there, and Buddha's being is still there... and through meditation, you can get an experience of it.”

The Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, said something similar: “When we understand and practice deeply the life and teachings of Buddha or the life and teachings of Jesus, we penetrate the door and enter the abode of the living Buddha and the living Christ, and life eternal presents itself to us.”

What Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama are describing is an interactive encounter. It is not a matter of merely repeating words or doing a meditation practice. What is important, is intentionally seeking to enter into the essence of Jesus', or Buddha's, 'art of living'.

For me, as a Christian, it is learning to follow the model Jesus offered as I seek to discover my own 'mystery of God' that is already within me, and acquire the art of resting in this mystery of “seeing, feeling, and growing into God,” as the Indian born teacher, Sri Chinmoy, has said. The challenge for both Buddhist's, Hindu's and Christian's, is to be committed to both having, doing, and becoming a spiritual practice. This also resonates with the Jewish Rabbi, Dr Arthur Green's comment:

“The divine voice deep within each of us
(and given expression within all the great human religious traditions)
calls upon us to reshape our lives as embodiments of divinity.
This inner drive to imitate the ever-giving source of life calls forth in us
an unceasing flow of love, generosity of spirit, and full acceptance,
both of ourselves and all God’s creatures.”

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

_________________

• Green, Dr Arthur, Seek My Face: A Jewish Mystical Theology, Jewish Lights; 2003.

• Hanh, Thich Nhat, Living Buddha: Living Christ, Riverhead Books,2007.

• Dyer, P, Pathways to the Fountain: A Buddhist-Christian Exploration, Tawera Press, 2017.

• Jesus and Buddha: A Dialogue between Laurence Freeman and the Dalai Lama, Meditatio. Jan-Feb, 2013.

5. Become worthy of the message embedded in the Sermon on the Mount.

Reflecting on what I had written in my last Blog, 'Where Have All Our Prophets Gone', and the significant contribution Geza Vermes has made in helping us to appreciate the Gospels in their cultural milieu, the compilation of wisdom sayings in Matthew's Gospel (Matthew chapters 5-7),  referred to as the Sermon on the Mount, are often seen as the core of Christian ethical teaching.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) made a similar discovery after reading the whole Bible while studying at Oxford University, in response to a challenge from a Christian friend. He found much of the Bible invariably sent him to sleep, except for the Sermon on the Mount. He later wrote:

"The Sermon on the Mount... went straight to my heart. I compared it with the Gita... The Sermon on the Mount gives the same law in wonderful language... supposing I was deprived of the Gita and forgot all its contents but had a copy of the Sermon, I should derive the same joy from it as I do from the Gita ... Truth is the first thing to be sought for, and Beauty and Goodness will then be added unto you. Jesus was, to my mind, a supreme artist because he saw and expressed Truth."

When asked, another time Gandhi replied, "What would be your message to a Christian like my fellows and me?" Mahatma Gandhi replied: "Become worthy of the message that is embedded in the Sermon on the Mount."

Gandhi's experience was something similar to that of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher and the 3rd President of the United States (1797-1801). He also produced what is commonly referred to as the 'Jefferson Bible' in 1820, although he never referred to it as such, producing a single copy for his own reflection, titled in his handwriting: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French & English.

Jefferson's approach had some similarities to that of Vermes and the Jesus Seminar project of the 1980s-1990s. While he lacked the scholastic training and background of the Jesus Seminar Project, Jefferson's motivation in highlighting the philosophy of Jesus was to inspire love of God and neighbour. After his death, The Smithsonian Institute acquired his book and the Government Printing Office supplied all new members of Congress with a copy when they took their oath of office. While this practice stopped in the 1950s, the Libertarian Press revived the practice in 1997, and copies are still available in the public domain.

What is interesting, and echoes Gandhi's comment above and Jefferson's motivation, is if each one of us, in response to the current tensions and violence of our world, "Became worthy of the message that is embedded in the Sermon on the Mount." our world would be vastly different place regardless of who we are, or whether we have a religious faith, or no faith at all.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and good will on your journey.

Phil

______________________

• R.W. Funk. The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, Harper-san Francisco; (1998) 
• Gandhi, M.K. (1959) What Jesus Means to Me. Complied by R.K. Prabhu, Navajiva Publishing House, India. pdf download available at http://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/whatjesusmeanstome.pdf. Accessed 18/6/16.
• Jefferson, T, The Jefferson Bible, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, Smithsonian Books (2011).