“And whem Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.” Matthew 9:27-30 KJV
Recently I decided I needed to read through the New Testament on my own with fresh eyes starting with the Gospel of Matthew. I had been part of Bible study led by our interim priest who is well versed in biblical history and the Jewish and Roman culture in which Jesus and his disciples lived. Our priest led the study by examining the historical context of the verse as well as relating it to other parts of the Bible. This included reflecting the deep symbolism and practices of the Jewish faith and how it related to the growing revelation to humans of God throughout the Bible. I knew I could never absorb the lifetime learning and study of the Bible our priest possesses, and I appreciated his intellect and knowledge. I realize that studying historical theological interpretations can enlighten and open my mind to other perspectives.
But the reason I decided to read the Bible with fresh eyes was because my sense of the spiritual was lost in the intellectual study which emphasized correct cultural and historical interpretation as promulgated by theologians in the past. Symbolism is powerful because of the many layers of meaning and perspectives within it that comprise the greater whole and interpretations in the past do not always perceive other meanings revealed with time.
As I have written in other posts, we are both spirit and human, energy and matter. And for me the question is from which perspective do we start in understanding our relationship to God? Spirit or human? Spirituality is the mystery of consciousness or intangible that cannot be grasped by understanding human biology and culture. And as a modern society our knowledge of the nature of creation including physics and our humanity has changed dramatically. It is becoming apparent to me that looking at our relationship with God from a historical or literal perspective defined by words within the Bible and sanctioned theology or interpretations has its limits.
It is appropriate that the last book in the Bible is titled Revelation. As I have said in past posts, revelation is not solely symbolizing a final judgment or reveal. Revelation is an ongoing process throughout the Bible and because God is in all things within his creation, God also reveals himself in our ongoing exploration of science and knowledge around us and within us. But true understanding of our spiritual nature comes from intuitive knowing, which is our spiritual connection to God, that cannot be defined with knowledge. But we can consider how science is shedding new light on Jesus’ ministry and the Bible’s message about God. And our focus on sanctioned historical interpretation can prevent us from considering that Jesus was challenging the fundamental paradigms by which we think and our perception of reality which holds us back from knowing God.
In the Garden of Eden, humans are separated from God because the eternal spiritual link to God is severed, and we focused on our human mortality (we saw we were naked and vulnerable). This alienation from God cloaked our eternal nature and has influenced our human behavior ever since our separation from God or the whole. Jesus ministry included a reconciliation of us to God and our eternal nature, but we haven’t absorbed that lesson. We still believe in original sin and have not embraced the freedom of spirit. And science tells us that our brain constructs much of our reality. And Einstein told us “the reality we focus on is the reality we create. This is not philosophy, it is physics.” Deep within our collective psyche lie sets of beliefs about our reality and who we are that we need to change to see the world as it truly is – the Kingdom of God.
Jesus told us as in John 18:36 “My Kingdom is not of this world.” In the time of Jesus, no one knew about quantum mechanics or dimensions and how they may affect us. We understand gravity and other macro physics because we can physically observe their effects. But the effect of a quantum universe which is unseen requires imagination. But if we look at Jesus’s words, he is challenging us to question the world we perceive or see right now. He is asking us to use our imagination and change our beliefs. Why did Jesus and his disciples have the power to perform miracles? Because their minds were not bound the physical limitations perceived by others. This is emphasized in the Christian belief in the power of prayer. “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:24.
Quantum mechanics teaches us that by merely observing or thinking about a particle, a particle’s trajectory changes without a related physical cause. The power of prayer as well as the ability to anticipate an event before it happens, has been confirmed in well controlled psi experiments. Dr. Dean Radin in his book Entangled Minds postulates our consciousness does not exist solely in our brains but is part of a quantum universe. And transpersonal psychology which challenged the medical model of our consciousness being relegated to our brain, states that the consciousness or spirit is inherent in the universe. Our brains are the lens by which we experience and interact with consciousness as biological beings. When we die, our brain ceases to be that lens as a human, but our consciousness is still present. These ideas and theories only increase our wonder at the unknown, unseen and the possible combined with the theory that our thoughts are energy, that with faith, can bring about change. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. “2 Corinthians 4:18. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
Einstein said imagination is more powerful than knowledge. In Matthew 18:3 KJV, Jesus says “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The Gospels are full of symbolism, parables and metaphors because Jesus was referring to a deeper meaning, not a literal meaning and those meanings change with time or perspective. We know children are different from adults because of the power of their imagination and unquestioning belief of what they are told. Traditional teaching is that we enter the Kingdom of Heaven after death, but the Kingdom of God is already here, and Jesus asks us to see it. “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21 KJV. The beauty of this passage is that Jesus is referring to both our ability to love God and each other with our spirit within, resulting in the power to transform the Earth and our reality with our thoughts and our love.
As a human, I have a deep appreciation for the study of the Bible based on historical and Biblical tradition, but as a spirit I know that there is so much more. It is not about choosing to be human or spirit, it is about being both. I believe that mainstream churches like mine are losing relevancy with a younger generation who is more universal in thought. It is because the church is married to a historical and Biblical tradition that has lost its relevancy because it has not expanded with our human knowledge. Younger people reject dogma, morality and judgment as the face of religion. They are motivated by acceptance, service, and the love of others. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.
Inclusion into the Kingdom of God is not whether you declare Jesus your Lord and Savior, have been baptized, and take communion. But rather whether you perceive and live within the love of God and serve others as Jesus did and recognize that only God can truly see in our souls and judge us. Rituals such as baptism, prayer and communion can renew our focus on God, but also become mechanical or empty when practiced as dogma. We are all children of God and all of our Earth is sacred and worthy of veneration, not just the congregations and churches we worship in. The Garden of Eden is our entire Earth home, but because we have separated our spirituality and eternal nature from our humanity, we are destroying the Earth and ourselves.
As a church we need to look at our teachings and traditions with a fresh perspective. There is wisdom and spirituality within our church which has aged, but perhaps we need to balance the intellectual with the spirit. I personally believe that there is a spiritual awakening which can only be completed by God, but I am not waiting for Jesus to come back to judge the living and the dead. My focus is the spirit within us and practicing a universal love and eternal link to God that is available to all of us. Christianity in its present form did not exist when Jesus was human which has evolved to become exclusionary and hierarchical instead of universal.
God is love. God is the whole. God is eternal.
