Youtube: Understanding the Way

The book of Acts tells us that before the followers of Jesus were called Christians, they were known as followers of the Way. I like to think of the Way as a body of principles taught by Jesus. These rest on the bedrock of understanding God as the changeless, omnipresent reality centered in all people and in all things. Or as Paul stated it, “… one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6).

Most of us have encountered the idea that there are many paths to the peak of the mountain. The implication is that there are a variety of teachings and experiences that can lead to conscious union with God. However, the Way is singular, not plural. We would think of the Way, not as one of many paths that lead to the top of the mountain, but as the mountain peak itself. In other words, the peak is not a destination, but a point of departure, that place where we truly begin our firsthand relationship with God. There is only one place where this can occur, and that is within our own being.

The world’s religions all share a mystical component that recognizes the omnipresence of God centered in all people. This truth often becomes lost among the more surface teachings and practices offered to the public. At the level of orthodoxy, wars have been fought over religious differences. At the mystical level, all agree. The Way of which Jesus spoke is found in all religions and can be summarized in his statement that the kingdom of God is found, not by looking for it somewhere in this world, but by looking within one’s own being (Luke 17:21).

I would summarize the Way as the understanding that God is the changeless, omnipresent reality behind all things. Every individual is an expression of God. The relationship between God and the individual is inseparable oneness. This means that in our time of prayer, God is always with us, a present help for opening the way to our path forward.

Youtube: Resurrection of Resuscitation?

“Where I am going, you cannot come.”

John 8:21

Critical scholars have long understood that while some events recorded in scripture have their basis in history, the writers used these facts to support their own narrative. The Gospel writers, after all, were evangelists, not historians. As such, their purpose for writing was to advance the narrative of the early church rather than produce an accurate account of historical events. John, for example, has Jesus cleansing the temple in the beginning of his ministry while the other three Gospels place the event in the last week of his life. Historically speaking, both accounts cannot be true. An event like this may indeed have occurred, but each writer uses it to bolster the story they want to tell.  

My research into the near-death experience has prompted me to raise some interesting questions about the resurrection story of Jesus. For example, death by crucifixion normally took from between two days to two weeks. The victim would succumb to suffocation or exposure to the elements. Jesus was pronounced dead only six hours after he was crucified. When Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for his body, Pilate, an experienced executioner, wondered how Jesus could be dead so quickly. He summoned the centurion who made the death pronouncement to confirm it. The centurion, who believed Jesus was an innocent man, assured Pilate that he was dead.

What if Jesus had slipped into a coma and revived or spontaneously resuscitated prior to being entombed? This could certainly explain appearances after his “death” and serve as a factual basis for the rumors that he had been raised from the dead. When he told his disciples that he was going away, and “…where I am going, you cannot come” (John 8:21), he could have been telling them he was fleeing the country and they could not go with him. Perhaps Joseph of Arimathea arranged to have him smuggled from the port city of Caesarea to another Mediterranean country safer from the long arm of Roman law.

For me, this is an intriguing possibility that can provide a factual basis for the resurrection. After all, resurrection and resuscitation both carry the same meaning of bringing one back from the dead.

Youtube: Understanding the Seed Self

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

John 12:24-25

Our focus throughout the Easter season is on two seemingly incompatible terms: death and life. Generally speaking, we treat death as a negative and life as a positive. In the above passage, however, death is required to advance the expression of life. With seeds and plants, we understand this relationship. When we drop a seed into the ground, we do not mourn its impending death but anticipate its forthcoming transformation into a fruit-bearing plant. The experience is characterized by positive expectation.

In our spiritual endeavor, the seed self is our body-based identity, our life in this world. While John suggests we hate this life to gain eternal life, we should take this as an attention getting exaggeration intended to make a point. Everything about our earthly experience responds best to praise and acceptance. Dying to this seed self is not a rejection of it but rather an understanding that our true essence is something much more.

That Jesus referred often to familiar, agricultural metaphors to illustrate spiritual principles tells me he was not merely calling attention to himself but trying to make these principles practical to the average person. It is the same principle he discussed with Nicodemus when he spoke of the need to be born again. These also bring to mind the popular metaphor of the caterpillar’s transformation into the butterfly. In each case, we are acknowledging that a greater condition is poised to emerge from a presently existing condition.

You and I spend most of our time operating in and around our seed self-awareness. It is to our advantage to spend time letting go of the cares and concerns of this limited aspect and allow the truth of our eternal nature to shine its light into our awareness. Perhaps Paul said it best when he wrote, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind …” (Romans 12:2). This is certainly a great summary of what the Easter story is all about.     

Youtube: Self Love is Your Divine Birthright 

Erika Satie

In this day and age, we are bombarded with the mindset that our value comes from the outside world and that what our friends, partners, and coworkers think of us is of utmost importance. I don’t know about you, but haven’t you noticed that looking to others for your self-worth can be very short lived and unsatisfying? 

It is crucial and vitally important that we find ways to love and nurture ourselves rather than look to other people, places and things to provide it for us. 

Think of how your life would look if you really knew that you were God in human form? How would you feel, and how would you behave? Would you walk with confidence and love, knowing that the Force that orchestrates the universe is within you? Would you have a more loving and faith filled experience of life itself? Can you imagine knowing that you could never be without love, health and money because you were part of God and that it was God’s absolute pleasure to give you the keys to the Kingdom? 

We will address all of these questions and more this Sunday when we explore the topic of self-love.