Like most Americans, my spiritual quest began within the context of a sect of mainstream Christianity. My earliest recollection is Sunday school in Christian churches (Disciples of Christ) in St. Joseph and the small community of Gower, both located in northwest Missouri. In my teen years, I attended the Baptist church in Gower, where Beth and I were later married (1977) by a Unity minister. I have to confess that I regarded most of this church exposure merely as the result of parental expectations. Saturday was a day free from school. Sunday was a partially free day interrupted by dressing up to attend an event very low on my scale of interests. As a teenager, however, my interest increased and I began asking my minister questions about different aspects of the teachings.

I absorbed the fundamentals. I learned that I was a sinner in need of salvation, that Jesus died for my sins, and if I wanted to go to heaven when I died, I needed to accept him as my personal savior. I was baptized by full immersion in the Christian church. That rite of passage instilled some sense of immunity against known and unknown sins committed. Later, my parents moved us to the Baptist church. Each Sunday, the minister would issue an altar call, which felt as if he was addressing me personally. In private, I asked him if I should come up again. He explained that my baptism most likely did its intended job.

In those early years I accepted that I was, by default, a Christian. I was taught what it meant to be a Christian, and the duties and expectations involved. We were never exposed to the type of critical scholarship that explored the origins of the Christian doctrine. For me, that would come much later. Though my preference would have been to spend my Sunday mornings on the bank of a pond fishing, my Christian education served me in ways unexpected in my own ministry. I understood and could relate to the questions others had concerning religious issues.

What I learned in later years is that the entire Christian doctrine is not based on the teachings of Jesus, but rather on the letters of Paul and the evolving doctrines of the early church. While those who have not researched the historical development of scripture (and the Gospels specifically), will find this to be a shocking statement, I am quite comfortable making it. Why? Because mainstream Christianity teaches that the kingdom of God is coming some day in the future. I believe the evidence shows that Jesus regarded the kingdom of God as a present reality that could not be observed with the eye, but could be experienced intuitively by the common people who followed him. “Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed,  nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you’” (Luke 17:20-21).

Paul and the early church pressed the figure of Jesus into a type of religious service that I do not believe he would have endorsed. I base this statement on what I call the presence of a mystical thread that runs through the parables and sayings attributed to Jesus. This thread is often obscured by the voices of the evangelists who produced the New Testament writings. Paul’s letters, written in the mid-50’s A.D. came first, followed by the Gospel of Mark, written sometime after 70 A.D. Matthew and Luke used Mark and other sources (Q, M, L) as the basis of their work. John (100 A.D.) drew from entirely different sources (The Gospel of Signs). By the time these people began to write, the oral tradition around Jesus had developed into the larger-than-life image of him that we have today. As a minister who has taught spiritual principles for over four decades, it has become very important for me to understand who Jesus was and why and how he was transformed from a healer and teacher of spiritual principles to the messianic figure, the only begotten son of God we know today.     

The reason, I find, is very simple. Jesus, the historical figure, did not fulfill the expectations that should have accompanied the advent of the Jewish messiah. Nothing changed after his death. If anything, life for the Jews became much worse. Jerusalem and the Temple were completely destroyed by the Romans some forty years after his death (70 A.D.). His followers, all Jewish, needed to know why, if he was the messiah, did he not put this enemy of Israel, the Roman occupier, under their feet. Turning to their scriptures for answers, they found meanings that they believed shed new light on his death. His sacrifice for the sins of the world, resurrection, and the promise of a second coming emerged as the result. In other words, the doctrines that lay at the heart of the Christian faith are the answer to why Jesus did not usher in the kingdom of God during his first visit. He would return to complete the mission. In the meantime, followers must remain watchful.

It is important to understand that we do not have a formal gospel according to Jesus. My belief, which I’ll address in another post, is that the parable of the lost son (prodigal) best represents his gospel. We have Paul’s letters and we have gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all of which were written anonymously. I cannot imagine that Jesus’ immediate followers would have considered the good news a futuristic promise of the coming kingdom – now at two-thousand years and counting. The problems of daily life were the issues that needed a solution. The principles he taught were geared toward helping people open their mind to their divine source that would intuitively guide them, as with the birds and wild flowers, to the acquisition of their daily bread. Such a practical message, stripped of the doctrinal constraints often used to control, would, in my opinion, account for his appeal. “They [teachers of the law and Pharisees] tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4).

The church has made Jesus the only way to God. Jesus himself taught that the way to God is found in quiet moments, with doors closed to the distractions of the world (Matthew 6:6). This simple and very accessible approach is a narrow gate pursued by few, as the masses clamor for fulfillment through the wide gate of an easily distracted mind. The transforming value of the mystical thread is neither seen nor understood by those who are looking to the heavens, or to people, places, and things, for their savior to appear. The mystical thread, I believe, is the stone rejected by the builders of church doctrine, but which served as the cornerstone of the ministry of Jesus.     

Youtube: Your Spiritual Reset

The feeling of being stuck in life is probably one of the most common expressions of frustration, and the likely reason Henry David Thoreau wrote this famous line: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

We like action. We like to initiate changes, see results, and go on to the next thing with the feeling that our life is progressing. Sometimes we initiate changes and nothing happens, or everything seems to go wrong. Such times can certainly contribute to feelings of quiet desperation.  

A line attributed to Jesus contains a spiritual gem that can help us reset and begin again. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus would not be calling attention to himself, but to the spiritual core of his listener. If you think of these words arising from your own spiritual center, your central I, you will get an idea of why these words can help in times of confusion and uncertainty.

Think of your own I AM as the axle that holds the spinning wheel of your external life. At your center you are always at rest regardless of how fast or how slow things seem to be moving. It is important to reconnect with this stable, unmoving part of yourself, to withdraw for a time from all your efforts to spin the wheel, and surrender to the healing, balancing action of your guiding Source.

It is easy to get caught up in the ways and means to a desired end, forgetting that you desire the greater good because you are responding to that still small voice emanating from your central core. God as your source has urged you this far. Will God not also guide you through each step of the way? Perhaps it is time to rekindle your faith in your indwelling guidance, to experience the assurance that “I am with you always.”

Surrender in trust to the all-knowing, all-loving presence of God within you. Right where you are, initiate your spiritual reset. Open yourself to knowing that every step you take is the right step, that you are now being guided and protected in ways that will soon become perfectly clear.

Youtube: The Good News of Jesus

 “But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)

In this parable of the lost son, we find a good example of Luke creating a context that gives it a different meaning than Jesus likely intended. When treated as a stand-alone story, as Luke had it originally, Jesus was depicting the unconditional love of God. Luke prefaces this story, along with the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, with scribes and Pharisees murmuring over the fact that sinners and tax collectors are drawing near to Jesus. In this context, Jesus becomes the soul-saving, all-forgiving father, the seeker of the lost sheep, and the woman looking for the lost coin.

The parable as Jesus intended addresses the issue of sin and salvation, but in a very different manner than Christian orthodoxy. To quote from a website on the requirements of salvation, we read this: “Someone has to pay the price and punishment for our sins, and if someone does not help us, we will have to pay the terrible price for our sins against God.” In contrast, the wayward son, being the reckless sinner, is welcomed with the open arms and unconditional love of the father, no price paid.

The son does indeed suffer, but not because he is being punished by the father. His suffering is the consequence of foolish choices. The moment came when he had an awakening. In his return home, there were no toll gates, no conditions that had to be met, no interrogation.

The church has used sin for leverage. It has adopted Paul’s notion that all have sinned and are in need of salvation. It has created the remedy that we are required to accept if we are to be saved. Jesus blows this logic, which is why Luke had to cast it differently.

Can we not see why the “tax collectors and sinners” were drawn to the good news of Jesus? The scribes and Pharisees had undoubtedly condemned them to hell. Jesus informed them that the unconditional love of God embraced even the worst sinner with open arms.   

Youtube: God, The Creative Life Force

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:25-26)

Last week, I pointed out that central to the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament is the kingdom of God. It is clear to me that Jesus’ use of this phrase carried a different meaning from that of the New Testament writers. He saw it as a spiritual dimension that was fully present and working on behalf of all life forms, human specifically. The writers saw it as a coming phenomenon, a new world order.

The biblical use of this term can have a restricting effect on how we think of it. We may envision it as a universe run by a bearded, very powerful old man who can experience severe mood swings. I have come to think of the kingdom of God as the Creative Life Force that permeates every aspect of the universe but is centered in each of us. Its characteristics are life, love, power, and intelligence.

Science credits instinct for the bird’s ability to prosper. Instinct is a manifestation of underlying intelligence. We see it everywhere in nature. In humans, we see a level of stress, struggle, and worry over the future that, by comparison, is unnatural. Jesus is instructing his listeners on the truth that they are endowed with the same guiding wisdom, and more, that enables the bird to successfully find its way.  

Love dissolves that which is not for our highest good and attracts that which is. Intelligence enables us to know the difference. The Creative Life Force is seeking unlimited expression through us right now. Its single purpose is expansion. You and I choose the direction of expansion. Jesus is saying that we need to open our mind to the larger context of this expansive process that knows how to guide us successfully through every aspect of our life. We are not necessarily more valuable than the birds. We are more capable. We have an imagination that is designed to receive ideas and inspiration to creative solutions for every problem life presents. This very practical message, I believe, is what Jesus is passing on to his listeners, and to us.

Youtube: Kingdom is the Key

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21, 85 C.E.)

His disciples said to him, “When will the kingdom come?” “It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Rather, the Father’s kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don’t see it.” (Thomas: 113, 50-60 C.E.)

Scholars believe the earliest version of the non-biblical Gospel of Thomas appeared around 50-60 C.E. Luke-Acts was written around 85 C.E., around 30 years later. Though these passages are similar, scholars do not believe Luke used Thomas as one of his sources. The long-standing hypothesis is that Luke used Mark, Q, and another source unique to Luke to compose his story.

These two passages, separated by time and space, depict a kingdom of God that cannot be observed. Mainstream Christianity, and the Gospel writers in general, adopted the notion of an observable kingdom. Jesus was speaking of the kingdom as a spiritual dimension that cannot be seen with the physical eye. Nor is there adequate language to describe it, which is no doubt why he employed parables.

In his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, psychologist William James makes this observation concerning the mystical experience:

The mystical experience, defies expression, that no adequate report of its contents can be given in words. Its quality must be directly experienced; it cannot be imparted or transferred to others. Mystical states are more like states of feeling than like states of intellect. No one can make clear to another who has never had a certain feeling, in what the quality or worth of it consists.

Over 2000 years have passed since the death of Jesus, and still he has not returned to usher in the expected kingdom. Why? Because this is not the nature of the kingdom of which he spoke. His kingdom of God is intuitively experienced in moments of quiet receptivity. As we become aware of God as an inner presence, we then begin to see that this kingdom is also spread out upon the earth. Like the Psalmist, we realize that wherever we are, God is:

Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?
 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;  if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. (Psalms 139:7)

I speak of the mystical thread that I believe was the heart of Jesus’ teachings. Understanding what he meant by the kingdom of God, and how this understanding differs from that of the Gospel writers, is the key to detecting this thread.

Youtube: The Resurrection Principle

 “He is not here; for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay” (Matthew 28:6).

According to Matthew’s version of the resurrection, when “Mary Mag’dalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulcher,” they found it empty. An angel was there to tell them Jesus had risen from the dead.

The Easter story presents the defining principle for both traditional and metaphysical Christianity. In both cases, Easter illustrates that life, not death, is the truth behind all appearances to the contrary.

We celebrate Easter in the Spring because all around us we see the resurrection of new life from the dry stalks and branches of apparent death, and we marvel at the tenacity and the proliferation of this mysterious force that we call life.

Traditional Christianity draws its meaning of Easter from the past, projecting its fulfillment as a glorious and everlasting future. The metaphysical Christian invokes the principle of resurrection in our current affairs by dying to or letting go of the old and affirming the new. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Life is always creating new channels through which to express itself. Our work is to make ourselves as open as possible to the renewing energy of this resurrecting force so that every point of our experience may expand and flourish. Are you sealed in a tomb of fear and negation, worried about your future, uncertain about the outcome of some current situation? Then begin to release this fear and affirm that the resurrecting power of life is now lifting you beyond all restrictions, all uncertainty, all inhibitions, and that your life is full of new possibilities, and those possibilities are unfolding now, like the spring buds bursting all around you.

Open your mind to God’s resurrecting life right now, right where you are, and enjoy the blessings of a transformed experience.   

Youtube: Confronting Your Fear

Palm Sunday focuses on the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem at the end of his ministry. He does so on the unridden colt of a donkey. The foreshadowing provided in the Gospel narrative indicates that Jesus knew his fate and that he was committed to it. We know from the story that his death was not his end, but a step to something much grander.

According to the story, people cheered and spread garments and palm branches on the road as a show of support. Yet, a few days later, those same supporters would call for his death. Jesus was very much alone in this final phase of his earthly life.

What do we learn from this? The story depicts conviction and the absolute courage to uphold it. It is not likely that any of us will be confronted with the threat of death for our beliefs. We are, however, confronted with the fear of death, fear of change, fear of the unknown, or fear for no reason at all. Fear, in fact, is one of the most debilitating emotions that we harbor.

If it is true that we were not given a spirit of fear, then where does it come from? When you think about it, it comes from inaction. It rises in us over some situation, and we consider it a natural part of who we are. In dealing with fear, our focus is usually on the thing that sparks it, not fear itself. In the story, Jesus is proactive. He makes a choice that would provoke fear and then he confronts it.

How do we confront fear? In stillness, we release that part of us that is afraid. We recognize that this fearful self is not the real spiritual essence that we are. We want to die to this self, like the seed that dies to become the greater plant. An affirmation like this can be very helpful:

I was not given a spirit of fear. I now let go of this false self, this shadow of the powerful spiritual being that I am. I am confident. I am fearless. I am at peace.

When fear arises do not give it the opportunity to dominate your emotional state. Confront this fear until you put it behind you.

YouTube: Your Spiritual Pedigree

A feeling commonly expressed by those who discover teachings based on the inner path is that of having come home. This was certainly my experience when I discovered Emilie Cady’s writings. The things she wrote about I had never read, yet the ideas felt so familiar and so natural that I knew I had found my spiritual path.

Since those early days, I have encountered many kindred spirits who understood exactly the feeling I described. The spiritual connection we share with certain others is a compatibility that runs deeper than family ties. This, I believe is the idea Jesus was addressing in this passage:

He was in a house so crowded that another person could not enter. When he was told that his mother and brothers were outside asking for him, he looked at the people sitting before him and said, “Here is my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, for these seek to understand the will of our heavenly Father.” Mark 3:32-34

There is no indication that Jesus abandoned his family. His mother was with him to the end. And his brother James was martyred for becoming a prominent leader of the early church. What I hear him saying is that souls do not give birth to souls. We have a birth family, but we may have more in common with people who share our spiritual interests.

For me, this story illustrates Jesus’ appeal to common people. His message transcended social class and connected with people at the intuitive, soul level. The mystic understands that the omnipresence of God is centered in every person. When Isaiah wrote that every knee shall bow to the Lord, he was acknowledging that all will eventually come to this truth and begin their inner quest for enlightenment.    

I believe the message of Jesus was free of the rules and regulations that accompany the complexity of religious trappings. The kingdom within was a message accessible to all. The spiritual pedigree of every soul is our inseparable unity with God.

YouTube: The Open Mind

In many of the parables, Jesus often made his points by comparing pairs of opposites. We see good fish and bad fish, God and mammon, wheat and chaff, rich man and poor man, sheep and goats, foolish virgins and wise virgins, the wide gate and narrow gate, born of the flesh and born of the spirit, foundation of rock and foundation of sand, and so on. Today, we are considering new cloth and new wineskins vs old cloth and old wineskins.  

You do not patch an old garment with a new piece of cloth. The patch of new cloth will shrink, causing greater damage to the garment. And you do not use an old wineskin to store new wine. The fermenting new wine will cause the old wineskin to burst, as it is already stretched to its limit. Use new wineskins for new wine” (Mark 2:21-22).

Mark uses these parables to address the question of fasting, a practice that Jesus, unlike his religious predecessors, ignores. Elsewhere, he explains that it is not what goes into one’s mouth that defiles, but what comes out, as this communication represents our consciousness.

The mystic understands that the subjective nature of the spiritual awakening requires an open mind, a new birth, a conscious movement from a body-based identity to the awareness of God as our spiritual source. We must be willing to let go of all self-perceptions so the new wine of awareness may transform our consciousness.

It is through the practice of meditation that we let go of the old and open ourselves to the new. We cannot use our intellectual faculty to bring about this change. We are shifting to our intuitive faculty, which opens out to the limitless vista of the spiritual dimension. In our quiet time, we lay down the old wineskins of our daily concerns, which are always centered around the body, and we consider the source of the living energy that is our being.  

In one sense, we are fasting. We are letting go of the trivia that occupies so much of our attention and turning our focus on the expansive activity of our spiritual source.

YouTube: The Quest for Jesus

For the past two weeks, we have been exploring the idea that, within the Gospels, there is a difference between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the early church. The Gospel writers used the voice and person of Jesus to advance the narrative that would become mainstream Christian theology. Is it possible, then, to draw from these writings the pure message of Jesus?

I have identified two worldviews that I’ve named the paradigm of oneness and the paradigm of separation. The paradigm of oneness is based on the experience of mystical union or direct communion with the ultimate reality we call God. The paradigm of separation assumes that union with God is not a present reality but a future possibility. I refer to those scriptures that reflect the paradigm of oneness as the mystical thread. The scriptures that reflect the paradigm of separation represent the theological basis of the early and contemporary church.

As counterintuitive as it may sound, we will be most successful if we lay aside our quest for a pure message of Jesus and simply look first for passages that reflect the principles of mysticism. In a nutshell, these will refer to the omnipresent, changeless nature of God as unconditional love, the divine nature of each individual, and the individual’s inseparable union with God.  

A fundamental principle of mysticism is that we suffer because we lose conscious connection with our indwelling lord. All mystical practice is geared to returning to our spiritual center, our true home. The story of the prodigal son embodies the entire problem of leaving our spiritual center, suffering as the result, and retuning to the open arms of unconditional love.

Because there is not enough space here to list the thread of scriptures that echo this principle, we will explore more in upcoming lessons. In the meantime, our quest for Jesus will be most successful when we stop seeking him and look instead for passages that embody the principles of mysticism, the truth of our oneness with God. These passages, I believe, point directly to the spiritual teacher we seek.