"I trust good-hearted people listening to Jesus more than I trust any hierarchy whose perspective is so easily skewed by the needs of their institution or the realities that let them hold on to power. The historic heresies have not arisen from simple people following Jesus, but from someone trying to gain a large following."
- Wayne Jacobsen
Jesus' Teachings for the Second Half of Life
Friday, June 24, 2016
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Most of Jesus' teachings are completely incomprehensible from a first-half-of-life perspective. Just read a few, and you will get the point.
"Leave all things and follow me"
You have to have it before you can give it away. You have to know yourself before you can move beyond yourself. Most people therefore just glaze over when they hear such impossible idealism.
"Take up your cross"
By and large, young people are not yet ready to understand "the cross." It becomes a piece of jewelry instead of a real agenda for life. People in the first half of life are about growing up, not growing down. Most people are not psychologically capable of truly grasping the full need and importance of letting go until their fifties or sixties, and many not even then.
Messages about letting go, surrendering or giving up of control, repentance or metanoia (turning around)
In the first half of life, you can't let go or turn around. You're rightly focused on creating a name for yourself, finding a spouse and job, accumulating money and possessions. But you must eventually let go so you can fall into your True Self that was always there, but that you were just not ready to meet.
"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."
The first half of life uses the dualistic language of good guys and bad guys. The illusion is that some are all good and some are all bad, and the delusion is that we've got to kill all the bad ones. The first half of life is where we're taught to separate from evil (see Leviticus 16-25). Paul says "Jesus became sin" (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus became the problem; he became the broken, imperfect one. He entered into solidarity with the sin of the world rather than stand above or apart from it. Jesus absorbed evil. He didn't think for a moment he could kill it. He let it wreak its havoc on his body to transform it there, rather than perpetuate violence on others.
"Forgive those who've trespassed against you"
I don't think you can do any such thing by mere willpower, by first-half-of-life morality. Your little self can't will the hurt away and truly forgive an offender. You have to move to the larger place of Spirit. Not willfulness but willingness, where another will, another grace, another Spirit does it through you, with you, in you, and as you. And then you find yourself forgiving largely in spite of yourself.
Teachings about not seeking power, prestige, or status symbols
You have to have those to get started. I'm not surprised that a well-dressed, thirty-year-old man wants his titles and diplomas on the wall. I surely still carry some status symbols, but it doesn't mean much now. If you're my age and you still need external symbols of prestige to tell yourself and others that you're important, you are not far on the spiritual journey. Once you've met the Holy One who calls you beloved daughter or beloved son, you know you're foundationally chosen, special, and beloved, and you don't need outer symbols to prove it.
Do not seek or collect possessions or wealth
The church historically hasn't been a good example of this. I don't know why we picked and chose among Jesus' teachings. But I think it reflects first-half-of-life morality. The church just wasn't ready to follow Jesus all the way with his second-half-of-life wisdom. Frankly, we needed things external to the soul because we had not yet found our soul.
|
 Richard Rohr |
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“Have you been with me the entire time?” inquired Mack, a little ramped from the adrenaline rush.
“Of course. I am always with you.” (Sarayu)
“Then how come I didn’t know it?” asked Mack. “Lately I’ve been able to tell when you’re around.”“For you to know or not,” she explained, “has nothing at all to do with whether I am actually here or not. I am always with you; sometimes I want you to be aware in a special way..... "
(The Shack. William P. Young)
“Emotions are the colors of the soul; they are spectacular and incredible. When you don’t feel, the world becomes dull and colorless. Just think how The Great Sadness reduced the range of color in your life down to monotones and flat grays and blacks.” ~ Sarayu
(William P. Young. The Shack)
"Thus, the first part of the spiritual journey is about externals, formulas, superficial emotions, flags and badges, correct rituals, Bible quotes, and special clothing, all of which largely substitute for an actual spiritual journey (see Matthew 23:13-32). Yet they are all used and needed to create the container. Yes, it is largely style and sentiment instead of real substance, but even that is probably necessary. Just don't devote your entire life to it."
(Richard Rohr)
"We stopped at this gas station somewhere down in Nebraska there, and, a, there was this guy, this old guy, sittin on the porch of this house.
We said, 'How far is the next gas station down the road here?'
He said, 'This road goes all the way to California.' He said that. 'But I've never been down it.'
I remember that, things like that, 'never been down it.'"
(Tom Fugal. 22 days under the sky)
"In the modern world we are primarily confronted with the extraordinary spectacle of people turning to new ideals because they have not tried the old. Men have not got tired of Christianity; they have never found enough Christianity to get tired of."
... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), What's Wrong with
the World
"I was as safe as anybody in the lowlands, lying like a squirrel in a warm, fluffy nest, busied about my own affairs and wishing only to be let alone."
( John Muir. Steep Trails)
“Honey, you’re a survivor. No shame in that. Your daddy hurt you something fierce. Life hurt you. Lies are one of the easiest places for survivors to run. It gives you a sense of safety, a place where you only have to depend on yourself. But it’s a dark place, isn’t it?”
“So dark,”Mack muttered with a shake of his head."
(William P. Young. The Shack)
"He came to show people who I am and most folks only believe it about him. They still play us off like good cop/bad cop most of the time, especially the religious folk. When they want people to do what they think is right, they need a stern God. When they need forgiveness, they run to Jesus.”
(William P. Young. The Shack. God to Mack)
“Mack, the world system is what it is. Institutions, systems, ideologies, and all the vain, futile efforts of humanity that go with them are everywhere, and interaction with all of it is unavoidable. But I can give you freedom to overcome any system of power in which you find yourself, be it religious, economic, social, or political. You will grow in the freedom to be inside or outside all kinds of systems and to move freely between and among them. Together, you and I can be in it and not of it.”
( William P. Young. The Shack)
"People are afraid of uncertainty, afraid of the future. These institutions, these structures and ideologies, are all a vain effort to create some sense of certainty and security where there isn’t any. It’s all false! Systems cannot provide you security, only I can.”
(William P. Young. The Shack. Jesus to Mack )
“I really do want to understand. I mean, I find the way you are so different from all the well-intentioned religious stuff I’m familiar with.”“As well-intentioned as it might be, you know that religious machinery can chew up people!” Jesus said with a bite of his own. “An awful lot of what is done in my name has nothing to do with me and is often, even if unintentional, very contrary to my purposes.”“You’re not too fond of religion and institutions?” Mack said, not sure if he was asking a question or making an observation. “I don’t create institutions—never have, never will.”
( William P. Young. The Shack J. Conversation with Mack)
"Like little cracks in the wall, one at a time, but woven together they prepared you for today. You have to take the time to prepare the soil if you want it to embrace the seed.”
( William P. Young. The Shack. Jesus to Mack)
“.... with her, everything is normal and elegantly simple. Because you are so lost and independent you bring to her many complications, and as a result you find even her simplicity profound.”
(The Shack. William P. Young)
“You don't need another human being
to make your life complete, but let's be
honest. Having your wounds kissed by
someone who doesn't see them as
disasters in your soul, but cracks to
put their love into, is the most calming
thing in this world."
— Emery Allen (via perrfectly)
"Living Poor is like being sentenced to exist in a stormy sea in a battered canoe, requiring all your strength simply to keep afloat; there is never any question of reaching a destination. True poverty is a state of perpetual crisis, and one wave just a little bigger or coming from an unexpected direction can and usually does wreck things."
( Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure : A Journey On Two Rivers)
