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At The Very Heart of Jesus
Jan 28th, 2009 by Brian Robertson
I think we can all agree that Jesus now comes in a rather impressive variety of flavors.
I have said it before and will say it again — we have lost site of the fact that the spirituality OF Jesus has become the religion ABOUT Jesus. It has disintegrated to the point where the original teachings and intentions from Jesus have been lost in countless interpolations, in imaginative adaptations to fit specific political needs (both governmental and within the Church) and certainly in countless other influences, many of which have taken a 180 degree turn from what the original tenor and tone and teachings of Jesus must have been.
So, while Christianity waxes and wanes, have we buried Jesus? in some cases, yes, such is the case. I maintain that at the heart of it all, however, we can build from one very solid fact reflecting Jesus’ experiences and attitudes, his teachings and his challenge. If I had to put all of that into one particular starting point, it would be this — God consciousness.
It’s that simple, that revolutionary, and that challenging. It so much so that we fight about the construction and architecture of the house and fail to live in it. At the root of Jesus is the unmistakable notion of God Consciousness, of the awareness of God’s Presence. It is not as if God had a kingdom in which we might one day aspire to after our deaths, but, rather, that the kingdom of Heaven is here, now, within and without. We do not see it and in fact, many do all they can to fight against that central Presence rather than live it. That’s no surprise. Jesus lived it and was killed for it. There are countless other examples of people who attempted to have that God Consciousness and paid the price because, well, people like that can make people like us uneasy — not by what they do but by what they show that we do, just by being who they are.
Jesus called upon us to develop and to live from within that God Consciousness that is the living heart of Christianity in its truest form. The Bible is fine, as is any road map to help you start to get your directions, but, just as one lives in a real town and not the city map, simply living with the smug pride of knowing the Bible as a closed book and the last Word is just as delusional. Jesus’ challenge was not to believe this point or to live in such a way as to gain some sort of heaven but, rather, to be the very book, the book of Love. To be so aware of God — God Consciousness — that the very Source of Divine Love animates our entire being and radiates, not like a lamp hid under a basket but, rather, like the sun which shines on all, the wicked and the good.
We fall short, yes. In my own case, I know, shamefully short. Yet the promise given to me is simple — if I realize and celebrate the Presence of God in each moment, each face, each silence, each word I speak, I have no enemies, no hatred, no fear, no demand for control, no book, no church that can equal the treasure found amidst the great field of life.
A Christian mystic, then, in the sense to which I am speaking, is a person who believes that from the center, which is Jesus, spins a Voice and a Love that is so very close to us that we cannot see it or hear it with the same eyes and ears that behold the world. A Christian mystic knows that words on a page, no matter how lofty, are nothing compared to the wordless sideways glance from the Beloved in the chambers of our heart. A Christian mystic is not lofty and gratified to hold a high position of power in a church organization — because each one of us is Church and Book. There is, as Alan Watts once said, “The Wisdom of Insecurity.” Ego will not get us to God Consciousness. Certainty is not what will lead us to be, as another writer called his book, “Surprised by Joy.”
These are dangerous, frightening times we live in yet, thanks be to God, it is a time in which a tattered vestige of Hope appears beneath the headlines and is made to shine forth from the most unexpected, lowly places. Where that manger is for you is for you to decide and discover, not this writer or not that book or not some Church, as well meaning and community-driven as they might be.
We are Christian mystics because we find Jesus to be the clearest example of what it is to live in the Presence of God and, therefore, to shine forth with Love. We are not content with reading books about taking a journey to a foreign land, we believe we are led to travel to that far away land which, paradoxically, has been with us all the time, nurturing our every step.
Peace,
Rev. Brian Robertson
“When people say that the authority of Scripture or the centrality of Jesus is in question, actually it’s their social, economic and political system that has been built in the name of Jesus that’s being threatened.” Rob Bell
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