Jesus Christ

May 26, 2013 – My Jesus, Part II – The Soul

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5/26/13 Rev. David McArthur
My Jesus, Part II — The Soul

Asking questions is a valuable part of the spiritual path. Our God-thought grows as we grow. Underneath the miracles and stories of Jesus, there is a person who so impacted the people with him that they wrote that the experience was something divine (in the God-thought of the time). Still it was a new God-thought—the indwelling God that is not separate from us.

Edgar Cayce told of Jesus’ prior incarnations (a fascinating way to look at things). In one, as Joshua, Jesus/Joshua understood his God-thought as telling him to use military might to slay all the native people of the promised land. He saw the divine hand in his making the promised land safe for the Israelites. But this wasn’t expressing the divine in the highest manner. Fascinating to know that the same man [soul] later walked through that land teaching peace, non-violence, love. That’s a tremendous step—for a person to step into the consciousness that we call the Christ, the Atman, etc. Then he responded to violence with love, inclusion instead of superiority. Was it an expression of karmic law that he was publicly ridiculed and hung on a tree like, as Joshua, he did to many of the kings in the Holy Land? As Jesus, he said he did not come to take away the law, but to fulfill it (meeting his life but responding with love?). Is that how it happened? I don’t know. For me, it’s not that it did or didn’t happen but the response to it.

When I look at that story it has meaning for my life. But this is not a “one size fits all” spirituality. There is so much variety in our paths. Part of our assignment is to find what works for us.

A skilled artist actually had the experience that Jesus appeared and posed for her. She wrote that he bore no witness to duality or opposition. He told her that Spirit is the ultimate because it is indivisible love—the source of your love, your beingness. You are created in that image. Holy will pours through, generation after generation. It is love. It is the common essence. Love is who you are. Affirm, I am love. I am love. I am love. His gift and chosen task was to come and restore the heart to its true power. The heart is your source of all higher knowledge. When the inside and the outside are the same, it is the gateway to the soul and to eternity.

What is there helps me to make the choice today, when I see our oneness and connection. In the consciousness of love separation fades away and harmony comes forth. If HE is there helping me to do that, then HE is my Jesus, and I’m ok with that!

May 19, 2013 – My Jesus, Part I

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5/19/13 Rev. David McArthur
My Jesus, Part I

It’s ok to ask questions regarding the Bible. That “take it on faith” stuff makes me feel like they just didn’t know. Let’s start with the God thought. A very primitive people tried to make sense of their world. (This isn’t necessarily Unity.) They told stories about their questions and discoveries. They put God “out there” in the biggest thing they could see—the heavens. With Jesus, they had to figure a way for God to be down here—the virgin birth! It’s not a new idea (Horace, Dionysus, Krishna, Buddha, Quetzalcoatl). And then they had to get God back “up there”. (The resurrection and ascension.)

Let’s throw out everything that doesn’t make sense. Let’s pretend that Jesus is not God coming to Earth, but just a guy, a precocious Jewish boy. When people experienced him, they were touched and changed and talked of something “greater”. He didn’t see Jew/Gentile, but taught all people (even the Samaritan) inclusion, not exclusion; love, not rejection. He treated women as intelligent beings of value. But even without a single miracle, He touched the God thought.

Episcopalian Bishop Spong says how foolish we are to take the Bible literally. When we can see who we really are, we see the meaning of all life, the source of being, the God thought, seen when one has the courage to be, and not seen as separate. Jesus revealed God, and whenever God is seen in life, it is called Christ. He never said, “I healed you.” He said, “Your faith has healed you.” The magnificent law. No divine intervention. But through the beautiful laws we can be freed from where we are to be where we can be.

Walk on water? What really happened there nobody knows. Resurrection? It has nothing to do with the body. That primitive culture told stories of symbol and meaning. They were a context oriented culture. Our culture is content oriented. In the story of Lazarus they talked of life instead of death. Jesus arrived after four days and the stories they shared brought Lazarus alive in their hearts. In Jesus’ resurrection the disciples shared what He meant to them and the change He brought alive in them—an understanding of love that even today touches me. Unwilling to speak of a God “up there”, I speak of something that was so full of life it is alive today. It helps me to know the God in what I see in front of me. I put all else away except the God I see alive in front of me!