Jesus'
Birth
“What
Jesus was, historically speaking, was a Spirit-filled person in the
charismatic stream of Judaism.”
Marcus
Borg (Jesus: A New Vision)
Theologian
Marcus Borg describes our modern theology as “flat tire”
theology. In other words, all the air, or pneuma, has gone out of it.
We can talk about Jesus, but we have a hard time getting our heads
around his mystical life.
Jesus,
like the prophets before him, walked in two worlds—the world of
ancient Israel, and that of Spirit—and communicated and related to
both equally well. While we mark all the mystical Christian rites,
like the virgin birth, holy communion, and the resurrection, we don't
give much thought to their true meaning either in Jesus' life, or in
ours. We don't examine them closely for fear of stumbling onto
something we can't explain, so we just say we 'believe' and move on.
Or we say, 'it's all poppycock', and dismiss it.
But
on this day of all days, we should take a look at the kind of man the
Jesus of history truly was. Jesus experienced another reality,
another dimension, if you prefer; the world of spirit. Evidence of
that is right in our scriptures. An example is his baptism when the
'heaven was opened and the spirit, like a dove, descended upon him',
and the voice of God called him “my son in whom I am well pleased,”
(Luke 3). Another occurred after his baptism, when he was “led by
the spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted
by the devil,” (Luke 4). And still another was at the
transfiguration when he, clad in light, spoke with long-dead Moses
and Elijah on the mountain top (Matthew 17). And of course, the
wedding at Cana, where the water became wine, (John 2). I could go
on. Like the yogis and bodhisattvas of Buddhism, Jesus could change
matter, heal by touch, and call the dead back to life. These are not
just stories to make us 'believe' in Jesus' singular divinity, but
probably actual accounts of his spiritual strengths.
“In
every culture known to us, there are men and women who experience
union or communion with the world of Spirit,” (Borg) who mediate between the two dimensions. Typically, they become healers, prophets,
law givers, shamans, and always, they are seen as mystics. They are
charismatic in the true sense of the word—they know Spirit from
experience, and not from conjecture or study. Jesus was that. He was
born to be that, and he never shrank from that path from his birth,
which we celebrate today, until his death on a Roman cross.
Jesus
changed the world, and he did so with his teachings and by his love
of all people, without exception and regardless of their perceived
worth in the eyes of the world. We can only hope to grow in
understanding of all that he was and is today.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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