It's me, mike hillebrecht

We’ve come back around to that time of the year again where multitudes of people will make one of their two life pilgrimages into the confines of church to acknowledge the Easter season (the other being Christmas). Bunnies, chicks, plastic eggs filled with tooth and gum disease, frilly bonnets and dresses, all leading up to bountiful table of ham, greens and biscuits galore are what earmark the western venture into the thankfulness of Jesus taking our sins away.

I have previously written about the mystery of this season and all the questions which it holds for us to find answers for. But I’m going to go one further in this posting and ask the ultimate question: What sin? Allow me to offer to you two cherry-picked verses to back up my question.

Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

Step away for moment from what western religion has thrust upon the meaning of this season and let me take a moment to open a thought which many have never entertained simply because their doctrine constrains them from doing so. First let’s all agree on one thing: The entire panorama of this pageant takes place 2,000 years ago in a foreign land occupied by an invading army. Anything we bring to the table with an explanation has to take all of this into context. So, if I may?

Jesus died on the cross, a state-sanctioned torture device, because the religious hierarchy demanded him to be killed for allegedly violating one of their tenets but lacked the authority to fulfill this act without the assistance of the governing Roman army. A mob, roused by these same religious zealots, demanded this action be undertaken even though the Roman governor found Jesus to be innocent of any charges which demanded such harsh punishment. Ultimately, the entire process was conducted to prevent any form of uprising of the population which had poured into the city to celebrate the first of three of the commanded religious festivals Israel annually participated in. Herein lays my side of the Easter narrative which many will gloss over.

The fourth gospel tells us how John the Baptist claimed that Jesus was the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. First off, according to this statement you are going to find a problem. Lambs, according to the book of Leviticus, are not the proper sacrifice for sins, goats are. This is Law folks. Sin offerings are made on Yom Kippur, a fall event occurring after the Jewish New Year. Two goats are offered to the High Priest, one is sacrificed on the altar, while the sins of the nation are confessed over the second goat who is subsequently released into the wilderness, taking the sins with it. So, if Jesus is fulfilling the requirements of the Law as a sin offering, he is not the correct type, or doing it in the prescribed manner at the appropriate time. Apparently, he therefore is not fulfilling the Law, which Jesus professed he was here to do.

The fourth gospel goes out its way to tell us that Jesus died at precisely the time when the Passover lamb was slain by the High Priest making Jesus the Passover lamb for the world. Regrettably, western religiosity completely ignores the meaning of this fundamental Hebraic belief in the Passover.

The term “Passover” recalls the story of the last plague Israel witnessed Egypt endure at the hands of Jehovah. Moses had instructed all the children of Israel how they were on a certain night to sacrifice a lamb, take the blood from this lamb and apply it to the lintels and doorposts of their dwelling, which would act as a sign preventing the angel of death from entering their dwelling and taking the first born child. All who were within these dwellings, Jew or foreigner alike, with this prescribed marking, were safe from this fateful outcome. Moses also instructed the children of Israel that they were to eat the lamb and prepare for their departure from the bounds of slavery which Jehovah was going to break and the land of Egypt which Jehovah was going to lead them from on the following morning.

This is the meaning of being a Passover lamb. No sin involved.

Jesus professed that he came to give us life, and that life more abundantly. He spoke about how belief in him would lead to eternal life, something he described as knowing the Father, and his son whom he sent. The entire corpus of Jesus’s message was overwhelmingly about living life than about sin. Even the capstone to his message was being resurrected!

Jesus as our Passover lamb, ushers us into eternal life, his blood as the sign protecting us from the death and slavery which confronts us in this world. We are blameless in the Father’s love and cannot sin because we are born of God and his seed remains in us.

If you have to look for some sin, according to these scriptures, you are not going to find it. So let’s take that thought off the Easter table this year and finally celebrate the works of a divine life.

It’s a cry which many of us have made within the depths of our despair, the tear-stained anguish of our common sufferings, the malcontent boiling of our overwhelming dissatisfaction. “Heaven help me.” How’s that working for you?

Have you ever considered that there is a lesson, or maybe many lessons, which you cannot learn in heaven? As great as heaven is, as much as we long to be there, as glorious as all the worship about it offers us, we are all here on the tiny orbital rock in the vastness of a unimaginable universe to attend to a curriculum which can only be administered here, warts and all.

I know it’s hard to believe. But where do you think you are going to learn patience. Heaven can’t teach you this. It’s a realm where everybody is eternally basking in love. Time has no meaning there. Patience involves working within the restrictions of time.

You can’t have patience without also focusing on compassion. Who needs compassion in heaven when everyone is equal? When time is factored into patience, compassion must be administered when all demand their own schedule be followed. And in spite of how much you say you love people, slow moving folks require a level of compassion others just seem to drain from you particularly when they finally come into your field of vision.

These are just a few examples but there are many more. Most of them operate around the notion of time. Steadfastness, harmony and cooperation, tenderness, trustworthiness, commitment, and yes, even love, are lessons this life throws at you which must be taken over and over again until we pass the test. Heaven can’t help you because it put you in this school in the first place so that you would grow up.

There are far too many people who are trying to skip the tests with a note from home thinking they’ll still graduate the class. They fail to realize how the tests keep being administered but under different conditions. Yes, Virginia, life is a story problem and sometimes, when you least expect it, you’re on one of those two trains moving down the same track at two different speeds, and a quadratic equation is the only thing which is going to help you determine how your three children are going to get to different after-school events while you’re preparing dinner. Heaven has no idea the lessons we deal with sometimes simply because time is irrelevant in eternity. So how is your grade coming in this school called life?

What do you do when everything you’ve ever known or considered about grace suddenly flips itself on its head by a simple revelation? Consider the following:

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Notice the phrase “…before the world began.” This means exactly what it says, no misinterpretation on the part of the translators. So, everything which comes before this phrase occurred before creation, before anything called earth, sky, sun, moon, stars, plants, mountains, oceans, fish, animals, and yes, humans ever manifested. So, what’s the big deal you’re possibly asking yourself. Look closely at just one of the things which were active during this period of development: His own purpose and (more specifically) grace.

Since the writings of Paul, we have been instructed that grace, and all its multi-faceted nature, has been given to mankind by Jesus Christ as a result of one thing, the fall of Adam. Everything which Christ Jesus accomplished in the finished works is wrapped up as a gift of God’s grace to us. Whatever our failings have been which have kept humanity from being able to be in the presence of the Father, Christ redeemed us by his grace. Notice the logic involved here: Something bad happened which caused separation and a remedy is brought forth to rectify the matter. Christ comes because man fell; or put another way, grace is only associated with doing something wrong.

Grace, the kind which comes from an eternal dimension, existed before there was ever a fall, or a wrong act committed; it existed before there was even a human to commit the act; it existed before there was even a planet for a human to be crafted from it who would then commit a wrong act upon it. Grace preceded every single transgression ever committed by mankind simply because it was fully working prior to the creation of all things.

Now don’t think that I’m trying to diminish the finished works of Christ’s grace because that is the farthest thing from what I’m considering. Since we’ve always associated grace with something bad transpiring, we’ve missed the simple fact that grace is there also when something is good.

In the second Genesis narrative (that is going to trip up a lot of you), God proclaims how the creation event is “good” during certain days. Because we’ve never considered the possibility of grace being there in these moments, we just assume that it had no role in God’s goodness. I know that seems like a rather odd thought since we’re always proclaimed that the grace of God has been a part of his goodness. Yet, this proclamation was founded on something bad. The truth is that grace is there in every condition; you can’t turn it on only when you need it simply because it’s always been on.

This leaves us then with a mystery. If grace has always been on, even before creation needed it, what makes the works of Jesus such a special indulgence of God’s grace? Yup, now we’re cooking with gas!

Life is a process. You know this. Things don’t just miraculously poof out of thin air like some hocus pocus trick. There is time, yes time, which has its hand in the entire operation from the least of things to the greatest of things. With time comes the natural effects of living in a biosphere where the cycle follows a predictable path from beginning to end. Here is Jesus’s take on the matter:

Joh 12:24-25 “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. (25) In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.

Everything begins as a seed. That seed must die in order to produce what will be the witness of life, then ultimately become the next generation of fruit and the seeds which continue the cycle. Death produces life.

There resided within the psyche of humanity the willingness to believe in the possibility of being able to live forever. It matters not what culture you come from there is somewhere within its heritage the remote myth of some character representing humanity who having traveled a long harrowing journey filled with a multitude of divine tests and trials captures the golden prize of immortality. Even today, there are many in the religious environs of the west who believe how the story of Jesus, they’re belief in him and his finished works, makes them immortal.

If you, like me, are human, you are mortal. Our life is conducted within the environs of this biosphere with all its constraints. To put it bluntly, from dust we came and to dust we shall return. Immortality is mere fiction, a long sought-after wish of a super-hero in this regard. However…

There is a generation that shall live and not die according to the writings of Paul to the church in Corinth. Upon the return of the Christ, Paul conditions this generations existence not in their mortal form but in a change, which will occur in the twinkling of an eye, where they will become as the Christ is. Recognize that this is for a singularly specific generation, not all generations. The prior remaining generations don’t receive this benefit of not dying simply because they are mortal. However…

The Creator resides in dimension beyond the limits of time as we know and experience it. It is an eternal realm knowing no beginning or end, a perpetual state of Now. We, you and I, plus the person next to you, all at one point resided in this very same domain, being “…in Him before the foundations of the world.” Eternal we have been, still are, and forever will be. The meat sack you occupy will cycle through the processes of youth, maturity, adulthood, to seniority and then death, the final state of all organic matter on this planet. However, you – whatever this means – the consciousness which arises from being, is alive in an eternal Now dimension. Notice how eternal life comes to us on this tiny rock in space.

Joh 17:1-3 Jesus said these things. Then, raising his eyes in prayer, he said: Father, it’s time. Display the bright splendor of your Son so the Son in turn may show your bright splendor. (2) You put him in charge of everything human so he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge. (3) And this is the real and eternal life: That they know you, The one and only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

All you need to do is know the Father, and Jesus, in order to have eternal life. But aren’t we already eternal? Yes, but we have been chasing dreams of being immortal for far too long. We need to RE-member ourselves in Him. Knowing is union, a coupling bringing two into one. Put whatever overtones you want onto this description and it still won’t diminish the effect it RE-creates. This is reckless love. This is your life as an eternal.

Duality. The bane of human culture. Either/or rules the day of an ego which must have its just fruits at the expense of the those who fall below the demarcation line of being relevant. Fights. Mental anguish. Projection of past traumas onto present realities. Life is a freaking mess. (I wrote a book with this title now that I recall.)

Every single one of us 7 billion plus, on this speck in the universe, want our cake and expect to eat it too. Those starving from a lack of food want it, while those lacking from attention, or from the lack of the expression of love, or of community, want “it”, the nutrition of being, in an entirely different manner. Hell, we all want “it,” but we just don’t know what “it” is half the time!

Warning: I’m about to use the Bible to make a point.

According to the bible, we, that’s you and me and the person next to you – yes, them too – were all in the divine purpose and plan of God (His logos) before the world even existed. If we could just remember this. There we were, me and you, and of course them too, there together, side by side (whatever that means), privy to the entire plans of a Divine Creator. As mythical as it might seem, the possibility that we were all in agreement about what reality was to be like permeated all of us. Strangely, differences didn’t exist as a point of contention more than as a means to describe an alternative location. Obviously, being a nose rather than a small toe in the cosmic scheme of things is pretty different.

Non-duality. The surprise of potentiality in living. Both/and eliminates the opportunity for one-upmanship in every discourse. Neither viewpoint is invalid but vital to the whole outcome of possibility. Two opposing forces seem to create a third opportunity for advancing in this realm. This perspective is so seldom considered that it seems at first glance as a waste of effort. After all, territory must be preserved. Yet, new territory is never discovered and captured while entrenched in the stream of familiarity.

Let’s face it folks. People, of all sorts, are…

Right or wrong is not the issue. We all came from the same source (whether you understand that or not doesn’t make you better than another), yet we feel compelled to exert an authority, which none of us possess in the greater scheme of things, upon our equals. Yes, equals.

There is the rub, right? This world glorifies distinction. If you are not with me then obviously you are against me. However, in the same vein, we seek harmony and peace. Whatever happened to the notion of unity?

Unity is not about agreement as much as it about respecting diversity towards a common goal. I will be the first to admit that I don’t often agree with some people on many issues. That, according to the nature of this writing, is how things frequently function in this world. However, trying to live in this society, with all of the selective paradigms being offered, can be not only daunting, but more often confusing. Unity never seems to be an option to consider when the opinion of the public is involved.

So, what then is a soul to do? Either/Or versus Both /And are the only choices we have. Express a thought so that it might incur the wrath of those who hold a perspective contrary to it is an example of Either/Or discourse which we are all too familiar with and often are willing to forego. We all recognize that a single degree of an angle off the center of prevalent understanding will create conflict across the board of human dialogue.

Regrettably, Both/And gets no play. People, like groups, have egos to protect. Allowing anyone to be viewed as an equal with a different viewpoint is like saying that both Republicans and Democrats know what’s best for the nation. (Your response to this statement will prove my claim that unity is about respecting diversity.)

Having gotten this far, you’re probably wondering what in the hell does all of this mean? Haven’t you figured it out yet? It’s all about grace.

Look at the writings I’ve offered here. Grace seems to be the common denominator. I can pretty much turn anything onto this wide avenue of God’s love. There is not a single person throughout the entire scope of human history who hasn’t been in the divine plan of God. Sure, we’ve made mistakes, harmed more people than we’ve imagined, even regretted a few incursions, yet grace, the nature of a kingdom which reside over all of creation, acts as the healing balm to our foibles into assured stupidity. Frankly, right or wrong is not the issue about anything. It is more about how we recognize those we know stood beside us in Him before creation.

A nose is as important as a toe. One purpose from different vantage points.

I’m borrowing a lot today. The title is from a description I heard several years ago of the “new” believers rising up in the church. Yes, it is an oxymoron, but isn’t life? The impetus of this writing is from a recent discussion I had with a few friends on the book written by Cynthia Bourgeault entitled “The Wisdom Jesus.” I wrote previously how a passage out of this book has rocked and transformed my entire theological perspective. Our discussion was a further refinement of just how we have slumbered through a life full of descriptions in the divine nature.

In this book, Cynthia teaches on the term “metanoia” which has been interpreted as “repentance” in the Greek biblical writings. She offers a much more relevant clarification to this word as, “…entering into the larger mind.” Humanity functions for the most part out of the small egoic mind. We are focused on our holy trinity, me, myself and I, more than those around us. The “larger mind” is stepping up or out into the consciousness of the universe.

In the discussion we were having the metaphor or image which was brought forward was the biblical representation of the lion and the lamb. The book of Isaiah declares that in the final days the lion will lay down with the lamb in harmony. This image became a backdrop of the small/large mind description we were encountering.

When you consider the image of a lion, we immediately visualize a bold, roaring beast, king of the savannah, chasing down and devouring its prey. Lions are violent, reactive predatory beasts. Lambs, in contrast, are docile domesticated animals. The term “lamb” actually describes a sheep less than one year old. So, to see a lion reclining next to baby lamb is pretty alarming! You expect any moment for the lion to turn its head and swallow the lamb whole!

Now it was brought up how many believe this image means that in the final days the lion becomes a vegetarian, no longer having the desire to consume other animals. Somehow this thought makes God’s original purpose for the lion to be errant. Why didn’t God just make the lion a vegetarian to begin with? No, a lion is designed to kill, to thin the herds of the weakest, the sick, and the slowest. The survival of the fittest is a direct result of the proper design and function of the lion.

Cynthia relates a particular story from the Little Prince to move us into our next level of refinement.

Remember that wonderful passage from The Little Prince when the fox asks, “To tame something: what does that mean?” The prince replies, “It means to form bonds. If I tame you, I become responsible for you, and you depend on me because I have tamed you.”

The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind–A New Perspective on Christ and His Message (p. 43). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

Did the lamb tame the lion? Does the large mind tame the small mind?

Humans are wild beasts. Rough and rugged, we enter this world concerned with only one thing: Me. We fight and devour one another; we kill our weakest; we roar loudly so other will pay attention to us. Our small egoic mind is very animalistic. Yes, we do make inroads towards domesticating the beast, however, most often it is merely one beast battling the impulses from another beast vying for hierarchal dominance. Sometimes, in hindsight, we even recognize within us the destructive path taken to satisfy the lustful cravings consuming the beast who we are and promise ourselves, and those who have encountered the gnashing, tearing maul of our insecurity that we will never cross that path again. Yet we know, deep inside, our territory will be protected at all costs no matter what animal ventures into it.

Lambs are lovable and cuddly. Humans aren’t, except when they are babies; but only until they begin crying at two in the morning, then they awaken the beast within. Lambs don’t bring the beast out. They make you feel all warm and good inside, even when they are whining for food. Lambs have the inherent nature it seems to tame us and form a bond.

When the human is born into this world, the animal is occupied by a soul, an eternal soul, who when the human dies, will return back into the eternal realm while the flesh, the mortal tent of the soul, will return back into the ground of its being. The wonder of humanity is the amalgamation of a beast concerned with its survival and the divine living eternal. Rarely does the small mind of the beast ever acknowledge the existence of the larger mind which resides within. Rarely does our ego consider that a realm of love is merely a breath within. Rarely does the roar stop to listen to the silent bond of dependence.

We clamor for change. Yet we are unwilling to be silent, to be present and acknowledge presence of a larger mind within and around. We refuse to be tamed and therefore miss the bond which responsibility yearns for and dependence craves. Are we ready to move into the big mind? Are we willing to be tamed by love? Can the love of a sheep kill us so creation can rejoice at our sonship?

Ever had a hand grenade go off in your theology? The impact, the debris field, the repercussions are beyond anything imagined. This recently happened to me and to say I’m over it is truly just a lie. This explosion has rocked all my prior beliefs (which is a good thing). I’m going to lob the residue of this event at you and let you somewhat experience what I encountered. To some of you this will seem like I’m just throwing mud at your face, while to others it will have the same explosive impact, if not greater, which happened to me. For those of you who feel left out, just wait, this is a slow delay blast.

Let me make this claim right up front: Grace, as we know it, as I’ve taught it, as we’ve experienced it, is not what we think it is. Right now, I’m still trying to figure it out – all over again.

At the beginning of 2018, I read a book written by Cynthia Bourgeault entitled The Wisdom Jesus, Transforming Heart and Mind—a New Perspective on Christ and His Message. I found it very enlightening and it became a springboard for the journey which I have been on since then.

This year (2019) a study group that I am a part of began reading and discussing the same book. While we haven’t gotten very far along in it, I am seeing things in a completely different light from when I initially read it. Which brings me to the blast I experienced recently. I can’t explain it any better than allowing the author to speak to you.

The early church fathers used to speak of a pathway of perception they called epinoia, which meant knowing through intuition and direct revelation, not through the linear and didactic dianoia of logic and doctrine and dogma…

The main difference between the Christianity we’re familiar with through our Western filter and the Christianity coming to us from these new sources can be captured in two words which are not nearly as formidable as they first sound: the difference is between a soteriology and a sophiology. What do these two words mean? “Soteriology” comes from the Greek word soter, which means “savior.” The Christianity of the West has always been savior-oriented. Jesus is seen as the one who died for our sins, who rescued us both individually and corporately from the exile and alienation brought about through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. “Do you believe Christ died for your sins?” is still the core question for Christian orthodoxy: the dividing line between a believer and a nonbeliever. This emphasis entered the theology of the West early, and it entered through the apostle Paul…

The Christianity of the East saw things radically differently. Theirs was not a soteriology, but a sophiology. The word “sophiology” has as its root the word “wisdom.” (Sophia is the Greek word for wisdom.) Christianity was supremely a wisdom path. For the earliest Christians, Jesus was not the Savior but the Life-Giver. In the original Aramaic of Jesus and his followers there was no word for salvation. Salvation was understood as a bestowal of life, and to be saved was “to be made alive.” Entering the waters at the hand of John the Baptist, Jesus emerged as Mahyana, “the Life-Giver.” He came forth also as the Ihidaya, “the Single One” or “the Unified One.” Nowadays we’d call him “the Enlightened One,” a person whose life is full, integrated, and flowing. Jesus’s disciples saw in him a master of consciousness, offering a path through which they, too, could become ihidaya, enlightened ones. A sophiological Christianity focuses on the path. It emphasizes how Jesus is like us, how what he did in himself is something we are also called to do in ourselves. By contrast, soteriology tends to emphasize how Jesus is different from us – “begotten, not made,” belonging to a higher order of being—and hence uniquely positioned as our mediator. At first the sophiological take may seem strange to you: definitely a variant and perhaps even a heretical position. But as the evidence begins to pour in from the other 270 degrees of the Christian circle, we begin to see that it is the West that holds the variant position.

Bourgeault, Cynthia. The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind–A New Perspective on Christ and His Message (p. 19-21). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

I recognize that there is a lot contained within this passage and that many of you will simply ignore everything I claim from here on out because you’re lost. That is okay; you can come back later, as often as you need, to digest all that is there. For you valiant and intrepid few, those who grasped a hold of what was said and are trying to figure out how this is such a big deal, sit back and buckle up Dorothy, Kansas is about to appear in your rear-view mirror.

My entire Christian walk has been under the premise that I, nay, all of mankind, is a wretch that needs to be rescued from the demise of the Adamic nature. We, according to Cynthia, needed a savior. Once we had confessed the lordship of Jesus over our life, we were then encouraged, with all means available to the pastor, to go forth and win those fellow lost souls for the Kingdom with our soteriological gospel. Since Constantine, the entire advance of Western civilization and the religion which encapsulates it, has been pushing the good fight for a “savior” into a lost and forsaken people group. This is still the foundation of foreign ministry and evangelism throughout the Western church.

When you mention grace in this type of environment it wildly smacks at the need for a savior who has strict requirements of what you must do to be worthy to be saved. The Grace movement of today is fighting a battle against the proponents of soteriology who believe all man must be saved or face going into eternal damnation. Grace in this battle is your “get out of jail free card.” Grace lowers the minimum standards of soteriology and boldly proclaims, “Jesus saves all!”

I hope you understand that there isn’t anything new with what I’ve just said. This is the norm for all Western Christianity. The language I’ve employed in describing this is quite common to those of us in or out of the Church. That said, I trust that you realize the explosion hasn’t happened yet. So, take moment to collect your thoughts around what I’ve just said and see if there is anything that you feel needs to be added which I missed. Now, let’s get saved all over again!

Jesus claimed in the fourth gospel that he came to give us life and that life more abundantly. This is Jesus, a life-giver, not a savior. This is what sophiology, the wisdom of Jesus, looks like. The book of Proverbs tells us to get wisdom because it is the principal thing; and in all of our getting, to get understanding. Why? Not because we have to lead lost souls to Jesus, but because we have a life to live that requires us to make wise choices; choices which will reveal heaven on earth. Jesus gives us life, a full life, an overflowing life. His influence on the original disciples formed a movement known as The Way. Life is The Way in sophiology.

Consider how the present-day church is losing members by the droves simply because the people do not find any relevance in the message. They are seeking answers to life situations which they believe the church refuses to address. The church can’t help in this life if its only concern is saving the lost. Every Sunday is another alter call for lost souls to come forward, and if there aren’t any to be found, just search your hearts to see if there is something you need saved from. Even grace negates the issue of being lost. But none of that matters if the serious questions which life is throwing at you isn’t being addressed or at least a means being offered to find wisdom.

Speaking of grace, what do you now do with grace in a life-giving wisdom culture? What does a kingdom of Grace, the spirit of grace, and the grace of the Father look like from a wisdom perspective? What does Paul truly mean when we’re told that we’re saved by grace if Jesus is a life-giver rather than a savior? So many questions, so little time…in this life.

What came first: the chicken or the acorn? Or was it the egg or the mighty oak? The juxtaposition doesn’t seem to work and yet you instinctively know what I’m aiming for. Regrettably, the question of creation is one that many scurry from simply because its paradoxical nature confounds us. Why do we hate mysteries so much, particularly those that cause us introspection of our own existence?

Plucking a metaphor from above, who are you: The chicken or the egg? Which came first to this planet? Is your life an incubation chamber warmed by turmoil which surrounds some goop waiting to morph into a super-human chick destined to break out of your shell? Or are you a fully formed cluck hurrying about the world scratching for grains and grubs trying to avoid the thoughts of an eternal rotisserie? Honestly, who are you?

In the New Testament writings which we’ve been told are from Paul, a claim that we were in Christ before the foundations of the world flips any notion of who we really think we are. While we may see through a glass darkly on a variety of issues, the one thing we never want to admit is that the “we” of our public persona is that dark glass which our true soul is trying to look out from the inside. That true soul, the one not considered to possess an ego, is the “You” in Christ before the “you” witnessed today.

There is a memory that I often recall of when, as a young boy, my father would take me into the barber shop to have my hair cut. As you sat in the barber chair, you would look straight ahead into a mirror which ran the entire length of the shop. The reflection in this mirror was the opposite wall which also was a mirror running the length of the shop. I would often sit spell-bound watching the reflection of the barber working on the back of my head in front of me. However, the real magic happened when I would shift my sight just a couple of inches to either side and a cavalcade of reflections would extend into each other deeper and deeper. Then I would try to see just how deep the images went before something wasn’t shown because of the lack of light in the reflection.

Most of our lives we spend looking forward at our past, rarely going deep into what is missing. We are so accustomed to seeing the artifacts of our social construct as being genuine that we fail to acknowledge they lack the light of a perennial wisdom designed to aid in living the abundant life. Who you are, the true You, is deep within and can only be accessed in reflective silence. Unlike opposing mirrors, the deeper you push into this silent identity, the brighter the light of its nature and character manifests.

Consider who is the “You” that was before time and creation. How different is the “you” found today from who You have always been? Maybe it’s time to bring the light out you have hidden deep in the recesses of a non-reflective mind. It’s time to look beyond the vapor of past regrets, trauma and dashed expectation toward a clarifying light of a purposeful soul waiting patiently to be seen in all its glory and splendor. Quit seizing the moment and just silently be in the moment as the light for all to reflect.

There are within this universe a set of rules which apply across the board to all people. Gravity is the first. What goes up will come down. Granted the duration between the upside and the down side is not determinable in many cases, however, the effect always comes.

This brings me to another rule: Cause and effect. This is a big one, probably the most important one. In Christian parlance it might be called the law of sowing and reaping, or the Golden Rule. On the streets it’s known as what comes around goes around. In the writings of Paul to the gathering in Galatia he declares it as,

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Gal 6:7)

According to Matthew, Jesus taught about it in the following manner,

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. (Mat 7:12)

I want to step back to Paul’s take on this matter and couple it with another mystic statement made by Jesus in the fourth gospel.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (Joh 12:24)

There a lot of people who enter into this life as the underclass, the down trodden, the hopeless. How does their station in life align with the law of sowing and reaping if they had no ability to determine the seed? Are these lives the cause or the effect?

Now take the opposite extreme, people like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Amin and many others who humanity has deemed the cruelest people ever to live. After having wreaked havoc upon humanity through various atrocities, where is the reaping from their sowing? Some would proclaim that their death was the sowing for the works that they accomplished against humanity, as if their death atoned for the millions they killed. According to Jesus, the death of these few should bring forth fruit to be harvested. Since they died, has their reaping been completed?

We fall somewhere between the extremes I’ve mentioned. We live a life of the of the grandest nose-picker, a social pox on the fabric of humanity. Our very existence inflames the emotions of the masses since we appear to have no concept of what is morally acceptable behavior. Day in and day out we flick buggers upon the unsuspecting while we smile at them as they bolt from their path of intention to evade our slimy projectile. Never do we consider that our actions will have a consequence simply because it’s only a bugger, right?

Then a day comes and goes. Suddenly we discover that we too went with the day. No amends made, no reaping for a field of buggers sown. I’m okay; you’re caked in slime. It would appear that sowing and reaping is a fallacy to the nose pickers in the world. But what was Paul’s injunction? God will not be mocked!

Have you ever considered that sowing, reaping, even death, are all actions which occur on earth? While heaven is home base, these laws I am are describing relate to this physical planet. And according to Paul and Jesus, God will see to it that the cycle is completed on this planet. Death, it appears is merely the transition between sowing and reaping. That is something you probably didn’t consider. When Jesus claims that with God all things are possible, you better think he mean “all things.” Yup, there is a reaping coming along after death…on this planet for us – buggers and all. But as dire as this might appear, God, who is love, knows what the harvest will bring. Flick or not to flick. That seems to be the question.

Have you ever considered just how wise you truly are? I’m serious. You have within you a wisdom which is staggering on many levels. Unfortunately, rarely do we ever take time to consider what we know and just how we came to obtain this storehouse of wisdom.

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. (Pro 4:7)

I will submit that most, if not all of us, ignore the principle behind this injunction. Wisdom and understanding are a lifestyle. Sure, I know that this is something you might expect a teacher, like myself, to say to a pupil, however, the alternative, stupidity and ignorance, is also a lifestyle few, if any, want to follow. It seems most of us walk a very thin line between both worlds of wisdom and ignorance and feel right at home doing so. Therefore, for a brief moment, let’s focus on your wisdom.

Take a moment to consider all that you’ve been through in this life, the ups and downs, the ins and outs. When you look back on all the lessons you’ve learned, the wisdom these teachings have instilled within you, can you recall and describe what the environment surrounding you was like?

Let me put it another way: Did you gain your wisdom when all hell was coming down around your head, or while you were relaxing on some beach while enjoying your vacation? When the shit hits the fan, the first lesson you learn is to duck! Thereafter, wisdom is recognizing the two components which make for a game of duck, duck, goose.

Suffering. We dread the mere mention of the word. Some of us even wince at the mere thought of it. Humans create it and endure it. It seems almost a part of our nature as occupants of this planet. The degree to which we are inflicted with it, from a stubbed toe, to rape, molestation and dismemberment, is enormous in trying to comprehend. No two individuals encounter suffering in the same predetermined fashion. To some people, not getting the right color of a scarf as a gift has the same affect to them as if they were being led to a gas chamber in a death camp. Suffering, however it comes, is our greatest advocate for learning and the wisdom it produces. It is our greatest teacher!

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. (Luk 2:40)

This verse is describing the nature of Jesus as he grew into an adult. “…filled with wisdom…” Did he come with this already impart to him? Did he, like you and me, need to experience suffering in order to be filled with wisdom?

There is the passage from the writings of Isaiah which is commonly known as the suffering servant (Isa 53), which Christians have since the beginning of the church age attributed as a prophetic rendering of the last moments of the life of Jesus. What does this passage teach us about the lessons of suffering? How do these lessons apply to a God who we’ve always thought to be all-knowing?

Let me make a very bold claim which I know will turn many of you away. When you die and go to heaven, school is over. There is no more suffering in heaven. There are no more lessons to learn without suffering. Honestly, why do you think Jesus, as God, came to earth? What couldn’t he learn in heaven he could only experience in his creation? I’m not trying to be crass but consider the lessons which a creation from a of Roman rape to a young Jewish girl* would imprint upon a social bastard for the life of someone who thought themselves to be the first begotten son of the Most High God. The phrase, “How in heaven’s name could anyone endure this?” misses the lesson suffering engenders which heaven could not teach. Ultimately, death becomes the final lesson, the final impartation to a cavalcade of wisdom moments.

“Life sucks and then you die” is a bumper sticker I saw one day. I agree with it, but it could also say, “Wisdom first, then you graduate.” Suffering, in whatever form it apprehends you, sucks. Sometimes you get through it, other times you don’t. The lesson, the wisdom is always there. Always. Don’t miss it the first time around or you’re going to face it again, guaranteed.

What lesson is on your plate today?

(*) According to the writings of Celsus, one of the opponents to the Christian narrative, this was a common understanding among the Jewish community regarding the conception and birth of Jesus.