Seeing the same stories in a new light

Yesterday's gospel reading at my little episcopal church (and every episcopal church around the world, for that matter) was from Luke 18:1-8. Jesus told his disciples, "Pray always. Don't lose heart." Don't give up. Then he told them the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. My whole life I've read this as an encouragement to pester God over and over and over asking for what I want. Don't give up, right? Ask and keep on asking. Pray and keep on praying. Ask for whatever you want, right? And that's how I've always viewed prayer, as asking for my circumstances to change, to be different than what they are. In rare moments of clarity, I asked for my perspective to change.

Yet, I keep coming back to the CS Lewis phrase that says, "I pray, not because it changes my circumstances, but because it changes me." I've mentioned this several times in past blogs. Yet today, when this passage in Luke was read, I heard it with new ears. Jesus tells this parable about an unjust judge who is moved to act justly for a poor widow who keeps pestering him for justice. He asks, "If an unjust judge would grant this woman's request for justice, won't God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?" And for the first time I wondered, "Did Jesus say 'chosen ones' sarcastically?".

Does God really have people he treats better than others? Does God really love some people more than others? We say God loves everyone. But in the back of our minds, we like to think he loves us just a little more than others, don't we? That we are "chosen", special. Jesus knew his audience, his people.  He knew they considered themselves “chosen”.

But here is where my new eyes and ears saw and heard what Jesus was really saying (for the first time). Remember, Jesus spoke in metaphors all the time. He rarely spoke literally. He went on to say that God (or the universe or whatever you want to call this being-ness) is already providing everything we need. In this translation, the word is "justice". Won't God provide justice for his so-called "chosen ones"? Will he delay long in helping them? Of course not! God has already provided everything we need. But he goes on, "Yet, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" That's a curious question.  Let’s face it.  It’s an odd way to end a story of asking God for what you want.  When the Son of Man (i.e. a HUMAN) comes along, will he find faith?  What does that mean?  I’ve already addressed the Son of Man reference before, but I’ll point out again that Jesus always kept referring to himself as human, just plain human.  Yes, a son of God, but human, lest we get too caught up trying to make him god or king or Lord or Messiah.

He ends this by basically saying, "You've been looking for a messiah. I am a human, but faith is here and now, trusting that God already has what you need and will not withhold it. " I'm surprised he didn't just say, "Hey, you don't need a messiah or someone to 'save' you. You have everything you need already inside you." I mean, as I pointed out before, he did say that in his final prayer before he died on the cross, "Father, let them see that we are all one. Let them see that you and I and they are one." And when Peter proclaimed, "You are the son of God", I'm surprised he didn't say "Yeah, you are, too. That's the whole point of this good news. We are all a part of God because nothing in the universe can be separate from God. God is in every particle of the universe."

Now, I grew up in the name-it-and-claim-it religion. A greed-based, avaricious teaching which mimicked the Wall Street mentality of "get what you can in this life, even if it means cheating and fraud and manipulation", because for many Christians, the only "proof" of God's love and favor is actual monetary wealth.

Total bunny trail alert here: Which, as a side note, as unbelievable as it may seem to some, is why Christians who were raised in the 1970s-1990s under Jerry Falwell and Phillis Schlaffley's Moral Majority actually believe that Donald J. Trump is a "righteous man", "God's Chosen One", and why they can overlook every one of his moral transgressions so easily. They actually believe that wealth and power are a sign of God's blessing, God's stamp of approval on a human. This is not a new concept. Even Jesus' disciples firmly believed that earthly riches, wealth, and power, were a sign of God's blessing (whether gained ethically or not). Remember the guys being totally dumbfounded and asking Jesus, "well, gosh, if a wealthy man can't get into heaven, what chance do we have?" I wonder that modern American Christians seem to have forgotten that Jesus was poor. No wealth or political power? Modern American Christians would not give Jesus the time of day, let alone follow him!

In the Lord's Prayer, when it comes time to ask God for stuff, his only guidelines are to ask only for what you need day to day. This is not future focused. It's a reminder to be present. It also reminds me of the saying that the universe has enough for every person's need, but not every person's greed. Then he immediately instructs them to forgive others, which is to say, be in a peaceful frame of mind.

The Lord's Prayer is not a model for asking or demanding whatever we want. Jesus' example shows us that the state of your mind is the critical bit.  Remember the Lord's Prayer? It goes like this.
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."- Matthew 6:9-13.

Right off the bat, Jesus acknowledges the eternal formless being that we call "God", or the "I am that I am", the Tao, eternal being. Next, we see a laying down of ego; "your will be done", not mine. “On earth as it is in heaven”.  Earth is the physical, finite, formed world, the world of form which comes out of the formless, eternal being or dimension.

What is heaven? I know what I was raised to think, that heaven was a future utopian state. And even that God is “up” in heaven looking down on us.  But even Jesus kept saying "the kingdom of heaven is near, today, now". His name “Emmanuel” means “God is with us”, better yet, god is in us.  He kept telling people not to go looking for heaven, but that heaven is here now.   We just were too dumb and stuck in our egoic minds to get it!   The Tao Te Ching says that impartiality (or not judging) is kingship. Kingship is heaven. Heaven is Tao (something nameless, formless, indescribable, and beyond possession). And Tao is eternal. Tao is just a word. Remember from the Tao Te Ching 1- 

        “The Tao that can be followed is not the eternal Tao. 

        The Tao that can be named is not the eternal name.  

        The nameless is the origin of heaven and earth 

        while naming is the origin of myriad things (or object consciousness).”

     (Parentheses are mine).

Tao is just a word which tries to point to our understanding of something which is too vast to comprehend.  Like "god" is a word. Unfortunately, language is limiting. As soon as we say the word, "God" or "god", people have all kinds of prejudices about the meaning of the word. If I use the little "g" form, "god", my friends and family get agitated. How dare I use the word "god" or (gasp!) “goddess” and not "God", which has a very specific connotation or meaning, one especially tailored to their ideologies. HE has a name. HE is not feminine. HE, FATHER, can never be a "she" also. HE is Jesus. How dare I blaspheme by using the word "god" or "universe" or "Tao"? LOL! These are the very same people who I am convinced would reject Jesus right now, if he came to them as he was back then, 2000 years ago, a poor carpenter, a human; a human who had an amazing insight into our condition, and no wealth, no power, no ego.

But I digress… back to the "daily bread" or acknowledgement of being in the present, not being greedy for more, not hoarding. Just being grateful for what we have now. And back to the part about "being peace", rather than beating ourselves up for missing the mark. This little phrase about being forgiven and forgiving our debtors is all about "being the peace" that we wish to see. Or as Jesus said it before, "loving your neighbor as yourself".  As many scholars and theologians would say, "Love is seeing the interconnectedness of 'others' and 'self'." 

Love is oneness, wholeness.  True love sees others as "us." It no longer sees the divisions that we create.  Othering is just another form of judgment, fragmentation, and violence. Actually, “othering” is the basis or foundation for all judgment, fragmentation, and violence.  

Some earlier translations left out the last line: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Since the earlier texts left this one out, I won't say much, other than that I believe "evil" is our own broken, fragmented, othering frame of mind. All the "evils" on earth? All the atrocities committed by humans again humans and the planet and other beings? It all comes from our disconnectedness, seeing ourselves as separate from God and everything. It's so much easier to commit violence against "others", because we think of ourselves as separate and superior. This was the original sin, after all, the rise of "self" consciousness.

In the past, I always saw this parable as an affirmation to pray to get what I want or need, to pester God to change my circumstances. Now, I see it in the light of understanding that my state of heart and mind are more important. That being present to now every moment of every day, being grateful or accepting of what is, is more important than asking for stuff in the future or the changing of my circumstances.

Peace comes when we have a much bigger picture of time and the universe and all the little things that happen along the way. That's how we can have peace in the midst of suffering. That's how we can have peace and joy in the midst of everything. When we see the bigger picture of the universe, we don't have to be rattled or agitated. We can experience joy and peace in the assurance that the "I am that I am" is eternal and that we are connected.  Paul said in Romans that nothing (nothing in the entire universe, in heaven, in hell, no one and nothing) could EVER separate us from the love of god that is in Christ.  And Jesus taught us that Christ, the Holy Spirit, the god-particle, the Buddha nature is in all of us.  Christ in us is the hope of glory!