Blessed are the poor....

These were his instructions: "Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them."

-Mark 6:8-11

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

-Matthew 19:21




Jesus' sayings on poverty in one form or another are some of the most prevalent in the gospels. Indeed, John the Baptist's trek in the desert eating insects and Jesus' temptation in the desert are both in a sense forms of intentional poverty. Additionally, Jesus expected his followers in his time to give up their wealth if they wanted to play a larger role in his ministry. Many of his closest disciples were in fact rich by the standards of their time, and had to give that up.

We can be completely confident that Jesus' sayings on poverty were in fact directly from Jesus. If falsehood ever crept into the New Testament, we can be sure it wasn't in regard to this. Why? Because poverty became an uncomfortable idea once the Church became institutionalized. Early Church fathers would have no reason to fabricate it, and much reason to cover it up. In later centuries, the Church would depict Jesus crucified as bearing a money bag, to support their belief that the extensive property of the Church was justified. The cozy relationship between many churches these days and the rich in society tells me that not much has changed.

By itself, there is nothing good to say about poverty. There is too much of it. To be without food, without shelter, without resources, is bad enough: but add to this the shameful ways that society treats the poor, and it is clear that poverty in itself is an unfortunate thing. What then is it good for, and why did Jesus apparently insist on it, at least for those who wanted to be more perfect?

Many people in this country have a hard enough time being relatively rich by world standards. What happens to a Christian when he is poor? He is no longer anesthetized by his possessions. He can see his own wretched state more clearly, and is thrown back on his faith more completely. He depends on God, not himself. Something that Jesus said time and time again is that people lacked faith, and that faith could move mountains. I have no doubt that this kind of faith is even more lacking today than it was then.

Poverty for those who lack faith, is purposeless suffering. For those who have faith, poverty in all its forms (fasting, trials, privation) is a means through which the shapeless mush that is in our souls turns to steel. All these things we own, are anesthesia for our souls. Sometimes the anesthesia wears off and we realize that we are not happy despite all we own and do. All our pretty things are really ashes and dust. This is the awakening that can lead a man to God. This is the meaning of spiritual poverty, to be thrown back on our true selves in all our weakness, and to throw ourselves on God in total faith. Poverty is the furnace in which saints are made.

Do I think that anyone should embrace the kind of radical poverty today that the disciples and Jesus embraced? No, for these reasons:

One, this society is far more hostile to the poor and to God than the society in First Century Israel. In Jesus' time (as in the Third World today), the poor were omnipresent. They were just as persecuted as today, but they weren't completely shut out of society. Today, if you are poor, the strong belief of the majority is that there is something badly wrong with you. I really cannot recommend homelessness as an evangelism strategy in this day and age.

Two, except for possibly some exceptional individuals, a modern equivalent of St. Francis, we aren't ready for it. Things have decayed too much since Jesus walked the Earth. Too much needs to be revived and reclaimed, Christianity is on life support these days regardless of what anyone tells you. (Apply this rule: by their fruits you will know them.) Poverty needs to be reclaimed just as much as the rest of Christianity, but in steps which are appropriate to our condition. Babies need milk before they can eat meat.

But if we use this as a cop-out to never eat the meat of poverty in any form, and to remain like the rest of our materialistic society, we simply fail and deceive ourselves. We become incapable of seeing ourselves truly anymore and believe we are good Christians when we are hardly real Christians at all. We become anesthetized to the truth.

Peace.

Light or Darkness

"Open your heart, Judas, not your mind"

-spoken by Jesus to Judas in the miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth"

Suppose some scientist, however unlikely this might seem, could come up with a formula proving God's nonexistence. What would I do? I would still believe in Him.

What if, upon the discovery of this formula, belief in God was made illegal, with harsh penalties or even death for those who believe? I would still believe in Him.

Why?

There is either a Light in this world, or it is the most abject darkness without a trace of redeeming features. There is either Light or there is the total absence of light. Although the world sometimes seems predominated with shades of gray, you cannot even see grayness without light.

Were it proven to me that there is no God, then I would seek to be the Light for as long as I live, so that at least as long as I am, there is Light. Jesus himself said the same thing:

While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Jn 9:5

Which is not to say that he didn't believe in a greater Light which is God, but that he was vowing to be the manifestation of that Light while he was here. And in fact he said the same thing about his followers in Mt. 5:14, that THEY are the light of the world too.

The difference between believing in God as a proposition and living that belief is faith. This is faith: not a belief in that for which you lack evidence, but to make your soul like steel, like a titanium sword, pointed towards a higher directive that supercedes mere logic. It is not a determination of the mind, it is a determination of the heart and spirit.

If there is not Light, meaning a spiritual force of order, peace, love and unity, then there is only abject darkness period. And the source of this Light is God.

Were it to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is not, then I would say what He said when the Universe was yet unformed: Let there be Light.

Compass Heart

Everyone follows what is in their heart. There is no point in reasoning about that from which all reasoning follows. One's heart can seek peace, love and building up, or it can love war, hate and destruction. Most muddle through somewhere in between, not even knowing their heart. Changing one's heart is not something that can be done by words alone. But the words should be out there to remind one, of roads not yet taken.

I cannot prove to you that there is a God of unspeakable beauty and benevolence who has kind plans for us. It is not provable. I know it is true, but the mind is a malleable thing. You cannot trust my mind, you cannot even trust your own. The same is true of all of us.

I can only tell you what the alternative is. A world that is purely random chance and matter in motion, without God, without soul, would be a deep dark black chasm from which there is no escape. And that is in fact what the world is, whether you know it or not, for those who do not have God.

What is your heart's desire? Cars? Women? Riches? Power? Acclaim? Do you know what all these things are? DUST. In a few hundred years, they will not be remembered, nor will you. You will be having your party in a tiny micro-instant of time, you will be partying on the Titanic, and on your deathbed, you will likely not be remembering your fancy car or nice house or hot chicks. You will be realizing that you BLEW IT. You will be remembering that you now have nothing of real value in the whole world. Sure you may still own that luxury automobile, can't do much driving on your deathbed though. Sure you might have a big house, but you are only going to be using one room of it. You may have adoring fans, but they only love your image, not you. They would tear you apart for a scrap of your pajamas.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

There is a God who loves you, regardless of how wretched you are. Human beings love what they can see, but God loves the unseen. Not the pathetic wretch that you are, but the saint you could be. That is because God always lifts up, always revives, always builds.

Unfortunately, God does not interfere with you if you do not want Him to. He doesn't force you to love Him. If you want a heart for God, you have to ask Him for it.

So I ask you what is in your heart. Is it love, peace and building up, or something else. If it is something else you might not be able to change your heart, but God can. Ask Him. :)

Jeremy Irons talks about the Death Penalty

Tunnel Vision

This is not precisely a post on a spiritual topic, but in a way it is. We are so obsessed as a society with short term costs and gains that we don't build for the future the way we once did.

What would be the short-term cost to the individual of having some form of alternate energy generation in their homes that doesn't use fossil fuels? Well it would be significant, but not more so than many frivilous things people spend money on. Most houses and even more businesses have some form of alternate energy generation possibilities. Wind, solar (solar cells are not a favorite of mine because they have to be replaced periodically and they usually have associated batteries that have to be replaced periodically), wood, cogeneration. Many businesses especially view waste heat as an undesireable by-product not a valuable means of generating energy. Hook that waste heat up to stirling engines and generators, you have electricity which can MAKE you money. But nobody wants to do the upfront cost, even if it pays for itself.

Everyone knows that rail travel is more energy efficient than flying, and moving things by rail more efficient than moving them by truck or airplane. Do we have a nationwide system of high speed rail? No. Why? The costs are too high, even if they pay for themselves in time. Yet somehow we always have plenty of money for wars which benefit no one, and for bailing out corporations that will go right back to lying in the same unproductive mud they came from.

What would the social effect be of such things as cogeneration, widespread local power generation not using fossil fuels, and more efficient moving of people and material? Enormous. The balance of trade would start improving drastically, the economy would improve, and we have a certain amount of buffer room in the case of foreign instability. More money would stay here instead of going overseas.

In the end, it comes down to a religious question. Yes, religious. Do we believe in something greater than our own bellies, or are we only concerned with here and now and self? Do we believe in building things up or do we believe in passively consuming? Our country prospered up through the 1960's because at least in part, we did believe in preparing and overpreparing for the future. We believed in building, and building is an act of faith.

What were the 1980's called...? the Me generation.

What I Believe and Think

In case anyone was wondering:


I believe that God is infinite love, infinitely worthy to be loved, and infinite creations emanate from Him, which He places where they belong. He is a never-ending explosion of grace and blessings and creation.

I think that the World is a neutral place where He placed us, not wishing to force us to love Him but giving us the opportunity to do so if we wished to. God is all powerful yet so gentle that He did not wish to compel his creation, Man, to follow Him but rather to decide for himself.

I believe that God is not jealous of other gods because they don't exist.

I believe that God is not wrathful, we must not imbue God with our own sins.

I believe that God is ONE, there is only ONE God. Not three-in-one, One. God invites beings into unity with Himself, and in that sense they are one with him but not the same as Him. Jesus had unity with God but is not himself God.

I think that there is no hell as such, but if you show that you love lower forms of existence, that is where you go. You get what you wanted. If you love God you go towards God. It does not however matter what you say, whether you say you are a Christian or not, it is what is in your heart and what you do that matters.

I believe that nobody gets to tell God how to create worlds, so if he brought us about through evolution, that's fine with me.

I believe that sin is like an onion, you scrub off one layer only to find another. This is because we have a lot of accreted sin due to our condition on Earth, but every layer you can scrape off matters. Those who want a precise number of sins, want this so that they don't have to keep on repenting and so can keep a certain amount of sin for themselves. Everything that is not in God's will for you to do is a sin.

I believe that nothing can be sacrificed for, nothing given to, and nothing taken away from God.

I believe that God can come to live with you in your heart, and convict you about right and wrong.

I believe in eternal life in God.

I believe that religions should not be founded by unrepentant murderers. Both Judaism and Islam were founded by bloodthirsty maniacs, Moses and Mohammed respectively.

I believe that all these words I am saying are ultimately unimportant, it is the presence of God in and through your life that are important.

God and Christ

Given the season, it would almost seem blasphemous to be questioning Christ's divinity. However, bear with me, because there is nothing holy in perpetuating lies, however well intentioned.

In the account of Jesus' baptism, the usual account goes that God says something like:

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

on the occasion of Jesus rising from the water. However, very many ancient authors including the authors of Acts and Hebrews say that God said something else:

You are my Son; today I have become your Father.

In other words, Jesus became the Son on his baptism. Which is in fact relates very well to the whole point of baptism: to become born again, or a sign that you are born again. Born again of whom? God.

Which points towards one inevitable conclusion: Christ is not God. Christ is Christ, critical in the salvation process, our savior, the Son of God, but is not equal to God. We all know what the word Christ means in keeping with Israel's (selfish, violent) messianic desires - annointed one or king - but what does his other signifier, Immanuel, mean? God with us. Not as God who somehow steps down from heaven and becomes man, but as a God who enters our hearts. And whose heart did he enter first? A carpenter from Galilee.

No ordinary man, granted. He was planned, molded, intended for one purpose: to be a message from God. Not just a messenger who delivers text, but a message who incarnates God's will and demonstrates the kind of life God wishes for us. The absolute core of Jesus' message is precisely GOD IN US. Not that we are God any more than Christ was, but that we become united to God.

Now people say "How can you say Christ is not God when he says things that no human has the right to say? Things like I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" Well in fact we do not have the right to say that, because we are not Christ. We can be messengers, but the message came through Christ.

Christ is the Way (he is showing us a clear way to God not based on human understanding)

Christ is the Truth (he himself is made to be the message from God)

Christ is the Life (because if we do not follow him in living in God and God in us, we have no true life).

However we have been confused, and we have let other people in the past confuse us, as to Christ's nature. When people say that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, I would have to ask "which bible?" A bible like the NIV is composed by people sorting through the many ancient texts and authors trying to figure out what is the most "accurate" version. People, people who called themselves Christian, accidentally and on purpose distorted the original message and made Christ, God. There are innumerable passages that directly or indirectly refute this idea.

"So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father."

-Hebrews 5:5

We (Jews) worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

-John 4:22, Jesus speaking to a Samaritan woman, indicating that he is a Jew and that he worships God as one. I can't see God worshipping Himself.

Jesus:

Asked questions he didn't know the answers to.

Is not omnipotent (Mark 10:40)

Indicated limited information (Mark 13:32)

Asked God whether it was possible for Him to reverse His decision on whether Jesus was to be crucified. (Matt. 26:39)

Felt abandoned by God on the cross (Mark 15:34)

He is the only Christ, of which there is only one in all creation, the Son of God, our savior. Whether he was a pre-existent angelic being or just a human is not something anyone can answer. But he is not equal to God. There is no Trinity.

The message has been skewed and propagandized by people in the past and the present who have an agenda that has nothing to do with God. It is time to reclaim the message from the things that have become attached to it.

Jesus was not calling us to worship him. He was calling us to follow him. He is our shepherd, our master, our teacher, but not equal to God. It is much easier to adore than follow, so it is no wonder that this message has been toned down by those who came after.

"Hear, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."