There is a word exchanged between us at Christmas which we rarely use in the way for the rest of the year. It is the word ‘peace’. Of course, this word is heavily used throughout the year in connection with war.
The strangest thing about peace is that we always expect it to come from an external source, “We want peace!” or “Let us declare peace!” we hear people say. Then this peace comes at the price of compromise which can rarely be agreed upon. So then we need a peace treaty, a contract that imposes conditions for agreement.
Why is Jesus Christ referred to as the Prince of Peace or the Lord of Peace? His path to the cross was less than peaceful. So we can ask, is peace given to us, or is it up to us to find this peace? Indeed, we could say that the higher response would be to be peaceful in the face of adversity, and the lower response would be to expect someone else to do something so that we experience peace.
Eirene is the Greek word for peace and indicates freedom from disturbance, stillness. Shalom is the Hebrew equivalent and means soundness. We could say that peace means inner harmony which we achieve by harmonising all that is discordant within us. Imagine if each person took it as their responsibility to create this inner harmony, to be peaceful.
I have written about this process in my reflection series by suggesting that each time our equilibrium is disturbed we can place ourselves in the upper room where the disciples met after the crucifixion and Christ appeared among them. It was as if he walked through the wall (because the doors were locked, and the disciples would have experienced intense fear. Read the story in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of St John, Jn 20:19-31. Three times Jesus says, “Eirene humin”, “Peace to you” which essentially means remove the disturbance within you and reinstate soundness.
Now this was all very well for him to say. The human condition is one of fear (which we will explore another time) and therefore we need all the help we can get to deal with fear. I have suggested that whenever we experience inner disturbances that we create in our minds an image of Jesus standing before us saying “Peace to you.” This reinforces our own ability to reinstate inner harmony. By repeating this practice over time it will become second nature and be of great assistance whenever we are alarmed. So we have to create peace within ourselves, if we wait for it to approach us from outside we will never experience it.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Angels
Today the major Australian newspapers report the results of a survey about what people believe in http://www.theage.com.au/national/god-is-still-tops-but-angels-rate-well-20091218-l5v9.html In this survey (which of course is never representative) it says “51 per cent of respondents say they believe in angels”. I would like to ask those 501 people what exactly they think angels are.
The Greek word angelos means messenger. A messenger takes a message from one place or person to another and the purpose of a message is to inform. Therefore we must ask several questions. 1. What is the source of the messages that the angels receive? 2. In what form (language if you will) will it be conveyed to us?
It would be over-simplifying the situation to say that the angel carries a message from God. In an earlier post I showed that there are different ‘gods’ or spiritual beings who have certain responsibilities in the universe to keep everything in balance. Dionysius the Areopagite listed them, and in later posts I will explore them.
Angels feature often in the bible and seem to have quite a bit to say about the birth of Jesus which we are about to celebrate.
But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; Mt 1:20
The key to understanding angels is that they are the closest spiritual beings to man. Angels are beings one stage higher than human beings, as animals are beings one stage lower than humans. As we care for our animals, so angels watch over us. Archangels like Gabriel and Michael are one stage higher than angels.
Angels are intermediaries who help and guide the evolution of human consciousness. We could even say that they are interpreters, what higher spiritual beings might want to convey to us is made intelligible through the angels. Of course, they wouldn’t use language; they speak to us in images – the universal language. The picture of a tree means the same thing to every human being on earth.
While some people might doubt the validity of what I say, I could point out that animals communicate with each other, and with us, in a way that we do not understand either. If anything is needed in the world today it is to remain open to notions about the presence of angels and other spiritual beings that cannot be seen with our physical senses. Rejecting these ideas leaves us in a darkness that our mind cannot penetrate. If we accept that there may be angels, and we listen out for their messages, we may be surprised by what we come to understand. This kind of understanding is an inner confirmation that something is true for us. We do not need to convince others of it; others must come to their own experience of the angelic beings in this universe.
May you hear the Christmas angels and come to understand something more about the purpose of the birth of Jesus who became the Christ.
The Greek word angelos means messenger. A messenger takes a message from one place or person to another and the purpose of a message is to inform. Therefore we must ask several questions. 1. What is the source of the messages that the angels receive? 2. In what form (language if you will) will it be conveyed to us?
It would be over-simplifying the situation to say that the angel carries a message from God. In an earlier post I showed that there are different ‘gods’ or spiritual beings who have certain responsibilities in the universe to keep everything in balance. Dionysius the Areopagite listed them, and in later posts I will explore them.
Angels feature often in the bible and seem to have quite a bit to say about the birth of Jesus which we are about to celebrate.
But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; Mt 1:20
The key to understanding angels is that they are the closest spiritual beings to man. Angels are beings one stage higher than human beings, as animals are beings one stage lower than humans. As we care for our animals, so angels watch over us. Archangels like Gabriel and Michael are one stage higher than angels.
Angels are intermediaries who help and guide the evolution of human consciousness. We could even say that they are interpreters, what higher spiritual beings might want to convey to us is made intelligible through the angels. Of course, they wouldn’t use language; they speak to us in images – the universal language. The picture of a tree means the same thing to every human being on earth.
While some people might doubt the validity of what I say, I could point out that animals communicate with each other, and with us, in a way that we do not understand either. If anything is needed in the world today it is to remain open to notions about the presence of angels and other spiritual beings that cannot be seen with our physical senses. Rejecting these ideas leaves us in a darkness that our mind cannot penetrate. If we accept that there may be angels, and we listen out for their messages, we may be surprised by what we come to understand. This kind of understanding is an inner confirmation that something is true for us. We do not need to convince others of it; others must come to their own experience of the angelic beings in this universe.
May you hear the Christmas angels and come to understand something more about the purpose of the birth of Jesus who became the Christ.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
And what is sin?
Sin is one of the most misunderstood concepts we have today. Sin is not about adhering to what other people tell us is right or wrong. The Greek word sin, hamartia, literally means ‘to miss the mark’. So we need to work out what the mark is. What is the target that all human beings are aiming for? Take the story of the woman who committed adultery and was brought to Jesus by the religious leaders of the time.
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Jn 8:2-7 RSV
This bible passage is deeply mysterious and would take hours to interpret fully. However, it is a very good example of the nature of sin. It shows how spectacularly unsuccessful the law of Moses is, which is still used today by so many religious leaders, for adultery is committed everywhere, golfer Tiger Woods being this week’s most prominent example. Is Tiger Woods an adulterer or was it about breaking the agreement he had with his wife? Some married couples allow each other to have relationships outside the marriage.
So why did Jesus intervene in the woman’s punishment? We could say that she was just spreading a little love here and there and love is the new commandment. We could also say that Jesus could have been using the scribes and Pharisees as an example for his teaching and that they were big enough to take it.
All this aside, it is clear in the above passage that the woman wasn’t missing the mark and that the religious leaders were. One way of looking at it would be that we no longer need religious leaders to tell us how to behave; each of us must take on this responsibility for ourselves.
This, in fact, is THE target for all human beings. It is up to us now to know what is right and what is wrong. Not by any law of government or religion, but by our own understanding of who we are as human beings and where we stand in the universe. There is an ancient saying, “Man, know yourself!” and as we work towards knowing ourselves we become much more aware of how we think, feel and act. Then we are able to place ourselves in the other person’s shoes and share their experience as if we were them. Perhaps this was the sin of the scribes and the Pharisees and Jesus was showing that he was able to deeply know the woman’s experience when they were not.
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Jn 8:2-7 RSV
This bible passage is deeply mysterious and would take hours to interpret fully. However, it is a very good example of the nature of sin. It shows how spectacularly unsuccessful the law of Moses is, which is still used today by so many religious leaders, for adultery is committed everywhere, golfer Tiger Woods being this week’s most prominent example. Is Tiger Woods an adulterer or was it about breaking the agreement he had with his wife? Some married couples allow each other to have relationships outside the marriage.
So why did Jesus intervene in the woman’s punishment? We could say that she was just spreading a little love here and there and love is the new commandment. We could also say that Jesus could have been using the scribes and Pharisees as an example for his teaching and that they were big enough to take it.
All this aside, it is clear in the above passage that the woman wasn’t missing the mark and that the religious leaders were. One way of looking at it would be that we no longer need religious leaders to tell us how to behave; each of us must take on this responsibility for ourselves.
This, in fact, is THE target for all human beings. It is up to us now to know what is right and what is wrong. Not by any law of government or religion, but by our own understanding of who we are as human beings and where we stand in the universe. There is an ancient saying, “Man, know yourself!” and as we work towards knowing ourselves we become much more aware of how we think, feel and act. Then we are able to place ourselves in the other person’s shoes and share their experience as if we were them. Perhaps this was the sin of the scribes and the Pharisees and Jesus was showing that he was able to deeply know the woman’s experience when they were not.
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