Okay, So I'm a Heretic. But So Is Jesus!

Okay, I admit it . . . I'm a heretic.

I refuse to accept the teachings of orthodox Western Christianity on a whole bunch of topics. 

I refuse to accept that God is "One."  

I refuse to accept that God is a "Trinitarian One."  

I refuse to believe that a cosmic evil force (called Satan, among other names) exists. 

I refuse to accept that the sacrament of baptism has any magical powers to save people. 

I refuse to accept that the sacrament of communion has any magical powers to save people. 

I refuse to believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God or is the Saviour. 

I refuse to believe that God's children are unworthy of God's love or incapable of having a relationship of integrity with God.  

You might think this puts me in the camp of Progressive Christianity or Unitarianism. But wait! I'm not finished yet! 

I also refuse to believe in a world where God the Mother and God the Father don't intervene. 

I also refuse to believe in a world where angels don't exist. 

I also refuse to believe in a world where miracles don't exist. 

I also refuse to believe in a Newtonian world-view. I'm a quantum gal all the way.  

The church of today reminds me a lot of this porcelain lamp that belonged to my great aunt. The functioning parts that once held the light source have long since been lost. Only the forms and traditions of the base have been retained. The base is quite lovely, but without the truth of Jesus’ original teachings, the forms aren’t able to shed the full light of God’s love on our lives.

 

I'm a heretic as far as the United Church of Canada is concerned because I don't believe that Jesus is our Saviour. And I'm a heretic as far as Progressive Christianity and UU adherents are concerned because I'm a mystic who believes in miracles.  

But here's the thing . . . (and you're probably not going to like this part) . . . everything I currently understand about God, all my heretical ideas -- I got them from the angel who once lived as the man named Jesus. This is what my mystical life has entailed: listening to Jesus. Just listening to what he has to say about God. Just listening with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind and all my strength to Jesus' own take on what he said and what he did and what he was trying to accomplish in his life.  

What Jesus has told me during thousands of hours of contemplative work over the past 10 years is radically different from what the United Church and the Anglican church taught me. It's also radically different from what my theology professors have been teaching me. But what Jesus has been telling me isn't "new." It's not a bunch of newly invented hot-off-the-press New Age hooey.* The evidence for what he's been telling me is right in the Bible. It's been there all along, sitting in plain sight for everyone to see. 

The problem for readers is that the Bible doesn't contain just one truth. The Bible contains a lot of competing storylines and a lot of competing agendas. It's hard to sort them all out. It's hard to figure out who said what, and, more importantly, why they said what they said.

Jesus has expended a lot of time and patience to help me understand the why. It took me years to understand the "why," but once I did, I began to see that certain passages of the Bible resonate strongly with Jesus' continuing message, and other passages sound like the opposite of Jesus' teachings.

In my time working with Jesus, he has always insisted on rigorous scholarship. Therefore, as part of my mystical journey, I've had to learn the tools of biblical exegesis as they're currently taught in a modern university setting. I've had to learn the basic grammar and vocabulary of Koine Greek. I've had to learn about church history, about the development of church doctrine over the centuries. I've had to read translations of Paul, Tertullian, Augustine of Hippo and the like. I've had to read the polity manual of the United Church of Canada from cover to cover (including the appendices). On the basis of my mystical work in combination with my ongoing academic training, I'm totally confident in saying that what Jesus taught his followers 2,000 years ago is not what the church has been teaching.

I'm a heretic because I've listened carefully to what Jesus has taught me about God, and I think Jesus is right. 

So I'm a heretic because I think Jesus was (and still is) right when he says that the best model for understanding who God is is for us to think of the most wonderful set of parents possible, and go from there. (This would not exclude two wonderful homosexual parents!!)

I'm a heretic because I think Jesus was (and still is) right when he says that no single ritual such as baptism or communion can replace the need for people to take responsibility for their own choices towards other people, themselves, and God.

I'm a heretic because I think Jesus was (and still is) right when he says that institutionalized religion has never taught the faithful what forgiveness is.

I'm a heretic because I think Jesus was (and still is) right when he says that the true journey of faith is one of redemption, not one of salvation.

I'm a heretic because I think Jesus was (and still is) right when he says that the core consciousness of a human being -- the soul -- is beautiful, worthy, and amazing. The problem of suffering is not created by sinful souls. The problem of suffering is damage caused in the biological brain, damage that induces people to behave in abusive ways that make their own souls cringe.  

I think Jesus is a pretty smart guy. 

* If you want to see an example of what I mean by "newly invented hot-off-the-press New Age hooey," I invite you to read a copy of The Mystical Life of Jesus by psychic Sylvia Brown.