Hedge Church Posts - January 30th to 5th February 2011
Sunday 30th January – Be in communion with all that is!
The Universe has been singing its song and dancing its dance for over 13 Billion years! On this “Sun” day we are being called to enter anew into the wonder of our ancestors, who gazed into the night sky, sat around desert campfires, ventured into the glory of high places, understood the forest and attuned to the divine presence within all things.
As dawn broke they rejoiced at the Sun’s awakening bounty and its promise of warmth and gift. Around them was danger, life in all its fullness – food to hunt, grasses to shape into bread, fruits to eat and ferment for glorious celebration.
So - on this Sunday we are being called afresh, in our time and place, to walk the way of that other “Son of Man”, who once broke bread and shared wine with his friends in communion with the whole of creation and life.
Monday 31st January – “That art thou.” [Tat Tvam Asi – Sanskrit]
According to Aldous Huxley, writing in 1948, there is a “Perennial Philosophy” that takes us beyond our small corner of understanding. It is not new, but constantly needs repeating in a world where peoples are divided by religion and politics and fail to see the depth, breadth and height of what we are and what this world is. The “good news” is that we are all more than our “Ego”, our sense of Self, but are part of the divine Ground, the “immanent, eternal Self”. Our task in our life on earth is to find out this truth of Who we really are. William Law said, “Though God is everywhere present, yet God is only present to thee in the deepest and most central part of thy soul.”
The path to that understanding and experience is life-long. It is a “Way” that needs to give serious attention to the world’s sources of spiritual insight. The world’s scriptures are all in translation on the Web to be read and internalised. They open to us ways of thinking beyond our particular cultural and religious context. The Universe story (which I mentioned on Sunday) also informs our spiritual journey, as we wonder at the diversity of the world’s faiths and practices. Our path to enlightenment is not about knowledge, but about aligning the heart with the ‘divine Ground’ through practices to awaken heart and mind. And that path is for everyone.
Tuesday 1st February – You will do even greater things!
My favourite New Testament Passage is this: John 14.8 to 14.14. In it the author of John’s Gospel writes of Philip’s request to be shown the Father. Jesus explains that, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me”. He points out that his words – his insights - come from the Father. Jesus then suggests that his deeds are the work of God.
Now this is the amazing thing – Jesus was not the only one to be indwelled by the Father. The ancient sages of India also knew that God was within – “That art thou”. Jesus knew his earthly life was ending, but, hey – honest truth – you will do, “even greater things, because I am going to the Father”. And so was born another company of Christ followers, whose lives would be forever changed as they discovered the presence of divine life at the heart of their very selves. The rest, as they say, is history!
Wednesday 2nd February - Love and Death
For a United Reformed Church minister I’m getting well into strange territory these days. My latest journey of discovery is into writing poetry and studying the world’s mystical writings. There is a glorious wealth of material that can change hearts and minds – not all from within my Christian home base. So for today I want to commend three poet-mystics I am sure you will have come across.
Death is today’s theme!
First from the New Testament [Paul on Resurrection]
For just as all people die because of their humanity [union with Adam]
In the same way all will be raised to life because of their union with Christ.
And from Julian of Norwich – God the Creator, Lover and Keeper
In this little thing [the whole creation] I saw three properties.
The first is that God made it. The second that he loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.
And finally from Rumi:
I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
Reflect on your fears and hopes as you meditate on eternity.
Thursday 3rd February – finding your Soul’s heart.
I don’t know how many of you reading this have been to Iona – that centre point of the Celtic Christian revival. For those in the know, this is a really special place for me and my partner, Mandy.
I wrote this poem as an invocation of the “Spirit of Iona – Soul of my Heart”. Use it to touch the heart of God in that natural beauty of the west of Scotland and Ireland, or anywhere that is special to you:
Iona - Soul of my heart,
Trinity of grey and green and blue
Where Columba's House sings praises.
To reach you is always hard, deliberate.
Winding roads, high passes, uncertain passage.
You are not easily known, you require of the pilgrim an "Opus Dei".
High as the mists that touch the summit places,
Veiled from track and machair - unsure cloud of heaven.
Lost coast of gentle fear, when confusions obliterate the way.
Stupendous as the storms on your western shore.
Tranquil as the whispering sound of lapping waves by the Abbey.
Heard, but melding to Your mystery - individual wavelets but one Ocean.
Why come to this outpost of isolation?
Because you may glimpse glory! Yes - because of that!
For the realm of God is close here - every heart unveiled.
Carry back this story of pilgrimage and joy.
Stay still and silent here - let its well of hope cleanse and renew.
Expect blessing, find love, above all find Life here in all its gentleness and fury.
Inspired by a storm raging in Kendal on the morning of 7 July 2010. I penned these few lines of reflection drawing on a time last October when I was on retreat on Iona. [Poem © John Hetherington 2010 – Email john.hetherington@btinternet.com]
Friday 4th February – The power of Stories
One of my favourite poet / storytellers is Paulo Coellho. Another, very different, is Kenneth Steven from Perthshire, Scotland – where he writes tellingly of the everyday world of nature around him. I include a link here so that you can learn more of his evocative writing: http://www.kennethsteven.co.uk/
I find more and more that it is from the poetic heart’s imagination that the deep meanings and secrets of faith and life are revealed to us.
The Alchemist - probably the best know of Coelho’s writing is: “about magic, dreams and treasures we seek elsewhere, and then find on our doorstep”. Following the Christian or any other faith path is demanding (often because it has accreted much that is binding rather than liberating of the human spirit). So deep spiritual themes are better told in story and parable, and wrapped tight with mystery, than being theologised upon. It is rare to find theology speaking to the human heart.
God is mystery!
In the Alchemist, Santiago, an Adalusian shepherd boy, dreams of travelling. He discovers how essential it is to listen to the wisdom of our heart and following our dreams.
How often do we hear from pulpits that life is indeed about dreaming, longing, discovery and acquiring wisdom – which is not the same as knowledge. Never forget to follow your heart’s insight and be open to the wisdom that will then reshape you.
Saturday 5th February – A final reflection on nature and humanity (and our dog Wesley)
I will return today to where I began last Sunday, with the Universe story and human development. To make sense of the story think Dog! At some point a canny wolf crept into a human encampment and ran off with a trophy – some half cooked meat. The day after he came again and nearly became the tribe’s dinner. But in the end he stayed and became a half-wild pet dog! They still are.
I take Mandy’s dog Wesley out on walks and we have great fun – the latest game is fetch the stone (sticks are boring!) Well most of the time he exercises me on one of two beautiful limestone ridges (The Helm and Scout / Cunswick Scar) that overlook Kendal, Morecambe Bay, and the Lake District. He’s a really lucky dog. He takes in the smells! I get to see the boring views! It’s a good symbiosis.
Well, I’ve been pondering. The life forms in the Universe must be near infinite – but on earth we have dogs (and maybe cats or budgies). We have flowers, and trees and plants in enormous variety. And if we don’t do something soon it could all be gone as we know it! But the earth will continue for more billions of years yet. Life on earth is impermanent – as the Buddha explained. There is this life we know – and once to die – maybe more, past or future lives we can be aware of in some way.
When I am with Wes on the Scar I have a deep sense of peace and that the place has a deep history of human sensibility. It’s the sort of experience you can also get in a great Cathedral or a long ruined building. These are “Sacred Spaces”, with timeless qualities, of an ever pervading natural or human presence. Castlerigg Stone Circle is another nearby source of peace for me.
Monday, 31 January 2011
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Living Spirituality
Living Spirituality
[Article Copyright - John Hetherington - December 2010 - for publication in the Newsletter of the Progressive Christian Network Britain.]
It is part of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland. LSN aims to:
Back in September 2008 I authored for Free to Believe a booklet entitled, “Reshaping Christianity – Mysticism, Spirituality and Global Faith”. In it I explored the exciting story of the growing attention now being given to mystical writings in Judaism, Christianity and Sufi Islam. I also touched on the growing significance of the Baha’i faith. My booklet[10] (available from Free to Believe, price £2.50) also looked at the surveys done in the UK on the “new spiritualities” and their “belief” systems, and how there are more and more participants in the many open and varied forms of spiritual practice. In it I suggested that orthodox interpretations of Christian doctrine based on a “God above the sky” perspective, as opposed to a “Ground of all Being”, or especially a “God Within”, perspective must be taken less and less seriously. From a Celtic Christianity perspective “all that is” in nature is the divine domain. The new spiritualities and the new physics increasingly share common ground and invoke a form of “process theology” with God present both in the timeless realm of spirit and through the evolving gift of the physical universe[11].
[9] The Big Silence: http://www.beunos.com/bigsilence.htm
[10] Reshaping Christianity: Mysticism, Spirituality and Global Faith – by John Hetherington
A reflection on emerging spirituality and its implications for Christianity and all global religions.
[18] Marcus Borg’s and Eley McAinsh’s lectures can be ordered from the CRC website: http://www.stmarkscrc.co.uk/resources/shop---cds-and-books
[19] See my Blog: http://progressivespirituality.blogspot.com/
On a showery Saturday in November my partner Mandy and I, and a Buddhist friend, drove from Kendal across to Sheffield to attend a Conference organised jointly by St.Mark’s Centre for Radical Christianity[1] (CRC) and the Living Spirituality Network[2] (LSN). LSN was relatively new to me, perhaps surprisingly.
- “be an open space for theological reflection and exploration
- ask questions which deepen and challenge us, and move us forward
- 'fly kites'
- live the tensions that arise in spirituality
- listen and respond to the people the churches do not meet - both inside and outside the churches.”
However, LSN recognises that, “while many people pursue their spiritual quest within the traditional Christian churches ... the spiritual and religious landscape is changing dramatically. Some continue to participate in church services and groups, but find most of their spiritual needs met outside them.” Their view is that, “Many spiritual seekers today have little or no experience of formal religion; and for significant numbers of others, traditional religion provides neither a context nor a language which is helpful or meaningful on their journey”. As people both in and beyond “church” explore and deepen their spiritual experience, practice and commitment, many of them are looking for information and for companionship. They seek access to new thinking, new ways of seeing and new experiences, and for new opportunities to connect with fellow travellers - kindred spirits - embarked on a similar quest.
LSN links across a wide range of organisations and bodies – though PCN Britain is still not formally one of them. Among the organisations that are linked are CRC, CANA[3], the network of Christian Meditation Groups[4] (in the John Main tradition), the network of Julian Groups[5] and significant communities such as the Iona Community[6], and Corrymeela[7] in Ireland. Although the Findhorn Community[8] is not on the LSN list, it is also an ecological and spiritual community celebrating open spiritual inquiry and practice. Having been there, it is clearly deeply involved in the development of a “living spirituality”.
The exploring mindset of PCNB, Free to Believe, the Living Spirituality Network and other related networks should enable bridges to be built across this rapidly expanding spiritual landscape. There is a growing interest in spirituality as evidenced by the relatively large viewing figures for the recent TV series[9] “The Big Silence” which has sought to bring “spiritual awakening” to a national audience.
Many open hearted people are indeed finding ‘God within’, in forms such as Quaker silence and in the practices of Christian meditation and its Vedanta / Buddhist forms. Traditional Christian doctrines are increasingly being challenged by these perspectives, and by the growing, “turn to experience”. All this is evidenced in falling church attendance, but growing participation in the many forms of “spiritual practice” now available. I am increasingly convinced that it is to the new or rediscovered forms of mystical spirituality and experience that we must look.
So what is the future? Is it likely that the tradition of attending church is only hanging on in those churches which support a “social network” format for the elderly? By contrast, some liberal / progressive churches (and PCN Britain Local Groups) are providing a safe place for erudite discussion of the nature of God. There are also churches (often held in community buildings) that are characterised by loud music and choruses, i.e. “evangelical” celebratory styles of worship, whatever the doctrinal approach. The social action style of Christianity that many churches aspire to is, of course, an entirely valid and vital component of a faith born in the justice milieu of the Old Testament Prophets and of course of Jesus of Nazareth and Paul who challenged the powers and empires of their day. Today, interfaith exploration is increasingly being seen as a profoundly important component of people’s faith and spirituality in the “global village”. It is too early to write “church” off.
In my booklet, I quoted Dave Tomlinson from his book “The Post Evangelical”, who, like many others, had shared my journey from Christian Union to Liberal Protestant, via disillusionment and through to the next obvious step – the journey inward to a new mysticism and spirituality. The mysticism of the early Jesus movement seems to have been lost or suppressed in the period that followed Rome’s takeover.
Spiritual depth, in today’s context, is more and more likely to be rediscovered in the living out of a personal spiritual journey, but one shared with others in small groups, who study together the world’s store of mystical writings in small groups. It needs situations where participants are comfortable with the traditions of the ‘broad catholic’ spectrum (Lectio Divina[12]), where retreat and meditation provide sources of inward experience and insight. Another growing practice is the “pilgrimage” – as for example my life changing journey to Iona – on a Retreat led by "The Sacred Space Foundation[13].”
For others, poetry (across a spectrum from the Christian Mystics, via Rumi and the Romantic Poets, to modern verse) encompassing both religious and spiritual dimensions, is increasingly significant. Sources of poetic meditation that have meant much to me recently are the works of Kenneth Stephen[14] and the late John O’Donohue[15].
So, it was a delight to be at Sheffield as we listened to the speaker Eley McAinsh[16] who, in two lectures and two periods of shared meditation, gave a clear overview of the breadth of contemporary spirituality. Amongst others, her talk drew on Baron Freidrich von Hugel, who argued that there are three dimensions to the authentic religious life – institutional, intellectual and experiential, and Ken Wilbur (one of my favourite modern thinkers) who has sought to add “contemplative knowledge” to the scientific quest. Eley commented that spiritual experience, meditation and contemplation are what lie at the heart of the “Spirituality Revolution[17]”. She sees mysticism and spirituality as closely related but not interchangeable. Both involve direct personal experience of the divine ground. Many within PCNB will recall Marcus Borg’s Sheffield lecture[18] with his quotation of Karl Rahner’s phrase, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he or she will not be at all.” For Borg, mysticism is about experiencing God, the Sacred, or Spirit as Real (my underlining).
Eley also quoted key authors such as Gordon Lynch (Professor of the Sociology of Religion at Birkbeck University, London) who has mapped out the changes now rapidly occurring. He has set out his analysis of the emerging encounter with what he calls ‘The New Spirituality’ in his book, subtitled, ‘An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the 21st Century’, which describes his research. It first reviews the roots of the new, progressive spirituality, its ideology, and its organisational emergence. Its approach is captured by his sub headings to Chapter 2 – The Ideology of progressive spirituality:
- The unity of the ineffable and immanent divine – the guiding intelligence behind evolutionary process and the energy of the universe itself
- Pantheism / Panentheism – replacing a transcendent, patriarchal view of God
- Mysticism and the divine feminine – using symbol and liturgy, encounter with nature and celebration of the feminine in God
- The sacralisation of nature – affirmation of the material and nature / life as participation in divinity
- The sacralisation of the self – as a manifestation of the divine – with human consciousness derived from the supra-consciousness of the “All”.
- Understandings of Religion – as culturally and historically bound and thus metaphorical – enabling a growing spirit of ‘ecumenism’
- The deeper cultural roots of progressive spirituality show underlying coherence, reflecting adaptation to modernism, liberalism and welcome insights in quantum physics and cosmic ‘unfolding’.
So, to conclude, I fully agree with Eley McAinsh’s summation in her afternoon lecture, “Mysticism .. is a way to participate in transformation. The physicist Paul Davies says, ‘we have to embrace a different concept of understanding ... the mystical path is possibly such a way’.”
In 1994 James Redfield wrote a novel, the “Celestine Prophecy – An Adventure”, in which a lost manuscript was found that spoke of a coming time of human development and a recognition of our capacity for change. It had the drama and tension of all such novels (also made into a film), but behind it was a view that new spiritual capacities were emerging in our evolution as a species. Perhaps it might just be that in the years and centuries ahead the insights of today’s “new spiritualities” and the recovery of the mystical path might just mean that human beings – whether people of traditional faith or newer paths – may find that they indeed live in God – Love – Spirit, or any such interchangeable terms, and that humanity can indeed become more that it has ever imagined.
John Hetherington is a URC Non-Stipendiary Minister, and works as a Planning Consultant. He has written a number of published articles for both PCN Britain and for Free to Believe, in particular his booklet, “Reshaping Christianity – Mysticism, Spirituality and Global Faith”. He helped launch the South Lakeland Interfaith Network in 2007 and is beginning work on a Book to further develop the theme of Mysticism and contemporary Spirituality in greater depth.
References:
[2] LSN: http://www.ctbi.org.uk/200
[3] CANA: http://www.christiansawakening.org/
[4] CMUK: http://www.christianmeditation.org.uk/public_html/web_new/home_main.php[5] Julian Groups: http://www.julianmeetings.org/index.htm
[6] Iona Community: http://www.iona.org.uk/
[7] Correymeela: http://www.corrymeela.org/
[8] Findhorn: http://www.findhorn.org/aboutus/[9] The Big Silence: http://www.beunos.com/bigsilence.htm
[10] Reshaping Christianity: Mysticism, Spirituality and Global Faith – by John Hetherington
A reflection on emerging spirituality and its implications for Christianity and all global religions.
(See FTB Website for ordering and payment information:
[11] See by way of example Adrian B Smith: God Energy and the Field.
[13] Sacred Spaces: http://www.sacredspace.org.uk/courses.html
[14] Kenneth Stephen: http://www.kennethsteven.co.uk/Books_of_Poetry.php[15] John O’Donohue: http://johnodonohue.com/
[16] Eley McAinsh, Director of the Living Spirituality Network and BBC Religious affairs producer, including the BBC's Radio Four program "Something. Understood" talked at the Priory
[17] David Tacey, The Spirituality Revolution: The Emergence of contemporary spirituality; Routledge[18] Marcus Borg’s and Eley McAinsh’s lectures can be ordered from the CRC website: http://www.stmarkscrc.co.uk/resources/shop---cds-and-books
[19] See my Blog: http://progressivespirituality.blogspot.com/
[20] Dorothee Soelle – German Liberation Theologian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothee_S%C3%B6lle
Sunday, 30 May 2010
In Search of Spiritual Knowing
This article was posted in Reform - a United Reformed Church Publication - in the June 2010 edition
We are part of a universe which expanded from ‘nothing’ some 13.7 billion years ago. The 4.6 billion year evolutionary story of life on earth climaxed with our varied societies and their belief systems. Science sees all this as the by-product of an endless series of challenges and chances. Yet, humans appear to be the only species on earth that has evolved enough to sense our separation from ‘all that is’, with the language to express the fear, love, curiosity and joy this engenders. Religion evolved as a by- product of our need to make sense of this alienation.
We are increasingly discovering that there could be a way to get back to the “knowing” that our ancestors perhaps innately experienced – that they and ‘All that is’ are One. At the personal level my recent faith journey has caused me to move beyond the old religious paradigm (requiring hierarchy and control, orthodoxy and orthopraxis) to discover the space where insight and feeling can awaken heart and mind. Many are again seeking a more mystical path to a spiritual ‘knowing’.
More and more I see God in all things – not as a static, distant, theist Being, accessed through religious structures, but as the ever present and engaged Reality that is ‘becoming’ in the Universe’s unfolding. This God has been constantly walking with us on the evolutionary path to human life and being as it is on earth today. The story, as observed by science, does not preclude the possibility of a deep timeless connectedness (‘God’) in which all life and being subsists, which has long been the truth experience of mystics. The Universe is a glorious evolutionary ‘difference engine’ – always creating the wonderful, the bizarre and the awesome. No human, leaf, sunset or snowflake is the same! Evolution is the unifying ‘great story’, if complemented by the theology of a God present in its unfolding.
God’s creative process of evolution exposes all creatures to a painful food chain. Societies develop by warfare and evil empires. On the other hand, evolution moves forward through the ‘still small voice’ of God’s prophets of justice and the wisdom of God’s messengers – Jesus included. ‘Prayer’ can be influential when it brings people together in significant numbers to challenge injustice and the systems that drive it. Whatever our understanding of God, each human life matters in the unfolding story. Increasingly I want to own a sixth sense of intuition as part of what prayer is. The ‘Universe’ or ‘God’ or ‘collective human concern’ speaks and challenges in this spiritual dimension. This is the place of prayer where our ‘thought’ and the ‘Universal thought’ align.
The experience of saints and mystics, of every faith and culture, is that God’s call to play our part in the story is usually subtle and ambiguous. My own experience is that that the ‘Divine’ is found in both the ‘still small voice’ heard from our ‘heart space’, and in the depth of feeling and awareness that can come to us in meditation. It is from the stillness that ‘intuition for change’ can emerge of great power and depth. I believe that God’s creativity creates by offering us true freedom; we are called but never coerced. Where we do engage freely, the possibilities are immense.
For us to truly pray, we need to become aware that conversation with God is possible within the ‘holiness’ of a deeply purposeful life. This insight has inspired great human beings to plunge the depths of life – implying real communication with God. Such conversation also means experiencing challenges of loving – and allows the possibility of change in God. ‘God’s Will’ is not a given, but a part of the conversation. So, prayer is that two-way mutual cry of tenderness that characterises our way of being human in relationship and in our being: loving the ‘All’.
Prayer is also about mutuality – a coming together just for the joy of it; when we are enraptured by creation, when we pause long enough to still our minds and desires. The long-term future of this earth calls us to know that we all are one – while remaining unique and different. My prayer is that all will come to know more and more of the ‘Life, Love and Being’ that launched evolution. That Life still longs for all to awaken and know this Reality in the depth of every human life. When God’s ‘Love is all around’ in creation, people are constantly able to surprise us with joy and hope! So, let us pray!
Copyright - John Hetherington
June 2010
To subscribe to Reform email: reform@alliance-media.co.uk
Or browse to: www.urc.org.uk/reformsubscriptions
We are part of a universe which expanded from ‘nothing’ some 13.7 billion years ago. The 4.6 billion year evolutionary story of life on earth climaxed with our varied societies and their belief systems. Science sees all this as the by-product of an endless series of challenges and chances. Yet, humans appear to be the only species on earth that has evolved enough to sense our separation from ‘all that is’, with the language to express the fear, love, curiosity and joy this engenders. Religion evolved as a by- product of our need to make sense of this alienation.
We are increasingly discovering that there could be a way to get back to the “knowing” that our ancestors perhaps innately experienced – that they and ‘All that is’ are One. At the personal level my recent faith journey has caused me to move beyond the old religious paradigm (requiring hierarchy and control, orthodoxy and orthopraxis) to discover the space where insight and feeling can awaken heart and mind. Many are again seeking a more mystical path to a spiritual ‘knowing’.
More and more I see God in all things – not as a static, distant, theist Being, accessed through religious structures, but as the ever present and engaged Reality that is ‘becoming’ in the Universe’s unfolding. This God has been constantly walking with us on the evolutionary path to human life and being as it is on earth today. The story, as observed by science, does not preclude the possibility of a deep timeless connectedness (‘God’) in which all life and being subsists, which has long been the truth experience of mystics. The Universe is a glorious evolutionary ‘difference engine’ – always creating the wonderful, the bizarre and the awesome. No human, leaf, sunset or snowflake is the same! Evolution is the unifying ‘great story’, if complemented by the theology of a God present in its unfolding.
God’s creative process of evolution exposes all creatures to a painful food chain. Societies develop by warfare and evil empires. On the other hand, evolution moves forward through the ‘still small voice’ of God’s prophets of justice and the wisdom of God’s messengers – Jesus included. ‘Prayer’ can be influential when it brings people together in significant numbers to challenge injustice and the systems that drive it. Whatever our understanding of God, each human life matters in the unfolding story. Increasingly I want to own a sixth sense of intuition as part of what prayer is. The ‘Universe’ or ‘God’ or ‘collective human concern’ speaks and challenges in this spiritual dimension. This is the place of prayer where our ‘thought’ and the ‘Universal thought’ align.
The experience of saints and mystics, of every faith and culture, is that God’s call to play our part in the story is usually subtle and ambiguous. My own experience is that that the ‘Divine’ is found in both the ‘still small voice’ heard from our ‘heart space’, and in the depth of feeling and awareness that can come to us in meditation. It is from the stillness that ‘intuition for change’ can emerge of great power and depth. I believe that God’s creativity creates by offering us true freedom; we are called but never coerced. Where we do engage freely, the possibilities are immense.
For us to truly pray, we need to become aware that conversation with God is possible within the ‘holiness’ of a deeply purposeful life. This insight has inspired great human beings to plunge the depths of life – implying real communication with God. Such conversation also means experiencing challenges of loving – and allows the possibility of change in God. ‘God’s Will’ is not a given, but a part of the conversation. So, prayer is that two-way mutual cry of tenderness that characterises our way of being human in relationship and in our being: loving the ‘All’.
Prayer is also about mutuality – a coming together just for the joy of it; when we are enraptured by creation, when we pause long enough to still our minds and desires. The long-term future of this earth calls us to know that we all are one – while remaining unique and different. My prayer is that all will come to know more and more of the ‘Life, Love and Being’ that launched evolution. That Life still longs for all to awaken and know this Reality in the depth of every human life. When God’s ‘Love is all around’ in creation, people are constantly able to surprise us with joy and hope! So, let us pray!
Copyright - John Hetherington
June 2010
To subscribe to Reform email: reform@alliance-media.co.uk
Or browse to: www.urc.org.uk/reformsubscriptions
A prose poem of awakening humanity
Ascent - an awakening.
Knowing nothing
of right and wrongdoing
Self awakens.
A human being stands tall
on an ancient shore
for the first time.
See, she is coming too.
She also knows Self.
We are
Two in One, Us.
Flesh and blood, evolving,
copying ourselves
into infinite difference.
We were our cousins once,
Subtle in difference,
enjoying the tree canopy.
Knowers in a gentler way.
We will become even more
Through our tomorrows.
Older than eternity
Inhabiting feeling
Their senses reach out.
Thought gathers.
Sand, sea and infinite sky
are nominated.
Alone still,
their beingness cries
in ecstasy
Seeing, touching, smelling.
Sensate explorers!
Form is formed within.
Love is shared.
Thought follows thought
In a crescendo of insight
This is that.
For, in this beginning was the Word.
Now is old.
Yet, there was a before.
A prior union
of creating from love.
Yes, we remember!
Ah the dancing fields.
Infinite energy
Interpenetrating.
Timeless time.
Every thing from no thing.
Re-live the act of becoming.
Awaken to glory and gift.
I AM all for you.
That was OUR
Infinite choreography
Infolding into fire.
Let there be light.
Let life evolve.
Let being become.
For this is what I AM.
Light, Life and Being at play.
ONE and ALL
This is your meaning
and purpose.
Infinite eyes
Infinite imagination
Infinite love
ONE emergent
In each individuated being.
Touched by grace
Loved always, never judged.
Evolving into infinite difference
Thinking, choosing, free at last!
Partnering divinity,
co-creators of an infinite future.
Living on worlds beyond number.
Beings in infinite form.
Love my infinite gift.
Ah, we remember!
In this is joy.
In this is the eternal
ecstasy of being.
Let me never forget.
I know now
And I understand.
And that is everything.
Copyright
John Hetherington
May 2010
Knowing nothing
of right and wrongdoing
Self awakens.
A human being stands tall
on an ancient shore
for the first time.
See, she is coming too.
She also knows Self.
We are
Two in One, Us.
Flesh and blood, evolving,
copying ourselves
into infinite difference.
We were our cousins once,
Subtle in difference,
enjoying the tree canopy.
Knowers in a gentler way.
We will become even more
Through our tomorrows.
Older than eternity
Inhabiting feeling
Their senses reach out.
Thought gathers.
Sand, sea and infinite sky
are nominated.
Alone still,
their beingness cries
in ecstasy
Seeing, touching, smelling.
Sensate explorers!
Form is formed within.
Love is shared.
Thought follows thought
In a crescendo of insight
This is that.
For, in this beginning was the Word.
Now is old.
Yet, there was a before.
A prior union
of creating from love.
Yes, we remember!
Ah the dancing fields.
Infinite energy
Interpenetrating.
Timeless time.
Every thing from no thing.
Re-live the act of becoming.
Awaken to glory and gift.
I AM all for you.
That was OUR
Infinite choreography
Infolding into fire.
Let there be light.
Let life evolve.
Let being become.
For this is what I AM.
Light, Life and Being at play.
ONE and ALL
This is your meaning
and purpose.
Infinite eyes
Infinite imagination
Infinite love
ONE emergent
In each individuated being.
Touched by grace
Loved always, never judged.
Evolving into infinite difference
Thinking, choosing, free at last!
Partnering divinity,
co-creators of an infinite future.
Living on worlds beyond number.
Beings in infinite form.
Love my infinite gift.
Ah, we remember!
In this is joy.
In this is the eternal
ecstasy of being.
Let me never forget.
I know now
And I understand.
And that is everything.
Copyright
John Hetherington
May 2010
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there."
"Life in all it's fullness"
What the mystics across the faiths have discovered is that there is a "field" where all duality fades away. Where I-Thou becomes One. A place of integration and infinite possibility.
It is a place where each of us has the potential to 'become' a contributor to the One. A place where the Christ can be content with dying because Life can never die. For, "where Love is" there is Life.
The shared space where Life and creative silence dance, is also where other dualities spin into oneness - the "singing field" of all that is.
It is the "field" where religions lose their boundaries, and human beings rise above themselves to touch raw spirit - spreading wisdom and practices - that can open an ever widening circle of love.
There is always choice in a freely offering Universe, where countless life forms and intelligences are evolving. Yet it seems that even iindividual choice is somehow framed by the Unity of Yes and No.
The insight that comes from all this is mystical and fluid. It crosses religious and spiritual categories. it seems to get to the heart of everything - Love.
Love is the force, the Way, that permeates all that is, beyond all other natural forces known to science. And we human beings are often suddenly torn to shreds and recreated when Love comes raging through human hearts.
There are many loves that make up Love, the heart of God's Beingness. Indeed ancient and modern societies know of many loves: powerful Eros, gentle agape, compassion, depths of friendship and many more shades of love.
For without question the Universe is a 'love present', a gift, a grace, and indeed another, less tamed, force to it's cousins, gravity and light - and all the fundamental energies of the cosmos.
As I write this I see in mind and heart what is going on in creation. A vast cosmic symphony: of energy becoming manifest through life evolving, and love becoming, and mind emerging, to be given a "god like" freedom to become and become and become.
It literally blows the mind when for a moment we see that Whole, that divinity of which we are but part. And Yes, we are God, becoming! Love, Life, Everything!
Why all this? I have no clear idea, but it seems these intuitions and sensed experiences are a foundation for what comes next - to discover life's purpose.
Again, there is 'non-duality', no right and wrong, just the 'field' of Being, Becoming through it's creatures, it's dancing energy and above all it's Heart of Love. And I think that is it.
And I thank the Universe for it's gift of life and love and sentient being.
We are embodied life, set free to be all we can be, to live life to the uttermost, to love wastefully. That is the heart of every faith and spiritual practice - and when we "see" this and are "enlightened", then we understand to the very depth of our being that 'All that is', is Love manifest.
But, after that we are on our own, though never really alone - living and loving and being all we can be - as co-creators in the divine life. The oft hidden secret of the faiths and spiritual paths is that we are divinity living itself and loving herself and being himself. 'No-thing' becoming 'Every-thing'.
Human beings have evolved on this small planet in a Universe of infinite Becoming, Being and Loving.
Human beings are just one example of God's exploring, caught up in some inkling of understanding and appreciation of what IS.
All that is written above is just, to you the reader, to get "back to where you started and know the place for the first time". (TS Elliot).
For we are on our own, autonomous and free to choose. No right and wrong, no condemning, no fear, no last judgement. Just explorers in the sea of possibilities. Scary!
No help unless sought by opening to stillness - by practices to open heart and mind, or by sharing with our fellow travellers; looking for pointers from the wisdom traditions and faiths and myriads of spiritual paths.
The world is changing fast and not necessarily for the better, but it is entering a possible period of unity (or at least slowly moving in that direction) where like God, unity in diversity is how things are and will become.
We are each free autonomous human beings - dancing with divinity - often mindless - but hopefully more and more "aware" of 'what is' - as mapped out in the opening section of this blog. There is no question that if we see things this way it is awesome, both for our better understanding and to help frame the loving choices.
Human beings cannot avoid choices, indeed in one sense that is what God's universe exists for. We are in one sense free, to simply choose to follow our hearts and be as loving and compassionate as we can be to the circles of love that would be hurt by our choices.
Or, we can weigh those consequences and hurts in the balance and make a judgement, not that one is wrong or right, but whether or not the choices and impacts will be more loving on a wider basis. It is not about right or wrong but about Love and intuiting the optimum balance from our choices.
In the end, it seems to me, that the test is the extent that Love and Life and Being are optimised and others are set free to have new and greater experiences, even through pain.
To sum up:
This Universe is a gift of Love from emergent divinity, presence.
Our path is to connect as fully as we can into that Presence, where Love takes hold of us.
Our path is to grow in compassion and love in all its forms.
For, in a way we are "Gods" - the eyes and ears and mouth of the Source, in his, her, it's, Being and Becoming.
We are free autonomous beings on a journey of exploration into Life, lived in all it's fullness.
And for that we should always be thankful.
John Hetherington
Copyright 2010
What the mystics across the faiths have discovered is that there is a "field" where all duality fades away. Where I-Thou becomes One. A place of integration and infinite possibility.
It is a place where each of us has the potential to 'become' a contributor to the One. A place where the Christ can be content with dying because Life can never die. For, "where Love is" there is Life.
The shared space where Life and creative silence dance, is also where other dualities spin into oneness - the "singing field" of all that is.
It is the "field" where religions lose their boundaries, and human beings rise above themselves to touch raw spirit - spreading wisdom and practices - that can open an ever widening circle of love.
There is always choice in a freely offering Universe, where countless life forms and intelligences are evolving. Yet it seems that even iindividual choice is somehow framed by the Unity of Yes and No.
The insight that comes from all this is mystical and fluid. It crosses religious and spiritual categories. it seems to get to the heart of everything - Love.
Love is the force, the Way, that permeates all that is, beyond all other natural forces known to science. And we human beings are often suddenly torn to shreds and recreated when Love comes raging through human hearts.
There are many loves that make up Love, the heart of God's Beingness. Indeed ancient and modern societies know of many loves: powerful Eros, gentle agape, compassion, depths of friendship and many more shades of love.
For without question the Universe is a 'love present', a gift, a grace, and indeed another, less tamed, force to it's cousins, gravity and light - and all the fundamental energies of the cosmos.
As I write this I see in mind and heart what is going on in creation. A vast cosmic symphony: of energy becoming manifest through life evolving, and love becoming, and mind emerging, to be given a "god like" freedom to become and become and become.
It literally blows the mind when for a moment we see that Whole, that divinity of which we are but part. And Yes, we are God, becoming! Love, Life, Everything!
Why all this? I have no clear idea, but it seems these intuitions and sensed experiences are a foundation for what comes next - to discover life's purpose.
Again, there is 'non-duality', no right and wrong, just the 'field' of Being, Becoming through it's creatures, it's dancing energy and above all it's Heart of Love. And I think that is it.
And I thank the Universe for it's gift of life and love and sentient being.
We are embodied life, set free to be all we can be, to live life to the uttermost, to love wastefully. That is the heart of every faith and spiritual practice - and when we "see" this and are "enlightened", then we understand to the very depth of our being that 'All that is', is Love manifest.
But, after that we are on our own, though never really alone - living and loving and being all we can be - as co-creators in the divine life. The oft hidden secret of the faiths and spiritual paths is that we are divinity living itself and loving herself and being himself. 'No-thing' becoming 'Every-thing'.
Human beings have evolved on this small planet in a Universe of infinite Becoming, Being and Loving.
Human beings are just one example of God's exploring, caught up in some inkling of understanding and appreciation of what IS.
All that is written above is just, to you the reader, to get "back to where you started and know the place for the first time". (TS Elliot).
For we are on our own, autonomous and free to choose. No right and wrong, no condemning, no fear, no last judgement. Just explorers in the sea of possibilities. Scary!
No help unless sought by opening to stillness - by practices to open heart and mind, or by sharing with our fellow travellers; looking for pointers from the wisdom traditions and faiths and myriads of spiritual paths.
The world is changing fast and not necessarily for the better, but it is entering a possible period of unity (or at least slowly moving in that direction) where like God, unity in diversity is how things are and will become.
We are each free autonomous human beings - dancing with divinity - often mindless - but hopefully more and more "aware" of 'what is' - as mapped out in the opening section of this blog. There is no question that if we see things this way it is awesome, both for our better understanding and to help frame the loving choices.
Human beings cannot avoid choices, indeed in one sense that is what God's universe exists for. We are in one sense free, to simply choose to follow our hearts and be as loving and compassionate as we can be to the circles of love that would be hurt by our choices.
Or, we can weigh those consequences and hurts in the balance and make a judgement, not that one is wrong or right, but whether or not the choices and impacts will be more loving on a wider basis. It is not about right or wrong but about Love and intuiting the optimum balance from our choices.
In the end, it seems to me, that the test is the extent that Love and Life and Being are optimised and others are set free to have new and greater experiences, even through pain.
To sum up:
This Universe is a gift of Love from emergent divinity, presence.
Our path is to connect as fully as we can into that Presence, where Love takes hold of us.
Our path is to grow in compassion and love in all its forms.
For, in a way we are "Gods" - the eyes and ears and mouth of the Source, in his, her, it's, Being and Becoming.
We are free autonomous beings on a journey of exploration into Life, lived in all it's fullness.
And for that we should always be thankful.
John Hetherington
Copyright 2010
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
My Selection of Must Read World Religious and Spiritual Literature
I thought I'd start off a sharing of my most appreciated books from the literature of 'spirituality', but also sources on the web for out of copyright material. So here goes, not in a particular order, but trending from those most influential to those I still value.
I would love it if readers would add to my list with their suggestions. I will keep this up to date on Facebook and my Blog - this is just a starter.
First - contemporary writers and novel format material :
Kahil Gabril - The Prophet and other works: http://leb.net/~mira/
Paulo Coelho - particularly The Alchemist and the Zahir
Good Compilation of English "Spiritual poets" from Bede to the 1920s - The English Spirit (The Little Gidding Anthology of English Spirituality) DLT
Film - to be added
e.g The Matrix, Avatar
Books I have in my Library:
Radical Amazement - Judy Cannato ["Awareness of the Divine begins with wonder" - a Herschel quote]
Integral Life Practice - Ken Wilbur and others: http://www.integralinstitute.org/?q=node/1
Ken Wilbur - A brief History of Everything
David Tacy - The Spirituality Revolution
Eckhart Tolle: The Power of Now
Neale Donald Walsch - Conversations with God - and many more
Christian Writers:
Marcus Borg - Reading the Bible Again for the First Time & Meeting Jesus Again for the first time (and almost everything else he has written)
John Shelby Spong: Liberating the Gospels, A new Christianity for a New World (and most of his books since - including Jesus for the NOn Religious and Eternal Life - A new Vision.
Adrian B Smith - Tomorrow's Christian (O Books) and lots more
Deepak Chopra - Quantum Healing and lots more
John Hetherington - Booklet "Reshaping Christianity - Mysticsm. Spirituality and Global faith" - avilable from Free to Believe: http://www.freetobelieve.org.uk/booklets2.html
Christian Scriptures - Psalms, Wisdom, Proverbs, Gospel of John and early Pauline genuine epistles. Gospels of Mary (see: http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm)
and Thomas (see: http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html)
and the Pistis Sophia (http://www.gnosis.org/library/pistis-sophia/index.htm).
Also see: http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/index.htm
Other Christian writings: St Augustine - The City of God - http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.toc.html
Also The Confessions of St Augustine - http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/confessions.html
Julian of Norwich - Revelations of Divine Love (14th Century): http://www.ccel.org/ccel/julian/revelations/
William Law - (17/18 C) - A serious Call to a devoit and holy life: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/law/serious_call.html
Thomas A Kempis - The Imitation of Christ: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kempis/imitation.html
For the whole corpus visit and search in http://www.ccel.org/ and http://www.sacred-texts.com/
World Religions:
Taoism - The Book of the Way: http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm
Zoroastrian: http://www.sacred-texts.com/zor/index.htm
The Vedanta (Indian Religious Scriptures): http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/
Covers: Vedas (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm),
Upanishads (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/upan/index.htm)
Bhagavad Gita (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gita/agsgita.htm)
Buddhism: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/index.htm
Islam: http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/index.htm [Includes a full range of Sufi material - Rumi poetry can be found here: http://allspirit.co.uk/rumi.html
Bahai: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bhi/index.htm [Also see: http://www.bahai.org/]
Sites cover not just English translations - but references more general text.
[TO BE UPDATED - so keep popping back, please and add your own lists.]
Copyright © 2009: Rev John Hetherington. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for this content to be reproduced upon condition that full acknowledgements of author and copyright details are made. John Hetherington - January 2010
I would love it if readers would add to my list with their suggestions. I will keep this up to date on Facebook and my Blog - this is just a starter.
First - contemporary writers and novel format material :
Kahil Gabril - The Prophet and other works: http://leb.net/~mira/
Paulo Coelho - particularly The Alchemist and the Zahir
Good Compilation of English "Spiritual poets" from Bede to the 1920s - The English Spirit (The Little Gidding Anthology of English Spirituality) DLT
Film - to be added
e.g The Matrix, Avatar
Books I have in my Library:
Radical Amazement - Judy Cannato ["Awareness of the Divine begins with wonder" - a Herschel quote]
Integral Life Practice - Ken Wilbur and others: http://www.integralinstitute.org/?q=node/1
Ken Wilbur - A brief History of Everything
David Tacy - The Spirituality Revolution
Eckhart Tolle: The Power of Now
Neale Donald Walsch - Conversations with God - and many more
Christian Writers:
Marcus Borg - Reading the Bible Again for the First Time & Meeting Jesus Again for the first time (and almost everything else he has written)
John Shelby Spong: Liberating the Gospels, A new Christianity for a New World (and most of his books since - including Jesus for the NOn Religious and Eternal Life - A new Vision.
Adrian B Smith - Tomorrow's Christian (O Books) and lots more
Deepak Chopra - Quantum Healing and lots more
John Hetherington - Booklet "Reshaping Christianity - Mysticsm. Spirituality and Global faith" - avilable from Free to Believe: http://www.freetobelieve.org.uk/booklets2.html
Christian Scriptures - Psalms, Wisdom, Proverbs, Gospel of John and early Pauline genuine epistles. Gospels of Mary (see: http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm)
and Thomas (see: http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html)
and the Pistis Sophia (http://www.gnosis.org/library/pistis-sophia/index.htm).
Also see: http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/index.htm
Other Christian writings: St Augustine - The City of God - http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.toc.html
Also The Confessions of St Augustine - http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/confessions.html
Julian of Norwich - Revelations of Divine Love (14th Century): http://www.ccel.org/ccel/julian/revelations/
William Law - (17/18 C) - A serious Call to a devoit and holy life: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/law/serious_call.html
Thomas A Kempis - The Imitation of Christ: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kempis/imitation.html
For the whole corpus visit and search in http://www.ccel.org/ and http://www.sacred-texts.com/
World Religions:
Taoism - The Book of the Way: http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm
Zoroastrian: http://www.sacred-texts.com/zor/index.htm
The Vedanta (Indian Religious Scriptures): http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/
Covers: Vedas (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm),
Upanishads (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/upan/index.htm)
Bhagavad Gita (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gita/agsgita.htm)
Buddhism: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/index.htm
Islam: http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/index.htm [Includes a full range of Sufi material - Rumi poetry can be found here: http://allspirit.co.uk/rumi.html
Bahai: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bhi/index.htm [Also see: http://www.bahai.org/]
Sites cover not just English translations - but references more general text.
[TO BE UPDATED - so keep popping back, please and add your own lists.]
Copyright © 2009: Rev John Hetherington. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for this content to be reproduced upon condition that full acknowledgements of author and copyright details are made. John Hetherington - January 2010
Monday, 5 April 2010
Christianity and Easter Symbolism
I picked up the following ideas from a post on Facebook - linking to a Website http://www.truthbeknown.com/easter.htm - almost all of it ties back to the information in "The Pagan Christ" which I read recently [a very good read] and is the foundation of many esoteric belief systems. It sure makes you think!!
You will need to visit the link above - for the full explanation of the dates that make Easter move - and were known many thousands of years ago. It is a fascinating and scary article. Page down to find the text after the book adverts.
There is a really good argument that Christianity started as just one of several mystery cults which were common across the Roman Empire and, via the fertile crescent, go back to the Egyptian and north African civilisations and through Persia and Afghanistan on to India and even China, with the festivals also linked (by communication or because the dates are global) to other cultures in the Americas and South East Asia and even to Australia and other ab-original cultures and belief systems. The astronomy and skills needed to work it all out go back to thosands of years BC and were progressively refined.
It is fascinating that the early Pauline Epistles have no literal historical Jesus - just a conversion or awakening experience - that led Paul to to proclaim that the God 'in whom we live and move and have our being' is to be known in the incarnation of the Crossified One.The Gospels link this to an historical Jesus figure - but by the time they were written the myth was being adapted to the Judeo-Roman world, and the historicity is suspect. The package of early Christian practice and belief is best gleaned from Paul's letters.
The New Testament is thus a reworking of the myths of the Sun God, and his Divine-Human Son [Horus in Egyptian religion or with other names in other places] which couches the ancient myth in hidden language under the cover of a literal story about a Divine- Human Jesus figure who lived in Galilee, was cruxified [crossifiied] and raised (ascended) to the heavens. Christians need to take seriously the propect that their core beliefs are really a lieralising of a long standing myth - though of course "myth" does not mean an 'untruth', rather the telling of a powerful truth in coded ways.
The common core of almost all religions worldwide is that in our humanity there is also divinity. The Horus / Jesus figure is thus 'everyman' / everyone. The role of the religions is to awaken us to the divinity within so as to enable 'return' / reurrection. The package of belief in which you wrap the myth is neither here nor there - what matters is the truthfulness that lies hidden at the core of the myth - the divine presence in all that is.
The Gospels are as good and well written a literalisation as any to capture the truth of the human - divine leader (avatar) who dies and is raised - just as the sun dies in the autumn and rises in the spring to bring new life. I can still go to churches and enter in to the mythic story under its literalising crafting - and use the framework to remind me how to live - in recognition of the divinity in humanity, the power of of that presence to enlighten and change us, and the joy of the company of those on the way - even though I more and more think that the story that infuses Christianity is not a history at all, but a powerful mythic truth about the way this universe is, and the way we should live in it.
Your views most welcome.
You will need to visit the link above - for the full explanation of the dates that make Easter move - and were known many thousands of years ago. It is a fascinating and scary article. Page down to find the text after the book adverts.
There is a really good argument that Christianity started as just one of several mystery cults which were common across the Roman Empire and, via the fertile crescent, go back to the Egyptian and north African civilisations and through Persia and Afghanistan on to India and even China, with the festivals also linked (by communication or because the dates are global) to other cultures in the Americas and South East Asia and even to Australia and other ab-original cultures and belief systems. The astronomy and skills needed to work it all out go back to thosands of years BC and were progressively refined.
It is fascinating that the early Pauline Epistles have no literal historical Jesus - just a conversion or awakening experience - that led Paul to to proclaim that the God 'in whom we live and move and have our being' is to be known in the incarnation of the Crossified One.The Gospels link this to an historical Jesus figure - but by the time they were written the myth was being adapted to the Judeo-Roman world, and the historicity is suspect. The package of early Christian practice and belief is best gleaned from Paul's letters.
The New Testament is thus a reworking of the myths of the Sun God, and his Divine-Human Son [Horus in Egyptian religion or with other names in other places] which couches the ancient myth in hidden language under the cover of a literal story about a Divine- Human Jesus figure who lived in Galilee, was cruxified [crossifiied] and raised (ascended) to the heavens. Christians need to take seriously the propect that their core beliefs are really a lieralising of a long standing myth - though of course "myth" does not mean an 'untruth', rather the telling of a powerful truth in coded ways.
The common core of almost all religions worldwide is that in our humanity there is also divinity. The Horus / Jesus figure is thus 'everyman' / everyone. The role of the religions is to awaken us to the divinity within so as to enable 'return' / reurrection. The package of belief in which you wrap the myth is neither here nor there - what matters is the truthfulness that lies hidden at the core of the myth - the divine presence in all that is.
The Gospels are as good and well written a literalisation as any to capture the truth of the human - divine leader (avatar) who dies and is raised - just as the sun dies in the autumn and rises in the spring to bring new life. I can still go to churches and enter in to the mythic story under its literalising crafting - and use the framework to remind me how to live - in recognition of the divinity in humanity, the power of of that presence to enlighten and change us, and the joy of the company of those on the way - even though I more and more think that the story that infuses Christianity is not a history at all, but a powerful mythic truth about the way this universe is, and the way we should live in it.
Your views most welcome.
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