Jesus

 

(clicking imbiggens)

I see this as a non-traditional representation, a reminder to see the inherent divinity in all.

Jesus with his Kittens

 

Seeds

 Excerpted from Parables:  The Arrows of God by Megan McKenna, ©2014:

There was a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart and all sorts of good things, but she was very frustrated. The world seemed to be falling apart. She would read the newspapers and get depressed. One day she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at random. She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter. She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures she'd seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. She looked again and again at him, and finally she got up enough nerve and asked, "Excuse me, are you Jesus?"

"I am."

"Do you work here?"

"No," Jesus said, "I own the store."

"Oh, what do you sell in here?"

"Oh, just about anything!"

"Anything?"

"Yeah, anything you want. What do you want?"

She said, "I don't know."

Well," Jesus said, "Feel free, walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is that you want, and then come back and we'll see what we can do for you."

She did just that, walked up and down the aisles. There was peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources. She wrote furiously. By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list. Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up and smiled, "No problem." And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up, and laid out the packets.

She asked, "What are these?"

Jesus replied, "Seed packets. This is a catalogue store."

She said, "You mean I don't get the finished product?"

"No, this is a place of dreams. You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds. You plant the seeds. You go home and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits."

"Oh," she said. And she left the store without buying anything.

Mary Pondered

It's kind of interesting that Angels of the Lord™ decided to appear before a bunch of shepherds. 

I'm not really sure why.  It seems like it might have been more useful to appear before Ceaser or Pontius Pilate.

Oh well.  It wasn't my call.

Excerpted from Luke 2:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
 

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

It doesn't really say whether they took the sheep with them, or if they just waited until their shift was over.  Surely they didn't just abandon them.  Maybe the angels watched the sheep for them.

I wonder if it bothered them that the savior was in a barn?  A manger is an unusual place to find a baby.  Maybe instead of singing and dancing for a bunch of shepherds, the angels could have pooled their resources and sprung for a motel room.

There are a lot of little details to this story that are just lost to time.

Consisteth Possesseth

Luke 12:15:  And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

Not/But

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."  ~Ephesians 6:12

Vicious

"These days it seems the people most likely to identify themselves as Christians tend to be Republicans as well the most vicious, hateful, un-Christian sons of bitches you'd ever want to meet."  ~Roy Edroso (source)

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"We take pride in our identities.  We are Lakota and it's time to return to our ways," she continued.  "We don't want any more assimilation.  We don't need any more churches and we don't need your god."

"Christianity didn't become a world religion because of the quality of its teachings, but by the quantity of its violence," said Eleanor Ferguson, Oglala Lakota and representative of the International Indigenous Youth Council, during the tribal council meeting.

But Even All the Guilty

 

Morning

"And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."  ~Mark 1:35

Politics

 If you see a Christian in the street carrying a sign, it's because somebody is doing something he disapproves of and he would like the police to put a stop to it.

You might expect he'd be there demanding that the hungry be fed, or the homeless sheltered, or the sick comforted.  

I've never seen that.  But wouldn't that be something?

Throw out the Lifeline

I love the way he took a gospel standard and made it personal.

Unexpectedly, Jerry Garcia offers a more traditional version:

Full lyrics HERE.

Christianity and Capitalism

 

There's a wonderful graphical essay on Christianity and capitalism posted to The Nib, which you can read HERE.

yet not, but not

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;"  ~2 Corinthians 4:8-9

I don't know man.  I'm feeling sort of distressed, despairing, forsaken, and destroyed.

But I guess that's something to aspire to.

Indifference

 Adapted from Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer, ©2002:

Hate is an extremely strong and harsh word. Any discussion among believers about hating other Christians would lead most of them to say, "I don't believe I have ever hated anyone." If we think about these words of John, however, perhaps he didn't mean hate as we think of it—feeling great hostility or animosity toward someone. Perhaps our form of hatred today is more like indifference. We don't really dislike people, but we don't care enough to help them when they have troubles and problems.

Change

 "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."  ~Isiah 43:18-19

I was a stranger, and

Matthew 25: 34-46:

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

 

I wonder what Jesus would think of America's border policy?

I guess there's no way to know.

The King James Bible is in the public domain, and may be downloaded freely from Project Gutenberg, HERE.

Rejoiceth

"Someone who has acted carelessly, but later becomes careful and attentive, is as beautiful as the bright moon emerging from the clouds." ~Nāgārjuna

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"How think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray."  ~Matthew 18: 12-13

Little or a Lot

Excerpted from What Makes You Not a Buddhist, ©2008, by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche:

One day a monk noticed a tear in Gautama Buddha’s robe and offered to stitch it, but Buddha refused his offer. He kept walking and begging alms in his torn robe. When he headed toward the hideout of a destitute woman, the monks were puzzled because they knew that she had no alms to offer. When she saw his torn robe, the woman offered to mend it with what little string she had. Siddhartha accepted and declared that her virtue would allow her to be reborn in her next life as a queen of the heavens. Many people who heard this story were inspired to acts of generosity of their own.

There's a very similar story in Christianity.  From Mark 12: 41-44:

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

Around You

"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved."  ~Saint Seraphim of Sarov

The Lord's Prayer

The translation is based upon research by Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz, an expert in the Aramaic Christian, Jewish mystical and Sufi traditions. He translated the prayer as if it came directly from the Aramaic (via):

O Breathing Life, your Name shines everywhere!
Release a space to plant your Presence here.
Envision your “I Can” now.
Embody your desire in every light and form.
Grow through us this moment’s bread and wisdom.
Untie the knots of failure binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Help us not forget our Source, yet free us from not being in the Present.
From you arises every vision, power, and song, from gathering to gathering.
Amen: may our future actions grow from here!

And here is the traditional King James version, Matthew 6: 9-13:

After this manner therefore pray ye:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen.