"Where there is no vision, the people perish."-Proverbs 29, 18 - King James Version
The ancients understood that God spoke to them in their dreams and visions. The ancients told those stories around the camp fires and those stories grew by the flame enkindled in the hearer's hearts; transforming them into story tellers too.
During the season of Lent-the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday- Christians are called to self reflection and repenting-understood as a turning away from or as a change of course which seeks God first.
In the gospel [good news] told in Mark 3: 31-35, the mother of Jesus' and his brothers arrived at the house where he was teaching.
Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him out. The crowd around Jesus told him, "Your mother, sisters and brothers are outside asking for you."
Jesus replied, "I am here with my mother, sisters and brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister and mother."-Mark 3: 31-35
"What does God require? He has told you o'man! Be just, be merciful, and walk humbly with your Lord." -Micah 6:8
Being just means correct, true, accurate, right and fair. Merciful is to have, feel and show compassion, that sense of viscerally feeling the pain of another and being moved to help. Being humble is knowing yourself; the good and the bad, for both cut through every human heart.
All Christians-from the most fundamental to those left of the progressives-are connected to the other as a sister and brother in the mystical Body of Christ. It is a dysfunctional family in the USA and past time to liberate Jesus from the bondage of institutional patriarchy for no church owns Jesus and no religion owns God.
HOW do we get there? It begins with imagination; where all human creativity is birthed.
In 2003, I read an article in Presence Magazine written by a pastor of a church in Berkeley. I no longer remember what he wrote, but he inspired me to email him a few of my theological questions. He replied something like this;
I once gave a sermon that began with the story of Rabbi Hillel, who lived 100 years before Jesus walked the earth.
Rabbi Hillel understood the Hebrew understanding of Hokema; Holy Wisdom; The Feminine Divinity, was the same as the Greek understanding of The Logos: The Word.
It was Saints John and Paul that understood The Logos: The Word was Jesus.
So with a little imagination you can imagine that before Jesus walked the earth a man, he was already a she; The Word, Holy Wisdom, Hokema, the feminine divinity.
I gave that sermon to a mainline conservative congregation. It didn't go over well…
Producer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
She has been to Israel Palestine five times since June 2005.
She is currently working on "The Boom Boom Benny Story"
I'm glad you mentioned Rabbi Hillel and the Book of Wisdom.
And you are quite right too at the end that the founding fathers were nothing like the right-wing conservatives who today call themselves Christians. In fact, the founding fathers were very much against religious bigotry and hypocrisy.
"What this means, in other words, is that when the message from the Spirit of truth is finally spread all over the world, there will be a reformation of religions and governments...the seed of Jeffersonian democracy will finally grow again and mature. We will finally establish a true family of nations under God only, with governments that are truly democratic and really of, by, and for the people. And that process will be aided by a united family of religions that finally acknowledge their true purpose, which is to teach all human beings that we are all equal in the sight of God, and ONE in the Spirit. That's what real prophecy is all about."
A prophet does not predict the future, but does point out impending doom and THE WAY back to God.
We have gotten very off track in the USA because of the mis-use of God by politicians who have remade Jesus/THE PRINCE OF PEACE over in their image and the fundamentalism that fuels them.
Thanks for quoting Adamson, Eileen. While he doesn't claim to be a prophet, he does indeed see the future.
The message he delivers reflects the Spirit of truth, which Jesus said would come, to issue judgment, guide us unto truth, show us things to come, and glorify the Christ who is with God in heaven.
You, he and I are on the same page regarding those who have God on their lips but do not know God.
Keep up the good work.
by
Sarah Morgan (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 175 comments)
on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 7:38:09 PM
