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Wondering Pilgrim

~ the ramblings of a perambulent and often distracted sojourner

Wondering Pilgrim

Monthly Archives: October 2015

Continuously on the Path of Conversion.

15 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Personal

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Christ, conversion, Jesus, John's Gospel, Quadratos, Shaia

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My colleague from across the valley messaged me this just as I was putting this post up. Thanks, Karen!

Goodness! Yesterday’s piece seems stuffy with wordiness! It comes with trying to express the inexpressible.

Let me translate. We followers of Jesus often fall into the trap of treating him as a remote figure who lived long ago and we have to reach over a huge 2000 year gap to access him. We often talk about him in the past tense. Fair enough – he occupied a place in history, living amongst his own people and inspiring a movement that flourishes to this very day.

But that’s not all – by a long shot!

We speak of the Christ – not a name, but a title. It is the Greek translation and development of the ancient Hebrew concept of Messiah – in effect, the anointed tying together of all things that are, have been and will be. It is universal, embracing all that is. Paul wrote about it a lot in the New Testament.

The early followers of Jesus invested him with this title and experienced it in his life, death, resurrection and infusion with his Spirit. Hence, we speak of Jesus the Christ (shortened to Jesus Christ). This brings the Jesus of history into the always present moment, “marinading” us in his presence. In ancient terms, we are “Christed.”

We speak it, but our understanding falls short. Then someone switches on a light, and we know it again, as if for the first time.

Here is one simple trick to increase understanding:

Try reading and meditating on John’s Gospel using the present tense!
(Thanks Alexander Shaia!)

We are continuously on the path of conversion.

Less (maybe!) stirry… more powerful!

14 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Personal

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Christ, Christianity, Cosmic Christ, gospels, Jesus, New Testament, Quadratos, Shaia, the Way

Time to pen some more thoughts following my previous rant here, now some months ago. Current conversations are around less controversial matters, but somewhat related in a base-line sense. How to reconcile what we can know of the historic Jesus through a self-imposed limited reading of the four Gospels with the phenomenon of the Cosmic Christ in the writings of the Apostle Paul.

The visit to this region of Alexander Shaia of Quadratos fame has lit the fire. Progressive thought has put much stake on paring back literary, cultural and historical influences in the writing of the canonical and extra-canonical Gospels to find Jesus the man in his own day-to-day context.

Shaia seeks to reclaim an alternative reading of the Gospels, in part, as an awareness of the influence of Paul’s cosmological understanding of the Christ principle – in that all things were created in, through and for the Christ, the Anointed, the Logos, the Life Principle, the Ground of All Being, the I Am Being Who I Am Being – whatever terms help us get a handle on the dynamic force which moves through all things and establishes a unity out of an incredible diversity of matter, mind and spirit.

Scholarship such as that provided by The Jesus Seminar has served us well in discerning the Jesus of history and providing insights into interpreting the Way by reading the Gospels in the light it has shed.

Shaia’s summons to reclaim Jesus in whom the Christ is proclaimed awakens the voice of the earliest Christians.

Old knowledge or cognitive dissonance for us sophisticated and enlightened pilgrims?

When it comes to living the Way, with its daily pathways of change, pain, union and mature service as taught by Jesus but empowered by the Christ that infuses one’s whole being – how do we sit with that continuous awareness? How am I practising it?

What do you think?

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