Overview: the Christ Consciousness, Part I

 

An overview of The Christ Consciousness, Part I.

We start off with a question –

why is there such a difference- between what Jesus taught and demonstrated and the practice of both the traditional/institutional and modern/’free’ churches? In other words, ‘A’ versus B1 and B2?

We are beginning to work towards the Christ Consciousness. Not necessarily a long process, but a demanding one. It depends. I simply lead as I grow. We will need to relearn the entire story of salvation from the perspective of Jesus, ie moving through the Old Testament story of salvation through the history of Israel into the New Testament. And then a little beyond - the ‘accepted’ scripture and the ‘accepted’ history of interpretation of scripture. And then challenge ourselves to move beyond concept and practice into experience!!

If Christians were to work on this, isn’t it possible that the Church would be truly transformative, as much as Jesus is truly radical in thought, word and deed?  There would not be all of these notions (and academic theology!) about salvation = reserving a place in heaven by means of confessing Christ, observing the Sacraments, confession and forgiveness of sins, pledges and tithing, and so on. Because salvation would then be seen to be a thing that can, that should, that must be, demonstrated! And it may well be that attaining the Christ consciousness might make the corporate Church redundant. I do not have the answer to that one. Small wonder Dostoyevsky wrote a chapter entitled The Grand Inquisitor about Jesus and the Church in his book ‘The Brothers Karamazov’. That chapter is well worth reading. And you can find it in the public domain.

Jesus’ words, remembered by followers, translated into Greek, written into Gospel narrative -  continue to be cryptic and do not lend themselves easily to quick interpretation. The easy way out for too many is simply to bend the text to one’s point of view, so that it suits one’s purposes. This is very often called eisegesis; but it very often isn’t. The result? The selective use of scripture. The actual teaching of the Bible - verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book - does not happen. So the telling of the whole story has not been clear enough.

Remember the Jews? They wanted Jesus to be their Messiah – a political leader who would defeat the Romans and ensure Jewish pre-eminence as a then world power. Perhaps the only world power in their time. They were the chosen people, weren’t they? But Jesus turned that one on its head by saying ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ (Jn 18:36) For Jesus, salvation requires that we are willing to love God with heart, soul, and mind i.e. emotion, spirit, and cognitive ability. And we are to be loving towards all persons – in thought, word, and deed. For all are God’s creation, no more, no less.

The Christ consciousness is a powerful focused ‘power to do things’ experience made up of many spiritual aspects. But the church has pursued other goals. We joyfully accept Jesus as Lord, but what comes after? We are caught in a repetitive cycle of sin and forgiveness that we can never really get out of. We are always repenting over some weakness, and to make up for the burden of guilt we confess our sins, lean on God’s forgiveness in Jesus, and give as much as we can to the ‘work of God.’ We rightfully trust in God’s mercy, but we do not see what we have been shown – the real intent and purpose of God’s love! Let’s look at scripture for a bit – mostly from John again, Chapters 14 and 15.

14:12 ‘Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than I do, because I am going to the Father.’ (so ‘belief’ takes us into the greater works of Jesus. Have we experienced this? We must each look at our own lives, and of those who call themselves church leaders…)

14:21 ‘They who love my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father; and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’ (why ‘reveal’? Isn’t Jesus already known to us as Savior? What experiential difference has that made in our lives?  Only that which is hidden is revealed, so this is a new experience, a new level of being in Jesus, a new capacity and capability…

14:23b ‘…and we will come to them and make our home with them.’ ( what indwelling is this? )

15:3 ‘You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you’ (this ‘cleansing word’ is not a printed word anywhere, so no guesses.) But look at John 1, and what THE WORD is, and how THE WORD functions. This WORD IS, as God said to Moses, I AM (or more correctly ‘I cause to be that which I cause to be’, for Hebrew has a causative tense.) It is a power in action – an energy of the Spirit -  spiritual electricity if you will.

15: 5b ‘Those who abide in me and I in them, bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.’ (this is the only reasonably self-explanatory line here, and just requires a good understanding of ‘abide’)

15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, then ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

15:14 ‘You are my friends if you do what I command you.’ (Jesus is not talking about being disciples, nor apostles, but friends…and this parallels 14:12, 15:3)

Given the above, is there any need to spend as much time in prayer as many seem to do?  Perhaps more meditation and contemplation. What’s the difference? Less asking. More being in the presence of. Why? Because the experience rubs off on you and creates changes in you. And these are changes in your being that result in a different quality in what you do! Less asking is an indicator of a good level of trust and confidence in God. Where are we, each one of us? Must ask ourselves. Jesus says, stay with me. Abide. Peace always, G.