It's December, and Jesus is everywhere. On front lawns. Sung to, and about on the radio. To be referred to often in my church services as Christmas approaches. And it causes me to pause, and reflect back on my growing admiration for this prophetic man.
I'm not a Christian. Never have been. My parents spent a handful of years bringing my sister and I to the local Protestant Congregational Church growing up. Or, more accurately, one parent would bring us, the other would do the grocery shopping at Stop & Shop because both tasks were after all, chores. But to their credit, as my parents approached most parenting tasks I think, they thought the act of having us attend church services and Sunday school for several years would help us later to know what religion is, and that would be a good thing. Kind of like the equivalent of taking a book out of the library on religion. Or the modern day equivalent, doing a google search. A mere intellectual endeavor to be a more well-rounded person. So I never got turned on to Christianity or Jesus through that experience. I didn't get turned on to anything religious in that experience- though I did like listening to the bell choir...
In the past couple of years though, I've found some aspects of Christianity useful, even helpful, as far as JC is concerned.
The Unitarian Universalist Church I go to is historically a Universalist Church, and it was founded in 1821 in a nearby town. When the church moved to it's current location, an enormous stained glass window of Jesus and his disciples came with the congregation, and it now fills the sanctuary. For those of you who don't know much about UU history, this denomination has Judeo-Christian origins, but is now I would say not identified as a Christian Church despite it's lineage. Though, Jesus certainly makes his appearances within the service, but then so does The Buddha, Mary Oliver and Howard Thurman. I must admit though, I've come to kinda like when Jesus takes the floor.
When I first began to visit this church, I had just left a UU church which I would describe as Humanist and verging on Atheist in nature- to say the least, there was no floor to ceiling stained glass window of Jesus in the sanctuary. And when I first entered my current church and saw the big man with his beard, long hair, and flowing robes standing center stage, literally right behind the pulpit, I was a little put off. I even began to have second thoughts about finding a new spiritual home in a church. I thought, maybe my spiritual journey was meant to fly solo?
But I continued to go. Not very consistently at times. Not taking part in the Lord's Prayer section of the service. Not too open to the services honed in on the Christian themes and history. But persevering none the less because I decided my spiritual journey was not supposed to be taken all alone.
Somewhere along the way though, I found I began to like to hear about Christianity, well, more specifically, Jesus. I became intrigued when I learned he died in his 30's- I'm in my 30's. My respect grew when I found out that he liked to hang out with the forgotten ones (in the year 2014 or 14, it seems 2 millennia has not changed this much) like prostitutes and the terminally ill. I began to take part in the Lord's Prayer when some members, though certainly not all, recited it along with the minister after singing the prayer Spirit of Life. I particularly liked saying the line: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" since forgiveness as a spiritual practice has always been a tough one for me.
In fact, the more I learn about him, Jesus that is, I was surprised to find out that his words (at least the words that have been passed down to me) really reflect a nonjudgmental and compassionate stance- 2 positions I generally more associate with Buddhism than Christianity since most of the Christians I've met seem to be extraordinarily judgmental. But the story about Jesus seeing the group of people in the street with a plan to stone a woman, a prostitute I believe, to death, began to shift my thinking about the association I had been making between Christians and judgment. Now, please forgive me if I am getting some of the details wrong here, that is not my intent. But my understanding is upon seeing this group in the street about to murder this woman for her "sins," Jesus said to the mob, "he who has not sinned shall cast the first stone." And with that, the crowd dispersed. I love that story. It not only encourages a nonjudgmental stance, but also encourages us to see the humanity in us all with a spirit of humility- a virtue I very much value.
So maybe Jesus would be more of a friend than a foe if I were to meet him today? Maybe we have more in common than I initially thought. Maybe my first impressions were just that, first impressions. Maybe there is a whole lot more there beneath the superficial surface of seeing Christians preachers on television on Sunday mornings and sitting in my Congregational Church as a child just for the point of sitting there.
In my last post I spoke of a book called The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope. In the introduction to his book, as Mr. Cope is setting the stage to discuss the general plot of the Bhagavad Gita, an important yogic text, he refers to a quote by Jesus that I had heard before, but was glad to be reminded of: "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." This is from The Gospel of Thomas.
More and more I read about Jesus in the context of other prophets and traditions, like Thich Nhat Hanh's book Living Buddha, Living Christ (a great read if you haven't read it already), and I find that I might have been selling this guy short. Just because to me he is no more the son of god than you or I, does not mean that I might not gain and grow from his teachings. Perhaps my own previously narrow thinking about Christianity is a reflection of the very judgment that I had looked down upon in what I perceived from some of the Christians I have encountered.
So this month, in celebration of Jesus, I will honor virtues such as: nonjudgment, compassion and humility. But, since I am a UU, probably more important for us than celebrating a prophet and his teachings, would be embodying these virtues in my day-to-day activities. That is the task. That is the challenge. Taking dogma to where the rubber meets the road as it seems all lasting prophets did and do. I will try. Will you?
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