What if God does not want something from humans, but only exists to give something to humans? On this Sunday I invite you to consider that somewhat radical thought.
And what if what God wants to give to humans is exactly what humans want? Nothing more, and nothing less. Now I know that this runs counter to most orthodox teachings in Christianity, but wouldn’t that be interesting…?
Sunday School All Week continues today with a further look at What God Wants. And today I would like to invite you to consider an additional possibility. This is a thought that could change everything for you, open up everything for you. This is a thought that could produce, inside of you, instant peace, could bring you instant understanding, could offer you instant expansion of your consciousness and of your ability to live your own personal life in a way that finally makes sense to your soul…
Consider the possibility that what you call “God” might also be called, simply, “life.” Consider the possibility that God not only created life, but that God is life–and that life is God, made manifest.
This is not a new idea. You’ve probably heard this idea before, but have you ever seriously considered it? Have you ever thought deeply about its implications? For most people the answer to that question will likely be no, simply because it has not been permissible for this idea to be widely taught.
It has not been widely taught because it does not serve the Top Down, Power Over paradigm created by the earliest power structures of humanity, religion not the least among them.
This Top Down, Power Over paradigm was in evidence everywhere religion was found. One of humanity’s earliest spiritual authority figures in modern times was the Pope, who was said to have received his power, authority, and, not incidentally, infallibility directly from God.
A King of England, furious at having to answer to the Pope (who would not approve the King’s decision to divorce one woman and marry another), simply started his own religion and proclaimed himself to be answerable only to The Most High.
The Emperor of Japan was widely accepted in that country to be God Incarnate.
Entire races and nations have co-opted the Top Down, Power Over authority of God in order to render themselves somehow more elevated, more special, more separate from the rest of humanity. They called themselves the Chosen People, or One Nation Under God, or the Nation of Islam.
Some people have sought to legitimize their worst deeds against those outside of their separate and special group by saying that their actions were part of a jihad, or a crusade–a holy struggle on God’s behalf.
Now if God wants nothing, where does all this stand?
If God is not the highest point in a pyramid that passes authority down the line, but is, rather, the power that exists in the whole line, and is, therefore, in a sense, the line itself, what does that do to the Top Down, Power Over structures upon which so much of human society is built?
It disrupts them, that’s what. It denies them their borrowed authority.
For this reason, powerful people and organizations, religions not the least among them, are not likely to encourage the teaching of a God who is One With Everything–a “Power With” rather than a “Power Over” kind of God.
(More in this series of explorations in our next entry here…)
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On the political side today, here is a video on John McCain that all McCain supporters absolutely must see, and then pass on to their McCain-supporter friends. It says far more than I ever could ever say about what’s at stake in this U.S.election. Check it out. Here’s the link…
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/325.html
And, on the lighter side, I loved this one-liner a few nights ago from Conan O’Brien:
“This weekend, the leaders of the world’s richest countries got together to discuss the global economic meltdown. … President Bush wanted to go to the meeting, but after last week the US is no longer one of the world’s richest countries.”