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Authority

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Jesus refused to play the authority game.

Jesus prayed:

“the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. … I ask that  they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.”  John 17:14, 21

 

What is Jesus asking here? 

What is his prayer about? 

He is saying that we do not “belong to the world” in the same way he does not. 

He is also saying that he wants us to be one with God in the same way he is one with God. 

In what way was Jesus one with God?  A lot of metaphors are used.  He was God’s son.  He was God in flesh.  He was God.

But what happens to us if WE are one with God in this same way? 

We are God’s child? We are OK with that

We are God in flesh? Wait, getting into territory we can’t deal with

We are God? Nope - heresy

 

This great heresy was first committed by Jesus, when he made claims to be God’s son, god in flesh … God.  His culture rejected it in the same way we reject the statements above when they are made about us.  These are things we are not supposed to say, or believe. 

But perhaps, this is nothing more than an expression of a state of consciousness.  A state of consciousness that realizes that all is one.  That we and the divine ground of being are one, just as Jesus and God were one. 

That his prayer has been answered.

Most people who have had this revelation, or an experience of this oneness, keep their mouths shut for fear of being thought crazy, or a heretic. 

After all, Jesus had this revelation, Jesus lived in this consciousness and he was crucified for it.

If you believe God is an absolute omnipotent, omniscient, cosmic-ego type of authority, then to claim to be God is to introduce democracy into the kingdom of heaven, to usurp divine authority and to speak in its name without proper authorization.

When Jesus made such democratic claims:  when he claimed he could forgive sins, when he healed, the religious folks asked,  

 “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.” They argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

In other words, Jesus refused to play the authority game.  It’s not a contest of authority in the spiritual realm.  It is a shared oneness.  Oneness that says we can also forgive sins, heal others, and more.  Jesus said we would do even greater things than he did.  He was not worried about being the ultimate authority.

Jesus was happy to make it democratic.  He was happy for us to be one with the divine force in the same way that he was. 

He hoped we would believe this and act upon it.  He hoped we would say to mountains in our lives to be cast into the sea, and it would happen.  He said that when we forgave someone, they were forgiven.  That’s a lot of authority.  God-like in fact.    

 Religion tells us that what we say must be authorized by some other authority (i.e. Moses, Jesus, Paul, etc..)  It cannot be our own. WE are not allowed to be an authority. 

Heaven forbid! 

Chaos would break out!  

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Certainty IS the sand

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They think they have built their houses on a rock – a rock of biblical certainty, when in fact they have built them on the sand that IS certainty. 

Usually, people come to religion looking for certainty.  Looking for answers.  Looking for assurances and comfort in a world full of chaos and uncertainty. 

And they usually “find it.”  Or at least end up feeling like they’ve found it.

An examination of religion reveals that it rejects uncertainty in all its forms. Religion names definitively what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false.  You might think that there is a contradiction between religion’s rejection of science and its rejection of certainty.  Isn’t science revealing facts and religion is rejecting those facts – thus rejecting certainty?   

The mistake we make is to think there are scientific certainties.  If we zoom out and look back over the course of scientific exploration, we see that most things that were accepted as scientific certainties, were later rejected as false.  The earth is not flat but round.  The atom is NOT the smallest particle of matter.  Gravity does not behave as we thought and disease is not from demon possession, bad humors, bathing or fresh air. 

This kind of ever-moving, ever-changing understanding is frustrating and maybe even a little bit terrifying to the person who is looking for certainty.  Most recently we’ve been witnessing this frustration and fear centered around COVID and how the science has unfolded.  Each time information about COVID and vaccines was given to the public, it changed.  Of course, it changed because that is the nature of science, one piece of information leads to another and the body of knowledge changes continuously.  But, nevertheless, this has led to widespread distrust of the science around it all.  How can it be true if they keep changing the information?  To be clear, much of the information that was put out there was stated to the public as though it were certain.  Maybe this was done to try to calm people’s fears, like when we tell someone, “it’ll all be OK” when in fact we know no such thing.  Or maybe just out of ego – who knows.  It was a  mistake.  When we tell people something is a fact, then change that fact – especially when the “fact” may have life and death implications for them – we risk losing their trust.  And so, religious folk have rejected science at least in part because it does not provide them with the certainty they seek.  It contradicts the certainty they believe they have based on their religion.   They think they have built their houses on a rock – a rock of biblical certainty, when in fact they have built them on the sand that IS certainty. 

As a culture we have no idea how to remain calm in the face of uncertainty. 

Thousands are deconstructing their ideas about religion, god and spirituality and leaving churches en masse because of this very thing.  Religion told them it had some facts.  Turns out those facts might not be certain. 

If we are to navigate this life, and maybe even survive, we have to learn how to hold uncertainty because the thing is – we just don’t know. 

We can decide that’s terrifying or we can decide that’s fun.  It’s up to us. 

Life and whatever is beyond this life can be one big exploration.  Turning a corner to discover there is always another corner to turn.  Or it can be paralyzing as we maintain an agenda to find the answer, solve the puzzle, get to the bottom of this endless, wondrous, mysterious bottomless pit. 

Spirituality is the embrace of mystery.  Dive in and keep going!

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