I want to share a more spiritual message today so I am posting this on the weekend when I hope many of us are engaged in developing our own spiritual intelligence. Today my
focus is on the teachings of Jesus Christ. I feel this is appropriate sense we
are in the midst of the Christmas season. In the future I am sure I will write
about the teachings of other spiritual leaders.
Please relax as you enjoy this post. You do not need to be
afraid. My intent is not conversion, rather understanding. I want to share an
important part of myself with you. It is a part that is normally difficult to
share. This post is not about you. It is about our world. All I ask is that you
suspend your assumptions and read on without prejudice. If you are uneasy with
the topics of religion and spirituality you may find this post enlightening. If
you are offended by those topics you may learn something.
Light To Mine Eyes
A few years ago I was travelling on BART, the rapid
transportation system in the San Francisco area. It was just after noon and I
was on my way home. When I got on the train it was nearly empty. There were
only two or three people on the car that I entered. I got my things put away
and sat down. I then noticed that one of the people on the train, seated just
behind me, was a woman who was softly crying.
As the trip progressed, she continued to cry and her cries
became even louder. It was obvious that she was feeling a lot of pain, but I
could not tell the cause of the pain. Since the other people were farther away,
I felt a sense of duty. I felt like I needed to comfort her in some way. Even
though I felt this duty, I was afraid to act.
Finally, her cries touched me enough that I turned and
asked, “Is there anything I can do to help you?” Through her sobs she answered
my question by saying, “my mother is dying and I am on my way to see her. I
don’t think I am going to get there before she dies.”
My own father had only recently passed away and so I felt an
instant connection with her. Her hands were on the seatback rail and I put my
hands on hers and looked into her eyes and said, “I know exactly how you feel.
I just lost my father and I am still trying to understand that loss.”
She too felt the connection and became a little calmer as we
talked about her mother and her mother’s impact on her life. I felt moved to
say something like, “you will always remember your mother’s life and I can
assure you she will continue to live in another realm and you and her will one
day be reunited.”
This message that I thought would be comforting proved to be
discomforting as she immediately began to cry uncontrollably again. I put my
hands on her hands again and asked her why this had upset her. She stuttered
out, “that is why I am so distraught over her death. My husband told me that my
mother is going to Hell because she is Jewish and she did not accept Jesus as
her Savior.”
The Real Message
I was stunned. I could not think of a more cruel or false
statement. I grabbed her hands tighter, looked into her eyes again and said
very confidently, “God did not send his son here to condemn us. He sent his son
to save us. His message is a message of salvation not damnation. He can and
will save your mother.”
Now it was her turn to be stunned. These comments comforted
her and she ceased her crying and looked at me with a new found peace. She
said, “I want to believe that too. I believe that – thank you for helping me
see it this way.” We continued our journey together and said a heartfelt
goodbye at the airport terminal. I never spoke to this woman again.
An Unnecessary Battle For Position
The messages and teachings of Jesus Christ are very
powerful. Whether or not you believe that He was the divine Son of God, a great teacher
or a mythical figure of history, you cannot deny the power of the messages
attributed to him.
These messages are so powerful that both those that claim to
believe in Him and those that claim not to believe in Him have used and abused
them for their own purposes. Some of His followers have massacred many people
in both spiritual and physical ways because they did not understand his message.
Some of those that oppose His messages often oppose them without ever reading
them because of the pain His followers have caused. Their fear drives them to
lead others away from these powerful messages and they seek to push them out of
our public life because they don’t want to be guided by them.
The battle to make sense of His teachings or disregard them
continues now, even 2000 years later. A religious leader recently told his
congregation that if they voted for Barak Obama, they should refrain from
taking communion until they come to confession. A non-religious group maliciously
posted a sign next to a Nativity Scene in the state of Washington stating that
reason must now prevail, that there is no God and that all religions are myths
and superstitions that harden hearts and enslave minds. Someone, I am assuming
a religious person, then illegally stole the sign. It later turned up at a
radio station. It is no wonder that these types of teachings, both of them
distorted, turn us off to organized religion and the messages of Jesus Christ.
Life Giving
I believe that the messages of Jesus Christ are life
changing. They are wonderful guides to finding happiness in life. I do not find
them threatening to anyone. I have read the Bible completely through, both the
Old and the New Testament, at least one time every year for the past 20 years.
I do not measure up to many of the teachings that are found therein. I am
acutely aware of my own sins. They are many. As I read these teachings I find
them to be a message of hope. Jesus did not condemn anyone through his
teaching. He simply invited those he came in contact with to abandon their sins
and to follow Him. He showed compassion for those who could not do it. The most
powerful message is that he somehow redeemed the world from sin. I know of no
other religious leader who taught so powerful the message of forgiveness of
self and others. I stand all amazed at this message. I know, independent of
deciding whether or not he is the Son of God or just another great historical
figure, that if the world could truly understand and live by his teachings that
we would reduce pain and suffering, we would strengthen the weary and comfort
the weak, we would end all wars and love each other.
His message, the message of Christmas, is not a message of
condemnation; it is a message of salvation. It is not a message of conversion;
it is a message of inclusion. He did not say that we should love our neighbor
only if he is a fellow (you fill in the blank). He said love your neighbor as
yourself. He never said we would go to hell if we do not believe in him. He
said, in his Father’s house there are many mansions and that his mission was to
prepare a place for each of us. He never said that we should judge others for
what we perceive to be their sins. He said that we should look inward and
discover our own weaknesses and sins and remove them so that we could be better
able to help others. He never said that following him would be easy. He said,
come follow me and I will give you rest.
I love this time of year because we give just a little more
thought into these teachings. I love those that oppose this message, I just
wish that they would invest the time to study and understand it before they
did. I am sure that if they did, they would have a hard time saying that his
teachings our dangerous. I love those that claim to support this message. I
just wish that they too would invest the time to study and understand it before
they used it to condemn others. I am sure that if they did, they would have a
hard time showing anything but love to those who are different from them. If
they did, they would be more capable of spreading joy to the world about the
good news these messages bring.
Let There Be Peace on Earth! And Let It Begin With Me.
Andrew Thorn
760-559-3548
athorn@telioscorp.com
