“I’ve never fully understood how Christianity became quite so tame and respectable, given its origins among drunkards, prostitutes, and tax collectors….Jesus could have hung out in the high-end religious scene of his day, but instead he scoffed at all that, choosing instead to laugh at the powerful, befriend whores, kiss sinners, and eat with all the wrong people. He spent his time with people for whom life was not easy. And there, amid those who were suffering, he was the embodiment of perfect love.”
― Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People
Last summer while I was recuperating from prostate cancer surgery I came across this wonderful book. The title captured my imagination right away. I took a chance and downloaded it on Kindle. After that I couldn’t put it down and eventually read all of Nadia Bolz-Weber’s books. I listened to her on YouTube and followed her on Twitter. I find her a refreshing alternative in contemporary Christianity. Last night I was watching the Netflix series Messiah and was taken how charismatic and inviting the protagonist is. The sanitized Jesus that has become the stereotype of contemporary religion would not have attracted much of a following. Being a human is certainly a celebration of imperfection. That is what makes us whole and holy.
Hi Don;
Yes it is a verifiable fact that in this present world most people possess many faces for fear of rejection of the authentic self. Jesus exhibited the epitome of that truly authentic real self that should be solely promoted by all who believe in Him. In expressing His real self Jesus did associate with drunkards, prostitutes, and tax collectors, and “choosing instead to laugh at the powerful, befriend whores, kiss sinners, and eat with all the wrong people.” But it is very important to understand that Jesus is God in the flesh and God is Spirit and Spirit is invisible energy. And invisible energy is consciousness. And consciousness is what all souls exist as and the form that all beings outside the physical body exist as. Jesus said: “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” The kingdom of heaven is in consciousness – in the thought world. Jesus said: “My kingdom is not of this world.” The kingdom of Christ is in consciousness – in the thought world. Consciousness as all energy exists in a myriad of frequencies varying in intensity ranging from extremely low frequency to very high frequency. The lower frequencies produce deep dark thoughts (some form the deepest call hell) while within the higher frequencies the thoughts produced are more acceptable to God.
Human consciousness termed “carnal consciousness” is within the deeper dark conscious realms or frequencies (starting within the hell and rising up to just beneath the heavens) known as “earthly” consciousness or in the scriptures – the earth. Jesus’s kingdom is not of this earth – the human conscious level. Jesus’s kingdom where Christ rules supreme is a level of consciousness above the consciousness of all human beings. This is why transformation of consciousness is necessary to enter the kingdom of Christ – the kingdom of heaven.
Within the kingdom of heaven exists the people of God. People in the scriptures is a metaphor for our thoughts in consciousness. When a human being first begins to accept Jesus’s teachings It is the words of Jesus (Jesus id the Word of God) that begins to associate with the thoughts of the human being in their earthly consciousness. It is within this thought world of consciousness where Jesus mingles with drunkards, prostitutes, and tax collectors. They are the thoughts within one’s own consciousness which will accept Jesus’s words – for Jesus is the Word who is to become ruler of the thought world – and eventually become transformed (ascend or rise) from the lower deep dark deficient conscious realms or frequencies (the earth) up into the heavenly conscious realms where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Yes; Jesus does fraternize with drunkards, prostitutes, and tax collectors, but these a metaphors for our own thoughts which exist within our own consciousness until the teachings of Jesus transform them.
howtopam
I enjoyed this book, as well.
| “Sometimes we make our lives harder by how we inhabit them.” – B. H. |