One With God and Each Other
Thank you, Dennis Coday, for alerting us to the Beatrice Bruteau podcasts . I particularly liked Episodes 2 and 3. http://ncrcafe.org/node/818
I like how Beatrice Bruteau expresses the Indwelling of God in us and the indwelling of us in each other...that we are co-inciding with each other...God in us and we in God...you in me and me in you.
The Mystery of this indwelling is that we have the "SAME and yet DISTINCT consciousness"...meaning that God is BOTH distinctly Separate AND YET wholly One with us. That oneness does not cause us to dissolve into God. We are BOTH distinct from God and each other AND YET one with God and each other.
How can this be so? I don't know, but Jesus recognized the truth of this Mystery and tried to share it with us. The Early Christians grasped its GOOD NEWS! Many more walked away in rationalist disbelief.
This "Separate Yet One" Mystery became a fighting issue for centuries--even causing street fights at one point. Like some of us today, people back then were uncomfortable with the mystery of God being BOTH Divine and yet One with ANY of us--even Jesus.
Much discussion on the forum topic "Crumbling God-Myths" is controversy over this very issue. For some, there is a repugnance to putting anything divine as one with human. For others, there may be too much willingness to completely disappear into God. The Mystery is how our Oneness with God does not erase God's distinct divinity or our distinct and individual identity.
We do not understand how this seeming contradiction can be possible. Yet THE PROCLAMATION OF THIS MYSTERY WOULD END ALL DISCRIMINATORY "ISMS", ETHNIC CLEANSINGS, WAR AND EVERY OTHER EVIL.
So why do we fight so hard against it? Perhaps the Church has, in its vigilance to preserve truth, taught us too well about the distinction between us and God and too little of our Oneness with God.
Or, in isolating this Mystery to apply only to Jesus, has the Church preserved this Mystery for wider interpretation in the future?
Sister Lea
Dr. McCoy: Actually, I'm not
Dr. McCoy:
Actually, I'm not seeking to be great, only to be saved. I'll be happy, given my proclivities, to just get my foot in the door of the lowest level of Purgatory.
Ah, but you misunderstand
Ah, but you misunderstand King's message, Bob. He invites us to be SERVANTS as did Christ. Wherever that foot leads is irrelevant as long as it leads to genuine servanthood.
King is trying to counterpose the illusion of imperial grandeur (masquerading as 'saving the world') with an authentic compassion that puts one at risk rather than gains 'security'.
This just seemed like a timely message in light of your previous post.
The Rev. Dr. E. McCoy
"So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2Cor 5)
It miay help any discussion
It miay help any discussion of this issue to at least attempt to define the phrase "One with God". As in so many controversies involving mysticism, undefined terms are the bane of civil discourse. One man's "Oneness with God" might be another man's marmalade skies, in Joan Didion's memorable words.
In addition, the same requirement applies to the phrase "God Myth". It seems to me that we may be making things way too complicated. After all, Jesus did not come to save only people with doctorates in theology, or to save only highly developed mystics. He came to save everyone, including relatively simple-minded folks like myself. Just a thought.
From a sermon, February 4,
From a sermon, February 4, 1968: JESUS GAVE US A NEW NORM OF GREATNESS.
"If you want to be important, wonderful. If you want to be recognized, wonderful. If you want to be great, wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.
That's your new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it, by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great. Because everybody can serve.
You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. And you can be that servant."
[Martin Luther King]
Simple-minded enough for you? Or does MLK give too much offense?
The Rev. Dr. E. McCoy
"So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2Cor 5)
Dr. McCoy: Actually, I'm not
Dr. McCoy:
Actually, I'm not seeking to be great, only to be saved. I'll be happy, given my proclivities, to just get my foot in the door of the lowest level of Purgatory.
NO to
NO to Oneness!.........
Thank you, Bob, for your brotherly criticism.
Your quote...”One man's ‘Oneness with God’ might be another man's marmalade skies, in Joan Didion's memorable words.”
Beatrice Bruteau says that God coincides with us in the same way we coincide with each other. God indwells us and we indwell God in the same way we indwell each other.
--NCR podcast http://ncrcafe.org/node/818
Trouble is we do not want to accept that we have this kind of oneness with each other--let alone God. If we accepted our oneness with each other as humans, how could we attack another or divide ourselves off from another...without realizing that we are also attacking ourselves?
If we accepted our oneness with God and God’s oneness with us, how could we take such pride or "humility" in being lowly sinners? ? ?
Sister Lea