Another Reflection on "Do, or do not. There is no try."

 “No. No try or try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.”

- Jedi Master Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

I was reading an article within the past year which took issue with Master Yoda’s famous line from Star Wars Episode V. The author was upset because he felt that it preached an absolutism that discouraged attempting anything new. He also asked the question, not without justification, “How are we to learn anything new if we don’t first try and fail?” He made some very good points in his article.

     The problem is, he failed to understand the lesson which the ancient Jedi Master was trying to convey.

     “There is no try” doesn’t work in every circumstance, but it’s not meant to. There are some things, spiritual practices in particular, which really cannot be learned except by doing them. The reason for this is that until we do them, we have no baseline to measure them against. This is true because these things are entirely internal and experiential to the person practicing them. Spiritual masters for centuries, if not millennia, have attempted to teach these things through parables, stories, koans, and metaphors which only make sense once the thing being taught has actually been done.

     The context within the movie is a good metaphor for this. Yoda was trying to teach Luke how to interact with the Force to retrieve his star fighter from the bog into which it sank, with the bigger lesson that “size matters not,” that is, that it is the Force doing it, and the Force wasn’t bound by the limitations Luke assumed about himself unless Luke himself restrained what the Force did by assuming those limitations. Luke had to let go of his presuppositions about what could and could not be accomplished. He had to experience the Force flowing around him, within him, and through him. The Force was present, surrounding him whether he believed it or not. But in order for him to interact with it, he had to just do it, letting go of his preconceptions which restrained him.

     Meditation practice is one of the real world practices where “there is no try” applies. You either meditate or you don’t, and the deep experience of contemplative prayer which results can’t be learned or even fully explained until it happens. Faith is another thing where, really, “there is no try.” You either trust God or you don’t. You either hand Him the steering wheel, accelerator, and brake, or you yank it back. There is no middle ground, there is no hanging on to the driver’s seat “just in case.” There is no back up, no escape hatch, no safety net “just in case.” He will meet us where we’re at, but if you limit Him with your own assumptions of limitations (“it’s too big!”), and act accordingly, then you’re the one still driving, not Him.

     “There is no try” applies most potently to remaining in Christ or “walking in the Spirit.” One either does it, or does not do it. One either disengages from their own naturally produced responses and behaviors, and commits total control and cooperation to the Spirit of Christ, or they do not. It is an either/or situation. This is not to say it is a once and done situation. Control must be explicitly or implicitly turned over to Him with every moment, every decision, every response, every word, every behavior. There are times we will fail and take the steering wheel back, and when this happens we must recognize it, agree with God about it, and give control back to Him. This is part of the learning process. But until we do explicitly give Him control, we have no baseline to compare the experience with. We will not know or understand what it is like to have Him speak and act through us, and how it is different from our own responses, words, or behaviors. We will not learn how to imitate Christ in His submission to the Father until we do it and realize we’re doing it.

     There is no “Well, I’ll give it a try and see how it works out.” to the path of Jesus Christ. Those who go into it with this mentality will continue in their own malfunctioning devices. It’s an all or nothing upward motion. You either move forward, or you move backwards. It’s either Him doing it through you, the infinite, omnipotent Creator and Author of the multiverse acting and speaking through you and in cooperation with your own resources, or it’s you trying to do it with just your own limited, finite resources. This is why, in the New Testament, those who follow Him are encouraged, exhorted, and nothing short of commanded to strip away everything which would hinder that upward motion towards full “synchronization” with Jesus Christ. As Paul writes using the metaphor of a Greco-Roman runner in the games who literally stripped down naked to remove all possible impediments and anything which would trip him up or in which he might be tangled.

     “Do, or do not. There is no try.” Where the path of Jesus Christ is concerned, there are few words which are truer.

A Fresh Translation of Romans 2

 Therefore, you are without a defense, O every single human being who judges; because with what criteria you are judging the other different person, you will judge against yourself, because you who judge are practicing the self-same things. Yet we know that the legal decision of God is in line with reality upon those practicing such things as these. Yet are you calculating this thing, O human being judging those practicing such things as these and doing them, that you will escape the legal decision of God? Or are you minded against the wealth of His kindness and relief and long temper, being ignorant that the specific kindness of God guides you into a change of heart? Yet in line with your hardness and unchanging heart you treasure for yourself natural impulse on the day of passionate anger and revelation of the right judgment of the God who will repay to each person in line with his deeds; to those on the one hand looking for, in line with the endurance of a good work, reputation and value and incorruption He will repay the life of the Eternal One; yet to those from selfishness also disobeying this Reality being convinced by that wrong He will repay with passionate anger and intensity. Crushing and confinement upon every single psyche of a human being achieving the bad thing, both Iudaean first and Greek; yet reputation and value and peace to every single person achieving the good thing, both to Iudaean first and to Greek; because there isn’t partiality alongside God. Because as many as malfunctioned without the Torah, will also be destroyed without the Torah, and as many as malfunctioned by means of the Torah, will be decided through the Torah; because not those who hear the Torah are righted alongside God, but those who do the Torah will be declared right. Because when the ethnic groups who don’t possess the Torah should naturally do the things of the Torah, these not possessing the Torah are a Torah for themselves; such ones as demonstrate the work of the Torah written on their hearts, with their conscience testifying together with, and in the middle of, one another’s calculations, prosecuting or defending them, on the day when God will decide the hidden things of human beings in line with my Gospel through Yeshua the Christ.

     Yet if you are called a Iudaean and rest upon the Torah and speak loudly by means of God and are familiar with His will and prove the different things by testing being instructed from the Torah, having convinced yourself too to be a guide of the blind, a light for those in the darkness, a tutor for the mindless, a teacher of infants, having the embodiment of the knowledge and the truth within the Torah; the one who teaches the other different person, do you not teach yourself? The one who preaches not to steal, do you steal? The one who says not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? The one abhorring the idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who speak loudly with the Torah, are you devaluing God through the violation of the Torah? Because, “The name of God is blasphemed because of you among the ethnic groups,” just like it had been written. Because circumcision is on the one hand a benefit if you should practice the Torah; yet if you are a violator of the Torah, your circumcision has become a foreskin. If then the foreskin guards the regulations of the Torah, doesn’t his foreskin figure for circumcision? And the foreskin from nature who brings the Torah to completion will decide you the violator of the Torah through the letter and circumcision. Because it isn’t the person who is visibly a Iudaean nor the circumcision visibly within the soft tissues of the body, but the person who is a hidden Iudaean, and the circumcision with the Spirit not the letter, of which the praise is not from human beings but from God.

A Fresh Translation of Romans 5

 Having then been made right from the faith we possess peace standing in front of God through our Lord Yeshua the Christ through whom also we had held the solemn approach by the faith into this charity with which we have stood and speak loud upon the reputation of God. Yet not just this, but also we speak loudly in these afflictions, knowing that the affliction achieves endurance, yet this endurance achieves a passed test, yet this passed test achieves hope. Yet this hope doesn’t cover with shame, because the love of God had been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given to us. Because the Christ still, with our still being weak, in line with the period of time died on behelf of the sacrilegious. Because someone would only just die on behalf of a righted person (because someone would also perhaps dare to die on behalf of a good person); yet God puts together His own love as far as we are concerned, because with our still being malfunctioning people the Christ died on our behalf. By much more then, having now been made right with His blood, will we be rescued through Him from  the natural impulse. Because if being hostiles we were exchanged to God through the death of His Son, by much more being exchanged will we be rescued with His life; yet not just this, but also boasting by means of God through our Lord Yeshua the Christ through whom we now possess the exchange.

     Because of this, just like through one human being the malfunction entered into the universe and this death through that malfunction, and in this way that death came through into all human beings, upon which everyone malfunctioned; because up to the Torah the malfunction was within the universe, yet the malfunction wasn’t being calculated with the Torah not existing, but this death reigned from Adam up til Moses and upon those not having malfunctioned upon the same kind of violation of Adam who is a type of the One being intended.

     But the charitable gift1 isn’t in this way like the violation; because if by the one’s violation the many died, how much more the charity of God and what is freely granted with that charity which overflowed from the one human being Yeshua the Christ into the many. And the present isn’t like through the one having malfunctioned; because the crime from the one on the one hand resulted in punishment, yet the charitable gift out of many violations results in the amendment of the wrong. Because if by the one’s violation this death reigned through the one, how much more those receiving within life the overflow of this charity and the state of being right which is freely granted will reign through the One Yeshua the Christ. Therefore then, like through the one’s violation into all human beings resulted in punishment, so also through the one’s amendment of the wrong into all human beings resulted in life’s justice; because just like through the unwillingness to listen of the one human being placed the many as malfunctioning people, so also through the willingness to listen of the One the many will be placed as righted people. Yet the Torah entered alongside, so that the violation would be more than sufficient; yet where the malfunction was more than sufficient, this charity overflowed beyond that, so that just like the malfunction reigned within this death, so also the charity would reign through the right state of being resulting in the life of the Eternal One through Yeshua the Christ, our Lord.

A Fresh Translation of John 17

 Yeshua talked these things and having lifted up His eyes to the sky He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that Your Son would glorify You, just like You gave Him authority of every single physical being, so that every single thing you had given Him He would give to them the Life of the Eternal One. And this is the Life of the Eternal One, so that they would be familiar with You the only real God and Yeshua the Christ whom you sent out. I glorified You upon the land having finished the work which You had given to Me so that I should do it; and now You glorify Me, Father, by the glory which I was having alongside Yourself before the universe’s existence alongside You.

     I made Your name shine forth to those human beings whom you gave to Me out of the system of this world. They were for You and You gave them to Me and they have kept Your message. Now they recognized that all things as much as You had given Me are from alongside You; that the spoken words which You gave Me I had given to them, and they received and really recognized that I came out from alongside You, and trusted that You sent Me out. I am requesting about them, I am not requesting about the universe but about those whom You had given Me, because they are for You, and all the things which are Mine are Yours and the things which are Yours are Mine, and I had been glorified with them. And I am no longer within the universe, and they are within the universe, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them with Your name which You had given to Me, so that they would be one thing, just like We are. When I was with them, I was keeping them with Your name which you had given to Me, and I guarded them, and none of them was destroyed except the son of that destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. Yet now I am coming to You and I am talking these things within the universe so that they would have the joy which is Mine having been filled full within themselves. I had given to them Your message and the system of this world hated them, because they aren’t of the system of this world anymore just like I am not of the system of this world. I’m not requesting so that You would remove them out of the universe, but so that You would keep them from the deranged one. They aren’t of the system of this world just like I am not of the system of this world. Make them holy with Your Reality; the Message which is Yours is that Reality. Just like You sent Me out into the universe, I also will send them out into the universe; and I am making Myself holy on their behalf, so that they would also be having been made holy with that Reality.

     Yet I’m not requesting about just these, but also about those putting their trust into Me through their message, so that all of them would be one thing, just like You, Father, are within Me and I am within You, so that they also would be one thing within us, so that the universe would trust that You sent Me out. And I had given to them the reputation which You had given to Me, so that they would be one thing just like We are One thing; I within them and You within Me, so that they would be having been brought to completion into one thing, so that the universe would know that You sent Me out and loved them just like You loved Me. Father, the thing which you had given to Me, I wish so that where I am those also would be with Me, so that they would gaze on the glory which is Mine, which you had given to Me because You loved Me before the founding of the Universe. Right Father, also the system of this world didn’t recognize You, yet I recognized You, and these recognized that You sent Me out; and I made Your name known to them and I will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me would be within them and I would be within them.”

A Fresh Translation of John 13

 Yet before the holy day of the Pascha, Yeshua having seen that His hour came so that He would transfer out of this universe in the direction of the Father, His own who are within the universe, He loved them as far as the end. And with a seder happening, with the Slanderer already having been tossed into the heart of Y’hudah Bar-Shimon the Iskariot so that he would hand Him over, knowing that the Father gave everything to Him into His hands and that He came out from God and is going to God, He rose Himself from the seder and set down His clothes and having taken a towel He belted Himself; then tosses water into the washbasin and started to wash the feet of the disciples and to wipe them dry with the towel with which He was having been belted. He then comes to Shimon Petros; he says to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Yeshua responded and said to him, “What I’m doing you don’t know at present, yet you will know with these things.” Petros says to Him, “You will absolutely not wash my feet into the eon.” Yeshua responded to them, “If I won’t wash you, you don’t have a piece with Me.” Shimon Petros says to Him, “Lord, not just my feet but also my hands and head!” Yeshua says to him, “The person having been bathed doesn’t have a use for it except for the feet to be washed, but is otherwise entirely clean; and you guys are clean, but not all. Because He knew the one handing Him over; because of this He said that, “Not all of you guys are clean.”

     When He then washed their feet and took His clothes and fell upon the floor again, He said to them, “Do you recognize what I have done for you? You call Me, ‘The Teacher,’ and ‘The Lord,’ and you speak beautifully, because I am. If then I, the Teacher and Lord, washed your feet, you guys are also obligated to wash one another’s feet; because I gave you an example so that just like I did for you, you guys also should do. Amen amen I tell you, a slave isn’t better than his owner, neither is an emissary better than the person having sent him. If you know these things, you are happy if you should do them. Not about all of you am I speaking; I know those whom I selected; but so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, “The person nibbling on My bread lifted up his heel upon Me.’ From this point on I am telling you before the happening, so that you would trust when it should happen that I Am. Amen amen I tell you, the person receiving anyone whom I would send receives Me, yet the person receiving Me receives the One having sent Me.”

     Having said these things, Yeshua’s breathing was upset and He testified and said, “Amen amen I am telling you that one of you will hand Me over.” The disciples looking at one another being at a loss about whom He is speaking. One of His disciples was reclining against the chest of Yeshua, whom Yeshua loved, Shimon Petros then nodded to this person to inquire who it would be about whom He is speaking. That person then having in this way fallen upon the chest of Yeshua says to Him, “Lord, who is it?” Yeshua responds, “That person is to whom I will dip the piece of bread and will give it to him.” Having then dipped the piece of bread He gives it to Y’hudah Bar-Shimon the Iskariot. And with the piece of bread at that time Satan entered into that one. Yeshua then says to him, “What thing you are doing, do it fast.” Yet this thing no one of those reclining knew in the direction of what He said to him; because some were assuming, since Y’hudah was holding the money-box, that Yeshua says to him, “Purchase what we have need of for the holy day,” or so that he would give something to the destitute. Taking the piece of bread that one came out immediately. Yet it was night.

     When he then came out, Yeshua says, “Now the Son of Adam was glorified, and God was glorified with Him, and God will glorify Him by means of Him, and he will immediately glorify Him. Little children, I am still with you for a little bit; you will look for Me , and just like I told the Iudaeans that, ‘Where I am going you can’t come,’ I am also telling you now. I am giving you a fresh command, so that you love one another, just like I loved you so that you also love one another. With this thing everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you should possess love among one another.”

     Shimon Petros says to Him, “Lord, where are you going?” Yeshua answered, “Where I’m going you can’t follow Me now, yet you will follow Me afterwards.” Petros says to Him, “Lord, because of what can’t I follow You now? I would set down My psyche on your behalf.” Yeshua responds, “Would you set down your psyche on My behalf? Amen amen I tell you, the rooster will absolutely not sound until which time you would disown Me thrice.”

A Fresh Translation of John 16

“I have talked these things to you so that you wouldn’t be tripped up. They will make you excommunicated; but an hour is coming so that every single person having killed you should assume to offer priestly ministry to God. And they will do these things because they didn’t recognize the Father nor Me. But I have talked these things to you so that when the hour should come you would remember that I told you.

     Yet I didn’t tell you these things from the start, because I was with you. Yet now I am going towards the One having sent Me, and no one from you questions Me, “Where are you going?” But because I have talked to you these things grief has filled your heart. But I am telling you the Truth, it comes together better for you so that I should come away. Because if I shouldn’t come away, the Advocate won’t come to you; yet if I should go, I will send Him to you. And having come that one will bring the system of this world to light about the malfunction and about a right state of being and about the decision point. About the malfunction on the one hand, because they don’t put their trust into Me; yet about a right state of being, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer view Me; yet about the decision point, because the princeps of the system of this world has been judged.

     I still have a lot to say to you, but you can’t carry the load of it just yet; yet when that One should come, the Spirit of the Truth, He will guide you within all reality; because He will not talk from Himself, but as much as He will hear He will talk and will disclose the coming things to you. That one will glorify Me, because He will receive from Me and will disclose to you. Everything as much as the Father possesses is Mine; because of this, I said that He receives from Me and will disclose to you.

     A little bit and you will no longer view Me, and again a little bit and you will see Me.” They said then from His disciples to one another, “What is this thing which He says to us, ‘A little bit and you won’t view Me, and again a little bit and you will see Me’? And, ‘Because I am going to the Father?’” They were then saying, “What is this thing which He says, ‘the little bit’? We don’t know what He’s talking about.” Yeshua knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “About this do you look with one another that I said, ‘A little bit and you won’t view Me, and a little bit and you will see Me?’ Amen amen I tell you, that you will wail for grief and will sing a funeral dirge, yet the system of this world will rejoice; you will be grieved, but your grief will happen for joy. The woman when she brings a child into the world holds grievous pain, because her hour came; yet when she births the little child, she no longer remembers the distress because of the joy that a human being was birthed into the universe. And you then now on the one hand hold grievous pain; yet I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will lift your joy away from you. And on that day you will question Me nothing at all. Amen amen I tell you, as much as you would ask the Father anything with My name He will give you. Until this point in time you didn’t ask for anything at all with My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy would be having been filled up.

     I have talked to you these things with metaphors; an hour is coming when I will no longer talk to you with metaphors, but I will openly announce to you everything about the Father. On that day you will ask with My name, and I’m not telling you that I will question the Father about you; because the Father Himself has affection for you, because you had affection for Me and had trusted that I came out from alongside the Father. I came out from alongside the Father and had come into the universe; I am again letting the universe go and going to the Father.” His disciples are saying, “Look, now you are talking openly and are speaking not one metaphor. Now we know that you know everything and don’t have a need so that someone should question you; with this we know that you came out from God.” Yeshua responded to them, “You trust this now? Look, an hour is coming and has come so that each of you will be scattered like seed into his own things and you will let Me go alone; and I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. I had talked these things to you so that with Me you would have peace; you hold distress with the system of this world; but be confident, I have been victorious over the system of this world.”

A Fresh Translation of John 15

 John 15

“I am the real vine and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every single branch within Me not producing fruit He removes it, and every single branch which produces the fruit He cleans it so that it would produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the message which I had talked to you; make your home within Me, and I within you. Just like the branch can’t produce fruit from itself if it shouldn’t make its home within the vine, in this way neither you if you shouldn’t make your home within Me. I Am the Vine, you are the branches. The person making his home within Me and I within him this person produces a lot of fruit, because separated from Me you absolutely can’t do anything at all. If someone shouldn’t make his home within Me, he was tossed outside like the branch and was dried up and they collect them and toss them into the fire and they are burned. If you should make your home within Me and My spoken words should make their home within you, you will ask whatever you would wish, and it will happen for you. With this My Father was glorified, so that you would produce a lot of fruit and would become disciples for Me. Just like the Father loved Me, I also loved you; Make your home within the love which is Mine. If you should keep My commands, you would remain within My love, Just like I had kept the commands of My Father and I make My home within His love.

     I have talked these things to you so that the joy which is Mine would be within you and your joy would be filled full. This is the command which is Mine, so that you love one another just like I loved you. No one holds better love than this, so that someone would set down his psyche on behalf of his friends. You are My friends if you would do what things I Myself am commanded for you. I am no longer saying to you, ‘slaves,’ because the slave doesn’t know what his owner is doing; yet I have said, ‘friends,’ because everything which I heard from alongside My Father I made known to you. You didn’t select Me, but I selected you and set you down so that you should go and should produce fruit and your fruit should make its home, so that anything whatever you should ask the Father with My name He will give you. These things I am commanded for you, so that you love one another.

     If the system of this world hates you, recognize that it had hated Me first. If you were from the system of this world, the system of this world would have affection for its own; yet because you aren’t from the system of this world anymore, but I selected you out of the system of this world, because of this the system of this world hates you. Remember the message which I said to you, “A slave isn’t better than his owner.” If they chased Me down, they will also chase you down; if they kept My message, they will also keep yours. But they will do all of these things to you because of My name, because they don’t know the One having sent Me. If I didn’t come and talk to them, they weren’t in possession of a malfunction; yet now they don’t even have a pretext about their malfunction. The person hating Me also hates My Father. If I didn’t do the deeds among them which no one other did, they weren’t in possession of a malfunction; yet now they have also seen and have hated both Me and My Father. But so that the message which is having been written within their Torah would be fulfilled that, “They hated Me for no reason.”

     When the Advocate should come, whom I will send to you from alongside the Father, the Spirit of the Truth which goes out from alongside the Father, that One will testify about Me; yet you also will testify, because you are with Me from the start.”

A Fresh Translation of John 14

 John 14

Don’t let your heart be upset; put your trust into God and put your trust into Me. There are many homes within the house of My Father; yet if not, would I have told you that I am going to fix up a place for you? And if I should go and fix up a place for you, I am coming again and I will receive you from here to Myself, so that where I am you also would be. And you know the Path where I am going. Thoma says to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the Path?” Yeshua says to him, “I am the Tao and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father if not through Me. If you were familiar with Me, you were also familiar with My Father. And from this point you are familiar with Him and have seen Him.” Philippos says to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Yeshua says to him, “I am with you for this much of a time and you haven’t recognized Me, Philippos? The person having seen Me has seen the Father; how then are you saying, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you trust that I am within the Father and the Father is within Me? The spoken words which I tell you I don’t talk from Myself, yet the Father making His home within Me does His deeds. Trust Me that I am within the Father and the Father is within Me; yet if not, trust because of the self-same deeds. Amen amen I tell you, the person putting his trust into Me the deeds which I am doing that person will also do and will do better than these, because I am going to the Father; and whatever thing you would ask with My name this thing I will do, so that the Father would be glorified with the Son; if you should ask Me anything with My name I will do it.

     If you love Me, you will keep these commands of Mine; and I will request from the Father and He will give to you another Advocate, so that It would be with you into the eon, the Spirit of the Truth, whom the system of this world can’t receive, because it doesn’t view neither does it recognize It; you recognize it, because It makes Its home alongside you and will be within you. I will not let you go orphans, I am coming to you. There is still a little bit and the universe no longer views Me, yet you are viewing Me, because I am alive you also will be alive. On that day you will recognize that I am within My Father and you are within Me and I am within you. The person possessing My commands and keeping them, that person is the one loving Me; yet the person loving Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will make Myself visible to him.” Y’hudah, not the Iskariot, says to Him, “Lord, what has happened that you are intending to make Yourself visible to us and not to the universe?” Yeshua answered and said to him, if someone loves Me he will keep the message communicated by My word, and My Father will love him and we will come to him and we will make a home alongside him. The person not loving Me doesn’t keep the messages communicated by My words; and the message which you are listening to isn’t Mine but of the Father who sent Me.

     I had talked to you these things making My home alongside you; yet the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send with My name, that One will teach you everything and remind you of everything which I told you. I let go peace to you, I am giving you the peace which is Mine; not just like the universe gives am I giving it to you. Don’t let your heart be upset neither let it be cowardly. You heard that I told you, “I am going and coming to you.” If you were loving Me you would have been rejoicing that I am going to the Father, because the Father is better than Me. And nowI have told you before the happening, so that when it should happen you would trust. I will no longer talk with you a lot, because the princeps of the system of this world is coming; and he possesses nothing by means of Me, but so that the universe would recognize that I love the Father, and just like the Father commanded Me, in this way I am doing. Get up, we are going from here.”

Note: The word “Tao” literally means something like “Way, Road, or Path” similar to the Greek word “οδος” which it is translating. “Tao means a road, path, way; and hence, the way in which one does something; method, doctrine, principle,” according to Waley, Arthur (1958). The way and its power: a study of the Tao tê ching and its place in Chinese thought. Grove Press. ISBN . According to the Wikipedia, “Laozi in the Tao Te Ching explains that the Tao is not a "name" for a "thing" but the underlying natural order of the Universe whose ultimate essence is difficult to circumscribe due to it being non-conceptual yet evident in one's being of aliveness. The Tao is "eternally nameless" (Tao Te Ching-32. Laozi) and to be distinguished from the countless "named" things which are considered to be its manifestations, the reality of life before its descriptions of it.” There is some correspondence between the Greek concept of the λογος and the Chinese concept of the “Tao.” These are the reasons why I have chose to render "Way" here in 14:6 as "Tao" as it felt appropriate to context of Who was speaking and what was being said.

A Short Ramble About Perfection

 My wife and I were talking this morning about what it means to be perfect. In context, we were talking about how the angels are often considered perfect, and yet according to Revelation there either was or will be a war in heaven fought by them, as well as a good many of them malfunctioning and choosing delusion over Truth.

     As I was thinking about this, I was also thinking about Jesus Christ, who was and remains without sin, and perfect at least as far as God and Scripture are concerned, and yet who, by virtue of His parthenogenetic birth, at the very least had a weak physical heart, and likely a low or non-existent libido for the same reasons (see my previous ramble about Christ’s virgin birth). And then my thoughts wondered to the creation itself which God declared good for millions of years until the fall of human beings. During that time, predators ate prey, animals died and were born, volcanoes and natural disasters happened, an asteroid hit the planet and wiped out most of what we now call dinosaurs, and yet God still called it good.

     My thought about all of this is that God’s definition of perfect is very different from what we as human beings consider perfect. Consider, for example, the resistance natural philosophers had to the idea that the planets did not orbit in perfect circles, or that they themselves were not perfect spheres, because they believed God wouldn’t make anything less than perfect. And yet the planets generally orbit in ellipses, and at the very least, the Earth is roughly a spherical egg shape from pole to pole.

     The thought occurred to me that God’s definition of perfect is “the way He wants it to be,” neither more nor less. His definition of perfection has nothing to do with mathematical symmetry, physical health, or strength, or appearance, and it certainly doesn’t line up with any conceptions we might have about what it means for something to be perfect.

     Thus, someone can have a developmental or congenital disorder, and yet still be perfect because that’s how God wanted it to be. The planets can travel in and be irregular shapes because that’s how God wanted it to be. The entire creation can look so raw, savage even, and unpredictable, and still be perfect and good, because that’s exactly how God wanted it to be whether it offends our sense of decorum or asthetics, or not. Human beings and angels both can have the freedom to make their own choices about what they do and how they live, and this too is perfect and good, even if the choices they make are not always.

     God considers something good and perfect as measured by His own standards, not by ours, whether or not we understand why or even agree. If God says something is perfect or good, then it is, even if it doesn’t match what we would consider either good or perfect. One of the biggest mistakes we can make is assuming that God judges things using the same measurements or standards that we do.

On the Two Paths

 “Enter through the narrow gate; because the gate is wide and the path is spacious leading away into this destruction and many are those entering through it; because the gate is narrow and the path having been tightened leading away into this life and there are a small number of people finding it.”

Matthew 7:13-14

     I’ve been thinking about what this means this morning. There is a similar expression which the Didache, a first century Christian catechism originally written in Greek, starts with, “There are two paths. The path of life, and the path of death.” 

     The second thing I am reminded of is in Romans 6 where Paul says, “Don’t you know that to whom you offer yourselves slaves for obedience, you are slaves to whom you obey, either of the malfunction resulting in death or of obedience resulting in a state of being set right? Yet thanks to God that you were slaves of the malfunction yet you obeyed from the heart as far as which type of teaching to which you were handed over, yet having been freed from the malfunction you were enslaved to a state of being righted. I am speaking humanly because of the weakness of the soft tissues of your body. Because just like you offered the parts of your body slaves to being dirty and to this lawlessness resulting in this lawlessness, in this way now offer the parts of your body slaves to a state of being right resulting in a state of being holy. Because when you were slaves of the malfunction, you were free with respect to a state of being right. What fruit then did you possess at that time? Upon which you are at present ashamed, because the goal of those things is death. Yet at present having been freed from the malfunction yet having been enslaved to God you have your fruit as far as a state of being holy, and the result, the life of the Eternal One. Because the wages of the malfunction are death, yet the charitable gift of God is the life of the Eternal One by means of the Christ, Yeshua our Lord.”

      The narrow gate which difficult to find with the tightly squeezed path it leads to, is this path of offering yourself as a slave to God, that is explicitly or implicitly offering the parts of your body to be used and controlled by the Spirit of Christ, as Jesus Christ Himself did, doing and saying only what the Father did and said by means of the Holy Spirit through Him so that “the person who has seen Me has seen the Father.” The wide gate with the spacious path is the path of offering the parts of your body to the soft tissues of your own malfunctioning neurology, acting, speaking, and responding from your own erroneous psychology. 

    The first, more difficult path, leads to the life of the Eternal One. The second path leads to destruction and death. As Jesus taught in John 15, “Make your home within Me, and I within you. Just like the branch can’t bring forth fruit from itself if it should make its home within the vine, in the same way neither you if you don’t make your home within Me. I Am the vine, you the branches. The person making his home within Me and I within him, this person brings forth a lot of fruit, because separated from Me you can’t do anything at all. If someone shouldn’t make his home within Me, he was tossed outside like the branch and was dried up, and they collect them and toss them into the fire and they are burned to ash. If you would make your home within Me and My spoken words make their home within you, you will ask for whatever you would wish, and it will happen for you.”

     It’s important to note that these words, both in Matthew and in John, were spoken by Jesus to His disciples. They were spoken to those who had already chosen to listen to Him and to follow Him. And what Paul was describing was not directed to those on the outside, but to those baptized and joined to Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

     The two paths are the two paths which can be taken by His disciples, and Jesus said that only a few would take the path of the life of the Eternal One, but many would choose the wide and spacious path of death and destruction. Notice too that forgiveness isn’t in play here, but the results of which path you choose in this life which may bleed over into the next. We either choose the path of life, or we choose the path of death and destruction, and whichever path we choose is what we leave in our wake and what affects others around us. Jesus, in His submission and surrender to the Father, took the path of life, as hard and as stressful as it was, and He taught His disciples to pick up their own crosses and follow Him down it.

On Following What Jesus Taught

 What did Jesus Christ actually teach? What did He say? There are many who argue that Paul's writings might be more important than Christ's teachings in the Gospels for their own theological reasons, and yet Paul only really expounded on what Jesus Himself taught, and was adamant that the beginning, middle, and goal of everything He taught, said, and did was to gain Christ at the expense of everything else. Paul ate, drank, slept, and breathed Jesus Christ so that he said, "I no longer live but Christ is alive within me." And as Paul wrote, "Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" So, if nothing else, Paul himself would argue that what Jesus Christ taught, said, and did was of far more importance than his own opinions and writings about things.

     So, back to my question. What did Jesus Christ actually teach? This tends to be an uncomfortable question for a lot of Christians, because they call Him "Lord, Lord," but tend to see His teachings as suggestions or guidelines for the truly devout or pious, but not really practical for day to day living. And, to be honest, many try and find ways around what He taught. They call themselves His disciples, they do nearly everything in His name whether He taught it or not, but neither meet the conditions of discipleship nor attempt to imitate Him on any level which could be considered discipleship. They prattle on about being saved, yet no one can discern what they appear to have been saved from based on how they live.

     The truth is, anyone who has even read the Gospels casually knows exactly what Jesus Christ taught. Even unbelievers know what He taught as they watch those who take His name, talk about how great He is, and totally ignore and do the opposite of what He taught.

     For the record, Jesus Christ taught to Love God, love one another, love the person next to you, and love your enemies. He excluded no one from this list. He said that everything He said and did was what the Father instructed Him to say and do. Nothing more, and nothing less, and if you had seen Him, you had seen the Father. He said don't judge, or you will be judged. He said forgive, and you will be forgiven, don't forgive and you won't. He said that, in a nutshell, if anything became an obstacle to following Him whether it was a relationship, possessions, anything you might worry about or have anxiety about, your own soul, a body part, or anything else, that it needed to be let go from your life or you couldn't be His disciple. He taught that those who spoke evil of the Holy Spirit who did the miracles and demonstrations of power through Him, testifying to who He is, then they wouldn't be forgiven either in this eon or that to come. He taught His disciples to make their home in Him, and stay put there, because without Him they could do nothing. And if anyone didn't, they would dry up and be burned like dry grass, but those that did make their home in Him, and His words stayed put within them, they would ask whatever they wished and it would be done for them. He taught that sinners would enter the Kingdom of Heaven before the religious elite, and that you would know a tree by the fruit it produces referring to the aforementioned religious elites. These are the things Jesus Christ taught, and others along the same lines.

     For those of us who call Him, "Lord," and take vows or oaths to Him explicitly or implicitly, these things must be in front of our minds at all times. How can we seriously call Him "Lord," if we ignore what He says? We make ourselves liars and worse by so doing. We treat Him and what He taught with contempt when we don't strive to imitate Him as a disciple his master, and as Paul and the author of Hebrews wrote, God doesn't take kindly to Jesus Christ being treated with contempt. We bring judgment on ourselves when we call ourselves by His name, and treat what He said like it was nothing. We bring judgment on ourselves when we turn our backs on the covenant He sealed with His blood to remove our sin and join us to Himself and run back to law keeping of any kind, which Paul repeatedly and explicitly wrote about. We bring judgment on ourselves when we ignore the pleas of the poor, the needy, the widow, and the orphan, especially when we are the cause of their suffering, and this not even from just the New Testament, but God was clear about this all over the Old. When we say we don't posses a malfunction and we're just fine, we call God a liar.

     If the core of your theology and practice is not Jesus Christ, then there is something wrong. You are professing and living some other Gospel, but not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are teaching some other doctrine as superior to or superceding what He taught His disciples, then you are teaching your own doctrine and your own opinions and not the doctrine and teaching of Jesus Christ. The person who does not love, does not recognize God, because God is love. And this is how we know that we recognize Him, by His love flowing through us to those around us. This is how we know that we have been made right by Him, when all those around us can experience and encounter Him through us, when we choose mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than all the religious rights of worship in the world.

     Ask yourselves, are you following what He taught? Or are you treating what He taught as mere suggestions meant for other people?

More Thoughts on Discipleship

 Being a disciple and being a "believer" are two very different things. A person can profess to believe in God, to believe in Jesus Christ all he or she wants, but this does not make that person a disciple.

     The word disciple refers to someone studying the teaching and manner of life of a master, guru, or teacher, and taking the time and pains to imitate that master, guru, or teacher and implement their teaching until they are just like them. A similar concept is that of an apprentice. 

     An apprentice to a blacksmith doesn't just take notes, and listen to what the master blacksmith has to say. They start at the simplest concepts and, under the master's watchful eye, imitate what that master blacksmith does in forging and smithing metal into the shapes and qualities that are required. They do this over, and over again until they've mastered the very basics, making mistake after mistake and seeing what happens with the results of that mistake: bent tools from not enough hardening, broken blades from too much hardening, what happens when you don't take precautions, and so on.

     You are not a disciple just because you read your Bible and sit in church every Sunday. You are not a disciple just because you read about and argue about Christian theology. You are not a disciple until you actually start putting into practice what Jesus taught, making mistakes and learning from them, and meeting the conditions of discipleship.

     Jesus laid out the conditions of discipleship several times. In short, they can be reduced to a simple, single concept: remove everything from your life which would obstruct you from following Jesus Christ. Not believing in Him mind you, but following Him. This is true whether or not it is wealth or property (a big stumbling block actually; selling everything you have and giving the proceeds to either the poor [or the church for common distribution in the book of Acts] was clearly expected by Jesus of His disciples in the Gospels and the Apostles continued it in Acts), family relationships (if you love mother, father, son, daughter, brother, or sister more than Jesus Christ you cannot be His disciple), or even your own soul (lit. in Greek "psyche," the sum total of what makes you, you). Paul reiterates this practice in Philippians three where he says he suffered the loss of everything, and counted it as garbage in comparison with knowing Him, and the power of His resurrection, being conformed to His death. Over and over again in the Gospels and the Epistles, His disciples are reminded and admonished to lay everything aside which could trip them up from fully submitting to and surrendering to the Spirit of Christ, disengaging from their malfunctioning flesh, like Greek runners in the Olympics of the period who ran naked so as not to be slowed down by their clothing. 

     Anything you have an attachment to which could trigger a disengagement from the Spirit of Christ and re-engagement of the responses and behaviors of the malfunctioning flesh must be cut away and left behind internally at the very least if not externally in order to continue to be a disciple. Why? Because if we are attached to something, any threat to that something will trigger either our fear or aggression response. Likewise, if we believe we need something we don't currently possess (whether we actually need it or not), such as food, sex, resources, etc., then this becomes a perceived threat as well, and triggers the fear or aggression response, as well as potentially the feeding or sexual responses. These survival responses then take control and produce the anger, theft, greed, violence, murder, envy, adultery, whoring, and so on which are described as works of the flesh. These survival responses are what is malfunctioning in the human brain. This system in the human brain is where the error lies. Therefore, anything the loss or possession of which can trigger it must be let go of in order to be His disciple, because it is when this is triggered that we are tempted to disengage from the Spirit of Christ and take back control of the parts of our body from Him.

     Jesus said that those who only hear His words, but don't do them are like a man who build his house on the sand at the bottom of a wadi, a dry ravine in the desert that is subject to flash flooding without warning when it rains. Those who hear His words and do them are like a man who builds his house on the bedrock at the top of the wadi, the rock cliff overlooking the ravine where the rains and floods can't touch him.

     Jesus also told His disciples that as they went into the world, they were to disciple the nations of people they encountered. The instruction was not to make believers, but disciples. The instruction is not to just make people who hear His words and listen to them gladly, but to turn those people into apprentices and imitators of Jesus Christ; to make disciples.

     We are called, not to just sit in a pew and listen to a sermon on Sundays, but to disown ourselves, pick up the cross on which we died with Him, and follow Him, imitate Him, do what He did and live as He taught.

A Ramble about Church Attendance and Discipleship

 I’ve seen several posts lately about the need for Christians to be physically present at church. Hebrews 10:25 is often quoted, and sometimes used to claim a command from the Bible to meet together physically. Here’s the thing, why are we meeting together? Sit and consider this question carefully while I continue.

     The first century local churches looked nothing like the churches of today. They far more resembled monastic or religious communities with both celibate and married members. They had no designated church buildings. They sold all their property and contributed everything into a common purse to be distributed to the whole community as anyone had need. They didn’t just come together for an hour on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. They lived together or in close proximity, worked together, and were in community together seven days a week.

     Every member of the local community of “followers of the Way” had been initiated through baptism and the laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit. Every member of the community had made the commitment to leave everything behind which obstructed their submission and surrender to the Spirit of Christ. Every member of the community knew what it meant to be a disciple, and that they were expected to live their lives as Jesus Christ taught, and expected to walk as He walked. Even into the mid second century, it was understood that some one of their number found not living as Jesus Christ taught was no longer considered one of them, even if he was saying and professing the things Jesus taught. It didn’t matter what he said he believed, what counted as him being a Christian was whether or not Jesus Christ could be seen in how he behaved, reacted, and lived.

     This is the “church environment” within which the admonition to not forsake being gathered together was given by the author of Hebrews. It wasn’t about coming together once a week to sing worship songs and listen to a sermon. It was about being in continuous community with fellow disciples who had themselves given up everything to follow Jesus Christ. Given this model, the only “Christians” that have obeyed that admonition consistently are those in religious communities like the Jesuits or the Franciscans.

     So, back to my question, why are modern churches meeting together in the way that they are? Are they always made up of disciples who have left everything behind to follow Jesus Christ? The community of disciples of Jesus Christ should be a gathering of brothers and sisters where one can share anything with the other without fear. Where each person understands that discipleship means the imitation of Jesus Christ in His submission and surrender to the Father, and engages to do that with every word, thought, and action, forgiving one another and confessing their mistakes in order to stay on the path.

     Now look at the modern churches. Is this what you see? Maybe for a very few this is their experience, but from my observation, this is not the experience of the majority of people. For the majority of people, the modern local churches are places where they feel judged, stressed, frequently unwelcome because of internal “cliques,” and constantly asked for money with some churches. They’re expected to believe and support a list of doctrines that they don’t understand, and no one else seems to either, and are told they should question anything they’re being told, or made to feel guilty, ashamed, or dumb if they do. At times they’re bullied by church leadership, abused, and told to say nothing about these abuses. They’re expected to endure all of this, told to be joyful about it, and told that they’ll burn in hell if they leave. This is experienced to varying degrees. Some churches are better, some are far worse, but virtually all fail at the express reason for their existence, making genuine disciples of Jesus Christ and creating a community where Jesus Christ is experienced through every member.

     Attending “church” as it is today, and going through religious rituals is not discipleship. Just being a part of a “Christian church” does not make you a disciple. Sitting in a pew, singing songs, listening to a sermon, going to Bible study—all of these are good things to do if they are used as aids in advancing one’s discipleship, but they are not discipleship themselves. No one can be a disciple for you. No one can live as Jesus taught for you.

     Discipleship is an individual commitment. It’s something you have to do internally yourself whether you’re alone in a monk’s cell or living in the middle of a hundred people. You either internally enslave yourself to the Spirit of Christ, offering the parts of your body to His use, or you internally enslave yourself to your own malfunctioning flesh. There is no middle ground. Either one lives or the other, but not both. Either the Spirit of Christ is engaged and active, or it’s your own flesh, your own malfunctioning neurology which is engaged and active. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means individually and personally choosing to disengage from your own malfunctioning flesh and enslaving yourself to the Spirit of Christ so that it is He, Jesus Christ, who acts and speaks through you, using the members of your own body as His own: your mouth, your hands, your brain, your legs, your ears, everything is offered up for His use so that you are no longer alive, but Jesus Christ is alive within you, as Paul wrote. Just as He submitted Himself to the Father with whom He is one, so His disciple submits himself or herself to the Spirit of Christ with whom they are joined.

     Discipleship can be aided by being around other disciples, but it cannot be dependent on it. It can be a great help to have others surrendered to Christ to be in community with, but the lack of such a community should make no difference to one’s personal practice of submission and surrender. Look at Jesus Himself who, all of His life, was in submission to the Father, and yet was without brothers and sisters like Himself until after the resurrection and after Pentecost.

     Discipleship isn’t a theology to be defended, but a practice and a life to be lived. Discipleship assumes regular and increasing experience and interaction with God through Jesus Christ. It assumes an active relationship that is built on both give and take, and not doctrinal or theological structures which requires certain interpretations of the Scriptures. The mark of a disciple of Jesus Christ is the love of God flowing through that person to all others around them. As John wrote, “The person not loving hasn’t know God, because God is love.”

     But above all, genuine discipleship cannot be shifted or moved because of a loss of physical Sunday services. It cannot be collapsed by the disproving of a theological position. A genuine disciple of Jesus Christ is a disciple whether it is just him or her and Christ, or whether it is him or her, Christ, and hundreds of other brothers and sisters who have the same mind and practice. The key to genuine discipleship is not a “good church” or the “right theology.” The key to genuine discipleship is asking Jesus Christ to act and speak through you, to love all others through you, to surrender yourself to Him for Him to do it, and to leave off taking back control from Him; agreeing with Him when you screw up and turning around to follow Him once again. It is a decision you make, and you keep making every day, every moment, that you are not going to be the one to act or react, but that Jesus Christ is going to be the one to act and react through you.

     It is this personal, individual discipleship which matters first and foremost in our lives whether or not a person physically shows up on Sunday mornings.

A Fresh Translation of John 12

     Yeshua then, before six days of the Pascha came into Beit-Anyah, where El’azar was, whom Yeshua raised from the dead. They then made dinner for Him there, and Marta was serving, yet El’azar was one of those reclining at table together with Him. Mariam then having gotten a litra of very expensive, unadulterated myrrhed Spikenard oil anointed his feet; and the house was filled from the odor of the myrrh. Yet Y’hudah the Iskariot one of His disciples, the one intending to hand Him over, says, “Because of what wasn’t this myrrh sold for three hundred denarii and it given to the destitute?” Yet he  said this not because about the destitute was a concern to him, but because he was a thief and and in possession of the money box he lifted the money being tossed into it. Yeshua then said, “Let her go, so that she should keep it for the day of My entombment; because you always have the destitute with yourselves, yet you don’t always have Me.

     A lot of crowd from the Iudaeans then knew that He is there and came not just because of Yeshua, but so that they would also see El’azar whom He raised from the dead. Yet the High Priests resolved so that they should also kill El’azar, because many of the Idudaeans went because of him and were putting their trust into Yeshua.

     On the morrow, the lot of crowd which came for the holy day, having heard that “Yeshua is coming into Hierosoluma,” got the fronds of palm trees and came out for meeting Him and were screaming, “HOSHIANA!!! BLESSED IS THE ONE COMING IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, AND THE KING OF ISRAEL!!!”

     Yet Yeshua, having found a little donkey sat on it, just like it is having been written, “Don’t panic, daughter of Zion; look! Your king is coming, having sat on the foal of a donkey.”

     And His disciples didn’t know these things the first time, but when Yeshua was glorified then they were reminded that these things were having been written upon Him and they did these things to Him. The crowd then which is with Him when He called El’azar out of the tomb and raised him from the dead was testifying. Because of this, the crowd met Him, because they heard for Him to have done this omen. The Pharisees then said to one another, “Gaze at it that you profited nothing; look the whole universe went behind Him!”

     And some Greeks were from those going up so that they would be prostrating themselves at the holy day; these then approached Philippos who was from Beit-Zata of Galilee and questioned him saying, “Lord, we wish to see Yeshua.” Philippos comes and speaks to Andreas, Andreas and Philippos come and speak to Yeshua. Yet Yeshua replied to them saying, “The hour has come so that the Son of Adam would be glorified. Amen amen I say to you, if the grain of wheat having fallen into the ground should die, it stays put alone; yet if it should die, it brings a lot of fruit. The person having affection for his psyche destroys it, and the person hating his psyche within the order of this world will guard it as far as  the life of the Eternal One. If someone would serve Me, let him follow Me, and where I am there also the servant which is Mine will be; if someone would serve Me the Father will value him.

     “Now My psyche has been upset, and what would I say? ‘Father, rescue Me from this hour’? But because of this I came as far as this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” A voice then came from the sky, “I both glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd then having stood and heard were saying thunder to have happened, others were saying, “An angel had talked to Him.” Yeshua replied and said, “This voice hadn’t happened because of Me but because of you people. The decision point of this universe is now. The ruler of this universe will be thrown out outside now; and if I Myself would be raised high from the ground, I will drag everyone to Myself.” Yet he was saying this thing pointing out by what kind of death He was about to die. The crowd responded to Him, “We heard from the Torah that the Christ stays put into the eon, and how are you saying that there is a need to raise high the Son of Adam?” Yeshua then said to them, “The Light is still among you people a little time. Walk like you possess the Light, so that the darkness won’t seize you; and the person walking within the darkness doesn’t know where he’s going. As you possess the Light, put your trust into the Light, so that you would become sons of the Light.”

     Yeshua talked these things, and having come out He was hidden away from them. Yet as many of His omens having been done in front of them they weren’t putting their trust into Him, so that the message of Isaiah the prophet would be filled to the brim which He said, “Lord, who believed what is heard from us? And to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed?” Because of this they couldn’t place their trust, because again, Isaiah says, “He had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they wouldn’t see with the eyes and comprehend with the heart and would turn around, and I would cure them.” Isaiah said these things because he saw His reputation, and talked about Him. Nevertheless though many from the principle people put their trust into Him, but because of the Pharisees they weren’t confessing Him so that they wouldn’t become excommunicate; because they loved what human beings thought more than what God thought.

     Yet Yeshua shouted and said, “The person putting his trust into Me doesn’t put his trust into Me but into the One having sent Me, and the person gazing on Me gazes on the One having sent Me. I am a Light having come into the universe, so that every single person who puts their trust into Me would not make his home within the darkness. And if anyone should hear these words from me and shouldn’t guard them, I’m not making a decision about him; because I didn’t come so that I would make a decision about the universe, but so that I would rescue the universe. The person canceling Me and not getting My words has the one making a decision about him; that message which I talked will make a decision about him on the last day. Because I didn’t talk from Myself, but the Father having sent Me had given the command what I should say and what I should talk. And I know that His command is the life of the Eternal One. What things then which I talk, just like the Father told Me, in this way I am talking.

On the Two Natures of Jesus Christ

 There's a common misunderstanding about the person of Jesus Christ. Similar to how Fr. Richard Rohr tried to explain (whatever you might think of him), Jesus Christ is not God. Jesus Christ is the union of God the Son and human being. Within Mary's uterus God the Son, The "avatar" of Yahweh (in the sense of a gaming avatar) within time and space, and Mary's DNA were grafted together into a single, unique individual.

     What does this mean? In terms of Orthodox theology, Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. In His humanity, He is like us in everything but the fatal flaw within the flesh which the rest of us possess. But we have a hard time understanding what that means or looks like. As a result, we tend to say, Jesus is God, but do so to the exclusion of His humanity. Others of us tend to emphasize His humanity to the exclusion of His divinity. Both were considered heresies by the Great Ecumenical Councils and the Church Fathers before them.

     Here's my understanding of these truths. Jesus Christ is fully human. He has His own human psychology made up of the biological and neurological components contributed by Mary's DNA, as well as His own experiences growing up. Every person who entered His life, the culture He was brought up in, the languages He learned to speak as a child, the stories He heard, every skinned knee, every cruel or kind playmate, every decision He chose to make all contributed to this very human psychology just as they do to ours. This is what is means to be fully human. He laughed, He cried, He became afraid at times, He became angry at times, He became hungry and thirsty. There were times He had to use the toilet. There were times He became upset with others, or even Himself as the Greek suggests in John 11. Like any normal, caring, functional human being, He mirrored the emotions of others and wept when they wept, laughed when they laughed, and so on. And there do appear to be times when He became melancholic. There were things in His humanity He didn't know or wasn't aware of at the time which He even said He wasn't aware of. He had His own human will, mind, emotions, intelligence, and soul.

     Grafted in utero to this "unflawed" humanity is God the Son, the Person of God whom Moses talked to at the Burning Bush and saw on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 24, the Person who went walking in the Garden of Eden, the Person who met Abraham and discussed Lot's situation with Him, the Person sometimes described as "The Angel of Yahweh" who received worship and sacrifice as Yahweh, and the one like the Son of Adam lit up like a human form nuclear explosion in the Book of Daniel. As Paul calls Him, the firstborn of all creation who Himself created all things. This Person of the Trinity also has a will and a psychology apart from the human will and psychology.

     What does this mean, that Jesus Christ has two wills, and two psychologies which can be a source for His responses, behaviors, thoughts, and words. One completely human, and one completely Yahweh.

     Jesus Christ was and is meant to be the first of us, but not the last. "The firstborn of many brothers," as Paul puts it. What does this mean? That by being grafted or grown together with Him, with His Spirit, by means of His death, burial, and resurrection, we become like Him, coming to be possessed of two wills and two psychologies, one being our own fully human, though flawed, will and psychology, and the other, through being grafted to Him just as His humanity was grafted to God the Son in utero, completely Yahweh.

     Jesus Christ was and is meant to be the first of us, but not the last. "The firstborn of many brothers," as Paul puts it. What does this mean? That by being grafted or grown together with Him, with His Spirit, by means of His death, burial, and resurrection, we become like Him, coming to be possessed of two wills and two psychologies, one being our own fully human, though flawed, will and psychology, and the other, through being grafted to Him just as His humanity was grafted to God the Son in utero, completely Yahweh.

     Jesus Christ lived His fully human life in full surrender and submission to His Father through His humanity being grafted to His divinity. It's important to understand that His submission and surrender to His Father was voluntary. It was not forced. He chose to obey. As Paul wrote, as a Son He learned obedience, and as he also wrote, He became obedient to the point of dying on a cross. As fully human, there were things throughout His life the Father, through His humanity's grafting to the Son, did and did not reveal to Him. There were things He had to learn like every other human being, and things which were revealed to Him privately. Sometimes those lessons He had to learn in a normal human fashion involved trial and error, and making perfectly innocent mistakes such as starting off teaching the elders in the temple at the age of twelve and worrying His parents no end. He wanted to do His Father's will, but didn't yet know how to go about it, or what the timing on it was yet. He was an otherwise normal twelve year old. 

     In the same way, we are asked to submit and surrender to His Spirit within us, enslaving ourselves to His Spirit, the same way Jesus enslaved His human psychology to His divine psychology. Jesus said He didn't do or say anything which the Father didn't say or do through Him, and if you had seen Him, you had seen the Father. In the same way, our discipline and practice is to submit to Him in such a way to where we don't do or say anything He doesn't do or say through us, and through Him the Father. 

      Will we make mistakes? Yes. Will we fumble it? Yes. But the point isn't whether or not we make mistakes doing it, the point is that we do it, and keep going just like Jesus Christ. There are times in the Gospels when it appears He really doesn't want to keep going, or do what the Father wants Him to do because it will hurt, or because it will put Him into danger. But He does it anyway, submitting His human will to His divine will. And thus He provides for us the pattern and template for our own practice and discipleship. He is the firstborn, but He is not to be the last. He is the first with two natures, but because of His cross, not the only one.

A Fresh Translation of John 11

Yet someone was ill, El’azar from Beit-Anyah, from the village of Mariam and Marta his sister. Yet Mariam was the woman having anointed the Lord with myrrh and wiped His feet with her hair, of whose brother El’azar was ill. The sisters then sent out to Him saying, “Lord, see the one whom you have affection for is ill.” Yet having heard, Yeshua said, “This illness isn’t in the direction of death but on behalf of the reputation of God, so that the Son of God would be reputed through it.” Yet Yeshua loved Marta and her sister and El’azar. As then He heard that he is ill, at that time on the one hand He stayed put in which place He was for two days, then with this He says to the disciples, “We are going into Iudaea again.” The disciples say to Him, “Rabbi, the Iudaeans are currently looking to stone You, and you’re going there again?” Yeshua answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of the day? If someone should walk during the day, he won’t hit his foot against something, because he’s looking at the Light of this universe; yet if someone should walk during the night, he strikes his foot against something, because the Light isn’t within him.” He said these things, and with this He says to them, “El’azar our friend has fallen asleep; but I am going so that I would rouse him out of sleep.” The disciples then said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be rescued from his illness.” Yet Yeshua had spoken about his death, yet those assumed that he is speaking about the sleep of Hypnos (as opposed to the sleep of Thanatos). At that time then Yeshua said to them openly, “El’azar died, and I rejoice because of you so that you would trust, because I wasn’t there; but we are going to him.” Th’oma, which is said “twin,” then said to his co-disciples, “We are going too, so that we should die with him.”

     Having come then, Yeshua found him already having four days in the tomb. Yet Beit-Anyah was near Hierosoluma like from fifteen stadia. And many of the Iudaeans had come to Marta and Mariam so that they would console them about their brother. As the Marta heard that Yeshua is coming she met Him; yet Mariam was sitting in the house. Marta then said to Yeshua, Lord, if You were here, my brother wouldn’t have died; but I also now know that as much as You would ask God for, God will give You.” Yeshua says to her, “Your brother will resurrect.” Marta says to Him, “I know that he will resurrect during the resurrection on the last day.” Yeshua said to her, “I Am Resurrection and Life; The person putting his trust into Me, if he also should die, he will be alive, and every single person living and putting his trust into Me will absolutely not die into the eon. Do you trust this?” She says to Him, “Yes Lord, I have trusted that You are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the universe.”

     And having said this thing, she went and called Mariam her sister stealthily having said, “The Teacher is present and calls You.” Yet that one as she heard rose up quickly and started towards Him. And Yeshua hadn’t yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Marta met Him. The Iudaeans then  who are with her in the house and consoling her, having seen Mariam that she stood up quickly and left, followed her assuming that she is going as far as the tomb so that she should sob there. Mariam then as she came where Yeshua was, having seen Him she fell towards His feet saying to Him, “Lord, if You were here, my brother wouldn’t have died!” Yeshua then as He saw her sobbing and those Iudaeans coming together with her sobbing, scolded His spirit and was Himself upset and said, “Where did you put him?” They say to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Yeshua’s eyes watered. The Iudaeans were then saying, “See how He was having affection for him.” Yet some of them said, “Couldn’t this person who, having opened the eyes of the blind, do so that this one wouldn’t have died?”

     Yeshua then again scolding within Himself comes as far as the tomb; yet there was a cave and stone put upon it. Yeshua says, “Remove the stone.” The sister of the one having ended, Marta, says to Him, “Lord, it already smells, because it is the fourth day.” Yeshua says to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you would trust you would see the reputation of God? Remove then the stone.” Yet Yeshua lifted up His eyes above and said, “Father, I thank You that You listened to Me. And I knew that you are always listening to Me, but because of the crowd standing around I said this, so that they would trust that You sent Me out. And having said these things, he shouted with a huge voice, “EL’AZAR, COME HERE OUTSIDE!!!” The guy having died came out, his feet and hands having been bound with mummy wraps and his face was wrapped around with a soudarion. Yeshua says to them, “Untie him, and release him to go.”

     Many of the Iudaeans then who having come to Mariam and having viewed the things He did put their trust into Him; yet some of them came away to the Pharisees and told them the things Yeshua did. The High Priests and the Pharisees then gathered together the Sanhedrin and were saying, “What do we do because this human being is doing many omens? If we let Him go in this way, Everyone will put their trust into Him, and the Romans will come and remove both our place and our ethnic group.” Yet some single person from them, Kayafa, being High Priest that year, said to them, “You people don’t know anything at all, neither do you calculate that it comes together for you so that one human being should die on behalf of the people and the whole ethnic group shouldn’t be destroyed.” Yet this he didn’t say from himself, being High Priest that year he prophesied that Yeshua was about to die on behalf of the ethnic group, and not just for this ethnic group but so that also the children of God who were scattered would be gathered together into one thing. From that day then, they resolved so that they would kill Him.

     Yeshua then was no longer walking openly among the Iudaeans, but came out from there into the country near the desert, into a town being called Efrayim, and there He stayed put with the disciples.

     Yet the Pascha of the Iudaeans was near, and many went up into Hierosoluma from the country before the Pascha so that they would purify themselves. They then were looking for Yeshua and were speaking with one another having stood in the temple, “What do you think? That He absolutely won’t come to the holy day?” Yet the High Priests and the Pharisees had given commands so that if anyone knew where He is it would be disclosed, so that they would arrest Him.

Why I Refuse to Accept Calvinism as Christian

  "Pay attention to keep away from the false prophets, such ones as come to you with the clothing of sheep, yet from inside they are plundering wolves. You will know them by observation from their fruits. They don't collect bunches of grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do they? Thus every single good tree makes beautiful fruits, yet the rotten tree makes deranged fruits. A good tree can't make deranged fruits neither a rotten tree make beautiful fruits. Every single tree not making a beautiful fruit is cut down and is thrown into the fire. Therefore at least, you will know them by observation from their fruits." Matthew 7:15-20

     Why do I have such a distinct problem with Calvinism? Out of any theological system, this is the one which disturbs me the most lately, and it is the one with which I have the most problem. It’s ironic, because my ancestors were Puritans in the American New England colonies in the sixteen hundreds, and the Puritans were Calvinist to the core in many respects. There are actually several answers to this question, but the primary and chief answer has to do with John Calvin and Geneva.

     When John Calvin and like minded people came to Geneva in the sixteenth century, they wanted to set up a “City on the Hill” of God’s people based on the theology Calvin himself had outlined in his “Institutes of Religion.” What they set up, however, was a cult like occupation of Geneva with Calvin being the chief “prophet” and magistrate. An analogue might be Brigham Young’s governance of the Mormon colonies in Utah, which were also set up with a similar goal in mind to Calvin’s and his followers, also based on the theological instruction of its chief “prophet” using his own writings as the chief means of interpretation of Scripture, even taking precedence over it where Scripture disagreed. Another irony is that Calvin wasn’t even trained as a theologian, and had no formal education in Scripture or theology. He was trained as a lawyer and in humanism, and his collegiate work was all in preparation for the legal career which his father wanted him to have. Any access to even Martin Luther’s writings at the time would have been Latin translations from the German, and Calvin was a Frenchman. 

     Under Calvin’s influence and direction, an intensive persecution of anyone who didn’t believe the theology which Calvin taught occurred. Penalties were levied for having your fortune told by Gypsies, for laughing during preaching, making noise during church, passing tobacco during the service, settling a bet on Sunday, and even for the inability to recite prayers. Abbeys were converted into hostels and taverns that only sold drinks when church wasn’t in session. Church was held on weekdays as well as Sundays. A goldsmith was punished for making a chalice for the Mass, a barber for tonsuring a priest, and still another man was punished for saying that the pope was a good man. The town Council in Geneva even forbade the christening of children with the names of Catholic Saints. The nuns from a convent in Geneva were given the choice, either get married (thus breaking their vows to God) or be expelled. They chose exile. All Catholics were eliminated from the government, and one magistrate was forced to say, “The Mass is bad” on pain of banishment. Any denial of predestination meant banishment; any denial of immortality or the Trinity meant execution by beheading or being burned at the stake. Anyone who questioned the governing regime was punished through fines, torture, banishment, or death. Wherever Calvinism spread, this same punitive and murderous legalism spread with it, all in the name of Christ. England under Oliver Cromwell was another example, as well as life in the Puritan colonies of the Americas (Salem Witch Trials?).

     Anyone who has read the teachings of Jesus Christ for himself should recognize how abhorrently opposed to what Christ taught this “fruit” of John Calvin’s labor is. Jesus Christ taught us to love God, love one another, love the person next to us, and to love our enemies. He taught us to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, and give over our shirt as well when our coat was asked for. He taught us to not judge, or else we would be judged, and that if we didn’t forgive, we wouldn’t be forgiven. And St. Paul wrote also that it wasn’t our place to judge those on the outside of the church in 2 Corinthians.

     The actions of John Calvin, his compatriots, and those who took up his name and banner are far more kin to those of the Pharisees who dragged a woman they accused of being caught in the act of adultery, without the required other party, in front of Jesus as a trap for him, not caring if she lived or died. They are the actions of those who sought to kill Jesus every time He healed someone on the Sabbath, and spread misinformation and lies about Him even themselves knowing who He was and from Whom He came. They are the actions of those who held an illegal trial and threatened a riot if the Roman governor didn’t acquiesce to their demands for His blood. And what is the most disturbing is that, just like the Pharisees and Sadducees, they did it claiming the name of God and His deliverer (in the Pharisees’ case, Moses; in the Calvinists’, Jesus Himself). Even today, those Calvinists I have encountered have presented themselves as far from Christlike, but arrogant, prideful, believing that they alone are the elect of God and everyone else who disagrees with them is predestined to hellfire and there’s nothing which can be done about it. Those I have observed demand that everyone submit to the theology, rules, and moral codes they deem fit in order to create once more Calvin’s vision of a “City on a Hill” wherever they might find themselves. Like the Pharisees who assumed that because they were “children of Abraham” they were the chosen, and whom John the Baptist corrected on that notion, they assume that no matter what sadistic, legalistic, and antichristlike actions they take that they will inherit the Kingdom of God. They are concerned only with proclaiming their election to everyone, and making converts to this twisted belief system, whom they then turn into twice the sons of Gehenna they themselves are.

     Jesus said, you will know a tree by its fruit. And the fruit which has been produced by John Calvin’s tree is diseased and rotten to the core. There is no love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, courtesy, or self-control involved, and any time anyone brings up Christ’s explicit commands to love, those who follow Calvin immediately protest and attack that person as though they had said something abominable to their ears. Whatever real fruit Jesus Christ might have with them is so polluted with Calvin’s twisted and serpent-born teachings that it cannot ripen to what He would want.

A Fresh Translation of John 9

And going aside He saw a human being blind from birth. And His disciples questioned Him saying, “Rabbi, who erred, this person or his parents, so that he was born blind?” Yeshua answered, “Neither this person erred nor his parents, but so that the works of God would be made visible with him. There is a need for us to accomplish the works of the One having sent Me while it is day; night is coming when no one can accomplish anything. When I would be within the universe, I am the Light of the universe.” Having said these things He spit on the ground and made mud from the spittle and smeared him with the mud on his eyes and said to him, “Go, wash into the columned bath of Siloam” (which is translated,  “having been sent out”). He then went and was washing and came looking at things. The people from his neighborhood then and those watching him first that he was a beggar were saying, “Isn’t this the guy having sat and begged? Others were saying, that, “This is!” Others were saying, “No, but he looks like him.” That person was saying that, “It’s me.” They were saying then to him, “How were your eyes opened?” That person answered, “The human being who is said ‘Yeshua’ made mud and smeared it on my eyes and said to me that, ‘Go into the Siloam and wash; having then departed and being washed I saw again.” And they said to him, “Where is that one?” He says, “I don’t know.”

     They lead him, the one at one time blind, to the Pharisees. Yet it was Shabbat on the day Yeshua made the mud and opened his eyes. The Pharisees then also questioned him again how he saw again. Yet the guy said to them, “He put mud upon my eyes, and I was washing and I am looking at things.” Some then from the Pharisees were saying, “This human being isn’t from beside God, because He doesn’t keep Shabbat.” Yet others were saying, “How can a malfunctioning human being do such omens as these?” And a schism was among them. They then say to the blind guy again, “What do you say about Him, because He opened your eyes?” Yet the guys said that, “He is the Prophet.” The Iudaeans then didn’t believe about him that he was blind and saw again until that they called his parents and questioned them saying, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he at present look at things?” His parents the answered and said, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind; yet how he looks at things now we don’t know, or who opened his eyes we don’t know either; question him, he’s an adult, he will talk about himself.” His parents said these things because they were panicked by the Iudaeans; because the Iudaeans already had put together so that if anyone should confess Him the Christ, he would become excommunicated. Because of this his parents said that, “He’s an adult, question him.”

     They then called the human being a second time who was blind and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this person is a malfunctioning human being.” That guy then answers, “I don’t know if He’s malfunctioning or not. I know one thing, that being blind now I am looking at things.” They then said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” He replied to them, “I said it to you already and you didn’t listen; what do you wish to hear it again for? You don’t also wish to become His disciples, do you?” and they verbally abused him and said, “You are that guy’s disciple, yet we are disciples of Moses; we know that God had talked to Moses, yet we don’t know where this guy is from.” The human being answered and said to them, “Because with this is a shock. We know that God doesn’t listen to malfunctioning people, but if someone would be devoted to God and would do His will He listens to this person. From the eon it wasn’t heard that someone opened the eyes of a guy having been born blind; if this guy wasn’t from beside God, He couldn’t do anything at all.” They responded and said to him, “You were entirely born by means of malfunctioning behaviors, and you’re teaching us?” And they threw him out outside.

     Yeshua heard that they threw him outside and finding him said, “Are you putting your trust into the Son of Adam?” That guy responded and said, “And who is this person, Lord, so that I would put my trust into Him?” Yeshua said to him, “You had seen Him, and the One talking with you is that One.” Yet the guy said, “I trust you, Lord;” and he prostrated himself to Him. And Yeshua said, “I came into this universe for a decision, so that those not looking at things would look and those looking would become blind.

     Those being with Him from the Pharisees heard these things and said to Him, We aren’t blind too, are we?” Yeshua said to them, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t possess a malfunction; yet now you are saying that, ‘We are looking at things,” your malfunction makes its home.