The path of Jesus is there in the holiness of scripture:
The Christ Path is a path of action and impact. It is impervious to whether or not we are deemed good or righteous by others. It is the path that does not seek outward recognition, but personal and private satisfaction in the pursuit of goodness.
It is that Spirit of Life that will cause the God of Compassion to reward openly.
The oldest Christianity is that which came to flower in the beginning before the confusion of men led to misconceptions about church and belonging; before priests and popes took it upon themselves to tell God what to do and the people how to behave; before preachers built churches after the fashion of courthouses where they could throw the book at the congregation.
There is sadness in the idea that Christian goodness brings to pass the will of God primarily through group action, political advocacy and judgmental separation of one soul from another for perceived circumstances of sin.
An image of a resurrected Jesus as a judgmental God honoring and endorsing the actions of those who condemn and separate is one difficult to reconcile to the life portrayed in scripture of He who preached a God of Compassion.
Christian goodness brings to pass the will of God when it is individually infectious, passing from one soul to the next spontaneously. An epidemic of this sort will more thoroughly impact our people than all that crusades, revivals and political legislation have accomplished in the two centuries of our nation and two millenniums of regulated orthodox enforcement.
There seem to be two fundamental approaches to Christian practice in our day and age. One is the social construct of churches and their potential for group achievement. Many practicing Christians will find sufficient satisfaction only in this context and that will be, in my opinion, a good thing.
The other fundamental approach is that of Mystical Christianity.
Many practicing Christians hunger for something more powerfully spiritual in their lives. For them the Holy Spirit does not come in flashes during exceptionally powerful moods of righteousness or good deed. Rather, constant awareness of the Holy Spirit, of communion and oneness with God are part of their deepest desires.
The world needs both – not to be saved by the ultimate religion of the greatest truth, but to be enhanced by an exemplar of organized social achievement on the one hand and by personal spiritual invigoration, experience and inspiration on the other.
We need not be imperial with an idea of bringing the world to Christ.
We need to stop pretending that the world is that to which Adam and Eve were banished. Rather, we must recognize that the world we have is that to which in God’s wisdom, Adam and Eve were sent.
Like them we must realize that we are not only in the world, but of the world. If we do so, we will seek, find and be one with our Father, the God of Compassion; the God proclaimed by Jesus the Christ.
