As we celebrate Christmas we honor Jesus being born in human form while simultaneously coming into the world as the Christ, a full and complete expression of the Divine. We revel in the realization that through Jesus, as through each of us, the full potential of the Creative Life Force (God) poured itself forward into creation in order that it might be revealed.
To put it
simply, in all its complexity, God is revealed to itself, as itself, as the
Christ in humankind. Jesus exampled this by awakening from attachment to the
human conditioned consciousness, realizing his Oneness with God, whom he
referred to as the ‘Father’ and living from the awakened Christ consciousness.
He courageously exclaimed, “I and Father are one.” (John 10:30)
The same
potential to accept and realize our Oneness is inherent in each of us as we willingly
surrender to it. In fact, it is only due to our belief in separation that we
can ever see a distinction between ourselves, Jesus, and God, the Creative Life
Force that is constantly and consistency living itself in us, through us, as us.
As St. Paul said, “In [God] we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28 NIV) God is pouring itself into the world every moment of every day as you and me. It is ours to choose to awaken to that Truth, realize our Oneness, and live from that Consciousness.
One of the
foundational Scriptures of Christianity is John 3:16 & 17,
“For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but
have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn
the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (NIV)
This
Scripture has traditionally been interpreted to mean that God sent Jesus to
atone for the sins of the world by sacrificing him on the cross. Further, that
if one believes that Jesus was God’s only son, then he or she will be saved
from what would otherwise be an eternity in hell.
In his book,
Discover the Power within You, Unity
minister and author Eric Butterworth said,
“This scripture has been cited by
many Christian preachers as positive proof of the divinity of Jesus, and his
special dispensation as the Son of God. However, this takes on new meaning when
we see it through the perception of Meister Eckhart, one of the great mystics
of the Middle Ages. He says that God never begot but one Son, but the Eternal
is forever begetting the only begotten.”
Unlike
traditional Christianity, we in Unity do not view Jesus as the only son of God
sent into the world to redeem it, but rather as one whose life may serve as an
example for the potential within each of us to recognize, realize and reveal
our Oneness. Jesus was a human being who experienced the conditioning of
family, religion and society; similar to what each of us is subjected to, yet
through a process of awakening he recognized, realized and revealed his Christ
potential and his Oneness with God. The same potential and possibility is inherent
in each of us.
Interpreted
from a metaphysical perspective, John 3:16 & 17 might read something like,
God, the Creative Life Force, loved
itself into creation as the Christ and gave itself to all, as all, so that
whoever exercises the power of Faith (consciousness centered in God) will know
that God is eternally living and giving itself to the world and will realize
their oneness with it. God did not love itself into the world to condemn it,
but so that the world could save itself through its own recognition,
realization, and revelation of Christ expressing.
From the
realization of Oneness, we might even say,
“I, being one with God, am giving my
Self through Love to the world so that the world can be redeemed as I show the
way and model a life lived from the conscious awareness of Christ as the only
Truth of all creation.”
Through our
realization and revelation the world is redeemed, or to use the traditional
Christian word “saved.” The world is saved through each one of us awakening to
the glory of the Divine that he or she is. And, as we awaken, we assist others
in awakening as well.
Christ
redeems the world through the world’s conscious recognition and realization of
itself as the Christ. And as Christ is recognized and realized, anywhere in any
moment, it is revealed as all creation.
Redemption,
or salvation, happens in the instant that we are willing to let go of the idea
that we are separate from God and surrender to and realize our Oneness. Then,
from the consciousness of realization, Christ is revealed as we choose to know
it for ourselves and for the world.
Christ was
born not only through Jesus, but Christ is born every moment that we are
willing to surrender and allow God to have its full, undiluted, unencumbered
expression in us, through us, as us.
The Christ
is born as you today. Allow Christ revealed
as you today.
Let us
affirm together,
“I know myself as the Christ. I give
all of my Self, the Christ of my being, in every moment so that the world might
awaken to the Divine expression of Christ that it is.”
Brightest Blessings Rev. Howard, Happy Holidays to You and Yours.
ReplyDeleteIn Love & Peace