sermon

INTRODUCTION: In his new book, The Third Jesus, physician, author, and spiritual guru, Dr. Deepak Chopra, introduces a novel new way to address the Jesus Event – especially relevant for the spiritually sensitive, but not necessarily for the traditional Christian. He suggests that there are really three Jesuses:

The first is the historical Jesus of whom we know so very little. Remember there were no media in Jesus’ day. Further, none of his early followers kept a journal. It’s easy to forget that the first written record of Jesus was by Paul some 20 years after Jesus died. Surprisingly, Paul never met Jesus, except in a dream.

So how did he know anything about Jesus? He heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone else, ad infinitum.

Further, those anecdotal statements of witnesses to witnesses to witnesses were not necessarily factual, nor in any sense news reporting. They were told with the purpose of making converts, before Jesus came back to Earth and took the true believers away.

While all this was happening, around the year 70 A.C.E., Christians were still seen by the Roman Empire, as a sect of Judaism. Any decrees relating to Jews also covered Christians. That made some sense, since most all of the early Christians were ethnic Jews.

Then around the year 96 A.C.E., Rome realized that Christians were not Jews, but a distinct religion unto themselves. With that identify came also a perception by Rome that Christians were a threat to the stability of the empire and should be eliminated. It was into this vortex, that the story of Jesus began to spread.

When Rome began to feed Christians to the lions for the entertainment of Roman citizens, being a Christian was literally a life or death decision. It might mean either being the star of the next Christians vs. Lions show at the Coliseum, with a terrible death for you and your family – or giving up one’s faith. Which would it be?

The answer is clear. It’s often said that “The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church.” No matter how many Christians were fed to the lions, more were always ready. They had somehow heard about how life could be different, that even in the midst of all the bad, there was something better.

The early Christians proclaimed the audacity of hope in a world where hope was only for the privileged few, the rich and the powerful. That audacity gave them unknown courage. They marched into the Coliseum of Rome and knelt to pray or they stood and sang songs as the lions began to pounce and roar. They held on to faith and hope when there was nothing but hope and faith to hold on to.

I remember reading the story of a woman forced into slave labor in the gold mines of the Roman Empire, where she would work until she died. She had also been raped and was pregnant. When she gave birth, she realized her baby would not be allowed to live. But she had heard a message of hope, that there was this group called Christians, and if you were a Christian, life would be different, and even if you died, you would go to a wonderful place called heaven. But you had to be baptized, and she didn’t know exactly what that meant, but up and down the line people passed the word, saying, do this and then that and do the other. And so with her own spittle, she places her fingers on her dying baby and says, “I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ.”

That kind of hope permeated the whole of Christendom and spread throughout the empire. Until around the year 312, almost 300 years after Jesus died. That’s when the Roman Emperor Constantine had a dream as he was preparing to lead his armies into battle. The dream was so powerful that it led to his conversion, and an edict of toleration towards the Christians. It meant putting an end to the government killing of Christians. He then went further and declared that Christianity was the one true religion.

Constantine soon discovered, however, that there was no unanimity among Christians, even as to who Jesus was – man or God? Ditto for which of all the different scriptures were true? Some of them were so different that it was hard to make sense of any of them. What a mess? Who’s in charge?

As a typical administrator type, he said, we need to get organized. He declared that we’re going to have a church council, and we’re going to solve all these problems. We will meet in Nicea, which is a part of today’s Turkey. Some 300 or so bishops will attend.

In preparation, Constantine had scribes make 50 copies of what he determined were the most reliable scriptures. Once in Council, he made known that he wouldn’t let any of them leave until they agreed upon what the church believed.

In institutionalizing the Church, and removing official oppression, Nicea focused the church on a theological Jesus. Listen to what this first Ecumenical conference of Christians, wrote about the radical prophet from Galilee, who would have been stoned to death had he even hinted at any of this in his sermons while he was alive:

“I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made”

It supports what Chopra believes happened to Jesus: He moved from the shadowy human figure of the Jewish Jesus, to the grand and glorious Jesus Christ of the Roman church, with great cathedrals, grand choirs and music, and fabulously outfitted priests, bishops and pope.

Jesus is now Jesus Christ of the institutional Christian Church represented by creeds, dogma, theology, and institutions, rules and regulations. He is the second person of the Trinity, or the Godhead, the one of whom it’s been said for almost 2,000 years that he will return any day, and force all the Jews to convert on penalty of death. That’s the theological Jesus.

For us today, there’s no way we can access the historical Jesus. Nor are we interested in the creeds and Christology that comprise so much of the theological Jesus. But we can revisit his message and look at it in a totally different way. However, it requires that we give up our Western emphasis upon facticity, and a 2+2=4 mentality. We have to see Jesus in terms of a new kind of consciousness shorn of his institutionalization.

Now remember, Chopra is from India, and his roots are Hindu. He’s made his mark both in medicine and spirituality by combining and reinterpreting the best of Western and Eastern understandings; hence, his book on Jesus. Also, remember, that he has none of the baggage from the past that many of us have with creeds and churches and exclusionary religious practices.

Let me give you one example of how Chopra proposes a third Jesus. This is from one of his “15 steps to God-Consciousness”: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”

I’ve never used that verse of scripture in any sermon to you that I can recall. It’s probably because I wanted to keep my job. But Dr. Chopra said it, so let’s look at what he meant. He says what it means is that “The source of reality is inside you. That source is your essence.”

Now that sounds good and it doesn’t sound at all like we were taught about Jesus, so let’s see how he breaks it down.

First, he states that when most of us explore our inner selves, our instincts are to pursue the activity that makes us happiest and avoid the one that is painful.

That’s not at all what he’s talking about – some kind of inner psychological trip. No, he’s saying that there’s another level of consciousness hidden behind those happy and painful thoughts – a
God consciousness. And – listen closely – that consciousness within us is the same as that which upholds all consciousness in the Universe.

So when we aim to go inside ourselves, spiritually speaking, it’s not a psychic trip; rather, it’s a spiritual one, and it requires spiritual tools or methodologies to make the journey. Remember, we are aiming to access the source of reality in us, which is the same that’s in others and in the Universe. We’re attempting to address what Jesus called, “the kingdom of heaven within us,” which Dr. Chopra calls the “source of reality.”

To repeat: we all have a spiritual source within, but it has to be accessed by more than thinking…thinking about the past…thinking good thoughts…trying not to think bad thoughts. No, he says, we want to access the consciousness behind such thoughts.

1. First, sacred repetition is common to every religious tradition. That’s a mantra, a sound or group of words that we say over and over. Why? Because when we do that, it helps us to get behind or beyond thinking. And by using a sacred repetition, over and over again, we are gradually enabled over time to access a new level of consciousness.

What kind of repetitions? It’s our choice, but if we’re going to use Jesus as a vehicle and Christ-consciousness as a model, then it probably should be related to him. For example, Dr. Chopra suggests that our sacred repetition might be, “Our father, who art in heaven,” “Our father, who art in heaven,” “Our father, who art in heaven,” or the Christian scripture, “Hail Mary, full of grace,” “Hail Mary, full of grace,” “Hail Mary, full of grace.” It’s our choice. But in a quiet space, at our time and place, we can engage in sacred repetition for at least 5 minutes and no more say than 20.

2. When we open our eyes, let our gaze settle on some sacred object, such as a picture of Jesus or Mary, or some icon. Remember, we are Unitarians and we can think of this as a spiritual laboratory experience. We’re free to practice any ritual of any religion, anytime we wish. We are not limited by theism, atheism, agnosticism, Christianity or Islam. We are expanding our experiential spiritual boundaries. Okay?

So as you look at a beautiful image, maybe of an icon even, try to let this image be you, to let it merge with your spirit. Gently make a connection.

3. Now think of some specific qualities you would like to evidence more in your life. Maybe it’s love, compassion, or forgiveness. Remember the source of reality is in us. We’re just trying to access it. We’re simply using sacred repetition and visual connection to enable us to reach beyond ourselves to the traits we wish to express in our lives. It’s up to us to call forth those qualities in our lives in our own unique way.

Repeated over time, day by day by day, Chopra believes that we will not only more fully recognize but also experience what Jesus meant when he said, “The Kingdom of heaven is within us.”

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us ‘the universe,’ a part which feels limited in time and space. The part experiences ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separate from other parts and the rest of the Universe. That is really a kind of optical illusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us….Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace…the whole of nature…."

Dr. Chopra said we can let Jesus help us do that if we will move beyond the historical Jesus, beyond the theological Jesus, to the third Jesus, who invites us to access our God-consciousness, the Source of reality in each of us.

We will pause now for 7½ minutes of brief questions as a part of our Conversation Café. The Service and Support Council will provide microphones for you to speak into.

[1] A sermon presented on March 03, 2008, as the first of a series of four, followed by the Conversation Café of All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, meeting at the Crestwell School, 1904 Park Meadows, Ft. Myers, FL, between the Rev. Dr. Wayne Robinson, minister.