Completing the Great Work of the Ages..(Who's up for it?)

Completing the Great Work of the Ages..(Who's up for it?)

from the thread The unending joy of absolute Liberation.

The evolutionary framework then springs directly from unitive experience (of absolute liberation).

from Bruce Sanguin's blog
June 7, 2012

Completing What Is Lacking in Christ? (it's not what you you think, and please save the judgements on my monicur, NewAgeMan because that doesn't mean what you think it means either).


Introduction


Colossians 1
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”[1]

In my last post I presented Teilhard’s idea that we are invited to transform our passivities of diminishment (all that we must undergo not of our own volition) into passivities of growth of the body of Christ. A couple of you replied wondering whether this shed some light on the above passage from Colossians: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church…”

It seems clear that the writer understood himself to be completing what Christ started—and this is the role of the church (participants). It’s worth noting that the writer of John’s gospel also has Jesus praying to the Father that the disciples would complete his joy (John 17:13).

Within an evolutionary theology this notion of subsequent generations of Christians completing both the joy and the suffering of Jesus isn’t at all problematic. In fact, one would expect that in an unfinished universe completing what was begun in Jesus would be an organic mission.



The incarnation of the Christ known in Jesus manifested the divine desire for the perfection (or completion) of the cosmos. The suffering of Jesus (passio = passivities in Teilhard) is a representation, encapsulation, as well as an empathic response of G_d to the inevitable suffering one would expect within an unfinished cosmos striving toward the perfection. Teilhard calls this process of consciously completing what was begun in Jesus the “Omega Project”— the Omega Point being the convergence and completion of creation’s yearning to realize the love and wisdom of G_d.

While there is a tendency to focus on our creative agency (activities of growth) in evolutionary spirituality, the evolution of the cosmos may in fact be accelerated as much by the way in which we respond to our passivities of diminishment. As Jesus transformed violence into suffering on the cross, (whereas we are biologically wired to transform suffering into violence), so we are challenged to undergo those things over which we have no control in a way that nevertheless reflects the impulse for completion/perfection. “Turn the other cheek”, “walk the extra mile”, “love your enemy” — all of these injunctions run contrary to our natural instincts. This doesn’t make our natural instincts “wrong”. Rather they are early manifestations of a spirit- rising in the universe, an expression of this mysterious evocation of spirit from matter.

As we undergo these passivities of diminishment we may choose as a spiritual discipline to complete or “fill up” what is “lacking in Christ’s afflictions”. In truth, to inhabit this realm of becoming means that there is a kind of natural suffering of all creatures (including humans) as manifestations of an imperfect, evolving universe. Illness, grief, aging, innocent suffering, death itself (and not only having to undergo these diminishments, but to be consciously aware that we will undergo them) means that to be and become is to suffer. They don’t signify, as some atheists claim, the absence of G_d, but rather a cosmos-in-process drawn by the promise of perfection.
Notice Paul’s explicitly developmental spirituality. In the passage above, he envisions everybody growing in wisdom, so that “we may present everyone mature in Christ”. What’s more, he understands his own “toil” as being undertaken with the very energy of Christ (29). He is himself, with the church, the body of Christ evolving through the very diminishments that to the world looks like evidence of divine abandonment. And for him, this suffering is integral to the maturing of the body of Christ (which in Teilhard’s theology is the entire universe in process).



The mystery that was hidden from the ages and generations (implicit in all of creation, but only now being manifested through the conscious awareness of humans) is now revealed. “The mystery, which is Christ in you—the hope of glory” (27). In other words, the Christ (Word/Logos/Wisdom) that brought forth a universe and was incarnate in all cosmic forms and especially in Jesus of Nazareth, is now showing up in, as, and through you and this community called “church”. This is the “hope of glory” because we are one with that which we are yearning to complete. With Paul, we are animated “with all his (her) energy that s/he powerfully works within [us]” (29).

To really understand this (what's been done and what our remaining part entails) we must first discover and recognize the resurrected domain of new life and new possibility and really "GET" or grok most fully the degree and magnitude of unending joy inherent in the triumph and the liberation on the other side of "the wedge" of sorrow and suffering.. therefore..

allegorically,

> > > crickets < < <

and...for those who think I'm crazy or who's impulse is to condemn me based on a whole heap of assumptions.. I offer you this.

Mad Pride

Wrong forum I guess.. and that's ok, the invitations will just have to be presented somewhere else to those who seek and who thirst for the living water, for them it be will received and will satisfy, but that it's not for the traditional "churchianity" of Christendom, that they cannot accept such an invitation, is at once both very sad and very funny at the same time..


All the best,

NAM
Your brother in Jesus Christ the living God.

Feb 8th, 2013!

..But, isn't Jesus Christ and his Great Work not the very central keystone in the royal archway across (or under) which humanity may begin to pass into "new pasture" or a new domain of everlasting life and freedom from which we can freely come and go?

Why then must we wait forever on this side of the realm of all freedom, all love and all creative possibility for the human being, never entering in ourselves nor allowing anyone else to enter in..?

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

~ Mathew 19:14

And the sad irony, as a fellow Christian, is that I cannot do it alone.

Both very sad, and very funny!

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Completing the Great Work of ages, or did you mean Word? or physical descriptions of. All 'great' works of art express a human connection to God, sculpturally? Look to the monuments that exist in Egypt formost, not to the depictions of nude females by Michelangelo (he never saw one being of another ilk). Secret here, whatever you do; bypass the Maya ruins or Machu Picchu any ancient building site because the truth in the construction "god like' is there right before your eyes. I know that the answer lies in the next season of "South Park" 2nd episode and Cartman vs Stan has the answer; probably after looking into a shared toilet basin.

reply to post by vethumanbeing


I meant moreso the spiritual evolution of the human being initiated or commissioned by Jesus himself, by completing the circle of joy and in so doing realizing or recognizing (re cognizing) a whole new domain of possibility in terms of our human experience and yes, our creative expression (art) as co-creative participants by shared invitation in the evolutionary creative process itself, as if catching up to God in eternity and therein finding a new pasture or a new domain of possibility we were otherwise completely unaware of, while we stared with famous cartoon characters transfixed into a communal toilet bowl, on South Park, yeah so you're sort of close I guess to what I was driving at.

Thanks at the very least for your participation. star for effort.

Best Regards, and God Bless (for whatever it's worth),

NAM

While I believe you may have a brilliant mind NAM, I also believe that religious doctrine has polluted your mind. Jesus was a great man, but he isn't any greater than you or me if we really tried. He was only showing the way, not that HE was the way, if you know what I mean.

reply to post by 3NL1GHT3N3D1

I've evaluated that framing and context is everything and the meaning, decisive, so it all depends on how you look at it and what you've able to take in based on what Jesus was presenting, and when we read him we also see that he was entirely uncompromising and that his is an all-or-nothing proposition and a free gift both.

For me anyway, there's a much greater depth and breadth in terms of the contextual frame of reference, at least the more I investigated, but without any sort of apriori bias ie: indoctrination.

And you can tell by the response that the final conclusions that I've drawn are not understood or accepted by my Christian brethren.

I've examined Jesus and I was simply forced to take him seriously, and from there everything else just fell into place and all I'm trying to do is to share a new view capable of revitalizing the Christian faith and experience for a new age, an age of reason and spirit conjoined, so it's not divorced from logic or reason.

I invite you to consider what I'm presenting from a new viewpoint wherein the idea of a particularized Jesus (as an idol of worship), given what he intended to share, is nonsense.

It's a model of leadership and an arrow of civilized and evolutionary progress for the human being, perhaps more valid and vital now than ever before, and if you read through some of the posts in Bruce Sanguin's blog from the OP, then you would begin to get a sense for what is meant by an "evolutionary Christian spirituality". It's right at the leading edge of things, which for some strange reason is easily missed by many if not most, which has it's own absurd irony in so far as it's the very simplicity on the far side of complexity.

The commission of Jesus Christ and that which Paul attempted to carry out to the best of his ability, amounts to what might be called a "participatory eschatology" tied direectly to the recognition and realization of true nature, and destiny, of mankind with Jesus serving both as a model, a perfect model of authentic leadership in terms of the Hero's Journey and as the image of the full stature of the human being as a perfect reflection of the Absolute Godhead. The implications of this, for us, are utterly astounding, and by many many orders of magnitude by far greater than we might have previously considered such that the value assigned to the human being, even the lowest among us (that's funny) is, like Jesus, of limitless measure, incalculable. He really didn't leave anything to chance in raising us from the pit up to the roof and as high and as far as we might like to go, so it's like a whole new domain, this "kingdom of heaven" that he indicated was at hand (by virtue of his presence and personal spiritual experience and knowledge).

It's truly an embarrassment of treasure and riches as an inheritance that we did not work for (yet freely given) prepared for us as our very birthrite from the time before time i.e.: from the very creation of the world/cosmos, but yet it's not complete unless and until we step in to join the circle and continue on with the process in terms of our own evolutionary growth and present moment spiritual experience, so our role and participation is integral to the entire creative evolutionary process. God made it that way and for some strange reason (because of love I guess) would have it no other way.

Messianism originated in the Western world with Judaism. Martin Buber, generally considered the greatest Jewish philosopher of the 20th century, believed messianism was Judaism's "most profoundly original idea" (Lowy 47-70) The "coming of the Messiah," understood literally by Jewish people for centuries, was for Buber, a non-observant but pious Jew and a socialist, a metaphor for the advent of messianic age, to be brought about by God and man. As Buber saw it messianism was Judaism's gift to humanity

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessey, a Christian philosopher (a Jewish convert) and contemporary of Buber's, described the emergence of the messianic sensibility, "Unlike other tribal or imperial people the Jews broke with the narrative that life and death, peace and war were inevitable cycles. Instead of merely longing for a lost golden age, they staked their entire existence on a future reign of righteousness and peace" (Cristuado 247). The historian of religion Mircea Eliade has noted that human beings from the beginning of history have been haunted by the mythical remembrance of a pre-historical happiness, a golden age -- thus we harbor an abiding nostalgia for paradise. Judaism was the first religion to convert this nostalgia into the belief that this mythical paradise will be realized in history as the Kingdom of God on earth. History is the realm of redemption.

According to messianic thinkers, both Jewish and Christian, our state of conflict with the world, our mortality and suffering is not a permanent human condition but is a result of our historical estrangement from God. The Kingdom of God, the reunion of God and humanity, is the remedy: "For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9). Buber emphasized that this was not a matter of gradual progress but something "sudden and immense" (Lowy 52). In Isaiah God says, "I create new heavens and a new earth." The long awaited age of peace and happiness is called the "day without evening" in Eastern Christianity, thus connoting a state of immortality. Even in the Indian Vedas we find evidence of the messianic longing in the symbol of a new beginning also connoting immortality, "the eternal dawn." The messianic age is universally described as the union of heaven and earth.

More than any other religious Jewish thinker, Buber placed the active participation of human beings -- as God's partners -- at the heart of messianism. "God has no wish for any other means of perfecting his creation than by our help. He will not reveal his Kingdom until we have laid its foundations" (Farber 90). In the early 1920s Buber stated, "We are living in an unsaved world, and we are waiting for redemption in which we have been called upon to participate in a most unfathomable way" (Lowy 53).

from Eco-Doom or Redemption: The Mad Movement and the Sixties' Counter-Culture Project

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by vethumanbeing

 

I meant moreso the spiritual evolution of the human being initiated or commissioned by Jesus himself, by completing the circle of joy and in so doing realizing or recognizing (re cognizing) a whole new domain of possibility in terms of our human experience and yes, our creative expression (art) as co-creative participants by shared invitation in the evolutionary creative process itself, as if catching up to God in eternity and therein finding a new pasture or a new domain of possibility we were otherwise completely unaware of, while we stared with famous cartoon characters transfixed into a communal toilet bowl, on South Park, yeah so you're sort of close I guess to what I was driving at.

Thanks at the very least for your participation. star for effort.

Best Regards, and God Bless (for whatever it's worth),

NAM

Dont write me off, Im with you on this one. We express God in our creativity and as you say are trying to catch up with it wish it wasnt running a 9.0 one hundred meter stretch. We are co-creators thats the point as children to express ourselves explore and I am not sure here how to (through Prayer) report back? Any ideas? We have been invited to The party GRAND scale, but the invitations do not state where when or whom the Host is to appear, therein lies the fun and JOY of it all. Welcome.

reply to post by vethumanbeing


Very nice. Very cute, playful, creative, childlike. You grok. star for real.

Originally posted by vethumanbeing
We are co-creators thats the point as children to express ourselves explore and I am not sure here how to (through Prayer) report back? Any ideas?

Hmm... yes, I do have an idea, act as if, talk (pray) to God as if he can and does hear you, or if you mean OTOH reporting back from the domain of freedom and creativity, to us, give us a piece of art, a poem, anything you like it's all wide open and the sky is the limit..

As to when the bridgegroom comes, we must know that to accept the invitation is also to invite the one who invites us, and he comes fast light lightening.

And where there remains an unmet need or a yearning that we cannot satisfy in one life i.e.: in this life, we must have the hope that there is and will be another world or a future world (that we are creating even now) wherein that need shall be met.

The implication here is that something marvelous and grand is being held in reserve for us, while we're tested in every way imaginable in the school of the earth plane, but since anything real and authentic to BE real in some form or another and at some point down the line - it must at least begin to manifest, and therefore we must summon the courage to at least acknowledge the possibility, that once the invitation went out and was accepted by us, that the bridegroom or the Host is already there, at the door, waiting, inviting us in to the new domain of freedom and the expansive domain of all new creative possibility for the human being, so yes, there's a giddy sense of urgency to it, and that IS fun and joyful, and hey God's not going to hold out forever.. We get what we pray for, and indeed he DOES hear our prayers, not prayers of petition which always come at the end of our rope (how pathetic), but a being with and a communion, and a mutually shared koinonia of intimate participation and true fellowship (sharing of art and being with).

And the creative process needn't be some outward expression only, it can be simply who we are choosing to be and to become even through the eternally unfolding present moment and even when by ourselves (yet never completely alone ever again).

Therefore we can either get creative in our action whether external or internal, or we can simply be still and know that God is God.

And let's face it - we are as incomprehensible as God, to ourselves, and we had nothing to lose but an inauthentic self to begin with, so as an uncompromising, all-or-nothing proposition, as "scary" as that might at first appear to be - because it's what's real and true and authentic and freely and fully self expressed as childlike co-creation (playful, joyful) - here's the key - because it's the ONLY thing in the final analysis that's reasonable (love), it cannot be and never was an imposition upon the mind of man!

"Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, because my burden is easy and my yoke is light!" (said with a big smile).


We're chicken - because what's being offered us, is both too good to be true and even if it is true (which we fear it may be), we are most certainly not worthy of it, so that's the supreme challenge then - how to have the audacity and the courage and the childlike wonderment to reach out and simply accept this gift that by it's very nature is both of incalculable value and one for which there is absolutely nothing we can do to either earn or deserve it (Oh my God that's so FUNNY!).

So I can thank Jesus, like a literalist fundy conservative evangelical (Pa-rayze JayZUZ), but I have the real reason, as the reason for faith, because nothing else makes any sense or is even worthwhile in the final analysis, and that's funny too, to understand and recognize that there are two Christianities, one that isn't entirely authentic, where it may be said, like Carl Jung that "religion is a defense against having an authentic spiritual experience!" and another that is authentic and that may be known by anyone by it's love. ("Love one another as I have loved you.")

Never accept a false Jesus, but hey we all know quality when we see it, or in this case because we're talking about spiritual things, when we intuit it, but how sad and funny are the inauthentic Christians, then again sometimes you just have to "act as if" and then fake it until you make it... the end result is the same I guess, but I don't want half the treasure, I would like all of it please and thank you very much God..

I could never accept things point blank as a child. No I just HAD to understand the how and why of it, or the who of it whatever the case may be.

Spent half my life a staunch atheist in rebellion.. but then I looked again, hard, and with an open mind, and now I don't even know where I'd be if I didn't re-investigate free from any sort of contemptuous bias prior to investigation.

I certainly wouldn't be here sharing this stuff with you, I wouldn't know how. Maybe God works in mysterious ways.. that's what I think, I think he's very funny, however subtle.

Regards,

NAM

Originally posted by 3NL1GHT3N3D1
While I believe you may have a brilliant mind NAM, I also believe that religious doctrine has polluted your mind. Jesus was a great man, but he isn't any greater than you or me if we really tried. He was only showing the way, not that HE was the way, if you know what I mean.

And you know of course that we don't have to agree 100% eye to eye right down the line for me to still love you as a brother (even though I don't really know who you are or vice versa, doesn't matter), and I know you still love me in spite of suspecting very strongly that I am mad.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Oh yes very subtle in reply. That if you did not know what you were doing there was a prayer. I HEARD IT. Our task as humans is to express God manifested in this dimension. You are a very good spokesperson.

reply to post by vethumanbeing

Tell us the prayer that you actually heard, as if dictated to you, that would be interesting..

did it come in the form of a faint whisper when you were trying earnestly to pray with everything you had?

P.S. If you like this thread, could you please give the OP just one flag and star, because it's kinda of embarassing and somewhat lonely the thought that no one likes it. Thanks.

I can almost hear someone now piping in about the need for approval, but that's one the deepest needs we have and I'm not about to deny it, and I put a lot of energy into thinking about how what I'm presenting will present to the reader as the consumer of the info and the one who I'm asking to try on these different paradigms and ways of looking at everything.

I even try to be funny, but not a single flag or star..

Regards,

NAM

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by vethumanbeing

 

Tell us the prayer that you actually heard, as if dictated to you, that would be interesting..

did it come in the form of a faint whisper when you were trying earnestly to pray with everything you had?

P.S. If you like this thread, could you please give the OP just one flag and star, because it's kinda of embarassing and somewhat lonely the thought that no one likes it. Thanks.

I can almost hear someone now piping in about the need for approval, but that's one the deepest needs we have and I'm not about to deny it, and I put a lot of energy into thinking about how what I'm presenting will present to the reader as the consumer of the info and the one who I'm asking to try on these different paradigms and ways of looking at everything.

I even try to be funny, but not a single flag or star..

Regards,

NAM

What is wrong with having a different perspective; individuality is the the KEY (gives God unique perspective)
I do not understand the flag and or the star and what it means. I give it 5000 of each. The 'prayer' occuring is you talking to yourself as God and of course you must know; you are IT describing itself in all of its glory (or ingloriousness). Someone asked me the other day are you re-writing the Bible? ANSWER Yes, I suppose I am with some extremely vigorous editing.