Monday, December 25, 2006

TALKING TO JESUS


Me: Hey, Jesus, what do you think of this Christmas thing?

Jesus: This is a trick question, right? I'm supposed to say it's too commercial and ridiculous and way off from the simple, "give all your worldly goods to the poor and follow me," kind of thing I'm purported to have said.

Me: Well, what did you say?

Jesus: Love your brethren. Love your neighbors. Love your enemies. Love God.

Me: Some people get into a loving spirit at Christmas time.

Jesus: Well, I was kind of hoping for an all life commitment. As in loving your neighbors on Christmas day and on the Fourth of July, whatever that is about, and in traffic jams, whatever they are all about. What is this world all about, anyway?

Me: Making money and looking good in someone else's eyes. I think that's kind of what turns the wheels. And being comfortable, if you are in one of the rich nations.

Jesus: We didn't have so many nations back then. We had the Romans, kind of the Big Guys and everyone else, in that part of the world, didn't count for much. Seems like your country is kind of like the Romans, eh?

Me: So. Our country should give everything away to the poor?

Jesus: You know. Back in those days, I knew everything, but it was just some villages and Pharisees who didn't understand the true meaning of love and living a God-ly life. Now, you guys have created such an amazing mess.

Me: But are you all powerful and whatnot.

Jesus: Doesn't look like it, does it?

Me: But God is supposed to be omnipotent.

Jesus: Well, there's the whole: let them have free will and make as big a mess as possible and maybe they'll turn to God and find a way out. But, you know, the Osama Bin Laden people kind of think the same thing: destroy the modern world because it has strayed from God. Which it has. But the solution isn't God and destruction, it's love.

Me: Don't you go for that I am the Way thing anymore?

Jesus: I'm the Way of love and healing and accepting all classes and women and poor and lepers and prostitutes, and worst of all, tax collectors, and that's the way. It's not about getting on the Jesus team.

Me: You mean Buddhists might get into heaven?

Jesus: They go for rebirth, don’t' they? So they really don't need heaven.

Me: Where do all the extra people come from if there's rebirth.

Jesus: I'm not a Buddhist. Ask them.

Me: So do good people go to heaven?

Jesus: The whole eternal life promise. That's the big lure, isn't it?

Me: It's not what you offer?

Jesus: Well: it's not working very well to get people to love the guy next door and to stop blowing up the people in some other country. This after you die, heaven is going to be your reward thing, gets people out of the now.

Me: The now's my thing.

Jesus: The Kingdom of Heaven is within. When you get there, you are so Now, there's nothing left.

Me: So, do you have a message for people on this Christmas Day of 2006?

Jesus: Don't drink and drive. Listen more than you talk. Be quiet for awhile every night and morning. Think about the vastness of the world and the miracle of life. See if you can make a difference. And… love yourself and your neighbor and your doggone enemy. And God.

Me: What is God?

Jesus: God is the waking up to now and to love and the way you are when you are so easy with yourself and kind to other people you don't have a care in the world, and you feel great to be alive.


(Note. The essays are rotating through the three blogs, more or less one per day.
So you might want to check:
WakeUp Feldenkrais®
and
Life on Earth ::: Slow Sonoma
for the last two essays.)


No comments: