A Stick To Stir The Shit

I love Jesus but isn't Jesus dead?

Jesus is dead. So is my Dad. So is my Mam. So are many other friends and family.

They lived and they died. All too soon. Including Jesus.

I still love them all.

There's one big difference.  Jesus rose from the dead.  For a while at least.

But it's that short term resurrection that has me a thinking my favourite question of the moment ~  Why?

Was the resurrection the ultimate miracle that Jesus as a man / as God performed to make us sit up and take notice?

Certainly the books in the bible describe wonderful words and deeds that Jesus said and did as a man whilst professing to be God. But did anyone truly believe that he was?  Truly? His closest followers were all set for denying, hiding or buggering off sharpish, when Big J got busted and executed.

All that Jesus had said to them in person, all that he had demonstrated to them before their very eyes meant diddley squat when the shit hit the fan.

It took a resurrection of a tortured, disembowelled dead man to make people actually believe in God. ~ Why?

Because they had seen this man, lived with him, fallen in love with him and watched him die.

But then come back to life!! Fully back to life!  Only God is possible of such a feat.

So they believed.  They believed so much that they were willing to die themselves to say it out loud and proud. “God is real”!

Not just a dozen close  mates but hundreds of first hand eye witnesses.

And so began a movement of believers.

I believe that.

What I don't believe in us the way that the message of belief in God became the message of power, wealth and control , that became the organisation known as the christian church. 

I don't think it's what Jesus, what God, had in mind.

Also I struggle with penal substitution theories. I struggle with the Scapegoat Theories - personal sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Certainly the idea of sacrifice in biblical times would be an incredible metaphor. Society was used to “paying penance” via sacrificial animals but that illustration doesn't quite translate into 21st Century North West England.
That's not to belittle my personal understanding of biblical sacrifice. It just means that if I was to try and “evangelise” sacrifice on the streets of Preston as a way of getting totally non believing people to think about a Loving and Graceful God, I'm not sure how big the sign up would be.

Actually, I am. I've done it many times. The sign up is minimal. Whereas, I believe the “need” for people to come to a God realization is Maximal.

Perhaps the marketing strategy and the USP might need a rethink?

So: Maybe God simply wanted to prove His existence by performing the ultimate miracle.  A man brought back to life.

It has worked. Millions believe in God because of the man Jesus.

We call these millions christians.

It certainly works for me.....

Now here's a stick to really stir the shit:

"If God performed this great miracle to get the attention of one group of people who became known as christians;  is it possible that God has revealed himself in other ways to other people who have become known as other things"?

So. My parents are dead.
Jesus the man is dead.

I believe this to be so.

I also believe that God is very well thank you very much and sitting in his heaven laughing his sack off at my attempts to work Him or Her out.

"You Believe What"?!

The Bramford Cock

Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda

I was talking to my mate over a birthday pint who decided to ask me a couple of BIG questions having read my blogs:

One. Do I believe that Jesus will come again as described in scripture. and
Two: do I believe in a heaven as described in scripture.

Big Q's. Far too big to answer in one blog session so I'll explore them for a while over the next few months.

The short answer to both though is no. No to both questions in terms of how the ancient scriptures describe heaven and the second coming. In fact just writing that last sentence makes me think that the two may be one of the same thing (maybe the bible is suggesting that anyhow) ..... I'll work on that thought

So: seeing as I mentioned The Kingdom of Heaven last time I'll start with heaven.

As the song goes and as I alluded to in my last blog "Heaven is a place on earth". Heaven is my place on earth. Heaven is waiting to be discovered in my own heart, mind and actions.

Heaven on earth we need it now.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5j6w1o8S5I

Here's a thought. A real my little pony thought, what does heaven look like for me? In my thoughts? What are my images?

Heaven to me would be sitting in a pub drinking an ale that really Tastes like an ale but is 0% ergo No hangover. Heaven would be to be discussing, philosophizing, joking, putting the past to rights, which of course it would be. Audrey and Hannah and Rory are there. And my friends and family are there. And their friends are there too.... Its a big pub.... But it still feels like it is intimate........ A corner table next to an open fire. And everyday they play the 2003  Rugby World Cup Final when England beat Australia 20-17 with a nail biting last minute drop goal by Saint Johnny Wilkson..... and I never know the score beforehand!!  

0utside. We have a view over the hills on one side and the sea to the other. I have a workshop. To write, to paint and sculpt and I have a big tarn in which to fish for fat trout.

Outside.

Outside my pub doors people are living their own heavens. There is peace, real peace. No war, no oppression, no hate, no violence, no rape, no sexism, no racism, no homophobia, no hunger. Every one is healthy, well with themselves and with the world and we've stopped wrecking the planet. Best of all "The Birdy Song" never existed.

Inside and Outside there is Love & Justice.

It's a hippy vision isn't it? But isn't Love and Justice a decent pair of metaphors for God? The glue that holds my heavenly kingdom image together? Is heaven a true realisation of God? A true consciousness of God within and of God in everything? Without the shit of the world which man has created since Eden?

Heaven on earth? We need it now. I'm sick of all of this hanging around...

Call Me Terry

I bought myself a present for xmas. An album I have never actually owned before, because I have always coveted it and also its not available on SpottyThighs.

It's by George Harrison. My fave Beatle. His debut - “All things must pass”

I've already quote George in my blog last year but here's another goody:

For every human is a quest to find the answer to, why are we here? Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?…Everything else is secondary”. CBS This Morning, 6/12/97).

In effect George said continually, that he was on a quest to improve the quality of his life on earth....... So am I.

Not my standard of living - although I'd like to remain comfortable. Which I am. I am far from wealthy in western material terms though neither am I any where near poor by the standards of the majority of the world.

I am however rich in terms of desire and aspiration to better myself. As a person and as a spiritual being (is that a soul?).

In 2011 I have stripped back some of my “religious” beliefs though I remain certain of Gods interest in we plebs, his creation. Now I will leave the arguments of such things as creation – indeed Gods existence at all - to those who wish to argue (that's not to say I won't chip in). I did a lot of moaning last year about what I don't like instead exploring what I actually might.

What I have discovered so far is that I actually do believe in God. My belief is obviously influenced by my christian past and by my absolute certainty that God proved his existence through the man Jesus whom he manifested in 2000 years ago.

A good question then this year, possibly might be why? It is an important question I think, not necessarily on a philosophical nor a theological level. But more on an adolescent level. Why would a creator god be interested? Why would an Almighty need to prove themselves to anyone? Aren't they already Almighty with nothing to prove?

My aim hopefully this year then is to try

a) to get closer to god. Not necessarily in the touchy feely kind of way of the “personal relationship” - isn't the fact that I believe in God rather personal? - but to be perhaps a bit more hippy in literally “feeling god” and “why” it should matter anyhow.

b) to encourage people to think about the possibility of god on a personal level. Not a christian god, not a muslim god. The flavour doesn't matter. If God has been to the effort of exposing him/herself to different peoples in different ways i.e. though Jesus or through “The Prophets” or even through nature to some, then there must be a good reason for folk to come to a god realisation.

If god IS, then I think it is important that folk at least consider it. No proof, no answers. Just consider that god might be. Truly consider, without outside prejudice and outdated debates, nor with off the cuff crap one liners.

You see the fact that I do believe means that either that I am a weak minded fuckwit tree hugger. A deluded fuckwit tree hugger OR a fuckwit who is right.

You may call me Terry (one for old Viz fans there).

Everything else can wait, but your search for God cannot wait.

Paramahansa Yogananda