The full text as prepared for the Sunday, February 24, 2013 message:
Today
I want to talk about relationship; not inter-personal relationships,
the dynamics between two
people, although I will
address that... today I want to talk about “relating
to.”
“It doesn't matter what you call it, it's how you relate to it
that's important.”
Today
there is much discussion going on among scholars concerning the
historical Jesus. “What did he look like. Was he married?” What
people want to know is, “Who
was he, what was he really like?”
One
of the ways we can get an idea about what people were like is to read
their writings – in this case we don't have any, so the next best
thing is to look at what he said as recorded by others... people who
were there.
But
were they there?
Mark
is dated as the first of the Gospels to be written – roughly
between 30
to 35 years later.
Next come Matthew and Luke; 50
to 55
years
later, and the
Gospel of John is dated 60
to 65 years later!
Were
they there, were they eye witnesses? It seems, to me, unlikely.
It's
important that you also realize that Matthew, Mark, and Luke
frequently use the exact same language, or something very close to
it, so the general consensus is that they had a common source that
would be dated earlier than Marks work 30 years after the fact, but
we don't know what that work is, or when it was written.
Some
contemporary
scholars who
take the words of the Bible verbatim, or something very close to
that,
are critical
about what a particular group (called the Jesus Seminar Group) is
doing. This group of 100 or so scholars study the words of Jesus as
they are given in the four Gospels, and also, in writings outside the
Bible. They
do not say that their conclusions are the final word, but they are
very interested in finding the
real Jesus
instead of the Jesus of church doctrine which was established several
hundred years after
his crucifixion.
Recently,
they (the Jesus Seminar group) have published a book entitled, The
Five Gospels.
You
thought there were only four, didn't you? Well, there are four in the
New Testament, and then there is the Gospel of Thomas, which is a
collection of about 114 sayings that are attributed to Jesus found at
Nag Hammadi (Egypt) in 1945. Some of the sayings are paralleled in
the four Christian Bible (New Testament) gospels.
In
this book, The Five Gospels, the Jesus Seminar scholars have
color-coded the words of Jesus, in accordance with how much they
think He actually spoke these words. Jesus' words are shown with a
descending degree of possibility, in colors ranging from red to
black. In
other words, if they print the words of Jesus in red, they’ve
concluded that Jesus almost
certainly spoke
those words. Then you have a range of colors going from pink (possibly) to gray (not likely)
to black (We don't think He said this) even though the gospels have attributed them to
Jesus… but, really, what difference does that make?
Is
it important to know… to really, actually know, whether or not
Jesus said this thing or that? Is
it really important to actually know that?
Would it make a difference to you?
Once
again: It
doesn’t matter what you call it (or who said it, or who did it);
it’s how you relate to it that’s important.
In
other words, “we give
everything the meaning it has for us.”
A
woman friend once told me how there was a time in her life when she
just couldn’t use the male personal pronoun’s he and him in
church. Maybe there are some of you who, today, bristle at referring
to God in the male gender.
This
woman friend said she went so far as to not even sing the male gender
words when she sang hymns (what I didn’t ask her
was
if she stopped calling the
songs
Hymns and started calling them
“Hers”…). Now though, she’s “over it.” I asked her what
the difference was and she said she her opposition to the use of the
male personal pronoun was getting in the way of her clearest
experience of the divine. In
other words, she
changed the way she related to those words. Now,
it didn't matter what the words were, it was how she related to them
– the words didn't change... how she related to them changed.
There’s
a story about two laborers, a couple of good Catholic boys,
Patrick and Michael, who were doing roadwork outside a house of
prostitution. Soon the local Protestant minister came along, pulled
down his hat to cover his face and walked into the building. In
shock, Patrick said to Michael, “Did you see who just went in
there? Ah, but what can you expect… he’s a Protestant.”
A
short while later a Rabbi shows up, takes off his yarmulke, pulls his
collar up and walks into the building. Patrick turns to Michael
again and says, “What a shocking example for a religious leader to
give his people, shocking, just shocking.”
Finally,
a Catholic Priest appears, drawing up his cloak around his head and
slipping into the building. Patrick turns to Michael once again and
says, “Oh Michael, tis a terrible thing, isn’t it, to think that
one of them girls must have taken ill... and would you look at that, the good Father is going
in to comfort her.”
When
we like someone, or
believe in someone, we
tend to relate to everything they do in a favorable light… and for
people of whom we are skeptical... we
don't give them that courtesy.
It’s
how we relate to someone
or something
that defines what it means to us.
Here is a quote by Anthony Robbins from page 70 of Ask
Yourself This
by
Wendy Craig-Purcell:
“Some
of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that
most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they're
trying to find someone who's going to make them feel good. In
reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your
relationship as a place you go to give, and not a place that you go
to take.”
At
a
wedding where
I served as the officiant,
a poem by was read by a friend of the couple. In it we find a line
that expresses the same general idea Tony Robbins just offered, “It
is not marrying the right partner, it is being
the right partner.” Perhaps
we could say our relationship is based upon the meaning we bring
to it, that we give
into
it.
Does
it really matter whether Jesus said this, that, or the other thing?
Does
it really matter if we refer to God as He, Him, Her, or It?
We
give everything the meaning it has for us... and how we relate to it
is what defines it for us.
How
do you relate to your interpersonal relationships? Are they places
you go to get… or go
to
give?
Are
you looking for the right partner (or your current partner) to give
you
what you
want,
or are you concerned with being
the right partner, giving your partner, giving
the relationship, what it needs?
On
a larger scale, what is your relationship with your life?
How
often have we heard, or asked, this
mis-placed
question,
“What do you want to get out of life?”
We
are made in the image and after the likeness of God. God is, in a
manner of speaking, “a Love-giving machine” generating,
extending, radiating Love endlessly and unconditionally. Like God,
giving is our natural state.
How
do you relate to life; giving or getting?
(Mark
12:41-45) "Jesus sat down opposite the place where the
offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the
temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But
a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only
a few cents."
Calling
his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor
widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They
all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in
everything—all she had to live on.”
There
was a gentleman who, when the collection plate came around, put a
$100.00 bill in it thinking he had put in a single. When he realized
his mistake he went to the minister, explained the mistake and asked
for his hundred back. The minister said, “No.”
“Oh,
well” said the man said… “I’ll get credit for the hundred in
Heaven.”
“No
you won’t,” replied the minister… “You’ll get credit for
the one.”
These
two stories aren’t about the money, but about the intent. The
woman gave fully everything she had, and
the
man gave
fully,
too… One
dollar's worth …
in other words he fully gave a
piece
of
what he had
and she fully gave all
she had.
So
here are
some questions to ask yourself:
- How do you relate to life and all that comes with it?
- In the experience of your life, are you looking to get or give? (Remember that giving and receiving are the same. We experience what we express)
- Are you willing to give your all into whatever you do… or just a portion?
Let
me be crystal clear about this last question… I am not asking you
to give up all your time, all your energy, all your worldly goods,
all your worldly anything… sacrifice
has nothing to do with the truth.
I’m simply suggesting that you give the
full portion of your “Spiritual
Love”
into whatever you are relating to. When you give a full potion of
(i.e.
don't hold back) your
“Spiritual
Love,”
what you need to give in the worldly sense… time, money, talent,
etc…. becomes clear… and whatever is given fully is more
effective than whatever is given partially no matter the magnitude of
the giving.
It
doesn’t matter what you do, what you express, or what you call it;
it’s how you relate to what you do, what you express that’s
important.
This
week, if you’re willing observe yourself from time to time to see
if you are “giving” (that is, expressing “Spiritual Love”)
fully or partially into whatever you are doing. Where you notice
that you are/have been holding back love please see that as an
opportunity to say, “Thank you, God, for showing me this, please
help me to understand what is mine to do in relation to this.”
Spiritual
Love will never steer us wrong. Spiritual Love will always show us
the value of words and actions whether they come to us from another
or go out from us. Spiritual Love will always make it clear what is
ours to do in every situation.
God
bless you all; I love you.
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