Conventional Wisdom: Or the Road Most Traveled

How to see Jesus...? Depending on who you ask, you're likely to get various answers. But whether a person sees themself as a Christian, a Buddhist, an agnostic, or one who eschews labels, the one thing most would likely hold in common is the view of Jesus as a teacher of wisdom.

So, what's wisdom? Loosely defined, it's "how to live." It defines the nature of reality, and how to live life within that reality. In many traditions, wisdom is likened to a path ... or the choice between two paths: the wise path and the foolish path. One way is encouraged, and the other comes with warnings of consequences.

There are two types of wisdom that have been taught: conventional wisdom and alternative (or subversive) wisdom. Conventional wisdom is "common sense" ... "what everyone knows" ... it's a culture's/religion's/society's notions of what's real, and how to live. It's what's taken for granted, even unquestioned. Another term is "enculturated consciousness" ... group-think ... the consciousness that's formed by a culture or tradition. Status quo.

(you can already tell that I'm not a fan of conventional wisdom, can't you...?)

Conventional wisdom is based upon the concept of reward and punishment. One reaps what one sows. Do this, and things will go well for you. Do that, and you'll get what you deserve. The righteous will prosper, and the sinners will suffer. In the West, this is embodied by the notion of a last judgement of either reward or damnation (according to either behavior and/or belief -- both a work). In the East this is demonstrated by the concept of karma. We also find it in the non-religious sense: work hard, and you'll be successful. Of course, there's a flipside: if you are not successful, if you are not blessed, if you are not prospering, then it's clear that YOU have followed the wrong path! Life under conventional wisdom thus becomes a matter of requirement/reward, failure/punishment. The measure-up trap.

As a result, conventional wisdom creates a world system of hierarchies and divisions, largely based on performance, though some are based on the more nebulous concept of "status." It's just understood: some folks measure up to the standards of conventional wisdom more than others.

At the heart of this measure-up system of conventional wisdom, is the Internal Judge. What has been referred to as the "Super Ego" ... that which "stands over me", telling me how I must measure up. It speaks in the language of "shoulds" and "oughts" and "musts". It's highly critical and judgmental ... It's the internal police... the Internal Judge and Jury.

Life in conventional wisdom is grim and dismal. It's heavy bondage to whatever happens to be the dominant culture. In this culture, we largely become automatons ... responding as we've been well-trained to do ... and punished when we stray outside the boundaries that have been set ... threatened even when we would dare to question "who set this up and why?" It's limited by blinders -- we're told how to see what we see, and what to pay attention to ... what's/who's "in" and what's/who's "out". It's a world of comparisons and competition, based on the belief that there is a severe shortage, a lack of what is needed ... and we must take what we need, and yet we must earn what we need -- we must prove that we deserve what we need. It's a world of have's and have-not's ... and the have's very much require a large group of have-not's, in order to have.

It's a life of anxious striving ... scraping, a roller-coaster of feeling "ok" or "not ok" depending on what we've done, and upon the perspective of others *about* what we've done ... we're always wondering, "was it good enough? am *I* good enough? how can I become good enough? Oh dear ... what if there's just something so very wrong with me that I never *can* become good enough? shall I try harder? shall I pretend? shall I become who I'm not to fool others into thinking I'm ok? Or should I just give up...?"

Life under conventional wisdom becomes very self-preoccupied. My "standing", my identity, and my security are always in flux ... in my anxiety, my agony, I become profoundly selfish.

Along with this self-perception, the world of conventional wisdom also has a specific view of God: He is seen primarily as law-giver, law-enforcer, and Judge. God is even the legitimizer of the too-high requirements. He is seen as stern, angry, wrathful ... ready to dole out consequences to the requirement-failures.

In conventional wisdom, even the concept of grace is turned into a requirement. While many have claimed to have turned from "salvation by works", and now have "justification by grace through faith," the emphasis is put on the *faith* (understood as "the right belief"). The message is: God requires that you have enough faith in the right belief, in order to escape endless punishment. Do you have enough faith? Is it real enough, sincere enough, strong enough? This is a continuation of salvation-by-works ... only the specifics of the requirement had been altered -- from "good works" to "right faith." Rather than a gift from God, salvation in conventional wisdom is based upon our accomplishment.

Conventional wisdom also sets up a world of divisions ... everyone is divided into those who have the right faith/belief, and those who do not. Clearly, it is believed, God favors the former, and punishes/destroys the latter. It leads to an unavoidable smugness, a self-congratulatory attitude that *I* have made the right choice, while *they* have not, and deserve to pay for it. Oh sure, I may feel obligated to go out and try to convince them that they should believe like I do ... (after all, this will score me more points with God, and may force Jesus to return sooner and rescue me out of this mess), but if they reject my sacrificial arguments, then I shall wash my hands of them, shouting a dire warning to them over my shoulder ... muttering about how they'll get what's coming to them...!

(& yes, I'm all too familiar with that, having done so for many years ... so that I can recognize it when I run into it ... and I *do* frequently run into it ... )

In conventional wisdom, the "gospel" sounds like a heavy list of requirements ... "you must have the right behavior, or beliefs, or both, or ELSE!" The good news for all mankind thus gets warped into the "good news for a very few, and the horrendous news for the vast majority."

Next ... I'll contrast this conventional wisdom with the radical subversive/alternative wisdom of Jesus ...!

We Have Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself ...

What is it about fear? Why is it so very powerful? It permeates our culture, our experience ... it sells newspapers, increases ratings, motivates our behavior. Whether we feel compelled to hoard our money, protect our borders, go to war, go to work, get a flu shot, or go to church ... if we peeled back all the veneers of the why's, the wherefores, and the conventional wisdom of doing a thing, we're quite likely, if we are ruthless honest with ourselves, that fear is the baseline motivation for much, if not most, of what we do. As a culture, as individuals.

The other motivational force, which is far more powerful, but which gets far less air- and focus-time, is Love. See, we don't seem to yet trust that Love is not only the most powerful force in the universe, but that it's the ONLY power in the universe. Love is all there IS. And even as I type that, as you read that, there is likely a litany of "yeah-buts" in your head, saying, "yeah, but what about all the pain, all the suffering, all the injustice, all the evil that I see all around me?"

When we don't trust Love to be powerful, when we see love as mere sentimentality, a nice "extra" in life, when we sideline it as an add-on, then we turn to the faux power of fear -- the power that exists only in the dark recesses in our own minds ... those places that are in need of the Light of Love.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he ... and so when we empower fear in our own minds, we will project that fear outward, into our environment, into our culture, into our experience. Fear, we may notice, is contagious ... panic can spread like a mental pandemic, resulting in either paralysis or riots, lashing inward or outward, or both.

When we are fear-motivated, we tell ourselves a fear-based story ... and our stories are projected onto life around us; we create a self-fulfilling prophecy of our own fears. We indeed attract what we fear.

Here's what God says about fear:

Fear not. For I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

What we need, it seems to me, is rest. Rest from the cacophony of our fear-based thinking ... rest from the belief in separation from God. In conscious union with God, the mind rests, for then our minds function as the Mind of God... and thus the life of God becomes our life, the experience of God becomes our experience. In that state of rest, our mind comes into it's proper function: an avenue of awareness.

What if we have, and are, all we need?

What if nothing can be added to us, or taken away from us?

What if no evil can touch us?

What if all that God is, is already established in us?

"Son you are ever with me, and all that I have is yours."

What if good doesn't so much come to us, as it expresses itself IN us, and flows through us, to others...?

What if we only need to be still and know ...?

I see that God will never leave us nor forsake us ... that nothing which is created (which includes my own mind) shall ever separate me from the love of God (& God is love). I see that the kingdom of God is within ... in our midst. Here and now, at hand. We have only to accept and partake, in order to experience it. We have no need to try to recapture some mythological "glory days" of the past; nor do we need to endlessly await the elusive-and-yet-"soon-coming" utopia of the future. NOW is when we meet the I Am.

All that's in the way, is what we believe ... which is predominantly fear. Fear that we don't measure up ... fear that we are separated from God ... fear that we have fallen into depravity ... fear that we will be punished for doing/believing wrongly ... fear that God is disappointed and must be appeased ... fear that we don't have the foggiest notion of how to appeal such a One... fear that our attempts won't be good enough ... fear that we, or our offerings, will be rejected ...

But we created these fears ... and we can choose again. Repent ... for the Kingdom of God is at hand. This is not, as many have taught, a threat ... but a delightful and delivering promise. "Turn from the insanity of your own thinking, and embrace what God reveals, within you, to you, through you."

There is only One Power in operation in this universe, and that is Love. Fear makes a lousy and cruel substitute for love. Sure, it may "get the job done" but at what cost?

Anything that I accept as a power apart from God may harm me ... not because "it" can, because it is merely a shadow. If I *believe* that someone, or something, can harm me, then I will indeed suffer ... NOT from what someone/something has done, or even because of what I have done, but because of my *belief* that there is a power apart from God. I create my own idols, and then I suffer from their supposed power over me. Graven images are not just on stone ... they can be engraved upon my own mind, as well.

The harm comes from my deviation from Truth. And, once I know this, once I am aware of this, I can repent, I can choose-again. I can tell myself "a different story." I can submit my own perspective, and receive the perspective of God.

Even if "evil" comes at me from another person, I do not need to fear that one, and neither must I hate them ... in fact, in hating another, I actually "bind" that one to me. Evil is a funny thing ... in being a no-thing. When it is projected from one to another, it can only cause harm if it is accepted. If I do not accept this "gift", then it continues to belong to the one who brought it to me. Projecting evil is like swallowing rat poison ... it harms the one who swallows it. I do not need to accept any rat poison ... and the best response for one who has unwittingly swallowed rat poison, and is thus spewing it, is compassion.

Even if I am spoken of as evil ... even if I am perceived to be a horrendously-deceived tragedy-in-the-making, I don't have to let that concern me. I have no responsibility to prove anything or defend myself. I can let the world, and everyone in it, entertain any sort of notions they choose. I can bless those who curse me, I can do good t them that hate me, and pray or them which despitefully use me and even persecute me. I can pray for their awakening ... but I have no need to fear them, or to hate them... which will only harm me.

This is becoming true for me: if I do not entertain evil in my consciousness, there is no evil operating in my world. I may see the same events, I may witness the same circumstances, I may experience the same assaults ... but if I see them as confusion-manifesting, then I can pray with Jesus, "Father, forgive them, & help me to forgive them, for they know not what they do."

If I see a presence or power apart from God, then evil exists for me. If I see someone/something to hate, fear, or resent, then I am only seeing an image that I have created within myself... for hatred, fear, resentment all begin as thought, and are a self-created image, and thus totally lacking in power or reality. Figments in my imagination. Monsters in the closet. If I look at them closely enough, and shine Light upon them, the monsters turn into dust-bunnies ... just as those I hate turn into the confused-beloveds.

See if this impacts you like it does me: Evil is nothing but a suggestion or temptation to accept a creator apart from God.

Woah! Did you know that's what we do, when we entertain thoughts of evil...? It's an appearance, from within our own minds, our own imaginations ... projected out where we can see it, and thus to know that we need more Light shone in dark corners of our thinking ... we need more renewal of the mind. How GOOD to know that...!

If I rest in the truth that God is the ONLY power, and that that power is Love, I find myself discovering, to my dumbfounded joy and delight, that all manner of blessings drench me...! I can abide in the truth of God's kingdom, here and now, on earth. I can abide in the awareness that God is all in all, in everything, with everyone and everything living and moving and having their BEing IN Him...! I then find myself "accidentally" and "FIRST-naturedly" living the Abundant Life. Glory be! This formerly fear-based and pessimistically-streaked woman is gob-smacked that this is becoming my reality...! Gadzooks!

Yes, indeedy, circumstances may confront me, and appear to be terrifying, threatening of disaster, and YET, Christ says within me, "It is I, be not afraid." I notice that God has odd ways of reminding me of Himself. Sometimes, no oftentimes, the very thing which *appears* to be a disaster is the very vehicle of my awakening to the reality of the spiritual life. Often, when we believe our lives are falling apart, they're truly falling together, perhaps for the first time...!

That which appears to be evil can actually be opportunities for my transformation ... as they challenge what I thought I believed, showing me what's deception, and what is truth. It takes what it takes for the prodigal to wake up and smell the pig-sty, remember who he really is, and thus return Home to God. The "long ways off" can be speaking more of an awareness-distance, than of a geographical-distance...

I want to come to the place, and thus it is happenING, wherein I recognize God as the Soul of every person and God as the activity in every situation.

Can you hear the Voice of God, here and now, within you..?

I will never leave you nor forsake you. Why all this struggle? I am in the very midst of you, closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. Why struggle as if you had to seek for Me and search for Me? Why struggle as if you had to hold on to Me? i will never leave you; I am with you always.

Stop fearing; stop doubting. Rest in Me, in My arms, in My love, and let yourself be at peace. Trust the I who is at the center of your being. Believe that I can do all things in and through you. Believe that there is a Presence at the center of your being whose only function is to bless, to love, to be an instrument of My grace. Trust Me. Believe only in Me. Fear not.

Shalom, Dena

P.S. Next, I want to explore why the fear entered in ... I want to look closely at the doctrine of "original sin."

Do I Hear About God ... or Do I SEE God...?

As soon as I have a wee bit more time (as in after this looming art show - which is in 3 days!), I plan to delve into a profoundly fresh and relevant way of reading/seeing the Bible ... I find it utterly provocative and compellingly lucid -- and I cannot wait to share...!

Except I must. Sigh ...

In the meantime, I can share a snippet from what I read this morning ...

I was reading this in Marcus Borg's "Reading the Bible AGAIN for the First Time" ... it fits in well with my own journey, and perhaps those of others as well:

"Why be religious? Why take God seriously? Is it because 'there's something in it for me'?

That is the answer of conventional religious wisdom, ancient and modern, Jewish and Christian, and as found in other religions. Follow THIS way - it will take you to a good place, whether internally or externally, whether in this life or the next. It's Christian forms are many: believe in God and Jesus and you'll go to heaven, or you'll prosper, or you'll have peace of mind, or you'll be fulfilled. All of these turn taking God seriously into a means to some end.

Is there such a thing as religion unmotivated by self-interest? What would it mean to take God seriously, not as a *means*, but as the ultimate end...?"

Provocative, no..?

(though I would replace "religion" with "relationship with God" - and I *do* see a significant distinction...)

And so, I'd expand that excellent question to this: "If there's no hell or heaven, why follow God at all?" (i.e., if there's no punishment or reward, does God have anything going for Him...?)

This is powerfully exemplified in the book of Job -- Job goes from believing in conventional wisdom (if I do the right things, I will experience blessings; if I do the wrong things, I will experience calamity), to having that conventional wisdom turned upside down ... despite being righteous, he experiences calamity. He experienced the worthlessness of conventional wisdom - it was wholly inadequate to help him comprehend, and endure, his own suffering. Despite how his friends continue to repeat status quo (& to thus blame him for how he was suffering), he instead insisted upon having a conversation with God, for the purpose of understanding what he was experiencing (to me, this illustrates the peril and absurdity of quoting all parts of the Bible as if they reflect God's point of view ... all too often, the Bible is reflecting man's point of view - mankind creating God in his own all-too-small image).

Job pours out his heart to God, and God responds (God shows Job the stark difference, but not distance, between the creator and the created) - thus Job experienced an encounter with God -- which transforms him (the real meaning of "repent" - to be changed by an experience with God -- we butcher its meaning when we reduce it to "being sorry for our sins").

Job describes his transformation here:

"I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear -
but now my eye sees you."

("seeing" is classical language for a mystical experience - an intense, immediate experience of the sacred -- an encounter with the Living God)

His rejection of conventional wisdom called everything he had once believed into question ... and his experience of God convinced him that God was real, despite the human inability to see fairness/balance in the world around him.

The point, I believe, is not to adhere to a second-hand religion (an orderly set of conventional-wisdom teachings about how things are and how things go, and thus what one "should" do - or else!). Second-hand religion is learned from others - a set of teachings and practices to be accepted and believed and followed, IOW religious conventional wisdom. First-hand spirituality is that which flows from a first-hand experience of God... an experience of the sacred which shatters and transforms second-hand religion.

Do I want to settle for hearing about God from others, or do I want to see (experience) God for myself, first-hand...?

(even if it means that the others will dismiss and reject me for my experience, and thus my shedding of status quo, conventional wisdom, and the traditions of man ...)

Shalom, Dena

Who is Jesus, *Really*...?

Have you ever wondered about Jesus? I mean, He's arguably the most influential person in all of history, and certainly our denotation of time is divided so as to reflect His life, but have you ever wondered whether you know Him, or just know *about* Him...?

I have.

I've certainly come to question what I've been told about Him by others ... sometimes the claims about Him, and the representations of Him, strike me as missing the point about Him. Certainly His teachings have been misunderstood ... I no longer see Him as primarily a teacher of morality (how to behave), but as a teacher of wisdom (how to know God).

I'm reading a fascinating book about Jesus - "Meeting Jesus AGAIN, for the First Time" by Marcus Borg. Yeah, that dude. The one I was warned about - the terrible and liberal (redundant words in my former culture!) "Jesus Seminar" participant. (You can read more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Borg)

He's had an amazing spiritual journey, and is an outspoken critic of Christianity ... hence the indictment against him (if you point out a problem, you become the problem). While our paths are uniquely different, it would seem that he and I see eye to eye on a great many things (go figure!) ... including having a more panentheistic view of God (God being all in all).

It's certainly giving me much food for thought ... and in case anyone else would benefit from what I'm enjoying, I thought I'd share a bit. This is taken from Chapter 4 - "Jesus and Wisdom: Teacher of Alternative Wisdom."

- The subject matter of wisdom is broad. Basically, wisdom concerns how to live. It speaks of the nature of reality and how to live one's life in accord with reality.

(sure 'nuff makes sense to me!)

- There are two types of wisdom (& of sages): the most common type is conventional wisdom, or mainstream wisdom of a culture (what "everyone knows"). The second type is a subversive and alternative wisdom. This wisdom questions and undermines conventional wisdom and speaks of another way, another path.

(I certainly started out in the first, though I never "fit" well ... was forever in trouble with those touting status quo.)

- The wisdom of the subversive sages is the wisdom of "the road less traveled." And so it was with Jesus: his wisdom spoke of "the narrow way" which led to life, and subverted the "broad way" followed by the many, which led to destruction.

(What was your word-picture with the words "life" and "destruction"? If you thought they were synonymous with "heaven" and "hell", then may I suggest that your thoughts are rooted in conventional wisdom, and is missing what Jesus was really warning about..? More on that tomorrow.)

- Jesus largely taught using metaphor, in the form of parables and aphorisms (short memorable sayings, or "one liners"). These are invitational forms of speech. Jesus used them to invite his hearers to see something they might not otherwise see. As evocative forms of speech, they tease the imagination into activity, suggest more than they say, and invite a transformation in perception.

(Yeah! Woot! And to think I was told that the imagination was a dangerous commodity, and to denounce and deny it...! This is indeed how I still experience God's Spirit inviting me to explore the unquestioned beliefs behind my thoughts and understandings.)

- (Borg claims that though we read long strings of these one-liners in various "sermons" of Jesus ... in actuality, Jesus wouldn't have delivered them in that manner. What we have in the gospels is a condensation of parables and aphorisms given over time - he would likely repeat his stories in various locales, as an itinerant teacher.) As provocative sayings meant to lead the hearer to a new perception, they require time for digestion ... thus, we need to imagine them being spoken one at a time. What we have in the gospels is the memorable core (or gist) of sayings that were repeated many times - the resonant lines that hearers would remember as the heart o longer discourses or dialogues.


(That makes such obvious sense to me ... when I receive a rather insightful article or email from someone, I often call it a "keeper" ... if it's heavily laden with food for thought, I often need to save it, to re-read it later, or even to print it off and read it "devotionally" or contemplatively ... the better to take it in. So too, it seems, or even moreso, with the sayings/teachings of Jesus.)

- Jesus' appeal is not to the will - not "Do this" - but rather, "Consider seeing it this way." As invitational forms of speech, the parables do not invoke external authority. They do not appeal to divine authority, as do the speech forms of divine lawgivers ("Thus sayeth the Lord, you shall...") and inspired prophets "Hear the word of the Lord ..."). Rather, their authority rests in themselves -- that is, in their ability to involve and affect the imagination. Their voice is the invitational, rather than the imperative. The appeal is to the imagination, to that place within us in which reside our images of reality and our images of life itself; the invitation is to a different way of seeing. HOW one sees makes all the difference. How we see determines the path that we walk, the way that we live.

(SO true! When I be lived that Jesus was primarily a teacher of morality - right and wrong - I lived within that black and white duality of judgment ... everything, and everyone, I saw was judged as being "good" or "evil", "right" or "wrong". This set up all manner of walls between me and "them". Now, I'm seeing Jesus as primarily inviting me to view from the higher/deeper perspective ... to actually "tell myself another story" of what *is* ... this narrative is all-inclusive; no more "us vs. them" - it builds bridges rather than walls -- though in experiential reality, some folks have taken those extended bridges, turned them sideways, and used them as walls ...)

- Jesus was not primarily a teacher of information (what we believe) or morals (how to behave), but a teacher of a way or a path of transformation. A way of transformation from what to what? From a life in the world of conventional wisdom to a life centered in God.

(I just love this! How freeing! Not about what to *do*, but about how to *be* ... doing always flows best out of beingness.)

- Conventional wisdom is the dominant consciousness of any culture. It's a culture's most taken-for-granted understandings about the way things are (its worldview, or image of reality) and about the way to live (its ethos, or way of life). It is "what everybody knows" - the world that everybody is socialized into through the process of growing up. It is enculturated consciousness.

(IOW, group-think.)

- Conventional wisdom is intrinsically based upon the dynamic of rewards and punishment. You reap what you sow; follow this way and all will go well; you get what you deserve; the righteous will prosper - these are the constant messages of conventional wisdom. The dynamic is the basis of popular Western notions of a last judgment in which we are rewarded or condemned according to our behavior and/or belief, as well as the basis of popular Eastern notions of karma. It is also found in secular form: work hard and you will succeed. It carries with it a hard-edged corollary, of course: if you don't succeed, or are not blessed, or do not prosper, it is because YOU have not followed the right path. Life becomes a matter of requirement and reward, failure and punishment.

(This makes me want to weep...! Ah, the exhaustion, and the shame, that come from such a system! This seems hard-wired into our culture, including the Christian culture! We observe this tendency within ourselves, and we project it onto God ... despite what God, and Jesus, have tried to tell us about God.)

- Psychologically, conventional wisdom becomes the basis for identity and self-esteem. The superego (whether we choose to cal it that or not) is the internalized voice of culture - the storehouse of "oughts" in our heads. It functions as a generally critical internal voice - the internal cop and the internal judge. I am who I am according t the standards of conventional wisdom, and I will think well or poorly of myself depending upon how well I measure up to its standards. Conventional wisdom is thus life under the superego.

(Anyone else ever stand accused by the internal judge, who works on behalf of collective-conventional wisdom? Guess what?!? That ain't God! I've come to equate the "accuser of the brethren" with that very self-same egoic voice within, as well as with the Law in general.)

- Life in this world can be and often is grim. It is a life of bondage to the dominant culture ... a life of limited vision and blindness. It is a world of judgment. I judge myself and others by how well I and they measure up. It is a world of comparison. It is a life of anxious striving, and of a "performance principle."

(This, for me, in my own variant-range of experiences, is an apt description of Christianity - in contrast to the Abundant Life of following Christ into knowing God.)

- There is an image of God that goes with the world of conventional wisdom. When conventional wisdom appears in religious form, God is imaged primarily as lawgiver and judge. God becomes the one whom we must satisfy, the one whose requirements must be met. When this happens in the Christian tradition, it leads to an image of the Christian life as a life of requirements. Indeed, this happens so frequently that it is the most common form of Christianity.

(This also impacts how we view the Atonement of Jesus ... we see it as an angry God demanding payment, in blood -- someone must die! And so Jesus becomes the fall-guy, taking on the wrath of God Who must be appeased. When we boil down this view of the Atonement, which is called the Penal Substitionary Theory, we're really saying this: "God killed God to appease God." Tilt...!)

- The Protestant Reformation emphasized salvation by grace and not by "works of the law." Indeed "justification by grace" was the battle cry ... Luther's own personal and theological struggle had been against "salvation by works." As Protestants, we knew that we weren't saved by "works". Rather, we were saved by "grace through faith." Yet, the emphasis was placed upon faith rather than grace, and faith insidiously became the new requirement. Faith (most often understood as belief) is what God required, and by a lack of faith/belief, one risked the peril of eternal punishment. The requirement of faith brought with it all of the anxiety and self-preoccupation that marked life in the world of conventional wisdom. Was one's faith/belief real enough, strong enough? Thus for many of us Christians, the system of conventional wisdom remained. Only the content of the requirement had changed - from good works to faith.

(I hesitate to even comment here ... this is utterly profound. Let it sink in ... selah.)

- There is another consequence of Christian conventional wisdom. The requirement of faith divides the world up into those who have faith and those who don't, with the implication that God is kindly disposed toward the first group and not so kindly disposed toward the second. This understanding is reflected in a bumper sticker that reads: "Christians aren't' perfect - they're just forgiven." It implies that other people aren't forgiven, and that Christians have done something (become Christian? believed?) that merits forgiveness. There is a smugness and divisiveness in the statement that comes out of the marriage between conventional wisdom and Christitanity.

(Again, deeply profound ... hugely indicting. To be honest, I see no distinction between conventional wisdom and Christianity ... as I see Christianity as a manmade construction based entirely ON conventional wisdom ... ignoring that Jesus subverted and upended the very things that Christianity insists upon...!)

- Most people report having heard the Christian message as a message of requirements (whether of belief or of behavior, or, most often, of both) and of rewards, typically in "the next world," and sometimes in this world as well. Thus Jesus' subversion of conventional wisdom is a subversion not only of the central convictions of his social world, but of many common forms of Christianity as well.

(This has become so very, very clear and true to me ... most of Christitanity has been playing a game of "The Emperor's New Clothes" ... admiring a projection of egoic collective thinking, of conventional wisdom, and using Jesus as a mere mascot to promote and enforce the reward/punishment system of man.)

Tomorrow, I'll finish out this most-excellent chapter ... looking into the *what* of Jesus' subversive and alternative wisdom...!

Shalom, Dena