Universal Family

Lao Tzu:

A noble man steeps himself in the Way, because he wishes to find himself in it.

When he finds himself in it, he is at ease in it.

When he is at ease in it, he can draw deeply upon it.

When he draws deeply upon it, he finds its source wherever he turns.

These phrases resonate with themes of Christian spirituality.

If we believe some spiritual truth that we know is supremely important, but we're not getting the transformation, we're still on the level of ideas.

Here are some paths that lead from the idea-level of belief to the liberation level of faith.

The human personality system: body, mind, soul, spirit.

When they are integrated and unified, the benefits are health, sanity, and happiness. Sanity means mental efficiency--so that we can use knowledge and wisdom to treat others as we want others to treat us; overcome the tendency to be invaded by fear and anxiety; cooperate responsibly with public health professionals and government authorities.

This is a time when we have a golden opportunity to realize and practice the truths of the universal family--the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man (however you express it).

Divine truth is like the light on a miner's helmet, illuminating the ever-changing scene, step by step. This is truth like a who. Those who know Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life will understand this, but the experience is not limited to Christians.

The truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience are all contained in divine truth, and we can use these various levels of truth as stepping stones on our way to a peak experience.

What would have happened to Mary Magdalene after she met Jesus? How would her transformation affected her self-respect, her confidence in her capacities for intuition, and her soul?

A Woman Jesus Can Teach by Alice Mathews takes us powerfully into the episode when Mary and her sons and daughters try to bring Jesus back home when they have heard that he is out of his mind. Jesus says, "Who are my mother and my brothers and sisters? Those who do the will of God are my mother and my brother and my sister."

This episode introduces you to the book and to this episode in the manner of sequenced activities for a retreat.

Lots of us find ourselves being judgmental at times. How can Jesus and his teachings help? First of all, there seems to be an inconsistency between Jesus' teaching, "Judge not," and his instruction not to "cast pearls before swine." once we clarify that seeming tension, we are are operating with both spiritual idealism and factual realism. Then we are ready for the next teaching: "Ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you." That teaching opens the door to the transformation that comes from the Spirit of Truth, which enables us to live the golden rule in the highest sense: Love one another as I have loved you."

German theologian Adoph Harnack (1851-1930) broke through to the recognition of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man as the core of Jesus' gospel.

But he rejected the truth of Jesus' divine Sonship and John's gospel generally.

So German theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968), criticized the concept of the brotherhood of man in favor of another side of Jesus' gospel--that we become children of God by faith.

Then in the 1960s, as feminism was doing important work standing up for the equality of women with men, Mary Daly and other theologians made a very influential critique against the father concept of God as sexist.

Now the followers of Jesus--Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant varieties, and none of the above--can break through to find Jesus in all these truths, leave one-sidedness behind, and learn to communicate the truth effectively to this person and that group, so that the emerging gospel of the universal family comes increasingly into fruition.

Here are stories of a student ethics project, a heroic flight attendant, and more.

I have recently realized that there is tremendous leverage for the spiritual renaissance in understanding the figure of the shepherd in the Bible and in the life and teachings of Jesus. In particular, this inquiry enables to answer an extremely important question: How did Jesus interpret the meaning of his death on the cross? And a further question arises: How can we use the image of the good shepherd as a searchlight to explore for truth in other interpretations?