Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way

Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way

In the first century in Palestine, Christianity was a community of believers. Then Christianity moved to Greece and became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome and became an institution. Then it moved to Europe and became a culture. And then it moved to America and became a business.[1]

With this reflection I begin a new series of Life Notes titled, Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way. It may seem a self-denigrating topic for one who considers himself a Christian, but there are important distinctions between a Christianity that strives to follow the life and teachings of Jesus the Christ, and the brand of Christianity that primarily worships him. If we are to mature spiritually, which means growing toward conscious Oneness with God and all of creation, many of the common practices, beliefs, and teachings of Christian churches need to be transcended. It is not that the Christianity practiced by most churches is necessarily wrong or harmful as much as that it can be misleading, limiting, and fail to foster the journey with Jesus along the path to Oneness with God. At some point we need to transcend whatever inhibits our spiritual growth and adopt practices that assist us in following him by becoming our unique version of what he represents. This transition from immature spirituality, which I do not use to demean, to more mature spirituality will be my topic over the next several months.

In the decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, his community of followers was called The Way. It consisted of mostly small groups of believers meeting in peoples’ homes, often in secret, because its practitioners were often considered heretics and malcontents that could be put to death for insurrection. It is important to recognize that Jesus neither started nor desired to establish a new religion. He was a faithful Jew to the end. The life and teachings of Jesus model a conscious communion with God that is applicable within any religious belief system, including no formal belief system. His was a way of living everyday life in better alignment with God – thus, The Way. His message was for all people. The Christianity that must eventually be crucified, that we must grow beyond, is the Christianity that has devolved into a philosophy, institution, culture, and/or business that leaves us living life out of alignment with God. While I am not suggesting religious institutions be destroyed, those who are serious about spiritual development will eventually find themselves searching outside of any specific system of organized belief in order to better discern their path.

Before proceeding I need to distinguish The Way of following Jesus from groups coopting the name, like The Way International, which has largely been debunked as a cult. The Way of Jesus is unlikely to become a central focus of religious organizations because it defies containment in words and doctrine. It is a narrow, individualized, and paradoxical path that does not conform well to the literalizing principles most organizations eventually canonize. The Way of Jesus is not a philosophy, culture, institution, business, or a cult. It is a way of living with conscious presence and Spirit-guided awareness.

We follow Jesus by becoming what he was and is – One with God and all of creation. It is the Way to become a child of God (see John 1:12-13). Here are some distinctions I have found important on my journey:

• *Jesus and the Christ are not synonymous;
• *The Way of Jesus is loving, expansive, and inclusive;
• *Heaven and hell are fluctuating states of being in the here and now;
• *Metaphor and analogy are better communicators of Truth than literal, historical, or factual accounts;
• *The world we witness external to ourselves reflects our inner life;
• *Black and white, light and dark, good and evil are not distinct states but fluctuations in our perception and experience of a single essence;
• *Space and time are relative to our point of view;
• *Lasting transformation requires including and transcending everything that comes before;
• *Our earthly experience is one small, but integral part of a larger, eternal life;
• *Neither you nor I are God, but we are not other than God either.

In the coming weeks I will explore these and other concepts in greater detail. My invitation is not for you to trust what I write as literal or ultimate Truth, which cannot be captured in words anyway. Rather, I hope some of these thoughts will serve as springboards to new and deeper understandings of your own as you read spiritual texts, worship in whatever ways are meaningful to you, and go through the mundane acts of sameness that make up your days. The goal is to experience that sameness with new eyes and ears, living life from a more unified level of conscious awareness.

This is the 1^st in a series titled Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way. The opinions expressed here are mine. To engage with me or to explore contemplative spiritual direction, my email is ghildenbrand@outlook.com.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s

Mass on the World

A Contemplative Audio-visual Experience

View at: https://youtu.be/m2EzRmZzCe0

---

[1] Pricilla Shirer, as quoted from www.UntilAllHaveHeard1.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/when-christianity-became-a-business/, accessed November 18, 2021.