As readers of my infrequent entries may have already guessed, the title is meant to be provocative and to some extent a play on words. I do believe the brink of excommunication in the header may hold truth, but let me debrief first. Perhaps due to the extensive lengths of isolation, my dream state has become rather vivid occupying seven hours at night and a few hours during the day when I should be tending to work, if I had any. Recently my foggy memory tugged at an image of a belief in a “K” faith which holds power over the masses. Now looking back, it was probably just my sub-conscious floating the idea of teleKinesis which I’m sure I had to have thought about in my very academic viewings of documentaries of modern culture in the forms of mind numbing, yet nostalgic, cartoons of superheroes. However, the dream did get me wondering and the search had me stumble upon little known Kenosis. Christian theologians have transformed the meaning of “emptying” in Greek into the idea that when Christ died he emptied his love onto the world. Christ was the greatest example of God’s love, Christ was the greatest example of God’s sacrifice. The theory is God was not performing one single act of ultimate subservient love to man’s will, but rather the clear example of the essence of God’s purpose on earth. If the greatest deed one can do is lay down his life/comfort for another, than why should it be expected that the Holy is consumed by anything else. This is not to say God is inferior to man, but rather allows herself to act as a slave to man’s actions.
Now those harping the power and wrath of the Almighty God found mostly in the Old Testament would condemn these thoughts as heresy, but I persist. If one believes that truth found in Christ existed before there was man or earth as the first verses of flowery John states with the “Word” never ceasing or starting, one may find early teachings of God’s powerful vendettas contradictory to what Christ taught as universal truth, and perhaps the Torah was a guide rather than an accurate historical document (I’m just saying it’s possible, so don’t send letters yet). Kenosis gives direction and words to what others tried to grapple when understanding God’s surrender. The crucifixion was an event that created a new faith(or just made an addition to the current faith depending on what part of the Bible), but it was also the pinnacle of Jehovah’s self-imposed obligation to mankind. Ponder it this way, Christians are taught that the life of Jesus is the model for us all and he was also fully God. The physical deeds of Christ reflect the transcending spiritual roles of God and to think otherwise would be to argue Christ was separate from God in at least this respect and could easily jeopardize what most acknowledge as the Holy Trinity with the 3 being individual but 3 being the same in mind and purpose. The entire life of Jesus was brimming with servitude to man in hopes they will discover enlightenment without the vigorous hand of God’s forced direction. If Christ acts as a slave, than the logical flow is God is the same in existence. Kenosis allows for scientific evolution in all senses, and the complete secularism of society, for that is when sacrifice in God’s love is most prevalent.
Stopping my ramblings for a second, isn’t it heart achingly beautiful and humbling? I believe the rationale behind Kenosis is still to glorify, but for different reasons. A God fearing man misinterprets the necessity to worship. The Almighty should be praised not because he holds all power and could rain down destruction, if you don’t accept the sacrifice on the cross, but rather that he has chosen concede his limitless power and move through the world as an assistant to those he loves though they may forsake him and cause him unbearable pain. You may think this is all contradictory to Christian dogma. I mean what’s the point for prayer, if we’re the ones given the command, and how could God be the decider of vengeance if he holds less status than the accused? Fortunately, man is already taught to believe in contradictions because they are accepted in Christianity (a few of which I’ve already used). Christ was fully man and fully God? The Trinity with each being separate but the same? God being omniscient and omnipotent yet prayer is required? God is omnipresent yet you have to ask him into your life, which will have sin and it’s stated he can’t exist among sin? Kenosis is clearly outside mainstream dogma, but it has to have a stake in Christianity.
Following down this spiral metaphor of God as a facilitator for class discussion rather than lecturer, I will make an argument for the Holy Spirit as an immaterial thought process rather than a Mensa President Dove. While the purpose of Christ on earth was to clarify God’s use and our attempt to replicate, the Holy Spirit can be unraveled as the direction, inspiration, clarification of what man’s function/ mission is. Christ gave the disciples the right words and tools to use, and the Holy Spirit is that special, gentle kick in the tucus to get going. My question is whether Yahweh 3rd is an actual entity or instead the strength of constitution, the comfort, and the grit moments God gives his followers when they need to see the dim route to trip down.
The inquiry led me to that dusty bind of thin pages, thickened only by the pure number of words between the boards, yep I mean the Bible (actually I’m using an electronic program specific for the Testaments, but all the same). **Warning! Specific scripture is discussed below and it gets Jesussy!** I confess, I try to rely on theological interpretations of the word more often than I rely on the word itself. This is my practice not because I fear the Bible or rather my lack of commitment to survive the monotony of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. I am just weary of being able to read one version of the Bible straight through. When you come to the pages you come with your own desperations and prejudices and they change daily. In order to gain one unified understanding of what the Bible speaks a reader must present himself to the word with the same mindset each day. For instance, if you come to the Songs of Solomon with the pining heart of a longing lover, you may see the words as a rarely known understanding of physical love that few can ever taste. If you hold shrewdness to the idea of union between two, perhaps from a recent jilt, the words are naïve and even profane with no place in such a sacred collection. So I present myself to the word when I find myself in similar state as always (confused and in need).
On a number of occasions the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit when they needed courage to continue on, but why did it not stay with them in the first place if it has a physical existence? When Cornelius of Caesarea, a “God Fearing Man” who sacrificed much alms to God Sr., was asked by said deity to call on Simon Peter for the words of guidance in understanding life which Cornelius needed, the “Holy Spirit” descended down upon those present only after Peter began to speak the gospel of instruction from Christ (Acts 10). Philip, one of the 7 evangelists given an “increase” in God’s word but not the apostle and not with the Holy Spirit somehow still healed the sick through the use of Christ in Samaria and baptized them in the name of Christ, but still no Holy Spirit. Now apostles Peter and John batted clean up and gave the peeps the Holy Spirit (Acts 8). Maybe Philip was just a novice and handing out the early AD version of scare tactic pamphlets with a Mormon in a bicycle helmet chilling in heaven drinking Ovaltine and an unsavory man shackled and tortured (not in a kinky way) in despair and Christ in between them. He may also have been handing out WWJD? T-shirts. Or the people just needed a little more slapping around and a talking to because they had been following a sorcerer named Simon for a number of years (personally I think it was a big trifecta). After this experience Philip preached to a soprano servant of Ethiopia which could have been vital to the spread of the faith (remember the last king of Ethiopia). Once again the eunuch was baptized but no Holy Spirit, and Philip went again to someplace else to try to put his skills in order. Saul, filled with Holy Spirit after receiving his sight, went straight away with the conviction of Christ’s teachings. The last of the Trinity has little pattern in which it consumes those that hear the word. We only know that those who receive are filled with an earnest and a focus on preaching Christ’s instructions. In their desire to fill the void for 12, left by Judas’s duty to cause the crucifixion, it was stated the betrayer had a portion of the ministry, or rather a point of view of the gospel, which needed a substitute so they added another to make a dozen and only then did the Holy Spirit reign upon them when they were whole and could present a true picture of God to the masses. They also had the knowledge of languages inserted into them orally or sepository (the more fun way) or crunched down on some top notch Rosetta Stone Programs and used the intelligence and memory God blessed them with. Perhaps this is why Peter and John were needed to supplement Philip, the evangelist, in order for the people to receive the Holy Spirit. Now I would never declare I have a full understanding of the methods in which the Almighty projects herself into profane man, but I do believe viewing the Holy Spirit as some mystical being taking judgment on whether one should know him is contrary to reason and the texts. And yes, my arguments of God the 3rd being the zeal one has with a full understanding of Christ’s love corners me into accepting that I have most likely not been filled with the Holy Spirit. But I would rather strive to prepare and educate in order to house such an exasperation of the faith, than nonchalantly believe the depth is within me and everyday taking for granted the drive one with the Holy Spirit is suppose to have.
Now I am an unoriginal blasphemer, this is true. However, Christianity should be respected for the leeway allowed within it. The faith is beautiful in its power of frailty and vulnerability to corruption. Though man’s hubris allows him to find variety in the sternest of religious edicts like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is a mindset meant to change behavior and not the other way around. This grants the believer his own ability to interpret before the word takes physical action in his life. Just as God is a voluntary slave to mankind, the teachings of Christ are at the mercy of the reader in hopes that he will find a path to salvation. Some theologians boast the power of the Bible, which holds cement edicts on how man should live and this may be partly true, but the men are using their own interpretation. The Bible is merely a book; yes a Godly and inspirational book, but a book none the less. The Bible allows itself to be crucified daily by those who read it, just as those it speaks of suffer(ed) with religion as the crucial inflictor. The great mind, Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote from his cell in a Nazi jail, “The ‘religious act’ is always something partial, ‘faith’ is something whole, involving the whole of one’s life. Jesus calls men, not to a new religion, but to life.” -Amen
