![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/364\/2013\/08\/Matthew8atCP21.jpg\" "\\"Matthew8atCP2\\"")
<\/a>Jesus talks a lot about false gods. He\u2019s talking about idolatry all the time, and about projections and the shadows of avarice and envy, for example, which as I say constitute our economic system in its present state.<\/p>\n
So again, I ask: How are we doing today with living his message?<\/em><\/p>\n The names of the false gods of today could all be written in capital letters: for example, Nation with a capital N, or Religion with a capital R. My Religion can beat up on your Religion, my God can beat up on your God \u2013 and we\u2019ll devour<\/em> your Goddess!<\/p>\n Family with a capital F \u2013 that\u2019s scary, though I think what happened just a little while ago in the Supreme Court regarding gay marriage was a breakthrough in that regard. In America our media is so narcissistic that it rarely mentions the fact that this is going on all over the world: in Argentina, in Mexico, in Spain, in Canada, and in many other countries it\u2019s already settled that gay people have the right to marry the one they love. But at least we\u2019re making progress there.<\/p>\n But of course if you spell Family with a capital F, do you know exactly how it\u2019s defined and are prepared to enforce that definition? Or do you realize the sacredness of family and community in all its expressions, and realize that it evolves and is flexible as to its makeup?<\/p>\n Tradition can be spelled with a capital letter and can become an idol, of course. Likewise Consumer Capitalism, Wall Street with its strange definition of wealth and complete blindness towards Main Street (except when it needs bailing out of its avaricious overkill).<\/p>\n Jesus says, \u201cBeware!\u201d He\u2019s not saying that none of these things hold promise. But he tells us to be awake! This is what spirituality is about \u2013 waking up! Paul uses that language, and\u00a0 of course Jesus uses it, and they use it in the East. Kabir uses it: Wake up! You have been sleeping for millions and millions of years.\u00a0 Why not wake up this morning?<\/em><\/p>\n In speaking of Jesus, Marcus Borg talks about conventional wisdom<\/em> versus subversive wisdom<\/em>, and he says Jesus was preaching subversive wisdom. Conventional wisdom is \u201cencultured consciousness,\u201d he says, consciousness shaped and structured by culture and tradition.<\/p>\n He names the areas in which Jesus addresses the conventional wisdom of his day: Issues around Purity, Religion, and Family. He retells the Gospel story, how one day a crowd called out to Jesus, \u201cBlessed are the breasts that nursed you and the womb that bore you.\u201d And Jesus shouts back, \u201cNo! Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!\u201d<\/p>\n He is deconstructing Family with a capital F.<\/p>\n Truth is, Jesus had troubles in his family. His brothers thought he was crazy for going out and eating locusts in the desert with John the Baptist for six years, while they had to hang at home and work the family garden and all that. No wonder they were jealous when he returned! He created the story of the Prodigal Son from his experience with his brothers \u2013 it wasn\u2019t his father, who was deceased, but his mother who welcomed him back\u2026. And he had a difficult relationship with his mother.<\/p>\n And right there it\u2019s a slap in the face. Imagine the reaction of his listeners: \u201cWhat? Your literal mother is not the whole picture?\u201d No, he\u2019s broadening the field: everyone who hears the word of God and keeps it is my mother, my brother, and my sister. And he says to you \u2013 \u201cLeave your parents,\u201d and even \u201cHate your family\u201d \u2013 this is shocking stuff for those who spell Family with a capital F!<\/p>\n This is rattling the cages of those who worship Family as idol. He\u2019s not saying that family is not important \u2013 and in fact, James, his brother, and the others took up the cause. Late, after his death, but they took it up.<\/p>\n But the point is that he\u2019s doing exactly what we need to do: to shake up the idolatry, the idols of conventional wisdom. Not in raw anger, but with a broader wisdom, what Borg calls the subversive wisdom, another way of seeing the world.<\/p>\n So it was around the idols of Family, Wealth, Honor, Purity, and Religiosity, according to Borg, that Jesus stood up and was not only counted but considered a revolutionary in his day: he disturbed the complacent.<\/p>\n He says, \u201cCall no man on earth your father: you have one Father, who is in heaven.\u201d Now what does this do to a patriarchal consciousness? It deconstructs it! Pulls the rug right out from under it! Now, has the Church been developing these notions? Well, you have to look at the different churches. In the Catholic Church in which I was raised, all priests were called Father \u2013 so they rather blithely ran over that particular radical statement by Jesus.<\/p>\n This is revolutionary stuff, folks. Nobody would have dozed through these talks as if they were a sleepy Sunday sermon. They were designed to wake up the listeners, get them thinking and questioning and excited. Edgy, risky stuff. And this is just the beginning!<\/p>\n In my next post I\u2019ll be looking at Jesus\u2019 revolutionary words about the political and religious hierarchy of his day. And I want to ask you \u2013 what are the false gods that are taken for granted in your <\/em>world? Experience the Christ Path Seminars in real time! Register for \u201cCosmic Christ and Youth: The Occupy Generation,\u201d<\/a> the next Christ Path Seminar weekend taking place 10\/11-13, featuring Adam Bucko as guest speaker, and based on Matthew Fox\u2019s and Adam Bucko\u2019s groundbreaking book, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation.<\/em><\/p>\n To immerse in the leading-edge wisdom and transformational spiritual practices of Matthew Fox, Andrew Harvey, and their guest speakers again and again: order the complete recordings of the Christ Path Seminars<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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