Christmas Poem 2012

At times like this,
shivering, cold, alone
I don’t care to live anymore.

At times like this I cleave to a faith inferring
a stable in Bethlehem holds promises.

Christmas: Gods Eternal Purpose

What follows is a meditation on the meaning of the incarnation and the subsequent slaughter of the Creator by the ones which were created. Those are the ramifications resulting from the Christmas story.


The Incarnation of Christ is an example of the intent of the impulse motivating causation in the universe. Christ being the eternal Logos, is also 'temporary mankind' suffering the wrath of God as all men and women do during life.

In the art below I attempted to portray the conception of Christ in Symbols of my own devising. It was a meaningful meditation opening up concepts of how the eternal light of truth entered the realm of flesh and blood. For the ones who know Christ it is a holy mystery, for those who do not it is hogwash.

The image can be purchased by clicking on it. You will be taken to Zazzle.com. A wide selection of frames and sizes and price ranges are available

The Incarnation by Hermenutic
Browse other Christianity Posters

Christ claims to be the 'Truth' the 'Way' and the 'Life'. I failed finding hope and peace in Christ until understanding that 'Truth' is a spiritual discussion the goal of which is a new identity.

I had been taught 'Truth' was to be received, believed and never deviated from. All questions were said to have origins in a lack of faith if the pastor's answers did not make the questions stop. The repeated remedy was to stick with what I had been originally taught come hell or high water. To give in an inch would mean the loss of my soul.

Having done that for most of 5 decades having 'faith' in the bible passages was like reading epitaphs while passing through a graveyard. Eventually I understood it was the framework in which the information about the Kingdom of God was relayed to me that made it incomprehensible. It was an example of the 'New' wine in 'Old' wine skins that Jesus said would happen. The 'Truth' burst the skins and was spoiled. It was spoiled because its potency and vibrancy, the ability to transform the life, had been transferred to the institutional framework of the church. The church substituted a form of doctrinal 'truth' for the genuine article of life in the Spirit. Every instance in which this is the case human beings have suffered by losing the ability to enjoy the presence of God.

Consciousness is the medium in which understanding takes place. Jesus was adamant that his words were 'Life and Spirit' and that those who found refuge in their meaning would never die. That is his claim. He further claimed to reveal a spiritual realm which bible writers dubbed the 'Kingdom of God'. This 'Kingdom' exists apart from the world we ordinarily think is the basis of reality. Jesus repeatedly contrasts this present state of affairs we know as ordinary life with life in the 'Kingdom of God'.

One is the 'Flesh' one is the 'Spirit'. Flesh and Spirit are at war. This is where one seeking to know Christ finds himself. He or she find themselves in a body of flesh and desire. Flesh and desire always lead to sorrow and disappointment. Always. If you don't believe me you have not lived long enough. If you live long enough you will know.

Jesus claimed the Kingdom of God was within us. He described the relationship of God with humans in words which scramble ordinary logic. The only way I could find this believable was if what is meant by within you means within our consciousness. It does not make sense any other way. This is eternal life he claimed. Take a moment to think of the type of relationship the Kingdom of God entails. Jesus describes it in his last private moments with his disciples. You can imagine he was spilling the beans here. He knew this was the last time he would get a chance to say what he had been talking about the last several years. It was now or never and his disciples, dullards that they were, still did not understand.

Reading the passage in this link it is easy to see Jesus is not speaking in parables. He is describing the wide gulf between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of God. He is describing the experience and nature of the defining relationships which comprise the Kingdom of God. It is my understanding that this knowledge of the Kingdom of God is a description of ultimate reality now hidden from us by the fact we have bodies and get sick and go to work and die and such things seem to be the most important things of all. This is the context in which the 'Gospel of the Kingdom' is most effective. It is the context in which many if not all of Jesus' parables exist.



Jesus seems to be talking crazy talk. Try imagining what he describes. His words do not reveal any relationship available within the context of a physical body. The closest approximation is sexual love which is used as a symbol by Jesus and other bible writers to describe what the 'Gospel of Truth' reveals in human consciousness regarding God's grace.

The reality of the 'Truth' of the Gospel of the Kingdom is meant to be utilized by consciousness. Consciousness is the domain of the Spirit. It is the place God and the created order meet. It is the only place a relationship such as Jesus describes can conceivably transpire. Consciousness is where Spirit works its magic because the created being is the temple of the living God and consciousness is the seat of 'Being'.




Paul, like Jesus, refers to our being in the Kingdom of God in terminology that defies a physical interpretation.



In chapter 3 of Ephesians he describes the believers entanglement with Christ as 'the fellowship of the mystery'



It should be apparent from the words of Jesus that fellowship with God takes place within consciousness. This means consciousness is the place God is able to be known. I can't think of any other way to reasonably conceive of it after reading the way it is described by Jesus, John and Paul. The description of the qualities of the spiritual kingdom are words associated with consciousness. 'Truth' does not exist independent of consciousness. However, knowing the truth is eternal life. Can it be any more clear than that? Truth is the information God charms us with and which he connects us to himself. Consciousness is the media in which God accomplishes this. Our being is constructed to be influenced by information. There is no truth in the bible until the information in the letters is accessed by a consciousness. It is consciousness which determines what the information in the bible is. Until then it is meaningless. Once it is read it has the capacity and purpose to affect and transform the consciousness involved with it. The simple and yet profound reason for this is that God meets you in your mind.

And all this brings us back to Bethlehem and the place where the controversy between Spirit and Flesh are explained and resolved. The Gospel of the Kingdom is the expression of Gods attitude toward us. Humans are like the young man in this story Jesus told. God is like the young mans Father, according to Jesus. The incident in Bethlehem is a manifestation of the good will of the source of being. Anyone reading this should understand the Gospel of the Kingdom means that the universe is a friendly place. The incident in Bethlehem assures us of that.


That is the purpose of Christ's birth. Peace on Earth. Good will to men. It's just about all he had to say.



I added several discussions on the nature of consciousness which are highlighted. I hope they will enable the reader to explore the concept of the Incarnation of Christ in a personal way.

"I Think I Took Too Much" things to do when it rains

Rain




It's a rainy November day in Warrenton.
It rained all day,
sometimes harder than other times.
The old timers don't comment anymore.

The wind blew hard,
sometimes harder
in repeated surges
separated from each other
bursting like escaped calves from a stall
knocking down fences in a frenzy,
tearing off roof-tops
and disappearing.
.

It's easy to imagine how the coast will take the brunt of climate change. We are truly on the edge of the apocalypse. After seeing what climate change has caused along the east coast the west coast must know its days are numbered.

And if the weather doesn't do it old Mother Earth just might decide to kick Juan de Fuca out of bed and shake things up.

On long rainy days when it get's dark early keeping busy is important. If a person becomes bored in a situation like this the walls start moving. Kind of like 'cabin fever'. To avoid the problem I invade the space of rain and gloom with my camera and imagination.

I saw in the window lights across the street and the reflections on the glass. I wondered if I took a picture if I could capture some of what I saw. Well take a look. I snapped a series of pictures below and added them to each other. Then I began to transform them further.

I worked on these images for a while and came up with a lot of interesting stuff. I put them into the video below. I utilized sounds from freesound.org which added quite an effect to the images.



"Rain" A poem by David H. Roche (c) 2012

All images (c) by David H. Roche

All audio used by creative commons agreements are attributed at the end of the video.

a Clear Running Water state of mind