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For Christmas Mayor Pete Buttigieg, an Episcopalian tweeted a message of solidarity, and then was questioned by a “pro-life, pro-woman, pro-family, pro-marriage” tweeter.

By Eileen Fleming

In honor of Christmas Mayor Pete Buttigieg, an Episcopalian tweeted:

“Today I join millions around the world in celebrating the arrival of divinity on earth, who came into this world not in riches but in poverty, not as a citizen but as a refugee. No matter where or how we celebrate, merry Christmas.”

In response @obianuju, a self-described “passionately pro-life,pro-woman,pro-family,pro-marriage…” tweeted a question regarding the centrality of Christ in Christmas that reminded me of this excerpt from Keep Hope Alive:

“You just made me remember what Father Mike wrote me, after he heard Thomas Merton speak at what became his last peace rally, before he was electrocuted in a freak accident and died. My brother was standing next to this nun who accosted Merton after his speech and demanded, ‘Why didn’t you mention Jesus in your speech?’

“Merton replied, ‘What we are asked to do at present is not so much to speak of Christ as to let him live in us, so that people may find him by feeling how he lives in us.’ Mike wrote that after overhearing that encounter, he quit giving his parishioners the usual list of prayers to say for penance. Instead, he told them not to mention Jesus by name for a week, but to keep Jesus foremost in their minds and hearts.”

Riad beamed and replied, “Jack, your brother is a wise man to think of such a just penance for Christians who may forget the other names for Jesus, like Emmanuel, meaning ‘God is with us,’ and the Prince of Peace. And Martin Luther King, Jr., walked in his footsteps; I hope we never forget his message of justice and equality for all humanity.”

Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk who listened to Bob Dylan LP’s in his hermitage in Kentucky during the ’60′s and became the first religious voice to rise up and speak out against the Vietnam War.

Evangelicals do NOT read Merton and they prefer easy answers because they are uncomfortable with The Divine Mystery we call God, which reminds me of Proverbs 29:18:

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

The ancients understood that God spoke to them in their dreams and visions. The ancients told those stories around the campfires and those stories grew by the flame enkindled in the hearer’s hearts; transforming them into storytellers too.

In the gospel [good news] told in Mark 3: 31-35, the mother of Jesus’ and his brothers arrived at the house where he was teaching.

Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him out. The crowd around Jesus told him, “Your mother, sisters and brothers are outside asking for you.”

Jesus replied, “I am here with my mother, sisters and brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister and mother.”-Mark 3: 31-35

And if we have eyes to see, we will comprehend that Micah 6:8 sums up what is necessary to be on God’s side be they Christian or Jew:

“What does God require? He has told you o’man! Be just, be merciful, and walk humbly with your Lord.”

Being just means correct, true, accurate, right and fair.

Merciful is to have, feel and show compassion, that sense of viscerally feeling the pain of another and being moved to help.

Being humble is knowing yourself; the good and the bad, for both cut through every human heart.

All Christians-from the most fundamental to those left of the progressives-are connected to the other as a sister and brother in the mystical Body of Christ.

It is a dysfunctional family and way past time to liberate Jesus from the bondage of institutional patriarchy because no church owns Jesus and no religion owns God!

HOW do we get there? It begins in the heart and imagination, where all human creativity is birthed.

In 2003, I read an article in Presence Magazine written by a pastor of a church in Berkeley. I no longer remember what the article was about, but he inspired me to email him a few of my theological questions. He replied something like this;

I once gave a sermon that began with the story of Rabbi Hillel, who lived 100 years before Jesus walked the earth.

Rabbi Hillel understood the Hebrew understanding of Hokema; Holy Wisdom; The Feminine Divinity, was the same as the Greek understanding of The Logos: The Word.

It was Saints John and Paul that understood The Logos: The Word was Jesus.

So with a little imagination you can imagine that before Jesus walked the earth a man, he was already a she; The Word, Holy Wisdom, Hokema, the feminine divinity.

I gave that sermon to a mainline conservative congregation. It didn’t go over well…

Ever since the days of Eve the feminine has not been valued as fully equal to men.

Jesus is the first known man to blow apart the societal and religious taboos of speaking with females as fully equal.

Just one more example of how the male disciples would not, could not follow Jesus THAT closely!

And “Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system”-Dorothy Day

Later male disciples, the Protestant Reformers, would not, could not accept the Book of Wisdom and threw it out of their canon, but the Catholics include it in their bible. It has been said that some thought the Book of Wisdom was too Jewish or perhaps too feminine?

The Book of Wisdom defines wisdom as: a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, and certain. Not baneful, but loving the good. Keen, unhampered, beneficent, kind, firm, secure, all-powerful, all-seeing and pervading all spirits.

Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion and SHE penetrates and pervades all things by reason. SHE is the aura of the might of God and a pure effusion of the glory of The Almighty. SHE is the refulgence of eternal Light, a spotless mirror of the power of God. And SHE who is one, can do all things and renews everything, and passing into holy souls from age to age, SHE produces friends of God and prophets.- WISDOM 7:22-8:1

Wisdom has built her house and SHE calls to all; “Come, eat my food and drink my wine and you will live abundant life and walk in the ways of understanding.” -Proverbs Number 9

Let all who are little come in here, Wisdom has built her house; come eat her food and drink her wine and walk in the ways of understanding…I’m so very small I’m so very small; already within the heart of every atom yet extend Beyond the Universe and connect every mother and child.

Wisdom calls; “I have built it; will you come? Do you have eyes to see and ears to hear?

Holy Wisdom, the Feminine Divinity: Hokema,

Who was with The Word from the very beginning,

She is One with Him and He with Her;

Pure Being; One God;

One Creator and One Lover of All the Human Family,

Hokema; Holy Wisdom;, The Feminine Divinity

Same as The Logos: The Word:

Have you heard the word is love and the word is just the way

The Word is The Christ and before Christ walked the earth a man,

HE was already SHE:

Hokema, Holy Wisdom; the Feminine Divinity

Now, isn’t that Good News?

The God Head is One Pure Being; as much male as female, as much mommy as daddy.

And we are all children of Her Universe;

He is the oldest personality because He is the origin of everything, and everything is born of Him.

He is the supreme controller of the universe, the maintainer and instructor of humanity.

He is smaller than the smallest.[Bhagavad-Gita]

He indwells the heart of every atom and She is beyond the Universe!

Wisdom is calling, She is rattling your windows and shaking your walls with good news and three witnesses; and three always beats one, and not just that:

I’ve got a fourth!

Get out your Good Book sisters and brothers and chew on this:

Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:28-29, and Luke 12:10 are simpatico with Gnostic Thomas saying 44:

Jesus said: “Whoever blasphemes against the father will be forgiven, whoever blasphemes against the son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven.”

God is within every sister, brother and all Creation,

Get a clue Christian:His ways are not your ways and Her thoughts are not your thoughts!

Dominion never meant to rape and plunder, but to nurture, care and love

And if you have not love, you have nothing at all!

And on our final day we will stand naked before The Creator of the Universe who warned there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth by those who were so sure they were in: because they are the ones left out!

WAKE UP Christian and hear the wind howl:

For every misunderstanding, every condemning thought, every negative vibration, every tear torn from a heart, every time one grabbed and wouldn’t let go, and they only did it because they did not know:

The Divine is within all creation and within all women and men.

And every tiny kindness you have ever done, every gentle word spoken, every time you held your tongue, every positive thought, every smile freely given, every helping hand that opens, helps bring in the kingdom.

And the kingdom comes from above, and it comes from within.

Imagine a kingdom of sisterhood of all creatures and all men.

Christianity was founded by rebels, revolutionaries and dissidents, not conservatives or republicans; and neither were these United States!

To Be Continued Here