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The arrogance of many of my fellow Christians in believing that we are the only way to salvation is protected by a deep ignorance of the other religions. Stories about Jesus in the Christian scriptures are a combination of many versions of earlier savior stories. The purpose of such stories were never to produce belief in historical miracles. They were efforts to understand what it means to be human in the cosmos.

I do not belief that faith is ever weakened by being honest, and the honest fact is that many of the stories attributed to Jesus predate Christianity, often by hundreds if not thousands of years.

This week we will begin a sermon series on “The Christs before Jesus” as a way of enriching and universalizing our understanding of who Jesus was, and who we are today. Our first Christ was named Dionysus. We will look at the wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. Then we will turn to an earlier version of the story from the religion of Dionysus where wine gushed forth from a stream at a wedding.

Early Christians would have heard the story of Jesus turning water into wine completely different because they knew the scriptural story was retelling the story of Dionysus in a radical new way. They would hear the story not as an historical narrative about a magic trick, but as a sacred poem revealing a vital truth about our lives today.

Mary Spence was a brilliant scientist and a committed atheist. She did not ever try to dissuade others from their beliefs, but she always felt a secret irritation when the subject of religion came up. One evening she came back slightly tipsy from a date and started a conversation with Texas Buddha who had agreed to babysit for her.

“I’m really not trying to change you because I love you the way you are, but I don’t understand why you can’t see that religion is born of fear. People only turn to religion because they cannot face their own death. You are the wisest person I have ever met. Why do you need the crutch of religion?”

Texas Buddha was in the process of playing peek-a-boo with Mary’s infant son Tully. After a moment he looked up, “This game of peek-a-boo works because fear and wonder exist on the same continuum in our brains. Look at Travis. He loves this game, but if I get too close he is startled and if I am too far away he is bored. If I find just the right balance, he is delighted. This continuum between fear, boredom and fascination underlies our entire consciousness.

Religion did not make up death as a marketing tool. Every human must deal with death as a fundamental truth about life. While many, if not most, people use religion as a way of not confronting death, some use other forms of distraction like business, entertainment, or maybe even science. Somehow, we must all come back to death as a fundamental fact about our lives. It is one thing to acknowledge with our heads that we will die, it is something else to fully absorb that fact with our hearts

Religion, at its best, is the ultimate game of peek-a-boo. In healthy religion, we draw close and pull back from our own death until we can look into our own grave and feel wonder not fear. Such religion is the ultimate act of courage.

Tonight you went to a scary movie. Why did you do that? Were you not, in your own way, playing peek-a-boo with death?”

A yogi was working hard to achieve inner peace, but when praised, he was visibly pleased and when criticized he was visibly upset. Once when he was perturbed by someone’s comment he approached the Texas Buddha to ask how he could better hold onto peace of mind.

“We cannot hold onto peace. Instead, we must let go of what disturbs. One who seeks contentment and is disturbed by praise or blame is like the foolish ruler who build a castle with walls incredibly thick and high. And dug a huge moat and filled it with alligators. But then, the foolish ruler left the draw bridge down for any passing marauder to simply walk in and plunder the treasure.

You did not lose your peace of mind, you traded it for the approval of passing strangers.

Contentment is your inner castle.  It will give you peace so long as you do not open its gate to any of these four invaders: flattery, criticism, success or failure.

The new pope has reaffirmed his predecessor’s harsh criticisms of the group that represents 80% of the nuns in the United States:

“The Vatican last year said in its doctrinal assessment that the nuns’ group was tinged with feminist influences, focused too much on ending social and economic injustice and not enough on stopping abortion, and permitted speakers at its meetings who questioned church doctrine.” –The New York Times

Many had hoped Pope Francis’ humble acts of washing the feet of AIDs patients and of women implied that he believed those people were worthy of being treated equally. Now some are left with the impression that the new pope will remain humble only so long as his inferiors stay in their place.

It is an old trick. Men can seem humble in a patriarchal hierarchy because the system does the oppression for them. Likewise, it is easy to affect a life of poverty while buttressed by one of the richest organizations in the world. A structure based on superstition can claim to be open to science so long as the discussion is never turned toward that group’s own prescientific worldviews.

Link to NY Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/us/pope-upholds-reprimand-of-nuns-group.html?_r=0

It is not easy to pose as a liberal President in a captitalist nation. One must appeal to the masses, while faithfully serving the financial elites. So to destroy the labor movement in a capitalist country, someone posing as a liberal President must propose trojan horse legislation like NAFTA that will allow businesses to move overseas if American labor gets out of line. To destroy any hope for a public option for healthcare, someone posing as a liberal President in a capitalist nation must mimic such universal coverage, but put it under the cold metal thumb of the insurance industry.

The Obama administration is proposing a new way to measure price levels of consumer goods and services that some think is a disguised effort to cut social security. The Chained Consumer Price Index was created by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as a way of more accurately measuring the effects of inflation, but some feel moving from current methods to a “Chained CPI will only balance the budget by cutting services to America’s most vulnerable citizens. What follows is a series of illuminating quotes on the “Chained CPI.”

“Proponents of the chained CPI include the Washington Post Editorial Board the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and the Heritage Foundation. It is also included in the recommendations of various bipartisan commissions designed to reduce the deficit such as Simpson-Bowles, Domenici-Rivlin and the Gang of Six.” -Wikipedia

“Opponents of the measure contend that changing inflation metrics to the Chained CPI would inappropriately cut the growth in benefits under programs like Social Security and Supplemental Security Income. Opponents include the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), the American Federation of Government Employees, the AFL-CIO and Social Security Works. They claim that the current CPI used for the elderly understates the inflation seniors experience, primarily because the elderly purchase more medical care than younger people, and medical care inflation has exceeded inflation in the rest of the economy.” -Wikipedia

Robert Reich, former United States Secretary of Labor, said there is an easy fix to the concern that the Social Security trust fund could run out of money: Just lift the ceiling on income subject to Social Security taxes. This cap is now $113,700. Lifting it would allegedly make the Social Security system solvent for the foreseeable future. -Wikipedia

“How much could payments change? Estimates show that under the chained CPI, your cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) would be about .3 percentage point below the plain old CPI. That works out to $3 less on every $1,000, which doesn’t sound like much — except that it keeps compounding over time.” -AARP

“With the chained CPI, you would be getting $1,267.50 — or $3.75 less a month and $45 less a year. Again, that might not seem like a big reduction, but if the COLA is the same next year, the difference increases to $7.61 a month and $91.32 for the year.” -AARP

“You start to get the picture. The gap accelerates and begins looking like real money. If you’re 62 and take early retirement this year, by age 92 — when health care costs can skyrocket and more than 1 in 6 older Americans lives in poverty — you’ll be losing a full month of income every year.” -AARP

In fact, Obama may be unintentionally strengthening the Republican’s hand in this debate by validating their theory of deficit reduction. –George Zornick, The Nation

Instead of battling the GOP on the idea that cutting the safety net is a bad way to reduce deficits—particularly Social Security, which doesn’t even contribute to it—Obama has endorsed the GOP approach by agreeing to Chained CPI. And don’t think they won’t point that out—and use it to advance the ball on cutting entitlements. –George Zornick, The Nation

The AARP reveals that 70 percent of voters age 50-plus oppose the use of the chained CPI to cut benefits, and two-thirds of them – including 60 percent of Republicans — say they would be “considerably less likely” to support a congressional candidate if he or she backed a new way of calculating consumer prices. And 84 percent of voters over 50 say Social Security has no place in budget-deficit discussions, since it is self-financed. –George Zornick, The Nation

A seeker came to Texas Buddha, “I know that you are a great teacher, please illumine me so that I may be enlightened as you are.”

“You cannot know if I am enlightened unless you, yourself, are already enlightened. If that is the case you do not need a teacher.”

Assuming that he was facing some kind of test, the seeker then said, “Above all else, I seek enlightenment.”

Feeling sorry for the young fellow, Texas Buddha answered, “We must never seek enlightenment, for unless we are already enlightened, our idea of enlightenment will surely be an illusion. It is like when we dream of awakening in the morning but are still sound asleep. We think we have driven to work, but wake up back in bed. It is the same way when we imagine an enlightened state.”

“But you are a great teacher. Can you not share some guidance for a lost soul?”

“You cannot even know that I am a great teacher.” After pausing to study the lad, Texas Buddha said, “I will give you three tests that will lead you forward. You will find these tests reliable whether I, myself, am a sage or a fool. The three tests are: Follow whatever opens your mind to new truths, whatever widens the horizons of your compassion, and whatever deepens your heart to beauty. Continue on that path and you will surely awaken.”

Rev. Sally Jenkins was a wise and wonderful Unitarian minister, but she did not always feel so wise or wonderful. When asked how she came to find her calling, Sally would tell the story of her successful suicide years earlier.

Years ago, Texas Buddha came upon Sally standing on a bridge about to commit suicide. Not wanting to force her hand, he sat a safe distance away and asked, “Friend what has brought you to this decision?”

“Don’t call me friend. I have no friends. All my life I have wanted to be loved but my latest divorce has proven to me that I will never be loved or happy. I might as well end my joke of a life here and now.”

Sensing the she was about to jump, Texas Buddha answered, “You would know better than I whether your life is worth living so I will not try to talk you out of that decision, but since your life means so little to you, may I have it?

The startled woman stepped back a step from the ledge and asked, “What do you mean?”

“If you have no more wish to live out the unhappy life you began, would you be willing to give the rest of your life as a gift to others?  You will still be ending your life, and you will be just as dead at the end whether you jump into life as out of it. Since you are not going to use your life, will you give it as a gift of compassion for all other beings?

“I can’t save myself, how can I save others?” Sally shouted angrily.

“The desire to be loved is bottomless bucket. The desire to love is an inexhaustible fountain. Whereas most people desire to be loved, the saint becomes love itself. Whereas most seek to taste the honey, the saint becomes the honey. I am asking you to become the love for others that you could not find for yourself. If you are not happy afterwards, this bridge will still be here.”

Sally Jenkins left the ledge and eventually became a great saint. When asked how she became a lover of all beings, she would tell of the night she committed suicide by leaping into life, instead of out.

Rev. Clovis Jones and Rabbi Benjamin Solomon were fishing on the Pedernales River.

“I always thought I would be an adult by now,” mused the Rabbi. “My congregation thinks of me as completely mature. No one sees the little child running around inside of me.  I can’t ever seem to completely grow up.”

The Reverend nodded laughing. “I know what you mean. When I was in seminary I thought that I would someday believe everything in the Apostles’ Creed, but I have as many doubts as ever.  So when do we arrive?”

Texas Buddha, who did not fish, was sitting near his friends, dangling his feet in the muddy water.

“Change is the law of life. Therefore, we should give up any thoughts of perfection or certainty. The river we fish in today will not be the same tomorrow. Today’s map of this river will soon be a memento and not a guide. The only arrival is coming to this present moment as it is now. The only perfection is to remain in harmony with life as it changes.”

The Reverend frowned, “But if the universe is change, how can the creeds be timeless? Are they just mementos of an earlier time?”

“No.” Texas Buddha responded, “The purpose of a creed is not to map an unchanging universe. The purpose of a creed is to tune our hearts to the music of life’s changes.”

Texas Buddha spotted Sally Helen Gold crying on a park bench. Wordlessly, he sat down beside her.

“My son Travis just told me he doesn’t believe in God any more. I feel like I’ve failed as a parent.” After a very long time, she looked up. “What do you think?”

“I personally do not believe that faith means holding onto a particular idea.” He responded, “Faith is a trust in the deep mystery of life of which the word “God” is a mere shadow. True faith is equal parts belief and doubt. Those who pretend to believe something have already lost the faith that really matters in life. Travis has not lost his faith. He has only outgrown his youthful picture of the mystery.”

Emptying the bag of bread crumbs he brought to feed the birds, Texas Buddha concluded, “Nothing is true because someone believes it. It is true because it is. You have not failed as a parent. You should be very proud of your son’s deep faith to reject what seems untrue. Have faith that Travis’  radical honesty will lead him to what is true.”

Sally Helen nodded slowly, but then a thought flashed across her face, “But, how do we ever know our beliefs are right?”

“We cannot know if we are right. We can only know if we are being honest.”

The other day I went into a sandwich shop in Round Rock. Before I could find a seat, the manager asked calmly, “Is this the day we are supposed to be bombed?” I had no idea what he was talking about. He continued, “Is this the day Korea is supposed to shoot the missile toward us?”

As we all know, America is surrounded by enemies. This basic fact requires huge expenditures on weaponry and a constant ability to spot the new Hitler in town. Now that Saddam Hitler, Hugo Hitler, Fidel Hitler and Kaddafi Hitler are no longer a threat, we need to learn about the new Hitler, which is a certain North Korean dictator named Kim. Hitler Kim is yet another madman who wants to kill us for no reason.

Now to follow my reasoning it will be important, as always, not to know the history of our enemies. So please forget the US invasion of Korea in 1945, dividing it into two nations, blocking national elections and killing perhaps 15-20% of the population along the way. Those people have no reason to hate us.

And it will be important to forget that South Korea has nuclear weapons provided by the US pointed at the North. Don’t think about our own provocative war maneuvers and spy planes and such. Those people are just power hungry.

If you will forget all of that history and just focus on Kim’s response, you can clearly see that he is crazy, and that we need to empty even more money down the rabbit hole of the American war industry. After all, there is a new Hitler on the block.