“Christ in Many
Colors”
Psalm
104:14-24
First
Presbyterian
The Reverend
Thomas A. Sweet
September 7,
2008
Sacrament of
Holy Communion
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In
the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament there is this remarkable passage
about the faith of Moses:
By faith Moses was hidden by his
parents for three months after his
birth, because they saw that the child was beautiful: and they were
not afraid of the king’s edict. By
faith Moses, when he was grown
up, refused to be called a son of the Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing
rather to share ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy
the fleeting pleasures of sin. He
considered abuse suffered for the
Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of
(Hebrews
11:23-26)
Did
you catch it? “Moses considered abuse suffered for the Christ to be greater
wealth than the treasures of
Jesus
embodied the Christ, but “the Christ” – the overarching divine reality or
spirit or force or energy in the universe – is bigger and more, than Jesus.
Alexander Shaia, whose work on the gospels is nothing short of brilliant
and who himself will be leading a very significant faith deepening weekend here
later this fall, differentiates Jesus and “the Christ” in this way, saying
that long before the church began to get it wrong the early church got it right
by calling itself Christian and not Jesusian, and saying further that
When we shed our immature Jesusian
focus and engage the Christ fully,
we begin to see how much Christendom has confused us by using the two
parts of the name (Jesus the Christ) interchangeably.
They are not
interchangeable. Jesus was
born. The Christ was not.
Jesus died. The
Christ did not. Jesus rose.
The Christ did not. Jesus
went away. The
Christ did not and never will.
What
Jesus did was to show us the truth of Christ and thus, the truth of God, better
than it ever had been seen. The
truth of God is more than the truth about Jesus, it is more than Jesusian truth;
it is Christian truth.
And Christian truth, the truth
of the Christ, of God, is bigger than any one denomination or theology.
Indeed, it is bigger than any one religion.
The truth of Christ encompasses all of reality, everything in the
universe and the multiverses, and in each successive generation the tools and
means by which we can move into an increasingly enlightened Christ-consciousness
are given to us if only, as the poets suggest, we wake up more fully to the
fullness of life and pay attention more and more to what is going on around us
and in us, and seek with passion to explore and savor the mysteries
of God.
All
of what I am saying is important (I say modestly…smile) because it is our
evolving understanding of the Christ that will help to save our world and lead
us on earth to experience the heaven of God’s heart and dream.
This evolving and developing Christ-consciousness that was present in and
embodied radically and revolutionarily in Jesus of Nazareth was nevertheless
incomplete in him. Jesus said
nothing about abortion, for instance, or stem cells or homosexuality or war in a
nuclear age or overcrowding or global warming or many other issues, matters, and
events with which we are confronted today and require our faithful response…a
response that is faithful to the Christ of God who transcends nations and
nationalities, religions and rationalizations.
I
grant that what I am saying this morning, much of which I have said before, is
not the understanding that all churches share about Jesus and the Christ.
But I read this summer an interesting chapter in a book by Chautauqua
preacher Bruce Sanguin, the chapter being titled “What
Color Is Your Christ?” Using
the concepts of Clare Graves and Don Beck called “spiral dynamics” that we
talked about several years ago in some adult education forums, Sanguin says that
the answer to the question that Jesus
asked his disciples, “Who do you say
that I am?”, will be answered according to the stage of
Christ-consciousness in which we currently find ourselves.
Using the color codes of spiral dynamics, Sanguin identifies the
following evolving stages. It might
be interesting as you hear me talk very briefly about the various stages to
determine the one that best describes your answer to that question, and the one
you think best describes our church.
The
first color, purple, denotes “the tribal
Christ.” Followers of the
“purple Christ” believe that he magically or supernaturally keeps one’s
tribe or clan or family safe from harm if the proper rituals are performed and
also answers favorably the prayers of those who are obedient.
The
second color, red, identifies “the
warrior Christ.” Followers of
the Red Christ go into battle on behalf of their tribe or nation or belief
system with confidence in his blessing, believing in the divine rightness of
their cause. The Red Christ led the
Christian armies into the Crusades and, more recently, one of our candidates for
vice-president has claimed, and I am paraphrasing here, “The Red Christ led
the
The
“blue Christ” is “the traditional
Christ” who makes atonement for our sins and thereby placates an angry
God. God sent his only son to suffer and die on behalf of humanity, a
sacrificial Lamb who makes atonement for our sins and thereby placates an angry
God. Followers of the “blue
Christ” believe that Jesus is God’s only way, only truth, only life and one
demurs from that belief at one’s own eternal peril.
The
“orange Christ” is “the modern
demythologized Christ” in which the divinity of Jesus is downplayed in
favor of his humanity and in which the stories about him and his ministry are
more to be taken metaphorically than literally.
The “orange Christ” encourages us to think for ourselves rather than
to acquiesce to dogma and to live into our own creative expression.
The
“green Christ” is “the egalitarian
Christ” that embraces multiple cultures and pathways and downplays the
“Truth” (with a capital T) of any particular religious system.
The green Christ draws the circle of humanity ever wider so as to include
the last, lost, least, and littlest of our society.
The green Christ is opposed to racism, sexism, ageism, nationalism,
patriotism, and elitism. The green
Christ offers a global, pluralistic, and multicultural worldview.
The green Christ widens his net to include all of us and not just us.”
The
“yellow Christ” is “the
integral/ecological/cosmic Christ that encompasses the universe and all
world cultures as an integrated ecology of systems.
The yellow Christ affirms the oneness of everything and the
interconnectedness of all life. This
is the cosmic Christ of Paul’s writings in whom all things hold together.
Those who are at this level of Christ-consciousness delight in scientific
and technological discoveries and look for ways in which this brave new world
connects to the stories and core beliefs of the Judeo-Christian tradition. They
perceive the hidden wholeness that binds everything together – human and
non-human – in the great adventure of life.
Finally,
the “turquoise Christ” is “the
mystical Christ” who not only perceives, but experiences, the world as
one. Someone who follows this Christ
experiences the truth that the diversity of life is, as we said in our call to
worship, an expression of the Holy One.
All of life is sacred for those who have eyes to behold it.
This mystical Christ wants all persons to realize their own Christ-like
natures. Worry, which is fear-based,
is replaced by joy at the inner awareness that we are each manifestations of the
Holy One living, working, and playing
in the realm of time and space. One
notices the synchronicities and convergences of life and are not surprised,
sensing that they reflect the interconnectedness of all life in God.
What
color is your Christ? What about the
color of our church’s Christ? Realizing
that as we move into every successive stage of consciousness that there remains
in us vestiges of every prior stage, I would hazard the opinion that the
dominant color of our congregation’s Christ dances between green and yellow,
with occasional dabblings of turquoise. And
that is germane to this next point for which everything I have said so far is
prelude. Philosopher Ken Wilber
estimates that in our country, 30-40 percent of people are at the blue, or
traditional, level…the consciousness in which Jesus is seen as the one way,
truth, and life and one’s eternal destiny hinges on believing it.
40-50 percent of the people are at the orange level, 20-25 percent are at
the green level, and less than 2 percent are at the yellow and turquoise levels.
So, as we move through the stages, the higher the level of consciousness
the fewer the people we find there.
That
means that the pool of people from which a church like ours has to draw is far
less than those churches whose Christ is red or blue.
Yet, our mission of being a herald and harbinger of an emerging,
maturing, more inclusive Christ-consciousness is nothing less than imperative
for our imperiled world divided in so many ways against itself.
“In Christ, all things hold together.”
The message of the yellow and turquoise Christs needs boldly to be
proclaimed and lived.
Our
stewardship theme in this election year is “Vote
for First Presbyterian Church.” Vote
for our church by telling others about us and our message.
Vote by bringing your friends to church.
Vote by increasing your giving. Vote
by being here in the worshiping community Sunday after Sunday.
Vote by being a neighbor to our neighbors.
Vote by speaking up and out when you see anywhere something that
contradicts or contravenes the compassion of Christ. Vote
for our church by telling others about us and our message.
One
final word: Lest you have misheard
in anything I have said any air of superiority or braggadocio in suggesting that
we reside in the higher stages of Christ-consciousness and that we are the kind
of church the world needs whether it knows it or not, whether Christians know it
or not, I commend to you a poem by the Sufi mystic, Hafiz, especially on this
day when we come again to the table of belonging, hospitality, and equality to
eat bread and drink wine in the name of the Christ:
Why Aren’t We Screaming Drunks?**
The
sun once glimpsed God’s true nature
And has never been the same.
Thus the radiant sphere
Constantly pours its energy
Upon this earth
As does He from behind
The veil.
With a wonderful God like that
Why isn’t everyone a screaming drunk?
Hafiz’s guess is this:
Any thought that you are better or less
Than another man (or woman)
Quickly
Breaks the wine
Glass.
In
the companionship of the eternal Christ and these friends, let us come now, for
the sake of the world, to this Christ-table of healing, hope, and harmony.
Amen.
*The
information about the “colors of Christ” is taken from a book by Bruce
Sanguin entitled The Emerging Chuch
published in 2008 by CopperHouse. Prior
to Sanguin’s book, Clare Graves and Don Beck pioneered the exciting work on
spiral dynamics on which Sanguin’s insights are based.
©
Copyright 2008 First Presbyterian Church
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