© 2022 Pamela Chaddock
© 2022 The Urantia Book Fellowship
by Pamela Chaddock
Christianity has indeed done a great service for this world, but what is now most needed is Jesus . . . living again on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men (UB 195:10.1).
Today we find the Spirit of Truth engaging in creative ways with courageous, insightful religionists seeking to boldly resurrect Jesus from the tomb of fossilized Christian theology. I found the following story most encouraging.
¶ Get Me Out of Here
It was a day of struggle amidst the pandemic when she sought response to some unanswered prayers. Diana was drawn to the Washington National Cathedral where America comes together to be transformed and inspired. She pleaded, “Where are you, God?” only to behold silence. Kneeling at the marble altar, below a full triptych of Jesus in cobalt blue surrounded by angels, and gazing up intently she asked again, “Where are you, God?” Suddenly out of the void a voice commanded, “Get Me Out of Here!” Stunned, she heard it again, ever more insistent. “But, Lord?” she then asked.
Diana Butler Bass has known Jesus her entire life. She has grown to know and love him as divinity sent from God as a lens, helping us see who God is. Jesus called him Father. He wants to show us God as Father, loving parent, approachable, welcoming, inclusive, and everpresent guide.
In her latest book, Freeing Jesus, Diana shares her revelation of Jesus’ plea for liberation. This American historian of Christianity, progressive Christian advocate, and storyteller extraordinaire, is one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality.
She asks how we can ever see clearly the Father-Creator God if we have chained or trapped his son, Jesus. Our Jesus-God is too small. Diana wants to set him free to roam the world. She unveils Jesus as a loving revelation of God to humanity. Juicy details are yours to discover in her book.
Diana and many other religious refugees are calling for a “new theology of Jesus” whereby religion is becoming an activity of personal experience-the religion of personal experience. Radical. Reformative.
To those extolling a wrathful God, you’ll hear philosopher, theologian, and wise court zester Tripp Fuller retort, “God must be at least as nice as Jesus!” This is good theology.
Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus’ life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation, and when Jesus becomes thus lifted up, he will draw all men to himself (UB 195:10.1).
The perennial struggle to evolve is aptly captured in a galvanizing Jesus story popularized in the current crowd-funded film project, The Chosen. Nicodemus, High Priest Pharisee of Torah, becomes ensnared, trapped between his rigid traditional beliefs and his growing inner urge to believe in the divinity of Jesus. To his anachronistic fellows he heatedly argues, “If God did something that was different from Torah, would you try to squeeze him back into that box?”
So, if you plan to follow God, the series provokes, “Get used to ‘different’.”
Needed reformation is proceeding apace with the dismantling and disintegration of a tired ecclesial system. Prescient Christians blaze ahead championing the rebirth of Jesus’ Kingdom concept. Today we see the Kin-dom unfolding more as a living organism, a familial service-model-the invisible brotherhood Jesus proclaims.
This gospel of the kingdom is a living truth, a living revelation. This gospel must show increasing vitality and exhibit greater depth of spiritual power, new adaptation to the peculiar needs and conditions of each successive generation (UB 178:1.15).
Present struggles persist between fundamental “exclusivist” interpretations and the more “inclusivist” pluralist leanings reflected in Jesus’ generous gospel. Through it all, author-theologian Brian McLaren hails a cosmic resurrection happening. And poking through the dome is cosmic Christ Michael, Master Son of the local universe.
¶ References
- Article obtained from The Fellowship site