Apotheosis of Dualitree by Chris Dyer
Ephesians Quick Context
The letter to the young church at Ephesus was written pseudonymously by an author (or authors) in Paul’s name, a common and accepted practice in the early First Century. The letter is written in two parts. The first urges praise and thanks to God. The second encourages believers to persevere as new beings in Christ, surrounded by a hostile world.
Ephesians 1.15-19 (CEB)
Since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, this is the reason that I don’t stop giving thanks to God for you when I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that makes God known to you. I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers, and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength.
Acts Quick Context
As universally as possible, scholars agree that The Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles were written as two volumes meant to be read together. In Luke, Jesus’ birth and ministry lead to that fateful Passover weekend when he would be crucified. Acts, like the sequel it is, picks up immediately after Jesus’ death and describes the resurrection, ascension, and expansion of his message. The author himself (or herself) says as much:
Acts 1.1-9
Theophilus, the first scroll I wrote concerned everything Jesus did and taught from the beginning, right up to the day when he was taken up into heaven. Before he was taken up, working in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus instructed the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed them that he was alive with many convincing proofs. He appeared to them over a period of forty days, speaking to them about God’s kingdom.
While they were eating together, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised. He said, “This is what you heard from me:” John baptized with water, but in only a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
As a result, those who had gathered together asked Jesus, “Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?” Jesus replied, “It isn’t for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority.” Rather, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
After Jesus said these things, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.
I don’t think Christians make a big enough deal about ascension. After Easter, we tend to mark time until Pentecost. But Jesus’ story doesn’t end with Crucifixion and resurrection. It ends with ascension, which isn’t even an end but rather acontinuation.
I think ascension should be the biggest holiday of the year, bigger even than Easter or Christmas. There should be fireworks and virtual parades, and people tuned in from all over the world to watch universal celebrations of the day Jesus revealed precisely what we all are: the pure being of God.
When Jesus ascended into the heavens, which is just an ancient metaphor for his perfected state of being, he showed us the universe’s greatest secret: we never die, we transform.
In fact, we ascend to God. Isn’t that party-worthy?
Of course, ascension isn’t exclusively about the afterlife. Like most biblical texts, the story deals with both what to expect after our mortal existence, and what to do while we’re still here.
This idea that humans are not separate, but rather inseparable from God is a mystical thread that Jesus himself weaves. And despite differences of opinion, most of the early Jesus communities (they were Jewish and not called Christians then) agreed that Jesus was so like God that he was, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from God.
Disagreements sprouted over whether or not that made Jesus somehow “less” instead of more human, and whether or not this state of being was exclusive to Jesus, or whether he was trying to show us all what—who’s—we are.
Like many contemporary scholars, I think Jesus was primarily a teacher. Other religious traditions would call him an Ascended Master. Like Neo in The Matrix, Jesus saw through the veil of this reality into the totality of all realities.
Jesus wants us to know that we can do that too.
There’s a scene in The Matrix where Neo, who represents humanity’s potential to awaken, meets a little monk bending spoons. The young monk represents Jesus. What happens in this scene is the way I imagine Jesus taught the disciples as well.
There is no spoon.
Now, some have taken this to mean that all reality is a figment of our imagination. That’s where somewhat misguided ideas like The Secret or the “you create your own reality” line of thinking popularized by Joel Osteen and others comes from. But reality is not that black and white, and it’s difficult to imagine that we are powerful enough to reshape the substantial laws of physics.
You don’t wish a new reality into existence. You wake up and realize it’s already here.
There is a veil over our minds. And now and then, we meet someone who lifts it.
Someone like Jesus.
Jesus lifts the veil and reveals the darkness of the reality in which we live. We’ve created a world that rewards cruelty. Our entire global economic system thrives on the abuse of labor. We continue, as we have for the entirety of human history, to enslave each other.
Humans have made a world that discards people, the planet, and God, all while proclaiming “Christian” or “Jewish” or “Muslim” family values, ironic in a world where people feel alone, scratching and backbiting and clawing and lying and killing their way to the top.
To this, Jesus lifts the veil and says, “No! Look what you are doing! Look at the way you are acting! You are sleepwalking through your gift, God’s gift to you, life. Wake up! Act up! There is no spoon!”
The path of Jesus teaches us how to become more consciously aware of the alternate reality that already exists within us. The realm of God is here, already breaking down the veil of our present, cruel state. And the more we help each other awaken, the more the clouds of darkness we’ve created will dissipate.
And one day, it will be gone for good. And the Earth, and all the people upon it, will rejoice.
—
The ascension of Jesus is more than a story about something that happened to Jesus thousands of years in the past. It is a compelling revelation of our true selves and our enlightened, authentic nature.
Our apotheosis.
Christians experience God through communion with Christ, given by God’s gift of the Holy Spirit—the same Spirit that creates everything in the universe. A Spirit which is itself the being of God. And of course, whether we call it Holy Spirit, or Jesus, or Christ, or God, or Buddha, or Krishna, or Martha or Sam, it is all the same thing: God. The One Spirit of God energizes everything into being. We are all, at our core, interconnected, mystical, God-beings.
We are God, being.
So, Eat, drink, and be merry. Sing songs of joy. Dance like an idiot. Invent stuff. Read. Think. Reason. Stand up for those who cannot stand for themselves. Speak for the voiceless. Fight against oppression, injustice, racism, and greed.
Be like Jesus. Exist with intention and thought, focusing as often as possible on your intrinsic God connection. Remember who you are and who you come from. Feel God dancing in every atom of your body. See God dancing in everyone you meet.
If we practice seeing God’s love everywhere and in everyone, we’ll quickly experience God’s love anywhere and in anyone.
Because even more true than a spoon that doesn’t exist, is a universal love that does.
Amen.
