Isaiah writes “The LORD goes forth like a warrior, like a man of war he stirs up his fury; He shouts out his battle cry, against his enemies.” John the Baptist heralds Isaiah’s warrior deity and tries to save people from being an enemy to that deity by cleansing people of past sins. But John changes when he sees Jesus “coming up out of the water (and) the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon Jesus. And a voice came from the heavens, ‘You are my beloved.’”
Jesus inspires people to be loving. He is not the first person who is considered divinely inspired, nor who divinely inspires others. The Greeks and their artists had their Muses. Muses put flesh on the origin of the artist’s inspiration. Artists showed unique, seemingly divine ability. How to explain their creativity? From whence comes the skill of the poet, the musician, the sculptor? For the Greeks, the artist’s creativity was inspired by the gods, nine lesser deities, the Muses, but gods nonetheless. Homer, for example, when writing the epic poem, The Odyssey, in 8c. BCE is believed to have asked the Muse Calliope for inspiration. Is Jesus’ Spirit another Muse, a deity to inspire and to explain a divine unique ability? Perhaps, and perhaps the Spirit also explains not a unique ability but a universal human ability, the ability to receive and give love, “This is my beloved.” The universal human ability Jesus most especially inspires is love of enemies. Unfortunately, institutional christianity thwarts that inspiration when it grants warriors who kill people claim to the title Christian. We are not at a loss to explain the violent warrior’s ability. From whence comes the skill of a killer? It comes from being trained under warrior rulers who target the trained killers onto enemies. In the U.S. the training has successfully targeted enemy Natives, Blacks, Mexicans, poor people, Muslims, and so many others. We know too from whence comes the skill of the rioter, the traitor, the insurrectionist. It is the same training under warrior rulers who may be fancied as Gods or as demi-Gods. But certainly they are demonic, meaning adversarial and targeting enemies. Instead of the Gospel assertion, “This is my beloved,” warriors who self-title as Christian assert, ‘This is my enemy.’ Roused by their Lord Trump each “goes forth like a warrior, like a man of war he stirs up his fury; He shouts out his battle cry, against his enemies.” They are roused for further violence, like around inauguration day or another coming day of their choosing. It is deeply sad that ‘Christians’ who reject deities such as the inspiring Muses as pagan, accept deities such as the violent War Lord Yahweh as ‘Christian.’ It shows no inspiration by the love of Jesus. It shows a dis-spiriting infatuation for a con man and a dis-abling creepiness for nationalism.
“In the past, my country cradled me in her bosom. Today, I held her in my arms, felt her slip away. … I prayed while watching attempts made at her resuscitation … In the end, her heart gave out … She had an organ donor card—her organs were sold off one-by-one while she was still alive … replaced with nationalistic flags, and roaring stadiums. Men from every standing, groped Motherland’s body. Many men had laid with her. Oh, how they did. … I will have to give her a proper burial within my heart, for they are going to have Mother embalmed, encase her in a glass coffin, and put her on display. Our Mother passed away, yet her corpse-land remains behind. … From now on, the territorial lines mean nothing … maintained by a system empty-hollow. (Motherland’s Funeral – Chris D. Aechtner)
Prayer: Spirit of Love, enable me to say to all, especially to an enemy, “This is my Beloved.”
Question: How have I inspired love of enemies?
January 10, 2021 Gospel Mark 1:7-11 The Feast of the Baptism of Jesus