What is Christian Mysticism? | Discover Christian Mysticism with Jon Adams | Ep. 1

don't be scared of the word mysticism woo pseudo spiritual nonsense that probably comes to mind might be popular right now but it's a distorted image that has very little to do with the real thing so let's cut through all the platitudes and the riddles and the whole super spiritual atmosphere Straight Talk what his mysticism and what is Christian mysticism in any religion mysticism is to search for a real personal experience of union with the divine the personal experience of the divine transforms the mystic it makes her divine creating an intersection of the spirit world and the physical world in the soul body and life of the mystic Christian mysticism is the search for union with God through Jesus Christ to get there well that's the story of the whole Bible in the beginning God creates there is something and it's very good but like any good artist God isn't done until God sees God looking back at God from what God has made that's where we come in Genesis 1:27 says that God created us male and female in God's image human beings are God's image and that what conscious creatures we wonder and debate and write stories and build religions about where we came from and what it means to be human it also means we're powerful creatures like God we can reshape the natural world for our benefit and our proper place in the natural order is to use those godlike abilities to participate in God's work in the creation and protection and flourishing of life but Genesis 3 tells us that very early on in the human story something breaks our desire for more power than what we were given teaches us judgment shame and deep dissatisfaction we're tricked by ambition and by the illusion of a fully godlike understanding but when it doesn't work out the only thing we really learn is to hate ourselves for what we're not we become alienated from our divine source and our human purpose our spiritual consciousness short circuits were lost and powerful creatures like us when we're judgemental ashamed dissatisfied and lost when we hate ourselves but are still ambitious the result is nothing less than global disaster it only takes the Bible 7 chapters to chart our decline from the image of God to banishment from paradise to murder the perversion of nature to the worldwide destruction of the flood the rest of the Bible describes the world as we still know it today famine war slavery rape pollution and death but it also tells a courageous story of hope in every age every human disaster God is still with us pointing to a future when heaven and earth will be reconciled brought back together through human beings when nature will be restored to health peace and flourishing through healed people the best part is that God doesn't promise a reconciliation through the efforts of the best most ambitious or most powerful of us God promises to work healing a new life through the weakest the smallest the Forgotten the humble the human appetite for power is what's killing the world human humility love and self-sacrifice animated by God's own power is what will save it so the New Testament opens with God entering the world through the life of a lower-middle-class carpenter's son whose mother had a bit of a reputation humble beginnings to say the least but in the life of this one man the Spirit of God demonstrated what true humanity what life as the image of God can actually look like Jesus taught fed healed and honored the poor he forgave loved and accepted every kind of sinner he liberated people from their emotional burdens from their anxieties and their deepest wounds he taught a way of life in harmony with God and harmony with other people and in harmony with the natural world the writer of Hebrews calls him the exact imprint of God's very nature so Jesus is what we were always meant to look like then when Jesus didn't cave to ambitions of greatness to the temptation to use power and violence to fix a world broken by power and violence we did what we always do with things we don't understand for that aren't like us we killed him but he rose from the dead and his teachings lived on in the lives of his followers Jesus resurrection showed the world that death is not the inevitable end that willing self-sacrifice can and does give birth to reconciliation and new life Jesus first followers imitated him by sharing his life with the world they told his story but they also followed in his footsteps by setting tables all over the world for the poor the outcast the weak the brokenhearted in their lives the life of Jesus lived on and they called this the Holy Spirit what Jesus taught and more importantly what he demonstrated himself was that loving and being loved by God and loving your fellow creatures as you love yourself is the path to becoming truly human of course that's easy to remember and it makes a great mission statement but day to day it's incredibly hard to do later generations of Christians spent a lot of time thinking about why it's so hard to be like Christ and love consistently what they came up with after generations of soul-searching was a deeper understanding of the complexity of the human creature in each of us countless appetites instinct strengths and weaknesses all push and pull us in a hundred different directions every moment of every day as the Apostle Paul writes parts of us naturally want to be christ-like but we have so so many other parts what the early Christian nuns monks and mystics realized was that all of our internal forces need to be trained if they're ever going to align with the teachings and example of Jesus so they develop practices that open the human soul to the work of the Holy Spirit disciplines that wrestle are conflicted internal motivations into submission to the cross of Christ and the law of love why disciplines because the early mystics taught that in Christ God became human to make human beings like God but they also knew that God doesn't force this on us God invites and leaves the response to the invitation up to us the practices and disciplines that make us more like Christ that teaches to consciously receive the love of God consciously love God in return and give of ourselves for the life of the world these practices are a personal intentional involved response to God's work in Jesus Christ a dedicated committed daily search for transforming union with the divine or simply mysticism a Christian mystic is someone who dedicates their life to imitate in Christ as they are able and as God calls them to in their internal spirit and in their outward behavior as mystics become more like Christ they become more truly human which mysteriously leads them to become more personally United with God we're all still waiting for that cosmic reconciliation when all of nature will find the peace and harmony with God that is crying out for but the great healing can start right now small and personal in each of us as we learn to be like Christ and connect with the source of our lives that is the path of Christian mysticism the search for oneness with God through intentional oneness with Jesus Christ my name is John and I've been exploring Christian mysticism academically and in my own practice for a few years now I think it has a lot of potential to help people really engage with the person and mission and Spirit of Christ in ways that just aren't accessible anywhere else but one thing I've noticed is that throughout Christian history mrs. ISM has been kind of a specialist name for monks and nuns and Hermits and the occasional theologian but I think we can do better I think there's so much depth and guidance in the mystical tradition that can really benefit non-specialists people today as we search for meaning and for God in confusing times people who drive trucks for a living or have 12 kids who go to churches or who aren't into the whole church thing so I'm still exploring and I'm still learning and thinking about what a mystical life looks like right now and whoever you are if your soul aches for more of God you're in good company I'm inviting you to come along on my exploration if you want to learn more about Christian mysticism including practices of Christlikeness that you can start today subscribe to this channel in the comments let me know what you think your thoughts your concerns your questions and I'll do my best to respond to those and I'll see you next time until Christ is formed in us you [Music]

Channel: Discover Christian Mysticism with Jon Adams

Views: 32,950

Keywords: Christian, mysticism, spirituality, prayer

Id: dfVgXZYV9nQ

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 16 2019