Passing of The Man (2007)

It is hard to believe my father, The Man, has been gone from this Earth for thirteen years. Nevertheless, our Community is still here, growing and progressing in the Light! Please say a prayer for his risen Soul in your own way when you have a moment, and light a candle of remembrance if you wish.

Today’s scripture is rather lengthy, but it deals with transcending life in this world by living the Life of Light as did Jesus and Jamil and, of course, The Man. It is this Life to which we are all heir in God’s Second Advent through the Sun of Righteousness.

The Fourteenth Saying (Part 6)

“And then The Navigator spoke: ‘You say again and again that we are to exemplify the life of Jesus as well as of Jamil. However, how can we understand the life of Jesus when we only have a very incomplete account of his life from scripture? He was a powerful figure, a man of great force and character. The fragmentary account of his life does not give us much to go on. When we hear you speak of Jesus (your information must have been communicated to you by Jamil, about his role as an Essaei and the life of the Essene communities which were expecting a Messiah and a Teacher of Righteousness), we have a totally different picture, a more complete picture of Jesus as a man and teacher.

“‘Here was a man who came upon the Jewish scene from out of nowhere – if we are to believe the New Testament accounts – one who did nothing of any great merit until he was thirty years of age. Then, all of a sudden he taught for a few months and was crucified. He was gone from the world. How can we attempt to exemplify his life which we do not know. For example, we cannot go to the Christian churches and throw out the priests because they are not teaching the true teachings of Christ, as Jesus drove the moneychangers and rabble from the temple. Neither can we exemplify his actions when he openly attacked the Pharisees and the Sadducees. How can we get a better picture of the life of Jesus in order to exemplify it?’

“And The Man replied saying, ‘It is true that Christian scripture does not afford us a drama of the life and teachings of Jesus. Indeed, what is available in the Gospel accounts is not only incomplete, but is also contradictory. The Community of Christ, an extension of Christianity, is inspired of God and therefore has been given many of the keys to scripture. We have come into a repossession of the teachings of Jesus. The supplemental material which Christ has revealed to us gives us a better idea of the life of Jesus. Through The Teachings which have been restored to us we are reconstructing that which was lost to the Christian Church many centuries ago. At our next Community assembly you will each receive copies of two texts, The Essaei Document: Secrets of an Eternal Race, and The Lost Gospel of Jesus: The Hidden Teachings of Christ, which will help amplify our knowledge.

“‘As for living the life of Jesus, who is really very remote to us, we must always remember that we are not expected to live his life, though we must honor and remember him with love and respect. What is expected of us is to exemplify, in our own time, the Life of Light as Jesus did in his. And Jamil has instructed us on how to do this in our modern world. The person of Christ come as Jamil the Child exemplified the Life of Light in our age. It is that life that we are expected to live and exemplify, not the life of Jesus.

“‘We are told in scripture that Jesus taught The Way, the Life of Light, and that he extended the keys to the Kingdom. These are beautiful thoughts, but they do not tell us how to find The Way, how to live the Life of Light, how to find the keys to the Kingdom. Jamil came to instruct us in these secret teachings. He has revealed to us the Sun of the Resurrection – that very same Sun which inspired and nurtured Jesus.

“‘Thus, Jamil has inspired us to raise our eyes and spirits to the Sun as Messiah. This spiritual Sun is the fountainhead of the Word of God filled with His Thought and Will.

“‘During his lifetime, I observed Jamil very carefully. He appeared to exist not on earthly food, but on some eternal essence direct from God. He lived on the Breath of God, which he found in the rocks, the trees, the wind. I am not speaking of animism; Jamil was not a nature worshiper. He was involved with the Consciousness of God, which he was able to find within the natural environment. It was as if he was able to look upon the Light of the traces left by Holy Ones – Jesus, Moses, Buddha and others, as well as of all people who ever lived – and attune to them as much as he did the living. He sensed them in the environment, just as he sensed the presence of God in the sun. Jamil exemplified the life of love. He implanted himself in all life and allowed all life to implant itself in him. He was one with life. Each of us must learn how to exemplify this nature; something which I might say requires the whole of one’s lifetime to achieve.

“‘From Jamil, I learned the meaning of immortality. Death meant nothing to him; it was as much a part of him as life. Indeed, everything was life to him, even if it meant dying, for in dying he transcended the Earth and went to a more meaningful life in the Light. I am sure that Jesus felt somewhat like Jamil.

“‘I believe Man has lost the ability to be immortal because he has learned to fear death, to fear nature, to fear God, to fear life, and to fear the natural environment. Jamil taught me the needlessness of fearing death and the unknown. At the time of the avalanche in Peru and the passing away of so many people, Jamil was beautiful to behold. He gave so much hope to lost souls. He was a guiding light to them, and they came to him like lost sheep. I think he tried to tell people that in death there is only change. I think Jesus tried to tell this to one of the thieves who was crucified with him.

“‘Jesus did not come to Earth to die on the cross. However, he did not fight death when it did come. Jesus was a man of peace, not a man of violence. For example, when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and Peter wanted to defend him and cut off an ear of a soldier with his sword, Jesus rebuked Peter and healed the soldier. Jesus neither fought nor opposed, not even the laws of Rome. When he was on the cross, he forgave those who killed him. To him, life or death on this planet was all the same. He was not of this world; he was from another world.

“‘I learned much about Jesus during Jamil’s last days in the Andes of Peru. We can all learn more about Jesus by careful study of the life of Jamil. During his short life on Earth, Jamil taught me the meaning of peace of mind. Never at any time did he struggle against the events of life; his life was of acceptance. When his half-brother struck him in Jalapa, Mexico, on the roof garden and later in the garden in Trujillo, Peru, Jamil did not strike back. He never at any time demonstrated violence. It seemed as though he looked to the cause of his brother’s anger and resentment against him, and then by love and understanding, healed that hurt. And then there was peace between them. At other times Jamil did not allow his half-brother to strike him; he simply held the older boy at arms length until he tired.

“‘Jamil’s concept of God was much different from that described in scripture: a vengeful God striking back at the Egyptians, killing people who disobeyed Him, sending His only son to be crucified so that his blood would atone for the sins of Man. The Christian concept of the old church is a negative one of guilt, fear and death. Man lives in sin and error; he is continually enveloped with guilt; his body is looked upon as being corrupt; he is wicked, evil. Such a concept prevents Man from loving God and looking for Him in the world in which he lives. It contributes to hateful feelings toward others, who are also viewed as wicked and evil. Above all, it contributes to self-hate.

“‘Jamil has taught us how to love God. He has left with us a pattern which we can follow to exemplify the Life of Light. He was totally good. Can you imagine what this means? Totally good – we cannot even conceive of such a state. The Child was sinless. I remember trying to get him to eat food. He would give it to someone else. He seemed to find enjoyment in watching other people, people who were hungry and needed the food, enjoy themselves. Jamil, like Jesus, taught love, hope, and faith.

“‘We know from the Teachings and Sayings of Jamil that salvation is not realized by belief in the goodness of Jesus or by acceptance of his goodness. One has to live the Life of Light. Immortality is not attained by blind faith, or false hope or feigned love out of fear of death. To realize one’s immortality one needs to express that immortality. In other words, it is a way of life that has to be realized in order to be understood. Very few Christians realize what it is really like to live the Life of Light. Jesus and Jamil demonstrated this Life. We are instructed to follow it.

“‘To live or exemplify the life of a Jesus or a Jamil, a Life of Light, natural Man must pattern his life after a higher one. Once this is done and the Teachings are expressed, one automatically lives that life. The Christian religion can never be meaningful to Man as an instrument of God unless it instructs humankind in how to attain immortality. Immortality is a realization, a state of mind and spirit, something to be achieved. Immortality begins when man and woman lives the life of Christ.

“‘That Jesus lived on Earth is not sufficient in itself to make Man immortal. The Christian who merely believes Jesus was Christ and accepts him as his savior is not realizing the Life of Christ. Christians must identify with Jesus. To do this they must express the life Jesus lived. This is the whole key.

“‘I said earlier that Jesus is remote from us in our day and age. This is true, but only because Christian scripture has separated him from us by giving us an incomplete picture of him. Jesus was a member of the Essaei Community. He looked at the sun as we do. In this respect we share the spirit of Jesus and we share his wealth. Thus, to know the life of Jesus is to live it and share with him the Mystery of God.’

“And hearing no further questions, The Man prepared to read the Fifteenth Saying.”

We will proceed to the Fifteenth Saying next week.

The Fourteenth Saying (Part 5)

“‘Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tsu, Zoroaster, Jesus, and other holy teachers founded religions that were incomplete. Each of these religious founders spoke of a coming religion, or a coming Golden Age, in which the cosmos would be consumed by the fire of a redeeming Sun which would burn away all the impurities of earth and restore God’s rule to humankind directly from the Worlds of Light. Therefore, God will rule this world, not as a material world, but as a World of Light. We, in representing the first Community of Ministers, must live and exemplify this Teaching of Light to inspire other men and women of the world to live and exemplify that Light with us. Therefore, we are representative of a New Religion that is destined to inspire people everywhere.

“‘The Teaching, which has come through Jamil and is being animated by the Light of the Sun of Righteousness, has come to amend the older teachings and fulfill them. Though we do acknowledge Christianity and Jesus and the Apostles, we do not stress the sacrifice of blood and atonement for the payment of Man’s sins. We teach the Light of Jesus Christ; this teaches men and women to come out of Christianity, pick up the cross that was laid down by Jesus and his immediate Apostles, and go forward in the fulfilled teachings. God has come to bless the community of Man and to nurture a special Order of men and women who can exemplify that Teaching of Christ and take it to the world as a Holy Order.

“‘Our Community is pledged to instruct Man in the means by which he may evolve into a new species of supernatural Man. Man has use of his free will to decide whether he wants to do this or not; he must elect which of the two spirits he will live under.

“‘The transformation of Man and his world will not be accomplished by dreams, or theories, or beliefs. A man dying of hunger cannot be nurtured on dreams; he needs food and drink. It is the same for the Man of Light; he requires Light as nourishment. The Living Waters of God’s Messianic Sun and the Bread of His Word are food for supernatural Man. The Sons and Daughters of God can achieve all manner of things in the universe, with the consent of God, when all the family of Man is of one mind.

“‘Our religion is highly advanced. It teaches Man how to evolve and grow closer to God, to commune with Him and to break the silence of God. God is not to be worshiped as He is worshiped in older religions. God is neither vengeful nor wrathful. He does not punish Man for disobedience. Man punishes himself because he breaks the supernatural laws of the cosmos. Man suffers because of his ignorance of God and His laws. Ignorance is the only sin for which Man must atone.’”