I will write a book about metaphor.
Metaphor is a way to tell a truth that is hard to describe with simple definitional thinking.
If I tell you that I like you, you have gained a certain amount of information about the general vector of my feelings. But if I tell you that you are my sunshine, then I have told you much more. The metaphor allows you to tap into all of your personal connections with the notion of sunshine... lying on the beach and basking in its glow... just feeling warmth on your face, perhaps... or maybe you'll recall a moment you felt exultant and free. Sunshine is brightness, warmth, light, and, somehow, joy. The metaphor allows you to understand more deeply how I feel about you.
Jesus, the greatest truth teller of all time, often relied on metaphor to get his teaching across. It was as if he were saying, look, you'll never fully understand the fullness of God's creation, as it cannot be described with mere words. So let me give you some metaphors and imagery that will at least give you a glimpse.
In John 14, for example, Jesus says "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Reading this in context, the disciples are pressing Jesus for details... what exactly is the right path for us? And Jesus responds with not one, but four metaphors.
The way: a path, a road or lane, a method, a practice. So in seeking the way, you will find Jesus, and as he says a verse later, you'll better understand the Father.
The truth: Jesus is saying that in following him, in emulating his way of being in the world, we'll better understand the truth about creation and about ourselves. Truth is a larger thing than a rule. While the disciples may have pressed him for specifics, Jesus was saying look, you know how I feel about those Pharisees who put rules and laws above love and kindness. Just follow that one law I gave you about loving one another, and the rest will fall into place.
The life: although he was a man, Jesus was not talking about life in a literal, biological sense. I think he meant that matters of the spirit are the essence of what life is about. I love my life so much, and since Jesus has established this connection, it seems that I love Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit almost by transitivity.
So when we want to know who Jesus was, he suggests that we think about these metaphors and that in this manner we'll come closer to a true understanding. So I will try to understand and tell truth, I will seek the way by paying attention to everything around me and I will respect the ways that others seek God. And I will love my life, and all aspects of my life, because somehow that is loving Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Creator and his (her) creation.
Finally, we are so used to thinking of God as the Father that we forget this is a metaphor too. It is not too likely that God is a biological form, so I think fatherhood is suggested as a metaphor for thinking about the way God loves us. I know I can tap into that just by thinking of my own son.
The notion of "the Holy Trinity" is not directly addressed in the Bible. But I think it is a helpful concept. In John 14, Jesus is trying to tell us about his connection to the father. And here, more than anywhere else, I think, he explains about the Holy Spirit, and how the spirit is there to guide and comfort us.
My American Indian friends use many of the same metaphors in understanding God that we do in Christianity. They speak of the great spirit, or just the spirit, and use the flame or a piece of fire as a metaphor for thinking about the spirit. Sort of like we do in our story of Pentecost. And they speak of "the Creator," often using fatherhood as a metaphor for thinking about God.
As I read about other religions, I am struck by the similarity of metaphors that are used in hopes of clarifying meaning. Maybe it is sort of an archetypal thing, as it seems we were all born under the same God, and can understand things of the spirit by meditating on the metaphors of the way, truth, and life.
Here is the full text of John 14...
John 14
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God[a]; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
22Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25"All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, 31but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
"Come now; let us leave.
Metaphor is a way to tell a truth that is hard to describe with simple definitional thinking.
If I tell you that I like you, you have gained a certain amount of information about the general vector of my feelings. But if I tell you that you are my sunshine, then I have told you much more. The metaphor allows you to tap into all of your personal connections with the notion of sunshine... lying on the beach and basking in its glow... just feeling warmth on your face, perhaps... or maybe you'll recall a moment you felt exultant and free. Sunshine is brightness, warmth, light, and, somehow, joy. The metaphor allows you to understand more deeply how I feel about you.
Jesus, the greatest truth teller of all time, often relied on metaphor to get his teaching across. It was as if he were saying, look, you'll never fully understand the fullness of God's creation, as it cannot be described with mere words. So let me give you some metaphors and imagery that will at least give you a glimpse.
In John 14, for example, Jesus says "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Reading this in context, the disciples are pressing Jesus for details... what exactly is the right path for us? And Jesus responds with not one, but four metaphors.
The way: a path, a road or lane, a method, a practice. So in seeking the way, you will find Jesus, and as he says a verse later, you'll better understand the Father.
The truth: Jesus is saying that in following him, in emulating his way of being in the world, we'll better understand the truth about creation and about ourselves. Truth is a larger thing than a rule. While the disciples may have pressed him for specifics, Jesus was saying look, you know how I feel about those Pharisees who put rules and laws above love and kindness. Just follow that one law I gave you about loving one another, and the rest will fall into place.
The life: although he was a man, Jesus was not talking about life in a literal, biological sense. I think he meant that matters of the spirit are the essence of what life is about. I love my life so much, and since Jesus has established this connection, it seems that I love Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit almost by transitivity.
So when we want to know who Jesus was, he suggests that we think about these metaphors and that in this manner we'll come closer to a true understanding. So I will try to understand and tell truth, I will seek the way by paying attention to everything around me and I will respect the ways that others seek God. And I will love my life, and all aspects of my life, because somehow that is loving Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Creator and his (her) creation.
Finally, we are so used to thinking of God as the Father that we forget this is a metaphor too. It is not too likely that God is a biological form, so I think fatherhood is suggested as a metaphor for thinking about the way God loves us. I know I can tap into that just by thinking of my own son.
The notion of "the Holy Trinity" is not directly addressed in the Bible. But I think it is a helpful concept. In John 14, Jesus is trying to tell us about his connection to the father. And here, more than anywhere else, I think, he explains about the Holy Spirit, and how the spirit is there to guide and comfort us.
My American Indian friends use many of the same metaphors in understanding God that we do in Christianity. They speak of the great spirit, or just the spirit, and use the flame or a piece of fire as a metaphor for thinking about the spirit. Sort of like we do in our story of Pentecost. And they speak of "the Creator," often using fatherhood as a metaphor for thinking about God.
As I read about other religions, I am struck by the similarity of metaphors that are used in hopes of clarifying meaning. Maybe it is sort of an archetypal thing, as it seems we were all born under the same God, and can understand things of the spirit by meditating on the metaphors of the way, truth, and life.
Here is the full text of John 14...
John 14
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God[a]; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
22Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25"All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, 31but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
"Come now; let us leave.
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