AFFIRMING THE GOD OF JESUS

By Edward Sianski

As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for some 30 years, I have been fascinated by the concept of a Higher Power that members are encouraged to pursue. A number of people are identified in this work who appear to have a relationship with a Deity who is user-friendly. Jesus pioneered the image of God as a loving parent and gathered followers who would convey this message to those around them. His preaching disturbed the religious authorities who were invested in a rules-based God who provided conditional access.
This work seeks to free up an image of God that many people associate with a harsh interpretation of religion. At a time when the world is truly a global village, the concept of God can no longer be narrow, but must include all people on the planet. It should take into account cosmology and scientific discoveries. I also investigate what happens to people who have been hurt by religious authorities and how this affects their image of a loving God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Mar 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9781982299163

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Copyright © 2024 Edward Sianski.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Scripture quotations marked GNT are taken from the Good News Translation — Second Edition. Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-9822-9917-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-9916-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024904171

Balboa Press rev. date: 03/07/2024

To my Dad Teodor (Terry) whose God is everywhere and to my Mum, Maria, who actively manifested God’s love to all.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Jesus – Traditional Family

Higher Power

The God of Jesus

Jesus and His Environment

Higher Power – A Rainbow of Beliefs

The Loving Father

All Loving God

Freeing God

God’s Community

Union with God

Last Supper Through Time

Realm of Mystery

One God, Many Paths

The Last Supper

Group of Drunks (G.O.D.)

Rejecting God

The God of the White Pages

Outside the Square

Life in the Fourth Dimension

Beyond the Garden

In Memory of Me

Beyond the Tomb

Beyond Bounderies

Swami Abhishiktananda

Bede Griffiths

John Main

John Cassian

Thomas Merton

Easter Rising

William Johnston S.J.

Matteo Ricci

The Blessed Trinity

Teilhard De Chardin

Saint Charles De Foucauld

Sister Dorothy Stang: Martyr of the Amazon

Listening Nights

Deep Listening

Carpathian Rus

‘Kindom’ of God

Roman Gods

Greek Gods

Swiss Army Knife Higher Power

Muhammad

Misuse of Religion

Scandals

Rebooting Trust

Spirit of Alcoholics Anonymous

Islam

Religious Arrogance

Attraction/Positive Witness

Spirit of Ukraine

Saint Seraphim of Sarov

Marian Presence

Missionaries to a Scientific World

Nicholas Copernicus

Johannes Kepler

Galileo

Outside the Square

John Polkinghorne

Ongoing Revelation

Quantum World

Chaos Theory

Awesome Universe

Divinity in People

Women and Jesus

Excluded

Saint Therese of Lisieux

Saint Hildegard of Bingen

Saint Teresa of Avila

Julian of Norwich

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross/ Edith Stein

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

Gaza and Israel

St Bernadette Soubirous

St George Preca

Venerable Satoko Kitahara

Saint Joan of Arc

An Apartheid of Service

Higher Power Help

Broken Trust

Band of Victims

A Broken People of God

Unmarried Mothers

A Rainbow People

St Jeanne Jugan

Blessed Carlo Acutis

Infant of Prague

Blessed Franz Jagerstatter

Mediterranean Sojourn

Conclusion

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Today, more than ever, there is an urgent need to tap into a resource that is benevolent, powerful and ever-present. Many people have lost hope and despair of situations they are facing. Problems appear to be unsolvable and impenetrable. There is a feeling of abandonment where people feel that situations are hopeless and that nothing can be done to resolve these. For thousands of years, humans have reached out to an outside source to help them in their daily lives. Every culture has a record of gods and goddesses that have been invoked for assistance with its difficulties.

Having had the opportunity to study a number of these Higher Powers, I am still rusted onto the God of Jesus. This in no way excludes other expressions of the divinity from Allah to Zeus. The feeling of abandonment has given way to an assurance of a Presence that is there for me 24/7. Young children have a natural affinity for the spiritual dimension and are quite at home with the realm of the transcendent. This resonates with Jesus’ words, Unless you become as little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Trusting in a Loving Power is something that can be nurtured from childhood into old age. A childish belief in God is quite different to one that is child-like where a person flourishes as a human being and, like Jesus, grows in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and people.

A number of individuals will be studied to see how they related to the God of Jesus. This work has no interest in proving Jesus’ divinity which is already a given. But so is the divinity of every human being by virtue of their relationship as a child of God. Jesus became a human being so that human beings could affirm their divinity.

JESUS – TRADITIONAL FAMILY

Jesus grew up in a traditional Jewish family where he would have learned the customs and traditions of his people. Mary and Joseph would have taught him from an early age about a religion that he had been born into. From an early age he would become familiar with the local temple and synagogue where the rabbis passed on their knowledge of God. Somewhere during this time, Jesus would have recognized his special relationship with his Higher Power which supported him in his quest to make God better known. He called his God, Father, and had an incredibly intimate association with him. It drew the attention of his followers who wanted to know how to pray to this Being. The Our Father was the response, and it encapsulated Jesus’ view of God which he tried to promote to others in the last three years of his life.

HIGHER POWER

As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and its Twelve Step program, I have come across numerous people who have struggled with the concept of a Higher Power. Many of these have mentioned that they no longer believe in a God whom they associate with a Church of their youth. A high proportion of these have been Catholics who have indicated their disassociation with an organization that ‘marketed’ a god who was more concerned about one’s ‘sins’ than a God who loved and supported them. Many other people simply lost any enthusiasm and belief in a God and saw him as a celestial irrelevance.

As a recovering alcoholic, I have a belief in a Higher Power that I do not understand, but one that has supported me in my sobriety for 30 years. Even during the heaviest days of my 25 years of drinking alcohol, I never lost a sense of God’s presence in my life. I tried very hard to acknowledge and respond to that presence and used my traditional faith practices such as weekly and Sunday Masses, the daily Rosary and Christian Meditation to support me. And yet, I drank!

I wanted to follow God on my terms and use God as a support and cheer squad for my ego which was increasing in size as my self-esteem increasingly diminished. I failed to look closely at how Jesus followed the will of his Father on a daily basis. In sobriety, I have been introduced to a spiritual program which invites its participants to Let go and let God. This is easier said than done and assumes that the person in recovery is comfortable in letting go to a God that they are comfortable with.

Fortunately, I have had good experiences with the God of Jesus and have been able to hand my life over to the care of this God. I believe that Jesus had such a trusting relationship with God, even when it was sorely tested in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Crucifix. Jesus struggled with his Higher Power and even cried out "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ Jesus’ struggle with the human condition is a great source of comfort for those who have a conga line of doubts about religious beliefs.

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THE GOD OF JESUS

These pages will seek to explore the God of Jesus who presented an approach to a Higher Power that is quite extraordinary. How did a person, brought up in a Jewish culture, manage to obtain an image of God that was so approachable and user-friendly? Jesus used Parables to convey how this God/Higher Power operated, and these will be examined in due course. Jesus’ God is a Higher Power well-worth considering for anyone who is on a Twelve Step journey.

While on earth, Jesus became the finger pointing to God and, after his death and Resurrection, Jesus extended his hands to lift us into the loving embrace of the Trinity. Like Jesus, we are all invited to become Second Persons of the Trinity where we reach out to others in a followship of Jesus.

The Higher Power that Jesus spoke to in such an intimate and loving way is still available today and waits on us. This Higher Waiter hovers around but will not approach us until s/he is called. For Christians, Holy Scripture is the menu, and they are invited to peruse it before making a selection! The writings of the New Testament provide an insight into the God that Jesus followed during his life on earth. This God does not remain at arm’s length from people but is intimately connected with their lives whether they believe this or not. The learned and the clever, as St Paul notes, do not necessarily have a monopoly on God. They attempt to make him/her into their own image and likeness – without much success.

As a sober alcoholic, I rely heavily on my Higher Power to support me during the day. There have been circumstances where I have felt a total powerlessness to change a situation for the better. As a member of Al-Anon, I am reminded that there are people, places, and things over which I am powerless. My Catholic practices also remind me that I am not the boss, but I forget that there is One who has all power, and that that one is God. Over and over, I find myself back at the drawing board where I acknowledge that I need to let go and let God. Usually, I reach this stage of awareness after I unsuccessfully attempt to fix the situation myself.

Being raised a Catholic, I have had the opportunity to study Jesus’ God from an early age. Back in the early 1970s, I read The Kindness of God by a Missionary of the Sacred Heart priest, E.J. Cuskelly, which provided an image of God that I was very comfortable with. I have met people who have been ‘kind’ and this is a very attractive and disarming quality. My problem is that I try to manipulate this kindness to my own benefit rather than be a genuine recipient of God’s gentleness and compassion.

JESUS AND HIS ENVIRONMENT

To understand how Jesus developed his concept of God, there is the need to examine the environment from which he grew up in. Mary and Joseph were Jews who were immersed in the cultural and spiritual milieu of Nazareth. The Temple in Jerusalem would have been the centre of their religious life, and where they took Jesus and offered him to God in the Presentation. Jesus was taught a trade by Joseph, and he would have been an active Jewish member of the local Synagogue. All of this took place under Roman occupation where Herod was placed in charge of the Jewish population. Jesus must have wondered about the political and social milieu he grew up in. It is fascinating to consider how this would have shaped his idea of God. During family meals, he would have shared his thoughts about God as well as the society around him. The neighbours would have been part of this conversation, especially those who were struggling in any way. Jesus must have noted the ruthless practices of the occupation forces of Rome and how they used weapons of torture, such as crucifixion, as a deterrent to those agitating for freedom.

Jesus must have pondered how God fitted into this society which seemed to favour those with power. The prophets of Israel left a rich source of writings about God that Jesus would have been familiar with. These would have coloured his image and influenced his growing concept of God as Father. The beautiful outcome of this was Jesus’ passionate desire to share his discovery with others. Jesus promoted a God who was absolutely accessible to anyone who reached out for help. His teachings were designed to remove barriers that had been erected to prevent this free access to God. While Jesus acknowledged the richness of his Jewish religion, he noted how inaccessible God had become to many people on the outside. Those who had religion also appeared to be ignoring their responsibilities to their fellow citizens and placed more interest in their wealth and status than in God.

Is it possible to live with the knowledge that God is always present and presiding over the Cosmos? Is God concerned with the individual person or are we simply clumped together? As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I subscribe to a Higher Power that I would be comfortable spending an eternity with! I would not enjoy the company of a God who nagged me the whole time about past misdemeanors. But I would like to have a Higher Power who would help me to reach my full capacity as a human being not only on this planet, but also in the afterlife, in whatever form that may take. I believe that Jesus had a God who helped him to reach his full potential as a human being. This God chose to work through Mary and Joseph to raise and to help Jesus to flourish as a young person.

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This remarkable couple met in Nazareth and were betrothed. Unfortunately, for Joseph, he discovered that Mary was pregnant. Immediately, Mary’s life was in danger since Jewish law had decreed that sex outside of marriage would be severely punished. Joseph had only to say that his betrothed had committed adultery and Mary would be stoned. Joseph chose not to follow this path but have her removed quietly. This quality of mercy and compassion would be passed on to Jesus by Joseph.

Mary’s pregnancy enters the realm of mystery and sheer faith. One day, this ordinary young woman, had an unexpected celestial visitor – the angel Gabriel who announced that, with her permission, she would become the Mother of Jesus. She was to become impregnated by the Holy Spirit and would give birth to the long-awaited Jewish Saviour. Mary agreed to this incredible proposal knowing full well that it would create great difficulties for her. It actually creates problems in the realm of faith for anyone pondering over how this could be. Mystery is the companion of any faith worth pursuing, and belief in a Virgin birth must rank at the highest level. The stumbling block becomes a steppingstone into the Fourth Dimension reported by Alcoholics Anonymous.

Joseph struggled with the explanation that Mary had given of her pregnancy. Then, one night, in a dream, an angel appeared to him reassuring him that Mary’s pregnancy was God-induced and that there was no need to cast Mary away. Joseph and Mary continued with their relationship and faced life together as a young couple.

The modern world seeks scientific explanations for events and has no time for mystery. Events that can’t be explained are set aside and sometimes mocked. Mary’s pregnancy is often misquoted as being an ‘immaculate conception’. This terminology refers to Mary being free of the compulsion to sin. Alcoholics in recovery have an ‘Immaculate Conception’ on a daily basis where the desire to drink alcohol has left them. As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I experience this freedom from the compulsion to drink in order to be free for the life I have. Because of Mary’s status as the Mother of Jesus, she experiences this freedom from sin in order to pursue her vocation as the Mother of the Saviour. Joseph accepts Jesus as his own flesh and blood and, with Mary, raises him up into young adulthood. Mary passes on her courage and her commitment to carry out God’s will to Jesus.

HIGHER POWER – A RAINBOW OF BELIEFS

As a ‘prisoner of wine’ (a POW) for many years, I had the compulsion to drink on a daily basis. From my very first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous 30 years ago, I lost the desire and compulsion to drink. On the walls of the room that housed the AA meeting were banners with Gothic writing. I could make out the word God’ on one of them and this started off the Serenity Prayer. While I was not frightened of the word God’ like some newly arrived members were, I nonetheless wondered what kind of God the people in Alcoholics Anonymous were praying to. Was this the God I had grown up with and still believed in, or was I to jettison this God for another? As I continued to attend meetings, I discovered that people held a spectrum of beliefs about their Higher Power. Some were completely off the spectrum and confessed to being agnostics and even atheists! And yet, like me, they remained sober. Our lives showed remarkable improvement with every week and month of recovery.

For the agnostic and atheist GOD was simply a ‘Group of Drunks’ and it was this that kept them sober. They turned their will and lives over to the group which nurtured them into an emotional sobriety worth living with. Most people in recovery eventually acknowledged that there was some ‘force’ outside of themselves which kept them away from the first drink which caused all the damage. Try as I might, I could not find sobriety within my Catholic Church. Time and time again, I continued on the pathway to destruction, praying all the time to minimize and control my drinking. The Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) provided the opportunity to offload my ‘sin’ of drinking too much. When asked how many drinks I had, I would acknowledge one or two but never stated the full amount (a wine cask a night?) in case I was directed to curtail my drinking all together. It was a relief to be only given ‘three Hail Marys’ and the subsequent Absolution gave me a clean slate from which to drink again. In this respect I saw God as a forgiving Being who mirrored Jesus’ God as expressed in parables such as the Loving Father (Prodigal Son).

While I kept up my religious practices, attending Mass on Sundays and weekdays, others in the fellowship continued to thrive in their sobriety without being a part of a religious network. They continued with their belief in a Higher Power and often referred to this Being in an intimate way. It did not have any religious strings attached but was, nonetheless, a constant and reliable companion. Many years ago, I had a rare conversation with my father about God. As a Churchgoer, I was trying to encourage Dad to come along. He simply said that God is everywhere. There was no need to find him in a Church. I believe that this is the God that many Alcoholics Anonymous members have found to help them with sobriety, one day at a time.

Having had the opportunity to study my religion, I have a reasonably high degree of religious literacy and am familiar with much of the theological terminology used to describe God. In early sobriety I remember a conversation I had with a newcomer who was struggling with sobriety even though she held several theological degrees. I have also heard of other priests and religious who have struggled with sobriety despite their higher education in the sacred sciences. On the other hand, the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker were becoming and staying sober, despite their scant knowledge of God.

As a not-so-frequent-flyer, I still believe in the power of flight. It is well beyond me to understand how a 413,000 kilogram of metal can lift up into the air and carry some 400 or more passengers safely to their destination. I also have faith in the pilots and crew to help achieve this. Likewise, I do not have to understand anything about how God ‘works’ or even who God is. It is enough to acknowledge his/her presence and believe in the support and help available. I believe that Jesus ‘stumbled’ on