Happy Monday,
I’ve been reading this book by John Philip Newell called “Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul” and it’s been inspiring all sorts of thoughts in me that I’ve had before … but it’s helping me put new language on things and helping me realize that my ideas aren’t too whacky and crazy, but that they are actually grounded in various historical traditions.
It’s always nice to know you aren’t alone in your heresy. HA!
Enjoy and cheers - ☕️,
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE
The Celts have a saint known as Brigid of Kildare who lived from the year 451 to the year 523, putting her birth approximately 450-ish years AFTER the birth of Jesus.
Right?
If Jesus was born in 4ish and Brigid around 451, that's a 447 year difference.
I tell you this because this morning I learned that according to Celtic legend, Brigid was born 450-ish years AFTER Jesus and yet was also the midwife at the birth of Jesus.
Woah.
Wait?
HUH?
Yes - the Celts recognize Brigid's birth to be 450 years AFTER the birth of Jesus and yet hold tightly to a legend that says she was the midwife AT the birth of Jesus ... 450 years BEFORE her own birth.
In his book "Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul", John Philip Newell says that "it poses no problem for the Celtic imagination that a fifth-century Irish saint should be present at the birth of the Christ Child in first-century Palestine."
Why?
Why do they tell this story and shrug off the obvious discrepancy in timing AND geography?
Because "imagination makes 2 worlds 1", he says.
You see, for the Celts the historical accuracy of the story is irrelevant - it makes no difference whether Brigid was actually at the birth of Jesus or not.
INSTEAD.
What matters.
What is most meaningful.
Is the way that generations and generations of Celts have merged the world of Jesus with the world of Brigid and the way that those generations have come to think about Brigid and what her Christ-like work in the world symbolized, how it deepened their faith and molded their own understanding of the Divine.
Their focus is on telling a story that merges the world of Brigid with the world of Christ so that they can be inspired to merge their own world and their own lives with the world and life of Christ.
For instance.
Legend also says that Brigid was born just before sunrise, at a time during the early morning when you can't really tell if the light you see is coming from the moon or the sun because it's almost as if both lights are working together to help you see. And so for the Celts, this means that Brigid's birth and her life represent someone who stands in the middle of 2 opposites and brings them together.
I guess you could say that just as the sun of the day and the moon of the night came together for her birth, so ...
Her life is one that erases sides.
He life is one that breaks down boundaries.
Her work is work that brings opposites together.
Her ministry is one where the words "other" and "them" have no place.
Her life is about bringing people together so that we are all ONE.
Was she born just before sunrise? Was she present at the birth of Christ? Are any of the other stories about this woman historically accurate? "Who cares", the Celts would say, "none of that is the point! The point, instead, is to come to understand what Brigid stood for in her life and then create stories and parables and tales and legends about her to magnify what she stood for all the more and pass those values down to the next generation."
I wonder what would happen if we started to read our Bibles in the same way that the Celts read the life of Brigid?
Right?
And I wonder what would happen if we started to think about Jesus and Paul and the Prophets and the various stories throughout the Bible in the same way that the Celts think about Saint Brigid?
In other words, what would happen if instead of opening the Gospels to read a story of Jesus and asking, "did this happen?" or insisting, "this is exactly what happened 2000 years ago!" ... what would happen if we (instead) read the story and wondered what the story is telling us about the values of Jesus? About his passions? His mission? His vision? His desires? His hopes? His dreams?
AND.
(Here come the "what ifs" - hold on.)
What if this is what the stories of Jesus actually are? At least some of them? What if they aren't very "historical" at all in the sense that you and I understand the term? What if they aren't ALL stories detailing actual things that Jesus said and actual things that Jesus did? Maybe some are? What if some of them aren't? What if some of them are, instead, legendary stories about a real person who lived from the Divine spark within him more than maybe any other person ever did? And what if his life and wisdom inspired people in ways that no one else ever could? And what if those stories maybe started out as historically accurate, but were fabricated over time and added to and molded and changed ... not to trick us, but to inspire generations of people to live their lives in the footsteps of his, to move us all forward in our spiritual journeys?
AND.
What if our lives.
What if our own journeys.
What if our own walk with God.
... what if these things are just the next chapter of the book? The next story to be told? The next Gospel to be written? The next parable that will inspire the next generation in their own lives, their own journeys, their own walks with God? What if one day later generations will tell stories about us that will merge the world and life of Jesus with the world and lives of you and me?
Heretical, I know.
BUT.
What if?
What if wondering whether the stories of the Bible are factual and historical and then coming to a place where we firmly believe that they are ... what if that's all wasted energy, what if we're missing the point entirely?
What if the Biblical writers wrote the stories of the Bible in the same way that the Celts told stories of Brigid? And what if their intention was never for us to open the Bible and assume it all to be historical data?
Happy Monday, let's pour some more coffee!