Christianity is revealing to you the pattern of reality of how it is that complexity
works, how it is that any type of unity and multiplicity cohere. But
that also means that you, you know, it is calling you to actually
participate in that in a real way. This is Jonathan Pegel, Welcome to
the symbolic world. Hello everyone, As we are coming closer to theophony and
in the Western tradition Epiphany, which in the Orthodox Church is mostly surrounding the
baptism of Christ. I thought we could look at one verse in the Bible
which talks about the baptist Christ. I chose in a Virgin in the Gospel
of Saint Matthew, could have chosen another version in another gospel, to see
just how much it packs in terms of understanding so many things related to Christianity,
whether it is this idea of the new birth or being born again,
the idea of the new creation. You know what it is that Christ represent
the in the story. All the meaning of Theophany on the baptism of Christ
is of course contained in the icon of the Baptism of Christ. But what
I thought is we'll look at the text first, and then maybe we'll come
back to the Icon a little bit later to see what it is that the
Icon contains in terms of this mystery. Now we'll go into the Gospel of
Matthew chapter three, where it says that as soon as Jesus was baptized,
he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on
him, and a voice from heaven said, this is my son, whom
I love. With him, I am well pleased. Now. Of course,
this is seen in the Orthodox tradition and in Christianity in general, as
the revelation of the Trinity, which is that we hear the voice of God,
the Father of God above, who says, this is my son,
and then we see the Spirit descending like a dove on Christ that comes out
of the water, and so it's seen as a revelation of the Trinity.
But there's also something else really going on here, which is that when Christ
comes out of the water and the Spirit of God comes down on him like
a dove, what we're seeing is a reference to two stories in the Old
Testament at the same time. First is the very beginning of Genesis, where
it says that the Spirit of God hovered above the waters. So at the
beginning of Genesis you have this, before creation, it even starts, you
have this image of these chaotic waters underneath and of the Spirit of God above
the waters. Right, it's a it's a basic cosmic image of heaven above,
right, because there's no difference between heaven, spirit, and air.
All of these things are related. So when it says spirit in the Old
in the Old Testament, or in the New Testament for that matter, it
is the same as wind or you know what's above this this invisible thing that
moves above that you can't see moving, but you see its effects. And
so this is what is above, and then below are the water. So
it's referring to that. But then it's also referring to the end of the
flood, of course, because at the end of the flood, Noah sends
out a dove, and then that dove finds a branch by which it is
able to know that the flood has abated and that the new world has begun,
and so what is all going on here? So, of course what
we're seeing is a new beginning. We're seeing a new creation in this particular
instance, Christ appears as the tree, the branch, that the branch that
the bird comes and finds. And when we hear the word branch, and
when we hear the word tree, we always have to remember that a tree
is the is the pattern of reality itself, that it is the fractal pattern
of reality, of unity splitting into multiplicity, and that new multiple unity and
now splitting again into multiplicities. Right. The structure of a tree, which
is that exactly one and many joining together in a pattern of hierarchy. That
is how reality lays itself out. That is the structure of the world.
That is what connects heaven and Earth together. Is this embodied structure that manifests
itself, right, And so you can say that the tree is the connection
between heaven and Earth. It is the invisible principles of reality manifesting themselves in
an embodied form, so that you can see the pattern of the heavens,
the pattern of reality in on the earth connected to the earth. So it's
like a bridge between the two, between the whole completely invisible patterns and the
you know, the chaotic primordial earth. And so in this context, now
Christ appears as this new connection between heaven and earth as a connection between heaven
and earth. And so what like I said, was joined together is the
first chapter of Genesis, that is the actual creation of the Word of the
world, and now the second world, which is after the death of the
first world, the flood, and the beginning of a new world. So
Christ is manifesting the beginning of a new world. And then when we hear
that the voice of God above saying, this is my son, that is,
this is the one that I've engendered. This is the one that I
recognize as my own, the one that manage that is manifesting my identity now
into the world. That is, of course the idea of what the Son
of God is. We have a relationship again between this idea of the Son
of God and the branch that the bird finds in the world that manifests the
pattern of a new order which is being born in reality. You know,
of course, this is related, of course, in the Old Testament.
It's related somewhat of course to the Voice of God as well. That pulls
reality, pulls the world, pulls creation out of the waters, that separates
the waters, that pulls the earth out of the waters. All of these
things are being referred to. Of course, it's amazing because it's using images,
so it can be very simple with just this one verse and bring out
of our knowledge all of these other images that appear in the Old Testament.
Okay, now, so what we're seeing importantly is mostly to underst standard.
What we're seeing is a new beginning, a new connection between heaven and earth,
or revealing the connection between heaven and earth. And this can be represented
in many ways. It can be represented as, for example, a new
creation, a new kingdom, right, the kingdom. A new kingdom is
also very important to understand how it connects, which is that a kingdom is
similar to a tree. That is, a kingdom is the way the world
lays itself out in an orderly way, connected to a principality, connected to
a king, which unites all this multiplicity together. So a tree, a
kingdom, you know. And then of course it can be represented as a
new birth, as a new beginning. And so once you start to see
these images come together, there are a lot of things in the Bible that
will start to make sense, even though it's sometimes they seem obscure at the
outset. And so you know, what I wanted to do is so look
at another text in scripture, one which is very popular, especially in kind
of American Christianity, and see how we can make sense of it based on
these images that Christ himself brings up. And this is of course John three.
So we're not going to read all of John three, but I want
to read a part of John three, starting with verse three, where Christ
encounters Nicodemus. So it says, now, there was a pharisee, a
man named Nicodemus, who is a member of the Jewish ruling council. He
came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are
a teacher who has come from God. No one could perform the signs you
are doing if God were not with him. Jesus replied, very truly,
I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are
born again. It's like already, it's like, if you just look at
what is being said here, it is very obscure. Despite the fact that
some people will tell us that this is as clear as crystal, this is
very simple, right, you can't see the Kingdom unless you're born again.
This is simple and obvious. Of course, Nicodemus asks him, how can
someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time
into their mother's womb to be born. So Jesus answers, very truly,
I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they are
born of water and spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but spirit gives
birth to spirit. So he continues and said, you should not be surprised
at my saying you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases
you. Hear it sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from where
it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. And
of course Nicodemus asks how can this be? And so Christ continues and reproaches
him, you know, and says, how don't you know these things?
You are a teacher of Israel. How is it that you don't know these
things? So what is it that Christ is talking about here? Of course
Christ is referring. If you've read the Gospel, and you've read even in
the Gospel of Saint John, if you read the other gospels, you know
that he's referring to the Baptist He's referring to his baptism. He's referring to
what it is that happened to him at baptism. But then in the same
way, he's not just referring to that, he's referring to what it is
that baptism means, to what it is that the Baptism is manifesting in the
world, because he says, you have to be born of water and spirit.
You know, that is what happens in the story of Christ's baptism.
He descends into the water, and when he comes out of the water,
then the spirit comes down upon him. And so the first thing in the
image of Baptists that has to happen is what what happens at first Saint John.
What Saint John is doing, Saint John is clearing the way, right,
Saint John is the one that baptizes. He's clearing the way, he's
making the level. He's moving the old structures, he's removing the old things,
and he's making the world level. He's making things straight, paving the
way for the Lord to come. And so that is the first part of
the process. You have to remove the old things, and then you have
to be born again of the spirit. You have to be born again from
Heaven. That is, you have to receive a new identity which comes from
above, a new connection which comes from above. And so that is exactly
what Christ is saying that needs to happen. Now, this has to happen
at every level. Right, It's something that happens at every level of reality,
but has to happen if you want to see the Kingdom of Heaven,
if you want to be in the Kingdom of Heaven, if you want to
participate in the Kingdom of Heaven, you have to remove the old kingdom and
then you have to be connected to the new kingdom, which is the Kingdom
of God. And so what's interesting about what happens, of course, the
way that Christ reveals it is that it is happening at every level. It
has to happen at every level of reality, and so it of course has
to happen internally. And this is usually the way that a lot of you
know, you know, kind of modern evangelicals will deal with it, is
that this thing has to happen internally. That is that you have to remove
the sins, right, you have to confess the sins, you have to
kind of remove the old man, and then you have to attach yourself to
this, to the spirit. You have to attach yourself to that which is
above, and then you can live in the kingdom, and then the kingdom
will be manifested within you. Now that is of course true, but it
also has to happen, you know, in terms of your actual participation in
the church, and so you have to actually be baptized. That's why Christ
is actually baptized, even though Christ didn't need it. Christ is actually baptized.
To say, for this to happen, it's not just about a kind
of mental game or a mental thing or just a conviction. You have to
you also have to embody it in the world by being baptized and by receiving
the spirit from above. Now, in Christianity this has become two sacraments,
which is the baptism and chrismation, or baptism and confirmation. That is,
there's a baptism from below, and then there is this receiving of the anointing
right from above, the receiving of that which comes from above. This and
this, of course in Orthodoxy is seen as what we call chrismation, which
is an anointing on the person's body, which is this image of light which
comes down which influence, which comes down from above. And this has to
be let's say, connected with an actual participation in the body of Christ,
in the body of the Church, and an actual connection to an authority which
which is the fractal representation of this whole thing. That is, you can't
just be on your own. You also have to have someone who is manifesting
this authority of God down upon you that you participate in. And so you
can see that the simple little verse of Christ is representing not only the way
that we are transformed and enter into the Kingdom of God, not only the
way that we do it internally externally by actually being baptized and by receiving the
spirit. But then it is really just once again, an image of everything,
an image of reality. And so you know, if you want,
if you want to make a meal, that you also have to do that.
That is that you have to level the ingredients so that they become a
kind of potential for the recipe. And so you have to remove the peel,
you have to take away the stems, you have to take the bone
out or remove the skin or whatever it is that you're doing to the ingredients.
And then you have to align it, attach it to an identity which
comes down from above. That is, whatever it is, the recipe that
you're doing will then create the kingdom of that recipe within you know that you're
going to make. But that's true of anything. It is just an image
of the revelation of how reality works. That is, if you want to
participate in any kingdom, in any form of participation with it's a family,
a team, anything, then this is the process. There has to be
a baptism, which is that you have to remove your attachments to the things
that came before. You have to level the remainders of those of you have
to you know, clean out the remainders of your previous attachments. That's the
same thing that happens like if you start a new job, right you have
to cut your attachments to your old job. You have to you know,
take your things out of that office, you know, take the take all
this stuff out so that you're not you're not connected to that ancient identity anymore.
And then you have to come out of that transformation process, come out
of the waters, and receive the new identity that you're going to participate in.
Hopefully this is helpful to understand that, like I say over and over,
Christianity is revealing to you the pattern of reality of how it is that
complexity works, how it is that any type of unity and multiplicity cohere.
But that also means that you, you know, it is calling you to
actually participate in that in a real way, which is it's not just showing
you the pattern of reality abstractly, but calling you to be baptized, to
be christmated, and to enter into the Kingdom in a very explicit practical way
as well. And so so I wish you all a blessed theophany. I
hope that that this was helpful to you, and thanks for your support everyone.
I really appreciate it in these strange times, and I will talk to
you very soon. Bye bye. If you enjoy these videos and podcasts,
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