We read in Matthew 10:16 that when Jesus sent out his disciples he told them to be ‘wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” This advice is inviting us to model to the world a different way of being in the world, a much more merciful and forgiving way. It is very easy and human for us to get caught up in the “right and wrong” of something, to pass judgement and react from our fight/flight reflex – causing us to continue blindly following in the energy of anger and violence.
When the woman who was caught in adultery was brought to Jesus for condemnation for going against the laws, he did not reply the way the authorities expected. By kneeling down and drawing on the ground, I believe he was giving himself time to respond in a higher way.
By saying ” He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone…” The story goes on that – “when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one.”
The transformative aspect of this story is the long term effects of what occurs in our lives when we take moments to check in with our conscience, to reflect on how we are being affected by a person/situation and by understanding that if we react harshly immediately, this keeps the violence and hatred and aggression of the ego going.
When we say yes to walking a spiritual path, be aware that you are inviting discomfort into your life to shake us out from our comfortable cultural concepts. I recently shared with a friend that in Unity we often use the phrase “Father/Mother” God and he laughed.
To be wise as serpents is to understand this laughter is a knee jerk reaction that comes from an unexamined assumption that he didn’t even know he had. To be innocent as doves is when one can continue in the conversation and explain this phrase refers to bringing back into the mindset of people the feminine aspect of God. Humankind is created in the image and likeness of God, male and female. To include the feminine is to include the nurturing, forgiving aspects of God, which we all need. To have thrown the friendship away because of a culturally blind statement is not taking the time to kneel down and write on the ground, listening for a more loving and inclusive response.
Jesus tells us not to judge because nothing is black or white; right or wrong. Rules, laws, culture change. Consciousness evolves but what is constant and consistent is God’s mercy and love.
I believe when we stop, and kneel down, as Jesus did, this gives us time to let what is triggered in us from a situation or person, to let that energy pass through our Being. Then and only then, once the knee jerk reaction has passed can you hear the wisdom within us.
Life is not Either/Or it it Both/And. All of us have within us qualities that when expressed can bless or hurt another, and when we do, we discover the one that is truly blessed or hurt is us.
Namaste’
Rev Janice
