God the Father, We the Healer
by Tom Baker
Lesson: Chapter 7, I. The Last Step and II. The Law of the Kingdom
Date: October 19, 2008
Chapter 7 begins with what might be called the theology of Jesus. We do not usually think of Jesus as having a theology and, certainly, there is no evidence from the four Gospels or the letters of Paul that Jesus taught anything like a systematic theology. Yet it is undeniably true that Jesus in all the Gospels consistently speaks of God as his and our Father (Our Father Who art in heaven) and creator. In fact, Jesus seems to subsume his sense of self and self worth into the Father as he did when someone complimented him in a buttering up kind of way and Jesus retorted that only the Father could be called good. In many other places Jesus gives credit to the Father for everything he does and often speaks of listening to the Father for direction and comfort and power. In the Course we are asked to relate to the Father as our creator but not as one we in turn create, as if God created us in His image and then we re-created Him in our image. Although our theology in practice has worked that way, Jesus in the Gospels and in the Course has God creating us and then us creating in the same way but not in kind.
"The creative power of God and His creations is limitless, but they are not in reciprocal relationship. You communicate fully with God, as He does with you. This is an ongoing process in which you share, and because you share it, you are inspired to create like God. Yet in creation you are not in a reciprocal relation to God, since He created you but you did not create Him. I have already told you that only in this respect your creative power differs from His...
If you created God and He created you, the Kingdom could not increase through its own creative thought. Creation would therefore be limited, and you would not be co-creators with God. As God's creative Thought proceeds from Him to you, so must your creative thought proceed from you to your creations. Only in this way can all creative power extend outward." (Chap. 7, I. The Last Step, p. 112).
Jesus in the Course goes on to define creation in terms much different from the way we commonly talk, pointing out that creation is the extension of love not the putting of pieces together to make forms or of making forms out of nothing. God creates out of love and we, in a real and figurative sense, pass it on or pass it forward: just as the gift was given to me by another so I will give it to you with the request that you will pass it on with the same love. Thus creation is not so much God's engineering project as the giving of His heart:
"Your creations belong in you, as you belong in God. You are part of God, as your sons are part of His Sons. To create is to love. Love extends outward simply because it cannot be contained. Being limitless it does not stop. It creates forever, but not in time. God's creations have always been, because He has always been. Your creations have always been, because you can create only as God creates. Eternity is yours, because He created you eternal." (Chap. 7, I. The Last Step, p. 112.).
When we go to the second section of Chapter 7 entitled The Law of the Kingdom we move from the transcendent, timelessness of creation to the immanent, perhaps form changing notion of healing. Healing is related to creation, however, because the spiritual healer perceives the sick person as he or she was created, or as whole. This is the essence of forgiveness. When I forgive you, I am willing to see you as God created you rather than how I made you up. When I offer you healing I am extending that offer to include how you made yourself up as well.
"To heal is the only kind of thinking in this world that resembles the Thought of God, and because of the elements they share, can transfer easily to it. When a brother perceives himself as sick, he perceives himself as not whole, and therefore in need. If you, too, see him this way, you are seeing him as if he were absent from the Kingdom or separated from it, thus making the Kingdom itself obscure to both of you. Sickness and separation are not of God, but the Kingdom is. If you obscure the Kingdom, you are perceiving what is not of God...
Outside the Kingdom, the law that prevails inside is adapted to 'What you project you believe.' This is its teaching form, because outside the Kingdom learning is essential. This form implies that you will learn what you are from what you have projected onto others, and therefore believe they are." Chap. 7, II. The Law of the Kingdom, p. 114.)
Thus when we act in accord with what I have called the Course's mission statement: Teach only love for that is what you are, we potentially heal both the other and ourselves and participate in creation in a form that works outside the Kingdom where we think we are. Lessons 36 through 39 practice the projection of love through the notion of holiness.
© Copyright Tom Baker 2008