I am a member of a group called the Evolutionary Leaders Circle. I was introduced to them by Barbara Marx Hubbard when she lived at Sunrise. They are a group of authors and workshop and seminar leaders, with some esteemed names as part of the group.
I was telling a few of them about my book, Becoming a Sun, not long after it was published. There were worried looks that came upon their faces. They asked, Is this Son, S -O -N? I assured them, No, no, it’s Sun, S -U -N. As I reflected on the interchange, I realized how charged that word son has become, particularly given the way it has been used in the Christian world.
At American football games, you can sometimes see posters referencing a biblical chapter and verse: John 3:16. For those in the know, the words of the verse are familiar. It refers to Jesus as the only begotten Son of God.
The words, only begotten, are a horrible mistranslation of the original meaning of the words and the Greek from which it is translated: monogenes. The intent of the word was to say that Jesus was one of a kind. That is a lot different than one-and-only.
Contemplate the difference between one of a kind and one and only, the only begotten. If Jesus was the only begotten Son of God, what does that make all the rest of us? If he is the one and only, then who are you? Who am I? Who are we all? We could not be a son or daughter of the Creator ourselves.
In 1927, American author Max Ehrmann wrote Desiderata, a reading that was set to music in 1971 and reached number 8 on the top 100 Billboard chart. It contained this statement:
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars.
When you think about it, is this not literally true? We were born out of the universe. Whatever your conception is about how that happened, what else were we born out of? At some point, there wasn’t an Earth. There wasn’t a human race. There wasn’t a you as a human being. And then out of the entirety of the universe, all that was born. You and I were born. We are each a child of the universe, a son or a daughter of the universe.
The universe is not only energy and matter. It is that, but far more. It is not just stuff. It is a living, breathing entity. And within it all is the heart of the Creator. There is the heart of Being, out of which all is being born.
We were born out of the Being of the universe. We have Being because we were born out of Being. In that sense, we are children of God, all of us. That is not making a fantastic claim. I am not saying that every last act people do is sacred and holy. That is obviously not true. Nonetheless, it is what we are born out of. That is our birthright if we will claim it, know it, and own it in life.
We have a religion at the foundation of Western culture that was founded on such a beautiful basis by a human being of extraordinary love. Today, that religion seems to espouse something so beautiful as to acknowledge somebody as the Son of God. But, in a very backhanded way, it is denying the spiritual heredity of all humankind. That is cruel. And so, without necessarily understanding exactly what has transpired, there is wariness by many regarding anything associated with that religion. For many people, if you use that term, Son of God, it is loaded with negativity.
The Bible itself contradicts the popular Christian belief that Jesus was the only begotten Son of God. I have to apologize for the way ancient culture used masculine-framed language to speak of everyone, male and female. It is one of those cultural habits that made sense to them at the time, but which does not make sense to the modern mind. It certainly does not make sense to me. But it is what they did when they talked about sons of God. They were talking about men and women, male and female.
There are multiple references in both the Old and New Testaments to children of God or sons of God. It speaks of the sons of God presenting themselves before the Lord. It says, Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. And, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
We find ourselves part of a world culture that has become largely unconscious that we are each a child of the universe—that we are each a son or daughter of God. We find ourselves participating in the body of consciousness associated with the culture of which we are a part—our family, our community, our nation, our ethnic or religious group, our religious culture, and ultimately we are part of world culture. A person might see themselves as an individualist, independent of culture. But even if that is the attitude, the person is thinking in the same way as billions of others, and in that way, part of world culture.
At some point, people reading this Pulse of Spirit have probably had an uncomfortable awakening to the fact that we are participating in something that is not of our own choosing. We are participating in a body of collective consciousness that excludes an acknowledgement of factors that are intrinsic to who we are, and we would like to choose something else.
What would it be to choose to be part of a body of consciousness that contains the awareness that we are each a child of the universe—that we are each a child of God? That is seemingly far more ephemeral. The body of humanity is plain as day. You can watch it on the news. You can see it almost every moment of your life. And so, to participate in the consciousness of the body of humanity seems to have more substantiality than participating in the consciousness of the body of the sons and daughters of God.
From the standpoint of outer form, I am speaking about participating in something more or less unformed. That’s a strange concept, yes? You’re participating in a body that has yet to fully form. But how does it form unless you participate in it? Unless we participate in it. And to the degree that we are participating in it, it has formed. And we can say to anyone, Participate in this body. This is real. Claim this.
I had Christmas dinner with my sisters and their adult children. My older sister has three handsome, strapping young guys who I love very much. Through them, I get in touch with what is up for young men in our culture and what they are facing.
I’ve spoken before about the tragedy that is occurring en masse for young men. It is astonishing according to all kinds of measures. There are disturbing trends in mental health, the ability to support a family, and loneliness.
Knowing these trends, and being with my family, I thought about what is important for a young man to know growing up, and truly what is important for anyone.
One of the things that young men have been robbed of in this country to a significant degree is the sense that they are important in the lives of others—that their support for people close to them is significant, and that they have meaning and purpose in their lives that relates to other people. Without that, a person can be aimless and feel the hollowness that comes when there is nothing to give themselves to.
Charlie Kirk was an American conservative who was recently tragically assassinated. He spoke to the disempowerment felt by young men. In ways that were often unhealthy, he validated their masculinity and gave them a sense of agency in their own lives. He rose to high popularity because he identified these issues for young men and addressed them, however inaccurately.
There is so much in our culture that not only says, this was the only begotten Son of God, not you, but also says that there is something wrong with you and all the instincts you have as a man. You are poisoned with toxic masculinity. What a horrible message to give a young man!
No, you have gifts inside you. The gifts that you have as a man are the gifts of life, the gifts of love, including the love and care for your world.
Do you think that our world today is going to do well without the strength, the wisdom, and the dedicated service of young men and, ultimately, all men? And if those qualities become untethered from an awareness of being a child of the universe, they are destined to come out in unhealthy ways with tragic consequences.
A sense of purpose for anyone is vital. And what is our purpose truly? If we don’t adopt a higher purpose, we end up with a lower one. The lower purpose could be defending me and mine—my culture and my people, not your people. And certainly, much of masculinity has been about that. It has been about conquering. It has been adversarial. And so, the strength of men has been used for destructive purposes. But that does not mean that the strength of all human beings has no reason or purpose in life.
What is that purpose? The Bible put it so beautifully in Genesis, to tend and keep the garden. To tend and keep the garden, not just my garden—to tend and keep this planet. Is that not a noble challenge for any person? Does this planet need tending and keeping? Obviously, it does. Is it a challenge to do so? Absolutely, given the state of human culture. It will take us all to tend and keep the garden, and what a challenge to bring humanity around to a place of doing so.
If you want a challenge worthy of your life energy and your life purpose, how about that? It is a magnificent challenge, a monumental challenge, worthy of all the strength that any of us has—all the creativity, all the brilliant intelligence. What do we do with this? Hand it over to AI, I guess. But AI is not going to fix this problem. This is a problem worthy of all the love, all the intelligence, and all the creativity within us.
So, I say that this is a vital part of the solution for what ails us as humankind. Our meaning and purpose, our mission on Earth, have to be taken seriously in the living of our lives, in the commitment of our lives. We are going to commit ourselves to something or live an aimless life. And the mission to which we commit ourselves should be something purposeful and meaningful.
This mission never leads to a life of blame. We can easily see what people are causing and creating, yes, but is that the premise for our life? To blame others and try to hold them responsible? Well, maybe there is some public function of doing that which is worthy. But still, that is not our larger purpose, to blame anybody. The larger purpose is to form the population of the body of the sons and daughters of the Creator who can tend and keep the garden.
This brings me to the second, even more central, matter for anyone’s life. That little mistranslation I referenced—while of itself significant—is part of something that is far more widespread. It is this: world culture robs people of who they are—nothing less than that. That is what is happening in that little statement. He’s the only begotten Son of God, and none of the rest of you are, by implication. The culture around us is telling people that they are not sons and daughters of God. That is robbing a person of their identity. This is who we are as a race. Yet we have robbed ourselves of that awareness. And so, the human race walks around not knowing who they are, who we are. We are here as children of the universe, and we have the power and knowledge to awaken humanity to this awareness.
A child growing up can’t do too much about it. But we as adults can make a choice and realize that no one has the power to take who we are away from us, that we can claim it for ourselves. We can know it for ourselves. And if you can know it for yourself, you can give it to another person. Of course, they have to own it for themselves too. But we can, in tone and substance, welcome others to the body of the sons and daughters of God with the mission to tend and keep the garden.
For me, this gets right down to it. What’s most essential in a human life? What’s most essential for us as humanity? And what’s at stake in our world today? There are very few people on the planet who have an awareness of what I’m speaking about. But I do. I trust you do too. And it inflames my highest aspirations and my creative juices to no end.
And in the process, we are given back who we are. We have a relationship with the universe and a relationship with the Creator, out of whom we are born. We were born out of the creative fire of Being. And we have the opportunity to receive a knowing of who we are, to be identified as who we are by that reality of Being that’s within us. Biblically, it is put this way:
And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
—Matthew 3:17
When we open to it, we can hear this message.
We could speak of the Reality that tells us who we are, Mother and Father God. Listen and believe them. They know who you are. And for the most part, the world does not.
That is the story of Jesus and the disciple Philip.
Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
—John 14:8-10
You can picture his exasperation. Could you not see me? Do you not know me? And if he didn’t know Jesus, He could not see Jesus because he did not know himself.
What is the message for us in the story? While it is sometimes shocking not to be seen by others, we can know for ourselves that we are a child of the universe. We are a son or daughter of Supreme Being. Let us bring the awakening to that reality to humankind and tend and keep the garden. This is who we are. And this is why we are here.