Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

Richard Thomas is an Anglican Priest and Director of Communication for the Diocese of Oxford. He can be contacted by email: lrndqg@btinternet.com

This lecture was given at:

The Pagan Federation International Conference

12:00 Noon, Saturday 27th, November 2004

Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 1

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 Thank you for inviting me to talk. I consider it a privilege to be here, particularly as I know that the Pagan Federation has taken a risk hopefully a calculated one in inviting me. It was, I think, Karin Atwood who first invited me to a Pagan gathering. Then, at Avebury, I met Jude Currivan and Clare Slaney, and began my education in contemporary Paganism. I come as a friend, as a traditional Christian who respects you and your faith choice. I come also as a Priest, someone who wishes to walk alongside you in dialogue and in learning. I may not understand fully your faith I may even consider some of the things you do to be dangerous. But I do know that we have common ground, that we share the same humanity, and the same love of all that is sacred. So I come as I have always come to learn from you, and to share my understanding of my own faith with anyone who cares to listen. I have been studying contemporary Paganism now for about eight years. And what I have found, frankly, has surprised me. I was raised as a traditional Christian, and I follow the Benedictine tradition of prayer, study and work. I had once thought that the only proper response to Witchcraft was Garlic and a Crucifix! But I have discovered that whilst there are fundamental differences between a Pagan and a Christian world-view, once you strip away the Christian Imperialism, and look dispassionately at our respective spiritualities, there are some surprising similarities. Of course, there are still many differences between us. Yet Christians who have been to Pagan meetings, or who have spent long, warm hours around a log fire deep in conversation with their Pagan friends, enjoying good beer and good food, have come to understand that, despite the differences, there can be a meeting of the heart and the spirit that transcends the differences of belief. This meeting of the spirit points to something beyond us both: something that we share and honour in common. It is that something that I want to reach towards, to explore. It is an elusive thing, an agreement of the soul, recognition of something profoundly sacred that both the Christian and the Pagan can sense. It is calling us from a place that is deeper than our differences, and is stronger and sweeter than our fears.

Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 2

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 It speaks to us not through doctrine, but through the smell of rich earth after the rain, through the sharp cold of the frost, through the taste of good beer and the warmth of wood smoke and open fires. It is about sacredness itself the recognition of deity in nature; of the sacredness of human living that we hold in common. It is the Green Man who surrounds us with the imagery of spirit within nature the spirit that is common to both Christianity and Paganism, and which Jesus affirms by the title he chose for himself. But more of that a little later. My subject today is Jesus, the Green Man of the Bible. That gives us three huge areas full of uncertainties, full of potential differences. Firstly, there is no single view of Jesus. The Jesus we have comes to us from the pages of the Gospels which were written not as historical accounts, but as individual witness to the Jesus event. That understanding of Jesus is coloured by our experience of his living presence in our community, and of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Equally, our understanding of the Green Man is hazy, speculative, extrapolated from his mythology and his carved features. Many groups claim him for their own. They may weill be surprised to discover a traditional Christian doing likewise. And as for the Bible! There have been so many different interpretations of its significance, and of how to interpret it, that I would be here for the next few days if I were to try to expand them all. Suffice it to say that, for me, it is the sacred text that inspires me, and I shall try to link all that I say to the words of scripture. I remember, early on, seeking Clare Slaneys advice before going to a Pagan Gathering: I was nervous about my reception. Oh, she said, with her deep chuckle: As long as you dont mention the J word, youll be fine. But you cannot avoid Jesus. He is at the heart of Christianity. If you believe some Christians, Jesus only purpose is to condemn Pagans. But that is not the Jesus I see in the Bible. It may come as a surprise to some Christians, but the Bible doesnt even begin with Jesus. It begins much earlier, with the creation stories with a wonderful picture of God at work. Some have argued for the literal interpretation of the Genesis story, but it is, of course, a poetic myth: a story that seeks to convey a deeper truth. And it is all the more powerful for that. Listen to the first words of the Christian faith: Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 3

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

This is something that most Pagans will recognise. For the Druid, the Awen, or inspiration, is both the driving force of the creation, and is also responsible for its beginnings. The Pagan Witch will see within those words a reflection of the deep womb the earth, waiting to be inseminated with deity. For the Christian, those few words form the basis of our understanding of all that is. One of the central features of Paganism, the desire to engage the energy of life itself, to honour that force and to draw it into oneself, is also a central feature of Christianity. The language is different, but the meaning is strikingly similar. We Christians who recognise the sacredness of creation submit before the deity that pulses with life through all living things. We listen to its rhythm, and honour its presence. This is prayer, and prayer, for each of us, is a desire to enter into the sacred, the divine heart of the Universe. For each of us, prayer can be song or silence, action or stillness. For each of us, it is a sacred space where we are called into a relationship with the sacred. So from the very first words of scripture, Christians and Pagans begin to find common ground. In the Hebrew language, the two words Breath and Spirit are sometimes interchanged. The picture that Genesis paints is of the Breath of God, the Inspiration or the Awen, moving upon the darkness and chaos of matter, the dark womb of potential being. Those two small words, moving upon, are a weak translation of the original Hebrew. They should be words of storm and power, reflecting an imagery that itself creates movement and response. The language is both mystic and sexual the Spirit of God penetrates the chaos of unformed matter, inseminating it, bringing it to life. The unformed chaos within the womb of creation is inseminated with deity. Spirit penetrates the womb, and creation becomes pregnant with life, slowly forming, slowly taking shape, slowly coming into being.

Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 4

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004

So on any dispassionate reading of the Genesis myths, Christians, as well as Pagans, can understand the formation of our universe as a kind of birth. We can speak of the Spirit of God making chaos pregnant with meaning, form and purpose. We can speak of the dark warm woods, the wild animals, the buzzing insects, even the great seas and mountains, as both spirit and matter: rich and pregnant with the divine nature. Pagans and Christians walk on common ground not simply because we share the same humanity, or experience the same sacredness that calls to us, but because we have a similar understanding of our nature: we are creatures of both matter and spirit. And in speaking of the things that are sacred, our spirits reach out together towards this something that is common to us both. Yet one of the great stumbling blocks to our mutual understanding comes only a few verses later, when the writer of Genesis speaks of Gods purpose for Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are not simply the first man and woman; they represent you and I. The story is about our own experience of deity and alienation, of purpose and rebellion. In these few short verses we are given our purpose and our place: God blessed them, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. Those two words have dominion have been responsible for so much misunderstanding. At the heart of Paganism is the desire to walk in the footsteps of our ancestors, to walk with love and respect for the earth. Pagans long to feel the life of the deep, rich soil under foot; to breathe crystal clear air deep into clean lungs; to be alive with the freedom and wild passion of animal nature. This wild and gentle relationship does not sit well with the word dominion, or with the treatment of the earth as a mere thing to be used and disposed of. The picture of human exploitation, of forests cut down, of polluted seas, of concrete wildernesses and violent streets, seem to Pagans to be a direct result of such dominion, the fault of Christian theology, and we Christians appear to have done little to Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 5

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 challenge the ecological disasters that are suffocating and strangling our world, or to correct the thinking that lies behind the abuse. Yet the word dominion is a problem to many Christians. It was used in the King James translation of the Bible of the 17th century, when the primary role of the King was care for his subjects, to protect them from harm, and to create an economic climate in which they could prosper. Today, the word has lost much of that meaning, and has become harsh: a word of power, of abuse, of rape and plunder. The original word reflects a king-ship that is much, much earlier and closer to the soil. A much better translation would be that of caretaker. Not the passive caretaker who simply opens up a building for others to use, but an active care-taking that inspires, that breathes its own life into the things for which it cares. It is easy to get stuck on that small word and to miss the much greater importance of the story. Because it is at this point in the story that we humans are given our purpose and our place in nature. Sharing its matter and its spirit, our purpose is to defend, to protect, to care, so as to enable the fecundity of nature to do its work. By the very fact of our birth, we are called to be priests to the world around us. Whether we like it or not, we are created to be in relationship with nature, and that relationship is one of active nurture. So the Christian, just as much as the Pagan seeks to honour her brother and sister animals, plants, rocks and water; to honour that which is sacred, to call out the essence of the rock and leaf, the fin and fur that surrounds us. The Christian, just as much as the Pagan walks with the staff of priesthood in the steps of his or her ancestors, seeking the well-being of the land where he or she has been placed. Whilst the Pagan calls to the many spirits and deities, the Christian calls only to the one. But Awen or Spirit, there is a similarity of purpose that is striking. Neither the Christian nor the Pagan needs any ordination for this priesthood; we are born to be priests of creation, to walk the sacred spaces and to make God visible in the places to which we are sent. These same ideas are echoed at the start of the New Testament, when the Spirit of God overshadows Mary, bringing about a conception that is both human and divine. The concepts are remarkably similar. This wonderful, sacred, living world has been spoiled by Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 6

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 our own greed, our own selfishness and at the root of it all, our own alienation from the deity who has called us into being. And so, for the second time, spirit penetrates chaos, this time not bringing creation, but bringing healing. The spirit overshadows Mary, bringing into being the one who will restore the chaos of our natures. The Jesus who we Christians honour as both sacred and earthy, both divine and human, comes to bring a new order to our own disordered lives. He comes to bring growth, fecundity, and healing. So as we sit around the fire, sharing our hopes, enjoying our drink and our conversation, what do we Christians and Pagans make of Jesus? Is this not the one thing that separates us? Are we avoiding the dreaded J word in order to create a false sense of agreement? Is it not the task of Christians to convert others, to bring them to Christ? Once again, we are driven back to look at the meaning of words, in order to get a fuller understanding of their meaning. It is only when you fully understand how Christians see the sacredness of nature the picture painted for us by the writer of Genesis, but brought to life every time we walk the wild open spaces that you can even begin to understand how Jesus shares the nature of the Green Man. Lets look first at how Jesus described himself. He didnt use the title Son of God as so many Christians seem to think. The phrase he most often used to describe himself was Son of Man. It may at first seem a small change of a word, but it makes a huge difference. In the four gospel accounts of his life, Jesus takes the title Son of Man 75 times. But the phrase Son of God occurs only 24 times, and most of those are when either the devil, or evil spirits, or other people refer to him. So Jesus clearly preferred the title Son of Man. In Hebrew, the title Son of Man is ben Adam Son of Adam. And the Hebrew word Adam is linked to the word for earth, Adamah. The words ben Adam can be translated as the son of the one hewn from the earth. In all of the three synoptic gospels, time and time again Jesus refers to himself as The Son of the one hewn from the earth. He understands that his nature is both sacred and earthy - he refers most often not to his deity, but to his earthy-ness, to his one-ness with nature. He was, and is, Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 7

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 the archetypal Green Man, drawn from the earth, born of the union of spirit and matter, bringing life to those he meets. And look at the way he works. He uses the things of earth to show his sacred power: he uses water to celebrate marriage, and turns it to wine; he uses mud and spittle to create healing and bring sight, and turns it to medicine; he uses a few small loaves and fishes given by a child, and turns them to a feast; he calls for bread and wine to be used in celebration of his death and resurrection, and turns that celebration into life itself. For the orthodox Christian, Jesus isnt just a reflection of the deity we worship he is life itself. He is the Green Man whose sacred life gives life to the vine. He is more than the one through whom life and healing is transmitted: he is the source of life and healing itself. Listen to the words of St John, as he introduces his gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. This is much more than a symbol. This is life itself. Raw, potent, and active. The Jesus we meet in scripture is neither Gentle, Meek or Mild. He is the Green Man whose sacred spirit gives power to our sexuality, to our breathing, to our living. The Christian author C S Lewis said: Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries, avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that coffin safe, dark, motionless, airless it will change. It will not be broken. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.

Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 8

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to Gods will than a self-invited and self-protective lovelessness. Accept this way of thinking about Jesus, and a whole new vision opens up before us. Sex and sexuality are no longer things that we need to hide. They are themselves part of the sacredness of being. The beauty and power of sex shows us the wonder and nature of deity. At the heart of all good sex is the wonder of love and this too is a reflection of deity, of God. He is love who lives at the centre of all things, and he makes himself known in the beauty of intimate sex. If the transmission of life is the transmission of the sacred, then sex is itself an expression of deity, of sacredness. Christians should not be afraid of sex; we should be celebrating it as the most intimate revelation of deity itself. The command in Genesis to Be Fruitful and Multiply is not merely an honouring of sex it is a celebration of sex as being at the heart of our purpose. We are to be fully sexual creatures, enjoying love and life, bringing our children up to celebrate their own sexuality and their own desire for love. This is what lies at the heart of the Green Man this celebration of potent sexuality, this riotous fecundity of nature. The Green Man of the Bible would not have covered the legs of the Grand Piano because they could provoke impure thoughts. He celebrated life. He never once condemned people because of their sexuality. I believe he would have welcomed gay people as readily as straight people, and celebrated their joy in sex as much as anyone elses. There is much more that needs to be said, and our conversation today, like the sacred grove or the spring God, is young and wild, lusty and in need of the gardeners touch. This is the reason why the Green Man is found carved so often in our ancient churches and Cathedrals. It isnt a hang-over from an older Paganism it is a recognition that the founder of Christianity himself was at the very heart of the sacredness of nature the sacred life-force that pulses through all living things was the same life-force that was made flesh in Jesus. As Christians, we honour that sacred life-force, because we believe it is the breath of deity that continues to make matter pregnant with purpose, form and meaning. Now this is all very nice all very comfortable and enjoyable. But if we are to be true to the Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 9

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 picture of Jesus as Green Man, we cannot remain comfortable. I said earlier that those first stories in Genesis give us our purpose: we are to be care-takers, nurturing the sacred soil, caring for the plants and the animals and the trees and the rocks; bringing food to the hungry and life to the dying. They are all sacred: each person, each plant, each animal is sacred because they are part of a sacred whole. And we have all but ruined this sacred planet with our greed and our selfishness. For the Christian, this is summed up by the closing story of Adam and Eve. They turn their back on deity, on their relationship with the sacred, and try to live their lives without God. But disconnection from God means disconnection with nature, and ultimately the treatment of nature as a mere thing. And for the Christian, as much as for the Pagan, that diagnosis is the one that fits best. The basis for our protest against the rape of the planet is because people have lost their relationship with the sacred. They try to live without deity, without God; and therefore, they have no sense of the sacredness of nature. Thomas Hobbes, the 17th Century philosopher, described life pessimistically as solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. For him, human beings are merely physical objects, sophisticated machines whose functions and activities can be described and explained in purely mechanistic terms. Even thought itself must be understood as an instance of the physical operation of the human body. For Hobbes, there is no sacredness, no deity within life. Hobbes would have felt at home in 21st Century. We have developed the mechanistic view of life to perfection. If the machinery of our bodies breaks down, we need mechanics to mend it. And so doctors, like mechanics, are assessed on their ability to mend the machines. If the result of their intervention cannot be measured, then it cannot have been effective. Even our education system treats children like little machines, testing their development at every stage, checking their tolerances for work, or their fitness for social integration. Prince Charles was quite right to draw attention to the failure of a mechanistic view of education. And in our own generation, Richard Dawkins, Professor of the Public Understanding of Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 10

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 Science at Oxford University, has written about The Selfish Gene. He argues that the human body is merely a disposable container for our genetic coding- that we are driven by our own biological make-up. Or, to put it more crudely, A chicken is just an eggs way of making more eggs. But Dawkins isnt a genetic determinist. He argues not only that we can influence the pattern of our genetic development but that we should influence it. This is the machine explained: the mechanic is taking charge of the machine at last, taming it, bringing it to perfection. But even in Dawkins world view, it is still a machine. Thomas Hobbes still holds the ring. Life with the selfish gene is still solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Standing out against this mechanistic, agnostic view of nature, are those of us who hold that nature is not mere genetics, or creaking machinery, but sacred filled with the purpose, meaning and life-giving power of deity itself. Christians see in Jesus not merely a cult figure who can save us from our own irresponsibilities, from our own sin. We see the master healer, the life-bringer, the Green Man of the Bible. It is only when you fully understand how Christians see the sacredness of nature the picture painted for us by the writer of Genesis, but brought to life every time we walk the wild open spaces that you can even begin to understand how Jesus not only shares the nature of the Green Man he is the archetype of the Green Man. But if our purpose is to be the caretakers of creation, the transmitters of life, the bringers of healing, we have failed. Carbon dioxide levels are rising alarmingly. Hundreds of species are dying every year because we rob them of their habitat and their food. We pollute the seas. We turn forests into deserts. And most of all, we allow our neighbours children to starve. And where is the politics of protest? Where are the voices raised in anger? It shouldnt be left to Band Aid and the sale of a few million CDs. The Jesus of the Bible isnt at all Gentle, Meek or Mild when it comes to the rape of the earth. He is a warrior who calls us to fight. The Green Man has a fierce face. The weapons he offers are not guns or bombs. The politics of resistance are not about power or influence they are about suffering and struggle. If we are to restore the sacredness of life, we have to begin by feeling the pain of its suffering, and recognising its sacredness.

Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 11

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 There is a wonderful story that comes at the beginning of Jesus ministry, where he goes out into the wild places of the desert to fast and pray. And there the devil comes to him, to temp him. And the devil takes him to the top of a mountain, and shows him all the kingdoms of the earth. All this, he says, I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. The temptation is to exercise political power. Yet Jesus resists the way of power. It is written, he says, that you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. He chooses the way of suffering over the politics of power, and shows us how to fight. And it is a fight. As a Christian, I have no choice but to protest. I am ashamed of the silence of so many of my fellow Christians, and I have no choice but to speak out. I know that many Pagans have suffered in order to bear witness to the sacredness of the soil. I have watched you at the Newbury Bypass protest. At Greenham. And in many other protests, where the media have failed to recognise the spiritual nature of your struggle. In Kent, Pagans have honoured the sacredness of nature by fighting for the preservation of the forests. Last year, at this very convention, I joined you in cheering Margot Adler in her protest against American plans to extract oil from Alaska, despoiling one of the last great wildernesses. You have an honourable record. But your voice, like ours, is having little effect. I want to stand in the tradition of the Green Man of the Bible, and call for a stronger protest, a larger resistance. For those of us who believe in the sacredness of the soil, the voices are too muted. The politics of protest has to be rooted not in the mechanistic viewpoint of Hobbes or Dawkins, where the planet is saved simply because it is a utilitarian necessity for the continuation of human arrogance. Our protest has to be rooted in deity, in worship, in prayer. I want to use my position here, on this platform, to encourage greater cooperation, not merely in protest, but in fighting the destruction of this sacred planet. We need to learn how to put aside our differences and work together for the healing of our planet. I hear that some Christians have threatened to gather outside this convention and call for the conversion of Pagans. Its strange, but the word convert does not appear much in the New Testament. I could find it only twice. Instead, I looked for the word that is used to Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 12

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 describe the process itself. It occurs twenty four times in the New Testament. It is the word repentance. It means a complete and absolute change in our relationship with God and with each other: a relationship based on the honouring of the sacred, the development of a new mind, and an embracing of those from whom we were previous separated. To repent is to develop a new mind-set, to have a change of mind. To repent is to think differently about things. It is to kneel before God, recognising that we can do nothing by our own efforts to put things right. It is the altered consciousness that comes from recognising the sacredness of things. To have an encounter with the divine, with God, is to be given a new way of thinking that leads to new relationships. This is what conversion means. Not the arrogance of assumed righteousness, but the humility and awe of discovery. Maybe part of that new way of thinking, that new relationship, is to recognise the sacredness of nature; maybe it is to recognise in Awen the spirit of God; maybe it is to discover the spirit of God in the person with whom we share our bread. Conversion may be needed, but it is needed by both Christians and Pagans alike. It is the conversion of our relationship with each other, so that we can together protest more effectively, work more closely for an understanding of this wonderful, beautiful, sacred place. It is the conversion of our thinking from a mechanistic viewpoint where worship is a private activity, to an understanding that worship is at the heart of our politics. It is the conversion of a spiritually starving nation into one that honours the sacred, that has deity in its soul, that reflects care for the poor, the hungry, the outcast, the stranger; that welcomes the asylum seeker and that celebrates diversity. It was this kind of thinking that people found so difficult when dealing with Jesus, because he had this annoying habit of eating with prostitutes and welcoming thieves. Today, I want to honour this aspect of the Green Man of the Bible. I want to honour all that is good in my Pagan friends. But I also want to challenge both Pagans and Christians to greater protest, to stronger resistance, to protest at the mechanistic view of nature that is so destructive of this planet. We need to work together if we are to engage properly in the politics of resistance, which can only be done through the honouring of the sacred.

Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 13

Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible

The Pagan Federation International Conference 27th November 2004 So maybe we Christians need to share with our Pagan brothers and sisters that most profound meeting of all the change of mind that allows us to honour each other as friends in the spirit, and to affirm our mutual priesthood of creation. Maybe it is this repentance, this change of mind, that allows us to make the greatest discovery of all: that at the heart of all things is the one who calls us both, Pagan and Christian, to a deeper exploration, to honour the integrity of the other, and to risk the disapproval of our peers in order to bring new understanding. Maybe we can explore together the stories of our ancestors in faith, the stories of gospel and grove, knowing that in the quiet space beyond our doctrine, both deep within us and far outside our understanding, something or someone is calling to each of us, longing for the change of mind, the new way of thinking, that will bring us each closer to each other and to the sacred centre of all that is. This, too, is Awen. This, too, is Spirit. This, too, is conversion.

Richard Thomas, Anglican Priest richard.thomas@oxford.anglican.org 14