Midweek Faith Lift
September 16, 2026
What Jesus Taught!”
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
September 8, 2026
In 1997, spiritual teacher Ram Dass suffered a massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed and dependent on others for daily care. Before the stroke, he later admitted, he had spent much of his spiritual life distancing himself from his body. He regarded it mainly as a vehicle for the soul and believed that detachment from it was a kind of spiritual witnessing. After the stroke, he had to confront how thoroughly he had ignored his physical life—including neglecting his blood-pressure medication and dismissing warning signs.
Rehabilitation required him to inhabit his body differently: to receive care, to pay attention to physical limitation, and to stop treating embodiment as something spirituality should transcend. He eventually wrote that the stroke taught him he did not have to “renounce my humanity in order to be spiritual”—he could be both eternal spirit and an aging, changing body. — Ram Dass, Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying
And for some humor:
A man is feeling sluggish and has low energy goes to his doctor. After the examination, he says, “Tell me what’s wrong with me, Doc. Give it to me straight. Don’t hide behind complicated medical terminology.” The doctor nods. “Very well. There is nothing wrong with you. You’re lazy and undisciplined. You need to eat healthier, exercise more, sleep well, and devote some time every day to meditating.” The man thinks for a moment. “Okay. Now put it in complicated medical terms that I can tell my wife.” – Nasreddin Hodja, The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin
As we embark on an exploration of The Sermon on the Mount, by Emmet Fox, these stories and observations are an excellent path into the thinking and teachings of Jesus as described by Emmet Fox in The Sermon on the Mount. But before we begin, just who is Emmet Fox? He was a New Thought writer, philosopher and scientist (electrical engineer), actively preaching in the early 1930’s in New York. He was born in Ireland and grew up Catholic, attending a Jesuit school for his education. When a teen he became familiar with metaphysical ideas in the UK and began to pursue these for the rest of his life. He is most closely associated with Divine Science, a group closely aligned with Unity, Religious Science and New Thought in general and he led a congregation in New York city for many years. He is also described as the “Spiritual Father” of Alcoholics Anonymous as Bill W. attended his lectures regularly. He pre-dates our own Eric Butterworth who was familiar with Fox’s writings and referenced him regularly.
At the start of this book, Fox begins with an expose of the teachings of Jesus to lay the groundwork for his understanding of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. As I read through the whole chapter, Fox was clearly wrestling with and debunking the orthodoxy of the traditional and evangelical Christian churches, including Catholicism. If he were still professing to be Catholic, he would surely be excommunicated! He soundly rejects all the “theology” constructed in traditional church teachings including original sin, the virgin birth, the hierarchy of the church and the overall “Plan of Salvation” offered in Protestant theology. His conclusion is that all of these are human inventions, and in reality, he is correct. When you study the history of Christianity, all the concepts of the Nicene Creed and traditional doctrines are human invention, none of them the teachings of Jesus.
Fox states, “The plain fact is that Jesus taught no theology whatever. His teaching is entirely spiritual or metaphysical…There is absolutely no system of theology of doctrine to be found in the Bible; it is simply not there.” Fox believes that true Christianity is not about what you believe, but how you behave, how you act and how you inhabit your own body and your own life. And when you encounter the teachings of Jesus from what he calls a “Spiritual Basis,” then you have a more accurate picture of what the stories in the Bible tell us about how we are to live. His intention is to encounter what is in the Scriptures from a Spiritual or metaphysical perspective to understand the teachings of Jesus and determine how to best follow them and incorporate them into your own life.
Friends, pause and realize that we have just completed Myrtle Fillmore’s How to Let God Help You, which is a practical guide to living a Truth centered life derived completely from her direct experiences of doing just that. We now encounter Emmet Fox whose study of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus points him in the same direction, but from an intellectual or scientific perspective, not necessarily lived experience. Same outcomes, very different perspectives and processes. But they both get to Truth, spiritual Truth in the end. Kind of like the opening story of Ram Dass, who realizes that his humanity and spirituality are not at odds with each other. This too is our journey, and the journey of Myrtle Fillmore and Emmet Fox, and actually, Jesus.
One myth that Emmet Fox particularly debunks, along with original sin, is that of “atonement” or Jesus dying for our sins along with “infinite punishment for finite transgressions” as not being taught by Jesus in the Bible. Nowhere does Jesus make these fear inducing statements. Instead, he does speak clearly of the consequences of “obstinancy in sin” which can result in one parting with the integrity of one’s soul. This is a huge mistake, Myrtle’s error thinking, or as AA says, “stinkin’ thinkin’.” We cannot for long get away with this kind of con job as sooner or later, we are punished by our mistakes, not for them. That is a spiritual truth which always prevails in the fullness of time.
Again, think of Ram Dass who thought he was so spiritual it didn’t matter if he neglected or abused his body! Or our poor fellow who wanted a complicated diagnosis to avoid the consequences of his habits! A cop out for sure, and the doctor was so uncooperative! Who hasn’t tried to avoid dealing with an unpleasant reality with a pill or some other addiction? Cookies, candy anyone? In fact, what Jesus tells us repeatedly is that we are forgiven and loved by a God who is accepting, all-loving and all-powerful. This is a God who provides all that we need to find our way to a better way of living to the point of forgiving 70 times 7 if need be. When we take responsibility for our lives, our choices, God is always there, love is always there with support and guidance. That is the very powerful message of Jesus for us about the nature of God, one that we can be sure about.
Another myth that Fox debunks is any justification for “the setting up of any form of Ecclesiastism, of any hierarchy of officials or system or ritual.” That was a fairly radical statement in 1935 when Fox wrote the first edition of this book. Jesus did not authorize any such hierarchy as was developed by the Catholic church. The very first followers of Jesus were not organized into any kind of hierarchy and women had as much influence and impact as men. They met in each other’s homes and called themselves “Followers of the Way” as they were trying to follow Jesus and live as he lived. As Fox notes, much of what Jesus taught and said was to call out the religious hierarchy of his time, the Pharisees, as hypocrites who adhered to the letter of the law, not the spirit of it.
The mission of Jesus was not to start a church or a new religion; he was an observant Jew, after all. His mission was to teach and demonstrate spiritual principles only, not more rules and outer restrictions about how one should live. He said clearly that the “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” And then he broke the rules of the Sabbath by healing people and doing all kinds of things on the Sabbath, which outraged the powerful elites. Despite this higher truth, and the constant statements of Jesus rejecting these kinds of legalisms, the orthodox church adopted that model of rules and legalisms, which is not what Jesus taught.
In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says “I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.” His life and teachings were the fulfillment of the law, the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law. One of the most powerful messages of Jesus about the true nature of the law is that its purpose is spiritual, not temporal. There is always a higher purpose, a higher perspective. He demonstrated that through prayer and what the Scripture describes as miracles. Our embodied journey as human/divine beings is to strive to grasp this connection between our human experience and the greater reality in which we also exist.
As these wise ones have said:
"There is an actual connection between the visible and the invisible, between the inner and the outer.” - Thomas Troward, The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science, p. 107
And
“This very body that we have that’s sitting right here and right now is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive.” - Pema Chödrön
And fully Divine!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb