Making Heaven Part 1

I have struggled off and on with my religion (Mormonism) for many years. Some of that time, I have been very happy with it. Other times not. Looking back, it seems clear to me that when I am struggling with my religion, I am really struggling with my sense of self, with my purpose in the world, and with my sense of goodness in the world. I have spent about a year reading and rereading the Sermon on the Mount, sometimes all in one night, sometimes one verse at a time. I am not generally very open about my religion, but I wondered if it might be interesting for those of you who are to read a little about what I have been thinking about on this vein over the next few weeks.

I'm going to talk about a verse or two at a time, and why I think that the Sermon on the Mount is a primer on how to create paradise or heaven or Zion or whatever you want to call it. I think I have been most upset when I have felt like the magical God I want to exist has not come and saved me from the evils of the world. But lately, I have come to the conclusion that God is only there to show us what goodness is, and that it is our job to create paradise by becoming like Him, right here, right now.

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Many read this as a promise that after death, the poor in spirit will be granted the gift of the kingdom of heaven, that God somehow makes the world fair by compensating those who are cheated by the normal everyday process of life. This reading tends to encourage people to simply accept what lot they are given in life rather than trying to change it. Certainly, some political systems would like people to think this is what Christianity means. It's what Marx meant when he said that religion was the opiate of the masses.

What if you read this as having nothing to do with an after life? What if the promise is that those who are poor in spirit will be granted the kingdom of heaven right now? Or not right now, immediately, but that the result of being poor in spirit will be the creation of a society which could be called heaven.

What does it mean to be poor in spirit? To be humble, to not think of yourself, to help others. If you are humble and help others, what is the natural, this-world consequence of that? I won't argue that in every case, you get a return, but the more people who act this way, the more others reflect this attitude back to them. And that makes the world a better place. If everyone were to act this way, wouldn't that be heaven?

Being poor in spirit also means to be vulnerable, wounded, to have suffered deeply. As an artist, I wonder sometimes if the real requirement to be an artist is to have something to say, to have been wounded, and to need to work out that wound in some metaphorical way. If you are poor in spirit and have suffered deeply, you may feel that you are the least capable of changing the world. But it isn't true. Your understanding is what will help create a world in which understanding for others suffering is valued. And your art, if you find the strength to create it, will enrich the lives of all.

Not only will you create a world where suffering is not glossed over or ignored or discounted as being “deserved,” but you will create a world where art is plentiful, where artists are valued and compensated (my idea of heaven) and where people are lifted by the art that suits them. Our world has become one in which art is very plentiful, and while this means that it is more and more difficult to choose one “great” artist, it means that everyone who is suffering can find someone else whose suffering vision of the world matches their own, validates and uplifts them. Again, this is my vision of paradise.