Cabaret or Masquerade

Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the cabaret.
Come taste the wine, come hear the band, come blow your horn, start celebrating,
Right this way your table's waiting.

Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret For our purposes today, the cabaret is the celebration of life, the table that has been set and awaits our arrival at the party. Are we sitting at the table waiting for the band to begin?

If not, what stands in the way?

Jesus met a man who was not only NOT at the table, he was so deluded that he lived in the cemetary. He had been bound many times, but nothing could hold him, so he was banished.

Mark 5:9-13 NRSV
Then Jesus* asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ 10He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; 12and the unclean spirits* begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’ 13So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake.

In those days it was the common belief that mentally ill people were possessed of demons lives and intelligence of their own, demons who resisted all efforts to drive them from the person. In his mental illness, the demonic showed many aspects of himself in exaggeration. These ways of being were a masquerade, a false representation of his true nature. Notice that Jesus did not fear the man, he did not walk away. He asked, “What is your name?”

This incident is one of the most obscure passages in the Bible for those who try to interpret it literally or traditionally. But what is the spiritual significance of the event?

With regard to demons Charles Fillmore:
Demons, or evil spirits, are conditions of mind, or states of consciousness, that have been developed because the creative power of man has been used in an unwise or an ignorant way (MBD).

In other words we have been given marvelous minds with which to create great things, but we misuse that power. We get bored, we get frustrated, we place our focus outside the Sacred and use our creative power ignorantly, not realizing what we are doing to ourselves or our world.

Fillmore goes on to say ...The mind builds states of consciousness that become established in brain and body. (i.e. when we misuse our minds, the mind becomes used to that state and tends to follow that same vein.) Both good and evil are found in the unregenerate [one] . . . The work of every overcomer is to cast out of himself the demons of [error], through the power and dominion of his indwelling Christ (MBD 170).

These material/ mental creations of ours fascinate us. We tend to enjoy our creations, and don't give them up easily. It's a bit like being conditioned to fear something. Let's say that at some time in our lives, we were in a confined space, and believed we could not get out. The longer we were confined, the more fearful we became. Even though we were released from that situation, we tend to go through our lives with the fear of confined spaces – aka claustrophobia. Even when it's a short ride to the 4th floor, and we know that the elevator door is going to open, we feel fear and sometimes even panic.

Usually it takes concerted effort to rid ourselves of that fear. Likewise it takes concentrated effort to break the bonds of those fears and addictions that keep us from seeking and living our highest selves. One addiction may masquerade as another. For example, an addiction to a substance may shift to an addiction to food, or religion, or relationships. Our minds are marvelous creations that can fool us into believing its okay to do something “just this once.”

Byron Katie said,
“I have never experienced a stressful feeling that wasn't caused by attaching to an untrue thought. . . . We have a thought that argues with reality, then we have a stressful feeling, and then we act on that feeling, creating more stress for ourselves. Rather than understanding the original cause – a thought – we try to change our stressful feelings by looking outside ourselves. We try to change someone else, or we reach for sex, food, alcohol, drugs, or money in order to find temporary comfort and the illusion of control. Loving What Is

Fillmore put it this way:
Adverse states of consciousness (demons) are tenacious and do not relinquish their hold easily. When their rule is threatened by our determined efforts to be rid of them, they seek other habitats or places of residence in consciousness. (YHG, P 115)

Swine [under Jewish law] are unclean animals and represent . . . impure thoughts. In this healing the demons left the man at the command of Jesus and entered the swine. This means that obsessions that are dislodged at one point in consciousness find temporary refuge in some other phase of the carnal nature. As the herd rushed into the sea and perished, so evil is ultimately destroyed if we will be faithful in focusing our thought energy on the indwelling Christ and claim union with [the Christ].

We have mentioned that the demonic's demons were masquerading as his nature, but were not his True Self. From earliest times people wore masks when droughts or other disasters struck. They believed that the demons who had brought their misfortune upon them would become frightened off by the hideous masks. Even after the festival of Samhain had merged with Halloween, Europeans felt uneasy at this time of the year. Food was stored in preparation for the winter and the house was snug and warm. The cold, envious ghosts were outside, and people who went out after dark often wore masks to keep from being recognized. http://www.halloweenishere.com/history.html

Eventually this combination of Samhain and the wearing of masks has evolved into our celebration of Halloween, which for most is a way to have fun, perhaps do a few harmless outrageous things we might not ordinarily do.

However, when we use masks to hide our true selves, they may NOT be in good fun. They are likely to be a way to protect ourselves from some perceived threat.

We become afraid of letting people see the real us.

We are afraid of letting someone see our shortcomings out of the fear that they will not like or love us.

At work we may throw on a mask of authority and power in order to seem in control.

At home we may throw on a mask of contentment, a mask of everything is okay, out of fear our spouse may not love someone with problems.

At church we throw on a mask of self-righteousness and pride, a mask of "I have this God stuff in my life together, so don't ask me how I am doing. I don't need any help; I don't want any fellowship with you people that are down and out. I am okay."

Maybe we even have a mask of rationalization that we put on in compromising situations, a mask that shows the boys on the golf course "I am really just like you; this church stuff is just for Sundays."

On and on we go, shuffling our masks on and off from situation to situation, until one day our masks begin to fail. No matter how good we are at this game, eventually cracks develop from all the wear and tear of changing masks. As the cracks develop people start seeing the real you in-between the cracks. Some may even reach out to help, but that mask of pride, which has now become a prison of pride, will not allow anyone inside.

All the masks will become prisons of guilt, resentment, self-centeredness and on and on. The prisons can become solitary confinement, locking out even God. You lose God, AND you lose your identity, the core you, the real you.

If you find yourself in a prison built in your mind, built by your actions, built by losing the real you somewhere behind these masks, it's time to pour your heart out to God, to claim the Christ within, and cast the masks away. It's time to find the core you and to let others inside to help you. Let a pastor or an unselfish, caring friend inside your walls to help you up. http://www.cfdevotionals.org/devpg99/de990519.htm

Has anyone here rescued an animal? Remember the transformation of that animal? You first see it in their eyes. It begins a few weeks or months after the dog or cat has been taken in to a safe, secure place where she is fed regularly. Her eyes begin to open wider, rounder and softer. Then in time they began to open like a flower in bloom. A little while longer her muscles, once taut, angular and sharp, begin to round out ever so delicately. She walks more softly, sits down more easily. Even the breath is less disjointed, more rhythmic. It can take a year or more for the full transformation to happen and with some it never happens 100%, but even at 50% or 75% it’s quite a miracle what having a home, steady meals, dependable treatment, and kind words can accomplish. It’s as if this warrior came into your home and morphed into a young, innocent child. The same is true for the person who has been living in a prison of his or her own mind, built by one's own actions.

Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Do not submit to thoughts that would imprison us from our real Selves. Do not permit the allure of our mental and material creations to dupe us into self deception.

You are the Christ the son or daughter of a living God.

Come taste the wine, come hear the band, come blow your horn, start celebrating,
Right this way, your table's waiting!
God loves you, and so do I.