|
Warning: For anyone addicted to their religion the following might be disturbing to his or her peace of mind. However, those who believe Christ and being a Christian is larger than being in the “Christian” faith and one can know Christ implicitly in a way many with explicit faith never know Christ, then, the following stories will probably be good for your peace of mind.
Blessed are those who follow the Christ, not Christianity.
“Pastor,” asked the church member, “why are you so quiet in your approach to expressing your thoughts on religion and often do not share at all?” “Friend,” it is simple, “I have learned the intensity and verbosity with which one defends his beliefs is in inverse proportion to the veracity of his beliefs and his love for Truth.”
So are those who know, as contrasted with those who know about or know of. Too many persons believe about Christ and teachings about Christ, but they never truly believe in Christ.
“Master, why are so many Christians so immature spiritually, though very religious?” asked the disciple. “For the same reason,” replied the Master, “that a man eating a menu would leave the restaurant without receiving the nourishment his body so needs.”
So are those who consume the externals of faith and believe the truths of the faith and never partake of the inner Truth.
Once a man, planning a vacation with his family, was told by a friend, “You would really enjoy visiting Bombay. My family and I went there on vacation and found it to be a delightful city.” So, the husband returned home and spoke to his family, “My friend says Bombay would be a wonderful place for vacation.” So, the family decided to go to Bombay. They drove a long distance and came upon a sign reading “Bombay.” The family, disappointed, returned home. Later, the husband met his friend, who asked, “How was the vacation in Bombay?” “Not very good,” he replied, “we went all the way to Bombay and was not impressed at all, for it was just a sign on the side of the road.”
So are those who worship the signs of Mystery and never enter the Mystery.
Once a church member visited her Pastor upset that he did not believe in always keeping the rules in either the Bible or the rules of the denomination. Replied the Pastor, “Blessed are those who are wise enough to know when to break the rules; sad is the person who only knows how to keep the rules.”
There was once a rule breaker by the name of Jesus, and the religiously pious leaders had him killed. We worship him two thousand years later; we do not have a record of the name of any of the piously religious rule keepers who had him killed for breaking the rules.
Many persons were getting upset that the Pastor believed many persons outside Christianity are more true Christian than many in Christianity. To them he responded, “If God is Love, and Christ is God, then, how can one be a person of love and not know Love, Who is God; thus, not know God and not know Christ, even if he loves and serves Christ in a way other than your way, after all, He is the Way, not the Christian way.” Likewise, the Pastor spoke, “Jesus said, ‘Follow me,’ not ‘Follow a religion named after me.’”
A man spoke of his Buddhist friend as a wonderful and saintly person. A friend was very upset about it. The man who was a close friend of the Buddhist spoke, “How can a man be Christlike and not know Christ? Therefore, is it not true that my Buddhist friend who is Christlike derives such from the Grace of Christ, while the so-called Christian who is not Christlike is less the Christian than my Buddhist friend, or not a Christian at all?” Of course, the “Christian” friend refused to believe anything his friend spoke, and he believed the man unfit to be recognized as a faithful follower of Christ.
He who equates the name of Christ with Christ and the ways of Christianity with the Way of Christ is like the man who believes only the surface of the Ocean is the Ocean.
The Pastor was inviting a man to worship at the church the Pastor served. The man replied, “I gave up being a part of the Christian church many years ago.” The Pastor asked, “Why?” The man replied, “Because you Christians are more concerned with your Christian versions of truth than with truth.” The man, also, spoke, “Oh, yes, and you say that God, who is perfect Love, would treat us in ways that a parent with imperfect Love would never treat his own child. So, how can you ascribe to God less goodness than the goodness of a mere human?”
Many of the errors and half-truths in the churches arise from persons who pick from here and there in the Bible, ignoring the over-arching principles and texts that do not validate their own presupposition about what the Bible “really” teaches. Did Jesus say, “Follow me,” or did he say, “Follow the Bible”? Did Jesus say, “I am the Way, the Truth, the Life,” or did he say, “I am custom”?
A church member was upset because the Pastor supposedly did not believe in what the Bible says. The Pastor replied, “Friend, first, it is not the Bible I do not believe, it is what you say the Bible says that I do not believe. And, second, you do not believe the Bible, it is obvious, for you are so full of what you believe about the Bible that you cannot for a moment listen to the Spirit speak through the Bible.”
Many Protestants claim they are a People of the Book. As a Christian Pastor, I am not a Man of the Book. I pray to be a Man of the Christ.
A pastor decided he would preach the same sermon every Sunday. The Staff Personnel Committee met with him. “Pastor, why are you preaching the same sermon every Sunday?” “Because,” replied the Pastor, “there are so many of you in this church who are so convinced of what you think that you really never heard the sermon the first time I preached it.”
There are three types of persons in Worship every Sunday: those who do not hear, those who hear, those who listen. “Blessed are those who listen.”
Once a man had pneumonia. He went to the doctor. The doctor prescribed medication. He got the medication from the pharmacy. He read all about the medication, when he got home, even going to the Web to read articles on the medication. He was found dead, several days later, in his home. Beside him was a stack of articles he had read about the medication. Not a single pill had been removed from the medicine bottle.
So is the person who has become an expert in the faith but has never really internalized the faith. An expert on Christ can live and die without Christ.
A man and woman went to a fertility specialist, because they had not, they said, “Been able to have a child.” “Well,” asked the specialist, “how many times have you tried?” Replied the husband, “Well, we’ve talked about having a baby for a long time.”
Trying to be a Christlike Christian without intimacy with Christ is like a man and woman trying to copulate while each is in a different bedroom.
Reflections
1. What do you think of the following truth? Jesus, in the Gospels, never advised that his followers create a new religious faith, indeed, Jesus was born a Jew and remained a Jew his entire life on earth.
2. What are your thoughts on the claim that persons who may never have decided to follow Christ explicitly, or in name, might be following Christ by following the Way, Truth, and Life that Christ is?
3. What is your response to the claim that to be a person of love one must know God and Christ, for God is Love, and God and Christ are one, and one can only love through the One Who is Love?
4. How do the above stories and comments challenge conventional, nominal Christianity?
5. What is the difference between “knowing about” and “knowing of” Christ and “knowing” Christ?
6. What is the difference between being in “a church” and being in “Christianity” and being “in Christ”?
7. How can many Christians make claims of God of what would considered evil for a human person to do?
8. What is the difference between living principles and obeying rules?
9. Why are so many persons comfortable learning more about their faith, intellectually, but refuse to unlearn in ways that would allow them to know a more mature faith and trust in God?
10. What is the difference between following Christ and following Christianity?
11. Do you argue religion? Why? Why not?
12. What do you think St. Augustine meant when he said, “Love, and do what you will?”
13. What is the difference between “having faith” and “having belief”? Can one “have belief” and not be a person of Christian faith?
14. What does it mean that Christian faith is a living tradition in the present, ever evolving, not a past tradition simply adopted in the present?
15. Explain your response to the following: God has no grandchildren, only children.
OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spiritual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net.
|
