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No, the Bible is not the primary text for Christians. You may ask, “Well, then, what is the primary text?”
One evening a man asked the waitress for a menu. He looked at the menu. He was delighted to see the delicious looking food. Before the waitress returned, he ate the menu. Upon the waitress’ return, he complained both about the bad tasting food and a stomachache. He fussed that he would never return. He stormed out, refusing to pay for his meal. That was fine with the waitress, for he had not ordered anything, anyway.
Corrine Ware, in Saint Benedict on the Freeway, writes, “God is the primary text.” “There is,” Ware affirms, “no substitute for God.” And, “… God is simply not found in the Cliff Notes.”
Likewise, Ware posits that there are “secondary texts.” She remarks as follows regarding reliance on the secondary texts:
We bootleg our spiritual experience from sources other than from our direct experience of God. We seek a religion exported to us by writers, magical objects and places, compelling speakers, heightened group experiences, televangelists, or celestial beings. … they are not the “primary text.”
I never enjoyed public worship much until I began the contemplative path. I would sit through the service, just waiting to get to my part: the preaching of the sermon. Now, through contemplation I have been led to experience directly, beyond anything I dreamed possible in this life, the primary text: Spirit, Wonderful Presence. Now, public worship experience with others has taken on a wonderful depth of joy and meaning.
Ware remarks, “If we are dead to God around us in the daily, why should we be moved toward God on special occasions? We may simply ‘feel religious’ at such special moments but have little experience of … the primary text.”
Living in awareness of the primary text prepares us to participate with others in meaningful, lively, and insightful worship. Meaningful, lively, and insightful worship prepares us to live in awareness of the primary text.
Like the man who ate the menu, we can find ourselves frustrated by consuming substitutes for a direct experience of the Wonderful Presence. While we can be inspired through the experience of other persons, the experience of other persons cannot give us our experience of God.
Questions: What is meant by “primary text”? … “secondary texts”? How does your daily walk with Spirit enhance your worship with others? How does worship with others enhance your daily walk with Christ?
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.
Brian's book of mystical love poetry, An Ache for Union, can be ordered through major bookdealers.
Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors
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