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Scripture
10The disciples came up and asked, "Why do you tell stories?"
11-15He replied, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn't been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That's why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they're blue in the face and not get it. I don't want Isaiah's forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don't hear a thing.
Your eyes are awake but you don't see a thing.
The people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
so they won't have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
so they won't have to look,
so they won't have to deal with me face-to-face
and let me heal them.
16-17"But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.
Wisdom Words
When I was in school, I cheated on my metaphysics exam:
I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.
*Woody Allen
Wisdom Story
The disciples could not understand the seeminly arbitrary manner in which some people were accepted for discipleship and others were rejected.
They got a clue one day when they heard the Master say, "Don't attempt to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time~and irritates the pig."
Comments
Spiritual teaching occurs in transferring experiential awareness of Truth. Otherwise, there is only imparting of factual data.
This truth is shown in the above Woody Allen saying: "When I was in school, I cheated on my metaphysics exam: I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me." Looking into the soul of the boy was seeking to learn from experience the metaphysical within him, rather than repeating facts about metaphysics found in a textbook.
The chief aim of spiritual teaching is to prompt learners toward reception of interior awareness of Truth beyond words. This is enacted with understanding that spiritual teaching is primarily the imparting of God-energy, through the teacher, and to the learner. This is the source of inspiration for the learner, rather than the words of sacred book or a teacher. The intent is inspiration, not imparting of facts. The Pure Spirit breathes into the teacher the breathing that inspires the teacher. Thus, that animation passes through the being of teacher to the being of others.
Jesus, being a spirit teacher, knew some persons are ready and some not for this imparting of Truth. He says, in explaining the story of the different soils: "Whenever someone has a ready heart ... , the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears."
This is very important to note: Persons who do not capacity, formed through life experience and spiritual practice, for the transmission of energy~truth, may well desire it and for a time sustain it, but eventually cannot endure its reception.
We speak of truth as freeing, and it is. But Truth as spiritual is powerful and upsetting to the status quo.
I went into a traditional, mainline, conservative church. My first class was on the Lord's Prayer. However, I taught it from deeper spiritual meaning. I felt the flow of energy and the glad reception of the people. Lives were being touched by the Spirit, tears flowed, and persons were praying with and over each other. Certain persons within the group were not prepared to allow this movement to continue, as well as persons who were not in the group and did not understand or want what the Spirit was doing. One such man was a retired pastor who was very much into his ego~trip complex and another person was a woman whom I came to call the queen of the church. Therefore, very quickly, this movement of the Spirit was thwarted by personalities who were not prepared to allow the continuing of this Truth~energy. Soon the entire congregation was split in two, and, eventually, the congregation returned to its previous status quo.
The above story mirrors the challenge and threat Truth is to the status quo of persons and religious groups. Still, there were persons who wanted this engagement of Truth, who were tired of business as usual. There lives were changed, and are still being changed by our time together. They experienced a shift from that normality of preaching and teaching that gives religious data to the infusion of life~force, of Spirit.
We each can turn from the data~entry typical of religious and spiritual groups. We can connect with a living exchange that addresses yearning to connect with God beyond the normality of church and religious group status quo. We can be assured there will be persons who will not support the shift. They will call our loyalty and common sense into question. They will accuse us of being heretical or simply crazy. They will consider us unfaithful to the group. They will do this, not necessarily for not wanting the experience, but because they are not prepared themselves to receive the living exchange.
While understanding lack of preparedness, we should never bless the pride that tries to keep others from Truth and will not let itself be open to practices and experience that enlarge capacity to have the same living exhange. We should never resist what God is doing in us and teaching us, so to re-form to the lower expectations, group paranoia, and fearfulness of the unprepared and, thus, unreceptive ones.
How do you see yourself growing in the experience of Truth? Have you experienced God in ways other persons tried to block the experience? How did they try to frustrate your being open to the Truth? How did you respond to them?
For submission of replies, see below:
*Brian K. Wilcox is Pastor of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL. He is a vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community. His passion is living a contemplative life and inspiring others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ through contemplative prayer and living.
*Woody Allen quote is from www.quoteworld.org .
**Wisdom Story is from Anthony DeMello, at ScottR@Spiritus.Org .
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