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"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
*Matthew 11.28-30
The Holy Spirit and the Bride [the Church] say, "Come!" Let the one who hears, say, "Come!" Let the one who is thirsty, come. Let the one who wants to drink of the water of life, drink it. It is a free gift.
*Revelation 22.17
Wisdom Stories
Billy Graham tells of meeting Cecil B. De Mille. De Mille told him that his movie The King of Kings, made during the silent-movie era, was viewed by 800,000,000 persons. Graham asked him why he did not reproduce the movie with sound and color.
De Mille said, "I will never be able to do it, because if I gave Jesus a southern accent, the northerners would not think of him as their Christ. If I gave him a foreign accent, the Americans and the British would not think of him as their Christ."
He said, "As it is, people from all nations, from every race, creed, clan, can accept him as their Christ."
*Story by Billy Graham. In Stories for the Heart. Compiled by Alice Gray.
A seminary student was excited to preach his sermon before the preaching class. He was fond of exclaiming the only message any preacher should preach was to preach Christ. He stood up and read his text. After delivering his message, he was certain that he would get an "A" grade. When he received his evaluation, written on it was a "C", and a note was written, "In your style you did an "A", but in your content you did an "F"; so, I have given you a "C".
The young man visited the preaching professor in his office. He asked the reason for the low mark in content, for he said, "I preached only Christ." The professor responded, "No, you didn't. You didn't preach Christ. You preached your Christ. You need to learn what it means to preach everyone's Christ."
*Story by Brian K. Wilcox
Comments
Because God is God, and God is Infinity, God is not limited in Love. And Love seeks to connect with another. But I am not God, and I am limited in Love and possibility of connection. Then, is it not commonsense God, Infinite and Love, would seek to connect with me in the way or means God can connect with me as I am and patiently nurture response from me in return? Is that not what Infinite Love would do for me? For everyone?
Jesus confronts the unloving-limitations of the religion of his time, of our time, of every time. He says, countering the "sacral" exclusion, confronting the view of God draped in impersonal restrictions of ritual legalism and inflexible "holy" rules, "Come to me." Christ reached out to the masses cut off from God by the religion that claimed God as its own, and he opened up encounter with the Holy again. Jesus shows himself Christ for everyone, a Christ free of the particulars of religion and culture. This truth is still a radical leap of revelation for many who claim to follow Him today.
The Church does the same. The Bride in Revelation says "Come" to all. The only requirement is to sense need for Christ: "thirst". Really, it is not a requirement in the strict meaning of that word, for the scripture only implies that the thirsting is the inner need that turns one to seeking satisfaction in the Thirst-Quenching Presence of God.
Now, what about religion? The basic meaning of "religion" is "to tie"; religion is meant to tie persons to the Sacred, connect them to God. Spiritual religion will open outward to connect with the other as the other is, and in the joining a holy meeting-place forms for God to change the lives of both. I cannot truly offer Christ as Christ without being changed by Christ in union with the one I offer Christ to.
Suggested Reflections
Are there possible ways you see and present Christ as like your self? Your ethnicity? Your religion? Your culture? Your beliefs?
Do you see yourself as having grown in the freeing of Christ from being like you to being like everyone?
Does your church or spiritual group tend toward presenting Christ being "its" Christ or the Christ of "all"? Explain.
How might your life change if you truly set Christ free totally to be the Christ like everyone, not a particular group or religion?
Brian is available to respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Director, his speaking, doing classes, workshops, or retreats for churches or other spiritual groups. He will inform regarding how to receive his other writings or offer replies to comments or questions.
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*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.
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