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A woman visited her pastor at his church office. She complained that she was quite satisfied with what she had already been taught about the Bible and he should quit bringing new ideas before the congregation. “After all,” she fumed, “what we have been taught was good enough before and it should be good enough for us now!” The pastor replied, “And did you ride a horse and buggy to meet me today? After all, if that was good enough before, why should it not be good enough for you now?”
Our openness to learn new insights in the Scripture is a humble admission of the depths of spiritual knowledge. Even if we could arrive at some understanding of all the Scripture, we would not be able to come close to mining its spiritual depths.
Now the fact that certain mysterious dispensations are disclosed by the holy Scriptures is something everyone, I think, even the more simple [minded] believers, will admit. But what they are or of what sort is something anyone of a right mind and who is not plagued with the vice of boasting will confess in the spirit of true religion he does not know.
*Origen (c. 185-254), On First Principles
*Quote from Origen is from Origen: An Exhortation to Martyrdom, Prayer and Selected Works, Trans. Rowan A. Greer, in "The Classics of Western Spirituality."
*OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He writes in the spirit of John Wesley's focus on the priority of inner experience of the Triune God; scriptural holiness; ongoing sanctification; the goal of Christian perfection (or, wholeness). Brian seeks to integrate the best of the contemplative teachings of Christianity East and West, from the patristic Church to the present. Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
*Brian's book An Ache for Union, a book of poems on mystical union with God through love, can be ordered through major on-line booksellers.
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