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Scripture: Matthew 23.26-28 (The Message)
26"Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something."
27"You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You're like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it's all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. 28People look at you and think you're saints, but beneath the skin you're total frauds.
Story
A Sioux Indian story tells of a young flower in a desert and growing all by itself. The desert was dry and sad looking. The flower enjoyed each day, and daily it asked the sun, "When shall I be grown up? The sun would reply, "Be patient, each time I touch you, you grow a little." This pleased the little flower, for she only wanted to bring beauty to the desert around her. One day a hunter came by and stepped on the little flower. She was going to die, and she felt very sad. She was not sad about dying; she was saddened knowing that she would not have a chance to bring a little beauty to the world around her. The Great Spirit saw her and listened to her prayer of lament. He thought, She should be living. So, the Great Spirit reached down and touched the little flower and gave her life. She grew up to be a beautiful flower, after being touched daily by the sun, and her little part of the desert became very beautiful because of her presence.
Comments
Ugly religion does not beautify the world. Ugly religion manifests in turning Good News into guilt-based conversionism, political opportunism, fundamentalism, biblicism, conservative moralism, liberal relativism, and dead ritualism. To the extent that religion does not beautify the world and our lives together, it is useless.
Thankfully, spirituality can nurture a beautiful life. Jesus judged religious elites, not for being religious, but for not being beautiful persons. We, through a lively and engaging faith, characterized by being touched by the Sun, can be extraordinarily beautiful persons. By this, we witness that God is Beauty and religion does not have to make us ugly. We are touched for beauty!
Suggestion For Reflection
How has having a relationship with God made you a more beautiful person?
Prayer
Beauty, enable me so to be that I will live a beautiful life and the world will be a more beautiful world by my being in it. Amen.
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
The People of the
United Methodist Church
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