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To be a spiritual Christian is to be a living conductor of the Presence of Christ into the world, and through all you are to all the other is, also.
*Brian K. Wilcox
LUKE 1.26-38 (NRSV)
26In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
34"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
35The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37For nothing is impossible with God."
38"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
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King Duncan in an Advent sermon "Mary, Did You Know?," based on the above passage, says:
Obedience isn’t in fashion in a do-your-own-thing society. Yet obedience is an important part of the Christian life. There are some things that people would never force themselves to do except in obedience to God.
Duncan proceeds to give a striking example of obedience, inspired by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and deriving from Chuck Colson's Being the Body.
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Chuck Colson was in Raleigh, North Carolina on Christmas Eve 1985. He was there to speak in several nearby prisons. He turned on CNN to catch the late news. On the screen was Mother Teresa. She had her arms around two emaciated young men. They were in the last stages of AIDS and had been released from prison to enter a home established by Mother Teresa’s order.
When a reporter demanded to know “why we should care about criminals with AIDS,” Mother Teresa explained that these young men had been created in God’s image and deserved to know of God’s love.
Colson saw all this taking place and wondered, “How could she do it? Embrace those men who were dying of that deadly virus?” Colson knew he could never have that kind of courage.
The next morning Colson preached to several hundred women prisoners. As he was getting ready to leave, the warden asked if he would visit Bessie Shipp, an AIDS patient in an isolation cell. “It’s Christmas,” explained the warden, “and nobody has visited her.”
Now, in Colson’s defense, in 1985 we didn’t have as much information about how AIDS spreads as we do today. So we can understand why he began to make excuses. But then, in his mind’s eye, Chuck Colson saw the love-filled face of Mother Teresa and he heard her words: These boys deserve to know of God’s love . . . And so, Colson found himself saying to the warden, “Well, all right, take me to Bessie Shipp.”
When they arrived at the isolation cell Colson discovered a petite young woman bundled up in a bathrobe, reading a Bible. They chatted for a few moments, and since there wasn’t much time, he got to the point. “Bessie, do you know Jesus?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “I try to. I read this book. I want to know Him, but I haven’t been able to find Him.” And Colson took one of Bessie’s hands while the chaplain took the other, and together they led Bessie in prayer. When they finished, she looked at them with tears flowing down her cheeks. It was a life‑changing moment, says Colson, for Bessie and for him. Three weeks later Bessie Shipp, a new person in Christ Jesus, went to be with God. Colson says he shudders when he thinks how close he had come to avoiding that visit. God, working through Mother Teresa’s example, took away what he calls “the unholy fear that had gripped me.”
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The ongoing nativity of Jesus Christ into our world occurs by the countercultural reality "obedience." Without submission to higher Principles, all deriving from the Principle of Love, we cannot birth Christ into the world, through the Body of Christ, the true Church.
The experience of Teresa and Colson show us the main means of how this nativity occurs. Through persons touching persons, spirit to spirit.
Indeed, this was played out in my life today. I prepared a sermon based on one of the lectionary readings. I came down to give the introduction before the people. I never made it back up to the sermon on the lectern, one I had much looked forward to sharing. Instead, I stood and engaged my people, heart to heart. I got more verbal affirmations and visual ones during that message than any since beginning at the church 18 months ago. The personal self-giving to the people, which I felt intensely, left me so exhausted that upon getting home, my body was suffering so I had to take medication, could not read or meditate, but fell asleep. The Spirit had birthed something beautiful, even if the process was exhausting, through a vital, personal, embodied giving to my people.
We cannot predict when such times will occur. Yet, if we live in vital connection with the Spirit Within daily, then, Wisdom will guide us to those moments of self-abandonment in giving ourselves to another or others. In such moments we might feel risk, even a loss of self, certainly a loss of the familiar and control we generally live by. Yet, in such moments we are graced with a spiritual Love that includes us and the other in a joining that is beyond the natural feelings of love, as we generally experience love in conventional awareness.
I often, as may persons intensely on the spiritual Path, reflect on the meaning of death, and the inevitability of the demise of my own body-self. I surmise those moments of total self-abandonment in Love, even, again, at risk to how other persons will respond, will bring me the most pleasure in reflecting on my life. Certainly, those moments remind me that ministry is not essentially about success, efficiency, or progress, but allowing the Christ to come through and give of Himself through the giving of yourself. That is Love, transcendent, spiritual Loving. That brings great satisfaction, even as I sit here writing tonight feeling the wellness and joy of my whole body-system. To so give is to connect with a Being whose energy is able to replenish the one who gives with an amazing potency to give again, and again.
How might this Advent the Spirit be calling you to a more profound self-giving in Love for others? Have you had a recent experience of self-abdication for the good of another or others? What was that like for you? For the other, or others? Do you want more of that in your life? How might you prepare yourself to be more open and prepared for it?
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*The sermon by Duncan is from "Dynamic Preaching Sermons, Fourth Quarter 2008, King Duncan, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2008, 0-000-0000-20." Cited from www.sermons.com .
*Charitable contributions would be appreciated to assist Brian in continuing his ministry. For contributions, contact Brian at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Brian's book of spiritual love poetry, An Ache for Union: Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major booksellers or the Cokesbury on-line store, cokesbury.com .
*Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist Pastor, lives in Southwest Florida. He is a vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and seeks to inspire others to enjoy a more intimate relationship with Christ. Brian advocates for a spiritually-focused, experiential Christianity and renewal of the Church through addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons.
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