Living in the Spirit
August 12, 2018
Scripture Reading: John 6:35, 41-51
It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ –John 6:45-51
I guess it was reading or hearing the accounts of Native Americans regarding their spirit connections that first made me consider that God may have manifested God’s self in spirit and in truth to all peoples in ways differing. Their Great Spirit sounded a whole lot like Yahweh of the Israelites, Jesus’ Abba. I thus understand the inclusiveness of John’s statement: and they shall all be taught by God. It makes sense if all people are made in the image of God than all people have an avenue for communion with God. Perhaps our goal is to synch our various paths and weave them together into the oneness to which Jesus calls us.
Ethnocentricity*, inclining to regard one’s own race or social group as the center of culture, describes a sociological phenomenon that is common among humans probably all animals. Taken to its extreme, such an opinion leads to thoughts that your culture, religion, whatever is better than everyone else’s. I was a little miffed when I read the other day that Oklahoma is in the bottom ten states for the number of pretty days of weather in a year. We have a lot of pretty days. We also have some of the hardest weather to forecast. It can snow in the morning and a heat wave can arrive in the afternoon. Perhaps we just have a greater appreciation of pretty days and do not take them for granted. Sometimes people get hung up on letting their culture define their intrinsic value.
God’s message is that all of God’s children are persons of worth and all persons are God’s children.
Prayer: Lord, teach us to share our culture with others as we learn about theirs and find that we are all related through your creation. Amen.
*http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/ethnocentricity