Day 121d: A truly humbling Humility … (August 28, 2019)
Shortly after bonding in friendly fashion with a surprisingly gregarious roadside-burrowed woodchuck near the town of Pikesville, I made my way into Randallstown and then up to the front door of the wayside New Antioch Baptist Church there. Pastor Barney answer my knocking request for water with a curt Hello followed by him asking if I was ‘saved’ (i.e. whether I had chosen to become a member of the “Christian” Cult of Paul by professing to worship Jesus Christ as if he were the one and only Son of God) and I told him that Jesus himself notes quite clearly in the Gospels that this is the last question any of us need to be asking one another – that we are here to follow his Way and embody his Truth by emulating his Life, not the teachings or examples set by anyone else in the Bible*. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t go over too well with my modern-day Pharisee Friend (“You need to stop trying so hard and start trusting Jesus instead” ~ Pastor Barney – But what if that is exactly what Jesus himself said we are all NOT to do?), and yet to his credit he was very kind to me despite our gentle disagreement and even offered me some peanut butter crackers and granola bars for the Road …
*In addition, I humbly added that “I choose to remain humble as a young child (regarding my own potential salvation), so I can’t really be sure whether I am ‘saved’ or not. And in truth, Paul would probably claim that I’m not saved at all. And yet I am most certainly quite devoutly following The Way of Jesus Christ, so I guess I’m not really concerned either way.”
“Hands joined in prayer aren’t divinity. Divinity is hands stretch out to help those in need. Saying grace before each meal isn’t divinity. Divinity is graceful kindness given to the mean-spirited. Marking a symbolic cross over your heart isn’t divinity. Divinity is crossing out the self for others. Confessing personal errors to a preacher isn’t divinity. Divinity correcting those errors yourself. Selling the glories of a dead Messiah on Sundays isn’t divinity. Divinity is refusing all glory for self in order to honor others instead. Sitting calm & cross-legged in meditation isn’t divinity. Divinity is standing up bold against injustice & oppression. In truth, divinity never comes from religious sources – neither the Bible nor the Koran nor Dhammasala nor the Vatican. Divinity comes whenever we actively & willingly burn ourselves for others. That is when we’ll know real Salvation.” ~ inspired by Abhijit Naskar
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