Sunday: The Mastery of Ingrown Attitudes
WEEK 37
SUNDAY
THE MASTERY OF INGROWN ATTITUDES
1 Timothy 1:3-5
We come now to a new mastery—the mastery of ingrown attitudes. These Christians were turned from the spiritually ingrown to an outward moral and spiritual offensive. From the very moment of the coming of the Holy Spirit, they were released from self-preoccupation and turned toward sharing this new life with others.
This was important, for the coming of the Holy Spirit brought such a deep joy that they appeared to be intoxicated. That joy could have been a snare. It could have caught them in the tangle of being taken up with their own inner happiness and joy. It could have resulted in their going around in circles, revolving around their own states of soul and mind. It didn’t. Their joy had within it the quality of love, and that love turned their interests outside themselves. It was the joy of sharing. Had their joy lacked love, the movement would have degenerated into an ecstatic movement, revolving around its own inner states.
This is an essential difference between the realization of Brahma on the part of the Hindu and the realization of God on the part of the Christian. The Hindu tries to realize his oneness with Pure Being, which is lifted above relationships. Hence those who are supposed to have realized Brahma are themselves objects of wonder and pilgrimage. People go to them; they don’t go to people. They are not outgoing; they are lost in the ecstasy of their own inner realization of God. There is no love at the basis of this realization, for the God they realize is sat (being), chit (intelligence), and ananda (bliss). But note there is no quality of love, for love would attach one to life, and in this realization all attachments are broken.
This trying to find Brahma ends only in trying, for there is no such being as Brahma. Hence it is a philosophy but no finding. I have never seen anyone who impressed me as realizing Brahma.
But these people at Pentecost were invaded by the God of love revealed in Jesus, invaded by and filled by him. Love became the center of their experience, hence their sharing.
O Jesus, Revealer of the Love that lies at the heart of things, when I find you, I find Love and nothing but Love; hence I can give love and nothing but love. I thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I belong to the self-giving Christ; I cannot therefore be anything but a self-giving Christian.