Week 36—Wednesday Matthew 15:17-20
Week 36—WEDNESDAY
THE REAL BARRIERS ARE WITHIN
We are looking at the barriers we put down in the Christian Ashram. Third, we got down the barriers between those who work with their hands, and those who do not. Those who do not work with their hands are supposed to be high caste and those who do are supposed to be low caste. So we have a work period each day when everybody works with his or her hands. We appoint a head of this, whom we lovingly call “Pharaoh,” who puts the children of Israel to their tasks. “Work is love made manifest,” so we manifest our love through work.
Fourth, the barrier between youth and older age. In a youth gathering they think youth, and in an older-age gathering they think older age. But each needs the cross-fertilization of the other. A little boy of nine stood up in the Overflowing Heart in the Ashram and said, “I didn’t think Brother Stanley could convert me. I thought it would be over my head. But it wasn’t. When he asked for those who would offer themselves for the Christian ministry, I stood up. For missionary work abroad, I stood up. For full-time service as laymen, I stood up. I was ready for anything. This is wonderful!” Fifth, the barriers between denominations. We mention the groups which have nurtured us when we are introduced, and then we go beyond them to the feet of Christ. Around him we are one. Sixth, the barriers between teachers and taught. In the early morning devotional period we spend it half in silence with our Bibles and devotional books and half in sharing what we have found. So that everyone becomes teacher and everyone taught. We try to make everyone creative!
But the biggest barriers are within. Seventh, we get down inner barriers. The first day we have “The Morning of the Open Heart.” We ask, Why have you come? What do you want? What do you need? The last is the most important. So we ask the group to tell their needs. But we hasten to add that they are not pressed to tell their needs, and that they won’t be out of the fellowship if they don’t tell them, but they will be poorer and we will be poorer if they don’t.
O Savior Divine, we stand before you and our needs stand out like a sore thumb. For you silently judge us and yet believe in us at the same time. You send us to our knees and raise us to the highest heavens. We thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My Father knows me completely and yet loves me completely.