Week 6—Thursday Revelation 1:4-6
Revelation 1:4-6
THE MATERIAL BECOMES THE MEANINGFUL
The Christian faith accepts the material—and dedicates it. There are passages that seem to say the opposite: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). True. But it doesn’t say, “You cannot serve God with mammon.” If money is dedicated to God along with the soul, then this money is just as sacred as the soul. When Jesus said to the rich young ruler: “Go, sell what you possess; . . . and come, follow me,” what he lacked was not poverty, but following Jesus, and the riches stood in the way of that following. If he had followed Jesus with his riches in his hands ready to give to human need as it arose, he could have followed Jesus.
The Buddhist monks, disdaining the world, will not touch money—they hold it in a handkerchief so its touch will not pollute them. And when they purchase anything or pay a carfare, the clerk or the car conductor picks out the change necessary. But the material put out at the door comes back by the window. We held an Ashram a few days ago in the Buddhist sacred place of Nara in Japan. It was at Nara that the Japanese emperor became a Buddhist and with him all Japan. It is the holy place of Buddhism. And yet in the three great temples in these sacred places, no religious worship is carried on. They are places for pilgrims and sightseers to visit and view the huge statues of Buddha—at fifty yen a person! And thousands come every day. Money disdained, now reigns! If you do not dedicate the material, the material will desecrate you!
So when the disciples said to Jesus: “Send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves,” Jesus replied: “They need not go away, you give them something to eat” (Matt. 14:15-16). The disciples thought that religion dealt only with the spiritual—let them go to others for the material. But Jesus said to them, and through them to the world: “Religion does have to do with the material—don’t wash your hands of the material needs of people, they need not go away, you give them something to eat.” So Oman was right; if religion isn’t secular, it isn’t sacred. It must take in the whole of life—or none.
O Jesus, nothing really human was alien to you. Life—or none. You touched everything with sacredness, and you touched everything. So we touch everything made sacred with your touch. We move in a world hallowed by your touch and your interest. We thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Today I shall turn all the sordid into the sacred by dedication.