"There is Room For All"

Does anyone know the difference between a parable and a fable?  They are both forms of storytelling to illustrate a moral truth. Jesus taught mostly in parables, other religions or spiritual teachers use great fables in their illistrations.  Parables use people in their stories and fables use plants, animals or things to as their form of illustration. 

July 29 2018 Readings:    John 10: 7-16   Romans 14:9-12 

This morning I want to offer you a short fable that I was told while visiting friends in Kingston Jamaica in the late 1980’s.   A minister friend I got to know from the United
Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands needed to go visit her herbalist for some medication and I was invited to come along.  Rev. Yvette told me he was also a very wise local Yogi who lived in the foot hills surrounding the city of Kingston.  He was a medical practitioner who uses the natural elements of plants and herbs, as alternative medicine to help fight disease or to relieve a medical condition.  I was also told at the time that this particular Yogi was also a spiritual master and I would find him very interesting.   After meeting him, I was prompted to ask him a spiritual question.  So, I asked, “how do you understand all the different religions in our world?   The gentleman went quiet for a moment and then he said this to me. 

There was a time before the written word, when God spoke through creation itself.  Even if you had never learned to read, Nature if we look closely can reveal to us everything we need to know.  For Nature was and still is for me he said, the first holy book.   Let me offer you this fable.   Every country and contentment on this planet has a main river source that we might call the countries main artery.    In Canada you have the St. Lawrence River system, in England you have the Thames, in Germany the Rhine, in India the Ganges, in China you have the Yangtze, in Africa the Zambezi, and so on and so on.   All rivers, each with their own unique and distinct water flows and offers a rich resource to its country.  All the rivers and streams of this world have something in common and it is where they eventually will all join together and that of course is in the ocean.  If you were to go out into the center of the ocean and scoop me a pail of water, could you tell me which part came from the St. Lawrence, the Thames, the Rhyne, or the Yangtze?  I see the same for all the great religions of our world, said the Yogi, eventually we were all meant to come together in the shelter of God’s compassionate love for one another.

I truly believe that this was one of the most important moments in the cultivation of my theological perspective and my openness to the wisdom teachings of the other religions in our world.   I have often over the years reflected on this wisdom story and others looking for the depth of their true meaning as I attempt to follow in the ways of Jesus.   It was also the spark that lead me to discover that others spiritual writings, Aboriginal, Buddhist, Islam, Zen, etc. contained within their words traces of the teachings of Jesus.  The passage we heard from John 10: 16 speaks to this wisdom.  {KJV} 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.  They may at times use different language and parables or fables to describe the way of Holiness but they in themselves no longer threaten my faith as a Christian.  In fact it actually has reinforced and deepened my root in the resurrected Christ.   Let us keep in mind that all religions are man created and that includes Christianity.  Unfortunately all man made religions have been used at times to promote hatred, violence, and to justify the killing of the innocent.  Even today there are groups of Christians who feel there is justification for killing others and is reinforced by their interpretation of our scripture.      

I believe as did the Apostol Paul and was stated in the passage from John by Jesus himself that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that the Christ, which was with God in the beginning Genesis 1: 26 and is Lord of all.  In fact one of the most important themes throughout the New Testament is that the day is coming when we shall all be one affirming and inclusive people with one as our God head.  

I leave this fable with you for contemplation during my holiday time away. Looking forward to sharing with you once again upon my return at the end of Sept.