True to the Holy Spirit
Therefore I say unto you, Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come. Matthew 12:31-32
Yesterday I went to the Sunday morning service of the Sydney Unitarians which was quite lovely. The service had a couple of hymns, a chalice lighting ceremony and a talk on the history of Russian music. Simple, elegant and very informative.
After the service, I got into a conversation with Stephen, the community’s musical director, about Gnosticism and somewhere in there he remarked on quite liking those two verses from the gospel writer’s account of the words of Jesus.
Since I’m aware that this chapter of Matthew (which a few verses earlier contains the notorious “if you’re not with me you’re against me” line) is often marshalled by militant evangelicals to justify opposition to ecumenism or acceptance of other religions or even of other denominations of Christianity, I had to ask, “What do you suppose he meant?”
Stephen’s interpretation was that speaking or acting against people’s beliefs or even against the teachings of Jesus is no big deal, the important thing is to be true to the Holy Spirit, that which unites all spiritual paths.
I thought that perspective bore repeating.
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