From one of our Readers.
I love the way that Jesus takes those simple things in life and uses them to demonstrate a deep spiritual principle. He used wine in several of his illustrations and it occurred to me that a bottle of champagne could be a marvellous modern day example.
Someone with no knowledge of wine will simply see a green glass bottle, some elaborate labels and .... little more. No amount of scrutiny will tell them what champagne is really like. The secret, of course, is to take off the foil cap, undo the securing wire and ease the cork out of the bottle. (I'll be happy to assist anyone who has not experienced this before.) Pop the cork and out will pour a bubbly effervescence, a dancing, dazzling, sparkling celebration of wine. So much life, desperate to get out, to be and to live, to fulfil its purpose, kept in a dark bottle, sealed with a cork.
Jesus called the Pharisees, the spiritual leaders of his day, blind guides. Their job, you will recall, was to keep the nation of Israel within the strict confines of the Law. Unfortunately, they had not fully understood the message of the prophets and instead they had corked the spiritual life of the people!
The great news is that when Jesus came by he had the habit of unpopping people's corks! - The cripple at the Temple gates who danced his way into church - the Samaritan woman at the well - a tax collector called Zacchaeus .......
Are we still corked in the bottle? Are we fulfilling God's potential for us? Should we consider whether we ourselves even are wanting to keep that wire on, to keep under control? Can we pray for all our leaders that they will not become "corks" in the churches' spiritual life?
I hope we can celebrate and share with each other an "open bottle" of spiritual life!
Peter Crawley