Matthew 28:20

As a new convert to Christ dumped off by my Old Catholic episcopus vagans on the doorstep of broad church Episcopalia, I encountered, in a class at my local parish, the theology of Paul Tillich. The class was taught by an Episcopal priest whom I very much liked, being young and naive and trusting. I still find no fault with the man, other than he was locked into his role as a priest and teacher, as many clergy are, when he could have been a better teacher and witness for Christ (to me at least) had he just been himself.

What I took away from that class and is still with me after over thirty years is this idea of God being our 'ultimate concern.' Am I remembering this term correctly? I think the idea stuck, because I am one of those individuals who can't help but see God's presence everywhere I look, and He remains my ultimate concern even in the darkness of my unknowing Him, even when I am aware that I am sinning in His presence, and simultaneously pleading for mercy. The ultimate concern, to let nothing cloud my field of vision of Him.

Religion, whether Christian or native non-Christian, all seems the same to me, now that Christ the Truth stands bridging all gaps between all allies and all contraries with His irrevocable Presence. I can be with Him wherever He goes, even among idolators, because as soon as they realise Who has come among them, even their idols bow down to Him, and their devotees follow their lead.

If only Christian missionaries were nothing more than witnesses for Jesus Christ the Only Living God who, walking among every people that earth's soil has ever spawned, causes stones to speak and devils and demigods to be dumb. Religion is everywhere, and everywhere awaits Him as an unfinished work of art awaits the Artist's masterful but loving hand. Not seeking ourselves by imposing our ways on the latent wheat, following Jesus not with our heads but with our feet, resistance crumbles away as captives free themselves and throw their chains away of their own accord.

The best we can hope for in evangelizing the world, is that it comes to see for itself that He whom it was seeking even in its basest moments, but especially in its best, has always been present, always waiting to show mercy, and in that showing to reveal, that mercy, or love (calling it by its real name) is the only healer of mankind's every disease, from darth to death, and that He is, was, and always will be here with us, as long as the human world exists.