The Ethical Illusion Poem by Wild Bill Balding

What must you do to get it right?

Love God & love your neighbour. That's all.

No, I will not give you a rule that tells you what to do.

Have you forgotten I spent so much time opposing those who lived by rules,
and standing with those who were condemned by them?
that woman caught in adultery, nearly stoned by
those just as guilty of breaking their Law;
the woman who was bleeding, and the lepers,
seen as mere filth spreading contamination;
Zacchaeus, the collaborator - good job he found me
before the Resistance found him!

You ask for rules, for rigid unchanging absolutes
to anchor you in safety, rules which will end up
chaining you in dungeons of self-righteousness or despair...

No. I am the way, not the rulebook.
I am the Living One, not a fossil.
I am a threat to the categories of 'in' and 'out',
of 'clean' and 'unclean', of 'righteous' and 'sinner':

the Spirit blows like the wind,
scattering your neat piles of leaves over the garden,
rolling the lid of your dustbin down the street,
making lifeless lines of laundry dance for joy.

Yes, I told the rich man what to do.
He had to give up what held him back:
for him it was money, for you it's...
are you ready to hear?
Those who ask will receive.
Those who look will find, and be found.
And I will never leave them.