These times: difficult, challenging, maybe impossibly "out of kilter"?
These times? Difficult, challenging, maybe "impossible"?
Have "these times" most always been so?
What were the followers of Jesus to think and do after his sudden death by crucifixion?
What were early Christian Jews to do when their compatriots said they were no longer welcome in the synagogues where their home faith communities had always been?
What were the followers of Jesus to think and do after Emperor Constantine secured the Nicene Creed declaring what was the orthodox faith and ordered all Christians to believe only those truths, truths which omitted the actual teaching of Jesus, namely that he "was born, suffered, died and rose again..."?
Name any period of history and examine whether people of faith have not been challenged mightily to live a costly faith?
We were created for times like these. Do not lose heart. A costly faith has always required courage. Bonhoeffer coined a phrase “cheap grace” to distinguish between those whose belief did not cost them anything personally and those whose faith was costly, the cost of discipleship.
When Christian faith has had the dominant role in a given society, it too easily became the convenient and comfortable sign of privilege and justification for ostracism of others.
If our faith does not cost us anything personal other than church attendance, how do we judge its worth or value?
We were created for times that stretch us, that summon us to live with faith, in hope and growing love. We grow spiritually only by vulnerability and risk. The surest and perhaps only sign of salvation is whether we love one another in a love that is growing. Jesus indicates that is to be the least among us who were to be loved by caring in their circumstances. So, who are the least among us? Are we not called to welcome the Stranger?
Our patriarch Abraham kept his tent open on all four sides so that he could see strangers approaching from any direction and have food prepared for them by the time they arrived.
We were created for times like these. Do not lose heart.
Journal entry. Paschal Baute, July 21, 2006
Have "these times" most always been so?
What were the followers of Jesus to think and do after his sudden death by crucifixion?
What were early Christian Jews to do when their compatriots said they were no longer welcome in the synagogues where their home faith communities had always been?
What were the followers of Jesus to think and do after Emperor Constantine secured the Nicene Creed declaring what was the orthodox faith and ordered all Christians to believe only those truths, truths which omitted the actual teaching of Jesus, namely that he "was born, suffered, died and rose again..."?
Name any period of history and examine whether people of faith have not been challenged mightily to live a costly faith?
We were created for times like these. Do not lose heart. A costly faith has always required courage. Bonhoeffer coined a phrase “cheap grace” to distinguish between those whose belief did not cost them anything personally and those whose faith was costly, the cost of discipleship.
When Christian faith has had the dominant role in a given society, it too easily became the convenient and comfortable sign of privilege and justification for ostracism of others.
If our faith does not cost us anything personal other than church attendance, how do we judge its worth or value?
We were created for times that stretch us, that summon us to live with faith, in hope and growing love. We grow spiritually only by vulnerability and risk. The surest and perhaps only sign of salvation is whether we love one another in a love that is growing. Jesus indicates that is to be the least among us who were to be loved by caring in their circumstances. So, who are the least among us? Are we not called to welcome the Stranger?
Our patriarch Abraham kept his tent open on all four sides so that he could see strangers approaching from any direction and have food prepared for them by the time they arrived.
We were created for times like these. Do not lose heart.
Journal entry. Paschal Baute, July 21, 2006
posted by Paschal Baute at 9:14 AM
|
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home