Category: Spirituality

Healing For Divisions

How do we cross the divides? Whether cultural, social, or political, where do we find common ground? How do we recognize our common humanity?

Divisions reveal the breakdown of our humanity. Our divisions surface from the hollowing out of our humanity. A humanity meant to manifest love loses its humanity when it ceases to love.

For the dividing walls to come down, we must recognize our inhumanity in light of our humanity. And there must be a renewal of our humanity and a renewal of love.

Until we acknowledge that we are to “love our neighbors as ourselves,” we will rationalize our behavior. We will legitimize our divisions. We will treat our inhumanity toward others as necessary and love as impossible.

Change comes when we seek quiet moments of interior reflection in which we allow ourselves to recognize the loss of our humanity in our stinginess, belligerence, unfairness, dishonesty, prejudices and unloving actions. We acknowledge our inhumanity in our refusal to love our neighbor, especially our neighbor who does not think or operate like us or who we have viewed as an enemy.

In the silence of introspection, we may hear the still small voice calling us to love our neighbor. Rather than throw back at another what they have thrown at us, we take a step toward love by forgiving them. And then we look for what else love can do. We may even see that Jesus is right when he tells us to love our enemies. We were meant for love, and it is possible to love another who does not love us. It is possible to look beyond another’s brokenness and see their need.

The divisions in our society are only addressed by a love that sees beyond the inhumanity of the other to their humanity. The image of God stamped on our humanity may be effaced, but it is not destroyed. So we find a way to speak and act in recognition of the humanity of others, whether we experience their actions as humane or not.

There is no recovery from our divisions if we remain focused on another’s inhumanity, on their cruelty, hate, distorted values, fears and prejudices, and treat them as unredeemable. By words and actions we must call one another back to humanity: Speak against inhumanity and for humanity. Act against hate and for love.

At times that may mean speaking hard words of love that call out the inhumanity of one toward another, so that the inhumanity of one can be seen for what it is and the one who is being harmed be recognized in their injury. (Love is not the same thing as being nice.)

This is what I recognize Jesus doing when he called out religious leaders who “tied up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and laid them on the shoulders of others, but were unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” He called them back to their humanity when he addressed what they had become: “You are like whitewashed tombs….On the outside you look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Love speaks hard words when necessary.

God, the source of love and our true humanity calls us back to our humanity as children of God. Only as children of God empowered to love do our divisions lose their power and break down.

Filed under: Compassion, Healing, Love, SpiritualityTagged with: ,

Consider

”Consider whether the light in you is not darkness.” (Luke 11:35)

Jesus addressed a crowd with these words. He addressed people who were swept along by a crowd. He addressed those who were unable to discern what was happening around them. Many of them, without discernment, may have ended up in the crowd that cried out for Jesus’ crucifixion.

Jesus would have those in the crowd do some considering: “Consider whether the light in you is not darkness.” Consider whether what you call the light is actually darkness.

Jesus would have us discern the “signs of the times,” to recognize what is happening around and in us. So he spoke of spiritual blindness, the inability to discern our times and our motivations and our purpose.

Jesus said, “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?” It is possible for a whole crowd of people to be blind and guide each other toward a pit.

Therefore, ”Consider whether the light in you is not darkness.”

How do we go about the task of “considering”? We say we are enlightened, that we see, but what if we are blind? What if we assume we are in the light when we operate in darkness? Consider it.

The act of considering means we stop assuming. We ask the question, “Am I actually in the light or am I in darkness?” Is what I call light, actually darkness? Is what I call true, a lie? Is what I go after false? Is what I have been daily choosing false to my true humanity made in the image of God?

Jesus says, “Consider.” Consider motivations. Why do we choose what we choose and go after what we go after? Why do we choose the leaders we choose? What is it that we want when we make choices? Do we tend not to get beyond asking what is in it for us? Do we consider the effects of our decisions on others?

Does what we consider for ourselves bring light into our lives and into the world? Does it make us more open to others, more loving—since love is what makes relationships possible. Do we consider love? Do we consider and seek after the ability to love, to have compassion, to see the needs of others and respond.

”Consider whether the light in you is not darkness.”

These words call for self-examination. Jesus, addressing the crowd, may be speaking to those who have given little place in their lives for self-examination. They may have gone through life giving little care to their motivations, impulses, priorities—why they do what they do. To them he says, “Consider.” Finally, get around to considering.

Consider why you choose what you choose. Consider why you choose what you let into your life. Consider whether you let in light or darkness, love or hate, joy or bitterness, peace or war, hope or despair.

What we choose obviously affects not only ourselves but others. Our darkness adds to the darkness in the world. Our light adds to the light. Therefore, “consider whether the light in you is not darkness.”

Our nation and world need people of the light, people who see and speak from the light, and therefore are witnesses in the midst of darkness.

Filed under: Discernment, Humanity, Mindfulness, Spirituality, WitnessTagged with: ,

Lawlessness and the Law of Love

The lawlessness of the president of the United States has often been noted as he has ignored the United States Constitution, its laws, and the legislation passed by congress, in order to increase his power and press forward with his agenda which has included avenging himself against his perceived enemies.

Beyond the laws of a nation, however, their is a deeper law that binds us together. It is the law of our fundamental humanity. St. Paul expresses it: “The whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)

Jesus speaks in a similar way when asked what is the greatest commandment: “The first is…‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 12:29-31)

The love of neighbor is powerful for healing our divisions.

Jesus is asked, “Who is my neighbor?” So, Jesus tells a story of a man who “fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead.” Two very religious people, who see him lying to the side of the road, pass by on the other side, afraid to get involved. But a Samaritan comes upon this wounded Jewish man (there was enmity between Samaritans and Jews) and is “moved with compassion” and “bandaged his wounds” and “took care of him.” Jesus asked who “was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The hearer of this story, answered, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:29-37)

Recently, in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, ICE agents raided an apartment building overnight, breaking down doors, and removing people from their beds along with children. The apartment occupants were zip tied and forced into waiting vehicles. A witness across the street said, “she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans.” A 67 year old man tried to reason with the ICE agents, telling them he was a US citizen and asking if they had a warrant for breaking into his apartment. He was left outside in zip ties for several hours before they let him go. (WBEZ Chicago)

When we move away from love and compassion, we become capable of all kinds of inhuman acts. If any of those ICE agents could see their own children in the children that they put into vans, it is hard to imagine they could operate in the way they did. That is true also for everyone who oversaw the action and those who were the policy makers for such actions.

It is because of this distance from our true humanity rooted in love that Jesus calls us to repent, to turn to back God. Rather than operate as if we were the gods of our own lives (and the lives of others), Jesus tells us to relinquish our lives to God. He tells us to lose our lives and we will find our true selves, and we will find the love of God poured into our hearts by the Spirit.

The movement into loving our neighbors as ourselves is a spiritual movement. It is a movement of the Spirit of God who enables us to let go of our lives to God, so that we become available to God for the work of love in the lives of others.

Paul writes of the Spirit of God at work in us to bring us to our full humanity as children of God. He lists the kind of fruit that the Spirit produces in us when we let go, and let God. We come to bear fruit that the Spirit produces.

He gives examples of this fruit of the Spirit: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” And then he adds, “There is no law against such things.” (Galatians 5:22-23) No other law is needed, if we are coming to know and live out the law of love in Christ by the help of the Spirit.

Filed under: Compassion, Justice, Love, Mercy, SpiritualityTagged with: , ,

Hope in the Midst of Despair

Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

Hope is powerful. It makes both inner peace and outward action possible in the most distressing situations. When we lose hope, we lose peace and the ability to act. When we have hope, true life-giving change is possible.

Hope is not the same as optimism. I find myself looking for signs in our culture and politics that would give reason for optimism. Some days are better than others. One day provides circumstances and situations that give some measure of optimistic outlook only to have the next day’s occurrences shatter the previous days optimism.

Hope is different. Hope reaches beyond all situations and circumstances. It transcends our limited views and actions. It is an aspect of our infinite openness. It finds its source and resting place in God.

Hope is like the faith that moves beyond our personal capabilities to the One who holds our lives together. It is like the love that can have us saying, “I will love you forever” because we experience a forever, unconditional love that looks beyond faults—a “love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”

Hope has that same kind of transcendence. That is why Paul names faith, hope and love as eternal. They abide when everything else falls away—or fails.

Optimism, dependent as it is on circumstances, has little power for action and for bringing about change. It can quickly move to pessimism and despair. Hope, on the other hand, is not governed by present situations. It views the present difficulties before the expanse of what could be, of what truly brings life and makes room for love and trust. It comes with vision for a future with hope, for love that reigns in human hearts, and with a faithfulness to a higher calling—the call to our true humanity made in the image of the God who is Love.

When I see people bringing life-giving change, I see people with hope. I also see that they love people, that they exhibit compassion and therefore look beyond others’ faults in order to act for their uplift—and for the transformation of our world situation. I also see trustworthiness. They do not simply talk the talk, but walk the walk. They have the staying power of abiding faith, hope, and love.

The trinity of faith, hope, and love is available to all. It is near to all. It is as near as our true humanity which is as near as the reign of God. Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.” That is, turn to what is near. Turn to God’s presence and let God reign in your heart. Turn to your true self in the God who is near, and receive a self that grows in trust, hope, and love.

”May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

Filed under: Compassion, Hope, Humanity, Love, Society, Spirituality

Resurrection To New Life

Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in one of his last letters from prison, before he was executed by the Nazis, wrote, “The key to it all is the ‘in Christ’.”

In Christ there is no condemnation. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

In Christ we are reconciled to God. We are “now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24) “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” (Corinthians 5:19)

In Christ we become children of God. “In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27)

In Christ we are built up and established in faith. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith.” (Colossians 2:6-7)

In Christ there is true community. “We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” (Romans 12:5)

In Christ there is unity. “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

In Christ we are able to walk in the way God sets before for us. “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

In Christ we are set free from what has had us bound. “For freedom Christ has set us free.” (Galatians 5:1)

In Christ we are raised to new life.

Filed under: Grace, Humanity, SpiritualityTagged with: , ,

Discerning the Signs of the Times

Speaking to the religious leaders of his day, Jesus said, “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky [whether fair weather or threatening weather], but you cannot interpret the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3).”

Religion does not enable us to discern the signs of the times. Laws, morals, and principles to live by do not enable us to discern the signs of the times. Philosophies, theologies, and ideologies (conservative or progressive) do not enable us to discern the signs of the times. The most helpful of our theologies and ethics speak in generalities and may provide some help in broad strokes, but offer little help for discerning the signs present in the specific situations of our lives and times.

Discernment for what is happening in our world and for the actions we are to take is ultimately a spiritual activity with a prophetic element.

The Pharisees and Sadducees, to whom Jesus was speaking, had a well-developed and rational theology and moral philosophy that made sense within their systems of thought, but they were blind to the signs of their times.

There is much religion and moral thinking that operates within closed systems of thought. Religions often operate with the assumption that from their theologies and ethical thinking they can speak to virtually anything. Religious leaders can give the impression that they speak for God as they give answers from their particular theology or ethical philosophy.

People who make decisions from a particular theology or set of moral principles may feel secure in their theology, morality, and decisions. They may also be self-righteous and judgmental toward others who do not share their way of thinking. The morality of moral people can blind them to their own immorality. Paul writes of those who judge others: “In passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things (Romans 2:1).”

It is possible to say we live by the Bible (or some other sacred text) or act from a clear set of moral principles but, in actuality, live far from the truth—all the while judging others who do not share our views. For all our moralizing and reading the Bible and having a theology, we operate blind. As with the religious leaders of Jesus day, we do not discern what is happening around us (or in us).

Discernment is a spiritual activity. Having a well-developed theology and morality will not help us discern the signs of the times. We cannot discern the signs without discerning God’s will. (Of course, we have to pay attention to the times, to what is going on around us, but paying attention has a spiritual aspect as well.) We must discern God’s will in order to discern the times in which we live.

Paul gives a very succinct description of what is involved in discerning God’s will. He tells us to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice” (relinquish your lives to God) and “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God (Romans 12:1-2).”

Having a morality or principles to live by (no matter how we got them) will not enable us to discern. Spiritual discernment comes with submission to God and therefore to God’s will and therefore excludes conforming to a world caught up in arrogance and self-absorption. It involves allowing ourselves, our ways of thinking and deciding, to be transformed by the renewing work of the Spirit. It involves the leading of the Spirit.

Only then can we begin to discern the signs of the times.

Furthermore, we cannot turn over the exercise of discernment to others: to religious leaders and “prophets.” There have always been far more false prophets than true prophets. We cannot give over to others the discernment that we are responsible to exercise. We must, each, submit our lives to God and grow in openness to God’s will, so that we “are no longer children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming (Ephesians 4:14).”

Jesus would have his followers discern the signs of the times, so that they may speak and operate from that discernment. He would not have us secured by and bound to a theology as the Pharisees were, but rather open and still before the living God, waiting for the still small voice.

Prayer becomes critical for true discernment—prayer as submission to God and God’s will. Prayer does not consist in the practice of providing a list of things for God to do for us that we believe will make our lives better. Prayer is submission of our lives to God for the leading of the Spirit, for eyes that see and ears that hear.

There is no substitute for the contemplative life, for life open to God, open for truth in the inward being. We are called from the noise of our world, including the religious noise. We are called to a letting go of ourselves, or, as Jesus says, to a losing of ourselves that we may gain our true selves, selves that are open and discerning and therefore receiving direction.

Filed under: Prayer, Society, SpiritualityTagged with: ,

What I Look For In A Leader

I am a follower of Jesus, so what I look for in a leader is some semblance of what Jesus declared is essential to our true humanity created in the image of God. Here is what I want to see in a leader:

Compassion for those who have been pushed to the margins of society and who carry heavy burdens.

When he saw the crowds, Jesus had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36)

A desire to serve rather than exercise power over others.

Jesus said to them, “The kings of the gentiles lord it over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather, the greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like one who serves.” (Luke 22:25-26)

Able to show mercy.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. (Matthew 5:7)

Committed to working for justice.

Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24)

Shows humility.

Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:4)

Makes peace rather than stirs up division.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)

Demonstrates faithfulness and honesty in exercising responsibilities.

Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. (Luke 16:10)

Demonstrates love for all people, without distinctions.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Filed under: Humanity, Leadership, SpiritualityTagged with: , ,

Christmas Reflections 2023

At Christmas, those of us who find our center in Christ celebrate our humanity. We celebrate our true humanity in union with God. Traditionally we have used the term “incarnation” to speak of this union: God revealed in the flesh; God among us and in us.

St. Paul writes of the glory of God in the face of Christ and of Christ as the image of God. With these words, he connects Christ to the story of creation in the book of Genesis, where we are told that humanity is created in the image of God.

Humanity, when it is being true to itself, is the expression of the God who is love. Our true humanity manifests love, compassion, mercy, justice. It reveals God’s love.

The attraction that brought crowds out to Jesus was the love of God that shone in his life as he reached out with compassion to heal and to liberate. Jesus said he did not come into the world to condemn the world but to seek and to save the lost. And that is what we see in him. He came in humility and openness to hurting human beings joining himself to the suffering of others, even to the point of death on a cross.

What we see in Christ is our true humanity as the expression of God who is love. We have needed to see this example of humanity, because we see, in ourselves and others, much that is false to our humanity. We see our inhumanity, the ways we put down others and operate with arrogance and selfishness, passing on the other side of the road when encountering one who has fallen, hurt and broken.

In Christ, we come to participate in our true humanity, for we experience our relationship with God. In Christ, we come to trust God. Christ’s faith becomes ours. Christ’s love and hope become ours. In Christ, the way into union with God is open.

In a world at war, divided, torn apart by our inhumanity toward one another, the words of the angel to the shepherds in the field speak to all who have ears to hear: “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Anointed One, the Lord.”

Therefore, many of us join the shepherds watching over sheep at that first Christmas; we join with them and the angels in rejoicing and giving glory to God.

Filed under: Humanity, Love, Praise, SpiritualityTagged with: ,

Ethnonationalist Christianity

In 1932, a year prior to Hitler becoming chancellor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to his grandmother in which he gave expression to the coming struggle:

It is becoming increasingly clear to me that what we are going to get is a big, völkisch [ethnic] national church that in its essence can no longer be reconciled with Christianity, and that we must make up our minds to take entirely new paths and follow where they lead. The issue is really Germanism or Christianity, and the sooner the conflict comes out in the open, the better. The greatest danger of all would be in trying to conceal this.

Bonhoeffer, Theological Education, 11

We, who are Christ people in the United States of America, face the same danger Bonhoeffer pointed to, a danger that has long been with us. The issue is Americanism or Christianity, idolatry of nation or worship of the “living and true God” (A phrase St. Paul used to contrast the worship of God to the idolatry of ourselves and our imaginings (our false and therefore dead gods). This issue has been especially true of a White American Christianity with its roots in European American religous history entangled with the establishment of a nation. One of the the outgrowths of this entanglement has been an ethnic nationalism in Christian garb. Beyond the American experience, to one degree or another, the history of Christianity has been a history of ethnonationalism.

In our idolatry of nation, we confuse and subjugate a form of Christianity to nationalist values and agendas. Historically, this has meant that scripture and Christian rationales have been used to support all manner of national decisions and positions: establishment of slavery, removal of indigenous peoples from their land, going to war, who can vote, etc.

A Christianity, subordinate to nationalist ideas, ends up with a distorted usage of its own concepts. As an example, Christians have often mixed American notions of liberty with Christianity. What does it mean, after all, that “if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” The clear meaning of the New Testament is that we are freed to love. In Christ, we are being freed from arrogance and egotism, so that we can experience and live out the unconditional love of God.

Freedom in Christ is not “freedom to do our own thing” in the sense of operating out of our attitudes, prejudices, lusts, and misplaced values. It is the freedom of the love of God which moves us out to others. Among other things, it moves us to care about the freedom of others to live out their own callings and purposes. This liberating love brings healing and deliverance to individuals and societies. It is about compassion (which means to “suffer with”) and mercy (which makes us available to the needs of others).

This unconditional love of God does not bully others. There is no looking for a political “strong man” to side with us. This love has us operating in quite the opposite way, as in St. Paul’s words, this love “is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth (1 Corinthians 13:4-6).”

This love does not judge and condemn others. Jesus, “God’s Anointed,” said he did not come into the world to condemn but to seek and to rescue the lost. He comes revealing God’s love for all.

A Christianity that worries over its own rights rather than the rights of others and seeks a dominant place in society that excludes others is not the Christianity of Christ. It is not expressive of Christ who goes out to all and ministers to all in whatever condition he finds them.

It is hard to imagine that Christ sought to have followers who would spend time trying to secure positions for themselves from which they could dominate and silence the voices of others. And yet this is the way of an ethnonationalist Christianity, for it simply borrows from the ways of a nation with a White supremacist history. Of course, it often does so without recognizing or acknowledging it. Sin incorporates blindness; it chooses blindness.

Far from having a special position and recognition in the world, Jesus let his followers know that (when they are truly following him) they would experience many trials from a world that runs from the God who is Love, a world that forms into clicks, parties, nations, and alliances that prepare for war. In the New Testament, Christians are called out of this kind of world and way of operating.

A Christianity that seeks dominance in the world joins itself to the way the world operates. It takes on the idolatries of the world and its nations. It loses spiritual discernment and therefore loses a witness to Christ. It ends up witnessing to the power of egotism and bullying. It gloats in having supremacy over others rather than serving others. And it adds to the divisions. Rather than, in Bonhoeffer’s words, being a “people for others,” it becomes a people for itself, its religion, and underlying that, its ethnicity.

There clearly is a conflict between an ethnonationalist Christianity and a Christian identity that is being formed in Christ. Growing “in Christ” increasingly frees us from the idolatry of nation, ethnicity and dominance. It frees us to serve others across all self-serving, fear-creating boundaries, for we have entered a life, in Christ, which chooses love over hate, mercy over judgment, peace over war.

Furthermore, in Christ, we have come to acknowledge our broken condition, a condition we share with all humanity. As we grow in this knowledge, we realize we are in no position to be self-righteous and condemning of others.

We also know that nothing about this radical brokenness we experience changes without the transforming grace and mercy of God and that, while we undergo a spiritual conversion, we remain broken. We are on a path of being healed with the knowledge that God is not through with us.

We also recognize others who are undergoing this foundational change and spiritual reorientation. We join with them that we might grow in this reality together. (Some may have no explicit relationship to Christianity whose encountered forms they may have had good reason to flee, but who nevertheless experience the “Christ reality” of “letting go” and trusting themselves to grace and love.)

With this change in our lives and knowing the source of the change, we realize that we must acknowledge and witness against a false Christianity—one we may have been caught up in. We must confess the sin of an idolatrous White supremacist and nationalist Christianity. In Christ, we are coming to know it by its fruit. And, in Christ, there is forgiveness and a new way to walk in.

We must bear witness against this false Christianity, not only for the sake of those who know little or nothing of the Christ reality, but for the sake of those who have come to be in Christ, but who are attached to churches that have radically melded together a form of Christianity with an idolatry of nation and race.

We encourage siblings in Christ, in the nationalist churches of our land, to exercise discernment regarding their church leaders. They will know them by their fruit (which includes their messages). The Spirit will help them recognize what is of Christ and what is not. The Spirit will help them to recognize what messages appeal to their own idolatries and what messages liberate them from their idols. We are all responsible for exercising discernment empowered by the Spirit.

We must discern and then give witness to what God reveals to us.

Filed under: Love, Spirituality, WitnessTagged with: ,

Unattractive Religion

Unattractive Religion Type 1: Repulsed by what is false.

There is much religion that must be fled, if we care about reality. It is one of the reasons many leave churches. They do not find truth there. They do not find life-giving reality. They do not experience the reality of love—a love that is welcoming and supportive and includes all.

Some are repulsed by a church’s bondage to dogmatism and legalism, by the central place given to doctrines, principles, and morals, and the roles that categories play in defining its members. They feel that the experience of humanity’s depth is missing, the experience of the Spirit, of Holy Mystery, and of grace and freedom.

There are many who are repulsed by the eroding of Christian experience by that which is foreign to the Christ reality. There is something terribly false about a White nationalist Christianity that makes an idol of nation and whiteness, or a prosperity Christianity that displaces the will of God with our prosperity. There is something critically false about a legalistic Christianity that has left grace and mercy behind in judging and condemning others.

Many global religious traditions began with an enlightenment or revelation or experience of Holy Mystery that opened, freed, and deepened our humanity. Their beginnings were like a spring of fresh, inviting water bubbling up on the side of a mountain, fresh at its source, but then picking up various debris as it traveled down the mountain side.

It did not take Christianity long to pick up ingredients foreign to its beginnings, becoming conformed to cultural and political values, taking on forms of “worldly” power and dominance, making its doctrines the thing that had to be protected—even by violence, rather than (with Christ) losing its life for the sake of the world. Early on, in the New Testament and with Jesus, there were warnings about false prophets and false religion.

What is true for Christianity has been true for other religions as well, at times with horrific results: Religion becoming simply a mask for evil.

As with other religious traditions, Christianity can be critiqued from within its own tradition. Simply go back to the source, the fresh spring. From the source we begin to recognize the debris that has accumulated over time. We discern what about our Christianity has simply become a cover for our cultural commitments and values instead of being the spiritual reality that critiques our ways of operating in the world and restores us to our true humanity.

Jesus speaks to the heart of his movement when he says that others will know his followers by their love, which he calls the central commandment: Love God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself.

When we move away from this reality, repulsion to what we have become can be the beginning of coming back to what is true.

Unattractive Religion Type 2: Repulsed by what is true.

Jesus said, “The truth will set you free.” But there is that, in us, which runs from the truth, especially inward truth which will have us facing up to what is false in us, false to our true humanity created in the image of God who is Love.

Jesus called us to a recentering of our lives which involves the relinquishing of ourselves to God. Jesus said, “Lose your life and you will find it.” His was a call to trust the whole of ourselves to Holy Mystery. All true religion calls us to let go of our lives in order to find ourselves.

Our egocentric selves revolt against this “letting go.” Our egocentric values revolt. What we have built of our lives apart from God, revolts. Our false self wants to hold on to what it has been building and therefore is repulsed by anything that would take its place. Our false self refuses to recognize a self created in the image of God for love.

Our false self is repulsed by what is implied of such a true self, a self that loves enemies, forgives those who persecute us, loves those who hate us instead of hating them back, a self that relinquishes its idols (the centering of its life around its own control, power, pleasure, riches; its own nation, people, and political party).

People were repulsed by Jesus because he spoke truth to power—to self-centered power. He told his followers that they could expect the same repulsion from others and be blessed for it. He said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice.”

It is no wonder that we will craft a religion of our own making, one that fits our idolatries and values. Repulsed by the truth and desiring a god who is on the side of our idols, we make for ourselves a religion that our false ways can be comfortable with.

Or we decide it is simply easier to have no religion or at least one that does not need a god. (Atheism can be such a religion.)

Being repulsed by what is false in religion opens the possibility of being open to what is true. Being repulsed by what is true calls for a turn to the truth wherever it is found, but especially to the truth of ourselves, the truth of our inward reality.

The Spirit will help us come to the truth of ourselves, so that we distinguish the false from the real through the relinquishing of our lives to the Source of all reality. Jesus tells us that if we continue in the truth, the “truth will set us free.” We will be on a journey of getting real.

Filed under: Humanity, Love, SpiritualityTagged with: