Making Christianity Relevant Again

Posted on by MSFriend
Making Christianity Relevant Again
The Lord Bless You!

Making Christianity relevant again.  Isn’t that what all Christians want?  Yesterday’s first reading at mass was from the Book of Numbers 6: 22-27.  It reads:  The Lord said to Moses:  “Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them:  This is how you shall bless the Israelites.  Say to them:  The Lord bless you and keep you.  The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.  The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!  So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

At the time, the Israelites were a “stiff-necked” people.  Regardless, God had a plan to turn their attention back to Him and to bless them.  Today, we are surrounded by many whom we can liken to the Israelites of Moses’ day.  This passage should make us hopeful that positive changes are possible.  It should also help us realize our priestly role in society.  We too, like Aaron, can invoke God’s name upon His people today and He will bless them.  Isn’t that encouraging?

I think of all the people in need of prayer, searching for peace. I carry their names in my heart.  Now, with great hope and humility I pray this prayer, simple yet profound, confident that God will bless them and give them peace.

I often recommend Richard Rohr’s books and his website Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org).  I subscribe to his daily meditations and would highly recommend them, if you’re not already subscribed.  Each year he chooses a theme and his meditations for the year coincide with that theme.  This year’s theme is “rebuilding from the bottom up.” To follow (in italics) is yesterday’s meditation.  I hope it inspires you to subscribe to cac.org.  I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Making Christianity Relevant again

What will make a difference to the future is awakening to a faith that fully communicates God’s love—a love that transforms how we believe, what we do, and who we are in the world. —Diana Butler Bass [1]

Our religion is not working well. Another year has ended—a new year begins—in which suffering, fear, violence, injustice, greed, and meaninglessness still abound. This is not even close to the reign of God that Jesus taught. And we must be frank: in their behavior and impact upon the world, Christians are not much different than other people.
The majority of Christians are not highly transformed people, but tend to reflect their own culture more than they operate as any kind of leaven within it. I speak especially of American Christians, because I am one. But if you are from another country, look at the Christians where you live and see if the same is true there.
Let’s be honest: religion has probably never had such a bad name. Christianity is now seen as “irrelevant” by many and often as part of the problem more than any kind of solution. Some of us are almost embarrassed to say we are Christian because of the negative images that word conjures in others’ minds. Young people especially are turned off by how judgmental, exclusionary, impractical, and ineffective Christian culture seems to be. The church seems hostile toward most science (the objective outer world) and thus unable to talk about its inner dimensions with any authority. As we saw in the recent U.S. election, Christians overall showed little prophetic or compassionate presence.
Most Christians have not been taught how to plug into the “mind of Christ;” thus they often reflect the common mind of power, greed, and war instead. The dualistic mind reads reality in simple binaries—good and bad, right and wrong—and thinks itself smart because it chooses one side. This is getting us nowhere.
Throughout the history of Christianity, it would seem Jesus’ teaching has had little impact, except among people who surrendered to great love and great suffering. Could this be the real core of the Gospel? Such people experience God rather than merely having disconnected ideas about God. We need the mind of mystics now to offer any kind of alternative—contemplative or nondual—consciousness. We need practice-based religion that teaches us how to connect with the Infinite in ways that actually change us from our finite perspectives.
We must rediscover what St. Francis called the “marrow of the Gospel.” It’s time to rebuild from the bottom up. If the foundation is not solid and sure, everything we try to build on top of it is weak and ineffective. Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise that so much is tumbling down around us. It’s time to begin again. This will be our new Daily Meditation theme: rebuilding from the bottom up.

 

Auspiciously, this year is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s important attempts at reform.
In the year 1205, Jesus spoke to Francis through the San Damiano cross: “Francis, rebuild my church, for you see it is falling into ruin.” If Jesus himself says the church is falling into ruin, I guess we can admit it also without being accused of being negative or unbelieving. Maybe we have to admit it for anything new and good to happen.
Through these daily reflections I will delve into the meaning of Christianity’s powerful “first principles,” or essential elements, in this order: God as Trinity, the Cosmic Christ, the life and teaching of Jesus, and other teachings of Incarnational and Mystical Christianity. Even if you aren’t Christian, I hope you will find universal principles here that you can apply to your own spiritual journey.  – Richard Rohr, January 1, 2017 cac.org

Let’s all tune in to see how we can start rebuilding Christianity from the bottom up.  Let’s pledge to make our contribution this year.  Let’s make Christianity relevant again.  God bless you!

Our common home

Posted on by MSFriend
starting anew
Happy New Year!

“Two lines of thought particularly stand out.  The first is an affirmation of our interconnectedness and mutual responsibility toward one another, as well as toward our common Earthly home.  The second is a denunciation of the aspects of modern life that have led to our current predicament.  The essence of the critique is that our situation is not an accident – it is the consequence of the way we think and act:  we deny the moral dimensions of our decisions and conflate progress with activity.  We cannot continue to think and act this way – to disregard both nature and justice – and expect to flourish.  It is not only not moral, it is not even rational. “- Naomi Oreskes, Introduction to Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality.

Need a wake up call?   Read past the introduction of Pope Francis’ Encyclical.  Reading this document made me question  what my contribution to society is.   It  made me want to do more.  The fact is we are all connected.  Our daily decisions and actions effect more than just us and our personal lives.  How?   “Carbon footprint”  and “fair trade” are two ways.  Have you ever heard the terms?

Carbon footprint is defined as the amount of greenhouse gases emitted through travel, food consumption, etc.  When we shop for food, how often do we think about where our food comes from, how far it’s traveled and how much our demand for and consumption of food has  contributed to the pollution of the environment.  Fair trade is defined as trade where fair prices were paid to producers in developing countries.  How often do we consider the producers of the products we buy.  Do we think about whether they received a fair wage or whether they were treated fairly?

So that’s how our actions and decisions affect the rest of the world.  Making a difference is definitely a challenge but every little bit can help.  So what can we do?  We can buy local, eat less meat, purchase items with the Fair Trade USA logo (confident in the statement we’re making about equality and human dignity) and so much more.

I recently wrote that believing is not enough.  Isn’t that the truth!  Faith is a beautiful gift from God.  But our faith should lead us to think of more than just ourselves.  Scripture tells us that faith without works is dead.  Specifically James 2:14-26 says:

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;  and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.  In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Therefore, faith should lead us to become more compassionate and mindful.  Faith should lead us to question whether there is anything we can do to make our world a better place.  It’s time we start thinking about that.  Our desire to consider these things, I believe, is evidence of growth and transformation.

Pope Francis’ encyclical’s subtitle is On Care for Our Common Home.  It’s only  150 pages and a real eye-opener.  Check your local library – that’s where I found mine.

The beginning of a new year moves us to make resolutions.  Our resolutions are often personal (more exercise, a new diet, a better handle on finances, just to name a few).  How often do we think about “resolving” to make our common home a better place, one small act at a time?  Let’s start this year!  God bless you!  Happy New Year!