Hell. It’s better suited
for saints than sinners.
After all, any old Joe
can enjoy Paradise.
As the Church dwindles within the American psyche and society becomes deeply aware of global responsibility, it is high time the Church change. Yet, this change must reach beyond educational literature or worship style, but into a new transformational way of existing, engaging, and being in the world. My statement
A Liberal Mandate: Reflections on our founding vision and rants on how we have failed to achieve it By Keith D. Martin 141 pp. Weit Press, Paper, $9.35 (Amazon.com) “We have simply failed to live up to our founding vision,” Keith D. Martin writes in “A Liberal Mandate,”
To escape a massacre Jesus, the newborn, his mother, and his father, escaped to Egypt. We must join Jesus and the holy family there, now, in spirit, in body, in love for change, for hope, for peace among all people. May we voice in our own way echo the chant that fills Egypt: “Jewish, Christian, Muslim, we’re all Egyptian.”
Perhaps, Jesus was a small time blogger trying to make it work, trying to get his ideas out. Perhaps he believed the vocation he possessed had been actualized. Whatever the case, Jesus knew that were there was the abomination of injustice, there had to be the conviction of love.
Yet, no matter how much you change the worship or how “progressive” or “cool” your worship is, if you don’t change the way you ‘do life’ nothing will happen. No growth. No hope. You fail to be the body of Christ in the world.
What you represent is more than what you think you represent. Yes, the National Director of the White Knights claims to be a Christian, yet, he’s the leader of what the Southern Poverty Law Center deems a hate group. It’s good to know my siblings in Christ are preaching a good word these days, or not.
Pacifists get off your high horses, and patriotic fundamentalists do the same. The bloodied waters of Normandy, bloodied sands of Iraq, and bloodied islands of Japan speak for themselves.
I don’t want just one tradition, I want many. Better yet, I need many. I need to hear the mystery of faith from my Anglican siblings, as well as the sacrament of the word from my Baptist siblings, and everything in between. Worship is an act of transformation, and when we are not presented with the entirety of the conversation our transformation lacks.