Let us not tire of preaching love, for this is the force that will overcome the world. Let us never tire of preaching love. Even if we see waves of violence coming to drown out the fire of Christian love, love must win out. It is the only thing that can.  
—Óscar Romero, homily, September 25, 1977 

Religion scholar Kerry Walters writes of the transformative life of Archbishop Óscar Romero.  

Oscar Romero [1917–1980], Archbishop of San Salvador, was gunned down on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass. Over the next few days, his body lay in state in the cathedral where he had so often preached. Thousands of mourners filed past his coffin, many of them campesinos, landless peasants and field workers, who had traveled miles to be there. 

They hadn’t come just to pay their respects to a Church dignitary, although that was certainly part of it. They came because they loved Romero. During the three years he served as their archbishop, they knew him as a father who stood between them and a death-dealing government. Now that he was gone, they not only felt orphaned, they were terrified…. 

[Romero] was accused of being a Communist, an agitator, a Soviet stooge, a gullible fool, imprudent, unintelligent, and a bad priest. The calumny hurled at him soured his relations with the Vatican, leading to humiliating curial scolding during his lifetime and stonewalling on his canonization after his death. But Romero was clear in his own mind and conscience that he was doing Christ’s work, not playing power politics. [1] 

In a homily given in 1978, Archbishop Romero urged communities and individuals to recognize how their actions had the power to convert and transform the world:  

A Christian community is evangelized in order to evangelize. A light is turned on in order to give light. “People do not light a candle and put it under a basket,” said Christ. “They light it and put it up high so that it gives light” (Matthew 5:15). That is true community. A community is a group of women and men who have found the truth in Christ and in his Gospel and join together to follow the way of truth more resolutely. It is not just a matter of individual conversion but of community conversion. A community is a family that believes; it is a group where each member accepts God and feels strengthened by the others. In their moments of weakness, they help one another and love one another; they shed the light of their faith as an example for others. When that happens, the preachers no longer need to preach because there are Christians whose very lives have become a form of preaching.  

I said once before and I repeat today, sisters and brothers, that if some sad day they silence our radio and stop us from writing in our newspaper, then all of you who believe must become microphones, radio stations, and loudspeakers—not by talking but by living the faith. [2] 

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Jesus Calling

MY FACE IS SHINING UPON YOU, beaming out Peace that transcends understanding. You are surrounded by a sea of problems, but you are face to Face with Me, your Peace. As long as you focus on Me, you are safe. If you gaze too long at the myriad problems around you, you will sink under the weight of your burdens. When you start to sink, simply call out, “Help me, Jesus!” and I will lift you up. The closer you live to Me, the safer you are. Circumstances around you are undulating, and there are treacherous-looking waves in the distance. Fix your eyes on Me, the One who never changes. By the time those waves reach you, they will have shrunk to proportions of My design. I am always beside you, helping you face today’s waves. The future is a phantom, seeking to spook you. Laugh at the future! Stay close to Me. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ

Jesus. —PHILIPPIANS 4:7 Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” —

MATTHEW 14:29–30 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. —HEBREWS 12:2

Until the killing of black men, black mothers’ sons / Is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers’ sons … / We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes! 
—Bernice Johnson Reagon, “Ella’s Song”  

Religious historian Dr. Nichole Flores shares the Christian witness of civil rights organizer and strategist Ella Baker, a powerful mentor and champion for young people’s voices and leadership.  

This is “Ella’s Song,” inspired by the words and witness of Miss Ella Josephine Baker (1903–1986), a magisterial authority of the civil rights movement and a witness to true human freedom…. “Ella’s Song” announces the existence of those who are often made invisible in our society: black people, poor people, young people, and women…. [It] shines a light on Baker’s belief in freedom and justice, but it also changes the condition of those who sing this song. It changes their hearts. It changes their actions. It becomes their creed….   

Her creed is at once deeply democratic and profoundly Christian, leading her to insist that special concern for “the least of these” (Matthew 25) and “lifting up the lowly” (Luke 1) are spiritual priorities as well as social and political ones.  

Baker’s most significant work … was with young people. While Baker was a serious young person with an innate maturity—her grandfather called her “Grand Lady” because she was a great conversationalist even as a child—she had a natural sympathy for young people and their causes. As an undergraduate student at Shaw University, Baker led protests for the right of female and male students to walk across campus together and for women to be able to wear silk stockings. She took on these causes … because she saw them as important expression of young people learning to secure and defend their liberty and autonomy…. [Decades later,] she believed that the students [in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] needed space to develop their own voices, their own relationships, and their own agenda….

While Baker supported the students in their efforts, she insisted that the movement was about larger issues than lunch counters; it was about “something much bigger than a hamburger or even a giant-sized Coke.” [1] True freedom required learning to treat others with dignity and equality … [and] teaching others to love freedom and to do the work required to sustain it. Baker considered human equality to be a divine calling, a state that was good for its own sake. And she offered the students another perspective on their organizing without dousing the flames of the passionate pursuit of their own most important issues and campaigns….  

Baker also shows the way forward for those who want to eradicate racism from American society. She shows us that sharing our bounty with our neighbors builds a strong community. She teaches us to love good ideas even when they are new or unfamiliar. She demonstrates that loving our neighbors requires that we listen to their stories. She reveals that humility and self-critique are the friends of courage and power.  

The Idol of Celebrity: The Evangelical Industrial Complex

Click Here for Audio Richard Halverson, the former chaplain of the United States Senate, summarized church history this way:“In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centered on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next, it moved to Europe, where it became a culture. And, finally, it moved to America, where it became an enterprise.” Halverson recognized that a significant portion of American Christianity is shaped by business forces that reward ministries for operating more like corporations than churches, and too often they elevate leaders for their marketplace acumen rather than their spiritual maturity.In earlier church traditions, and some still today, there were ecclesiastical authorities that served as gatekeepers. They guarded pulpits and platforms to ensure only leaders who have been tested and approved are granted access to positions of wide influence. They took seriously the Apostle Paul’s instruction to appoint only mature leaders, not recent converts, with good character and a gentle spirit (1 Timothy 3:1–7). Within the American church, however, there are few overseers to guard the flock against the influence and abuse of ungodly leaders filling our media, bookshelves, and conferences. In the place of a church hierarchy, we’ve built the Evangelical Industrial Complex where we expect publishers, conference directors, and radio producers to protect the flock from wolves. Yet when facing an existential threat to their organizations, managers within the Evangelical Industrial Complex will quickly remember that they were not appointed to shepherd us but to sell to us. And a very large ministry can survive if its leader is an ungodly tyrant. It can survive if people don’t meet or serve Jesus through the ministry’s work. But it cannot survive if customers don’t buy its products or fund its payroll.That’s why the rise and fall of any celebrity pastor is merely a symptom of an underlying malady within much of American Christianity. Why are there now so many celebrity pastors? Because they generate a lot of revenue for the Evangelical Industrial Complex. Why do these pastors fall with such regularity? Because the Evangelical Industrial Complex often uses a business standard rather than a biblical standard when deciding which leaders to promote. DAILY SCRIPTURE 1 PETER 5:1–5 MATTHEW 20:20–28 WEEKLY PRAYER Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) Most merciful Savior, increase the faith of your servants, that we may never stray from your truth; our obedience, that we may never swerve from your commandments. Increase your grace in us, that, alive in you, we may fear nothing but you, because nothing is more mighty; love nothing but you, because nothing is more lovable; glory in nothing but you, who is the glory of all the saints; and finally desire nothing but you, who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is the full and perfect felicity forever. Amen.

Father Richard Rohr describes why role models and personal examples often inspire change more effectively than right ideas and beliefs:  

Correct ideas and church mandates cannot cause the kind of change that the soul needs. The soul needs living models to grow, exemplars with the expansive energies of love. People who are eager to love change us at the deeper levels. They alone seem able to open the field of both mind and heart at the same time. When we’re in this different state—and that is what it is—we find ourselves open to directions or possibilities we would never allow or imagine before.  

When I studied Scholastic philosophy in the seminary, we learned that there were formal causes of things, material causes, efficient causes, exemplary causes, and final causes. After Newtonian physics emerged, most people thought efficient causes were the only way that things could happen, such as strong arms causing a rock to be dislodged from a field, but the kind of cause that especially intrigued me was the exemplary cause. With that kind of causality, someone or some event, just by being what it is, by being an example or model, “causes” other things to happen as a result.  

Final causes work in much the same way, by pulling us forward through attraction and allurement. Final causes “cause” things to emerge and evolve in a certain way by offering ideals, models, and seductions that pull us forward. Saint Bonaventure taught that our destiny or goal (telos) finally determines our meaning. If our end goal is clear to us, we have our North Star for a coherent life purpose. It will quite truthfully and inevitably pull us forward and give us a clear trajectory.   

When I taught in South Africa, again and again I heard how Nelson Mandela initiated a cultural leap forward for many African men, especially when they saw pictures of him hoeing in the fields, which they still thought of as women’s work. He was a good example of both an exemplary and a final cause. He changed the tangent and the possibility for many people.  

I believe the gospel itself, and the Franciscan vision of the gospel, is primarily communicated by richly symbolic human lives that operate as prime attractors and exemplars: through actions visibly done in love; by a nonviolent, humble, simple, liberated lifestyle; by a happy identification with poor and excluded people; by obvious happiness itself; and by concrete and visible people who “give others reasons for spiritual joy”—as Francis said when he rubbed two sticks together to play an imaginary violin and as Pope Francis did when he washed the feet of prisoners, women, and Muslims. When such people then speak or act, their words burn, and their actions convict!  

Surely this is what Jesus meant when he told us to be “a light on a lampstand” or to be “leaven” and “salt” (Matthew 5:13–15, 13:33). He knew that holiness is passed on through contagion. 

Love Draws Us Forward

Father Richard points to the transformative power of St. Francis and other more recent mystics and prophets.  

Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) was a living exemplar of where we are all being attracted and led. Just as the Cosmic Christ serves as the Omega Point (Teilhard de Chardin’s term) for all of history, Francis is also a prime attractor, or what medieval theologians called a “final cause.” Christ and Francis draw humanity forward just by walking the full journey themselves. Transformed people quite simply transform people and set the bar of history higher for all of us. That is one of the ways we fundamentally “help” other people.  

If we ourselves are totally focused on our own personal security or on a need for answers and explanations, we have almost no ability to even minimally understand the what, why, and who of persons like Francis, other mystics, or even someone like Jesus himself, who operate out of a completely different level of consciousness. Such people know that “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). We tend to drag down such profound humanizers and divinizers to our own comfortable level and actually have little curiosity or ability to care about their major message.  

Developmental experts state that the best we humans can do—on a very good day—is perhaps understand someone a bit beyond ourselves. Being invited forward by prophets and mystics—though they invariably face great resistance—is the clear pattern of history. We sadly know this to be true in recent centuries from the lives of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai, Dorothy Day, many UN secretaries-general, and Martin Luther King Jr. Tragically, we don’t usually love and embrace more advanced people, but quite often hate and fear them. Francis is really an amazing exception. He somehow succeeds in being loved, admired, and imitated even by non-Christian religions and very secular people to this day.  

God gives us highly evolved people to pull us all forward. The Christian word for them was simply “saint.” We cannot imagine something until we see it through a living model or archetypal figure. Then it constellates in our consciousness as maybe possible for us too. Through his story, Francis is still greasing the wheels of consciousness and holiness. It then rubs off and spreads out by osmosis.  

I felt this strongly when I was invited to accompany the Dalai Lama. He said little beyond, “My religion is kindness,” but the stadium was packed. The lines just to see him, or perhaps touch him, reached across the Ohio River bridge to Louisville. Many pointed out the direct line between that event and Thomas Merton’s presence down the Kentucky road at Gethsemani Abbey. Merton, Mother Teresa, Pope Francis, and the Dalai Lama are all good examples of prime attractors in our own time.  

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Learning from the Mystics: Mechthild of Magdeburg. from John Chaffee

Quote of the Week: (This is a dialogue between Mechthild and the Lord.) “Lord, you are constantly lovesick for me.That you have clearly shown personally.You have written me into your book of the Godhead;You have painted me in your humanity;You have buried me in your side, in your hands and feet.Ah, allow me, dear One, to pour balsam upon you.””O One dear to my heart, where shall you find the balm?””O Lord, I was going to tear the heart of my soul in two and intend to put you in it.””You could never give me a more soothing balsam than to let me unceasingly lie weightlessly in your soul.””Lord, if you were to take me home with you, I would be your physician forever.” – From Book III of The Flowing Light of the Godhead Reflection  Mechthild occasionally wrote dreams, lists, poems, and dialogues within her best-known work, The Flowing Light of the Godhead.  Shown above is just one of those dialogues.  When we read it, we are gifted with a peek into an intimate conversation between Mechthild and God. The conversation does two noteworthy things.  First, Mechthild deeply understands the “mutual indwelling” that all the Christian mystics point toward in their works.  At the outset, she states that her whole existence is within God, but then shows Divine hospitality by “tearing the heart of her soul in two,” so that she could put God in there.  Second, Mechthild inverts the famous passage from the Gospels…  “Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.'” (Luke 5:31)  God is understood as the Great Physician who comes to heal the sick, but here it is God who is lovesick and it is Mechthild that offers to be the Great Physician to Him. Mechthild, as well as all the other Christian mystics, often speak of an intimacy with God that might make others blush.  It is almost brazen (and some have even deemed it dangerous) how Mechthild relates to God as an equal, rather than maintaining Kierkegaard’s “infinite qualitative distance” to God.  Many times, we have been trained into a strict reverence for God that actually can become a wall, a separation, a buffer from the very intimacy that we want with God.  In some sense, Mechthild is an example to throw that caution to the wind and to dive right into the immediate, intimate and infinite reality of Divine Love. Prayer  Good God, Help us to throw caution to the wind.  Do not allow religion to be the safest place to hide from you, and grant us the wildness of heart to express ourselves to you and to receive the very romance that you extend to us.  In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen and amen.

Life Overview of Mechthild of Magdeburg:  Who is She: Mechthild of Magdeburg  Where: Unknown, Most Likely in modern-day Germany.  When: 1207-1282 (possibly 1294)AD  Why She is Important: She was the first Christian mystic to write in German.  She was a member of the Beguines, a collection of writers and figures from a particular region of Western Europe.  What Was Their Main Contribution: Mechthild of Magdeburg often wrote poetry and discourse with God.  These poems and discourse are considered a part of the corpus of Mystical Marriage, a genre of spiritual writings that evoke the intimacy and vulnerability between married spouses.

Participating Today

Friday, January 10, 2025

Transformed people working together for a more just and connected world.  
—CAC Vision Statement 

At the recent Students of Life conference, Brian McLaren encouraged the CAC community to practice “engaged contemplation” as a way to participate in a movement for healing, justice, and peace in the world: 

We know that what we do flows from who we are. Our work in the healing work in the world flows from the ongoing healing we experience within ourselves. Just like hurt people hurt people, healing people heal people. But it’s not like we get healed and then we go “fix” everybody else. We’ve met people who think that’s the case, but their sense of having it all together actually makes it harder for them to help others.  

At the CAC, we often refer to Henry Nouwen’s image of being “wounded healers.” Our own process of healing, with all its pain and difficulty, helps us participate humbly, gently, and sensitively in the ongoing healing of others and the world. I think that’s why so many of us are attracted to the work of engaged contemplation. We know that what we do flows from our being and becoming. In contemplation, we’re attending to the curation of our own inner being and becoming. What we do in the world around us flows from this inner lifelong process of healing and growth.… 

None of us know what the near or long-term future holds, but we can gain clarity within ourselves about how we want to show up. I want to show up as a person of peace, but not alone. I want to be in partnership with others to create a circle of peace—not a circle that puts up a wall to keep others out, but one that welcomes others in no matter what happens. We’re not the first ones who have tried to do this. We’ve got to look around, recognize, and be grateful for how many people are doing their part—what they are uniquely called and gifted to do…. 

We are so blessed in the Christian tradition to have so many amazing leaders and teachers who have been creating circles of healing and peace for generations. It is truly inspiring to learn from their examples. But our job is not only to learn from them, but more: to join them in this ongoing work in the world. Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and climate activist Katharine K. Wilkinson write, “Let’s move forward with love, not conquest; humility, not righteousness; generous curiosity, not hardened assumptions. It is a magnificent thing to be alive in a moment that matters so much. Let’s proceed with broken-open hearts, seeking truth, summoning courage, and focused on solutions.” [1] 

Can we accept this magnificent opportunity? To be alive in a moment that matters so much? Dare we believe that this contemplative work and exploration and study that we’re engaged with is not to just make us happier people, but rather to help us be partners together in loving action?  

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Sara Young; Jesus Calling: January 12

Let Me prepare you for the day that stretches out before you. I know exactly what this day will contain, whereas you have only vague ideas about it. You would like to see a map; showing all the twists and turns of your journey. You’d feel more prepared if you could somehow visualize what is on the road ahead. However, there is a better way to be prepared for whatever you will encounter today: Spend quality time with Me.

     I will not show you what is on the road ahead, but I will thoroughly equip you for the journey. My living Presence is your Companion each step of the way. Stay in continual communication with Me, whispering My Name whenever you need to redirect your thoughts. Thus, you can walk through this day with your focus on Me. My abiding Presence is the best road map available.

RELATED SCRIPTURE: 

Exodus 33:14 NLT

14 The Lord replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.”

John 15:4-7 NLT

4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!

A Movement of Love and Liberation

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Theologian Sallie McFague (1933–2019) centers compassionate change in a passionate love for God:  

At the center of Jesus’ message as prophet and wisdom teacher is the vision of a world as an egalitarian community of beings, not a hierarchy of individuals. His parables and aphorisms disorient our conventional expectations and suggest a way of being in the world where all are valued, especially the vulnerable and outcast. He shows us how to live this message by doing so himself: his unsettling parables and sayings are embodied in his own practices of living among the marginalized and siding with those considered inferior by conventional standards. He tells us also when and where to do it: now and here.…  

This evangelism or good news, however, is not offered as an imperative or as an accomplished fact, but rather as an invitation: it is … inviting us to live differently. It does not appear to be principally a matter of the intellect or the will, but of the heart. The alternative to the conventional hierarchical, dualistic paradigm of life is, according to Jesus, the way of death to the old life and rebirth to the new. At the center of this new life is love to God and others: not just a moderate or “sensible” love, but God-intoxication and compassion for others that knows no limits.…  

Those who have followed Jesus most radically, regardless of their other errors and failings—people like Paul, Augustine, Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, John Woolman, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, and many others less well known—passionately loved both God and the world (and everything in it).… These people seem to know no limits, either in their outrageous intimacy with God nor with their borderless love for all living things. [1]   

Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward writes of the liberation offered by the Jesus movement:  

In the context of massive suffering and violence—which is the context of our common life—the JESUS movement is constantly generating the revolutionary and holy Spirit of freedom and liberation; in the same moment and place, it offers “a balm to heal the sin-sick soul” of each and every one of us, oppressor and oppressed, in whatever ways we ourselves are broken—in wrong relation, that is, with one another, ourselves, and the Spirit that connects us.… 

We cannot enjoy the spirituality that truly is of God unless we are enjoying the struggle for justice-love, compassion, nonviolence, and forgiveness in the world. And we cannot stay in the struggle unless we are drawing personal strength from God whom JESUS loved, however we may experience and image this sacred power.  

Liberating oppressed peoples and creatures— 
Healing personal wounds, ours and others’— 
Liberating us from fear, greed, and lack of confidence— 
Healing peoples, nations, tribes, and earth— 
It all goes together in God. [2] 

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Jesus Calling: January 9th, 2025

Sara Young; Jesus Calling: January 9

I am with you and for you. When you decide on a course of action that is in line with My will, nothing in heaven or on earth can stop you. You may encounter many obstacles as you move toward your goal, but don’t be discouraged–never give up! With My help, you can overcome any obstacle. Do not expect an easy path as you journey hand in hand with Me, but remember that I, your very-present Helper, am omnipotent.

     Much, much stress results from your wanting to make things happen before their times have come. One of the main ways I assert My sovereignty is in the timing of events. If you want to stay close to Me and do things My way, ask Me to show you the path forward moment by moment. Instead of dashing headlong toward your goal, let Me set the pace. Slow down, and enjoy the journey in My presence.

RELATED SCRIPTURE: 

Romans 8:31 NLT

Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

Psalm 46:1-3 NLT

Psalm 46

For the choir director: A song of the descendants of Korah, to be sung by soprano voices.

1 God is our refuge and strength,

    always ready to help in times of trouble.

2 So we will not fear when earthquakes come

    and the mountains crumble into the sea.

3 Let the oceans roar and foam.

    Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! Interlude

Luke 1:37 NLT

37 For the word of God will never fail.”

A Church That Imitates Jesus

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Jesus said, “People do not put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” —Matthew 9:17 

Drawing on Jesus’ teaching about the importance of new wineskins, Richard Rohr reflects on how difficult it is to be truly open to something new:  

Christians have often preached a gospel largely comprised of words, attitudes, and inner salvation experiences. People say they are saved, they are “born again,” yet how do we really know if someone is saved? Are they actually following Jesus? Do they love the poor? Are they free from their egos? Are they patient in the face of persecution? 

It’s not enough to talk about some kind of new inebriating wine, some new ideas. Without new wineskins—changed institutions, systems, and structures—I would argue that transformation cannot be deep or lasting. As Dorothy Day wrote in her inimitable style, “We need to overthrow … this rotten … industrial capitalist system which breeds such suffering.” [1] Personal “salvation” cannot be divorced from social and systemic implications. 

It’s easier to talk about the wine without the wineskins, to talk about salvation theories without any new world order. Unfortunately, Christianity has not always had a positive impact on Western civilization and the peoples it has colonized or evangelized. So-called Christian nations are often the most militaristic, greedy, and untrue to the teacher we claim to follow. Our societies are more often based not upon the servant leadership that Jesus modeled, but on the common domination and control model that produces racism, classism, sexism, power seeking, and income inequality. 

That’s not to say our ancestors didn’t have faith, that our grandparents weren’t good people, or that the church hasn’t done much good. But, with notable exceptions, we Christians didn’t produce radical change in culture or institutions or operate all that differently. Christianity has shaped some wonderfully liberated saints, prophets, and mystics. They tried to create some new wineskins, but often the church itself resisted their calls to structural reform. Take, for example, Saint Francis of Assisi, the father and founder of my own religious community. He was marginalized as a bit of a fanatic or eccentric by mainline Catholicism, as illustrated by no Pope ever taking his name until our present Pope Francis. 

Even today many Christians keep Jesus on a seeming pedestal, worshiping a caricature on a cross or a bumper-sticker slogan while avoiding what Jesus said and did. We keep saying, “We love Jesus,” but more as a God-figure than as someone to imitate. It seems the more we talk about Jesus, the less time we have to do what he said.  

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Sara Young; Jesus Calling: January 8

Softly I announce My Presence. Shimmering hues of radiance tap gently at your consciousness, seeking entrance. Though I have all Power in heaven and on earth, I am infinitely tender with you. The weaker you are, the more gently I approach you. Let your weakness be a door to My presence. Whenever you feel inadequate, remember that I am your ever-present Help.

     Hope in Me, and you will be protected from depression and self-pity. Hope is like a golden cord connecting you to heaven. The more you cling to this cord, the more I hear the weight of your burdens; thus, you are enlightened. Heaviness is not of My kingdom. Cling to hope, and My rays of Light will reach you through the darkness.

RELATED SCRIPTURE: 

Psalm 46:1 NLT

Psalm 46

For the choir director: A song of the descendants of Korah, to be sung by soprano voices.[a]

1 God is our refuge and strength,

    always ready to help in times of trouble.

Romans 12:12 NLT

12 Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

Romans 15:13 NLT

13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

People Change the Church

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Rev. Dr. Elaine Heath writes a letter to the church today:  

Dear church, God’s one holy, catholic, and apostolic church: … 

Let’s get on with our work. You know the parable of the wineskins [see Luke 5:37–38]. For goodness’ sake, you taught that parable to me! We are in a time of wineskin change. Let’s celebrate that instead of wringing our hands. Let’s thank God for the old wineskin and the grace it carried to us. And let’s celebrate the new wineskin with its expansive fermentation. Let’s do both. We don’t have to choose.  

So what if we are losing our privileged place in society? We never did our best work there anyway. We’re always our best on the bottom or the edge. This is a great time to remember the saints and mystics who founded our traditions, the ones who did their work from the margins.  

Because—and I say this with more love than I can name—we can’t afford to keep squabbling about things like buildings, budgets, pews, stoles, handbells, praise bands, and carpet…. We must stop that at once. God needs all hands on deck. We cannot continue operating as if we are a private club with members, dues, and privileges. Why? Because Jesus never acts like that. Our neighbors need us. God needs us. We need us too.  

I know it’s hard to play and be creative when we feel fearful. Anxiety takes the spring out of our step…. We don’t have to be afraid. That is the wonderful news. God’s love casts out fear. God is with us. With us! God orchestrates systems change. Change happens all the time so that every generation, every community, every person can experience God in their world, their context, their time. 

Heath imagines the possibilities on the other side of our anxiety: 

Beloved church, can we agree to let God have our anxiety? God knows how hard it is for us to let go. We simply have to be willing to be made willing. Just a tiny degree of openness allows God to work with us—like dandelion seeds. They blow on the wind, fall into every crack … and before you know it a parking lot is in full bloom. Church, do you realize we are on the cusp of a new Great Awakening? And it looks like a spiritual dandelion explosion as far as the eye can see. God’s new thing is networked, exponential, Spirit-breathed, decentralized, a vast planting of small communities of faith…. It is very much the work of laypeople, and it is emerging as a natural progression out of the church that used to be….  

I know if we will say yes to God, we can rely on God’s already having said yes to us. So let’s go together, all of us, in the direction that God leads. When that happens, the world will know that Jesus spoke the truth, that God’s love is for everyone. People will encounter the real tradition, the tradition behind the tradition, because they will experience it in us.  

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Sara Young Jesus Calling

It is impossible to praise or thank me too much. As it is written, I inhabit the praises of My people. Sometimes your adoration is a spontaneous overflow of Joy, in response to radiant beauty or rich blessings. At other times your praise is more disciplined and measured–an act of your will. I dwell equally in both types of praise. Thankfulness, also, is a royal road to draw near Me. A thankful heart has plenty of room for Me.
     When you thank Me for the many pleasures I provide, you affirm that I am God, from whom all blessings flow. When adversity strikes and you thank Me anyway, your trust in My sovereignty is a showpiece in invisible realms. Fill up the spare moments of your life with praise and thanksgiving. This joyous discipline will help you live in the intimacy of My Presence.

RELATED SCRIPTURE: 

Psalm 22:3

New Living Translation

3 Yet you are holy,

    enthroned on the praises of Israel.

Psalm 146:1-2 NLT

Psalm 146

1 Praise the Lord!

Let all that I am praise the Lord.

2     I will praise the Lord as long as I live.

    I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT

18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

A Transforming Moment

Monday, January 6, 2025

Retired Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry describes the early “Jesus Movement”: 

Jesus did not establish an institution, though institutions can serve his cause. He did not organize a political party, though his teachings have a profound impact on politics. Jesus did not even found a religion. No, Jesus began a movement, fueled by his Spirit, a movement whose purpose was and is to change the face of the earth from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends….  

There’s no denying it: Jesus began a movement. That’s why his invitations to folk who joined him are filled with so many active verbs. In John 1:39 Jesus calls disciples with the words, “Come and see.” In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he asks others to “Follow me.” And at the end of the Gospels, he sent his first disciples out with the word, “Go…” As in … “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).   

In Acts [1:8] he uses even more movement language: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” If you look at the Bible, listen to it, and watch how the Spirit of God unfolds in the sacred story, I think you’ll notice a pattern. You cannot help but notice that there really is a movement of God in the world.  

Curry calls for a revitalization of the Jesus Movement in our time, offering farmer and theologian Clarence Jordan (1912–1969) as a model of courage: 

We need people who will proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ, who will love justice, live mercy, and walk humbly with God, just like Jesus.  

Pastor and biblical scholar Clarence Jordan was one of those people. In 1942, he worked with a team to found Koinonia Farm in Georgia, welcoming people of different races to live and work together, caring for each other and for the land. They called it a “demonstration plot” for the God Movement…. Jordan kept his eye on “the God Movement, the stirring of [God’s] mighty Spirit of love, peace, humility, forgiveness, joy and reconciliation in the hearts of all of us.” [1] 

Jordan once offered wise counsel to a young peace worker named Craig Peters. It is worth repeating today:  

I am increasingly convinced that [Jesus] thought of his messages as not dead-ending in a static institution but as a mighty flow of spirit which would penetrate every nook and cranny of [human] personal and social life…. I really don’t think we can ever renew the church until we stop thinking about it as an institution and start thinking of it as a movement. [2]  

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The Vitality of Movements 

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Father Richard Rohr summarizes a pattern of five stages of change that have taken place in religious and cultural institutions. He calls these stages the “Five M’s”: human, movement, machine, monument, and memory.  

It seems that many great things in history start with a single human being. If a person says something full of life that names reality well, the message often moves to the second stage of becoming a movement. That’s the period of greatest energy. The church is at its greatest vitality as the “Jesus Movement,” and the institution is merely the vehicle for that movement. No single person can ever control the movement itself through any theology, doctrine, or dogma. We cannot control the blowing of the Spirit. The movement stage is always very exciting, creative, and also risky. 

It’s risky because God’s movement in history is larger than any denomination, any culture, or any tradition’s ability to verbalize it. We feel out of control in this stage, and yet why would anybody want it to be anything less? Would we respect and love a God that we could control? Would we really respect a church that presumed it could predict and contain God’s actions? I don’t think so, yet that’s what so much immature religion seems to want—control over God by worshiping and talking about God “correctly.” So, we move rather quickly out and beyond the risky movement stage to the machine stage. This is predictable and understandable, even if unfortunate in some ways. 

The institutional or machine stage of a movement will necessarily be a less-alive manifestation. This isn’t bad, although it’s always surprising for those who see church as an end in itself instead of merely a vehicle for the original vision. When we don’t realize a machine’s limited capacities, we try to make it into something more than it is. We make it a monument, a closed system operating inside of its own, often self-serving, logic. By then, it’s very hard to take risks for God or for gospel values. 

Eventually this monument and its maintenance and self-preservation become ends in themselves. It’s easy just to step on board and worship at a monument without ever knowing why or longing for God ourselves. There’s no hint of knowing that we are chosen and beloved by God, who invites us to an inner journey. In this state, religion is merely an excuse to remain unconscious, holding on to a memory of something that must once have been a great adventure. I’m afraid that Christianity is no longer life itself, but actually a substitute for life or, worse, an avoidance of life. The secret is to know how to keep in touch with the human and movement stages without being naïve about the necessity of some machines and the inevitability of those who love monuments. We must also be honest; all of us love monuments when they are monuments to our human, our movement, or our machine.  

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Sara Young Jesus Calling

Jesus Calling: January 6th, 2025

Jesus Calling: January 6

I am able to do far beyond all that you ask or imagine. Come to Me with positive expectations, knowing that there is no limit to what I can accomplish. Ask My Spirit to control your mind, so that you can think great thoughts of Me. Do not be discouraged by the fact that many of your prayers are yet unanswered. Time is a trainer, teaching you to wait upon Me, to trust Me in the dark. The more extreme your circumstances, the more likely you are to see My Power and Glory at work in the situation. Instead of letting difficulties draw you into worrying, try to view them as setting the scene for My glorious intervention. Keep your eyes and your mind wide open to all that I am doing in your life.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Ephesians 3:20-21 NLT
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Romans 8:6 NLT

6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

Isaiah 40:30-31 NLT

30 Even youths will become weak and tired,

    and young men will fall in exhaustion.

31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.

    They will soar high on wings like eagles.

They will run and not grow weary.

    They will walk and not faint.

Revelation 5:13 NLT

13 And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang:

“Blessing and honor and glory and power

    belong to the one sitting on the throne

    and to the Lamb forever and ever.”

A Resistance Position

Friday, January 3, 2025

In this homily based on Matthew 5:13–16, Father Richard explores what Jesus meant by calling us to be salt and light:  

The great temptation of Christianity has always been to think that if we were in control, if we had power, we would “win,” but that’s exactly what Jesus warns us against. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells us to be salt—not the meat, the potatoes, or even the vegetables—just the invisible but very effective salt. Salt is what gives zing and taste to food and Jesus is calling us to be people who give purpose, meaning, and desire to life. If we look at the history of Christianity, whenever we were “in charge,” that’s when we became the most corrupt. Christianity operates best in a resistance position, in a position where we can discern and choose how to be salt, how to be light.  

Likewise, the metaphor of light as Jesus uses it here is not controlling or forceful. As Alcoholics Anonymous says, it’s not moving forward by self-promotion, but by attraction. Just set the light on the lampstand and if it’s good, and if it’s real, and if it’s beautiful, people will come. This is very different than what we expect. We basically think we can only move the world by being in control. Yet both of the images that Jesus offers here warn us against wanting to be in control.  

That is so contrary to our common sense. We think “If only we had the power, if only we had the majority, we could create the kingdom of God,” but it’s never been true. I know from my years of traveling that when Christians are a minority in a country, and they have to choose and decide to be the salt of the earth, to be light on a lampstand, they make a real difference.  

Jesus calls us to give the world taste, meaning, purpose, direction, desire. It’s a humble position, isn’t it? We’d much sooner be in charge. But whenever someone or something has all the power, they mostly misuse power. Jesus warns us against power, because very few people can handle it. Most of us use it for our own aggrandizement, our own promotion and advancement in the ways of the world, which usually means more money and more power.  

Either we learn how to be the salt of the earth, a true alternative to the normal motivations and actions of society, or as Jesus put it very clearly, we might as well throw it out and trample it underfoot. We have to find our inner authority through Christ in us; we have to find our purpose in our love of God and neighbor, and actions of mercy and justice. Otherwise, we’re not offering anything that the world doesn’t already have or can’t find in other places.  

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Your needs and My riches are a perfect fit. I never meant for you to be self-sufficient. Instead, I designed you to need Me not only for daily bread but also for fulfillment of deep yearnings. I carefully crafted your longings and feelings of incompleteness, to point you to Me. Therefore, do not try to bury or deny these feelings. Beware also of trying to pacify these longings with lesser gods: people, possessions, power.
     Come to Me in all your neediness, with defenses down and with desire to be blessed. As you spend time in My Presence, your deepest longings are fulfilled. Rejoice in your neediness, which enables you to find intimate completion in Me.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Philippians 4:19 (NLT)
19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Additional insight regarding Philippians 4:19: We can trust that God will always meet our needs. Whatever we need on earth he will always supply, even if it is the courage to face death as Paul did. Whatever we need in Heaven he will supply. We must remember, however, the difference between our wants and our needs. Most people want to feel good and avoid discomfort or pain. We may not get all that we want. By trusting in Christ, our attitudes and appetites can change from wanting everything to accepting his provision and power to live for him.

Colossians 3:2-3 (NLT)
2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Being a Light for Others

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Jewish New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine focuses on Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples to be the “light of the world”:  

Just as salt is necessary for life, so is light. Without light, we have no plants, no warmth, no beacons. Next, just as salt can become so diluted that it loses its intrinsic character as salt, so darkness, as the Gospel of John puts it, seeks to overcome the light (John 1:5). “This little light of mine” can shine, but it can also be snuffed out. Thus light, too, is a precious commodity that must be preserved. And just as too much salt can kill, too much light can blind. Effective light does not call attention to itself; rather, it lights up the world….  

For the disciples, Jesus is the light of the world. Yet as he states in John 9:5, he is the light “as long as I am in the world.” The disciples therefore take up his role: acting as he instructs them.… They too can be the light of the world…. 

Once the disciples recognize that they are light, they also recognize that their role is to shine so that others can find their way. Jesus knows that, just as salt can lose its intrinsic identity, light can be hoarded and fail to fulfill its proper function. He states first the obvious: “A city built on a hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:14). His followers are to become like that city: a refuge, a home, a place where there is salt and light, love and compassion….   

That light cannot be restricted to the house church (or any church building or community), as the city metaphor indicates. To be the light of the world is to shine … in any place where there is loneliness or despair, sickness or pain. Even in times and places, still today, when the church has had literally to go underground, it cannot be hid since it is known for its good deeds. 

Jesus’ call to be salt and light impacts the choices we make:  

If we think of a church as a house, as a home where family and friends gather, we get a different image than if we think of a place to be visited maybe for an hour on Sunday. And if we think of our homes as the place where our light shines, we are more likely to be patient with the children or with those whose minds have reverted to childhood; we are more likely to find that light within ourselves as we go through the day.… 

Any faith that does not manifest itself in works is not faith; it is complacency and self-satisfaction. It is not salt, because it contributes nothing to the earth. It is not light, since its shining is only for self-reflection. Disciples are to glorify God by being their true selves: salt and light; existing for others rather than for only themselves.   

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Sara Young Jesus Calling

Jesus Calling: January 2nd, 2025

Jesus Calling: January 2

Relax in My Healing Presence. As you spend time with Me, your thoughts tend to jump ahead to today’s plans and problems. Bring your mind back to Me for refreshment and renewal. Let the Light of My Presence soak into you, as you focus your thoughts on Me. Thus I equip you to face whatever the day brings. This sacrifice of time pleases Me and strengthens you. Do not skimp on our time together. Resist the clamor of tasks waiting to be done. You have chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from you. 

RELATED SCRIPTURE: 

Psalms 105:4 (NLT)

Search for the LORD and for his strength; continually seek him.

Luke 10:42 (NLT)

There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Additional insight regarding Luke 10:38-42: Mary and Martha both loved Jesus. On this occasion, they were both serving him. But Martha thought Mary’s style of serving was inferior to hers. She didn’t realize that in her desire to serve, she was actually neglecting her guest. Are you so busy doing things for Jesus that you’re not spending any time with him? Don’t let your service become self-serving. Jesus did not blame Martha for being concerned about household chores. He was only asking her to set priorities. Service to Christ can degenerate into mere busy work that is totally devoid of devotion to God.