Father Richard Rohr focuses on the Gospel of Mark to explore the significance of Jesus’ healing ministry:  

The Gospel of Mark is primarily a gospel of action. Jesus is constantly on the move from place to place, preaching and healing, preaching and healing. Jesus is conveying the good news of God’s big picture into people’s small worlds, and he does this much more than he talks about it. Jesus’ actions and physical healings consistently rearrange faulty relationships—with people’s own self-image, with others, with society, and with God who is henceforth seen as on their side. The same is true for us today.  

There’s not much profit in just thinking, “Wow, Jesus worked another miracle!” But there is much profit in noting the changed status, self-image, courage, and relationship to family or community that the cure invariably entails. This is the real transformative message. I am not denying that Jesus could and undoubtedly did perform physical healings. It still happens, and over the years I have seen it many times. At the same time, the healings and exorcisms in Mark’s Gospel are primarily to make statements about power, abuse, relationships, class, addiction, money, exclusion, the state of women and the poor, and the connections between soul and body—the same issues we face today.  

Jesus also doesn’t heal as a reward for good behavior. Usually there is no mention whatsoever of any prerequisites, and sometimes it’s not even the one cured, but those around them, who have faith. Neither in Mark’s Gospel is there any primary concern about life after death or heaven. We projected that onto the text. All of the healing stories are present-tense concerns for human suffering in this world. They tell us that God cares deeply about the tragic human condition now. How could we miss this? In general, rewards and punishments are inherent and current. Sin is its own punishment, and virtue is its own reward now.   

Jesus’ healing ministry reveals God’s solidarity with suffering. 

We are all initially created in the image of God, and Jesus’ public ministry is always recreating and restoring that image. We could say that is all he is doing! Christians believe that we cannot know the mind of God until we see what God was doing in, through, and with Jesus. Transformed people, like Jesus, naturally transform others. In Jesus’ ministry of healing and exorcism, the transformations were immediately verifiable and visible. The real message here is not a medical cure or whether Jesus could do such a thing, but that (1) God cares about human pain, (2) God cares about it in this world now, (3) God’s action actually changes people, and (4) the people who have experienced God’s grace are equipped to pass on the real message.   

Possessed by the Wrong Perspective

Richard Rohr offers one way we might understand the exorcisms Jesus performed:  

When a person has a constantly changing reference point, they have a very insecure life. They will take on any persona, negative or positive, and become incapable of much personal integrity. This is the celebrity-obsessed world in which we are living today. The biblical tradition uses the language of “having a demon” to describe such negative identity. We post-enlightenment, educated people don’t like this language very much, but one way to think of “being possessed” is when there is an unhealthy other (or others!) who is defining us—and usually rather poorly.  

In that sense, I’ve personally known a lot of possessed people. It’s no surprise that Jesus exorcised so many demons from people who seemed to carry the negative projections of the surrounding crowd (Luke 9:37–43), synagogue worshippers (Mark 1:21–27; Luke 13:10–17), or the Gerasene residents (Mark 5:1–20; Luke 8:26–39). The ancients were not as naive as we might think. In these stories, we see exactly what the internalization of negative judgment means. Such people do need healing, even a major “exorcism”! While we tend to send them to therapists instead of holy people, in general, the only cure for negative possession is a positive repossession! Jesus is always “repossessing” people—for themselves and for God.  

When a good therapist, a wise and holy (meaning whole or healed) person, or a totally accepting friend becomes our chosen mirror, we are, in fact, being healed! I hope it doesn’t sound too presumptuous, but I think I have exorcised a good number of people in my life—primarily because they had the trust and the humility to let me mirror them positively and replace the old mirror of their abusive dad, their toxic church, or their racist neighborhood. That’s why Jesus says, “Your faith has saved you” (Luke 7:50). I am just saying the same. [1] 

Drawing on the healing of “Legion” in Luke 8:26–39, Father Greg Boyle describes a similar experience from his work through Homeboy Industries:  

Jesus asks the demoniac who is terrorizing the neighbors, writing on walls, selling drugs, shooting at people, harassing folks as they walk by, “What is your name?” The guy says, “Legion,” which at first bounce means, “There are a lot of my homies to back me up.” But the word actually means “I am what has afflicted me.” The invitation and plea is for healing. And Jesus does. Even though it would appear he “drives out the demon,” he’s actually freeing him of his affliction and asking him not to define himself this way anymore. More liberation than salvation. The demoniac’s “growth” is not about becoming less sinful, but more joyful. He is now connected to a community, having been liberated from his isolation. Jesus has made him whole. [2]  

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The Idol of Politics: Misplacing Power

Click Here for Audio One of the more curious characters in the narrative of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, trial, and crucifixion is Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. The exchanges recorded between Pilate, Jesus, and the crowds of Jerusalem are fascinating. More than once, Pilate admitted that he could find no crime necessitating Jesus’ execution, and he could not understand why Jesus refused to defend himself. “Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Pilate said. Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above” (Luke 19:10–11). With this exchange, we see the disconnect between Pilate and Jesus regarding the source of true power. Pilate believed power was ultimately political—granted to him by the state and its emperor, Caesar. Jesus understood that ultimate power rested in God alone, and his fate resided with his heavenly Father, not the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate’s error is the same made by all who worship the idol of politics today. They bow themselves to a king, state, or constituency believing safety and well-being are rooted in securing political advantage. But, the very political power we think will liberate us ultimately enslaves us; we become servants of the false god we ourselves have erected. This is exactly what happened to Pilate. Although his conscience told him Jesus was innocent and he looked to release him, Pilate did as the people wanted. He ordered Jesus to be crucified. Pilate boasted that his political position gave him the power to free or kill Jesus but in the end, Pilate was beholden to the crowds and their threats. If a riot occurred in Jerusalem he risked losing his political power—the thing he loved most. Because Pilate could not betray his idol, his conscience had to submit to political expediency. At least to Pilate, Jesus was an innocent man whose life he willingly sacrificed to appease the false god of politics. Unlike Pilate, Jesus was able to defy the crowds, the religious leaders, the Roman Empire, and even his own followers because his allegiance was to his Father alone. He shows us how worshipping the living God leads to true freedom while worshipping a false god always leads to slavery and injustice.  DAILY SCRIPTUREJ OHN 19:1–16 1 PETER 2:13–25 WEEKLY PRAYER. Thomas Ken (1637–1711) O our God, amidst the deplorable division of your Church, let us never widen its breaches, but give us universal charity to all who are called by your name. O deliver us from the sins and errors, from the schisms and heresies of the age. O give us grace daily to pray for the peace of your Church, and earnestly to seek it and to excite all we can to praise and to love you; through Jesus Christ, our one Savior and Redeemer, Amen.

Friday, January 24, 2025

Drawing on personal experience, Father Richard offers an encouraging reminder that we don’t need to be perfect in order to be loved and accepted by God.  

We don’t come to God by doing it right. Please believe me on this. We come to God by doing it wrong. Any guide of souls knows this to be true. If we come to God by being perfect, no one is going to come to God. This absolutely levels the playing field. Our failures open our hearts of stone and move our rigid mind space toward understanding and patience. It’s in doing it wrong, making mistakes, being rejected, and experiencing pain that we are led to total reliance upon God. I wish it weren’t true, but all I know at this point in my journey is that God has let me do just about everything wrong, so I could fully experience how God can do everything so utterly right. 

I believe this is why Christianity has as its central symbol of transformation a naked, bleeding man who is the picture of failing, losing, and dying, yet who is really winning—and revealing the secret pattern to those who will join him there. Everyone wins because, if we’re honest, the one thing we all have in common is weakness and powerlessness in at least one—though usually many—areas of our lives. There’s a broken, wounded part inside each of us. [1]  

In the Everything Belongs podcast, Father Richard explains how he has been freed from his tendency to focus on “what’s wrong” with himself, others, and the world: 

As a perfectionist by nature, accepting that things aren’t perfect has been at the center of my life’s inner struggle. I’m always seeing the wrong of everything. At the same time, I haven’t wanted to let “what’s wrong” drive the show—in myself and others. I want to be perfect, and I want other people to be perfect—but of course, the only perfection available to us is the ability to embrace the imperfect.  

What I like to call “holy dissatisfaction” gave me my instinct for reform, but it also chewed me up. In the first half of my life, I was constantly thinking, “It’s not supposed to be that way!” I was constantly noticing, “That isn’t it! That isn’t it!” It’s only in the second half of my life that I am finally able to live in the holy tension of accepting that a “remnant” or “critical mass” is enough. Scattered in each group are always a few who get it, a few who live and love the gospel. When that became enough, and even more than enough (even in myself), I was free. So, this scriptural image of “remnant” or “yeast”—to use Jesus’ words—is very important for me and my own liberation. If I’m going to wait for the reign of God to be fully realized before I can be happy, I’m never going to be happy. [2] 

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5 On Friday John Chaffee

1.

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.“

– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Healthy Religion is simply the container that brings us to Spirituality (or perhaps brings Spirituality to us?).  In the modern devaluing of Religion, we have lost access to Spirituality.  I believe much of the fracturing we see in the world is a consequence of this.

Spirituality can uniquely cultivate wisdom, reflection, self-awareness, and many other things necessary for human thriving.  STEM fields do not touch on those topics in the same way.

Follow me for a moment: what do we think the world might look like if we have atomic warfare, flame-throwers, health insurance policies, and political hierarchies but still have a shallow humanity?  Any immature human will use these things for their benefit to trample out opposition, right?

Anyone guided by a healthy Spirituality will say it is time to dismantle the missiles into farming equipment and point toward a better way forward (just like the prophets of old).

After all…

“He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” – Isaiah 2:4

2.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.“

– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

One of the most overlooked or dismissed aspects of Christianity is its emphasis on one-ness, on the interconnected reality of everything.  This idea is often scoffed off as either too “Eastern” or “New Age.”

If anything, it is an “Old Age” thought we have lost reverence for—the myth of separation causes and excuses many evils.  Our actions and thoughts have consequences that reverberate out to other people, whether we know it or not.

Perhaps this is why in Romans 12, Paul teaches us to weep with those who are weeping and rejoice with those who are rejoicing.

What happens to one of us happens to all of us.

3.

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.“

– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I think of this often.

The absence of conflict is not true peace.

MLK elsewhere calls the absence of conflict as “negative peace.”

“Positive peace” is only achieved after a healthy conversation or disagreement is done well.  I fully believe we often settle for being in the same room and avoiding topics, shallowly believing that “peace” is what is happening.

Think about it…

During the Pandemic, there was an enormous amount of “negative peace.”  It felt as though whole communities tried to gather and yet not talk about anything of consequence or meaning to avoid conflict.  Of course, that was unsustainable, and the rising social pressure rose until it burst out in disagreements or even riots.  I am sure that history books will be written about that season of human history.

True peace is only possible with justice, truth, and love.

4.

“Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God.“

– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This quote is fantastic because of two powerful themes: Love and Participation.

It is not new to say that Christianity values Love as the fount and foundation of all the virtues.  It might be new to some to discover that Participating in the Life of God was a theme of the Early Church.  All of us exist within God already, and God is already present within all things.  As a result, we can either “Participate in the Life of God” and work together with it or, in our fury and selfishness, work against the Life of God within us and around us.

It is entirely possible to exist within the mystery of God and yet not Lovingly Participate in it.

5.

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.“

– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Spiritual death.  That is a heavy diagnosis.

In light of this quote, I Google searched a few things.  Here is what I found out:

• America has 750 military bases around the world.
• Currently, the US has 5,000+ nuclear warheads.
• The US budget for the Department of Defense for 2024 was roughly $850 Billion.

Is a country having such things a sign of spiritual health or unhealth?  Can we say that a country knows how to “love its enemies” when it occupies that much ground in other countries, has that many nuclear warheads, and spends that much money when the problem of homelessness could be solved for $20 Billion?  Jesus never told his disciples to invest in instruments of war, so why do we, as a self-proclaimed “Christian country,” do that?  If we are not even allowed to ask the question, does that tell us something?  Why is this topic not more talked about in churches?

As I have written in other places, when Christianity became the formal and favored religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, it gained a favored seat at the cost of its preachers becoming chaplains of the empires of man rather than prophets of the Kingdom of God.

Remember, Martin Luther King, Jr. had a 32% approval rating just two years before his assassination. Never forget that this man went to seminary and was deeply influenced by the Hebrew Scriptures and Greek New Testament in his critiques of American culture.  Jesus would likely have the same critiques if we were ruthlessly honest with ourselves.

As I read this devotional this morning, I wondered, “What can I learn from this devotional about “a strong black woman”? And it occurred to me that while I cannot completely relate to the expectations Dr. Walker-Barnes writes about, I can relate to trying to live out others’ expectations of me. The expectation that I would always have answers for my children, would always be available to “fill in the financial gaps for my family” and others, and be the resident expert on all things “masculine” and or “spiritual” in my nuclear family. It occurred to me that I have carried the pressure of trying to live up to others’ expectations; expectations that I never really agreed to “own”. Perhaps they often owned me. JDV

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Theologian Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes describes the pressure placed on Black women to be strong, available to others, and without needs of their own. She refers to this cultural expectation as an archetype of “StrongBlackWoman”:  

I learned to be a StrongBlackWoman early in life. I am the eldest child of a single mother, with a brother eight years my junior. With my mother working long, hard hours to support us (often twelve-hour stints on the third shift), I had to step in to help take care of the family…. By fourteen, my afterschool routine consisted of taking the city bus to pick up my brother from daycare, helping him with his homework (and doing my own), supervising while he played outside, cooking dinner, cleaning the kitchen, and getting him bathed and in bed….  

Over the years my caretaking tendencies expanded to include everyone around me—family, friends, co-workers. It was a natural (and expected) progression. I was constantly concerned with the needs of others, always trying to be helpful…. Over-extending myself became my modus operandi. I was living in a state of serious self-care neglect. Of course, I did not call it neglect. I called it being responsible. In fact, I prided myself on being the most responsible person I knew. And my high sense of responsibility was rewarded often by others who were pleased with me and the things that I did for them….  

In my worldview, overactivity was normative. It was what Black women did. Black women, after all, were strong. Proving myself capable of taking care of everything and everyone in my sphere of existence was, I thought, a rite of passage into full Black womanhood.  

Walker-Barnes imagines sharing her “addiction” to overextension and strength in a recovery group:  

If this were a twelve-step meeting for StrongBlackWomen, I would begin by saying, “Hi, my name is Chanequa and I’m a StrongBlackWoman. I have been in recovery for over a decade now. But at most, I’ve probably only accrued a few weeks of being clean at once. I relapse constantly, maybe even daily. I don’t know if I’ll ever break free of this thing. But I’m here. And just for today, I will make at least one decision in favor of my physical, spiritual, emotional, and relational health. Just for today, I will try to let go of my need for control, to become aware of when I need help, and to ask for help when I need it. Just for today, I give myself permission to cry when I’m sad, to scream when I’m frustrated, to smile and laugh when I’m happy, and to dance like I’ve got wings when the Spirit moves me. Just for today, I will reject the mandate to be a StrongBlackWoman. Just for today, I will simply be.”   

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Sara Young; Jesus Calling: January 23

It’s all right to be human. When your mind wanders while you are praying, don’t be surprised or upset. Simply return your attention to Me. Share a secret smile with Me, knowing that I understand. Rejoice in My Love for you, which has no limits or conditions. Whisper My Name in loving contentment, assured that I will never leave you or forsake you. Intersperse these peaceful interludes abundantly throughout your day. This practice will enable you to attain a quiet and gentle spirit, which is pleasing to Me.

     As you live in close contact with Me, the Light of My Presence filters through you to bless others. Your weakness and woundedness are the openings through which the Light of the knowledge of My Glory shines forth. My strength and power show themselves most effective in your weakness. 

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT

6 So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

1st Peter 3:4 NLT

4 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.

2nd Corinthians 4:6-7 NLT

6 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

2nd Corinthians 12:9 NLT

9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

Additional insight regarding 2nd Corinthians 12:9: Although God did not remove Paul’s affliction, he promised to demonstrate his power in Paul. The fact that God’s power is displayed in our weaknesses should give us courage and hope. As we recognize our limitations, we will depend more on God for our effectiveness rather than on our own energy, effort, or talent. Our limitations not only help develop Christian character but also deepen our worship, because in admitting them, we affirm God’s strength.

Richard Rohr explores our human and religious temptation to hide qualities we think of as negative or “less than” in order to make ourselves seem better than we are.  

Entering the spiritual search for truth and for ourselves through the so-called negative, dealing squarely with what is—in ourselves, in others, or in the world around us—takes all elitism (its most common temptation) out of spirituality. It makes arrogant religion largely impossible and reveals any violent or self-aggrandizing religion as an oxymoron (although sadly that has not been widely recognized). In this upside-down frame, the quickest ticket to heaven, enlightenment, or salvation is unworthiness itself, or at least a willingness to face our own smallness and incapacity. Our conscious need for mercy is our only real boarding pass. The ego doesn’t like that very much, but the soul fully understands.  

In different ways, we humans falsely divide the world into the pure and impure, the totally good and the totally bad, the perfect and imperfect. It begins with dualistic thinking and then never manages to get beyond it. Such a total split or clean division is never true in actual experience. We all know that reality is a lot more mixed and “disordered” than that; so, in order to continue to see things in such a false and binary way, we really have to close down. That is the hallmark of immature religion. It demands denial, splitting, and mental pretense. It moves from the first false assumption of purity or perfection toward an entire ethical code, a priesthood of some sort, and various rituals and taboos that keep us on the side of the seeming pure, positive, or perfect—as if that were even possible.  

I mean this next point kindly: Organized religion is almost structurally certain to create hypocrites (the word literally means “actors”), those who try to appear to be pure and good, or at least better than others. Jesus uses the word at least ten times in Matthew’s Gospel alone! We are unconsciously trained to want to look good, to seek moral high ground, and to point out the “speck” in other people’s eyes while ignoring the “log” in our own (Matthew 7:3–5). None of us lives up to all our spoken ideals, but we have to pretend we do in order to feel good about ourselves and to get others of our chosen group to respect us.  

Honest self-knowledge, shadow work, therapy, and tools like the Enneagram are sometimes dismissed with hostility by many fervent believers, perhaps because they are afraid of or hiding something. They disdain this work as “mere psychology.” If so, then the desert fathers and mothers, the writers of the Philokalia, Thomas Aquinas, and Teresa of Ávila were already into “mere psychology,” as was Jesus. Without a very clear struggle with our shadow self and some form of humble and honest confession of our imperfections, none of us can or will face our own hypocrisy.  

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MLK: The False God of Nationalism (Pt. 1)

Click Here for Audio I used to do a fair amount of premarital counseling. After a few meetings with the engaged couple, I always asked them an important diagnostic question: “Tell me something you don’t like about your fiancé.” Healthy, mature couples could answer the question with some specificity. Couples that couldn’t answer the question meaningfully, or who responded with, “Nothing at all! S/he is absolutely perfect,” set off warning lights on my pastoral dashboard. It indicated they were in love with their idealized perceptions of each other rather than real, fallible human beings. The way people relate to their country is very similar. A healthy love of country is mature enough to celebrate what is admirable about one’s homeland, its history, culture, and people, but also recognize its imperfections and failures. In other words, it’s a love rooted in reality rather than fantasy. This is also the difference between godly patriotism and idolatrous nationalism. Just as scripture calls us to honor our father and mother but not affirm or emulate their sins, true patriotism honors our country without ignoring or endorsing its transgressions. It’s a love based in truth rather than myth. Nationalism, by contrast, is a juvenile love of country that ignores or denies any shortcomings. It’s infatuated with an imaginary and infallible country. Where nationalism declares, “America—love it or leave it!” godly patriotism says, “America—love it by improving it.”In his 1953 sermon, which is strikingly prophetic for our times, Martin Luther King Jr. identified the characteristics of this mythological and unholy love of country:“We are all familiar with the creed of this new religion. It affirms that each nation is an absolute sovereign unit acknowledging no control save its own independent will. The watchword of this new religion is: ‘My country right or wrong.’ This new religion has its familiar prophets and preachers. In Germany it was preached by Hitler. In Italy it was preached by Mussolini. And in America it is being preached by the McCarthy’s and the Jenners, the advocators of white supremacy, and the America first movements.” Healthy patriotism is admirable as it motivates us to serve and sacrifice for our neighbors. But Christian love, like our Lord’s, is never blind. “My country right or wrong” is not a pledge a follower of Jesus can ever make. Our Lord’s love rejoices when we do what is right, and his love brings correction—and even discipline—when we are wrong. If we are to avoid the false god of nationalism, our love for our country ought to reflect our heavenly Father’s love for us by celebrating what is good and seeking to change and improve what is not. Christians, more than any others, should demonstrate a mature, honest love for their country, and never participate in myths that seek to hide its sins. DAILY SCRIPTURE HEBREWS 12:3–11 1 TIMOTHY 2:1–2 WEEKLY PRAYER. Hilary of Poitiers (310 – 367) Keep us, O Lord, from the vain strive of words, and grant to us a constant profession of the truth. Preserve us in the faith, true and undefiled; so that we may ever hold fast that which we professed when we were baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; that we may have you for our Father, that we may abide in your Son, and in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Spiritual teacher Mirabai Starr considers how our imperfect families and relationships are opportunities to practice divine love, acceptance, and compassion: 

It’s hard to give up our fantasies of a life where beauty is built in and we don’t have to work at finding it. It’s easy to recognize the presence of the sacred in the saintly hospice chaplain who turns your mother’s deathbed into a temple…. But what about your boring job, your addicted partner, your hometown that feels more like a strip mall than a community? What about your dining room table at dinner time?  

One of the things it means to be an ordinary mystic is to bow at the feet of your everyday existence, with its disappointments and dramas, its peaceful mornings and luminous nights, and to honor yourself just as you are…. A mystic finds the magic in the midst of the nitty-gritty, the crusty spaghetti sauce pot in the sink and the crocus poking out of a spring snowfall, the unsigned divorce papers on the kitchen table and the results of your latest blood work on your computer screen.  

I know that’s not always easy. I am continually challenged to stop arguing with reality and instead soften into what is. For instance, my students may think I’m wise, but my kids seem to think I’m a dork. I don’t love this disconnect. Like you, maybe, I set myself up with an array of preconceived notions about the kind of family I would like to make, and then beat … myself [up] when things don’t work out the way I envisioned. 

Through accepting reality, we find a greater capacity to love what is.  

Over time, I learned to let go of my fantasy of the perfect family and to find beauty, meaning, and wholeness in the heart of reality. Unpredictable, ever-changing, humiliating, and humbling reality. I began to take a look at the white supremacy embedded in my liberal self-image, noticing the odor of a white savior complex rising from my resentment that my brown children did not appreciate all I had done for them. Eventually, I even came to love unlovable me, against all odds.  

Chances are, if you are a parent, whether adoptive or biological, you too have experienced the collapse of your parenting fantasies. You also have received an open invitation to accept the kids you have and forgive the parent you are, with a degree of humility bordering on humiliation and a dash of humor that can sometimes carry maniacal overtones…. 

This is the human condition. And at the very center of your own shattered dream, the face of the sacred flashes and glimmers. The holy disaster is a beckoning. Come. Enter the fire of love and let it remake you again and again. To be an ordinary, everyday mystic is to take your rightful place on the throne of what is.

MLK: The False God of Science

Click Here for Audio In his first sermon about idolatry from July 1953, Martin Luther King Jr. makes clear that few idols are entirely evil. Their lure comes from their goodness and utility. This is certainly true of science. MLK noted how science has improved our world:“It was quite easy for modern man to put his ultimate faith in science because science had brought about such remarkable advances, such tangible and amazing victories. He realized that man through his scientific genius had dwarfed distances and placed time in chains. He noticed the new comforts that had been brought about by science, from the vast improvements in communication to the elimination of many dread plagues and diseases.” King’s words are even more relevant today as smartphones and the internet have “dwarfed distances and placed time in chains” in ways he could never have imagined. It is this remarkable power that makes science such a tempting idol. The solution, King said, is not the abandonment of science nor the demonization of those utilizing it for good. Because it has been idolized in the modern world, some Christian fundamentalists incorrectly see science as a threat to God and faith, and therefore reject it entirely—even during a global pandemic that killed millions. This, said King, is the wrong response. Instead, we must utilize the gift of science while also recognizing its limits. He said:“Is not science important for the progress of civilization? To this I would answer yes. No person of sound intelligence could minimize science. It is not science in itself that I am condemning, but it is the tendency of projecting it to the status of God that I am condemning. We must come to see that science only furnishes us with the means by which we live, but never with the spiritual ends for which we live.“In this sermon, the 24-year-old minister was echoing Augustine who said, “Idolatry is worshiping what should be used and using what should be worshiped.” Science is a powerful tool that we ought to use for the alleviation of suffering and the advancement of the common good. Yet in the end it is just a tool to be used, it should never be a replacement for God, as some atheists and materialists are inclined to promote. Science can help us accomplish our God-given work, it can satisfy our God-given curiosity about the natural world, and it is a critical resource for helping us alleviate suffering which makes it an ally, not an enemy, of God’s mission and his kingdom. Despite these blessings, however, science can never reveal the deeper mysteries of purpose, origin, and destiny. It cannot answer our deepest human needs which are satisfied in God alone. Simply put, science can answer the question “How?” but never the question “Why?” Science is a means but it cannot give meaning. DAILY SCRIPTURE PSALM 19:1–14 COLOSSIANS 1:15–20 WEEKLY PRAYERHilary of Poitiers (310–367) Keep us, O Lord, from the vain strive of words, and grant to us a constant profession of the truth. Preserve us in the faith, true and undefiled; so that we may ever hold fast that which we professed when we were baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; that we may have you for our Father, that we may abide in your Son, and in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

An essential aspect of Franciscan spirituality is what Father Richard Rohr calls “the integration of the negative.” Rather than insisting that God values perfection or an idealized morality, Francis of Assisi intuited, through the example of Jesus’ life and death, that God could be found in all things, even those our religion and culture urge us to reject. Father Richard writes:  

I suppose there is no more counterintuitive spiritual idea than the possibility that God might actually use and find necessary what we fear, avoid, deny, and deem unworthy. This is what I mean by the “integration of the negative.” Yet I believe this is the core of Jesus’ revolutionary good news, the apostle Paul’s deep experience, and the central insight that Francis and Clare of Assisi lived out with such simple elegance.  

The integration of the negative still has the power to create “people who are turning the whole world upside down” as was said of early Christians (see Acts 17:6). Today, some therapists call this pattern of admitting our shortcomings and failures “embracing our shadow.” Such surrendering of superiority, or even a need for superiority, is central to any authentic enlightenment. Without it, we are misguided ourselves and poor guides for others.  

Francis and Clare made what most would call the negative or disadvantage shimmer and shine by their delight in what the rest of us ordinarily oppose, deny, and fear: things like being insignificant, poor, outside systems of power and status, or weakness in any form. Francis generally referred to these conditions as minoritas. This is a different world than most of us choose to live in. We all seem invariably to want to join the majority and to be admired. Francis and Clare instead made a preemptive strike at both life and death, offering a voluntary assent to full reality in all its tragic wonder. They made a loving bow to the very things that defeat, scare, and embitter most of us, such as poverty, powerlessness, and being ridiculed.  

I personally think that honesty about ourselves and all of reality is the way that God makes grace totally free and universally available. We all find our lives eventually dragged into opposition, problems, “the negatives” of sin, failure, betrayal, gossip, fear, hurt, disease, etc., and especially the ultimate negation: death itself. Good spirituality should utterly prepare us for that instead of teaching us high-level denial or pretense.  

Needing a ladder to climb only appeals to our egotistical consciousness and our need to win or be right, which is not really holiness at all—although it has been a common counterfeit for holiness in much of Christian history. The Ten Commandments are about creating social order (a good thing), but the eight Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12) of Jesus are all about incorporating what seems like disorder (a negative), which promotes a much better and different level of consciousness.  

The Difficult Work of Loving Others

Jesus taught them, “But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” —Matthew 5:44 

Richard Rohr describes how loving our enemies is a practice of “integrating the negative,” accepting what we find unacceptable within ourselves: 

Our enemies always carry our own shadow side, the things we don’t like about ourselves. We will never face our own shadow until we embrace those who threaten us (as Francis of Assisi embraced the leper in his conversion experience). The people who turn us off usually do so because they carry our own faults in some form.  

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says in essence, “If you love those who love you, what’s so great about that?” (Matthew 5:46). It’s simply magnified self-love. Instead, we are called to love the stranger at the gate, the one outside of our comfort zone. Until we can enter into love with them, Jesus is saying we really have not loved at all.  

And what’s Jesus’ motivation for doing this? Some translations say, it’s to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). In my opinion, a more useful and accurate understanding of the word translated as “perfect” is “whole.” Jesus and Francis met a God who is One, whole, and all inclusive. Be all inclusive as our God is all inclusive and all merciful. This is the heart of the gospel. Jesus’ and Francis’ goal was imitation of a loving, forgiving God. [1] 

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) modeled how to “integrate the negative” by facing the realities of racism, poverty, and war, while insisting that we follow Jesus’ command to love our enemies.  

Let us be practical and ask the question, How do we love our enemies?  

First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive…. Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship….   

Second, we must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy-neighbor, the thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that they are. An element of goodness may be found even in our worst enemy….  

There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. When we look beneath the surface, beneath the impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbor a measure of goodness and know that the viciousness and evilness of their acts are not quite representative of all that they are. We see them in a new light. We recognize that their hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God’s image is ineffably etched in their being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God’s redemptive love.

JAN 20, 2025 MLK on Idolatry

Click Here for Audio To understand Martin Luther King Jr. as a Civil Rights leader, you first have to understand King as a minister of the Gospel. He made clear that his pursuit of justice was rooted in his faith. The two were inseparable despite the attempts of recent remembrances to erase or ignore the Christian foundations of King’s life.In July 1953, when MLK was just 24 years old, he worked alongside his father, the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. That summer the young minister preached three sermons in a series he called “False Gods We Worship.” The messages were titled, “The False God of Science,” “The False God of Money,” and “The False God of Nationalism.” The short sermons remain remarkably relevant even seven decades later. Behind all three sermons was King’s biblical understanding of worship and idolatry. In the opening of his first message, he said:“Certainly worship is as natural to man as the rising of the sun is to the cosmic order. Men always have worshipped and men always will worship. There is the ever-present danger, however, that man will direct his worship drive into false channels. It is not so [much] disbelief as false belief that is the danger confronting religion. It is not so much downright atheism as [much as] strong, determined polytheism which impedes the progress of religion.” MLK understood that the real threat isn’t that people will stop believing in God, but that they will devote themselves to the wrong one. Even in those early years—well before the Montgomery Bus Boycott would launch him to the forefront of the Civil Rights movement—King was already beginning to recognize and name the spiritual maladies of American society. What some may find surprising is the breadth of MLK’s diagnosis. His preaching was not limited to racism or segregation. Instead, he saw these evils as intertwined with materialism, greed, laziness, and nationalism. With so many Christians expressing concern over the secularizing and the de-churching of America, we need to hear King’s warnings again. It’s possible to become so fixated on the growing number of non-believers with no faith in God that we never stop and ask the believers which God they are worshipping. But MLK understood that calling oneself a “Christian” and attending church regularly was no guarantee that one was devoted to Christ, as revealed in scripture. Instead, we may be employing the trappings of Christian faith to mask our devotion to a very unchristian false god. Over the next few days, we will look at some of Martin Luther King Jr.’s prophetic words about our culture’s idolatry as we ask ourselves how we can redirect our worship to where it rightfully belongs. DAILY SCRIPTURE DEUTERONOMY 12:30–31 AMOS 5:21–24 WEEKLY PRAYER. Hilary of Poitiers (310–367) Keep us, O Lord, from the vain strive of words, and grant to us a constant profession of the truth. Preserve us in the faith, true and undefiled; so that we may ever hold fast that which we professed when we were baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; that we may have you for our Father, that we may abide in your Son, and in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON JAN 20. Dr. King’s final speech:

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You hear sometimes, now that we know the sordid details of the lives of some of our leading figures, that America has no heroes left.

When I was writing a book about the Wounded Knee Massacre, where heroism was pretty thin on the ground, I gave that a lot of thought. And I came to believe that heroism is neither being perfect, nor doing something spectacular. In fact, it’s just the opposite: it’s regular, flawed human beings choosing to put others before themselves, even at great cost, even if no one will ever know, even as they realize the walls might be closing in around them.

It means sitting down the night before D-Day and writing a letter praising the troops and taking all the blame for the next day’s failure upon yourself in case things went wrong, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower did.

It means writing in your diary that you “still believe that people are really good at heart,” even while you are hiding in an attic from the men who are soon going to kill you, as Anne Frank did.

It means signing your name to the bottom of the Declaration of Independence in bold print, even though you know you are signing your own death warrant should the British capture you, as John Hancock did.

It means defending your people’s right to practice a religion you don’t share, even though you know you are becoming a dangerously visible target, as Sitting Bull did.

Sometimes it just means sitting down, even when you are told to stand up, as Rosa Parks did.

None of those people woke up one morning and said to themselves that they were about to do something heroic. It’s just that when they had to, they did what was right.

On April 3, 1968, the night before the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a white supremacist, he gave a speech in support of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Since 1966, King had tried to broaden the Civil Rights Movement for racial equality into a larger movement for economic justice. He joined the sanitation workers in Memphis, who were on strike after years of bad pay and such dangerous conditions that two men had been crushed to death in garbage compactors.

After his friend Ralph Abernathy introduced him to the crowd, King had something to say about heroes: “As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about.”

Dr. King told the audience that if God had let him choose any era in which to live, he would have chosen the one in which he had landed. “Now, that’s a strange statement to make,” King went on, “because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around…. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.” Dr. King said that he felt blessed to live in an era when people had finally woken up and were working together for freedom and economic justice.

He knew he was in danger as he worked for a racially and economically just America. “I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter…because I’ve been to the mountaintop…. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life…. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”

People are wrong to say that we have no heroes left.

Just as they have always been, they are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what.

Women navigate the world through relationships. The relationships that are built by bringing together Muslim and Jewish women, who share so many practices and beliefs, are life-changing and can help put an end to anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish sentiment. We influence family, friends and the general public about our strength in coming together to build bridges and fight hate, negative stereotyping and prejudice. We are changing the world, one Muslim and one Jewish woman at a time!  
—Sheryl Olitzky, Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom 

While individuals often inspire us to action, communities working together also serve as catalysts to transform hearts and cultural narratives. Activist Sandhya Jha describes the powerful example of a group of Muslim and Jewish women in the United States:  

Another beautiful way … relationship building has emerged is through the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, originally a group of 12 women in New Jersey that now has local chapters all over the country.…   

After a visit to Poland in 2010 when [founding member] Sheryl [Olitzky] was struck by what hate had wrought in relationship to her Jewish community, she came back to the U.S. determined to make a contribution to reducing hate. She contacted an imam she knew who introduced her to Atiya Aftab, and the two women invited an additional five Jewish and five Muslim women to meet monthly. They are now a national organization with local chapters all over the country. While they talk about ending hatred one Muslim and one Jewish woman at a time, they actually recognize the power of community in effecting change.  

Organizations focused on peacemaking and healing can create a ripple effect in our communities.  

The local Kansas City chapter’s social action was to step in and provide meals at a local cancer treatment center during Christmas so that the Christian volunteers could spend the holiday with their families, creating another relational bridge in the process. [SOSS board member Amber Khan] also said there was something really powerful in the fact that in order to deal with anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, the women needed to confront the “isms” they had internalized about each other in order to be in true relationship with each other, and that has been some of the most powerful work she has witnessed.  

What Amber values is that the women of the local chapters “are not professional organizers; they’re women who said, ‘my community needs healing and I want to be a part of that.’” When white nationalists desecrated mosques, the Jewish community showed up in force, sometimes even sharing worship spaces.   

“I think there’s more of a sense of urgency,” says Aftab at the Sisterhood. “We’ve heard from people all over the country, even all over the world, saying, ‘I need to reach out and do something constructive rather than be affected by this fear in a negative way.’”  

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John Chaffee 5 On Friday

1.

“Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.”

– Parker Palmer, Founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal

The question of identity is a perennial one.  It is a question each person of each generation must answer.

“Who am I?”

It might be a part of the first half of life, but early on, we seem to announce our identity to other people.  Some of us might even forcefully do so.  Meanwhile, others may have no idea about their identity and desperately run after any other person or activity to tell them who they are.  During different seasons of my life, I am sure I have pursued both frantic pursuits.

Identity is sometimes defined as something between action and intention, but there might be another option…  It is another thing entirely to sit down, rest in the present moment, and allow the arc of our life to preach to us about who we are and who we are becoming.  

2.

“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.“

– Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Russian Author and Nobel Prize Winner

To participate in a lie, while knowing it is a lie, is a diabolical choice.

If the truth sets us free, then it makes sense that untruths or lies can enslave us.

3.

“A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It’s a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.“

– Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States

Carter was not appreciated during his presidential term, which is likely why he was a single-term president.  However, in the years since, he proved himself in the public eye to be one of the more moral and compassionate politicians who put his hands to work building homes for the less privileged.  As I have come across things about his life, I can’t help but think that he seemed to embody the best of the Christian ethic.  It is not an easy or small task to live out the Sermon on the Mount, which seems to be at the forefront of Carter’s approach to life.

The proof is in the pudding.

Or, as some other ancient Carpenter said, “…A tree will be known by its fruit.” (Matthew 12:33)

4.

“Never confuse the person formed in the image of God with the evil that is in him because evil is but a chance misfortune, an illness, a devilish reverie. But the essence of the person is the image of God, and this remains in him despite every disfigurement.“

– St. John of Kronstadt, Eastern Orthodox Priest

In particular interpretations of Christianity, there is the presupposition or belief structure that anything that is not God is inherently evil.  This train of thought has long roots that stretch back to Augustine in the 4th century who very well might have had OCD.  Reflecting on his own wayward youth, Augustine postulated that to be human was to be deeply flawed.

The problem is that when our internal voice of condemnation is that strong or loud, we are prone to mistake it for the voice of God.

According to Genesis 1-2, nothing other than God was pronounced “evil.”  Instead, everything else was pronounced “very good.”

It is not that we are intrinsically evil; it is that we have been misled or wounded by our own disordered loves and flawed decision-making.

Why is this an important distinction?

Because that which is broken can be mended, that which is wounded can be healed, that which has been misled can be redirected, and that which is lost can be found.

5.

“You cannot love and live as you want.“

– Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk and Author

This one hits hard and right in my selfishness.

During my sessions of Spiritual Direction with people, we often talk about how “our life is our curriculum.”  Our life’s events are the lessons that were designed for us to learn how to be human, to learn how to love, how to forgive, how to be compassionate, etc.

I am unsure if I am passing or failing my life curriculum, but my life feels like a Divine IEP designed to systematically break down my worst traits.

It is not possible to love and to live on our own terms.  To love others inherently means compromise and meeting people in the middle.  It is not love if we do not allow other people’s lives to affect us if we do not allow ourselves to experience pain or suffering with or on behalf of others.  To love others, we cannot constantly put up fences and keep doors locked.  To love at all means to be open to not living life as WE want but recognizing that having the gift of love (given or received) is far grander than having life precisely as we want.  To love others means to let down our invincible shields and triple-layered armor and meet people face to face.

If this whole thing called life is just a massive curriculum of love, we probably should put our best efforts into that schooling.

In an interview for the Daily Meditations, Sikh activist Valarie Kaur tells a brief story of Guru Nanak (1469–1539), founder of the Sikh faith: 

The story goes that every morning a man named Nanak sat by a river and meditated on the world and took the pain of the world into his heart until it crescendoed inside of him. One morning he did not return from the river. People thought him a dead man, a drowned man. The sun rose and the sun fell. The sun rose and the sun fell. And on the third day, a figure was spotted, seated in a cemetery covered in ash. It was Nanak, but not Nanak. He had been rebirthed in those waters and his first utterance was “Nako Hindu. Nako Musliman.” There is no Hindu. There is no Muslim. This was more than treat your neighbor as you would yourself. This was more than taking in the stranger. This was: There is no stranger. There is no you-against-me at all. We constitute each other. [1] 

Kaur describes how his followers transformed their culture:  

[Nanak] began to sing powerful mystical poetry, accompanied by a Muslim bard. For twenty-four years, Guru Nanak traveled in each of the cardinal directions on foot…. Everywhere he went, his songs held a vision that landed in people’s hearts: We can all taste the truth of Oneness, and when we do, we are inspired to care for one another, and fight for one another. Perhaps what was most powerful about Guru Nanak is how he distilled the mystical heart of all the world’s wisdom traditions into its essence: love. 

Guru Nanak’s followers were called Sikhs, seekers or students…. Sikhs believed that people of all castes, genders, faiths, races, and places were equal…. It was a radical experiment that rebelled against the caste hierarchy and feudal order of the era, a mysticism that inspired revolutionary social change…. The ideal archetype in the Sikh tradition became the sant sipahi: the sage warrior. [2] 

Kaur’s grandfather’s example shaped the trajectory of her work:  

My grandfather was the first sage warrior I knew…. Papa Ji tied his turban every day, clasped his hands behind his back, and surveyed the world through the eyes of wonder. When he listened to kirtan, sacred music, he closed his eyes and let the music resound wondrously within him; he wrote poetry in his garden….

As I fell asleep each night, Papa Ji would sing the Mool Mantr, the foundational verse that opens the Guru Granth Sahib, our sacred canon of musical wisdom. It begins with the utterance “Ik Onkar,” which means Oneness, ever-unfolding. “All of Sikh wisdom flows from here,” Papa Ji would say. All of us are part of the One. Separateness is an illusion: There is no essential separateness between you and me, you and other people, you and other species, or you and the trees. You can look at anyone or anything and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. [3]  

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Sara Young

Jesus Calling: January 16

Come to Me, and rest in My loving Presence. You know that this day will bring difficulties, and you are trying to think your way through these trials. As you anticipate what is ahead of you, you forget that I am with you–now and always. Rehearsing your troubles results in experiencing them many times, whereas you are meant to go through them only when they actually occur. Do not multiply your suffering in this way! Instead, come to Me, and relax in My peace. I will strengthen you and prepare you for this day, transforming your fear into confident trust.

RELATED SCRIPTURE: 

Matthew 11:28-30 NLT

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Joshua 1:5-9 NLT

5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.

6 “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

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.