Father Richard offers a summary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s principles of nonviolence:
Nonviolence is a way of strength and not a way for cowards. It is not a lack of power which allows us to be nonviolent, but in fact the discovery of a different kind of power. It is a choice, not a resignation; a spirituality, not just a tactic.
The goal of nonviolence is always winning the friendship and the understanding of the supposed opponent, not their humiliation or personal defeat. It must be done to eventually facilitate the process of reconciliation, and we ourselves must be willing to pay the price for that reconciliation. King based this on Jesus’ lifestyle and death and on Ephesians 2:13–22 and Romans 12:1–2.
The opponent must be seen not so much as an evil person, but as a symbol of a much greater systemic evil—of which they also are a victim!We must aim our efforts at that greater evil, which is harming all of us, rather than at the opponent.
There is a moral power in voluntarily suffering for the sake of others. Christians call it the “myth of redemptive suffering,” whereas almost all of history is based on the opposite, the “myth of redemptive violence.” The lie that almost everybody believes is that suffering can be stopped by increasing the opponent’s suffering. It works only in the short run. In the long run, that suffering is still out there and will somehow have to work its way out in the next generation or through the lives of the victims. A willingness to bear the pain has the power to transform and absorb the evil in the opponent, the nonviolent resister, and even the spectator. This is precisely what Jesus was doing on the cross. It changes all involved and at least forces the powers that be to “show their true colors” publicly. And yes, the nonviolent resister is also changed through the action. It is called resurrection or enlightenment.
This love ethic must be at the center of our whole life,or it cannot be effective or real in the crucial moments of conflict. We have to practice drawing our lives from this new source, in thought, word, emotion, and deed, every day, or we will never be prepared for the major confrontations or the surprise humiliations that will come our way.
Nonviolence relies on a kind ofcosmic optimism which trusts that the universe/reality/God is finally and fully on the side of justice and truth. History does have a direction, meaning, and purpose. God/good is more fundamental than evil. Resurrection will have the final word, which is the very promise of the Jesus event. The eternal wind of the Spirit is with us. However, we should not be naïve; and we must understand that most people’s loyalties are with security, public image, and the comforts of the status quo.
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John Chaffee Learning from the Mystics: St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio
Quote of the Week: “But if you want to know how these things come about, ask grace not instruction, desire not understanding, the groaning of prayer not diligent reading, the Spouse not the teacher, God not man, darkness not clarity, not light but the fire that totally inflames and carries us into God by ecstatic unctions and burning affections.” – The Soul’s Journey into God, Ch. 7.6
Reflection
For people such as Bonaventure, the work of theology and the work of pious devotion were the same task. However, it appears as though the temptation was already happening in his day to emphasize the love of the mind rather than the love of God. Although the mind has its place in the pursuit of God, it also has its limitations. The perennial temptation is to think that to be “correct” theologically is what allows us to be “close” to God, rather than to remember that being “close” to God is more a matter of romance…
In this quote above, Bonaventure is wrapping up the entirety of his work, The Soul’s Journey into God, with this emphasis on pious devotion. As a son of Francis of Assisi, his words are directly in line with the teachings and values of the Franciscan order: Divine Love and Mystery will always hold sway at the end of the day. Bonaventure was at one point a professor of theology at the University of Paris, and so for him to not esteem his work and profession as a high mark is noteworthy.
In his own words, the journey into God is a matter of grace, desire, prayer, betrothal, divinity, darkness, and fire.The journey into God is NOT a matter of instruction, understanding, diligent reading, a teacher, humanity, clarity, or enlightenment. One of the main tenets of Franciscanism is the equality of all believers, elitism is utterly denounced within the order. No Franciscan is to be called a “Father,” only a “Friar.” No one is a “Major,” and everyone is a “Minor.” To be close to God is not a reward for a special few, but a gracious gift to those with hearts ready.
For Bonaventure, the only thing that mattered was the “burning love of the Crucified One.” This burning heart of Jesus is the furnace through which all other loves, all other devotions, all activities, and passivities must pass. Love is not only the goal, love is also the path, love is the motivation, love is the engine, love is the fuel. For Bonaventure, the whole of the Christian life, theology, and devotion can be summed up in the word “love.”
Prayer Heavenly Father, we admit that we sometimes prefer the ideas of You to the reality of You. We chase after theology rather than devotion. Perhaps it is because it is less threatening to talk about You than to You, to talk about loving You rather than to love You. Return us to our original very goodness and dive full-bodied into devotion once again. Set our hearts on fire for You once more. May it be so. Amen.
Life Overview of St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio:
When and Where: Born in 1221 AD. Died on July 15th, 1274. He spent most of his life in what is now modern-day Italy and France.
Why He is Important: Bonaventure was a major teacher of the faith who taught at the University of Paris. He is known as the Seraphic Doctor, gave us one of the most influential biographies of St. Francis of Assisi, and sought to write about the Christian faith in an integrative manner that brought together all the various disciplines of his own day.
Father Richard Rohr reflects on the spiritual and moral futility of violence, drawing on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and his radical call to love:
Part of the genius of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968), inspired by the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi, was that he was able to show thoughtful people that violence was not only immoral but actually impractical and, finally, futile. In the long run, it doesn’t achieve its stated purposes, because it only deepens bitterness on both sides and leaves them in an endless and impossible cycle of violence that cannot be stopped by itself. Instead, some neutralizing force must be inserted from outside to stop the cycle and point us in a new direction.
King insisted that true nonviolent practice is founded on a spiritual seeing and has little to do with mere education or what I would call the “calculative mind.” He thought it self-evident that the attitudes of nonviolence were finally impossible without an infusion of agapelove from God and our reliance upon that infusion. He defined agape love as willingness to serve without the desire for reciprocation, willingness to suffer without the desire for retaliation, and willingness to reconcile without the desire for domination. This is clearly a Divine love that the small self cannot achieve by itself. We must live in and through Another to be truly nonviolent. [1]
Palestinian Christian theologian Munther Isaac challenges us to confront the deep disconnect between the nonviolent teaching of Jesus and the ways Christianity has often aligned with systems of power and violence, even today:
Christianity and violence should not go hand in hand, at least theoretically. The teachings of Jesus are very clear. The teachings of Paul and the apostles are very clear. There is no place for violence for the followers of Jesus. Yet an honest assessment of even the last 150 years will clearly reveal that many who claimed to be Christians committed some of the worst atrocities in our world: the Belgians in Congo, the Germans in Namibia, the French in Algeria, the Bosnian Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the Guatemalan genocide against the Laya indigenous people, and of course the Holocaust against the Jewish people in Europe.
The Bible and theology have played a significant role in this war of genocide in Gaza.… To be clear, I fully believe that when Scripture is used to justify genocide or promote ideologies of supremacy, this use has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus nor the essence of the Christian faith. Yet, shamefully, the church has aligned itself with empire throughout the centuries. It has chosen the path of power and influence. One would expect Christians to have learned the lesson. We have not.
Can We Love All?
Congressman John Lewis (1940–2020) describes his Christian faith as the foundation of his commitment to nonviolence:
I believe in the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. I accepted it not simply as a technique or as a tactic, but as a way of life, a way of living. We have to arrive at the point, as believers in the Christian faith, that in every human being there is a spark of divinity. Every human personality is something sacred, something special. We don’t have a right, as another person or as a nation, to destroy that spark of divinity, that spark of humanity, that is made and created in the image of God.
I saw Sheriff Clark in Selma, or Bull Connor in Birmingham, or George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, as victims of the system. We were not out to destroy these men. We were out to destroy a vicious and evil system. [1]
Theologian Walter Wink (1935–2012) recalls a tense moment in Selma in which a reminder to love their enemies shocked the conscience of the crowd and forged a nonviolent path forward:
King so imbued this understanding of nonviolence into his followers that it became the ethos of the entire civil rights movement. One evening … the large crowd of black and white activists standing outside the Ebenezer Baptist Church was electrified by the sudden arrival of a black funeral home operator from Montgomery. He reported that a group of black students demonstrating near the capitol just that afternoon had been surrounded by police on horseback, all escape barred, and cynically commanded to disperse or take the consequences. Then the mounted police waded into the students and beat them at will. Police prevented ambulances from reaching the injured for two hours….
The crowd outside the church seethed with rage. Cries went up, “Let’s march!” Behind us, across the street, stood, rank on rank, the Alabama State Troopers and the local police forces of Sheriff Jim Clark. The situation was explosive. A young black minister stepped to the microphone and said, “It’s time we sang a song.” He opened with the line, “Do you love Martin King?” to which those who knew the song responded, “Certainly, Lord!”… Right through the chain of command of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference he went, the crowd each time echoing, warming to the song, “Certainly, certainly, certainly Lord!” Without warning he sang out, “Do you love Jim Clark?”—the Sheriff?! “Cer … certainly, Lord” came the stunned, halting reply. “Do you love Jim Clark?” “Certainly, Lord”—it was stronger this time. “Do you love Jim Clark?” Now the point had sunk in, as surely as Amos’ in chapters 1 and 2: “Certainly, certainly, certainly Lord!”
Rev. James Bevel then took the mike. We are not just fighting for our rights, he said, but for the good of the whole society. “It’s not enough to defeat Jim Clark—do you hear me Jim?—we want you converted. We cannot win by hating our oppressors. We have to love them into changing.”
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TODAY IS THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
We’re still in the “season within a Season” the four Sundays in September now celebrated by many churches as the “Season of Creation.”
On this Sunday, we read one of Jesus’ strangest and most misunderstood parables — about a corrupt manager who gets praised for stealing from his own boss.
Luke 16:1-13
Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’
“Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’‘
“So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
from Diana Butler Bass
The passage today is appropriate for both this season of creation and the threatening political season of global authoritarianism in which we live. It is a parable — a story that isn’t factual but is true — told to make a point or two. There is a point about shrewdness: People of faith are often kind of clueless but shouldn’t be. There’s a point about money: “You can’t serve God and wealth.”
And there is also a point about justice: You can do the right thing even while having less than honorable intentions toward others. In this parable, the manager tries to save his own neck but winds up acting justly toward the poor. Sure, he keeps his job. But those who receive the greatest benefit from his actions are the debtors. Ultimately, those struggling to repay the manager’s master have their debts reduced some 20 to 50 percent!
The rich man, the householder, is out a lot of cash. Yet he still praised the corrupt manager who stole from him.
All sorts of things may be happening behind the scenes. It may be that the manager had cooked the books all along. Maybe he’d padded the debts by 20 to 50 percent and skimmed that extra off the top for his own benefit. In order to rescue his job, he abruptly ended his scheme to profit off the master’s account. Perhaps he added to the debts to make more money for the master — who might be impressed by the profitability of the estate and reward him for his good work.
Corruption wears many masks.
But people started to talk — and the manager got called out. So, whatever smarts he’d employed toward cheating in the first place, he now redirected to impress and befriend those in debt. Because those were the folks about to become his new neighbors.
If you emphasize the debtors in the parable (instead of the householder or the manager), the story shifts. At first, the manager sees the debtors as a kind of personal piggybank — cheating them, whether directly or indirectly, enriches him. He sees them as a way up the financial or social ladder, people to be used on his way up.
When it becomes clear that he might spend the rest of his life among those whom he’d defrauded, he didn’t panic. Instead, he saw the situation differently. He will be in their debt. He’ll be beholden to them for friendship and food. He will live among them, not over them.
Well, he might have panicked a little. Would they cast him out? Would they turn their backs on him? Would they cheat him as he had cheated them?
He may have thought they were objects to be used for his benefit. But they were people, human beings as vulnerable as he was.
What will make them like me? Accept me? Welcome me to their tables?
The manager had a change of mind. He converted, at least in a vaguely selfish way, to side with those whom he’d previously seen as less than human. He decided to buy their affection. And he slashed their debts.
The manager’s boss finds this shrewd. It certainly was a creative redeployment of resources.
In the process of saving himself, the manager made the debtors’ world a little more just. He’s an accidental sort of social justice warrior. And guess what? They probably did like him much better than before. Who wants to hang out with a crooked debt collector?
At this point, the debtors disappear from the story and we are left with questions about them.
My sense is, given Jewish law and customs about hospitality at the time, the debtors would not have rejected the fired manager. If he came to them in distress, and if they took the teachings of their own faith seriously, they would have accepted him and cared for him. The debtors might have been generous people glad to have the manager finally take a seat at their tables. Even without the debt reduction.
But he saw the world through his own eyes — seeing people as pawns in his own game. He discovered he needed others, even as “pawns” to save himself, and did a strangely good deed for them.
The householder steps back in at the end. He praised the manager because the manager did something right even with these less-than-pure motives. The manager oddly became an agent of God’s justice for the poor. And then, the householder added one more thing — bring your heart in line with your mental shrewdness.
We might paraphrase the householder’s final speech: You did the right thing for the wrong reasons. How much greater would it be if you understood that you still had used my wealth to get ahead, to placate your own fears and greed, and that money was still your ultimate master. Don’t do the right thing accidentally. Change your heart, too. Because, ultimately, you can only follow one path — you must embrace the love of God and neighbor or continue to serve and save yourself through mammon.
Shrewd, yes. But loving? My cunning manager, you’ve got some work to do.
And what of that manager? As the story closes, his boss is pleased with him and expects him to do better in the future and his neighbors are grateful to him for making their lives easier. The manager now has the opportunity to go from being a crooked middleman in a corrupt arrangement to being well-regarded by the entire community. From having no friends to being surrounded by friends.
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I find great comfort in these truths within Jesus’s story. (Always remember: a parable is fiction, not something that actually happened.) I certainly have done good things for the wrong reasons — often those reasons were greedy and self-serving. And I’ve seen other people as little more than rungs on a ladder of my own getting ahead, only to learn later that, ultimately, all we humans are in the same boat.
The shrewd manager reminds me that I’m not alone. And the householder’s generous response to his manager’s actions — to praise him and keep him on — makes me feel safer, accepted, and forgiven. For all my flaws, I don’t feel condemned. Instead the householder’s response makes me want to do better. I want my actions and my heart to match, to grow in tandem toward the love of God and neighbor.
And, as we do better, everybody else does better. Because it isn’t about ascending to the top of some power pyramid by abusing and cheating others. We really live, even though we don’t always see it, in an interconnected community of mutual benefit.
This twist on the parable is greatly needed today. We are literally drowning in a sea of the most massive political corruption in the history of the United States. It is outrageous and brutal, and it is destroying the fabric of community at every level.
So many of us stand at the ready — indeed are eager — to condemn both the actions and intentions of the corrupt. To gossip and accuse and charge others with fraud and abuse. All those whom we deem less than human, those whom we think it is fine to abuse on our way to getting some result in our own interest. Corruption in the middle of a system invites more corruption throughout.
Perhaps we all need to take a breath — and try to see if and where good is really being done, ham-handedly perhaps, by those with impure hearts (and please do tell me if you find many actors with pure hearts) and mixed motives. Where the most unexpected of characters winds up being a hero in the story. I bet there’s more of those sorts of folks than we imagine — shrewd managers who accidentally learned that they don’t have to buy their friends. And that they don’t have to cheat to get ahead.
In the midst of it all, imitate the householder.
Praise the good; resist condemnation; invite even the awkwardly contrite to do the right things for the right reasons. Extend mercy. Seek the unity of mind and heart, of action and compassion. Rightly direct your love and urge others to do the same. Welcome all who come to the table.
And make sure that we, each one ourself, continues on that neighborly way — where we find we have far more friends than we knew all along.
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In conversation with Richard Rohr on the Everything Belongspodcast, founder of Homeboy Industries Father Greg Boyle describes how love heals us:
On a podcast the other day I said, “Lovenever fails,” and the interviewer said, “Our listeners are going to think you’re naive.” And I thought, well, I don’t know how you prove that [love never fails] except to say, I think that if anybody stops to think about how that’s been operative in their life, they realize, in fact, in the end, it’s never failed. If it feels like it has, it’s just not the end.
Somehow we don’t have confidence in it. We think that it’s more savvy to not embrace love somehow—that your head is in the clouds at a time when we need to be doing some things that are concrete.Idon’t think love cancels out concrete action. This is sort of the marriage of contemplation and action…. When the ego interrupts you, you try to catch yourself, so that you can return to sweetness…. Hold out for sweetness and life because that’s what a confidence in love as “never failing” will usher in—that kind of moment of connection and kinship.
I always talk about “cherishing,” because the word “love” sort of gets lost. Cherishing is love with its sleeves rolled up. It’s about really seeing people. At Homeboy, we want to create a place that’s safe, where people are seen, so that they can be cherished because that’s what is healing.
Boyle recounts how his organization came to believe thatlove and cherishing are the path to healing:
In the early days, we were saying, “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.” We thought an employed gang member would never return to prison. Then, as we started a school, we thought, “Well, an educated gang member won’t ever go back to prison,” but that was proving not true. Then we kind of landed, maybe 20 or 25 years ago (out of our 37 years), where we said, “No, a healed gang member will not ever re-offend.” Period. And it’s been born out as truthful, so that’s the emphasis.
We do all the other things: employment, here’s money in your pocket, a gainful job, education and all these other things like tattoo removal and therapy. All those things are secondary to the primary community of healing where people are receiving doses [of love] constantly, in a very repetitive way.It’s the repetitive nature of reassurance, affirmation, affection, hugging—all these things. We used to fret if somebody relapsed with drugs or returned to gang life for a moment or went to jail. We used to say, “Well, maybe they’ll come back.” Nobody says that now. Everybody says, “He’ll be back”—and they all come back. I’m not really aware of an exception. They’ll come back because once you’ve had a taste of having been cherished in a way that’s authentic, it’s so compelling that [you surrender to it].
We each likely fall for it when people first tell us that they love us. Perhaps it is part of our better angels that we want to believe others, and then there might also be a side of us that desperately wants to believe their words are true.
Although it is a start to tell others we love them, we must prove those words by the actions that follow.
And perhaps that is why the word “love” carries so much potency. The word itself is almost like a promissory note saying that we want, will, and are committed to the Good happening for the Beloved.
To say, “I love you,” is not merely a statement about the now; it is a foreshadowing of what to expect from us in the future.
2.
“Religion at its worst reinforces the status quo, often at the expense of our faith.”
To the best of my knowledge, Seth is not a religious person. And yet, I think he gets this absolutely right about religion at its worst.
I am of a generation that was taught that faith informs every part of our lives. We were taught that God cares about Justice and Mercy, speaking prophetically on behalf of the downtrodden and abused. We were taught that God is more on the side of the slaves of the world than the Pharaohs who dominate. Knowing all of this, it is little wonder to me that so many of my generation walked away from the church.
Especially if the faith has been hijacked to protect the status quo rather than challenge it.
At its best, religion can remind us of the duty and responsibility we have to one another. It can teach us how to love our neighbors as ourselves, and therefore highlight aspects of culture that are not very loving towards our neighbors.
3.
“Wash the plate not because it is dirty nor because you are told to wash it, but because you love the person who will use it next.”
The best of the Christian activists remind us of the importance of the little actions we do out of love for one another.
When born of hubris and a need to be important, we likely give too much focus on addressing the social issues that seem large enough to warrant our attention and effort.
However, that might come at the expense of doing the small actions of love, the little things that help ease the day of someone close to us, which can help shoulder some of their suffering and generally improve the quality of their lives.
I think what I enjoyed about this quote is that it gave a tangible expression to the commandment of “loving your neighbor as yourself.” Our acts of love do not need to be noticed or even celebrated for our Beloved to feel loved by us.
4.
“Wisdom consists in doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.”
A few nights ago, I finished reading Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak. It is a fantastic and small book that packs quite a punch if you are in the right season of life for it. It is devoted to the topic of vocation and calling, and how, over time, we can follow a golden thread that has been with us from the start of our lives and connects us to what we are here to do.
Every success and every failure, every door opening and every door closing, was a fork in the road that we either courageously took or foolishly avoided.
Parker Palmer reminds us that discerning our vocation and calling can be challenging if we are not attuned to our true selves. If we are still in the mode of living out the life that others demand of us, and if we do not dare to listen to our own soul subtly pulling us in a particular direction, then we will fail at finding our vocation.
However,
If we are true to ourselves, listen to the sound of the genuine within ourselves, and pay attention to the themes of every job we ever had, every interaction we enjoyed or hated, then we have plenty of signposts to help us discover what we are here to do.
And, it seems as though wisdom is a matter of figuring out what the “next right step” is and courageously taking it.
5.
“We are more fond of spiritual sweetness than crosses.”
As I mentioned last week, I am undertaking another re-read of Interior Castle, the great spiritual classic of Spanish Catholic mysticism.
This time, I am using a blue highlighter, which is fun because it occasionally overlaps previous yellow highlighting and leaves most pages covered in green.
It is true, though, no matter how long we are on the path of Christ, we forget that it will invariably involve a cross. To follow Christ is a matter of ego-annihilation, a matter of submitting ourselves to the painful task of loving the world in the midst of all of its brokenness and then picking ourselves up and doing it all over again tomorrow.
When you look at the world as lover, every being becomes precious to you. And the impulse to act on behalf of life becomes irresistible. —Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self
The Tears of Things Reader’s Guide introduces Buddhist teacher and environmental activist Joanna Macy (1929–2025):
When Joanna Macy traveled the world with her husband, a Peace Corps director, she supported Tibetan refugees in India and discovered Buddhism. After earning a PhD in Buddhism and systems theory, Macy helped create the field of “deep ecology” by articulating “the Work That Reconnects,” a process of group transformation that acknowledges ecological grief and encourages people into collective action. Macy has empowered countless people in her workshops to face their grief at the world’s injustices and act with hope, reminding us that by grieving with others and engaging in collective grief, we can “find strength intheir strengths, bolstering our own individual supplies of courage, commitment, and endurance.” [1]
Joanna Macy identifies four stages of work that support our ongoing participation in the healing of the world:
The spiral of the Work That Reconnects maps out an empowerment process that journeys through four successive movements, or stations: coming from gratitude, honoring our pain for the world, seeing with new eyes, and going forth. This spiral … reminds us that we are larger, stronger, deeper, and more creative than we’ve grown accustomed to believing. When we come from gratitude, we become more present to the wonder of being alive in this amazing world, to the many gifts we receive, to the beauty and mystery it offers. Yet the very act of looking at what we love and value in our world brings with it an awareness of the vast violation underway, the despoliation and unraveling….
From gratitude we naturally flow to honoring our pain for the world. Dedicating time and attention to honoring this pain opens up space to hear our sorrow, fear, outrage, and other felt responses to what is happening to our world….Our pain for the world not only alerts us to danger but also reveals our profound caring. And this caring derives from our interconnectedness with all of life. We need not fear it.
In the third stage, we step further into the perceptual shift that recognizes our pain for the world arises from our love for life. Seeing with new eyes reveals the wider web of resources available to us through our rootedness within a deeper, wider, ecological self…. It opens us to a new view of what is possible and a new grasp of our power to act.
The final station, going forth, involves clarifying our vision of how we can act for the healing of our world and identifying practical steps that move our vision forward…. With the shift of perception that seeing with new eyes brings, you can let go of the need to plan every step; instead trust your intention…. Focus on finding and playing your part, offering your own contribution, your unique gift of Active Hope. [2]
I designed you to live in union with Me. This union does not negate who you are; it actually makes you more fully yourself. When you try to live independently of Me, you experience emptiness and dissatisfaction. You may gain the whole world and yet lose everything that really counts. Find fulfillment through living close to Me, yielding to My purposes for you. Though I may lead you along paths that feel alien to you, trust that I know what I am doing. If you follow Me wholeheartedly, you will discover facets of yourself that were previously hidden. I know you intimately – far better than you know yourself. In union with Me, you are complete. In closeness to Me, you are transformed more and more into the one I designed you to be.
RELATED BIBLE VERSES:
Mark 8:36 (NLT) 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
Additional insight regarding Mark 8:36: Many people spend all their energy seeking pleasure. Jesus said, however, that worldliness, which is centered on possessions, position, or power, is ultimately worthless. Whatever you have on earth is only temporary; it cannot be exchanged for your soul. If you work hard at getting what you want, you might eventually have a “pleasurable” life, but in the end, you will find it hollow and empty. Are you willing to make the pursuit of God more important than selfish pursuits? Follow Jesus, and you will know what it means to live abundantly now and to have eternal life as well.
Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT) 13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
Additional insight regarding Psalm 139:13-15: God’s character goes into the creation of every person. When you feel worthless or even begin to hate yourself, remember that God’s Spirit is ready and willing to work within you. We should have as much respect for ourselves as our Maker has for us.
2nd Corinthians 3:17-18 (NLT) 17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
Additional insight regarding 2nd Corinthians 3:17: Those who were trying to be saved by keeping the Old Testament law were soon tied up in rules and ceremonies. But now, through the Holy Spirit, God provides freedom from sin and condemnation (Romans 8:1). When we trust Christ to save us, he removes our burden of trying to please him and our guilt for failing to do so. By trusting Christ we are loved, accepted, forgive, and freed to live for him. “Wherever the Spirit of the Lord, there is freedom.”
Additional insight regarding 2nd Corinthians 3:18: The glory that the Spirit imparts to the believer is more excellent and lasts longer than the glory that Moses experienced. By gazing at the nature of God with unveiled minds, we can be more like him. In the Good news, we see the truth about Christ, and it transforms us morally as we understand and apply it. Through learning about Christ’s life, we can understand how wonderful God is and what he is really like. As our knowledge deepens, the Holy Spirit helps us to change. Becoming Christlike is a progressive experience (see Romans 8:29; Galatians 4:19; Philippians 3:21; 1st John 3:2). The more closely we follow Christ, the more we will be like him.
Gandhi and Dr. King used the word nonviolence every hour; they didn’t use the word love. King uses the word love, but he’s really saying, “I don’t mean this or that by it. I mean agape, but we don’t have agape.” —John Dear, Learning How to See
In his sermon “Loving Your Enemies,” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) insists that agape love is the path to justice and peace:
When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality….
Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Love even for enemies is the key to the solution of the problems of our world. Jesus is not an impractical idealist: he is the practical realist.
I am certain that Jesus understood the difficulty inherent in the act of loving one’s enemy. He never joined the ranks of those who talk glibly about the easiness of the moral life. He realized that every genuine expression of love grows out of a consistent and total surrender to God. So when Jesus said “Love your enemy,” he was not unmindful of its stringent qualities. Yet he meant every word of it. Our responsibility as Christians is to discover the meaning of this command and seek passionately to live it out in our daily lives….
When Jesus bids us to love our enemies, he is speaking neither of eros[romantic love] nor philia [reciprocal love of friends]; he is speaking of agape, understanding and creative, redemptive goodwill for all people. Only by following this way and responding with this type of love are we able to be children of our Father who is in heaven. [1]
In the Learning How to Seepodcast, CAC dean of faculty Brian McLaren invites longtime peace activist, priest, and author John Dear to explore the deep connection between love and nonviolence. Dear has worked on many movements for peace in the tradition of Gandhi and Dr. King to abolish war, racism, poverty, nuclear weapons, and environmental destruction. Dear identifies agape love as the source of his commitment to nonviolence:
Nonviolence to me means active love, pursuing its common truth, this basic truth of reality, which is that we’re all one. That we’re already united, that we’re already reconciled, that we’re all children … of a God of universal love. Therefore, we can’t kill anybody, much less sit by if someone’s hurting. We killed 100 million people in the last century. There are forty wars happening today. We are on track to blow up the planet and destroy the planet through catastrophic climate change. So, there’s nothing passive about love. Love is active, creative, daring, public nonviolence that resists all the forces of death.
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Hey CO few. ,I had a different newsletter planned for this week — but then ICE showed up in the parking lot of my workplace. It was early in the morning on Thursday and they showed up in four unmarked cars, planning to use the space to stage an operation in the neighborhood. For context, my office is centered in the middle of a neighborhood with a high immigrant population, and is within walking distance of at least three schools.Their presence was a sign that our neighborhood community members were in danger. And so, seeing them pull up, our head of HR (one of the only people in the building that morning) quickly convened with two colleagues and called in a local immigration lawyer. Along with reporting ICE’s presence to the immigration hotline, they were dedicated to getting them off the property.
She was scared, but focused. Together, they marched out and confronted the ICE agents and, after clearly articulating they were not welcome to use the space, ICE hopped back in their cars and drove off. We don’t know where their operation was planned; we don’t know where they went next. Our full assumption is that harm was still committed. But in that moment, she did what she knew she was able to do.As we face the everyday effects of rising fascism in the United States, we all have a question to grapple with: what is safe enough for me to do right now? Not what is safe…but what is safe enough. On Thursday, the head of HR at our nonprofit assessed the situation, checked with herself internally, gathered power in numbers, and did what was safe enough for her to do.When actions are “safe”…We are maintaining our sense of comfort; these actions don’t challenge our status quo; they are almost entirely risk-free for us, at least in this moment. Often, but not always, these are performative actions without much influence or impact. (In many cases, not taking action fits into this category as a “safe” action.)It’s important to note: our bodies tend to know when we’re staying too safe for too long. We can feel a sense of guilt or restlessness that we’re not doing enough, as if we’re complacent, or even complicit. While I invite us to hold ourselves gently in this, I also believe these feelings are clear flags for us, waving us (inviting us) toward a different way of acting and living.When actions are “not safe, currently”…These actions threaten us in ways we are not willing to subscribe to in this current moment. As things change, these actions might filter into another sphere, but for now, these are the actions on our “I’m not going to do that” or “I just can’t get myself to do that” lists.It takes a lot of support to do these – and if we do, we will very possibly find ourselves outside our window of tolerance, experiencing intense body responses, such as muscular tension, freeze, or extreme sweating, or interacting with trauma responses based on our life’s experiences.
When actions are “safe enough”…These are the actions to hone in on: the actions available to us that are just a bit uncomfortable, that invite a bit of risk for us, that are difficult and require learning or experiencing something new, but are doable. These are the ones that stretch us, challenge us to grow, and push us into becoming someone new, even if it’s ever-so-slightly at first.Communal and societal change happens when a critical mass of folks lean into taking “safe enough” action in the face of injustice and harm.
Cultural critic bell hooks (1952–2001) reminds us to nurture the self-love that is our birthright:
Self-love is the foundation of our loving practice. Without it our other efforts to love fail. Giving ourselves love we provide our inner being with the opportunity to have the unconditional love we may have always longed to receive from someone else…. We can give ourselves the unconditional love that is the grounding for sustained acceptance and affirmation. When we give this precious gift to ourselves, we are able to reach out to others from a place of fulfillment and not from a place of lack….
In an ideal world we would all learn in childhood to love ourselves. We would grow, being secure in our worth and value, spreading love wherever we went, letting our light shine. If we did not learn self-love in our youth, there is still hope. The light of love is always in us, no matter how cold the flame. It is always present, waiting for the spark to ignite, waiting for the heart to awaken and call us back to the first memory of being the life force inside a dark place waiting to be born—waiting to see the light. [1]
Feminist author Audre Lorde (1934–1992) emphasizes the need to practice self-love, especially for communities who have often been denied such love or tenderness:
I have to learn to love myself before I can love you or accept your loving. You have to learn to love yourself before you can love me or accept my loving.… Until now, there has been little that taught us how to be kind to each other. To the rest of the world, yes, but not to ourselves. There have been few external examples of how to treat another Black woman with kindness, deference, tenderness or an appreciative smile in passing, just because she IS; an understanding of each other’s shortcomings because we have been somewhere close to that, ourselves. When last did you compliment another sister, give recognition to her specialness? We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us, the love of Black women for each other. But we can practice being gentle with ourselves by being gentle with each other. We can practice being gentle with each other by being gentle with that piece of ourselves that is hardest to hold, by giving more to the brave bruised girlchild within each of us, by expecting a little less from her gargantuan efforts to excel. We can love her in the light as well as in the darkness, quiet her frenzy toward perfection and encourage her attentions toward fulfillment. Maybe then we will come to appreciate more how much she has taught us, and how much she is doing to keep this world revolving toward some livable future. [2]
Anyone else remember this prayer?Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep And if I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take
Is that not horrifying for an eight-year-old to have to pray? At some point in my childhood, I was taught that before I went to bed, I needed to frantically search my memory for every sin I’d committed that day. Had I been mean to my cousin? Talked back to my teacher? Said a naughty word? I needed to confess them all before I fell asleep, because if I died with unconfessed sin, even as a child, God would have no choice but to send me to hell. Night after night, I scraped the inside of my soul, desperate to make sure I was clean enough before God. This scrupulosity was born from a theology that taught me my existence as a child was so fraught with sin and evil that God’s default position toward me was judgment and damnation.That eight-year-old was living under the weight of total depravity—the belief that humans are fundamentally corrupt, “utterly incapable of any good,” as Calvinist theologians like to put it. And while most people think this is just an abstract theological concept debated in seminary classrooms, it turns out these esoteric pieces of theology actually do have practical implications.
In Tom Holland’s Dominion, the historian traces how a 4th-century theological debate between Augustine and Pelagius has shaped Western civilization’s approach to poverty and inequality for over 1,600 years. Theology Creates Policy In the early centuries of Christianity, one of the most controversial questions the church wrestled with was: can the wealthy be saved? Pelagius, a monk, said no—in order to be saved, the wealthy needed to give up their wealth. Humanity can and should work to eradicate poverty entirely.Get rid of the rich man, and you will not be able to find a poor one. Let no man have more than he really needs and everyone will have as much as they need, since the few who are rich are the reason for the many who are poor. —Pelagius, “On Riches”
Augustine, however, was more of a pessimist. Pelagius’ view was unrealistic, he argued. Humans are too corrupted by sin to create a truly just society. We have to wait for the end of the world for that. Until then, we must settle for charity—almsgiving that treats the symptoms of poverty without addressing its root causes.These competing visions of human nature led to completely different approaches to social problems. If you see humanity as capable of doing good, as Pelagius did, you might aim for a more utopian society; the Kingdom of God realized. If you see humans as totally depraved, as Augustine did, you create systems that work within the constraints of human selfishness; the Kingdom of God delayed.
This same divide shows up in contemporary politics—the progressive belief that humans are essentially good and capable of creating a more just society versus the conservative conviction that humans are basically selfish, so we need to work within those limitations rather than trying to transform systems entirely.Interestingly, Augustine’s theology of total depravity had a leveling effect that ultimately undermined justice. If everyone is equally guilty and depraved before God, then the wealthy enslaver is just as much in need of God’s grace as the enslaved person. This then created a theological framework where the primary question wasn’t addressing systemic oppression, but rather individual salvation from a wrathful God.And, no surprise, you see this play out in church history. Once the question shifted from “can the wealthy be saved?” to “of course they can, because we’re all equally guilty,” there was less impetus to deal with wealth inequality at all. The enslaver and the enslaved were both just sinners in need of grace. No need to examine power structures or systemic harm—we’re all equally depraved.
Total Depravity’s Claims Here’s what the doctrine total depravity teaches. Both Calvinists and Arminians affirm this doctrine, so this isn’t just a Reformed issue. As Arminian theologian Roger Olson notes, even Arminius himself declared that because of Adam’s fall, human free will:is not only wounded, maimed, infirm, bent and weakened; but it is also imprisoned, destroyed, and lost: And its powers are not only debilitated and useless unless they be assisted by grace, but it has no powers whatever except such as are excited by Divine grace. —Arminian Theology, Roger Olson The doctrine teaches that:Every human is born fundamentally corrupted by sinWe are “utterly incapable of any good” apart from divine intervention Our nature is so corrupt that we “uniformly prefer and choose evil instead of good”This corruption affects every aspect of human nature (hence “total”)And when this gets applied to children—as we see with teachers like Voddie Baucham calling infants “vipers in diapers” who would “kill their parents in their sleep” if they were bigger—it creates the kind of soul-scraping terror I experienced as an eight-year-old. I’m Suspicious of the Fall. I’ll admit this the doctrine of total depravity been very hard for me to let go of. I have the Five Solas of the Reformation hanging up on my office wall, and I’m loathe to let my Protestantism go. I’m not a Pelagian in so far as I don’t believe humans can save themselves. But I’ve come to believe that total depravity is an answer to the wrong question.
First, “the fall” as a theological concept isn’t something Jewish readers of the Hebrew Bible tend to recognize. The idea that Adam and Eve’s disobedience fundamentally corrupted all human nature is a later Christian interpretation, not the plain reading of the text. Jewish theology recognizes the yetzer hara (evil inclination) alongside the yetzer hatov (good inclination), but maintains that humans have the capacity to choose good. As the Talmud puts it: “Everything is determined by heaven, except one’s fear of heaven”—meaning our choice to be righteous or wicked is left to our free will.
Second, I think we’re asking the wrong question entirely. Instead of “Are humans fundamentally good or evil?” we should be asking “What is the nature of our relationship with God and each other?”Dependence, Not DepravityScripture much more naturally can be interpreted to teach total dependence—we all have an inherent need for God and salvation from the disease of sin. We need saving from wrath; but not God’s wrath, but the wrath of evil. Yes, we need God, but this should be reframed more like a biological need than anything. The fact that humans need oxygen and nutrients isn’t a failure or deficiency or proof that our lungs are depraved—it’s just part of our nature as created beings. Irenaeus, the second century bishop, offers a better framework than Augustine. Instead of seeing humans as having fallen from perfection, Irenaeus saw Adam and Eve as innocent—like children who needed to develop and grow. Even if there had never been a “fall,” Irenaeus argued, we would still need God’s salvific work to achieve perfection. Perfection isn’t an immutable state we lost, but an ever-evolving process we’re growing into.When I read Romans 5 and 6, I don’t see a story about individual moral failure. I see the defeat of cosmic powers—Sin and Death as actual characters in the drama, not just personal weaknesses. Paul writes about Sin and Death as forces that “reign” and compete with God’s authority. The problem isn’t that humans are fundamentally corrupt; the problem is that we’re enslaved to external powers that have been defeated by Jesus.This makes sense of why Paul can say in Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” It’s not that we’ve become morally perfect, but that we’ve switched allegiances—from participation in the cosmic powers of Sin and Death to participation in Christ’s death and resurrection.
Dependence and Responsibility The distinction I want to make is that all people are equally dependent on God, but not everyone is equally guilty before God.Yes, the wealthy enslaver and the enslaved person are both equally dependent on God’s grace for liberation from systemic Sin and Death. But the slaveholder absolutely bears more moral responsibility because they’re actively participating in oppressive systems. There are indeed gradations of moral responsibility based on power and privilege.This shouldn’t be confused with “works righteousness” because salvation is still entirely God’s initiative. The Exodus comes before the Law. Jesus forgives sins before the cross. Forgiveness and liberation are acts God has always been in the business of doing. But as Ephesians 2 says, we are saved by grace through faith in order to accomplish the good works that Jesus has prepared for us. As James says, faith without works is dead.Grace that erases moral guilt and responsibility creates a world where the eight-year-old child apologizing to God for saying the F-word and the enslaver are both equally “diseased by sin.” But sanctification—purification—should look very different for the child than for the enslaver. Jesus Takes Sides The biblical witness is clear: Jesus takes sides. Jesus is willing to declare both “Blessed are the poor” and “woe to the rich.” The Magnificat declares that God “has cast down rulers from their thrones and exalted those who are lowly, filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” The prophets consistently show God’s anger at those who “grind the face of the poor” while offering protection to the vulnerable.Yes, there’s absolutely universality to God’s liberative work—God is working for the liberation of all people. But that requires side-taking to be just. If God’s goal is the liberation of all, then removing rulers from power and wealth from the wealthy is actually their liberation too. As the church fathers said, there are no such thing as riches honestly gotten. Freeing the oppressor from their role as oppressor is ultimately for their good, even if it feels painful as they’re cast from their thrones.This is why total depravity theology can be so dangerous when applied to social justice. It neuters the possibility of conversations about race or gender by insisting that white people and racialized minorities are equally guilty for racism, that men and women bear equal responsibility for patriarchy. It flattens power dynamics in ways that protect the status quo.When someone says “we’re all equally sinful,” it can serve as a shut-down for calls for systemic change. But that’s not what the gospel demands. Raising Children Who Know Their Beauty I think about that eight-year-old version of myself, frantically confessing sins before bed, and I want something different for my children. We should raise children with an inherent belief in their beauty and goodness. Not because they’re incapable of wrongdoing (hardly), but because they’re made in the image of God and God desires to be close to them.God doesn’t see us as so awful that God had to turn away from us. The incarnation is God choosing to get closer, not farther. When Jesus encounters children in the Gospels, he doesn’t see “vipers in diapers”—he sees the Kingdom of God. He says we must become like children to enter that kingdom.This doesn’t mean children don’t need guidance, boundaries, or formation. But it means we start with their inherent dignity rather than their supposed corruption. We teach them about sin as a power that affects all creation—including them—but not as their fundamental identity. A Theology for Transformation I’m still working through some of this. I want to maintain the relationship between creator and created. I don’t believe humanity is capable of its own salvation—God is the primary mover in the universe, moving us toward shalom. But I also believe we’re capable of participating in that work of transformation.We can work toward a more just society because we’re made in God’s image and empowered by God’s Spirit. We can reject systems of oppression because we’ve been liberated from the cosmic powers of Sin and Death. We can hold people accountable for harm while still believing in their capacity for repentance and restoration.Total depravity theology tells us we’re fundamentally broken and need to settle for charity as a band-aid. But what if we’re fundamentally dependent creatures designed for relationship with God and each other? What if the brokenness we experience comes from systems and powers that have been defeated, not from some intrinsic corruption within ourselves?That eight-year-old lying in bed, scraping his soul clean—he wasn’t experiencing healthy spiritual formation. He was living under a theology that had turned God into a cosmic accountant keeping track of infractions. But the God Jesus reveals isn’t interested in our misery or our terror. God is interested in our flourishing, our liberation, our becoming who we were always meant to be. We can do better than total depravity. We can embrace total dependence while refusing to flatten moral responsibility. We can recognize our need for God without believing terrible things about ourselves or our children. And we can work for the transformation of the world because that’s exactly what God is already doing.Living this means raising children who know they’re beloved. It means taking sides with the oppressed. It means believing that a more just society is possible because God is already working to make it so.The question isn’t whether we’re fundamentally good or evil—the question is whether we’ll participate in God’s work of liberation or resist it.
How do we learn to see and appreciate through eyes of love? —Brian McLaren and Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Learning How to See
In the Learning How to See podcast, Brian McLaren describes some of the lenses that keep us from seeing the world clearly:
Any of us who wear glasses know the experience of being in the optometrist’s office. You sit behind a machine where the optometrist gradually adjusts a series of lenses to help you get the right prescription to correct faulty vision. There’s a click and the doctor says, “Is that clearer now?” Click again. “Is that clearer or less clear?” Click again. “How about now?”…
Some lenses help us see more clearly, others less clearly. Let me mention three lenses that make our seeing worse. One is the lens of authoritarianism. Through the lens of authoritarianism, we look at every person and judge them based on whether they share our allegiance against that common enemy, and allegiance to a dictator or a strongman. Authoritarianism always reduces our sight. Another lens is the lens of scapegoating, where we feel better about ourselves by uniting ourselves and projecting our aggression and shame on some other group of people, making them into an enemy. Scapegoating reduces the clarity of our vision, and so does supremacy, whether it’s based on race, religion, party, ideology, or nation. People spend billions of dollars to change the way we see each other through advertising, politics, propaganda, and the algorithms on social media. We all face the constant struggle of having our vision reduced by authoritarianism, scapegoating, supremacy, and no doubt, other bad lenses as well. [1]
When asked about the lens through which she chooses to see the world, Quaker songwriter Carrie Newcomer shares her practice of seeing with the eyes of love:
My life as a songwriter and a poet has asked me to consider how I look at the world on a daily, moment-to-moment kind of way…. Our first job is to pay attention and then to take in what we see with a certain kind of spirit and for me, a certain kind of love. I think it’s a practice and the more you practice it, the more you see; the more you see, the more you see with love….
The big things I love: I love my husband. I love my daughter. I love justice. I love mercy…. I love so many big things, but my life is also filled every day with all these glorious little loves…. There can be great meaning and great love in small things. I love blueberries and I love the smell of lilacs and I love how little kids hold each other’s hands when they go across the street….
In looking at the small moment and the small thing through love, it’s not always completely joyous…. You take it all. When you decide I’m going to be here, I’m going to be present, and I’m going to be present with love, you take it all. [2]
A Choice for Love
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I’m giving you a new commandment so you’ll know where I am, and who I am: You must love one another. —John 13:33–35, paraphrased by Richard Rohr
Father Richard Rohr speaks on Jesus’ command to love one another in John’s Gospel:
Sister and brothers, the energy with which we do things matters. To be in love is to be standing in a different space. Love is not only what we do; it’s how we do it. When we stand in the state of love that Jesus offers, we live inside of a different energy. For those moments, we’re not entirely self-preoccupied. We try to care for the world. We’re able to say, “I have one life and when I leave here, I want to make sure this world is a little better because I was here.” What might happen if we woke up each day with this intention: “How can my existence on this earth increase the quality of life on this planet?”
Jesus says, “I’ll be with you only a little while longer, so I’m going to leave a sign that I’m still here. I’m going to reveal myself in the presence of loving people” (John 13:33–35, Richard’s paraphrase). That’s the only way anyone can know God. If we’ve never let anyone love us, and if we’ve never let love flow through us—gratuitously, generously, undeservedly—toward others, then we can’t possibly know who God is. God is just a theory or abstraction. If “God is love” (1 John 4:8) then those who live in love, live in God, and know God experientially. There’s no other way we can know who God is—or who we truly are—but to love and be loved. Take that as an absolute!
Love is not something we decide to do now and then. Love is who we are! Our basic, foundational existence—created in the image of the Trinity—is love. Remember, Trinity is saying that God is not an isolated divine being. God is a quality of relationship itself, an event of communion, an infinite flow of outpouring. God is an action more than a substance, to put it succinctly.
Love, like forgiveness, is a decision. It’s a decision in our minds and in our hearts. And we’d better make it early in the day, because once we’re a few hours into low-level resentment, anger, or disappointment, it’s too late. When we’re not choosing love, we’ll use any excuse to be unhappy or irritated. We’re already unhappy, and then something gives us an excuse to externalize it. The exact object for our unhappiness is actually arbitrary. Unhappiness just needs an object—as do happiness and love. We have to recognize ahead of time when we’re not living in love. This is surely why a morning prayer or practice is so important—to allow us to choose to love each and every day.
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Friday Five from John Chaffee
Hello Friends!A happy thing happened this past week: I discovered a small group of about 25 men who will be using my most recent book, The Way of Holy Foolishness, as their quarterly reading selection. The book was released roughly a year ago, and I put considerable effort into making it as good as possible, specifically for small groups to read together. Some might call that a failure that it took a year to be noticed, but I was honestly quite happy to find out that it will be read at all. Here is the thing: We can each put as much energy and hope as we can into a project, but at the end of the day, we must let go of any attachment to how it is received. There have been days when I’ve beaten myself up because the projects I’m working on don’t become best-sellers, and that in itself is causing me to do a lot of reflection on my own ego and need for validation. But then I met up with an old professor of mine, a professor whom I looked up to since taking his classes in college nearly 20 years ago… He said that most days, when he is in the right frame of mind, he prays, “Lord, just let me help people today.” He said that prayer has helped him along throughout the years, and you know what? He said that God answered that prayer many times over. And, if I am being honest, that prayer is something I have said every day this week when alone, and it has given me a good jolt of extra energy for several things. So keep pressing on. Try to help people around you. Don’t worry so much about the outcomes, and instead fall in love with the process of simply helping others. As always, thank you for reading!
Earlier in the week, I had a meet-up with an interesting church worker. Over Boba Tea, we chatted about education and how the Church could do a better job of it.One thing that we both agreed upon is that, in our experience, churches tend to teach the basics of the faith without providing people with much exposure to the rest of the tradition. By this, I mean that very rarely will you hear a church quote someone from outside their own denomination, or rarely from before their (Protestant) denomination was established.We both imagined what it could be like if churches took it as their responsibility to teach people “the new way to be human,” which reminded me of this quote from Maximus the Confessor. Maximus was a monk and theologian who sought to develop the implications of the Chalcedonian Creed fully. As a result, many of his writings are refreshing because they are grounded in the harmonious interplay of humanity and divinity, rather than being at odds.“The entirely new way of being human” that Maximus writes about is in full solidarity with Ephesians, which speaks of Jesus coming to create a “new humanity” full of love and virtue.
2.”It is no small pity, and should cause us no little shame, that, through our own fault, we do not understand ourselves, or know who we are.”- Teresa of Avila, 16th Century Carmelite Nun
I am in the midst of another re-read of Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle. It is likely my favorite piece of Christian mysticism ever written, with a very close follow by St. John of the Cross’ poetry, and The Flowing Light of the Godhead by Mechthilde of Magdeburg.It might be my 5th or 6th re-read, and this time I am using a blue highlighter. Each time I reread a text, I use a different color highlighter to mark what stood out to me differently this time. Fascinatingly enough, the quote above has been underlined, starred, and highlighted multiple times, which means the wisdom of the quote is timeless.
3.”The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.”- Walter Brueggemann, Old Testament Scholar
It has been a tumultuous week in the news. The Epstein file scandal seems to be implicating the current president, the National Guard is being deployed to historically more black cities, Charlie Kirk was assassinated, children are dying in Gaza, the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, and more.Watching the news may be an addiction for some, something to avoid for others, and a civic or even spiritual duty for others to stay up to date with. I find myself looking at the news less often than I used to, but consciously turning to it out of some form of spiritual obligation.For the most part, I think people understand the Old Testament prophets as people who (1) gave cranky foretellings of destruction and (2) occasionally said things that point toward Jesus.Walter Brueggemann’s work helped me understand that the role of the Old Testament prophet was twofold: to provide prophetic critique of the current ordering of the world, and to offer hopeful imagination for how the world might be if it followed the principles of Yahweh.This invariably means prophets name with surgical precision to the abuse of power by political and religious authorities, exposing their hypocrisy, and firmly stating that if the current order does not change, then economic collapse will occur. It then offers an imaginative interpretation of what a better future might look like. Here’s the thing: the abusive leadership of today benefits from you and me not believing a different world is possible.They might even go so far as to say that the current ordering that they are protecting or trying to make happen is what God wants to have happen, and thereby hijack people’s piety for the sake of their own gain.It is for this reason that prophets rarely come from the inner circle of the political or religious leadership. Prophets exist on the fringes. This means that if we want to find the prophetic voices that give prophetic critique and hopeful imagination, we must look to the bottom or the edges of society.
5.”If we want to grow as teachers — we must do something alien to academic culture: we must talk to each other about our inner lives — risky stuff in a profession that fears the personal and seeks safety in the technical, the distant, the abstract.”- Parker Palmer, Founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal
Both of my parents were educators.My Mom was a professor of literacy at the graduate level after years of working in elementary, and my Dad was a middle school teacher who also taught at the auctioneering school my Grandfather helped found.As a result, education is very close to my heart. I have crafted a life in which most of my endeavors are educational, even though they are not all in the classroom.To be an educator is far more than simply passing on information; it is about the overall formation of the student, and ideally, through the humanity of the student encountering the humanity of the educator. It is at that precise moment that education shifts to being vulnerable mentoring.The world is not starved for more information; it is starved for incarnated wisdom and love.
Richard Rohr encourages us to bring our contemplative minds to the question of power and act according to the gospel:
Without the nondual mind, it’s almost impossible for us to find another way of doing politics.Grounding social action in contemplative consciousness is not a luxury for a few but a cultural necessity. Both the Christian religion and American psyche need deep cleansing and healing from our many unhealed wounds. Only a contemplative mind can hold our fear, confusion, vulnerability, and anger and guide us toward love.
Contemplative Christians can model a way of building a collaborative, compassionate politics. I suggest we start by reclaiming the wisdom of Trinity, a circle dance of mutuality and communion. Humans—especially the powerful, the wealthy, and supporters of the patriarchal system—are more comfortable with a divine monarch at the top of pyramidal reality. So Christians made Jesus into a distant, imperial God rather than a living member of divine-human relationship.
Spiritual power is more circular or spiral, and not so much hierarchical. It’s shared and shareable. God’s Spirit is planted within each of us and operating as each of us (see Romans 5:5)! The Trinity shows that God’s power is not domination, threat, or coercion. All divine power is shared power and the letting go of autonomous power.
There’s no seeking of power over in the Trinity, but only power with—giving away and humbly receiving. This should have changed all Christian relationships: in churches, marriage, culture, and even international relations. Isaiah tried to teach such servanthood to Israel in the classic four “servant songs.” [1] But Hebrew history preceded what Christianity repeated: both traditions preferred kings, wars, and empires instead of suffering servanthood or leveling love.
Since this is so ingrained in our psyche, we must work hard to dismantle systems of domination. I emphatically state, together with my fellow Christian elders and leaders:
We believe our elected officials are called to public service, not public tyranny, so we must protect the limits, checks, and balances of democracy and encourage humility and civility on the part of elected officials….
We reject any moves toward autocratic political leadership and authoritarian rule…. Disrespect for the rule of law, not recognizing the equal importance of our three branches of government, and replacing civility with dehumanizing hostility toward opponents are of great concern to us. Neglecting the ethic of public service and accountability, in favor of personal recognition and gain often characterized by offensive arrogance, are not just political issues for us. They raise deeper concerns about political idolatry, accompanied by false and unconstitutional notions of authority. [2]
What if we actually surrendered to the inner Trinitarian flow and let it be our primary teacher? Our view of politics and authority would utterly change. We already have all the power (dynamis) we need both within us and between us—in fact, Jesus assures us that we are already “clothed” in it “from on high” (see Luke 24:49)!
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Sarah Young Jesus Calling
Rejoice in Me always! No matter what is going on, you can rejoice in your Love-relationship with Me. This is the secret of being content in all circumstances. So many people dream of the day when they will finally be happy: when they are out of debt, when their children are out of trouble; when they have more leisure time, and so on. While they daydream, their moments are trickling into the ground like precious balm spilling wastefully from overturned bottles. Fantasizing about future happiness will never bring fulfillment, because fantasy is unreality. Even though I am invisible, I am far more Real than the world you see around you. My reality is eternal and unchanging. Bring your moments to Me, and I will fill them with vibrant Joy. Now is the time to rejoice in My Presence!
RELATED BIBLE VERSES:
Philippians 4:4 (NLT) 4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!
Additional insight regarding Philippians 4:4: It seems strange that a man in prison would be telling a church to rejoice. But Paul’s attitude teaches us an important lesson: Our inner attitudes do not have to reflect our outward circumstances. Paul was full of joy because he knew that no matter what happened to him, Jesus Christ was with him. Several times in this letter Paul urged the Philippians to be joyful, probably because they needed to hear this. It’s easy to get discouraged about unpleasant circumstances or take unimportant events too seriously. If you haven’t been joyful lately, you may not be looking at life from the right perspective.
Philippians 4:12 (NLT) 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.
Additional insight regarding Philippians 4:12: Paul could get along happily because he could see life from God’s point of view. He focused on what he was supposed to do, not what he felt he should have. Paul had his priorities straight, and he was grateful for everything God had given him. Paul had detached himself from the nonessentials so that he could concentrate on the eternal. Often the desire for more or better possessions is really a longing to fill an empty space in a person’s life. To what are you drawn when you feel empty inside? How can you find true contentment? The answer lies in your perspective, your priorities, and your source of power.
Psalm 102:27 (NLT) 27 But you are always the same; you will live forever.
Additional insight regarding Psalm 102:27: God our creator is eternally with us and will keep all his promises, even though we may feel alone. The world will perish, but God will remain. Hebrews 1:10-12 quotes these verses to show that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, was also present and active at the creation of the world.
Jesus instructed, “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” —Matthew 10:16
Faith-based organizer Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra reflects on Jesus’ teaching in Scripture about wielding power:
In Matthew 10:16, Jesus calls his disciples to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Serpent power is evident and measurable—it is the power of force, wealth, social influence and numbers. There is nothing wrong with the use of serpent power with integrity…. However, if all we use is serpent power, we have lost our unique call and contribution—the capacity to embody the power of the dove….
When we take dove power seriously, we take seriously the best in people, the reality of the image of God in each of us and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. We know that power is manifested every day in our communities in a multitude of ways. Besides the serpent powers of position, physical force, money and numbers, we believe in the power of prayer. We believe in the power of truth and the power of love. We believe that there are contexts and moments in which moral authority is real, tangible and effective.
Salvatierra tells a story revealing Bishop Desmond Tutu’s “dovelike” power:
Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa was threatened by the government to stop speaking out against apartheid. On one Easter morning soldiers were sent to his church. They lined the walls of the sanctuary holding loaded rifles. The congregation was frightened that Bishop Tutu would speak against apartheid and that the soldiers would start shooting. They were also frightened that he would not speak—for then the regime would have effectively won.
Bishop Tutu began bouncing on his heels and laughing, laughing uproariously, laughing like a child. The laughter was contagious. Soon, everyone was laughing, even some of the soldiers…. Bishop Tutu went on to preach against apartheid and he was not shot.
Bishop Tutu did not have the power of force…. He did not have the power of wealth…. He did not have the power of numbers…. In this instance Bishop Tutu did not have serpent power; his was the power of the dove, residing in his faith, hope and love. Tutu’s faith gave him the capacity for joy in all circumstances. His faith in the coming kingdom of God brought the experience of the future into the present, making it real for his audience. He did not fear for the future; he awaited it expectantly and called his listeners into it. This lack of fear allowed him to look past the guns, see the boys holding the guns, and love them. His love, faith and hope had real-world power….
The apparent barriers to action rarely stand up to dove power. When people are reminded of the strength of their faith, their fear subsides. And when they are invited to lean into their faith, they are emboldened by God’s provision.
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Sarah Young
I am always available to you. Once you have trusted Me as your Savior, I never distance Myself from you. Sometimes you may feel distant from Me. Recognize that as feeling; do not confuse it with reality. The Bible is full of My Promises to be with you always. As I assured Jacob, when he was journeying away from home into unknown places, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. My last recorded promise to My followers was: Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Let these assurances of My continual Presence fill you with Joy and Peace. No matter what you may lose in this life, you can never lose your relationship with Me.
RELATED BIBLE SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 54:10 (NLT) 10 For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you.
Additional insight regarding Isaiah 54:10: God made a covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:8-17 that has never been broken.
Genesis 28:15 (NLT) 15 What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”
Additional insight regarding Genesis 28:10-15: God’s covenant promise to Abraham and Isaac was offered to Jacob as well. But it was not enough to be Abraham’s grandson; Jacob has to establish his own personal relationship with God. God has no grandchildren; each person must have a personal relationship with him. It is not enough to hear wonderful stories about Christians in your family. You need to become part of the story yourself (see Galatians 3:6-7 – “6 In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” 7 The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.).
Matthew 28:20 (NLT) 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Additional insight regarding Matthew 28:20: How is Jesus “with” us? Jesus was with the disciples physically until he ascended into Heaven and then spiritually through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4). The Holy Spirit would be Jesus’ presence that would never leave them (John 14:26 – “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”). Jesus continues to be with us today through his Spirit.
Brian McLaren reflects on the different understandings of power held by the early Jesus movement and the Roman Empire:
The historical reality of Christian empire, like Christian anti-Semitism, is bathed in irony. Jesus was an oppressed brown Palestinian Jew, living in a Middle Eastern nation that was occupied by a European empire centered in Rome. Jesus challenged the empire of Rome by proclaiming an alternative empire, the empire of God. The similarity of the terms highlighted the radical contrasts between the two empires:
Rome’s empire was violent. God’s empire was nonviolent.
Rome’s empire was characterized by domination. God’s empire was characterized by service and liberation.
Rome’s empire was preoccupied with money. God’s empire was preoccupied with generosity and was deeply suspicious of money.
Rome’s empire was fueled by the love of power. God’s empire was fueled by the power of love.
Rome’s empire created a domination pyramid that put a powerful and violent man on the top, with chains of command and submission that put everyone else in their place beneath the supreme leader. God’s empire created a network of solidarity and mutuality that turned conventional pyramids upside down and gave “the last, the least, and the lost” the honored place at the table.
Not surprisingly, the Roman Empire saw Jesus and his nonviolent movement as a threat to their violent regime, so they had him tortured and publicly executed as a matter of standard procedure. By pinning a naked human being to wood … the empire showed its own absolute dominance and its victim’s absolute defeat. The message was clear: Jesus’ message of truth and love meant nothing in the face of the empire’s crushing power and domination….
Echoing its founder’s nonviolence, the Christian faith initially grew as a nonviolent spiritual movement of counter-imperial values. It promoted love, not war. Its primal creed elevated solidarity, not oppression and exclusion: “For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26–28). The early Christians elevated the equality of friendship rather than the supremacy of hierarchy (John 15:15; 3 John 14, 15). Because of their counter-imperial posture, including their refusal to be soldiers in the Roman army or to participate in the imperial cult that proclaimed the divinity of the emperor, they were often mocked, distrusted as unpatriotic, and persecuted.
McLaren confronts what Christianity has lost in its embrace of the power of empire:
Since Constantine, Christianity has repeatedly claimed a legitimate right to do violence to its members [and others] to protect its interests and conserve its supremacy. It has sought far-reaching and sometimes almost limitless control over the behavior and minds of its subjects. At times, it has behaved like a totalitarian power, suppressing dissent and claiming divine and absolute authority, capable of absolute corruption.
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When Rome Wears the Skin of Christianity
Jesus didn’t come to make Rome nicer. It came to make Rome obsolete. The fact that Rome is back, wearing Jesus’ name tag, should enrage every single one of us.
By Anthony Parrott • 10 Sept 2025
See if you recognize this political movement I’ve been reading about. Their core beliefs are pretty straightforward: The poor deserve what they get. If people are struggling financially, it’s because of their own bad decisions, laziness, or moral failures. Helping them just enables their weakness. Immigrants and foreigners are inherently dangerous to our way of life. They bring crime, disease, and foreign ideas that corrupt our pure culture. The wise response is to keep them out or, at minimum, keep them in their proper place. Empathy is actually weakness. Feeling sorry for people’s suffering makes you soft and clouds your judgment. A strong leader doesn’t get distracted by bleeding hearts—they make the hard decisions that weak people can’t stomach. The sick and disabled are burdens on society. Resources spent caring for them could be better used on productive citizens. While we shouldn’t be cruel, we also shouldn’t pretend they contribute much value. Social programs create dependency and undermine personal responsibility. True charity comes from individuals, not governments. Public welfare corrupts both the giver and receiver.The lower classes need to know their place. Society works best when everyone accepts their natural station. Equality is a dangerous fiction that leads to chaos. Traditional values and cultural purity must be protected at all costs. Mixing with outsiders or accepting foreign ways weakens the community and threatens everything our ancestors built.
Oh and I should mention this political movement existed two thousand years ago. I’m talking about Rome.The empire that crucified Jesus for being a threat to exactly these values. What’s awful is I very well could have been describing large swaths of American Christianity in 2025, and you wouldn’t have blinked. The fact that you probably nodded along, thinking “Yeah, sounds about right for the MAGA, Christian Nationalist crowd,” tells us everything we need to know about how far we’ve fallen.
Because Christianity was supposed to be the radical opposite of all this. When Jesus showed up, he wasn’t trying to tweak Roman values—he was (non-violently) obliterating them. The idea that you should help the poor, care for the sick, welcome the stranger, treat slaves as equals, show empathy to the suffering? This was revolutionary. This was new. This was dangerous enough to get you killed.
Roman philosophy said the poor deserved their poverty.Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor.”Rome said foreigners were threats.Jesus said, “Welcome the stranger.”Rome said empathy was weakness.Jesus wept.
And now we have a form of Christianity that has hollowed out the gospel, scooped out its heart and soul and blood, and put on its husk like some demonic skinwalker. It calls empathy sin. It blames the poor for poverty. It treats immigrants like invaders.
It abandons the sick and disabled as burdens. It opposes the very social programs that early Christians pioneered.
The early Christians didn’t merely practice individual charity—they revolutionized civic life. Basil of Caesarea built the first hospital. Fourth-century Christians created systematic welfare programs within each polis. They understood that following Jesus meant transforming not just hearts, but systems.
For modern Christians to oppose welfare, public healthcare, education, immigration, international aid, and care for refugees is to abandon the faith our ancestors died for. This betrays our tradition. It’s choosing Caesar over Christ, Rome over the kingdom of God.
When Rome looked at a suffering person, they saw someone getting what they deserved. When Jesus looked at suffering people, he saw the image of God being crushed by systems that needed to be transformed.We know which side built hospitals. We know which side fed the hungry. We know which side welcomed the stranger.
And we know which side is currently wearing Christianity’s skin while serving Rome’s spirit. Are we awake enough to tell the difference? Because if we can’t distinguish between the empire that killed Jesus and the movement that follows him, we’re well and truly lost.
Jesus didn’t come to make Rome nicer. It came to make Rome obsolete. The fact that Rome is back, wearing Jesus’ name tag, should enrage every single one of us.
This CO2- (Church Of 2) is where two guys meet each day to tighten up our Connections with Jesus. We start by placing the daily “My Utmost For His Highest” in this WordPress blog. Then we prayerfully select some matching worship music and usually pick out a few lyrics that fit especially well. Then we just start praying and editing and Bolding and adding comments and see where the Spirit takes us.
It’s been a blessing for both of us.
If you’d like to start a CO2, we’d be glad to help you and your partner get started. Also click the link below to see how others are doing CO2.Odds Monkey
Steve Harvey Introduces Jesus To A Secular Audience
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