Healing Power and the Church

Friday, January 31, 2025

Father Richard critiques how, even within Christianity, we doubt the healing power of the gospel:  

When religion is not about healing, it really doesn’t have much to offer people in this life. Many have called it “carrot on the stick” theology or, as my friend Brian McLaren says, we made the gospel largely into “an evacuation plan for the next world.” If we don’t understand the need and desire for healing, then salvation (salus, or healing) becomes a matter of hoping for some delayed gratification. We desperately need healing for groups, institutions, marriages, the wounds of war, violence, racism, and the endless social problems in which we are drowning today. But we won’t know how to heal if we don’t learn the skills at ground zero: the individual human heart.  

For much of its history following CE 313 when Christianity became the imperial religion of the Roman Empire, the church’s concern was not healing, but rather maintaining social and church order: the doling out of graces and indulgences (as if that were possible); granting dispensations, annulments, and absolutions, along with the appropriate penalties; keeping people in first marriages at all costs, instead of seeing marriage itself as an arena for growth, forgiveness, and transformation for wife, husband, children, and the whole extended family, and beyond. In general, we tried to resolve issues of the soul and the Spirit by juridical means, which seldom works.  

We’ve largely lost the very word healing in mainline Christian churches. Around the time I entered into ministry, there was a resurgence in the notion of healing prayer and healing services. Many Catholics thought, “Well, this must come from the Protestants; we’re not into healing!” And of course, they were right! Many Catholics didn’t expect to really become healed people in an inner or outer way. As priests, we felt our job was to absolve sin rather than help people to grow and heal. “Get rid of the contaminating element,” as it were, rather than “Learn what you can about yourself and God because of this conflict, pain, or suffering.” Those are two very different paths. In the four Gospels, Jesus did two things over and over again: he preached and he healed. We did a lot of preaching, but not too much healing. We didn’t know how.  

I’m convinced that if preaching doesn’t effect some level of healing or transformation in the listener, then it’s not even the gospel being preached. Healing is the simplest criterion of preaching the word that I can imagine. The truth heals and expands us in its very hearing: “The truth will make you free” (John 8:32). It allows and presses us to reconfigure the world with plenty of room for gentleness and peace for ourselves, and for those around us. Only whole people can imagine or call forth a more whole world.  

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5 on Friday John Chaffee

1.”You must be prepared to work always without applause.”- Ernest Hemmingway, American Author One of the things I struggle with is the need for approval.  I am confident that this malady affects many of us.  This is especially true for anyone who attempts to be creative. Over the past three years, I have created podcasts, videos, audio files, books, blogs, seminars, and classes.  You would think that my need for someone to say “Good job” would soften after some time.  If I am being honest, it is not so much that I want approval from everyone, but a part of me wants approval from those I look up to or care about. Perhaps that is why this line from Hemmingway struck me so hard. I must be willing to do good work for the sake of doing good work, not as any means of getting approval. Creating good things that help the world progress or move a little closer to a beautiful and just world is its own reward. 2. “You should run a thousand miles from such expressions as: ‘I was right.'” St. Teresa of Avila, 16th Century Carmelite Nun. Humility, humility, humility. After Love, it is easy to see why humility is necessary to live a meaningful life. Teresa of Avila has influenced me greatly, and I know I have said that before. Her works and her wisdom were the gateway for me to step through and into a whole new journey. She radically redefined my understanding of faith and the pilgrim way that accompanies it. Faith formation has little to do with going anywhere and is more about being present at the moment and finding the profound presence of God in and among everything. There may not be anything as toxic to healthy spirituality as pride. The need to be seen as correct has led to the downfall of many people. Greatness is not defined by being right but by being humbly and humorously human. 3. “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.” Martin Luther King Jr., Pastor and Civil Rights Activist We are all in this together, even if we do not believe it or see it. The word “diabolical” means to separate or to break things apart. Anything that encourages or promulgates some level of separation or division is inherently diabolical. Isn’t that amazing? The word can still define a spiritual reality, but for me, it has taken on another aspect of identifying things that fracture our world. It is for this reason that justice must be sought in all places. If justice is not happening to one segment of humanity, it is roundabout affecting the whole with its injustice. If Jesus taught us anything, it is that God’s will is that we descend from our distant and lofty places and learn to identify with those who are suffering. 4. “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Activist and Public Figure. Mahatma Gandhi gave Christianity a gift with this one. His gift was that of being a mirror, of reflecting back to Christendom how the rest of the world was experiencing it. When we go too long without someone who can honestly reflect back to us how we are being experienced, we can fall into thinking that others see us as we see ourselves. As human beings, we have an inherent psychological need to see ourselves as either the hero or the victim, but never the villain. We are blind to that possibility. We will draw up elaborate explanations and rationalizations so as not to see ourselves as the ones creating havoc in the world. When we combine hubris and an inability to self-critique with political power and influence, we set ourselves up for a cacophony of disasters. Through this quote, Mahatma Gandhi was fulfilling the biblical role of a prophet. He was outside of Christianity, looking in and naming what those inside did not want to admit. 5. “Go kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight.” Bruce Cockburn, Canadian Folk Singer Man, that’s good. The style of music is not my favorite, but a good lyric goes a long way. Something I am reading: Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Yep, I’m still making my way through this one. I am taking my time with it because it is a text I genuinely enjoy. One thing that stands out in this reread is the smaller statements against Christian nationalism throughout this book. It should come as no surprise that it was written at an illegal seminary at a time when the German Church was shaking hands with Adolf Hitler. Discipleship is a product of its age and yet speaks to every age.

The thing about domestic violence and intimate partner abuse is sometimes we don’t see it because everything appears normal. Because there is no one type of abuse victim, often people are being abused and we have no idea…. Then there are times when we do, yet we pretend not to see…. The friends in this passage who knew their friend needed help did not turn the other way; they instead went and picked him up to get him some help.
—Rev. Kamilah Hall Sharp 

In a sermon on the healing of the paralyzed man (Luke 5:17–25), Rev. Kamilah Hall Sharp challenges the church to support those who are suffering from the terrors of domestic abuse: 

Here [the paralyzed man] is unable to walk around freely, depending on others, and being marginalized because in this society most people believed if something was wrong with you, it was because you sinned. You did something wrong or your parents did something wrong. The pain one must feel to have been told the only reason this is happening to you is because of what you did wrong. The pain one must feel when they internalize this and begin to believe it. Here he is living with this, and his friends now are taking him to get help…. I don’t know if the man asked them or if it was the friends’ idea. What I do know is the friends are now taking him. That tells me two things: (1) The friends had to be willing to take him, and (2) the man had to be willing to go.  

See, what that means for us is as a community we have to be willing to help those in need and those of us who have been abused must be willing to take help. What would it look like if we were the friends lowering our sister before Jesus? What would it look like if we came as a community around our people in need and said, “My friend, I got you in this time of need”? How does the church create a space where people feel safe and comfortable enough to come and say, “I need help; I’m in danger”? 

Sharp affirms God’s desire that all be healed and helped.   

For so long, we have failed victims of domestic violence…. Please hear me when I say this; I do not believe God wants any of us to stay in a relationship where we are being abused, married or not. I believe God loves us too much to want us to be abused. God does not want what God has created and said is wonderfully and fearfully made harmed in any way. And as the church, as followers of Jesus, we should not want anyone to be abused for the sake of staying married…. We must be willing to help…. I think we sometimes forget we are the hands and feet of Jesus. We can show or take people to get the help they need. 

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Sara Young Jesus Calling

Worship Me only. Whatever occupies your mind the most becomes your god. Worries, if indulged, develop into idols. Anxiety gains a life of its own, parasitically infesting your mind. Break free from this bondage by affirming your trust in Me and refreshing yourself in My Presence. What goes on in your mind is invisible, undetectable to other people. But I read your thoughts continually, searching for evidence of trust in Me. I rejoice when your mind turns toward Me. Guard your thoughts diligently; good thought choices will keep you close to Me.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Psalm 112:7 NLT

7 They do not fear bad news;

    they confidently trust the Lord to care for them.

1st Corinthians 13:11

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.

Jesus’ Healing Touch

A leper came to him begging…, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” —Mark 1:40–41 

Womanist biblical scholar Dr. Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder describes the social ostracization caused by skin disease in Jesus’ time:    

Leprosy was the term for a range of diseases from house mold to ringworm, from psoriasis to what is termed Hansen’s disease (modern-day leprosy). The common symptom was the breaking of the skin. The resulting impurity and the stigma that went with it prevented the infected person from fully participating in society. For the man who now seeks a cure from Jesus, this social barrier is as damaging as the physical malady. [1] 

Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann emphasizes that we are all in need of Jesus’ healing touch: 

[Jesus] touched him. He put his strong hand into the sore skin. He risked touching the contagious skin and thereby making himself, as well, socially unacceptable and ritually impure. He risked all of that in his compassion. And the narrator says, “Immediately! The leprosy left him, and he was made clean.”…

Now I know this is not your story. I assume that you are like me; none of you likely has leprosy. But leprosy in the Bible becomes a metaphor for all kinds of diseases and malfunctions.  

Some of you may be HIV positive and find it to be a social disease with a stigma attached, a lot like leprosy.  

Some of you may have an addiction that has power over you, a lot like leprosy.  

Some of you are in a tough marriage or at the brink of a failed marriage, a lot like leprosy.  

Some of you have broken relations with a kid or a parent, a lot like leprosy.  

Some of you have made bad decisions, and wish you could undo them, but cannot find a way, a lot like leprosy….  

Take that list, extend it toward yourself. And slot it all under “L” for leprosy. Leprosy is the threat that may undo the world, … because such a disease overrides all barriers and leaves all under threat.  

Brueggemann imagines those healed by Jesus singing Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” 

A lot of lepers are still in the night. But they wait for the morning when comes healing. This faith of … Jesus and the church is not a moral code or an ideology or a quarrel. It is rather a performance of transformation, of old made new, of lost found, of dead made alive. And the whole cosmos is filled with the singing of ex-lepers, the saints of God who attest that gifts from the holy God are given that make for life. [2] 

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What Are We Going to Do?

Preparing my house to withstand the wildfire of the next four years

DIANA BUTLER BASSJAN 28

Last week, I attended a meeting with a group of faith leaders. The Rev. Traci Blackmon offered a reflection to the gathering about hope and resilience in the midst of the current political turmoil and crisis. “Every day,” she said, “I look at a photograph from a house in Los Angeles. Although it was surrounded by complete devastation from the fires, with entire neighborhoods wiped out, this one house remained.” 

Focusing on this image — sort of like an icon — strengthened her hope. The house — like the few others that survived — employed fire-resistant technologies and architectural building techniques intended to do exactly what they did — not burn down in such a conflagration.

No one, of course, wanted or fully imagined the Los Angeles fires. But a handful of owners had prepared for the worst. In an interview with The Guardian, Jacob Ruano, a federal firefighter, remarked, “This house was perfect; it was built for this. Not all homes are built like that.”

This house … was built for this.

Rev. Blackmon knows a fitting biblical illustration when she sees one: “A wise man built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock,” said Jesus. “A foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell — and great was its fall!”

This house was built for this. 

That’s how we all must think right now, because she insisted, “We are all vulnerable now.”

No one wanted (well, to be truthful, some people did want) the conflagrations of this new administration (who are, sadly, the arsonists). But have we built for this? Is our house ready? What does it take to shore up the walls when the fire has already begun? 

Is my house built for this?

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Since January 20, I’ve been asked one question by scores of friends, neighbors, and readers: What are we going to do? 

I haven’t know what to say.

But Rev. Blackmon’s remarks sparked the epiphany I’ve needed: We can build for the fire. 

As a result, I came up with a list of things to do. I call it the “Ten Ws.” For me. For anyone who is floundering. It isn’t about fixing everything that is being broken. It is about building for the fire. 

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HERE ARE MY TEN Ws:

WAKE UP (everyday)
Sleep is important, but hiding under the covers is bad. Get on some sort of schedule for sleeping and waking. And don’t doom scroll before bed.

WELCOME THE DAY (everyday)
With gratitude. Say “thank you” first thing when you wake. The night and day are still doing their thing, no matter what. You may feel defeated or scared. But you are alive. Life is the first and most fleeting gift. Remember Stephen Hawking: “Where there’s life, there’s hope”

Reread Grateful (or read it for the first time). I wrote it during Trump I. There’s a lot of wisdom in those pages. I’m rereading my own book now. 

WALK (everyday)
Get fresh air and exercise. This isn’t a weight loss program or training for a marathon. Walk to feel the ground under your feet and notice all the little things on your street, in your neighborhood, at the park. Feel your body in the world. Move, be attentive to your world, pray or meditate as you go (if you like). Or just put one foot in front of the other — because that’s the only way through the next four years. 

(BE) WITH OTHERS (everyday)
Don’t isolate yourself. Reach out or connect with someone every single day. Face-to-face, via text or email, or write a letter. Go to church or synagogue. (I know lots of people who have theological questions who go to church just to be with others.) Volunteer to feed the hungry or read to children at the local library (also: support your local library!). Do good for and with others. Go to conferences. Hang out with people you trust. Start a book group. 

WORK (most days, but take Sabbaths too!)
Keep doing your work. Do what you love. Practice your vocation. Don’t try to do everything all the time. Focus on your own gifts and calling. This isn’t just working at a job. Clean your house, rearrange your closets, take up a hobby. You may be challenged in the future to go far beyond your comfort zone. But it is far more likely that the work you do will be your primary arena of acts of assistance, democracy, and justice on behalf of others. Be an everyday hero wherever you are. 

WRITE (everyday, weekly, or often)
Keep a journal of these days. Express yourself as fully as you can in its pages. If you don’t like writing, draw or weave or throw pots. Whatever. Have a creative way to work through your fears, losses, or doubts. You may think you don’t want to remember any of this. But one day, you — or someone who comes after you — will be grateful to know your story of now. And writing or art can clarify things for you. 

WATCH THE NEWS (as able)
You must stay informed. The arsonists want you ignorant. If you can’t watch the news, read or listen to it. Subscribe to a few news digests that deliver news in smaller, digestible bits (I subscribe to ProPublica, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Heather Cox Richardson’s daily newsletter) along with newsletters you trust. I still get the Washington Post and the New York Times, keeping in mind their recent editorial shifts, etc. Support local journalism. Use the mute button on your remote. Be cautious with sources. You don’t need to know everything, but being aware of at least some things is important. 

WIDE-SIGHT (a practice to develop)
Broaden your perspective by looking to the periphery. I wrote about wide-sight in Grateful (pp. 65-67). But I first learned the practice from Parker Palmer in The Courage to Teach (which is still one of my favorite books ever!). Here’s his explanation:

Normally when we are taken by surprise, there is a sudden narrowing of our visual periphery that exacerbates the fight or flight response — an intense, fearful, self-defensive focusing of the “gimlet eye” that is associated with both physical and intellectual combat. But in the Japanese self-defense art of aikido, this visual narrowing is countered by a practice called “soft eyes,” in which one learns to widen one’s periphery, to take in more of the world.

If you introduce a sudden stimulus to an unprepared person, the eyes narrow and the fight or flight syndrome kicks in. But if you train a person to practice soft eyes, then introduce that same stimulus, the reflex is often transcended. This person will turn toward the stimulus, take it in, and then make a more authentic response — such as thinking a new thought.

Don’t get fixated on the direct threats. Instead, remind yourself to look toward the edges of your field of vision. What’s there? What’s not immediately obvious? Is there something on the periphery that is helpful, healing, or hopeful?

WEEP (whenever)
Embrace whatever emotions come up. I’ve cried many days in recent months. But I’ve laughed, too. Don’t judge how you feel on any given day (or at any given hour). Don’t regret the tears and don’t feel guilty about joy — and all the feelings in between the two. If you have someone to talk to about your feelings, share what’s going on.

WONDER (as much as possible)
Go out into nature, spend time at an art museum, listen to your favorite music, read books and poetry, get obsessed with space photos from the Webb telescope — anything that connects you to beauty and deepens your awareness of awe. Researchers have discovered that “awe leads to goodwill, cooperation, and a transformed sense of self as part of a community” (Berkeley professor Dacher Keltner). Embrace mystery. Ask unanswerable questions. Awe is “pro-social” and has been shown to reduce polarization!

Wake up, Welcome the day, Walk, (Be) With others, Work, Write, Watch the news, practice Wide-sight, Weep, and Wonder. 

Some are every day practices, some occasional. Some need to be learned; others are intuitive. This isn’t a to do list. It is a mapMix them up. Borrow what you like or need. Whatever helps. Add your own Ws. Keep it simple.

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That’s what I’m doing. My ten Ws. 

I don’t know how to solve many of the big problems and, frankly, I’m as afraid of what is coming as much as you are. But these ten things seem like a good foundation for a fire-proof house. We didn’t want this disaster, but the wildfire is burning and shows no real sign of being contained. The conflagration comes closer. We want to survive, we want to help others survive, and we want to somehow shape a better future from the ashes.

Let’s make sure we can withstand the storm.

Is your house built for this? 

I know I have work to do. Now. 

Will you join me? 

Disability rights activist and author Amy Kenny challenges the implications of Jesus’ healing of “the blind man” in John 9, whom she refers to as Zach or Zechariah, which means “God remembers.” 

Zach is so much more than his blindness…. Structurally, the focus [of John 9] is not on the physical but on something deeper and richer that Jesus offers to Zach. It is true that Jesus cured people’s bodies as part of his ministry, but this passage is often misinterpreted to perpetuate the notion that disabled people require physical modification to be complete. Jesus’s ministry is not all about a physical cure but about holistic healing. 

Today, we typically think of illness (and sometimes disability) as biological, with Western medicine set up to find and cure disease directly…. Folks in Jesus’s day thought about healing in much broader terms. They talked about healing as restoring relationships and integrating someone back into social and religious systems. The Greek word often used in Scripture for healing is sozo, which means “to make whole” or “to save.” It’s the same word used to talk about salvation. Jesus’s healing is not purely about a physical alteration but about reestablishing right relationship between humanity and God and, hopefully, between individuals and community. Healing allows people to flourish. Modern medicine still recognizes the difference between curing and healing. Curing is a physical process…. [Healing] focuses on restoring interpersonal, social, and spiritual dimensions. It’s lengthy and ongoing because it’s a process of becoming whole…. 

Zach received a physical cure … when he emerged from the pool able to see, but his true healing does not occur until much later in the chapter when he declares, “Lord, I believe,” and worships Jesus (9:38). That’s the moment he’s restored through a conversation with the living God and is finally able to reach the place of worship he’s been excluded from. Jesus is always tearing down the boundaries we put up, and here Jesus reveals the unnecessary barriers of kingdom exclusion. Everyone is now welcome at the table!  

Kenny writes of the fullness of God’s image found in the diversity of people’s physical and mental abilities: 

To assume that my disability needs to be erased in order for me to live an abundant life is disturbing not only because of what it says about me but also because of what it reveals about people’s notions of God. I bear the image of the Alpha and the Omega. My disabled body is a temple for the Holy Spirit. I have the mind of Christ…. I don’t have a junior holy spirit because I am disabled. To suggest that I am anything less than sanctified and redeemed is to suppress the image of God in my disabled body and to limit how God is already at work through my life. Maybe we need to be freed not from disability but from the notion that it limits my ability to showcase God’s radiance to the church.  

The Idol of Politics: The God Gap

Click Here for Audio For decades, sociologists and politicos in the U.S. have noted that a significant percentage of religious believers vote for one party while non-believers vote for the other. They called this the “God gap.” The common explanation for the God gap is that certain strongly-held religious beliefs and values drive people—particularly Christians—to vote for the political party espousing similar views. Simply put, the common assumption is that a person’s religious beliefs determine their political beliefs. New data compiled by Michele Margolis, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, challenges this explanation. Her recent book, From Politics to the Pews, says that our faith often doesn’t determine our politics, but rather our politics determine our faith. Margolis points to research indicating that most Americans’ religious beliefs are not set until relatively late in life—often after marriage and parenthood. Political beliefs, on the other hand, are shaped in late adolescence and early adulthood. That means a person’s conservative or progressive political convictions are usually defined long before their religious convictions. Margolis says that as a result, when later deciding their religious beliefs, Americans will often let their political views determine their spiritual identity; political conservatives are more likely to embrace evangelical Christianity and political progressives are more likely to remain religiously unaffiliated.  Why does this matter? This research reveals that many of us hold our partisan political identity as more foundational than our Christian identity, and that cable news channels are shaping young adults’ beliefs more permanently than their churches or youth ministries. In other words, politics is now occupying the space in our lives that rightfully belongs to God. The real God gap is not between political conservatives and progressives but between those who claim the identity “Christian” and those whose identity is actually shaped by Christ.  DAILY SCRIPTURE REVELATION 2:2–5 1 PETER 2:1–10 WEEKLY PRAYERThomas 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.

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.