{"id":16301,"date":"2017-12-25T09:39:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-25T14:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16301"},"modified":"2017-12-25T09:55:46","modified_gmt":"2017-12-25T14:55:46","slug":"breach-menders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16301","title":{"rendered":"Breach-Menders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZRlkZnrpSdo\" frameborder=\"0\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>From the Bottom Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Summary<\/p>\n<p><strong>Breach-Menders<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sunday, December 24, 2017<\/p>\n<p>The ancient ruins will be rebuilt,<\/p>\n<p>You will build on age-old foundations,<\/p>\n<p>You will be called \u201cBreach-Mender,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Restorer of ruined houses.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Isaiah 58:12<br \/>\nThroughout this year\u2019s Daily Meditations, I have tried to follow in the footsteps of great reformers like Isaiah, Jesus, St. Francis of Assisi, and Martin Luther. In 1205, Francis heard these words in a vision: \u201cRebuild my church, for you see it is falling into ruin.\u201d Francis simply focused on different things, an alternative orthodoxy that he believed was the \u201cmarrow of the Gospel.\u201d<br \/>\nEvery so often, religious institutions become rigid and need to be revived, reformed, and reborn. When churches become machines more than movements, it\u2019s a sign that they must shake off the historical and cultural calcifications so they can continue evolving as a living movement. Just as in Scripture and our own lives, growth is never in a straight line; it is often three steps forward and two steps backward.<br \/>\nThis year, the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation\u2014when so many people are leaving the church and Christianity\u2019s reputation may seem irreparably damaged\u2014felt like a good time to again rebuild our faith \u201cfrom the bottom up.\u201d Rather than coming from those in power at the top, the most effective and lasting change happens at the grass-roots level, led by those who are on the \u201cedge of the inside\u201d and are not dependent upon the status quo.<br \/>\nThis year we\u2019ve explored many first principles or essential elements of the Christian tradition, attempting to clear away the rubble of unhelpful theology, low-level thinking, abuse of power, and misunderstanding. Even if you aren\u2019t Christian, I hope you\u2019ve been able to apply universal themes to your own spiritual journey. Here are just some of those topics (find more in the online archive):<br \/>\n* Scripture, Experience, and Tradition<br \/>\n* Contemplation<br \/>\n* Trinity<br \/>\n* The Cosmic Christ<br \/>\n* Salvation as At-One-Ment<br \/>\n* Law and Grace<br \/>\n* Sin as Separation<br \/>\n* Nonviolence<br \/>\n* Faith and Science<br \/>\n* Sexuality and Gender<br \/>\nI pray that my words will not get in the way of what God is doing in your life and in the world. I pray that these words will not just be words, but \u201cspirit and truth\u201d (John 4:24) that plant you firmly in the breach between the world as it usually is (Power) and the world as it should and could be (Love). Both love and power are the necessary building blocks of God\u2019s peaceful kingdom on earth. Love utterly redefines the nature of power. Power without love is mere brutality (even in the church), and love without power is only the sentimentality of private lives disconnected from the Whole. The Gospel in its fullness holds power and love together, creating new hope and healing for the world.<br \/>\nAs this year draws to a close, may you go and grow forward as a breach-mender, restoring the places in which God\u2019s presence has become hidden or misrepresented. Have courage and be tender.<br \/>\nGateway to Silence:<\/p>\n<p>You make all things new.<br \/>\n&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p><strong>All Things New<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Monday, December 25, 2017<\/p>\n<p>(Christmas)<\/p>\n<p>Yearning for a new way will not produce it. Only ending the old way can do that.<\/p>\n<p>You cannot hold onto the old, all the while declaring that you want something new.<\/p>\n<p>The old will defy the new;<\/p>\n<p>The old will deny the new;<\/p>\n<p>The old will decry the new.<\/p>\n<p>There is only one way to bring in the new. You must make room for it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Neale Donald Walsch [1]<br \/>\nMy spiritual father, Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), was a master of making room for the new and letting go of that which was tired or empty. He was ready for absolute newness from God and therefore could also trust fresh and new attitudes in himself. His God was not tired, and so he was never tired. His God was not old, so Francis remained forever young.<br \/>\nFrancis was the first to create a living nativity scene, bringing to life the revolutionary new way God revealed God\u2019s self in the vulnerability of a baby in a manger. The Incarnation of God in Jesus was foundational to Francis, and he wanted others to experience its life-changing power.<br \/>\nFrancis was at once very traditional and entirely new in the ways of holiness. Franciscanism is not an iconoclastic dismissal of traditional Christian images, history, or culture, but a positive choosing of the deep, shining, and enduring divine images that are hidden beneath the too-easy formulas. It is no fast-food religion, but slow and healthy nutrition.<br \/>\nBoth Jesus and Francis did not let the old get in the way of the new, but like all religious geniuses, revealed what the old was saying all along. Francis both named and exemplified that \u201cfirst, churchless incarnation in the human heart.\u201d [2] But somehow he also knew that it was the half-knowing, organized Church that passed this shared mystery on to him and preserved it for future generations. He had the humility and patience to know that whatever is true is always a shared truth; and only institutions, for all their weaknesses, make this widely shareable, historical, and communal.<br \/>\nBoth Jesus and Francis were \u201cconservatives\u201d in the true sense of the term: they conserved what was worth conserving\u2014the core, the transformative life of the Gospel\u2014and did not let accidentals get in the way. They then ended up looking quite \u201cprogressive,\u201d radical, and even dangerous to the status quo. This is the biblical pattern, from Abraham to Moses, to Jeremiah, Job, John the Baptist, Mary, and Joseph.<\/p>\n<p>Gateway to Silence:<\/p>\n<p>You make all things new.<br \/>\n&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p>His Birth and Our New Birth<\/p>\n<p>By Oswald Chambers<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,&#8221; which is translated, &#8220;God with us.&#8221; \u2014Matthew 1:23<\/p>\n<p>His Birth in History. \u201c\u2026that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of\u2014 He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate\u2014 God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord\u2019s birth was an advent\u2014 the appearance of God in human form.<br \/>\nHis Birth in Me. \u201cMy little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you\u2026\u201d (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a \u201cBethlehem\u201d for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. \u201cYou must be born again\u201d (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that \u201cChrist is formed\u201d in me. And once \u201cChrist is formed\u201d in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.<br \/>\nGod Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Bottom Up: Summary Breach-Menders Sunday, December 24, 2017 The ancient ruins will be rebuilt, You will build on age-old foundations, You will be called \u201cBreach-Mender,\u201d Restorer of ruined houses. \u2014Isaiah 58:12 Throughout this year\u2019s Daily Meditations, I have tried to follow in the footsteps of great reformers like Isaiah, Jesus, St. Francis of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16301"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16301"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16305,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16301\/revisions\/16305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}