{"id":21819,"date":"2022-11-14T10:21:56","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21819"},"modified":"2022-11-14T10:25:11","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:25:11","slug":"21819","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21819","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9Yr48Berkqc\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A Movement with the Excluded<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>On the CAC podcast&nbsp;<\/em>The Cosmic We<em>, Father Richard Rohr talks about the Franciscan tradition\u2019s identification with those on society\u2019s margins. This priority shaped major periods of Richard\u2019s ministry:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Francis of Assisi always identified with the minority, with the excluded. I went to Assisi after Rome last [June], and the little church that he rebuilt was the church of the leper colony. He immediately went down to those excluded from uptown Assisi and identified with the lepers. So that\u2019s always been a part of our tradition. We were really a subtext in terms of mainline Catholicism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was ordained a deacon in 1969\u2014you were always a deacon for one year before you were a priest. In the first six months, they sent me out here to New Mexico to work with the Acoma Pueblo. And then the next six months was at a Black parish in Dayton, Ohio: Resurrection Parish. My start in ministry was outside the mainstream. And then I realized <strong>the mainstream isn\u2019t really \u201cmain,\u201d it\u2019s just dominant.<\/strong> So that got me off to a great start!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then the Pentecostal experience with the high school students happened the next year, after I had become a priest. Such beautiful, polyphonic singing in tongues! We\u2019d sometimes go twenty minutes speaking in tongues; people would come peeking in the door of this high school gymnasium, and they\u2019d say, \u201cAnd they\u2019re Catholics!\u201d They couldn\u2019t believe it! [<em>DM Team: Such Spirit-filled experiences with young adults led Richard to found the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, Ohio<\/em>.] So that again, for me, legitimated the margins instead of the so-called center. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rev. Dr. William Barber, activist and co-director of the Poor People\u2019s Campaign, finds scriptural support for those on the margins leading justice movements. Dr. Barber builds on Psalm 118:22\u201323, \u201cThe stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone! This is God\u2019s work. And it is marvelous in our eyes!\u201d:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rejected must lead the revival for love and justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cornerstone is that part of the foundation upon which the whole building stands. And the Psalmist says, speaking metaphorically of <strong>how we view human beings in society, that it is God\u2019s intent that the stones that were once seen as unfit to be a part of the architecture\u2014the stones that were once thrown away or kept in the quarry\u2014have now been called to be the most important stones. <\/strong>The rejected stones make the best cornerstones. The rejected stones actually make the best foundation holders. And <strong>whenever you see rejected stones becoming the focus of society, it is the Lord\u2019s doing.<\/strong> [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus lived among the rejected. He ministered among the rejected. He died and was crucified as rejected, as somebody who was <strong>outside the political power structure. <\/strong>But early Sunday morning, from the grave he led a resurrection movement\u2014<strong>a revival of love, a revival of justice, a revival of mercy, a revival of grace.<\/strong> [3]<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jesus Started a Movement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I really don\u2019t think we can ever renew the church until we stop thinking of it as an institution and start thinking of it as a movement<\/strong>. \u2014Clarence Jordan, letter, 1967<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Michael Curry is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and is passionate about the church rediscovering itself as a movement of Jesus:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus did <strong>not establish an institution<\/strong>, though institutions can serve his cause. He did <strong>not organize a political party<\/strong>, though his teachings have a profound impact on politics. Jesus did <strong>not even found a religion. <\/strong>No, Jesus <strong>began a movement, fueled by his Spirit, a movement whose purpose was and is to change the face of the earth from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends. <\/strong>. . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s why his invitations to folk who joined him are filled with so many active verbs. In John 1:39 Jesus calls disciples with the words, \u201cCome and see.\u201d In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he asks others to \u201cFollow me.\u201d And at the end of the Gospels, he sent his first disciples out with the word, \u201cGo . . .\u201d [. . .] As in, \u201cGo into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation\u201d (Mark 16:15). . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you look at the Bible, listen to it, and watch how the Spirit of God unfolds in the sacred story, I think you\u2019ll notice a pattern. You cannot help but notice that there really is a movement of God in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Curry identifies several characteristics of the Jesus movement&nbsp;<\/em>[1]<em>:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, the movement was<strong> Christ-centered<\/strong>\u2014completely focused on Jesus and his way. . . .<strong> Long before Christianity was ever called the Church, or even Christianity, it was called \u201cthe Way<\/strong>\u201d [see Acts 9:2]. The way of Jesus was the way. The Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of God, that sweet, sweet Spirit, infused their spirits and took over. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second mark of the movement is this: following the way of Jesus, they <strong>abolished poverty and hunger in their community.<\/strong> Some might say they made poverty history. The Acts of the Apostles calls this abolition of poverty one of the \u201csigns and wonders\u201d which became an invitation to others to follow Jesus too, and change the world. . . . <strong>It didn\u2019t take a miracle. The Bible says they simply shared everything they had [Acts 4:32\u201335]. The movement moved them in that particular way.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Third, they learned how to become more than a collection of individual self-interests. They found themselves becoming a <strong>countercultural community, one where Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised, had equal standing<\/strong> [see Acts 15:1\u201312].<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"358\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-3-500x358.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21821\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-3-500x358.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-3-300x215.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-3-768x549.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-3.png 1664w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Movement with the Excluded On the CAC podcast&nbsp;The Cosmic We, Father Richard Rohr talks about the Franciscan tradition\u2019s identification with those on society\u2019s margins. This priority shaped major periods of Richard\u2019s ministry: Francis of Assisi always identified with the minority, with the excluded. I went to Assisi after Rome last [June], and the little [&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\/21819"}],"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=21819"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21823,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21819\/revisions\/21823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}