Some Leonardo Boff

Found these passages in a collection of writings entitled 'The Way of Mercy' featuring articles by Pope Francis, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Joan Chittister and others.
My favourite thus far is an entry by the Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff whose words about 'the reign of God' strike not only as profound but timely, oh so timely, given the recent US election of the Donald as its President.

It isn’t preaching that saves but practices. This is the basic key to the ethic of Jesus. Which practices align people with the great dream of the realm of God, those that save? These practices do not sacralize, or extend, or improve existing ones. They start new ones. For new wine, new wineskins; for new music, new ears.

The first thing Jesus does in terms of ethics and behaviour is free the human being. We all live behind the bars of laws, rules, prescriptions, traditions, rewards and punishments. That is how religions and societies work; with such instruments they make people fit in, keep them submissive, create the established order. Jesus stands up to this kind of apparatus, which impedes the exercise of freedom and stifles energy: “You have heard that it was said to the ancients, but I say to you” (Matthew 5:21,22). Since he is apocalyptic, he lives an ethic of urgency. Clock time is running against history. There is no halfway point: “Let your word be yes if it is yes and no if it is no” (Matthew 5:37). What is most important about the law is not observing the traditions and fulfilling religious precept, but “doing justice, mercy and good faith” (Matthew 23:23).
The essential and new thing introduced by Jesus is unconditional love. Love of neighbour and love of God are the same thing, and the meaning of all the biblical tradition is to culminate in this unity (Matthew 22:37-40). The radical proposal resounds: “Love as I have loved you,” which is love to the end (John 13:34). No one is excluded from love, not even enemies, for God loves all, even the “ungrateful and the wicked” (Luke 6:35).

The law of Christ - if indeed this word “law” can be used - or rather the logic of the reign, is encapsulated in love. This love is more than a feeling and a passion. It is a decision for freedom; it is a life purpose in the sense of always opening oneself to others, letting them be, listening to them, welcoming them, and if they fall, reaching out to them. The truth of this love is tested in whether we love the vulnerable, the despised and the invisible. It is especially of our relationship of acceptance of these wretched of the earth that Jesus is thinking when he asks us to love one another or the neighbour. Making this love the standard of moral behaviour entails demanding of the human being something highly difficult and uncomfortable. It is easier to live within laws and prescriptions that anticipate and determine everything. Our lives are boxed in but at ease. Jesus came to break down that inertia and to awaken human beings from this ethical slumber. He invites them, for the sake of love, to create conduct appropriate to each moment; he urges them to be alert and creative. The reign is set up whenever this loving and absolutely open and accepting stance exists. If power means anything, it is to be a potency of service. Power is only ethical if it enhances the power of the other and fosters relationships of love and cooperation among all; otherwise the domination of some over others continues, and we become entangled in the nets of the interests in contention.

This love is expressed radically in the Sermon on the Mount. There Jesus makes a clear option for victims and those who don’t count in the present order. He declares that the blessed, that is, bearers of the divine blessings, are the poor, and the first heirs of his reign are those who weep, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for justice, the compassionate, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for the sake of justice, those who bear insults and persecutions for the sake of the reign and put up with lies and every kind of evil (Matthew 5:3-12). Indeed, the ethic of Jesus reaches into people’s innermost and hidden intentions: not only those who kill but even those who offend their brothers and sisters will be liable (Matthew 5:22); even desiring another’s wife suffices for committing adultery in one’s heart (Matthew 5:28). He says emphatically: “Do not resist the evil; if someone slaps your right cheek, offer him your left; if someone disputes with you to take your clothing, offer him your cloak as well” (Matthew 5:39,40). It was such ideals of Jesus that led Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi and Dom Helder Camara to propose the way of active non-violence for confronting the power of the negative.

How is this radicalism to be understood? What matters is knowing that Jesus did not come to bring a harsher law or an improved phariseeism. We will completely lose the perspective of the historic Jesus if we interpret the Sermon on the Mount and his moral indications within the framework of the law. He renders its fulfilment impossible. Or else, human beings are left in despair, as seems to have happened with Luther. What is new with Jesus is that he brings good news: it isn’t the law that saves, but love, which knows no limits. There are limits to law, because its function is to create order and guarantee some harmony among people in society and to curb those who violate it. Jesus didn’t come simply to abolish the “the law and the prophets” (Matthew 5:17). He came to lay out a criterion: what comes from traditions and moral rules, if it passes through the sieve of love, will be accepted. If laws impede and hinder love, he relativizes them, as he did with the Sabbath, or ignores them, as he did with the precept of fasting. It is love that opens up the reign. Where power prevails, the doors and windows of love, communication, solidarity and mercy close. That applies to both society and the churches.

The supreme ideal of the ethic of Jesus is proclaimed in “Be perfect as the Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Jesus always emphasizes two characteristics of the Father’s perfection: a love for all without barriers and an unlimited mercy. Love and mercy guide those who wish to enter the reign. It is not enough to be good and law abiding, like the brother of the prodigal son who stayed home and was faithful in all things. That is not enough.
We have to be loving and merciful. Unless these attitudes are internalized, the reign does not advance, even though it is already set in motion by the practice of Jesus. When the reign is established, we will witness the great revolution in the sense of the spirit of the beatitudes: the poor will feel like citizens of the reign, those who weep will feel consoled, the non-violent will possess and administer the earth, those who hunger and thirst for justice will see their dreams fulfilled, those who have compassion for others will experience mercy, the pure of heart will experience God directly, the peacemakers will be recognized as sons and daughters of God, those persecuted for the sake of justice will feel that they are heirs of the reign and those who are insulted and persecuted for the sake of the dream of Jesus will be especially blessed (Matthew 5:3-11). Never have values been so radically reversed, as here courageously proposed by Jesus.

What is the ultimate meaning of the Sermon on the Mount, the contents of which we have just set forth and which sum up the fundamental ethic of the Jesus of history? It isn’t a new law or a new ethical and moral ideal. It is something quite different. It is about establishing a criterion for measuring how far along we are on the path of the reign, near the reign or within the reign, or how far away we are, out of alignment and outside it. The Sermon on the Mount is an invitation and a challenge to us to do our utmost at this last hour, to approach the ideals that make up the content of the reign. The reign is about to break in. The colliding meteor is about to enter the earth's atmosphere and set the earth on fire. The shortest and surest route to entering the reign of God is to participate in this way in the dream of Jesus and to live unconditional love and unlimited mercy now. That is the infallible passport for entering the reign and participating in the life of the Trinity. There is no reason to fear the devastation wrought by the colliding meteor because it leads to the emergence of a new world and a transfigured humanity.

Is everybody in?

from vox.com

The job of the peacemaker is to stop war, to purify the world, to get it saved from poverty and riches, to heal the sick, to comfort the sad, to wake up those who have not yet found God, to create joy and beauty wherever you go, and to find God in everything and everyone.  Muriel Lester

Poor Starbucks.

Every year as we approach the Holiday Season, Starbucks gets flack for serving their coffee in cups that aren't Christmas looking enough. The cups are green and not red, which is enough for the company to be vilified for taking Christ out of Christmas, as though Christians can only be identified by the colour of the cup we drink our coffee from during the holiday season.

The CEO and Chair of Starbucks, Howard Schultz gave this defence:

"The green cup and the design represent the connections Starbucks has as a community with its partners (employees) and customers. During a divisive time in our country, Starbucks wanted to create a symbol of unity as a reminder of our shared values, and the need to be good to each other."

He has a point. The lead up to the election of the next U.S. President has been divisive. And though he said nothing about Christians, admittedly we have been more inclined to add to that divisiveness rather than bridging the divide.

But can we as Christians be anything but divisive? I mean we do believe in heaven and hell, we do await a Final Judgment and we do draw a line between what is true and what is false, between what is good and what is evil. But we also believe that we are not to judge, and that if vengeance is required, that's God's business and not ours. We are to do good regardless of who's involved, to turn the other cheek regardless of who hits us and how hard, we are to love our enemies without exception as though they are as much God's children as we are.

Which has me asking: Is everybody in God's kingdom? When I die and face God, will I discover that everyone's in regardless?

I simply don't know. The sacred texts seem universal in that all you need is love, that God desires mercy over judgment and even though we are deeply flawed, we are, because of Jesus, blameless in her eyes.

What I do believe is that if anyone is in, it's because of Jesus. He pointed at the void before the worlds began and said 'let me go there, die if I must to affirm that life prevails over death, love over hatred, peace over war, giving over greed, mercy over judgment.'

His bodily resurrection overwhelms the void regardless of where the void is. Even in the places where all you can smell is death.

What I do know is there are people living among us who are already in God's kingdom: poor people, deeply discouraged people, people unjustly treated, and people persecuted for what they believe. In his kingdom already are humble people, downtrodden and vulnerable people, people the world stomps on in the name of prosperity and renown. They are child soldiers dying in a war not their own, they are mothers and infants in famine, they are elderly and dying alone. They are homeless, friendless, vilified, despised. They are the ones we do not honour whom God calls her own.

They're already in. They are the people God calls blessed - not blessed as in will be, but blessed as in now.

Worship

Worship

Here – were you
Not one of us
There’s not a word I could say
That you’d understand
Nor any word you could say
That I’d hear.

But because you are
There is no pain, no sorrow, no sin
I know that you don’t
And no joy, no triumph, no glory
You know
That I won’t share in
One day.

It’s not
You’re moving mountains
Or dividing the sea in two
That brings me to my knees.
It’s the love you have
To become the very least
so I am found
In You.

to the Editor of the Chautauquan Daily

He that serves God for money will serve the Devil for better wages.   Sir Roger L'Estrange

Dear Jordan:

My wife and I were in Chautauqua for week 3 and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Did take sufficient exception to Ralph Reed’s remarks enough to write you in case it’s appropriate to reprint in your ‘letters to the Editor’ section.

In hearing Ralph Reed for the first time, I must admit as a Canadian, I was astounded that anyone could claim to speaking on behalf of 37% of the American electorate. Knowing just about 100 Americans myself, I dare say that I could speak for any one of them, let alone 37, but Ralph Reed, as Founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, insisted last Thursday that he speaks for 37% of the electorate, the majority of whom are law-abiding American evangelicals.
In ruminating on his remarks, I woke up this morning convinced the one evangelical he isn't speaking for is Christ himself. 
In his remarks, Reed called for a return to shock and awe tactics in confronting ISIS, contrary to Jesus’ love your enemies’ and 'turn the other cheek’ policies. 
His argument for dual citizenship is in severe conflict with Christ’s insistence that we only serve one master. 
His opposition to increased government funding to those reliant on social assistance, if followed, would put the Feds in jeopardy on judgment day - a day evangelicals insist we must all face someday - should the question be posed: ‘when I was hungry did you feed me?’ 
There was little of ‘welcome the stranger’ in Ralph's immigration remarks and more ‘fear’ than ‘fear not’ in his diagnosis of what’s ahead. All at odds with Christ’s teaching.
So as much as Ralph Reed may be a good spokesperson for Donald Trump, he is less so for anyone claiming to follow Jesus, let alone Jesus himself.
His remarks reminded me that faith does well to inform our politics but not so well when we insist that our politics and God’s politics are the same.

Thanks Jordan!
Sincerely,


John Deacon

What Easter means...

What Easter means…

Is it merely a symbol for life’s rejuvenation in spring? … the acclamation of the tender bud’s triumph over the thick white cold of winter and the re-emergence of nature’s green and yellows and mauves and reds where drab and dull once reigned?

However it is that the celebration of Christ’s resurrection coincides with the awakening of spring it is appropriate. Winter’s surrender to spring has an obvious parallel in death’s surrender to life.

But how empty this all this, if it has no parallel in our experience. We can view spring through a window or we can explore its green meadows, be filled with the fragrance of its bloom and taste the warmth it brings to the air. Spring demands an experience. What we know must be felt.

Some women who go to visit a tomb of a man they had seen die return convinced he is alive. It causes a stir among the man’s followers, but not enough for them to believe he is alive.

Two men walking down a road in mourning over a man who now walks with them, but they do not even recognize him.

If Easter means anything, it must mean more to us that to hear that a man named Jesus is yet alive or that somehow he is now with us.

It must be a vibrant living experience, an infusion within the very core of who we are of a life that cannot die. Not some oblivious and distant possibility, but the most evident reality, where death loses its significance and we lose the fear we have of it.

A motley crew of fear ridden disciples huddled together in hiding in a second floor room with the door locked. They had even seen their Master ascend, but what they knew of the resurrection, they had not felt. This they did not feel to the core until Pentecost when real life took up residence in their souls.

Though the source of their experience was unseen, they had been changed. And so too the change we have reason to hope for, as much as we in winter hope for spring.

May 5, 1997

A Shepherd's Story

We have this expression:
Rich men grow up to be lawyers,
Fine speaking men grow up to be Pharisees
and poor men who can't talk
are nothing more than shepherds.
So bear with me her, 'cos I'm a shepherd
and I'm not use to talking to rich folk
in a place where you are supposed to pray.
Now shepherds know a lot about loneliness,
about talking to themselves and yelling at foxes and wolves.
We know something about black nights that you swear will never end
and we know about being despised.
What is it about taking care of little ones
that means you're lucky to just get paid?
About the only job more hated than being a shepherd
is to be a tax collector.
Small men those tax collectors.

But I have learned that what don't mean squat to man,
can mean everything to God.
You see - I have seen angels
and I have seen the baby who made all of heaven sing.
And what I have seen nobody can take from me.
Let me tell you my story.

Me and four guys were doing the night shift with the sheep.
Jethro the youngest was on the verge of getting hitched and
we were giving him advice ... like
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard
  all the bleating of a wife."
And
"God made men to be nomads
and women to ask for directions."
Anyway, while we were talking
the night air became so still,
we thought a violent storm was coming.
But the night was cold and there was no cloud in the sky
and no sound of wind anywhere.
Suddenly before us was an angel as bright as the sun
and the whole sheepfold was glowing.
We felt like specks of dust on a firefly's belly
like Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnance
and we were scared.
We buried our heads in the earth but we could not hide.
We thought we were going to die -
When the angel said
'Don't be afraid.'
Said he had come with good news.
He told us about the saviour being born
and that we would find him in a barn.
Then suddenly -
Every black inch of sky was filled with the bright,
blazing light of a million angels.
And every quiet lonely inch of sky was filled with thunderous song!
"Holy Jacob's Ladder!" we cried.
What Jacob could only dream about
we were seeing before our eyes!
"Glory to God," they kept on singing.
"Peace on earth and God's favour to everyone of good will."

When the angels left, we headed off to Bethlehem.
Not one of us stayed with the sheep.
I suppose the moment went to our heads but we figured
if God cared enough to tell us this news - via angels no less -
He could be trusted with the sheep,
while we were doing what He wanted us to do.

Now about finding the baby, this is going to sound strange.
It reminded me of looking for a lost little helpless little lamb.
Not that the baby was lost, but the overwhelming joy we had
in finding him was like:
finding something precious that we had lost
and now suddenly had found.
When I first saw him I thought "What news is this?"
"He's no more than the rest of us"
and then as though my heart could see
I knew I was seeing God
at his very weakest and most vulnerable moment.
And somehow in that one moment
I knew in such weakness
Jesus would be all the strength and mercy
I would ever need.