Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message
The Cycle of Gospel Living
October 2, 2013
“When Christ calls [us], he bids [us] come and die.”
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of
Discipleship
“I am the resurrection and the life.
Those who believe in me, even though they die,
will live” (John 11:25)
People
often are struck by a contradiction in the Gospel stories: Jesus welcomes some people with open,
healing, hands. He affirms them,
announces God’s grace and favor. Others
he calls to amend their ways, and announces God’s judgment and
condemnation. He brings life and plenty
to some, but to others he asks great sacrifice, and says, “take up your cross.”
The
Rev. Eric Law*, an Episcopal Priest who wrote The Bush was Blazing but Not Consumed,
makes
sense of this is by doing classic power analysis. He asks: “Who Jesus is dealing with?” Is he dealing with the powerful, i.e., those
who can control and manipulate their environment and have their way, or is he
dealing with the powerless, those unable to change their world and have their
way? When seen through this lens,
Jesus’ actions take on a consistency.
When Jesus meets the powerless, he announces the “favorable year of the
Lord,” the breaking of bonds, the freeing of prisoners, the healing of the
sick, the forgiveness of debts and sin.
He announces resurrection and new life, and gives the mute a voice with
which to speak. When he meets the
powerful, however, he asks them to give up their power, to sell all they have
and give it to the poor, to “come and die.” All of
us, at different times and in different settings are found in positions of
power or powerlessness. The call of the
Gospel to us varies depending on where we are.
Law’s Cycle of Gospel Living
describes how God approaches us at different times in each of our lives.
The
old saw about good preaching is that it “comforts the afflicted and afflicts
the comfortable.” In our living out the
Gospel, we must always note the context of our words and actions—are we dealing
with those who need affirmation and comfort, or are we dealing with those who,
if we truly love them, need to be made uncomfortable? We sing major and minor modalities in
Church. We recite Psalms both joyful and
sorrowful. We have Lent, but it is
followed by Easter. Let us respect and rejoice at the diversity of moods and
modalities we are called to live out in the Gospel.
Grace
and Peace, Fr. Tony+
*In our recent Sunday Forums, we have
been doing Bible studies on various aspects of stewardship using Mutual
Invitation and a form of Lectio Divina
developed by the Kaleidoscope Institute.
Law is the founder of the Kaleidoscope Institute. See his website at: http://ehflaw.typepad.com/blog/
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