Sermon On The Mount: A Theology Of Resistance - Lindsey Paris-Lopez

Now is the time for a robust theology of resistance.

What do we make of a sermon that declares the poor blessed and commands us to love our enemies in a culture where profit equals power and war is endless?

The Sermon on the Mount is a call to resistance. It has always been subversive and counter-cultural because of its core ethic of nonviolence and its insistence on the blessing of the powerless.

Jesus blessed the people on the margins of his culture by embracing them, showing solidarity with them, building a community in which those who had always been shunned were welcomed and loved.  As the body of Christ, we are called to be that blessing.

Of course, this means we must stand with the immigrants and refugees who seek opportunity or simply survival in our nation, but it also means we must stand with those who mourn their loved ones in the wake of our government’s drone attacks and our society's economic exploitation.

The resistance Jesus teaches is neither acquiesce to evil nor returning evil for evil. Jesus instructs us to reject oppression by asserting our own dignity with firm compassion, refusing to participate in or perpetuate the cycle of violence. In doing so, we refuse to be either a helpless victim or a heartless monster, reaffirming not only our own humanity, but also that of the one who would dehumanize us.

The full article is available here

Love Is The Essence of God

Everyday Grace - Center for Action and Contemplation

The Divine Image In All Things - Richard Rohr

The Flow Of Love - Cynthia Bourgeault

Symptoms of Spiritual Awakening - Laura Marie

A time of awakening is when people have a strong desire to become their true selves as well as the change that they wish to see in the world.

We are living in a time of spiritual awakening.  Many people are filled with a desire for change. Many people are becoming more conscious and aware of issues and practices that have lasted for too long and that must change.

Many people now want to take their lives back into their own hands and escape the model imposed by society in order to really know happiness and live the life they truly want to live – not one dictated by television, magazines, movies, social identifications and all kinds of meaningless clichés many now want to get away from.

In such times, people's consciousness grows, their interests evolve, the meaning of life changes for them, and they have new aspirations and inspirations, coupled with the desire to change themselves in order to also for many, change the world.

Do you recognize yourself in any/some/all of these?

1) The feeling that something has changed inside of you

2) Awareness of your old negative habits 

3) The need to be alone or with new people more aligned with who you've become 

4) Rejection of superficiality and the inauthentic 

5) Deep sadness / compassion about the suffering in the world 

6) Feeling the need to make this world a better place 

7) A deep yearning for meaning in your life 

8) Hypersensitivity 

9) Creativity and increased inspiration 

10) Willingness to know who you truly are 

11) Increased intuitions and desire to reconnect with yourself 

12) Loss of interest in worrying – Actions based on Love and not Fear 

13) Loss of interest in any type of judgment towards others or yourself 

14) Increased willingness to love and give without expectations 

15) Feeling of being connected to everything and everyone

The full article is available here

The Dualistic Mind - Richard Rohr

U.S. Church's Identity Crisis - Walter Brueggeman

The Bible's Upside Down Social Order - Rev Jim Wallis

God Doesn't "Bless America" - John Pavlovitz

When ideas of nationalism begin to define our theology or create our religious worldview, we fashion ourselves into an idol.

The phrase "God Bless America" implies that God chooses favorites.  This lazy phrase has saturated our Christian culture and flooded our churches and pulpits, and yet beyond an easy high, beyond a feel-good phrase to fuel our nationalistic and religious fervor—it doesn’t really mean much.

I understand patriotism. I get loving where you come from. I understand how proximity naturally breeds affinity.

It’s when these ideas of nationalism and home and country begin to define our theology or create our religious worldview that we fashion ourselves into an idol. We begin to actually renovate God in our own opulent, aggressive, materialistic image and ask that the world bow down to it.

When we imagine America as specifically blessed, we replace God’s will with our national desires. We make our country God’s focus. We act as if Divinity is on our payroll. We can then easily justify seeing those beyond our borders as inferior or dangerous or even evil.

The full article is available here

The Church's Voice vs Social Structures - Archbishop Oscar Romero