Christianity Is Meant To Be a Lifestyle, Not An Established Religion - Father Richard Rohr

Christianity Is Supposed To Subvert Empire - Brian Zahnd

Muslim Leaders Are Speaking Out Against Terrorism — Is Anyone Listening? - CRC Network

With the rise of anti-Muslim bigotry and hate crimes in the U.S., coverage of events where Jews, Christians, and Muslims gather to talk about how they can work together to seek peace is critically important.

More than 400 leaders — Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu — convened in Washington D.C. last week for an event coordinated by Rabbi David Sapperstein, Pastor Bob Roberts, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyeh. While the Christians at the event were mostly from Evangelical communities, there were also Catholic, Orthodox, and Mainline representatives participating in the event, known as the Alliance of Virtue.

The Alliance of Virtue was born in January 2016 with the drafting of the Marrakesh Declaration in Morocco; a document signed by more than 350 leaders which stated that the persecution of religious minorities is contradictory to Islam, and called for an end to acts of terrorism in the name of the religion.

With the rise of anti-Muslim bigotry and hate crimes in the U.S., coverage of events where Jews, Christians, and Muslims gather to talk about how they can work together to seek peace is critically important.

According to a survey by the Pew Forum last year, just 35% of white evangelicals know a Muslim personally. This lack of connection is reflected in the perspectives of white evangelicals. According to the Pew survey, 72% of white evangelicals see a natural conflict between Islam and democracy, while only 44% of the general population shares this perspective.

But God is greater than our suspicions. God is larger than our formulas.

The full article is available here

Reflection and Renewal: The Still Small Voice Among Many Noisy Voices (based on 1 Kings 19:12)

God, in our lives there are many voices which ask for our attention.

There are voices that says, "Prove that you are a good person."  Other voices say, "You’d better be ashamed of yourself." There are also voices that say, "Nobody really cares about you," that say, "Be sure to become successful and powerful," and that say, “buying this product will make you happy and will win the approval of others.”

But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "Rejoice, you are loved, simply because you are a part of the universe that God created and called ‘good.’”

God, that’s the voice we need most of all to hear. Sometimes we are so hurried and distracted that we forget that this voice is even speaking at all. Sometimes we resist making the effort to listen for that voice - to listen for you.

So as we pray now and going forward - gives us ears to hear the voice that calls us "loved” and to take joy in it.

Amen

Call To Worship: God, The Life-Giving Trinity (based on Ephesians 2:22)

The incarnate words that God speaks are the life and sustenance of all things. The life Jesus gives is the re-creation and renewed birth of all things. The Spirit which dwells within all of us is the inspiration for creativity, compassion, joy, and community.

May we grow in our awareness of the all-surrounding presence of our life-giving, life-restoring, and life-fulfilling God as we are gather today.

We Choose Love Over Fear - CRC Office of Social Justice

"The Bible is clear that there is no fear in love. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Fear has to do with punishment. Love has to do with seeing Christ in all, especially the distressed."

Love versus fear.

We are living in a time, in a world, in which fear rules our hearts. Fear that has been woven into the very fabric of our society; fear that we carry around as a heavy burden in our bodies, and in our souls.

The Bible is clear that there is no fear in love. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Fear has to do with punishment. Love has to do with seeing Christ in all, especially the distressed.

Now is the time as Christ followers to choose: do we want to live in the spirit of fear, or do we want to embody the perfect love of God in this world? We cannot choose both.

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It can be all too easy to be swallowed up by fear.

It's acceptable, in the eyes of many, to continue putting up walls, turning back boats, not saving those in distress in the middle of the sea, imprisoning those who dared try to cross a man-made border “illegally”.

Many justify these acts by saying that they are not our brothers and our sisters, they are not our neighbors, they are not aliens living in our land…they are others.

It can be all too easy to say, “Well, many of them are Muslims…” and deny the love of Christ to those who are believers of different religions (or of no religion).

We choose love. It is not always easy. It does not always feel safe. It takes work. But we choose love.

The full article is available here