Christians are free to enter the world's suffering precisely because of Jesus. What we have to offer -- because of Jesus -- is nothing less than our very lives in the midst of that suffering.
Our freedom as Christians is the freedom of love. This love is, itself, the power of God in Christ. Which is to say God's power is none other than his Love.
What's more, this Love is greater than Death.
Therefore we Christians live secure in the face of any threat in life, any suffering we may endure, because God's Love in Christ keeps us secure.
Only in exercising this ultimate freedom in our involvement in the world can we Christians also understand how to use whatever else is at our disposal -- money, status, technical abilities, professional training, or whatever else -- as sacraments of the gift of our own lives. The daily witness of the Christian in the world is essentially sacramental, rather than moralistic. The public witness of the Christian is a symbol and communication of our death in Christ every day in each situation in which we find ourselves. We thereby demonstrate our faith in God's triumph over death in Christ. The ethics of witness to redemption are sacramental ethics of grace, rather than of prudence or of law.
This witness, with respect to the world, means our involvement in its suffering, rather than our withdrawal. Involvement -- incarnation -- rather than indifference. We are free enough both from our own death and from the reign of death in the world to realize and recognize the signs of death in the world: Drugs, slums, racism, unemployablity, disease, or the oppression of persons by the principalities of commerce, patriotism, sports, communications media, and ideologies. That is Paul's point in Romans.
And the Christian is free to enter into the midst of all or any of these ordinary realities of the world's existence, knowing what they truly represent, without succumbing either to their lust for idolatry or the fear of the work of death of which they are evidence. The Christian is so empirically free from the threat of death in their own life and in the existence of the rest of the world that we can afford to place our life at the disposal of the world or of anybody in the world without asking or expecting anything whatever in return. That's John's point in Revelation.
Freedom from the fear of death opens us up to living lives of Love.
That is true sacra-mentality. A sacrament is an outward sign of grace. And Christians in the world should be such visible signs of grace.
In a world governed by death and ruled by the principalities and powers Christians should be sacraments -- visible signs of resurrection, love, life, hope, joy and grace.
Our freedom as Christians is the freedom of love. This love is, itself, the power of God in Christ. Which is to say God's power is none other than his Love.
What's more, this Love is greater than Death.
Therefore we Christians live secure in the face of any threat in life, any suffering we may endure, because God's Love in Christ keeps us secure.
Only in exercising this ultimate freedom in our involvement in the world can we Christians also understand how to use whatever else is at our disposal -- money, status, technical abilities, professional training, or whatever else -- as sacraments of the gift of our own lives. The daily witness of the Christian in the world is essentially sacramental, rather than moralistic. The public witness of the Christian is a symbol and communication of our death in Christ every day in each situation in which we find ourselves. We thereby demonstrate our faith in God's triumph over death in Christ. The ethics of witness to redemption are sacramental ethics of grace, rather than of prudence or of law.
This witness, with respect to the world, means our involvement in its suffering, rather than our withdrawal. Involvement -- incarnation -- rather than indifference. We are free enough both from our own death and from the reign of death in the world to realize and recognize the signs of death in the world: Drugs, slums, racism, unemployablity, disease, or the oppression of persons by the principalities of commerce, patriotism, sports, communications media, and ideologies. That is Paul's point in Romans.
And the Christian is free to enter into the midst of all or any of these ordinary realities of the world's existence, knowing what they truly represent, without succumbing either to their lust for idolatry or the fear of the work of death of which they are evidence. The Christian is so empirically free from the threat of death in their own life and in the existence of the rest of the world that we can afford to place our life at the disposal of the world or of anybody in the world without asking or expecting anything whatever in return. That's John's point in Revelation.
Freedom from the fear of death opens us up to living lives of Love.
That is true sacra-mentality. A sacrament is an outward sign of grace. And Christians in the world should be such visible signs of grace.
In a world governed by death and ruled by the principalities and powers Christians should be sacraments -- visible signs of resurrection, love, life, hope, joy and grace.