Reflections for 2/02/10

"We have never had the courage to take the word of the Lord seriously. We are afraid of gospel power and gospel powerlessness. We've experienced just enough Christianity, someone once said, to forever inoculate ourselves from wanting the real thing." (R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 69)

I remember an ad for Coca Cola, which claimed it was "the real thing." Then of course there were also the taste tests of Coke vs. Pepsi. Brands have been competing for folks for a long time. Ultimately no statement about being the best can ever past our own subjectivity we know what we like and sometimes we even know why.

As I read that quote from Fr. Rohr, I wondered about the notion of real Christianity. I believe what we would find is that much like a taste test, what I might describe as "the real thing" might be very different from someone else's "real thing." Those of us who are Christian have a hard enough time talking to each other about what should be a shared faith, "the real thing," because we're more invested in talking about whether Cherry Coke is better than Vanilla Coke or whatever flavor you want to add.

I also think he's on to something with his inoculation idea. If I'm correct you get an incoluation by being given the very disease you're trying to protect against. So it is with faith. If I go to church just enough and if I talk about how much I love Jesus, just enough, I can avoid doing anything that Jesus commanded me to do. I don't actually have to engage in a faith that can open my eyes to be an agent of compassion to a hurting world. Or to even recognize the log in my own eye.

What I have found for me is "the real thing" is a faith that starts under the belief that I am made in the image of God and redeemed by Christ. And because of that I am called to continue that ministry of reconciliation and compassion that Christ himself revealed, and to do more than just pay lip service to it.

Blessings,
Ed