<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><br></div>Thank you, Ted. Thank you, Allan.<div><br></div><div>With the beginning of Advent, we can hope to see and help bring about a flatter and more inclusive community. As well, we respond to the world we are daily bombarded by, with the Gospel.</div><div><br></div><div>Remo<br><br><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Nov 30, 2020, at 8:39 AM, Allan Baker via craic <craic@lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8">Ted;<div class="">THANKS for the piece by Richard Rohr.</div><div class="">Feeds my soul.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Here’s one for you, in response</div><div class="">Allan</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class=""><div id="ydpea24f3aeyiv6475866937ydp371225a7yiv7263697397ydpe5d5c835yiv5183683664ydp42d3aca9yiv9844409717yqtfd86012" class=""><div class=""><p class="ydpea24f3aeyiv6475866937MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'New serif'; color: rgb(38, 40, 42);" class="">One of the great anti-apartheid leaders fifty years ago was a Christian Reform minister in South Africa, Rev. Allan Boesak. One year, for Advent, he wrote an Advent Credo to assert his belief that the God of Jesus Christ could and would bring peace and justice to South Africa:</span></p></div></div></div><div id="ydpea24f3aeyiv6475866937ydp371225a7yiv7263697397ydpe5d5c835yiv5183683664ydp42d3aca9yiv9844409717ydpdd6ef0f7yahoo_quoted_7001435202" class=""><div id="ydpea24f3aeyiv6475866937ydp371225a7yiv7263697397ydpe5d5c835yiv5183683664ydp42d3aca9yiv9844409717ydpdd6ef0f7yiv3954036800" class=""><div id="ydpea24f3aeyiv6475866937ydp371225a7yiv7263697397ydpe5d5c835yiv5183683664ydp42d3aca9yiv9844409717yqtfd87324" style="color: rgb(38, 40, 42); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" class=""><div class=""><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm;" class=""><em class=""><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class="">Advent Credo</span></em><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class=""></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm;" class=""><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class="">It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss—<br clear="none" class="">This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;</span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm;" class=""><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class="">It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction—<br clear="none" class="">This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.</span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm;" class=""><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class="">It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever—<br clear="none" class="">This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.</span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm;" class=""><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class="">It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world—<br clear="none" class="">This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.</span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm;" class=""><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class="">It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers—<br clear="none" class="">This is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.</span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm;" class=""><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class="">It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history—<br clear="none" class="">This is true: The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.</span></p><p style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm;" class=""><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class="">So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. Let us see visions of love and peace and justice. Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage: Jesus Christ—the life of the world.</span></p></div><div style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt;" class=""><p class="ydpea24f3aeyiv6475866937MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class="">From <em class="">Walking on Thorns</em>, by Allan Boesak</span></p></div></div><div style="color: rgb(38, 40, 42); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;" class=""></div></div></div><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Nov 30, 2020, at 9:31 AM, Ted Schmidt <<a href="mailto:jtschmidt@bell.net" class="">jtschmidt@bell.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><font size="5" class="">A Spirit-Led Christianity<br class="">Sunday, November 29, 2020<br class="">First Sunday of Advent<br class="">Richard Rohr<br class=""> <br class="">The God who became flesh in Jesus is the hidden God of whom the prophets speak to us. Jesus shows himself to be such precisely in the measure that he is present via <b class="">those who are the absent, anonymous people </b>of history, those who are not the controllers of history, namely, the mighty, the socially acceptable, “the wise and the learned” (Matthew 11:25). —Gustavo Gutiérrez</font><div class=""><font size="5" class=""><br class="">Much of what Jesus said seems to have been understood and taken to heart during the first several hundred years after his death and resurrection. Before the imperial edict of 313 that pushed Christians to the top and the center of the Roman Empire, values<b class=""> like nonparticipation in war, simple living, and love of enemies were common within the faithful community. </b>The church at that point was still countercultural and non-imperial—a social movement for the reign of God. After 313 we lost that free position. Christianity increasingly accepted, and even defended, the dominant social order, especially concerning war, money, and authority.</font></div><div class=""><font size="5" class=""><br class="">If we look at texts in the hundred years preceding Emperor Constantine’s edict, it was <b class="">unthinkable that a Christian would fight in the army. The army was killing believers. Christians were on the bottom but, by the year 400, the entire army had become Christian, and was now killing the pagans. </b>In a two-hundred-year period, Christians went from being complete outsiders to directing the inside! Once Christians joined the inside group, they had to defend their power. There’s not much room for any talk of the cross or powerlessness anymore.</font></div><div class=""><font size="5" class=""><br class="">Official Christianity slowly lost its free and alternative vantage point, which is probably why what we now call the movements of “religious life” began and flourished in the desert after 313. People went to the edges of the church and took vows of poverty, living in satellites that became “little churches,” without ever formally leaving the big Church.</font></div><div class=""><font size="5" class=""><br class="">Francis and Clare of Assisi formed their own “social movement” through a foundational agenda for justice. They lived in humility and simplicity outside the dominant social, political, and religious systems. For the Franciscans who followed in their footsteps, the first priority was living the spiritual life in a visible way that shouted Gospel love! Their life, close to the bottom, was where they hoped to learn the science of love. Their small communities were to be patterns for living and disseminating the transformative power of the Gospel.</font></div><div class=""><font size="5" class=""><br class="">Imperial Christianity is always about power.<font color="#b51a00" class=""><b class=""> It seldom teaches about nonviolence, forgiveness, inclusion, simplicity, mercy, love, compassion, or understanding in a </b></font>primary way. Yet Spirit-led movements within Christianity have flourished and continued to emphasize the values that defined the early Church and made it so threatening to the social order. I believe that any future church will be led by the Spirit <font color="#b51a00" class=""><b class="">back to those foundational values</b></font>, making it a much flatter and more inclusive community. The examples of non-imperial movements within Christianity strive not towards protecting their own power and influence, but toward supporting the supreme work of love flowing into the world.<br class=""><br class=""> </font></div><div class=""><font size="5" class=""><br class=""></font></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>craic mailing list</span><br><span>craic@lists.integralshift.ca</span><br><span>http://lists.integralshift.ca/listinfo.cgi/craic-integralshift.ca</span><br></div></blockquote></div></body></html>