The search for dignity is work that all members of Christ’s body share. We’re invited to join the band of prophets, share the meal and drink the cup. It can be dangerous work, but most prophets I know are also filled with joy. Prophets generally decide that it’s not worth living in a system without dignity. Better to lose that life, and exchange it for one that builds up, because we lose our own dignity when we tolerate indignity for some.
The journey down to Antioch and back to Jerusalem led our ancestors to discover that one’s own dignity is mixed up with that of every other human being, and indeed all of creation. James made the same discovery. The work of the cross is the most life-giving journey we know. Are you ready, willing, and able?
For a page and a half she flew across the Atlantic ocean?
I spent four years of my life working full time in a homeless shelter run by a Roman Catholic religious order. At the same time, Jesus was not crucified because he wanted to start a social service agency for homeless people.
Dont you really think she was attending the ACC
Standing; Commitee.
This is just an illusion?
Grandmother
Well I guess I am so long as I realize that any ‘ableness’ I have comes from Jesus. As the old hymn goes, ‘He is able’.
I guess what she said is okay as far as it goes. I think I can detect in her words that hunger for a new heaven and earth that resides deep within the human heart. But if I needed to hear a meaty message that would move me to continued service of my Master and my King the excellent address by Richard Hays better fits the bill by far. Now that’s what I call a sermon. But maybe that’s just me. A sermon isn’t really a sermon for me without solid biblical content.
Ross
“That’s also pretty much what we hear when Jesus asks James and his brother John if they are able to drink the cup that he will drink. Yep, they say, ‘we’re ready, willing, and able.'”
Has not this woman heard of a rhetorical question? When Jesus asked, “Are you able?” he knew that they were not, and that they would not be ready until they leaned entirely upon him and his death and resurrection and were filled with the Holy Spirit.
“One of the eucharistic (sic) prayers in the Episcopal Church’s prayer book says that we have been created worthy to stand in God’s presence.” NO! NO! NO! Bp Schori cannot even read English it would seem. What Eucharistic Prayer B says is “[b]in him[/b] you have delivered us from evil and made us worthy to stand before you.” It is not by creation, but by God’s regeneration that we become worthy to stand before him, as we are included in Christ through faith in his shed blood and physical resurrection.
She also reveals her completely political view of the Gospel, which is something for the here and now – and only for the here and now:
“When Agabus and the prophets go down to Antioch and tell of a looming famine in Judea, the whole community shows itself willing and able to respond to that demand of the moment. The people in Judea are losing their ability to build a home of the sort that God intends for all – enough to eat, freedom from oppressive government, the ability to worship. Together the company of prophets and the early Christians in Antioch determine to respond in the way they are able. They are helping to gather the chicks under God’s wings.”
The only reason they were willing is because they were convinced that God had raised Jesus from the dead and that Jesus was the sole mediator between human beings and God. And they were only able because the Holy Spirit had transformed their hearts and minds.
Written words are merely playthings to her, to be used in whatever way will further her goals – context and intent be damned.
She said that a truck “disgorges workers”. Ugh ! What an
uncharitable phrase ! She may as well have said that the
truck “vomited them out”. I get the feeling that she really looks
down her nose at people whose circumstances have landed them
near the bottom of the heap in society.
As for Philippine Independent Church being in full communion with the
TEC, well, just how independent are they, really …?
Sigh… Would have been a pretty good sermon if she had simply done a global search and replace of Dignity with Salvation….
Sad to see that the primary mission of The Episcopal Organization is now social justice, not salvation.