Dear Church,
We continue to hold out the political manifesto of Jesus – the Sermon on the Mount – during our worship on Sunday mornings together. We need a robust imagination for how to inhabit our world with the love of Jesus and the logic of that love in his Kingdom as the orienting center of our impulses and intuitions.
This is new for many of us. It is new for me.
I’ve felt for a long time that my frameworks for how to bear witness to the resurrection politically (ethically, morally, in the public square) were too “American” and not “Kingdom of God” enough.
For instance: it was just a few years ago or so that it even occurred to me that, as a Christian, I may have different language and values at work in conversations around military spending, or healthcare, or immigration, etc. than the major talking points of the Right and the Left. Up to that time I just assumed that those two frames were the only two I could use, and I’d just have to squeeze Jesus into one of them.
But it’s refreshing (and a bit disorienting) to take these debates back to the Kingdom of God in Christ and say, “What would I contend for if I didn’t have just two options?”
I would love to hear what this is stirring for you. This feels very new to most of us and we are still working out, as we preach, what this looks like for The Table.
Also: we are looking for your feedback on a survey about how we will meet through the winter. If you haven’t already, would you fill out this 4-question survey?
We will be discussing in the next few weeks as a Vestry how to gather together this winter, and your feedback will help us.
That’s all for now. Grace and peace be yours in Christ Jesus, dear ones.
Fr. Matt
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