Missionary Renegade: Richard Rohr Meditation: "Church Was Supposed to Be an Alternative Society" The Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Wednesday, 9 May 2018

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Richard Rohr Meditation: "Church Was Supposed to Be an Alternative Society" The Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Wednesday, 9 May 2018

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

Week Nineteen: "Community"

"Church Was Supposed to Be an Alternative Society"
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Living in community means living in such a way that others can access me and influence my life and that I can get “out of myself” and serve the lives of others. Community is a world where brotherliness and sisterliness are possible. By community, I don’t mean primarily a special kind of structure, but a network of relationships. On the whole, we live in a society that’s built not on community and cooperation but on individuality, greed, and competition—often resulting in oppressive economic systems, unnecessary suffering, and environmental devastation.
God will always bring yet more life and wholeness out of seeming chaos and death. It seems to be the very job description—and full time occupation—of God (see Romans 4:17). In the words of Timothy Gorringe and Rosie Beckham, “Faith in the resurrection is the ground on which Christians hope for a different future, a transition to a society less destructive, more peaceful and more whole. Living in this hope grounds the Christian ethic of resistance and calls ekklesia [the church] to live as a ‘contrast community’ to society.” [1]
Building such communities in contrast to the surrounding society of emperor-worship was precisely Paul’s missionary strategy. Small communities of Jesus’ followers would make the message believable: Jesus is Lord (rather than Caesar is Lord); sharing abundance and living in simplicity (rather than hoarding wealth); nonviolence and suffering (rather than aligning with power). Paul was not just a mystic, but also very practical.
Paul seems to think, and I agree with him, that corporate evil can only be confronted or overcome with corporate good. He knows that the love-transformed individual can do little against what he calls “the powers and the principalities” (see Ephesians 6:12). Today we might call powers and principalities our collective cultural moods, mass consciousness, or any institutions considered “too big to fail.” These are our idols. We are mostly oblivious to this because we take all our institutions as normal civilization and absolutely inevitable. It is the “absolutely” that makes us blind and allows us to make passing structures into complete idols. Because we partly profit from these frequently collective evils, it doesn’t look like evil at all—but something good and necessary. For instance, I’ve never once heard a sermon against the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods,” because in our culture that’s the only game in town. It is called capitalism, and we live comfortably because of it. It is only our unwillingness to question such powers and principalities, or in any way limit them (which is worship), which makes them into a false god. “The angels of darkness must always disguise themselves as angels of light” (see 2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
The individual is largely helpless and harmless standing against the system of disguise and illusion. Thankfully, we’re seeing many people, religious and secular, from all around the world, coming together to form alternative communities for sharing resources, living simply, and imagining a sustainable and nonviolent future. It is hard to imagine there will be a future without them.
Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.

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[1] Timothy Gorringe and Rose Beckham, Transition Movement for Churches (Canterbury Press: 2013), 79.
Adapted from Richard Rohr: Essential Teachings on Love, ed. Joelle Chase and Judy Traeger (Orbis Books: 2018), 105-106.
Image credit: Welcome (detail), Canticle Farm, Oakland California. To learn more about Canticle Farm, visit https://canticlefarmoakland.org/.
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News from the CAC
Contemplation IN Action
The spring issue of CAC’s free donor newsletter, the Mendicant, explores the intersection of action and contemplation. Richard Rohr writes, “Rightly sought, contemplation and action will always regulate, balance, and convert. . . . It is an endless, rhythmic dance.”
Guest writers reflect on the new Poor People’s Campaign—continuing the work of Martin Luther King, Jr.—as an example of contemplation in action. The campaign challenges the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation. Beginning May 13, people across the country are participating in nonviolent, direct action, culminating on June 23 with a mass rally in Washington, DC. Learn about the movement in the Mendicant online and visit poorpeoplescampaign.org or find them on Facebook.
"Image and Likeness"
2018 Daily Meditations Theme
God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
Richard Rohr explores places in which God’s presence has often been ignored or assumed absent. God’s “image” is our inherent identity in and union with God, an eternal essence that cannot be destroyed. “Likeness” is our personal embodiment of that inner divine image that we have the freedom to develop—or not—throughout our lives. Though we differ in likeness, the imago Dei persists and shines through all created things.
Over the course of this year’s Daily Meditations, discover opportunities to incarnate love in your unique context by unveiling the Image and Likeness of God in all that you see and do.
Each week builds on previous topics, but you can join at any time! Click the video to learn more about the theme and to find meditations you may have missed.

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Inspiration for this week's banner image: When we took down the fences between our yards, . . . we were also taking down the fences in our hearts. That’s when we really began to know and love our neighbors and make peace with one another. (Anne Symens-Bucher, Canticle Farm)