Father Richard teaches that we can only practice new ways of being in the world if we maintain some degree of nonattachment from the systems around us:
The foundation of Jesus’ social program is what I will call non-idolatry, or the withdrawing of our enthrallment from all kingdoms except the kingdom of God. This supports a much better agenda than feeling the need to attack things directly. Nonattachment (freedom from loyalties to human-made domination systems) is the best way I know of protecting people from religious zealotry or any kind of antagonistic thinking or behavior. While there are certainly things we are against, we must keep concentrating on the big thing we are for!
Paul tries to create some “audiovisual aids” for this big message, which he calls “churches” (a term Jesus used only twice, found in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17). Paul knows we need living, visible models of this new kind of life to make evident that Christ’s people really follow a way different from mass consciousness. They are people who “can be innocent and genuine … and can shine like stars among a deceitful and underhanded brood” (Philippians 2:15). To people who asked, “Why should we believe there’s a new or better life possible?” Paul could say: “Look at these people. They’re different. This is a new social order.” In Christ, “there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
In Paul’s thinking, we were supposed to live inside of an alternative society, almost a utopia, and from such fullness “go to the world.” Instead, we created a model whereby people live almost entirely in the world, fully invested in its attitudes toward money, war, and power—and sometimes “go to church.” This doesn’t seem to be working! In Christianity, groups like the Amish, the Bruderhof, Black churches, and members of some Catholic religious orders probably have a better chance of actually maintaining an alternative consciousness. Most of the rest of us end up thinking and operating pretty much like our surrounding culture.
Many people now find this solidarity in think tanks, support groups, prayer groups, study groups, house-building projects, healing circles, or community-focused organizations. Perhaps without fully recognizing it, we’re actually heading in the right direction. Some new studies indicate that Christians are not so much leaving Christianity as they are realigning with groups that live Christian values in the world—instead of just gathering again to hear the readings, recite the creed, and sing songs on Sunday. Jesus does not need our singing; we need instead to act like a community. Actual Christian behavior might just be growing more than we realize. Behavior has a very different emphasis than mere membership.
Remember, it’s not the brand name that matters.
It is that God’s heart be made available and active on this earth.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope for, and Believe (Convergent, 2021), 197, 200–201.
Image credit and inspiration: Joel Muniz, untitled (detail), 2020, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. In a simple act of solidarity, this photo captures people delivering food to a food bank during the pandemic—a quiet reminder that real change happens when we show up for each other.
Story from Our Community:
I recently learned that many of the desert abbas and ammas, such as Black Moses and Theodora, are of African descent. I’m now reimagining the desert mystics living in communities where skin color was not a defining factor, unlike many of the spiritual and religious communities I grew up in. As a child of African origin, I wish I had been given the complete picture about these desert ascetics, Christians who worshipped Jesus and looked like me. How would I have experienced Christianity differently if I hadn’t been taught to worship the unrealistic image of a blonde, blue-eyed Jesus? I believe that telling the whole story about these legendary individuals and communities could provide genuine healing to Christians and an important counter-narrative to narrow-minded American religious stories.
—Roberta T.
