Retired Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry describes the early “Jesus Movement”:
Jesus did not establish an institution, though institutions can serve his cause. He did not organize a political party, though his teachings have a profound impact on politics. Jesus did not even found a religion. No, Jesus began a movement, fueled by his Spirit, a movement whose purpose was and is to change the face of the earth from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends….
There’s no denying it: Jesus began a movement. That’s why his invitations to folk who joined him are filled with so many active verbs. In John 1:39 Jesus calls disciples with the words, “Come and see.” In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he asks others to “Follow me.” And at the end of the Gospels, he sent his first disciples out with the word, “Go…” As in … “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).
In Acts [1:8] he uses even more movement language: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” If you look at the Bible, listen to it, and watch how the Spirit of God unfolds in the sacred story, I think you’ll notice a pattern. You cannot help but notice that there really is a movement of God in the world.
Curry calls for a revitalization of the Jesus Movement in our time, offering farmer and theologian Clarence Jordan (1912–1969) as a model of courage:
We need people who will proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ, who will love justice, live mercy, and walk humbly with God, just like Jesus.
Pastor and biblical scholar Clarence Jordan was one of those people. In 1942, he worked with a team to found Koinonia Farm in Georgia, welcoming people of different races to live and work together, caring for each other and for the land. They called it a “demonstration plot” for the God Movement…. Jordan kept his eye on “the God Movement, the stirring of [God’s] mighty Spirit of love, peace, humility, forgiveness, joy and reconciliation in the hearts of all of us.” [1]
Jordan once offered wise counsel to a young peace worker named Craig Peters. It is worth repeating today:
I am increasingly convinced that [Jesus] thought of his messages as not dead-ending in a static institution but as a mighty flow of spirit which would penetrate every nook and cranny of [human] personal and social life…. I really don’t think we can ever renew the church until we stop thinking about it as an institution and start thinking of it as a movement. [2]
References:
[1] Charles Marsh, The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today (Basic Books, 2005), 81.
[2] Marsh, Beloved Community, 81
Michael B. Curry, Following the Way of Jesus (Church Publishing, 2017), v, 3, 8–9.
Image credit and inspiration: Earl Wilcox, Untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Like a potter creating a bowl out of clay, this moment shapes us.
Story from Our Community:
I was inspired by Barbara Holmes’ description of God dancing. It takes me back to the lively and supportive relationship I had with my mother. Before going to school, my mother would “wind me up” by cranking an imaginary key in the middle of my back, as if she were winding up a huge dancing toy. Energized and laughing, I would sing as loud as I could, “All things bright and beautiful! All creatures great and small! All things wise and wonderful, The Lord, God, made them all!” I remember leaving with a full heart and my belly aching from laughter—ready to face the world.
—Karen J.
