An Upside Down Church

I just read a powerful response to the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. It is a opinion piece in the New York times call “Who Can Mock This Church”  In it Kristoph writes from Sudan about priests providing top rate education to the poor of Sudan, or a nun who after working with women in Appalachia , when to El Salvador in the midst of its violence and now work in Sudan education school teachers. And a priest who followed his flock into a refugee camp. The article reminded me powerfully of two things. The first is that what in part defines Christian Spirituality is that it is not individualistic, rather it is about a particular kind of life modeled on Jesus lived with and amongst others. The second key point is implied already. If we model our lives on Jesus, then the lives we live are ones lived with the poor, serving the most vulnerable, working to restore wholeness. In short the Christian faith is about lives of Justice. Without these Christ centered lives, we are lost, we are only a corrupt old club. Perhaps it is time for people to again live these radical lives of faith, to share their stories, and to invite us in to this life of Christ. For it is these lives modeled on Christ that will proclaim the gospel much  more clearly then mere words spoken from a soap box pulpit.

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