Luke 4:5-8John 16:33“Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with the homeless and the impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services.” -- Rodney Stark, The Triumph of ChristianityMatthew 5: 1-16"Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer“Slavery ended in medieval Europe only because the church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then managed to impose a ban on the enslavement of Christians (and of Jews). Within the context of medieval Europe, that prohibition was effectively a rule of universal abolition. ” -- Rodney Stark“Sin is the state of being closed down, shut off, blocked, and thus resisting the eternal flow that we’re meant to be. By a hardened heart or a cold spirit, by holding another person apart in hatred, you’ve thus cut yourself off from the flow. Jesus therefore criticizes the religious leaders who want to condemn the woman caught in adultery much more than the woman herself. Jesus’ words to the murderous, religious bean counters in John 8 forever stands as a rather wholesale critique of all stone-throwing, and they locate sin where we would rather not see it. Sin is always a refusal of mutuality and a closing down into separateness. Whenever we refuse mutuality toward anything … whenever we won’t allow our deep interconnectedness to guide us … whenever we’re not attuned to both receiving and giving … you could say that the Holy Spirit is existentially absent from our lives.” – Richard Rohr, The Divine DanceMicah 6:8"We gradually turn into the image we reflect"Apostle's Creed: We believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth,and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,born of the Virgin Mary,suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried;he descended into death; on the third day he rose again from the dead;he ascended into heaven,and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.We believe in the Holy Spirit,the holy catholic (universal) Church,the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen
