1,
It is one thing to change sin, by changing the way we act.
There is a more radical problem which is far harder to dent.
This is to remove the ‘grip’ of evil on the human condition in the very ‘ground’ where it takes hold.
In the former case, something wrong is put right, error is corrected.
In the latter case, something much more profoundly amiss is exposed and challenged. The evil that holds the human ‘basis’ captive is overcome and the human depth is set free.
2,
Christ took upon himself the wrecked passion of humanity, for ‘humanity is a passion’– a venture, with a price, with a weight. Christ took on the wrecked passion of humanity, and if we follow Christ through these narrow straits, then he gives us our passion back restored in foundation and thus resurrected to do in the world what was always called to do. From the wreck of human passion, Christ gives us the divine-human passion.. In Christ, our passion is made fearless and unstinting. It is radicalized. It can pay the price, it can lift the weight..
Christianity’s record on this heroism is patchy. Let us have more of this heroism, and let us make clear that it is not an optional extra, but is central to Christianity. For example, why did no Christians in America die trying to prevent Indigenous Natives being slaughtered in millions? The history of Christianity is ugly. Christ has been dishonoured.
3,
“I chose you. I appointed you to go on and bear fruit, fruit that will last.. If the world hates you, it hated me first.. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because I have chosen you out of the world, for that reason the world hates you.. As they persecuted me, they will persecute you. They will follow your teaching as little as they have followed mine” [John, 15, 16].
They hate you because you are trying to do God’s work. Ultimately such hate comes from the devil. He wants to stop you.
In Christianity, West and East, true religion and authentic spirituality is feared and under attack from the institutional power structure and its lackeys.
The Christ-like is crucified, wherever it appears.