When Does Spirituality Become Dysfunctional?

when we devote ourselves to personal righteousness without equally devoting ourselves to outward mercy it's not the way of jesus that we're practicing it ends up being something more like spiritual wellness see when all of our practice does not edge us nearer to the margins of our society we separate in our internal lives something that god fundamentally joined together personal righteousness and outward justice sadaka hindsight makes it so easy for us to see the dysfunctional spirituality of the temple in the first century or a high school in the south in the american south in the 1960s but what about now and what about us i mean aren't we susceptible to the very same condition that i'm calling spiritual wellness just cloaked in a new disguise of a new time and a new culture i think spiritual wellness in a place like portland might sound something like this oh yeah i'm vegan i do yoga three times a week i've simplified to a capsule wardrobe and i practice the way of jesus now everything on that list is a good good thing but when it's not spent on others it's a lifestyle it's not a spirituality see if your discipleship with jesus is not edging you increasingly toward the marginalized this same disconnect is alive and well within you cloaked in the clever disguise of a new time and a new place and jesus did not soften the prophetic sentiment he raised the bar in the old testament one out of every 10 verses is about how we actively care for the poor among us in the gospel of luke that goes up to one out of every six the prophets uh made the claim that god stands with the poor jesus says that god is in the poor that how you treat the poor is how you treat god according to matthew chapter 25. so mercy is not just an optional expression of worship for certain christians who have a particular bend towards social justice it is an inseparable part of what it means to follow jesus that's why when dorothy day was asked how do you live the gospel her answer was simply stay close to the poor is your discipleship to jesus increasing your proximity toward the marginalized of your city proximity that's the antidote to cure our spiritual wellness go and learn what this means other translations say go and find out that's how this term can be translated go and find out what this means so we're not talking about classroom learning or library learning we're talking about a relational kind of learning an active kind of learning go and find out what this means i desire mercy not sacrifice read the story of a woman named barbara goodson in houston texas who cut hair at a salon and she decided to start using her day off to offer free haircuts to the houseless and what started as a couple haircuts a month ended up making her the unofficial free barber of the recently incarcerated and released from prison and then she began to volunteer and cut hair for free at a battered women's shelter that was in the midst of her city she found a way to use what she had to increase the dignity of the undignified she went and found out so why not serve a foster family or begin to provide aid to a refugee or meet a kid who just needs someone to be consistent in their lives and become that source of consistency or stop start mopping the floors at the end of the day at a local rehab i don't i don't know your city soon to be our city but i don't know you know your city where are the pressure points of this city that happen to me the resources and passions of this community there's an invitation waiting for you there go and find out you

Channel: Bridgetown Church

Views: 1,136

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Id: 4yW_3_zZq5g

Length: 4min 3sec (243 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021