Dying to Self
A church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed - what gospel is that? ~ St. Oscar Romero
This is Christianity as I have come to know and love it. The ironic thing is that I used to think that Christians were hypocrites, who talked about being "pro-life" and did nothing for those who were starving. But when I actually read what Jesus taught for myself, when I had my own conversion experience, I realized that what passes for Christianity for many is so far from what Jesus wanted for his followers. I became even more of a "social justice warrior" when I chose to be a Christian 4 years ago.
So how come more people don't realize this? How come young people, who in general are passionate about social justice issues, don't realize that Jesus was calling for the very restructuring of society that they want? Maybe because most of the churches they see don't reflect that.
Maybe people are afraid to drive away others by being "extreme" or "political". The earliest Christians were not afraid of this. They started a movement with no buildings or pipe organs, with only the resources they could all pool together themselves: "There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need" (Acts 4:34-35, RSV) Can you imagine if all Christians actually did this??
I'm not picking on any one denomination here either, because we are all guilty of whitewashing the Gospel to make ourselves more comfortable. The Church has been doing it ever since it became allied with the Roman Empire in the days of Constantine. The Dream of God by Verna Dozier is a book that explores this point more fully, and offers a wonderful source of inspiration for those who want to make the Jesus movement today more like God intended.
Martin Luther King, Jr wrote his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in response to white Christian and Jewish leaders who thought he was too "extreme" in his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. He wrote of his disappointment in the institutional church that they would defend oppression for the sake of playing it safe. "If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust." He was right, and this was in 1963. Things have not changed much in that regard.
Oscar Romero was not a political radical. He was actually rather socially conservative. But he saw the suffering of his people first hand. He saw friends and fellow priests killed for standing up for what was right, and knew he had to do the same, no matter the cost. Christianity is in fact a tradition of martyrdom, starting with Jesus. Even if we're probably not called to literally give our lives, we need to "die to self" if we want to be part of a relevant Jesus movement today. I think the example of Romero shows that we do not have to necessarily adhere to certain politics to follow the Gospel.
Today is the feast day of Oscar Romero, Bishop of El Salvador who was shot and killed while saying mass on this day in 1980. According to the biographical information provided by the artist of the above icon:
Although the wealthy class called him a friend of revolution, he was a peacemaker. He knew that simply ending rebel violence would not end the greater violence induced by poverty and hunger. Society had to be restructured so that children would not die of malnutrition and disease while their parents could not find decent work. Though he encouraged peaceful reform, where violence was unavoidable he worked to overcome the spirit of hatred and vengeance. His pulpit became a font of truth when the government censored news. He risked his own life as he defended the poor and oppressed. He walked among the people and listened.
So how come more people don't realize this? How come young people, who in general are passionate about social justice issues, don't realize that Jesus was calling for the very restructuring of society that they want? Maybe because most of the churches they see don't reflect that.
Maybe people are afraid to drive away others by being "extreme" or "political". The earliest Christians were not afraid of this. They started a movement with no buildings or pipe organs, with only the resources they could all pool together themselves: "There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need" (Acts 4:34-35, RSV) Can you imagine if all Christians actually did this??
I'm not picking on any one denomination here either, because we are all guilty of whitewashing the Gospel to make ourselves more comfortable. The Church has been doing it ever since it became allied with the Roman Empire in the days of Constantine. The Dream of God by Verna Dozier is a book that explores this point more fully, and offers a wonderful source of inspiration for those who want to make the Jesus movement today more like God intended.
Martin Luther King, Jr wrote his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in response to white Christian and Jewish leaders who thought he was too "extreme" in his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. He wrote of his disappointment in the institutional church that they would defend oppression for the sake of playing it safe. "If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust." He was right, and this was in 1963. Things have not changed much in that regard.
Oscar Romero was not a political radical. He was actually rather socially conservative. But he saw the suffering of his people first hand. He saw friends and fellow priests killed for standing up for what was right, and knew he had to do the same, no matter the cost. Christianity is in fact a tradition of martyrdom, starting with Jesus. Even if we're probably not called to literally give our lives, we need to "die to self" if we want to be part of a relevant Jesus movement today. I think the example of Romero shows that we do not have to necessarily adhere to certain politics to follow the Gospel.
In a sermon preached on 11 November 1979 he said: "The other day, one of the persons who proclaims liberation in a political sense was asked: 'For you, what is the meaning of the Church'?" He said that the activist "answered with these scandalous words: 'There are two churches, the church of the rich and the church of the poor. We believe in the church of the poor but not in the church of the rich.'" Romero declared, "Clearly these words are a form of demagogy and I will never admit a division of the Church." He added, "There is only one Church, the Church that Christ preached, the Church to which we should give our whole hearts. There is only one Church, a Church that adores the living God and knows how to give relative value to the goods of this earth."
We do have our divisions, it's true. There are more denominations than one can count. But one of the things I like in particular about the Episcopal church, paradoxically, is that we recognize we are one of many, instead of trying to tell the world that we are the only ones who get it right. "We are the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement" Bishop Michael Curry said, and I have the bumper sticker to prove it. Our only requirement for someone to receive communion in our church is that they be a baptized Christian. That kind of outlook has caused me to think more and more about all of Christianity as the "Body of Christ", even those members who seem like they are the most different from myself. We have our political differences, our cultural differences, our theological differences, but we all follow the same Lord. When Romero talked of "only one Church", I imagine not just the Roman Catholic church, but the WHOLE church.
In the 3rd century, Tertullian famously stated, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." It might seem insane, to think that a faith with such an emphasis on martyrdom would grow for that very reason. But that's how it happened in the early days of the Roman persecutions, and it has happened again and again ever since. In the 20th century we had not only Oscar Romero, we had Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Maximillian Kolbe, and Martin Luther King Jr, to name a few. The example of those who are willing to put personal comfort and even safety on the line to preach the Gospel to those most maligned is what inspires people like me to be Christian in an increasingly secular culture. In my own life, especially when I work to feed the homeless through St James' Lunch Program, I often think of another 20th century saint, Dorothy Day. She has not been "officially" named a saint by the Catholic church but I certainly consider her to be one. She was not a martyr either, but every day she would "die to self" by serving the poor. She dealt with people who were often ungrateful, who could be mean or belligerent, who smelled, who had mental problems... and she saw Christ in every one.
We need to remember Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day and all the rest for what they have done in the past century to show us that Christianity is a living faith. And we need people to step up in the 21st century to carry on the torch.
The icon I featured in this post is by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM.
https://www.trinitystores.com/artwork/st-oscar-romero-el-salvador
Other sources for this post:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero
https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf
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