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Wednesday, March 04, 2009

stoned with popcorn/Rohr on heresy

"It's like being stoned to death with popcorn."

That line was a priest, who pondered after being asked "What's it like hearing the confessions of nuns?"

The episode is recalled in the intro to Robert Raines' "Creative Brooding: Readings to Provoke Thought and Trigger Action" where he admits we don't need another fluffy, "popcorn" devotional.

Which is why many "enjoy" Oswald Chambers, over "Our Daily Bread."

But for our day and age, I wonder:
Doesn't everyone read Richard Rohr for "devotionals"?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says there are three basic obstacles to the coming of the Kingdom. These are the three P’s: power, prestige and possessions. Nine-tenths of his teaching can be aligned under one of those three categories.

I’m all for sexual morality, but Jesus does not say that’s the issue. In fact, he says the prostitutes are getting into the Kingdom of God before some of us who have made bedfellows with power, prestige and possessions (see Matthew 21:31-32). Those three numb the heart and deaden the spirit, says Jesus.

Read Luke’s Gospel. Read the Sermon on the Mount. Read Matthew’s Gospel and tell me if Jesus is not saying that power, prestige and possessions are the barriers to truth and are the barriers to the Kingdom.

I’m not pointing to Church leadership, I’m pointing to us as the Church. The Church has been comfortable with power, prestige and possessions for centuries and has not called that heresy. You can’t see your own sin.

(Richard Rohr, Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p.18, day 16

ht: Mike Todd)



By the way, Robert Raines' devotional quouted at top, is on sale for 40 cents at Amazon...sign of the times.

2 comments:

  1. Are you insinuating that Oswald Chambers devotional is a fluffy, popcorn devotional? Perhaps I misunderstood.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, i was implying the opposite by that sentence, comparing it to the more lightweight Daily Bread.

    ReplyDelete

Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!