Jack Hardaway
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Bad theology hurts people. It is spiritually, emotionally and physically traumatizing.
And trauma is crippling if it goes on for too long. Each of us has a limit to how much trauma we can endure until we start to fall apart.
Bad theology is crippling and deadly.
A good bit of my vocation and career as a priest has been helping people recover from abusive religion, and to rediscover faith in God and the human community of faith.
Eternity is in the balance. Can we believe and love and trust again when God has been used to hurt, maim and kill? Eternity is in the balance.
God words. That is theology. God words. We must speak them carefully and in love, open to the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus speaks those words to us today, full of the power of the Spirit, full with God words, Good theology.
Today Jesus begins his ministry and shows us what he is all about, what God is up to, Good words that heal a world traumatized by bad religion.
This is Jesus’ mission statement, Jesus Vision of what God’s kingdom is like. From the Prophet Isaiah.
Good news to the poor.
Release to the captives.
The recovery of sight to the blind.
Freedom for the oppressed.
Proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.
Jesus makes these things come true as he speaks them and we hear them.
Wow. Is that what we usually hear people say about God? It sounds kind of political doesn’t it?
All those people we denigrate, ignore, dismiss, exploit, God sets them free.
If religion isn’t about trying to control and degrade someone else for my own advantage then what good is it?
Salvation is about making me feel better about myself by stepping on other people right?
Our God words have simply been wrong. We have used the Lord’s name in vain, for our vain purposes, we have violated the commandments by using God and God’s holy word to hate and hurt and enslave in order to elevate our own virtue.
Grace Church’s mission has been- is-and continues to be to proclaim God words that are good.
Good news words. Release. Recovery. Freedom. The Proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor.
Today is our annual parish meeting.
Elections and reports.
But, even more than that, today is about celebrating God’s grace embracing the world in Jesus Christ, and God’s calling us to be Grace Church together. To thank God for this parish and to thank each other for being faithful witnesses of the God words.
How many ways can we tell God thank you?
How many ways can we thank one another for revealing God?
Thanks be to God!