Dear Friends,
I have always admired the writing of Jim Wallis who is known for
his commitment to both social justice and personal faith.
The need to accept Jesus must never be compromised for "works without
faith is rootless." No one can enter heaven apart from a personal
commitment of his or her life to Jesus. The bible makes that clear.
But it is equally true that “faith without works is
fruitless." If a believer's life manifests a lack of concern for
another's physical, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, his/her
faith is useless as our brother James points out in James 2:14-17.
"What good is it, my brothers if a man claims to have faith
but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is
without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you
well: keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what
good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by
action, is dead."
It is disturbing to see many churches being torn apart by those
failing to live out a life of spiritual balance where their faith is real and
genuine and where their works (actions and speech) are a natural and
consequential reflection and bi product of their faith.
Jim Wallis suggests a balanced blueprint for solving the social,
racial, political and cultural wars which are presently being fought both
inside and outside of our churches. The message, "A Foundation for
the Common Good" is quoted from Father Richard Rohr's daily
devotional.
Yours for a Balanced Faith,
Tom
A Foundation for the Common Good
Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners
ministry and a longtime friend of Fr. Richard’s, connects the idea of the
common good with Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
I believe the moral prerequisite for solving the deepest
problems this country and the world now face is a commitment to an ancient idea
whose time has urgently come: the common good. . . .
Our life together can be better. Ours is a shallow and selfish
age, and we are in need of conversion—from looking out just for ourselves to
also looking out for one another. It’s time to hear and heed a call to a
different way of life, to reclaim a very old idea called the common good. Jesus
issued that call and announced the kingdom of God—a new order of living in
sharp contrast to all the political and religious kingdoms of the world. That
better way of life was meant to benefit not only his followers but everybody
else too.
Christianity is not a religion that gives some people a ticket
to heaven and makes them judgmental of all others. Rather, it’s a call to a
relationship that changes all our other relationships. Jesus told us a new
relationship with God also brings us into a new relationship with our neighbor,
especially with the most vulnerable of this world, and even with our enemies.
But we don’t always hear that from the churches. This call to love our neighbor
is the foundation for reestablishing and reclaiming the common good, which has
fallen into cultural and political—and even religious—neglect.
Judaism, of course, agrees that our relationship with God is
supposed to change all our other relationships, and Jesus’s recitation of the
law’s great commandments to love God and your neighbor flows right out of the
books of Deuteronomy [see 6:5] and Leviticus [see 19:18]. . . . In fact,
virtually all the world’s major religions say that you cannot separate your
love for God from your love for your neighbor, your brothers and sisters. Even
the nonreligious will affirm the idea of “the Golden Rule”: “Do to others as
you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31). . .
While some form of the Golden
Rule has been around for thousands of years, we seem to have lost a sense of
its importance and its transformative power. Wallis urges:
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