"The main purpose of Christianity is to save us from sin, and thereby to save us from its consequences, which are moral and spiritual death. And it saves us, not by inspiring fear, but by inspiring faith and courage. It assures us that " sin shall not have dominion " over us, because we are " not under the law, but under grace," and because the strength of sin is the law. What does this mean ?...
A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. This man is the human soul on its journey through human life and the experiences of earth. The thieves are temptations from without and within, which strip the soul of its heaven given raiment of innocence, wound the moral nature, and leave the human being, despoiled of peace and hope, perishing in the wilderness of the world. Then there comes a priest — a preacher of the moral law—and says, "Arise and flee, or thou wilt perish on the sand ; or, if not, the robbers will return and slay thee. Thou must exert thyself and go to the city; it is many miles distant, but thou must reach it, or die." And having said this, the priest departs. The man rouses himself, goes a little way, but, weak through his wounds, drops on the ground more discouraged than before. Then comes the Levite, who represents the ceremonial law, and tells him that the holy church, by its sacraments and its ministers, its holy creed, its holy books and its holy days, will endeavor to obtain from God his cure, and so passes by on the other side. Then comes the gospel, as the good Samaritan, on its journey of grace and peace through the world. It has compassion on the soul because it is weak and sinful, It pours the oil of God's forgiving love into the wounds of the conscience ; the wine of inspiring truth and an infinite hope into the mind. It sets him on its own beast, and brings him to the inn, and takes care of him, and makes a provision for his permanent relief and cure. The soul, made alive by Christian faith, feels that it has not to struggle unaided in the work of duty. It feels the kind friend always near, the supporting arms always ready, the provision for future need all made ; and so, inspired with new faith and courage, is able to begin a new life."
blessings
1 comment:
Dear BU:
Freeman says "Then comes the Levite, who represents the ceremonial law, and tells him that the holy church, by its sacraments and its ministers, its holy creed, its holy books and its holy days, will endeavor to obtain from God his cure, and so passes by on the other side."
In modern day Unitarian Universalism what has happened to the ceremonial law, the sacraments, the holy books, the holy days, the ministers?
Have they not been cast aside and disdained as not all that important?
And the faith has lost its depth, its symbols, its rituals, its myths, and the good Samaritan is lying in the ditch in Israel, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in our prisons, without health insurance, homeless, hungry while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and we sing our sweet hymns and rail that our kids are not engaged because of their grandiose sense of entitlement and their narcicism and have been shielded from the evil which lurks within them and the world.
Greed has become the new virtue, the mall the new cathedral, shopping the new ritual, and consumption of material and spiritual goods such as the prosperity gospel the new sacrament.
I agree with Freeman's assessment and advice and I thank you for reminding us that there is more to our religious tradition historically than what we see before us in our postmodern church.
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