Faithful enterprise: How does the spirit come through you?

Faithful enterprise
By Zeus Yiamouyiannis
January 26, 2007

I think sometimes we get to academic about our enterprise. Jesus came neither to build bridges nor to burn them. He came to evoke, inspire, confront (with truth and love and without fear), command, heal, make people question, all to help bring them closer to God, and increase the recognition and following of the spiritual fire within them. Bridges are metaphors of the material world that assume that “we� have to do it ourselves on the spiritual level to remedy our disconnectedness. Yet I would say, it is the active faith that we acknowledge in ourselves and inspire in others (no matter the form) that shows we are already connected.

Jesus recognized we are already connected but we act differently. So, how to achieve alignment with a higher purpose? Triangulation? Strategizing? Hardly. By witnessing, by evangelizing in such a way as the spirit will come into presence in the world (in our ideas, in our expressions), and THAT spirit (not us) shall transform and connect. This will not always call for the same method. Jesus had compassion for the rich man as well as for the poor widow. He expressed it differently. Seeing the rich man was separating himself from God by idolizing his wealth he said, “give it up and follow me.� Seeing the poor widow neglected by others, he said, “you are blessed in the eyes of God�. Seeing the rest of us “middle class� onlookers he said, “as you treat the least of you, so you treat me.� He was witnessing the spirit of the same God in different ways depending upon what may be needed to bring people closer to God.

We can do the same: We can appeal to the rational liberal middle in terms that make sense to them, or recognize the socially more conservative elements of Christianity, or strategize about how to prepare to take on Rush Limbaugh, but let’s do it with faith and character at the core. Let us exercise faith, and not simply water what we do into extended discussion about progressive definitions, titles, words, and issues. What does the spirit bring forth in us? What is the root of our theology? Perhaps a good question for a retreat or an online discussion.

I know that one of the main weaknesses of the progressive Christian is failure to “come out of the closet� as a Christian (Otis Gaddis’s apt analogy), not in terms of proselytizing or converting or coercing (these are all anti-Christian according to Jesus’ own Gospel), but in terms of evangelizing, spreading the “good news� through example, scholarship, treatment of others, etc. This is an affirmative and embracing enterprise. There is nothing “negating� about it, but it may make some uncomfortable who are looking for a certain hideaway “neutrality� or who propound intolerance. You will be called out by the good news as much as you will be comforted and made joyous. It is the activity of faith and not strategizing around it that cuts through to the heart of people. Let’s not forget that.

Zeus