This is one of two similar posts. This one takes a more big picture view of the question.
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It's easy, now, to be "woke."
EVERYONE is appalled by what happened in Minneapolis.
There's difference of opinion about what to think about the demonstrations, and the riots that have followed...
...but about the event that is at the core of everything, it's easy to be horrified about the senseless murder of that one man, George Floyd.
And, it's easy to express upset and anger. If you can't put it into words, you can read dozens, HUNDREDS, of passionate expressions...and pick and choose, from among them, how to put your own abhorrence into words.
But, in our religious body, we're good with words. We love our words. We love our righteous talk.
The time will come, though, when the outcries will have been shouted and the emotion will fade.
And, we will be left with the same reality that has always been the central truth of our lives.
It will be time for us to do.
One way Jesus said it is this: "Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only people who DO my Father's will, will enter."
When that happens, we will be accountable to be stewards of this moment. It will matter only what we have done.
We have a history.
For generations, we have lived in the moment.
With consistent conviction and purpose and intention, we have allowed ourselves to be infants tossed back and forth by the waves. (Eph. 4)
It's been our way to wait for the next bandwagon to come along so we can be, usually too late, followers of the next fad.
Faddism is our way. By now, it's so deeply rooted in us that Reggie McNeal might say that it is in our tribe's spiritual DNA.
I'll say this:
We are at a key moment, in our spiritual decay and numerical decline, when turning from our evil, unblessed ways, may be as possible as it will ever be.
So, the question screams to us: What will we do to turn from our fallen, faddish ways.
In the CGGC, Talk-ism and Faddism are rooted in decades of (un)righteousness.
To turn will be to reverse habits that are well established...the ways of our spiritual fathers' fathers.
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To turn will be painful because many will want to continue to live in the old way.
To turn may well break up friendships. It may separate you from members of your church, even your own family. But, then, Jesus was clear that it would.
We have been in the midst of spiritual decay and numerical decline for generations. The Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing has not blessed us for all of those generations.
Could it be that this is the time that we will repent? Will we turn from our unblessed ways to live as subjects of the Kingdom of God?
I pray that this will be the moment when we stop thinking that mery talking obedience to Jesus as Lord is, actually, obedience.
This is the time to begin to pray for the holders of institutional authority in our body in a new way, more zealously than ever.
They are in the position to be responsible to show us a way that can be put into action. Talking a good talk will not do.
They, especially, will be subject to judgment.
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