ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 21, 2023
Every year, there is the World Happiness Report. I find it fascinating to read into the report and the markers used to determine happiness. They are: Psychological wellbeing, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards. It is interesting how the wealthiest countries are not necessarily the happiest, nor are the poorest. People don’t need to be super rich, but they do need to feel comfortable and trust that they and their families will have the basics, and in a crisis, they will have access to care. There have been those that have said such security creates laziness, but the numbers just don’t show that to be true. In fact, they show the opposite to be true.
Children, by nature, push boundaries. It’s what they do, but often it is a test to determine where the boundaries are and if they can be trusted. And when children feel comfortable and confident in the world in which they live, they actually thrive. They are more creative and willing to explore and learn with more uninhibited passion. On the other hand, when the system cannot be trusted, anxiety is often immobilizing, causing a person to work from a place of survival.
In Romans 5, we read: “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God…” For Paul, justification comes not from our own faith but from the faithfulness of Jesus. He has created a world where we can feel confident in God’s love and mercy. Too often, Christianity is portrayed with great uncertainty, as if God cannot quite be trusted. It creates immobilized Christians who are very self-focused because they are thinking only about their own unsure salvation. I believe the whole ministry and mission of Jesus was to rid the world of religions rooted in fear and anxiety and to replace them with the confidence that comes by means of true grace.
What would a world of folks untethered by grace look like? What kind of life could be lived if a person felt great confidence in the foundation of the spiritual life? 1st John suggests that even perfect love can emerge when fear is cast out.
Draw me into the certainty of your mercy and love, O Lord, for it is there that I shall be liberated from the bonds of anxiety and hesitancy. The powers and principalities of this world want a very timid and tentative humanity, for the fearful never have the energy to challenge evil that preys on the vulnerable. May your limitless and relentless love, O Holy One, inspire me to help bring your dream into this world. Amen.
