The story is told of an encounter involving the North African Desert Fathers, Abba Lot and Abba Joseph. Seeking Abba Joseph’s wisdom, Abba Lot confided in the North African sage, “As far as I’m able I follow my daily office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace as far as I can, and I purify my thoughts.” The old man paused, stood up, and stretched his hands toward the heavens. Fire burst forth from his fingers. Abba Joseph exclaimed, “If you will, why not become fire!”
“Become Fire.” In the wake of Pentecost Sunday, that is Go d’s message to today’s Progressive Christians. Conservative Christianity has abandoned, for the most part, the teachings of Jesus for the power of Caesar. Looking backward toward a golden age, that never was, white Conservative Christians support in droves a political leader who will pursue their vision of turning back the clock to a time in which minorities were marginalized and knew their place, LGBTQ+ persons were closeted, and white males shaped the social order and who will destroy the environment whose only value is to support human prosperity and privilege. Today’s conservative Christian spirit is epitomized by the response of Senator Jodi Ernst to a constituent who asserted that Medicaid and Medicare cuts will lead to deaths, with the glib comment “everybody dies,” and then in tweet, connected the reality of death, including death by governmental decision, with embracing Christ and assurance of eternal life. Empathy, hospitality, and generosity been replaced by hard-heartedness, grievance, greed, and faux martyrdom among conservative Christians in the political sphere.
Thoughtful people are leaving conservative Christianity and Christianity altogether because of theology that privileges Caeser over Jesus and excises empathy from God’s way in the world and Christian political decision-making. Although Donald Trump, in the spirit of other demagogues, is promising power to Christians in the political and educational spheres, Trumpism is only accelerating the loss of Christian influence and stature in the USA. When I tell people I am a Christian, they often seem surprised. They don’t assume that you can support science, the LGBTQ+ community, women’s rights, respectful treatment of immigrants, and the wisdom of other religions and be a Christian. Some even wonder how I could be a Christian and not support Donald Trump. Sadly, that is the state of US Christianity, and it is a path of death and not life for Christianity and the planet.
The time is right for Progressive Christianity to become fire. To come alive as a dynamic national movement, strong and vital, motivated by the power of love not the love of power, inclusive rather than tribal, and aligned with the moral and spiritual arcs of history rather than ossified and exclusivist dogma. A spirit centered and open spirited fiery progressive Christianity offers a clear spiritual and theological alternative to the tribalism of conservative (sometimes falsely called “evangelical”) Christianity.
A lively, transformative, and relevant faith joins vision, promise, and practice. It is guided by a robust and open theological vision that can be preached and proclaimed. People can experience the vision in their personal and communal lives. And it provides spiritual and ethical practices that transform persons and the social order. Strongly political, motivated by Jesus’ prayer that God’s realm come on earth as it is in heaven, its politics is based on theologically grounded reflection on the teachings of Jesus and the Hebraic Prophets and deep spiritual practices, not tribal theologies that put the power of love ahead of the love of power.
Although I cannot be exhaustive in this short piece, I will briefly not a theological vision that inspires dynamic, transformative, and inclusive spirituality and politics. I have elaborated more fully on this vision in my writings, most particularly the trilogy on Progressive Christianity, noted below. A life-changing Progressive Christian vision is God-centered and open to the movements of God’s Spirit and the presence of Jesus in our lives and the world. God is the Great Empath and Adventurer, the “fellow sufferer who understands” (Whitehead) and the joyful companion who celebrates. God inspires the moral and spiritual arcs of history as they move through our lives and communities and challenges us to become God’s companions in healing the world. The God of all creation, whose revelation is generously present everywhere, can be experienced in our own lives as the source of inspiration and as the companionable and compassionate Jesus. Proclaiming “God in all things and all things in God,” Progressive Christians can have a personal relationship with Jesus and be caught up in the fire and wind of the Holy Spirit. The Infinite and Intimate God calls us to be people of stature, who see God’s presence everywhere, including in the lives of those whose viewpoints we oppose. Motivated by God’s moral and spiritual arcs, we go beyond self-interest and tribalism to world loyalty so that Jesus rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24)
Practices of prayer, meditation, healing, and compassion are at the heart of Progressive Christianity and join with theological reflection in promoting a truly Peaceable Realm, which includes the well-being of all humanity, care for the environment, and a just globalism.
Today, Progressive Christians need to become fire as we protest and pray and challenge and contemplate humbly following God’s vision, as agents of the future, God seeks for ourselves and the world. (For more on a lively open-spirited fiery Progressive Christianity, see Bruce Epperly, “Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet,” “Process Theology and the Revival We Need,” and “A New Pentecost for Progressive Chrisitians.”
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The author of the recently released, “A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians (A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999413: Amazon.com: Books) Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD (https://www.westmorelanducc.org/) and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 80 books including: “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America’s Mystics” (Amazon.com: Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries: 9781625249142: Epperly, Bruce: Books) “Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet “(Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet: Epperly, Bruce: 9781625248732: Amazon.com: Books), Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet”( Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999215: Amazon.com: Books), and his most recent book, “God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality and Social Change.” (The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books
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