Living Like the Saints
Submitted by dsimmer on Thu, 10/30/2008 - 20:42
Sharon's comment on my previous post (Christianity, Justice and Hauerwas, go participate in the lively and active discussion) merits its own post. Let's reflect for a moment on what she wrote:
Instead of voting America to send "peacekeeping forces" or to establish
a "just rule," we could be sending armies of believers armed with food,
with bandages, with stories...Why aren't we giving away our coats and
also our shirts? [which, by the way, sounds suspiciously like a
redistribution of wealth...but it all is a gift of God, of which we are
stewards only.]
What a fantastic idea. And let's throw the politics out for a minute and envision a church that actually did this. Wow.
I grew up in a church community that didn't celebrate the Saints. Sure, we celebrated the 20th century saints, the Jim Ellilots and the Billy Grahams (which is important, mind you), but we never really reflected on those who died for the faith in their own communities, in their own countries/nations, simply because they were Christians (if you are bored, check out the Wikipedia list of Christian Martyrs). I wonder why that is, for it seems that many of them lived radically, at least in the minds of their contemporaries.
Are we too content with our comfortable lives that we choose to ignore the great history of our faith?
