{"id":4847,"date":"2013-12-07T19:06:14","date_gmt":"2013-12-07T19:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=4847"},"modified":"2013-12-07T19:06:14","modified_gmt":"2013-12-07T19:06:14","slug":"the-false-lure-of-a-costless-christianity-the-first-sunday-of-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=4847","title":{"rendered":"The False Lure Of A Costless Christianity The first Sunday of Advent"},"content":{"rendered":"

The False Lure Of A Costless Christianity\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Looking for \u2018freebees\u2019 is a behavioural hallmark of our time. What\u2019s not free, we want for the lowest price. People become accustomed to this behaviour applying the \u2018me first and last\u2019 outlook even to human relationships, sometimes without realising it. The noun \u2018Advent\u2019 announces an \u2018notable arrival\u2019. Peripheral Christians, if they learn about the coming of \u2018Advent\u2019, may view the Church season as a sort of liturgical \u2018merry-go-round\u2019, a \u2018here we go again\u2019. Is the homilist likely to break the mould and wake us up? The present Bishop of Rome is waking up Christians and others all over the world. You can catch him via Google and the like at Vatican Radio and TV at –http:\/\/www.radiovaticana.va\/player\/index_agenda.asp<\/a>\u00a0Many admire the pathways Pope Francis is indicating for himself and\u00a0 us. There are probably fewer prepared for the cost of personal engagement! Some Christians seem to hold that heaven can be achieved at little or no personal cost! Satan endlessly works hard to sell the fantasy!\u00a0\u2018Swords into Ploughshares\u2019<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0\u2018Spears into Sickles\u2019<\/em>\u00a0– Isaiah 2:1-5 in this Advent Sunday\u2019s First Reading – sounds comfortingly reassuring and the \u2018right path\u2019 so long as it\u2019s someone else\u2019s ploughshares and sickles! The old adage comes to mind – \u2018somebody somewhere ought to be doing something about this\u2019! If the Bishop of Rome knocks on our door this Advent what will be our response? Will we act out Jesus\u2019 teaching in Matthew 22? \u201cJesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: \u201cThe kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. \u201cThen he sent some more servants and said, \u2018Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.\u2019 \u201cBut they paid no attention and went off\u2014one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them …. \u201d Have Western European Christians been duped into believing in a costless Baptism? I\u2019m not referring to the offering made to the church when a person is Baptised. I\u2019m referring to the considerable, daily, personal cost of an active loyalty to Jesus of Nazareth that covers all times and seasons. Jesus himself sets the standards in Matthew 16:24 – \u201cThen Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, that person must deny them self and take up their cross and follow me.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0As if anticipating that the starkness of this definition of discipleship may frighten would-be followers, Jesus had previously reassured us that the way of the Cross is a way of enduring partnership with him: (Matthew 11:28-30)\u00a0\u201cCome to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Too many have been seduced by the \u2018free-faith merry-go-round\u2019 that sees a single, involuntary act, done for us as an infant, as our ticket to eternal oneness with God? The Bishop of Rome wants to wake us from such false security because he fears we are living an eternal precariousness in which we can be compared to the \u2018foolish bridesmaids\u2019 in Matthew 25:1-13. What value has a lamp with no oil in a blackout? Some 100,000 people overflowed from St. Peter\u2019s Square last 7th September for an evening vigil from 1900 hrs. to midnight. Pope Francis had issued the invitation just six days previously. Excuses for a paltry response in the UK centred on a shortness of notice! Well, yes! There were only six days of warning. But Jesus says in Matthew\u2019s Gospel for this Advent Sunday:\u00a0\u201c<\/em>Therefore, stay awake!\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0It is also true that \u2018jungle drums\u2019 communicate in seconds when there\u2019s need or panic! Take, for example, a threatened strike affecting supplies of bread, milk, sugar or fuel. The supermarket shelves and petrol stations will be emptied in an unbelievably short time, often before the news is officially broadcast! Six days is ample warning for those who are alert. In six days any European diocese should have been able to muster a sizeable response provided that the Baptised are \u2018awake\u2019! That is engaged, aware, committed, ready and willing to answer the invitation to be the visible, audible, vibrant Church of Christ on earth. If you doubt that that describes your parish\/diocese, then maybe this Advent is the time to ask yourself how your life, today, reflects Jesus Christ in his on-going, very costly struggle for the salvation of humanity? The willingness of a widow to part with her last \u2018two small coins\u2019 (Mark 12:42) still echoes clearly down the centuries! This Archdiocese of Liverpool, awaiting the appointment of an Archbishop, can be compared to a massed orchestra and choir awaiting a conductor. The conductor plays no instrument and does not sing. Making music is the unique, collaborative contribution of each orchestra and choir member. And, yes, it is a costly and skilled contribution demanding intentional harmony to which each willingly contributes. The skill of the conductor is in valuing each musicians\u2019 musicianship thereby bringing the best out of each to enhance the harmony of all and uplifting the souls of many. There\u2019s the tendency to imagine that a new Archbishop will be answer to all our church problems! He is a Bishop, a successor of the Apostles, not a magician. His role is to give leadership to a living, vibrating, praying and fasting body of the faithful fully ready for the personal, individual demands of evangelisation! A mission in the name of Christ for these precarious times. This Advent, why not review your personal role? Check to see if you are \u2018awake\u2019 and your \u2018swords\u2019 and \u2018sickles\u2019 reconstituted, through Reconciliation, Prayer and Fasting, for the arduous, enthralling mission that is The Church in the Archdiocese of Liverpool. Through which we are in communion with Pope Francis, the Bishop from the \u2018ends of the world\u2019 – perhaps in more ways than one.<\/p>\n

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The False Lure Of A Costless Christianity\u00a0\u00a0Looking for \u2018freebees\u2019 is a behavioural hallmark of our time. What\u2019s not free, we want for the lowest price. People become accustomed to this behaviour applying the \u2018me first and last\u2019 outlook even to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archdiocese-of-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4848,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847\/revisions\/4848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}