Pope Francis has called his church to leave the security/comfort of the sanctuary and enter into the suffering of the streets. A profound insight! Do you spend more time, invest more money, in the sanctuary or the street---among the poor and oppressed? The Scripture hints that you should be hitting the streets as a top priority. The following scriptural passages are from The Message paraphrase:
Amos 5:20-24: "I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes. . . . Do you know what I want? I want justice---oceans of it. I want fairness---rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want."
Isaiah 58: "They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people--law-abiding, God-honoring. . . . The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. . . . The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. . . . This the the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts."
Jesus, from the end of Matthew 7: "Don't be impressed with charisma; look for character. . . . Knowing the correct password---saying 'Master, Master,' for instance---isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience---doing what my Father wills. . . . But you are doers of injustice (Miranda). . . . But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. . . . it collapsed like a house of cards."
Next read Matthew 23: "Your lives are roadblocks to God's kingdom."
Are you practicing only churchianity or kingdom of God Jubilee justice among the oppressed poor?
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