Summer Preacher's Post: Liberation
Something to contemplate as we consider Luke's story of the Good Samaritan; from "The Promise of Paradox" written by by Parker Palmer in 1980:
"For those of us who are Christian, it is especially important to understand that the cross liberates us from narrow and confining versions of Christian faith itself. Ultimately, the cross is not about any one faith tradition: it is about the power of God...
"Liberation is frightening, and radical freedom scares us...[Thomas] Merton identifies the escape from freedom that has imprisoned too many Christian hearts--this tendency to draw too tight the boundaries of salvation, to create a system of beliefs and practices that denies the radical freedom of God's mercy to move where it will, within the church and without.
"The cross finally contradicts any system of beliefs that tries to capture the cross. The movement of Christ in our lives, our sharing of his cross, liberates us from fear of freedom in freedom from fear. Only then are we fully available to one another, fully available to life, fully available to God." (p. 52-53)
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Thank you for this...it's so true that the idea of liberation can be scary. But when it's actually experienced it's, well, LIBERATING! In my experience, so many Christians (including me) tend to be insular in our thinking, assuming that we have it "right," ergo others are "wrong." The cross indeed sets us free from such narrow thinking. And the story of the Good Samaritan reminds us that God is not as concerned with how we define others, but whether or not we show mercy. The Pharisee asks Jesus "who is my neighbor" and Jesus answers with a story to show the Pharisee how he can BE a neighbor himself.