The Jewish prophets had one foot in Israel and one
foot outside and beyond. So must you have one foot in your historical faith
community and one foot in the larger world; one foot rooted in a good tradition
of accountability and another in your own world of service, volunteerism, and
occupation, or what I call “lifestyle Christianity,” moving beyond belief
systems to actual practices in giving your life away. How else can we imitate
the surrender of Jesus, who did exactly the same in relation to his own Jewish
religion? He never left it, and yet in some ways he always left it when it did
not heal or help real people.
As the 12th Step of Alcoholics Anonymous
recognizes, we do not really appropriate things ourselves until we actively
hand them on to others. We have to find the Love, and then give the Love away;
and it is amazing how the two events do not always happen within the same
group. I think they are both training grounds, one for the other. The first is
our spring and our well (home base); the other is the channel away from home
base that keeps our well from becoming brackish and stagnant water.
Richard Rohr
