conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

moralism and morals: what's the diff?

Why is it that Mother Teresa could stand up before crowds of thousands and simply repeat simple New Testament phrases, and blow people away?!
She didn’t say anything new: “Jesus loves you,” she assured us. “We’re sons and daughters of God and we have to love Jesus’ poor.” Yet people walked out renewed, transformed and converted.
She wasn’t a priest. She wasn’t well-educated. Her authority came from her life-style and her pure goodness.
Servanthood with basic holiness is the true basis of authority in the Church, much more than title, vestment, office, or ordination. It has the authority of Jesus himself.
- Richard Rohr

I may have had one too many cookies last night. It's hard to say. I'm just a little off this morning. Likely it's a combination of things. Saturday afternoon I worked out at a dojo for the first time in ten years. One of my martial arts teachers used to say that every three years or so we have to relearn all we know. Our bodies change enough that we have to "find new ways of getting there." I don't know if three years is a reasonable length of time, but I assure you that ten is. Egads. So, muscle soreness and cookies. Not good. You would think it would be, wouldn't you?

This morning I checked my e-mail and found two or three articles of interest. It seems morality is on the brain this morning. Barna is sharing some research on what it means to raise children in a faith tradition. Tony Jones has a postmodern spin on Christian morality and justice that might be interesting to you. The Alban institutes has an interesting article on . Scott McKnight is thinking about moral relativism. Finally, Richard Rohr shared a meditation about Mother Teresa. He's been looking at models of surrender and what they may have to tell us. I thought this one was pretty good.

I try not to preach morality. Does that surprise you? I find it too polarizing. That does not mean there is not a moral component to my preaching, but I find that being too heavy handed with morality quickly becomes moralism and thus a hindrance in our journey with God. It is true to say that saying too little is also a potential hindrance. I'm not a relativist, but I do think that if we stand up and say "This is wrong!" too often, we run the risk of shutting people out or down and forcing people to keep secrets. Confession can be a healthy spiritual practice. But once you layer on the moralism, then it's just a guilt trip and no longer serves to lessen the burden. "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Posted by tripp at November 16, 2009 07:08 AM