Because of a stand he took and a truth he spoke, Elijah is suddenly cut off from his family. From his hometown. From his kosher diet. From everything and everyone. And this is at a time in human history when there was no “you” apart from your group. In his exile the loss of relationships for Elijah was all-encompassing – a moment of courage, followed by season of loss.
And a lot of you know what that’s like…
When people do get a taste of healthy Christian community, it is often like water in a dry land. It is quickly absorbed and serves to make one more aware of a deep longing to be known, seen, heard, cared for, and most of all loved. Many Christian are hungry for this kind of connection with others.
The protest that is needed in a violent, fragmented and fragile world is the formation of communities of character, where the reality of grace and the possibility of holiness are taught and lived, where individual rights are tempered by membership in the body of diverse gifts.
Richard Rohr uses the term, “clumsy stewards” to describe how many people manage and tend to their inner selves. I know he is right about me. I most certainly am a clumsy steward of my own self.
I am reading Wendell Berry- “The Art of the Commonplace.” I have read and re-read one piece this week. He is speaking of the general and the particular, that they must be held in tension,
