A World Based on Love? Get Real!

Change

Start small. Pick one issue that speaks to you. Read about it, study it, learn from others who are involved in bringing about change. Contribute your time and money and energy to make a difference. Change will not happen unless we decide to make it happen.

-Br. David Vryhof
Society of Saint John the Evangelist

Anglican and perhaps people generally, but especially Anglicans, are not good with change.  There is the old joke: How many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb?  Change!!! We don’t change; we’re Anglicans and anyway that lightbulb is a memorial to my parents so we can’t change it. 

As Anglicans and Christians we are called to live in a way that is for most of us is not the way that is, to speak bluntly, counter cultural.  This is perhaps particularly difficult for Anglicans because the Anglican Church in Canada following on our Church of England roots, have been part of the culture and have been identified with the mainstream.  This served the Anglican Church, if not necessarily God, well in our history and we thrived in the modern era when people came to church as a matter of course and there was not much else to do on Sunday.  The church was in many ways the center of community life.  However, I believe that this did provide road blocks to living our Christian calling.  It did not require Anglicans to necessarily reflect on what it means to be a Christian in the world today. 

Today's post-modern world is a very different place and we Anglicans find ourselves in a place that is unfamiliar and uncomfortable.  We find ourselves out of sync with the culture. This not necessarily a bad thing and can help us find a place in the world which is not so bound up with our culture. 

Jesus called his followers to live a radical life and not a life that was joined at the hip with the culture it was located in.  For the last few weeks I have, perhaps unintentionally, been preaching on the central message of Jesus that we are to love God with all our hearts and souls and minds and strength and our neighbours as ourselves.  To do this or even to attempt to do this is truly radical and is counter cultural. 

If we are to follow this prime directive of Jesus we need to repent which means to turn around from our current way of living and go the other way which is based on love.  The opening lesson above from Br. David Vryhof is a practical approach to change and particularly this change.