BRAIN CANDY | Richard Rohr Those who are excluded from any group ironically hold the secret of wholeness for that very group. Fringe characters represent the denied, rejected and feared parts of the group’s psyche. The church was meant to be that one group that remains in constant dialogue with the “least of the brothers and sisters,” and even the enemy. Only when we receive the stranger, the sinner, and the immigrant - those who don’t play our game our way - do we discover not only the hidden, feared, and hated parts of our own psyche, but the fullness of Christ himself. When any church defines itself by exclusion of anybody, it is avoiding its vocation. You see this in Jesus’ commonly sending marginalized people that he has healed back into the village, back to their family, or back to the temple to “show themselves to the priests.” It is not just for their re-inclusion and acceptance, but actually for the group itself to be renewed. The Church is always re-converted when the outcasts are re-invited back into the temple. Jesus was not just a theological genius, but he was also a psychological and sociological genius. The only groups that Jesus seriously critiques are those who saw themselves as an “in-group” at the exclusion of others.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 20:20:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015