Far from an act of spiritual cowardice, surrender is an act of spiritual power because it opens the heart directly to the more subtle realms of spiritual Wisdom and energy. One hands over, in the poet Dante's beautiful image, into "the love that moves the stars and...
When Jesus uses the Aramaic term mammon to refer to wealth, he is giving it a personal and spiritual character. When he declares, "You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24), he is personifying mammon as a rival god. In saying this, Jesus is making it unmistakably...
Some people might object that while the music a choir sings should, of course, be great, the congregation’s singing need not be so elevated. This profoundly disturbing attitude seems to be prevalent throughout the United States. Why do we settle for less than the best...
If we ask, “How should we worship God?” a healthy Christian and Protestant instinct will be to respond with another question: “What does the Bible say?” Rightly understood, this is a necessary and indeed a sufficient response. We must not, however, presume that we...
In all its elements,…Christian worship is the action of God, of Jesus, and of the community itself for the community, and therefore the upbuilding of the community. From this center, it can and should spread out into the wider circle of the everyday life of Christians...
If you do not know the presence of God in your office, your factory, your home, then God is not in the church when you attend. I have come to believe that when we are worshipping—if the love of God is in us and the Spirit of God is breathing praise within us, all the...
Why is racism morally wrong? Because it is hostile and indifferent to the good of the other. It is our moral duty to have regard for the well-being of every human being and to promote and protect it insofar as our attitudes and actions have power to affect that...
To wait with openness and trust is an enormously radical attitude toward life. It is choosing to hope that something is happening for us that is far beyond our own imaginings. It is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life. It is living with...
Discipleship, we know from the life of the Christ whom we follow, is not membership in a clerical social club called a church. Discipleship is an attitude of mind, a quality of soul, a way of living that is not political but which has serious political implications,...
The church is…not a restricted religious community; if it were, the risen Christ would be merely the Lord of its cult. Nor is it a fellowship of like-minded people; in that case the Lord would only be there to give value to its mental attitude. The church, with its...