Reflection for July 8

Saints We Remember

The three [saints] we celebrate today were activists for the kingdom of God in their own day. Each one insisted, in his own way, that the reign of God was meant to be realized on earth as it is in heaven, and not just something anticipated after death.... Walter Rauschenbusch was a New York, Baptist theologian who laid the foundation for what’s called the Social Gospel. He didn’t mince words. He insisted that private sin begets social sin when he named six sources: “Religious bigotry, the combination of graft and political power, the corruption of justice, the mob spirit... and mob action, militarism, and class contempt – every student of history will recognize that these sum up constitutional forces in the Kingdom of Evil.” He insisted that a historical tendency to substitute personal salvation for the kingdom of God meant that people “seek to save their own souls and are selfishly indifferent to the evangelization of the world.” The good news to the world, in his eyes, was about the reign of God on this earth (The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, preaching at the opening Eucharist of General Convention).