Living The Righteous Life

This one is for United Methodists of Huntington Cold Spring Harbor, and those living for the sake of righteousness.

And seeing the multitude, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek,for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heave, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:1-12)

Spiritual Champions live toward "Christian perfection." John Wesley, who is most noted as the founder of Methodism, visualized as a mark of being Christian the willingness and ability of humans to perfect the love of God in response to the love of God, expressedly seen in the self giving love of Jesus. Christian live to love God with their total being and to love others with the desire for others to love them.

There can be no greater calling than for men and women to live out the nature of love as experienced in the characteristic of the nature of God. It is a righteous love. Compassionate in the sense of caring and sharing with others empathic ears and pure hearts. It is the love desirable by people of God throughout the world. And, most assuredly, is it the kind of love called for among Christians, who have come to be United Methodists in Huntington Cold Spring Harbor. Spiritual champions are "living the righteous life." What are the ways and means of living the righteous life in Huntington and Cold Spring Harbor, New York, and beyond?

Deeply rooted in the teachings of Jesus, which are theologically known as "The Beatitudes",the daily deportment of the people called Methodists should be grounded in "righteousness of faith" having to do with a right relationship with God. Through a right relationship with God people of faith merge into human righteousness, which is living right with one another not to earn favor or merit or even "brownie points" with God, but for the sake of doing right.

Therefore, in "Living the Righteous Life", Christians are to recall the teachings of Jesus and live in accord with them. In our text is a primary teaching on the life and disposition of followers of Jesus:

1. The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are seeking to be blessed spiritually and economically. The church should be a spiritual fitness center and economical development institution. Spiritual champions live to strengthen the weak in spirit with manna from the Spirit and human resources. In this kingdom, God reigns supreme over all the earth. Spiritual champions understand that for the minds to digest the spiritual, the stomach needs to digest solid food or the sounds of noise from the stomach may even drown out the sounds of music in worship.
2. Spiritual champions are sinners saved by grace. Having been saved by the grace of God, spiritual champions mentor persons, who are mournful and crying in brokenness as a result of personal sin. Certain pews in Methodist churches were once designated as the "mourners' bench", where persons seeking forgiveness would pray for the blessed assurance of salvation. Spiritual champions understand that there is more to life than personal holiness, because there are tears over social ills as well. In a real sense, Wesley had it right in saying there is no sure personal holiness without social holiness. The people of God seek not to possess God, but to be possess by God and led by the Spirit of God to transform society into a world of peace. The Methodist church should not have to designate pews for mourners now. All children of God for personal and social reasons should be crying for divine intervention in the midst of the world ethical crisis in any and all aspects of life.
3. Spiritual champions seek not to bring drama. Rather, as champions of spiritual being, people of God rejoice in loving others by not getting high on self love. Humility is a virtue all must strive for and uphold in living the righteous life.
4. Hungering and thirsting to do the things right in life, spiritual champions live to obtain mercy with purity of heart participating in the makings of peace throughout the world.

Living the righteous life is the goal of Spiritual champions against all adversity, including those who would persecute or seek the destruction of the Church as the body of Christ. In personal testimony, I have come to understand that life is not about me or my having life. For years I have had only a portion of the understanding, in that I understood having faith in God, but I lacked faith in God. Faith, righteous faith, is more than believing that God is, it is living because God is. I now live for the higher level of the calling to which I have been prepared to live. I seek His face in living the righteous life not that I earn the right to see Him, but because it is right living to see Him.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy of my sinful soul, and grant that I may see you and walk with you, and talk with you daily. Amen

Spiritual Fitness Center: Establishing and Maintaining

Read: Romans 12:4-6

In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't. (The Message)

Friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors, we are faced with a crisis in the United States referred to as health care. A new congressional season has started on every level of government in our nation. On the federal level a huge battle is set to be on the rise to attack the incomplete, some think incompetent, "universal health care reform" of the President Obama Administration. While it is no attack on the man, it is often taken to be because he represents welcomed change in human relations in the United States of America across racial lines. At the same time, however, he has not been able to pull off the hoped for change in political wars. He is surely a Democratic political leader in our democracy, when the majority had hoped for a transformative leader to bring union in the midst of diversity.

It is at times depressing and surely stressful for us. Even those in the school of psychological and theological studies, and practitioners of mental and familial health care find ourselves at odds with siblings and loved ones about the actions coming from the White House. Interesting, indeed, is how addressing health care can be so stressful that it adds to matters of disease in human bodies. We are in need of well being to fight off diseases hindering the best bodily functions. My brother, Bernard, rightfully issued a call for us to reach for heaven for we may at least land among the stars. Being "sea faring" men, we know President John F. Kennedy to have been correct...following the stars we will reach our destination. What is the concern? Too many are trapped in the valley of life - depression, anxiety, stress, etc. Our desire is for no one to be left behind as we soar through the skies.

In the valley of life, there are dry bones not of animals, they are human. On the average, it has been postulated by those of science, there are 206 bones in a human body. From the skull to the toe there is bone structure. In order for the bones to live there is need for muscles, a brain with various cerebral components, and other aspects of sinew into which may be given the breath of life. The reality of life is to be found within the structure of the body. In agreement with the Apostle Paul and others of faith, I believe the relevance of the Church today to be in the same structuring.

The purpose here is not to address all of the historical and theological positions on the Church as the Body of Christ or the Body of Christ as symbolic in the Church. No effort is given to support Catholicism in making the Church the "universal sacrament of salvation." The intent is to bring union in diversity by establishing and maintaining a spiritual fitness center in our local church in Huntington, New York. A place where people of God can come from any background and find unity in search for healthy spiritual living within the body given by God, which we call the Church, composed of various parts called human beings. In the Christian context, it is my ultimate pastoral desire to lead and witness the formation of spiritual fitness within the Body of Christ.

"Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but Christ himself. Do you understand and grasp, brethren, God's grace toward us? Marvel and rejoice: we have become Christ. For if he is the head, we are the members; he and we together are the whole man.... the fullness of Christ then is the head and the members. But what does 'head and members' mean? Christ and the Church." (Saint Augustine)

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and forgive our spiritual weaknesses and obesity, and grant us restoration through spiritual fitness in the Kingdom of God. Amen.

Luonne Abram Rouse, LMFT