Parish Hopes From Here | Fr. Chad E. JarnaginTraditionally, to have a parish meant to take spiritual responsibility for a designated geographic area. The greater Nashville area now has over 2 million people. Over the next 7-8 years, there will be another million.We believe in the importance of commitment to local community and planting roots to form deep and meaningful relationships in our neighborhoods that can help bring about real change and renewal. Our society is thirsty for spiritual nutrition, belonging, and genuine reverent worship. We desire to cooperate with God in the transformation of our souls. Beauty, Communion, and Peace will continue to be central values as we move forward into our third year.As Followers of Christ, we believe that we are nourished by living an integrated life of three streams: scripture, spirit and sacrament.Worshiping with both sacramental and spiritual gifts can deepen our joy, enrich our lives, and remind us that there are things we can learn from the worship practices of other traditions.It is interesting that the early New Testament church, namely the church in Corinth, was both eucharistic and charismatic. The Corinthians were knew that these streams moved together for a reason... only in our modern practices have we worked incredibly hard to separate them. Andrew Wilson (Spirit and Sacrament) says, “neither did Paul regard this as strange or problematic; in fact, he encouraged them to continue celebrating Communion together (1 Cor. 11:23–6) AND to eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially prophecy (14:1). With the idea that God is stillactive, speaking, moving... it would serve us and the Church well, to believe the this God who was, who is, and is to come is still alive.From the Gospel today: It is so easy to fall into the trap of believing that the Golden Rule has a secret ending: Do to others as you want them to do to you as long as they agree to do the same to you... This isn’t a contract. The love we are called to give is not conditional. It is kenotic, a beautiful Greek word that means ’self-emptying’. It is not passive love that naturally flows from you to those who do good to you.If we can embrace these words and allow them to shape our internal ethic, if we can lay down our instinctual response and take up Jesus’ calling, we will discover a way of living that liberates us from our pain, anger and, somehow, may also liberate our enemies from theirs.
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