Street Repair Repentance
Park Hill CC hosts two different Alcoholics Anonymous groups. One group has two big banners. One banner is for the 12 Steps of AA. The other is for the 12 Traditions of AA.
The AA group is very careful to make sure the banners aren’t facing out at times other than when they’re meeting. But I wish they wouldn’t worry about being so careful. The banners display things that are important for me to see, whether I’m an alcoholic or not.
The AA group is very careful to make sure the banners aren’t facing out at times other than when they’re meeting. But I wish they wouldn’t worry about being so careful. The banners display things that are important for me to see, whether I’m an alcoholic or not.
The first step is – “We admitted we are powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.”
The Christian teacher Richard Rohr writes that the powerless in this step is similar to the poor with whom Jesus begins his most famous sermon by saying, “Blessed are you who are poor in spirit, for yours is the reign of God.”
The poor, broadly understood, are the humble, the empty, those with a beginner’s mind open to the wisdom of God, those who live without a need for personal righteousness, power, or fame.
When we see ourselves without reputations we must protect, then we can receive the love of God. When we are not full of ourselves, then we have the space to be filled with God’s grace.
This isn’t self-hatred. Rohr calls it freedom. We’re free to enter the joy of God because we aren’t obsessed with ourselves. We’re free not to play the game because we’re no longer obsessed with being seen as a winner.
This is hard.
Jesus suggests it comes more easily to those the world considers financially poor. Millions of AA members would say it never came to them until they were cut down by alcoholism.
And yet to be a part of God’s reign is the goal of all who follow Jesus.
The Christian teacher Richard Rohr writes that the powerless in this step is similar to the poor with whom Jesus begins his most famous sermon by saying, “Blessed are you who are poor in spirit, for yours is the reign of God.”
The poor, broadly understood, are the humble, the empty, those with a beginner’s mind open to the wisdom of God, those who live without a need for personal righteousness, power, or fame.
When we see ourselves without reputations we must protect, then we can receive the love of God. When we are not full of ourselves, then we have the space to be filled with God’s grace.
This isn’t self-hatred. Rohr calls it freedom. We’re free to enter the joy of God because we aren’t obsessed with ourselves. We’re free not to play the game because we’re no longer obsessed with being seen as a winner.
This is hard.
Jesus suggests it comes more easily to those the world considers financially poor. Millions of AA members would say it never came to them until they were cut down by alcoholism.
And yet to be a part of God’s reign is the goal of all who follow Jesus.