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'God's work on earth must truly be our own'
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Some clergy people feel that they are compelled to act by the forces of divine will. I don’t think so. We are compelled to act, intervene, teach, counsel, say yes or no, because we are God’s partners in the business of human life. Perhaps no one ever said it better than President John F. Kennedy. In the closing phrase of his Inaugural Address, spoken January 20, 1961, the young Catholic president offered a very Jewish-sounding declaration: “God’s work on earth must truly be our own.”
I believe in a creative, founding God who set off the processes of life with a shaft of light. My tradition teaches that “God created the world, but people are creating it.” That’s a good deal—it gives you and me responsibility and we don’t have to wait for a heavenly signal to jump in and do something good for somebody.
Don’t believe me? Just read the Bible: Towards the end of the Hebrews’ long desert trek, Moses tells them about how social progress will really happen in our society—and he actually admonishes them not to simply sit around and wait for God. You can look it up in Deuteronomy, beloved by Jews and Christians alike.
God’s law should be heeded, says the aged leader, but we have the responsibility for follow-through: “This Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not beyond your reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who among us can go up to heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.”
I like being a leader that God inspires rather than a religious robot that some fundamentalist controls. Have never doubted that God wants me to think!
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