Phoenix Affirmations Week 4

Here are the next two Affirmations along with scripture (links are active). We will be reflecting on these during worship this Sunday. Please leave your reactions in comments, particularly if you won't be present on Sunday to share them in person. Comments may be used in worship.

LOVING OUR NEIGHBOR INCLUDES:

Affirmation 7: Preserving religious freedom and the Church's ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of Church and State;


Luke 20:25; 1 Peter 2:17

As Christians, we strive to live as responsible citizens of our country, just as we seek to live as Christ's disciples. We celebrate the separation of Church and State as much for the protection of the Church, and other faith communities, as the State.

We affirm that the Path of Jesus is found where Christ's followers honor the role of the State in maintaining justice and peace, so far as human discernment and ability make possible. We affirm the separation of Church and State, even as we endeavor to support the state in as far as Christian conscience allows.

We confess that we have moved away from this Path when we have confused the role of the State with that of the Church. We have moved further from the Path when we have renounced the Church's calling to speak prophetically to the State by suggesting that the Church should or could take on the nature, tasks and dignity which belong to the State, thus becoming itself an organ of the State.

Affirmation 8: Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies;

Luke 18:9-14; Luke 6:27-29; Galatians 5:22-23; John 15:18-19

As Christians, we recognize that we are misfits both with respect to God's Realm and the world. We are misfits with respect to God's Realm in that we rarely live up to the principles and ideals we espouse. We are misfits with respect to the world in that the ideals for which we strive frequently do not conform to the ways of the world.

We affirm that the Path of Jesus is found where Christ's followers love those who consider them their enemies as much as they love themselves, striving humbly to embody the "fruits of the Spirit": love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

We confess that we have moved away from this Path when we have promoted a notion that people of faith are morally or ethically superior to those without faith. Further, we have moved away when we have supported any cause, no matter how just or righteous, without reflecting the "fruits of the Spirit" toward all.