Newsletter

To receive regular inspiration from Agape, sign up at the bottom of our homepage.

January 20, 2017

When the early church claimed Jesus as Lord and Savior,
that was a religious declaration, but also a political one.
For those living in first-century Judea,
it would have been very obvious who people claimed (and who demanded to be named) as Lord and Savior: Caesar.
This testimony then, was an act of resistance to the tyranny of empire.
It affirmed that amidst the noise and corruption of the political system,
people of faith would take a different starting point.
Our allegiance was not to Caesar, or empire, or to any political party,
but to God, who created us, who is one with us, and who is Love.

This allegiance will call us to prayer,
and prayer will call us to social and political action.
The early Christians were thus called “The Way”, 
because they embodied this delicate dance between prayer and action.

A drastic shift happened in the 4th century when Christianity became the religion of the empire.
Now, we are seeking to undo the harm done over centuries.
We are seeking to reconnect once more to “The Way.”
We are seeking to live that delicate balance of contemplation and action,
so that we might speak and act and resist with truth and love,
and so remind those in power of what is most important: 
love, service, freedom, opportunity, and justice for all.