A number of years ago, I did a consultation for a progressive congregation in which the relationship between contemplation and social action was a source of friendly debate. On one side, several congregational leaders asserted that the task of the church is to change the world.  The way of Jesus compels us to be activists, they contended, challenging anything that threatens human and nonhuman well-being. We must provide meals for the soup kitchen and volunteer in the local schools, but we must also challenge our leaders to “let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).

In response, the more contemplative congregational leaders declared that we need to focus on our spiritual lives first. They counseled that we need to practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation, and go on retreats to find our spiritual and political direction. Without prayer, they cautioned, our political involvement will be polarizing in the congregation and the community. As I listened to their contrasting positions, I found that both perspectives were right.  We need to be contemplative activists, people who protest and pray.  It is possible for progressive Christians to be contemplative activists, heavenly minded and earthly good.

At the heart of progressive Christianity are a number of life-transforming affirmations that embrace both action and contemplation. The first affirmation, undergirding the Eight Points of Progressive Christianity, is: Believe that following the path and teachings of Jesus can lead to an awareness and experience of the Sacred and the Oneness and Unity of all life. In a nutshell, the first affirmation portrays the mystic vision that all life is connected and that we can experience the Sacred in our daily lives and political involvements. The mystic, like Jacob, dreams of a ladder of angels and awakens, proclaiming “God was in this place and I did not know it!”  (Genesis 28:10-19). Mystics seek to encounter the Holy, based on the affirmation that “God is in this place and we can know it.” As a result of these experiences, we can as fallible mortals, limited in perspective, encounter God in dramatic and undramatic ways that change our lives and reorient our priorities.

Our encounters with God, initially private and personal, awaken us to God’s presence everywhere, in friend and foe and neighbor and stranger alike. We may, like Isaiah, find ourselves in the temple, our church, and discover that the “whole earth is filled with God’s glory.” Astonished and awestruck, like Isaiah, we may hear God’s call, “Whom shall I send?” and respond, “Here am I; send me!” to be God’s messenger in changing the world (Isaiah 6:1-8).

Encountering the Living God inspires us to action, both locally and globally. African American mystic Howard Thurman, whose book Jesus and the Disinherited influenced Martin Luther King Jr.’s integration of faith and political action, affirmed that mystical experiences of God’s presence in everyone inspire us to challenge anything impedes persons from experiencing the fullness of God in their lives. The mystic, Thurman believes, becomes an activist in the quest for social structures that promote well-being and openness to the Divine, especially among the marginalized.  If, as early Christian theologian Irenaeus believed, “The glory of God is a fully alive human,” then we must do all we can to enable all persons to become “fully alive,” and this requires a just social order. Further, even in the midst of protest, the mystic recognizes the holiness of her or his “opponent” and works to find common ground in inviting that opponent to experience the holiness of every person and the implications of this holiness in ethical behavior and public policy.

The sixth and seventh points of Progressive Christianity are activist in nature and complement and complete the mystical bent of the first point: Strive for peace and justice among all people and Strive to protect and restore the integrity of our Earth. We are, as Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us, part of an intricate fabric of relatedness in which our joys and sorrows are one.  Whatever touches one, touches all. Justice in one community brings justice to the whole earth.  In the midst of our activism, prayer and meditation promote spiritual centeredness, which issues in non-polarizing political action. Personal acts of kindness and prophetic challenges to injustice contribute to greater social well-being and openness to the “better angels of our nature” and experiences of beauty and wholeness in everyday life.

I believe that a holistic progressive Christianity, joining contemplation and action, is what our faith communities and seekers in our midst are looking for. There is a hunger for spiritual experiences and practices that cultivate peace in a chaotic world. There is also the desire to respond to the local and global challenges we face, whether with a hammer and saw at a Habitat for Humanity build or a phone call regarding a Supreme Court nominee or our nation’s environmental policies. We can, as a saying on a bench at Kirkridge Retreat Center in Pennsylvania affirms, both “picket and pray” as we claim our vocation as God’s companions in healing the world.
 
About the Author
Bruce Epperly is senior pastor of South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Centerville, Massachusetts, and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. He is the author of over 45 books, including The Mystic in You: Discovering a God-filled World (Upper Room Books) and The Work of Christmas: The Twelve Days of Christmas with Howard Thurman(Anamchara Books).