Red Letter Christians » Following Francis: The Veneration of (Imperfect) Saints - 0 views
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shared by Gary Patton on 26 Feb 12
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why even bother trying to follow his example
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Gary Patton on 26 Feb 12Jamie's is an interesting question. Initially, I reacted that the Bible tells me to only model Jesus. Then, I remembered Paul said: "Follow me as I follow Messiah".
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“Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.”
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St. Francis of Assisi is a man who deserves to be honored and esteemed for his selfless devotion to Christ and the continued, positive influence his movement has had in building the kingdom of God.
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Given these reasons for his suggested reverence of St. Francis, would Jamie also suggest we "revere" celebrities not singled out by the Catholic or Orthodox churches who have benefited human kind in a way not normally associated with "building the Kingdom of God", e.g. Albert Einstein, Bill Gates ...to name only a couple to make my point?
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Some of those failings, he never acknowledged, but many he clearly repented for in his life.
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We venerate them as fallen, broken, thoroughly human individuals who, despite their mistakes, pursued obedience to Christ at any cost, thus changing their world (and ours) as a result.
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Interestingly, this issue was a sub-plot in the 2012-02-10 episode of the TV police series, "Blue "Bloods". Frank is one of the stars and the Chief of Police of Boston is portrayed each week as an imperfect but moral, Catholic, family man. When Frank's archbishop comes asking for his support for the canonization of a local priest, Frank declined because the Priest had protested the Vietnam War. After checking into the matter further Frank changes his mind and supports the canonization for the reason suggested by Jamie here. The episode is available on line at my time of writing 2012-02-25.
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They are deserving of our esteem because they refused to allow their own weaknesses to be used as excuses to live merely “good”, but ultimately mediocre lives.
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The potential eternal danger for a Jesus Follower in pursuing "better than good", as Jamie rightly implies we should here, is in whose strength we do it? Jesus makes clear in John 15:5 that there is ONLY one way to produce a life of eternal value (http://diigo.com/0jvfh).
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The Veneration of (Imperfect) Saints
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followed Jesus in and through his own sinful nature,
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Jamie is suggesting here that a Jesus Follower can have two natures ...a sinful one and also a Christ-like one. However, Reverend Bill Gillham suggests in his powerful article ( http://diigo.com/0j8w4 ) that this is unBiblical ...although commonly taught in the Body of Christ by many. This "Dual Natures Doctrine", as some call it, also is implied by the New International Version's (NIV's) translation of the Koine Greek word "flesh" as "sinful nature". I'd suggest that several verses in Romans 6 ( http://diigo.com/0jiqa ) seem to confirm that Rev. Gillham's position on this issue is the correct one.
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I do not venerate Francis because Jesus is not enough. I follow in the footsteps of Francis- human and flawed- because his steps so clearly follow those of Jesus Christ.