1. Rick Wright Palm/Passion Sunday (A) Church of the Nations
The Servant Option
Rick Wright
Palm/Passion Sunday (A) Church of the Nations

2. The Benedict Option
My best friend and the pope in the same paragraph?!?
Rod Dreher
The Benedict Option
Modern society increasingly hostile
How to maintain Christian faith and practice
Thanks to Clint Barron and others who read early versions of this book… and express gratitude to Joseph Ratzinger Pope Benedict XVI…

3. Isaiah 50
The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a word the one who is weary… Behold the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty? Behold all of them will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up.
Servant Songs of Isaiah
To people in exile
Jesus Christ = the suffering servant

4. As one those who are taught
The Lord God has given me the tongue of one who is taught… Morning by morning he wakes me up  - wakes up my ear to listen like those who are taught.
Most dangerous person in the church = the unteachable one
Servant = one who is taught
Open to what God says and teaches

5. Learns through suffering?
What is the mission of the servant?
To sustain those who are weary with a word
Christian life is for those who sin and suffer and struggle
Even when she experiences abuse and contempt
Learns to strengthen others from suffering (!?!)
~ Jesus the great high priest (Hebrews 2)
Servant does not attack but trusts in God

6. Secular exile Church entering time of exile How do we respond?
Judge? Criticize? … ?
*Social and political power???*
What does Jesus do?
What does the servant do?
We have good news…
Especially for the poor and afflicted

7. They love the Way and hate it
Life of eternal quality ~ of harmony with God
Challenges and provokes
World prefers darkness and death
Usually does not realize this
We are right… we are good… you are the problem!
Christian people must remain engaged
*But we are not in charge*

8. The Servant Option We are even more the minority
World says we are strange… stupid… even evil
The Benedict Option?
Consider example of Jesus on Palm Sunday
*What does Jesus do?*
Suffering Servant of Isaiah
The Servant Option

9. Speaking of popes…
Let us go forth, then, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ. I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, section 49)