Providing Christian resources from the YMCA past and present to nourish inclusive, equitable work in our diverse and global neighborhoods that build up healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
One of the long-standing gifts of the YMCA in a community is bringing people of different religions and faith traditions together – in the gym, in the sauna, in the locker room, in the board room, in the playground, in the hallways.
Let’s keep embracing this opportunity, this responsibility, this calling to strengthen our religiously diverse association, to be the welcoming heart and hands of Christ in this global community.
I applaud the efforts of Christians in the YMCA to study and collaborate and suggest ways we could deepen our interfaith work and enrich our religious inclusivity.
It is necessary and crucial to us living out our Christian principles, it’s a way to stay faithful to the Paris Basis, our Mission, and our Constitutional Purpose.
Here is a helpful document that YUSA published in 2017 regarding an overview of diverse faiths of members and ideas on inclusive practices:
But: it assumes that someone else is nurturing an inclusive Christian personality and an inclusive Christian society that is ready to do interfaith work in a welcoming, gracious, in imitation of Jesus.
As a Christian Emphasis Director, it seems to me that an obstacle to more Christians participating in interfaith dialogue and events is their neglect of interdenominational and interconfessional participation.
If we are disregarding religious folks that believe some key things different than us, but still regard Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, then it will be very difficult to take seriously the need to be understanding and empathetic to neighbors of other religions.
What can the YMCA do to encourage, nurture, even challenge its Christian members to embody the prayer of Jesus in John 17?
More Christians writing and working out practical ways we can embody The Beatitudes of Jesus, The Golden Rule, The Great Commandment, The Great Commission, with inclusive, gracious, hospitality will be helpful.
Jesus makes it clear in the Gospel According to Matthew that loving people that are like you, who can pay you back generously, is good – but doesn’t go far enough if you are going to love like God loves you; we must love our neighbors who won’t or can’t pay us back, we must love strangers, even our enemies – that is what God-like compassion, mercy and kindness looks like.
One of the long-standing gifts of the YMCA in a community is bringing people of different religions and faith traditions together – in the gym, in the sauna, in the locker room, in the board room, in the playground, in the hallways.
Let’s keep embracing this opportunity, this responsibility, this calling to strengthen our religiously diverse association, to be the welcoming heart and hands of Christ in this global community.
What will guide our YMCA in 2021? With what we think is ahead of us, with what we are preparing to overcome, with what must change within and around us – what is our cornerstone for the Y future? Since 1855 the Paris Basis has been a foundation for YMCA’s around the world to navigate unprecedented disruptions and cataclysmic upheavals. What is the Paris Basis, and how can it aid Christian leaders in the Y to “build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all?”
What is the original animating genius of the YMCA?
What is the power source for sacrificial service, resiliency, and love that enables the Y to endure for over 15 decades globally and locally – especially here in Fort Wayne?
The Paris Basis of the YMCA is a concise yet potent agreement for shaping how a global youth movement can adapt to a plethora of cultures and unique circumstances while embodying a transcendent purpose and calling.
Here in the United States, the Paris Basis guided the YMCA amidst the violent upheavals of the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Great War, the Great Depression, World War Two, the Cold War, Civil Rights Era, Korea-Vietnam-Central America-Iraq-Afghanistan wars/tragedies, 9/11, and now COVID.
“The Young Men’s Christian Associations seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their faith and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his Kingdom amongst young men.
Any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the constituent members and associates of the World Alliance.”
YMCA Paris Basis, adopted at First World YMCA Conference, 1855, organized by Henri Dunant
draft document of the Paris Basis, 1855
The spirit of the YMCA leaders that drafted this document also shaped the future ecumenical movement of European and then international Christian churches.
The emphasis on Jesus Christ, his Kingdom, and harmonious relationships should not be underestimated for its significance on the growth and vitality of the Y in a turbulent and war-torn century.
George Williams, a founder of the YMCA, who embodied this kind of Christian spirit of service, was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894.
Henri Dunant, organizer of the first YMCA world council, also embodied this Christian spirit of service, and would go on to found the International Red Cross; he would be awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
The Christian spirit of service embodied by Williams and Dunant, as expressed in the Paris Basis and enculturated across dozens of nations around the world in those early decades, still exists today for YMCA’s to work together and collaborate in their communities.
It has been necessary and good for the Young Men’s Christian Association to adapt and mature over the past 175+ years.
In regard to the Paris Basis the need prevails to immerse our mission in it, as we fully immerse ourselves in the cultures of our communities. We still live in a violent, broken, yet beautiful world, as 2020 revealed so clearly to us.
The genius of the Paris Basis is its emphasis on the personal, not the abstract: Jesus Christ as our faithful God and courageous Savior; on its reconciliatory nature as revealed by Christ’s kingdom that prioritizes forgiveness, oneness, and sacrificial service.
The world doesn’t need platitudes or empty promises; it does still need real people living as peace-makers inspired by the words and works of the real Jesus Christ.
The YMCA is at its best when it is personal, when it connects and unites communities, when it brings out the best in others. What makes this transformative is when it happens amidst irascible conflict, brokenness, and apathy.
The spirit of the Paris Basis originated among twelve industrious young Christian men who associated to improve the lives of workers around them living in darkness, squalor, and hopelessness.
When YMCA workers seek to embody this same spirit in its complicated context, the Paris Basis can be a guiding light and spiritual fuel as it enters into difficult and overwhelming circumstances.
The Paris Basis emphasizes some key texts from the New Testament:
– the dynamic person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Gospel according to Luke, especially the first four chapters.
– the transformative kingdom of Christ unto which we are disciples in faith and life, described in the Gospel according to Matthew, particularly chapters five through seven.
– the harmonious relations stem from a robust and powerful vision of Jesus Christ as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane “that all may be one” as recorded in the Gospel according to John, in chapter 17, but prefaced by the call to “love one another” in chapters 15-16.
Christian leaders within the YMCA movement can draw great wisdom and strength from reflections on these three core Gospel writings, as they go about their demanding work in the community.
Like anyone else we can get overwhelmed by the upheavals on our world; the Paris Basis can be our North Star in the wilderness, our compass in the storm, our lantern in the dark.
You may not be knighted for your YMCA work, nor receive a Nobel Peace Prize. But that same spirit of Christ that animated Williams and Dunant, as articulated in the Paris Basis, is still alive and vibrant, for those willing to embrace it.
Together we can strive for more peace, in the way of Christ and his Kingdom, especially in the troubled times still ahead for our world in 2021.
“We don’t even know what our desire is. We ask other people to tell us our desires. We would like our desires to come from our deepest selves, our personal depths – but if it did, it would not be desire. Desire is always for something we feel we lack.” ~René Girard
The pandemic has revealed many different paradoxes about our society, our families, our communities, our values, and our desires. At the core of this COVID-19 confusion are frustrated desires for life, liberty, and happiness. For many of us, the coronavirus is magnifying reality: we never get all that we want.
People are social beings, we get our desires from others – first from our parents and immediate family, and then extended family, friends, commercials, classmates, social media, literature, films, and art, neighbors, coworkers: basically our culture.
Our desires are never truly fulfilled, we always feel a lack. Life is a paradox – you desire based on what others desire in your culture, but you personally pay the price for trying to fulfill them.
The pandemic is fueling our anxiety around this existential question: how can we be blessed and happy when so many of our desires are unfulfilled?
Especially if we’re facing a frustrating disruption to our children’s education and well-being, our jobs and economic stability, or worst of all infection and the fear of death.
But amidst all the anxiety and uncertainty that the pandemic has increased, amidst all the thwarted desires and plans we were striving to fulfill, there have been many heart-warming stories of personal sacrifices, of hero’s stepping forward, of people letting their light shine, of families making the most of it, of seeing the best of humanity emerging towards those who are suffering.
It’s an interesting paradox – the best of times can bring out the worst in people, and the worst of times can bring out the best in people.
It’s almost as if the “worst times” is the default setting for humanity, but we deeply yearn for “the best of times.”
If one were cynical, it would seem that out of the billions of people on our planet, too many are stuck in the worst of times, and too few are getting to enjoy the best of times.
What to do when it feels like you are getting stuck in the “worst of times”?
For Jesus of Nazareth walking the length and breadth of Israel in the first century, most of the citizens were stuck in the worst of times.
They floundered under the cruel paranoia of King Herod, the local authority who rebuilt the beautiful temple and had an eye for urban architectural design but was bloodthirsty and evil towards his own people.
On top of these injustices was the oppressive Roman Empire which sought to tamp down the violence in Israel, a stubborn people unwilling to quietly accept the blasphemies and corruption of the Caesars.
The common folks were dying of malnutrition, of untreated diseases, of trauma, of economic exploitation, of unfair justice, of hopelessness.
The entrenched political and religious oligarchies were insulated from the misery of the people – though they sought to find ways to speak for them and drain away the violent repercussions of mass poverty so the government wouldn’t take away their privileged positions.
It’s in this pandemic of terrifying imperial and royal authoritarianism that Jesus arrives to be with the people of Israel. He brings real healing and hope, speaking subversive truth and grace. Christ Jesus reconnects them to their living God, the one who brought them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, their God who created them to be a blessing to the world.
Jesus arrived to teach them his people how to participate in the kingdom of God even while they are subjected to the politics of injustice.
What Jesus is revealing to us comes across as a series of paradoxes amidst our thwarted desires. They are guideposts to us on how God keeps his promises to his conflicted people, and how to be God’s people while immersed in the politics of whatever authority and government happen to be in power.
Jesus is teaching those who will listen to him how to be blessed by God while in the worst of times.
He knows that for many people, most of their life will be marked by the tragedies and injustices of the world.
For them and us: when we can’t stop the worst of times from coming, how to find happiness, hope, a way to experience God and his goodness?
We all know that anger, vengeance, bitterness, hatred easily take root in us, our desires become full of darkness and rage, or despair and violence when we are pressed down and oppressed lacking hope of rescue.
While it’s natural, it’s also destructive to ourselves and others. What’s another way?
The Beatitudes are a realistic assessment of how God blesses his people, how he is with them, and for them, in this paradox-full world of the best of times and the worst of times.
We desire to be blessed. And at our best, we desire to be a blessing. Jesus teaches us how to be blessed and to be a blessing when we are poor and mourn when we are oppressed and hungry when we are treated unmercifully and violently when we are full of impure thoughts and persecuted for striving to live God’s way in the world.
In February 2020 I traveled through parts of the Holy Land with a group of YMCA leaders as part of our OnPrinciples program. In learning how to strengthen the presence of Christ in our Y, we spent time where Christ had been present, taught, and blessed.
It was hard to complain when we visited the Mount of Beatitudes. Yet I found myself frustrated that instead of it being a beautifully warm and sunny morning in which to soak up the glory of this historic and sacred place, it was cold, rainy, foggy, and very crowded by the time we left.
My desire for a particular kind of experience was thwarted; I wasn’t getting the full amount of what I wanted.
What to do? Remember why I am there, how much grace was part of my even being there, what kind of privilege and blessing it was to be there, and what it meant to be in a place where Jesus had been present. For all we know it had been rainy, cold, foggy and miserable when he taught the Beatitudes!
I learned while in the Holy Land that the desires there are complicated, that there are many, many paradoxes, and too often the striving for being blessed leads to violence.
The need for Christians to heed this sermon is more paramount than ever.
Below are the gospel text, some pictures and brief reflections of my time at the Mount of Beatitudes:
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.
Mid-morning view of the Beatitudes mountainside sloping down to the fog-covered Sea of Galilee.
His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.
OnPrinciple group gathered for a lesson, escaping the cold drizzle under a canopy in front of the Church of the Beatitudes
Jesus said:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be filled.
Traveling through the wilderness on way to the Mount of Beatitudes; with a view of date tree farms and the Judean hills. I reflected on the lives of Palestinian Christians who eke out an existence in this stretch of the Holy Land, a minority within a persecuted people group. Their meditation on the Beatitudes takes on a rugged necessity that I can’t relate to.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
An old abandoned and graffitied tank at a rest stop in the Judean wilderness on way to Mount of Beatitudes. The Holy Land in the past twelve decades has known only escalating violence in an effort to fulfill their desire to abide in the Promised Land. In their pursuit of being blessed by God there has been too much bloodshed. Surely the Beatitudes do not condone these tactics?
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
Back portico of the Church of the Beatitudes, facing the mountainside that slopes down to the lake; OnPrinciple leaders Eric and Mike giving a hearty blessing. The interior chapel was jammed wall to wall with pilgrims from around the world seeking to kneel and pray where Jesus sat and taught us how to be blessed. The desire is strong in all of us.
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. [Jesus of Nazareth, the Gospel According to Matthew, 5.1-16, NIV]
Entrance to the Church of the Beatitudes, with the faithful gathered in the rain, waiting to pray within.
The ongoing violence in the Holy Land is at odds with the kingdom of God revealed in the Beatitudes.
Christians in Israel and Palestine face a brutal reality – how to survive, how to be blessed by God, how to be salt and light, how to follow the teachings of Christ Jesus in the Beatitudes amidst the complex, roiling desires for justice, security, peace, prosperity, and God’s will?
Christians in the West are not immune to this brutal reality – it’s our brothers and sisters who suffer in spirit, mind and body.The persecuted Body of Christ there, of which we fully belong, must endure this violence according to the Beatitudes.
And, for Christians that are not in the minority, we must face the brutal truth – are we, in any way, propping up violent forms of politics and economics that oppose the Beatitudes?
If so, we must first face the truth, and lament this reality.Then we can begin to learn from our fellow Christians in the Holy Land on how to be blessed when you don’t get what you want.
