A Path Toward Restoration
Breaking Faith’s Imperial Chains. A Call for a New Ground up Faith, Part 3
Awakening to Healing
As we navigate the paths to reconstruction we will have to embrace a few core practices. They sound simple, but they will give us a firm foundation for the work we are facing.
We need to start with acts of compassion. Don’t start with others, but with ourselves and then to others. If the golden rule is do unto others as we would have them do to us, we have to know how we want others to act toward us. This is a how we learn the nature of grace, by offering it first to ourselves and then to others. Acts of compassion are kindness, care, concern, mindfulness, open, honest, and edifying. The more we learn to perform acts of kindness towards ourselves, the better we will become performing acts of compassion for others.
Next we need to incorporate moments of deep reflection into our practice. We have gotten better stressing the need for mindfulness in spiritual and daily practice, but a lot of that mindfulness comes at the cost of reflection. Mindfulness teaches us to stay in the moments and live in the now. Reflection is a sort of diagnostic mode of meditation where we contemplate recent and distant events examining them to learn from the positive and negative aspects of those events. The more we combine mindfulness with deep reflection, the more we will be capable of learning from our successes and failure, and moving toward a better course of action.
Follow me on this next one, because I feel like a lot of people are going to say, we already do that. We need to incorporate more shared prayer or collective presencing into our practice. I am not talking about the liturgies, rituals, and prayer circles we see now, I am talking about spontaneous, unguided, and open time for shared prayer. Time when we are not reciting the words of the tradition, but allow spirit and presence to flow through us as we meet it together on its own terms. We usually limit this kind of prayer to personal prayer, but if we make more space for this kind of spontaneous group prayer, we will become better at rooting into spirit and growing together into the new faith we desire to recreate.
These three practices will help us rid ourselves of the unclean spirits that twist the love we should share and cloud our vision so we can reconstruct the faith.
In our post Enlightenment, materialistic culture, too many close their eyes and turn away. No one can prove that spirits exist or that they don't. Belief in spirits is not required or even necessary. As with everything in life, practice and action are always more important than belief. Whether these unclean spirits are separate entities, energies, or mental formations, they manifest as deeply embedded habits of harm, fear, shame, and control. Each time we name a distortion, a harmful attitude, a learned cruelty, we loosen their grip on our hearts.
Naming is the first step in exorcising. It is a declaration that we will no longer allow broken systems and wounded thinking to define us. Healing begins the moment we see clearly, and clarity begins with honesty.
Bit by bit, we unlearn the hierarchy, manipulation, and enforced silence that the Imperial Church used to secure its dominion. We disentangle love from control, grace from gatekeeping, and truth from fear. In their place, we cultivate mutuality, liberation, and the holy fire of God’s indwelling presence.
Restoring love is soul work. It is difficult, sacred, and deeply transformative, but is the work we are called to do. It is not a sentimental task, but one that demands courage, vulnerability, and fierce gentleness. Yet with every Compassion Circle, each honest journal entry, each quiet moment of self-examination, and every shared story of struggle and redemption, we move closer to the liberating commandment of Christ: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you also love one another (John 13:34).”
Continuing Our Shared Practices
Previously, we introduced these practices to nurture honest reflection and compassionate action to help us strengthen and examine our capacity for love. Now, we build on that foundation, using the same tools to expose and release the unclean spirits that distort our ability to love as Christ commands:
In our Compassion Circle
Gather with those who share your desire to embody Christ’s love. Create a safe space for shared reflection. Ask: How might the Imperial Church’s messages have taken root in our hearts? Which unclean spirits linger among us? Listening without condemnation invite deeper honesty and mutual support.
Journaling for Clarity
Write down instances where you see love overshadowed by control, shame, or indifference. Reflect on questions like: When have I prioritized obedience to flawed authority over compassion? Where has fear of rejection blinded me to someone’s suffering? Putting words on paper can reveal patterns of infected love.
Community Check-Ins
Extend your circle to neighbors, friends, or church groups. Ask where they perceive unclean spirits affecting communal relationships. Do they recognize the subtle influence of spiritual arrogance, racism, or hypocrisy? By speaking openly of these infections, communities begin the process of collective healing.
Language Awareness Exercises
Pay attention to the words you use in conversation, prayer, and teaching. Imperial theology often hides in language in terms that blame victims or demonize difference. Practice replacing harmful phrases with words that affirm dignity and equality. Language can either feed the infection or encourage healing.
Acts of Service and Solidarity
If greed is the unclean spirit, generosity breaks its hold. If judgment is the spirit, practical empathy dissolves its power. Volunteer at shelters, advocate for the marginalized, or stand with survivors of abuse. Each act of service can become a subtle exorcism of the Imperial Church’s infection.
Personal Integrity Check
Spend quiet moments asking, Do I say I love God while ignoring my neighbor’s pain? We all slip into complacency, but honest self-examination invites grace to transform infected areas of our hearts.
The Great Work of Reconciliation
As it is written: “But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18–19, WEB)
Here, Paul, the real Paul, names our sacred calling: the ministry of reconciliation. Not judgment. Not separation. But healing, restoration, and return. The language he uses is the language of exchange, like when one kind of currency is exchanged for a different kind of coin with an equivalent value.
Like Jesus, he tells us our ministry is about changing our perspective from one context to another.
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, "The kingdom of God doesn't come with observation; neither will they say, 'Look, here!' or, 'Look, there!' for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:20-21
Learning to see and live in the kingdom is the ministry we are all called to.
This is the Great Work of the Oak Church: to mend the torn fabric of creation, to weave peace, and to restore balance among all things. It is the living invitation of Jesus, the Cosmic Christ, who reveals a God who does not keep score. The work is not to divide, but to gather. To reconcile is to restore sacred relationship, to join again what was never meant to be broken. We are called to provide rest for the land, release for the oppressed, and forgiveness of debts. It is a justice that restores rather than punishes, that nourishes rather than shames.
This ministry of reconciliation calls us not only to be healed, but to become healers. We are invited to become proclaimers of the Good News, not only with our lips, but with our lives: that the Kingdom of Heaven is here, that the sacred presence of God is here, now, among us, and within us.
From Kingdom to Kin-dom
The traditional language of "kingdom" carries with it echoes of empire, hierarchy, and dominion. These images distort the liberating message of the Gospel. What if, in the Oak Church, we embrace the language of Kin-dom, for it better reflects the work we are called to: the restoration of relationships, not the imposition of power.
The term Kin-dom was introduced by Ada María Isasi-Díaz, a pioneer of Mujerista theology (Hispanic feminist theology), who said she learned it from her friend Georgene Wilson, O.S.F. Isasi-Díaz used the term to describe a vision of God’s reign that emphasizes relationships over rule, mutuality over monarchy. It reimagines the divine community as one where all are welcomed as family, where justice is relational, and where the call of the Gospel is to draw near, not dominate. By shifting from the hierarchical imagery of "kingdom" to the relational depth of "kin-dom," we align ourselves more closely with the Jesus who called us friends, not subjects (John 15:15).
As a side note, the word is spelled either kin-dom or kindom. I like the spelling with the dash because it looks like we are striking the "g" from the word king to return to right relationship. That dash is a powerful symbol of the work.
Kin-dom is a realm of sacred belonging. It is not ruled over, but grown among. It is the web of connection where each life matters, where every soul is kin, and where justice flows not from decree, but from compassion. This is the kind of reign Jesus proclaimed: a divine commonwealth shaped by love, mercy, equity, and kinship.
The Dawning of New Life
Flowing from this sacred call to reconciliation, we proclaim not just healing, but the dawning of new life. Zion is at hand. Our Christ stands at the door and knocks, not in judgment, but in love and longing.
The shadows that once made us feel alone, unworthy, and irredeemable are lies born from a world too quick to condemn and too slow to forgive. We are not alone. We have never been alone. The light of Christ has never stopped shining. It is only the fog of shame and fear that keeps us from seeing it clearly. That light calls to us, even when we hide from it.
So we repent: change our mind, our habits, our assumptions, our way of seeing. The Gospel is not that God is angry with us, but that God has always been reaching for us. God loves us and has always loved us. There is nothing we can do to make God give up on us. No mistake, no failure, no wandering path can disqualify us from grace. No matter our story, Christ loves us and wants to make us whole. To heal is not to erase what has been, but to transform it, to write a new story from the fragments of the old.
Forgiveness and the Kin-dom
Forgiveness is not a ledger. It is light that shines through our brokenness, dispersing the fog of shame and fear that once kept us from grace. It is not transactional, but radiant, overflowing, a wildfire of mercy. Forgiveness removes the shadows so we can see again. We see not just the world, but ourselves, and the divine image within us. We are called not only to be forgiven, but to become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), living into the radiant peace and joy of the Kin-dom, where every soul is cherished and every wound tends toward healing.
As Meister Eckhart once said: “This, then, is salvation, when we marvel at the beauty of created things and praise the beautiful providence of their Creator or when we purchase heavenly goods by our compassion for the works of creation (Passion for Creation, loc 325)."
Salvation, then, is not an escape from the world but a deeper immersion into its sacredness. It is a return to awe, to wonder, to reverence for the earth, for one another, and for the presence of God that pulses through all things. It is not just personal transformation, but collective awakening. Salvation is the restoration of wholeness where fragmentation once reigned.