When Christianity becomes a code of morality, an ethic of right or wrong then you can be sure that we have ceased following Jesus faithfully. The Way of life with God is not about not breaking the rules but about how we might live lives that ever more reflect the Light and Life of Jesus; how might we become more human. A morality code Christianity inevitably leads to individualism and how I am saved through right living and how my salvation is the most important element of my existence. A life like this is not the abundant life that Jesus calls us into, it is not the life of communion with the Trinitarian Life. Living through a lens of not breaking the rules leads to a spirit of judgement and condemnation or perpetual guilt and shame, sometimes both. The Way of Jesus is relational, common life lived together. It is to discover Father, Son and Spirit and his life for us within the context of community; community with God and with each other. It is a community of woman and men who covenant together to love one another, bear one another, forgive one another, instruct each other and reinforce each others witness. Within this Way of discipleship we are not on our own, trying to work it out with me and myself, but living authentically in community, aware of your own weaknesses, aware of the weaknesses of others, and learning together how the Light of Christ might not be dimmed within us but shine ever more brightly to the world around us. This messianic community is not for heroic personalities trying to go it alone or fix things, but in its vulnerable shared life we foretaste the Kingdom of God. The love of God is non-coercive, non-manipulative, non-violent and unconditional. A community of disciples seeks to express this Trinitarian love faithfully, not through rule keeping but through our common-life together, following the Way of Jesus, participants in this peculiar way of life with God, instruments used by God, in the power of the Spirit, to be a people of grace, a people of the cross, a people of God.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 15:11:31 +0000
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