debrief from stephens book club meeting of one: Sadly, too often in Church history -- and too often today...Jesus has been presented as a weapon and a threat, more wolf of God than lamb of God, filled more with the spirit of a hawk than a dove, more avenger of heretics than friend of sinners. Our Christology, however high in theory, has produced in practice far too many Christians with an elevated sense of superiority. And that superiority can lead to hostility: My religion is better than your religion. My theology is better than your theology. My God is better than your God. My Jesus is better than your...what? Your Moses? Your Jehovah? Your Elohim? Your Mohammed? Your Allah? Your Buddha? Your Atman? Your Great Spirit? Your Gaia? Your Imani?...Christ as a true image bearer of God does not climb to a place of prominence and glory through the normal means of rivalry and conquest. Rather, he descends -- down into common humanity, down into servanthood, down into suffering, down into death -- even death on a cross. This descending, openhanded humility rather than climbing, clutching pride, this self-giving rather than competitive superiority...this is the attitude than honors God, and that God honors, and that in fact reveals the true nature of God. How could followers of this Christ and this God justify treating others with contempt, disdaining them as inferior, rejecting them as other and enemy? How could any of these all-too-common hostilities be done in the name of Christ? -- Brian McLaren -- Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road lets reimagine the church and the faith and the world and lets practice what we preach (but first maybe change what we preach...) and actually live as a world together in one, with all of our differences. lets learn from our friends and families and neighbors near us and on the other side of the world. lets recognize beauty and love and light where we see it and lets thank God for it. lets not give everyone we meet a sales pitch of why my/your/our faith is the right one or the better one, but instead ask that we may see God and see love and light in the stranger and in the other and lets learn from people of all walks, all faiths, all cultures. by denying to do so in an attempt to protect ourselves or our faith, we are actually weakening it. we are closing our heads and hearts off to so much that God can teach us. we are putting ourselves and God in a box of hostility and clutching onto a man made understanding of God and the world, rather than letting the spirit lead us and guide us and teach us and show us. if the spirit dwells all over the earth, then it is with everyone. it is everywhere. it is a mystery, its all a mystery. we have to accept that and try to understand how much power that gives us, not be scared of that and run from it, trying to find our power in rejecting the other and sticking to our guns. lets open up to the light and love and grace and beauty all around us. many times, were the ugly ones. not the other who our church has rejected and condemned. us. the ones claiming Jesus are, far too often, the ugliest of all. god is an embrace, not a bullet.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 12:45:30 +0000
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