A friend recently loaned me Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile by Rob Bell & Don Golden. It's a really quick read that basically sums up the message of the bible from the beginning of the world all the way through the promise of what is to come. I've recently been feeling a very strong burden to be DOING something about what I'm believing, studying, saying, etc. I was talking with my bible study group on Thursday about how we come to God and ask Him to reveal very in depth, difficult, complicated truths to us. We assume because we are actively pursuing learning and knowing more that we must be ready for it. Yet, somehow I feel like lately I've been asking Jesus to allow me into High School when I haven't even been practicing or truly understanding the lessons He taught me in kindergarten..
What is that lesson? LOVE. At all costs. After Jesus appears to many after his resurrection He's trying to get the point across. "Love people more than yourself. Feed my sheep. Tend to my sheep. When people are hurting and want to know where I am to help them, I'm sending YOU to show them." Ultimately, I don't think He really cares that much if I am the smartest biblical scholar in the world or if I spend 24 hours of my day in church, reading the bible and praying. I think all of those things are great but really come second to being His hands and feet. Showing His love to the world. And I think we ignore this because it is, alot of times, much more difficult to live out than to study the bible until you've memorized it or understand much higher truths.
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So this had been on my mind the last couple weeks and yesterday I was finishing up "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" and the last few pages pretty much summed it up. I know this is kind of long but I really think it's worth taking a few minutes to read it and really think about what this means to our lives....
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Because when we hear the cry, we're with God. When God gets Moses' attention and lays out for him what liberation is going to look like for his people, he tells Moses to "GO."
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"LISTEN" and then, "GO."
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The going will take a multitude of forms. It will be movement, action, life. It will involve risk. It will mean conversations with people who are nothing like us, and it will probably involve questions and criticism and perhaps even rejection...
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It's about all of us taking the next step out of Egypt, doing the next right thing, being open to whatever it means for us to be a Eucharist, right here, right now, with what God has given us today.
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And whatever it is, it will not be boring. Tomorrow will not be like today. And it will cost something. ...
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Instead of standing at a distance and saying "someone else," it's stepping up and stepping into the invitation to the risk, to the suffering, to the joy...
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Jesus wants to save us from making the good news about another world and not this one.
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Jesus wants to save us from shrinking the gospel down to a transaction about the removal of sin and not about every single particle of creation being reconciled to its maker.
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On the night he was betrayed, Jesus led a Passover meal unlike any other, He took the bread and the cup and connected these symbols to himself. He told them to "do this in remembrance of me." The "do this" is understood to be the taking of the bread and the cup as the body and blood of Christ...But what if Jesus meant something else-something beyond the ritual? What if he was talking about our actually enacting what the ritual is about...What if the "do this" was his whole way of life...The "do this" part is our lives. Opening ourselves up to the mystery of resurrection, open for the liberation of others, allowing our bodies to be broken and our blood to be poured, discovering our Eucharist. Listening. And going.
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Excerpts from "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" pages 166-181
.
Because when we hear the cry, we're with God. When God gets Moses' attention and lays out for him what liberation is going to look like for his people, he tells Moses to "GO."
.
"LISTEN" and then, "GO."
.
The going will take a multitude of forms. It will be movement, action, life. It will involve risk. It will mean conversations with people who are nothing like us, and it will probably involve questions and criticism and perhaps even rejection...
.
It's about all of us taking the next step out of Egypt, doing the next right thing, being open to whatever it means for us to be a Eucharist, right here, right now, with what God has given us today.
.
And whatever it is, it will not be boring. Tomorrow will not be like today. And it will cost something. ...
.
Instead of standing at a distance and saying "someone else," it's stepping up and stepping into the invitation to the risk, to the suffering, to the joy...
.
Jesus wants to save us from making the good news about another world and not this one.
.
Jesus wants to save us from shrinking the gospel down to a transaction about the removal of sin and not about every single particle of creation being reconciled to its maker.
.
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus led a Passover meal unlike any other, He took the bread and the cup and connected these symbols to himself. He told them to "do this in remembrance of me." The "do this" is understood to be the taking of the bread and the cup as the body and blood of Christ...But what if Jesus meant something else-something beyond the ritual? What if he was talking about our actually enacting what the ritual is about...What if the "do this" was his whole way of life...The "do this" part is our lives. Opening ourselves up to the mystery of resurrection, open for the liberation of others, allowing our bodies to be broken and our blood to be poured, discovering our Eucharist. Listening. And going.
.
Excerpts from "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" pages 166-181
1 comment:
Great post a good read K! Thanks for sharing!
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