If Jesus was the son of God, why didn't he write the New Testament himself? For some reason, the proposition that a God who wanted people to follow him should have set his messenger down in a remote backwater village and instead of providing a clearly stated guide to what people needed to do should have left only a handful of paradoxes, anecdotes, and questions, to be spread by word of mouth and written down by others does not strike people of faith as unlikely, even though today we would consider such action to be proof, not of divinity, but of insanity.
The reduction of God to a being who acted in such a way might have seemed reasonable to the naive, superstitious and largely illiterate people of those times, but today, when every event can be communicated around the world almost instantly, surely regarding God as less powerful in his communication skills than the local newspaper (let alone the medium we are presently using which will make this message available globally the instant I hit 'Publish review') makes no sense whatever.
If Jesus was God, and the all powerful God who created the universe chose to come to us in the unpretentious form of a poor Galilean man who spoke in parables, what does it say about God? It's almost like God was saying "the point of life isn't to follow clearly delineated rules, it's to follow me," or "I'm a God who cares more about the weak and powerless in my life than making a name for myself," or "knowing that all power in heaven and earth has been given to me, I'm going to respond by washing your feet." What an unlikely, insane, anti-consumerist, anti-imperialist God indeed. Why would we ever want to believe in such a scandalously humble God?
Monday, May 16, 2011
Colossians 3:17-1
Let's stop lying to each other.
We threw away our old selves, who believed and embodied the wicked promises of the world: promises of freedom, health, security, and a hopeful future in the name of the false gods of national pride, self-gratification, economic preeminence, personal or political sovereignty, and military might. Instead, we are embracing our new selves, who are being cultivated out of the dead stumps of our old selves; selves who have not only a correct knowledge about our creator, but who also have an unmistakable family resemblance to him. We have his eyes; the way we perceive and engage the world is becoming deeply and entirely marked by compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. As our new selves mature, we are going blind to hierarchical distinctions between different social and economic classes, races, and expressions of faith; now we can see that Christ is all, and in all. So we are constantly, habitually thankful for everything! The revolutionary love of God is inspiring us to love each other through all of our ticks and pet peeves, and even freeing us to forgive anyone who has attacked or threatened us in any way. In everything we do, we are striving to love God and each other; this is the command that supersedes all others, that unites the disparate members of our community into one body. We are unilaterally inviting the peace of Christ into our lives: peace that is a result of his self-sacrificial love; peace in which conflict is unimaginable because the entire creation is too busy resting and rejoicing in the palpable presence of justice. We are also inviting the living Christ to invade our being like a particularly smokey Cabernet and a mouthful of walnut bread assaults our senses. His advent is overwhelming every public, private, conscious and subconscious space in our waking and sleeping lives, transforming our every action into an act of worship to him, whether it is teaching someone a story, confronting injustice in each other and ourselves, or simply singing songs together. We literally do everything in the name of Jesus; if we can't do it, thankfully and gracefully in the name of Jesus, we don't do it at all. We cannot stand to speak in ways that are violent, arrogant, or seeking glory for ourselves. We cannot bear to act in ways that seek instant gratification with no personal consequences. Why do we live like this? Because we know something that many people don't want to know: Every single day we each buy things, eat things, wear things, pay taxes, and do other intentional and unintentional actions that support slave labor, the rape of the environment, state sanctioned murder, greedy, consumerist sexuality, or greedy, consumerist justice. We make life more difficult for widows, orphans, immigrants and the poor. We misuse and corrupt things that have been given to us for our pleasure, blame others for the results, and take the vengeance of God into our own hands. We worship the false gods of our culture, country, and self. The Living God detests these things, and will pour out his wrath on them because they are evil, and he is holy and just and intolerant of injustice. He has forever banished them from his presence: he, the only source and sustainer of life. We each deserve eternal separation from him, because we are all complicit in the wickedness that is trying to destroy his beloved creation. If we don't think we are, we are arrogant fools, ignoring the congenital disease that is eating us alive because we don't want to face the implications of the fact that we didn't inherit it. But our father isn't ignoring it. Jesus, through whom and for whom the universe, with all of it's living and non living matter, was created, became human, suffered the sin of the world in a state sanctioned execution, and exhausted the wrath of God by enduring severance from him in death. Then, he rose from the dead, revealing himself to be the very author of life: God himself, come to save us by bearing in himself the terrible consequences of our idolatry. Through Jesus' sacrifice, he can see us as blameless, and invite us into a deeper communion with him than a man and wife have with each other. Through Jesus' sacrifice, he roots out and utterly destroys injustice and at the same time fully embraces us. The sinful part of ourself, the old self, is dying with Christ, and the new self is being raised with him. We are privileged to abandon ourselves to him: the sovereign Servant-King of all that exists. For the time being, these new selves are disguised, along with Christ himself, who leads us as a covert, rebel leader. When Christ is fully revealed, he will complete the final, radical transformation of us into the image of him we were created to be, and along with us, he will redeem the entire creation.
We threw away our old selves, who believed and embodied the wicked promises of the world: promises of freedom, health, security, and a hopeful future in the name of the false gods of national pride, self-gratification, economic preeminence, personal or political sovereignty, and military might. Instead, we are embracing our new selves, who are being cultivated out of the dead stumps of our old selves; selves who have not only a correct knowledge about our creator, but who also have an unmistakable family resemblance to him. We have his eyes; the way we perceive and engage the world is becoming deeply and entirely marked by compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. As our new selves mature, we are going blind to hierarchical distinctions between different social and economic classes, races, and expressions of faith; now we can see that Christ is all, and in all. So we are constantly, habitually thankful for everything! The revolutionary love of God is inspiring us to love each other through all of our ticks and pet peeves, and even freeing us to forgive anyone who has attacked or threatened us in any way. In everything we do, we are striving to love God and each other; this is the command that supersedes all others, that unites the disparate members of our community into one body. We are unilaterally inviting the peace of Christ into our lives: peace that is a result of his self-sacrificial love; peace in which conflict is unimaginable because the entire creation is too busy resting and rejoicing in the palpable presence of justice. We are also inviting the living Christ to invade our being like a particularly smokey Cabernet and a mouthful of walnut bread assaults our senses. His advent is overwhelming every public, private, conscious and subconscious space in our waking and sleeping lives, transforming our every action into an act of worship to him, whether it is teaching someone a story, confronting injustice in each other and ourselves, or simply singing songs together. We literally do everything in the name of Jesus; if we can't do it, thankfully and gracefully in the name of Jesus, we don't do it at all. We cannot stand to speak in ways that are violent, arrogant, or seeking glory for ourselves. We cannot bear to act in ways that seek instant gratification with no personal consequences. Why do we live like this? Because we know something that many people don't want to know: Every single day we each buy things, eat things, wear things, pay taxes, and do other intentional and unintentional actions that support slave labor, the rape of the environment, state sanctioned murder, greedy, consumerist sexuality, or greedy, consumerist justice. We make life more difficult for widows, orphans, immigrants and the poor. We misuse and corrupt things that have been given to us for our pleasure, blame others for the results, and take the vengeance of God into our own hands. We worship the false gods of our culture, country, and self. The Living God detests these things, and will pour out his wrath on them because they are evil, and he is holy and just and intolerant of injustice. He has forever banished them from his presence: he, the only source and sustainer of life. We each deserve eternal separation from him, because we are all complicit in the wickedness that is trying to destroy his beloved creation. If we don't think we are, we are arrogant fools, ignoring the congenital disease that is eating us alive because we don't want to face the implications of the fact that we didn't inherit it. But our father isn't ignoring it. Jesus, through whom and for whom the universe, with all of it's living and non living matter, was created, became human, suffered the sin of the world in a state sanctioned execution, and exhausted the wrath of God by enduring severance from him in death. Then, he rose from the dead, revealing himself to be the very author of life: God himself, come to save us by bearing in himself the terrible consequences of our idolatry. Through Jesus' sacrifice, he can see us as blameless, and invite us into a deeper communion with him than a man and wife have with each other. Through Jesus' sacrifice, he roots out and utterly destroys injustice and at the same time fully embraces us. The sinful part of ourself, the old self, is dying with Christ, and the new self is being raised with him. We are privileged to abandon ourselves to him: the sovereign Servant-King of all that exists. For the time being, these new selves are disguised, along with Christ himself, who leads us as a covert, rebel leader. When Christ is fully revealed, he will complete the final, radical transformation of us into the image of him we were created to be, and along with us, he will redeem the entire creation.
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