The Ultimate Story that Fires the Imagination

I have been considering the postmodern reaction toward metanarratives that are used to impose cultural biases. When Jesus began preaching the gospel of the kingdom he faced many competing understandings of life even within Israel. People had so many hurdles to overcome, if they were to understand the kingdom of heaven he preached. The Essennes were so negative about the temple and life under Rome that they "headed for the hills" and a more serious faith. The Pharisees looked for a more tenacious response that was to be lived out in th.e face of the occupying Roman forces. The Hasmoneans blended their Jewish understanding with Greco-Roman Culture like a modern New Ager swimming in the winds of change. We could go on to list even more people groups within the Jewish nation; all of them with a bit different story of what God is at work doing. Each world-view had its own prejudices and misconceptions. Jesus didn't appeal to the Maccabeans, or to one of the prophets or even to Moses as other people did. I believe that Jesus took his hearers way back to the vision of the Garden of Eden and the new man. He subverted the cultural understanding and laid a foundation in his person (the rock) which is eternal and universal. Jesus was there at the beginning. after all, with the Father and the Spirit. He quoted from the Torah but spoke authoritatively from his vision of creation about what it really means to be human as he considered the gosple of the kingdom. Adam and Eve and Jesus walk together to show what our world would look like if we lived in God.

Rather than settle for "the way it is" he fanned the flames of the imagination so that people might begin to envision the kingdom and actually live the words of Jesus. Matt. 5:22-48 get us thinking "what if" we actually began to live as we are meant to live and as the kingdom of God promises? When Jesus talks about anger, lust, sex, marriage and divorce as well as oaths, retaliation and loving our enemies he has in mind the power of the blessing of his beatitudes. When we are at the evangelistic end of our rope (poor in Spirit) then we are on the verge of a spiritual awakening. The blessing of being "poor in Spirit" is the blessing of being restored to a God-conscious, God-initiative and God-compassion.

Jesus offers to walk alongside you if you will work out this stuff as you prayerfull become more aware of the holiness of his presence with us in the Holy Spirit. What if God really came to live in you by his Spirit so that you really began to live in the power of Jesus?

Getting Rid of the Crust

Mark Labberton said something last spring that reflects on all denominations and the stuff that grows around our commitment to Jesus Christ. Mark spoke of Jesus in the Sermon On the Mount, removing the crust around what it means to be really all about God. Crust, you know the way Baptists, Pentecostals, Bible Church folk and especially Presbyterians do church.
We want to be all about Jesus but end up being about denominational distinctives, orders of worship or disorders, pastoral dress or the lack thereof, music traditional or non and all the other stuff that build up around Jesus but are really culturally conditioned not scripturally or theologically.
I just met with a Lutheran pastor friend that I have know since the mid 80's and we discussed what it looks like to set aside the crust and preach the gospel in ways that actually leads into doing what Jesus says. What a novel idea! Not really. But if only it were all about Jesus and not about the crust.
I have a dream that all the pressures of this crazy post modern time will strip us of our crust and leave something that is truly transdenominational: the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That is what I want to be all about.

Back from Some Sabbath Time

Kerry and I spent last week travel down the Smith River, up the Oregon Coast and visiting with our youngest son Micah and his new wife Stephanie. We walked the beach, swam in rivers, talked, prayed and read God's Word. It is good to be reminded that God is the one who does the work.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about what it would look like to have God as the constant center of my life. That is the life of one who has repented and entered the kingdom. It is all about giving up the illusion of our control and focusing on entering into God's initiative, providence and living in faithful obedience.

God I pray my friends and family find that You are their center through Jesus Christ. Without Jesus serving as our center we are runaway planets drifting away for God and in constant conflict with all those around us.