Escaping a burning building.... alive!
I wonder what part of our faith experience is meant to be didactic? What part of my whole life is God attempting to use to teach me? On the other hand, what portion of my heart and life is intended to be healed and made whole-- then put on display and that's it? I don't intend to sound simple or discount anything that we know about the christian life. I do mean however to pull into question the attitudes and tones the bible uses verse the tone of knowledge and attainment we (and/or Satan) put on our lives.Since I need to get to work this morning, here is a "proof" that Jesus isn't trying to teach us that much, but rather longing to heal our hearts.
1. We ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I do not suggest that we discount this or try to escape it but only that we see the tree as an action of OUR'S not God's. Since we chose the tree and God didn't, could that leave space for God's work in our lives to be about more than knowledge?
2. We never get let off the hook. In all Jesus' teaching that I have read/heard, there is no place where He let's people off the hook for not knowing or lack of action or silence. During my regular waking hours I knew this because God's will must be done and I can't escape His wrath or His celebration. However, today I am wonder if Jesus letting us off the hook... maybe He would say something like, "It's okay, you didn't know..." would be saying in His heart language, "It's okay, you don't have to be whole." If the goal is wholeness and not knowledge it is about healing and simple repentance. People shout this from the mountain tops all the time... the problem is we still haven't found this simple, yet profound healing and the Life Jesus speaks of. Would more knowledge help? More desire?
3. The Kingdom is pervasive. You can choose to allow the Kingdom and its values to breakthrough your life. Others can choose not to but that doesn't mean it will stop. And we all can choose quite easily to value the more visible Kingdom at any moment of any day regardless of what choice we made getting out of bed or during prayer last night. HOWEVER, is the solution of heaping shame and obsessing over deeds going to bring the Kingdom any further into our own worlds? What if there was a group of people processing and provoking the Kingdom... and through that communal domain and collective value The Kingdom was able to sneak its way further into us, our group, and our culture because two are better than one.
Keep pondering....
Simon
posted by Simon Yost @ 9:07 AM
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