A Path to be Followed...

Reading a fantastic book, Saving Jesus from the Church.  Probably shouldn't have started reading it until I finished the seminary term, but made the mistake of opening the package, then opening the book.  Best quote I didn't write but wish I had:
      Thus, the most important question we can ask in the church today concerns the object of faith itself.  Th earliest metaphors of the gospel speak of discipleship as transformation through an alternative community and the reversal of conventional wisdom.  In much of the church today, our metaphors speak of individual salvation and the specific promises that accompany it.  The first followers of Jesus trusted him enough to become instruments of radical change.  Today, worshipers of Christ agree to believe things about him in order to receive benefits promised by the institution, not by Jesus.
     This difference, between following and worshiping is not insignificant.  Worshiping is an inherently passive activity, since it involves the adoration of that to which the worshiper cannot aspire.  It takes the form of praise, which can be both sentimental and self-satisfying, without any call to changed behavior or self-sacrifice.  In fact, Christianity as a belief system requires nothing but acquiescence.  Christianity as a way of life, as a path to follow, requires a second birth, the conquest of ego, and new eyes with which to see the world.  It is no wonder that we have preferred to be saved.


We explored familiar stories and passages in the New Testament yesterday in Sunday school...Jesus teachings.  We explored them using the scholarship of John Dominic Crossan's book, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography.  He looked at "blessed are the poor," the parable of the dinner party, teaching on family, and others, explored them in their first century context and illuminated the truly radical message of Jesus--one that we have completely domesticated or wrongly interpreted.

Just to talk about one example this story in Luke 14:15-24 where we see "someone" plan a great banquet, invite a bunch of people, and get turned down by all of them.  The owner of the house becomes angry and says to his slave, go bring in "the poor the crippled, the blind, and the lame."  Strike one.  Those people are understood to be cursed by God.  NOT someone you would want anyone to see you eating with.  Then the master instructs the slave to go "into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled."  Strike two.  That could bring in anyone...poor or rich, male or female, Jew or Gentile...all are "compelled" (force, urge, insist) to come and eat...together...as equals....Strike three...the idea that all people could be equal...well 'nuff said.

But really, we should all do that.  That's not such a big deal.  Crossan reminded us that both then and now in any society, the rules of "tabling and eating are miniature models for the rules of association and socialization." (Crossan, p 68)  Well, of course we should do that.  All are welcome at our table.

Except, then he asked a series of questions that illustrated brilliantly exactly our problem--because all are not welcome at our table.  Imagine, he suggests, a beggar shows up at your door asking for food.  Do you:
1.  give them food to go
2.  invite them into your kitchen for a meal
3.  bring them into the dining room to eat with your family
4.  invite them back on Saturday evening for supper with a group of your friends
5.  have them to a private dinner party for the vice presidents of the company for which you work.

I easily went the first three...then was a little hesitant for 4 at a gut level and 5 showed me I am not as radically inclusive as I think.  What brings ache to my heart is the lack of opportunity for someone to even show up at
o0,.,.my door.  We have, as a proudly Christian people, so structured our lives as to eliminate need from our eyes unless we need it for a mission trip or in order to mark a Sunday school envelope.  We bring those bags of food for hungry children at Northwood Elementary, but we do nothing about the system that creates and sustains the hunger. In fact, truth be told, we often blame those families for their hardship.  Everything Jesus does makes all people the same.  "Radical Egalitarianism."  No excuses.  No compromises.

I need worship as a reminder of the reality of God in this world that is so very broken.  But God help me not to think that worship is enough.  It is the path that compels me...that path that has become so very hidden in the weeds of consumerism and comfort, of politics and preferences.  I'm looking for that path, for the people already on it, and for those who want to walk it.