Cuddle Time with Jesus.
To me, the Gospel is not Cuddle Time with Jesus with my Snuggling-with-my-Savior blankets. As much as I like to and need to enter into my closet, pray and spend time with God, God doesn’t call me to stay there. The call is not for me to enter my closet, remain there and be good or nice, the call is come out of from my closet ‘pick up the cross and come after me.’
That is why I say that I don’t have the guts to follow Jesus. I like the comfort of the closet in my home. I have enough concerns and cares of my own. Because if I am going to follow Jesus then I must I allow his life to confront everything about my life and the world in which I live. I must be confronted with the reality that God calls me out from the closet of comfort and to enter the dirty, messy, broken world and live for justice and mercy—just like he did.
Yet, there is huge part of me that wants to be safe, comfortable and to maintain a nice healthy lifestyle. I'd much rather meditate on the beach while on vacation in Cabos.
I am afraid of what I may have to ultimately give-up. I don't think I need to take a vow of poverty, but the Holy Spirit confronts me and demands that I am conscious about the world around me.
It costs me something to follow him-- basically the right to myself. And while I know that I stand in the presence of his love and grace he still beckons me to follow him. Some days it is easier to say a prayer and write a check. As usual, the brilliant poet and storyteller So I GO said it so eloquently in the comment section of my post on "getting it real."
"We'll spend an entire lifetime trying to get it right, when all the while He was beckoning us to be real. And the 'real' is not found in our cocoons of complacency while we sit on our asses of apathy. We will never truly be 'real' until we experience God's greatest calling on our lives and that is to serve and love and bring dignity and justice to the least of these. Period."
Henri Nouwen said, "For a Christian, Jesus is the man in whom it has indeed become manifest that revolution and conversion cannot be separated in man's search for experiential transcendence. His appearance in our midst has made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing human society are not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as the two beams of the cross."
"Jesus was a revolutionary, who did not become an extremist, since he did not offer an ideology, but Himself. He was also a mystic, who did not use his intimate relationship with God to avoid the social evils of his time, but shocked his milieu to the point of being executed as a rebel."
I have encountered this revolutionary, rebel, and mystic and he told me that if I want to be one of his "learners" then I have to take up the cross and follow him. While I decide what I am going to do I think I'll remain a Christian for at least a little while longer.
6 Comments:
As to God's greatest calling...
Serving and loving, bringing dignity and justice to the least of these...
How narrowly is that defined?
Does that have to look like what you and I think it has to look like?
In other words... Might Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove and all those wascally wepublicans be answering God's greatest calling in some way? Or are some attempting to narrowly define the wide gate (of what God's greatest calling can be) and exclude them in their definitions?
And I turn that on myself. Are Michael Moore, Ted Kennedy, Dick Durbin, Jane Fonda and others answering God's greatest calling in some way? Or have I narrowly defined the wide gate as well? My simple answer is that I have. Willfully and purposely. And I'll probably continue to do so. Maybe I'm wrong to. I don't think I am. But I could be.
Of course, I don't mean this to narrowly focus on the political but I think politics best fits that which most divides believers today (arguably).
I guess my point is that I think we all define the Gospel in different ways. You tell us what the Gospel isn't (Cuddle Time) and I'm cool with that. But then you go on and seem to define what the Gospel is and I can't help but see a rather narrow definition, something only a couple of paragraphs before you were speaking against.
What I'm seeing is more rules on how to live. Replacing oppressive fundamentalist rules with just as oppressive (but progressive) new ones.
How can Christianity be welcoming when we're doing these things?
Thanks Rick (in Va.) I think you make some really good points. I guess all that I am saying is how I feel confronted by the gospel. I struggle with the life that Jesus led and calls his followers to live. For so long I read scripture from a perspective of my little world and not from the perspective in which it was written. When I read the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus is very clear about the poor. Matthew 25 is pretty much the only place where jesus defines who gets in and who is left out when he returns. I think you made a good point about how each of us interprets the gospel in our own way. For me, I read the synoptic Gospels and look at the life of Jesus: where he was from, the culture in which he lived,the context in which that culture found itself, and he pretty much calls us to "Serving and loving, bringing dignity and justice to the least of these..." I don't mean to say that Jesus did not claim the Kingdom of GOd is here and for humanity to turn and believe the good news, for I definitely think that he did.
As far as the politics of it all, I cannot speak to the intentions of our government's heart. I am not certain if our INTENTIONS or motivations were to answer God's calling. It would be a beautiful thing if we did. I definitely believe that we are called to help set folks free, but perhaps not through the manner in which we are doing it. That is not a politcal statement, that is just how I interpret the gospel. I live in a contradiction between what I believe I am called to do and how I actually live. Palestine was occupied by Rome and Jesus never instructed his folks to rebel or to wage war. I also recognize that the situation is very complex and much broader than my simple mind can grasp. So, yes, I believe we are called to help set folks free who can't do it for themselves, but not in the manner we are doing it.
As far as Ted, Moore, and Fonda are concerned, I don't know that much about them. You named three folks that the little I do know, I'm not all that impressed. I'll be nice and leave it at that.
As far as rules, I certainly don't intend to "make up" rules. I guess In am only trying to say that Jesus clearly calls me forth from the comfort of my world and to take up the cross, to serve the "least of these" and most of the time, I'd rather stay home and pray. That's my truth. :) I certainly am not suggesting that everyone must believe like me.
Thanks again for your comments.
Really enjoyed reading both of you Ricks today. You've given me some food for thought.
Some days I live my life one moment at a time and that has been the only way for me to follow Christ (on that particular day in that moment in time).
"WWJD" was over-used a few years ago and become a cliche that lost a lot of impact (imho) but I have to stop and ask myself that many, many times when my spirit is unsettled.
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we know when we are not doing what Jesus would do. I often tune out that little voice but as I journey forward my hope is that I listen to it more often and follow it more purely.
Great stuff, Rick.
God help us all to take up the cross and follow.
Blessings
the last paragraph of this post rears up on hind legs and is just begging to buck us out of the saddle..
great stuff, consistently through and through. thank you.
and my heartfelt thanks as well for the nod to my comment and blog.. my cup overflows.
Linked to this back at Under the Acacias
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