New Title

I've changed the title of this blog. "Into the Desert" represented a former incarnation of my writings, one that I feel is now over. To best represent the thrust of my writing at this point, I'm now calling this blog "The Jesus Paradigm."

I know, I know. All 2.5 million of my readers are wondering "what writing?" Which brings me to my next point: I will try and post to this blog semi-regularly. However, I will not feel obliged to do so. While this is not the best recipe for developing a solid readership, it will allow me to say only the things that I feel are worthy of being said in public. But I just cant' stop the ol' wheels from spinning, so I might as well let someone know what's going on up there.

Here's to more public discussion on following Jesus...

The Jesus Paradigm

5These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans;
6but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7"And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
8"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.
9"Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts,
10or a bag for your journey, or even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support.
11"And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city.
12"As you enter the house, give it your greeting.
13"If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace.
14"Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.
15"Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

-Matthew 10

Michael Spencer at Jesus Shaped Spirituality writes, concerning the modern pastoral office:

There is an increasing understanding that we’re producing scholars, entrepreneurs, managers, comedians, commentators and promoters rather than shepherds, apostolic leaders and disciple-makers.

What Michael says here is way too on-the-money. And is only the tip of a massive iceberg, I suspect.

The question that is haunting me is this: Do we really get to write off things that Jesus said about what it meant to follow him? I've heard, concerning difficult texts like Matthew 10(with its "don't take any money with you" clause), that it was his particular word for those particular guys, and console ourselves with statements like "Don't worry, not every Christian has to take this literally, after all we need to be balanced?" There is a deep dread that Jesus is saying it's not okay for me to own a $500,000 home and 2 SUVs.

I'd rather not water his words down to some pathetic liberal-activist notion that I'm not allowed to enjoy anything as long as there is suffering in the world. But is it possible that Jesus was not speaking in metaphor at this point, or to an isolated group of people, or speaking in a way that needs to be "interpreted in light of the modern world?" What haunts me is that in Matthew 10 and all over the gospels, Jesus doesn't really leave any room for the paradigm that I see all around me, that I myself am entrenched in, that Christians everywhere swallow without question. But Jesus, over and over again appears to rip to shreds that very paradigm, the addiction to success and consumption. But each time we would prefer to neuter it so that we don't have to feel challenged.

If I dare take this liberty with his words, it's as if he was saying: "My disciples are not consumed with their own needs like prosperity, financial security, a respected profile for themselves and their ministry; these are things that the heathens seek after, because they do not know the gospel. My disciples, on the other hand, will preach that the Kingdom of God is at hand, often at great cost, because they know that everything in their lives is subjected to the gospel."

God loves you. Seriously.

For God so loved the world...

These are the words that every Sunday School student memorizes. Every convert is given this word as a testimony to the character of the God that saved them. Many a tract-disseminator looses this verse into his verbal witness hoping for a bite.

So when do we get to actually believe it?

Author, speaker, and proclaimer of the gospel Brennan Manning, leading a retreat in the autumn-tinted Blue Ridge mountains, characteristically hit the nail on the head very, very hard.

Once I described this old ragamuffin to someone, admittedly with a slight over-readiness to judge the person's faith based on their response to my description. "His central message is that God loves us as we are and not as we should be." The response was "Well, yeah, that's good, but the danger of that message is when it's presented in such a way that keeps us from wanting something more."

Ok, not as bad as it could have been. Something more, though? And what is this "more" that stands outside of the bounds of God's gift of himself? I'm pretty sure I can't think of much "more" to be gotten that doesn't fall under the category of "God's love for sinners." Not holiness, not miracles, not spiritual discipline. Nope, there's nothing else. You might take a lifetime discovering the breadth of what "God's love" actually means, but you will never get outside of it.

No, I'm convinced there really is nothing more, sir. Nothing at all. Could it be that this attitude is really a fear-hounded mindset terrified of releasing the vulgar masses into the true freedom- freedom to mess up, act unspiritually, miss church, whatever- that God bought and handed out unconditionally to formerly dead people? Because true freedom might not look so "spiritual."

As C.S Lewis brilliantly portrays in the Screwtape Letters, Satan considers God "so unspiritual."

But if they plunge themselves into the spiritual revolution of God's love, they just might neglect the very important tasks of managing circumstances, manipulating appearances, garnering spiritual accolades, ensuring proper behavior, climbing the social ladder, maintaining comfort, keeping in good health, listening to approved music, reading approved books, eating approved cookies, wearing approved underwear.

Now I don't think my friend's comment was quite as exaggeratedly afoul of the mark as the picture I'm painting. But I do think that churches in general are. And I do want to scream every time I here the implied "Grace + ....(fill in the blank)" dogma.

HEY CHURCH!!! GOD LOVES YOU!

NO, REALLY... GOD ACTUALLY DOES LOVE YOU!!!