conterculture

“Live counterculturally when the culture, baptized or secular, does not affirm truth, love, faith, mercy, and justice.”

                               Sarah Bessey
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We don’t expect it from Jesus

Who, we think, is all about peace

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

But there it is

Jesus claiming that he has come to bring division

“For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”

Jesus, Joseph, and Holy Mary

What the heck is going on here!

We can get all theological and deep

Or we can keep it simple (Keep it simply stupid)

The presence of Jesus in not comfortable

The way of Jesus is not comfortable

We would like to settle into our old way

We would like to settle into our established culture

We would like to grab hold of our old values, old priorities, old patterns

And here comes Jesus

Boom!

All of a sudden so much of what we hold near and dear is ripped asunder.

Wealth is good, right?

Wealth is our goal, right?

Wrong

Sell all you have and give to the poor

Its important, to above all, maintain peace

Wrong

Peace is often the enemy of truth!

Following the way of Jesus

Sharing the truths he shared

Hold fast to his priorities

Will often lead to discord and conflict, not peace

Because the way of Jesus is counter to the way of this world

When we choose to follow Jesus

We like all the great heroes of the faith

As asked to step into the unknown

We are asked to step out of the boat and into the storm

We are asked to tear asunder

(shred with the sword of truth?)

Those things about our world, our ideologies, our selves

That are false

Jesus asks us to go at war with ourselves

Jesus asks us to go at war with those who insist on a way that is not his

Jesus asks us to assail systems that minimize people

And oppress them

No peace for us!

At least not that kind of peace

But there is peace, in standing up for Jesus and Jesus’ way

And in standing up for the vulnerable

And in siding with the truth (as revealed by Jesus

If we would follow Jesus

We can’t just sit back

And seek to avoid conflict

We can’t just sit back and hope for

Spiritual ecstasy

Nope

We’ve got to be out there

Confronting everything that violates the way of Jesus

Because that

Is

The

Jesus

Way