Not very Jesus

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[A] strong Christology begins by redefining strength itself in light of Christ’s strength-through-weakness, gaining-through-losing, rising-through-descending.

          Brian McLaren

_____________________________________

 

Christianity, as  it has evolved

is not very Jesus

 

We have ended up with a faith

that is about dominating

conquering

controlling

 

We have created a God

who is about dominating

conquering

controlling

 

In the pages of the Bible

we stumble through so many stories

where people

earnest

seeking

sincere

 

understand God in this way

a God who creates not just awe

but fear

 

A God, who, people stray

makes bad things happen

A God who casts people out of Eden

floods the earth

destroys cities

and turns someone into a pillar of salt

 

A God who kills the first born

and drowns the adversary in the sea.

 

And yet

over and over again people got glimpses

of something different

of a God who redeems and restores

who forgives

who brings human kind back to the Garden

 

And then Jesus came

a peasant child

born in a stable

a man who experienced all the miseries of humankind

who took on all the pain. despair and grief

who took on death

 

and somehow

transformed it all

revealing the way of

“…strength-through-weakness, gaining-through-losing,

rising-through-descending.”

 

And then Jesus came and gave us a different understanding of God

which all too quickly forgot

and soon ignored

creating a faith, and then a “culture”

of domination and  exploitation

and even violence

 

a culture of supremacy

 

A faith that is all about power

and control

and yes

plunder

 

In Christ’s name

conquistadors, and pioneers

and missionaries

dominated, exploited and destroyed

 

and now

in Christ’s name

many still embrace the way of domination

exploitation

and destruction of “the other”

 

We have embraced a concept of Christ

that ignores Jesus

 

and so

wars rage, and people starve

and children die

and the planet burns

 

and we who claim Jesus

are all too often complicit

 

and it doesn’t work

it doesn’t make it “on earth as it is in heaven”

the peaceable kingdom has been logged

the animals are threatened with extinction

and hate and strife abound

 

There is a reason Jesus said “the meek shall inherit the earth”

for it is only through meekness, which is not weakness

it is only through humility

and the embracing of that

strength-through-weakness,

gaining-through-losing,

rising-through-descending

way

 

that we will find peace, and hope

and joy and love

 

I suspect we will always get it a little wrong

we have from the start

but if we are humble

and open to God’s love

(and presence and guidance)

perhaps

 

there will be glimpses of glory

and we will continue

to stumble our way

toward a greater understanding

of the fact

that God is love

and that love, ultimately, wins