the radical Christianity of the first Christians

I read an interesting article today about sharing in the early church, by no lesser person than an academic. it really is worth the time and consideration.

".. for those of us for whom the New Testament is not merely a record of the past but a challenge to the present, it is occasionally worth asking ourselves whether the distance separating the Christianity of the apostolic age from the far more comfortable Christianities of later centuries — and especially those of the developed world today — is more than one merely of time and circumstance."
end quote

find the entire thoughtful article
here

peace to you
and goodwill

sabbath? to or not, and whyfor ..

a podcast with Walter Brueggemann on what sabbath is all about and if/how it applies today.. here

(there's quite a bit of chat, both before and after, between the 2 hosts .. don't let that dissuade you from the interview)

where is my wealth ?

and someone approaches Jesus ..
" Rabbi, what good thing do i have to do to gain eternal life ?"
   " why ask me about 'good' ? there's only one person who can define 'good' ..
      if you want to enter into Life keep the commands of God "
" which ?"

   ' which ' is a strange question .. who would think that there are certain ones
   to be kept, but others not so much ? .. they're ' commands '
   so Jesus lists some of ' the 10 ' Big Ones, and adds this one .. love your
   neighbour as you love your own self
      ( at least according to the current translations; but if we look at the
      commands Jesus points to, they are all concerned with neighbourliness ..
      perhaps then this last thing Jesus mentions is not a command in the
      sense of the others, but a summary .. as He said elsewhere, all the
      commandments and the Law and the Prophets and the Writings are
      summarized by 2 things - love God with your entire self, and love
      your neighbour as yourself )

" i've been doing these .. what else is there ? what am i missing ?"
   which is another strange question .. why would he think he was missing
   something, that there was something else ?
 
      Jesus' answer is likewise strange - " if you want to be perfect .. "
      huh ? now i'm lost
      are there different levels of getting eternal life ? such that one level is
      not so 'perfect' while there's another, perfect level ?
         perhaps a pastor's wise comment will help .. perhaps Jesus is
         saying, the same way that God is perfectly God you be perfectly human,
         and the perfectly human thing to do is to love your neighbour, and the best
         way to demonstrate that is by relinquishing your hold on your wealth
         and using it to feed the poor around you ( see Matt 5:48 ) ..

hanging his head in despair, the man turned and walked away
this was the one thing he just couldn't do .. he was a wealthy man
..

consider .. the man asked Jesus about ' eternal ' life
   life-to-the-fullest
   quality life that supercedes common life in
      the now
   life beyond this life, both in terms of existence and in terms of quality
   presumably the most significant question/concern a person can have ..
presumably he comes to Jesus because he believes Jesus has the answer ..
and yet
   he chooses not to
   he decides to keep his wealth
presumably to forego eternal life ..

" no thanks " ??
really ?
..

where to go with this?
   where does it take you ?

don't just think ' rich ' ..

what is it that i hold-to as my wealth ?
   what is it that i will refuse to give-up to gain eternal life ?
      or who ?
at what will i hang my head and walk ..  ?
   that thing becomes my wealth

?
what will it take to make me change my mind
   to open my hands and let the ' wealth ' go ?

?
will i ever ?

?
do i believe there is eternal life
   life that transcends this life
   that surmounts
   that fills full 
      abundantly              ?
??

is there faith here ?
   in this place where i am
..

will i relinquish my hold on all for Jesus ?

because Jesus wants me all
   all of me
   my everything
   me in all my meness

and to be perfect means for me to be loosed of all my wealthiness
so that i can be fully truly human

   like Jesus

      no attachment
      no encumberance
pure human

have a listen ..

a great podcast with Brad Jersak mostly around his then recent book, A More Christlike God ..

enjoy
link

askin' for trouble .. .

i'm not really asking for trouble ..
don't like trouble
or confrontation
i walk away

but
   the everpresent 'but' ..
there are a few things i'm taking-on
and won't let go until ..

i've been around a bit, seen a few
i take a large suitcase with me when i move
   full of stuff i learned as a younger human when i was
   soaking-in the world around me
a lot of that stuff is religious stuff
   and it's heavy, specially at this stage of life when i need to be travelling light ..
some of it i've already dumped, replaced with a lighter burden
but some of it is inprocess stuff that i'm working through
   .. i figure if i'm not working through something in my life
   i'm dying a death
..
i used to take the position that this was cleancut blackandwhite law
   laid down a few thousand years ago
   and, well, you know .. nothing changes ..
and there's a huge badass god hovering with a huge badass flyswatter policing my stuff 24/7 ..

and then Jesus walks in and ..
.. how do i face him with this animosity ..
      me and my flyswatter
      just waiting in the shadows
      for someone (or me) to break this rule or affirm that think
         like i was god or something .. .

so, ya ..
there's that
and there's me living in this 'ere ' Christ-haunted south ' (Flannery O'Connor) trying to keep my mind's mouth shut in the face of the fried-in derivative fundamentalism, more recently labeled 'evangelicalism'
knowing that when i do say anything off-color i'm going to get spanked by someone who likes their luggage just the way it is thank you ..


but this is my blog (all the ' I's ')
and i get to say my mind here .. that's what blogging is about
and for me not to say my mind = me lying, and i'm not much into that
.. so if you get offended at something i say, i'm sorry you're offended, but i'm working on trying to become more like this person i've committed to follow, the only one i pledged allegiance to
   and he has a certain attitude about this stuff that i'm dealing with
   which doesn't easily fit-in with the going standard evangelical
   takeonit
      a button i don't wear anymore
         or the fundamentalist one either ..
i prefer his yoke thanks

so, just to be upfront and all
   to 'come out', as it were
here are some things i'm working on
as in, trying to find the mind of Christ on them

race and white privilege
   this tops, because there is massively serious kickback for raising the issue

lgbtqi christians
   are they ?

women preaching/teaching
   should they ?

non-violence
   affirm ?
   exceptions ?

inerrancy and infallibility of the bible
   to step on my theological toes

Jesus, the human
   my greatest challenge ever


the reason i'm chasing this stuff down the rabbithole is that there's good reason for me to think that Jesus' take on it may be quite different than mine has been
and i owe it to Jesus and to those people i've been fingerpointing to reassess, rethink, and to be reckless enough with the standard fundamentalist take to be willing to change me
   change me
.. regardless of what anyone else thinks
because
there's only one person i will fall for, give it all up for ..
everyone else has to kinda lineup behind him ..

so if/when i spill my stuff on this blog
be understanding ..
i'm not stepping on you ..
   in fact i'm more likely stepping on me

i'm simply sharing my think, because perhaps someone else is working on that thing too
and maybe something i said is worth something to them on their journey

after all, .. i'm just human
in pursuit of the Human


peace to you
and love

consider ..

in my ongoing journey here I'm considering some stuff that stiff-hearted Christians eschew, walk past in denial, rely on others to consider for them, don't care about .. kinda thing

here's one for ya
here

peace

the stuff of us ..

i can pile my stuff over me
   cover my self in it
   hide behind or under it
dress my self
   paint my face
      mask
..
then one day
it goes
   it's gone
worse .. you see it gone
there in front of you
   below you
   above you
piled
   in its destruction
as you stand there in it
   under it     
      in the shock of its goneness
my stuff that made me me ..

and now i am destroyed ..  .

who am i really
   ?