More with Stanley Hauerwas.
My emphasis on Jesus' life as depicted by the early church is not, therefore, an example of a "low Christology." Indeed it is my contention that by attending to the narrative form of the Gospels we will see all the more clearly what it means for Jesus to be God's anointed. By learning to be followers of Jesus we learn to locate our lives within God's life, within the journey that comprises God's kingdom. I will try to show how the very heart of following the way of God's kingdom involves nothing less than learning to be like God. We learn to be like God by following the teachings of Jesus thus learning to be his disciples.
It would be my bet that many folks will not like the direction taken here. Have you ever thought of yourself as "learning to be like God?" Don't push the notion away. Hauerwas is not saying that we are learning to be God - we do that enough. Attempting to be like gods, we drive ourselves away from the one God that is given substance in Jesus. When we attempt to be gods or make aspects of our lives into god, we are left up to our messes. With Hauerwas' comments I hear the call for us to understand and see and absorb the life that blossoms in God's Reign. In that movement, we are also invited to be in the middle of it all. That is, we learn to walk in the ways of God's Reign - to be like God. When people say we look like or act like a parent, they know we are not our parents...but we are like them. Imagine living within a life that made people pause and look again and listen again because they thought that the familiar air in the room was that which blows through he Reign of God!
Connection: Do not shrink away from living as though you are a reflection of God's image within the ordinary stuff of this day.
O Lord of Life, bring us into the spaciousness of your Reign that opens up the whole creation to the wonder and power of your peaceable Reign that is available even now. Amen.
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