Tuesday 12 August 2008

We continue with Stanley Hauerwas' look at the ethical significance of Jesus.

The form of the Gospels as stories of a life are meant not only to display that life, but to train us to situate our lives in relation to that life. For it was assumed by the churches that gave us the Gospels that we cannot know who Jesus is and what he stands for without learning to be his followers. Hence the ironic form form of Mark, which begins by announcing to the readers this is the "good news about Jesus, the anointed one, the son of God," but in depicting the disciples shows how difficult it is to understand the significance of that news. You cannot know who Jesus is after the resurrection unless you have learned to follow Jesus during his life. His life and crucifixion are necessary to purge us, like his disciples and adversaries had to be purged, of false notions about what kind of kingdom Jesus has brought. Only by learning to follow him to Jerusalem, where he becomes subject to the powers of this world, do we learn what the kingdom entails, as well as what kind of messiah this Jesus is.

So...disciples or followers of Jesus are apprentices. We follow the one who has been there and done that and we are introduced into the elements of the life that makes up the Reign of God. This involves the building of a character that shares the character of the one we follow. When we join together to look at Jesus' life as it is handed to us in the storytelling of the Gospels, we do not have to agree as to all the dynamics of that life. We must be able to listen and absorb and then talk about what it all means. Obviously we will come away with different ways of seeing the stories. That is the power of the Holy Spirit working. There is no "party line" to swallow...no dogma that must be force fed. Rather, we learn to follow Jesus as we hear those stories and attempt to bring elements of the character of Jesus into our community of followers. This will involve disagreement about interpretation and emphasis...so we must be willing to keep pressing one another to see what kind of messiah Jesus is among us.

Connection: Go back to the stories. The stories of Jesus touching the untouchable and eating with those outside of the circles of acceptability all have something to say to us as we begin to walk as followers of Jesus today.

Master Designer, the life you place before us is wrapped in the humanity you have handed us. Somehow, you take us just as we are and begin to inspire a life that is a living image of your beloved, Jesus. Help us to see our lives as truly a part of your ever-unfolding Reign. Amen.