More from Stanley Hauerwas:
There is a deeper reason that I cannot and should not mimic Jesus. We are not called to be the initiators of the kingdom, we are not called upon to be God's anointed. We are called upon to be like Jesus, not to be Jesus. ...that likeness is of a very specific nature. It involves seeing in his cross the summary of his whole life. Thus to be like Jesus is to join him in the journey through which we are trained to be a people capable of claiming citizenship in God's kingdom of nonviolent love - a love that would overcome the powers of this world, not through coercion and force, but through the power of this one man's death.
The way of this citizenship has already been spelled out. We are now to claim it. The way of the Reign of God as we see it through the cross as it is a reflection of Jesus' whole life gives us a way to move ahead. The way has already been set and the end has been established. We are now ones who are invited to live into that end...and end that comes alive in the life of Jesus - a way we of life we are invited to follow. We are not establishing the Reign. That has been done and it is the power that pulls us into lives of peace and justice and mercy and reconciliation in a world that doesn't want to live in that way. Though Jesus goes ahead of us, there is nothing magical that helps us move along this path. Rather, we must each enter this life and call upon those around us within the body of Christ to walk with us.
Connection: Keep looking at the story that brings us the story of our lives.
Be our strength, O God, and bring us into the unfolding of your Reign as we follow Jesus this day. Open up our lives to this way that has proven to be contrary to the world and yet brings an abundance of life that participates in your love. Amen.
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