We continue with Jesus' refusal to to be separated from those "outside" - again by Stanley Hauerwas.
Jesus issued this challenge not only through his teaching, but through his life. Indeed the very announcement of the reality of the kingdom, its presence here and now, is embodied in his life . In him we see that living a life of forgiveness and peace is not an impossible ideal but an opportunity now present. Thus Jesus' life is integral to the meaning, content, and possibility of the kingdom. For the announcement of the reality of this kingdom , of the possibility of living a life of forgiveness and peace with one's enemies, is based on our confidence that that kingdom has become a reality through the life and work of this man, Jesus of Nazareth. His life is the life of the end - this is the way the world is meant to be - and thus those who follow him become a people of the last times, the people of the new age.
"Those who follow him become the people of the last times." Usually when we hear this, it comes from folks who mean this say that the world is coming to an end. They try to predict when it will happen and how it will happen. Often they cling to literally taken images within few verses of Scripture or to images in apocalyptic writing. Here though, the last times is really the kind of life that is available for us to live today. Therefore the followers of Jesus are always living in the last times. That is, within the vision of the last days...in the vision of triumph...in the vision of the life that is demonstrated by Jesus of Nazareth. We are invited to live as in the last days that are already secure and in place and pulling us into the life that is at the end of all things. Life that is full and rich and healing and peaceful and merciful....
Connection: Last days...that is today and we have been given insight into the way followers of Jesus are invited to spend this day.
Come, Lord, Jesus, and walk with us in these day so that we may move as though the fullness of your Reign is at hand and we are your followers in all that comes. Amen.
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