Thursday 16 July 2009

From the section "Learning to endure the love of Jesus" in Who Will Be Saved by William Willimon.



Paul cries out in anguish, "Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24). This cry (uttered well after "conversion" on the Damascus road, I remind you) is quickly followed by the celebratory, "Thanks be to god through Jesus Christ our Lord!" I also note that Paul says, "I know in whom I have believed." Paul does not say, "I know what I believe," as if he believed in a system of ideas. Nor does he say, "I know that I believe," as if his belief were a free floating belief in belief. Paul's belief is personal trust in an engaging person - Jesus Christ.

This "engaging person" is also an engaging love. In a forward to a book a read that the editor was talking about the movement in the church to be completely inclusive of gay and lesbians. He wrote that this is "bad theology." Knowing the editor I was not surprised by his evaluation of the Reign of God among us. For some, the system of our knowing overrules the love that pulls us - like a dragnet - into the eternal embrace of our God. That dragnet is salvation. I guess. Unless of course if you think a proper theological argument is the real salvific event. Paul, as Willimon notes, trusted in an engaging person. This one - this Christ, Jesus - is one that does not limit love and welcome and participation in, with, under every aspect of life so that all might be made whole and one. When we are unwilling to see the way Jesus comes to us and take us into new life and does not wait for what other think or rule appropriate, we miss out on the living power that is handed to the church. We can be so concerned about not stepping into a pile of this or that...that we forget about following in the steps of Jesus - who quite often stepped in the worst of smelly situations so as to be profoundly for us...all.

Connection: What does the love of our Lord do to the shaping of your encounters with others...right now? Is there anything that is more powerful for you than this love and what it hands to us?

Within your loving embrace, O God, we find that you come to us and you hold us and you welcome us and you walk with us and you...will not let us go. Grant us the courage to be your living image among those with whom we live this day. Amen.