This is Joy- the wife Craig mentioned in his first entry. I wanted to share a tool we came up with-Craig came up with it first, actually, wanting to analyze just exactly what it was Jesus did here on earth, according to the Gospels.
I think I was the one who got him to realize what a meaningful tool it could be, using it to think about how one could live after the pattern of Jesus. I changed the wording a bit to make it more meaningful to me, but I think it is essentially the same. I use it for devotions sometimes, seeing if I can remember all 9-and think maybe the one(s) I can’t remember I need to work on more.
The Jesus way of life is BEING
1.forgiving
2.one who brings healing and wholeness to all, especially outcasts
3.in community
4.one who demonstrates and teaches the way of love
5.one who connects to God for power and transformation
6.one who seeks the will of God-the way of love
7.one who confronts darkness (I’m definitely weak on that one!)
8.a servant
9.one who has faith that God is good.
The last of the 9 has been especially meaningful to me, especially when I get anxious about things. In Heart of Christianity, Marcus Borg gives a definition of faith as “a way of seeing”, saying the way we view reality really does make a difference in our actions toward it. If I see “the whole”, or God, as giving, nourishing, sustaining, gracious, this faith makes possible a “willingness to spend and be spent for the sake of a vision that goes beyond ourselves”, and leads to the “self forgetfulness of faith”. I’m working on strengthening that faith, that “way of seeing”.
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Recommended Reading
- Surprised By Hope by N. T. Wright
- Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren
- Finding Our Way Again by Brian McLaren
- The Spiritual Life by Evelyn Underhill
- The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
- Jesus by Marcus Borg
- The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg
- The Meaning of Jesus by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright
- Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg
- Reading the Bible Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg
- How to Read the Bible by Marc Z. Brettler
- A Heretic's Guide to Eternity by Spencer Burke and Barry Taylor
- They Like Jesus But Not The Church by Dan Kimball
- The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball
- A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren
- The Story We Find Ourselves In by Brian McLaren
- The Last Word and the Word After That by Brian McLaren
- A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren
- The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren
- God's Politics by Jim Wallis
- The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
- Simply Christian by N.T. Wright
2 comments:
I like your comment about the Bible being like an impressionist painting. I'm reminded of a painting by Georges Seraut, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte. I'm sure most have seen this famous painting of Parisians enjoying an afternoon in the park. Looking at a picture of this masterpiece in a book does not do justice to the artwork. It hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago, and if you ever get the chance to see it, you should. The painting actually covers an entire wall! Those familiar with Seraut know that he painted in a pointillist style, meaning he painted by making little dots, not brush strokes. When you get up close to the actual painting you see little dots. You have to step back to see the entire scene.
But - I am one who is interested in the dots and how they got there. I enjoy discovering the time and place of those who wrote down our sacred texts. I seem to understand more, and the contradictions and confusion begin to fade. If I consider the Bible as the literal word of God(little "w"), and inerrant... well... it becomes confusing and contraditory. I really don't understand how someone can take that position, but many do. When I consider the Bible as the Word of God (big "W", translation of the Greek "logos" meaning "the mind of God") written down by humans at various times within the context of their culture and understanding of the world around them, it begins to make sense. Then realizing that we are working with translations of ancient languages that are sometimes a best guess at what the meaning is, into our modern English language to which we have attached our own nuances of meanings and understandings. No wonder we can't all agree! So I choose what Borg calls a "historial-metaphorical" approach, and Brettler calls a "historical-critical" approach.
I like what both of you are saying. I like to focus on the bigger pictures of scripture like having "a changed heart." And I like looking at scripture closely and in new ways. I just heard someone describe reading scripture as "the word made strange." Read it to see everything good, new, confusing, wrong, and beautiful. But, above all, I REALLY JUST LIKE IMPRESSIONIST PAINTINGS!
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