Following the Way of Jesus Christ
What does it mean to "follow in the Way of Jesus Christ?" I mean, if we are "saved" by grace then is there anything I can do to grow closer to God? I'm confused, are the liberals right about the need for the church to care for the poor or are the conservatives right about the need for the church to focus on matters of personal faith?
Starting this Sunday, January 6th, from 7pm to 8:30pm The Living Room will be exploring such questions in a series entitled: "Practicing the Way of Jesus: Putting Feet to your Faith".
Check out this post for future comments!
posted by Tom at
9:11 AM
2 Comments:
Here's the first resource:
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/
exposes/foster/foster.htm
It is a summary of the book by Richard Foster called "Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth".
Some good stuff!
I invited a good friend of mine to The Living Room last night, a friend that, like me, is looking for life beyond "institutional church". Maureen gave me permission to post some reflections she had emailed on the evening's scripture passage. Enjoy! --Jeff Straka
Thankfully I had the presence of mind to take my journal with me while I waited (and waited and waited)for the cleaning crew to show up this morning. I chose to be more of an observer than a participant last night, but here's my take on things:
John 13:1-20
Thinking more about how most of us "get" the second part of this passage, with little attention given to the first, I started making some connections. We're so uncomfortable with that first part - being served. We don't feel worthy, I suppose, to be on the receiving end of things. Especially when the giver is Jesus. And out of some weird habits we've formed over the years, we simply do not allow ourselves the gift of gratitude. Total joy eludes us. There is, of course, joy in serving others. But TOTAL joy would also include allowing ourselves to be served, allowing ourselves to be truly known, and recognizing in
ourselves what Jesus recognizes in us - in essence, loving ourselves. And that's an area, I think, that has gotten distorted in our culture.
Plenty of lip service is given to having an "attitude of gratitude", especially if you peruse the titles of various magazine articles in the check-out aisle during the holidays. But really, what are we missing out on here? Gratitude is an integral part of joy.
Ironically, we rob ourselves of it when we become too self-focused. Self-help books fly off the shelves as we grapple with what's wrong in our lives. And while loving ourselves most certainly includes taking time for/taking care of ourselves, and maybe even treating
ourselves on occasion, I think a critical element to all of that is lost in translation.
We come to equate getting more with feeling better. Our lives are shaped less and less by our talents,gifts, and interests, and more and more by our culture
and the expectations of others. We don't do what brings us joy, what feels right and natural, to make a
living, so we essentially "sell our soul" to a company or organization. Then we want compensation in the
form of "give me more because I deserve it" (and we wonder how younger generations have come to feel so entitled!). We rob ourselves of gratitude, and
consequently, joy and peace. Then we turn around and rob our children of the same priceless things! They
demand, whine, cry and plead to get things - and it usually works. It's really quite demeaning, when you think about it. But that's okay with them because they have not learned how to value themselves - to recognize themselves the way Jesus recognizes them. They have no experience with, no way to relate to, the joy of gratitude. Like their parents, they prostitute
themselves all in the name of more".
The butt of a big cosmic joke, we all become insatiable and we eat ourselves alive. We are consumed and seek comfort in various bottles, pills, and programs. As we so often do, we've made things
more complicated than they should be. And because we don't value ourselves (in the true sense!), we assume the answers must be so much more complex, and just beyond our reach. So we work harder to get more. It's so simple, really. As simple as a man with a towel wrapped around his waist.
We hear a lot of talk about temptation and sin around the story of "the fall". It's funny how we don't seem to get the fact that Eve was robbed of her gratitude. We can't see it in ourselves, let alone in a story of someone else. Satan introduced the concept of wanting more, with the added bonus of having the freedom to define what "more" means to us. The insatiability started there, and we've been struggling ever since.
Take care,
Maureen
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