Wednesday, October 10, 2007
religion vs. Jesus...
This past weekend, we spent some time discussing the difference between religion and Jesus. Jesus didn't die on the cross to start a new religion. The Latin root of the word religion can mean binding or to bind up. In the Jewish context, to bind means to forbid. Unfortunately, religion often focuses on rules, do's and don't's, and misses the point of freedom in Christ. Jesus confronted the Pharisees and religious leaders head on about their hypocrisy in not practicing what they taught and creating unnecessary hoops for followers to jump through to obtain righteousness. They seemed bent on climbing the ladder of righteousness through rules and regulations to elevate their status with God. Jesus demolishes their ladder and turns their thinking upside down and through grace welcomes all to the table. How can we as followers of Jesus demolish the ladders that modern religion creates?
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4 comments:
this is a very interesting blog me and my daddy were talking about this the other day arguing baq and forth lol!!!
Stay with me on this one... My thoughts were a bit convoluded as I was thinking about this during the week... I was checking up on Katy's blog site, and I started reading her entry on being disconnected. It made me think about my own lifestyle and how I have become so engrossed with daily things that occupy all my time. I question how much I am really doing to further the kingdom. How do my friends see me? - the ones I want so much to have life with Christ? This caused me to start thinking about the Gospel and Jesus' life and ministry. If you look at all the things Jesus did during his life, it wasn't just caring for those who were in significant need. He partied, he feasted with theives, he hung out and listened to folks' life stories, he cried with folks, he rested, he traveled... This list is endless. This led me to think about the many portraits of Jesus. I think this is where we come in... Jesus commands us to paint ourselves in many or all of these portraits, not just a single one. It's these portraits that become available for all to see and comment. By focusing on these we can begin to see just how we are to live and relate with our brothers and sisters, no matter how they live their lives. I think we would find that these portraits are many times very different than that for which the church stands. Maybe the portraits of Jesus is something we can study further in the Village...
princess tweety, thanks for checking us out.
Ben, that's great. It makes me think about how giving Jesus was. Giving of his time, his love, his mercy and grace. Every person that he encountered came away from that encounter blessed and changed in some way for the better. He always gave more than he received. That's how I desire to live. In a culture that can be so me-focused, living with this servant attitude confronts our culture head on.
Oh now I am all excited and it is 12:40 so I can't write much!
Ben, I love your thoughts on the many portraits of Jesus. Of course you really caught my attention first of all because you are speaking my language, but it got me thinking of the curriculum that I wrote for the grad class that I took at Kutztown on the stereotypes of artists. It popped into my head because I headed each unit as "The artist as..." and what you said made me start thinking of "Jesus as..." and all of the different things that the blank could be filled in with. Man I really would like to spend some time writing that curriculum! Writing it could be a real learning and focusing experience!
I love you guys!!!
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