“Is there a Zacchaeus in your life? Somebody that everybody's given up on? Judged incapable of any further good? Grand aunt, distant cousin, spouse, former spouse, inlaw, member of your church, neighbor on your street, colleague at work? Someone of whom you've said 'I've been wasting my time trying to make you understand anything. You are incorrigible. Thank God, I'm quits and free of you.. Don't you ever dare to darken my door again'? You probably wouldn't say that because that's cruel. I don't like to say cruel things either. They make me feel guilty and I don't want to feel guilty. So, I play it smooth; I call it cool cordiality and polite indifference. Good morning, you dork. In the churches across our land, we allow this garbage to masquerade as the love of Jesus.
“Jesus said you are to love one another as I have loved you, a love that will possibly lead to the bloody, anguished gift of yourself; a love that forgives seventy times seven, that keeps no score of wrongdoing. Jesus said this, this love, is the one criterion, the sole norm, the standard of discipleship in the New Israel of God. He said you're going to be identified as His disciples, not because of our church-going, bible-toting, or song-singing. No, you'll be identified as His by one sign only: the deep and delicate respect for one another, the cordial love impregnated with reverence for the sacred dimension of the human personality because of the mysterious substitution of Christ for the Christian.”— The Furious Longing of God, pages 81-82
<idle musing>
Ouch!
</idle musing>
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment