A friend of mine gave me the book, Jesus Land, to read on the plane before I went to Spokane for a Christian Associate leadership retreat. I couldn’t put the book down, and read the whole book on the plane. I haven’t read a book that quickly since Go Dog Go. But, it greatly disturbed me, because of the warped nature of Christianity in some places. I couldn’t help wondering what happened to us, and how did the original message get twisted into a culture of violence and heartless discipline. If you can handle the truth, then I would encourage you to get a copy and give it a read.
The retreat I went to was about church planting, and training leaders by returning to the center of it, the heart of God who misses His friends who have gone astray, which all have. Believe me, with what I witness on the streets and in the apartments, there is rife confusion and destruction. I am sure that we all need to continually return to God as the source of life. I just wonder at a plethora of our methods, which I find shameful and not at all relational.
I am passionate about loving the people I am around, and bringing holistic health to the city I am in. At the same time, I kept wondering about one thing.
Part of the book is about a disciplinary Christian camp in the Dominican Republic. I kept envisioning shutting the place down, and the joy it would bring to the heart of God if we could do so. I day dreamt about flying down there, and bringing some friends and a video camera, so that we could bring the information back here and joyfully get them all unemployment checks. What would God celebrate more – the work I am doing here, or that prophetic happening?
I am still not sure. Perhaps if you read the book you can tell me what you think.
We don’t live in Jesus Land. We don’t look at all like the kingdom of God.
Yet.
I am truly an idealist. I am also a realist. I am beginning to see what the creation of the Kingdom of God looks like now. It is a renouncement of our ways that don’t look like His, while also creating a radical culture of love, generosity, grace. We can be conservative about the idenity of Jesus, while being liberal and crazy mad men and women with our love. We can create parties, third spaces, half way houses where the most confusing mix of people exist while journeying to find the truth.
Locally, the revolution of love is here and coming. On the calendar, the summer of love is coming soon. The real Jesus land will be a mess like the gospels portray, but there is one thing you can bet on in the midst of it – the love of God will be evident. The only time I saw any glimmer of violence in the Son of God was when He turned those tables over. That was about us, not them.