In the gospels is the profound mystery of life. In the lines, between the lines, are the infinite depths of eternal mystery, where we find the deepest questions of what it is to be fully human. We have forgotten that Jesus planted this mystery outside the boxes of all established religions of the day.
The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.( Eugene Peterson's, The Message; John 1 )
Jesus did not deliver these profound questions of life into the hands of the religious establishment, its scribes, it's pharisees, and inner circles of power. He delivered it, into the sea of humanity...its diversity of culture, of religions, of race...it crossed all borders. Sadly, what was sown like seed by the hand of God, was quickly snatched up and boxed as religion as soon as the sower had left.
In the gospels, is an eternal mysterious truth...much of it beyond human comprehension. Much of it raised more questions than answers. We don't like that ! We had to reinterpret the gospels. To read the gospels, to read Jesus words unedited, with no reinterpretation...is too much mystery, and too much truth. So religion dilutes it, to half truths, and one quarter truths. We drink it it like kool aid, feeling better...but the power to re-imagine is gone.
But in the gospels, is the divine redemptive imagination of the God of creation...and in the gospels, if we are willing to wrestle with mystery, and questions...is a truth, so powerful,that it will help all humanity, despite religion and geographic borders imagine a new world, the Kingdom of God.
Here are the profound mysterious questions I find in the gospels. Can a man understand life, solely on Jesus unedited, un reinterpreted words? Can he understand, that is, that his life doesn't belong to him...not to his own self interests, not to his family, not to nation...but to this redemptive imagination, the God of all creation? Can we understand that there is only one law to fulfill, which is found in these profound words, " To love the lord your God, with all your heart, soul, and strength...and to love your neighbor as yourself?"
Can a man realize that the aim of life is to fulfill that law, to live it out in the context of everyday living? Can a man give that law his sole allegiance, beyond even the laws and the rituals of religion, so that everything else looses all its control and power...that in divine redemptive imagination, in the intersection of God and neighbor will be the sole focus of life and living?
Can man live by the divine law of love? Can this redemptive imagination be planted into the soul of humanity? Can we develop a human consciousness that is willing to wrestle with the deepest questions of life? Always seeking a redemptive imagination to see God, and " all " humanity living in the intersection of life?
I find it profound, Jesus law of divine love is not an either or option. God and neighbor are included in the same sentence, they are inseparable. Love does not happen at the exclusion of the other. And neighbor is not defined geographically, or by race, or by language, or by religion. One can not escape the reality that we are all each others neighbor.
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