Thursday, July 02, 2009

Abandon the Story You Would Lose Yourself In

For prostitutes, the call of Jesus was to leave their story of men who pay money for love, and to enter the story of God, who in love pays for us with his own life. For Pharisees, it was to leave their story of religiosity and superiority and rigidity and judgmentalism, their story that was exclusively focused on their own narrow little sect, and instead to enter God's broader and deeper and better story of grace and compassion and mercy and love for all people. For Zealots like Simon, it was to leave the political story of violence, to stop slitting Roman throats, as if that would bring the story to its desired end, and instead to enter God's spiritual story of peace for all people, to risk persecution for justice and to prefer suffering over causing others to suffer. For tax collectors like Zacchaeus or Matthew, it was to stop collaborating with the Roman Empire, and profiting in the process and instead to collaborate with the kingdom of God, and sacrifice in the process. For the rich - like that young ruler Jesus met - it was to abandon the hollow story of acquisition, and instead enter God's better story of generosity.....

To everyone, Jesus issues an invitation to abandon the story they will lose themselves in, and instead, to enter the story they will find themselves in.

- Brian McLaren, The Story We Find Ourselves In