What is the message?

I've been trying to get my head around a reasonable summary of exactly what Jesus' secret message really is.  I'd like to discuss that question in class tomorrow, so here is a set of draft ideas to get us started.  Feel free to comment on it.

• Jesus' message is built on the foundation of the earlier story of God's involvement with the world as told in the Jewish tradition.  Jesus' message extends this tradition with increased emphasis on
• God loves the whole world and every person in it.
• God's intent is that we should love in the same way (2 great commandments)
• Failing to love (sin) leads to destructive patterns of living (death, hell?) both individually and communally.
• Jesus' life, teachings, death and resurrection demonstrate the pattern which leads to true, abundant life.
• Following Jesus can set us free from the destructive selfish patterns which bind us to death (miracles?)
• Full, abundant life comes from laying down the small, constricted life of our selfish desires to follow Jesus.
• We who have begun this journey are intended to live together in the way of Jesus, proclaim Jesus' message, and draw all humanity to participate in the experience of God's love.

Why Parables?

I've been thinking about chapter 6 in our book, where Brian talks about Jesus' teaching style and how parables force us to think on a deeper level than just information.  Jesus wants to transform us, not merely inform.  I tend to identify with what he says on page 47 "Some of us want fast, painless, effortless information and not slow, energetic, engaging transformation."  Can you identify with that?

Along a similar track, I bought 2 new books today.  Brian McLaren's newest is Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in 12 simple Words.  It promises to be an exercise in spiritual transformation, which is probably what I need right now.  And Rob Bell is stirring up a lot of controversy with Love Wins. which is a new look at heaven and hell which a lot of conservative Christians are branding as heresy.  I watched a youtube video of Rob Bell talking about it.  He is challenging us to deeply rethink what Jesus said about the fundamental character of God and the centrality of God's love.

Rethinking is exactly what the parables force us to do.  How far do we go in that process?

American Politics and War

OK, other than Chuck (thank you!) conversation has been pretty subdued around here.  Let's see if I can stir the pot with something a bit controversial.  I follow a news analysis service called Stratfor.  The following link goes to an article they published today.  Considering that Jesus had a lot to say relevant to the political context of the first century, how would Jesus respond to these ideas?  What do you think about the concept of an American Empire emerging from the American Republic (similar to what happened in Rome)?  Leave a comment and we'll talk about it tomorrow.

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110328-what-happened-american-declaration-war

Developing the Topics

McLaren introduces his book The Secret Message of Jesus talking about ways Christians in the Church through the years have missed the point about much of what Jesus said.  We have seen Jesus as the founder of a new religion -- whch was not His intent.  We have taken Jesus' message as endorsement for our political views, casting Jesus as for "us" and against "them."  We have understood some things Jesus meant to be taken literally as only having spiritual meanings, and interpreted some of His spiritual parables more literally than Jesus intended. 

So what is the real message of Jesus?  McLaren suggests several areas in the first section.  It is a political message, not merely private and personal.  It is a Jewish message in the tradition of the biblical prophets.  It is a revolutionary message of God over throwing all that is wrong with the world and bringing creation back to its intended design.  And it is a message given to us not in rationally organized points and principles, but in hints and parables which invite reflection -- a hidden message.

Let's reflect on these first 5 chapters and share our own impressions of Jesus' message in each of these categories.  Use the book as a starting point and bring other resources to bear as well.

Why do we need this Blog?

We've never done it this way before.  So maybe that's why we should try it. 

I have read 2 interesting books this winter:  Church in the Inventive Age by Doug Paget, a leader in the Emerging Church, and Poke the Box by Seth Godin, a leading writer in the area of current culture and business.  Both of them emphasize that one characteristic of life in the 21st century is the willingness -- ideed the necessity -- of creating new ways to do things.

Paget is especially clear that the era where Christians were content to sit in a room and listen to an "expert" tell them what to think is part of a fading past.  Red Letter Christians in this decade want to experience for themselves what it means to follow Jesus and share their experence with others.  This blog is a vehicle we can use to do exactly that.

Check out the blog before each class to see what's coming.  Come back afterwards to post your comments, ask questions, and respond to what others say.  Invite friends who can't attend the classes to read along.  Who knows, this might turn out to be something important!

Defining the Questions

Let's use comments to this post to suggest specific questions where we want this class to dig in.  What are some of the specific teachings of Jesus we want to explore?  What are the aspects of the Kingdom we need to understand better and apply in our everyday lives?  Where are your personal growing edges, and how can we help each other become more fully what God envisions us to be?  How would our city and nation change if we really did follow Jesus?
It might be helpful to consider two broad areas where the Kingdom applies:  1) personal transformation to make each of us individually more like Jesus, and 2) transformation of the world so that the Kingdom really does come on earth as it is in Heaven.  Where do we start, and how does one area feed into the other?  Questions suggested in these comments may become study topics in the weeks to come.