some random notes to begin 2007 with … to be fleshed out in more detail later this year …

… I think the “gospel” is bigger and more mysterious and more surprising than people commonly understand it. I think phrases like the “kingdom of God/heaven”, and “giving your life”, and “life eternal”, all have contemporary meanings that people assume so much (”heaven”, “dying”, and “life after death”) that they take them for truth, but those meanings are completely different from what those phrases REALLY mean. I think such interpretations actually work AGAINST the real “gospel”, the real good news, which has multiple dimensions only one of which is the availability to humans, here and now, of the God-given power to live life to the fullest in community and in radical revolution against oppressive/paralyzing systems of thinking. As Jesus said 2000 years ago, the “kingdom is at hand”, it is here.

… I think too many people think of the “gospel” and only think of one aspect of Jesus - his gruesome death. I think we Christians have failed if the only thing people know about the “gospel” of Jesus is that he died for our sins. I think that such a message is so fixated on just how gruesome his death was that it completely misses the point of the LIFE of Jesus. As a result, I think the commonly understood “gospel” focuses people almost exclusively to think of salvation as only something that happens after death. I think such a death-focussed gospel is actually completely counter to the will of God - the will that resurrected Jesus even after such a gruesome death and the will that freely gave that recklessly sacrificed life to us to live it in a similarly reckless selfless manner, the same will that works against evil in the world today and invites us to give our lives toward the pursuit of doing good. I find God’s will to be predominantly concerned with lives lived fully to glorify God, not with glorifying death.

… I think modern-day Christianity has a lot of similarities with the Pharisaical hypocritical religiosity of Christ’s day, and I think Jesus and Paul would have quite the same harsh words for the power-hungry insecure religious leaders of today that they had for Pharisees and Hebrews who imposed man-made doctrines on people who sincerely sought God …

… I think we are entering an “experiential age”, where people are not satisfied by just truth, but also are driven primarily to seek fulfilling experiences. I think people in this “experiential age” expect to see words lived out in action, and therefore evaluate claims based on real evidence of such claims having an effect in real life. I think this is actually very honoring to God’s sense of justice, because people today are quick to spot and reject hypocrisy, but in doing so they also dismiss valid truths because of the failures of humans in living up to high standards. I think this “experiential age” should therefore be a catalyst to encourage people to talk less and live more transparent lives so that they can experience (there’s that word again) the liberating freedom of living without worrying about hiding some inconsistency in moral practice.

… I think marketing people really “get” it. And I see the resulting product-centered consumer frenzy and the appearance-driven reality shows and I fear for human civilization.

… I think I’m going to be challenged this year to be more honest, more credible, more straightforward, to actually live out my words, to be more transparent about my weaknesses, and more humble about my achievements.

… I think this year I’m going to meet some reckless people, with recklessly BIG ideas, who are going to change the world. I think I’m going to see God at work in their lives and through their lives. I think by being an encourager in their lives, I will experience God’s wild Spirit moving, and I think I’m going to have a lot of fun ruffling conservative feathers because I have a feeling God is going to be speaking through the lives of some VERY unlikely and non-religious people who will do some amazingly Godly things this year.

That would, of course, be completely consistent with God’s history.

It’s going to be a reckless year!