Saving Our Faith from a Culture of Fear
What if our growing unease about truth and the symptoms we feel, whether mere anxiety or full on fear, is actually an invitation take a hard look at our faith? What if our fear, whether corporate or personal, is really an opportunity to reason together, to consider the state of our faith, to reflect on its nature, to sift through its presuppositions and explore its implications? What if truth has been knocking for some time—maybe for years—but ever more furiously now in these urgent times? (22)
Could it be that the message of Jesus has been so muted through the ages that it has left many of us bereft of the joy, peace, and blessing we set out to find? (34-35)
Jesus inaugurated something revolutionary back then and still offers it today. He presents a radically new and disconcerting version of faith, not to offend, but to jolt us sufficiently so that we will reconsider—radically reconsider—what is most important in life and how to live that out. Jesus's version of faith doesn't come naturally. it is hard won, but not by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, self-help style. It is a gift, but accepting it requires courage. It is available to those brave enough to accept God's invitation to take and eat with the confidence that he will neither slap their hands nor send them the bill. (37-38)
By conferring blessing upon those widely thought to be undeserving, Jesus put into motion an idea so revolutionary that today we are still seeking to understand it. He showed us that the reason for divine favor is not us but solely him. (45)
Accepting that we are loved for no other reason than the God of the universe loves us—it's in his very being and nature to do so—is the hardest thing ...
from
http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/M2b2IXnAx9A/20-truths-from-break-open-sky.html
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