I cant be bothered giving this a title that ties in what I am about to write about and has a zany edge to it so im just writing this instead
I was reading Mark's account of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (Mark 14:53-65) and was trying to put myself in the shoes of Jesus - trying to feel the emotions that Jesus must have being feeling. I am conscious that He was aware of what lay ahead, I was thinking of how much Jesus must have being packing himself, freaking out. I am amazed at the restraint that Jesus shows, His silence in the face of some absurd accusations, I cant believe that he never once becomes or responds with the same evil that is being done to him. Here he is being falsely accused of all this stuff, his mates are bailing on him, a religious system is trying to get remove Him from the picture. And then this moment when he breaks his silence, and says the words that ultimately nail him to the cross. "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" the priests asks... "I am".
I don't know why, but I am amazed by this moment, this one little sentence that Jesus says that cements that path that he was to walk. I think that Jesus must have struggled with what was required of Him even after Gethsemane, and that in that time in front of the religious leaders he may have got off being crucified if he had continued to remain silent or responded differently. It must have being tempting. It strikes me as as such an intense moment and I am deeply moved by it for some reason right now.
Jesus continues to disturb me, He makes me uncomfortable about the way he went starting this revolution that we have so poorly continued. This "weakness is actually strength" paradox is popping up all the time at the moment in my readings and it deeply challenges me and my approach to so much of my life. Jesus is boldly weak in this moment, he steps into weakness, and in doing so changes everything.
Loosely tied to this is one of the most beautiful explanations of church and its relationship to structure, its a must read so make some time to read this if you haven't already. Once again its my mate Stu pulling out all the stops. READ THIS
I don't know why, but I am amazed by this moment, this one little sentence that Jesus says that cements that path that he was to walk. I think that Jesus must have struggled with what was required of Him even after Gethsemane, and that in that time in front of the religious leaders he may have got off being crucified if he had continued to remain silent or responded differently. It must have being tempting. It strikes me as as such an intense moment and I am deeply moved by it for some reason right now.
Jesus continues to disturb me, He makes me uncomfortable about the way he went starting this revolution that we have so poorly continued. This "weakness is actually strength" paradox is popping up all the time at the moment in my readings and it deeply challenges me and my approach to so much of my life. Jesus is boldly weak in this moment, he steps into weakness, and in doing so changes everything.
Loosely tied to this is one of the most beautiful explanations of church and its relationship to structure, its a must read so make some time to read this if you haven't already. Once again its my mate Stu pulling out all the stops. READ THIS
This entry was posted by Sam, on
Tuesday, May 29, 2007.
You can leave your response.
29 May 2007 at 4:25:00 pm NZST
Yo Sam.
This is a little Off-Topic, but the last comment on your past got me to thinking just a tad. . .
nakedpastor.com has been writing some stuff lately on the "vision-less" church. I'm into it (shock horror). Church 'structure' has been so heavily influenced by corporate management strategies since the 1980's. Every blimmin dude out there has some "vision" about where the church should be going, doing etc. .. .
In my mind the church has a "character" that is it's recognisable trait. We shouldn't have to worry about what we're going to be doing all the time if we know what the character of who we are is supposed to become. Things have become too vocational. Church is all about people 'finding a place' rather than becoming a person. Place of (what we do) has been elevated above character (who we are) - And we know what Jesus said about the first and the last . . .
If we act with honesty, patience, kindness, goodness, self control etc. . then "success" as a destination will not be something we have to specifically visualise and work towards. This is at the heart of the old "don't worry about tomorrow" deal I reckon. If we embrace certain character attributes then the future does take care of itself . . .
drttke - A Professor from the Netherlands
29 May 2007 at 4:26:00 pm NZST
In my last comment
"Church is all about people 'finding a place' rather than becoming a person."
should read
"Church seems to have become all about people 'finding a place' rather than becoming a person."
29 May 2007 at 4:43:00 pm NZST
"Church seems to have become all about people 'finding a place' rather than becoming a person."
Wow I love that, the pain in the ass is that I have to try and work out what that means for blueprint and our community, so if you have some ideas about how we do that well, lets yarn phil : ) Lets go deeper
29 May 2007 at 11:11:00 pm NZST
Hey Sam,
I read an article on Christianity today a while ago and did a sermon on this a while back (on a slightly different tact) that some churches instead of measuring themselves in terms of success numbers of people attending and programme growth success were starting to measure themselves on lines of 2 Peter 1: 5-9
They would regularly ask their congregation how far they were progressing in these areas (some did it in small groups, some in meetings, some in other ways) and then would work out their churches goals from that (i.e. if there was a particular need in the area of self control they would do some teaching around it) so that the person was being developed to fill there potential.
Obviously this was not the sum total of their churches work (i.e. they had mission outreach too) , but I thought it was an interesting take
i.e. a saying lisa uses too much
30 May 2007 at 12:25:00 pm NZST
Sam,
I expanded my thoughts a little at
http://virtuphill.blogspot.com/
Feel free to tear me to pieces!