Here’s What I Say…

After posting a previous video and asking for your thoughts someone wondered what would happen if I didn’t give you my take on it first. So on Friday I posted the Boyd/100 Huntley video and asked for your comments. I guess it’s not really a surprise that comments pretty much came from the same page that I’m on. I suppose if were on a completely different page you wouldn’t stop by CV or take time to read/watch/comment. Still, can I tell you I’m wildly encouraged at your response to the Boyd video?

I think this interview with Boyd is more than just a promo for his new book. For me it’s giving voice to something that is growing not only in me but growing inside of people all over North America as well. I couldn’t agree more with the things Boyd says in this interview.

Here are some thoughts that spring from it for me…

First, the best way to really know what God is like is to see Jesus. To look at his life and the things he said and did. Bible College and the Movement I was part of at that time taught me it was the Bible and that alone that told us what God was like…despite the Bible saying otherwise. Knowing the nature of Jesus and what he is like then becomes the lens for looking at past, present and future. When I read the Old Testament I read through the lens of Jesus – so when I read about smashing the babies of our enemies’ heads against rocks I know that whatever that is it is NOT the nature or character of God regardless of what the writers of the Old Testament might have thought. When I look around today and see people kicking people in the gut to “heal” them, whether they are “healed” or not, that’s not Jesus regardless of what the kicker or kickee might say. Pragmatism doesn’t change the revelation of God through Jesus. And when I consider the future I may not know what happens next but I know the character and nature of the One who not only leads me there but who’s already there waiting for me.

Second, the Kingdom is about revolution. To plant a Church in the first century was troubling for the Jews but not a big problem. To declare a new Kingdom has come was to declare war with Rome and with all the powers that be. We’ve largely lost that understanding today as we’ve domesticated the revolution. I’m afraid that we’re still not ready to un-domesticate yet.

Third, the essential nature of the gospel and what Jesus has done, is doing and will do for us has been subverted by those of us who would rather make it about something else: something manageable and more personally beneficial for us. Getting my ticket for heaven now and trying to behave ‘til I get there is sad and anaemic. Getting on the train and pursuing more and more information, listening to speaker after speaker who don’t know us tell stories and give us some new insight (after 2000 years), giving money away to people bent on taking it from us, and baptizing the North American greed dream and calling it Christian is a dead end. We keep pursuing political power and being “in” with the System and turning our vote for the “right” party into a third sacrament.

Fourth, where do we go from here? Something is changing and God is changing it. Am I, are we, willing to be part of the change no matter what it costs? Make no mistake, it will be expensive. Jesus came to birth a Kingdom, not a religion. We made a religion to resist the Kingdom. I’m getting ready to go back.