Presently I'm leading a group in a study of Tony Campolo's most recent book, "Red Letter Christians." The group, "Red Letter Christians" are a movement of folks that seek to follow what Jesus actually taught and said. In some Bibles, the words of Jesus are printed in red. Hence, the term "red letter Christian." In Campolo's book, he seeks to take the words of Jesus and shine the light of Jesus teaching on some hot button issues of today. For example, he has a chapter on war and one on gay rights. There is also a chapter on illegal immigration and one on the environment. All of these issues are challenging and bring with them a variety of sides of which to look at each issue.
As the group discussed the chapter on war, we looked hard at Jesus words to "Love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you." I could tell that as much as we wanted to follow the words of Jesus, it was hard for most of us to imagine living those words out in a world of terrorists and continual violence. I'm not implying that every person in our group was ready to go out and kill someone or intentionally hurt someone. But, we each seemed to wonder if what Jesus taught could actually be lived out in the "real world."
And, that's what I often struggle with. I want to believe that what Jesus taught has some validity in the "real world." I would not want to think that all that Jesus taught was just poetic sounding idealism but that it truly is designed to guide us in the 21st century. I often wonder if the reason I have problems with it at times is because I fail to realize that maybe what Jesus is actually saying is that this is how God intended to the world to function. Now, it may not be functioning that way right now, but God's intention - God's dream- is that the world function in such a way that enemies are loved and persecutors are loved. If anything, Jesus' teachings ands words seem to offer us a way to "break the cycle" of sin and disharmony and bring life back to and often dying and pain-filled world.
In many ways, I'm alot like the character in the Bible who said to Jesus, "I believe - help my unbelief." In other words, "Jesus, I get it..but help me with the stuff I don't get." I'm glad that there are some parts of what Jesus teaches that I get. And, there are some parts that I don't get..and don't even follow. But, I can still pray, "Help me in those areas as well". And, I don't have to be getting an A+ in following Jesus before I even start doing what he says.
What do others think? Poetic idealism on the part of Jesus or stuff that actually works in the real world?
No comments:
Post a Comment