Jonathots Daily Blog
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Yesterday I was at Grays Chapel United Methodist Church.
It is located in a place called Grays Chapel, North Carolina, which has been granted the blessing of a name despite its size.
I liked them.
I’m not so sure they liked me at first because after all, I was a stranger. Because I was a stranger, I was therefore suspect.
Isn’t it interesting that most of the problems that come to us in life are hatched by friends and family? Rarely are we inundated by a predicament brought about by someone we don’t know.
That said, I had to make a decision on what I wanted to say to these fine folk. I mingled my words with songs, music and a bit of humor.
Yet, it is important to have a core message.
My core is so simple that it probably leaves some people attending my events a little disappointed–because I fail to attack the right people or praise those usually deemed worthy. So my success rate is very good, but is also plagued by the lack of having an adequate enemy we can all hate. Matter of fact, you can boil down what I have to say to the following:
1. The Gospel is good news.
I know people can find bad news in the Good Book, but I’ve never been one to try to turn it into the “Bad Book.” Maybe that makes my mission seem a little too simple or fluffy.
I don’t care.
People get enough bad news without having me set up my equipment and blare it from the PA system.
2. Jesus lived a human life.
Every attempt we make to turn Jesus of Nazareth into Apollo– who was purported to be half god and half man–makes him none of either.
The power of the life of Jesus is that even though he was driven by a calling and anointed by Spirit, he was bound by flesh.
It makes what he has to say much more pertinent to our lives, instead of him coming across as some professor from heaven, wonkishly trying to explain how things work to a bunch of dumb students.
3. Run from what’s complicated.
I do it all the time.
I meet individuals who think it takes a committee meeting to turn on a light switch. They spend more time discussing the Rules of Order than ordering someone to step in and rule.
Jesus said his way was simple and easy. My thought is, whenever things are is no longer falling under that gentle approach, they are probably also no longer Jesus.
So that’s the good news I had to share with the people of Grays Chapel. I don’t know whether it impressed them. Perhaps they wished I would attack the Republican, curse a Democrat, or whisper a stance I hold on what people should do in their bedrooms.
I don’t care.
The good news is:
- The Gospel is good news.
- Jesus came to be human.
- And life is not meant to be complicated.
Oh, by the way–there’s one piece of better news:
Don’t leave love.
No matter how much you get tempted to redefine your commitment to the human race with some other emotion than love, abandon it. Even when you disagree or you think something is evil, don’t leave love.
May God find each one of us in a loving state of mind … when He, and He alone, decides to judge the world.
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