Join the Revolution
When I pray, I'm not asking God to do good things, that's absurd! God is love and light. God's single desire is for the good that looks like Shalom. I simply can not believe the story that God doesn't act because we don't pray, defined as begging him to get off his ass. As if Ineffable Reality was a male couch potato. (I understand how a particular biblical hermeneutic can lead to that conclusion, but that's not the only conclusion available.)
God doesn't act, because God is weak. Jesus on the cross, for example. (More on this below*) God is creative not coercive. When I pray, I am joining in God's desire for Shalom. I am joining my heart, mind, and body to God's dream. I'm joining the kingdom revolution. I do believe that when people join the kingdom revolution across time and space through prayer, the kingdom grows and Shalom increases.
*God's power is in resurrection, not violence or coercion. Whatever sort of peace might be brought about by coercion is not Shalom, PAX Romana, for example. Jesus won, but not through violence or coercion. The Jesus way is the only way to peace, this is a flaw in the plan, an offense to reason.
Jesus invited and continues to invite us into his commonwealth aka Shalom, but when we kill him for not being a violent revolutionary -- when he's weak and loses -- he doesn't retaliate, he forgives. His victory and our victory comes in the form of resurrection.
And the promise of resurrection was given to inspire freedom not passivity. "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." Freedom to live in the self-emptying, co-suffering way of Jesus. Now we're free to do the beautiful thing, we are no longer slaves to ugly utility and self preservation (comfort and security at the expense of others and future others.) Do I need to quote the 23 verses about dying to self?
Join the revolution and be free from fear and hate, free to live the beautiful life of solidarity and reconciliation.
When I pray, I'm not asking God to do good things, that's absurd! God is love and light. God's single desire is for the good that looks like Shalom. I simply can not believe the story that God doesn't act because we don't pray, defined as begging him to get off his ass. As if Ineffable Reality was a male couch potato. (I understand how a particular biblical hermeneutic can lead to that conclusion, but that's not the only conclusion available.)
God doesn't act, because God is weak. Jesus on the cross, for example. (More on this below*) God is creative not coercive. When I pray, I am joining in God's desire for Shalom. I am joining my heart, mind, and body to God's dream. I'm joining the kingdom revolution. I do believe that when people join the kingdom revolution across time and space through prayer, the kingdom grows and Shalom increases.
*God's power is in resurrection, not violence or coercion. Whatever sort of peace might be brought about by coercion is not Shalom, PAX Romana, for example. Jesus won, but not through violence or coercion. The Jesus way is the only way to peace, this is a flaw in the plan, an offense to reason.
Jesus invited and continues to invite us into his commonwealth aka Shalom, but when we kill him for not being a violent revolutionary -- when he's weak and loses -- he doesn't retaliate, he forgives. His victory and our victory comes in the form of resurrection.
And the promise of resurrection was given to inspire freedom not passivity. "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." Freedom to live in the self-emptying, co-suffering way of Jesus. Now we're free to do the beautiful thing, we are no longer slaves to ugly utility and self preservation (comfort and security at the expense of others and future others.) Do I need to quote the 23 verses about dying to self?
Join the revolution and be free from fear and hate, free to live the beautiful life of solidarity and reconciliation.