While rulers in Palestine at the time of Jesus’s coming clutched their power, the King-over-all was laying his down. He ushered in a new order, an upside-down kingdom.
Maybe we fear that love is a zero-sum game, that if we give of ourselves there might not be anything left for us. But love is not about self-abnegation.
How Christianity went from a faith based on sacrificial giving to an institutional blessing of taking will certainly be a challenge for historians untangle. If there were ever a faith with the heft, logic, and compassion to oppose imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and exploitation of every kind, you’d think it would be Christianity.
What if our acts of fidelity to the tribe our back bumper testifies to have actually been the thing God was satirically calling into question from the beginning?
When we believe ourselves to be debt free, we forget forever the debt we owe to Jesus. We forget that all we have we owe to God, that nothing is ours in perpetuity except for our lives.
I’m holding close those caught in the midst of online battles, those who are looking for enough support to take the first brave step to fully be who they are, as people created and loved by God.