The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better morals but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friend, is what it really means to be a Christian.
~Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you are not just My own. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work.
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in John 14
Oh beloved, there is an enormity to the Good News that strips us of any ability to comprehend it. It is a message so simple that a simple child can (and usually does) understand it. However, the closer we get to the depth of its reality, suddenly there rises up a torrent of Love and Good and Truth and Hope and Strength and Reality that tears any sense of containment of its hinges. Said simply: The Good News of Jesus Christ blows us a away if we begin to understand it.
The furnace of the Trinity’s infinite strength is Love. That Love drives a plan to bring many into communion with Them forever. Chosen from the depths of eternity, to freely choose Him, The Son laid down His Life, slain for us before the foundations of the world.
We (read each of us) then entered into a fallen world, with a frame that fell far short of its Design.
Our souls wilted in hate and disbelief, and with our stillborn spirits, our flesh corrupts us and dooms us to hell in its rejection of Love. This hell is real, and it is the only place in creation where the Mercy of G_d does not extend. For, in His mercy and Love, this same G_d Loves each of us enough to let us go away from Him if we choose.
And while we were in this terrible state, G_d totally turns the tables on the whole thing, by paying for all sin, beating death, and implementing a Kingdom which will have no end. He did this through the use of the most powerful strategy known: Humiliation leading to glorification. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us, that in Him, we might become totally new, and even the very righteousness of G_d.
In saving us though, He begins to apply the same strategy. Every attempt we try at making good on our salvation falls to pieces in humiliating defeat, until we learn that our salvation has nothing really to do with us. Rather, this salvation has everything to do with what He has done for us… And when, we begin to understand this piece, and simply believe in Him and His great Love for us and what He has done for us, we begin to see the true meaning of what is going on in the Good News.
We are going somewhere. We are going Home.
The Kingdom is our Home. It is a place of astounding Life and Light and Hope and Freedom. The only law will be Love, which yields the righteousness, peace and joy we have always been looking for, but had no idea how to find. However, beyond the Home and the Salvation and the Sanctification, there is something that only comes to us when we go full circle back into seeing the Gospel with the eyes of a child.
Him.
Can we see it beloved? G_d is not lonely. He is not waiting to whack you with a stick for everything you have done, or to cast you away if you reject Him. No, G_d is quite happy and in Love within the communion of His own Triune Self. He is, quite simply, so Happy and full of Love, that He is inviting us to join Him in the party.
So, are you reading this beloved? G_d Loves you. G_d simply wants you. You are being invited to be the very friend and lover of G_d. You are being invited to join Him in the communion which They have enjoyed forever. Tonight is your night beloved. Time to say yes to His Love.
