“Once there was a small group of kids who decided to go to a park in the middle of the city, and dance and play, laugh and twirl. As they played in the park, they thought that maybe another child would pass by and see them. Maybe that child would think it looked fun and even decide to join them. Then maybe another one would. Then maybe a businessman would hear them from his skyscraper. Maybe he would look out the window. Maybe he would see them playing and lay down his papers and come down. Maybe they could teach him to dance. Then maybe another businessman would walk by, a nostalgic man, and he would take off is tie and toss aside his briefcase and dance and play.. Maybe the whole city would join the dance. Maybe even the world. Maybe…Regardless, they decided to enjoy the dance.”
“The teaching pastor said, “Now this doesn’t mean you have to go sell your rollerblades and golf clubs,” and he went on to “contextualize” the teaching to show that we just need to be careful not to make idols of our things. I wasn’t so sure about that. Jesus doesn’t tell the man to be a better steward, or to treat his workers fairly, or not to make money an idol. He tells this highly educated and devoutly religious young man that he lacks one thing? Giving up everything he owns to give to the poor. Rich Mullins used to say that’s because there are a lot of people coming to the Banquet, and God doesn’t want all the luggage to deal with.” -Shane Claiborne
“You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too…(And he paused in the awkward silence.) But I guess that’s why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.” -Rich Mullins
No comments:
Post a Comment