Over my lifetime I have heard or even made many statements of intent, but recently I heard that Jesus made a statement that started and drove His intent. A pastor friend of mine (Mark Van Steenwyk) is writing a book called “The Jesus Manifesto”. “The Jesus Manifesto” refers to Luke 4:18-19, Jesus, after getting tested in the wilderness, gives his first sermon in his hometown. He opens the scroll of Isaiah and read what is to be His manifesto:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

By reading from Isaiah 61, Jesus not only proclaims himself to be the Messiah (the political ruler who would rescue Israel from its enemies), but also that his Messianic reign would defy the peoples’ expectations. Jesus quotes the beginning of Isaiah 61, but leaves out the proclamation of vengeance. Jesus’ hometown gets the point: this proclamation of the “Lord’s favor” (Jubilee) is being extended to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. And in response, they try to kill him. With this manifesto, Jesus sets the course for His ministry of subversive love. The rest of Luke-Acts is the fleshing out of this manifesto–first for Christ and then for His Church. Luke, perhaps more than any other Gospel writer, understands the subversive implications of Jesus’ life and ministry. Luke tends to write from the aspect that Jesus is a man and that helps us to understand why he writes the way he does. Jesus turns everything upside down; He challenges the majority of economic, religious, and political assumptions of the time. As the Church, we have been sent by Christ into the world just as He was sent by his Father (John 20:21). Jesus’ manifesto is our manifesto.

Have you joined Him?

Okay so if you believed the title you are almost as silly as the video below and if you haven’t seen this yet you need to take a few moments, breathe deeply, and allow this bold pastor to challenge you and provoke you with The Bible.

A friend of mine showed this video to me a few years ago and it’s rare to witness someone exegeting scripture with utter precision, while simultaneously channeling the spirit of Michael Scott.

By the way THIS IS REAL!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo3o4nfiG7A]

In the light of 9/11 coming up and the change in the rhetoric in and around the U.S. I’ve been pondering some serious questions.  Join in if you’d like.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak at a training session for a group of people who are on a plane to France for a 2 week missions trip.  In my preparation process I find myself warring not only against myself but others in my mind and in my experiences that negatively shaped my view of Christianity.  Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.  We have all heard that we are to “Love your enemies”.  It is the logical (if extreme) extension of “love your neighbor.” When asked, “Who is my neighbor?”, Jesus tells a story in which a Samaritan is the protagonist and moral exemplar of neighborly love.

By identifying a hated outgroup as the good neighbor and especially in mandating love for enemies, Jesus effectively deprives us of any criteria for choosing whom to love. The circle of love becomes a sphere in which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere. Heck, the Gentiles [that’s mostly likely you and I] even get grafted into the people of God. How’s that for sharing the love?  Yet somehow I see Christians (including myself) forget this….. how?

Love of enemies, is supposed to be a kind of shorthand for a universal and indiscriminate love of others. Often, however, our conversations about loving enemies presuppose (or at least fail to question) the ability of the others to determine who our enemy is. This has the unfortunate effect of family, friends, and even our local church where we take the attitude of the brother in the Parable of the Prodigal son (Luke 15) that wont join the EPIC party that was being thrown for his brother who is back at home.  This sense of entitlement seems to permeate American followers and I just wonder are we against the wrong things?

Peacemaking is an important part of the ministry of reconciliation with which the church is charged. But the end of all conflict is neither the point nor the goal of Christian ethics.   It happens to pass the “What would the world be like if everyone did this?” test, because the world would certainly be a better place if everyone loved their enemies (particularly if they defined such love so as to include not killing them). But not everyone will.

I sometimes wish someone would have asked Jesus, “Who is my enemy?”, because at least we’d get an interesting story out of it. In the absence of such a story, we might do well to focus on those around us who may not be enemies so much as simply those who have wronged us, or whom we don’t like so much, or the outcast, or the merely odd. Enemy-love can be easy to affirm in lives where actually encountering a physical enemy is unlikely.

Check out Ephesians 6 especially verse 12 and let me know what you think below.

the image from The Plow

To be completely honest I hate asking this question but the reason I ask is that many Americans believe the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted in ways that reflect today’s needs and sensibilities, so do many Christians hold a similar view of Scripture.  Recently the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) made a distinction that I found curious.  They confess that Scripture is “inspired” by God, but they no longer hold that the Bible is infallible and inerrant as their founder [Luther] taught.  This brought up a much larger debate to what the Bible means in our lives.  Ask yourself this question, do you read the Bible or does the Bible read you? In other words, do you read the Bible in light of today’s cultural and social context or do you read it with the intention to fully submit to it regardless of what it says or do you read it in some other way?  The ELCA has decided (along with other denominations) to allow monogamous homosexuals to serve as clergy within their context much to the chagrin of many within their denomination.  Many people at this time start to ask the question why does this matter?  It matters because to a Christian Scripture reveals God and His attributes, and it reveals Jesus and His atoning work amongst other things.  I write this to start a discussion on what you REALLY believe.  Many say one thing but there lives represent something else completely and I wanted to give the ELCA respect for at least confessing and standing next to there decisions. They have said that the Bible contains the Word of God, which is inspired, even though I may not agree.  So you tell me………

Do you read the Bible or does the Bible read you?

For Jon’s Personal Statement of Faith please right click here and choose “save target as”