Matthew 10:21-28
“When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don’t quit. Don’t cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you’ve run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived.”A student doesn’t get a better desk than her teacher. A laborer doesn’t make more money than his boss. Be content—pleased, even—when you, my students, my harvest hands, get the same treatment I get. If they call me, the Master, ‘Dungface,’ what can the workers expect?
“Don’t be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don’t hesitate to go public now.
“Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.
January 29th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Something tells me “dungface” is a rather polite translation of Jesus’ words!
Makes me worry sometimes that we don’t get much opposition. Have we been so domesticated by society, or maybe have we so domesticated the teachings of Jesus that we are no longer threatened, bullied and insulted much?… and when “we” are, it so often seems to be because we were offensive for all the wrong reasons - not because we were “proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate”.
There’s a Monday morning challenge for me - who can I love so much today that they’ll call me “dungface”.
January 29th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I was chatting over a cup of tea to some of my colleagues and came across the ‘it’s all a load of rubbish really, just fabricated by mankind for its own comfort’ argument re:religion. I would have liked to say that real religion can be quite disquieting but the words got stuck in my throat because they all seemed to be cliches, or because I would have to confess that I believe God speaks to people today (me included!) and would probably be deemed psychotic… I jusy can’t seem to explain what the gospel is and means to me without resorting to evo-jargon or sounding mad….how DO we communicate it in our world, here and now??
January 29th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Bethan, I’m so glad you said so well what I was thinking - so often lately I seem to have had great opportunies to talk about my faith, but end up with cliches running round my head that even I think are naff and so saying nothing. Maybe I’m just bottling out but I don’t think it’s just that - it’s wanting to make it real here and now and to light that spark that will make them want to have it for themslelves. But how?
January 29th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Maybe it’s not by what we say, but just by how we act everyday…and how hard is that: serving people and loving them in such small but consistent ways that makes them wonder ‘why?’ and want to call us ‘dungface’.
January 30th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Yeah definitely a hard nut to crack. My best mate has been talking around spirituality a lot recently, and i find it hard to show what i believe without it making sound cheesy and smirk-material. I think what Jen put forward is the most powerful way of showing this in the end, definitely. We all might not be able to amaze with words, but they can mean so little so often anyway. Actions louder than words, eh?
Something else i thought about. I like how this passage shows how Jesus was aware not only of the persecution that would be faced by his followers, but also of what lay in store for him. Obv he knew he was going to have to die this horrible death, but at times i forget because of the humility and peace Jesus showed for almost the entire time before. Almost like he was this unstoppable force that just waded through all those that opposed him. This passage just brings back home the human side to Jesus. An atypical human response to typical human behaviour.
January 30th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I guess one other thing that helps is to try to communicate that we are on a journey ourselves, where we are learning and changing rather than an “I’ve got the answers and you’re about to get them” attitude. That’s one fo the reasons I love essence - still space this Saturday btw!!