Apr 16, 2011

Preaching Peace thru Holy Week




As we prepare to enter Holy Week, I offer this wonderful web resource as an antidote to much of the hate driven Christian preaching of late. It's called Preaching Peace and here is it's manifesto:

…A strange new world, a new creation, where the old cosmos is truly passing away.  We welcome you to join us, to open your ears to hear, to turn away from being conformed to this violent, hierarchical, sacrificial cosmos and be transformed by the renewing of your mind to the life and thought of Jesus, the model of true humanity, who is leading us into the Peaceable Kingdom.


It is a world where Jesus’ understanding of his heavenly ABBA turns this ‘present evil age’ upside-down.  It is a way of thinking and living that is scandalous and foolish to this cosmos of violent human culture.  It is a world where the eagle flies with the dove, the lion lays down with the lamb, where the young dream dreams and the elders see visions, where there is no Jew or Gentile, no slave or free, no male or female, and a little child leads us all.


Even as Jesus had to explain his life mission to his own disciples on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection, we also need to listen to his instruction regarding the meaning of his life and death.  We wish you welcome and say, “Well met,” on the journey.  May the spirit of Jesus lead us as we travel and reason together.

One of the many rich resources of the site is the book, The Jesus Driven Life, which gay theologian James Alison describes as:
“…a great new resource in the Christian Adventure. The Jesus Driven Life is thoroughly ecumenical in its scope, richly biblical in its sourcing and gloriously Christ-centered in its excitement about God.”
James Alison

And this endorsement from one of the most well known 'progressive' Evangelical theologians today, Greg Boyd. (The Wikipedia page devoted to him makes for very interesting reading.)

“For all who sense that there’s something profoundly off with the westernized Gospel they’ve been given, …and even more for all who don’t yet sense what’s wrong, The Jesus Driven Life is a ‘must read’!”
Gregory Boyd


Will the real Jesus please stand up…
Who is Jesus Christ for us today? What has happened as Jesus, the rabbi from Galilee, has been displaced as the center of the Christian faith and replaced with false portraits? How can we understand the relation between this nonviolent Jesus and the violent God of most Christian traditions? What might Christianity look like if it truly followed this Jesus?


These ideas and many others are demystified in this book. Utilizing the work of Rene Girard, The Jesus Driven Life takes us beyond the dead ends and false trails of much Christian interpretation of the Bible. Come discover a new and exciting Way of living in the world as true humans who imitate the crucified and risen Lord!


The Jesus Driven Life is everything you wanted to know about Jesus but were afraid to ask! This is a manual for understanding Jesus’ life and times, his hermeneutics, his understanding of God, his mission, his passion and his model of living the ‘shalom’ of his ABBA.

The website also offers a beautifully re-envisioned Stations of the Cross, which refrains from romanticizing Jesus' suffering or making him a passive victim.


Here is the First Station: (See the complete series here: www.preachingpeace.org/.../The_Stations_of_the_Cross.pdf)  The link doesn't seem to work, put if you do a google search for Stations of the Cross, it comes up about five entries down the list - or it did for me. Very beautifully done.

Station I
Jesus is condemned to die


All: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.


Leader: Pilate said, “I find no fault with this man,” but when the crowd grew loud, he grew silent. “I wash my hands. You deal with him.” Pilate had the knowledge and the power to stand and say no to the world as it sought to crush the Lord of Life. He didn’t use either.


How many times do I have the knowledge and the power to say no, and stay silent? How many times do I participate, by my silence, in the Passion of Jesus? Who will die because I do not say no?


Silence


All: Dearest Jesus, you hear my silence and you still love me. Because you say no to the world, the world says no to you. By the power of your Holy Spirit, give me the courage to stand and say no with you. Help me to take up my cross and follow you.


Like a lamb you stood there silent,


“Crucify!” we shouted, vi’lent,


Pilate washed his hands and sighed
.

 www.preachingpeace.org/.../The_Stations_of_the_Cross.pdf

I leave tomorrow for Israel to celebrate Holy Week and Easter in Jerusalem. 

2 comments:

colkoch said...

Have a good trip Jayden, and may it be inspiring and connect you to the true Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Too bad we just don't seem to have a Catholicism that really get this in any meaningful sense.

Richard Demma said...

Thanks, Colleen, just back and still recovering. Prayed for you and for all OT friends and bloggers. Met so many different kinds of Christians. Inspiring.