Bottom line: I began to see that because I thought the Bible was universal, I was blind to how I brought my cultural blinders and bias into it. I began to realize that the power of the Bible was in its particular, biased perspective.
God bound God’s self to a community, through thick and thin. God binds God’s self to those who are trampled upon by the powerful. Justice is God shaking the mountains and coming down on behalf of those who need rescue, taking the side of the oppressed.
Jesus enters time and space and lives and breathes—in a moment, a place, a culture. Jesus breaks all religious boundaries of the time, partying and scandalously making friends with those whom faithful Judaism made outsiders. Jesus shows a radical inclusivity in choosing a terrorist zealot and a traitor-for-the-empire tax collector to both be part of his team of twelve.
The Holy Spirit births a worldwide church at Pentecost, not by conforming to universals, but by prompting people to speak in particular different languages. The Holy Spirit lets hated Gentiles shape Christianity.
Every single time the Trinity invades time and space, it isn’t to maintain the status quo. It isn’t to conserve.
The Trinity breaks bonds and frees slaves, and is a consuming fire in the wilderness. Divine leadings inspire prophetic words that tear down kings and raise up the weak. The Divine Word takes on human flesh. The powers of empire, of religion, fear it so much that Jesus is nailed to a cross to die a scandalous death.
But the disruption of Resurrection points us forward to a new humanity and a new universe, where lion will lay down with lamb.
I realized…
the movement of God was progressing;
progressing toward a healing future,
not conserving a damaging past.
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