{"id":24099,"date":"2024-08-27T10:47:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T14:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=24099"},"modified":"2024-08-27T11:04:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T15:04:21","slug":"24099","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=24099","title":{"rendered":"Positive Disruption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"TobyMac - Promised Land (Lyric Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nJ1rZsKTrxE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Things standing shall fall, \/ but the moving ever shall stay. \u2014Basava&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Brian McLaren describes how Jesus often <\/em><strong><em>provoked disruption to move people beyond the status quo:\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[There is] a powerful story at the beginning of John\u2019s Gospel: Jesus\u2019s protest in the Temple [see John 2:13\u201322], when he drove out the merchants of sacrifice and appeasement and then made two outrageous statements. [1] First, he said that God intended the Temple to be a <strong>house of prayer for all people (no exceptions), and second, he said that the corrupted Temple would be destroyed and replaced by something new, which would be resurrected in its place\u2026.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus continues to use the imagery of disruption (John 3\u20134). First, he tells a man that in spite of all his learning, in spite of all his status, he needs to go back and start over, to be\u00a0<em>born again<\/em>\u2014perhaps the most apt image for disruption ever. Then he tells a woman that the location of worship doesn\u2019t matter at all\u2014which in their day meant that temples were irrelevant. <strong>What matters, Jesus says, is the attitude (or spirit) and authenticity (or truth) of the worshipper. Jesus was calling for a radical disruption in his religion, a great spiritual migration, and a similar disruption and migration are needed no less today in the religion that names itself after him.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A later New Testament writer repeated and expanded upon the disruption and migration Jesus was calling for (1 Peter 2:5). The way of life centered in the Temple must be disrupted because God wanted to dwell not in buildings of bricks or stones cemented together by mortar, <strong>but rather\u00a0<em>in human beings\u2014living stones<\/em>, he called them\u2014cemented together by mutual love, honor, and respect.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>McLaren invites us to trust the Spirit\u2019s call to keep moving:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This disruptive revolution, this liberation, this <strong>great spiritual migration begins with each of us presenting ourselves, with all of our doubts and imperfections, all of our failures, fears, and flaws, to the Spirit\u2026. You. Me. Everyone. No exceptions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0\u201cThe moving ever shall stay,\u201d [twelfth-century Hindu mystic and poet] Basava said. [2] Those words contradict so much of<strong> our inherited religious sensibility. \u201cStay the same. Don\u2019t move. Hold on. Survival depends on resistance to change,<\/strong>\u201d we were told again and again. <strong>\u201cFoment change. Keep moving. Evolve. Survival depends on mobility,\u201d the Spirit persistently says<\/strong>. That prompting tells us that the migration we seek is not merely from one static location to another. <strong>It is, rather, from one static location to a journey of endless growth.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to see the future of Christianity \u2026 don\u2019t look at a church building. Go look in the mirror and look at your neighbor. God\u2019s <strong>message of love is sent into the world in human envelopes. <\/strong>If you want to see a great spiritual migration begin, then let it start right in your body. Let your life be a foothold of liberation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>====================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Psalm 106: A Song of Sober Self-Assessment<\/span><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"auto\" height=\"15\" src=\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9\/images\/b66516eb-1f2d-8d90-0e02-d4223f78f6f7.png\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=eeb5b2ea86&amp;e=f52fc38132\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=0fa7b10421&amp;e=f52fc38132\" target=\"_blank\">Click Here for Audio<\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=9ea5edca25&amp;e=f52fc38132\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"auto\" height=\"35\" src=\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9\/images\/b66516eb-1f2d-8d90-0e02-d4223f78f6f7.png\"><br>Yesterday, we explored \u201cDisney Princess theology\u201d\u2014the tendency to center ourselves in the biblical story. Psalm 105, however, corrects this error by retelling the Old Testament narrative with YHWH as the story\u2019s main character and the unmistakable hero.Psalm 106 continues to recalibrate how we read the Bible by taking a sledgehammer to our consumeristic Disney Princess theology. Like Psalm 105, 106 also retells the story of Israel in the Old Testament, and like the previous psalm, it also emphasizes the story of YHWH rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt. <br>         But the focus of Psalm 106 is not God\u2019s salvation, but Israel\u2019s treachery.The chapter recounts in vivid detail the many sins, rebellions, and betrayals of God\u2019s people. Far from the heroes of the story, Psalm 106 portrays them as the villains. They are the antagonists in God\u2019s story; they are the stiff-necked people against whom he is constantly contending. No Israelite reciting Psalm 106 can finish with their Disney Princess theology unshaken.What do we learn from this sober psalm? It reminds us of the<strong> importance of self-assessment in the life of every Christian and Christian community. <\/strong>It is all too easy to mythologize our stories or the stories of the groups we belong to. We conveniently blur or erase the shameful bits, and we embellish the favorable ones. We valorize what makes us appear righteous, and we minimize what reveals our weakness. <br>            This kind of <strong>myth-making is valuable in marketing and politics, but it\u2019s a significant barrier to emotional maturity and absolute poison to our spiritual lives.Max DuPree said, \u201cThe first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.\u201d If we refuse to see and admit the truth about ourselves or our community, we cannot move forward. <\/strong>This is the function of confession in the life of the Christian. Confession simply means \u201cto say the same thing.\u201d It is the practice of speaking the truth about ourselves that God already knows. <br>            <strong>We don\u2019t confess to benefit God but ourselves. It\u2019s how we resist the temptation to mythologize, it\u2019s how we accurately define reality, and it\u2019s how we begin to grow<\/strong>.Admitting the unsavory truth about ourselves has another benefit also displayed in Psalm 106. It magnifies God\u2019s goodness and love. Reading the story of Israel\u2019s continual rebellion makes the Lord\u2019s mercy and patience even more remarkable. <br>            When we minimize our failures we also minimize God\u2019s faithfulness. This is why traditional Christian worship always includes a time for the confession of sin before administering the grace of Christ\u2019s table. It\u2019s the same reason a cinema dims the lights before the movie begins.<strong> Pausing to remember our darkness makes the light of the gospel shine that much brighter.<\/strong><br><br>DAILY SCRIPTURE<br><a href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=501e32d009&amp;e=f52fc38132\">PSALM 106:1-48<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=501e32d009&amp;e=f52fc38132\"><br><\/a>WEEKLY PRAYER.    Origen (185 &#8211; 254).   May the Lord Jesus place his hands on our eyes that we may begin to catch sight of the things that are not seen more than the things that are seen.<br>May he open our eyes that they will alight on the things to come more than on the things of this age.<br>May he unveil the vision of our heart that it may contemplate God in spirit.<br>We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ to whom belong glory and power for ever.<br>Amen.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Things standing shall fall, \/ but the moving ever shall stay. \u2014Basava&nbsp; Brian McLaren describes how Jesus often provoked disruption to move people beyond the status quo:\u00a0\u00a0 [There is] a powerful story at the beginning of John\u2019s Gospel: Jesus\u2019s protest in the Temple [see John 2:13\u201322], when he drove out the merchants of sacrifice and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24099"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24104,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24099\/revisions\/24104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}