Crumbs

First of all you've got to check out Danny Coleman's The Parable of the Mustard Seed.  This is one of my favorite reads over the past few months. Powerful.

Next in line is a simple yet profound one-liner from (surprise, surprise) one of my favorite teachers Richard Rohr who stated recently on his blog "The steps toward maturity are necessarily immature."  Words of wisdom.

Regarding the Church, I want my children to reflect an understanding that David Dark mentions in his book The Sacredness of Questioning Everything when he says, "...our children speak very naturally of going to the 'church building.'  This habit is formed by an important distinction we've felt compelled to drive home: the building isn't to be confused with the people we know, the people with whom we live and work and dine and talk.  These are people who mean to have a go at following Jesus in all they say and do, the called, the ekklesia."

Another great passage from Dark's work states, "The many want the Jesus Christ whose name is a secret password into eternal bliss.  The few will allow Jesus' gospel to actually infect the way they think about, talk about, and regard other people.  The few will grapple with Jesus' always provocative good news broadcast...Our world will become one where no human life is unsacred or uninteresting, and there are no nobodies." 

I came across a description of the Tower of Babel that compelled me to pass it on.  Essentially the author asserts that the Tower of Babel serves as a powerful metaphor for the numerous complex belief systems we have evolved about God and how to get to him…the confusion that takes place when God dismantles the project reflects the confusion we feel when our belief systems fail to take us any closer to God.  The fact that we set up a tower to “get to” God reveals a disturbing point…could the belief that we have to somehow “get to” God be the root cause of our dualistic sense of separation from Him?   Crumb source: The Alternative Gospel: The Hidden Teachings of Jesus by John Baldock.

Let's continue to, as Peter Rollins put it, inhale the aroma of words and exhale life, liberation and love.

Jesus loves you, this I know