The Romans Road

I’ve been spending a lot of time reading Romans lately.  (side note, is it proper to italicize the names of books of the bible?  Or is it more like they’re articles in a collection and they should be in quotations? The things I think about when coffee isn’t working so well.)

Paul’s letter to the Romans (and that’s the official title btw) is probably the most quoted of the epistles in Christendom.  It’s a great letter that gives us a general overview of Paul’s theology and how he understands our relationship to Jesus and the Father as well as how we should relate to one another.  The real big thing about this letter though is something called theRoman Road.  Now I’m sure that most of you having been in church far longer than I are very familiar with this concept, but I only met it recently so indulge me while I walk this particular road for the first time.

how can i celebrate?

Everyone is talking about the death of Osama Bin Laden this morning.  That I am also makes me mildly sick.  I could pretty happily Gibb-smack myself right now for writing this post but here I am, and I’m going to put a finger on something that is going to make a lot of people squirm but here it is.

Osama Bin Laden was not inherently evil.

Read carefully now – A man was not born, he was not created simply for the sake of evil.  Did he do evil things? Uh, yeah.  That one’s kind of obvious.  Did he die an evil man? Yes, I’m afraid he did.  But even then, at that moment when he was probably cursing the west and struggling to breathe, do I believe that Jesus was by his side saying “I’m sorry you had to go through this.  I’m sorry you have to receive judgement.”?

Yes.

the day AFTER the ressurection

Jesus died and everyone was feeling depressed.  Everyone mourned the loss of their mentor, their teacher, and their friend and brother.  This was the man who had looked around while they sat together and said “Here is my mother and brother and sister.”  And now he was gone, brutally tortured and murdered by the people from whom he was supposed to save them and whom he had even forgiven.

Jesus rose and everyone celebrated.  Mary wept in the garden and clung to him in relief.  The Disciples were torn between astonishment and sheer joy.  They were ready for the revolution, they were ready to continue on and couldn’t wait to see what would happen after this ultimate miracle.  They had seen Jesus call the dead back to life before but this was a whole other level. Jesus called himself back to life!  I mean talk about some good PR “Miracle worker miraculously lives!”

And then Jesus drops a bombshell on them all.  “Go and make disciples of all the nations.”

wednesday trendsday: the Nails that pierced Christ

Now don’t be surprised, but THE nails that were used to crucify Jesus in 33CE were recently found and catalogued by the Naked Archeologist guy.

Now one of two things is going to happen: there will be an uproar and controversy around this much like there was when the same archeologist claimed to have found the body and tomb of Jesus or people will flock to see the nails that crucified Christ and we’ll see a resurgence of the age old relics trade. And if the second, what should happen if this turns out to be incorrect?  How many people will pour into this only to find out they were wrong and be hurt by it?

a Simple question, a Hard answer

A friend of mine who is atheist and whom I dearly love once said to me “I envy you your faith.”

That struck me as an odd thing to hear from an atheist in general but this person in particular so I asked her “What do you mean?”  (on a side note, it usually isn’t that easy for me to hide my snide sarcasm and include something like “how do you envy something you think is ridiculous, but she’s a dear friend so it was easier.)

So I asked her what she meant and she replied “When you know you don’t have it together, you can trust in God.  I wish I could do that.”

I wish I hadn’t been a moron back then because I just sat there with my mouth open thinking “I should say something.  This is a great moment.  I don’t know what to say!” I ended up just lamely deflecting the compliment and missing the moment.  If I could do it over, or if a similar situation ever comes up again, I’ve thought of what to say in that moment.