If The Gospel Isn't Good News For

When Isaiah Predicted That Spears Would Become Pruning Hooks, That's A Reference To Cultivating. Pruning And Trimming And Growing And Paying Close Attention To The Plants And Whether They're Getting Enough Water And If Their Roots Are Deep Enough. Soil Under The Fingernails, Grapes Being Trampled Under Bare Feet, Fingers Sticky From Handling Fresh Fruit. It's That Green Stripe You Get Around The Sole Of Your Shoes When You Mow The Lawn. Life In The Age To Come. Earthy.

I Live With The Understanding That Truth Is Bigger Than Any Religion And The World Is God's And Everything In It.

If This Understanding Of The Good News Of Jesus Prevailed Among Christians, The Belief That Jesus’s Message Is About How To Get Somewhere Else, You Could Possibly End Up With A World In Which Millions Of People Were Starving, Thirsty, And Poor; The Earth Was Being Exploited And Polluted; Disease And Despair Were Everywhere; And Christians Weren’t Known For Doing Much About It. If It Got Bad Enough, You Might Even Have People Rejecting Jesus Because Of How His Followers Lived. That Would Be Tragic.

I Believe God Gives People The Right To Say No, To Resist, To Refuse, To Reject, To Cling To Their Sins, To Cling To Their Version Of Their Story.

This Breath, And This Moment, And This Life Is A Gift And We Are All In This Together. We All Have Countless Choices Every Day To Close Down Or Stand Up Straight And Open Up, And Take A Big Breath And Say Yes To The Gift.