Scripture: 1 Peter 2:21
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
 
Thought for the Day: One of the problems with starting a revolutionary movement is that very often, over time, people forget what the movement was about. This happened to Che Guevara’s movement in Cuba, to the Marxist revolution in Russia, and to the Jesus movement in ancient Palestine.
 
Jesus started a spiritual and political revolution. Remarkably, he did it peacefully. He was surrounded by other Jewish revolutionary factions (watch Monty Python’s The Life of Brian for a hilarious, yet accurate, send-up of the fragmentation of Jewish rebels in Jesus’ time), many of them likely urging him to join their movement, all of them armed and violent. Yet Jesus established something new: a protest against the unfair, oppressive ways of the world by focusing on the love of God rather than the weapons of humankind. Jesus called others to follow in his footsteps by urging them to focus on their faithfulness to God. He knew and taught that faithfulness to God is life- and world changing. He knew and taught that faithfulness to God is unifying, that love never judges nor condemns.
 
Unfortunately, a couple thousand years later, Christianity has become one of the most condemning religions on the planet. I actually heard someone talk about people as “saved” and “unsaved” over the weekend, completely missing the point of anything Paul ever wrote and Jesus ever said. I think the speaker saw the “Left Behind” movie and bought into its completely wrong ideas.
 
I urge Christians to remember the idea of discipleship—we are students and followers of Jesus, who teaches us that faithfulness to God is our only goal. God changes everything, all the time. through each and every one of us. God loves everything and everyone, and couldn’t give a hoot about our religion. We are somehow designed to connect with God on an atomic level. That’s what Jesus taught, knowing that once we make that metaphysical connection, we are changed forever, and we forever change the world.
 
Prayer: God of love, course through my veins, cleansing me of hatred, fear, uncertainty and doubt. Make me Your faithful servant, in the manner and likeness of Jesus the Christ, who teaches me and guides me every day. Amen.