The people of God have been blessed to be a blessing.
I think that the blessing of Abraham in Genesis 12 is central to the biblical narrative, in that it sets the stage for the future work of God through his people. I think the observation that we are blessed to be a blessing is of utmost importance for a Church that too often believes their blessing just means they get special treatment from their divine benefactor to the neglect of the rest of those “outsiders”. We are called into a new adventure that at its very core centers on a relationship with the creator of the universe, that naturally translates into a life of outflow to bless others.
But we ought not lose sight of the crux of this journey… following Jesus. It is possible to be really nice people who make the world around them a little bit better, and not be walking in harmony with the divine. Those who follow Jesus become a new kind of community that interacts in a new way with God, each other, and the rest of humanity and creation. Here is another way of putting it:
I think that the blessing of Abraham in Genesis 12 is central to the biblical narrative, in that it sets the stage for the future work of God through his people. I think the observation that we are blessed to be a blessing is of utmost importance for a Church that too often believes their blessing just means they get special treatment from their divine benefactor to the neglect of the rest of those “outsiders”. We are called into a new adventure that at its very core centers on a relationship with the creator of the universe, that naturally translates into a life of outflow to bless others.
But we ought not lose sight of the crux of this journey… following Jesus. It is possible to be really nice people who make the world around them a little bit better, and not be walking in harmony with the divine. Those who follow Jesus become a new kind of community that interacts in a new way with God, each other, and the rest of humanity and creation. Here is another way of putting it:
“For us, the world has ended. We may have thought that Jesus came to make nice people even nicer, that Jesus hoped to make a democratic Caesar just a bit more democratic, to make the world a bit better place for the poor. The Sermon [on the Mount], however, collides with such accommodationist thinking. It drives us back to a completely new conception of what it means for people to live with one another. That completely new conception is the church. All that we have heard said of old is thrown up for grabs, demands to be reexamined, and pushed back to square one. Square one is that colony made up of those who are special, different, alien, and distinctive only in the sense that they are those who have heard Jesus say “Follow me,” and have come forth to be part of a new people, a colony formed by hearing his invitation and saying yes.”Community is not the end goal. It’s just what happens when a bunch of people decide to follow the same Jesus.
- Hauerwas & Willimon: Resident Aliens
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