JR. Forasteros - October 26, 2014
Sly Like a Fox
We often see church as a place to receive, to consume spiritual nourishment. But in a very strange parable, Jesus challenges us to move beyond consuming to contributing. He challenges us to use every resource we have at our disposal to bring about God's way here around us.
From Series: "You Had to Be There"
The way Jesus taught attracted every kind of person, from the ultra-religious to the irreligious. What was it about his teaching? We miss how provocative his parables were because we're not first century Galilean peasants. In this series, we ask what it would be like if Jesus came today. What would his stories sound like? Just how good is this good news? Trust us... you had to be there.
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Today’s about Ghost stories. Though they appear in many forms, the quintessential ghost story involves the spirit of a dead person who’s stayed around (usually a haunted house) because they have unfinished business. Maybe they have to deliver a message or ensure proper burial or get revenge. Whatever the case, once their business is complete, they leave into the afterlife.
Unlike our previous two monsters, today we’re not ghosts. Rather, to quote Peter Rollins,
We are the haunted houses. — Peter Rollins
We move through life collecting hurts, wounds and scars, evidence of pain inflicted on us by other people. Some may be slight, exaggerated in our heads – maybe someone who cuts us off or says something cruel or who causes us harm by accident. Others could be huge, life-altering. A spouse who left. An abuser. And there’s a whole range of hurts between.
Whatever their source, however legitimate or not, these people, these hurts don’t just exit our lives.
We carry them around with us, in our heads and in our souls. They haunt us, returning again and again out of the ether to drag us through the past, to relive history, to reopen old wounds.
The problem is we don’t know what these ghosts want. We don’t know how to resolve their business and get them to leave us. We can’t escape their haunting – especially if the person who hurt you is still a part of your life.
