OK...apparently this is quite a popular game (who knew?). A friend of mine "memed" me (I still don't know what the hell that means) but mostly it seems to include my sharing 5 things I dig about Jesus and asking 5 others to do the same. We clergy types have our sense of fun, so let us have this. Anyway, I have accepted the challenge and here are MY 5 things about Jesus which I admittedly "dig":
1. He was nobody. Not now...now he's huge! Everyone knows Jesus or something about him. He's so popular his name is even a swear word! He's infinitely famous. But in the beginning, conceived by an unwed mother, born in a barn, raised in a backwater...he didn't start out famous. That a nobody touched so many lives and in some ways continues to do so shows that maybe there is no such thing as a nobody.
2. He told stories. I love stories. Sleeping Beauty is one of my faves, but all the Harry Potter stuff is great too and anything written by Gregory Maguire. But Jesus was no slouch in the story-telling department either. One of my faves is when he tells the story about a person in need who was ignored by religious authorities. But a "good" Samaritan came along (Jesus' group would have had some prejudicial assumptions about Samaritans and would have been amazed to hear of a "good" one) and showed compassion to the person in need. The punchline of the story is, "Go and do likewise." His artistic use of story drove home a point in a way that nothing else could.
3. Jesus liked action. When he told the story of the Good Samaritan, he didn't conclude it with, "Go and believe this that or the other thing." He said go and do...show kindness, compassion, fairness. That's what it means to follow Jesus. It's active. We're entitled to our beliefs and doubts and opinions, but our mandate is to "be" Christ in the world...to continue to be his hands and feet, his love in action. Gotta love that!
4. His first miracle was turning water into wine. That one doesn't even need comment, it's just super cool! (Don't worry about if it really happened; its a great story which Jesus himself would have appreciated).
5. He gave people their dignity back. By touching the untouchables and loving the unlovable and forgiving people who had made terrible mistakes...he demonstrated (there's that action again) to people that they had sacred value. No wonder he was loved so much that he became a mythic hero who now has the honor of being the topic of reflection on this blog!
What are some things you dig about Jesus?
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