Wouldn't It Be Awesome...

Here's an excerpt from Brian McLaren's, "The Secret Message of Jesus" (www.BrianMcLaren.net). It parallels our current journey on the Art of Living.

"Jesus was master of making the music of life - not just with wood and string, tuners and frets, but with skin and bone, smile and laughter, shout and whisper, time and space, food and drink. He invited the disciples to learn to make beautiful life-music in his secret, revolutionary kingdom-of-God way. He helped each of them learn the disciplines and skill of living in the kingdom of God. They watched him play, watched him live and interact, and imitated his example until they began to have the spirit of his style, the power of his performance. Then, after his resurrection, he said, "This was your master recital - living through the agony of my rejection, humiliation, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Now you are ready to be sent out as masters yourselves - masters of my secret message, masters in living in the kingdom.

Master musicians do three things. First, they continue to practice their craft. If they don't continue to practice, they'll get rusty and nobody will be interested in their work. Second, master musicians perform. They play! They bring the joy of music to audiences everywhere. And third, they are authorized to take on students themselves.

So, Jesus called twelve student or apprentices - which is what disciples means - and demonstrated the art of living in the kingdom of God. He gave them three years of private lessons, if you will.

The whole kingdom-of-God project, then, began as a community of people learning to love and play the music of the kingdom in the tradition of the Master and his original apprentices. The story of the kingdom is the story of his band of life-musicians over the last two thousand years. From parent to child, mentor to mentoree, teacher to student, friend to friend - the art of living, performing, and teaching in the kingdom of God has been passed down through centuries and passed on across continents. Often their music has been sweet and beautiful, but - we must admit this - too often it has also been ugly, out of tune, unworthy of the Master composer and musician they claim to follow. Often, after an especially bad season of disappointing performances when the art of the kingdom is nearly lost, a new master musician will arise and reinfuse the tradition with vitality and passion - a St. Patrick, a St. Francis, a Teresa of Avila, a Hildegard of Bingen, a John Wesley, a CS Lewis, a Desmond Tutu, a Mother Theresa. Many of us feel that the Christian tradition today is in need of some new artists who have the music of the kingdom deep in their souls to revive the tradition in our world, especially in the West."

Wouldn't it be awesome if Christians became followers of Jesus?

The world needs a better version of the church.
The world needs a better us.
The world needs a better version of me.

Love to hear some thoughts from "out there".