I have had the topic of the Church's misuse of money come up in several conversations, and often places like the Crystal Cathedral are brought up.

This is often countered by another person referencing the stories of the women/woman anointing Jesus's feet with oil (the disciples say that this could have been used to help the poor, but Jesus corrects them.)

Well first we need to look at these events in the context of Jesus life and message...

Jesus made social injustice a focus of his mission. Jesus came off his throne to enter this world physically and to be raised in a poor family.

His mother spoke of her “humble state” Luke 1:8

His parents temple offering for him was a poor person’s offering 2:24.

Jesus told his disciples to drop everything and follow him.

He had “nowhere to lay his head.” He and his disciples traveled about, engaged in loving and healing activity, while dependant on the hospitality of others.

In fact, Jesus’ first sermon emphasized “good news to the poor” Luke 4:18, his first beatitude begins, “Blessed are you who are poor” 6:20

And his first woe with, “Woe to you who are rich” 6:24.

Social justice issues center around the haves and have-nots. Those with money and resources tend to have power, and those without money and resources are left powerless. Economic inequalities lie at the root of most, if not all, social injustices. Given this reality, there is no wonder that one in seven verses in the Gospel of Luke address money or material things.



So in this context what does Jesus say but Jesus says...

Mat 26:10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 26:11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 26:12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.

or

Mar 14:7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. Mar 14:8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.

John gives the woman a name Mary ( of Mary and Martha fame).

And Luke adds a detail we may miss on the first pass. He says the woman lived a sinful life. And everyone knew it, so it was a public sin...

Tradition tells us that the woman was a prostitute.
And as such the perfume and or oil she poured out on Jesus was a tool of her trade. She is basically saying I recognize you as the liberating King, and I am repenting of my lifestyle.

And whats the reason Jesus says its better to pour it out rather than sell it?
"she did it to prepare me for burial. "

So I guess its ok to donate to the Crystal Cathedral if the money is given to prepair the building "for burial."

Bring on the wrecking ball.

Sorry this is a little sarcastic at the end. I believe the answer to this is rooted in the this commandment. I won't go in depth here but I offer an extensive explanation here:
http://being-the-body.blogspot.com/2007/08/are-we-vain.html

Basically I offer a historically and cultural accurate reading of that commandment that leaves televangelists in trouble.

I doubt it

A religious person is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it. As opposed to a person who has faith, who explores first and then considers weather or not he wants to accept the ramifications.

I think faith is strong enough to be open to explore ideas that religion doesn't permit.

My point is that just because someone holds certian ideas to be "necessary" to faith, doesn't mean God agrees with their interpertation.Who gets to decide what is foundational? After all we are only human.Our best guess is probably laughable from Gods view point.

For example a person living in the southern parts of the US 200 years ago would have believed that slavery was a foundational christian belief! I believe they would have a stronger (and better) faith for questioning that "fundamental truth."

Questioning our religious beliefs and doubting our man made doctrine is a far cry from doubting God. It is perfectably acceptible, maybe even nessasary to question the thoughts, opnions, and understandings that past generations have fromed into religious doctrine.

Thanks to another blog, For Whom Does ‘The Bell’ Toll?, I stumbled on some more info about Rob Bell’s upcoming book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile, due to be released October 2008 (pre-order now from B&N). This promises to be a great read, as both of his previous books have been but this one is especially interesting to me because he gave us a preview in the form of a sermon series on this a awhile back that was awesome.

Here is a brief description of the book that can be found on Zondervan’s website:

There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building.
Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty.
This is a book about those two numbers.
It’s a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity. It’s about empty empires and the truth that everybody’s a priest, it’s about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from.
It’s about what it means to be a part of the church of Jesus in a world where some people fly planes into buildings while others pick up groceries in Hummers.



P.S. You can listen to an audio podcast of Rob talking about the book here.

A flawed Eschatology

In an era when to say that you don't believe in the pre-tribulation rapture of the church is tantamount to abandoning orthodoxy altogether I think it's necessary to stand up for what is right... I work in a bookstore where, because of the recent events of terrorism and war in the middle east, many are coming in and asking about books about the end of times. When handed End Times Fiction most are immediately reluctant to even consider to possibility that the views they espouse are unbiblical.
Why? Because these days the Christian sup-culture is awash in "End Times Mania" But what passes for "solid" Biblical teaching is not so solid after all! The false teaching of the "pre-tribulation Rapture" followed by an "earthly millennium" is excepted as fact by many well intentioned Christians.
Scripture isn't as esoteric as some try to make it out to be. Nor is it as convoluted and spooky.
The problem is that fiction is a great thought-conveying medium. And Left Behind
has become the vehicle for indoctrinating millions of believers into an end-time theology that was
invented in the nineteenth century.
So many today make the assumption that there will be a "rapture" before a seven-year tribulation period, that Russia will attack Israel, that there will be a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, and that there will be one person called the Antichrist that will lead a one-world government. They believe that the seven churches in the first chapters of Revelation correspond to different periods in the church age rather than actual churches that were in existence at the time the book of Revelation was written. It would be rather eye-opening to many people to see that these interpretations are a modern fantasy and have very little support in the actual text of the Bible. Ultimate validation should be found through interpreting end-times passages in light of the whole of Scripture. When compared with what the Bible actually teaches, the theology that undergirds the "Left Behind" series and pre-tribulation rapture is found seriously flawed.
What is more, many in the secular world, because of the popularity of this doctrine (and it should be noted that popularity is never a measuring stick for truth), are coming to equate to whole of Christianity with this flawed "Armageddon Theology." Consequently, we are presenting a wonderful opportunity for the world to "throw the baby out with the bath water" and discount Christianity altogether, despite the fact that the Scriptures nor the majority of the Church's testimony maintain such theories.

*Warning the remaining portion of this is full of sarcasm, and probably quite mean too*

Check out this site devoted to End of times stuff...

http://www.youvebeenleftbehind.com/index.html

Whoever subscribes to this site doesn't HAVE any unbelieving friends anyway! So who are they going to put on their list? (Probably family members that they have already repelled and alienated by condemning them their whole lives)
I, of course, will be going straight to heaven, so I'll need the services of youvebeenleftbehind.com to send emails to all my friends and family who aren't QUITE as holy as I am. According to the website:
"There will be a small window of time where (your loved ones who have been Left Behind) might be reached for the Kingdom of God. We have made it possible for you to send them a letter of love and a plea to receive Christ one last time."
Ha! Ha! I can't wait to see the look on all my “unsanctified” friends' faces when they get my snarky I-told-you-so messages seven days after I've been taken up in the Rapture!But wait! There's more!
You will also be able to give them some help in living out their remaining time. In the encrypted portion of your account you can give them access to your banking, brokerage, hidden valuables, and powers of attorneys' (you won't be needing them any more, and the gift will drive home the message of love).
Nothing drives home the message of love quite like the gift of things you won't be needing anymore!But there's an even better reason to entrust your account numbers and power of attorney to youvebeenleftbehind.com's encrypted website: If you don't,the Government of the AntiChrist gets your stuff, unless you make it available in another way.

*End of sarcasim*

please check out the following links...
http://www.reformationtheology.com/2006/06/pretribpremillleft_behind.php
http://www.youtube.com/user/wevebeenleftbehind

When will they hear us?

C. S. Lewis once said: "the world [won’t] hear us until we’ve publicly disowned much of our past. Why should they? We’ve shouted the name of Christ and enacted the service of Molech."
Lev 18:21
Lev 20:2
1Ki 11:5
2Ki 23:13
Now I know what you are thinking. “Detestable God, come on how bad can it be...”
Sacrifice to Molech, at least in some cases, involved human sacrifice. A relief was found in an area historically known for worship of Molech showing a priest holding a child. Also uncovered was a sanctuary comprising a cemetery with thousands of burned bodies of animals and of human infants, dating from the 8th century BC down to the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC. Archaeologists have identified the site as a tophet (Tophet or Topheth (Hebrew - tōpheth) is believed to be a location in Jerusalem, in the Valley of Hinnom, where the Canaanites sacrificed children to the gods by burning them alive. After the practice of child sacrifice was outlawed by King Josia, the valley became a refuse site where animal carcasses, waste and trash were dumped, with fires permanently burning to keep disease at bay. Tophet became a synonym for Hell.) Most of the children's bodies appeared to be those of newborns, but some were older, up to about six years of age.
So Molech was a God who said “If you want me to love you, you will sacrifice the things you love (your children) to me.

Many terrible things have been done in the name of Christendom. And I believe Lewis exhortation that we need to repent and ask for forgiveness is spot on.
Don Miller was a student and campus ministry leader at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, a decidedly secular and highly intellectual place that Princeton Review named "the college where students are most likely to ignore God." In his book Blue Like Jazz, Miller tells of an unlikely event that introduced him to the mysteries of spiritual transformation.

"I said we should build a confession booth in the middle of campus and paint a sign on it that said "Confess your sins... We are going to confess to them. We are going to confess that, as followers of Jesus, we have not been very loving; we have been bitter, and for that we are sorry. We will apologize for the Crusades, we will apologize for televangelists, we will apologize for neglecting the poor and the lonely, we will ask them to forgive us, and we will tell them that in our selfishness, we have misrepresented Jesus on this campus. We will tell people who come into the booth that Jesus loves them."

What followed was a beautiful time of reconciliation, where the barriers to the good news were broken down. I'm sure the “Gates of hell” shook that day.

How can we apologize to the world with our lives?

P.S. For the full story of the Reed College Confessional read Donald Millers book Blue Like Jazz
P.P.S for a good excerpt read this.
http://www.injoy.com/Newsletters/catalyst/Full/default.aspx?article_id=1

Brother Bonhoeffer

No abyss of evil can hide from [Jesus] through whom the world is reconciled with God. But the abyss of God's love encompasses even the most abysmal godlessness of the world.
- Dietrich BonhoefferMeditations on the Cross

have you seen my friend?

12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other. Jhn 15:12 - 17

Friends, friendship, interesting terms aren’t they? What do they mean, really? Have we ever thought about them before we use the terms?

For some of us, “friend” means an acquaintance, someone we have met but know little about, like a MySpace friend. For others, the term “friends” takes us back to our days in high school or college where we banded and bonded with like minded comrades. The TV series by the same name was so popular, in part because I think so many people long for what the characters seemed to possess as friends. And for yet others of us, “friend” refers to a very specific person who has seen us at our best and worst and stills chooses to hang out with us anyway. Go figure.

When students were following a rabbi, the last thing they would have thought was their teacher was their “buddy”. Their relationship was quite formal. It would have been more appropriate for the followers of a rabbi to think of themselves as servants. Not in terms of being butlers and maids, but more as caregivers of their teacher. We see in the life of Jesus how his disciples were tasked with caring for the finances, providing food, acquiring transportation, and procuring a place to stay.

Can there be “love” between a servant or caregiver and their master? Of course. But certainly that love is different than the love between friends. Is a person is more likely to willingly sacrifice for their friend than a slave for a master? Certainly, no master would ever sacrifice for his servant. Jesus says the acid test of love is this; dying for the one you call a friend. Clearly Jesus did that, as the disciples watched over the subsequent hours.

But Jesus had to make sure that there was a significant change in the disciple’s mindset. I no longer call you servants… How odd that had to sound to the disciples ears. Well beyond paradigm shift, this would have been a cultural abnormality. Instead, I have called you friends… Love was the basis of their relationship, not service. The disciple’s relationship was not based on what they could do for him, but what he would do for them out of His love.

Now that is all quite fabulous. We could extract hours, even days of warm fuzzy off that truth. But it gets even better. This sacrificial love is a relationship of choice.

Now I was not a very athletic kid growing up. I know it is difficult to imagine given my current physical prowess. I’ll wait while the laughter subsides. One the childhood traumas I had to endure was being selected last or next to last when it came time for games. I wasn’t popular or talented, so there was no reason to pick me. I wasn’t the brightest or the best at anything.

Neither were the disciples. But, they loved Jesus. They wanted to be with Him. They chose to leave their families and businesses to be with Jesus. Jesus rocked their world, blew them away when he told them, “I chose you”. To be chosen as a friend, not a servant? I image the disciples sat there agape. What would that mean to someone who had never been picked for anything? What would that mean to someone who had nothing to offer anyone?

I was chosen. You were chosen. We were picked, not because we were the brightest and the best, not because of our talent or training. We were chosen because we were loved. We were selected to receive a gift we didn’t ask for or even deserve. Jesus picked me to be His friend.

I needed to hear that today. My screw-ups are many. My mistakes are obvious. My lacks are huge. But Jesus didn’t pick me because of what I could offer Him. He chose me because of what He could give to me – love, forgiveness, relationship, purpose, mission.

“Ok, friends, it time for us to play a game. It’s called discipleship. The object of the game is to tell others of My love for them. To tell them I have chosen them to be My friend. I need to pick a team that will carry this new game on to others. I choose…” Jesus picked you.

Following by Example

1Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. 1Cr 11:1 ( NIV )

Paul knew personally the key to discipleship. It is following. It is about following Christ and following those who are following Christ.

Paul had heard and seen, up close and personal this Jesus who is the Christ. From the Scriptures he had read and memorized, Paul discovered the flesh and blood revelation of God’s Savior for mankind. Paul had also experienced the relational aspect of discipleship, from his rabbi Gamaliel and his brother in the Lord, Barnabas. Both men poured their life into Paul; one in the sense of following Judaism; the other in the sense of following Messiah.

Paul understood, from what he saw of Christ’s life, what he saw in the Holy Scriptures, what he had experienced from Gamaliel and Barnabas, discipleship is about following. But following what, following who?

Everyone is following something, even leaders. The best lessons we learn are the ones we “live through”. You may forget a seminar, a book or a speech, but you’ll never forget what you’ve lived through. We follow by example. It is awkward grammatically, I admit; but it is true none the less. We choose people we admire or look up to. We find people whose lives we seek to emulate. We see people we love and desire to be like them. We start to mimic them. Dress like them (that is why we choose eyeglasses like Rob Bell).http://www.marshill.org/about/rob/
Read what they are reading. The list goes on and on. We see children do the same thing with their parents or grandparents. We follow by the example we see.

How do we choose whose example to follow? Well, Paul would be a good one. Authored more than half the New Testament, planted who knows how many churches, lead untold thousands to Christ. But notice Paul immediately points to the one he is following; Jesus. Paul is saying, “Watch me, do what I do, because I am watching and doing what Jesus is doing. We are following the same Lord.” No matter how many generations of disciples we make, we/they are all following the same Christ. What did Jesus say? “I only do what I see the Father doing. I only speak what the Father is speaking.” (Jhn 5:19 , Jhn 12:49 )

We need, all of us, to step back into the gospels and immerse ourselves in the life of Jesus. We are His followers, are we not? What did he say? What did he do? How did he live? He has so much to show us, so much to tell us. So let’s start with getting to know Jesus. Not the Sunday School Jesus; not the Institutional Christ; but the Jesus of the Scriptures. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you; open your eyes and your heart to Jesus’ life.

As you are doing that, look around you. Who do you see that looks like the Jesus of the gospels? Look for the person who has Christ being formed in them by the Holy Spirit (Gal 4:19 ). Let them be your example with skin on. We need to follow the Jesus of the scriptures. We also need to follow those who are living Jesus’ life in the world.

Some of us have said to others, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” It was difficult to say, even awkward. Some have said yes; others have left us with silence. That’s ok. Remember, it is a prepared work.

Show them your Master. Show them how to follow.

Have you checked your feet lately?

12After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? 13You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. 17Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them. John 13:12-17 ( NLT )( Jhn 13:12 )

Anybody who has ever been in a men’s locker room or raised teenage boys knows what “sticky feet” is all about. There is really no description for the aroma that assaults ones olfactory senses from the sneakers and socks of an athlete. Well I’ll go you one better.

In Jesus’ day, sandals or bare feet were the rule, not the summer time exception. Closed toe footwear or socks were unheard of. We all have sandals or Tevas, so that is no big deal. However, the sandal covered feet of Jesus’ day were walking on dirty, dusty, possibly stone paths or muddy trails. These were the same “roadways” that the animals took. Horses, donkeys, camels, goats, cattle, and sheep, to best of my knowledge, were not house broken during that time or even now for that matter. So dust and dirt of the road was the least of travelers’ problems. The Department of Public Works didn’t keep the streets too clean; that was left to a good rain storm. EEEEeewwwwweee.

It was a standard hospitality practice in Palestine to offer a visitor a basin of water to wash their feet when they came to your home. That’s a big no kidding; who would want someone walking through the house with those dirty feet; certainly not my mother. In wealthy homes, the lowliest of the servants was given the task of washing the visitor’s feet.

Jesus said, “Now that I your teacher and Lord have washed your feet, you are to do that for one another.” Do we even have a clue? Our garage-door-opener-fenced-in-back-yard-stick-to-our- computer-monitor lives can’t begin to image that kind of personal, almost intimate, contact with someone. Is Jesus asking us to be space invaders with each other? I’m pretty sure He is. How can we really disciple someone unless we are willing and able to wash their feet? Will we wade into the mud and muck of what they have walked through in their lives?

I have seen God do some powerful stuff when people have literally washed one another’s feet. As I have been blessed to see and participate in this awesome practice I have often wondered who is this more humbling for, the washer or the washee? In either case, the heart must be vulnerable, open, even exposed.

The one that extends the foot and the one who receives the foot, each must be willing to expose themselves to each other. Please notice; Jesus began by stripped down to undergarments. Jesus became vulnerable first. We must lead the same way in washing one another’s feet. We can convey safety and vulnerability by stripping away all pretense, and masks and stuff that gets in the way of us being in real relationship with one another. It will be much easier for someone to expose their filthy feet to someone who is kneeling before them in their skivvies.

I think that you and I would agree, in principle if not in practice, that it is easier to give than to receive; especially in foot washing. Is it possible for someone to wash your feet? Will you expose the mud and the dung you have walked through in your travels?

One of the things that the Catholic Church has gotten right is the confessional. We Protestants tend to run from anything Catholic just in principle without really examining what we are running from. Confession is cathartic. It is meant to be way. Yes, we confess our sins to God and He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us (1Jo 1:9 ). But, what about James 5:16 (Jam 5:16) ? “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” How many times have we not felt forgiven, not felt cleansed, after we have confessed our sins to God. Confession, to one another, is healing.

When we extend our foot to the one who washes them, we are saying, these are my sins; these are my burdens. There is an important transaction between us and God, and the foot washer and the one whose foot is being washed. It is sacramental, because grace is conveyed between us and God, between each other. Boy, do we ever need that kind of grace.

So you want to be disciple makers (Mat 28:19) ? Carry a basin and a towel. You’ll need it.

Day of Rest

Where have I witnessed God working lately?
I have been sick (influenza). Now you may be expecting a message about how God healed me, saving me the anguish of this terrible virus. But that is not what he had in mind. I say He had in mind because that is exactly what I had in mind...
Instead I went to see the doctor who prescribed me Tammiflu and put me out of work for four days. Now the Tammiflu does a fantastic job of knocking the flu down to size. I felt much better in about 24 hours, not 100% but better. However a combination of the Tammiflu and the still active influenza made me drowsy and not just a little scatterbrained. And that is really where my lesson began.
The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction." Exd 24:12
I have heard/ been taught the Idea of taking a sabbath many times. But I recently heard this and it finally stuck, that is it finally made sense to me. God told Moses to “ Come up to me on the mountain and stay here...” What a strange way for God to phrase walking directions. I mean when your on top of the mountain, your on top of the mountain right? But there is something more to it. See God knows the human mind, and so He knows that our nature is to begin planning and preparing our way back down as soon as we get to the top of the mountain. So God knows that in this process Moses won't be mentally present on top of the mountain, and he'll miss it. And God wants Moses to be fully present resting and aware of what God is doing.
So back to me and the Tammiflu...
On the second day I was mentally alert enough to feel like I should be accomplishing something. I mean I have lessons for the youth to write, I have a stack of books I need to have read, I have pod-casts to catch up on, I have disciples to catch up with, I have a blog that needs another entry, e-mails to catch up on, dishes stacking up in the sink, work schedules to write for 40+ employees, a new store manager to train... I have a lot on my plate!
But each time I tried to do something, I just couldn't stick with it. My reading was at best schizophrenic with four books and the bible going in one hour alone. I couldn't stand long enough to do any meaningful amount of dishes. The notes I tried to type for my blog were not coherent (not that they always are under normal circumstances). I couldn't concentrate long enough to dig through any significant amount of e-mails. I would loose track of what was being taught in pod-casts... Do you get the idea?
In the mist st of all this my wife was trying to take care of our sick family. She was taking the kids to different doctors appointments, dropping off prescriptions, picking up prescriptions, dispensing medicine, cleaning and disinfecting the house, doing all of the shopping & cooking... All in all she was being super Mom!
So I finally gave up and just sat down on the couch and said “God help me do SOMTHING.” And then it happened... My 18 month old daughter curled up in my lap and just held me, just stayed there with me for I don't know how long. I felt as if God was saying “stay here.” Of all of my children I think she and I have the worst relationship. I know that sounds crazy because she is only 18 months old. But my son and I wrestle and play and have had a lot of alone time in his almost seven years,. And my three year old daughter cooks with me almost daily, invites me to play dolls far to often, and always gets herself involved in what ever I'm doing. But my youngest daughter and I don't have that kind of relationship...
It dawned on me that I was missing it. I felt God slowing me down and saying, “Don't get so caught up in doing that you miss the gifts I have given you.”
So thank you God for influenza!

The Myth of the Social Gospel

The social gospel is a myth a boggy man in your closet. For 1500 years there was only one gospel. The social aspects of the gospel are part of a more holistic Christianity. If you find this concept foreign try reading the writings of the early church fathers.

After the Apostle Paul presented his understanding of the gospel to the church leaders in Jerusalem, the only thing they asked was that he continue to remember the poor (which he was already eager to do). Christians in Rome took it upon themselves to rescue newborns routinely abandoned in the city dumps, and it was Christians who finally succeeded in putting an end to the gladiatorial games.

And so it has gone on for almost 20 centuries Christians taking up the causes of the weak and oppressed. Christians led the fight to end slavery, first in Europe then in the United States. Christians led the fight for civil liberties. Christians are currently fighting slavery in India and Asia.

But in the last 500 or so years there is a growing movement among Christians (most predominately in the west) to separate the message of Jesus. They have developed a personal salvation plan, and tried to over look the rest of the message. Probably because it is easier to live a life of comfort, most likely because it politically suited their personal needs. I find this so sad because even a cursory reading of the gospels dispels this myth.

Jesus announced the start of his ministry in Luk 4:17 . Why did he say he had come?
Now I know what the greatest the greatest Bible expositors, commentators, and Theologians of modern generations say. They will tell you Jesus is speaking of the spiritually poor and spiritually blind, and those oppressed by sin. Which in and of itself is true but is only part of the message... When John the Baptist sends one of his followers to ask Jesus if he is “the one” What is Jesus reply? Luk 7:20
And look at Mat 25:31 through 46... This Jesus explaining how he will judge the world. See the same things crop up again and again, and again...
And as it that were not enough to make you wonder... Take a look at how Jesus spent his time here on earth. He was healing the physically sick, living the the physically poor, setting the those held physically captive free. Oh and the end of Jesus mission statement in Luk 4:19 "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” is a direct reference to jubilee Lev 25:10

A Step Towards “Practicing Resurrection”

Over the past 10 years, The Simple Way Community has been trying to reclaim abandoned spaces and trash-strewn lots in their neighborhood. There are two lots on the 3200 block on Potter Street that have formerly been scars on their community as they accumulate trash, dead animals, needles from heroin use, broken glass… Just all around bad stuff. The Redevelopment Authority has agreed to donate the lots for $1 each (can’t beat the price), so they are excited to begin “practicing resurrection” there. Folks in the neighborhood are excited to begin gardening with neighbors and friends, and now have a financial gift that makes it possible to pay one of the young men in the neighborhood a living wage for gardening.

Check this out...

http://www.gunstoplowshares.com/blog/

We need to do something like this in our neighborhood.