A little slow on the blogs this month. Also, I am still blogging around material found in Brian McLaren's book: Everything Must Change, pg. 91.
McLaren says there is a conventional view of Jesus and an "emerging" view. You have to think of this "emergence" as ongoing to get a correct perspective.
McLaren begins the book building a case for what he calls the imperial narrative. This is the story the world around you is going by because it is enforced by a government, whatever form it takes. You live with that story. That story definitely influences you.
He then goes on to elaborate about some forms of narrative you can adopt in reaction to the imperial narrative you're in:
1. The imperial or dominant narrative: you work for or are in league with the dominating power (in Jesus' day that would be Rome).
2. Counter or revolutionary narratives: you work against the dominant story.
3. The dual narrative: you work for the dominant party by day and another way in private.
4. The withdrawal narrative: you try to get away from the dominant narrative.
Finally, McLaren cites that Jesus came with number 5: an alternative narrative that was none of the above. This alternative was the kingdom of God.
He illustrates the difference between the conventional Jesus narrative and the emerging one by using a picture from his friend Steve Chalke, involving a jigsaw puzzle.
The picture is of a jigsaw puzzle you are trying to use, but someone has put the wrong lid on it. You look at the picture and try to put the pieces together so that they resemble the picture. But it is the wrong picture. Therefore, we do different things to deal with our frustration.
For one thing, we may try to still make the pieces fit our picture. This means we brush some aside and others we may alter to make them fit. And we patiently keep working even though we are greatly frustrated by how the puzzle is going. It gets more, not less, puzzling.
Others throw the whole puzzle out. It is too difficult to do, so they go seek something else to do.
Others still decide that the lid is "orthodoxy". They declare anybody who doesn't accept the lid as is are "heretics" and "apostate."
But there are those who notice the picture on the box doesn't match the pieces in the box. So they question the lid. They assume we are using the wrong lid.
Jesus, then, was a fifth narrative that was truly outside of the imperial narratives. The other four stories in some way relate to the imperial story: people react one way or the other. But the narrative that Jesus brought was a different picture altogether ~ it was a "new and living way."
What we need is a right picture (a correct narrative) by which to put our pieces together.
But suppose your eyes are bad. Then your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light inside you is darkness, then it is very dark! ~ Matt. 6: 23
McLaren says there is a conventional view of Jesus and an "emerging" view. You have to think of this "emergence" as ongoing to get a correct perspective.
McLaren begins the book building a case for what he calls the imperial narrative. This is the story the world around you is going by because it is enforced by a government, whatever form it takes. You live with that story. That story definitely influences you.
He then goes on to elaborate about some forms of narrative you can adopt in reaction to the imperial narrative you're in:
1. The imperial or dominant narrative: you work for or are in league with the dominating power (in Jesus' day that would be Rome).
2. Counter or revolutionary narratives: you work against the dominant story.
3. The dual narrative: you work for the dominant party by day and another way in private.
4. The withdrawal narrative: you try to get away from the dominant narrative.
Finally, McLaren cites that Jesus came with number 5: an alternative narrative that was none of the above. This alternative was the kingdom of God.
He illustrates the difference between the conventional Jesus narrative and the emerging one by using a picture from his friend Steve Chalke, involving a jigsaw puzzle.
The picture is of a jigsaw puzzle you are trying to use, but someone has put the wrong lid on it. You look at the picture and try to put the pieces together so that they resemble the picture. But it is the wrong picture. Therefore, we do different things to deal with our frustration.
For one thing, we may try to still make the pieces fit our picture. This means we brush some aside and others we may alter to make them fit. And we patiently keep working even though we are greatly frustrated by how the puzzle is going. It gets more, not less, puzzling.
Others throw the whole puzzle out. It is too difficult to do, so they go seek something else to do.
Others still decide that the lid is "orthodoxy". They declare anybody who doesn't accept the lid as is are "heretics" and "apostate."
But there are those who notice the picture on the box doesn't match the pieces in the box. So they question the lid. They assume we are using the wrong lid.
Jesus, then, was a fifth narrative that was truly outside of the imperial narratives. The other four stories in some way relate to the imperial story: people react one way or the other. But the narrative that Jesus brought was a different picture altogether ~ it was a "new and living way."
What we need is a right picture (a correct narrative) by which to put our pieces together.
But suppose your eyes are bad. Then your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light inside you is darkness, then it is very dark! ~ Matt. 6: 23
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