contemplativeI can not remember doing anything this afternoon worth mentioning. I am down in the lower level right now looking at my books. I was reading a book titled, "Becoming the Gospel: Paul, Participation, and Mission" by Michael J. Gorman. I thought I quote from this book since it goes along with what I wrote last night.
"The church that tells the master story of Jesus cannot choose between living a life of cruciform love and proclaiming Jesus as Lord. The church's cruciform life is grounded in its proclamation, and its proclamation is expressed in its cruciform life. The church does not live or tell two stories, one about love and another about Jesus as Lord, but one seamless story. At the same time, it does not tell a fractured story about a loving Jesus who gave himself in incarnation and death but now rules powerfully as conquering Lord, demanding obeisance and thus "lording it over" humanity. His is the rule of cruciform love, and the church calls the whole world to enter that reign of love.
Thus the church believes that the universal lordship of Jesus is a reality that everyone should know and in which everyone should participate, and this for two reasons. First, humanity was created to worship the one God, and this one God has exalted Jesus as Lord such that our recognizing his Lordship brings the glory to God that we were created to offer in devotion and love. Second, humanity was created to live as the image of God, and Jesus Christ the Second Adam and the self-giving, Suffering Servant of God shows us concretely what that means. Humanity has fallen short of both of those dimensions of God's intention, as the early chapters of Romans makes abundantly clear and as Paul summarizes in Philippians in the words a "crooked and perverse generation" (Phil. 2:15). In anticipation of the universal proclamation of Jesus' lordship, we invite others to acknowledge and live that now, both for the glory of God and for their fulfillment-their salvation, their life-as human beings. In so doing, we embody the mission of God given to Israel (Isa. 42:6; 49:6; cf. Dan. 12:3) and of Jesus given to his disciples (Matt. 5:14-16): to be and thus to bring light in the world. Paul expects nothing less of the Philippians or of us (Phil. 2:15). That is, we are called not merely to believe that Jesus is Lord but to embody his Lordship, and to invite others to do the same . . ." pg. 133,134 "Becoming The Gospel" by Michael J. Gorman