So many topics to choose from today. Judgement, good or bad and who gets to do it. One-ness, is it nonsense or just something that I don't get? Racial disparity in the church- why?
I think that today I gained the most clarity on the subject of one-ness. This is a concept where you deny that you are anything but part of the whole. I say it this way because I can't get the main purveyor of this collection of horse mcnuggets to stand with enough definition to know if he is a Jesus follower or not. Once in a while he speaks a truth that is undeniable and challenging, at other times, I don't even bother reaching for the shovel, I just plant something and hope that it finds enough nourishment to grow. I met him on theooze and he is a thorn in the side of many.
As I consider the arguement that he laid out stating that Jesus doesn't judge us, I offered 5 verses, three in red letter, that said that judgement happens whether we like it or not.
I then challenged his overworked statement that we are part of "the One" and went to the graft example. He sounds as though we become part of the root stock, but we don't. Root stock provides a stronger root and feeding system to increase fruit and flower depending, viability and multiplication of slower growing varieties. Jesus is root stock, we are grafted into as gentiles, and as jews, we are branches of the original vine, but aren't faring too well on the fruiting and flowering portion of our calls. We, the grafted part, add a certain vigor to the original. A grafted root stock will often try to grow back and sucker from below or take over from the graft, but with proper husbandry, it will be kept in check and not adversly affect those parts that are grafted in. Because of this process, you can have many different fruits, many different colors all growing on the same tree.
It seems to me that when Jesus spoke about the body of Christ it always included diversity. Vine and branch with grafts- the Body of Christ- does a hand say because I am not an ear I am not a part. We are part, but with very different tasks, very different gifts, different levels of sensativity/sensuality. I met a guy once that had such thick callouses on his hands that he didn't use hot pads when he cooked. There's also the part about being bought with a price.
Did Christ need to ransom His body? Had it been stolen away from him while he slept? If we are part of the "One" then what is the point of this whole "world" thing? Wouldn't it have just been easier to make us part of the body in the beginning? What will they think of next... Forget I asked, I don't really want to know.