Read this from Brian McLaren today and thought of you:
The dream of God.
I frequently try to put the prayer of the kingdom (what we often call “The Lord’s Prayer”) into my own words so that I don’t just recite it on autopilot. But I often struggle with how to paraphrase the clause “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Since the language of “will” can take us down a trail of control, domination, and coercion, and since I don’t believe those ideas are in Jesus’ mind, I have looked for other words.
The Greek word that lies beneath our English word “will” can also be translated “wish.” But to say, “May your wish come true” sounds fairy tale-ish and creates other problems. But I have found the idea of “the dream of God for creation” does the job nicely. “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven” could thus be rendered, “May all your dreams for your creation come true.” This language suggests a more personal, less mechanistic relationship between God and our world. It would resonate, for example, with a mother who has great dreams for her child, or an artist who has great dreams for a novel or symphony he is creating.
The call to faith is the call to trust God and God’s dreams enough to realign our dreams with God’s, to dream our little dreams within God’s big dream. The call to receptivity is the call to continually receive God’s dreams—a process that seems to be a lifelong one. The call to baptism is the call to publicly identify with God’s dream and to disassociate with all competing isms or ideologies that claim to provide the ultimate dream (including nationalism, consumerism, hedonism, conservatism, liberalism, and so on). And the call to practice is the call to learn to live the way God dreams for us to live.
Rest of article...
Go ahead and dream big. And vicey-versey...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It occurred to me that this line "identify with God’s dream and to disassociate with all competing isms or ideologies that claim to provide the ultimate dream (including nationalism, consumerism, hedonism, conservatism, liberalism, and so on)" might lead some readers to assume that, even tho their own favorite ism may have made the cut, the and so on seems just a little to ambiguous for comfort.
Well, just so certain beloved toes don't feel a personal pinch, let me go on record right now and say that one particular ism that's near and dear to this heart, namely feminism makes the cut for me. It's an exception because...
...it is my undertanding, as a man, you see, that feminism is all about dreams of human being and relationship. Well, I heartily believe and will affirm that Better Sex is a very good dream - one of the best, in fact - and so qualifies as a God dream in my Book.
I mean, who wouldn't? Really!
Just thought I should clear that up.
Post a Comment