We Make Jesus Ugly

This is from a young lady struggling to be an authentic follower of Jesus.
I think she is in a stream of thought and practice that God would like to see become a transforming torrent.
I believe that if we begin to think act and live in the way explained in this post we will see a sweeping revival of faith in North America no less powerful or important than the earlier Great Awakenings in American history.

Solidaridad


"The point here is that it is very easy for us to confuse our own ideas of glory, with those of god.
And so Jesus pretty much says; if how we are living privileges us over others; if how we are living excludes others; if how we are participating in the world makes it so that others cannot also fully participate; then we are like the tyrants, we are not like Jesus - Because Jesus came not to be served, but to serve.
So, I am trying to be a Christian.
I want to be a Christian because even though we clearly fall short;
even though week after week we hear Jesus' good news and manage to make it bad news for so many;
even though, like the disciples, we seem to just not get it...I want to live my life, I want it to be shaped according to an ideal that is good news to the world.
On a practical level, we have to start by asking - how do we make Jesus ugly? How do people say that Christians make Jesus ugly?
It's a pretty easy question to answer: we make Jesus ugly when we exclude; we make Jesus ugly when we define Christianity in strict rigid ways that basically function to determine who's in and who's out; we make Jesus ugly when instead of treating each other as people of sacred worth, we condemn and dehumanize one another.
We know the ways we make Jesus ugly - we must instead focus on what Jesus calls us to participate in.
Jesus calls us to participate in a world, a system, a glory, that includes and welcomes those who would be excluded. A glory that loves those who would be hated; that makes first, those who would be perceived to be last.
Jesus calls us to participate in a system that works.
It loves and serves all, not just some.
If we can focus on trying to look more like Jesus, and stop trying to make Jesus look more like us - then as Christians we won't be a people that make Jesus ugly, but we will instead be people who participate with Jesus in being good news to the world. "

Read full post here
http://marydaly.blogspot.com/2006/11/we-make-jesus-ugly-reflections-i-gave_05.html