Discipling By Jesus

"Productive Vulnerability" as the narrative protocol to both unmask our own self-deception and reveal the power of Christ.

This is the redemptive alternative to either withdrawal or control
(as a way to cope with the dysphoria from encountering our mutual brokenness).
Withdrawal and control can be effective in reducing short-term pain,
but fail to confront the underlying brokenness
and are thus toxic to the authenticity required for healthy long-term relationships.

See also: Faith in two syllables 

• Axiom 1.  We are all broken
• Axiom 2. Christ is the cure

Childing -> Adulting -> Christing (like Jesus)

Is working through "brokenness" (versus information or skill) our greatest challenge?

Ernie struggles with broken audio to explain the joy of sharing/healing our brokenness (aka sin) with Jesus.

Poetry reading: 8/8 Tri-Limerick: Don’t Look Down

https://2transform.us/dbj/

What happens when the law meant to unite us ends up diving us?

Is God calling us to shift from Jehu to Elisha?

# Ernie

1. Not wanting to incarnate into other peoples dysfunction
2. Do I want to heal people from their brokenness so that I can identify with them? VS
3. Am I willing to identify with people in their brokenness so that God can heal us

# Robby

1. Jesus, how do I grow closer to You in such a way that Your Spirit most deeply shapes what I want and what I pursue?
2. A common tension -- between pursuing the mission and caring for the members -- reflects the feelings among my own family that I “don’t care about them.”
3. The most important question for me is “What does Jesus want?”
   1. My focus tends to then be on how *I* can pursue what *I* imagine He wants.
   2. However this overlooks the reality that the first thing He wants from me is intimacy with me.

# Reframing Offense

"Being versus Feeling Annoyed"

1. Objective analysis (of their wrong)
2. Self-awareness (of my "blaming" thought cycles)
3. Emotional introspection (of the anger/frustration behind those cycles)
4. Humble recognition (that my issues intersect with theirs)
5. Conscious identification (that we both need the same grace)

How do we balance the tension between:

• Performance: getting the job done
• Conformance: getting along

Precisely by confronting those areas where we are unable to hold that tension,
in order to experience Christ's transformation

https://biblehub.com/luke/9-23.htm

# Decenter Civilization 

- Civilization as we know it is endemically (widely? intrinsically?) corrupt
- This corruption is manifest in individuals caught up in a systemic web of toxic incentives
- We can't go back to "innocent" societies of autonomous villages
- God wants us to seek something better

What should be our response?
- our goal
- our role
- our soul

## Systemic Corruption

1. Societies become (imperial) civilizations to provide more of a scarce public good (typically military security vs long-term threats)
2. Centralized systems are the easiest way to increase productivity for those scarce goods [also create an umbrella for "boutique" decentralized alternatives]
3. Only when systems are sophisticated enough to have an "intent" can we have aligned versus mis-aligned incentives ("corruption")
4. We have to go beyond that system to discuss whether such corruption is "evil"

## Compare: The Logos Cycle

https://twitter.com/microurbanism/status/1667589489869590530

- Logos defines an identity
- Existence as homeostasis: compressible/durable
- How local costs create global benefit

- Sin is violation of that logos
- Without logos there is no sin
- Once there is logos, sin is inevitable 
- Adding new logos to fix the old sin creates complexity that causes more sin

- To do better, we must crucify the old logos to birth a new one
- The best we can do is to get better at the cycle of crucifixion and new birth 

https://www.youtube.com/@datocracy

What is the source of large-scale, structural evil?
Is it endemic to civilization?
Can civilization be reformed, or must it be transformed?

# Decenter Civilization 

- Civilization as we know it is endemically (intrinsically?) corrupt
- This corruption is manifest in individuals caught up in a systemic web of toxic incentives
- We can't go back to "innocent" societies of autonomous villages
- God wants us to seek something better

What should be our response?
- goal
- role
- soul

Discussion of 5/21 Poem: Peaceful See

Robby's Feel/Like/Observe/Wonder:

1. F: Ambivalent
2. L: Moving from Blindness to Seeing
3. O: Focuses on sin within
4. W: Is this the ONLY way God calls us to overcome societal evil?

Ernie's response:

1. I prefer the category of "cultural" evil, which includes both personal and societal evil caused by our conditioning
2. I agree God the Father often calls us to "oppose" external evil [with lesser evils], but Christ invites us to overcome it with good. 

1 John‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬-‭21‬

Next Time: Defining "Law" and "Freedom"

How do we take responsibility without taking control?  Is there a difference between Stewardship and Headship?  Can we maintain cohesion without top-down compressive structures? 

When we connect to God 
With ALL our heart, soul, mind & strength
We will connect to our neighbor
As we connect to our self