Generally speaking, the saints are distinguished not by their goodness, but by their passionate love for God—which shines brighter than anything else about them.

Now, when we think of commandments,we mainly think of prohibitions, don’t we? We mainly think of things we aren’t supposed to do: thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not lie, etc. But many of the Bible’s commandments are, in fact, prescriptions rather than prohibitions. Things God really wanted the people of Israel to do. Of course, it’s a pretty exhaustive list, and most contemporary Jews and Christians have given up on trying to abide by all of them. There are just soooooo many, and they often feel random–even arbitrary–to modern ears.

Nowhere in Genesis does it say that humans are the greatest thing ever. Yes God looks at humans along with the creeping things and cattle and says “this is very good”, but God does not say “these humans are just the best”. We just got all creative and assumed that is what the story says.

Wonder is the beginning and the end of learning to care...to love. Yet, in our demythologized universe, wonder must be actively cultivated. It is not inherent or automatic or easy. And I think wonder can perhaps best be aroused through the intentional practice of gentleness. Through learning to touch the Earth

with kindness and care...with a desire to be re-rooted, re-connected to our source. And isn’t more gentleness what we most need in our world right now?

For unfathomable reasons, God loves each of us wildly—even unfairly—without regard to effort. And God apparently enjoys dismantling the systems we carefully set up to sort folks into the ones God should love and those best given a wide berth. God seems to want us to know that if we look at life through God’s eyes we might start to question our ideas of fairness, we might start to wonder why we get so riled up when our lines don’t work.

It take a whole community to help us desire something counter-cultural, to help us be good in a world that rewards lying, cheating, and stealing...to help us learn to truly love one another as God loves us. And I’ve always had this hope, you see,

this hope that the church could be such a revolutionary place.

Community is a word that we churchy folk love to throw around and that conjures up an image of a group of perpetually smiling, nurturing, caring, sensitive, always forgiving people. An image of a place where we are never lonely, we are accepted for exactly who we are, and where everybody knows our name. And who wouldn’t want that? It’s a great vision. The problem is reality—the reality that the church community is made up of people, actual people; people who can be irritable, irrational, challenging, selfish, difficult, unreliable—not that I am talking about you or me, of course. So what to do with this pretty big gulf between the vision and the reality, how do we replace an unrealistic vision and work with who we are and what we have to make a true community in Christ?

The most common expectation would-be followers of God possess, I think, is that if we are faithful to God we will be protected, rescued, defended, upheld, showered with blessings. The morally and Scripturally bankrupt “prosperity Gospel” preached by Joel Osteen and others is all about this idea—the idea that wealth, possessions are a sign of God’s favor, God’s reward for being a fabulous person. But from a Biblical perspective this is absolutely bonkers—I can’t recall reading about a single person who received public acclaim, wealth, power or prestige from living into his or her call. Prodding or dragging the world towards God’s dream is hard work and it does not come with a fancy sign up bonus. Fighting for justice for all people, fighting the forces of evil and hate, takes courage, it takes a realistic assessment of what you are signing up for. It takes the willingness to let go of the idea of reward—that we are owed anything for living into God’s dream.

Be not conformed, then, to a world that tells you that you are insufficient. Be conformed to a God who tells you that you are infinite....you are everything. Give everything to God so that God can give you back to yourself – the same and yet different – the luster of infinity shining just a little bit brighter. God has made you good, and acceptable, and perfect.