A great book.... a confidence booster.

"Jesus" by Marcus Borg
I just completed a great book, so I HAVE to blog about it. The book is simply called "Jesus" with the subtitle of "Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and relevance of a Religious Revolutionary." written by the Jesus scholar, Marcus Borg.  I have read most of Borg's books so there was not a lot that was completely new to me. But the beauty of this book is that it is so thorough and draws everything together.  It renewed for me a great feel for Jesus and sense of partnership with him. It helped to feed my passion for the things he loved and lived for. 
Different paradigms...
Borg points out the differences between "an earlier Christian paradigm" and "an emerging Christian paradigm" as being the major divisions in the Christian Church. He then goes on to paint a picture of Jesus from the "emerging Christian Paradigm" point of view with its historical-metaphorical approach to the Bible. His understanding of the biblical passages makes sense and rings bells for me. He summarises his sketch of Jesus as;
" ...the pre-Easter Jesus was a Jewish mystic, healer, wisdom teacher, and prophet of the kingdom of God; he proclaimed the immediacy of access to God and the Kingdom of God; he challenged the domination system, was executed by the authorities, and then vindicated by God. Easter is the beginning of the post-Easter Jesus. In the decades after Easter his followers spoke of Jesus and his significance with the most exalted language they knew: Son of God, Messiah, Lord, Light of the World, Bread of Life, and so forth. This language is the community's testimony to him." (page 303)
Profound yet simple...
I was talking with a man who had given up on Church but still read books on faith. His comment was that while he was liberal himself, "so many of the liberal authors do not leave you with much".  I find Marcus Borg has a real sense of mystery, respect and awe for the sacred. He leaves you with a sense of awe for Jesus and the God he knew. This mystic experience and openness is an important part of Christianity for him.  I love that having worked your way through 300 odd pages of Biblical scholarship and intense exploration, in the epilogue he has three paragraphs headed by very simple truths.  "What Would Jesus Do?" - "Jesus Loves Me - This I Know" and "For God So Loved the World". He passes on a colleague's mother's summary of the faith,
"We are in good hands; therefore, let us take care of one another."
Every searching thinking person should read it.
As you can guess I enjoyed the book. It was a confidence booster for me, because over the years the position that Borg holds, through my own stumbling thoughts, reading and preaching, I had come to.  If you are honest, pastoral ministry and involvement with people can force you again and again to re-examine the faith you grew up with.  But the normal paradigm has often made me feel like a heretic. Hymns, prayers, liturgies, expectations, religious cliches, most religious books all seemed oppressive to me, bouncing from a different place. "Am I so far out of line?" I would ask myself. As I read this book I felt like it was a letter from a companion on the same journey. He is thinking what I think, except he can present it so well and back it up with extensive scholarly exploration. I would love to see people who train ministers take this book as a text for a year's exploration, discussion and debate. Even if they disagree with it, they will have covered many issues and learned heaps about Jesus' life. (The trouble with many religious training schemes is that they train ministers to be religious and to successfully fulfill a role, but do not necessarily have them grapple with Jesus, who is meant to be central to Christianity.) I would love to facilitate a course on this book with theological students and reflect on its implications for ministry in the church. I would love to facilitate a group of interested explorers and explore Borg's sketch of Jesus! But I am retired.... what do I do with this renewed passion? 
Jesus - the man I can't let go.
When I was a boy aged 9 - 10 years, my attraction to Jesus began. I devoured comics of the gospel stories and knew them by heart. The gospel readings in Church I listened to carefully, and even the sermons, perhaps only partially understood, attracted me to Jesus. He "made sense" to me. A month or two ago I met a man in the street who I knew as a teenager. We talked often at youth group camps. Our ways parted, he did academic studies, got into different philosophies and spiritualities and lived in different parts of the country. He has attended church a few times in my ministry, and had followed my career and knew my reputation. When we met in the street we talked about my impending retirement. He said to me, "I remember at a youth camp when we were teenagers seeing you reading a book about the life of Jesus. You have gone on to follow that line. You present him so well in your preaching, but more than that you have led a ministry living out his lifestyle. Well done."  I was quite moved by that comment, he is a thoughtful man of few words. I remember the cover of that book I read so long ago. I was surprised that he could recall my reading it.  Fifty years after that first book, Jesus still attracts me, drives me and motivates me, and this latest book about the life of Jesus has stoked the fire again.
Marcus Borg... well done! You did this old man good.