Jesus is not the only suffering servant

In the book of Isaiah there are four "Suffering Servant songs" in which the the poet speaks of a servant of God who is called to lead but is abused and destroyed. For Christians these songs are read and then quickly assume these songs are talking about Jesus. And it is easy to see connections between the "suffering servant" and the story of Jesus. (One has to wonder how much of the story of Jesus was crafted in order to "fulfill" these songs, but that is a topic for another day.)

I am not saying that these songs are not pointing to the messiah, but that these songs are not limited to just the messiah. Put another way, there is not one suffering servant.

Many Jewish traditions hold that in fact the suffering servant is not a person but a people. The people of Israel are the suffering servant. As a people, the Israelite are to be God's leaders but are mocked and suffer and self sacrifice in order to redeem the world. There is the old story that when God made the world light was broken into pieces and shattered all over the world. The call of the Jew is to go into the world and find the light and repair it. Jews are to be the ones to model for the rest of the world how to be in right relationship with one another and with God. Jews are to be light finders.

I am speaking out of turn a bit because I am not Jewish. I am Christian and as such my tradition teaches that the suffering servant is Jesus Christ. True. However, it is also true that right now, you and I make up the body of Christ. We are God's hands and feet. We are all members of the same body of which Christ is the head. 

If we are all members of the body of Christ, and Christ is the suffering servant then my extension we are called to be the suffering servants. 

Jesus is not he only suffering servant.

So are we.

I wrote a book. Really? Yep, and it is free. Really? Yep.

Over the past several weeks I have been working to curate a brand new, first time ever, Be the Change e-book. And I am pleased to announce that it is done. 

It is not perfect. But with great help from a few of my friends I am happy with the first edition of this e-book.

Sometime ago I backed a Kickstarter project called the People's Ebook. As an early backer I was invited to the beta version of this tool. It is great and I highly recommend it. I see a lot of potential in the church for this tool when it comes out of beta. 

This e-book comes in three flavors. Each flavor has the same content, but some flavors have Easter Eggs in them (mostly videos).

The epub is the best file to read this e-book. You get all the videos and all the links and all the pictures and the bells and whistles. In order to read an epub, you need to open it in a epub reader, such as iBooks, Nook, or an online ebook reader (just google for one.)

The mobi file is only read on Kindles. I have not tried to open the mobi file in any Kindle device so I cannot tell you about the user experience. I imagine that some aspects of the ebook will be missing (namely videos) if you read this on a "non-fire" kindle. 

Finally, if you want to read just the PDF version there is that option as well. The PDF version will not show the videos. 

Doctors and Lawyers do. But Christians?

When we encounter a doctor we ask them where they practice. 

When we meet a lawyer we ask them what sort of law do they practice. 

Christianity is not thought of as a practice. Christians talk about ourselves as "people of the Book" as "believers" as "born again", but all of these names we give ourselves imply that once you become a Christian you are compete. There is an assumption that being a Christian is just another name for being a nice moral person, and morality is (in American culture) built on utilitarianism philosophy. 

However, Christianity is not something that is easily understood. It is not something that you just "get" one day. It is not something that you believe it is something that you do. And to be "good at it" we have to practice it. Which why we have a teacher - Jesus - and a "helper" - the Holy Spirit - and a model - God. We are a people who practice the ways of love. We are a people of practice, and we (in the Wesley tradition) talk about moving on toward being made perfect in love. 

The only way to reach being made perfect in love is by practicing. 

Christianity is not a religion of virtue but of grace. Christianity is not a religion of morality but of Love. Christianity is not a way of believing but a way of being. Christianity is not mastered it is practiced. 

To all my Christian sisters and brothers I ask us all, "Where is your practice?"