Everything belongs; God uses everything. There are no dead ends. There is no wasted energy. Everything is recycled. Sin history and salvation history are two sides of the same coin. I believe with all my heart that the Gospel is all about the mystery of forgiveness. When you "get" forgiveness, you get it. We use the phrase "falling love." I think forgiveness is almost the same thing. It's a mystery we fall into: the mystery is God. God forgives all things for being imperfect, broken, and poor. Not only Jesus but all the great people who pray that I have met in my life say the same thing. That's the conclusion they come to. The people who know God well--the mystics, the hermits, those who risk everything to find God--always meet a lover, not a dictator. God is never found to be an abusive father or a tyrannical mother, but always a lover who is more than we dared hope for. How different than the "account manager" that most people seem to worship.
God is a lover who receives and forgives everything. The Gospel says "you will know the mystery of salvation through the forgiveness of sin" (Luke 1:77). "Fore-given means being given to beforehand--before you earned it, were worthy of it, or maybe even asked for it. So forgiveness breaks down the entire world of meritocracy and the notion of deservedness. Our logic of quid pro quo is useless in the realm of the Spirit. Instead, if we are open to it, we will be led into the realm of mercy and grace--the unique world of God. __from Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr__
shalom, matt
God the Recycler
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3 comments:
i keep having to re-read paragraphs in that book. it's pretty good thus far.
and it's not like it's really deep or anything. it's almost ... so simple that you can't help but re-read it cause you can't believe that's what he's really saying. but then it really is what he's saying and it makes you go, "damn."
freaking rohr. i'll be re-reading that book for the rest of my life.
it is very simple, yet profound. more people need to hear this stuff in order for the church to be properly and completely healed and become what she alwasy was meant to be.
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