“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Luke 16:19-23
In Jesus’ parable, the rich man ends up in hell, not because he failed to believe the right things, but because he failed to love Lazarus.
From Brian Zahnd in “Water to Wine”
I have been reading a book by Pastor Brain Zahnd titled Water to Wine. The book is a beautiful look at the Gospel through the eyes of a pastor who has had a reckoning with God over the past twenty years. Because of Zahnd’s journey, he has taken a turn back to the ancient history of Christianity in order to sort out the cultural adaptations that we have made to the Gospel which has often robbed it of its simplicity and purity.
Zahnd has an artistic, even poetic look at Jesus and his ministry, and he looks to the mystery that we have lost by trying to be formulaic in our doctrine. Sometimes we don’t see things because we are too close. We have been influenced so much by cultural Christianity that we miss the beauty and wonder of simple truths. By taking mystery out of our faith, we substitute the idea of certainty as our guiding star. Mystery says that there are things we do not understand, and we simply trust Jesus with it.
What a profound yet simple concept.
Prayer: Lord, we trust you, especially when we do not understand, Amen
Reflections of a Counselor 