Filthy Theology ( 03 / 02 / 2015 )
Filthy Theology ( 03 / 02 / 2015 )
... said the man wearing a diamond-bedecked , goldinfused smock . You ' ve got to be kidding me ! What do you have to say about this mess , Shane ?
― I have a friend in the UK who talks about ' dirty theology ' — that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption , a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways . After all , the whole story begins with God reaching down from Heaven , picking up some dirt , and breathing life into it . At one point , Jesus takes some mud , spits in it , and wipes it on a blind man ' s eyes to heal him ... In fact , the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay ' out there ', but who rather moves right into the neighborhood , a neighborhood where folks said , ' Nothing good could come .' And it is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard for hanging out with all of society ' s rejects , and it is this Jesus who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for political rabble-rousers and failed Messiahs . This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and everything ugly we do to others -- for it is the final promise that Love wins . Indeed , it is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide . And this is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary ; the God who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors , both the oppressed and their oppressors ... a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty , and others from the ghettos of wealth .‖ ~ Shane Claiborne
P . S . And so that it cannot be said that I only pick on Catholics ...
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