Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Blog Reboot, The Rejected Path

“The one who listens to you, listens to me. The one who rejects you, rejects me. And rejecting me is the same as rejecting God, who sent me.”- Jesus of Nazareth

I've had a desire to change the direction of my blog in recent weeks so I decided to start over with a fresh look and name. My old blog, The Grey Things ,was a place for general discussion on grey theological issues that have often seemed to divide Christians. If it was profitable to others or not I can't be sure. What I am sure of is that in recent months it turned into more of a place for my rantings or personal updates about my life and spiritual journey. I now have a clearer vision as to what I want my blog to be about . Thus, I felt it needed an official change of direction.
     To start: What's with the name?
The new title, 'The Rejected Path', encompasses the 3 areas I want my blog to focus on.

#1 My personal rejection of the path of this world. My rejection of the violent, nationalistic, empire-worshiping, idol making, legalistic, self-serving, "us vs them", ways of this world . This will serve as my soapbox to share what is going on personally and spiritually in my life. I hope to share my experiences on the path of being a Jesus follower. To start, check out my previous post about my conversion From Soldier to Pacifist .

#2 The rejection of Jesus Christ by the majority of the world, throughout history, and during our Post-Christendom age that we now live in.

#3 Probably the most important aspect of this 'Rejected Path': The ignorant and sometimes willful, ignoring or rejection of Jesus' ethical and moral teachings by the "Christian" church for the last 1,600-1,700 years. I'm not talking about the Jesus who came to the world to die on a cross to save lost sinners from hell (not many people have missed that one). I'm talking about the Jesus who said :

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations...teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:18 and 20)

What were these commandments ? I don't know about you but we don't often hear about the "red letters" (most modern bible translations highlight the words of Jesus in red) and what they say about how we should live. So that's what I plan to do. I want to talk about the Jesus who offered not only salvation of our souls from some kind of eternal damnation, but commanded a new way of life, a new ethic for how to live in His kingdom. Brian McLaren, captured what I'm getting at when he said:

"In Protestant denominations it's very hard to find people who take Jesus' teachings and the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus' example of nonviolence, seriously" .

So, welcome to The Rejected Path. I hope to get some more topical posts up soon. I pray that together, we can take an honest look at our lives, the teachings of Jesus, and try to grow closer to the way of life he offered 2,000 years ago that has been so often overlooked, explained away, or rejected. Whether you are Christian or not, Protestant or Catholic, Democrat or Republican, Gay or Straight, Pro-life or Pro-choice , it doesn't matter. We can all answer the call of Jesus, "Come, follow me". In following Him, we can find the place to work out our differences, to grow closer together, united by the call of the rejected Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth.     .

Peace,
matt
 

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