I’m slowly making my way through N.T. Wright’s book Simply Jesus. It’s solid (no surprise there).In it, he states there are three tell-tale signs of the coming of the kingdom: healing, celebration and forgiveness. When I read that section, I shut my book, leaned back on the couch and started thinking. He’s on to something.
After reading that, I read these reflections on forgiveness by Paul Tillich on Richard Rohr’s site, followed by this unbelievably tragic and startling story of a 72 year old man who was gunned down by a former high school classmate over a 50-year grudge – over a locker room prank.
Question: What would happen if your church was marked by healing (literal and figurative), celebration (lots of great parties) and forgiveness (the real, messy, redemptive, transformative reality, not the Hallmark-y stuff)?
Answer: Your church would experience incredible vitality. And it would be contagious to a hurting world.
Imagine if we prayed that God in his grace would extend those three things to every local Jesus community. Wow.