Thursday, February 15, 2007

The preaching of righteousness

The focus of really good "righteousness" preaching ( thats to annoyall of us) , is not on the mess, but on the way out of the mess. But we have to accept we have a problem BEFORE we will find a solution to it . Therein is the resistance
When we try to do it to make oursleves feel better by preaching righteousness at others , it should remind us we do indeed , need a way out

Takes a lot of courage, arrogance or great focus to preach about need to face up to things .
Jesus's friend John did it a lot.
How about us . Should we just shut up, lestsomeone say - "you hypocrite " . Such fear stops a lot of us - should it?
Studying and filing notes on someone elses sins , by contrast , is not something we've stopped doing .
"Let he who knows no sin cast the first stone " . Storing up stones is a waste of time yet we do it .
Being preoccupied with what others do wrong is a waste of time . Strange

So what is it that we lack that we pick on others ? Jesus gets to the heart of the matter. We are worried and lost - haven't we got something better to do? we need a way out of the mire of shortpoppy syndrome training.
The best clues to understand where Jesus was coming from on this hard edged reality of every day life ---- see the way out HERE !
- his ordination::::"good tidings of great joy" ( the shepherds heard)
- the good words and the joy were, not for a select few but , " for everyone":
- Jesus was the ultimate in being proactive on this subject ; focusing on the solution,not the problem . His focus was clearly on providing an answer to a real human dilemma directly related to the subject of ideals and how we should live happily with them .wow!
- the pharisees and saducess specialized in the preaching of righteousness ,BUT Jesus called them " blind guides"
- There have been great, quiet and very liberating revolutions in the West over the restoration of the proper place of this subject by persons like Luther, Wesley and many many others .

- Jesus was aware that you couldn't solve a problem until you became aware of one .
Most people in the west, it seems, are unaware of the problem ,and therefore , do not know that His words can really help them with a dilemma that affects most of us deeply- maybe you and me this dinnertime!!!