Friday in The Week of The 7th Sunday of Easter (05/29/09)

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

--John 17:14

Give the old "heave ho" to the word of God and the world just might love you! In the words of this prayer of Jesus, we grasp the truth that the word comes as a gift. No one is holding a 9 mm Baretta to our temples and forcing us to sign on the bottom line.


There's no point fudging anything here! Followers of Jesus, quite simply, do not belong to the world. The world doesn't own them. The world may influence them and seek to domesticate them to the world's ways, but not if Jesus has any say in the matter.


Jesus went so far as to say that His Kingdom was not of this world. In the words of Stanley Hauerwas, that makes us "resident aliens" here on earth. The more you ponder this, the more it begins to make sense. As we make our way to that Kingdom that is not of this world, we glady receive and follow the gift and guide that is the word of God.


PD