Monday of the Second Week of Lent – March 1, 2010

Luke 6:36 – 38

"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Those who glibly call Jesus a “good teacher” are extremely naïve or terribly misinformed. Those who put forth Jesus’ teachings as a way to get ahead in the world haven’t listened deeply to his teachings.

Try taking these words into your workplace, school, politics, or neighborhood group. You won’t get you very far in our culture’s framework. Mercy, non-judgment, forgiveness, generosity, and a refusal to condemn are not recipes for success, corporately or personally. None will help you meet your “life-goals.”

But Jesus has no interest in helping you or me succeed by the world’s standards. He is not interested in how you look at work, how you defend your image, or what it takes for you to get ahead.

He is interested in different kind of kingdom than the ones we busily build, manage, and defend. He is interested in transformation, in the way the inner landscape of our lives is shaped. He is interested in how our lives are surrendered in God’s name for the transformation of the world. Keeping your company mission statement won’t get you there. Getting the life of Jesus woven deeply into you will.

So the tools of this transformation, both personal and global, are simple and understated: mercy, non-judgment, forgiveness, generosity, and a refusal to condemn. They are not so much tools we take on willfully and utilize in life. They are qualities of God’s life that are intended for humans as well. They characterize the kingdom of God, the way God has intended that the world be ordered.

Our lives become increasingly God-like as we receive God’s infusion of mercy, non-judgment, forgiveness, generosity, and a refusal to condemn . . . and as we give it away.

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