Reckless Love: The Scandal of Grace in a Performance-Driven World - Softcover

Newton, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1640650253 ISBN 13: 9781640650251

Verlag: Church Publishing, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

Its momentum building, the “Jesus Movement” is unfolding, with Episcopalians longing to embody our branch of the movement in the world. John Newton’s contribution is this look at God’s reckless love. His aim is not for the head, but for the heart, to connect people with their passion and love for Jesus Christ, reawakening what may be dormant, because ultimately, it is not clever ideas but passion that mobilizes people. The Jesus Movement is not about our move toward God, but about a God who is for us in Christ Jesus, constantly moving toward fragile and broken humanity, recklessly loving us in all seasons and circumstances. Newton draws heavily from the gospels, and speaks to the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Each chapter begins with a gospel passage used to challenge the way we think about God, love, morality, grace, mission, evangelism, and the church. Three discussion questions in each chapter and the book can be used as a 10-week study, with groups discussing two chapters at a time. Chapters are intentionally short, and each unpacks a specific episode in Jesus’s life that illuminates the reckless love of God in Christ.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

John Newton is Chief of Staff in the Diocese of Texas. He holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and Virginia Theological Seminary. Newton is passionate about Christian formation and enjoys a ministry of preaching and teaching throughout the Diocese of Texas. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Reckless Love

The Scandal of Grace in a Performance-Driven World

By John Newton

Church Publishing Incorporated

Copyright © 2018 John Newton
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-64065-025-1

Contents

Introduction: Sight, 
Chapter 1: Reckless, 
Chapter 2: Forgiveness, 
Chapter 3: Beggars, 
Chapter 4: Baptism, 
Chapter 5: Saints, 
Chapter 6: Faith, 
Chapter 7: Discipleship, 
Chapter 8: Repentance, 
Chapter 9: Character, 
Chapter 10: Evangelism, 
Chapter 11: Compassion, 
Chapter 12: Joy, 
Chapter 13: Reconciliation, 
Chapter 14: Endurance, 
Chapter 15: Freedom, 
Chapter 16: Betrayal, 
Chapter 17: Waiting, 
Chapter 18: Power, 
Chapter 19: Hope, 
Chapter 20: Gift, 
Scripture Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Reckless

"Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold." And he said, "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!" (Mark 4:3–9)

The first home I ever purchased had only one flaw: a barren front yard. I did not consider this to be a problem when I purchased the home, as I figured I would plant grass. However, I quickly learned that planting grass is hard. Recklessly throwing down a few squares of grass seed won't yield a plush green yard.

Planting grass, I later learned, would require loosening the ground and then meticulously raking the ground into a thousand little furrows. I would then need to scatter seed carefully and evenly. Next comes the wheat straw to hold in the moisture before watering, which of course is its own science. If you water the yard too much then the seeds will wash away, but if you fail to use enough water the seeds will never grow.

My front yard remained barren for the three years I lived in that house. I never planted the grass, but my research yielded loads of information about horticulture. I learned that a careful farmer is cautious and strategic, diligent and methodical, calculated and selective.

I find it shocking that Jesus's most famous parable is about a farmer who lacks these qualities. The farmer in Jesus's story is reckless. He throws seed around like it is confetti on New Year's Eve. Seed falls on the path, the thorns, the rocky ground, and some in good soil. The farmer in Jesus's story is wasteful and lavish and anything but calculated. The real shock comes when we discover who this farmer represents: God.

I used to believe that the purpose of this parable was to warn the faithful about the pitfalls of wealth and distraction. I read it as Jesus's way of encouraging me to be the good soil. Christians weren't supposed to be materialistic, shallow, and hard of heart like the rest of humanity, who represent the bad soil. This, I thought, was the parable's meaning — that a Christian has a calling to be good soil unlike the rest of the world; what Christianity offers is a road map on how to become good soil. This was a well-known truth in my church growing up.

Jesus did not tell parables to confirm well-known truths, but rather to shatter well-known truths.

When Jesus told the parable of the sower, everyone in his audience assumed they knew who God favored, that is, the "good" soil. God favored the right, the respectable, the religious, and people who kept the Law. This was well-known truth to anyone who knew anything about religion in Jesus's day. Only a fool would dare question this truth.

Was Jesus Christ himself such a fool?

On multiple times Jesus went on public record to state that God looked more like a reckless farmer than a stern and calculated judge. Jesus never spoke of a careful, cautious, strategic, diligent, methodical, calculated, and selective farmer looking only for the best soil to invest in. The God Jesus revealed looks more like the farmer in this parable: reckless with love, wasteful even, and in a terrific hurry to sow love wherever — simply because the nature of God is to sow love everywhere.

This is not a parable about good soil, but about a recklessly gracious Sower. It is a parable about a God that goes about recklessly sowing love wherever, irrespective of conditions. God, it seems, could not care less about return on investment.

Our experience of Christianity pivots on our understanding of this parable. "Do you not understand this parable?" Jesus asks. "Then how will you understand all the parables?" (Mark 4:13). If we get this parable wrong, we get the gospel wrong.

This is the question the parable of the sower confronts us with: do we know the reckless love of God that is perpetually poured out upon every human life and every ounce of creation in all seasons and conditions?

Imagine how exciting and transformative churches would be if they poured love into their community like the farmer in Jesus's parable. How spiritually rich and full of joy would our lives be if we loved and blessed the people in our lives with the same reckless abandon with which God blesses and loves us?

Becoming a reckless lover of all people is much like planting grass: easier said than done. We feel pain when our love falls on rocky, arid, or weed-infested ground. We want to give up and to stop loving when that happens. It hurts when the people we love don't love us back, and our great temptation is always to layer our heart in protective armor to ensure that we don't get hurt again. We hedge our bets by loving selectively and methodically. We are calculated lovers. We scout out the good soil and invest our love there.

The God we know in Jesus Christ refuses to love selectively. Jesus Christ, hanging naked from a cross with arms wide open, pronounced forgiveness on the mocking crowds. Jesus's whole life, indeed his every act, was a living display of the parable of the sower. Jesus Christ is God's Seed recklessly sown throughout the world. There is no corner of creation where this love is absent.

God's reckless love is counterintuitive. People who exhibit true inner goodness are precisely the people who have learned that they don't need an ounce of inner goodness for God to love them. These fortunate ones know that God recklessly and perpetually sows love into the lives of thorny, rocky, and hardhearted people. They understand that only God's reckless love smooths the rocks, dulls the thorns, and softens the heart.

What might it take for you to begin living a less calculated, methodical life and to love a bit more indiscriminately and recklessly?

We extend reckless love to others only to the extent that we know and feel the reckless love that God has for each of us. We are empowered to sow seeds of love only to the extent that we know the One Seed, Jesus Christ, sowed throughout creation, buried deep beneath the earth, raised on that first Easter morning, and now bearing fruit throughout the world in preparation for a great harvest of love at the end of the age.

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think Jesus spoke in parables? Do you think Jesus told parables to shatter well-known truths?

2. Do you believe that some people are "good soil" and that others are "bad soil"? Why or why...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Church Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1640650253
• ISBN 13: 9781640650251
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 128
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchpark GmbH; gpsr@buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Deutschland