loving the hell out of people

This is a book response to a section of Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne recently posted as requested by a friend on a blog.


http://bunderwood.wordpress.com/


"Christians must discern between the voices competing for their allegiance."

One of the most profound statements (he makes many) Shane makes in this section talks about our allegiance to a nation instead of it lying in a Savior. As Shane quotes President Bush and Osama Bin Laden both talking about freedom and how to rid the world of “moral evil,” you can easily see the similarities in the two. They both believe it is their right and calling to deliver the world from the evil. As they both believe in ridding each other from the world, Claiborne talks about our duty as Christians (or what should be our duty) to ‘excommunicate’ a baptized follower of Jesus from taking part in communion because of doctrine or moral behavior that is adjudged to offend against God or the Christian community.

He talks about the gift of community and how precious God intended it to be and how this idea is not meant to bully or rid the church of them but rather bring proper and healthy discipline. When viewed with the ideas of exiled, execution, and bombings we see that this idea of excommunication is not only somewhat reasonable, but almost a great idea.

I am compelled by his statements about love and hell. This idea of “loving the hell out of people” is incredibly difficult to live out but yet it is truly life altering. Shane discusses and walks through the two different situations when Jesus talks about hell in a violent way both having to do with us creating a chasm between us and others therefore building a wall between God and us. He talks about Matthew 25 as well as the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus never uses hell fire and brimstones sermons on the mount, but rather loving our enemies, taking care of the poor, feeding the homeless, and loving the widows and orphans. Instead of scaring people into heaven we need to love them out of hell. In essence…loving the hell out of people. Since hell is something we create and live now, on this side of eternity, we have the opportunity to help others escape their hell.

May we as followers of Jesus love the hell out of people. May we believe and hope that there is more than a pledge and flag of a nation. May we rise up and become a true follower of Jesus and live a life in allegiance with what the Scripture says instead of what our government or nation says. May we represent the Jesus in the Gospels and not the one of the paintings, stories, and lies crafted by societies and cultures. May we truly find ourselves living this out every day and not just on November 4th.