Are you a member of any groups or clubs? The orchestra, bridge club, robots? All very royal, I'm sure. I bet your club is like many others in that it has rules. Rules on who can be a member, who can be a leader. Rules that govern your actions as a participant in club activities.
Let's think back to our imaginary, High School Jesus and consider the kind of club he would start up.
First up, the activities. Well, besides miracle working, which of course would be activity numero uno.
We think Jesus would start up an eating club. He was always, "Let's eat! Anybody got some fish?" In fact, the disciples didn't recognize Jesus post-resurrection until he suggested sitting down to a meal together. Besides breaking bread together, the eating club would serve as a jumping off point for activities out in the world such as community services, walks in the woods, and perhaps even protests. We could also imagine the club being a place to tell stories and be a place for active puzzling.
Next, what would be the rules of initiation into club?
An idea was offered to have a riddle be a rite of passage, but this felt a bit arbitrary, especially for those that did not have a working knowledge of average air speed velocities of unladen swallows.
We think that everyone would be welcome, but club membership would be require you to leave your frustration at the door. This would not be a club where everyone would conform to the rules, but rather a place to expand boundaries. We wanted a place where there were not many rules, save that members would be willing to hold each other accountable to being our best selves.
Back in Biblical Jesus's day, religions leaders enforced numerous rules for their followers. Take a look at last week's gospel reading: full of rules. The cool thing about Jesus is that he didn't have much use for the rules and he always had a knack for turning them on their head. Bishop Keith visited today and had some things to say about this very topic. Check it: when everyone was saying love your neighbors and hate your enemies, Jesus said love your enemies.
Puzzle on that for a while and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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