Thought for today - 11/07/2011

 

"If the people of God were to transform the world through fascination, these amazing teachings [in Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount,] had to work at the center of these peculiar people. Then we can look into the eyes of a centurion and see not a beast but a child of God, and then walk with that child a couple of miles. Look into the eyes of tax collectors as they sue you in court; see their poverty and give them your coat. Look into the eyes of the ones who are hardest for you to like, and see the One you love. God loves good and bad people. Even God doesn't grasp for the knowledge of good and evil but sends rain to water the fields of both the just and the unjust. That's why enemy love is the only thing that Jesus says makes a person like God -- perfect."
- Shane Claiborne, in From Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals