730 things — Day 107 of 365

 I've been thinking about the things Jesus asked/instructed us to do —

• Go into all the world and make disciples
• Love one another as I have loved you
• Do this in remembrance of me

I've been turning over in my mind what it might mean. I think it's about how to live. 

The Great Commission (the first one on my list, about going into all the world) is surely the principle of the dandelion clock — to spread an essential self/principle/nature far and wide and put down tap roots and replicate it firmly all over the place. But what is the "it"? That's the question. I cannot think that what Jesus had in mind was to establish credal statements and institutions, followed by inquisitions to ensure converts adhered to them. That doesn't ring true for me. I think what he intended was for us to spread far and wide the way he lived, and the person he was, and the principles he showed us of how to align with the flow of grace in the world.

The next one — to love one another — illuminates and extends (or deepens or clarifies) this. It makes explicit what he had in mind. Not to indoctrinate but to love. And in case we aren't sure what love honestly is, handily love has an identical twin, which is kindness. If we copy and exhibit kindness, we will learn what love looks like.

And the third one, "Do this in remembrance of me" is about living eucharistically, which shows us the method of both spreading the Gospel and loving. I don't believe that, when Jesus said "Do this in remembrance of me", he meant "Replicate this ritual". That would be merely shallow. Surely he's talking about a way of life. 

In the eucharist, what we see is an icon of loving to the uttermost. The cup of wine is a representation of life-blood generously outpoured for the good of others. In the bread, we see the rhythm of living we are to adopt — gathering, gratitude, sharing.

The bread has in it the natural principle of propagation. The Didache includes the beautiful and quite wonderful insight: 

Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let your church be gathered together from the ends of the Earth into your kingdom.

This is a profound and foundational principle of life, gathering and dispersal — the seed that falls into the ground and dies, from which comes the harvest that feeds the multitude. In the eucharist it's told as dis-membering and re-membering; the body that is broken and then re-forms. This is the body of Jesus that is crucified and rises again, and is the body of Christ in the church that persecution merely propagates, and — this is the bit that I'm specially thinking about today — is a eucharistic way of living whereby whatever we have (the goods that gather in our lives), we are to receive with gratitude for dividing and sharing so that all are included, all are fed, all find a place around the table. 

This isn't about ecclesiastical ritual at all, it's about how to organise families and neighbourhoods and nations — it's about sociological principle and politics. It's not about how to do liturgy, it's about how to live.

And the three things sit together — doing this to re-member Jesus, loving as he loved us, and making sure it pulses out into all the world until the whole of human society is characterised by kindness and shalom. 

To my mind, that's the Gospel.

On the matter of what is leaving my life today — a notepad and a t-shirt.

It was a nice t-shirt, but too big and I had too many. The notepad — oh, dear me, I am done with paper records. I way prefer keeping any notes electronically. The contents are easier to search for, and they don't take up physical space. Notebooks have been a source of irritation in that I want what they have in them to the extent that I'd rather not throw them away, but I don't actually read or re-visit it in real terms. This notebook is the last of several. The written-on pages went on the fire and the blank pages went to write shopping lists.