I've spent the last week or so thinking about how Paul uses Lordship in his thinking (in preparation for teaching Tim's class on Paul yesterday; you can see what I did over on my blog). The idea of lordship is one that most of us have probably heard and that taking Jesus as Lord, means the other aspects that we often wish to succumb to have to be subordinated. But it also had a political motif, in that Caesar was often named as Lord and naming Jesus as Lord is a direct confrontation to that.
A particular quote from an N.T. Wright lecture at the Christian Aid conference.
http://www.ntwrightpage.com/ActJustly_Putting_World_Rights.mp3
"The Gospel is NOT 'You're a sinner, but Jesus has died so you can go to Heaven.' That is one of the results of the Gospel. The Gospel is, in the New Testament, 'Jesus is Lord.' or slightly more expanded, the crucified and risen Jesus is Lord. And when you name Jesus as Lord, and you take your life in your hands when you do so, you're implicitly telling all sorts of powers that are very powerful, that they are at best secondary, and at worst blasphemous idols. And they're not gonna like that, and they're going to fight back."
This is something that I have to keep in constant mind as Sheryl and I tried to make incremental steps toward more simplicity. That if we say that the consumeristic mindset is not the lord of our lives, there will be a struggle in that, and that's why the group is so appreciated, even just the idea that there are others out there struggling with the same issues and are at different places in this.
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As I was reading this, I was thinking about how hard it is not to make other things "lord" of your life. Even the quest for simplicity or helping other people can become "lord". I pray that as we encourage one another to live more simply or to be more aware of the needs of others, we will always keep our primary focus on Jesus himself.
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