Sweet as Honey
My Dear People,
When God gives the prophet Ezekiel the words that God would have him speak, God says to him, "Mortal, eat this scroll...".
And, as Ezekiel remembers, "Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey."
And Ezekiel's vision of God echoes the Pslamist, from centuries before, speaking of God's word, that it is "sweeter... than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb."
I was reminded of these words on Sunday, in Scott Hall, as I found myself answering a question Kate asked. We were talking about Rob Bell's book Love Wins. Kate asked, "What would you say, to someone you met on the street, about what it has been like to read this book?"
After a couple of people answered, I could hardly contain myself, and I said, with some feeling, "I would say, if I could eat this book everyday, I would!"
It has been sweet. Sweet, indeed.
And, like the bread and the wine, life-giving.
Bell would set Jesus free from the constraints with which Christians often try to bind him. Reflecting on Jesus' teaching about being the way, the truth, and the life, Bell writes, Jesus "simply claims that whatever God is doing in the world to know and redeem and love and restore the world is happening through him."
How striking. And delicious, and refreshing, all at the same time!
A passage that many Christians turn to as a justification for an exclusivist theology, Bell takes and swings wide open. This text is not about exclusion but, to the contrary, inclusion, "He is as narrow as himself and as wide as the universe."
As wide as the universe.
Now, that's sweet. Sweet, indeed.
And that's a Jesus I can believe in.
Your brother in Christ,
Wallace+
