Sunday, March 25, 2012

Mark Galli's book Jesus Mean and Wild grabbed my attention because of the title, unfortunately the book was less engaging than I hoped. I was still able to distill a few great truths though.

Galilee is the beginning of things. Galilee is where Jesus was first revealed to us. Galilee is where we must go to get in touch with reality again.  
To go to Galilee means to remember what it was about Jesus that first connected with you. It means to explore those things that drew you into the faith in the first place. This Jesus likely left you with more questions than answers and perplexed you as much as fulfilled you. It took years to get all those answers and resolve those perplexities and thus year to refashion him in your image. Instead, return to the alluring, mysterious, captivating Jesus who first attracted you--not in a naive way (as if you've learned nothing), but in a way that sees the simplicity of Jesus within the complexity of faith (177). 

In writing about the encountering God in our world Galli writes,
God is found in the magnificence of Half Dome and in the miracle of the embryo, in the abandoned play of children, in intimate conversation over coffee. He is found when a husband and wife make love or when two or three are gathered in his name. He is found in the hungry, in the homeless, in the prisoners. And most specifically, he is found in his Word, in his body, and in the breaking of bread and the sharing of wine in his name (181-182).



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