Tuesday, 3 February 2009

Inclusive vision in a time of exclusion

no fishing St. Matthews Gospel seems well aware that fishing nets don't discriminate. One size of net catches all, if it is to catch anything. The EU Commission has the same practical problem to deal with in drawing up its fishing quotas for our much reduced fishing fleet.

The image of the first disciples being encouraged to catch people because God's kingdom is all about including those who are usually left out and excluded is decidedly radical. Jesus offers an inclusive vision in a time of exclusion. To hold and espouse such views was to put one's life on the line in Roman Occupied Palestine. The New Testament knows no other way of living an authentic Christian life than to cast our nets of justice, love and peace for the sake of God's alternative worldview of an inclusive kingdom. 

So wherever and whenever darker forces seek to impose an exclusive way of looking at those who are different, when they seek to discriminate and reject others on grounds of race, religion, sexuality, social class, gender and so forth, it is surely time to repair our nets and get fishing. Jesus did not take no for an answer.

Posted by visual theology at 15:36

3 comments:

  1. ENCHANTED3 February 2009 at 17:43

    And here is that beneficial moment. Exactly the inclusivity I needed to fly the shattered pieces back into a cohesive vision. Thank you.

    Jesus, indeed, is the Muse for all time.

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  2. t.l.h.heller4 February 2009 at 15:51

    "...God's alternative worldview [is] of an inclusive kingdom...it is surely time to repair our nets and get fishing."

    ...here in the u.s. the election and inauguration of an african american president has been so moving, and so healing, so beautiful, so brief...but we knew it and felt it deeply: an affirmation of closure from the days of the civil war on through the civil rights movement to the election...almost 2 million people were out on the great mall from the lincoln memorial to the washington monument to the white house as witnesses to history, and there was not one arrest...it was the inclusive vision of many that brought that about...and although there is still racism and bigotry and fear of the differences among us, from homosexuals to the homeless, there is at least the brief moment to hold in our collective memory of God's kingdom realized here, when we felt the beauty and the wholeness--the holiness-- of it...and now, back to our nets! thank you dave for this very fine, very cogent view of who we are and what we're about...

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  3. Anonymous7 February 2009 at 02:23

    Using the net as a metaphor is interesting because a net is first and foremost a trap, which human use to ensnare other living beings, including humans, with the intention of controlling, exploiting, enslaving and killing the thus trapped beings.

    This reference decribes how the power and control seeking institutional church spread its deadly web over its countless victims.

    www.jesusneverexisted.com

    There are no "nets" or even separate beings (to cast nets) in the Indivisible Radiant Conscious Light that IS Reality and Truth

    www.dabase.org/dht7.htm

    www.dabase.org/tfrbkdw.htm

    www.dabase.org/broken.htm

    Plus this reference gives a unique Understanding of the politics of inclusion.

    www.ispeace723.org

    Two equals not peace.

    www.ispeace723.org/liberationfromego2.html

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