While, thinking about the Gospel of Enough and the Gospel of Generosity lately… this writing from the second century always gets me:
It is the Christians, O Emperor, who have sought and found the truth, for they acknowledge God.
They do not keep for themselves the goods entrusted to them.
They do not covet what belongs to others.
They show love to their neighbors.
They do not do to another what they would not wish to have done to themselves.
They speak gently to those who oppress them, and in this way they make them friends.
It has become their passion to do good to their enemies.
They live in the awareness of their smallness.
Every one of them who has anything gives ungrudgingly to the one who has nothing.
If they see a traveling stranger, they bring him under their roof.
They rejoice over him as over a real brother, for they do not call one another brothers after the flesh, but they know they are brothers in the Spirit and in God.
If they hear that one of them is imprisoned or oppressed for the sake of Christ, they take care of his needs. If possible they set him free.
If anyone among them is poor or comes into want while they themselves have nothing to spare, they fast two or three days for him.
In this way they can supply any poor man with the food he needs.
This, O Emperor is the rule of life of the Christians, this is their manner of life.
– Asistides 137 AD
I’ve shared this in several places but it’s worth sharing here again as well.
It’s not the bite size 11 minutes like Rob Bell’s video from yesterday, but its a great extended discussion on what the gospel is — and the effect it should have on our lives.
Tim’s message goes till 44 min in and then its Q&A for the remainder.
Yesterday as our response, we asked folks to share their ideas, their thoughts on how they might conspire to do Christmas differently this year. Folks wrote their responses and/or ideas on butcher paper and we’ll have the paper left out over the next two weeks so perhaps we can find ways to add to this and/or conspire more together.
