Jonathan Martin Profile picture
Jul 18, 2018 6 tweets 2 min read Read on X
I couldn’t take notes fast enough on Otis Moss Jr. & @om3’s tag-team sermon. But I loved their reading of the demoniac in Mark 5 so much, I’ve got to at least give you movements: The man had been in shackles & chains, was “formerly incarcerated.” #CDFProctor
The “10,000 policies” of the empire are constructed to fracture identity, so that people are never able to know their own name. Thus when Jesus asks the demoniac his own name, “he can’t speak, but his issues speak for him.” @om3 #CDFProctor
A mentally ill person who has known only negative experiences with religious communities (with rabbis) can only imagine that Jesus is coming to torment him.
Since the empire is constructed in such a way to keep the poor, oppressed & mentally ill as they are, there is nothing more terrifying or destabilizing to the empire than to see people such people now “clothed & in their right mind.” Because the empire profits off their pain!!!
When the the emperor sees a man from a marginalized community “clothed & in his right mind”...he loses his mind! A man composed, in his right mind, sitting (or in Colin Kaepernick’s case...kneeling), it is the ultimate threat to an system built on slavery.
(It feels criminal to summarize a great sermon, & this doesn’t do it justice. But that whole reading was too rich not to share.)

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More from @theboyonthebike

Oct 4, 2018
We have intentionally obscured the unambiguously clear, unifying message of the New Testament, in all of its diversity—that God’s agenda is to transfigure the world through nonviolent, self-sacrificial love. That is the Jesus way. There is simply no way around this.
I mostly have tried not to put this in divisive terms. But at this point, I find it hard to take any Christian teacher/teaching that doesn’t take nonviolence seriously. How will you instruct me if you have no regard for the rightful Lord of the Church?
If you have a theology of atonement that you like, congratulations. If you have prophets who perform miracles or give words of knowledge, good for you. If the nonviolent sacrificial love of Jesus is not the central message, I am not interested.
Read 21 tweets
Jul 21, 2018
I’m not moralistic at all—perhaps problematically so. I’m fairly terrible at “living right,” among other things. Where I do hear a call to sanctification—God calls us to surrender anything that keeps us from being on mission. What hinders me from living out holy resistance?
What would it look like for you to drop the “law”—shame, unnecessary guilt, Puritanism—but attempted to submit anything to Spirit that keeps you from living out your calling to the full? Made it less about righteousness, & more about usefulness in God’s kingdom?
I don’t really believe in giving up random things to feel morally presentable somehow. What I do believe in, however much I falter, is conforming a life to a higher calling, the discipline of giving your self, to something larger than yourself. Consecration for a particular task.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 13, 2018
Prophetic movements start from the margins, gathered around disenfranchised voices. Precisely because they are on the margins, they hear some things clearly. When they get power, people listen to them...but the leaders aren’t in the same proximity to listen to the Spirit anymore.
I don’t say this with judgment. It happens to all of us. Once we become experts on hearing/speaking for God, we forget we only heard God before because we were on the outside, where God always is. So by the time we become experts, we actually don’t hear God so well.
The caution is against presumption. We get more influence, & we start to think God has favored or blessed us more...we believe we especially know the voice of God! The truth is, any “influence” should make us more suspicious of our own discernment—not less.
Read 6 tweets
Jun 18, 2018
I’ve had folks tell me they get tired of me talking like I do now. That’s more than fair, cause I’m tired of talking about the things I talk about too, & even more tired of thinking about the things I think about. Frankly, I want to crawl back under the covers & go back to sleep.
You know what I want to talk about? I’m not being sarcastic here—I really DO want to talk about a new season, or how your comeback starts now, or how God is gonna turn it around. I want to say something vaguely but universally hopeful. I love to preach things, that preach easy.
The trouble, is that none of these things are universally true. The people who we actively oppress will not be free, because we tell them to think free. The people who we actively place in cages will not be free, because we tell them they are no longer slaves. It’s NOT. TRUE.
Read 12 tweets
Jun 10, 2018
It’s a heavy time for so many. I haven’t felt like saying anything hopeful about it, cause I’ve got my own sadness, & I don’t always want to be hopeful. Sometimes I just need to feel what I feel. But if it’s helpful, brief thoughts on depression, suicide, & hell. No disclaimers.
Hell is a real place. Have you been? It’s where your stuck inside your own despair, trapped in your head, can see no way out. I’ve visited a few times, & thought I was over—wanted to be over. I’ve stood over the non-metaphorical cliff, ready to make that last call.
If you’ve been to the darkness—really—you know how strong the tide pulls you out. Anything to silence the voices, forget the flickering reel in your head, & let go into the night. You think there is a hell worse than this? What, a cosmic marshmallow roast worse than losing hope?
Read 11 tweets
May 15, 2018
Every single dangerous theological idea I can think of (as in, theology that ACTUALLY RESULTS IN KILLING PEOPLE) comes down to one massive misreading: who/how God chooses (or, who God calls/elects/predestines, whether speaking of Israel or individuals who are "saved").
First of all, Israel as a modern nation-state has no connection whatsoever to Israel as the people of God in our Old Testament. But for a moment, let's grant that it does. Why does God call Abraham/Israel? So that through him/them, "all the families of the earth shall be blessed"
The historic story of Israel as the people of God is not the story of God calling a few at the expense of the many, but of God calling a few for the salvation of the many. Anything good God ever did for Israel, ultimately was for the sake of "all the families of the earth."
Read 7 tweets

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