Marcia the Lard and Revolting Beauty

Hi Folks,

Thanks for blogging in.

First want to express my profound appreciation for my dear FRIEND Marcia (the lard) Erickson who kindly showed the entire WORLD what a slob I am. ( : My therapist says it will take time, but I may recover.

You know, if I had a camera, and if I knew how to use it, and if I knew how to put the pictures on the internet once I figured out how to use it, and if I could sneak over to Marcia’s house when she didn’t know I was coming so she wouldn’t have time to clean it up like I’m sure she always does when she knows company is coming … boy, then I’d get her back really good. For sure! Wow! Wouldn’t that be great!

But I don’t know how to do any of those very technical things. So just take my word for it. Marcia Erickson is a total pig!!! Folks, her house is so messy, the cockroaches get lost! Her house is so messy, no one could remember what color carpet she had. So someone dug down through a pile to find out, and they still couldn’t tell. You know why? Because it was so full of coffee, wine, food, vomit and cat pee stains!

One good thing did come of this, however. They found the kitten they thought they’d lost several months back. It was pretty badly decomposed. But still, closure is a good thing.

Maybe I can’t prove any of this like Ms. Fancy pants techno-wiz Marcia lard. But who cares. I’m a preacher. And people believe preachers. For sure!

Okay, I feel vindicated. Felt good. I don’t care what Jesus says. Sometimes retaliation is a good thing. Sorry Jesus.

Now onto something only slightly more important.

As some of you may know, I’ve taken another short little break from working on the massive ten (or twenty) year project called The Myth of the Blueprint in order to work on a little book on the Kingdom called Revolting Beauty: A Theology and Practical Guide For Kingdom Revolutionaries. (Well, it was supposed to be little, but it’s up to almost 300 pages, and it’s getting less little by the minute). I’ve got two more chapters to go (out of 14) and it’s due in 3 days. But Zondervan graciously gave me a one month extension — which is STILL going to be brutal to make, especially because I have about a zillion speaking engagements in October.

To make matters worse, I just accepted an invitation to participate in a conference on Politics and Religion at Yale University in two weeks. There’s a lot of theological and political celebrities showing up, but I probably would have said “no” except for the fact that I learned that my new friend David Kuo (love ya dude!) is going to be there. (He wrote a great book called Tempting Faith, which all of you have to read). He shares my view that we need to keep the Kingdom separate from politics. (He actually called on Evangelicals to “fast” from politics for two years. Love it!) So at least I won’t be the only odd ball out there telling everyone on the right AND LEFT that they’re both wrong.

Anyway, back to my book Revolting Beauty. It’s basically the prequel to Myth of a Christian Nation. In the latter book I said what the Kingdom isn’t (namely, the “right” set of political options). In this book, I’m saying what the Kingdom IS. And what it IS, I argue, is a giant Jesus. Insofar as we individually and collectively look like Jesus, we manifest the Kingdom of God. Insofar as we don’t, we don’t. It’s that simple.

The title of the book is rooted in the fact that the cross –which is the quintessential expression of the Kingdom — is both revoltingly ugly and supremely beautiful. Not only this, but the beauty of love revealed on the cross revolts against all that is ugly (viz. all that opposes the Kingdom). So, our main job as Kingdom people is to live in a way that manifests a beauty that revolts and that looks like Jesus, dying on Calvary for the people who crucified him. This, my friends, is the revolution he unleashed into the world.

Shoot! I was now going to get into an issue on racial reconciliation and politics that I’m struggling with in chapter 12, but I have to go. I spent too much time lying about Marcia. So I’ll blog about it tomorrow, or whenever.

In the meantime, why don’t I just give you a little teaser about the book by sharing with you the very tantalizing TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Here it is. See ya later!

Very Important Up-Front Stuff

1. Cosmic Hitler and the White Rose Rebellion

2. The Conquest of the Trojan Horse

3. A Tribe of Deepest Magic

4. Giant Jesus

5. Future Tribe

6. The Beautiful Mind: Revolting Consciousness

7. Invoking Your Spiritual “Say-So”: Revolting Prayer

8. Leap of Faith! Revolting Wholeness

9. The Exorcist: Revolting Freedom

10. The Triune “We”: Revolting Community

11. Unto the Least of These: Revolting Generosity

12.The One New Humanity: Revolting Reconciliation

13. A Tribe Without Class: Revolting Equality

14. Warring Against War: Revolting Peace

cool? heh?

I was going to include a chapter 15 on Revolting Dominion, but my next book-break from Myth of the Blueprint will be on The Corrupted Creation (my Satan-in-nature hypothesis) and will include a chapter on the call to exercise loving dominion over the earth and animals, and since Revolting Beauty is already getting longer than it was supposed to be, I cut it.

bye again

Greg