All this business about discipleship as apprenticeship to Jesus has caused me to wonder what it really means to follow Jesus in 21st century America (specifically Cincinnati). I mean he lived 2000 years back, in a vastly different world/context. So when we read the things he said and did and what he called folks to do as they followed him then I’d say we have a good bit of translation work if we are going to apply that to ourselves. That much, I suspect, is obvious to most.
It is his talk of the Kingdom of God that fascinates me. When I read the Gospels now it just leaps out at me, but when I was in high school starting to read the Bible for the first time (seriously, not just as “children’s stories” for Sunday School) I never noticed the Kingdom. So, how do I translate this Kingdom stuff to 21C Cincinnati? Well, how do WE translate Jesus’s message about the Kingdom to 21C Cincinnati? Great question…. let’s live the answer!
