The Passionate Jesus

Peter Wallace

Description

Sometimes what we already "know" about Jesus gets in the way of our really knowing him.

Many depictions of Jesus show him as a character who coolly and calmly floats above the grit and grime of human existence. He doesn't hurt, he doesn't fear, he doesn’t laugh and, most tragically, he doesn’t love very passionately. He seems not to feel at all. But a closer look at the Bible reveals something surprisingly different.

In this eye-opening spiritual study, Peter Wallace examines Jesus’s actions as well as his teachings to uncover a passionate figure who was involved, present, connected, honest and direct with others. Through Wallace’s deeply personal insights and compelling examples, you will be encouraged to model this passionate Jesus by building personal authenticity in every area of your own life, particularly in your self-acceptance and self-expression, your relationships with others and, above all, your relationship with God.

Acknowledgments vii
A Personal Word of Introduction ix
1 Understanding Our Emotions 1
2 Love: The Centerpiece of Life 11
3 Anger: In Defense of Justice 43
4 Fear: Energizing and Empowering a Deeper Faith 82
5 Grief: Being Present to the Process in Hope 115
6 Joy: Savoring God's Gifts 139
Conclusion: Living Authentically 159
Notes 168
Suggestions for Further Reading 172
Scripture Index 174

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• Jesús de Nazaret
• Jesus
• Fear
• Christology
• Christianity
• Grief
• Jésus-Christ
• Jésus de Nazareth

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 24 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781594734939
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for The Passionate Jesus: What We Can Learn from Jesus about Love, Fear, Grief, Joy and Living Authentically and Peter Wallace s Work
To read this book is to experience the off-kilter sense of deep familiarity juxtaposed by newness which Peter Wallace winsomely finds in the Gospel accounts-and in his real, embodied, Gospel-informed life. This is ... for twenty-first-century people looking for a whole-body, whole-spirit faithfulness between the lines and within the words of the Bible.
- Krista Tippett , host/producer, On Being , American Public Media
By exploring Jesus s emotions, Wallace helps us to understand our own. With personal stories and deep questions at the end of each chapter, we come to know a Jesus who has all the complex emotions we do. This book is a treasure for both the introspective reader in search of inner awareness and the friendly book group in search of a more lasting intimacy with one another and with God.
- Lillian Daniel , senior minister, First Congregational Church (UCC); co-author, This Odd and Wondrous Calling
Through his own courageous story, Peter Wallace shakes us from hypocrisy and pretense. He breaks us free from a proper, suitable, freshly shampooed Jesus and hits us in the solar plexus with a raw, firebrand messiah. This Jesus is a true composite of humanity; a Jesus in whom each of us sees a reflection of our broken soul; a Jesus that invites us into a fully integrated life of truth, intimacy and realness. Thank you, Peter Wallace, for inspiring us to rediscover Jesus-while rediscovering ourselves.
- Rev. Susan Sparks , senior pastor, Madison Avenue Baptist Church; author, Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor
Eloquent ... encourages us passionately to embrace the God who has so lovingly embraced us. Jesus called us to do more than to calmly think about him, consider him, or argue the merits of his way. In loving us, he called upon us to passionately love him. Peter s book helps us to do just that.
- The Rev. Will Willimon, PhD , author and professor, Duke University Divinity School
Masterful ... Wallace not only puts the claws back on the Lion, but adds a passionate-and compassionate-heart and soul along with it. From page to page, you find Jesus becoming more three-dimensional, more real and, frankly, more like someone you d throw your heart and soul into following.
- Rev. Eric Elnes, PhD , senior minister, Countryside Community Church (UCC); author, The Phoenix Affirmations
With style and grace ... takes us on a journey into a spiritual practice that is passionate, compassionate and courageous. Reminds us that a Jesus who feels deeply is our model to do the same and our truest guide to authentic life.
- Greg Garrett , author, Faithful Citizenship and The Other Jesus
Peter Wallace is a beautiful thinker and a deep, humane soul.
- Michael Chabon , Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and Telegraph Avenue

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Contents
Acknowledgments
A Personal Word of Introduction
1 Understanding Our Emotions
2 Love: The Centerpiece of Life
3 Anger: In Defense of Justice
4 Fear: Energizing and Empowering a Deeper Faith
5 Grief: Being Present to the Process in Hope
6 Joy: Savoring God s Gifts
Conclusion: Living Authentically
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading
List of Searchable Scripture References
About the Author
Copyright
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Acknowledgments
T he author wishes to express his deep gratitude to the many people in the different circles of his life who have in various and numerous ways helped form and shape this book. Among these are his colleagues at the Alliance for Christian Media/Day1, including the staff, members of the board of trustees and advisory board, and Day1 preachers; the bishops, clergy, and staff of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, especially his discernment mentors and fellow postulants, and the clergy and members of St. Bartholomew s Episcopal Church; his children, grandchildren, siblings, and other family members; and his supportive friends, most of all Dan Le. Special thanks go to Emily Wichland, Henry Lowell Carrigan, and the staff of SkyLight Paths Publishing.

A Personal Word of Introduction
I will rise and go to meet him,
and embrace him in my arms.
In the arms of my dear Jesus,
O he hath ten thousand charms.
-JOHN NEWTON HYMN, MERCY, O THOU SON OF DAVID
Life s Changing Landscape
One of my most beloved life rituals is to carve a few days out of my schedule and take off to St. Simons Island, Georgia, for a creative retreat. I started doing this about twenty years ago when friends invited me to stay with them at a cottage they owned on East Beach. Immediately I fell in love with the island.
Over the next several years, I would come during Lent to paint one of the Stations of the Cross for a church project. I enjoyed stepping out of my usual writing endeavors to pursue an entirely different area of creativity. Though I wasn t a very good painter I actually did better than I expected. I also read books, walked the beach, watched old movies, and simply relaxed. But it was the creative aspect of those island getaways that truly energized me.
After several years, however, my friends sold their cottage and I let the practice slide. Eight years ago, in the wake of a radical and painful shift in my life, I decided to rekindle my yearly affair with St. Simons Island, and eventually found a wonderful condo owned by some fellow Episcopalians a few blocks from the beach. In recent years I have come back to the island during Lent or around Easter to write, read, and relax. It is bliss. Much of this book was written there.
Each year I am surprised by the changes in the shoreline as I walk along the broad, white-sand beach. How many years have I walked along that seaside? And yet every year the shore is different. The sea breezes and tides have reformed the sand bars and the beaches. Gulls waddle in the shallows of new eddies waiting for their meals, eddies that weren t there the year before. It always throws me off a little.
Not only is the landscape different, but each year I realize I am different. I bring a different set of plans, worries, and experiences to the shore. I have lived through fresh heartaches, joys, and terrors in the months since I ve been away. Even the cells of my body have changed. I have aged; my body is different. I hope I have learned and grown in some areas, and I hope I have noticed other areas that need attention. My spirit has been wounded in new ways, and cracked open for fresh growth if I have been willing. My own landscape, internally and externally, has changed as much as the seashore.
It is this same phenomenon-this off-kilter sense of deep familiarity juxtaposed with unique newness-that I experience when I read the four gospels in the Bible. I am familiar with the words and the stories, but each time I read them I try to see them with fresh eyes. A phrase I never noticed before shines with relevant meaning. A minor gesture of Jesus s suddenly generates a sea change in perspective. A troubling question or doubt arises, demanding attention. I know this landscape, but it is different, reformed by the changes in my own understanding, my own spirit and needs.
As I was dealing with the latest crises in my life during my visit to the island two years ago, I reread the gospels once again and, through the lenses of my emotional state at the time, noticed something different in the scriptural landscape. The emotions of Jesus started shining brightly on the pages, and I realized how passionate he truly was, how fully he experienced whatever he was feeling-living it, expressing it, not apologizing for it, but simply being who he was directly, wholly, and authentically.
This shattered my own comfortable presuppositions about Jesus. So often in classic theological interpretations, movie portrayals, or other fictionalized accounts, we see a Jesus who is utterly cool, calm, and collected. He is beyond emotion. Freshly shampooed and blue-eyed, enfolded by crisp, clean robes, he floats above the grit and grime of human existence. He doesn t hurt, he doesn t fear, he doesn t laugh, and most tragically he doesn t love very passionately. In fact, nothing about him is passionate. He seems not to feel at all.
Unconsciously, I once adopted this approach to emotions as Christlike. I kept the edge off how I was feeling so as to avoid conflict or inappropriate behavior or even deep, honest love. But this kind of living is as far as one can get from being truly like Jesus.
The picture revealed in the biblical account is that Jesus was present, connected, and sometimes painfully direct with everyone with whom he came into contact. He was one who was deeply moved (John 11:33). He knew and embodied the emotions he felt and expressed them in honest, clear, and life-giving ways.
What I hope to do in this book is discover with you what we can learn from Je