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The kingdom which was the theme of Jesus' preaching and teaching is not a low-risk, blue-chip investment created for our consumption. It can't be calmly considered and casually digested. It can't be domesticated, nor can its leader be restrained from his continuous challenge to our way of life.

Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? . . . The gospel of
light is the crossroads of—indolence, or action.
Be ignited, or be gone.

The Deuteronomist creates a new future for the faith of Israel, however, by reimagining
or reinventing its past. The goal is not to relate history, but to elicit a response from their audience.

Without being forgiven—released from the consequences of what we have done—our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to a single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever.

Without truth, no healing; without forgiveness, no future.

A theology of joy requires the ability to see beyond the present moment. This sense of being seen by God becomes the tipping point for a theology of joy. It reminds us that we are creative agents within the long story that God is telling.

Alice Walker's novel Possessing the Secret of Joy bears this out in its dramatic conclusion. As Tashi Johnson goes to the firing squad, punishment for fighting the edicts of history, her sisters unfurl a banner before the soldiers can stop them. "Resistance is the secret of joy," it says in huge block letters. "There is a roar as if the world cracked open and I flew inside," says Tashi upon seeing the banner. "I am no more. And [am] satisfied."

True love is embodied in the constant recognition of the goodness of God which makes the lover entirely unconscious of his own merit in loving. He loves the neighbor, not himself through his neighbor. He even forgets that he is a lover, so intent is he upon the needs of the beloved. He is so conscious of the source of love and the end of love that he confesses, “I can do nothing on my own authority."

[Frederic K.] Herzog has an important interpretation of the passage in John 3:1-21 where the issue of being born again appears. Conservatives have traditionally reduced the narrative to, “Have you found Jesus?” The individual is set apart and privatized. Herzog centers on, “Have you found your neighbor?” De-privatization occurs in community. To be born again is to enter into a new relationship with oneself, one that is corporate and in solidarity with others, especially the powerless and the poor. And it is a selfhood with open borders.

As Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez notes, theology is “what you do when the sun goes down.”

I beg you, wait for God quietly, and don’t be so religious. To have nothing to show for yourself and to wait for God is better than to be polishing your piety. You shall not become godless by waiting for God. On the contrary, the truth of God’s cause will grow in your heart, and that is all that matters. A true word once in ten years is dearer to God than a daily sermon. It is your genuineness that matters. . . . A single genuine moment has much greater consequences in God’s kingdom than a thousand religious practices.