Into the Mess and Other Jesus Stories

He was a disrupter and a peacemaker, a rebel and a rabbi. His friends were the riffraff, and his enemies the religious elite. He was the wounded man who healed the sick, the homeless man who fed the hungry, the convicted criminal who released the captives, and the dead man who conquered the grave. The stories he told were scandalous, and the stories he lived changed the world. To reflect on the Jesus of the Gospels is to reflect on paradox, mystery, wonder, and messiness. It is to find God in the shadows, the tensions, and the ambiguities of life on earth as it is. These essays on the stories of Jesus are invitations to faith in all its complexity and untidiness. The Jesus who emerges here is not the sanitized Christ of piety and platitude, but the Christ of complicated joys and transcendent sorrows. The Christ who weeps, wonders, loses, learns, and seeks. These are the stories of the Incarnate God who finds and loves us in the messiness of our lives.

Author: Debie Thomas
Publisher: Cascade Books
Published: 05/17/2022
Pages: 220
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.72lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.50d
ISBN13: 9781666706222
ISBN10: 1666706221
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Christian Ministry | Preaching
- Religion | Christian Living | Social Issues

About the Author
Debie Thomas is a columnist for The Christian Century and an essayist for Journey with Jesus: A Weekly Webzine for the Global Church. She serves as the Minister of Lifelong Formation at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Palo Alto, California.