Skip to main content

john 10:10, the rough draft


biblical archaeologists have recently uncovered what appears to be some papyrus used as a rough draft written by Jesus himself as he worked on perfecting his personal mission statement.  of course scholars are debating the authenticity of this document, but it is interesting to see the progression of thought by the Lord, and how he finally reached a mission statement that he liked.  of course it is originally in aramaic, but here is my best rough translation into english:

(note:  here, as in the original manuscript, each statment is crossed off, except the last one.)

i have come that you might be eternally comfortable.  

i have come that you might forever have to eat cubes of bread washed down with shots of welch's grape juice. 

i have come that you might forever try and commandeer my name for your cause.  

i have come that you might know the right magic words to say in order to earn forgiveness.

i have come that you might feel guilty enough to sit through boring church services weekly for the rest of your life.

i have come that you might have a peaceful easy feeling. 

i have come to keep the peace.

i have come to pick a bunch of losers to start my movement. 

i have come to make it clear who is in and out, so that you'll know who to hate. 

i have come that you might the american dream. 

i have come that you might be able to ignore the angry God of the old testament.

i have come so that you'll know what to believe.

i have come that you might have life.  plentiful, abundant, overflowing life. 

Comments

Emoly said…
I sort of wish he would have gone with this one...

"i have come that you might forever have to eat cubes of *bread washed down with shots of welch's grape juice." (*you forgot "stale".)

Popular posts from this blog

i'm giving away the swamp

so this is a collage called swamp. i made it in february of last year. it is currently framed in a homemade, hand-painted frame. it is paper collage on a book binding panel. it is 7" x 10". and i am giving it away. i've been wanting to have a blog giveaway for some time, and the time has finally arrived. here's how it works. all you need to do is leave a comment on this post. by leaving a comment you are automatically entered into the contest (as long as your comment offers a way for me to get in touch with you, or you know that i know you). the contest will be open until next wednesday at noon, eastern standard time. at that time the contest will officially be closed and i will pick a random number. the person whose comment matches that number wins! for example, if i happen to pick the number 33, the thirty-third comment will win. oh, and one more rule: you can only post ONCE. if you win, i will send you the collage, signed by me, the artist, free of c...

bad haircuts (for a laugh)

everybody needs to laugh.  one good way i have found to make that happen is to do a simple google image search for 'bad haircut.'  when you do so, some of the following gems show up.  thankfully, my 9th grade school picture does NOT show up.  otherwise, it would certianly make this list!  please laugh freely and without inhibition.  thank you and have a nice day. 

affirmed

i cannot express today the feeling i have. this picture that i found sort of expresses it but not really. for the last ten years i have poured myself into this vocation, daring to believe that God, the very God of all creation, has called me, even me, to this work. along the way many have affirmed me in this journey, but i have continued to work for the ultimate affirmation, ordination as an elder in the united methodist church. and now i have it. after two grueling (and i mean grueling in every possible sense, really) days i recieved the call today that the board voted to recommend me to the annual conference for ordination as an elder. and as i have already said, i cannot even begin to express the emotion i feel with words like relief, joy and satisfaction. there will be plenty of time for me to reflect on this and i will have more to say about it as i do that reflecting, but today is really a day for celebrating for me, and for thanking those who have journeyed with me and s...