Sacrilege.

Book Review. Halter, Hugh. Sacrilege. Finding life in the unorthodox ways of Jesus. Baker Books. 2011. Comment. Henry. I see this book as a sequel to “The Tangible Kingdom”. Using the text of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, Hugh describes what he understands to be an application of those teachings to today’s Christian living. He gives his own definition to the ‘sacrilege’ to make it fit a description of how Jesus impacted the religious community of his day. Similarly we need to be prepared to become ‘sacrilegious’ in our witness if we hope to be effective in our culture. “Sacrilege is about removing religion from our faith.” (32) “What you believe about who Jesus is will be the most important thing affecting who you become, what you do, and how much you experience the living God.” (39) The author prefers the term “apprenticeship” (49) to the term discipleship when it comes to being a follower of Jesus. It is all about becoming like Jesus. Listening and obeying are more important than learning and teaching. Incarnational communities (villages) should be the focus of church life rather than small groups. The witness of a message through a life is more effective than the preaching of a sermon. A ‘hunger for righteousness’ will not be satisfied by doing religious things, but by being involved in meeting the needs of needy people in your life and community. Communion (Eucharist) is not only for those who ‘have it all together’ but for those who are stumbling ‘learners on the journey’. Bringing peace (shalom) to the lives of needy people in our ‘world’ should be the goal of our church programs and activities. Sacred space can happen anywhere when we faithfully strive to be ‘salt and light’ in the part of the world we find ourselves in. The choice to “jump into the pool of the kingdom- will be the most exhilarating, heart-expanding, heartbreaking, life-on-the-edge choice you will ever make”. (220)