Accountable

No matter what we say or do to rationalize or explain the existence or non-existence of God, we are and will always be accountable to the fact that Jesus was a man, that he and his followers died and continue to die for his dream, that in contexts of oppression and subjugation people wrote his story, gathered in his name, and engaged in community with him as the object of their hope. We will always be accountable to the fact that by the blood of martyrs, the story of this man Jesus has been passed on to us... and in this story we see beauty, tragedy, reconciliation, and hope. Ultimately, we have a man offering himself in love as a means for the salvation of his oppressors, his torturers, his murderers. We are faced with the reality of a man and his followers who refused to kill their enemies but instead decided to love them, to die for them, to forgive them into submission.

However we may justify all the other options with which we choose to handle the problems we face, the challenges before us, and the struggle we find ourselves in, we are always accountable to the fact that this option of love is on the table... no matter how diligently we try to avoid it, we are still stuck with the reality of the transcendent victory of Jesus and his invitation that is still extended to us.