Ronnie McBrayer

Welcome to the Table

"So, it's true after all: God is out to get you! Just like the sandwich-board evangelists have always said...But it’s not with the closed fist of anger and punishment. God arrives with an invitation in hand. God invites you to the party. God welcomes you to the table. At least that’s the kind of God revealed to us by Jesus. I don’t know where we got this other God who is so hateful and unkind; this God so retrograde and primitive, this God who is more cruel and sadistic than any human being who has ever existed. The only God is I know is the God revealed by Jesus of Nazareth: A God who is good! A God, not too good to be true, but a God so good, it just has to be true!" (See Luke 14)

Parties...Pride...and Peacocks

"Have you ever seen a peacock? It's a strutting parade. He's popping his feathers...all territorial...marking their boundaries. He makes noise, trying to get attention. And they might shine, but he mostly makes a mess and disturbs the neighbors. A peacock is so noisy because it can’t sing. It shows off its feathers because it has no other redeeming qualities. A peacock struts because it can’t fly. It will never fly - nor will anyone of the human species who seeks their own exaltation.
"In God’s economy the strivers, hustlers, ego-maniacs, and peacocks all end up on the bottom, while the humble will ultimately rise to the top. 'For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted,' Jesus says (Luke 14)."
"And yes, I know this is counter-intuitive to the way it is. This is a loud, strutting, peacock world, with so many flaunting around with their feathers of self-importance and entitlement. Nice guys and nice gals finish last, and those with ruthless ambition finish first. But, finishing last is the point. 'The first shall be last; the last shall be first; for those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.'"

Push The Sky Away

"If I lose hope – I have lost the very vitality of my present life and given up on the possibility of a more loving future – for myself, and all who will come after me. Without hope, I can only leave my children, my grandchildren, and their children nothing but despair. This I refuse to do. I cannot allow myself to surrender to cynicism; I refuse to accept the status quo as the best we can do; I still believe that love is the greatest force in all the universe; and I believe that there will always be people of goodwill who will follow Jesus, love their neighbor, and who quietly will not capitulate or bend the knee to the tyranny of public opinion. My heart might be broken – but maybe that is required. Brokenness allows the hope within to spill out into a world that needs all the hope it can get.”
 

Set The World On Fire

“How can we regain the ability to form Christian disciples who will actually be guided by Jesus, instead of politics or economics or the fashionable? Can we infuse those in our congregations with such courage, that they will be able stand for what is right and true and virtuous - even if it means losing what have been long-lasting relationships; even if it means losing status or favor with others? Why aren’t Christians leading the way when it comes to honesty…integrity…love…and truth?” (See Luke 12:49-55)

Yesterday

There are some puzzles that simply cannot be solved. We don’t have the ability. We don’t have the time. So, we twist and writhe, losing sleep and years in the process, trying to find answers. The better part of wisdom might be to put such puzzles down and get on with living the life we have, rather than obsessing over what we can do nothing about. In my experience, one word would capture most of the deep riddles that people struggle with: “Yesterday.” Because for every person wrestling with what is happening in their life today; for every person anxious about what might happen tomorrow, there are a dozen people stuck in what happened yesterday (See Isaiah 43:18-19).

To Uphold the World

 “The world is held together, really it is held together, by the love and the passion of just a few people.” That quote from James Baldwin captures the idea of the "Tzadikim" from Jewish mysticism. Tzadikim means, “the righteous ones." Based on Genesis 18, the Talmud elaborates: “There are no fewer than 36 righteous people in the world who daily greet the glory of God and uphold creation.” That is, a tiny group of people, because of their innate goodness; because of their humble, just, loving hearts, proves to God that humanity is worth all the trouble.
Therefore, God would never go so far as to wipe away humanity, for that would mean wiping away the righteous, and “the Judge of all the earth will do what is right.” Yes, the world is full of corruption; it’s full of every vice and evil - just as in the days of Sodom - and God surely must contemplate bringing it all to an end. But through these righteous ones and their persistent hidden holiness, the world is spared. The questions put to each of us, then, are these: "Could you be one of the righteous? Could you...would you...can you...will you - live in such a way that keeps hope alive in the world? You may be the one upholding God's creation.

The Essentialist

"My wife calls me a minimalist. But a new word has been introduced into my vocabulary: Essentialism. As I am learning, a minimalist is concerned with having less stuff; fewer possessions; buying less. I like all that for sure. 
"But an essentialist is one who seeks to untangle from the unnecessary, turning life toward the vital; the absolute crucial. It’s not so much about having less - it’s holding on to only what counts. Because we only have so much space; we only have so much time. We only have so much energy. Shouldn’t we use our limited personal resources on what is most consequential?"
 
 

The Examined Life

"People behave the way they behave because they are driven by what is within them. That’s simply how the human heart works. If it’s all garbage and rubbish on the inside of a person, then garbage and rubbish is the only possible outcome, and you need not expect anything different. The only way to amend, reform, redeem, or change a person’s actions is by the amendment, reformation, redemption, and change of a person’s heart." RM

The Idiot

Taking a slice from Revelation 7 and the writings of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ronnie speaks to how, "beauty will save the world." He says: "You can call me a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. You can call me a foolish idealist. I’m most comfortable with that. You can call me an idiot. I’ll take it as a compliment. Because I would  rather try - by God's grace try - to be hopeful and faithful, compassionate and empathetic, forgiving and loving, good and gracious - and be regarded as an idiot in this world, than to be a person who is cynical, jaded, hard-hearted, judgmental, hateful, cruel, and gleeful at the suffering of others. Jesus Christ help us all to become raving idiots who can see the wonder and dignity inherent in each and every person we meet - white, black, man, woman, gay, straight, citizen, immigrant, rich, poor, old, young - because each of these is a person made in the beautiful image of God!"

Fear And Faith

"Doubt alone won’t keep you where you are, for honest doubt is a good thing. But fear? Fear stops all forward motion. Fear disables and immobilizes. Fear strangles the courage right out of you. Fear becomes the controlling, overpowering, paralyzing emotion. It can become so crippling, that we are blinded to the possibilities of the future. Faith is the only antidote - actionable faith. Faith is not bare belief, like reciting the creed. It’s not mere intellectual understanding, the ticking off some doctrinal check list. Faith is an action-oriented willingness to trust in, and to rely upon God, that Power greater and beyond yourself." - RM