A Moveable Feast

My middle son Wes is a big Earnest Hemingway fan. I celebrate his appreciate for literature and art but I’m sorry to say that when I think Hemingway I think drunk guy from the Keys. Is he Jimmy Buffet’s dad? Seriously, I do know enough about history and literature to know that Hemingway is a great American treasure and one of our most gifted and inspiring writers. I recently ran across this wonderul think piece on Hemingway. The intriging article made much of his love and affection for the city of Paris.  He once described the city as a “moveable feast” saying that once you’ve experienced it, wherever you go for the rest of your life, it goes with you. It occured to me that this ought to be a picture of this life we have in Jesus. I’d like to think that wherever we go and whatever we do, followers of Jesus would be a “moveable feast” to the world around us. The idea of getting “under the skin” of people (in a good way of course) to the degree that they could not get over us sounds all too fantastic! Most days I’m embarrased by the way the church has presented the loving, transforming Jesus. Our greed, hunger for power, cynicism and indifference towards social justice creates an environment of misunderstanding, distrust, and anger towards the saints.  We so struggle with this most important calling – to reflect Jesus in our lives. And yet, when we’re open to the spirit, living humbly and simply, and not having to be “right” all the time, we do seem to inspire and incite curiosity don’t we? We become that “moveable feast” that cynics, seekers, and agnostics just can’t seem to shake.

~ by bobswan on September 17, 2007.