Upside-Down Spirituality Quotes

“When Jesus “starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably,” when his work in our lives “does not seem to make sense,” then he’s really getting somewhere. He’s pounding gaping holes in the painted drywall of our own wisdom to reveal the termite-infested 2x4s on the other side. Ripping up the carpet to point out an inch-wide crack in the foundation. What we thought would take a few months to fix and fancy up will, it turns out, require a lifetime of labor. But Christ is okay with that. He was, after all, raised in the home of a carpenter. And he’ll take his sweet time. C. S. Lewis says he “intends to come and live in it Himself,” but the truth is, he’s already moved in, put his underwear and socks in the drawers, and buckled on his tool belt. He’s here for the long haul.”
― Chad Bird, Upside-Down Spirituality: The 9 Essential Failures of a Faithful Life

“The most astonishing, countercultural truth in the kingdom of Jesus is that love and acceptance have zero basis in worth or accomplishment. A billionaire in the Upper East Side in New York City is no more worthy of love and acceptance than the schizophrenic homeless man sleeping in an alley in the Bronx. Before any of us build a business or declare bankruptcy, before we earn a PhD or drop out of high school, before we establish a soup kitchen or star in a porn video, we are equally loved by the God who shows no favoritism. Our personal success does not attract his love, nor does our failure expand or contract it. The God who is love loves us indiscriminately, passionately, furiously. That love was on cosmic display when, atop a Roman tree of crucifixion, Jesus became the millionaire and the addict, the nun and the stripper, the newborn baby and the wrinkled octogenarian. All humanity—with its sores and wounds and twisted souls and barren lives and evil-infested pasts—he became, that all humanity might become, in him, resplendent in the eyes of the Father.”
― Chad Bird, Upside-Down Spirituality: The 9 Essential Failures of a Faithful Life

“To the Roman church, he said that we are “individually members one of another” (Rom. 12:5). To the Ephesian church, he repeated that “we are members one of another” (Eph. 4:25). To the Corinthian church, he said that “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” so now “you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12:13, 27). There are no solitary Christians, leading independent lives, needing only Jesus but not the church, just as there are no solitary toes or ears or eyes, leading an existence apart from the rest of the human body, needing only a personal relationship with the Creator but not the rest of the body.”
― Chad Bird, Upside-Down Spirituality: The 9 Essential Failures of a Faithful Life

“God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved” (Ps. 46:5). The heavenly Jerusalem, which will come down from God on the last day, already comes down every Lord’s day into our midst as we gather around his Word, his baptism, his meal (Rev. 21:2). In the Jerusalem of our local congregation we learn how to live in the Babylon of our local community. Our hearts are taught the love of God and neighbor, our eyes are directed to the face of our Father, our minds are set on things above, our feet are trained to walk in paths of righteousness, our hands are schooled in the sacrifice of service for those in need. In other words, we are immersed in true religion, the Spirit’s piety. The more at home we are in the Jerusalem of the church, the safer we are in the Babylon of this world. And the more productive we will be in that Babylon, because we will live as”
― Chad Bird, Upside-Down Spirituality: The 9 Essential Failures of a Faithful Life

“This witness that we give, this invitation to become co-citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem with us, is fostered within the culture of the church. Here is a key truth: the only way we are able to “participate in everything as citizens” is by ongoing participation in the life of God’s people. I don’t mean following a celebrity preacher on Twitter and Instagram. I don’t mean listening to our favorite theologian’s podcast or the local Christian radio station on our morning commute. I mean butts in the pews, eyes on the altar, ears attuned to the pulpit, mouths chewing the bread of the Supper, tongues red with Communion wine, hands clasping the hands of fellow believers, vocal cords singing hymns, knees bent in prayer. The only way we can be fully present in our modern Babylons is by simultaneously being fully present, bodily present, in a congregation we call home.”
― Chad Bird, Upside-Down Spirituality: The 9 Essential Failures of a Faithful Life