Into the Mess and Other Jesus Stories: Reflections on the Life of Christ
Ebook
Overview
He was a disrupter and a peacemaker, a rebel and a rabbi. His friends were the riffraff, and his enemies the religious elite. He was the wounded man who healed the sick, the homeless man who fed the hungry, the convicted criminal who released the captives, and the dead man who conquered the grave. The stories he told were scandalous, and the stories he lived changed the world. To reflect on the Jesus of the Gospels is to reflect on paradox, mystery, wonder, and messiness. It is to find God in the shadows, the tensions, and the ambiguities of life on earth as it is. These essays on the stories of Jesus are invitations to faith in all its complexity and untidiness. The Jesus who emerges here is not the sanitized Christ of piety and platitude, but the Christ of complicated joys and transcendent sorrows. The Christ who weeps, wonders, loses, learns, and seeks. These are the stories of the Incarnate God who finds and loves us in the messiness of our lives.
“In this audacious, luminous book, Debie Thomas examines gospel
stories, tales made soft as cloth for many readers, and reveals
their strangeness. Reading with ferocious attentiveness, she
explores stories that are challenging, troubling, sometimes
frightening, and always filled with invitations to a new life that
is larger and more startling than most of us have imagined.
. . . Every reader who seeks God should own this
book—dog-eared, underlined, and committed to memory.”
—Erin McGraw, author of Joy: And 52 Other Very Short
Stories
“Debie Thomas offers more hope in this one book than many volumes
filled with religious certainty. Through reflection on her own
courageous living, Thomas has learned the indispensable value of
making mistakes (can’t be avoided), suffering (ditto), honesty
about the aforementioned (can definitely be avoided), and taking
all the above into our relationship with God. Walk with Thomas
through a world you’ll recognize and find an invitation to a whole
and integrated life.”
—Marc Andrus, Episcopal Bishop of California
“A lot of religious writing is devotional but not particularly
thoughtful. Some is high on scholarship but low on personal
engagement. Debie Thomas brings head and heart together. Her
beautiful new book will help you understand Jesus better, and
yourself too. Highly recommended!”
—Brian D. McLaren, author of Do I Stay Christian?
“While most Gospel commentators offer you information, when
Debie Thomas speaks of the text, she offers you insight.
Into the Mess is just the kind of honest, grace-soaked,
beautiful, heartbreaking view of Jesus that makes me want to
believe. There are few writers about Jesus out there today I trust
more than Thomas. I’m so grateful for this book.”
—Nadia Bolz-Weber, Host, The Confessional with Nadia
Bolz-Weber
“Into the Mess and Other Jesus Stories breathes new life
into sacred texts, inviting us to experience Christ with fresh
eyes. Thomas’s words beckon our real, wondering selves to draw
close to Christ without shame or hindrance. By making space for
both the humanity of Jesus and the modern-day struggles of us, her
readers, she gives us a glimpse of the fullness of God.”
—Amy Olrick, author of The 6 Needs of Every Child
“I don’t dare begin preparing a sermon without first reading
Debie’s lectionary essay. She is an intuitive writer and
interpreter of the gospel who can transform her own pain and ours
into revelation and healing through the transcendent love of Jesus
Christ. No spiritual writer can do this better and more beautifully
than Debie Thomas!”
—Dana Corsello, Vicar, Washington National Cathedral
“Debie Thomas cracks my heart wide open. She writes as midwife to
Jesus’s invitation for vulnerable wrestling towards a beautiful and
costly way of following. It’s worth it. Her words are tender,
gorgeous, and brave, and they have replanted me in a more robust
faith—one better equipped to evolve and weather what storms may
come. I hope every seeker, from the newly curious soul to the most
seasoned preacher, will savor Into the Mess.”
—Liz Tichenor, author of The Night Lake
- Title: Into the Mess and Other Jesus Stories: Reflections on the Life of Christ
- Author: Debie Thomas
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2022
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666706246, 9781666706239, 9781666706222, 1666706248, 1666706221, 166670623X
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666706246
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-12-11T01:36:37Z
Debie Thomas is a columnist for The Christian Century and an essayist for Journey with Jesus: A Weekly Webzine for the Global Church. She serves as the Minister of Lifelong Formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palo Alto, California.