Variance #1 or "the Bible as an owner's manual"

The "Variance" series of posts is an attempt to place Jesus' words in a 2011 context. In the process I hope to identify where my life is at variance... this in response to a challenge from this one pastor I know.
This is bound to be painful.

Matthew 5:3 "He said blessed are the poor in Spirit 
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"

If you haven't read "The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard, stop reading this blog and go do that. Thank me later. Willard has a beautiful take on the famed beatitudes, and their stunning declaration of a readily available kingdom way of life that has come near to all of us in the person of Jesus. He reads the above statement of Jesus in this way:

“Blessed are the spiritual zeros—the spiritually bankrupt, deprived and deficient, the spiritual beggars, those without a wisp of ‘religion’—when the kingdom of the heavens comes upon them.”

My finely tuned American mind has trained me to read my Bible like an owner's manual. If there's a deficiency in my system the solution is only a well-constructed index away. Just let me leaf through the pages until I come to the "poor in spirit" section...aha...these three steps will provide the solution. Let's get to work.

What makes the sermon on the mount so staggering is that Jesus does not begin with a litmus test to identify who's on the invitation list to his kingdom. Like any great host he just starts inviting everyone to the party - literally everyone, an unmitigated open-door policy to the unqualified. This is so wonderful. It was wonderful when it was spoken centuries ago, it is no less wonderful today.

In the midst of times where the phenomenal chasm grows between the poor and the rich, where the qualified and unqualified struggle to "earn" their way through this upside down world, this is just astonishing news. 

I'm so preconditioned to earn that it's often difficult to embrace anything that does not come to me as the fruit of my effort. This invitation to a person, to a Savior, is something that could never be earned. Why does it feel like it will take a lifetime to understand this? 

There is work involved in becoming more like Jesus, but his yoke is easy and his burden is light. When we are all wrapped up in love his commands are not burdensome, within this context obligation is not understood. 

It is a good practice to just dwell in the folly that no resume is required to be invited to live in his kingdom. If we could embrace this as a culture I imagine things would slow down drastically. Join me today in taking the lead foot off the gas, let the speed of life wane to the point where you can see the details of the days so quickly passing us by. Abide in him...abide.