If one is honest about what Jesus says about loving others (including one’s enemies) and about sharing one’s possessions with others, one has to admit that Jesus wasn’t very practical at all.

Indeed, he was over-the-top radical. He was far more radical than I like or even aspire toward at this stage in my spiritual journey. I don’t care to admit that I’m not anywhere close to being as loving as Jesus, nor am I detached as Jesus was from other things and obligations. I do not reflect his simplicity of life, nor his exclusive devotion to God’s restorative justice and will on earth.

Like so many of my friends, I’m more of a “moderate,” certainly not close to being as radical as Jesus. I’m a would-be disciple who struggles with the hard sayings of a radical prophet, mystic, teacher, healer, and reformer, who I call my Lord.

Is he my Lord? Sometimes I’m not sure.