Gen-X Missional Wesleyan

time to move on (the blog)

2008-01-01T00:16:00.000-06:00

Alrighty, I've given plenty of fair warning. I've moved this blog to http://guywilliams.wordpress.com and blog there now. There are links for subscribing if that's how you've read me (via email or in a blog reader like Google Reader or Bloglines). Otherwise, I plan to take this blog down pretty soon. I look forward to seeing you on the new site if you haven't made your way over yet.

peace...

blog moved...

2007-12-14T13:25:00.000-06:00

This blog has moved to: http://guywilliams.wordpress.com

I'll leave this site up until the end of the year, then I'll retire it, so hear ye, hear ye...change your settings/links/whatever now.

officially moving the blog

2007-10-25T11:31:00.000-05:00

Howdy all (both) of you... I'm officially moving the blog over to WordPress. Thanks for reading it here at Blogger. I look forward to the next chapter over at WordPress. I hope you'll join me there and enjoy it too.

Click here for the new site: Gen-X Missional Wesleyan

gmw college football poll - week 9

2007-10-25T11:27:00.000-05:00

Tonight is a big showdown in the ACC between #3 Boston College and #8 Virginia Tech. It’s a chance for Va Tech to get right back into things with a big win or for Boston College to prove it belongs among the top teams in the country. Gotta love the drama of college football.

GMW Top Ten

1. Ohio State
2. LSU
3. Boston College
4. Oklahoma
5. Oregon
6. Florida
7. USC
8. Virginia Tech
9. Arizona State
10. (tie) Missouri
10. (tie) West Virginia

Others receiving votes: Kentucky, South Florida

missional church, suburbia, and getting real with others

2007-10-21T23:58:00.000-05:00

So I live in a very nice area of northwest Houston called The Champions. It gets its name from the prominant country club and golf course by the same moniker. That theme is picked in several neighborhoods in which the streets are named for the world’s great golf courses, for example, or for great tennis champions. As I tell my clergy friends, we’re not exactly “slummin’ for Jesus” around here. And yet, we are called to ministry where we are typically unless we get more specific “Holy Spirit heartburn” about going someplace else. And, as a United Methodist pastor, I’m sent to this particular locale to help the people here grow in faithfulness to God’s calling on our lives collectively. So, here we are in the glory of American suburbia.

Then there’s this conversation I find myself in theologically and spiritually about what it truly means to be the church. Many have heard the term “emerging” or “emerging church” or “emergent church.” It’s all the rage these days…or raged against, depending. Not that I intend to dismiss it as merely trendy, I don’t. But for me, the term “emerging” and its cognates presents something of a moving target (perhaps its supposed to–who knows?). Honestly, the “emerging church” seems about as diverse theologically, maybe moreso, than my own United Methodist Church, which is saying something! Besides, the term “emerging” implies movement and invites this question: Emerging from what?

Best I can tell, there are three pretty good answers to that question–three basic groups that I can see. One group that seems to be consists of folks who are emerging from conservative evangelical churches who have not engaged culture meaningfully and dynamically in their proclamation of the gospel. These folks tend to retain their conservative evangelical theology (typically of the Baptist or Reformed varieties) while “packaging” the message in a way that does engage modern (really “postmodern”) culture meaningfully.

A second group who are “emerging” are like the first group in their theological tradition of origin (conservative evangelical and either Baptist or Reformed–Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc) and who likewise resonate with presenting the gospel in ways that engage the broader culture more meaningfully. A difference, then, between this group and the one above is that they seem to be engaging other theological traditions more meaningfully as well. They seem discontented with some aspects of the theological conversation/wrestling that does or, probably more often the case, does not happen in the churches from which they come, so they are learning to read and think alongside Catholics and Wesleyans and such. They know draw on the Early Church Fathers for spiritual help and theologians outside of their own traditions for help wrestling with the big (and small too) questions of faith and doubt. They recognize that the churches and theological traditions from which they come are a mixture of blessing and curse. There are wonderful gifts but they have serious limitations as well.

A third group comes from theological traditions who would tend to be open to the theological searching of the “emerging church movement” and who are emerging from church traditions that are heavily organized and thoroughly beaureacratic. The United Methodist Church and other mainline Protestant denominations are good examples of this. This group is looking for more organic models of being and doing church that can be more responsive to the mission of the church in the rapidly changing world in which we live, something that massive beaureacracies are by nature unable to do.

There are plenty of folks who would probably be interested in nuancing one of those descriptions to fit themselves better, but I think those hold up well enough to provide a basic handle on the discussion.

A word, however, that is surfacing alongside “emerging” is “missional.” Being “missional” is a distinctive feature of most emerging folks. And, for myself, as the name of this blog indicates, I resonate with the term “missional” more than the term “emerging” because it seems more straightforward to get a grasp on–churches and persons committed to be led by the mission of God revealed in content and method in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ–than “emerging.” So, I spend time thinking about what that means really, to be committed to be led by the mission of God revealed in content and method in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Moreover, I spend time thinking about what that means for me in the place I am currently sent to serve and lead.
Really, what on earth does “incarnational” ministry look like in the land of plenty? These are the parts of town Jesus seemed to avoid for the sake of other places of deeper need. What does it look like to be shaped by the content of Jesus’ teaching and the doctrines that illumine for us his purpose and saving significance AND to be shaped by the methodology of God in Jesus? God’s method in Christ is clear–give up everything in order to bring good news to those in deep need here on earth (check Philippians 2:1-11 for Paul’s brilliant description).

But what do we mean by “those in deep need here on earth?” Aren’t we all in deep need spiritually speaking? This is certainly true, but Christ did spend more time among the rural poor than anyone else, all the while training his disciples and other hangers-on in God’s perspective with every opportunity available. A cursory reading of the Gospels reveals that the wealthy and privileged are least likely to “get it” when we’re talking about learning God’s perspective.
Which brings us back to this quandry I’ve got over how to be “missional” in American suburbia. How does one take up one’s cross and carry on the ministry of Jesus in the land of plenty? I’m working on that (and not a simple, glib answer either–an answer that takes the gravity of the question seriously).

I do think arriving at an answer starts with openness, honestly, and vulnerability in community. And in that, I am blessed. Our Sunday School class (when I’m able to be there and am without other responsibilities during that time) has been able to exhibit these qualities as of late. Two subjects have provided the right amount of discomfort as to help us with this. First, prayer. Guided by Philip Yancey’s book, Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference?, we are opening up and getting real about our faith and doubts and struggles with the mystery of God and his ways. Prayer, ethereal though it seems, is one of the rubber-meets-the-road subjects in the Christian faith (or any other I suppose) in which the true state of our soul is laid bare if we dare to be honest about our feelings on the subject, if only to ourselves. People have graced the conversation with candid struggles and experiences, allowing us to be more real about where we all are. The second subject is giving and stewardship. Our church is entering a capital campaign, so the annual stewardship emphasis is a larger production. Alongside vision awareness gatherings and a sermon series, we are doing stewardship bible studies during Sunday School and offering small groups for it. Money, taboo though it is, quite obviously provides enough discomfort to either chase us back into our shells or draw us into deeper levels of intimacy with each other as we get real about our spiritual journeys and walks with Christ. Good stuff. Today was day one of the stewardship study; two more to go.

Somehow, I think we will discover the path to a truly missional existence anywhere, but particularly in the ‘burbs, runs through the place where the community begins to get real with one another about our lives in God. That’s the place where we are most ready to meet Christ as he really is, which means hearing the gospel on its terms better than we ever have.

pondering a blog move

2007-10-21T23:38:00.000-05:00

I’m thinking about moving my blog over to WordPress from Blogger. I like the look and feel of these blogs better than Blogger, so I’m trying it out a little to see what I think. I’ve still got much to learn about how WordPress “works” however; Blogger is much more “for dummies” and simplier to use. But some of the features over here are pretty cool and I think I may just be looking for a change. So, I’ll probably take another week or two to decide for sure, but I thought I’d give the readership out there (yes–you…and you) a bit of a heads-up. I’ll post anything I write between now and then in both places.

Here's the link to the other (maybe new) one: http://guywilliams.wordpress.com/

gmw college football poll - week 8

2007-10-18T23:40:00.000-05:00

Alright, here’s another run at it… (fyi, this poll was completed prior to tonight’s Rutgers/South Florida game and represents the results of last weekend’s games. Apologies for the lateness of posting this week).

1. Boston College
2. LSU
3. Ohio State
4 (tie). Kentucky
4 (tie). South Florida
6. Oklahoma
7. South Carolina
8. Oregon
9. Florida
10. West Virginia

Others receiving votes: Cal, Arizona State, USC

college football - who knows any more???

2007-10-15T22:41:00.000-05:00

I mean, you've got Ohio State ranked number 1 now, but the thing is, we don't really know what Buckeye's have going up there.

We know what the SEC's doing to each other, this year more than ever.

We know the Pac-10's pretty good b/c they have some good wins over actual D-1A schools in their non-conference games (Michigan, Tennessee, Nebraska...)

We know South Florida's beaten West Virginia and Auburn, who beat Florida. Does that mean that the Big East is conference number 3 behind the SEC and Pac-10 this year? Weird.

This is the wildest year in quite some time.

The Buckeyes could slip through the rest of their schedule in the Big 10 undefeated, or Michigan could end up playing well at the end and beat them for the first time in a while. Who knows any more?

We'll soon see where the GMW pollsters go with the top ten. Hopefully, we won't contribute too much more confusion, as if that's possible at this point!

thinking about getting back in the saddle

2007-10-11T23:15:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I've posted nothing but a weekly college football poll (which has been fun to organize) this fall here on the blog. I haven't taken a break by design. It started out because I've been busier in ministry for the past few months than I ever have and it has just been hard to sit down and write. It's been hard to sit down and do much of anything. I haven't read a book in too, too long. Not to mention being way behind on several mags I take.

So, I don't know quickly I'll be ramping back up, but I needed to start somewhere so here I am. Writing about how I haven't been reading or writing much lately. But I'd like to start again. I've got some projects I really want to be more disciplined about and actually finish. I've kind of been in my head lately but never sitting down to write. So I'm breaking the ice, just to get something back on the blog to indicate that I'm still here, still pondering life and church and theology and whatnot.

Look for me (or just get a blog-reader of some kind like Google Reader or Bloglines or something that helps you keep up with all your blogs). I'm going to try to get back into writing more. Better yet, pray for me. I've still got much to say, just haven't been as deliberate about getting out of my head and onto the journal page or computer document/blog form. I look forward to the journey ahead.

gmw college football poll - week 7

2007-10-10T22:57:00.000-05:00

Whew, more of the same craziness last weekend as has been around the country lately. So, we know that LSU is number 1. Other than that, we know we've got some good teams and we know that some of them are kind of new to this level. Other than that, it's hard to say how much we really know about where they actually should be ranked. Here's the GMW weekly stab at it anyway!

A little bit of commentary first... Can you believe that South Floriday is the highest ranking team in that state? ...Spurrier's already got South Carolina ranked in the top ten. It will interesting to see what happens there. They're only loss thus far is to #1 LSU, I think at LSU. Pretty good resume. ...Continuing with the Florida-related connections, interesting to see the Ron Zook-coached Illinois team surfacing as a good Big Ten team. Yes, being a "good" Big Ten team isn't saying as much lately, but it must be admitted that the Zooker is redeeming himself with the coaching job (and recruiting, as usual) at Illinois.

1. LSU
2. Cal
3 (tie). Ohio State
3 (tie). Boston College
5. South Florida
6. Oklahoma
7. South Carolina
8. Oregon
9 (tie). West Virginia
9 (tie). Florida

Others receiving votes: USC, Missouri, Arizona State, Illinois

gmw college football poll - week 6

2007-10-03T22:39:00.000-05:00

Good grief! Anyone remember a weekend like last one in a while? I didn't think so. I think we've all got this feeling that putting out polls this week is nonsense, and yet it is still what we do isn't it? Congrats to the AP poll for finally getting #1 and 2 correct, as the GMW Poll has all year.

My voters don't have as much love for Oregon as I do, but when you look at their body of work and the nature of their loss to Cal--the legit number 3 team in the country--in which they were very much in the game late, I think they must be respected. That makes the argument for the Pac-10 vs. teh SEC as the best conference in America a little stronger. The SEC is tough, but as always, time will tell who's got the stronger conference this year.

1. LSU
2. USC
3. Cal
4. Ohio State
5. Wisconsin
6. South Florida
7. Kentucky
8. Florida
9. Boston College
10. (tie) South Carolina
10. (tie) Oklahoma

Others receiving votes: Georgia, Oregon

gmw college football poll - week 5

2007-09-26T10:48:00.000-05:00

Here we go. Some movement at the bottom, but our top ten is firming up for now.

1. LSU
2. USC
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida
5. West Virginia
6. Cal
7. Ohio State
8. Wisconsin
9. Texas
10. Rutgers

Others receiving votes: Oregon, Georgia, Boston College, Michigan

gmw college football poll - week 4

2007-09-19T23:48:00.000-05:00

A little bit of movement at the bottom in a week that continued the "you never know" trend as Louisville, UCLA, and Ga Tech got punched out while Texas and Wisconsin survived scares from Central Florida and The Citadel. The room at the top got more crowded with the top 4 teams crowded into 3 spots.

1. LSU
2. USC
3. (tie) Oklahoma
3. (tie) Florida
5. West Virginia
6. Cal
7. Wisconsin
8. Penn State
9. Ohio State
10. Rutgers

Others receiving votes: Texas, Boston College, South Carolina

gmw college football mid-week

2007-09-13T23:13:00.000-05:00

It's finally here... the GMW College Football Mid-Week!

It's great to be back in the saddle. I'm glad to have given a couple of weeks to get to know these teams and get a feel for the season before launching into polls and opinions.

So, here's the opening poll of the top 10 teams in college football:

GMW Poll, Week 3
1. LSU
2. USC
3 Oklahoma
4. (tie) Florida
4. (tie) West Virginia
6. Cal
7. Wisconsin
8. Penn State
9. Texas
10. Louisville

Others receiving votes: Georgia Tech, UCLA, Rutgers

ncaa football update

2007-09-04T22:07:00.000-05:00

There's a reason...

the GMW college football poll waits a couple of weekends before its debut. Look for it weekly beginning next Tuesday.

Here's guessing...

...that if we hadn't yet bought the "Notre Dame is going to have a rough year" belief, we do now.

...that Michigan's not the only team who would have fallen at the hands of Appalachian State last Saturday.

the most wonderful time of the year

2007-08-31T15:19:00.000-05:00

It's officially college football season! Here's to a dynamic mixture of optimism and pessimism regarding the prospects of each person's own college/team, to plenty of arm-chair coaching, and lots (especially here) of amateur journalism and commentary!

The GMW poll will debut after the second weekend of college football action, but the weekly update could break in anytime now. I love fall.

the journal of theological interpretation is here!

2007-08-31T14:23:00.000-05:00

The first volume, first issue of the new Journal of Theological Interpretation is finally here! I'm a kid in a biblical and theological candy store. Edited by Joel B. Green (a prof I didn't take enough classes from in seminary--with so many, hard to get enough from everyone), the JTI addresses the conversational gap between academic biblical studies and theology--in academic study and in the practice of the community of faith, the Church.

Green writes in his inaugural Editor's essay:

"A theological hermeneutics of Christian Scripture concerns the role of Scripture in the faith and formation of persons and ecclesial communities. Theological interpretation emphasizes the potentially mutual influence of Scripture and doctrine in theological discourse and, then, the role of Scripture in the self-understanding of the church and in critical reflection on the church's practices."

I'm excited. My own interests in ongoing theological study and reflection are at the intersection of NT studies and Early Church historical theology and how they inform our modern practices of spiritual formation of persons as disciples and of churches as missional communities who carry on the kingdom ministry announced and inaugurated by Jesus. I anticipate an excellent dialogue partner in this new publication.

thoughts on writing: is a picture really worth 1000 words?

2007-08-29T22:05:00.000-05:00

There may be some truth to the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words." After all, a breathtaking scene, a horrifying scene, a heart-tugging scene wield significant power on our perceptions and attitudes and dispositions, even our actions.

But to press back against this common dictum... A picture may be worth a thousand words--it may take that many words to describe perhaps. But a handful of words from the pen of the right author or poet or lyricist have the power to evoke a thousand pictures, including ones that the author or poet or lyricist has never imagined because others do not only pick up the pictures the writer was attempted to send, but also participates in creating the picture in our own minds. We know what the novel's lead character looks like, though our friend may have a very different picture. We may envision the setting of the poem one way whereas a friend envisions it in roughly the same way, but with plenty of different touches.

I think we instinctively recognize the poverty in applying the saying "a picture is worth 1000 words" in a way that says something negative about the printed and spoken word, even though that is one of the implied lessons from the saying. This is why we always prefer the book to the movie. We had supplied everything lacking descriptively to fill in not just one picture but thousands throughout the piece. Once the pictures--those pictures supposedly worth 1000 words--are supplied as they must be in the visual medium, it limits our imaginative possibilities.

So, is a picture worth a thousand words? I would answer yes and no. On the one hand (the one with the "yes"), we affirm that God's creation is beautiful to behold and we will not run out of words to describe it and talk about how amazing God is. On the other hand (the one with the "no"), perhaps, but only a few words are needed to pierce the hearts and minds and open them up to an infiinte number of pictures in one's imagination.

more on my personality...via the enneagram

2007-08-28T23:04:00.000-05:00

Yep, found this on someone's blog and tried it myself. Apparently, my scores were even on this one...

and this one...

hmm. interesting...

reading week(s) in review: august 13-26

2007-08-27T00:18:00.000-05:00

Life has been wild, so not as much reading, just chipping away... Just the same, a few selected highlights from the past couple of weeks' reading...when I've had a moment.

Books
1. Continued reading The Kalahari Typing School for Men, the fourth book in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

2. Daily devotional reading of a passage a week in the Gospel of Mark, guided by NT (Tom) Wright's Mark For Everyone. I'm into Mark 9 currently.

3. Read chapters 11 and 12 in Jesus Mean and Wild, by Mark Galli, for a men's bible study I lead on Wednesday mornings before work.

Online: blogs, news/commentary, etc
1. This short piece from the Leadership Journal blog, Out of Ur: Lessons from St. Arbucks. It's about the role of Starbucks as a place to meet and grow relationships in our culture...and what lessons, if any, the church can learn from Starbucks along these lines. To counter-balance the discussion, there is an excellent comment worth scrolling down to read. It's the third comment down by "Melody," who talks about how Starbucks, by analogy, explains the problems of modern American Christianity and reinforces them rather than solves them.

2. I've come to enjoy reading the daily "Today's Papers" column from Slate.com. It's a summary of what's in (usually on the front page) of the country's major newspapers: NY Times, Washington Post, USA Today, LA Times, and some from the Wall Street Journal. I find it a nice way to get a brief on things. I get the teaser in my email daily, then click over to Slate.com to finish the column. Here's a link to today's (Sunday), for example.

3. Want to better understand how you and others read the bible, and to better read the bible? Here's a piece from Ben Witherington III's blog on hermeneutics (The theory and methodology of interpretation, especially in reference to Scripture).

4. Finally, a couple of references to a story about the inner life, doubt, and wrestling with God by Mother Teresa. Here's the one from Time magazine. From the blog "Get Religion," which covers how the media covers religious stories), this piece.

personality profile: intj/entj...

2007-08-17T23:44:00.000-05:00

I added this a little while back, but had yet to post it in this form. This is my personality profile as a combination of my Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (for me, INTJ, though I'm really pretty even E/I, so both profiles--INTJ or ENTJ are pretty accurate and pick up on my personality and temperment reasonably well) and my Multiple Intelligences scores. I got it from this Methoblogger extraordinare's blog.

If ever you thought I was odd, you'd be right. INTJ is about 1.5% of the population. The NT temperament (one of four temperaments) is about 10% of the population. So, I'm rare...take that however you'd like.

what i appreciated from athanasius' "on the incarnation of the word"

2007-08-17T23:26:00.000-05:00

Much, but I'll offer three things here. You can read Athanasius' On the Incarnation of the Word online here. If you don't read the whole thing, at least read the first half--the chapters from the beginning through the one on the Resurrection of Christ.

1. First, the fact that Athanasius is personalizing this work (to "Macarius" early on and in the concluding section) is a helpful reminder that the best theological work is done not to remain in the ivory tower to fuel academic debates, but rather with both feet firmly planted in the life of the Church and with a concern for faithful teaching of the faith. This need not discourage from doing serious theological thinking, rather it ought to encourage us to do rigorous and well-grounded theological thinking, and to do the work of serious theological reflection in the midst of a meaningful engagement with the realities of the world in which the Church finds itself, and on an individual level, within the realities encountered by persons day to day. This point is reinforced in some of the (more bizarre, even goofy) explanations of the necessity of the cross. I think in particular of the curious and presumably time- and culture-bound reference: "the air is the sphere of the devil" (par. 25. Athanasius quotes Ephesians 2:2, "According to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience." He continues: "But the Lord came to overthrow the devil and to purify the air and to make 'a way' for us up to heaven, as the apostle says, 'through the veil, that is to say, His flesh,'" quoting Hebrews 10:20. Athanasius concludes, then, "This had to be done through death, and by what other kind of death could it be done, save by a death in the air, that is, on the cross?").

Assuming this is a reference to a commonly-held belief, his explanation of the mandatoriness of the cross is creative and engages this understanding head-on. Even though we would critique his application of Scripture to his thinking in this example, I think it is nevertheless a good reminder that all theological work is untaken within a context of concerns that need to be addressed for the sake of establishing and nurturing persons in the faith. What it gives rise to on a critical level is the need for both criteria and creativity: Criteria to shape our proclamation about the cross in ways that are true to the New Testament's interpretation/s of the event, and Creativity to engage our own context in vivid and compelling ways.

2. Second, the rich variety of images for atonement is helpful. Most helpful for theological thinking about atonement is not a particular image for atonement, but Athanasius' understanding of the "Divine Dilemma." His ability to differentiate between sins as actions of rebellion against God and the corruption of humanity's nature from the propensity to sin. Humanity's sins (our "transgressions") are our action; corruption of our nature is our consequence or penalty: "He saw that corruption held us all the closer, because it was the penalty for the Transgression" (par. 8). So, with corruption as our penalty--or consequence, Jesus takes our corruption on himself on the cross and it is crucified with him. This is wholly different from the use of penalty language in legal images for the atonement. This understanding takes sin seriously as a force unto itself--something that the individualized penal substitutionary theory does not do--without relegating the whole of our understanding of sin away from morally responsible personal agency. It seems to me that Athanasius' understanding of sin is not unlike the dynamic of addiction. There are moves that the individual person makes that they are responsible, but once the addictive/corruptive power has been let loose, it takes on a life of its own and requires a different power to engage and defeat it. This understanding of atonement also moves away from ideas of justice that are retributive to those that are restorative. Individual sin is not counterbalanced with retributive punishment. Rather, the corruptive force of sin that has invaded the nature of humanity, and of each individual, is counteracted with restorative action--the self-giving sacrifice of Jesus the Christ on a Roman cross. Dealing with sin via restorative action provides a way for different living because the nature of persons is restored to share the image of God. Only dealing with sin via retributive punishment leaves the scales of right and wrong "doing" recalibrated, but does not address the deeper issue of the inner nature, or "being"--the wellspring of right or wrong actions according to Jesus.

A sample of the imagery used in reference to the cross/atonement includes: recreation/creative activity of God, suffering/sacrificial system for Jewish religious ritual cleansing and purity, ambassador of the Father language, honor and shame categories (a cultural convention in 1st century Greco-Roman culture, and many cultures today), reconciliation/relational categories, debt/accounting economic categories, and rescue/liberation from slavery language.

In this vein, Recovering the Scandal of the Cross, by Joel B. Green and Mark D. Baker is an excellent work engaging historical theories of atonement, assessing their faithfulness to the New Testament, and exploring how to proclaim the scandal of the cross today (Baker edited the follow-up, Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross, a collection of sermons creatively engaging the atonement in proclamation). One of their central conclusions is that the solution to the debate over theories of atonement is not to pick one theory, though many of us seem to gravitate toward one primarily, but rather to follow the lead of the NT and embrace a multiplicity of images for the atonement, acknowledging that it is an event too profound to be captured by one or even a few images. Athanasius is an excellent example of this, at one point in his section "On the Death of Christ," speaking in terms of 4 or 5 images for Christ's atoning work within 3 or 4 sentences, seamlessly weaving them together into a broader picture.

3. Third, I found Athanasius' drawing on a Christocentric theology of creation as an orientation point for dealing with the problem of corruption of humanity's nature, which is counter to the created nature, the imago dei, very helpful.

saint athanasius' "on the incarnation of the word," part eight

2007-08-14T23:23:00.000-05:00

Once more from Athanasius, this time a couple of quotes on the resurrection of Christ.

"But now that the Savior has raised His body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the resurrection."

and...

"Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot the passers-by sneer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Savior on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and as witnesses to Him deride it, scoffing and saying, 'O Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting?'"

Brilliant and vivid imagery!

saint athanasius' "on the incarnation of the word," part seven

2007-08-12T23:34:00.000-05:00

We're not as likely to offer this sort of interpretation of the cross, probably due to our historical-critical thinking about how to interpret the gospels. That said, I appreciate the imagery in this quote on the significance of Jesus' death on the cross.

"How could He have called us if He had not been crucified, for it is only on the cross that a man dies with arms outstretched? Here, again, we see the fitness of his death and of those outstretched arms: it was that He might draw His ancient people with the one and the Gentiles with the other, and join both together in Himself."

reading week in review: august 5-12

2007-08-12T23:32:00.000-05:00

Selected highlights... Just books this week...

1. Started the fourth book in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The Kalahari Typing School for Men. McCall Smith's novels in this series, if you're not familiar with them, are simple and delightfully told tales of one Mma Ramotswe, founder and head detective at the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. The novels are set in the nation of Botswana in Africa where the author, a Scot, enjoyed a career as a law professor. I enjoy books that have an "other-worldly" element to them. Not "other-worldly" referring strictly to fantasy novels, but meaning something that is sufficiently cross-cultural to offer a new way of looking at life. These are in that realm--not intensely so, but definitely there. Others, for example, would include The Kite Runner (which I just finished) with its setting in modern Pakistan, and the fantastic novels of Chaim Potok, set in the Hasidic Jewish communities in 20th century New York City--The Chosen, My Name is Asher Lev, and In the Beginning, being excellent examples.

2. I have neglected to include my devotional reading, but I've been reading a passage each day from the Gospel of Mark, guided by NT (Tom) Wright's Mark For Everyone. I'm in the middle of chapter 8 now.

3. Read chapter 10 in Jesus Mean and Wild, by Mark Galli, for a men's bible study I lead on Wednesday mornings before work. Galli reflects on the story of Jesus quieting the wind and the waves. He calls into question our preoccupation with rushing to the "spiritual messages" within such stories (he indicts himself along with anyone else) and takes a step back to observe that this story displays Jesus' raw power--both frightening and wondrous to behold to be sure. He presses us on our common practice of explaining away and softening the bible's language on the "fear of the Lord." To mitigate our hesitancy, he offers the analogy of fire. Fire has a powerfully attractive quality to it. It has the potential both to sustain life and to take life. Water has the same potential. Surely we can say the same of the Lord, whose raw power brought us into being and sustains us.