“It is important to understand that the Spirit does not “replace” Jesus. “Rather, the Spirit discloses the presence of the risen Jesus and his Father to the community of faith.” ”
Ralph Martin: God Did Precisely the Opposite
“it is nothing other than the gospel, indeed an exhaustive statement of the content of the gospel, namely that Christ must be crucified, that the Messiah had to die in order for sinners to be forgiven by God–was the very thing that scandalized the Jews and was treated as folly by the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23). The gospel was an “offense” to them and “foolishness” because in the cross God did precisely the opposite of what they expected him to do. ”
John Calvin: The Purpose of the Gospel
“The purpose of the gospel is the restoration in us of the image of God which had been canceled by sin and that this restoration is progressive and goes on during our whole life, because God makes his glory to shine in us little by little.”
David deSilva: Seeing One Another
“The exhortation pertains more to doing good works and showing love as the addressees look around at their fellow believers, observing their situations and persons attentively. The author may, moreover, seek to establish an emulative environment: “paying attention to one another” will not only lead to seeing and responding to need, but also will involve seeing one’s sisters’ and brothers’ noble deeds and becoming zealous to emulate them, such that doing good stimulates more well-doing. The author approaches the congregation first by urging them to look at each other, to see each other, to notice one another. He does not merely exhort them to preach well-doing, but to be engaged in it first, and then perchance to stimulate it and be stimulated to well-doing by mutual example. This connects with the author’s exhortations throughout Hebrews (3:12-14; 12:15-17; 13:1-3, 16) to create the sort of intragroup relationships and support structures that make it possible, even preferable, to put up with the snubbing hostility from without rather than give up on the love and mutual regard that exist within. ”
Scot McKnight: Participating in Atonement
“To be forgiven, to be atoned for, to be reconciled – synonymous expressions – is to be granted a mission to become a reciprocal performer of the same: to forgive, to work atonement, and to be an agent of reconciliation. Thus, atonement is not just something done to us and for us, it is something we participate in–in this world, in the here and now. It is not just something done, but something that is being done and something that we do as we join God in the missio Dei. ”
Graham McFarlane: A Pneumatic Dimension
“This is the great power of the Christian gospel – an evangel in which God deals with God on our behalf. Yet to stop here is to do serious damage to the Gospel. Inheriting eternal life, according to Jesus, also demands engagement with our neighbor. And to do this demands a pneumatic dimension – where life through the Spirit is hypostatized and first informs wherein Neighbor is reconciled with Neighbor and togetherness maybe demonstrated en carne in the here and now as an anticipatory expression of what is to come in fullness. ”
John McIntyre: Comfort in a Dark Place
““‘Comforter’ carries over from the Old Testament its description of the Messiah as menachem, comforter. It represents a tenderness, a closeness, concern and caring … one who comforts us when for one reason or another life has become difficult, dark, meaningless, or just a very lonely place.” ”
David deSilva: The Urgency of 'Today'
“Furthermore, believers must consider the urgency of the “today” referenced by the Psalmist and repeated here in Hebrews. “The psalm allows for the author to heighten the urgency of how one will respond to the word ‘today’ by calling attention to the Christian cultural knowledge that there are a limited number of ‘todays’ left before God tears into the fabric of human history to execute judgment and bestow rewards” (cf. 10:25, 37-39; 12:26-28). ”
Andrew Walls: Most Christians are in a Non-Western Location
“The faith of the twenty-first century will require a devout, vigorous scholarship rooted in the soil of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, [for] the majority of Christians are now Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, and Pacific Islanders…. Christianity is now primarily a non-Western religion and on present indications will steadily become more so …. The most urgent reason for the study of religious traditions of Africa and Asia, of the Amerindian and the Pacific peoples, is their significance for Christian theology; they are the substratum of the Christian faith and life for the greater number of the Christians in the world. ”
Chrysostom: Who Took the First Steps?
“Can you see how great God’s love is for us? Who was the offended party? He was. Who took the first steps toward reconciliation? He did. Some will say that he sent the Son in his place, but this is a misunderstanding. Christ did not come apart from the Father who sent him. They were both involved together in the work of reconciliation.”
Where'd Atonement "Start"?
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Joseph Hellerman offers an interesting insight into this passage that commentators identify as one of the “high Christological passages” of the New Testament (alongside John 1:1-4; Col. 1:15-20; Heb. 1:1-3). He demonstrates that though the hymn clearly has much to say about the subject of Christology, the hymn is first and foremost ecclesiological. He writes
“...perhaps, more accurately, what we have in Philippians 2:6-11 is Christology in the service of an overarching ecclesiological agenda.”
This is because of Paul’s opening appeal to the brothers and sisters in Philippi to “have this mind in you” (v.5). Jesus’ humility in his self-emptying (ἐκένωσεν) involved him stooping lower and lower until he reached the lowest rung of the social hierarchy in the first century. Paul begins his appeal to the church by first calling attention to the “equality” that Jesus relinquished. In his self-emptying, Jesus did something mentally – he did not “count” his “equality with God” something “to be grasped” (v.6). Thus, his first action in the redemption of humanity was not first in the incarnation, nor his humiliation on Good Friday. Rather, it was in his mind. The Christ, in his estimating, concluded that he would temporarily release his rightful place of glory. In order for Paul to appeal to the “mind” of the church, he first appealed to the “mind” of Christ in his “counting” and “considering.” In a culture in which honor and status were prized above all, this would have struck the early readers as utterly unfathomable. The Divine Son of God of his own volition became a slave. Jesus’s entering as a person, in a specific place, assumed the position of the despised.
The Calling by Mirabai Starr
“There is a secret place. A radiant sanctuary. As real as your own kitchen. More real than that. Constructed of the purest elements. Overflowing with the ten thousand beautiful things. Worlds within worlds. Forests, rivers. Velvet coverlets thrown over featherbeds, fountains bubbling beneath a canopy of stars. Bountiful forests, universal libraries. A wine cellar offering an intoxication so sweet you will never be sober again. A clarity so complete you will never again forget.
This magnificent refuge is inside you. Enter. Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway. Step around the poisonous vipers that slither at your feet, attempting to throw you off your course. Be bold. Be humble. Put away the incense and forget the incantations they taught you. Ask no permission from the authorities. Slip away. Close your eyes and follow your breath to the still place that leads to the invisible path that leads you home.
Listen. Softly, the One you love is calling. Listen. At first, you will only hear traces of his voice. Love letters he drops for you in hiding places. In the sound of your baby laughing, in your boyfriend telling you a dream, in a book about lovingkindness, in the sun dipping down below the horizon and a peacock’s tail of purple and orange clouds unfolding behind it, in the nameless sorrow that fills your heart when you wake in the night and remember that the world has gone to war and you are powerless to break up the fight. Let the idle chatter between friends drop down to what matters. Listen. Later his voice will come closer. A whisper you’re almost sure is meant for you fading in and out of the cacophony of thoughts, clearer in the silent space between them. Listen. His call is flute music, far away. Coming closer.
Be brave and walk through the country of your own wild heart. Be gentle and know that you know nothing. Be mindful and remember that every moment can be a prayer. Melting butter, scrambling eggs, lifting fork to mouth, praising God. Typing your daughter’s first short story, praising God. Losing your temper and your dignity with someone you love, praising God. Balancing ecstasy with clear thinking, self-control with self-abandon. Be still. Listen. Keep walking.
What a spectacular kingdom you have entered! Befriending the guards and taming the lions at the gates. Sliding through a crack in the doorway on your prayer rug. Crossing the moat between this world and that, walking on water if you have to because this is your rightful place. That is your Beloved reclining in the innermost chamber, waiting for you, offering wine from a bottle with your crest on the label. Explore. Rest if you have to, but don’t go to sleep. Head straight for his arms.
And when you have dismissed the serpents of vanity and greed, conquered the lizards of self-importance, and lulled the monkey mind to sleep, your steps will be lighter. When you have given up everything to make a friend a cup of tea and tend her broken heart, stood up against the violation of innocent children and their fathers and mothers, made conscious choices to live simply and honor the earth, your steps will be lighter. When you have grown still on purpose while everything around you is asking for your chaos, you will find the doors between every room of this interior castle thrown open, the path home to your true love unobstructed after all.
No one else controls access to this perfect place. Give yourself your own unconditional permission to go there. Absolve yourself of missing the mark again and again. Believe the incredible truth that the Beloved has chosen for his dwelling place the core of your own being because that is the single most beautiful place in all of creation. Waste no time. Enter the center of your soul. ”
Brennan Manning on Evangelism
“ The Ministry of evangelization is an extraordinary opportunity of showing gratitude to Jesus by passing on His gospel of grace to others. However, the ʻconversion by concussionʼ method with one sledgehammer blow of the Bible after another betrays a basic disrespect for the dignity of the other and is utterly alien to the gospel imperative to bear witness. To evangelize a person is to say to him or her: you, too, are loved by God in the Lord Jesus. And not only to say it but to really think it and relate it to the man or woman so they can sense it. This is what it means to announce the Good News. But that becomes possible only by offering the person your friendship; a friendship that is real, unselfish, without condescension, full of confidence, and profound esteem.
”
Death Was Helpless
“This is the good news about the kingdom of God. How men need this gospel! Everywhere one goes he finds the gaping graves swallowing up the dying. Tears of loss, of separation, of final departure stain every face. Every table sooner or later has an empty chair, every fireside its vacant place. Death is the great leveller. Wealth or poverty, fame or oblivion, power or futility, success or failure, race, creed or culture — all our human distinctions mean nothing before the ultimate irresistible sweep of the scythe of death which cuts us all down. And whether the mausoleum is a fabulous Taj Mahal, a massive pyramid, an unmarked spot of ragged grass or the unplotted depths of the sea one fact stands: death reigns.
“Apart from the gospel of the kingdom, death is the mighty conqueror before whom we are all helpless. We can only beat our fists in utter futility against this unyielding and unresponding tomb. But the good news is this: death has been defeated; our conqueror has been conquered. In the face of the power of the kingdom of God in Christ, death was helpless. It could not hold him, death has been defeated; life and immortality have been brought to life. An empty tomb in Jerusalem is proof of it. This is the gospel of the kingdom.”
The Presence of God (Where Everything is not Polite and Civil)
Here is a short excerpt by Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann as he writes about the Psalms of Disorientation. These are the Psalms in which the congregation laments and calls out to God over their circumstances. For example, Psalm 13 - “How long, O Lord?”
“It is no wonder that the church has intuitively avoided these psalms. They lead us into dangerous acknowledgment of how life really is. They lead us into the presence of God where everything is not polite and civil. They cause us to think unthinkable thoughts and utter unutterable words. Perhaps worst, they lead us away from the comfortable religious claims of ‘modernity’ in which everything is managed and controlled. In our modern experience, but probably also in every successful and affluent culture, it is believed that enough power and knowledge can tame the terror and eliminate the darkness. Very much a ‘religion of orientation’ operates on that basis. But our honest experience, both personal and public, attests to the resilience of the darkness, in spite of us. The remarkable thing about Israel is that it did not banish or deny the darkness from its religious enterprise. It embraces the darkness as the very stuff of new life. Indeed, Israel seems to know that new life comes from nowhere else.
”
Shame in the Workplace
“Cover-ups are perpetrated not only by the original actors, but by a culture of complicity and shame. Sometimes individuals are complicit because staying quiet or hiding the truth benefits them and/or doesn’t jeopardize their influence or power. Other times, people are complicit because it’s the norm–they work in a cover-up culture that uses shame to keep people quiet.
Either way, when the culture of a corporation, nonprofit, university, government, church, sports program, school, or family mandates that it is more important to protect the reputation of that system and those in power than it is to protect the basic human dignity of individuals or communities, you can be certain of the following problems:
Shame is systemic.
Complicity is part of the culture.
Money and power trump ethics.
Accountability is dead.
Control and fear are management tools.
And there’s a trail of devastation and pain. ”
No One Wants to Do the Dishes
“Everyone wants a revolution. No one wants to do the dishes. I was, and remain, a Christian who longs for revolution, for things to be made new and whole in beautiful and big ways. But what I am slowly seeing is that you can’t get to the revolution without learning to do the dishes. The kind of spiritual life and disciplines needed to sustain the Christian life are quiet, repetitive, and ordinary. I often want to skip the boring, daily stuff to get to the thrill of an edgy faith. But it’s in the dailiness of the Christian faith–the making the bed, the doing the dishes, the praying for our enemies, the reading the Bible, the quiet, the small–that God’s transformation takes root and grows.
”
19 Reads in 2020
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero
The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World by Pete Scazzero
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby
The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction by Eugene Peterson
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown
A Gentle Answer: Our 'Secret Weapon' in an Age of Us Against Them by Scott Sauls
The Prophetic Imagination: 40th Anniversary Edition by Walter Brueggmann
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr
Reading Buechner: Exploring the Work of a Master Memoirist, Novelist, Theologian, and Preacher by Jeffery Munroe
The Wizard’s Tide: A Story by Frederick Buechner
The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life by Frederick Buechner
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Wonderful Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Oz of Ozma by L. Frank Baum
Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila
When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community From Emotional and Spiritual Abuse by Chuck Degroat
The Logic of the Body: Retrieving Theological Psychology (Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology) by Matthew A. LaPine
A Litany of Thanksgiving
“Let us give thanks to God our Father for all his gifts so
freely bestowed upon us.
For the beauty and wonder of your creation, in earth and
sky and sea.
We thank you, Lord.
For all that is gracious in the lives of men and women,
revealing the image of Christ,
We thank you, Lord.
For our daily food and drink, our homes and families, and
our friends,
We thank you, Lord.
For minds to think, and hearts to love, and hands to serve,
We thank you, Lord.
For health and strength to work, and leisure to rest and play,
We thank you, Lord.
For the brave and courageous, who are patient in suffering
and faithful in adversity,
We thank you, Lord.
For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice,
We thank you, Lord.
For the communion of saints, in all times and places,
We thank you, Lord.
(People may offer thanks here for any other gifts of God.)
Above all, we give you thanks for the great mercies and
promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord;
To him be praise and glory, with you, O Father, and the
Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen”
Buechner on Hate
“Hate is as all-absorbing as love, as irrational, and in its own way as satisfying. As lovers thrive on the presence of the beloved, haters revel in encounters with the one they hate. They confirm him in all their darkest suspicions. They add fuel to all his most burning animositites. The anticipation of them makes the hating heart pound. The memory of them can be as sweet as young love.
The major difference between hating and loving is perhaps that whereas to love somebody is to be fulfilled and enriched by the experience, to hate somebody is to be diminished and drained by it. Lovers, by losing themselves in their loving, find themselves, become themselves. Haters simply lose themselves. Theirs in the ultimately consuming passion. ”