Having returned from a lovely little break away with Maddy, I return to the fray that is life. A couple of random thoughts:

1) A nice little post by my older brother at Instamatic Theology called “Lotto as plot-twist”. Not sure whether i agree or not, but liked the Coupland quotes. They link to the mumbo jumbo post, and maybe shed a tiny bit of light?

2) While I was away I read the “Memoirs” section at the start of “The Cost of Discipleship” by D Bonhoeffer [see other quote here]. I don’t know if you know much about him, but he was an amazing guy. He was killed by the Nazi’s for opposing the regime on the basis of his faith, even though much of the rest of the church was supporting it. He was influencial in the Confessional Church for a good while, but then he felt even they weren’t against it enough. There is much going around my head about issues of empire, post-christendom and how the church shouldn’t line up with the dominant system at the moment. If only there were time to blog about it! Anyway a couple of quotes form the memoirs were interesting:

Thus all kinds of secular totalitarianism which force man to cast aside his religious and moral obligations to God and subordinate the laws of justice and morality to the State are incompatible with his conception of life.” p24

“He felt that the Confessional Church was more concerned with her own existence and inherited rights than with preaching against the war and with the fate of the persecuted and oppressed. Thus it was Bonhoeffer who first brought home the full lesson of the Oxford Conference to the Lutheran Church in Germany, namely, that the life of the church must be linked to the life of the people.” p25

I trust you can see there the interesting balance of “difference” and “relevance”; “engagement” and “counter-cultural subversion” in the way the church relates to the wider culture.

3) This links with our conversations on Sabbath [as a day] recently as we discussed “the practice of rest”. It struck me that the early church celebrated “the Lord’s day” on a Sunday to mark his resurrection. However this was a work day. They decided to mark a pattern of life that was out of step with the wider culture. They didn’t expect the rest of the wider culture to shut-down with/for them, nor did they try to fit their pattern with the rest of their culture. I really don’t know quite what to think about that.

And of course Happy Valentines Day!

I think I would like this, if i understood it:

… the church must get back into the task of narrating our Story before the world, as opposed to marketing to the world. … “Who Gets To Narrate the World?” according to Brian, we must take the position that “nobody gets a privileged position.”

In my response, I asked, if we do accept that there are no metanarratives in the Lyotard sense, should the question even be “who gets to narrate the world?” Or should the question be instead, how can we narrate the Story we have been given more faithfully so that the truth of our story in Christ can be fully displayed and tested in the contest of narratives that has become our postmodern reality in the West? … How can we become less distracted with the various modes of selling the gospel, or defending it using meta foundations that no longer exist and instead return to the narration of the gospel of Christ so that the powerful living reality of God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost in a people can do the speaking?

Simon, you love that lingo don’t you? [lol]

You may notice a vaugue similarity to Walter Bruggeman, here.

“Being a Christian does not mean being religious in a certain way, or on the basis of some methodology to make something out of oneself, such as a sinner, penitent, or saint. It means being a human being. Christ creates us to be human, not to be some special type of human being. It is not some religious act that makes one a Christian, but taking part in God’s own suffering amid worldly life. That is what conversion means. Not to think first of one’s own distress or questions or sins or fears, but rather to allow oneself to be swept onto the path of Jesus Christ, into the messianic event itself, into realization that Isaiah 53 is now fulfilled. Hence: “Believe in the gospel,” or John’s reference to the ‘Lamb of God, who bears the sin of the world’ …

… Jesus calls us not to a new religion, but to life.”

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Poem and Letter to Eberhard Bethge, Tegel Prison, July 18, 1944, Meditations on the Cross, pp. 60-61

I thought this was a good follow on from the last post.

ht sivin kit

“Being a Christian does not mean being religious in a certain way, or on the basis of some methodology to make something out of oneself, such as a sinner, penitent, or saint. It means being a human being. Christ creates us to be human, not to be some special type of human being. It is not some religious act that makes one a Christian, but taking part in God’s own suffering amid worldly life. That is what conversion means. Not to think first of one’s own distress or questions or sins or fears, but rather to allow oneself to be swept onto the path of Jesus Christ, into the messianic event itself, into realization that Isaiah 53 is now fulfilled. Hence: “Believe in the gospel,” or John’s reference to the ‘Lamb of God, who bears the sin of the world’ …

… Jesus calls us not to a new religion, but to life.”

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Poem and Letter to Eberhard Bethge, Tegel Prison, July 18, 1944, Meditations on the Cross, pp. 60-61

I thought this was a good follow on from the last post.

ht sivin kit

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?”

“On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matt 9:10-13

“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” But wisdom is proved right by her actions.’”
Matt 11:19

I don’t know if you think it is a bit mad quoting these verses during Lent and a season of prayer and fasting [especially when I am fasting booze!]. But these verses struck me as I was reading them recently. It is classic in a period of fasting to think a lot about what we are giving up, what we are giving for the Lord. But you soon learn that Jesus was not impressed or interested by that kind of personal piety that makes you good about yourself but has not interest in others. I guess this is why the period of Lent has always had the sense of service towards others.

“I desire mercy not sacrifice”

Christian spirituality is never an individual affair. Never just “me and Jesus”. It always takes us beyond oursleves; outside of ourselves to others. Jesus instructs the Pharisees to “Go and learn it”. Otherwise the healthy get healthier and the sick get sicker.

“Wisdom is proved right by her actions”

Is it wise to eat with ’sinners’. Is it right to have the risk of being associated ith them, of being called “a drunkard and a glutton”. Jesus says look at the fruit, look at the result of such topsy-turvey wisdom. Luke quotes this verse too in Luke 7:35, right before he tells the story of Jesus ebing anounted by the ’sinful woman’. Here is the fruit of such wisdom, of such friendship - a woman pouring out love affection and ‘worship’ at Jesus feet.

Go and learn, think, consider what it might mean for you to act according to “I desire mercy not sacrifice”.

[You may want to read Isaiah 58 as you do...]