Links and excerpts

Jurgen Moltmann on our conception of God and ourselves:

Without a revolution in the concept of God, however, there will be no revolutionary faith. Without God's liberation from idolatrous images produced by anxiety and hubris, there will be no liberating theology. Man always unfolds his humanity in relation to the divinity of his God, and he experiences himself in relationship to what appears to him as the highest being. He directs his life toward a highest value. He decides, who he is by his ultimate concerns. As Martin Luther said: "Where you put the trust of your heart, that in fact is your God." That holds true for the Christian faith just as for every secular faith.

In fact, there is no true theology of hope which is not first of all a theology of the cross.


Eugene Peterson on Annie Dillard on worship and creation:

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a contemplative journal of her attendance at the theater (of God's creation) over the course of a year. She is breathless in awe. She cries and laughs. In turn, she is puzzled and dismayed. She is not an uncritical spectator. During intermissions, she does not scruple to find fault with either writer or performance-all is not to her liking and some scenes bring her close to revulsion. But she always returns to the action and ends up on her feet applauding, Encore! Encore! "I think that the dying pray at the last not 'please,' but 'thank you,' as a guest thanks his host at the door. Failing from airplanes the people are crying thank you, thank you, all down the air; and the cold carriages draw up for them on the rocks. Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet. There is nothing to be done about it, but ignore it, or see. And like Billy Bray I go my way, and my left foot says 'Glory,' and my right foot says 'Amen': in and out of Shadow Creek, upstream and down, exultant, in a daze, dancing, to the twin silver trumpets of praise."

Got your cars Straight? On Automobile Gender and Sexuality

John McCain on the War

Pope Benedict, his new book on Jesus, and criticism of the West
"Only if something extraordinary happened, if the figure and words of Jesus radically exceeded all the hopes and expectations of his age, can his Crucifixion and his effectiveness be explained."

A Poetic Prayer from Down Under

God of Eternity, Lord of the Ages,
Father and Spirit and Saviour of men!
Thine is the glory of time’s numbered pages;
Thine is the power to revive us again.
Pardon our sinfulness, God of all pity,
Call to remembrance Thy mercies of old;
Strengthen Thy Church to abide as a city
Set on a hill for a light to Thy fold.
Head of the Church on earth, risen, ascended!
Thine is the honour that dwells in this place:
As Thou hast blessed us through years that have ended,
Still lift upon us the light of Thy face. Amen.

-Australian Presbyterian, Ernest Northcroft Merrington

On Institutions, Western Culture, and Spirituality

Speaking about lay movements in the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict's addressing of the spiritual state of Western Europe, Russell Shorto of the New York Times said in his article, "Keeping the Faith",

According to many observers, the lay movements substantially accounted for the unimagined numbers of mourners who poured into Rome. Data on declining church attendance obscure the fact that there is a good deal of spiritual hunger in Europe, but it is largely outside institutional religion, a phenomenon that the British sociologist Grace Davie calls “believing without belonging.” The Vatican is aware of this and says that the lay Catholic movements may represent a bridge, a way to bring the aimless, searching, largely secular Europeans back into the fold.

Msgr. Donald Bolen, an official with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told me that the lay movements “are movements of the Holy Spirit. The temptation in the church has long been to try to keep the parishes filled, to spend energy on maintenance. These movements are not about maintenance of old structures. But this isn’t a new thing. When Francis of Assisi started with his little band of disciples, some were confused. Movements within the church are not new.” The pope’s media spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, made much the same point to me: “The lay movements are a sign of life. The Vatican is not the whole church.”

But the problem is that the spiritual hunger that exists in Europe seems to be precisely for what the church can’t provide. Polls show that Europeans distrust institutions of all kinds. For an institution that is practically synonymous with hierarchy and control, the lay movements may represent as much a threat as a promise...

Benedict may be right that the Catholic Church has a world-historic chance to transform Europe and bring about change. But the church’s own strictures could work against that... “Think of the silencing of theologians in recent decades,” said Father Reese, the former editor of the Jesuit journal America. “The suppression of discussion and debate. How certain issues become litmus tests for orthodoxy and loyalty. All of these make it very difficult to do the very thing Benedict wants. I wish him well. I want him to succeed. But it seems everything he has done in the past makes it much more difficult to do it.”

A friend of mine living in Italy said that she felt like she has seen the possible future of Christianity and culture in the U.S. I saw some strikingly similar parallels as I read this article in the New York Times, confirming where it is that we are now in a post-Christian Western culture. Like mentioned in the quotes above, there is hope in the Spirit's work in the people, but there will be tension with the power structures of the institutional church to the extent that there are conflicting interests, both in the RCC and other denominations of the Christian church. It's really sad to me to see such power struggles. Though we must contend for the faith, it seems that many, once established as authorities on "the faith", contend for much more than that.

Like the last guy said, I really do want the Pope to succeed in helping Europe to move past postmodern secularism. I really do want the institutional church to succeed so far as it makes disciples of Jesus, but it seems that, like the Jews of Jesus' day, there are some systemic "logs" that will prevent the institutional church from being all that, in Christ, it could be.

Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus, make all things new.

"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (Jn 17:20)

The Shadow of Good Friday

To reflect and to pray.

"But what Christ did on the Cross was in no way intended to spare us death but rather to revalue death completely. In place of the 'going down into the pit' of the Old Testament, it became 'being in paradise tomorrow'. Instead of fearing death as the final evil and begging God for a few more years of life, as the weeping king Hezekiah does, Paul would like most of all to die immediately in order 'to be with the Lord' (Phil 1:23). Together with death, life is also revalued: 'If we live, we live to the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord' (Rom 14:8).
-Hans Urs von Balthasar (as quoted at the BHT)

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you." (John 15:18)

VOM News and Prayer Update: April 3, 2007

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."(Hebrews 12:1-2)

UZBEKISTAN
Pastor Appeals Sentence - VOM Sources/Forum 18 News
Pastor Dmitry Shestakov has appealed his four-year work-camp sentence. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts, Pastor Shestakov's family will be permitted to go with him to one of Uzbekistan's open work camps. Forum 18 News reported that in imposing its verdict, the court said it would be impossible to "re-educate" Shestakov without isolating him from society. Forum has also reported that prison administration has banned Pastor Shestakov from kneeling to pray and his New Testament has been confiscated. In exchange, he has been offered the Koran to read. He remains imprisoned in Andijan until his appeal is heard. Pray Pastor Shestakov's appeal is successsful and for God to comfort his family. Psalm 41:2-3


NIGERIA
Teacher Killed by Muslim Students - Compass Direct News/VOM Sources
On March 21, 2007, Christianah Oluwasesin, a teacher at a secondary school in Northern Nigeria was beaten, stoned and burned by Muslim students over claims she desecrated the Quran. According to a Compass Direct News report, Oluwasesin was supervising a final examination on Islamic religious knowledge when she collected papers, books and bags from the all-girls class and in accordance with school procedure and dropped them in front of the class to prevent cheating. According to another teacher, soon after Oluwasesin dropped the bags in front of the class, one of the girls began to cry. She told her classmates she had a copy of the Quran in her bag, that Oluwasesin touched the bag and by doing so had desecrated the Quran, since she was a Christian. This led to a riot which was joined by Muslim extremists, resulting in Oluwasesin being beaten to death. They brought old mats to where her body was, placed dirt on her corpse and then burned it. The Voice of the Martyrs has met with her husband and is supporting her family. Pray God will comfort Oluwasesin's family and for her testimony to those that killed her, that it will bring them into the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:5


INDIA
Christians Attacked, Pastor's Arrested - VOM Sources

• ORISSA - On March 18, 2007, Hindu extremists attacked Abraham Burdhan with a sword. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts, Abraham was pulled off his bicycle, beaten with rods and sticks on his whole body and hit with a sword causing severe injury to his hand. Doctors are not hopeful they can save all four of his fingers and think he will lose two. Pray for Abraham's healing and the safety of more than 20 Christian families living in the area which is in the midst of more than 150 Hindu families.
• RAJASTHAN - Pastors Gorthan Leetha, Laxman Gorthan, Khana Gutta and Ramesh Gutta were attacked by Hindu radicals and handed over to the police, who are sympathetic with the radicals. They are being held in the local prison. In addition, more than 30 families had to flee the area when they were attacked and their homes destroyed. The families had to scatter to nearby villages and work as laborers. Meanwhile, VOM in partnership with Emmanuel Ministries is providing emergency food and clothing for the family, and their pastor is helping them relocate to relatively safe, Udaipur City. Pray for the pastors in prison and the families who have lost all their belongings. Ask God to comfort them and encourage them to continue standing for Him.
• KUNDRA - On March 25, Pastor Rajendra Chauhan was arrested after Hindu extremists complained he was involved in "forced conversions." He was charged under the State's Anti-Conversion Law because the police said he was holding large religious gatherings without asking permission. Through VOM's legal network, Pastor Chauhan was released. Pray his ministry will not be hindered by these challenges. Psalm 111: 5-9

www.persecution.com

Training and Tradition

Some thoughts on training for Christian ministry.

Where I work we talk about it a lot, so I thought, why not a little more? It's natural for us as humans to find that the things that we have systematized and refined for the purposes of understanding and transferability have lost their edge and clarity of vision. So, it's helpful and necessary to rethink old concepts reconstituted in new contexts so as to bring the vision back into focus and the life back into the methods.

In thinking about training, we want to train so as to enable the vision to take root and grow in the community of faith for the sake of the of the world. In our training we want not so much to instruct as to enable, to provide the trellises without which the vines have nowhere to go. We want to make level the roads to freedom, creativity, and inspiration so that students can engage authentically in Christ with the world around them, speaking and acting in the world and as part of the world so as to be light and salt, the truth and redemptive power of the Gospel, to bring people to Christ and Christ to the people.


"Tradition, then, is not something which is essentially static and backward looking. It looks to the past and seeks to learn from its inheritance; but it looks equally to the present and the future, seeking in the acquired wisdom of former generations appropriate ways and means of dealing with new challenges and circumstances; seeking to adapt itself, so that its voice may be heard speaking in the language which today's generation can hear and understand; committed to the view that what it offers is of lasting value, but open in principle to the revision and adaptation which ongoing engagement with reality and new discoveries may compel it to accept." - Trevor Hart in Faith Thinking, p. 180