Any resemblance to actual ideas, living or dead, including events and localities, is entirely hermeneutical
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Open hands: desiring change & needing sameness.
Monday, November 16, 2009
We don't know who we are...
Friday, November 13, 2009
All things new.
One thing that the Christian Bible teaches in Genesis 3 is that close to the start of human history, a couple of people turned away from what was good by deciding that they knew better than God. And, since then, that’s exactly what all people keep on doing: all of us keep walking away from the good.
Yet, fortunately, we haven’t forgotten what goodness is. Even when we step out of the light, we are acutely aware of what light looks like. This residual good is ingrained in us. It’s built into us, part of our genetic and psychological makeup, and no matter how hard we try to shake it, we all know what is right and what is wrong.
Now, the point I want to get to is this: all of us, fallible as we are, are pretty good at noticing what’s wrong. The problem is, we forget to see that God’s grace is all about making things right, putting this broken world and our broken souls back together. God is all about drawing us back to Himself, bringing us back to Eden.
If we begin the human story at Genesis 3, all we will see is our fallenness (in the form of what St. Augustine calls “The doctrine of original sin). And, certainly, we are fallen. But if we read Genesis 1 and 2, we see that it all starts with a good God who made everything good. And the whole story of the Bible is all about returning to good. Genesis 3 belief calls us to simply get rid of the bad. Genesis 1 and 2 belief encourages us to figure out what a whole, full, joyful life looks like.
The Hebrew word ‘teshuva’ (often translated ‘repent’) simply means ‘return’, and it’s found all over the Bible. Return, like the prodigal son; return like an adulterer who realises that infidelity breeds contempt; return like an addict, who sees that there was a time before that addiction ruined his life.
So return.
Being a follower of Christ isn’t about becoming really good at pointing out how stuffed up everything is – everyone’s doing that. Being a follower of Christ isn't about discovering that there are all sorts of rules that we need to follow to learn how to get into heaven. Being a Christian means waking up to the fact that, in small and great ways, something amazing is happening. Revelation 21:5 records Jesus’ words, which are a magnificent summary of this happening:
“See, I am making all things new.”
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
New rules for a very old game.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
You are the message
Monday, October 26, 2009
Ideas that breathe
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A parable
Monday, October 19, 2009
Polemics
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Emergent detergent
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Control
"... Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen."
There's a huge amount of freedom that comes when we realise that we are not in control; in short, when we realise that we are not God. This is not to negate free will, but to accept that the greatest freedom comes, paradoxically, when we relinquish our freedom. After all, it is written that those who lose their lives will be found.