I Can't Wait - It's Coming Soon...

Dallas Willard on Grace and the Kingdom of God

Man, I really like what he says here:

People are Awesome

They really are:

The Existential Quiz - My Results

I'm not sure what to make of this, but when  I took the quiz, this is what it said:

The Existential Quiz Your Result: You are Kierkegaard's KNIGHT OF FAITH!   You are an existentialist at heart but still believe in a God. You realize that faith does not mean blindly going to church and following a couple of meaningless rules. Faith and life for you are both an arduous and private journey that requires a personal relationship with God. Talking about your faith is useless. No one  will understand your conviction. You make your own path to faith and redemption. A true Christian existentialist!
You are Camus' ABSURD MAN!
You are Dostoevsky's UNDERGROUND MAN!
You are Nietzsche's UBERMAN!
The Existential Quiz Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Complicating God

Sometimes I so over-complicate God and living fully.

This weekend I have been at a teaching on the Gospel of John by Dr. Ben Witherington. It has been a delightful event and I've learned a lot. God only knows how much I will retain.

But lately, it seems like I'm way over thinking God and spiritual matters. For instance, I've been really intrigued by two theological subjects (in addition to my recovery spirituality I live out in the rooms): the Gospel of John and atonement.

There is something about the Gospel of John that just keeps me coming back to it (kind of like AA). I love Chapter 13 and the acts of love and service Jesus demonstrated when washing his friends' feet, especially when he knew right at that moment that he was the all powerful Lord of Lords and King of Kings. That just blows me away thinking about it. What love, how giving can you possibly be?

And then atonement. I think the thing I don't get is the importance of justice to God, so much so that he requires a gruesome death of his son whom he loved so much, to reconcile us - who loves so much - back to Him. If He loves Jesus so much and loves us so much, why can't He just forgive and reconcile - amnesty, if you will? As you can see, I don't get it.

For a while when I thought about this it seemed to me that God, in requiring the death of Christ in ransom payment for our sins, was not forgiving because He was requiring payment: the death of Jesus. I thought grace and forgiveness were something given by the person doing the forgiving. For example, if someone owes me $100 and I forgive that debt, then inherent in my act of forgiveness, there is no payment to me - the debt is gone - it's a gift from me to the debtor.

But in the case of Jesus and his atoning death for my sins, God's holiness demand for justice in that reconciliation has a price: Jesus's death. A ransom is paid. That doesn't seem free to me.

How is that forgiveness?

Right now, the only explanation I have is two part: first, that is just the way it is - God is God and this is the way it was, is, and forever will be. The other is based on the trinity: God is bearing the cost of the forgiveness by His death on the cross. We are not paying anything, God is paying. God was on the cross in his son. We are not paying anything - He is. I'm slowly getting that. But still struggling.

So, my brain is fried on all that. God, I surrender my brain to you. I turn my will and my life over to you. Please relieve me of the bondage of me so that I may do your will and not mine.

I love you dearly.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Do I Deny the Resurrection?

These words are so powerful to me. They are not my words but those of Hugh Hollowell and Peter Rollins. I can add nothing…

Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think…

I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.

However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.

As you might expect, this does not calm the questioners down. They accuse me of not understanding the question. I understand the question perfectly well. I think they are the ones who do not know what they are asking.

So let me be even more clear:

The ancient story is that the most powerful government the world had ever known, Rome, had done the worst thing it could imagine to this man Jesus. They beat him and killed him by the most brutal means at their disposal. Yet and still, the last words on his lips are reported to be his asking God to forgive his killers. On that Friday, the powers of the world said “No” to Jesus and the Kingdom of God he was preaching. If the tomb was empty on that Sunday morning long ago, that was God’s “Yes” to Rome’s “No”. If the tomb was empty, then love overcame power and vindicated Jesus. It means that Jesus was right – the Kingdom of God is at hand, and we are invited to live in it.

If I swear allegiance to this Kingdom, where apparently the dream of God is that it be on Earth as it is in Heaven, then that has implications for how I live. If I pledge allegiance to the USA, it means I should not sell secrets to China. If I pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of God, then I cannot see how I can lend aid and support to the powers that oppose it, such as consumerism, militarism, class disparity and xenophobia.

If I act hateful, or in fact, less than loving to my neighbor, I have denied the resurrection just as surely as my selling state secrets to China denies my allegiance to the USA. I can wave a flag all day, but if I am acting against my country, you can hardly call me a patriot. And I can believe whatever you want about what happened that Sunday morning, but if I am not using what power I have to help God bring the Kingdom into fruition, to help make it on Earth as it is in Heaven, I don’t expect you to call me a Christian.

Makes Sense to Me