I am re-reading Eugene Peterson’s As Kingfishers Catch Fire. He helps me to reimagine the work of preaching. He reminds me that we have done a fine job of taking apart a text historically, grammatically, and textually. We’ve also done a poor job learning from the text.
Continue reading “We seem to like having enemies”Author: Dan
The blindness of the American Church
33 “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. 35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.” Luke 11:33-36
Continue reading “The blindness of the American Church”The congruent life
“The Christian life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of congruence — congruence between ends and means, congruence between what we do and the way we do it, congruence between what is written in Scripture and our living out what is written, congruence between a ship and its prow, congruence between preaching and living, congruence between the sermon and what is lived in both preacher and congregation, the congruence of the Word made flesh in Jesus with what is lived in our flesh.” — Eugene Peterson, As Kingfishers Catch Fire
We seek to justify ourselves
How simple can it get? In Luke 10 a lawyer asks Jesus a question. Okay, check that. When the lawyer is the one asking the question, it’s never simple.
But here is the issue: a simple question was asked. A simple answer was given.
Continue reading “We seek to justify ourselves”The way of community
“I still think that the only solution is the land, and community, a community which is unjudging and which forgives ‘seventy times seven,’ as Jesus Christ said. We who think in terms of community at least have the assurance, the conviction, that we are on the right path, going in the right direction, taking the right means to achieve the goal of increased love of God through an increased and proven love of our brothers. So many in these days have taken violent steps to gain the things in this world — war to achieve peace; coercion to achieve freedom; striving to gain what slips through the fingers. We might as well give up our greatest desires, at least our hopes of doing great things toward achieving them, right at the beginning. In a way it is like that paradox of the gospel, of giving up one’s life in order to save it.” — Dorothy Day, from The Reckless Way of Love
The evangelical crisis
“…contemporary evangelicalism is in serious trouble. Actually, its crisis is the same one that afflicts all Christianity in America. At the risk of hubris, and the risk of merely adding one more item to the seemingly endless list of crises, I believe that the crisis lies at the heart of what ails large swaths of the American church. Alexander Solzhenitsyn named it in his speech upon receiving the Templeton Prize in Religion in 1968. He was talking about Western culture when he used it. I apply it to the American church, evangelical and not:
We have forgotten God.”
More HERE.
The passing of a great mentor
I lost a hero today. In the past couple of weeks the internet has exploded with grief over lost controversial figures and then poured out remembrances of great entertainers. Today I lost a hero of mine.
Continue reading “The passing of a great mentor”