Field notes on life and mission with God after Christendom
Two quotes worth meditating on today, one from an expected source, one from an unexpected source.
“The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.”
– N.T. Wright
“In a world where the dead have returned to life, the word” trouble’ loses much of its meaning.”
– Dennis Hopper
Christmas is an easy time for Christians to get sentimental and schmaltzy, so in the interest of remembering how radically earth-shattering this event was, here are some thoughts on the Incarnation of Christ from N.T. Wright:
How can you cope with the end a world and the beginning of another one? How can you put an earthquake into a test-tube, or the sea into a bottle? How can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human, that the fire has become flesh, that life itself came to life and walked in our midst? Christianity either means that, or it means nothing. It is either the more devastating disclosure of the deepest reality in the world, or it’s a sham, a nonsense, a bit of deceitful play-acting. Most of us, unable to cope with saying either of those things, condemn ourselves to live in the shallow world in between…
– N.T. Wright, For All God’s Worth
I’ve probably put this quote up before, but today I saw it again on Fitch’s blog, and I love it so much I thought I’d just post it here, too. It’s from Gerhard Lohfink’s book Does God Need the Church?:
“It can only be that God begins in a small way, at one single place in the world. There must be a place, visible, tangible, where the salvation of the world can begin: that is, where the world becomes what it is supposed to be according to God’s plan. Beginning at that place, the new thing can spread abroad, but not through persuasion, not through indoctrination, not through violence. Everyone must have the opportunity to come and see. All must have the chance to behold and test this new thing. Then, if they want to, they can allow themselves to be drawn into the history of salvation that God is creating. Only in that way can their freedom be preserved. What drives them to the new thing cannot be force, not even moral pressure, but only the fascination of a world that is changed.”
The fascination of the world that is changed… communities becoming an embodied witness of the reality of the in-breaking kingdom… beautiful stuff.
Two quotes for you on this Good Friday:
“Jesus today has many who love his heavenly kingdom, but few who carry his cross; many who yearn for comfort, few who long for distress. Plenty of people he finds to share his banquet, few to share his fast. Everyone desires to take part in his rejoicing, but few are willing to suffer anything for his sake. There are many that follow Jesus as far as the breaking of bread, few as far as drinking the cup of suffering; many that revere his miracles, few that follow him in the indignity of his cross.”
– Thomas à Kempis
“Jesus didn’t go to the cross so we wouldn’t have to. He went to the cross so we could join him there.”
– Dallas Willard
In honor of a true modern-day prophet, here are the final words of Martin Luther King, Jr’s strangely prophetic speech the day before his murder.
It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, “We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we’ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.”
