:<\/em><\/h3>\n(if and when you read it post YOUR takeaways in the comments section below!)<\/em><\/p>\n\n- The Paradoxes\u00a0of scripture reveal a God bent on\u00a0relationship\u00a0\u2013<\/strong> One of the most frustrating thing about\u00a0the God of the Bible\u00a0is that\u00a0God refuses to fit neatly into a system.\u00a0God doesn\u2019t seem to care if you have God nailed down. Instead what seems to be important is that you have a relationship with him. God\u2019s primary self-revelation wasn\u2019t a book of laws, or a philosophy, but a person named Jesus. Jesus shows us that God is interested in being present with us more then he is interested then explaining himself to us and the scriptures reflect this tension. It would be simpler if God just told us what to do in cold hard facts, but the best things in life are rarely systematic and straight forward. Sarah writes:
\nEdicts are easier than nudges. Scrolling ticker tapes are clearer than old scrolls, and in our religion-addled concepts of God as our get-out-of-hell card or an angry Judge, we can\u2019t conceive of an invitation to real relationship within the peace\u2014the shalom\u2014of a good God.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n
\n- We are all practicing melodies \u2013 are they melodies of cynicism or love? \u2013 <\/strong>When we want to make the world a better place, and it seems like all we do is fail it can be easy to lash out. I hate this, mostly because I see it in myself. Sarah\u2019s story is one of hope because she also begins to learn to play the scales of love. I hope I can do so too. Sarah writes:
\nYears ago, I practiced anger and cynicism, like a pianist\u00a0practices scales, over and over.\u00a0I practiced being defensive\u2014about my choices and my mothering, my theology and my politics. And then I went on the offense. I repeated outrage and anger. I jumped, Pavlovian, to right every wrong and defend every truth, refute every inflammatory blog post, pontificate to every question. Any sniff of disagreement was a dinner bell clanging to my anger: Come and get it! Rally the troops!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u00a0<\/p><\/li>\n
- A great\u00a0image of the trinity. \u2013 <\/strong>This takeaway is just a quote I thought was a beautiful reflection of the Trinitarian life of the church and the power of the sacrament of Marriage:
\nOur marriages can give some small and imperfect glimpse of the distinct oneness of the Trinity in action, warriors fighting in distinct unity, then we need to dance, in and around and with each other, in intimacy and mutual submission. Theologians throughout church history have used the term perichoresis, a Greek word meaning \u201can indwelling,\u201d to describe the relationship of and between the Trinity. Perichoresis is far past fellowship; it\u2019s the center of intimacy, a cleaving together born of friendship and love. Mystical and divine, it\u2019s an imperfect metaphor, yet there is no hierarchy, only more love; there is a breathing after one another and a making room for the other. The Trinity \u201cworks\u201d by never-ending giving to each other and the receiving of the other out of each other. It\u2019s a procession of togetherness in the blur of oneness.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u00a0<\/p><\/li>\n
- You can fall widely in love with Jesus \u2013<\/strong> When I first saw this book, I thought it would be a book on feminism that touches on Jesus. Instead I discovered that this is a book about Jesus that touches on feminism. This was great. For better or worse most of the Christian feminist writing I had encountered before started with feminism and applied that perspective to Christian theology. This book, however, started with a life that was transformed by Jesus and then talked about how this deep love helped develop a feminist perspective. This book is all about Jesus, which is actually kind of rare in Christian books. It\u2019s not primarily about philosophy, theology, soteriology, exegesis, Christian living or social justice (the things that seem to dominate books today). Everything is built on Jesus, and I love that.<\/li>\n
- Our best dreams find their source from the kingdom of God \u2013 <\/strong>Sarah writes a whole chapter on this\u2026 and I loved the whole bit\u2026 but here is one excerpt that stuck with me because it highlights the little ways that the hope of the kingdom infects my life every day in little ways.
\nI think the Kingdom is in every good and perfect moment in our lives, because these moments serve as a taste, just a small taste, of what God truly intends for us. It\u2019s in our bonfire for dancing and laughter. It\u2019s friends who show up when it matters. It\u2019s making your tinies laugh. It\u2019s sleeping babes curled into their mother\u2019s breast and the heft of holding another soul.It\u2019s wisdom and beauty, peace, love and joy, and then it\u2019s also good coffee and real food, late-afternoon sun and handmade quilts. It\u2019s the renewal of morning. It\u2019s making love and waking up in each other\u2019s arms, satiated and tangled.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u00a0<\/p><\/li>\n
- A Great Canadian Discipleship image \u2013 <\/strong>There was a great image of discipleship used by Sarah, where she describes learning to walk in her fathers footsteps through the snow. Although I am not Canadian, I did grow up in Michigan which is pretty close. This brought back memories of trudging through drifts with my Father, and I thought it was a really great image to use. His steps became my steps. His struggle made offered me a path and brought me relief.<\/li>\n
- Women in ministry is less about what is on paper then what is in practice<\/strong> \u2013 This was a huge part of the book for me. Although there are many church bodies that allow women to be pastors now, in practice, many churches still don\u2019t view women as equal to Men or able to minister in the same capacities as men. In my old denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church, I knew many many women pastors who struggled to find churches that would even consider hiring a women pastor and those who did find work seemed to be trapped in perpetual \u201cassociate pastor\u201d positions or relegated to youth and family ministry. They had \u201cWomen in Ministry\u201d on paper, but not always in practice. Now that I am in the Catholic Church I am in a church that doesn\u2019t have women pastors on paper, but women have long been included as some of the primary theologians in the Church, leaders in movements, and earth shakers for Jesus. Is the Catholic church perfect, no, but this perspective has helped me recognized the good that we DO have in spite of all the criticism.<\/li>\n
- Living love is the starting point for our real life \u2013 <\/strong>Sarah makes this comment as she argues that there are no great thing, and no lasting change apart from loving people. As someone who often gets overwhelmed by the weight of the worlds problems, and believes that it is my responsibility to fix the world this is a very very helpful reminder. The moments that matter are those done in love, and these are generally not great movements but small sacrifices.<\/li>\n
- Others First! \u2013 <\/strong>Sarah writes \u201cmy activism as a Jesus feminist is marked and distinguished as being on behalf of others first.\u201d<\/em> This seems to be the key to this whole book. The thing that makes a Jesus Feminist different from some other form of feminism is that it is focused on laying down ones life for the sake of others. It declares that Women are just as able as men to lay down their lives, just as gifted to be a living sacrifice, and just as called to service as men.<\/li>\n
- You are sent to the spot where you are \u2013 <\/strong>Although much of the book talks about Sarah\u2019s struggles with a church culture that doesn\u2019t allow women to lead as official pastors in churches there is a section near the end where she highlights that no matter what vocation someone finds themselves in, it is a sacred place where small acts with great love call flow out, and melodies of love and ring forth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My wife and I enjoy sparing on religious and political topics. It is one of our favorite pastimes. I am generally a bit left of center and she is generally a bit right. One of our favorite topics to debate is whether or not I am a feminist. She doesn\u2019t think so. For her feminism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1678,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
10 takeaways from Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My wife and I enjoy sparing on religious and political topics. It is one of our favorite pastimes. I am generally a bit left of center and she is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2013\/10\/10-takeaways-from-jesusfeminist-by-sarahbessey.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 takeaways from Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My wife and I enjoy sparing on religious and political topics. It is one of our favorite pastimes. I am generally a bit left of center and she is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2013\/10\/10-takeaways-from-jesusfeminist-by-sarahbessey.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Orant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-15T17:14:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-02-13T18:56:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/files\/oldfiles\/-F-WQ4whATvg\/Ul2gxs2U1wI\/AAAAAAAAG2A\/Q9-akt5noXQ\/s1600\/jesus.PNG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Billy Kangas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Billy Kangas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2013\/10\/10-takeaways-from-jesusfeminist-by-sarahbessey.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2013\/10\/10-takeaways-from-jesusfeminist-by-sarahbessey.html\",\"name\":\"10 takeaways from Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-15T17:14:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-02-13T18:56:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/#\/schema\/person\/2c17428b1556df23f5982263d9dbd58d\"},\"description\":\"My wife and I enjoy sparing on religious and political topics. 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<\/a>My wife and I enjoy sparing on religious and political topics. It is one of our favorite pastimes. I am generally a bit left of center and she is generally a bit right. One of our favorite topics to debate is whether or not I am a feminist. She doesn\u2019t think so. For her feminism today has become too associated with things like abortion to be a useful designation for pro-life people, like myself.<\/div>\n