Not long ago a pastor-friend told me a story. At his church were two known lesbians with whom he had met a few times, and with whom he had developed a pleasant relationship. They liked the church. Then the Lord’s Supper was scheduled, and they asked him if they were welcomed at the Table. He explained, as sensitively as he could, that they would not be. Shortly thereafter they left the church. |inline Read more
Chp 4 of Gracious Christianity deals with the “Fullness of Salvation.” The authors, Douglas Jacobsen and Ben Sawatsky, open with a grand vision of what salvation is, and they begin with Ephesians 1:3-23: salvation is God’s redemption of the entire universe, including you and me. Do you agree with their definition? Here it is: |inline Read more
Because my responsibilities at North Park now include some administration, for the past two years my train-bus commute has instead become an early morning drive in my own car so I can stay later and leave when I need to. But, because we were flying last Thursday to Boston, I took the train and bus. Once again, I was struck by the Bible reading. As I sat down, I noted a man at the far end of my car reading... Read more
At the deepest level, Jesus summoned his followers to love God and to love others. The God they were summoned to love was the God of Israel, and the God of Israel spoke in Scripture and Jesus’ followers were therefore summoned to let that story of Israel be their story, which involves (as I concluded in the previous post) passages that are taken to one degree or another to be about homosexuality, though as we saw there, the OT texts... Read more
Chp 3 in Jacobsen and Sawatsky, Gracious Christianity, is about “hearing God’s voice.” God’s voice comes to us as summons, as a call. Here’s a great quotation: “God does not compete for our attention by trying to outyell everyone else” (52). And they believe God speaks and that we can hear God now, but “Christians are confident because we trust in God, but we are humble because we know the limits of oru own abilities” (53) — and here they... Read more
Many readers of this blog will know Bob Robinson, a former student of mine who is now in a college student ministry. Bob had emergency heart surgery last night, about which you can read more here, and I’m asking for prayers for him and his family. Why don’t we record some brief sentence prayers for him and his family here. Read more
Kris and I were in Boston this weekend, where I gave two worshops on Embracing Grace to the wonderful folks who attend Vision New England in downtown Boston. This is our second invitation, and both experiences were splendid. I do sense the attenders where receptive to my ideas, considered the suggstions about “cracked Eikons” with a fine-tooth comb, and had good questions. |inline Read more
When I was a child, our church, First Baptist Church in Freeport, IL, had the famous picture of Jesus. The popular pronunciation for the art was “Solomon’s Head of Christ.” Which of course was, and still is, wrong. The painting was by Warner E. Sallman, and so we should have been saying “Sallman’s Head of Christ.” A collection of his art now is on display at North Park University, and I’m finding it fascinating. |inline Read more
I’d like to see where my readers are on their view of Scripture. So I’ve set up a typology; no need to split hairs. Which category best fits what you think? I’ll mix them up here and not run across a spectrum: |inline Read more
1. Perhaps the “blog of the week” is the non-blogging about the Emergent-Jewish conversation. After mega-flapping about what would happen, now that it has happened, I’ve hardly seen a comment. Maybe I missed it — and do point it out, because I’m not sniping here. 2. [Blog to which I linked is not working: not working now. Sorry.] |inline Read more
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