Kris and I returned our son’s dog, Slater, today. On our return, Kris and I couldn’t resist a trip through Middlebury Indiana, a place surrounded with Amish. When our kids were grade schoolers, we spent an afternoon with Milton and Lizzie Yoder in Middlebury in their home. When I met Milt, he asked me pretty quickly this question: “What do you do for a living?” Now that has some gravity for the Amish, who take their vocations far more seriously... Read more
More than a few pastors are struggling with what they are called to be and do. I thought this short piece by John Frye, who has authored a book on Jesus as Pastor, is an articulate statement (except for the stuff about me). All this from one who loves pastoring and pastors. One who wants to see the pastoring role restored. Read more
Tomorrow I will begin a series of posts I will call Post-Calvinism, and I will begin with my journey into and out of Calvinistic theology. I know weekends are harder to stay up with reading blogs, but I’m hoping by Monday we can all be caught up. Read more
It is customary for the theologians to define the Church as a gathering where the Word is preached and the Sacraments performed. These are the two marks of the Church. My own take on the discussion is that this isn’t enough. If Kingdom morphs into Ecclesia, then we need to add a third “mark”: a missional community. We don’t just gather to hear the Word and observe the sacraments, but we gather as a missonal community to witness to that... Read more
The Apostle Paul’s view of Ecclesia is consistent with Jesus’ view of Kingdom (Basileia). For Paul, Kingdom is primarily Eternity or the Final Future Kingdom (see 1 C or 15:24), though he does use it in a way that makes me think he sees the Ecclesia as the primary manifestation of the Kingdom in the present world (Rom 14:17). If we recall our comments on The Magnificat and Jesus’ inaugural sermon, and recall the socio-economic emphasis on restoring humans to... Read more
The Apostle Paul’s view of Ecclesia is consistent with Jesus’ view of Kingdom (Basileia). For Paul, Kingdom is primarily Eternity or the Final Future Kingdom (see 1 C or 15:24), though he does use it in a way that makes me think he sees the Ecclesia as the primary manifestation of the Kingdom in the present world (Rom 14:17). If we recall our comments on The Magnificat and Jesus’ inaugural sermon, and recall the socio-economic emphasis on restoring humans to... Read more
I am sorting through some bibliography and can’t find a definitive comprehensive study of promise in the NT. Walt Kaiser made a case for its centrality in the OT, but I’m not seeing anything significant in NT studies. Newer NT theologies, Strecker and Stuhlmacher, don’t even have it as a topic in their references that I can see. A topic, perhaps, for a PhD dissertation student to consider? Read more
Today we explore the Ecclesia theme of 1 Peter, and do so as part of what Jesus envisioned in speaking about the Kingdom of God. What we are most interested in is how Peter saw the relationship of the Ecclesia (church) and the State with its powers. Tomorrow I will look at Paul. And it will not surprise you if I say that I think Jesus’ Kingdom language and Paul’s Salvation language have been too often separated from one another,... Read more
Played golf this morning, so am just getting to the blog. The big difference one notices in entering into the early churches is this: kingdom language is largely dropped and ecclesia (church) language is picked up. There all kinds of issues here, not the least of which is that as the Church trotted into its first decade the community became convinced of its “sectarian” status rather than a ruling status and this accounts for some, not all, of its switching... Read more
Played golf this morning, so am just getting to the blog. The big difference one notices in entering into the early churches is this: kingdom language is largely dropped and ecclesia (church) language is picked up. There all kinds of issues here, not the least of which is that as the Church trotted into its first decade the community became convinced of its “sectarian” status rather than a ruling status and this accounts for some, not all, of its switching... Read more
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