If you were to attend the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and either wander through the bookstalls or spend an hour or so with the book that lists sessions, times, and locations, one thing would surely strike you. As Tony LaRussa once told famed baseball writer George Will, “There’s a lot goes on.” So I want to start an approximate ten part series on knowing the currents that flow in the river called Biblical Studies. |inline
Missional Jesus now reveals a fundamental principle of missional discipleship and it is one tough one to do well: |inline
I let the cat out of the bag Saturday in the Weekly Meanderings and the nice conversation that followed from it. I linked to the story of the reporter named Lobdell who, after a conversion to the faith and after covering the religion scene for a good long while, has walked away from his Christian faith. I mentioned then that I was doing some research on conversion theory and apostasy, so here’s the first in a series this month on loss of faith. My question will come up later in this post. |inline
Missional Jesus implored his contemporaries to realize that there are final and earthly consequences for how they live now. He warned his contemporaries who saw his deeds — deeds that evoked the presence of God’s kingdom — and who were not sensitive enough to see the hand of God at work that they would find judgment on themselves and on their communities. |inline
We are now back from Denmark and will resume our summer-long series on Missional Jesus. Today we look at Luke 7:18-23, a passage that deserves far more attention in gospel preaching than most permit, and it deserves more attention because it expresses the missional perspective of Jesus. Jesus, because he loved God and loved others, loved all others. It’s that simple and it’s that hard. No one loves all others easily. |inline
Missional Jesus not only drew a crowd, he summoned people to get with the kingdom mission and vision. In other words, he called people to “make a decision” or, what is better, to come to him and with him work for the kingdom of God. |inline
A while back I posted on our brief visit with Spencer Burke, creator of TheOoze.com. At the time I mentioned that Spencer had written a new book that gives a twist to universalism called The Heretic’s Guide to Heaven. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I’ll be taking a look at this book. The first section of Heretic’s Guide is called “Questioning Grace: The Future of Faith.” I like Spencer, and he has my respect for his website and for the energy and kindness he has brought to the world around him. But, and I can’t think this will surprise him, I stand on the other side of the fence when it comes to the central issues of his book. |inline
This is my last post on J. Frye’s wonderful book, Jesus the Pastor. I will do the final three chps today, and hope I’ve not said more than I should about this fine book. Chps 10 and 11 deal with the palpable presence of Jesus Christ in our lives and with the gifts of the Spirit. |inline
Last week we looked at the perpetual virginity. While we didn’t agree on each point, we did behave ourselves and, speaking for myself, worked our way through some issues that we might not think of very often. The immaculate conception, while it is not at all defensible from specific biblical passages, is one of the Marian doctrines that may have a theological logic much more in tune with Protestant theological thinking. |inline
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