I’m doing a close reading of Stanley Hauerwas’ great book A Peaceable Kingdom. Here’s my favorite passage from today:
“Of course, Christians are not just asked to see themselves as sinners. We are to do something about our sin. We are called to be disciples and even to count ourselves as among the righteous. Our call is not a general admonition to be good, but a concrete and definite call to take up the way of life made possible by God’s redemptive action for us in the cross. To be redeemed, as I suggested above, is nothing less than to learn to place ourselves in God’s history, to be part of God’s people. To locate ourselves within that history and people does not mean we must have some special experience of personal salvation. Redemption, rather, is a change in which we accept the invitation to become part of God’s kingdom, a kingdom through which we acquire a character befitting one who has heard God’s call. Now an intense personal experience may be important for many, but such experiences cannot in themselves be substitutes for learning to find the significance of our lives only in God’s ongoing journey with creation.”
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