Marginal Christianity

Ch.4: Forgiveness of Sins is the Point of the Biblical Story Reclaim and Restore           In the last chapter I already answered this concern in terms of the reason why Jesus became human in the first place. We saw that it doesn’t make much sense to claim that he came only to die so that our sins may be forgiven. That commits us to the claim that sin is then necessary to create a reason for Jesus to come. I think most who hold this view have never seen this implication it carries and I hope that once seeing it they would look for a better understanding of Jesus and why he became human for us.           That better understanding, I argued, is found in God’s eternal purpose in creation: to have a world full of creatures with whom to share his life in joyful communication, communion, and community on this globe though all the ages. To share life fully with us God was always going to send Jesus to become one of us because . . . how can God share his life with us more fully an

http://www.faithandleadership.com/content/l-gregory-jones-and-kelly-gilmer-cultivating-institutions-nurture-holy-friendship?page=0,0 Shared practices that enable us to recognize the interconnected character of our stories and to re-narrate our lives in more life-giving ways must be at the center of our institutional DNA. August 14, 2012 | Throughout his life, Tsietsi Mashinini, a young black South African, had been told he had no value as a human being. That changed in the mid-1970s, when he found a discipleship group in a local Methodist congregation. The people in that church befriended him, not just as casual friends, but as holy friends. They challenged his sense of having little self-worth. They encouraged him to claim his gift for leadership. They helped him dream of the end of apartheid. Mashinini went on to become one of the leaders of the Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976, an event that South Africans name as pivotal to the beginning of the end of apartheid. His dream bec