Marginal Christianity

I will be posting what I'm calling a Theological Journal each day beginning today. It will contain very brief reflections or notes on living with God in daily life. I call it "theological" and not devotional or practical because I hope it reflects the best of "theology" - living life in the light of God's presence, purpose, and the practices of God's people. You can find it here each day or in your email if you want to leave me y0ur email address. Today's entry is below. The ological Journal 2020 January 1 Who or what gets the first and last word of my day? Myself? TV? Social Media? Children? Other? If you do not have a practice such as the Daily Office here’s a simple, stripped down practice to get you started. Let the first word of your day be “Good morning, Lord. How was your night? What do you want to say to me this morning? Thank you for being present with me today. Through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.” Speak each s...

Notes -another psalm of David. -with Pss.3 and 4 this Psalm provides a morning/evening/morning pattern, perhaps an inducement to regular prayer (Grogan, Psalms : 1117). Exposition A king approaches a greater king in humble supplication (vv.1-3). David models here genuine leadership in the community of faith. Followership grounds every form of true leadership. Without a leader truly submitting him or herself to God, leadership practice gets highjacked into models alien to its true nature – corporate CEO, self-improvement therapist, social justice warrior, etc. But the fundamental identity of a faithful leader in God’s people is leading by following God. This seems self-evident but Israel’s history and our own show how rare leadership based on followership really is. Corporatism, therapist, and social justice warrior are all legitimate functions in the church. But their shape and manner of practice will be different by virtue of this leadership grounded in following from typic...

(A rough draft of a chapter from my forthcoming book on Bonhoeffer) I have argued that Subversive Counter-Revolutionary Movement captures the DNA of God’s people in scripture and that the Submerging Church captures the form and ethos the church needs today. This image, I argue, provides a compelling icon for the church’s identity and vocation today and setting for scripture to function authoritatively as God’s Word. I want to offer here a further description of such a community, particularly in light of the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.   This is not a model and certainly not a formula for doing church today. It is rather a set of characteristics we might expect to find in all sorts of different forms and configurations where the church embraces and attempts to live out this “general campaign of sabotage” (as C. S. Lewis wonderfully put it) against the disorder of the world. 1.     A prayer movement (DB’s arcane discipline) a.   ...

  Apr 12, 2017 issue To put it more bluntly: Isn’t it ridiculous (and maybe even idolatrous) to think that through our supplications we can persuade God into doing something God might otherwise not do? You might be surprised to hear that I take it as self-evident that the answer to that question is yes. The God of Job isn’t a god we can manipulate—by spiritually sanctioned means—to do what we want. Too often when people tell me they’ll pray for me, the implication left unsaid is that God is otherwise not already with me or at work in me and that if I’m not healed then somehow their prayers didn’t work. Such an understanding of prayer is incompatible with the God of the book of Job, a God who is at every moment the reason there is something instead of nothing. read more at https://www.christiancentury.org/article/prayer-isn%E2%80%99t-our-work-it%E2%80%99s-god%E2%80%99s 

It seems obvious that the Trump election resulted from many diverse factors. Some were less than noble impulses of the American psyche along with at least one legitimate concern that he made center stage. The only faithful role for the church toward any presidential administration is that of loyal opposition. Loyal, not to the opposing political party, but rather to Jesus Christ. We may find ways to encourage or support various things the new President does but it seems extremely unlikely that we will find ourselves supporting the attitudes and ideologies that ground the view of reality of these folks. They are not evil incarnate. But the “principalities and powers” seem to have a firm foothold among them. And it is the latter against whom we struggle according to the apostle Paul (Eph.6:10-12). Trump and his people are as much a victim of these powers as the people they diminish, dismiss, harm, or victimize in some way (as all administrations do). Social justice that -does not ...

Why should you pray? Because I can take nothing for myself and must instead ask everything of God; because I want to thank God for all his gifts. Why are you permitted to pray? Because my Lord Jesus Christ has commanded me to do so and wants to be my intercessor. For what should you pray? For all things necessary for the body and soul, which the child asks of its father. From a catechism he developed at Finkenwalde. Which prayers are pleasing to God? I should call on God alone in my prayer. For everything I ask, I should do so for Christ’s sake. I should believe with assurance that God hears me. I should pray with my heart rather than only with my mouth (Matt. 6: 5– 8). I should pray several times each day (in the morning, at midday, and in the evening). (1 Thess. 5: 17; Rom. 12: 12.) [—] John 15: 7; 16: 23– 24; Ps. 119. How does God answer prayers? By relieving us of and bearing all our care, trouble, and sin. All our prayers have been answered in the cross of J...

Sarah Coakley ABC Religion and Ethics 16 Feb 2016   There is a certain paradox at the heart of Christian prayer. One sees it most clearly in two of the central passages of the New Testament about prayer. "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ - if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him ... Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." ( Romans 8:14-17, 26-27) ...

by Matt Gunter Are you paying attention?    What are you paying attention to?   A monk needed to go for a day-trip to a big city, accompanied by an acquaintance. In the midst of urban’ uproar the monk claimed to have heard a cricket, though his companion did not believe him. Crossing the road and looking carefully under a tree the monk found the cricket, to the astonishment of his companion.    - You must have a superhuman hearing!    - No. My ears aren’t different from yours, said the monk. But everything depends on what you’re used to listening for. - No! I would not be able to hear a cricket in this noise!    - It all depends on what is important to you, reiterated the monk. Let’s make a demonstration. So the monk took out few coins from his packet and dropped them on the pavement. And despite of the loud noise of the city, all the people around them turned their heads thinking that the scattered coins could have fal...