Marginal Christianity

Isaiah 43:1-7 Psalm 29 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Artist  Ray Bartkus  has crafted an extraordinary work of art in the painting reproduced above. He wanted to use Lithuania’s Šešupė River as an integral part of his mural. In the objects in the actual world Bartkus painted upside-down. When one looks at the dark river magic happens. Reflected in its waters, the upside-down figures on the actual objects appear right-side up frolicking in the water ( https://mymodernmet.com/ray-bartkus-water-reflective-mural/?fbclid=IwAR2mcsQxZ90OnxqTxfUU1x2h8FwTNWGCdRMguq4EMW91uHLSy1q3XTx-zBg ). Using this creative piece as a springboard I want to offer a reflection for Baptism of the Lord Sunday, January 13, 2019. Everything in the world into which Jesus is born is upside-down. Religion, politics, social life, morality, economics, etc., everything is upside-down. I am reminded of the story of the thief who broke into to a...

                                                           by Alastair Roberts and Andrew Wilson                                                                                                      ...

The Sacraments are Boring and Irrelevant           The sacraments for us Protestants number two: Baptism and Eucharist or Communion or the Lord’s Supper. In all honesty, these rituals hold little purchase on our hearts and minds these days. Baptism, for those churches that baptism infants, is often little more than pious baby worship, and hence, idolatrous. And most of us have little idea of what the Eucharist is about. And often the little we do know is that it’s somber and sorrowful, with little scraps or cubes or wafers of bread and a thimble full of juice or wine passing for a “feast,” supposedly re-enacting the Last Supper, and it makes us late to the restaurant after worship for Sunday lunch.           There’s got to be more to them than that, though. Isn’t there? What happens when we celebrate them. Are they mere symbols of something else? That’s a common misconception needs to be deb...