Marginal Christianity

Luke’s Pentecost tale is a triad of stories: -Acts 2:1-13 the experience of "tongues," -Acts 2:14-41 Peter's speech and the response of the crowd, and -Acts 2:42-47 the discipleship community of goods. The first two parts, what we usually consider the Pentecost story is fascinating, perplexing, strange, and a bit fabulous. And if we don’t read to closely we get away with sentimentally celebrating the “birthday: of the church and move on without further ado. Closer reading, however, will not allow that. If in the gift of the Spirit Jesus returns to indwell his church, that is, if God “comes again” to them, we should expect a thorough reworking of the church’s life in every area. This is what happened to Israel when God called Abraham and Sarah and redeemed their family from Egypt and made them his own people and we should expect nothing less when his Spirit is poured out on them. And it is that reworking of the shape of the church’s life we find if we include

The questions the twelve asked Jesus about this parable prompts him to ask how they will understand any of the parables (v.13). His parabolic announcement of Jubilee, then, is paradigmatic of what the Jesus movement is all about. And as hard as it may be even for them (to whom its mystery has been given, v.10) to “get” this parable, they should not be surprised when it “sowing” to their contemporaries issues in much rejection. Thus, Jesus uses its imagery to craft a parable on “hearing.” Some hearers are on path where the word was sown. They have no chance as Satan himself swoops in and removes the word from them. Enmity to Jesus’ Jubilean word has more than human rejection to deal with. Think here of a balloon lying deflated in your hand. You intend to blow it up but somehow, for some reason, you never get around to it. The balloon lies limp not doing what it was meant to do. Some hearers are like seed sown on rocky ground. They accept it at first happily but its puts down

After the skirmish with the scribes over forgiveness, Jesus retires to the countryside, the bailiwick of the Pharisees who were more interested in village and family life than affairs of the temple. With a crowd watching on he encounters and calls a tax-collector, Levi, to follow him. This risk and scandalous move by Jesus could come back to bite him in the butt. And it does. Pharisees bristle at his welcome of such a one into the FoK and sharing a table with him and other rabble at his house. Tax-collectors were “damned” -by virtue of their job requiring them to work with Gentiles, -because they were often unscrupulous, and -because they symbolized the hated colonial rule of Rome over Palestine. In essence, Israel was in debt to Rome, and tax-collectors were debt-collectors, recouping what was due to Rome (and a chunk more for themselves). No surprise they were despised! The presence of debtors (the rabble) and the debt-collector (Levi) at the same table is an act o

http://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/3995/capitalism-religion-and-the-economics-of-the-biblical-jubilee/ Capitalism offers unrestricted capital mobility and unrestrained debt creation. Is there an alternative? Perhaps we should investigate the biblical vision of Jubilee. July 12, 2013 - By Paul Williams Capitalism as Ideology Much of mainstream economics presents capitalism as a morally neutral economic system. It does so with two arguments. The first focuses on the individual consumer (or firm or worker). Capitalism is morally neutral, it is argued, because it is designed to enable individuals to make their own choices based on whatever values they happen to have. The second focuses on overall systemic outcomes: capitalism generates the largest possible economic pie and we can then choose what to do with the proceeds. But are these arguments compatible? Capitalism is not, in fact, morally neutral. The apparent neutrality of individual choice masks