Marginal Christianity

“We all want things to go back to normal quickly. But what most of us have probably not yet realized—yet will soon—is that things won’t go back to normal after a few weeks, or even a few months. Some things never will.”                                                      Gideon Lichfield, Technology Review, Mar.17, 2020. One thing we cannot say at this point about the new world of worldwide pandemic we are entering is that once it is over we will return to normal. One reason is that “we” who say that today will not be the “we” who exit the other side of this crisis. We can’t help but think that now but it good to be alerted that it will not likely be the case then. And who can tell what “we” then will think of as normal or the d...

The right are giddy and the left in despair because the former now has the upper hand in running the US. Christians of all strips share either the giddiness or the despair. The church, however, while seeking and supporting what public goods it can, has no brief for running the US or any other country either directly or as partisans of a particular political vision. We are those who model a wholly different way, the way of the cross. That is the only "throne" from which we "ru ... le." Just like our master Jesus Christ. We are not called to make a difference in this world (though we will if we follow our proper mandate) but rather demonstrate a different world that has broken in to our fallen reality, follow a new king announcing a new creation that is humanity's destiny. Kingdoms and empires come and go. So will America. It, as Tony Campolo cleverly observed, may be the best Babylon the world has ever seen, but it's still a Babylon. America's pretention...

Dorothy Day · The works of mercy · Learning mercy step by step · Paying the cost of love The spiritual works of mercy are to admonish the sinner, to instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to comfort the sorrowful, to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive all injuries, and to pray for the living and the dead. The corporal works of mercy are to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to ransom the captive, to harbor the harborless, to visit the sick, and to bury the dead. When Peter Maurin talked about the necessity of practicing the works of mercy, he meant all of them. He envisioned houses of hospitality in poor parishes in every city of the country, where these precepts of our Lord could be put into effect. He pointed out that we have turned to the state through home relief, social legislation, and social security, that we no longer practice personal responsibility, but are repeating the words of the first murderer, “Am I my brot...

The Book of the Twelve for Lent 2016 A Whale of a Tale – Jonah (1)           Jonah is doubtless the most well-known book in the Twelve. But not as a part of the Twelve. Usually we heard it in Sunday School when we were young, perhaps on a flannel graph. Then we were thrilled or perplexed at how the whale could swallow a man and yet he lived to do God’s bidding. We debated whether the story was “historical” or some kind of parable or literary creation. We took away the lesson that this entertaining little story is about Jonah’ unwillingness to proclaim God’s mercy to the wicked Nineveh.           And if this is the case, we missed the thrust and importance of Jonah.           First of all, Jonah is some kind of a story (even if there be some kind of “historical” event underlying it). It is literary artistry of a high order.   ...

For God has made all men prisoners, that he may have mercy upon all. (Romans 11.32) "Since God's mercy is divine and not human, it is poured out on all people, as emphasized in our text. In his letter to the Romans Paul interprets this mercy by insisting that it is extended to Jews and the gentiles- to those near, or at least nearer, to God and those far away from him- to the so-called pious and the so-called unbelievers- to the so-called good and the so-called evil people- truly to all. God has mercy on all, though each in his own way. God's mercy is such as it described in the parable of the lost sheep, of the lost coin, and of the prodigal son. Read more at http://messianicparsha.blogspot.ca/2016/02/the-mercy-of-god-excerpt-from-sermon-of.html

What Will Pass for Mercy April 21, 2015 by Guest Contributor 0 Comments By Brian Volck “Do not say God is just. Justice has not been evident in God’s dealings with you.”
—Isaac of Syria Among the habits I’ve lately tried living without are reading online comment boxes (Good Letters being an exception) and making predictions. I bypass comments because I encounter enough wrath, ridicule, and unreason without wallowing in still more online. As for prophecy, my ability to predict the future isn’t what it used to be. Parents routinely ask me, a pediatrician, what’s in store for their children. I offer probabilities and guesses. Harder still to predict “the fate of the nation.” I don’t know where the United States, with an armada of oncoming problems and a conspicuous dearth of creative proposals in response, is heading. Maybe it’s just a passing foul mood, a temporary crisis of confidence, but decline—perhaps precipitous—in America’s global economic and political infl...