Marginal Christianity

JULY 27, 2020 BY  FREDERICK SCHMIDT For a long time, sin and guilt were really unpopular subjects in American life. Until recently, if they figured in the American psyche at all, it was the toxic projection of antiquated religious ideas, and its best antidote was good therapy.  Only on a rare occasion did it feature in public conversations.  The experience of Tiger Woods comes to mind.  People weighed in on his personal trials, declared him guilty and recommended that he seek absolution in a public confession-come-conversation with Oprah Winfrey. Sin and guilt were so unpopular, in fact, that one book asked,  Whatever Became of Sin? [1]    And more than once over the years, I have had seminarians tell me that I am the only professor who has ever mentioned it.  That’s extraordinary, when you think about it, since sin and the burden of guilt have been at the heart of the Christian faith for centuries.  Whether one thinks of the church’s h...

Sin is a multifaceted reality and requires an illustration that captures that multifacetedness. I suggest the image of a Russian nesting doll adapted having a string emerging from the top of the largest, outermost doll. We pull on the string a lo and behold the whole series of inner, smaller dolls emerge connected to each other by that string. -The larger, outermost doll is cosmic sin; attached to it and coming out of it next is environmental sin, sin against the creation, our necessary habitat and home. Emerging next and connected to the cosmic and environmental sins, is systemic sin, the patterned/habitual/institutional/political/social/economic ways we oppress and repress one another. A final pull draws up the smallest, innermost doll, personal/individual sin. -This doll as a whole is named Idolatry and the interconnected nature of sin is the string that binds them, together. Every sin is always and at the same time implicated in some fashion at each of these levels....

The story of God’s confrontation with Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit is full of insight for us today if we pay attention to the questions by which God elicits the truth from them. The first question God asks Adam is “Where are you?” (Gen.3:9) Adam says “I heard you coming and hid because I was naked.” God’s first question top us when we are struggling with sin is the relationship question. We are out of relationship with God, hiding at the mere hint of his presence. Where are you? – apart from God, out of proximity to him, out of relationship. Hiding is a primal response to shame when we have failed someone. Especially God. Unless we are in active rebellion against God, in which case we’d be hotfooting it in the other direction not simply hiding in the same environs, we try to explain ourselves but often give ourselves away and get in deeper. As Adam did by talking about nakedness. Who told you that? God wants to know. (Gen.3:11) This is quite important. Losi...

Ch.5: “In All the Scriptures”           What story does Jesus’ work in rescuing humanity and restoring them to their original identity and vocation organically grow out of. The story of Israel grows out the story of the creator and his creation. The Old Testament ends without a clear resolution to the dilemmas and troubles encountered along the way.           Exile is the summary name for these dilemmas and struggles. The big one is the deportation to Babylon in the 6th century b.c. But other smaller “exiles” punctuate the story leading up to this one.                     -Abraham goes down to Egypt and gets in difficulty                     -Isaac follows suit. -Jacob has to flee to live with his uncle...

6.     After living, faithful relationships with the triune God, the church in North America, perhaps the next most important thing for us to come to terms with is what St. Paul calls “the principalities and powers” (or something close to that in his letters). These realities (whether one conceptualizes them as beings or forces or both is less important that acknowledging their reality) are neither demons or angels (fallen or otherwise). They seem to comprise a class of spiritual realities with a particular divine mandate. The “powers” a.     are created by God (Col.1:16) to establish and sustain conditions for the flourishing of human life; b.     have rebelled against God seeking to rule creation themselves distorting and destroying human life (Eph.6:12); c.     were defeated by Christ on the cross (Col.2:15); d.     are being pacified by Christ back to their created purpose through the life and mini...

Religion / Ethics Fr. Stephen Freeman 30 September 2016 Many readers have never before heard that there is no such thing as moral progress – so I am not surprised that I have been asked to write in more depth on the topic. I will start by focusing on the question of sin itself. If we rightly understand the nature of sin and its true character, the notion of moral progress will be seen more clearly. I will begin by clarifying the difference between the notion of morality and the theological understanding of sin. They are two very different worlds. Morality (as I use the word) is a broad term that generally describes the adherence (or lack of adherence) to a set of standards or norms for behavior. In that understanding, everybody practices some form of morality. An atheist may not believe in God, but will still have an internalized sense of right or wrong as well as a set of expectations for himself and others. There has never been a universally agreed set of moral sta...

Earth is just our temporary home, God is displeased/angry with us, Jesus only came to earth because we sinned, Forgiveness of sins is the point of the biblical story, Salvation is a matter between the individual and God, Our primary identity is redeemed sinner, The church is helpful but not necessary to Christian growth, Christian growth is at its core sin-avoidance, God’s going to burn this earth in judgment, We’re going to spend eternity in heaven with God, You need to read the Bible more carefully!

The Book of the Twelve for Lent 2016 The Prophet Goes to Meddling! – Amos (3) Lent 13 We’re okay with prophets as long as they’re goring someone else’s ox. But when they train they guns on us and our practices, well . . . it’s time to run them out of town. Especially if they are an outsider. And Amos was a southerner called not merely to preach but to meddle in the lives and affairs of the northern kingdom! And his meddling is specific and wide-ranging. And precisely in its specificity and comprehensiveness it hits home with us today in 21 st century North America. The sheer volume of the indictments in Amos presses on the reader their seriousness. I have reproduced those sections below without comment. I invite you to reflect on them yourselves and feel their critique for whatever area of life they prick your heart and conscience about.   “ because they sell the righteous for silver,     and the needy for a pair of sandals—   they who trample...

The Book of the Twelve for Lent 2016 The Prophet Goes to Meddling! – Amos (3) Lent 13 We’re okay with prophets as long as they’re goring someone else’s ox. But when they train they guns on us and our practices, well . . . it’s time to run them out of town. Especially if they are an outsider. And Amos was a southerner called not merely to preach but to meddle in the lives and affairs of the northern kingdom! And his meddling is specific and wide-ranging. And precisely in its specificity and comprehensiveness it hits home with us today in 21 st century North America. The sheer volume of the indictments in Amos presses on the reader their seriousness. I have reproduced those sections below without comment. I invite you to reflect on them yourselves and feel their critique for whatever area of life they prick your heart and conscience about.   “ because they sell the righteous for silver,     and the needy for a pair of sandals—   they who t...

Nothing about being the Bible’s God’s person or God’s people is easy. And that’s just the way it is. It stems from the reality that God has a plan for this world. Every human being has defied that plan and sought to live life as they desire. In each and every case, then, there is no human being who comes into the world who wants to live God’s way. If God had given up and refused to have any more to do with us and abandoned us to our own fate then whatever religions or spiritualities we cooked up for ourselves (for it seems we humans have to worship something as Bob Dylan made clear in his song “Gotta Serve Somebody”) would be pleasing and understandable and doable by us.           But God has never so given up. Instead he launched a subversive counter-revolutionary movement to reclaim and restore his people and his creation to his creational design and plan. God always intended to create a world in which he and his creatures (human and...

We are, however, not the way we’re supposed to be. We all know it. Something’s out of sync. We don’t function like we should. We looked a bit at evil in the creation above. Now we tighten the focus to look at what’s gone wrong with humanity. Traditionally we call it the “Fall.” I think the term “catastrophe” better catches the widespread and tragic character of what has happened than Fall. Whatever we call it, though, Gen.3-11 narrates the moment of catastrophe in the Garden of Eden as well as the catastrophic ripples of this event that engulf the entire planet in chaos (uncreation). This litany of horror sadly remains most relevant to our lives today suggesting that as much as the world has changed over recorded history human beings have not changed at the core of who they are. We Start with Original Sin. But to start with original sin does not mean starting with Adam and Eve in Gen.3. Rather, it means starting with Jesus Christ. “Compared with Him we stand there in all our ...