A Comment On The Cross

The Sacrifice of the Cross is not about mere animal pain that is meant to assuage the lust of a sadistic, blood-thirsty, parochial god. It is about the revelation of the nature and meaning and way and power of a Divine Love that saves from an Enemy and a menace that the darkest phenomena of history can only but hint at. To consistently dismiss and to structurally ignore major facts in the God-given revelatory memory is to assure that little of what God intended to be communicated by this costly revelation will be communicated by it.

- Emmanuel Charles McCarthy

Imitator of His Kindness

I went out to read the whole epistle after loving the 2 quotes that Mark Moore used in his post and comments. I thought this segment from Chapter 10 (the website I used did not have verse breakdowns) was also amazing!

Epistle to Diognetus 10

And if you love Him, you will be an imitator of His kindness. And do not wonder that a man may become an imitator of God. He can, if he is willing. For it is not by ruling over his neighbours, or by seeking to hold the supremacy over those that are weaker, or by being rich, and showing violence towards those that are inferior, that happiness is found; nor can any one by these things become an imitator of God. But these things do not at all constitute His majesty. On the contrary he who takes upon himself the burden of his neighbour; he who, in whatsoever respect he may be superior, is ready to benefit another who is deficient; he who, whatsoever things he has received from God, by distributing these to the needy, becomes a god to those who receive [his benefits]: he is an imitator of God. Then thou shalt see, while still on earth, that God in the heavens rules over [the universe]; then thou shall begin to speak the mysteries of God; then shalt thou both love and admire those that suffer punishment because they will not deny God; then shall thou condemn the deceit and error of the world when thou shall know what it is to live truly in heaven,

I do believe this is a formula to "awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass" as Philip Yancey speaks of in his writings about the Kingdom of God.

Come, Lord Jesus

The Non-Violence of Christ

I was asked to teach the teens at church last night. I wanted to honor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr, by looking at Christ and Non-Violence. I based stole most of the material for the class from William Willimon and a sermon series by Rob Bell (who I think stole from Willimon). I also got some other reference material from various web sources. I did not Bibliography since it was for a teen class.

What I love about Christ is he exposes the foolishness of violence and pacifism. He demonstrates the very essence of the message of redemption in providing a structure to claim one's dignity in conflict. In the cross Christ showed amazing strength and yet was nonviolent.

I challenged the kids to understand that Jesus' strength was in his commitment to redemption of the human condition.

You can view my class notes here