October 2017

  • Believing in grace means living in grace.

    ·

    24. Christians should be taught that belief unused is unbelief and a damning of God’s generous mercy. Much of what passes for faith or Christian theology is not a profound truth, but a riddle. We aren’t being honest with each other or ourselves; we’re unwittingly playing a game of deception. What I mean by riddle…

    Read More

  • Why Not Empty Hell?

    ·

    23. As, for instance: why would the pastor not empty hell for the sake of love rather than the hollowest of incantations? If love is what you’re about, then why not support love for the sake of love? Isn’t that what God is after? Why not place the redemption at the center of the faith and the…

    Read More

  • Faces of Love

    ·

    In Matthew 22:15-22, we get stuck on the words “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s” we forget the whole thing’s a trap. Proper 24A  | Matthew 22:15-22 I don’t know if any of you have been outside in…you know…the last few years…but there are people really concerned with the mixing…

    Read More

  • Jesus Isn’t a Pez Dispenser

    ·

    22. Nor does the pastor embody Jesus in the forced recitation of words, empty or well-meant. Virtually everything I teach conforms to historic Christian orthodoxy. And yet, there are many Christians who call me a heretic. Granted, I often call myself a heretic and encourage thoughtful followers of Christ to wrestle with many of the things…

    Read More

  • You Aren’t Being Jesus in Your Hate

    ·

    21. Therefore the pastor doesn’t “with” love in excluding his LGBTQ brothers and sisters. The nature of Jesus is being with us. His place is with, presence. Jesus is present in a “withness”. Withness is active. It is intimate and full of hope. There is no grace without the comfort of intimacy. Take the idea that…

    Read More

  • Being Jesus

    ·

    20. In taking on the form of Christ, we are making God present again and with the people. The Hands and Feet of Christ When I first realized the implications of Paul’s statement, it scared me. As metaphor, referring to the followers of Jesus as his hands and feet is pure beauty. Think about it! It’s…

    Read More

  • We Grow Love Together

    ·

    19. And it is through these groupings we come to embody the love of Christ in ourselves. Our culture gives us a false impression that we can do life alone. And our churches give us the same false impression about life and much more. It often teaches us that love of God is all that matters…

    Read More

  • The God of Community

    ·

    18. For God’s greatest activity is in the form of community, as small as twos and threes. I’m going to get right to the point with you. Our primary concern is off base and our solutions are bad. The church is getting it’s view of redemption wrong, which makes it impossible to fix our problem of…

    Read More