becoming

Every Christian should really watch the following 2-part interview with Gary Burge on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Lohfink continues in the preface:

Not long ago there was a report in the newspapers that church agencies in Berlin had established a mobile unit, an automobile equipped with short-wave radio, in which a priest, a physician and a psychologist could be summoned immediately at any hour of the day or night. That sounds very up to date: the church, in a sense, at the front, modern technology in service of the reign of God. But in reality this ecclesiastical mobile unit is a highly questionable symnol of what the church has largely become in our society: a church which takes care of the individual, an institution which offers its wares to a group of individuals.

This conception corresponds exactly to the situation of our consumer society, which Gisbert Greshake recently compared to a large supermarket. Everyone moves around with a cart and picks out what he likes and needs. In the giant “Supermarket West Germany” there is among many other things a section which offers religious products to individuals. Responsibility for this section lies with the churches. Society is very anxious that this corner remain occupied; the stock should be complete  It seems to me that the mobile religious unit in Berlin is a perfect symbol of this supermarket-church, which takes care of individuals, provides for them, and leaves them in their anonymity.

Of course Lohfink was describing the German Catholic church in the early 80’s. It is rather interesting to recall how the late 19th century liberal theology had reduced church and salvation into individualistic and profoundly spiritualized/internalized forms. In such sense, a striking resemblance can be found easily among many Chinese churches today (yet their theologies are anything but liberal!). The supermarket analogy is simply dead on in today’s church. Hence it begs the question — if contradicting theologies can produce similar phenomenon, what’s the real driving force behind it?

I decided to re-read Lohfink’s book Jesus and Community. Here are some of the quotes from his book and at times, I will write down some questions and/or comments.

Preface:

It is not much of an exaggeration to say that Jesus could not have founded a church since there had long been one — God’s people, Israel. Jesus directed his efforts to Israel. He sought to gather it in view of the coming reign of God and to make it into the true people of God. What we now call church is nothing other than the community of those ready to live in the people of God, gathered by Jesus and sanctified by his death. From this perspective, it is foolish to look to the historical Jesus for a formal act of founding the church. But it is very meaningful to ask how Jesus gathered Israel and how he envisioned the community of the true Israel, because right here we reach the ultimately decisive question of what the church should look like today. (p. xi)

A question I have always been asking: if Jesus’ work is “merely” about the gathering of (the true) Israel, what makes his death and resurrection unique then? Any prophets (like John the baptist) can call God’s people to repent and return, why Jesus? How can we stress the continuation of Israel-Church, without undermining the work of the Messiah?

John Ortberg helps preachers dealing with post-sermon remarks.

How many of them have you heard and/or said?

Preaching is a mysterious business, and in some ways it’s more mysterious to me now than when I started out. Sometimes the message you wish you could put in the discard pile will be the one God uses to change someone’s life. Giving a bad message can bring just the humility you need to remember that preaching—and the kingdom in general—is never subject to human management or control.

What should we aim to hear when we’re done preaching? After Jesus’ first sermon, people were cut to the heart, and they asked what they needed to do to be saved. That’s not a bad response to pray for. It sure beats Ruga Ruga Ruga.

Read the whole thing here.

[link: leadership journal]

This is what God says —

“I am here.”

Yes, how can you not be wonderstruck?

Quick compliation of footage I shot in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada for a LifeWay project.

Shot on the RED Scarlet with Canon EOS L-Series lenses. 16-35mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 400mm.

Edited and color corrected in Adobe Premiere CS6.

Music by the amazing Takeshi Furukawa

[link]

你是否「心存感恩」？你會為甚麼（誰）而感謝神？不要只聚焦於自己的問題上，而忘記了神在你身上的工作。一些供你參考的數字：

• 若你在北美洲，是最窮的那5%，你要知道，你仍然比這個世界的68%人富裕。
• 若然你的雪櫃裡有食物，你今天有一件外套，有瓦遮頭，今晚亦有地方可以睡覺，你比世界75%的人富有。
• 若你能夠參加教會的崇拜，而不需要擔心迫害、逮捕、被折磨，甚至死亡，你有這世上30億人所沒有的自由。
• 世界上8成的人每日只有少過$10用。
• 接近66%沒有乾淨水用的人，每日只有少過$2用，其餘的33%少過$1。
• 數以百萬計的女人和小童，每一天要用上幾小時去收集所要用的水。
• 每年因為飲用的水不乾淨而死於痢疾的小童，有180萬。
• 在2005年，全球最有錢的20% 用了76.6% 的資源。12%的人用了85%的水。
• 2011年有接近7百萬於5歲以下的小朋友死亡，而死因在西方國家來說，是絕對可以根治的。

我們實在有數不盡值得我們感恩的事。今晚，你有屋企返；你或者你的配偶其中一個仍然有工做；我們不需要經驗真正的貧窮和饑餓；一打開水喉，我們就有自來水飲用；你想的話，就算多近我們也可以放個假，出外旅行…

每一天，你有空氣、有陽光、藍天/雨天、家人…你有藥食，你的身體還懂得病，可以正確地發出訊號讓你知道自己出了問題…

若要為近日所發生的事和人而感謝神。你會想起甚麼？想起誰？

心存感恩。上帝沒有欠你的。

Have we not read Eph 5:22-33, Rev 21:9-14, et al?

Hurtado on the so-called “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife”.

…It’s going waaay beyond the text to read into it uncritically some sort of romantic relationship between Jesus and a “wife/woman” in any real sense. Maybe . . . maybe not. It is entirely possible that the fragment is part of a writing of a more esoteric nature (other examples include texts often referred to as “gnostic”, such as Gospel of Philip), and in these texts words often don’t carry their usual meaning. That’s a large part of being esoteric!

So, let’s (1) be grateful for what looks like a fragment of some hitherto unknown early Christian text, and (2) hope that scholarly analysis will continue on all relevant questions, and (3) take along generous quantities of salt as we read the over-excited (and somewhat tendentious) reporting about the fragment in the news media.

[link: Larry Hurtado’s Blog]