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BlogHere are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007Random ThoughtsHaving returned from a lovely little break away with Maddy, I return to the fray that is life. A couple of random thoughts: 1) A nice little post by my older brother at Instamatic Theology called "Lotto as plot-twist". Not sure whether i agree or not, but liked the Coupland quotes. They link to the mumbo jumbo post, and maybe shed a tiny bit of light? 2) While I was away I read the "Memoirs" section at the start of "The Cost of Discipleship" by D Bonhoeffer [see other quote here]. I don't know if you know much about him, but he was an amazing guy. He was killed by the Nazi's for opposing the regime on the basis of his faith, even though much of the rest of the church was supporting it. He was influencial in the Confessional Church for a good while, but then he felt even they weren't against it enough. There is much going around my head about issues of empire, post-christendom and how the church shouldn't line up with the dominant system at the moment. If only there were time to blog about it! Anyway a couple of quotes form the memoirs were interesting: Thus all kinds of secular totalitarianism which force man to cast aside his religious and moral obligations to God and subordinate the laws of justice and morality to the State are incompatible with his conception of life." p24 "He felt that the Confessional Church was more concerned with her own existence and inherited rights than with preaching against the war and with the fate of the persecuted and oppressed. Thus it was Bonhoeffer who first brought home the full lesson of the Oxford Conference to the Lutheran Church in Germany, namely, that the life of the church must be linked to the life of the people." p25 I trust you can see there the interesting balance of "difference" and "relevance"; "engagement" and "counter-cultural subversion" in the way the church relates to the wider culture. 3) This links with our conversations on Sabbath [as a day] recently as we discussed "the practice of rest". It struck me that the early church celebrated "the Lord's day" on a Sunday to mark his resurrection. However this was a work day. They decided to mark a pattern of life that was out of step with the wider culture. They didn't expect the rest of the wider culture to shut-down with/for them, nor did they try to fit their pattern with the rest of their culture. I really don't know quite what to think about that. And of course Happy Valentines Day! Labels: mission, random, theology Posted by: Mark | 12:56 pm |
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