so today im on my way home and i have this five hour layover at heathrow airport in london… O MY GOODNESS, can you say disorganized???????
anyway, i had a chance to do some decent quiet reading… a book review, an essay and a book chapter… most of which i read during a fish and chips lunch… oh, no i forgot the picture… but some of which i read at coffee and pastry time,
Jurgen Moltmann wrote an articl
e called “Godless Theology” some of his thoughts are… “What the church is about is something more than the church. The church is about life in proximity to the kingdom of God, and about the experience and praxis of the justice and righteousness of that kingdom.”
“Christian theology is theologia publicica. It is theology for the sake of the kingdom. So it must be aligned and think not just intratextually, but also correlatively too. It has to be both ‘in accordance with scripture’ and contextual.”
In discussing what he calls “protest atheism” which is a “profoundly theological” atheism which asks deep and important questions about reality…
Moltmann quotes Dostoevsky‘s Ivan… “Understand me, I accept God, but I don’t accept the world God has made. I cannot resolve to accept it”
To the Ivan’s of the world, I say… DON’T ACCEPT the world and the injustices herein, don’t accept, do something! Step out and make a change!
But about these folks, who are what Moltmann says are engaging in “protest atheism”, we (the followers of God through Jesus) are not to forget, ignore or otherwise not deal with these fine people, no, Moltmann challenges us to “..know the godless too, for he belongs to them as well.
The second bit of reading I did was a review of a book which is apparently very hot right now. The book is Misquoting Jesus. The review is by Daniel Wallace, who says among other things (many of which are kind) that this popular book contains “…highly charged statements…” that are such that the reader would have a difficult time sifting through the material… the review is worth reading I am placing the book on my list, ultimately, I need to read for my self and then respond… too many books to read, too little time…
The third piece of reading whilst standing in all these lines was Foster’s chapter on Prayer. I finished the chapter (so I’m ready Chris) over a lunch of fish and chips and noted these three things: First, prayer is work – it must be scheduled, it must be planned so that we do not neglect it. Second, we must bathe our imagination as we pray. I can imagine that Jesus is right here with me and he is! Third, I should realize that prayer means something God wants us to unite with Him in prayer and this prayer DOES change things! (what does the Calvinist think of this?)
from this chapter I also was struck by this thought… to fail to pray is to fail to get on the train to take a trip, it is to sit unmoving, ungrowing, stuck in place…. we are designed to be dynamic, not static…
a quote that could seem controversial, that really resonated with me is this… “…the Bible stresses so forcefully the openness of our universe that, in an anthropomorphism hard for modern ears, it speaks of God constantly changing his mind in accord with his unchanging love (“And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” Exodus 32.14 and “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” Jonah 3:10 KJV) This comes as a genuine liberation to many of us, but it also sets tremendous responsibility before us. We are working with God to determine the future! (p.35)
So, a revolution is afoot, what C.S. Lewis called the ‘invasion,’ let us join Him in it!
kingdom travelin' 