Who says that theologians are not hip?
If you ever had any doubts, check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msLK1NfpEQQ
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The Ground upon which I stand
Throughout the history of Christian writing and thought one refrain that has echoed across the centuries is “the ground of my being.” This phrase has been used to express what serves at the core of people’s identity and understanding of God.
Many times those things that serve as the ground of our being are well-defined and intentional. They are the result of working out our faith with much fear and trembling. Other times, we are less certain where our foundation came from.
For Barth, Holy Scripture, as the revelation of God, is at the ground of being able to speak about God. Scripture is core and central and the foundation upon which one stands.
In defiance of much modern thought of his day, Barth is clear that revelation comes in Holy Scripture and not in “philosophical, ethical, psychological, or political theory.” [283]
This is not to say that Barth rejects all modern sciences. Not at all. In fact he writes that someone who speaks of God should have an education in “the thinking of the philosopher, psychologist, historian, aesthetician, etc.”
Yet, Barth advocates that we do not start with history or philosophy and then move to Holy Scripture. Instead, it is Holy Scripture that serves at the ground of our being and the other science help to give a greater understanding to God’s revelation.
Many times those things that serve as the ground of our being are well-defined and intentional. They are the result of working out our faith with much fear and trembling. Other times, we are less certain where our foundation came from.
For Barth, Holy Scripture, as the revelation of God, is at the ground of being able to speak about God. Scripture is core and central and the foundation upon which one stands.
In defiance of much modern thought of his day, Barth is clear that revelation comes in Holy Scripture and not in “philosophical, ethical, psychological, or political theory.” [283]
This is not to say that Barth rejects all modern sciences. Not at all. In fact he writes that someone who speaks of God should have an education in “the thinking of the philosopher, psychologist, historian, aesthetician, etc.”
Yet, Barth advocates that we do not start with history or philosophy and then move to Holy Scripture. Instead, it is Holy Scripture that serves at the ground of our being and the other science help to give a greater understanding to God’s revelation.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
An Unexpected Hope
Previously, in this blog, I have written about the impossibility of adequately and fully proclaiming the message of God's grace and the humility that is needed when the Word of God is encountered.
In so many ways, our finitude seems so limiting that we are left to wonder how we can ever hope to say anything about God.
And yet, before that lack of hope turned in to despair, Barth gives us a door to walk through--expectation.
Barth writes: When we have them (Word and faith), we do not regard them as possessions but strain after them, hungering and thirsting, and for that reason blessed. The same is true of the possibility of knowledge of God's Word. When we know it, we expect to know it. The assurance of its affirmation is thus the assurance of its expectation--the expectation which rests on its previous presence, on the aprehended promise, or as we can already say here, on received and believed baptism--but still the expectation. [225]
On one hand we know that we can never fully know. Yet, on the other, we strive with expectation, living in anticipation, hungering and thirsting for that which one day will be made fully known.
In so many ways, our finitude seems so limiting that we are left to wonder how we can ever hope to say anything about God.
And yet, before that lack of hope turned in to despair, Barth gives us a door to walk through--expectation.
Barth writes: When we have them (Word and faith), we do not regard them as possessions but strain after them, hungering and thirsting, and for that reason blessed. The same is true of the possibility of knowledge of God's Word. When we know it, we expect to know it. The assurance of its affirmation is thus the assurance of its expectation--the expectation which rests on its previous presence, on the aprehended promise, or as we can already say here, on received and believed baptism--but still the expectation. [225]
On one hand we know that we can never fully know. Yet, on the other, we strive with expectation, living in anticipation, hungering and thirsting for that which one day will be made fully known.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Living in Abundance
It is difficult to live a disciplined life in the midst of abundance. We have trouble saying the words no, or enough.
Of course, this is a great problem to have. Those who have little, those who have nothing, would trade places with us in a second.
But how do we practice freedom amongst abundance.
It seems to me that these questions are not only true of our physical diets but of our spiritual lives. Barth emphasizes that we live in God's unmerited grace. That conversations about God do not begin with the I, but the Thou. Our role in response to that is one of freedom and choice, freedom of obedience or of disobedience.
But I am left to wonder if we take all of this for granted. Do we live in such abundance of God's love that we lack the disciple to simply respond with a yes?
Of course, this is a great problem to have. Those who have little, those who have nothing, would trade places with us in a second.
But how do we practice freedom amongst abundance.
It seems to me that these questions are not only true of our physical diets but of our spiritual lives. Barth emphasizes that we live in God's unmerited grace. That conversations about God do not begin with the I, but the Thou. Our role in response to that is one of freedom and choice, freedom of obedience or of disobedience.
But I am left to wonder if we take all of this for granted. Do we live in such abundance of God's love that we lack the disciple to simply respond with a yes?
Friday, February 4, 2011
Humble Yourself
We want to be certain. We want to quantity, measure, and draw lines around what is and what is not. In our modern reasoning, we want to replace mystery with certainty.
On one hand, these efforts are well meaning as we struggle to work out our faith. Yet, the danger in these efforts is that we come to believe in our own truths instead of beginning with thee truth.
As a Wesleyan, we acknowledge that when we read scripture we do so using the tools of tradition, experience, and reason.
If I could add one more side to the quadrilateral it would be humility.
At one time in my life I thought that I could fully understand any and all scripture through diligent study and fervent prayer. Today I recognize that I understand very little. I went to seminary hoping to find the secret answers, I graduated with deeper questions.
Barth writes of the greatest limitation we face when reading scripture—ourselves:
May we embrace the mystery, live in humility, and begin all things upon the foundation of God’s Word.
On one hand, these efforts are well meaning as we struggle to work out our faith. Yet, the danger in these efforts is that we come to believe in our own truths instead of beginning with thee truth.
As a Wesleyan, we acknowledge that when we read scripture we do so using the tools of tradition, experience, and reason.
If I could add one more side to the quadrilateral it would be humility.
At one time in my life I thought that I could fully understand any and all scripture through diligent study and fervent prayer. Today I recognize that I understand very little. I went to seminary hoping to find the secret answers, I graduated with deeper questions.
Barth writes of the greatest limitation we face when reading scripture—ourselves:
Our concept of God and His Word can only be an indication of the limits of our conceiving… We cannot utter even a wretched syllable about the how of God’s Word unless the Word of God is spoken to us as God’s Word… It is for this reason and in this sense that we finally speak of the Word of God as the mystery of God.
May we embrace the mystery, live in humility, and begin all things upon the foundation of God’s Word.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Revelation Song
Many times we read the Bible simply as a history lesson of the past or looking to find hints to the mysteries of the future. While scripture gives us things, to limit our understanding to these two areas creates an incomplete picture.
Karl Barth not only writes of the Word of God as something that is written and preached, but revealed.
This revelation is not the stuff of fear inducing cataclysmic events—it is the revelation of Jesus Christ: “God with us,” “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
This gift of revelation occurs by the free, unmerited gift of God’s grace and in any time and way that God desires.
Barth writes, “The Christ who comes again is no other than the Christ who has come, but this Christ as the One who now comes also to us.”
Come Lord Jesus, be our guest!
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