Category: Wasted Quote

Wasted quotes: royal (self-interest) wishing and authentic parity

11/24/2018

“The prophet announces the end, the end of haughtiness in which one takes priority over another, the one who has forgotten about covenant partners. It is clear that this is not simply gentle concern for poor folks, but it has to do with Yahweh, with his character and his commitments. He is allied with the poor against the rapacious wealthy. That is who he is and no royal wishing will have it otherwise.” ~Walter Brueggemann, The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith

“It is delicate work, I have found, establishing authentic parity between people of unequal power.” ~Robert D. Lupton, Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help, and How to Reverse It

These quotes come from the head of the first chapter of Wasted Evangelism, “Widows in Our Courts.” Please consider purchasing a copy of my Wasted Evangelism: Social Action and the Church's Task of Evangelism, a deep, exegetical read into the Gospel of Mark. All royalties go to support our church planting in the Hill community of New Haven, CT. The book and its e-formats can be found on Amazon, Barns'n Noble (and most other online book distributors) or directly through the publisher, Wipf & Stock directly.

Wasted Quote: Christians (conservative or progressive) cannot imagine power any other way than politics–and that's a problem for the church

11/7/2018

“Most Christians cannot imagine power in any other way than toward what finally leads to political domination. Thus, it is not surprising that, in conformity to the spirit of the modern age, Christians conceive of power as political power. Christians, like most modern people, have politicized every aspect of public life and private life as well— from church/state issues, education, the media, entertainment and the arts, and the environment to family values, sexuality, and parenting.

In this, they mistakenly imagine that to pass a referendum, elect a candidate, pass a law, or change a policy is to change culture. In truth, they probably know better, but in terms of the amount of energy expended and money spent, the net effect is a view much like this. While Christian activists (conservative and progressive) have been fairly influential in the political sphere at different times in recent decades, they have embraced a means to power that seethes with resentment, anger, and bitterness for the injury they believe they have suffered. The public and political culture of contemporary Christianity have become defined by such negations. Christians believe that they have a legitimate right to participate in the democratic process and they are, of course, right. The problem resides with the political culture they not only embrace but have helped to create. The tragic irony is that in the name of resisting the dark nihilisms of the modern age, Christians—in their will to power and the ressentiment that fuels it—perpetuate that nihilism. In so doing, Christians undermine the message of the very gospel they cherish and desire to advance" (James Davison Hunter from To Change the World).

*My previous post on Voting and the Table

Wasted quote: The heartbeat of the kingdom is a local church of sinners and misfits

9/21/2018

“But the heartbeat of the kingdom of God is the local church. A specific address where a collection of disciples--sinners and misfits all--are trying to live into the ways of Jesus.”
~Richard Beck

Wasted Quote on MLK 2018: few are disturbed by the church's presence

1/15/2018

"The contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are."

~Martin Luther King, Jr, from his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (April 16, 1963).

Wasted Quote (for the New Year): Cowardice only concerns itself with the really important things (Søren Kierkegaard)

1/1/2018

“Decision lays its demanding hand on us from start to finish. Cowardice, on the other hand, wants only to concern itself with the really important, big things, not in order to carry something out whole-heartedly but to be flattered by doing something that is noble and great. Yet hiding behind the exalted is nothing but an excuse for not conquering all the little things one has omitted, simply because they were little”

~Søren Kierkegaard from “Dare to Decide”

Wasted Quote: "God uncredentialed in the empire, unknown in the courts, unwelcome in the temple"

7/22/2017

“In the imperial world of Pharaoh and Solomon, the prophetic alternative is a bad joke either to be squelched by force or ignored in satiation. But we are a haunted people because we believe the bad joke is rooted in the character of God himself, a God who is not the reflection of Pharaoh or of Solomon. He is a God with a name of his own, which cannot be uttered by anyone but him. He is not the reflection of any, for he has his own person and retains that all to himself. He is a God uncredentialed in the empire, unknown in the courts, unwelcome in the temple. And his history begins in his attentiveness to the cries to the marginal ones. He, unlike his royal regents, is one whose person is presented as passion and pathos, the power to care, the capacity to weep, the energy to grieve and then to rejoice. The prophets after Moses know that his caring, weeping, grieving, and rejoicing will not be outflanked by royal hardware or royal immunity because this one is indeed God. And kings must face that.”

~Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

When all external structures are gone: rethinking church growth

2/18/2017

Over the last year I have been reflecting on and learning about the failing and cracking of christendom, the structures, privileges, and cultural alignments that allow Christianity to have a central social acceptability and place in our western world. Part of my reading has been on the impossible increase and spread of early Christianity after Acts, the first 300 or so years of church history. A current author, sees a parallel with the exploding Chinese church. Here is his reflection on the Chinese church through the lens of the early church:

“When all the external structures and reference points were removed, when most of their leaders and theologians were killed or imprisoned and all access to outside sources was cut off, they were somehow forced through sheer circumstance to unlock something truly potent and compelling in the message they had always carried as the people of God” (Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways).

Among your neighbors: This is missional church

12/31/2016

The local church as the “thin place” and “the space between”: “Thin place,” a sacred place or space where unseen mysteries of the other world (i.e., “the heavenlies”) and the material places of the earth touch. A “thin place” is where one can walk in two worlds at the same time, a place of liminality—a place where the two worlds (seen and unseen) are fused or mingled together, yet where distinctions can be discerned. “A thin place” is where the boundary between heaven and earth is especially narrow, a place where a sense of the divine is more readily perceived. The church (a local church) as God’s household-temple is such a “thin place.” The “space between” is the common or transitional space where boundaries are fluid, a mix of human activity, specifically that space between the build environment. The church (a local church) is such a “space between” [from C. M. Anderson, “The Sacred “Thin” Space Between: (Eph 3:16): The Temple- Church as Revelation of God's Reconciling Mystery and Its Potential for Church Growth Outcomes” (paper)].

“The Greek word anamnēsis in Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24, where Jesus asks the church to ‘remember’ him when they eat the Lord’s Supper, is the cognate root to the verb ‘remember the poor’ in Galatians 2:10. The ana in Jesus’ usage is an intensifier. In Galatians 2:10 then there is the allusion to ‘make oneself present to’ the poor in the same way as we are to make ourselves present to Christ in the Eucharist” (David E. Fitch, Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission, 221, fn14).

“For Christians concerned with economic justice, this means that we should not look for a static solution, one perfect system in which to rest. We have no lasting city [my italics]. Fostering justice requires local and ongoing negotiation, as does the work of meeting human needs. But that is not to say that Christian ethics must resign itself to endless process, nor that Christians can hide behind abstract principles and leave the work of application to others. It means that ethical questions must be situated within specific narratives of human life moving toward its fulfillment” (Kelly S. Johnson, The Fear of Beggars: Stewardship and Poverty in Christian Ethics).

“Loving without agenda: Often our neighborhoods are filled with special interest groups. The church is not a special interest group; rather we have a reconciling mission that seeks unity, that all might flourish. Consider how your faith community can champion what others are already doing” (Paul Sparks, et al., The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches Are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community).

*This is the third instalment of quotes from my presentation on "Church (local), the poor and their neighborhood," which are focused on applying the Bible, especially in the context of "neighborhood." For all the posted "Church (local) quotes >>

Thoughts on power, the poor, and what we settle for

12/7/2016

“The reason there will be no change is because the people who stand to lose from change have all the power. And the people who stand to gain from change have none of the power” (attributed to Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli).

“It’s easy to confuse what is with what ought to be, especially when what is has always worked in your favor” (Tyrion Lannister, “Game of Thrones”)

His passion is, as Abraham Heschel has seen, the passion of this God who knows what time it is (Jer 8:7). God knows, and his prophet knows with him, that it is end time. The king does not know, never knows, what time it is because the king wants to banish time and live in an uninterrupted eternal now. God has time for his people and God insists his people take his time seriously” (Walter Brueggemann, Prophetic Imagination, 48).

“Hebrew history preceded what Christianity repeated: we both preferred kings, wars, and empires instead of suffering servanthood or leveling love” (Richard Rohr).

*Here are the first set of quotes from a presentation I gave on "Church (local), the poor and their neighborhood," where I sought to ask: "If a local church is “the flesh of a neighborhood” (i.e., the body of Christ local), does this mean a church should be activity concerned about the flourishing of its neighborhood?" This is the first post of a series of quotes (sets of quotes) to provoke our laissez-faire attitutdes and posture toward the issues of poverty and regarding the poor. For all the posted "Church (local) quotes >>

Privilege: When what is always worked in your favor

8/20/2016

“It’s easy to confuse what is with what ought to be, especially when what is has always worked in your favor.”
~Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones