Friday, June 5, 2009

PIF Redux Part 4

At last you're done with this drivel and you can get back to whatever else you were doing. Huzzah!

What are the key theological issues currently facing the church and society, and how do they shape your ministry?:

We have a powerful opportunity. In this time of economic trials, losses and fear, we can see very clearly who we are, what we are doing, and what will result. As a culture we have coasted along uncritically on greed for a long time now, trusting not in God but in interest rates, loving not each other but the next gadget or raise or lease. This is idolatry, and it is nothing new.

Until the bottom falls out on us, we don’t realize what we are standing on – shifting sand. And the result will always be the same – we will be swallowed whole by our own endless want. Now is a time when the hurch universal, in every place, and in every language, can stand up and say “We know another Way”: A Way that values life rather than making it a commodity or collateral damage; a Way that calls us to love sacrificially rather than hedge our bets; a Way that is a path to life by losing life; a Way that is far greater and more wonderful than all of our ideas and practices and even hopes.

We find that Way in a person, Jesus Christ, and I think it is a wonderful time to be who we are and say what we believe. I am ready for the power of the Holy Spirit to remake and renew us, to remind us that we are chosen before we can respond, and we are loved beyond our capacity to reciprocate or even understand. God’s love is overturning the world and making it new, and I want to be part of it.

8 comments:

Aric Clark said...

Right on. I would have mentioned violence alongside economics, but the point is the same.

Douglas Underhill said...

Good call - hard to cover two things in 1500 characters though, but I had some leftover space I think and I might squeeze it in if I see a reason to change this again

Aric Clark said...

Yeah, I think it could be done, while changing very little, because it is the a very similar problem and solution. Both are idolatry. Both find their antithesis in the Way that is Jesus Christ.

Jodie said...

This section I loved. And I think you are spot on.

I also think the question of conflict is an important theological issue. Conflict is inevitable. But can we engage in conflict is a constructive way? Can we teach the world about peace?

I think the two topics are related. Conflict and greed. Selfishness versus selflessness.

Jodie said...

Another article on the subject:

http://killingthebuddha.com
/mag/confession/the-inquisition/

Douglas Underhill said...

Alright, alright, I'll look into it. I've sent out all of the referrals I planned to send out, but your completionism is catching me up...

Anonymous said...

Very well done! Walter Brueggemann, speaking of change in the church, told a group of young ministers, that what they have been so carefully preparing for is being taken away from them, by the grace of God. If we see the current economic situation as being “taken away from us, by the grace of God”, it would be as you write “a powerful opportunity. In this time of economic trials, losses and fear, we can see very clearly who we are, what we are doing, and what will result.”

John McNeese

Douglas Underhill said...

I'm glad you liked it John.

We'll see if any Presbyterian PNCs do :)