Things I Think…
1. I realized this morning that we’re no closer to solutions to the school shooting crisis than when these atrocities started. We want something or someone to blame when the answer probably starts with a cultural brokenness we refuse to acknowledge. Changing architecture, pharmacology, or laws won’t fix us…I’m not sure what will…
2. I didn’t watch the Royal Wedding, nor did I object to it…it seems refreshing to see a man and a woman getting married in a church while modeling dignity and decency. Yes, that money could have been spent on the poor,but sometimes symbols are worth paying for…
3. The homily by the Episcopalian bishop has raised the ire of many…he spent a whole 13 minutes talking about the love of God at a wedding but because he neglected to speak of sin,hell, and the cross he is being roundly scorched. Was he supposed to give an altar call too?
4. There are times when I can’t help but think that some church folks are ashamed that God loves sinners…
5. One of the main teachings of the Older Testament is that God loves very dysfunctional people in the midst of their dysfunction…
6. Years and years of interacting with bad eschatology have left me with no expectation or even interest in the Second Coming…I probably should repent…
7. The Royal Wedding reminded me that I don’t have to have an opinion about everything…there’s a reason why there are 500 channels on TV…
8. If you’re partisanship demands that you always toe that line, you will end up sounding like an idiot about half the time. The MS13 gang are not the El Salvadoran Boy Scouts and you really don’t want your favorite coffee shop to be the “go to” bathroom for the homeless because that coffee shop won’t stay open very long. I like to consider myself an advocate for the immigrant, the homeless,…and sanity…
9. The only thing that made me uncomfortable about Bishop Curry’s message is that he preached it from an iPad…seemed a bit out of place…
10. While I would love to live in a culture dominated by “biblical” values, I also know that’s never going to happen. That means we have to live as that same Bible tells us…as “exiles” and “peculiar people” in a hostile land, living out and demonstrating the differences between the two kingdoms. “Peculiar” means I qualify for residence…
phoenixpreacher@gmail.com
Yes, yes…
I agree and/or understand your thinking here. Standing gladly by the side of the perpetually perplexed.
regarding #4–I think many Christians love rules and law more than grace and forgiveness; it is more tidy and safe. It is also very much Pharisee 101.
solutions on any of these issues mentioned above will be elusive as long as civil discourse continues to be elusive.
1. True. We really have to teach are kids “Thou shalt not kill.” It can’t be entertainment for us. We can’t take it lightly.
3 . I only heard the opposite grumbling, that he was too evangelistic. People love to gripe. I didn’t listen to more than a minute of it, but it sounded good.
5. Well, that’s the Gospel, right there.
6. I don’t think about it much either. I think if we look at biblical and historical evidence, we’d see that most concern over Christ’s concern is during times of persecution.
10. While I agree, it seems like I should do…something.
Josh,
Living as a Christian in a fallen world is doing something…
I was amazed by Bishop Curry’s homily. The Gospel was proclaimed!
Thanks be to God.
The Royal Wedding made me think of the kingdom come, when our Lord is sitting on the throne, judging with righteous judgement. I think that righteous judgement is probably a lot different than many Christians might think. There will be a lot of surprised people on that day.
In #6 you eschew eschatology and in #10 you reveal its’ centrality. Virtually all of life reveals our eschatology as you display for Josh.
Eschatology is everything we do.
Looking at my feed from the wedding, the only objections I saw about the homily were from the reformed themselves – and almost all from the reformed baptist types.
The only Lutheran objections I saw were over unionism, followed by the statement that it was an Anglican thing to share altar and pulpits so we Lutherans really didn’t have much to say.
Although some may say I am an insensitive ass to assume gender, I think a man and a woman getting married in a church is worthy of worldwide publicity.
#3 The gospel choir’s Stand by Me
#2 Bishop Curry’s homily
…and #1 the cellist’s sox!
https://www.romper.com/p/the-cellists-socks-at-the-royal-wedding-were-the-small-detail-that-prove-he-was-ready-to-steal-the-show-9145077
BD,
Good point… 🙂
#3 – i heard that the Brits were outraged. They considered the Bishop’s presentation (sermon or homily?) way out of place for the dignity of the occasion… the Queen had a sour face and some of her relatives seemed to mock or show amusement – dunno there is that stiff upper lip mentality that prevailed thru WW2… ? so, maybe there is pride is keeping serious topics serious – dunno
i’m thinking that some are going to have to explain themselves come judgement day on that…
i had a little trouble following the analogy of love to fire… seemed good, but he lost me around a couple corners… still, i’d kind of like to think something good has begun in England…
FWIW – i think every woman watching was thinking, “i’d love to have my man look at me the way Harry looks a Meghan” i hope every man wasn’t thinking, “wow, i wish my woman looked liked that!” LOL
good things to think on again, thank you, Michael
Michael, great “Things…”
“Was he supposed to give an altar call too?”
From some of the comments I’ve read elsewhere, that’s exactly what some folks were expecting, and felt that without one, it could not have been considered “good preaching.”
I wonder if that means that all preaching prior to Finney should be considered null and void.
#4. Amazing grace…that saved a wretch like me. But him? Her? Them? Naaah…
#10. https://youtu.be/pGIHURuvxrM
Preaching about the love of God at a wedding… what a concept. It might even catch on, at least in some circles…
The Christians I know who talked about the sermon were positive. The Gospel was getting some airtime. (Non-Americans didn’t know he’s liberal)
Some non-Christian commentators didn’t like it – what’s this preacher man doing? He’s meant to do his bit then get out the way.
The iPad – well according to this article he didn’t use it, going way off-script:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-20/royal-wedding-meghan-markle-upstaged-by-reverend-michael-curry/9779990
I haven’t commented on here in years but #4 is making me! People were ashamed of Jesus when he walked the Earth for the same reason! Seems like the Church has a tendency to miss the point.
Sometimes when someone is handed a very public platform like the Episcopal Bishop was a few days ago, seems like every group with some “identity” wants said speaker to reflect THEIR values. And no, I didn’t do some intensive scientific study to come to that observation…just my impression of the spirit of the day.
And I agree with Michael, we don’t always need an opinion on EVERY LITTLE ITEM that crosses in front of our eyes…heck, we don’t always need to “take to twitter” to pile on, or vent on Facebook, or blog about the rage-of-the-day.
Ha! See what I did there?
Myself? I didn’t watch the wedding ’cause I was finishing up an overnight shift when the ceremony started and had to rush home to sleep…but I would have like to watch it.
Re: thought #6…I think looking forward to the second coming is just plain and simple anticipation and active hope…like saying “I’m tired of kids killing their peers…come quickly Lord Jesus”..everything else is just hedging bets and pure foolish speculation.
Amen to thought #4!
A Samer sighting! 🙂 – come back and participate (better known as the free for all)
#4 makes for a catchy line but I think it needs some meat put on the bones. Depending on the season, I worship with 80 to 180 people who are tickled that God loves sinners – of whom we count ourselves. If we invite someone to church it is because we know God loves sinners.
But…we still take the position of St Paul when he says that God has reconciled the world to himself through Jesus Christ our Lord and that is what we lead with – our message to the unsaved world is a robust “you must stop hating God.”
Samer sighting!!!!
MLD beat me to it by about 14 hours! Time for me to crawl back below deck.