Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?
Not a meeting people kind of person. I once knew a bishop who was in the news. He was mentioned in Parliament. He ordained me. Apart from him, no one famous.
But infamous! That would be me. Well, at least in some people’s minds.
In describing the leap, Kierkegaard agreed with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Kierkegaard’s use of the term “leap” was in response to “Lessing’s Ditch” which was discussed by Lessing in his theological writings. Both Lessing and Kierkegaard discuss the agency one might use to base one’s faith upon. Lessing tried to battle rational Christianity directly and, when that failed, he battled it indirectly through what Kierkegaard called “imaginary constructions”. Both were influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In 1950, philosopher Vincent Edward Smith wrote that “Lessing and Kierkegaard declare in typical fashion that there is no bridge between historical, finite knowledge and God’s existence and nature.“
Leap of Faith
Sometimes, I wonder if the modern church could make me a follower of Jesus. Some of the things I hear from “church people” are completely disconnected from everyday life. (That includes my everyday life! And, honestly, I get more push-back from church people to living as an enclosed solitary.) Maybe the best way is to say that the church is very good at answering questions that no one asks.
I am just a voter, a consumer, or a “parishioner,” and I should behave accordingly. Sometimes, I am told that I am very privileged to be a voter, a consumer, or a parishioner. The message is that I am called to surrender me for the community.
Maybe the following quote makes the point much better:
It is frequently said that a reformation has to begin with each person’s reformation of himself, but it has not happened that way, for the idea of reformation has given rise to a hero, who very likely bought his license to be a hero very dearly from God.
A little further, Kierkegaard writes:
… the abstraction of leveling is a principle that forms no personal, intimate relation to any particular individual, but only the relation of abstraction, which is the same for all. No hero, then, suffers for others or helps others; leveling itself becomes the severe taskmaster who takes on the task of educating.
Two Ages
In the end, I am stuck. Forward or backward? Prophesy or escape? Should I risk all (including me) for a community with little interest in me?
Anyway …
Then the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever one of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell at that time.
Judges 12:5-6
I watched Major League last night. It is one of my go-to movies when I want to just “chill.” In the movie, one of the characters, Eddie Harris, asks, “Are you saying Jesus cannot hit a curve ball?“
I think the question centres on Jesus’ humanity – as the God-Man, is he perfect in skill? Is “hitting a curve ball” part of perfection? Did Jesus ever burn the breakfast for his disciples? Or, to put it negatively, is it “sinful” not to be able to hit a curve ball?
Does this involve the communicatio idiomatum (communication of attributes)?
So, can Jesus hit a curve ball?
So, I am not a huge consumer of podcasts. I was in the past.
I recently listened to The Secrets We Keep: Pray Harder. I like cults, and this one is local. The podcast was somewhat one-sided and a little simplistic, but I really enjoyed it. I cannot expect all podcasts to be a theological exploration within a wider historical context. One thing that always interests me is the assumption of intent on the part of the leader. Anyway, interesting.
Also, as I have your attention, I am doing a podcast. (And, to be honest, doesn’t everyone.) I have a trailer for Season 1 in the feed. I am hoping to record on a Friday. Just random stuff!
Father, we offer ourselves to you
APBA, Prayer after Communion
as a living sacrifice
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Send us out in the power of your Spirit
to live and work for your praise and glory.
The New Life in Christ
Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Sacrifice is surrendering a good for a greater good. It is the flip side of sin, choosing a lesser good over a greater good. For me, sacrifice is a part of my daily life: to always choose Jesus!
There in a cell abutting on the church, which had been empty for some time, and without the usual induction by the bishop and no solemn blessing, but only the inward authority of the Holy Spirit, he buried himself with Christ, shortly to be transformed with him in a sort of resurrection glory: in newness of life, in cheerfulness of spirit, in the power of signs, in the grace of prophecy.
The Life of Wulfric of Haselbury, Anchorite
It is a question of understanding my own destiny, of seeing what the Deity really wants me to do; the thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die. … I still accept an imperative of knowledge, and that through it one can also influence people, but then it must be taken up alive in me, and this is what I now see as the main point.
1 August 1835
Is there a difference between “Jesus died for sin” and “Jesus died for my sin”?
a fool and his prayer book 