Category: Theology

a question

So here is a question I was wondering about the other day:

What makes your “church”
different from a cult?

Would the answer be something like, “we are right, they are wrong”? Well, that means ever single individual is someone else’s “cult” or heretic. Maybe, as a general thought, we can dump the concept of “right and wrong”?

Also, as an aside, why do we assume so much about cults? The leaders are manipulative and evl. They know they are wrong and are doing it for some self-serving end. I think most people are honest about their beliefs – members and leaders of cult are no different. Let’s start from this point!!!! While some may have nefaris aims, I believe most cult leaders believe what they preach. And, some clergy do not.

I do not expect answers.

sharing with you

In the past there were people in my life with whom I would have shared the following.But they are no longer in my life so I am sharing it with the blogosphere:

My father spent a lifetime fighting for women to be pastors. His OAM proves change is slow but possible

I think I knew the individual honoured. I am sure I personally know the struggle within that community. So I am sharing it with you.

de-churched

The unchurched refers to individuals who have not attended a religious service within the past six months or more, while the de-churched refers to individuals who were previously active in religious services but have discontinued attending regularly. Some may argue that the unchurched population is merely uninformed and that they need to come to know about God. In contrast, they claim that those who have disconnected from the church are simply going through wounds caused by past church experiences, better known as “church hurt.” Although some of this may hold true, the important issue is how we can connect the difference between perception and reality in order to grasp the needs and questions of those who are unchurched and “de-churched.”

Reaching the Unchurched and the De-churched

Trinity or heresy Sunday?

Today is Trinity Sunday. The BCP sets John 3 as the Gospel while the Western Roman Rite has Matthew 28:18–20. Interesting?! I am not much of a theologian (hubris much?!) so the following needs to be read with some salt.

I have heard many sermons trying to explain the Trinity. Some end in modalism – oh, so modern – others in a different heresy. The worst are “children’s sermons” that use physical examples. I sometimes wonder if Trinity Sunday should not be renamed to “Heresy Sunday”?!

So, simply, a reworked quasi-quote from Kierkegaard:

[The Trinity] is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced

Truth and Jesus

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 14:6 (KJV)

I am not much of a theologian (says the fool all proud!) but these are some random thoughts on the verse above.

Thought 1: Jesus does not say, “I am going to give you the truth”. He says, “I am the truth”. It is not a truth about Jesus but Jesus Himself. Jesus does not provide a system of thought, a way of living, or a way of locating truth – He says, “I am the truth”. In Buber’s terms, truth is not an it (facts and inference) but a You (a relationship). There is no “truth” beyond Jesus.

Thought 2: Jesus does not say, “Wherever you think you find truth, there am I.” Yes, there is truth apart from Jesus. Yet finding truth and finding Jesus are not the same thing. Jesus is a person and so truth is personal. Jesus says, “I am the truth”. There is no “truth” beyond Jesus.

I am going to add to this via other posts, methinks.

… to go beyond Jesus

Further to the pervious post …

I was told, by a professional theologian, that I was a Jesus-only Christian. The person went on to say that we (meaning the church in general) have gone “beyond Jesus” and are now Trinitarian Christians.

I was thinking about going “beyond Jesus”. Is there a “going beyond”?

Jesus and the church

8:2 Wherever the bishop appear, there let the multitude be; even as wherever Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful either to baptize, or to hold a love-feast without the consent of the bishop; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that also is well pleasing unto God, to the end that whatever is done may be safe and sure.

The Epistle of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans

I was thinking about the above quote, especially the presence of Jesus and the Church – I am assuming that “Catholic” means universal and not the institution.

Can the statement be turned: Where the church (self-described) is, there is Jesus? Or, where people gather to do something religious, there is Jesus?

The institution is not Christ because the presence of Jesus is the establishing fact. The parish register is not the Book of Life.