Subject to authority - really?

The attached commentary is from the web site Episcopal Cafe. It talks about that infamous section in Romans by Paul about being subject to authority. Although the post doesn't use the word context the author speaks to it as he sets what Paul has to say in context. I mention this because it is the Literalists who choose to ignore the setting of scripture when espousing the supremacy of civil authority.

The link to the article is here: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/thesoul/be_subject_to_the_governing_au.htm

2012 National Prayer Breakfast, Part 2

2012 National Prayer Breakfast, Part 1

Faith Activism and Martin Luther King's Legacy

Lessons and Questions

This post was originally published on "The Progressive Christian" in 2010.

Jesus and 9/11

blog September 11, 2010 By Stephen Rockwell

On a day like today, September 11, it sure is tough to do as Jesus said and did. In the nine years since that fateful, tragic day, it seems like as a nation we fall further and further from the ideal that Jesus laid out for us. In the days following 9/11, there was a beautiful sense of national unity and resolve that killing our people and destroying our buildings would not undermine who we are as our nation, our values, and our way of life.

In this intervening period we have seen a tragically unnecessary war conducted in Iraq and what is amounting to an endless military conflict in Afghanistan, a land where empires have entered paying enormous tolls in human life and treasure, seeking to tame what forever has been ungovernable region. We have seen torture performed in our name and endless incarceration without any process for determining guilt, let alone due process.

At home, we are now in the midst of a rising tide of anti-Islam rhetoric and behavior. The threatening of Koran burning and the hostility of which an Islamic center a few blocks from the World Trade Center has been met, is largely propogated by a strain in our body politic that is intolerant at best and hateful at worst.

The balance of this article can be read by going to:http://tpcmagazine.org/blog/jesus-and-911

What has changed? Have we learned anything in ten years?

Christianity, Hockey, and Good Advice

This is re-posted from The Anchorhold @ St.Laika's ( http://jh002a0382.typepad.com/the_anchorhold/# )I especially like the last paragraph.
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The great hockey player Wayne Gretsky said, 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.'

I believe this skating for the puck is about searching for where God is at work dismantling barriers and transforming lives, not where we have already been. I believe it is about discovering fresh ways to embody God's love among the people, in surrounding neighborhoods, across every barrier, trusting the Spirit of Christ to transform lives. This is what it means to be a missional church whose primary purpose is lives being transformed by the Spirit.

The Church did not begin as an institution whose survival its members were enlisted to ensure. It began as a movement of believers, whose lives were being transformed by the Holy Spirit and summoned by God's love into the streets to announce the Good News.

-- Roy Howard

As Christians Should We Celebrate a Death?

On May 2nd, the morning after we received the news that Bin Laden was killed I realized that what I was thinking would not be accepted by many people. To celebrate the death of any individual is somehow wrong. Was / had he turned into a monster? Yes! But as Christians we are told and are suppose to believe that everyone is a child of God. We would be well served to reflect on how anyone can become what Ben Laden had become. A possible answer to that may be that when anyone or any religion or any faction of a religion decides to hate it is the start down a road that leads to even greater hate and destruction. This is probably what Ben Laden allowed to happen. He took one of the world's great Abrahamic - monotheistic religions and twisted it toward hate. This was embraced by a small faction and we saw the result of this on9/11/01 and since. As Christians, if we are not careful, we too can allow hate to motivate us. Indeed some have. Examples of this can be seen in history as Nazi Shinheads, the KKK,and during the 1930s as isolationists. Caution is called for in our reactions. Caution is called for in our jubilation. We need not go down the same road as Bin Laden.

Having written my thoughts in a notebook, that you see above, I was pleased to see on an NPR post on Facebook the following story. Perhaps my thoughts are not so lonely after all.

Is It Wrong To Celebrate Bin Laden's Death?

by Linton Weeks

A crowd gathers outside the White House early Monday to celebrate President Obama's announcement that U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden.

May 2, 2011

Impromptu celebrations erupted near the White House in Washington and ground zero in New York when news of Osama bin Laden's death was reported and tweeted.

Laura Cunningham, a 22-year-old Manhattan reveler — gripping a Budweiser in her hand and sitting atop the shoulders of a friend — was part of the crowd at ground zero in the wee hours Monday. As people around her chanted "U-S-A," Cunningham was struck by the emotional response. She told New York Observer: "It's weird to celebrate someone's death. It's not exactly what we're here to celebrate, but it's wonderful that people are happy." …To read the balance of this article go to: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/02/135927693/is-it-wrong-to-celebrate-bin-ladens-death

Atheists, I believe in God because I do - Leonard Pitts Jr. - MiamiHerald.com

This article is by Leonard Pitts Jr. a syndicated columnist who writes for the Miami Herald. To read the complete article go to the website listed below.

That which is without quality cannot be measured, the invisible cannot be examined, theincorporeal cannot be weighed, the limitless cannot be compared, the incomprehensible doesnot admit of more or less.’’ Gregory of Nyssa (fourth century Christian philosopher)

“I am that I am" Exodus 3:14

Occasionally, I manage to tick off an atheist.

It is not something I set out to do. Usually it results from some passing comment reflecting my belief that God is. As in a recent column on Lara Logan, the CBS reporter sexually assaulted in Egypt. I wrote that she is “deserving of our compassion, our empathy and our prayers.” This drove a reader named Patricia to her keyboard.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/01/2092334/i-believe-because-i-do.html#ixzz1GEzfcLtW

Faith, Love, Doing

In a small publication called "Forward Day by Day" published by Forward Movement an agency of the Episcopal Church one of the scripture lessons listed for November 17,2008 was James 2:14-26. I have read this passage before and it is one of my favorite Epistle passages. Verse 24, as it is translated in the "Contemporary English Version" says,"You can now see that we please God by what we do and not only by what we believe." When I read this, or most parts of James, it often brings to mind what Luther said, and wrote in the margin of his Bible. When Luther read a passage that said we are saved by faith he wrote in the margin, "and faith alone". I have heard that Luther disliked the book of James and would not have been upset if it had never been included in the canon. His reasoning was that James seemed to indicate that "good works" were necessary to be saved.

While I am not competant to take Luther back to Worms I think that he fails to make an important connection. He would be familiar with a portionof scripture where Jesus, re-appearing after his earthly death, forgave Peter of the three times Peter had denied Him. In John 21: 15-17 Jesus asks Peter three times, "... do you love me..." and Peter responds each time saying the he does. After the positive responses by Peter Jesus asksk him to do something. "...feed my lambs... take care of my sheep ... Feed my sheep."

Jesus' request of Peter was to do something; to act. Peter had the faith that Luther called for from Jesus' followers. But because of that faith Peter also loved Jesus. Because of that love and faith Jesus could ask Peter to do. So actually there is a connection between faith, love, and doing. Luther was correct, we are saved by faith alone, but if we have faith we have love. And if we love Jesus we will do as he requested of Peter and as He requests of us through our connection to Peter to, "Feed my sheep." And while some may suggest that Jesus was only talking about feeding His sheep spiritually Jesus' earthly life among, and with frequent references to, the poor it seems obvious that Jesus was referring to the physical needs of the poor as well as the spiritual needs.

So there should be no tension between Luther and the letter of James; for to believe is to love, is to serve, is to do.