Welcome

I invite you to join in theological reflection on matters of concern.   As a Christian, I come to these reflections with a faith grounded in Scripture and reformed by revivals of faith in the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the theological revolutions in our times. In this context, discerning the meaning of Jesus Christ is a process guided by grace and community.  Grace is the creative, life giving power of God and grace always creates community. 

Middle Speech

In terms of style and method, these reflections are a form of Middle Speech, that is, one finds oneself not at the beginning or end but in the middle. What is said is never the first word or the last word, but words in the middle.  They are guided by our faith, hope and love, in response to words already spoken by others. These reflections grow out of a context and seek to revise or sustain the community. 

      Middle speech also occurs in the meantime, that is, not simply time between times but times which are hard and divisive.  Thus we must ask: how can speech in mean times offer words of grace as healing and blessing?

      Much will depend on what one takes as the first word and what one wants the last word to be.  If one assumes the first or last words are absolutely set, then reflection shifts to deductions to be applied universally.  Or, as has been suggested, Bible and Doctrine are like a Sear’s Manual to solve all problems. All we have to do is look up the answers.  The outcome of such reflections will also depend on whether one will even admit that we live in mean times.  The public domains of religion and politics reveal endless claims to innocence and the refusal to speak of mean times, in effect perpetuating the existing hardships. It takes courage to acknowledge the mean times, or to resist the pretention that we can step out of middle speech and offer both the first and last word.  What we can do is think and write about grace and community in our times.

It’s All About Grace

When people tried to summarize the key to the 16^th century Reformation, many chose the word grace.  This may seem surprising since it is not used by Jesus in the gospels nor does it appear in the Nicene or Apostles Creed.  But it catches the essence of what Jesus and the creeds affirm: the surprising power of God to give life even when undeserved or contrary to our moral expectations.

      God creates the world not out of external pressure but out of love.  God gives a promise to Abraham that the nations will be blessed by his descendants. Israel is redeemed from bondage in Egypt and promised a land by grace.  Prophets speak of a mysterious and persistent will of God to redeem sinful humankind.  Jesus announces the coming Rule of God based on the loving kindness of God.  It is not doled out according to human claims to achievement, class, gender or race.  It is not thwarted by resistance to messengers of grace, as was the case of Jesus’ suffering in faithfulness to God.  But it does appear in the Easter vindication of Jesus as new life for the world. The Bible overflows with signs of grace. 

      There is no doubt, however, that we resist grace. It implies that God is the life giver over against all the death dealing in this world.  Grace inevitably exposes our will to control and use other people and the earth for our purposes.  No wonder it precipitates arguments at the dinner table and divides neighbors—even churches. The older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son is outraged at the thought that his Father would take back the rebellious and wasteful son.  In a world where so much is transactional and we are supposed to earn what we get, he wants to be rewarded and see his brother punished.  What he cannot accept is that the Father has decided to restore the lost, to give life to those who are dying, and to reunite those separated.  This is the message about God which Jesus affirms.  Grace means life and freedom, given by God according to God’s purposes. It is not based on our achievements or claims to wisdom and power.  And it can only be received by trust of the heart in joyous celebration.  It is rightly defined as a gift.

      In a nutshell, that’s why Protestants say the key to Christian faith is grace. And that’s why it becomes the first subject and standard for my reflections.     Middle speech also occurs in the meantime, that is, not simply time between times but times which are hard and divisive.  Thus we must ask: how can speech in mean times offer words of grace as healing and blessing?

Community

Grace creates community.  The two are inseparable.  Grace is not intended as a private possession kept in a safe place.  It points to the God who freely gives it and the community it creates.  History tells the story.

      When Jesus appears to announce the coming of the Kingdom, he calls people to repent and believe.  He follows a long tradition, which resurfaces in John the Baptism who calls people to repentance and baptism.  Before them stand the prophets, who seek to restore the covenant given by Moses.  This covenant symbolizes Israel’s liberation from slavery and their formation into a people bound together by the saving power of God.  Israel pledges to love God and neighbor. 

      Today many like to quote the prophets because of their resounding emphasis on justice and mercy, as if these ideas were universal principles we all know about.  Some like the prophets because they have little patience for the external forms and practices of religion, instead calling for works of justice for the widow and orphan and the poor.  But this misrepresents what they say.  Their interest is in the restoration of the covenant, the community where remembrance of God’s saving power is the origin of community and love toward God and neighbor. Ethics does not create community but arises in a community shaped by grace.

      This plays out in the way Jesus describes the nature of relations, formed by a community set in the context of God’s rule.  When his disciples James and John want power to rule, as if they had been rescued to be worldly lords, Jesus will have none of it and tells them they are to be servants of all.  When Paul struggles to define the meaning of Jesus as risen Lord, he insists that if Jesus is the Christ, then the community cannot tolerate divisions of rich or poor, male or female, slave or free.  Grace creates a special kind of community where members are at peace with one another.

Luther is remembered for affirming grace but he said more than that.  He also reformed the church: he removed the distinctions between the religious orders versus the laity, spoke of the priesthood of all believers, translated the Bible so everyone could have access to the gospel in their language, sanctioned marriage of priests and made forgiveness (which restores unity) a mark of the church. 

      The community created by grace is a revolutionary one, even though it does not always remain true to its calling.  For example, I think the egalitarian practices of baptism and the Lord’s Supper in New England Protestant churches contributed to the drive toward equality and independence in the 18^th century.  The fact that the final result still excluded women and sanctioned slavery only created contradictions which needed to be resolved. 

      Another example of compromising the value of community is the individualism which infects American religion.  In the new political framework in America, relilgion is defined as some thing the individual chooses and the church is defined as an association of like-minded individuals.  This suggests that the church is held together by our agreement.  This works well until we discover that we don’t agree.  So, in our time, the church of agreement has died and we are left with individuals claiming to be religious and even Jesus disconnected from churches.  Such practice fails to see that grace creates community, that individual faith and practice are nurtured and sustained by a community that remembers the God who created it and continues to gift it life.