Firstly, I am having trouble getting my schedule straight. It looks as if I may miss a class or two during Thanksgiving week. CTU has class. Oops. I think I am all right everywhere else. Yay? On December 1-3 I have my psych evaluation appointment. It is in a group setting primarily and takes up the entire three days. Why am I not excited about this? Urf. And I have lots of papers to write. Yay. Don't worry. I won't publish them here. I'll put them on that other page of mine.
now on to class
The created order is a worthy vehicle through which the Presense of God may be encountered The Old Testament: burning bush, pillar of flame, tabernacle, temple, ark, word The New Testament: Jesus the Christ. God is united through the person of Jesus with the whole of Creation (Rom 8).
Here is typically where Baptists stop. We can get a little gnostic. Oops. We dematerialize Christ. We do not care for a material presense. We want a spiritual presense. We want a symbol, but we do not want a material presense. We are trying to avoid a transubstantive theology. So, we get rid of the whole thing. Um, sorry?
Where then is the presence of God? Um...now Bob is talking about Vatican II. Very good move, Bob. Christ is present in the gathered community (whever two or three are gathered), its worship (do this in remembrance of me) and work (whenever you do this to the least of these...).
You know, this is gonna get heated really quickly. Bob is preaching orthodoxy. Oh no. I'll let you know how it goes. Anyone remember 451 CE?
*later*
Okay, so far so good. Some peopl eare sitting in a stunned silence. Others are nodding happily. Baptists, we, are a mixed-up lot to say the least. I wonder how these people will manage the epiclesis (the prayer that invites the Holy Spirit).
Somehow we are talking about the apostolic succession. This is harder for the class than the real presence in the elements of the eucharist.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 is being used to suggest that homousious (human and divine) is incorrect. We are no longer the same, so how can it be human energy at all? Can you respond to this, Cliff or Karl? My fellow student, John, is a Willow Creek congregant. He is struggling with a sacramental reading of this verse. The change, if it is afforded, is through faith signified through baptism. We are made new. So, we are not what we were. So, this is not human and divine, this is something new.
[btw - has anyone ever noticed that this verse, 2 Cor 5:19, suggests that God reconciled the world (them or they in the NRSV) through Christ, it is we (the Church?) who must preach reconciliation, must live reconciliation (see John 13:34-35) and preach reconciliation with one another all creation and God? Why? Because it is the reality of all things. This is connected to the sacraments somehow and I cannot for the life of me figure it out. Jeff? Susie? Jane Ellen?]
CT suggests Romans 12:1 plays into the conversation about human and divine and the sacraments.
*break*
Now we read the Didache. Oh my. I like this class. It is so affirming for this sacramental baptist.
in other news
There is a radio station in Chicago playing nothing but Christmas carols now. Oh. My. God. This is what is wrong with the world today.
Here is a thought on agape (love) for Cliff
Amidst all kinds of love in the world, there is Christian love, agape love. It is not based on mutuality. It is based on the radical love that is shown in Jesus Christ. That love seeks us out, affirms us, and forgives us before any capacity or even inclination on our part to reciprocate that love. It upsets the nice calculus - the give and take- of mutual love. God's agape love in Christ is a kind of divine madness that breaks the sane confines of worldly love. - Robert Benne Ordinary Saints
