More Willimon

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1688

 Cruciform Preaching: Inglorious Talk - more wisdom from Will Willimon  A cruciform faith in the God who reigns from a cross requires a peculiar way of preaching that is foolishness to the world. When the speaker points to Jesus hanging helplessly on the cross and says, "Jesus Christ is Lord!" the predictable audience reaction is, “Why? How?”Then the speaker is tempted to offer assorted evidence for such a patently ridiculous claim: citations from religious authorities, illustrations from everyday life, personal experience, and connections with the presuppositions of the audience. Classical rhetoric said that there were three means of persuasion of an audience: reason, emotions, and the character of the speaker.Note that Paul, in writing to the Corinthians about the folly of his preaching 1 Cor. 1), rejects all of these classical means of persuasion, perhaps because there is no way for a speaker to get us from here to there, from our expectations for God to God on a cross, by conventional means of persuasion. When asked, “What is your evidence for your claim?” Paul simply responds, “Cross.” What else can he say? The cross so violates our frames of reference, our means of sorting out the claims of truth, that there is no way to get there except by “demonstration of the Spirit” and by “the power of God.” The only way for preaching about cross to “work” is as a miracle, a gift of God.To underscore the miraculous quality of cruciform Christian proclamation Paul said that he spoke “in weakness and in much fear and trembling” - hardly what we would expect from an adept speaker. Yet Paul says he preached thus to show that nothing – neither the eloquence of the speaker nor the reasoning powers of the hearers – could produce faith in a crucified savior except the “power of God.”Martin Luther was fond of contrasting a “theology of glory,” in which the cross was seen as avoidable, optional equipment for Christians, a mere ladder by which we climb up to God with a “theology of the cross” which, according to Luther, calls things by their proper names and is unimpressed with most that impresses the world. A theology of glory (the current “Prosperity Theology”?) preaches the cross as just another technique for getting what we want whereas a theology of the cross proclaims the cross as the supreme sign of how God gets what God wants. The cross is a statement that our salvation is in God's hands, not ours, that our relationship to God is based upon something that God suffers and does rather than upon something that we do. To bear the cross of Christ is to bear its continual rebuke of the false gods to which we are tempted to give our lives. Autosalvation is the lie beneath most theologies of glory. When self-salvation is preached, reducing the gospel to a means for saving ourselves -- by our good works, or our good feelings, or our good thinking – then worldly wisdom and common sense are substituted for cruciform gospel foolishness and blasphemy is the result.I’ve spent some time with a young person who is not a Christian, not a follower of the cross. I have these conversations with her because I’ve found it to be a salubrious spiritual exercise. Almost every conversation she reminds me of the oddness of the Christian way of salvation. The cross continues to be the strangest, most countercultural, truthful and ultimately life giving thing that the church has to say to the world.

 

Cletus

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1708

 I'd love to observe life as Bart Campolo does - he reflects on the normal & sees the divine challenge ... here's his latest offering ...   The other day I ran into Cletus, an old friend I first met four years ago, over breakfast at the local soup kitchen.  I don't volunteer there; I go for the donuts.  The priest who runs the place doesn’t mind.  They’ve got plenty of volunteers, he tells me, but hardly anyone who’ll just sit at the table and talk with the guys about what’s in the newspaper.  So now I’m that guy, and when it comes to current events, Cletus is my main sparring partner.  His story is familiar enough that I won’t bore you with the details.  Suffice it to say he traded a good family and a good job for a bad woman and a bad habit, and ended up with nobody and nothing of value.  Unless you count self-knowledge and a sense of humor, in which case Cletus is a rich man. In any case, on the day in question I was just making my rounds in the neighborhood, connecting with old friends and letting myself be seen by the folks who moved in over the winter.  I was glad when Cletus saw me and called my name.  It takes a few passes before new neighbors figure out that I belong here, unless they see me hailed down and hugged by an "old head" like him. We stood and talked on the sidewalk for a while, mainly about another friend from the soup kitchen who had just gotten out of a nursing home after a stroke, and was already back on the pipe.  I never saw Charlie look better and happier than in that home, I told Cletus.  I wished they’d never let him out. “Aw, Bart,” he said, “you know ol’ Charlie may have been better off in there, but what he really wanted was to be back out here, doin’ his thing.”  He paused.  “We all do what we want in the end.” I nodded, and half-jokingly asked what I should say to the church people who are always asking me how they can help street guys like Charlie and him.  He laughed out loud at that. “Tell 'em that most of us don’t want their help!  Hell, I know I don’t!  I had what they have and I threw it away to get high and chase women.  That’s still my choice.  If I ever get tired of it, I know you’ll help me, but for now I’m just as happy to have you as a friend and leave it at that.” Then I laughed out loud too, and we left it at that. We all do what we want in the end, says Cletus, and around here that’s the problem.  For his wife and kids, and for the doctors and nurses who spent their time and your money fixing up ol’ Charlie, that’s the problem.  For a guy like me, who keeps walking around wondering what I’m doing here, that’s the problem. What am I doing here?  Waiting for Cletus to want something better.

 

Calvinist view of Church?

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1707

This quote is taken from "Who's afraid of Postmodernism" by James Smith.  The book is pretty good for seeing postmodernity in ways that do not threaten the Church ... but for me, I found it a little too Calvinist, but hey, you can't have everything. But Smith's obvious Calvinism was also a challenge to me, because while his thorough academic philosophy as a base root, his flower was the work of the Holy Spirit through faith ... not a style of writing that you come across very often. And so sentences like below struck me - and gave me a little more hope for Calvinists and the Church ...   "The church does not exist for me, my salvation is not primarily a matter of intellectual mastery or emotional satisfaction. The church is the site where God renews and transforms us - a place where the practices of being the body of Christ form us into the image of the son. What I, a sinner saved by grace, need is not so much answers as reformation of my will and heart."

 

The Real Simon Cowell

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1675

Last Saturday I was on my bike, cycling past Croke Park, and thinking 'who are all these weirdos in bright hair & knee length boots - turns out Mr Cowell was in town for the X factor auditions ... he intrigues me hugely. I'd love to have him round for dinner in chez jools - I hope I'd find him interesting, but I suspect his ego might annoy me ... mind you the interview below gives me hope for him ... This is the extended BBC Newsnight interview with him - the man who has defined, more than anyone else, what successful 'reality' TV is ... it is worth sitting down & getting a cuppa ... interesting, honest, intelligent ... and dare I say it, ever so slightly self-effacing! Enjoy it here

 

modernism didn't have to be this way!?

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1706

 A couple of months ago I began a Doctorate of Ministry (DMin) through Fuller seminary in USA (California - yippeeee!) ... it is a distance study course & should take four years ... long time. I go to US for one week of intensive study every year  - which should be fun. From time to time I should post some of the interesting things I'm reading - so here is a start ... one of sociologist Stephen Toulmin's theories concerning the rise of radical scientific rationalism in the 17th C ... 

 

post-Christian evangelical USA

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1705

 A few people in the blogosphere have been getting excited about this article, which is about 'Q gathering' in USA - essentially a young adult neo evanglical movement that is gaining momentum and influence ... and looks really good. I'd like to go. My one slight problem? We have known, and acted like this, in Ireland and the UK for more than a decade now. Australia & NZ have also been on the cusp of the thinking and practice that Q gathering outlines ... this is not new, it's a neo-evangelicalism that seems to exude itself as the brand new hope. I hope it keeps it's head, because it seems like a great event. But if you're listening Q gathering (yeah, likely I know!), stay humble and resist the Americanization of post-christian. Guard against becoming simply the next consumer program for the Capitalist monster, and above all, stay away from thinking you have all the answers and you are 'it.' Evangelicalism has had enough of that over the last couple of hundred years.      

 

Simply genius

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1704

 Enjoy.   "Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.  

 

Election

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1703

 Loads of people are talking & writing about the UK elections ... from my small perspective, I've simply been surprised at how many people in Ireland are talking about it and following it ... usually there is a distanced solemnity regarding northerly things, (never mind UK things) but not with this election  - RTE had election night coverage. Which quite honestly surprised me ...   1. I don't particularly like David Cameron - he schmooses waaaaay to much ... but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt to see if he can bring some stability. 2. I really hope Nick Clegg does not pass on this historic opportunity for voting reform - if he does the history books will not forgive him. 3. As usual ... why-not-smile has the take that is worth reading ...    

 

just a beautiful thing ...

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1702

 or is it ?!?!?!  

 

Animal-tastic

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1701

 I have noticed a significant growth recently, in the number of 'pet services' offered within Irish Methodism ... a tale of modern consumerist church it may be, but it also seems to work - it brings people not usually associated with church toward the hallowed (and now more peed upon) carpets. I don't seem to have any major objections - after all, it was my own father about 28 years ago who was the first minister I saw bring any pet into church ... it was harvest Sunday, and all of a sudden the front of Knock Methodist was full of farm animals - I remember a goat and a sheep. I think there were some small furry things there also. There was also the morning, every year, that the guide dog association would bring Labradors to the church, and we in the Sunday School would take full advantage of the change in program  - probably pestering this poor dog who was trained to sit and take it all in good humour.   But this - this is slightly different again ... taste of the future, or sad old man with a pet replacing the love of a family?   Your thoughts?  

 

Willimon pre-bishop

Taken from: http://www.joolshamilton.com/blog/read.php?p=1700

 This was Wil Willimon's last sermon as a university chaplain - just before leaving to become a Bishop ... it's wonderful. And encapsulates the desire of student chaplaincy ... seeing the dead come to life ...