Why should I mourn / The vanished power of the usual reign?

So one of my tasks last week was to dig through my vast treasure trove of historical, theological and philosophical essays in the hopes of finding an artifact of sheer brilliance that I can dust off, shine up a bit, and send off in an application. So you're gonna get some facinating quotes this week.

(Can I just say that I definately have to submit the one essay in which I managed not only to understand something Wolfhart Pannenberg wrote, but said something intelligible about him. I always felt bad, because his Systematic Theology was all over the syllabus.)

So let's get started.

Fidelity to the gospel lies not in repeating its slogans but in plunging the prevailing idolatries into its corrosive acids.

- Walter Wink, Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 111.

(Speaking of which, I just uploaded one of my sermons from Dallas, on John the Baptizer and the Powers That Be.)

Want to read some creepy stuff?

“I adore war…it’s like a big picnic without the objectlessness of a picnic. I’ve never been so well or so happy. No one grumbles at one for being dirty.”

- Julian Grenfell, 1914. In DeGroot, The First World War, 45.

To die young, clean, ardent; to die swiftly, in perfect health; to die saving others from death, or worse—disgrace—to die scaling heights; to die and to carry with you into the fuller ampler life beyond, untainted hopes and aspirations, unembittered (sic) memories, all the freshness and gladness of May—is not that cause for joy rather than sorrow?

- The Hill, a popular university text by H.A. Vachell.

Technorati Tags: patriotism, history, World War One

Happy Reformation Day

In honor of Martin Luther and the Reformation the Holy Spirit brought about through his daring, let's have a few words from him:

If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true and not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world.

This sounds quite odd at first blush, but as I've thought about it, it's really a neat idea. God doesn't love us because we've cleaned up for him, or we're every quite composed and religious enough to be holy and loveable -- he just loves us. Gratuitously, entirely apart from anything we do or don't do. We are free to acknowledge that we are sinners, completely undeserving of His love, but deeply privilaged recipients of it just the same. "From His fullness we have recieved grace upon grace."

Luther also had quite the sense of humor. When one of his ministers came to him complaining that one of the regional religious leaders approved of practices that were far too "Romish," he responsed thus:

Why don't you, for heaven's sake, march around wearing a sliver or gold cross, as well as a skull cap and a chasuble made of velvet, silk or cotton? If your superior, the Elector, thinks that one cap or one chasuble is not enough, then put on two or three, like Aaron, the high priest, who wore three coats, one on top of the other, and they all looked wonderful...

If your Electoral Excellency thinks one procession is not enough, marching around with singing and with bells, then do it seven times, just as Joshua did in Jericho with the Children of Israel. They shouted and blew their trunpets. Perhaps your Electoral Excellency might even jump around and dance in front of all the people with harps, drums, cymbels, and bells, just as David did before the Ark of the Covenant on it's way to Jerusalem. I completely approve of such things, as long as they ar not abused or steal the thunder from the gospel; and as long as they are not viewed as necessary for salvation, or binding on consciences.

Uh, sure, whatever...