Brian McLaren on part of the reason Jesus spoke in parables

Why did Jesus speak in parables? Why was he subtle, indirect, and secretive? Because his message wasn't merely aimed at conveying information. It sought to precipitate something more important: the spiritual transformation of the hearers. The form of parable helps to shape a heart that is willing to enter an ongoing, interactive, persistent relationship of trust in the teacher. It beckons the hearer to explore new territory. It helps form a heart that is humble enough to admit it doesn't already understand and is thirsty enough to ask questions. In other words, a parable renders its hearers not as experts, not as know-it-alls, not as scholars . . . but as children.

Now do some of the most famous sayings of Jesus begin to make more sense- about the kingdom of God belonging to children, about needing to become like a little child to enter the kingdom, about needing to be born again? Children are dependent, not independent. They can't learn unless they ask questions of people they trust. Their thirst for knowledge expresses itself in an unquenchable curiosity, a passionate inquisitiveness.

Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus, 46, 47.

Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg on following Jesus like sheep following their shepherd

Judith Fain is a doctoral candidate at the University of Durham. As part of her studies, she spends several months each year in Israel. One day while walking on a road near Bethlehem, Judith watched as three shepherds converged with their separate flocks of sheep. The three men hailed each other and then stopped to talk. While they were conversing, their sheep intermingled, melting into one big flock. Wondering how the three shepherds would ever be able to identify their own sheep, Judith waited until the men were ready to say their good-byes. She watched, fascinated, as each of the shepherds called out to his sheep. At the sound of their shepherd's voice, like magic, the sheep separated again into three flocks. Apparently some things in Israel haven't changed for thousands of years.

Just like sheep, what distinguishes us is not so much the "pen" we inhabit but the shepherd we follow. Some sheep come running as soon as their shepherd calls, but some struggle to obey his lead, going astray whenever temptation strikes. It takes a lot more energy to follow a wandering shepherd than to be cooped up in a pen.

But we are called to be disciples of a Rabbi who is always on the move, one who wants us to go with him, making disciples to the ends of the earth. We need to learn how to recognize his voice, to go where he wants us to go, and to serve and imitate him so that we can share his good news with the world.

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith, by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg, 64-65.

John Polkinghorne on Jesus' worldwide, ongoing influence

Jesus was swiftly arrested, condemned and led away to crucifixion. This painful and shameful death, reserved by the Romans for slaves and rebels, was seen by devout Jews as a sign of God's rejection, since Deuteronomy (21:23) proclaimed a divine curse on anyone hung on a tree. Out of the darkness of the place of execution, there came the cry of dereliction, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46). On the face of it, the final episode of Jesus' life had been one of utter failure. If that had been the end of the story, not only woiuld it put in question any claim that he might have had to any special significance, but I believe that it would have made it likely that he, someone who left no personally written legacy, would have disappeared from active historical remembrance in the way that people do who are humiliated by having seen to have had pretensions above the sober reality of their status. Yet we have all heard of Jesus, and down the subsequent centuries he has proved to be one of the most influential figures in the history of the world. Any adequate account of him has to be able to explain this remarkable fact. Something must have happened to continue the story of Jesus. Whatever it was must have been of a magnitude adequate to explain the transformation that came on his followers, changing that bunch of frightened deserters who ran away when he was arrested, into those who would face the authorities in Jerusalem, only a few weeks later, with the confident proclamation that Jesus was God's chosen Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:22-36). I do not think that so great a transformation could have come about simply through calm recollection and a renewed determination to continue to affirm the teaching of Jesus. All the writers of the New Testament believe that what had happened was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead on the third day after his execution.

John Polkinghorne, Quantum Physics and Theology, 38-39

Ed Dobson on his experience of seeking literally to live like Jesus

Thoughout this year, as I've tried to eat and drink with those who were outside the church, something interesting has happened. I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with those who don't know the Lord than I am with those who do know the Lord. Those who don't know the Lord are much less judgmental. They are open to new ideas.

Ed Dobson, The Year of Living Like Jesus, 174

Ed Dobson on not having all the answers

...when I started in ministry I thought I had all the answers. As I enter more deeply into the lives of real people, however, I realize how few answers I really have. In life's most difficult circumstances, the best I can do is to be present to represent Jesus and the community that we call the church. I am there to love, pray, and encourage. I'm not there to answer all the questions.

Ed Dobson, The Year of Living Like Jesus, 22, 23

Jurgen Moltmann on what is central to our faith

At the centre of Christian faith is the history of Christ. At the centre of the history of Christ is his passion and his death on the cross.

Jurgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, 151, quoted by Scot McKnight, A Community Called Atonement, 61.

Ronald Sider on Jesus' gospel and messianic reign

Jesus' gospel includes the fact that the messianic reign has in fact began and there is now a reconciled and reconciling community whose visible life is a powerful sign of the kingdom that has already begun and will someday arrive in its fullness.

Ronald Sider, Good News and Good Works, 76, quoted by Scot McKnight, A Community Called Atonement, 117.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on rights trumping responsibility

The West has finally achieved the rights of man . . . but man's sense of responsibility to God and society has grown dimmer and dimmer.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quoted by Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, 173.

Dietrich Dietrich Bonhoeffer on persevering in mediation on God's word

Above all, it is not necessary that we should have any unexpected, extraordinary experiences in meditation. This can happen, but if it does not, it is not a sign that the meditation period has been useless. Not only at the beginning, but repeatedly, there will be times when we feel a great spiritual dryness and apathy, an aversion, even an inability to meditate. We dare not be balked by such experiences. Above all, we must not allow them to keep us from adhering to our meditation period with great patience and fidelity.

....We must center our attention on the Word alone and leave consequences to its action.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 83-84

quote: William Shakespeare on what God's people do

Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, saints pray...

Shakespeare, Richard III, Act 4.4, line 75, from Philip Yancey, Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?, 115

Dante and Scot McKnight on the love of the Triune God

In the deep and bright essence of that exalted Light,
three circles appeared to me;
they had three different colors,
but all of them were of the same dimension;
one circle seemed reflected by the second,
as rainbow is by rainbow,
and the third seemed fire breathed equally
by those two circles.

Eternal Light,
You only dwell within Yourself,
and only You know You;
Self-knowing, Self-known,
You love and smile upon Yourself!

...The reason we are special is that we came from this three-circled splendor of loving Light that also draws us back into that Light so that we might be restored by embracing grace.

The story of the Eikon derives absolutely and only from the very beginning. God's own inner perichoretic dance of love, Dante's three Circles of Light dancing amongst themselves in such a manner that one is not sure which is which. We can now slightly modify our opening definition of the gospel: the gospel is the work of the triune, interpersonal God to restore Eikons to God and others into that divine communion, and to unleash it into the rest of the world.

Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, 36, first quote from Dante's Divine Comedy: Paradiso.

quote of the week: Craig Barnes on our quest for eternal meaning

What distinguishes humanity in creation is not moral superiority but the mark of a need- a craving to have meaning that is eternal and thus able to sustain us through the shifting tides of our years....This godlike mark, then, serves two functions. The first is that it is the source of our hunger for life's meaning, and the second is that it refuses to be satisfied with any meaning other than the eternal.

Craig Barnes, Yearning, 65 from Scot McKnight, The Jesus Creed, 161.

quote of the week: Dallas Willard on "the narrow gate"

The narrow gate is not, as so often assumed, doctrinal correctness. The narrow gate is obedience- and the confidence in Jesus necessary to it. We can see that it is not doctrinal correctness because many people who cannot even understand the correct doctrines nevertheless place their full faith in him. Moreover, we find many people who seem to be very correct doctrinally but have hearts full of hatred and unforgiveness. The broad gate, by contrast, is simply doing whatever I want to do.

Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 275.

quote of the week: Scot McKnight on letting the Bible be what it is

I have learned that when we take our hands off the pages of the Bible, read and listen to its words, and enter into its story by faith, something happens. It renews and continues to renew its powers. It becomes what it was meant to be, something both more intimate than an old pair of jeans and more unusual than alien creatures, something like a familiar stranger or an unpredictable neighbor or a pet lion whose presence invigorates its surroundings. Something like the glory of the ocean, which on the surface appears gentle and strolling and pleasant to observe, but under the surface there's a vibrant, teeming, swirling, dynamic world full of beauty and wonder. Or perhaps listening to the Bible is like having the most powerful person in the world sit down with you for coffee as a friend and chat with you.

Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, 36,37.

quote of the week: Frederick Buechner on "God is love"

To say that God is love is either the last straw or the ultimate truth.

Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words, 231, quoted by Scot McKnight, 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, 134

quote of the week: N.T. Wright- an aside related to the "dark night of the soul"

...all the loose talk in some Christian circles about "my relationship with God" as the center of everything, which then of course becomes problematic when one encounters depression, or enters a "dark night of the soul"...

N.T. Wright, Justification: God's Plan & Paul's Vision, 149

quote for the week: N.T. Wright on Paul's summary of the gospel

Paul has various ways of summarizing his "gospel." In Romans itself, he does it in 1:3-5, where it is the proclamation that Jesus, the Messiah, is the risen Lord of the world, summoning the whole world to believing allegiance. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 he does it in terms of the Messiah dying for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and being raised again also in accordance with the Scriptures. But the important point to note is that "the gospel" is a message primarily about Jesus, and about what the one true God has done and is doing through him.

N.T. Wright, Justification: God's Plan & Paul's Vision, 181.

quote of the week: Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the prevailing unity of the Church

The spiritual unity of the Church is a primal synthesis willed by God. It is not a relationship that has to be established, but one that is already posited (iustitia passiva), and remains invisible. It is not made possible by concord, similarity or affinity between souls, nor should it be confused with unity of mood. Instead it is real just where seemingly the most intractable outward oppositions prevail, where each man leads his quite individual life, and it is perhaps absent where it seems to prevail most. It can shine more brightly in the conflict between wills than in concord.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Communion of Saints, 137 from Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, 186.

quote of the week: N.T. Wright on God at the center, and our role as humans

Now do not misunderstand me . . . Salvation is hugely important. Of course it is! Knowing God for oneself, as opposed to merely knowing or thinking about him, is at the heart of Christian living. Discovering that God is gracious, rather than a distant bureaucrat or a dangerous tyrant, is the good news that constantly surprises and refreshes us. But we are not the center of the universe. God is not circling around us. We are circling around him. It may look, from our point of view, as though "me and my salvation" are the be-all and end-all of Christianity. Sadly, many people - many devout Chrisians! - have preached that way and lived that way. This problem is not peculiar to the churches of the Reformation. It goes back to the high Middle Ages in the Western church, and infects and affects Catholic and Protestant, liberal and conservative, high and low church alike. But a full reading of Scripture itself tells a different story.

God made humans for a purpose: not simply for themselves, not simply so that they could be in a relationship with him, but so that through them, as his image-bearers, he could bring his wise, glad, fruitful order to the world. And the closing scenes of Scripture, in the book of Revelation, are not about human beings going off to heaven to be in a close and intimate relationship with God, but about heaven coming to earth. The intimate relationship with God which is indeed promised and celebrated in that great scene of the New Jerusalem issues at once in an outflowing, a further healing creativity, the river of the water of life flowing out from the city and the tree of life springing up, with leaves that are for the healing of the nations.

N.T. Wright, Justification: God's Plan & Paul's Vision, 23-24.

quote of the week: Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg on being disciples of Jesus

So often we focus on Jesus' mission on the cross to save us from our sins. As marvelous as that is, it's critical for us to grasp the importance of his mission on earth as a rabbi. His goal was to raise up disciples who would become like him. As followers of Jesus, we are still called to live out the adventure of discipleship, becoming like Jesus through the power of his Spirit at work within us.

Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, 34.