Newbigin: the pilgrim people

Sunday, January 10, 2010
    Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Spiritual Writer, 1998
Meditation:
    These [saints] were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
    —Hebrews 11:39-40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Church is the pilgrim people of God. It is on the move—hastening to the ends of the earth to beseech all men to be reconciled to God, and hastening to the end of time to meet its Lord, who will gather all into one. Therefore, the nature of the Church is never to be fully defined in static terms, but only in terms of that to which it is going. It cannot be understood rightly except in a perspective which is at once missionary and eschatological, and only in that perspective can the deadlock of our present ecumenical debate be resolved.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 18 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have focused Your church on her destination, not her present condition. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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