Newbigin: no middle ground

Saturday, January 30, 2016
    Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Teacher, 1998
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “My prayer is not for [my disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
    —John 17:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is common to hear churchmen speak as though they did not really regard Christian unity as a serious question this side of the End. This is a disastrous illusion. Christians cannot behave as though time were unreal. God gives us time, but not an infinite amount of time. It is His purpose that the Gospel should be preached to all nations, and that all men should be brought into one family in Jesus Christ. His purpose looks to a real End, and therefore requires of us real decisions. If we misconstrue His patience, and think that there is an infinity of time for debate while we perpetuate before the world the scandal of our dismemberment of the Body of Christ, we deceive ourselves. In an issue concerning the doing of the will of God there is no final neutrality.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Reunion of the Church, London: SCM Press, 1960, p. xiii-xiv (see the book)
    See also John 17:20-21; Matt. 11:15; John 10:16; Acts 4:32; 1 Cor. 1:10; 12:27; Gal. 3:28; Eph. 4:3-6; Phil. 2:1-5; Col. 3:11-14; 1 Pet. 3:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, bring about the unity of Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Nouwen: the circle of prayer

Friday, January 29, 2016
Meditation:
    Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
    —2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer and action, therefore, can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows in powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation. If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service. And if concrete acts of service do indeed lead us to a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and the oppressed, they will always give rise to prayer. In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ.
    ... Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), Compassion, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1982, Random House, 2005, p. 117-118 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 1:3-4; Isaiah 40:11; Col. 1:24; 3:12; 1 Pet. 4:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people seek You in all trials. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Aquinas: bearing wrongs, right and wrong

Thursday, January 28, 2016
    Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274
Meditation:
    The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
    —Mark 15:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.
    ... Thomas Aquinas (1225?-1274)
    See also Mark 15:3-5; Isa. 53:7; Acts 7:22-24; 1 Cor. 6:7; 1 Pet. 2:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me sensitive to the suffering of others. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pinnock: Abba

Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Meditation:
    For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
    —Romans 8:15-16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus used the term abba (which means father or “daddy” in his Aramaic mother tongue), as an address in his prayers to God. There are no other examples of this usage in contemporary Judaism, but Jesus always addressed God in this way. The others perhaps regarded it as child’s talk, a form of expression too disrespectful to be so used. But for Jesus, abba expressed the filial intimacy he felt toward his Father. As the divine Son of the Father, Jesus enjoyed a unique relationship with him, and his mission in the world consisted in opening up the blessings of sonship to those who believe.
    ... Clark H. Pinnock (1937-2010), Reason Enough, Exeter: Paternoster, 1980, p. 82 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:15-16; Matt. 5:48; 6:8-9; Mark 14:36; Gal. 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made me Your son. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Eliot: the Church's unpleasant truths

Tuesday, January 26, 2016
    Feast of Timothy and Titus, Companions of Paul
    Commemoration of Dorothy Kerin, Founder of the Burrswood Healing Community, 1963
Meditation:
    But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written:
    “‘The stone that the builders rejected
        has become the cornerstone’?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
    —Luke 20:17-18 (ESV)
Quotation:
Why should men love the Church? Why should they love her laws?
She tells them of Life and Death, and of all they would forget.
She is tender where they would be hard, and hard where they like to be soft.
She tells them of Evil and Sin, and other unpleasant facts.
They constantly try to escape
From the darkness outside and within
By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.
    ... T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), Chorus VI from The Rock [1934], The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1952, p. 106 (see the book)
    See also Luke 20:17-18; 1 Cor. 1:17-25; 1 Pet. 2:6-8
Quiet time reflection:
    We are broken, Lord, on the stone of Your truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Temple: the life of faith

Monday, January 25, 2016
    Feast of the Conversion of Paul
Meditation:
    We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
    —Romans 6:4 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The life of faith does not earn eternal life; it is eternal life. And Christ is its vehicle.
    ... William Temple (1881-1944), Readings in St. John’s Gospel, London: Macmillan, 1939, 1952, p. 93 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:4; John 3:14-15; 6:35; Rom. 6:23; 7:6; 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4:22-24; 1 Tim. 1:16; 1 John 2:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Praise to you, Lord Jesus, for Your greatest gift! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Sales: devotion to our calling

Sunday, January 24, 2016
    Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622
Meditation:
    For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
    —Romans 12:4-8 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Our business is to love what God would have [us do]. He wills our vocation as it is: let us love that, and not trifle away our time in hankering after other people’s vocation.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), A Selection from the Spiritual Letters of St. Francis de Sales [1622], New York: E. P. Dutton, 1876, p. 56 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 4:1,4-6; 2 Thess. 1:11; 2 Pet. 1:10-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me peace about my calling, and teach me to trust you in the calling of others. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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