The Christian Quotation of the Day

Mascall: nothing has changed

2010-09-03T02:00:00.001-05:00

Friday, September 3, 2010
    Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604
Meditation:
    See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
    —Colossians 2:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It has been a frequent trait in Christian theologians down the ages to commit themselves whole-heartedly to the fashionable philosophies of their day, while passing severe judgments on their predecessors for adopting precisely the same attitude.
    ... E. L. Mascall (1905-1993), The Secularization of Christianity, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1966, p. 103 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, block the fashions of culture with the teaching and prompting of Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ellul: no recipe

2010-09-02T02:00:00.000-05:00

Thursday, September 2, 2010
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942
Meditation:
    And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
    —Ephesians 4:30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian ethic ... is not a recipe for righteousness; it is not a synthesis of Christian faith and the world’s values; it is not a way of enabling Christians to live without the Holy Spirit. It is the very opposite of all this.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Presence of the Kingdom, tr. Olive Wyon, Philadelphia: Wesminster Press, 1951, p. 23 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people depend on Your continual grace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: wisdom and anger

2010-09-01T02:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
    Commemoration of Giles of Provence, Hermit, c.710
Meditation:
    A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.
    —Proverbs 29:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When anger enters the mind, wisdom departs.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Hortulus Rosarum, quoted in The Story of the “Imitatio Christi”, Leonard Abercrombie Wheatley, London: Elliot Stock, 1891, IV.ii, p. 212 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the wisdom to govern my tongue. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Weil: the appeal to the right people

2010-08-31T02:00:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, August 31, 2010
    Feast of Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 651
    Commemoration of Cuthburga, Founding Abbess of Wimborne, c.725
    Commemoration of John Bunyan, Spiritual Writer, 1688
Meditation:
    For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave.
    —1 Corinthians 7:22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The wives of the fishermen were going in procession to make a tour of the ships, carrying candles and singing what must certainly be very ancient hymns of a heart-rending sadness. Nothing can give any idea of it. I have never heard anything so poignant, unless it were the song of the boatmen on the Volga. There the conviction was suddenly borne in upon me that Christianity is pre-eminently the religion of slaves, that slaves cannot help belonging to it, and I among others.
    ... Simone Weil (1909-1943), Waiting on God [1951], Emma Craufurd, Putnam, 1951, p. 20 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your voice has called us out of our slavery. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: waiting

2010-08-30T02:00:00.001-05:00

Monday, August 30, 2010
Meditation:
    For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
    —Romans 8:24-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Day of Jesus Christ is the Day of all days; the brilliant and visible light of this one point is the hidden invisible light of all points; to perceive the righteousness of God once and for all here is the hope of righteousness (Gal. 5:5) everywhere and at all times. By the knowledge of Jesus Christ all human waiting is guaranteed, authorized and established; for He makes it known that it is not men who wait, but God—in His faithfulness.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), The Epistle to the Romans, translated from the 6th edition by Edwyn C. Hoskyns, London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1933, 6th ed., Oxford University Press US, 1968, p. 96 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people await Your coming. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Coleridge: Christian liberty

2010-08-29T02:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday, August 29, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
    —Matthew 12:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Luther, in speaking of the good by itself and the good for its expediency alone, instances the observance of the Christian day of rest,—a day of repose from manual labour, and of activity in spiritual labour,—a day of joy and cooperation in the work of Christ’s creation. “Keep it holy,”—says he,—“for its use’ sake—both to body and soul! But if anywhere the day is made holy for the mere day’s sake,—if anywhere anyone sets up its observance upon a Jewish foundation, then I order you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance on it, to feast on it—to do anything that shall reprove this encroachment on the Christian spirit and liberty.”
    ... Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Table Talk, 2nd ed., London: John Murray, 1836, May 19, 1834, p. 298 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may my rest serve You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: the reward of faith

2010-08-28T02:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday, August 28, 2010
    Feast of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Teacher, 430
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.”
    —John 6:44 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that you may understand.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John, vol. i, Marcus Dods, ed., as vol. x of The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Edinbugh: T & T Clark, 1873, p. 405 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You teach truth and grant Your people faith to understand. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rutherford: crippled faith

2010-08-27T02:00:00.001-05:00

Friday, August 27, 2010
    Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387
Meditation:
    “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
    Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
    —Mark 9:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I can let Christ grip me; but I cannot grip him. I love... to sit on Christ’s knee; but I cannot set my feet to the ground, for afflictions bring the cramp upon my faith. All I now do is to hold out a lame faith to Christ, like a beggar holding out a stump, instead of an arm or leg, and cry, Lord Jesus, work a miracle.
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1848, letter, Feb. 9, 1637, p. 178 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the God of miracles. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kraemer: independence then and now

2010-08-26T02:00:00.000-05:00

Thursday, August 26, 2010
Meditation:
    It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
    —Ephesians 4:11-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The relevance of the laity received the greatest emphasis in the sectarian apostolic movements after the 12th century, and especially in the 14th century through Wycliffe. The specific significance of this peculiar set of protests and movements is that their inspiration was purely religious. They squarely confronted the “ecclesiastical-hierarchical” line with the “biblical” one. They were, of course, not wholly unaffected by repercussions of the conflict between the worldly-conceived papal theocracy and the nationalistic demands of the nations and their rulers for an independent status, but their heart lay really with a reform of the Church in the light of the Word of God.
    fn. Looking back on these struggles, one is again and again struck by the daring and independence of mind shown in the Middle Ages, a time which is always considered to be marked by submissiveness, especially to authority claimed on religious grounds as necessary to salvation. This amazement increases when one takes into consideration our own time, which regards itself by definition as the time of non-submissiveness. Nevertheless, whatever movements of protest and conflict there may be to-day against the hierarchy, they are very weak in daring and independence in comparison with those of the Middle Ages. In our secularistic age, in which submissiveness is devalued on principle, submissiveness to the hierarchical claims of the Church has never before been so undisputed.
    ... Hendrik Kraemer (1888-1965), A Theology of the Laity, London: Lutterworth Press, 1958, p. 60-61 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You truly lead Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cowper: what thou has won

2010-08-25T02:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Meditation:
    Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
    —Matthew 5:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
Thy country, Wilberforce, with just disdain,
Hears thee, by cruel men and impious, call’d
Fanatic, for thy zeal to loose th’ enthrall’d
From exile, public sale, and slav’ry’s chain.
Friend of the poor, the wrong’d, the fetter-gall’d,
Fear not lest labour such as thine be vain!
Thou hast achiev’d a part; hast gain’d the ear
Of Britain’s senate to thy glorious cause;
Hope smiles, joy springs, and tho’ cold caution pause
And weave delay, the better hour is near,
That shall remunerate thy toils severe
By peace for Afric, fenc’d with British laws.
    Enjoy what thou hast won, esteem and love
    From all the just on earth, and all the blest above!
    ... William Cowper (1731-1800), The Works of William Cowper: his life, letters, and poems, New York: R. Carter & Brothers, 1851, p. 643 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lead us to know, Lord, those whom You have raised up to oppose injustice in our time. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Booth: save the body for the soul

2010-08-24T02:00:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, August 24, 2010
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”
    —John 3:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday] Insoluble [the problem] is, I am absolutely convinced, unless it is possible to bring new moral life into the soul of these people. This should be the first object of every social reformer, whose work will only last if it is built on the solid foundation of a new birth, to cry, “You must be born again!”
    At the risk of being misunderstood and misrepresented, I must assert in the most unqualified way that it is primarily and mainly for the sake of saving the soul that I seek the salvation of the body.
    But what is the use of preaching the Gospel to men whose whole attention is concentrated upon a mad, desperate struggle to keep themselves alive? You might as well give a tract to a shipwrecked sailor who is battling with the surf which has drowned his comrades and threatens to drown him. He will not listen to you. Nay, he cannot hear you. The first thing to do is to get him at least a footing on firm ground, and to give him room to live. Then you may have a chance. At present you have none.
    ... William Booth (1829-1912), In Darkest England, London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1890, p. 44-45 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, use my hands to hold out the Gospel to Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Booth: beginning the work

2010-08-23T02:00:00.001-05:00

Monday, August 23, 2010
    Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
Meditation:
    This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
    —John 3:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The renovation of our social system is a work so vast that no one of us, nor all of us put together, can define all the measures that will have to be taken before we attain even the Cab-Horse Ideal of existence for our children and our children’s children. All that we can do is attack, in a serious, practical spirit, the worst and most pressing evils, knowing that if we do our duty, we obey the voice of God. He is the Captain of our Salvation. If we but follow where he leads we shall not want for marching orders, nor need we imagine that he will narrow the field of operations.
    I am laboring under no delusions as to the possibility of inaugurating the millennium by any social specific. In the struggle of life, the weakest will go to the wall, and there are so many weak. The fittest, in tooth and claw, will survive. All that we can do is to soften the lot of the unfit and make their suffering less horrible than it is at present. No outside propping will make some men stand erect. All material help from without is useful only in so far as it develops moral strength within. And some men seem to have lost even the very faculty of self-help. There is an immense lack of common sense and of vital energy on the part of multitudes. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Booth (1829-1912), In Darkest England, London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1890, p. 43-44 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have sent us to the least of Your brethren. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: gaze at the Cross

2010-08-22T02:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday, August 22, 2010
Meditation:
    When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
    —Colossians 2:13-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The very Nazis look at you with wonderment and an open contempt! For even they are sure that to live for nothing higher than oneself is to lose life; that life, to be called life, can be found only in serving something bigger than one’s personal interests; something that crowds these out of mind and heart, till one forgets about them and lives wholly, and without exception, for that other, worthier thing... It is long since Aristotle told us that only barbarians have as their ideal the wish to live as they please, and to do what they like. And the New Testament gravely sets us down before the Cross, and bids us gaze, and still gaze, and keep gazing, till the fact has soaked itself into our minds that that, not less than that, is now the standard set us, and that whatever in our lives clashes with that is sin.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1945, p. 91-92 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, plant the standard of the Cross in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: repentance

2010-08-21T02:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday, August 21, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
    —Luke 15:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. But what is Repentance? Not the last and noblest and most refined achievement of the righteousness of men in the service of God, but the first elemental act of the righteousness of God in the service of men; the work that God has written in their hearts and which, because it is from God and not from men, occasions joy in heaven; that looking forward to God, and to Him only, which is recognized only by God and by God Himself.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), The Epistle to the Romans, translated from the 6th edition by Edwyn C. Hoskyns, London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1933, 6th ed., Oxford University Press US, 1968, p. 68 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You know how partial my repentance is. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ignatius of Loyola: as Thou deservest

2010-08-20T02:00:00.001-05:00

Friday, August 20, 2010
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
    For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
    —Philippians 1:29-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest:
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not to seek for rest;
To labor and not ask for any reward,
Save that of knowing that we do Thy will.
    ... St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491/5-1556), included in A Treasury of Sermon Illustrations, Charles Langworthy Wallis, ed., Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1950, [1548] p. 61 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the heart to serve You now. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pascal: the opinions of men

2010-08-19T02:00:00.001-05:00

Thursday, August 19, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.”
    —Matthew 11:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What man ever had more renown? The whole Jewish people foretell Jesus before His coming. The Gentile people worship Him after His coming. The two peoples, Gentile and Jewish, regard Him as their centre.
    And yet what man enjoys this renown less? Of thirty-three years, He lives thirty without appearing. For three years He passes as an impostor; the priests and the chief people reject Him; His friends and His nearest relatives despise Him. Finally, He dies, betrayed by one of His own disciples, denied by another, and abandoned by all.
    What part, then, has He in this renown? Never had man so much renown; never had man more ignominy. All that renown was only of use to us, to help us to recognize Him; it was of no use to Him.
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, n. 792, p. 279 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we give You honor. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bayne: what's important

2010-08-18T02:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.”
    —Luke 11:33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is absolutely unimportant in the eyes of God how many people follow the “Anglican tradition” of belief and practice. It is of the greatest importance how many people there are who have come to know and love our Lord because of what we Anglicans have said and done.
    ... Stephen F. Bayne, Jr. (1908-1974), “The Challenge of the Frontiers: Organizing for Action (Theme Address),” included in Anglican Congress 1963: Report of Proceedings, Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, ed., Editorial Committee, Anglican Congress, 1963, p. 187 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill the churches! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: ordained of Christ

2010-08-17T02:00:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Meditation:
    [Peter:] God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
    —Acts 15:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I do not want bishops to practice the ordination of voluntary clergy [merely] as a plausible policy, for which something can be said. If by persuasive speech I could induce all the bishops in the world to adopt that practice, I think that I should refuse. I do not believe that Christian men should base their action upon such a foundation: I believe that the first blast of difficulty would overthrow them if they did. I try to set forth a truth of Christ which demands obedience. I call upon the church not to adopt a plausible policy, but to repent of a sin; for to make void the word of Christ is sin.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), The Case for Voluntary Clergy, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1930, included in The Ministry of the Spirit, David M. Paton, ed., London: World Dominion Press, 1960, p. 137-138 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit ordains all Your people to ministry. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: remain virtuous?

2010-08-16T02:00:00.001-05:00

Monday, August 16, 2010
Meditation:
    The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
    Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
    —Genesis 3:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    You are a man, not God; you are human, not an angel. How can you expect to remain always in a constant state of virtue, when this was not possible even for an angel of heaven, nor for the first man in the Garden?
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, p. 227 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I must rely on Your promise to forgive sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Workman: a root antagonism

2010-08-15T02:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday, August 15, 2010
Meditation:
The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
    and his kingdom rules over all.
    —Psalm 103:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The student should beware lest he overlook the momentous issues involved in the refusal of the State to allow any society or club to exist which had not first obtained official recognition, and the equally momentous refusal of the Church to obtain such recognition. The question is not one of legal technicalities or procedure, or the “sheer obstinacy,” as Marcus Aurelius would have phrased it, of Christian fanatics, but points rather to one of those root antagonisms of principle the influence of which, in different forms, may be felt in the twentieth as much as in the second century. By Roman theory, the State was the one society which must engross every interest of its subjects, religious, social, political, humanitarian, with the one possible exception of the family. There was no room in Roman law for the existence, much less the development on its own lines of organic growth, of any corporation or society which did not recognize itself from the first as a mere department or auxiliary of the State. The State was all and in all, the one organism with a life of its own. Such a theory the Church, as the living kingdom of Jesus, could not possibly accept either in the first century or the twentieth.
    ... H. B. Workman (1862-1951), Persecution in the early church: a chapter in the history of renunciation, 2nd ed., London: Charles H. Kelly, 1906, p. 71-72 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your rule will conquer all. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Duggan: the individual responding to the Word

2010-08-14T02:00:00.001-05:00

Saturday, August 14, 2010
    Commemoration of Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan Friar, Priest, Martyr, 1941
Meditation:
    I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
    —Romans 1:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Luther’s rejection of Papal authority was not due to any difficulty he may have experienced in reconciling the claims made for the Petrine office with the character of the men who occupied the Papal throne in his time, nor to any confusion caused by the Conciliar Movement. His objections went much deeper and sprang, not from the concrete existential situation of his time, but from his theological principles. Luther saw quite early that his theory of justification by faith alone implied a denial of any divinely appointed hierarchy in the Church. Already in 1518 he had accepted the Hussite doctrine that the True Church, the Church of the promises and the Mystical Body of Christ, is invisible. Luther’s saving faith is the response of the individual soul to the Word of God revealed in Scripture; in his theology there is no place for any created activity to mediate to men God’s saving action nor for any active sharing by men in the dispensation of grace or divine truth.
    ... George H. Duggan (b. 1912), Hans Küng and Reunion, Westminster, Md., Newman Press, 1964, p. 21-22 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the sole purpose for the church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: seven days a week

2010-08-13T02:00:00.001-05:00

Friday, August 13, 2010
    Feast of Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down & Connor, Priest, Teacher, 1667
    Commemoration of Florence Nightingale, Social Reformer, 1910
    Commemoration of Octavia Hill, Worker for the Poor, 1912
Meditation:
    Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.
    —Colossians 2:20-22 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If you do not worship God seven days a week, you do not worship Him on one day a week. There is no such thing known in heaven as Sunday worship unless it is accompanied by Monday worship and Tuesday worship and so on.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Tozer on Worship and Entertainment, WingSpread Publishers, 2006, p. 9 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have called me to follow You every day, not just the days commanded by man. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Capon: the wine of paradox

2010-08-12T02:00:00.000-05:00

Thursday, August 12, 2010
Meditation:
    If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.
    —Deuteronomy 8:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Man... cuts the wine of paradox with the water of consistency. The mystery of God and things is tamed to the simplicity of God or things; [man] builds himself a duller, skimpier world.
    If he is a pagan, he abolishes the secular in favor of the sacred. The world becomes filled with gods. To improve his wine, he searches, not for purer strains of yeast, but for better incantations, friendlier gods. He spends his time in shrines and caves, not chemistry. Things, for him, become pawns in the chess game of heaven. Religion devours life.
    On the other hand, if he is a secularist, he insists that God must have no part in the world at all. That God has made Saccharomyces ellipsoideus competent enough to ferment sugar on its own, becomes, for him, a proof that He never made it at all. Poor man! To be so nearly right, and so devastatingly wrong. To hit so close, and yet miss the mark completely. Yeast, without God to give it as a gift, ceases to be good company. It becomes merely useful—a mechanism contributory to other mechanisms. And those, in turn, to the vast mechanism of the whole. And that, at last, to—well, he is hard put to say just what.
    ... Robert Farrar Capon (b. 1925), The Supper of the Lamb, New York: Doubleday, 1969, p. 87 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    You are the sole answer to life’s mystery, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Mead: fundamentalism

2010-08-11T02:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, August 11, 2010
    Feast of Clare of Assisi, Founder of the Order of Minoresses (Poor Clares), 1253
    Commemoration of John Henry Newman, Priest, Teacher, Tractarian, 1890
Meditation:
    Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away.
    —John 19:38 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Insofar as theology is an attempt to define and clarify intellectual positions, it is apt to lead to discussion, to differences of opinion, even to controversy, and hence to be divisive. And this has had a strong tendency to dampen serious discussion of theological issues in most groups, and hence to strengthen the general anti-intellectual bias inherent in much of revivalistic Pietism... “Fundamentalism” in America, among other things, was a movement that tried to recall these denominations to theological and confessional self consciousness. But it was defeated in every major denomination, not so much by theological discussion and debate as by effective political manipulations directed by denominational leaders to the sterilizing of this “divisive” element.
    ... Sidney E. Mead (1904-1999?), Church History, v. XXIII [1954], p. 291-320 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen Your people that they may not be shamed into silence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kierkegaard: in the midst of life

2010-08-10T02:00:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, August 10, 2010
    Feast of Lawrence, Deacon at Rome, Martyr, 258
Meditation:
    For in just a very little while, ”He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.“ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
    —Hebrews 10:37-39 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Sermons should not be preached in churches. It harms Christianity in a high degree and alters its very nature, that it is brought into an artistic remoteness from reality, instead of being heard in the midst of real life, and that precisely for the sake of the conflict (the collision). For all this talk about quiet, about quiet places and quiet hours, as the right element for Christianity is absurd.
    So then sermons should not be preached in churches but in the midst of life, of the reality of daily life, weekday life.
    ... Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), quoted in Kierkegaard’s Attack upon “Christendom,” 1854-1855, tr., Walter Lowrie, Princeton University Press, 1968, p. 2 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have promised to give us the words to speak at the right time. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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