Where Did We Leave Off?

I am very aware of how much the religious blogging conversation and the players involved have changed over the past several years. Probably the best way to explain how I also have changed would be to simply jump back in and start posting again. Yet, I feel the need to give fair warning that my blogging style, perspectives, and topics of interest may be different than before.

My preoccupation these days is on the following topics:

• The definitive nature of God as love
• Jesus as the full and complete revelation of God
• What it means to be created in the image of God
• The mechanics of the fall and the redemption of mankind
• What it means to participate in the life of the Father, Son, and Spirit
• Experiencing the reality of the kingdom

The following video (13 minutes) is reflective of my views today. I was already pointed in this direction before I quit blogging, but then I was still hesitant about my changing beliefs. Today, I am confident and unapologetic about my “not-mainstream-evangelical” perspective. It seems like there are many others on a similar theological journey.

(I found the link to this video at Jesus Creed last week under a post of this presentation by an orthodox priest. I was interested in this version of the demonstration because I am currently reading and enjoying a book by Brian Zahnd, Beauty Will Save the World.)

The video contrasts the western and eastern views of the gospel. The western view is explained as judicial, a legal contract, retributive, appeasing the wrath of God, and defining sin as moral failure. The eastern view is explained in terms of relationship, covenant, forgiveness and restoration, defeating death, and defining sin as alienation.

Zahnd described the eastern, patristic view of the gospel as “a more biblical understanding of the gospel that does not pit God against Christ.”

Rather than a message that perpetuates alienation, the gospel story that I see in Scripture is that God jumped into our mess in His recovery mission. Through the incarnation and crucifixion, He entered into the depth of our brokenness in order to restore our communion with Him. The Father and Son were always one hundred percent united in this plan.

Do you think the popular western evangelical view of the gospel is shifting, or is this conversation only occurring in the academic realm?

Sorry for the Inconvenience

I am toying with the idea of blogging again, but I wanted to first clean things up a bit. After tagging, editing, and deleting old posts on my blog, I was sorry to see them appear in my blog reader. I plan to continue editing and would appreciate advice on preventing edited posts from showing up in the reader. I am truly sorry to fill up your blog reader with old stuff.

Random

• Like many people, our family is shifting gears from school schedule to summer schedule. Which for me mainly means coming up with reasons why my kids should be out of bed before noon and pitch in a bit with the house and yard work without sounding like I’m nagging.
• My girls should have been done with school in the middle of May (homeschool), but I let them set their own pace as the year drew to a close.  When June 1 arrived and they still weren’t done, I let them know they would not have a life until they finished school.  As the weekend approached, with the possibility of not going out, they became motivated and were done by Saturday.
• That is the end of over 8 years of homeschooling as a mom who said she would never homeschool.  It had its good points.  I’m not sure I would do it again if I had it to do over.  Maybe.

We had to turn the furnace on this weekend.  But first we had to deal with the critter that we heard crawling in the furnace chimney the previous week.  And my husband was out of town.

Getting cold and brave, I ventured into the utility room.  Brought my 19 year old son along to go for help if something happened.

Checking it out, I realized that the solution was going to be to stick my hand blindly up the chimney to discover what was there.  The possibilities were a bat, a mouse, a snake (ewwww!!!), a bird, or something else.  And we didn’t know for sure if the critter was dead or alive, but I was hoping for dead.

• It has been unseasonably cold here for the last couple of weeks.  It is only 40 this morning.
• Speaking of dead, the dog that used to chase me when I walk died unexpectedly.

We are expecting guests tomorrow, my first IRL meeting of a blog friend.  Unless they chicken out have a change of plans.  It seemed like a good idea when we were talking about it.

My kids think it is strange.  One of my daughters asked if they would be staying at the house.  When I told her they weren’t, she said, “Oh good!  That would be so creepy!”

Since her room is usually the guest room for overnight company, she was concerned.  Not that they would rob and pillage the place in the middle of the night.  I don’t really think Dan and Jane are like that.  :)

• I am in the throes of planning a 50th wedding anniversary for my parents.  It seems all of my summer plans are on hold until “after the anniversary” which is now less than two weeks away.
• My ReallyBigNumber highschool reunion is at the end of the summer.  I haven’t decided if I will go.

I’ve been reading C. Baxter Krueger. Listening to Greg Boyd and Wayne Jacobsen when I walk.  I would like to listen to the free Eugene Peterson download too.  I might have to walk more.

I am enamored with the New Testament lately, all of it.  I think I’ll post more about that later this week or next.

Sometime in the next couple of weeks I would like to post a little bit about where I am at the moment with church, gathering, and fellowship. I haven’t said much about that lately. Mostly just letting the dust settle.

• Some of my friends launched a new website this weekend for spiritual wanderers and dreamers, Communitas Collective. Check it out. I haven’t joined yet, but I will if they’ll have me.
• Barb Orlowski, who created a website with her doctoral dissertation on spiritual abuse asked that an announcement be posted that the information that is currently available on her website will soon be removed for publication.  Visit www.churchexiters.com before it is too late!
• Tomorrow there will be a couple of questions posted to Frank Viola as part of his book blog tour. Let me know what you think.

Back to the critter in the chimney, remember we could not see IT and did not know what IT was…

Hearing screaming, the kids and their friends came running. I ended up with a room full of teenagers and young adults in the utility room ready to help, although some of them only contributed to the screaming.

After several failed attempts to remove IT (believe me, IT was huge and furry), my son finally extracted a scrawny dead blackbird from the chimney and waved it in our faces as he went to get rid of it.

That’s all I have for a Monday morning.

What’s new with you?

Finally!

I’m back!
I am practically giddy.

I love my laptop, a little too much.
I really missed all my friends in this little box.

Being without it was kind of like holding your breath under water. I did fine at first, but toward the end it seemed really long.

The repair order says they replaced the LCD and LCD cable. Everything is so clear and bright now. I didn’t realize how distorted everything was.

I don’t suppose I will get much done today.
Oh happy day!

Oh No!

My computer is being sent away for service.
I will be laptopless for awhile.

No blogging.
No twitter.
No facebook.
No online conversation.

For days!
This will be good for me, right?

Feel free to continue the conversation on PSA.

So that I have something to look forward to come back to, how about if you tell me a little about yourself, even if you don’t normally comment.

Where are you at with Jesus? How about church?
Do you tend to mostly agree or disagree with the things I write?
Are you emerging? missional? post-anything? clergy? laity? Norwegian?

Or if you’d rather, just tell me what you’re reading or drinking these days. :)