the sacrament of the now

The word "sacrament" is misunderstood sometimes I think. For those of us who grew up in protestant churches, sacrament is something Catholic. For others, it is a term to argue over, to quibble over what a sacrament is, and what it isn't. We call the Eucharist/Lord's table and baptism sacraments, but then there are other things that we argue about. For me it simply means "something through which man meets Jesus, and recieves grace". Wesley called care for the poor a sacrament for in caring for the poor he met Jesus. I think I remember Jesus saying something similar. I think that the eucharist is special, as is baptism. But I think there are signs of Jesus and his redemption in all of his creation. Maybe these few special sacraments point us to see a sacramental world. Maybe we are to be living a sacramental lives rather than just waiting for sunday mornings. Maybe sunday morning communion in the elements should structure the rest of my life.

I love blogs because I can just empty my head and it doesn't matter whether my thoughts are organized or not.

holiness huh?

I don't have too long to blog this morning but I thought I would put some thoughts down that have been running through my head. These thoughts are about being a creation built in the image of God. What does that mean? N.T. Wright says that any 1st century Jew would have read the creation account in Genesis and instinctively known that the image language was referring to an ancient kingdom mindset, when the king who had conquered a foriegn land would place an image, or a sculpture of himself in the middle of the cities of that land, to be a visual reminder to all that lived there that there is a king ruling over this land.

Well, what does that mean for us. I simply apply that to my life and say that I am to reflect the king's values in this world. Easier said than done. And then that brings me to another thought. the Bible says that we are to be "holy as God is holy", yet I had always grown up in my church tradition thinking holiness is "right personal action and presentation". I believe my thoughts are starting to change with this. What if holiness is this image bearing stuff? What if to be holy is to be God-like, and that means to reflect God's values in this world, rather than try to be people who live religously for man's rules?

the longer it goes...

It is kind of like a friend you know that you should have called a long time ago. The longer you wait to call that friend, the harder it is to call. It isn't like you don't like the friend, it is just that you feel bad for not calling, so what do you do? You don't call. The days turn to weeks, the weeks to months. There it is, surely the friendship is hurt, right? What if I called now? What if I just did it? Oh well, I will go on not calling. Hopefully the friend won't hate me. Hopefully the friend has gone on with his life. What if he hasn't? What if he is steaming mad, and now he doesn't want to take my call? But...what if he is forgiving? What if he loves me so much that it doesn't matter how long I have put it off? What if he will be excited to hear from me despite my failure to talk to him? Is that possible? It doesn't seem so. That would have to be the perfect friend.