Preaching peace
Do preachers really take seriously Jesus' teaching on non-violence? Chris Erdman doesn't think so:
Given the fact that Jesus came into a violent world preaching, rejecting the military option and armed only with the Word . . . it’s strange to me how our preaching has too often formed congregations that are essentially acolytes to state-sanctioned violence rather than an alternative and challenge to it.
Christian preaching was meant to be an alternative to violence. Jesus is God’s alternative to violence . . . and the church is to be his disciple. Some will say that all this isn’t what preaching is for. We can say this only because real preaching hasn’t been dared. We can say this only because our reliance on violence and our practice of offering our preaching in service to the state is a witness to our evangelical loss of nerve, that we really don’t believe in the power of the Word of God.
Ouch.
Given the fact that Jesus came into a violent world preaching, rejecting the military option and armed only with the Word . . . it’s strange to me how our preaching has too often formed congregations that are essentially acolytes to state-sanctioned violence rather than an alternative and challenge to it.
Christian preaching was meant to be an alternative to violence. Jesus is God’s alternative to violence . . . and the church is to be his disciple. Some will say that all this isn’t what preaching is for. We can say this only because real preaching hasn’t been dared. We can say this only because our reliance on violence and our practice of offering our preaching in service to the state is a witness to our evangelical loss of nerve, that we really don’t believe in the power of the Word of God.
Ouch.
posted by Milton Stanley at 12:15 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks, Chris. I appreciate all the good material at your site for linking to here--a good partnership indeed!
Post a Comment
<< Home