I suppose, when pressed hard, I might choose Galatians 5.1 "For freedom Christ has set you free" as my favorite verse of scripture...
Although I really like "So if there is anyone in Christ, there is new creation..." (2nd Corinthians 5.17)...
And who can not like "Father, forgive them...they don't have a clue." (somewhere in Luke's gospel, I'm sure).
We all kind of pick and choose favorites from scripture, I suppose, and I don't imagine it's much different for people of any book religion. Christians, like our Jewish and Muslim cousins, are book religion people. We might want God to continually work and live outside the box, but we do love our stories...
Basically, this blog is going to tell the story of where and how this new community the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) prays about is going. As Christians, we pretty much leave the final outcome to God, but there is still a journey to be wandered...
So for a theme song tonight, at least, I've got the Jewish singer Barbara Streisand in mind singing "I Wonder as I Wander." I'm not going to ponder the irony there...
So as the wanderings begin, as we gather around the fire for some stories, around the table for some food and wine, we keep in mind this little ditty, "I wonder as I wander, out under the sky..."
Your Blog Steward
- Scott Frederickson
- Omaha, Nebraska, United States
- I am more and more convinced that most congregations die from a staggering lack of imagination. Let's change that. Let's imagine a creative future with God and each other together. Drop me a line on email or leave a comment if you have thoughts on God, Jesus, congregations, the church or whatever.... I look forward to our conversations.
2 comments:
Wandering, indeed! As you can imagine (and thanks for checking on us!) Omaha is wandering right now. People, stripped of their innate sense of mid-wetern safety are wandering in the now falling snow.
They wonder. They wonder where is God? The wonder how this could happen in Omaha. I share those same wanderings and wonderings. I have the textbook (that'd be the Bible) answers but they feel thin today. On my wall is Psalm 46:10 'be still and know that I am God' (my personal translation is shut up, I don't need your help) and while I understand that to be true, today my heart is anything but still.
In that feeling of the thinness of our scriptural assurances is perhaps a nuggest of faith. Hebrews 11:1 comes to mind, 'Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.' There is much not seen right now and perhaps it is only faith that allows me to have any assurance whatsoever.
Scott,
Your choice of "I Wonder As I Wander" for talking about journeys which are open-ended is interesting because the music ends on an unresolved 7th. It's the same thing for Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings." The thing about "I Wonder As I Wander" is that it simply wants to start all over. That's not so much the notion of a merry go 'round of which one has a hard time getting as it is the notion that belief in God is about praise and doxology. There, in the end, is nothing else to do. Nothing else makes sense. The journey is always about ending in God, as Augustine said. I've not read Augustine; it's just that I've heard that quote so often. It fits though.
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