aus lecture 1
by Jeni
Today we were treated to the first of two Aus lectures by Greg Boyd, local pastor, theologian and evangelist. Boyd started out with a "shout out" to Dr. Terence Fretheim (to which the crowd responded with loud applause) and Dr. Paul Sponheim, saying "dude, your stuff just rocks."
While he clearly comes from a different tradition and speaks a some what different vernacular around faith, today's lecture was an exercise on what Lutherans can (but don't necessarily) offer to evangelism: the theology of the cross. Boyd's lecture was titled "Advancing the Cruciform Revolution: a kingdom perspective on evangelism."
Boyd's point today was that mission and evangelism is to be the good news, do the good news and (though it might not have been so clear) say the good news. We do this by being imitators of Jesus who is himself the kingdom of God, the one who came to revolt against the powers of sin, death and the power of the devil in what Boyd labeled more generally as culture, disease and empire.
We Lutherans talk about this in a different way; rather than one kingdom, we talk of the two different kingdoms. (Which can beg the question: is God's kingdom divided? -- NO). Faith cannot be separated from good works, just as heat cannot be separated by the flame, Martin Luther said that. You cannot put new wine into old wine skins, Jesus Christ said that. We walk by faith, not by sight, to be sure, for what we see we cannot believe. Faith propels us forward not in hubris but in hope; the in-breaking of God's Kingdom among us today. Now...and not yet.
Come for round 2 tomorrow, 10 a.m., Chapel of the Incarnation.
While he clearly comes from a different tradition and speaks a some what different vernacular around faith, today's lecture was an exercise on what Lutherans can (but don't necessarily) offer to evangelism: the theology of the cross. Boyd's lecture was titled "Advancing the Cruciform Revolution: a kingdom perspective on evangelism."
Boyd's point today was that mission and evangelism is to be the good news, do the good news and (though it might not have been so clear) say the good news. We do this by being imitators of Jesus who is himself the kingdom of God, the one who came to revolt against the powers of sin, death and the power of the devil in what Boyd labeled more generally as culture, disease and empire.
We Lutherans talk about this in a different way; rather than one kingdom, we talk of the two different kingdoms. (Which can beg the question: is God's kingdom divided? -- NO). Faith cannot be separated from good works, just as heat cannot be separated by the flame, Martin Luther said that. You cannot put new wine into old wine skins, Jesus Christ said that. We walk by faith, not by sight, to be sure, for what we see we cannot believe. Faith propels us forward not in hubris but in hope; the in-breaking of God's Kingdom among us today. Now...and not yet.
Come for round 2 tomorrow, 10 a.m., Chapel of the Incarnation.
posted by Jeni at 1:52 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds very interesting. I wish I could have been there. I do find it ironic that we call it the Evangelical Lutheran Church but then sometimes we don't evangelize well.
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