Goings on . . .
I mean, this Substack is called, "Thoughts and Prayers," after all
Here’s some recent thoughts and prayers that I’ve been having with others.
Here’s one with the Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail about her remarkable devotional, “God Didn’t Make Us to Hate Us.” Highly recommended. The title is jarring, but I’m reminded of all the voices out there that are completely convinced that God has a murderous desire for justice, against us.
Here’s a sermon from my parish, St. Martin’s, which is recent fruit of the ongoing conversation we are always having about the conversion of our souls. In this sermon, I use a phrase that I learned from Sam Wells, that “God’s means, and God’s ends are the same thing.” It’s a phrase worthy of a little meditation. In typical Wellsian fashion, Sam is able to convey a great deal is little space. “God’s means and ends are the same,” is a deeply Christological statement as well as an endorsement for virtue ethics, and heck, why not, the apocalyptic job description for the church, until the Eschaton, Come Lord Jesus! One of our hymns, 552, “life with its ways before us lies, Christ is the path and Christ the path.” God’s means and ends are the same.
I was asked to be on the delightful and strangely moving podcast, The Fear of God. This is my third time on this podcast. Reid and Nathan are two thoughtful and prayerful guys who look at the horror genre as, I suppose, theological anthropology and anthropological theology as it relates to bodies. I like it.