April 2011
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“Give me strength to seek, you who have made me find you and given me the hope of...”
– Augustine, On the Trinity
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“To wait for Christ to come in his fullness is not just a passive thing, a pious,...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“By believing against all odds and loving against all odds, that is how we are to...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“Believing in [Jesus] is not the same as believing things about him such as that...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“To believe that Christ is risen and alive in the world is to believe that there...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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Good Friday and the ROFL Cross →
Does ROFL belong on a Christian cross? Perhaps we should ask instead: Does the Christian cross belong on a Christian? Christians have worn the symbol on their chests and emblazoned it on their banners for two millennia. But the cross is nothing more than an instrument of torture used to kill criminals, traitors and a Jew named Jesus. Why would a Christian display a cross with pride? The...
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Sad news: Duke Chapel stained glass windows were... →
“The Chapel is a symbol of the university as a whole, but also a building with religious and specifically Christian resonances,” Wells wrote. “We can’t know whether the action was simply reckless, or had more sinister intent; whether the target of this gesture was the university as a whole, Christianity in particular, or simply a beautiful and relatively unprotected...
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“This is the joy that is so apt to be missing, and missing not just from church...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“We are above all things loved - that is the good news of the gospel - and loved...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“God created us in joy and created us for joy, and in the long run not all the...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“I believe that home is Christ’s kingdom, which exists both within us and...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“The cross isn’t just an extreme version of a generic human experience of being...”
– Dean Sam Wells, Tenebrae Service, April 22, 2011
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“Torture, in other words, is the most acute example of the ability of the state...”
– William T. Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist: A Regretful Update
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“If we tell the truth, we will resist the politics of fear that makes torture...”
– William T. Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist: A Regretful Update
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“The first job of the church in the United States is to tell the truth: This is...”
– William T. Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist: A Regretful Update
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“The resurrection points the way to a new sort of life, a new way of life, a way...”
– N.T. Wright, Resurrection and Rock ‘n’ Roll.
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“Easter is about real life, not escapist fantasy. Easter is about God’s judgment,...”
– N.T. Wright, The Uncomfortable Truth of Easter
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“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”
– Luke 24:5 (NRSV)
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“Easter is what it is because, together with Jesus’ crucifixion, it is the...”
– N.T. Wright, The Uncomfortable Truth of Easter
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“The New Testament calls the covenant community of God’s people into...”
– Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament (via invisibleforeigner)
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“The triumph of the right, although it is assured, is sure because of the power...”
– John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (via invisibleforeigner)
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“Easter should make rebels of us all.”
– David Bentley Hart, The Doors of the Sea (via invisibleforeigner)
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“Be kind because although kindness is not by a long shot the same thing as...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“Jesus’ story is the truth about who we are and how we are going to get...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“Jesus is the Word made flesh, the truth narrated in bone and bowel, space and...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“If the Lord is indeed our shepherd, then everything goes topsy-turvy. Losing...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“Who can know fully what Christ means when he says that we will see him in his...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“I did not love God, God knows, because I was some sort of saint or hero…I...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“Hope stands up to its knees in the past and keeps its eyes on the future. There...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“I think that is much of what the Christian faith is. It is for a moment, just...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“That is the wrestling match each of us has to undergo when evil threatens or...”
– Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World
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“Faith lies not in the answer but the question - and the greater the human being,...”
– Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World
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“The choice is not between ‘faith’ and ‘deeds,’ for it is...”
– Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World
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“Life is God’s call to responsibility.”
– Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World
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“In the end that is the vocation, the calling of all of us, the calling to be...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“It is not objective proof of God’s existence that we want but, whether we...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“What we need to know, of course, is not just that God exists, not just that...”
– Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
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“The passion of Christ shows us that Jesus is stretched out between heaven and...”
– Sam Wells, The Violin String
Sermon preached April 17, 2011
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“When you come into the presence of God, do you assume God is just like us –...”
– Sam Wells,The Violin String
Sermon preached at Duke Chapel April 17, 2011.
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“Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled, and if you spend your whole life...”
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky (via aaudioboxerr)
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“There are millions of deeply Republican Christians for whom Christianity really...”
– N.T. Wright (via firstbreath90)
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“It is among evangelicals, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics and the Orthodox, polar...”
– George Lindbeck, The Unity We Seek
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“Humans are constantly, and in every way, comparing themselves to one another,...”
– Donald Miller (via firstbreath90)
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“A soul is all the more dependent on grace the more it aspires to go on to...”
– Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God
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“The goal we ought to set for ourselves is to be, starting in this present life,...”
– Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God
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“All things are possible to one who believes; even more to one who hopes; still...”
– Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God 