Parish the Thought
Musings about the mission of Christ and his Church from Brooklyn.
The Robust Gospel
Posted by Matt Brown on Mar 08, 2008
The little gospel promises me personal salvation and eternal life. But the robust gospel doesn't stop there. It also promises a new society and a new creation. When Jesus stood up to read Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at Nazareth, then sat down and declared that this prophetic vision was now coming to pass through him, there was more than personal redemption at work. God's kingdom, the society where God's will is established and lived, was now officially at work in his followers. That society was overturning the injustices and exclusions of the empire and establishing an inclusive and just alternative.
Scot McKnight in Christianity Today
Advent and the Christian Year
Posted by Matt Brown on Nov 24, 2007
Mark D. Roberts has provided us a nice introduction to the Christian year that begins with Advent. If you are unfamiliar with the Christian calendar, you will find this easy reading. Also, if you are looking for ways to celebrate the Christian year with your family, be sure to download his chart for liturgical colors and use them in your home.
"Somewhere is Better than Anywhere"
Posted by Matt Brown on Nov 24, 2007
Somewhere is better than anywhere.
—Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor delivered these words in two separate addresses during the last year of her life. She was emphasizing the importance of place in shaping both writers and their stories. O'Connor believed to ignore the particular people, sights, sounds, smells and textures that have shaped a writer removes him from life itself. Therefore, if a story doesn't connect somewhere in particular, it can't connect anywhere.
Though these words ring true today in affluent postmodern cultures that prize the particular over the universal by thinking local, eating seasonal and shopping at Mom & Pop stores over multi-national conglomerates, O'Connor was not advocating a more sophisticated consumerism. Instead, she was applying deep theological truths to her craft. As a committed Christian, O'Connor understood that salvation is a universal story about God reconciling all things to himself told through particular people and places. Therefore, to fully understand the mission of God, we must familiarize ourselves with places like Egypt,Palestine, Babylon and Rome and with people like Abraham, Moses, Pharaoh, David and Jesus.
But the story of salvation is not just told in the past tense. Since Jesus walked the dusty roads of Israel and talked with Simon, Philip, Matthew, Thomas, Martha and Nicodemus, the story has continued to unfold in the lives of men, women and children from every tribe, language and nation. The Gospel is Good News about what God has done and is still doing through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It has been told in homes and on streets, in the marketplace and theatres and studios. It is being told today in Park Slope, Brooklyn by school teachers and writers, architects and bankers, neighbors and friends. And when the story is told, people and places are transformed. Therefore, we must pay attention to what is happening around us.
"If you believe in the Redemption, your ultimate vision is one of hope, so in what you see you must be true to this ultimate vision: you must pass over the evil you see and look for the good because the good is there; the good is the ultimate reality." —Flannery O'Connor