Author: ppadmin

Doctrine and Word: Theology in the Pulpit

Mark Ellingsen, John Knox Press, 1983

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        Ellingsen says the theological community must articulate the significance of traditional Christian doctrines for daily life with more power and force.  Doctrine and Word reflects this concern for doctrinal relevance.  The first section of each chapter describes the doctrine (14 doctrines are treated), its historical roots, and how it has been dealt with by varying Christian traditions (the ecumenical perspective).  The second section of each chapter summarizes its significance for daily life, with a sermon on a biblical text; the sermons illustrate how Christian doctrine can help make sense out of everyday experience (p viii), i.e., What is the nature of Christian identity?  What purpose in life do Christians have as a result of this faith?

        Ellingsen focuses on the nature of Christian identity, articulating the meaning and relevance for life of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.  Christian faith begins with the assumption that G-d is known in Jesus, Christians are people of the book, the church as community, the practise of sacraments, and the role of ecumenism (different concerns addressed sometimes by apparently contradictory doctrinal formations)(p 173).

Read more ›

Dr. James Cone: A brief remembrance

by Ken Sehested

I was traveling when the news of Dr. James Cone’s death was reported on Saturday. The first thought that came to mind was what seems to be a providential concurrence: His passing came two days after the opening of the National Peace and Justice Memorial, solemnizing the lynching in the US of some 4,400 black people, in 800 counties, between 1877 and 1950.

Cone’s last book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, was recipient of this year’s Grawemeyer Award in Religion. In that book he wrote “in the United States, the clearest image of the crucified Christ was the figure of an innocent black victim, dangling from a lynching tree.” A fitting reminder in this season of Eastertide.

Read more ›

Life began in a garden

A collection of quotes on gardens

Compiled by Ken Sehested

§ And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ~Genesis 2:8-9

Right: "Psalm 67" art by John August Swanson

§ Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes. ~author unknown

Read more ›

Boycott, divestment and sanctions: Israel and the Occupation

We cannot ignore this contentious conversation

by Ken Sehested

Introduction: In a 5 June 2015 Huffington Post article, Dr. Chuck Currie, Chaplain and Director of the Center for Peace and Spirituality at Pacific University, urged fellow United Church of Christ members to reject that body’s Synod resolution supporting the "boycott, divestment and sanctions" action in opposition to Israel's occupation of Palestine. This week I’ve written the following response.

        Thanks, Chuck, for sending me your post in opposition to the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” (BDS) initiative. I haven’t been involved in the movement, and won’t be at the Synod to deliberate the question. But your thoughtful writing is worthy of response.

Read more ›

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  19 April 2018 •  No. 159

Special edition
EARTH DAY – 22 April 2018

Processional. “Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Osanna, Osanna in excelsis.” (“Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Hosanna, hosanna in the highest.”). —“The Ground,” by Ola Gjeilo, performed by the Heritage Concert Choir at Western Washington University

Read more ›

Come again and feed the earth

A litany for worship inspired by IEzekiel 34:11-22.

by Ken Sehested

Enough! says the Insurgent of Heaven. I’ve had enough of your bank-bailing politicians and private-jetting executives! Enough of your trickle-down economies and your holiday-charity binges! Enough of your bloated-budget militaries and gated-community developers! Enough of your water-wasting, soil-squandering, air-fouling habits!

Hear, oh people of provident pasture: Judgment is coming. Heaven’s Reign and earth’s regimes are destined for collision.

Read more ›

Covenant-making on Earth Day

A sample pledge statement to encourage concrete practices to sustain the earth

My Earth Day commitment
For renewing my intent to care for the earth

My name: ___________________________________________________________________________

 

Read more ›

Cuba’s Historic Crossroads

A new president—one not named Castro—will soon take office

By Stan Hastey

            Cuba stands at a crossroads unlike any other in the 59 years since a rebel army headed by Fidel Castro and his younger brother, Raul, defeated the supposedly far superior armed forces under the command of Fulgencio Batista. Batista, the last in a series of corrupt and repressive Cuban presidents backed and kept in power by the United States for the previous half century, fled the island nation as three columns of rebel soldiers bore down on Havana during Christmas week 1958. Declaring victory on New Year’s Day 1959, the three commanding officers—Raul Castro, Ernesto (Che) Guevara, and Camilo Cienfuegos—welcomed Fidel to Havana one week later, where the charismatic leader formally declared victory before a massive crowd of supporters convinced that a new day had dawned on the economically and educationally deprived nation.

Right: Cubans voting in precinct elections, November 2018.

            Among the undeniably significant achievements of the Castro brothers’ revolution have been the virtual elimination of illiteracy by means of a system of public education funded and overseen by the government from kindergarten through university graduate studies and a public health system premised on prevention that boasts a lower infant mortality rate than that of the United States. These are measurable successes.

Read more ›