Daniel Rose: The Pastor Next Door

Indeed, the kingdom of God will grow on earth as the church creates an alternative society demonstrating what the world is not, but one day will be: Barth’s prescription of “a new sign which is radically dissimilar to [the world’s] own manner and which contradicts it in a way which is full of promise.”

I imagine this alternative society would look vastly different from what we see today.

I am 7% done with book and already there are quotes that will be used in a series of talks I am giving this weekend. Whew!

Currently reading: The Brothers Karamazov: A New Translation by Michael R. Katz by Fyodor Dostoevsky 📚

Jesus had but to give a nod of agreement and he could have constructed Christendom, not on four shaky Gospels and a defeated man nailed on a Cross, but on a basis of sound socioeconomic planning and principles. . . . Every utopia could have been brought to pass, every hope have been realized and every dream been made to come true. What a benefactor, then, Jesus would have been. Acclaimed, equally, in the London School of Economics and the Harvard Business School; a statue in Parliament Square, and an even bigger one on Capitol Hill and in the Red Square. . . . Instead, he turned the offer down on the ground that only God should be worshipped.

The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

Jesus: “Nah, I don’t want Christendom.”

The American Church: “Hold my grape juice.”

As I look back on the three temptations, I see that Satan proposed an enticing improvement. He tempted Jesus toward the good parts of being human without the bad: to savor the taste of bread without being subject to the fixed rules of hunger and of agriculture, to confront risk with no real danger, to enjoy fame and power without the prospect of painful rejection—in short, to wear a crown but not a cross.

From: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

As I continue to consider this, I am confronted with my own desire to wear a crown and not a cross.

In Jesus, God found a way of relating to human beings that did not involve fear.

From: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

I think this might be one of the most significant and under appreciated aspects of the personhood of Jesus. If we are leveraging fear with regards to Jesus then we have missed a central piece of the gospel story.

The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

The virgin Mary, though, whose parenthood was unplanned, had a different response. She heard the angel out, pondered the repercussions, and replied, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Often a work of God comes with two edges, great joy and great pain, and in that matter-of-fact response Mary embraced both.

It strikes me how I often think if I’m really doing what God called me to do it will be all joy. But, it’s not. It’s both/and, great joy and great pain.

“I am impressed that when the Son of God became a human being he played by the rules, harsh rules: small towns do not treat kindly young boys who grow up with questionable paternity.”

I hadn’t thought of this, have you? The idea of Jesus growing up in a small town “with questionable paternity,” is one that kind of shakes me. Would I have mocked him? Would I have held him at arm’s length? Was he treated poorly even as a child?

Trying to wrap my mind around Jesus from the human perspective is proving to be a bit of a gut punch.

Currently reading: The Brothers Karamazov: A New Translation by Michael R. Katz by Fyodor Dostoevsky 📚

A sunny day and nice pipe and diving into a bucket list read.

I’ve decided that I have to read Brothers Karamazov. I have started it a couple of times and never pressed on, but it keeps coming up over and over in my reading. I feel compelled to read it. 📚

"Two words one could never think of applying to the Jesus of the Gospels: boring and predictable. How is it, then, that the church has tamed such a character — has, in Dorothy Sayers’ words, “very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies”?

From: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

It strikes me that when we focus our attention on the Jesus that we meet in the Gospel stories as opposed to the cultural Christian Jesus that we have invented we will find ourselves shocked by what we find. Jesus is a wild man. There is absolutely nothing safe about trying to live like him.

“Of the many reasons for Incarnation, surely one was to answer Job’s accusation: Do you have eyes of flesh? For a time, God did.”

From : The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

For so many years I regularly thought of Jesus as this divine superman. I am so intrigued by his god-ness that I missed his ordinariness. Yet, now it is his sheer ordinariness that most attracts me. This man who ate, drank, got annoyed, ran away from people, teased his friends, and took naps but also introduced the world to grace.

I am drawn the man. I am drawn to the homeless, wandering Rabbi.

“Looking in retrospect on my years at Bible college, I see that, despite all the devotional intimacies, Jesus grew remote from me there. He became an object of scrutiny.”

From: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

This is, I think, one of the great struggles for not only people at Bible college or seminary, but also much of Protestant evangelicalism. Evangelicalism is buried in information. Jesus, for many, has become “an object of scrutiny.”

When we lose the relational connection to the divine we have lost the very core of what it is to follow Christ. To be learner of Christ is to grow in Christ’s character and competency. These can’t be learned when Christ is nothing more than an “object of scrutiny.”

Monday, I am going to start sharing quotes and my reflections from this book…

Currently reading: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

I’m reading: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey, and it is so good. I read it ages ago, but the timeliness of it remarkable.

I think I will start sharing some quotes and brief thoughts from it and other books.

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“Friendship is a much underestimated aspect of spirituality. It’s every bit as significant as prayer and fasting. Like the sacramental use of water and bread and wine, friendship takes what’s common in human experience and turns it into something holy.”

📚: Eugene Peterson, Leap Over A Wall

“Love—God’s love in particular—is fundamental to the world’s existence. Love is the background against which everything else is played…”

📚: Leap Over A Wall by Eugene Peterson

This might be one of the most challenging books I’ve read. It is impacting my soul in ways I didn’t expect.

Currently reading: Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

“Commands assume freedom and encourage response. Addressed by commands we are trained in response-ability.” Currently reading: Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

“What we do in secret determines the soundness of who we are in public. Prayer is the secret work that develops a life that is thoroughly authentic and deeply human.”

Currently reading: Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

This was a challenging and hope-filled Lenten devotional. I’m grateful for the time spent considering the deep and weighty things of Scripture these last forty days.

Finished reading: Wondrous Encounters by Richard Rohr 📚

“No child is just a child. Each is a creature in whom God intends to do something glorious and great.”

Currently reading: Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

Currently reading: Deep Work by Cal Newport 📚

I’m going back through this book and creating a list of questions to process. As a pastor, I feel like I need deep work and somehow maintain connection via modern digital network tools.

Curious what others think…

Just started a new, to me, book by Eugene Peterson. The opening sentences:

“The puzzle is why so many people live so badly. Not so wickedly, but so inanely. Not so cruelly, but so stupidly.”

This book is going to be something else.

Currently reading: Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

This book was really insightful and helpful. I am excited to begin putting some of Dr Li’s insights into practice. For instance, today I began drinking green tea.

Finished reading: Eat to Beat Your Diet by William M. Li 📚