Liminality

Since the earliest days of church history, people have had different answers to the question, “When is the true ‘Advent’ going to take place?” Advent means ‘coming.’ This question is asking when Jesus will return to reign. Here is list of significant minds and their thoughts: • 2nd century church historians Justin Martyr and Irenaeus both believed the events in Revelation are real and will happen in their lifetime. • Late in the 2nd century comes Montanus, “The Mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit.” He starts a strand of Christianity that proclaims the world would end in a few months. • In the 1200s Joachim of Fiore, an Italian monk who received a vision from God about the meanings of the visions in Revelation, found historical people to represent the monsters and demons in Revelation and put together a proposal that Jesus Christ would be returning in 1260. • American 18th century Evangelist Jonathan Edwards believed humans were the hands and feet of Jesus, but Jesus would not ...

In Mark 13 an unnamed disciple looks up at the Temple’s enormous stone wall and gasps, “This is huge!” We can relate to this can’t we? Admiring humanity's dominance over it's environment. Alan Culpepper says, It is the essence of humanism to look at the flowering of our God-given potential and artistry and think that it is the highest good. We may easily look at our great cities and pride ourselves on our conquest of the environment. We may easily look at our technology and medical advances and think that we can now control our destinies. And we may look to our prosperity and material comforts and think that we can provide for our needs. Yet in humanity’s great narrative Empires have come and gone. Every century presents a new world power and a new world order. Change is marked by war, laws, and architecture. And in every case – the present power falls. Even though we have gone from the country to the city, from tents to buildings, from camels to cars, from ro...

Frederick Buechner says, The word blessing has come to mean more often than not a pious formality such as ministers are continually being roped into giving at dinner parties. But in the biblical sense, if you give me your blessing, you irreversibly convey into my life not just something of the beneficent power and vitality of who you are but something also of the life-giving power of God in whose name the blessing is given. Yet the word blessing still falls deaf on most ears. It carries little to no depth or meaning. I would argue “luck,” of all words, hits closer to home because when you have “luck” you really have something. Everybody knows about the magical nature of luck. It wins ballgames, escapes hard times, and jumps from one person to the next. A blessing, on the other hand, has come to sound like a Hallmark imitation. But what if your luck was God actually blessing you? I think of, in this instance, Ruth – a Gentile, Moabite woman whose Israelite husband died....