Volume 1 Issue 12

Given current global events, I find it increasingly hard to present an “upbeat” appearance. Perhaps after reading this week’s sermon, you will better understand why I’m not even going to try. As the vicious and evil cycle of violence begetting violence engulfs an ever larger portion of our planet’s population, the inevitable outcome becomes just that. The belief that we should be living every day as if it were our last seems to be taking on greater credence by the hour.
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Michael Moore is known to many as one of today’s most insightful—and inciting—social critics. First achieving widespread acclaim and recognition for his biting documentary “Roger and Me”, his latest effort “Bowling for Columbine” is must-see viewing for anyone who is puzzled by the culture of violence that has become the United States of America. Distribution of the film is limited, and so you may not even have the opportunity to see it in your area. But if it is showing “at a theatre near you,” don’t miss it! More about Moore can be found at: www.michaelmoore.com
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Congratulations to Gary and Jan Bornemeier who were wed today here in Las Vegas. Gary is a charter member of “the list,” and it is hoped that Jan will permit him to continue to spend some of his time swimming in this pool of heresy that is GiC!
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I am so grateful to those of you who continue to respond to my sermons and to be supportive of GiC’s mission. I encourage your more active participation on the Bulletin Board because the thoughts and ideas you send me “privately” are so worthy of being shared with a larger audience. While researching today’s message, I came across this statement by M. Eugene Boring that so aptly describes what I hope is being accomplished through this site:
“Prayer is theology; theology is prayer. Karl Barth rightly affirmed, ‘The first and basic act of theological work is prayer.’ Prayer is a theological act, the fundamental theological act. What one prays for simultaneously shapes and expresses one’s theology. The use of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew’s church has affected his theology. Matthew’s decision to place the Lord’s Prayer at the center of the instruction of the Sermon on the Mount dissolves the line between worship and theology. Prayer is theology.
“It is less often seen that theology is prayer. Thus Barth’s dictum above is misunderstood if one takes it as piously recommending that one have a moment’s prayer before beginning theological work. Barth’s point (I think Matthew would agree) is that theological work itself, struggling to discern the contemporary meaning of God’s revelatory self-disclosure, even when theological work struggles to affirm that there has been a divine revelatory act or that the God purported to have acted in Christ is truly real—such theological struggle is itself prayer, wrestling with the angel until the blessing comes, even if one goes limping away (Genesis 32). The scribal Matthew comes from the same rabbinic milieu that generated the dictum: ‘An hour of study is in the eyes of the Holy One, blessed be He, as an hour of prayer.’”
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Until next week…….Shalom!