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Text of the page (random words):
atched evil was met with an appropriate form of justice but now it has come to light that things didn t play out that way bin laden didn t go out firing at the us seals in fact he was unarmed bin laden wasn t using one of his wives as a shield in fact she had left him to make a charge at the seals this begs the question has justice actually been done no revenge has been done and revenge must never be confused with justice revenge doesn t say an eye for an eye it says you take my eye and i ll blow out your brains it doesn t say an insult for an insult it says you cross me once you cross me twice and i ll destroy your character and your career it doesn t say you organize an act of terror and we ll punish you it says you organize an act of terror and we ll use the overwhelming military force of a superpower to recast the political landscape of the entire region from which you came revenge abandons the principle of measure for measure and acting out of injured pride and untamed fear gives itself to punitive excess that s why revenge is morally wrong in its zeal to punish it overindulgently takes from the offender more than is due miroslav volf free of charge 159 some are saying who cares the man was evil and the manner in which he died is insignificant well it does matter revenge is not justice in seeking to bring evil to justice the good guys have effectively become the bad guys they ve become the very thing they were fighting revenge is not justice it is itself an act of injustice and only serves to promote further acts of injustice what will bin laden s death achieve had he died meeting justice and not revenge i would ve said its made the world a slightly safer place but because he died in an act of revenge the only answer can be evil the good guys have now become part of a vicious circle of revenge 2 comments a reflection on punishment and justice posted in reconciliation with tags bin laden cross forgetting memory miroslav volf punishment on may 2 2011 by stephengardner justice has been done with the death of osama bin laden has come a whole lot of language which requires honest christian reflection his death is being heralded as a great success and as a deeply satisfying moment for his surviving victims i understand the just anger that many people feel toward bin laden even though i cannot imagine the pain many of his surviving victims live with but i do want to suggest that serious christian reflection on punishment and justice must be done before we join in the chorus of those celebrating and rejoicing the punishment of one evil doer will never bring satisfaction for those who desire justice i heard a victim of the 2002 bali bombings today speak with genuine relief of the satisfaction he now experienced his enemy a man whose organisation had inspired the attacks that had killed the family and friends of so many was now declared dead by the us president justice has been done and this has brought satisfaction but it wont last and the reason why this act of justice won t provide lasting satisfaction for those who have so longed for this moment is because of memory memory the recalling to their minds of the pain they have experienced and will continue to experience the punishment of this one man cannot take away the memory of thousands of lost loved ones miroslav volf writes what would be an adequate punishment for joseph stalin lenin s evil and dictatorial successor in the old soviet union between the two world wars he not only ruined his own country and invaded many neighbouring ones but in the process exterminated some 20 000 000 people if we are after justice his crime will have outstripped by far any punishment we could devise for him how many deaths would he have to die to compensate for all the lives he took how many lives would he need to have to suffer all the pain he inflicted punishment alone falters before the enormity of such crime free of charge 135 if the punishment of the evil doer is the answer to a longing for justice and satisfaction it will only ever leave people unsatisfied what we need is an alternative story we need a story that empowers us to be truly satisfied by getting to the heart of the issue our memories we need to learn to forget how can god forget the wrongdoings of human beings because at the centre of god s all embracing memory there is a paradoxical monument to forgetting it is the cross of christ god forgets humanity s sins in the same way god forgives humanity s sins by taking sins away from humanity and placing them upon god self sic how will human beings be able to forget the horrors of history because at the centre of the new world that will emerge after the first things have passed away there will stand a throne and on the throne there will sit the lamb who has taken away the sin of the world and erased their memory revelation 22 1 4 john 1 29 miroslav volf exclusion and embrace 139 140 2 comments atonement i the person and work of christ shows us who god is posted in reconciliation with tags atonement barth god jesus paul philippians on march 17 2011 by stephengardner let the same mind be in you that was in christ jesus who though he was in the form of god did not regard equality with god as something to be exploited but emptied himself taking the form of a slave being born in human likeness and being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross phil 2 5 8 nrsv way back in november i introduced an introduction to some thoughts on the atonement this is the first post in what i hope will be a series of around seven exploring the atonement what it is and what it achieves the next couple of posts will focus more on what the atonement actually is but for now let me describe it as this the saving significance of the person and work of the incarnate son of god initially i was going to use this post as a way of finishing off my reflections on the atonement but i ve become convinced that this should be the first port of call for any consideration of what god has done in christ in a nutshell the point of this post is this the atonement is not contrary to who god is in fact it is god in his most godness this seems to be what paul was getting at when he penned his exhortation to the philippians that they be a community of humility precisely because god has shown himself to be humble in the death of christ the nrsv unhelpfully adds the word though in v 6 implying that the work of christ is contrary to who christ is god in his fulness speaking of the limitations and weaknesses christ takes on and what they mean for him being in the form of god barth writes this we will mention at once the thought which will be decisive and basic in the section that god shows himself to be the great and true god in the fact that he can and will let his grace bear this cost that he is capable and willing and ready for this condescension this act of extravagance this far journey what marks out god above all false gods is that they are not capable and ready for this in their otherworldliness and supernaturalness and otherness etc the gods are a reflection of the human pride which will not unbend which will not stoop to that which is beneath it god is not proud in his high majesty he is humble it is in this high humility that he speaks and acts as the god who reconciles the world to himself it is under this aspect first that we must consider the history of the atonement barth cd iv 1 s59 159 leave a comment reconciliation and truth posted in australia church reconciliation with tags colonisation history project truth william howitt on march 15 2011 by stephengardner i m currently thinking a lot about the australian church and reconciliation at the more theoretical end i m thinking through what the essence of the church s ministry of reconciliation is and to what extent can we presently experience the final reconciliation that god promises when he makes all things new while practically i m fascinated by what are our particularly australian stories of reconciliation that need to be told what opportunities there are for reconciliation to occur in our societies and how the church can be involved in all of this a big chunk of my time at college this year will be thinking through these things and i hope to post some reflections from time to time today i had the great joy of reading colonisation and christianity by 19th century english author william howitt it is a painful read recalling to mind seemingly endless evil often committed in the name of the church s master but howitt zealously called into question european colonisation and its relationship to christianity and named it for what it was evil to comprehend the full extent of atrocities done in the christian name we must look the whole wide evil sternly in the face we must not suffer ourselves to aim merely at the rediness of this or that grievance but gathering all the scattered rays of aboriginal oppression into one burning focus and thus enabling ourselves to feel its entire force we shall be less than englishmen and christians if we do not stamp the whole system of colonial usage towards the natives with that general and indignant odium which must demolish it at once and forever colonisation and christianity 10 how many waterloos can the annals of the earth reckon what timour or zenghis khan can be compared to the napoleon of modern europe the sic greatest scourge of nations that ever arose on this planet the most tremendous meteor that ever burnt along its surface p 4 but most monstrous of all has been the moral blindness or the savage recklessness of ourselves as englishmen p 6 in hindsight howitt s attempts to bring into light the evil of the past did not go far enough but it is a valuable example of what seems to me to be a universally recognised essential starting block that in order for reconciliation to occur between two parties with a history of bad blood then there must be a revelation of the truth a painful honest look at the past painful for the offender reminding themselves of guilt and leaving them vulnerably in the hands of shame but likewise and particularly painful for the victim again leaving them in a vulnerable position where they might be forever labelled as victim but if a genuine reconciliation is to occur then this pain must be exposed leave a comment the line is fine between zealot and jerk posted in church leadership on february 9 2011 by stephengardner mike w has a great post called gospel assholes which has prompted me to post some thoughts on leadership and jerkiness and how all too often the two seem to be intrinsically connected mike reflects on how easy it can be for a preacher minister to take pride in any conflict persecution they might encounter telling themselves oh its for the gospel when really it could just be because they re being a jerk i am increasingly convinced that the number one problem in christian leadership is a lack of clear jesus formed identity to steal from larry crabb this becomes a problem when one ceases to find their security and significance in jesus christ personally as i look to head out into parish ministry god willing for the rest of my days i know this is something i will need to keep coming back to daily the temptation to find security and significance in anything but jesus is massive in christian ministry how much easier it is to have your identity shaped by your effectiveness your successful track record of church growth or even in mike s example your jerkiness there are lots of ways we can see this insecurity in christian ministry but i want to suggest just two symptoms 1 an inflated sense of your own importance the minister preacher wannabe minister wannabe preacher becomes the centre of the universe for his her congregation or anyone who will listen really they must contribute to every conversation they must not ever appear to not know the answer to someone s question they seem to delight in people needing their advice or wisdom and their status updates on facebook almost always seem to be about their next preaching gig while this symptom is more funny than harmful it is still i think a sure sign of a lack of clear jesus formed identity if your identity is threatened it feels desperately important to reassert yourself at any given time 2 a suspicion of others god hates visionary dreaming it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious the man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by god by others and by himself he enters the community of christians with his demands sets up his own law and judges the brethren and god himself accordingly he stands adamant a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren he acts as if he is the creator of the christian community as if his dream binds men together when things do not go his way he calls the effort a failure when his ideal picture is destroyed he sees the community going to smash so he becomes first an accuser of his brethren then an accuser of god and finally the despairing accuser of himself dietrich bonhoeffer life together 27 28 this symptom is less funny and more harmful than the first it destroys communities when the pastor leader acts towards a community out of suspicion then that community will never flourish the pastor leader is again showing that he she is deeply insecure others even their own community become a threat to their identity this is where mike s post is really helpful when others threaten our security there is a temptation to go on the attack reasserting oneself over and against the other perhaps accompanied with the comforting thought that i am defending the truth and this person is just being subversive or you could just be a jerk 4 comments the church needs to get scandalised posted in church reconciliation with tags cross encouragement jesus larry crabb miroslav volf relationships violence on january 24 2011 by stephengardner one thing that will sell a newspaper is a scandal one thing that will sell a newspaper and incite mobs of angry people is a scandal within the church however miroslav volf in his book exclusion and embrace argues that the christian community needs to a scandalous one a community that is willing to get scandalised because that is exactly what god has experienced in event of the gospel at its core however the scandal of the cross in a world of violence is not the danger associated with self donation jesus greatest agony was not that he suffered suffering can be endured even embraced if it brings desired fruit as the experience of giving birth illustrates what turned the pain of suffering into agony was the abandonment jesus was abandoned by the people who trusted in him and by the god in whom he trusted my god my god why have you forsaken me mark 15 34 my god my god why did my radical obedience to your way lead to the pain and disgrace of the cross the ultimate scandal of the cross is the all too freq...