Why Christian Ethics is for Christians Only

The most important error of the Christendom vision […] is its illegitimate takeover of the world; its ascription of a Christian loyalty or duty to those who have made no confession, and thereby, its denying to the non-confessing creation the freedom of unbelief that the nonresistance of God in creation gave to a rebellious humanity.

John H. Yoder, “Why Ecclesiology Is Social Ethics: Gospel Ethics Versus the Wider Wisdom,” in The Royal Priesthood: Essays Ecclesiastical and Ecumenical, ed. Michael G. Cartwright (Scottdale: Herald Press, 1998), p. 109.

Entering the Kingdom of God

Today's Gospel is Matthew 21:28-32, in which Jesus tells the religious elders and scribes that "tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you." It reminds me of an excellent short story by Flannery O'Connor, entitled "Revelation," about smug Mrs. Ruby Turpin. Check it out.

Relation Makes Immortal

Immortality cannot be accounted for in terms of the isolated individual existent and its native capacities, but only by reference to that relatedness which is constitutive of human nature... God too possesses immortality, or, more correctly he is immortality, being that actuality of relationship which is Trinitarian love. God is not "atomic": he is relationship, since he is love. It is for this reason that he is life. In this perspective, the relationship of two people which is human love shines with the radiance of the eternal mystery. The signal we derive from this view of being tells us: relation makes immortal; openness, not closure, is the end in which we find our beginning.

Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life, Joseph Ratzinger

Community

"Christian community is like the Christian's sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases."

Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dare to be a sinner

"This message is liberation through truth. You can hide nothing from God. The mask you wear before men will do you no good before him. He wants to see you as you are, he wants to be gracious to you. You do not have to go on lying to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner. Thank God for that."

Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Imago Dei

"I can never know beforehand how God's image should appear in others. That image always manifests a completely new and unique form that comes solely from God's free and sovereign creation."

Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Brother

"God did not make this person as I would have made him. He did not give him to me as a brother for me to dominate and control, but in order that I might find above him the Creator."

Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer