Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Listening and seeing

Notes for this Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season.
    ~~From an article by Lisa Dahill in The Lutheran (Feb. 2006; paid subscription required) summarizing Bonhoeffer's book, The Cost of Discipleship:
    The center of discipleship is connection to Jesus, a life spent growing in the perceived clarity of Jesus' call, gaze and touch. Listening for his voice, keeping our eyes centered on him, staying in touch with him: This is a relationship of tremendous intimacy sustained by love. [...]

    [Jesus'] call comes as the in-breaking voice of God—announcing a new form of life in radical discontinuity with the old.

    The voice of Jesus creates a reality in which people are invited to live.
    ~~From Sunday's Gospel reading about the transfiguration of Jesus:
    [F]rom the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. (Mark 9:7-8)
    ~~From Monday's reading in Exodus 19, just before the giving of the commandments:
    Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder. (Exodus 19:17-19)
    ~~From the first chapter in Volf's book, Free of Charge, on our (false) images of God versus God's reality:
    We...need eyes and ears that can recognize the true knowledge of God when we come across it. [...] Our eyes and ears need a heart ready to receive the truth of God's reality rather than one that longs for the comforts of false gods. (p. 23)

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