Eating with penitence: An essay on the local church eating responsibly

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-463
Author(s):  
David W. Priddy

In this essay, I pose the question, “How might local congregations participate in food reform and agricultural renewal?” Given the problems of industrial agriculture and the wider ecological concern, this question is pressing. Instead of advocating a specific program, I focus on how the Church might address this question while keeping its commitment to being a repentant Church. First, I discuss the significance of attention and particularly the habit of attending to the Word and Sacrament. This posture, I argue, maintains the Church’s integrity, preventing it from merely branding itself or relying on its own resources. Second, I briefly explore the association of eating with the mission of the Church in the New Testament, highlighting the repeated theme of judgment and call to humility in the context of eating. Third, I draw out the importance of continual remorse over sin. This attitude is essential to the Church’s vocation and rightly appears in many historic liturgies. I argue that this posture should extend to the question of eating responsibly. Penitence demonstrates the Church’s relationship to the wider world and testifies to the source of the Church’s own life, the Holy Spirit, who does the work of renewal.

2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-76
Author(s):  
Peter John McGregor

Some especially insightful and challenging passages in Evangelii Gaudium are those on the importance of a personal encounter with Jesus, the evangelizing power of popular piety, person to person witness, and the need for the power of the Holy Spirit. However, in order to do full justice to the mission of the Church, the document requires more on the priestly aspect of this mission. This element is substantially absent, in part, because of Francis’s veneration of Evangelii Nuntiandi. However, this absent element can be obtained from the missiology of Lumen Gentium, John Paul II, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Based on an analysis of the meaning of leitourgia in the New Testament, this article concludes that this missing element can serve as a link between Pope Francis’s kerygma and diakonia, enabling a harmony which has been missing, to greater or lesser degrees, from the Church’s mission in the 20th and 21st centuries.


2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-143
Author(s):  
Frans Josef van Beeck

This essay offers an interpretation of the traditional catholic teaching that “Jesus Christ, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, was born of the Virgin Mary”. The author reviews recent exegesis and theology, then revisits the tradition of the church, then discusses the contrast between the physiological “facts” involved in human conception as they were understood in the classical periods — and thus at the place and time of the composition of the infancy narratives — and the accepted modern, scientific account of the same “facts”. He argues that neither the New Testament nor the Church teaches that Jesus' virginal conception is a cosmological miracle: rather this is a conclusion of the data of the faith, not an article of faith in and of itself. This should guide our speech in ministry.


1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-240
Author(s):  
G. Johnson

In its classical expression Christianity means a new life which God makes available for all who become apprentices of His Son Jesus Christ. Now sinful men cannot unaided appropriate the blessings of that life. Besides the message of the Prodigal who “ came to himself” the Gospel exhibits in the Cross divine love that has entered the far country and suffers the ordeal inevitably imposed there by human sin. Really to hear the Gospel is to respond in penitent love to the God who was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. But how shall men hear unless there be preachers? The Gospel by God's gracious provision is brought to each new generation by those who enter into the apostolic tradition; apostolic, because in history we depend upon those who were the first eye-witnesses of Jesus and His resurrection. Nevertheless the apostles preached under the authority of the Holy Spirit who testifies to Christ and proceeds from the eternal life of the Father and the Son (see John 14.26; 15.26 f.). Paul the apostle preached in the power of the Spirit (Rom. 15.19; 1 Cor. 2.4); it was God who had given apostles to the Church, inspiring them with wisdom and knowledge (1 Cor. 12.8, 28). We find similar testimony in Eph. 3.5 (a revelation disclosed to the apostles and prophets by the Spirit); 1 Pet. 1.12, which links preaching and inspiration; and Acts where we read of men filled with the Spirit, like Stephen and Philip, going out as evangelists.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57
Author(s):  
Paulus Purwoto

AbstractThe church is a chosen group or congregation, namely those who are called by God to come out of the world, go away from sin and enter into the realm of grace. The church has a relationship with God's people in the Old Testament, where in the Old Testament God chose Abraham as the embryo of the birth of the nation of Israel, which was God's chosen nation. Theologically, the idea of God's people being called out clearly existed in Old Testament times, as well as in New Testament times. Linguistically the Greek word ekklesia appears repeatedly in connection with Israel in the Septuagint translation. The elements in the Old Testament exist in the New Testament church, however, they cannot be correctly equated between the Old Testament congregation and the church, because the church is a new product, founded on the Lord Jesus, made by the Holy Spirit and contains people from all the races of all nations become one new people of God. The true church has the signs as described in the Word of God. The purpose of this research is to conduct a theological review of the true church and its application to the contemporary church. The method used in this research is literature study method. The true church has signs, joy, holiness, truth, mission, unity, love, proclaims the Word of God properly, uses the sacraments properly, and exercises church discipline. The conclusion of this study is that the true church has signs that can be applied in contemporary church ministry.Key words: Chruch, Contemporer, True, Ministry AbstrakGereja adalah kumpulan atau jemaat pilihan, yaitu mereka yang dipanggil Allah keluar dari dunia, pergi dari dosa dan masuk ke dalam wilayah anugerah. Gereja memiliki relasi dengan umat Allah dalam Perjanjian Lama, dimana dalam Perjanjian Lama Tuhan memilih Abraham sebagai embrio lahirnya Bangsa Israel yang merupakan bangsa pilihan Allah. Secara teologis gagasan tentang umat Allah yang dipanggil keluar jelas telah eksis pada masa Perjanjian Lama, sebagaimana pada masa Perjanjian Baru.  Secara linguistik kata Yunani ekklesia muncul berulang kali dalam kaitannya dengan Israel dalam terjemahan Septuaginta. Unsur-unsur dalam Perjanjian Lama tersebut ada dalam gereja Perjanjian Baru, namun demikian tidak dapat disamakan dengan tepat antara Jemaah Perjanjian Lama dengan gereja, oleh karena gereja adalah sesuatu produk baru, didirikan diatas Tuhan Yesus, dijadikan oleh Roh Kudus dan berisi orang-orang dari segala ras dari seluruh bangsa menjadi satu umat Allah yang baru. Gereja sejati memiliki tanda-tanda sebagaimana dijelaskan dalam Firman Tuhan. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk melakukan tinjauan teologis tentang gereja sejati dan aplikasinya bagi gereja kontemporer. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode studi literatur. Gereja sejati memiliki tanda-tanda, sukacita, kekudusan, kebenaran, misi, kesatuan, kasih, memberitakan Firman Tuhan dengan benar, menggunakan sakramen dengan benar, dan menjalankan disiplin gereja. Kesimpulan dari penelitian ini adalah bahwa gereja sejati memiliki tanda-tanda yang dapat diaplikasikan dalam pelayanan gereja kontemporer.Kata kunci: Gereja, Kontemporer, Sejati, Pelayanan. 


1965 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-102
Author(s):  
J. Robert Nelson

“While the New Testament has much to tell us about the ministry which is both descriptive for its time and normative for all times, it simply does not give the specific and incontrovertible answers to our restless questionings about ordination, succession, sacramental administration, the ministry of women, and the like. Even a most conservative, or literalistic, reading of the New Testament does not make possible a simple restorationism, as though the church needed only common reason, good faith, and the leading of the Holy Spirit to discover the perennially valid patterns of ministry and order.”


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48
Author(s):  
Febriaman Lalaziduhu Harefa

Ungkapan ”persekutuan Roh” dalam Filipi 2:1 bisa berarti persekutuan dengan Roh yang dimungkinkan oleh Roh Kudus sendiri. Gagasan Perjanjian Baru tentang persekutuan ini sering kali tidak dipahami secara benar, akibatnya kabur, ada orang yang terlalu menekankan persekutuan vertikal (kepada Allah) saja dan kurang menekankan segi persekutuan horizontalnya (sesama), demikian sebaliknya, sehingga tidak heran kalau sewaktu-waktu timbul kesenjangan. Padahal keduanya tidak dapat dipisahkan satu dengan yang lain. Kuduanya sama-sama penting dalam pengertian koinonia yang benar. Abineno menambahkan bahwa: Persekutuan itu mengandung realitas yaitu partisipasi dalam Roh Kudus dan persekutuan seorang akan yang lain. Oleh sebab itu bila dikatakan bahwa kita mendapat realitas Roh Kudus melalui Firmannya, maka kita juga mendapat bagian dalam persekutuan dengan sesama anggota jemaat lainnya.[1] Dengan demikian tidak ada tempat untuk hidup secara individual. Persekutuan Kristen diciptakan oleh Roh Kudus, itu berarti bahwa seluruh anggota berpusat pada Roh Kudus yang adalah merupakan gambaran gereja yang benar. Anggota persekutuan adalah orang-orang yang telah dipanggil untuk hidup dalam kasih karunia dengan penuh ketaatan. Harus diakui bahwa ada banyak perdebatan yang menyangkut persekutuan Roh ini, namun yang jelas bahwa dimensi vertikal tetap merupakan dasar untuk gagasan koinonia. Koinonia dalam gereja haruslah dimulai dengan persekutuan dengan Roh Kudus. The phrase "fellowship of the Spirit" in Philippians 2: 1 can mean fellowship with the Spirit made possible by the Holy Spirit himself. The New Testament idea about community is often not understood correctly, the consequences are blurred, there are people who overemphasize vertical alliance (to God) and do not emphasize the horizontal community (others), and vice versa, so it is not surprising that at any time the gap arises. Though both can not be separated from one another. The hilt is equally important in the correct understanding of Koinonia. Abineno added that: Fellowship contains reality, namely participation in the Holy Spirit and fellowship of one another. Therefore if we say that we get the reality of the Holy Spirit through his Word, then we also get a part in fellowship with other fellow church members. Thus there is no place to live individually. Christian fellowship is created by the Holy Spirit, it means that all members are centered on the Holy Spirit which is a true picture of the church. Fellowship members are people who have been called to live gracefully in obedience. It must be admitted that there are many debates concerning the fellowship of the Spirit, but it is clear that the vertical dimension remains the basis for the Koinonia idea. The Koinonia in the church must begin with fellowship with the Holy Spirit.


Author(s):  
Grant Macaskill

This book examines how the New Testament scriptures might form and foster intellectual humility within Christian communities. It is informed by recent interdisciplinary interest in intellectual humility, and concerned to appreciate the distinctive representations of the virtue offered by the New Testament writers on their own terms. It argues that the intellectual virtue is cast as a particular expression of the broader Christian virtue of humility, which proceeds from the believer’s union with Christ, through which personal identity is reconstituted by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Hence, we speak of ‘virtue’ in ways determined by the acting presence of Jesus Christ, overcoming sin and evil in human lives and in the world. The Christian account of the virtue is framed by this conflict, as believers within the Christian community struggle with natural arrogance and selfishness, and come to share in the mind of Christ. The new identity that emerges creates a fresh openness to truth, as the capacity of the sinful mind to distort truth is exposed and challenged. This affects knowledge and perception, but also volition: for these ancient writers, a humble mind makes good decisions that reflect judgments decisively shaped by the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. By presenting ‘humility of mind’ as a characteristic of the One who is worshipped—Jesus Christ—the New Testament writers insist that we acknowledge the virtue not just as an admission of human deficiency or limitation, but as a positive affirmation of our rightful place within the divine economy.


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